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  Moby Dick

  Herman Melville

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  Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship's previous voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. A contribution to the literature of the American Renaissance, Moby-Dick was published to mixed reviews, was a commercial failure, and was out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891. Its reputation as a Great American Novel was established only in the 20th century, after the centennial of its author's birth. William Faulkner said he wished he had written the book himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world" and "the greatest book of the sea ever written". Its opening sentence, "Call me Ishmael", is among world literature's most famous.
  Melville began writing Moby-Dick in February 1850, and finished 18 months later, a year longer than he had anticipated. Melville drew on his experience as a common sailor from 1841 to 1844, including several years on whalers, and on wide reading in whaling literature. The white whale is modeled on the notoriously hard-to-catch albino whale Mocha Dick, and the book's ending is based on the sinking of the whaleship Essex in 1820. His literary influences include Shakespeare and the Bible. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. In addition to narrative prose, Melville uses styles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry, and catalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies, and asides. In August 1850, with the manuscript perhaps half finished, he met Nathaniel Hawthorne and was deeply moved by his Mosses from an Old Manse, which he compared to Shakespeare in its cosmic ambitions. This encounter may have inspired him to revise and expand Moby-Dick, which is dedicated to Hawthorne, "in token of my admiration for his genius".
  The book was first published (in three volumes) as The Whale in London in October 1851, and under its definitive title in a single-volume edition in New York in November. The London publisher, Richard Bentley, censored or changed sensitive passages; Melville made revisions as well, including a last-minute change to the title for the New York edition. The whale, however, appears in the text of both editions as Moby Dick, without the hyphen. Reviewers in Britain were largely favorable, though some objected that the tale seemed to be told by a narrator who perished with the ship, as the British edition lacked the Epilogue recounting Ishmael's survival. American reviewers were more hostile. About 3,200 copies of the book were sold during the author's life.

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  The After House

  Mary Roberts Rinehart

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  Just out of the hospital and totally out of funds, Ralph Leslie jumped at the chance to sign aboard millionaire Marshall Turner's luxurious super-yacht as steward to the passengers lodged in its after house. His job was easy sailing until one sultry summer night, when the dream voyage suddenly became a nightmare of blood and terror.  One ship's officer was thrown overboard.  Another was hacked to death with an ax. The killer struck again and again, and the Ella was awash in a wave of panic that engulfed passengers and crew alike. Only one hand aboard, ex-landlubber Leslie, seemed enough in control to stay the bloody hand of the murderer. But he'd have to stay alive to do it, and that wasn't going to be easy.

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  Emperor's New Clothes The -...

  Hans Christian Andersen

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  "The Emperor's New Clothes" (Danish: Kejserens nye Klæder) is a short tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, about two weavers who promise an emperor a new suit of clothes that they say is invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent. When the emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, no one dares to say that they don't see any suit of clothes on him for fear that they will be seen as "unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent". Finally, a child cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!" The tale has been translated into over 100 languages.

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  John Burnet of Barns

  John Buchan

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  A young man must fight for his land and the woman he loves in 17th-century Scotland, in this historical novel by the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps. The turbulent “Killing Times” of the Covenanters is the backdrop to a desperate struggle between lifelong rivals . . . John Burnet of Barns, the last of an ancient line of Border Reivers, returns home from abroad to find himself denounced as an agent of the Covenanters. Outlawed and deprived of his inheritance by his ruthless cousin, Captain Gilbert Burnet, John must now fight just to survive . . . John Buchan's first full-length work of fiction is a tale of adventure in the tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson.

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  The Scarlet Pimpernel

  Baroness Orczy

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  Paris, 1792 and the French Revolution. The guillotine claims lives each day. But working in ever-changing disguise is the Scarlet Pimpernel and his band of meddlesome Englishmen.

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  Raven The - and Other Tailfeathers

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  A collection of six Edgar Allan Poe short stories. 
   
  Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, and literary critic of the early 19th century. He is widely regarded as a central figure in the development of the American Romantic movement and is known for his dark, macabre tales and poems, including "The Raven," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Black Cat." Poe's works have had a lasting impact on American literature and popular culture, and his writing style, which often features atmospheric suspense and the supernatural, continues to be imitated and referenced today.

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