Classic Books

The stories here presented do not claim to be more than mere outlines of the subjects chosen, enough to show what brave souls in the past, souls animated by loyalty to God and to their best selves, were able to accomplish in spite of obstacles of which the more fortunately born youths of to-day can have no conception.

Editha’s Burglar book;Best book of Frances Hodgson Burnett; FICTION / General book;Classics Book

“The Author is quite aware of the defects of this little story, many of which were unavoidable, as it first appeared serially. But, as Uncle Alec’s experiment was intended to amuse the young folks, rather than suggest educational improvements for the consideration of the elders, she trusts that these shortcomings will be overlooked by the friends of the Eight Cousins, and she will try to make amends in a second volume, which shall attempt to show The Rose in Bloom.” -Preface by Louisa May Alcott

here has of late years crept so much confusion into the mind of the student as well as of the general reader as to the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel with that of the Gascon Royalist plotter known to history as the Baron de Batz, that the time seems opportune for setting all doubts on that subject at rest.

A collection of fiction stories written by Josephine Lawrence for girls, ‘Elizabeth Ann’s Houseboat’ was first published in the year 1929. ““I don’t see why we have to hurry,” protested Elizabeth Ann.
She wanted to get out and see what kind of a flower was growing in the middle of the large field on the right hand side of the road. Lex had declared that for once he couldn’t stop. Usually Lex did just as Elizabeth Ann asked him to—Cousin Nellie said that both Lex and Uncle Doctor always did as Elizabeth Ann asked.” -an excerpt

“This book is designed to furnish reading material of choice literary and dramatic quality. The selections for the most part are those that have stood the test of time and are acknowledged masterpieces. The groupings into the separate parts will aid both teachers and pupils in the classification of the material, indicating at a glance the range and variety of the literature included.” -Introduction

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett was a British-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children’s novels Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess, and The Secret Garden. Frances Eliza Hodgson was born in Cheetham, Manchester, England.

ANDROS, SIR EDMUND (1637-1714), English colonial governor in America, was born in London on the 6th of December 1637, son of Amice Andros, an adherent of Charles I., and the royal bailiff of the island of Guernsey. He served for a short time in the army of Prince Henry of Nassau, and in 1660-1662 was gentleman in ordinary to the queen of Bohemia (Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I. of England). He then served against the Dutch, and in 1672 was commissioned major in what is said to have been the first English regiment armed with the bayonet. In 1674 he became, by the appointment of the duke of York (later James II.), governor of New York and the Jerseys, though his jurisdiction over the Jerseys was disputed, and until his recall in 1681 to meet an unfounded charge of dishonesty and favouritism in the collection of the revenues, he proved himself to be a capable administrator, whose imperious disposition, however, rendered him somewhat unpopular among the colonists. During a visit to England in 1678 he was knighted.

First published in the year 1922, the present book ‘England, My England’ is a collection of short stories written by DH Lawrence. Many of these stories were written against the background of WW1.

AN APPENDIX and A KEY TO THE EXERCISES DESIGNED FOR THE USE of SCHOOLS and PRIVATE LEARNERS.

BY SAMUEL KIRKHAM.

This book, which presents the whole splendid history of English literature from Anglo-Saxon times to the close of the Victorian Era, has three specific aims. It is an useful and interesting guide for the students as well as teachers of English literatre, specially European and American.

“When a book about the literature of the eighteen-nineties was given by Mr. Holbrook Jackson to the world, I looked eagerly in the index for Soames, Enoch. It was as I feared: he was not there. But everybody else was. Many writers whom I had quite forgotten, or remembered but faintly, lived again for me, they and their work, in Mr. Holbrook Jackson’s pages. The book was as thorough as it was brilliantly written. and thus the omission found by me was an all the deadlier record of poor Soames’s failure to impress himself on his decade.” -an excerpt

This is a collection of pithy sayings of Mahatma Gandhi on various subjects and important issues for rapid reference. The compiler has selected a few thousand epigrams from Gandhiji’s voluminous writings. The epigrams have been arranged alphabetically and the source of each epigram is given below it.

Looking Backward was a small book, and I was not able to get into it all I wished to say on the subject. Since it was published what was left out of it has loomed up as so much more important than what it contained that I have been constrained to write another book. I have taken the date of Looking Backward, the year 2000, as that of Equality, and have utilized the framework of the former story as a starting point for this which I now offer. In order that those who have not read Looking Backward may be at no disadvantage, an outline of the essential features of that story is subjoined:

“Prior to the travels of Humboldt and Bonpland, the countries described in the following narrative were but imperfectly known to Europeans. For our partial acquaintance with them we were chiefly indebted to the early navigators, and to some of the followers of the Spanish Conquistadores. The intrepid men whose courage and enterprise prompted them to explore unknown seas for the discovery of a New World, have left behind them narratives of their adventures, and descriptions of the strange lands and people they visited, which must ever be perused with curiosity and interest.”

(At rise, is seen the entrance to a tent, out of which steps an animal-tamer, with long, black curls, dressed in a white cravat, a vermilion dress-coat, white trowsers and white top-boots. He carries in his left hand a dog-whip and in his right a loaded revolver, and enters to the sound of cymbals and kettle-drums.)

Erewhon: or, Over the Range’ is a novel by Samuel Butler which was first published anonymously in 1872. Erewhon is a fictional country in the story, which is discovered by the protagonist. Butler meant the title to be read as “nowhere” backwards even though the letters “h” and “w” are transposed, as it would have been pronounced in his day. The book is a satire on Victorian society.

She looked up from her work after he had gone, and sighed. In spite of the sunshine and balm of the bright weather, a sense of heaviness and foreboding oppressed her. Everything looked smiling and beautiful, and there was an almost irresistible contagion in the mirth of her young cousin, but still she could not help feeling sad. It was not merely that she would have to part with Eric, “but that bright boy,” thought Fanny, “what will become of him? I have heard strange things of schools; oh, if he should be spoilt and ruined, what misery it would be. Those baby lips, that pure young heart, a year may work sad change in their words and thoughts!” She sighed again, and her eyes glistened as she raised them upwards, and breathed a silent prayer.

Murdering Stein was easy. Kraag waited until Jonner donned his spacesuit and went out to have a personal look at the asteroid. Even then Kraag held his patience, because he wanted Jonner to come back to the ship unsuspecting.
Kraag sat tensely at the back of the control room while Stein, the navigator and communications man, operated the radio. There was a brief period when Stein talked with Marsport, then he got in touch with Jonner. Until Jonner got some distance from the wrecked ship, most of their conversation was an argument.

It is said that the first inhabitants of the earth were everywhere created simultaneously. Whilst children they were fed by bees, goats, and doves, as the poets say the infant Jove was nourished. The earth was much smaller than it is at present, and devoid of mountains and hills. The sky was starless. There was no sea; and the world as a whole was far less varied and beautiful than it now is.
—From this book

The sixty-fourth volume of this Library contains those papers from the Tatler which were especially associated with the imagined character of Isaac Bickerstaff, who was the central figure in that series; and in the twenty-ninth volume there is a similar collection of papers relating to the Spectator Club and Sir Roger de Coverley, who was the central figure in Steele and Addison’s Spectator. Those volumes contained, no doubt, some of the best Essays of Addison and Steele. But in the Tatler and Spectator are full armouries of the wit and wisdom of these two writers, who summoned into life the army of the Essayists, and led it on to kindly war against the forces of Ill-temper and Ignorance. Envy, Hatred, Malice, and all their first cousins of the family of Uncharitableness, are captains under those two commanders-in-chief, and we can little afford to dismiss from the field two of the stoutest combatants against them. In this volume it is only Addison who speaks; and in another volume, presently to follow, there will be the voice of Steele.