02/07/2024
Description of Millenium Hall and the Country Adjacent
Utopian novel by Sarah Scott, published in 1762 describes women living in complete harmony. Summary by kathrinee [chương_files]
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02/07/2024
Manon Lescaut
Published in 1731, Manon Lescaut (on which the Puccini opera is based) takes as its themes passionate, tragic love, and redemption through suffering. It is the story of the Chevalier des Grieux, a student, who sees Manon as she is being taken to a convent, and instantly falls in love with her. He offers to save her from the convent, and the two young lovers run away to Paris. There follow many adventures and tribulations, throughout which the Chevalier remains steadfastly loyal to his love. summary by Mary Bard [chương_files]
02/07/2024
Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall
Three Towers Hall was a boarding school for girls For a short time after Billie arrived there all went well. But then the head of the school had to go on a long journey and she left the girls in charge of two teachers. sisters. who believed in severe discipline and in very. very plain food and little of it – and then there was a row! (From original advertisement) This is the second book in the “Billie Bradley” series, a mystery series for girls. [chương_files]
02/07/2024
Moving Picture Girls
Ruth and Alice DeVere and their father Hosmer struggle to make ends meet in New York City – times are hard, even for a talented actor like Mr. DeVere. Just as he successfully auditions for a new play, an old voice affliction renders him terribly hoarse and he loses the role. Despite voice rest and medical treatment, Mr. DeVere’s voice fails to improve, and it is impossible to find theatre work. A friend and neighbour in their apartment building suggests that Mr. DeVere tries acting in the moving pictures (which being silent, would not need him to speak at all) but Mr. DeVere considers that business to be common and cheap. However, when they receive an eviction notice, and local shops refuse to extend credit, Mr. DeVere may have no choice … and where he goes, his daughters will follow. Summary by Cori Samuel. [chương_files]
02/07/2024
Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (Volume I)
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle is a picaresque novel by the Scottish author Tobias Smollett (1721 – 1771), first published in 1751, and revised and reissued in 1758. It is the story of the fortunes and misfortunes of the egotistical dandy Peregrine Pickle, and it provides a comic and caustic portrayal of 18th century European society. (Summary by Wikipedia) [chương_files]
02/07/2024
Some Short Christmas Stories
Here are some classic, short Christmas stories from Charles Dickens, who, one may easily argue, was the greatest Christmas storyteller to date. In this season, may we do as Dickens’ asked: “Welcome, everything! Welcome, alike what has been, and what never was, and what we hope may be, to your shelter underneath the holly, to your places round the Christmas fire, where what is sits open-hearted!” Happy Holidays! – Summary by jvanstan [chương_files]
02/07/2024
Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (Volume II)
Volume II continues the story of the fortunes and misfortunes of the egotistical dandy Peregrine Pickle. The novel is written as a series of adventures, with every chapter typically describing a new adventure. There is also a very long independent story, “The Memoirs of a Lady of Quality”, written by Frances Vane, Viscountess Vane, inside the novel. Frances Vane, Viscountess Vane (1715 – 1788), known as Lady Fanny, was a British memoirist known for her highly public adulterous relationships. (Wikipedia ) [chương_files]
02/07/2024
Female Quixote Vol. 1
The novel formally inverts Don Quixote: as the don mistakes himself for the knightly hero of a Romance, so Arabella mistakes herself for the maiden love of a Romance. While the don thinks it his duty to praise the Platonically pure damsels he meets (such as the woman he loves), so Arabella believes it is in her power to kill with a look and it is the duty of her lovers to suffer ordeals on her behalf. (Summary by Wikipedia) [chương_files]
02/07/2024
Billy Whiskers Jr.
This is one of the early Billy Whiskers books where he bears the title, “Junior.” Billy jumps the fence on the farm and heads west for adventures with sheep, wolves, cowboys and Indians, and meets a dog named Stubby who becomes his companion on this and future adventures. – Summary by Larry Wilson [chương_files]
02/07/2024
Frauds, Forgeries, and Fake News Collection
This collection showcases fabricated documents and stories throughout history, and the diversity of purposes and contexts they were deployed in. The “Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery of Montreal” is a fabricated anti-Catholic eye-witness account, published in 1836 and purporting to reveal the horrors of life in a convent. The Donation of Constantine is a forged imperial decree, supposedly enacting a perpetual transfer of authority over the western part of the Roman Empire from the emperor to the Pope. George Psalmanazar, who passed himself off as a native of Formosa (Taiwan), wrote a fanciful book about the island, which made a splash in 18th-century London. The Great Moon Hoax was a series of fantastical descriptions of the moon, published in the 1830s by the New York newspaper The Sun, and falsely attributed to the famous astronomer Sir John Herschel. Bram Stoker tells the legend of Sebastian of Portugal, the “Hidden King”, and the story of Franz Mesmer, the purveyor of “animal magnetism” from whose name the word “mesmerize” is derived. “An Architectural Monograph on a New England Village” is a painstakingly documented and illustrated description of a village that never existed. James Macpherson presented the Poems of Ossian as a traditional epic cycle translated from Scottish Gaelic, but modern scholars believe that he largely wrote the poems himself. E. G. Redmond tells of a hoax involving postage stamps, the first of which was conceived by a stamp collector in Germany. “Sketch of the Mosquito Shore” was a glowing but […]