Frederick Davidson
1) Dubliners
James Joyce was the singular figure of modernism, and to this day his grand vision looms large over contemporary literature and the entire Western canon. His stylistic innovations were revolutionary, yet nowhere is Joyce more accessible than in this volume of short stories, a brilliant collection that celebrates, critiques, and immortalizes the place that Joyce knew better than anyone...
2) Kidnapped
3) Lord Jim
Marlow narrates the story of Lord Jim, a promising young man who falls from grace, then attempts to redeem himself in Patusan, a fictional Indonesian island. His story is told entirely through the perspectives of Marlow and others who join their voices to his, and so the enigma at the centre of Jim's character and actions is never entirely resolved. Marlow also narrates Conrad's novels Heart of Darkness and Youth and Chance.
5) Vanity Fair
—Robert Louis Stevenson
"The lasting and universal popularity of The Three Musketeers shows that Dumas, by artlessly expressing his own nature in the persons of his heroes, was responding to that craving for action, strength and generosity which is a fact in all periods and all places."
—Andreé...
6) Ivanhoe
Set in England during Richard I's reign, Sir Walter Scott's fanciful, vivid reinterpretation of medieval life is a successful blend of fact, myth, and romance.
Upon returning from the Crusades, where he served with King Richard I, Wilfred of Ivanhoe is met with his father's disapproval, having fallen in love with Rowena, his father's ward. When his father disinherits him, Ivanhoe gets caught up in the power struggle between the king and his
...In this masterpiece, Solzhenitsyn has orchestrated thousands of incidents and individual histories into one narrative of unflagging power and momentum. Written in a tone that encompasses Olympian wrath, bitter calm, savage irony, and sheer comedy, it combines history, autobiography, documentary, and political analysis as it examines in its totality the Soviet apparatus of repression from its inception following the October Revolution of 1917.
This
...Winston Churchill is perhaps the most important political figure of the twentieth century.
His great oratory and leadership during the Second World War were only part of his huge breadth of experience and achievement. Studying his life is a fascinating way to imbibe the history of his era and gain insight into key events that have shaped our time.
In political office at the end of WWI, he foresaw the folly of Versailles
...When Sharpe rises from the ranks to take command, he finds himself with an unexpected ally in the war against Napoleon.
It's 1809, and the powerful French juggernaut is sweeping across Spain. Lieutenant Richard Sharpe is newly in command of the demoralized, distrustful men of the Ninety-fifth Rifles. He must lead them to safety, and the only means of escape is a treacherous trek through the enemy-infested mountains of Spain.
Blas Vivar
...Here is one of those rare novels that completely transports the reader to an unforgettable time and place in history.
At Talavera in July of 1809, Captain Richard Sharpe, bold, professional, and ruthless, prepares to lead his men against the armies of Napoleon in what will be the bloodiest battle of the war. Sharpe has earned his captaincy, but there are others, such as the foppish Lieutenant Gibbons and his uncle, Colonel Henry Simmerson,
...Little progress had been made by the Thames Valley Police since the discovery of a corpse in a North Oxford flat. The police had no weapon, no suspect, and no motive.
But within days of taking over the investigation, Chief Inspector Morse and Detective Sergeant Lewis uncover startling new information about the life and death of the victim, Dr. Felix McClure, late of Wolsey College, Oxford.
The trail leads to a staircase
...With the emperor Napoleon at its head, an enormous French army is marching toward Brussels. The British and their allies are also converging on Brussels in preparation for a grand society ball.
It is up to Richard Sharpe to convince the Prince of Orange, the inexperienced commander of Wellington's Dutch troops, to act before it is too late. But Sharpe's warning cannot stop the tide of battle, and the British suffer heavy
...Since earning his sergeant's stripes at the bloody siege of Seringapatam, Richard Sharpe has led a peaceful existence. But his easy life meets a brutal end when he is the sole survivor of a murderous attack by a cold-blooded English officer who has defected to join the mercenary forces of the Mahratta confederation in India.
Sharpe vows to avenge his comrades, even if he must pursue the turncoat to the ends of the continent. His quest takes
...Only one man stands between Napoleon's army and a British defeat—Major Richard Sharpe.
A band of renegades led by Sharpe's vicious mortal enemy, Obadiah Hakeswill, holds a group of British and French women hostage in a strategic mountain pass. Newly promoted, Major Sharpe is given the task of rescuing them. On the other side of the pass, Napoleon's Grande Armée seeks to smash through and crush the British army in Portugal. Sharpe
...In the spring of 1811, as one of the most bitter battles of the Peninsular War is about to commence, the hopes of all of Britain are turned toward Spain, where victory will be won or lost. A skilled leader and proven hero, Colonel Richard Sharpe has taken charge of a ragtag Irish battalion from the king of Spain's household guard. Poorly equipped and untrained, they are easily ambushed by an elite French unit commanded by Sharpe's deadly enemy,
...
An honored veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Sharpe has become a peaceful farmer following Waterloo. But he comes out of retirement to undertake a perilous mission to find his old friend Don Blas Vivar, Captain-General of the Spanish colony of Chile, who vanished without a trace half a world away.
With intrepid Irishman Patrick Harper at his side, Sharpe journeys to Chile, a land seething with corruption and
...17) Les Misérables
18) Hard Times
Coketown, the depressed mill town that is the setting for one of Charles Dickens’s most powerful and unforgettable novels, is all brick, machinery, and smoke-darkened chimneys. Its emblematic citizen, the schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind, lives to impose his version of education: facts and statistics that feed the mind while starving the soul and spirit. Inflexible...
What is free will? Is redemption possible? Can logic help us answer moral questions? Renowned Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky tackles all of these topics and many more in this remarkable novel, widely regarded as one of the classic masterpieces of literature. Follow the Karamazov family through the travails that transpire after the murder of their father, and expand your intellectual horizons with a work that celebrated thinkers such as Einstein,
...20) Carry On, Jeeves
Young Bertie Wooster needed help in life. His affairs were in a complete mess. When Jeeves, the incomparable manservant, offers his services as valet, Bertie takes him on. Soon Jeeves has everything running smoothly—even Bertie himself.
At his best, Jeeves miraculously keeps Bertie and his helpless friends in the good graces of their rich uncles. He deals knowingly with attractive, lovelorn young ladies, patching up their affairs of the heart
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