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A Journey to the Center of the Earth, also translated as A Journey to the Interior of the Earth, follows a man, his nephew and their guide down an Icelandic volcano into the center of the earth. There they encounter an ancient landscape filled with prehistoric animals and natural dangers. There is some discussion as to whether Verne really believed that such things might be found in the center, or whether he shared the alternate view,
...North and South draws on Gaskell's own experiences of the poverty and hardship of life in the industrial north of England. Her heroine, Margaret Hale, is taken from the wealthy south by her nonconformist minister father, to live in a fictional northern town. The stark differences are explored through Margaret's abrupt change in circumstance, and her sympathetic reaction to the plight of the northerners. She comes into conflict with a local
...Pollyanna Grows Up is the first sequel to Pollyanna, and the only one written by Porter herself. Numerous following sequels have been written by various authors. Pollyanna's crippling spinal injury has been cured, and she begins to teach a new town the "glad game". She makes many friends and two of her childhood friends, Jimmy and Jamie, court her. Jimmy is an energetic, healthy young architect and Jamie is a crippled literary genius.
...The Swiss Family Robinson tells the story of a Swiss family who are shipwrecked in the East Indies. First published in 1812, Johann David Wyss intended the novel to teach his sons family values and and self-reliance. The adventures in the book contain lessons in natural history and moral guidance, and include an impossible array of flora and fauna on a single island that the children use for their survival. The "Robinson" of the title refers
...Recently the basis for a major motion picture starring Hollywood golden boy Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was written in 1922 by the golden boy of early twentieth-century American fiction, F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of such era-defining masterworks as The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night. The tale follows the travails and triumphs of the title character, who is born in the body of an elderly man and becomes
...10) Beowulf
Beowulf is the earliest surviving poem in Old English. Although the authorship is anonymous it is believed to have been written before the 10th century AD. The only extant European manuscript of the Beowulf text is placed at around 1010. The epic tells the tale of the Scandinavian hero Beowulf as he struggles against three adversaries; the monster Grendel, Grendel's mother and an unnamed dragon. The epic was recently released as a blockbuster
...Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, was completed by Mary Shelley at the age of 19. She infused this original novel with Gothic and Romantic elements. Scientist Victor Frankenstein creates a large and powerful creature in the likeness of man, but is disgusted by his own creation and he abandons the being to fend for itself. Spawning generations of horror stories in the genre, Frankenstein is a gruesome warning against playing
...Dubliners comprises fifteen short stories, which Joyce intended should accurately reflect the life of the Irish middle class. Each story centers around the moment of epiphany, when a character suddenly understands something about themselves or their life and surroundings that they didn't understand before. The protagonists of the stories progress as a life progresses: from children to adolescents, to adults and the elderly.
16) Les Misérables
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is a witty and insightful satirical novel recounts the history of Lemuel Gulliver, "First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships". In his travels Gulliver visits the Land of Lilliput, where he towers over the local inhabitants, the land of Brobdingnag where he is much smaller than the citizens, the floating island of Laputa, infested with fanatical scientists who in their obsession with reason
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