In the shadows of the great Gatsby is another brilliant novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book is evidence to Fitzgerald’s literal genius because it was written by the author in his twenties to mirror his experiences at the time.
It paints a picture of what it was like to be a young man or woman in the 20th century and in the wake of the First World War. The book is set on a foundation of socialist principles. The protagonist is a young man in his twenties and his emotions and intellectual ideas are affected by the issues of social class. Fitzgerald’s style of writing is sharp, clever ...
Ben, Polly, Joel, Davie and baby Phronsie are the five children of the late Mr. Pepper and his hard-working wife. The family is desperately poor and Mrs. Pepper and Ben have to work out of the house to keep the home fires burning. Young Polly takes over the reins of the household and becomes a surrogate mom to her little brothers and sister.
This heart-warming tale has provided hours of entertainment to generations of children and parents. Five Little Peppers and How they Grew by Margaret Sidney is the first in a series of twelve books featuring the lives of the Pepper family.
In this first book, we find the young Peppers struggling with a lack of money but y...
A picaresque novel written by French satirical polemicist and philosopher Voltaire, Candide blatantly attacks the ideology of philosopher Leibniz. Candide follows the series of unfortunate events encountered by the young, yet blindly optimistic Candide. Shifting from one adventure to the next, Voltaire’s signature piece does not cease to grip its audience with its humorous criticism of power, wealth, love, religion, philosophy and especially optimism.
The novel begins with the introduction of the protagonist Candide, who lives in the castle of an influential German Baron, along with the Baron’s daughter Cunégonde, and tutor Dr. Pangloss. Depicted as an open-mind...
Nicholas Nickleby is a young Devonshire man of nineteen, handsome and hot headed, devoted to his sister Kate and his parents. Following the death of Nicholas’s father, they find themselves penniless, and travel to London to seek help from his uncle, Ralph Nickleby, a heartless, cunning rogue. He grudgingly finds employment for Nicholas in Dotheby Hall, a school in Yorkshire run by the brutal Mr. and Mrs. Wackford Squeers. Appalled at the condition and treatment of the school children, Nicholas rebels, escaping with Smike, a young man/child who has become devoted to him.
Meanwhile back in London, Ralph Nickleby uses his beautiful niece Kate to adorn dinner parties for his disreput...
Louisa May Alcott, more famously known for her Little Women series, takes a familiar nursery rhyme and creates a whole novel out of it in one of her last books Jack and Jill: A Village Story. Though she continued to publish under the penname AM Barnard, this book probably marked the end of a particular writing phase in 1880.
Jack and Jill is set in the fictional Harmony Village. On a December afternoon, the youngsters of the village are out enjoying the bracing cold and snow. The bright winter shines down as they have fun skating and sledding. A group of spectators sits on the fences, watching their more active friends zoom past on toboggans or skates. A shiny ...
This story opens with a young woman who voyages alone into the wilds of Alaska to escape her tragic past. It then continues on to a young man who passionately protects the pristine environment, people and way of life in this snowbound country. Finally, a greedy profiteer arrives in the narrative whose only aim is to fill his pockets. When these three characters encounter each other on the stark and snowy plains, it's a clash of ideals and the sparks begin to fly.
The Alaskan by James Oliver Curwood is one of his very engaging adventure romance conservationist stories and was an instant bestseller, like most of his books, when it was first published in 1923. Curwood was...
The main protagonist of the story is D’Artagnan who travels to Paris to realize his dreams of becoming one of the musketeers for the king. But things start to fall apart from the very beginning when his cherished letter of introduction is stolen by a mysterious gentleman. D’Artagnon reaches Paris and becomes friends with ...
Revealed to be a personal favorite by Montgomery herself, The Story Girl follows the lives of a group of young children as they experience a summer of charming and realistically clumsy adventures. Published in 1911, the novel explores themes of childhood innocence and its transience, while highlighting the value of intangible things which prove to be the very essence of life.
The novel begins when the young narrator Beverly King and his brother Felix are sent to stay with their Aunt Janet and Uncle Alec at their country estate over the summer, while their widowed father is away on business abroad. The two city boys arrive in the beautiful countryside on the idyllic E...