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Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol under financial duress, but it became one of his most popular and enduring stories. The old miser Ebenezer Scrooge cares nothing for family, friends, love or Christmas. All he cares about is money. Then one Christmas Eve he is visited by three ghosts: Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet To Come. These encounters leave Scrooge deeply moved and forever changed. Historians believe that A Christmas
...Long before penning Moby-Dick, which many regard as the quintessential American novel, author Herman Melville was captivated by life on the open sea. White Jacket adopts a different perspective, focusing on the brutal treatment that many sailors received at the hands of their superiors. In particular, it has been noted that this novel proved to be instrumental in banning the practice of flogging in several branches of the U.S. military.
...Immerse yourself in the epic sweep of what some critics regard as one of the most culturally significant novels ever written. Clarissa Harlowe is a virtuous young woman whose nouveau riche family wants desperately to be able to lay claim to the aristocracy. They plan to do this by marrying off Clarissa to a wealthy heir, but there's just one catch: Clarissa despises the fellow they've set their sights on and will do anything to escape this fate.
...Begin your journey into Middle-earth...
The inspiration for the upcoming original series on Prime Video, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
The Fellowship of the Ring is the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic adventure The Lord of the Rings.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
Sauron, the Dark
...Now hailed as an American classic, Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller’s masterpiece, was banned as obscene in this country for twenty-seven years after its first publication in Paris in 1934. Only a historic court ruling that changed American...
Widely regarded as D.H. Lawrence's masterpiece, Sons and Lovers is a sprawling, multi-generational look at family relationships, class dynamics, and the intimate ties with others that pull young adults toward independence. This largely autobiographical novel made Lawrence's reputation as a writer—it's a must read for fans of classic literary fiction.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a novel in three parts, written as a letter from Gilbert Markham to his brother-in-Law. Markham is a prosperous farmer who is casually courting Eliza Millward. When a mysterious widow takes up residence in a local tumbledown mansion, Wildfell Hall, he becomes more and more interested in her and the slighted Eliza starts spreading malicious rumors.
Typee is a fictional, but heavily autobiographical book by Herman Melville. Based on his own three weeks as a captive on Nuku Hiva, Melville's protagonist spends four months trapped on the island. Melville also fleshed out the story with details provided by contemporary explorers. The book was his most popular during his lifetime and provided significant groundwork for later tales of European and Pacific cultures meeting.
Stoke the fire, grab a cup of hot cocoa, and curl up with this heartwarming Christmas tale from beloved American author Booth Tarkington. Set in an unnamed state in the Midwest, Beasley's Christmas Party follows the adventures of a journalist who has just moved to town to join the staff of the local newspaper. Soon after arriving, he becomes aware of an interesting and eccentric local character named David Beasley whose political prospects
...13) Women in love
Dive into a provocative coming-of-age story that challenged the vestiges of England's Edwardian-era sexual mores. A continuation of a fictional arc that D.H. Lawrence began in a previous novel, The Rainbow, Women in Love explores the romantic entanglements and love affairs of the sisters Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen.
14) Dune
15) Hunger
A must-read for fans of modernist literature, Hunger is a literary tour de force that was influenced equally by Dostoyevsky and Zola but made new by author Knut Hamsun's unique creative approach. The novel details the descent into near-starvation of a young intellectual and the downward spiral of misadventures he encounters in the course of trying to find food.
16) Long Odds
Long Odds is another entry in the list of classic Westerns produced by an unlikely master of the genre, British-born Harold Bindloss. If you like your action-adventure served up with plenty of romance, gripping plot twists, honorable but taciturn heroes, and heartrending descriptions of the vast prairie, you've come to the right place.
This unique work of fiction presented in the form of a year-long diary draws a wonderfully three-dimensional portrait of a woman named Ruth Privet. Though not a saint in the religious sense of the word—indeed, Ruth has a great deal of disdain for theological dogmatism—she has dedicated her life to cleaning up after the mistakes of others. It's an inspirational message and an exceedingly engaging read.
The Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius is the only complete Latin novel to have survived to this day. Lucius of Maudorus is insatiably curious about magic, but when he tries to magic himself into a bird, he transforms instead into a donkey. The story follows his literal and metaphorical journey, and was called by St Augustine The Golden Ass.
Set in Africa, H. Rider Haggard's Elissa is sure to satisfy if you're craving a foray into classic action-adventure territory. Exotic travels, warring clans, damsels in distress, long-lost civilizations, intrepid explorers—this thrilling novel has it all.
What does it mean to be popular? Is it a mark of good character, or merely a sign that you're well-regarded among an influential group of elites? The hero in Booth Tarkington's tale The Conquest of Canaan has achieved a strange kind of popularity—he's seen as a prince among those who are down on their luck, but to the upper classes and the powerful, he might as well be invisible. Will Joe Loudon be able to channel his limited influence
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Didn't find what you need? Items not owned by Darien Library can be requested from other libraries via our interlibrary loan system (ILL).