Catalog Search Results
21) Penguin Island
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
When a bumbling holy man mistakenly baptizes a colony of penguins, God endows the animals with souls and their formerly peaceful community declines into a maelstrom of violence and sin. This witty allegory lampoons French history from ancient to modern times, taking satirical swipes at socialists, royalists, industrialists, militarists, and even the Dreyfus affair, and concluding with a remarkably prescient view of the future. Indeed, more than a...
22) Erewhon
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
A utopian classic with a rich legacy–influencing authors from Huxley to Herbert and beyond–Erewhon satirizes Victorian society with biting insight still relevant today.
When Higgs, a young traveler, stumbles upon the beautiful land of Erewhon, he soon discovers that its seemingly ideal culture is founded upon bizarre, unsettling beliefs. Crime is a sickness, while sickness is a crime; the greatest scholarly achievement is unreason, and all machines...
Author
Language
English
Description
This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is generally acknowledged as the finest satirical writer in the English language, and it is no exaggeration to say, as Harold Bloom does, that he is likely the most "savage and merciless satirist" as well. Although Swift is best known for his longest and most ambitious work, the allegorical fiction Gulliver's Travels, shorter works such...
24) An Ideal Husband
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Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
First performed in 1895, "An Ideal Husband" is Oscar Wilde's classic and much-loved comedic drama. The play tells the story of an up-and-coming politician, Sir Robert Chiltern, who tries to hide his secret past from his judgmental wife and the blackmail scheme he is forced to participate in to keep that secret quiet. Lady Chiltern has a very particular idea of what makes the "ideal husband" which leaves her with little tolerance for Sir Robert's all...
Author
Physical Desc
119 pages ; 22 cm
Language
English
Description
An unnamed Sri Lankan inmate has barricaded himself inside a prison computer lab in Dutchess County, New York. A riot rages outside, incited by a poem published in The Holding Pen, the house literary journal. This, our narrator's final Editor's Letter, is his confession. An official accounting of events, as they happened. As he awaits imminent and violent interruption, he takes us on a roller-caster ride of plot and language, determined to share his...
26) Oblomov
Author
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English
Formats
Description
Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov (1812-1891) was a Russian novelist who achieved literary fame later in life, after a career in the civil-service which spanned more than thirty years. His first novel, "A Common Story", was a definitive success and his notoriety was cemented with the publication of his second novel, "Oblomov", in 1850. Based on a short story written a year prior, "Oblomov" is about a cultured, intelligent, upper middle class man experiencing...
27) Headlong Hall
Author
Language
English
Description
"Headlong Hall" is a novella by English novelist Thomas Love Peacock, first published in 1816. Peacock's first serious work of fiction, the plot concerns a group of eccentrics each suffering from monomania and their humorous and satirical conversations while at the country estate of Squire Harry Headlong Ap-Rhaiader, Esq., in Wales, England. A witty and clever tale, "Headlong Hall" it constitutes a must-read for fans of Peacock's wonderful work and...
28) And Lead Us Not
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
And Lead Us Not is a comic novel about Wally Zeringue, a high school drop-out who becomes President of the United States.
Wally has enemies - among them, Dan Bitterman, as former classmate who is now a reporter for the President's hometown weekly newspaper. Two other bitter enemies of Wally Zerignue become secret informants for the reporter.
As Bitterman uncovers more and more dirt on the new President, the nation's intelligentsia joins in for the...
Author
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English
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Description
In this representative volume, "The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories" the reader will find twenty-four of Mark Twain's best shorter works. Classic and unforgettable tales that span the author's career are included, such as "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", which is Twain's most famous short story and was his first great success as an author. It is the unforgettable tale of Jim Smiley, the gambler who will bet on anything including...
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English
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Description
The History of Mr. Polly is a 1910 comic novel by H. G. Wells. The protagonist of The History of Mr. Polly is an antihero inspired by H. G. Wells's early experiences in the drapery trade: Alfred Polly, born circa 1870, a timid and directionless young man living in Edwardian England, who despite his own bumbling achieves contented serenity with little help from those around him. Mr. Polly's most striking characteristic is his "innate sense of epithet",...
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Series
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English
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Description
Published in 1839, Nicholas Nickleby is Charles Dickens' third novel. In it, Nicholas Nickleby must earn a living to support his mother and sister after his father dies unexpectedly. Turning to a wealthy uncle in London for help, Nicholas is hired on as assistant to Wackford Squeers, a sadistic and small-minded schoolmaster. Meanwhile, his sister must take a job in a milliner's studio and is occasionally pressed into service by their uncle who exploits...
Author
Physical Desc
1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations ; 29 cm
Language
English
Description
The inimitable Stephen Colbert conquers new territory with his first children's book...for adults. In January 2012, Stephen Colbert interviewed Maurice Sendak, and it was one of the most highly-rated and hilarious segments on The Colbert Report to date. During the interview, Colbert unveiled a children's book called I AM A POLE (AND SO CAN YOU!). There was an outpouring of enthusiasm for the book, which led to a demand for the real thing. So, here...
Author
Language
English
Description
This vintage book contains Robert Smith Surtees' 1849 novel, "Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour". Light-hearted and wonderfully written, this volume follows Mr. Sponge, a quirky nineteenth-century hunting enthusiast with odd habits and a unique world view. A humorous and entertaining read, "Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour" is highly recommended for those with a love of hunting and country life. Contents include: "Our Hero", "Mr. Benjamin Buckham", "Laverick Wells",...
Author
Language
English
Description
An Unsocial Socialist begins in an unruly girl's school, comically portraying their tricks and pranks. The narrative then moves to a seemingly ill-bred laborer, who is in fact a wealthy gentleman in disguise. He wishes, in part, to avoid his overly-affectionate wife, but also to preach socialism, of which he is a staunch convert. The story is then largely subsumed in a discussion of socialism and briefly concludes with the suitable marriages of the...
36) Miss Mole
Author
Language
English
Description
Who would suspect her of a sense of fun and irony, of a passionate love for beauty and the power to drag it from its hidden places? Who could imagine that Miss Mole had pictured herself, at different times, as an explorer in strange lands, as a lady wrapped in luxury and delicate garments, as the mother of adorably naughty children and the inspiringly elusive mistress of a poet?
Hannah Mole is a forty-ish spinster, haunted by her past and drifting...
Author
Language
English
Description
In Washington, the four P-Dogs cleverly disguise themselves as short, hairy humans. While half of them try to find the P-Dog Constitution, the other half spend their time sabotaging the bill that would destroy the PDN. At first, they set up headquarters at a famous hotel, but after they get discovered by the hired thugs of Sen. Rawlins, Savant finds some weird alternative places to stay among the museums of Washington. During their week in Washington,...
38) South Wind
Author
Language
English
Description
This witty, elegant novel of ideas unfolds on the imaginary Mediterranean island of Nepenthe, where Thomas Heard, Bishop of Bampopo in the equatorial regions of Africa, stops off on his way back to England. His arrival and introduction to the local society sets the stage for an urbane and polished tale.
South Wind brilliantly evokes the dreamy, languorous quality of life on Nepenthe, a town of whitewashed houses perched on sheer rock cliffs above...
Author
Physical Desc
182 pages ; 21 cm
Language
English
Description
"Ma Daode is feeling pleased with himself. He has just been appointed Director of the China Dream Bureau, tasked with overwriting people's private dreams with President Xi's great China Dream of national rejuvenation. He has an impressive office, three properties and a bevy of mistresses texting him night and day. But just as Ma Daode is putting the finishing touches to his plan for a mass golden wedding anniversary celebration, things take an uneasy...
40) A Tale of a Tub
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Language
English
Formats
Description
From the author responsible for the satirical work of genius, A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub is an allegorical work that follows three brothers after the event of their father's death. When their father, who meant to be God, dies, the three brothers, Peter, Martin and Jack, inherit his will and each receive a decorative coat. Their father also leaves them instruction not to alter these coats in any way because doing so would be...
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