Oxford world's classics | Main Natrona County Library

Author

Earliest Publication Date

2022

Summary

"Traditionally ascribed to the early third-century BCE tragedian Lykophron, the Alexandra is a powerful Greek poem by an unknown author, probably written c. 190, when Rome had defeated Hannibal and the Carthaginians and was poised to humble the Seleukid king Antiochos III. The poem is an ingeniously constructed masterpiece, a generic mix with elements of tragedy, epic, and history. Priam's beautiful daughter, the prophetic Kassandra, foresees her...

2) An enquiry concerning human understanding

Author

Hume, David, 1711-1776

Earliest Publication Date

2008

Summary

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David Hume (1711-1776) is thought to be one of the greatest philosophers. In this text, Hume gives an accessible presentation of strikingly original and challenging views concerning human understanding.

3) Barnaby Rudge

Author

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870

Earliest Publication Date

1919

Summary

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Fully entitled "Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty," this novel was Dickens' first attempt at a historical novel. As such, it is the precursor to his more famous "A Tale of Two Cities", in which his exploration of mob violence, and especially the effect of public events on individual lives, becomes apparent. This work centers on Barnaby Rudge, a mentally simple son, and his loving mother, who are a part of the small village of Epping Forest,...

4) Black Beauty

Author

Sewell, Anna, 1820-1878

Earliest Publication Date

1890

Summary

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One of the best loved animal stories ever written, the dramatic and heartwarming Black Beauty is told by the magnificent horse himself, from his idyllic days on a country squire's estate to his harsh fate as a London cab horse. No one can ever forget the gallant Black Beauty, a horse with a white star on his forehead and a heart of unyielding courage.

5) Capital: an abridged edition

Author

Marx, Karl, 1818-1883

Earliest Publication Date

2008

6) Daniel Deronda

Author

Eliot, George, 1819-1880

Earliest Publication Date

1876

Summary

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Deronda, a high-minded young man searching for his path in life, finds himself drawn by a series of dramatic encounters into two contrasting worlds: the English country-house life of Gwendolen Harleth, a high-spirited beauty trapped in an oppressive marriage, and the very different lives of a poor Jewish girl, Mirah, and her family. As Deronda uncovers the long-hidden secret of his own parentage, Eliot's moving and suspenseful narrative opens up a...

7) Geoffrey Chaucer

Author

Brown, Peter, 1948-

Earliest Publication Date

2011

Summary

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This book examines Chaucer's life and poetry through the lens of his cultural experience. It offers a wide-ranging account of the medieval society from which his works sprang, and examines the works in detail. It considers the intellectual and philosophical contexts, and the modern reception of Chaucer in film and television.

8) Georgics

Author

Virgil

Earliest Publication Date

2009

Summary

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Virgil was born to a farming family, and his poetic work named The Georgics comes as close to his heart as it possibly can. He dedicated this work to the land, the farming communities and the issues surrounding complex relationships and political situation of the time. Virgil's love for the earth and everything that grows and lives there makes this poem one of his most expressive and passionate.

9) Great expectations

Author

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870

Earliest Publication Date

1939

Summary

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Great Expectations is among the most masterful of Charles Dickens's novels. Displaying extraordinary tragicomic range, Dickens blends an atmosphere of brooding violence and guilt with sharp and often disturbing humor to create a drama charged with the thrilling intensity of a detective story and the poignancy of a spiritual autobiography. Much of the novel's power comes from Dickens's unequaled skill at making even the most wildly eccentric of characters...

10) Greek lyric poetry: the poems and fragments of the Greek iambic, elegiac, and melic poets (excluding Pindar and Bacchylides) down to 450 B.C

Earliest Publication Date

1999

Summary

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A new poetic translation of Greek lyric, elegiac, and iambic poets of the two centuries from 650 to 450 BCE. Includes a number of pieces not previously translated.

11) Greenmantle

Author

Buchan, John, 1875-1940

Earliest Publication Date

2006

Summary

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"November 1915. Richard Hannay is tasked to undertake a top-secret mission to investigate rumours of a plot to create a holy war throughout the Muslim world and draw troops and resources from the Western Front. Hannay must journey to Constantinople through war-torn Europe, recruiting three loyal friends--Peter Pienaar, John S Blenkiron and Sandy Arbuthnot--to help him as he unravels coded messages, escapes murderous mobs and tracks down the mysterious...

12) Irish writing: an anthology of Irish literature in English 1789-1939

Earliest Publication Date

2008

Summary

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This anthology traces the history of modern Irish literature from the revolutionary era of the late 18th century to the early years of political independence.

13) Jane Eyre

Author

Brontë, Charlotte, 1816-1855

Earliest Publication Date

1933

Summary

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In early nineteenth-century England, an orphaned young woman accepts employment as a governess and soon finds herself in love with her employer who has a terrible secret. Charlotte Bronte's novel about the passionate love between Jane Eyre, a young girl alone in the world, and the rich, brilliant, domineering Rochester has enthralled every kind of reader, from the most critical and cultivated to the youngest and most unabashedly romantic, ever since...

14) Jason and the golden fleece: (the Argonautica)

Author

Apollonius, Rhodius

Earliest Publication Date

2009

15) Jude the obscure

Author

Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928

Earliest Publication Date

1923

Summary

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Thomas Hardy's final novel: A passionate and tragic story of the follies of Victorian England's most rigid institutions: class, marriage, and higher education Growing up in southern England, Jude Fawley dreams of one day transcending his country life and becoming a scholar at Christminster's most prestigious college. It's the driving focus of his young life, leading him to rigorous study of classical Greek and Latin after spending long days working...

16) Just so stories for little children

Author

Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

Earliest Publication Date

1902

Summary

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Twelve stories about animals, insects, and other subjects include "How the Camel Got His Hump." "The Butterfly That Stamped, " and "How the Alphabet Was Made."

17) Keep the aspidistra flying

Author

Orwell, George, 1903-1950

Earliest Publication Date

1956

Summary

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"Money is what God used to be. Good and evil have no meaning any longer except failure and success." Disgusted by society's materialism, Gordon Comstock leaves his job in advertising to pursue an ill-fated career as a poet. In his race to the bottom, only Rosemary, his long-suffering girlfriend, challenges Gordon's self-destructive course. The novel contains the most sustained reflections on the role of the author and the artistic...

18) Kidnapped

Author

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894

Earliest Publication Date

1932

Summary

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In 1751 in Scotland, cheated out of his inheritance by a greedy uncle who has him kidnapped and put on a ship to the Carolinas, seventeen-year-old David Balfour escapes to the Highlands with the help of the Jacobite Alan Breck Stewart and there encounters further danger and intrigue as he attempts to clear his name and regain his property.

19) Kim

Author

Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

Earliest Publication Date

1901

Summary

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Rudyard Kipling's epic rendition of the imperial experience in India is also his greatest long work. Born in India and growing into early manhood, Kim is the son of an Irish soldier born under British Imperial rule in 19th century India. Left in the care of a half-caste woman, Kim is free to explore the back allies and bazaars of Lahore. But when he meets with his father's old regiment he trades his native clothes for European suits and abandons his...

20) Leviathan

Author

Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679

Earliest Publication Date

1950

Summary

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""During the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre." Written during the turmoil of the English Civil War, Leviathan is an ambitious and highly original work of political philosophy. Claiming that man's essential nature is competitive and selfish, Hobbes formulates the case for a powerful sovereign -- or "Leviathan" -- to enforce peace and the law, substituting security for the...