Chartwell Deluxe Editions | Main Natrona County Library

1) Alice's adventures in Wonderland ; and, Through the looking-glass

Author

Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898

Earliest Publication Date

1960

Summary

Follows Alice and her misadventures through the curious and fantastical Wonderland. Presents the text as originally published. "Deluxe gift edition of Carroll's magical masterpiece with foiled covers, marbled endpapers, sprayed edges, and a silk ribbon bookmark. Bored on a hot afternoon, Alice, a bright and inquisitive child, follows a white rabbit down a rabbit-hole, and finds herself in Wonderland, a very odd place indeed. First published in 1865,...

2) Anne of Green Gables

Author

Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud), 1874-1942

Earliest Publication Date

1908

Summary

"Anne of Green Gables' tells the tale of a little red headed orphaned girl, mistakenly sent to the Cuthbert's' farm on Prince Edward Island. Anne's strong character and vivid imagination both help and hinder her as she makes her way through childhood in the pretty little town of Avonlea. This early work by Lucy Maud Montgomery was originally published in 1908 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. Lucy Maud Montgomery...

Author

Stoker, Bram, 1847-1912

Earliest Publication Date

1897

Summary

First published in 1897, Dracula by Bram Stoker has become the standard against which all other vampire stories are compare and the inspiration for countless film and stage adaptations. Indeed, the name "Dracula" has been synonymous with the Undead for at least a century, and the original novels till has the power to chill. Come then to Castle Dracula, hidden in the forbidding peaks of the Carpathian Mountains, where an undying creature of evil casts...

4) Emma

Author

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817

Earliest Publication Date

1948

Summary

"The culmination of Jane Austen's genius, a sparkling comedy of love and marriage--now in a stunning 200th-anniversary Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition Beautiful, clever, rich--and single--Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to...

5) Far from the madding crowd

Author

Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928

Earliest Publication Date

1895

Summary

'I hate to be thought men's property in that way'. Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her confident presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, the soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and when tragedy ensues,...

6) Frankenstein

Author

Earliest Publication Date

1994

Summary

Immerse yourself in the haunting world of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley's legendary gothic horror novel. First published in 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's classic tale of science gone wrong that has electrified readers for over 200 years. This deluxe Frankenstein special edition brings the dark drama and imagination of this seminal work of classic science fiction and horror to vivid life. It follows the story of gifted scientist Victor Frankenstein...

7) Great expectations

Author

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870

Earliest Publication Date

1939

Summary

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...

Author

Bronte, Charlotte

Earliest Publication Date

2002

Summary

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is a powerful exploration of identity, autonomy, and moral integrity within a rigid Victorian society. The novel follows the life of Jane, an orphaned girl who rises from hardship to become a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with the enigmatic Mr. Rochester. Through trials of love, betrayal, and self-discovery, Jane navigates her path with resilience and unwavering principles, seeking a balance between...

9) Little women

Author

Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888

Earliest Publication Date

1915

Summary

For generations, children around the world have come of age with Louisa May Alcott's March girls: hardworking eldest sister Meg, headstrong, impulsive Jo, timid Beth, and precocious Amy. With their father away at war, and their loving mother Marmee working to support the family, the four sisters have to rely on one another for support as they endure the hardships of wartime and poverty. We witness the sisters growing up and figuring out what role...

Author

Melville, Herman, 1819-1891

Earliest Publication Date

1926

Summary

?Call me Ishmael? is the iconic opening line of Herman Melville?s classic American novel, Moby-Dick. Ishmael is a seaman aboard the whaling vessel, Pequod, under the vengeful captain, Ahab. Maniacally seeking retribution from the great white sperm whale called Moby-Dick--the whale responsible for the captain?s missing leg--Ahab leads the crew on a quest to kill the infamous beast.

11) Northanger Abbey

Author

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817

Earliest Publication Date

1950

Summary

"Northanger Abbey is a novel written by Jane Austen and published posthumously in 1818. The story follows the journey of Catherine Morland, a young and naive girl from a rural family, as she travels to Bath with some family friends. There, she meets Henry Tilney, a charming and witty gentleman, and his sister, Eleanor. Catherine is invited to stay at their family home, Northanger Abbey, where she imagines it to be a gothic mansion full of secrets...

12) Pride and prejudice

Author

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817

Earliest Publication Date

1917

Summary

Pride and Prejudice, one of the most famous love stories of all time, has also proven itself as a treasured mainstay of the English literary canon. With the arrival of eligible young men in their neighbourhood, the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and their five daughters are turned inside out and upside down. Pride encounters prejudice, upward-mobility confronts social disdain, and quick-wittedness challenges sagacity. Misconceptions and hasty judgements...

13) Sense and sensibility

Author

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817

Earliest Publication Date

1896

Summary

Jane Austen's first published novel, sparkling with wit and artistry, captures the inequities of birth, class, and marriage faced by the sisters Dashwood. Published in 1811, Sense and Sensibility has delighted generations of readers with its masterfully crafted portrait of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Forced to leave their home after their father's death, Elinor and Marianne must rely on making good marriages as their means of support....

14) The adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Author

Twain, Mark, 1835-1910

Earliest Publication Date

1931

Summary

"The classic boyhood adventure tale, updated with a new introduction by noted Mark Twain scholar R. Kent Rasmussen In recent years, neither the persistent effort to "clean up" the racial epithets in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn nor its consistent use in the classroom have diminished, highlighting the novel's wide-ranging influence and its continued importance in American society. An incomparable adventure story, it is a vignette of...

15) The age of innocence

Author

Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937

Earliest Publication Date

1920

Summary

"As the scion of one of New York's leading families, Newland Archer has been born into a life of sumptuous privilege and strict duty. Sensitive and intelligent, he respects the rigid social codes of his class, and is thankful that his forthcoming marriage to May Welland is to 'one of his own kind'. But the arrival of the Countess Olenska, a free spirit who breathes clouds of European sophistication, makes him question the path on which his upbringing...

16) The Count of Monte Cristo

Author

Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870

Earliest Publication Date

1894

Summary

"Set against the tumultuous years of the post Napoleonic era, Dumas's grand historical romance recounts the swashbuckling adventures of Edmond Dantès, a dashing young sailor falsely accused of treason"--Jacket.

17) The essential tales of H.P. Lovecraft

Author

Lovecraft, H. P. (Howard Phillips), 1890-1937

Earliest Publication Date

2016

Summary

The Essential Tales of H. P. Lovecraft collects one of the author's most popular novellas and six of his most famous short stories. Venture into his macabre world with these classics.

18) The great Gatsby

Author

Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940

Earliest Publication Date

1925

Summary

"In a single, engaging volume, The Great Gatsby presents a helpful literary guide to one of America's most prized classic novels. First published in 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby captured the spirit of the Jazz Age and examined the American obsession with love, wealth, material objects, and class. Considered one of the great novels of the 20th century, Fitzgerald s famous work remains relevant for its observations on the pursuit of...

Author

Earliest Publication Date

1924

Summary

When Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey appeared in 2017--revealing the ancient poem in a contemporary idiom that was "fresh, unpretentious and lean" (Madeline Miller, Washington Post)--critics lauded it as "a revelation" (Susan Chira, New York Times) and "a cultural landmark" (Charlotte Higgins, Guardian) that would forever change how Homer is read in English. Now Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of Homer's other...

20) The Inferno

Author

Alighieri, Dante

Earliest Publication Date

2005

Summary

"Here at last that much suffering reader will find Dante's greatness manifest, and not his greatness only, but his grace, his simplicity, and his affection."—William Dean Howells, The Nation
"As a crown to his literary life, Longfellow combines his exquisite scholarship and his poetic skill and experience in the translation of one of the great poems of the world."—Harper's Monthly
Enter the unforgettable world of The...

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