This charming book for children is full of interesting facts about all sorts of plants, insects, birds and animals and how they all help to enrich the soil for farmers - each in its own special way. Join our narrator, The Grain of Dust on a fascinating journey around the planet to meet them. "I don't want you to think that I'm boasting, but I do believe I'm one of the greatest travellers that ever was; and if anybody, living or dead, has ever gone through with more than I have I'd like to hear about it...

The Old Curiosity Shop; Hard Times; A Tale of Two Cities; Oliver Twist; The Pickwick Papers. Have you read any or all of these famous Dickens stories? The author of this marvelous book, Rives Ermine, a highly successful author in her own right, simply wanted to retell the basic elements of some of Dickens best beloved novels and story lines. Now is your chance to revisit these stories and revive the memories of great reads. Of it you haven't gotten around to some of these classics, this would be a marvelous chance to listen to what they are about so you can enjoy them even more in the original later...

The classic early American epistolary novel about the seduction and ruin of a passionate young woman. Based on the true story of Elizabeth Whitman, whose lonesome death in childbirth in a Connecticut inn sparked widespread discussion and outrage, the novel went through many editions and innumerable printings in the century after its initial publication in 1797.

Sequel to The Girls of Friendly Terrace (or Peggy Raymond's Success). As the summer opens the girls fan themselves on the porch, wishing for a get away. As it happens, opportunity knocks, leading them into a country vacation along with a few more members to the party.

In this fifth and (as far as is known) final volume of Peggy Raymond and her Friendly Terrace entourage, we find the Girls winding down from the Great War, and pursuing more domestic and mischievous pursuits. Finishing up college and preparing for Peggy and Grahame's wedding, Ruth, Amy and Priscilla look toward their own opportunities of future relationships and potential marriages. As Harriet Lummis Smith is so good at, it is a neat blend of continuity toward the known characters and charming introductions of the new.

Published in 1916, this third installment with The Friendly Terrace girls places them in The Girl’s High School, with an array of new characters, and a few peripherally known from the first book. A heavier edge of drama comes through via a new student with a superiority complex, another student whose diligent scholastic achievements mar her socially, and an odd tradition of affectionate favouritism between Freshman and Seniors which proves to be awkward and disruptive to more than just the students. Peggy, Amy, Priscilla and Ruth are again faced with new challenges, and complicated scenarios to help resolve.

The Friendly Terrace Quartette (or Peggy Raymond At The Poplars) published in 1920, finds Peggy and her friends preparing for The Great War. Young men they had known as boys are signing up to train and fight as soldiers, while the girls find themselves looking for what they can do to help. Priscilla, and Amy join Peggy in The Land Army to assist in agricultural labour usually left to men of the period. Ruth, of weaker health, must remain on Friendly Terrace but manages to find her own way to be useful...

Peggy Raymond and her friends, Amy, Priscilla and Ruth, encounter a new neighbour, Elaine, and her family. While Peggy, in her usual cheerful and practical manner, welcomes them into the neighbourhood of Friendly Terrace, a variety of mysteries slowly unfold about them and why they ended up moving there. (Harriet Lummis Smith later went on to write four sequels to Eleanor H. Porter's "Pollyanna" books.)

In this fourth "Glad Book", Pollyanna returns to her public, no longer the young bride struggling with the problems of housekeeping and homemaking for her beloved Jimmie, but the proud mother of three healthy active children - her "Jewels" - who keep her hands full.

Pollyanna marries sweetheart Jimmy Pendleton, and together they move to start their married life in Boston. The book follows their many adventures of marriage, setting up home in a new city, having visitors, and many other events, including Jimmy's signing up to fight during WWI. Throughout the uplifting book, Pollyanna continues to play her characteristic 'Glad Game' and tries to encourage others to do the same.

"Some succeed while others fail. This is a recognized fact; yet history tells us that seven-tenths of our most successful men began life poor." A selection of mini-biographies teaches us how some successful men have overcome odds to make their mark on history.

Houdini, an escape artist and illusionist, became interested later in his life in debunking spiritualists, disbelieving anyone who claimed to have supernatural powers. This was during an era where paranormal phenomena, especially seances, were extremely popular. Although skeptical of their claims, he longed to find a credible source to communicate with family members he had lost. This book chronicles his travels and the many people he spoke with and his observations of their 'powers' and along the way also reveals many of the tricks they employed to deceive their paying customers. - Summary by Phyllis Vincelli

This is a story of magnificent failures. The men who equipped the expeditions of which I shall tell you the story died in the poorhouse. The men who took part in these voyages sacrificed their lives as cheerfully as they lighted a new pipe or opened a fresh bottle. Some of them were drowned, and some of them died of thirst. A few were frozen to death, and many were killed by the heat of the scorching sun. But what of it? It was all in the day's work. These excellent fellows took whatever came, be it good or bad, or indifferent, with perfect grace, and kept on smiling...

This is a Book of Children's Bible Stories.

A biographical encomium delivered on the occasion of Roosevelt's death. Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt, Jr. (1858 – 1919) was an American author, naturalist, explorer, historian, and politician who served as the 26th President of the United States. He was a leader of the Republican Party (the "GOP") and founder of the Progressive Party. He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

Henry Cabot Lodge was a popular American Senator from Massachusetts. He did not only make a name for himself as a politician, but also as an essayist, combining his personal experience as Senator with a study of the philosophical and historical background of this profession. The essays in this volume concern the American model of democracy in particular. Published in 1915, the essays contained herein also reflect the rapid changes brought about by World War I, which will interest a wide readership. - Summary by Carolin

"What I want to impress upon those who may read this paper is this: The Irish land question is not a mere local question; it is a universal question. It involves the great problem of the distribution of wealth, which is everywhere forcing itself upon attention. It can not be settled by measures which in their nature can have but a local application. It can only be settled by measures which in their nature will apply everywhere as readily as in Ireland."

What I have done in this book, if I have correctly solved the great problem I have sought to investigate, is, to unite the truth perceived by the school of Smith and Ricardo to the truth perceived by the schools of Proudhon and Lasalle; to show that laissez faire (in its full true meaning) opens the way to a realization of the noble dreams of socialism; to identify social law with moral law, and to disprove ideas which in the minds of many cloud grand and elevating perceptions.

Henry Handel Richardson was the pseudonym of Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson, a writer who was born in 1870 to a reasonably well-off family which later fell on hard times. The author's family lived in various Victorian towns and from the age of 13 to 17 Richardson attended boarding school at the Presbyterian Ladies' College in Melbourne, Victoria. It's this experience that feeds directly into The Getting of Wisdom. Laura Tweedle Rambotham, the main character, is the eldest child of a country family...

Joaquin Murrieta was a famous Californio bandit, known as the "Robin Hood of El Dorado". Joaquin Murrieta was the son of worthy parents, and nothing in his early youth betokened any traits of the monster which he afterwards became. . . . In the following pages every trace of his blood-stained footsteps is closely followed. Some of the facts are furnished by contemporary witnesses; most of them by official documents. He proceeded from step to step, wading deeper and deeper into crime, until quiet citizens were almost afraid to breathe his name aloud...

Henry Stanton was appalled at the shocking lack of information given to young people about sex and reproduction in his time. He felt this was a crime that needed to be fixed and so he wrote this book explaining sex for young and old. Ignorance of basic reproductive processes he felt led to experimentation that then led to sin, crime and prostitution. While this book is definitely not written in what I would call Plain English, contains some very questionable 'facts' about masturbation and menstruation and might seem very moralistic and dogmatic to our current society, he does hold out high ideas for all in affairs of self respect, love and marriage...

A major preoccupation of Hesse in writing Siddhartha was to cure his "sickness with life" by immersing himself in Indian philosophy such as that expounded in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. The reason the second half of the book took so long to write was that Hesse "had not experienced that transcendental state of unity to which Siddhartha aspires. In an attempt to do so, Hesse lived as a virtual semi-recluse and became totally immersed in the sacred teachings of both Hindu and Buddhist scriptures...

Somewhat autobiographical, this "coming of age" novel unfolds an introspective boy's formative years in pre-World War 1 Germany, from grade school through college. Hesse likens this confusing process to a giant bird struggling to break out of its egg , to be reborn as an individuated adult with his own goals, ideas and ideals. Much importance is given to dreams and their interpretation, Fate vs individual choice, Gnosticism , opening up to one's unconsciousness, all showing the influence of Carl Jung's psychology...

Works and Days provides advice on agrarian matters and personal conduct. The Theogony explains the ancestry of the gods. The Shield of Heracles is the adventure of Heracles accepting an enemy's challenge to fight.

The Odysseys are a collection of stories about Ulysses' journey home from the war at Troy purportedly written in the 8th century BCE by Homer, a blind poet thought to have lived in the Greek colonies in Asia Minor, possibly at Smyrna. The events described are thought to have occurred centuries before being recorded by Homer, handed down orally since the twelfth century BCE, the golden era of the Greek Bronze Age when the world was populated by heroic mortals and often visited by the Gods. This verse...

Homer’s Iliad is the first great work of Western literature. Composed in twenty-four books of Greek hexameter poetry, it portrays the events of the last year of the Trojan War. Its translation into rhyming couplets by Alexander Pope is considered by some the greatest act of translation in English. Its power sweeps the reader along through an epic tale that begins with the wrath of Achilles and ends with the burial of Hector, breaker of horses. (Introduction by Steve Perkins)

"It must equally be considered a splendid performance; and for the present we have no hesitation in saying that it is by far the best representation of Homer's Iliad in the English language." - London Times, 1865"The merits of Lord Derby's translation may be summed up in one word, it is eminently attractive; it is instinct with life; it may be read with fervent interest; it is immeasurably nearer than Pope to the text of the original. Lord Derby has given a version far more closely allied to the original, and superior to any that has yet been attempted in the blank verse of our language." - Edinburgh Review, January 1865.

Homeric Hymns are thirty-three poems each paying homage to a certain Greek god. Only a few of the poems are more than 250 lines while the rest are about a dozen lines each. They are written in Homeric style and traditionally attributed to Homer but their true provenance is unknown. The Epigrams are a series of fragments on disparate topics including sailors, children and potters and are similarly attributed to Homer although it appears Hesiod and others wrote some of them. Finally, Battle of Frogs and Mice is a light-weight parody -- literally, at one-fiftieth the number of lines -- of Homer's famous battle of Greeks and Trojans epic, Illiad.

Horace Walpole, 4th earl of Orford, was a cultivated participant in, and observer of, the social and political life of Georgian England. His charming and witty letters are valuable pictures of the age. "A man so blessed that he could unfold every gift, every foible, whose long life spreads like a great lake reflecting houses and friends and wars and snuff boxes and revolutions and lap dogs, the great and the little, all intermingled, and behind them a stretch of the serene blue sky." Virginia Woolf.

The Castle of Otranto is regarded as the first Gothic novel, a genre appealing to a taste for terror and set in a remote past when prodigies and magic can be imagined to have existed, with violent contrasts between purity and ungoverned passions. The author represents the tale as having been translated from a black letter Italian volume of the 15th century but describing much earlier events. This fictional antiquity and the depiction of mysterious wonders, dark subterranean passages, fearsome apparitions, marvelous coincidences, and especially a savage threat to spotless innocence are all typical of this genre, which does not assure a reader of a happy ending.

Ida Laura Pfeiffer was an Austrian traveler and travel book author, one of the first female explorers, whose popular books were translated into several languages. "The Woman's Journey Around the World, from Vienna to Brazil, Chili, Tahiti, China, Hindostan, Persia, and Asia Minor" is the travel diary of the first of her two trips "around the world", following her successful trips to the Holy Land and to Iceland.

Paris in 1792 is no longer what it was in 1789. In 1789, the old French society was still brilliant. The past endured beside the present. Neither names nor escutcheons, neither liveries nor places at court, had been suppressed. The aristocracy and the Revolution lived face to face. In 1792, the scene has changed."France was now on the verge of the Reign of Terror (la Terreur), the violent years following the Revolution, and this book chronicles the terrible period of French history which culminated in the proclamation: "Royalty is abolished in France...

One of the many Little Blue Books published to make learning available to all. These were short, informative, and inexpensive books that discussed many topics, including biographies, literature, essays, and more. This volume discusses Brazilian literature in an historical context. - Summary by KevinS

Isabel Anderson has written a most interesting travelogue of Hawaii and The Philippines. Actually it is more of a history lesson. Anyone with any interest whatsoever in the South Pacific will find this book very interesting indeed, to note all that has changed since Mrs. Anderson had traveled there.

A very impassioned piece from the first World War, introducing a volunteer civilian anti-spy organization to root out enemy spies from the USA. It appears that this organization never reached the level the author urges; however, other organizations such as the American Protective League did. "Greatest Publication Since the Civil War! Spy Proof America means only one thing - a short, quick, decisive victory - and with honor, too! Every City Is Mobilizing - Join Now The Voluntary Secret Service - V. S. S." (Introduction by TriciaG & from publication)

That one who is not a recognized authority or an expert in literature should attempt the solution of a problem which has so far baffled specialists must doubtless appear to many as a glaring act of over- boldness; whilst to pretend to have actually solved this most momentous of literary puzzles will seem to some like sheer hallucination. What I have to propose, however, is not an accidental discovery, but one resulting from a systematic search. And it is to the nature of the method, combined with a happy inspiration and a fortunate chance, that the results here described were reached...

Fairies, Evil Step Mothers, Enchanted Forests, Golden Geese, Poor Little Children, Fairy Godmothers, Magic wells, and oh, so many many more of the things that make those well loved stories thrilling to tell and listen to are in this little book. And there are a few that you may never have heard of before. just to spice things up a bit. Some are short and some are long but all have a big helping of magic and wonder. Do you like stories like this? well, here you are! - Summary by phil chenevert

Grimms' Fairy Tales, originally known as the Children's and Household Tales, is a German collection of fairy tales or folk lore by the Grimm brothers or "Brothers Grimm", Jacob and Wilhelm, first published on 20 December 1812. - Summary by Cliff Stone

Do you like fairy tales and stories about all sorts of animals and people? Here are a wide variety of stories that go from warm and fuzzy to wild and scary to suit any mood. Many of these are familiar to us and we look forward to hear them again, but many are also unfamiliar tales that will treat your ears and brain to something new but equally wonderful. All collected by the famous brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. - Summary by philchenevert

The stories we have read and loved but retold in words of one syllable to make it easier for young readers or those where English is a second language. Some you will know and love, others you may never have heard of but all are worth reading and listening to. Hansel and Grethel, The Wolf and the Six Little Kids; 3 tales about elves; Snow White and Rose Red; King Roughbeard; The Frog Prince; Cinderella; Little Red Cap (little Red Riding Hood) and The Goose Girl are only a few of these delightful tales.

The fifth volume and the first of two in the fourth part of Frazer's seminal work on the evolution of belief deals with the semi mythological legends of the Mediterranean and the eastern civilizations. Many analogies are traced between the worship of Osiris and the worship of the dead, especially of dead kings. The conclusion to which these analogies appear to the point is that under the mythical pall of the glorified Osiris, the god who died and rose again from the dead, there once lay the body of a dead man...

The third volume of The Golden Bough. The term Taboo is one of the very few words which the English language has borrowed from the speech of savages. This volume examines the underlying moral code of many societies, both primitive and medieval, and with modern analogies. The reader is encouraged to contemplate the contradictions, inconsistencies, and absurdities, not merely between different people of different countries and ages, but also between similar people within the same countries. Frazer presents extensive evidence that the laws of morality slowly, but subtly, are in an ever changing state. - Summary by Leon Harvey

The first volume in Frazer's seminal 12 volume set on anthropology and traditional systems of belief. Topics covered include extensive discussion on the belief in sympathetic and contagious magic, magical influence on the environment, magicians and kings, magicians as priests, the origin of incarnate living gods, and a lengthy essay on the origin on the king of the wood at the lake of Nemi.

The fourth volume in Frazer's seminal 12 volume set on anthropology and traditional systems of belief. With this third part of The Golden Bough we take up the question, why had the King of the Wood at Nemi regularly to perish by the hand of his successor? Topics investigated include the practice and intention of human sacrifice, the mortality of gods, the regular killing of divine kings and spirits, and the superstitions surrounding the succession of the soul. - Summary by Leon Harvey

The second volume in Frazer's seminal 12 volume set on anthropology and traditional systems of belief. The superstition and magical purpose of kings is further discussed alongside the worship of trees, vegetation, fire, and the sacred marriages, and the mystical bond between people and trees. - Summary by Leon Harvey

The sixth volume in the Golden Bough. Frazer continues into the second part of the compilation of analogies dealing with the recurring theme of the dying god. the worship of the dead, and dead kings. Extensive evidence is presented from the history of Egypt and what had been learned from archaeology in North Africa and the Mediterranean. The Egyptian calendar and festivals, the identify and personality of Osiris, and the relationship of the mother goddess, are discussed in length. - Summary by Leon Harvey

It cannot but seem a paradox to say that the Thirteenth was the greatest of centuries. To most people the idea will appear at once so preposterous that they may not even care to consider it. A certain number, of course, will have their curiosity piqued by the thought that anyone should evolve so curious a notion. Either of these attitudes of mind will yield at once to a more properly receptive mood if it is recalled that the Thirteenth is the century of the Gothic cathedrals, of the foundation of the university, of the signing of Magna Charta, and of the origin of representative government with something like constitutional guarantees throughout the west of Europe...

David Hume justly takes rank as the most distinguished member of that brilliant circle of literary men whose names gave such a lustre to the second half of the eighteenth century in Scotland. His speculations were the most profound, and, with the possible exception of Adam Smith in a particular department, his influence was the widest and most deeply felt, of any. But even his warmest friends could scarcely have predicted the influence he was destined to exercise, or the important results that were to spring from his thoughts...

The papers composing this volume were prepared in response to urgent request as a popular apologetic series in defence of the Bible from the attacks made on it from different quarters. They are now published in the hope that they may do something to steady the minds of those who are in perplexity owing to the multitude and confusion of the opinions that prevail in these times regarding the Sacred Book. - Summary by Preface

A children’s book that describes the life of ten boys in different historical time periods. The book shows the reader what the daily life of an average boy living in these various time periods would have been like, with descriptions of the kinds of houses they lived in, the food they ate, their education, clothing, religion, cultural customs, etc. The book begins in the ancient Indus River Valley, and moves along chronologically all the way up to the modern industrial era. - Summary by Virginia Neville

A book that examines the sign of the Cross made by Christians since the primitive church up until the 19th century. It looks at stories of miracles and the writings of the father to impress upon the reader the need to make the sign of the cross reverently and frequently.

The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881) is written by Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Davis wrote the book as a straightforward history of the Confederate States of America and as an apologia for the causes that he believed led to and justified the American Civil War. Davis spared little detail in describing every aspect of the Confederate constitution and government, in addition to which he retold in detail numerous military campaigns...

The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881) is written by Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Davis wrote the book as a straightforward history of the Confederate States of America and as an apologia for the causes that he believed led to and justified the American Civil War. Davis spared little detail in describing every aspect of the Confederate constitution and government, in addition to which he retold in detail numerous military campaigns...

The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881) is written by Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Davis wrote the book as a straightforward history of the Confederate States of America and as an apologia for the causes that he believed led to and justified the American Civil War. (Intro modified from Wikipedia) "The most painful pages of this work are those which . . . present the subjugation of the State governments by the Government of the United States...

As told to a group of Bedouins as they sit around the fire, this tale , set in the Arabian desert, tells of a Holy Man accused of murder, and forced to flee and lead a nomadic life until he can prove his innocence. Some listeners may be offended by the ideas presented in this text. This is a reflection of the thinking at the time it was written. It is policy to not censor works.

Joaquin Miller dedicated this book to "my dear little daughter...for whose pleasure and instruction I have many times dug up the most of these stories from out the days of my boyhood." In his preface he claims to prefer true stories to made-up ones. And he always defends bears, which he thinks have gotten an undeserved bad reputation from the general populous. Miller strives here to pass on a respect for the variety and wisdom in the lives of real bears. But perhaps we should offer one caution: throughout his life Joaquin Miller gained a reputation for being a supreme liar!

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (German: [ˈjoːhan ˈɡɔtliːp ˈfɪçtə]; May 19, 1762 – January 27, 1814) was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant. Fichte is often perceived as a figure whose philosophy forms a bridge between the ideas of Kant and those of the German Idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Recently, philosophers and scholars have begun to appreciate Fichte as an important philosopher in his own right due to his original insights into the nature of self-consciousness or self-awareness...

Johanne Fichte published The Destination of Man in 1799. It was translated into English in 1846 by Jane Sinnett and then again in 1848 by William Smith. Fichte says his book is designed to "raise [the reader] from the sensuous world, to that which is above sense." Francis Bacon said, in The Advancement of Learning, "the two ways of contemplation are not unlike the two ways of action commonly spoken of by the ancients; the one plain and smooth in the beginning, and in the end impassable; the other rough and troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even...

THE SPIRIT OF AMERICAN LITERATURE is a collection of essays reviewing contemporary authors on the literary scene at the turn of the century and assessing the uniquely American characteristics of their growing body of work. Excerpted from the author’s preface: “In this book something is said about most, if not quite all, of the emergent figures in American literature; an attempt is made to survey the four corners of the national library and to give an impression of its shape and size. If its purpose is approximately realized, this volume will be found to be a little nearer to a collection of appreciative essays than to a formal history or bibliographic manual...

The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been out of print. The author says in the preface " I have endeavored as far as possible to avoid hard and technical expressions, and I cannot but think that the mere fact of the brevity of the words must be a great attraction to beginners of all ages.