Month: September 2024

The Pioneers

The Pioneers
by James Fenimore Cooper
Foreword by Nathaniel Waring Barnes

The Pioneers, published in 1823, was the first of James Fenimore Cooper’s five novels comprising the “Leatherstocking Tales” saga, although the time period in which the story is set makes it the fourth chronologically. The original edition was published as “The Pioneers, Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna, A Descriptive Tale.”

Set in 1793, the tale opens with a dispute between an elderly Natty Bumppo, called Leatherstocking in this story, and Judge Marmaduke Temple of Templeton over who killed a buck. Perhaps ahead of his time, Cooper explores the complex themes of land use and stewardship along the rapidly receding frontier in the vicinity of Lake Otsego, New York, and the relationship between the residents of the growing town and the earlier inhabitants of the frontier. Continue reading “The Pioneers”

The Deerslayer

The Deerslayer
by James Fenimore Cooper
Foreword by Nathaniel Waring Barnes

The Deerslayer was published in 1841, the last published of Cooper’s “Leatherstocking Tales” saga. Chronologically, it is set before the other tales and thus first in the series. In recent years it has been viewed as the “prequel” to the Leatherstocking Tales.

“The Deerslayer” is of course Cooper’s indomitable frontier hero, Natty Bumppo, sometimes called “Hawkeye”, “Pathfinder”, “Leatherstocking” or “the Scout”, seen here as a young frontiersman in the vicinity of New York’s Lake Otsego, barely staying ahead of the advance of the British colonial settlements. Continue reading “The Deerslayer”

Main Street [Large Print]

Main Street
Unabridged Large Print Edition
by Sinclair Lewis

Published in 1920, Main Street is perhaps Sinclair Lewis’s most famous book and led in part to his eventual 1930 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Told from the perspective of Carol Kennicott, a young woman married to a Midwestern doctor who settles in the small Minnesota town of Gopher Prairie, the novel satirizes small-town life as she comes into conflict with the small-town mentality of the residents of Gopher Prairie. After reading a book about village improvement in a sociology class while in college, she begins dreaming of redesigning villages and towns. After settling in her husband’s hometown she quickly comes to disdain the town’s physical appearance and conservatism and sets out to remake Gopher Prairie. Continue reading “Main Street [Large Print]”

George Eliot eBook Collection – 5 Classic Novels

Five major works by Victorian literary icon George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans):

Adam Bede
Daniel Deronda
Middlemarch
Silas Marner
The Mill On The Floss

This collection includes eBook editions of all five novels in PDF format, with the complete and unabridged text as originally published, searchable text, and a “clickable” table of contents. These are “free-flow” or “plain vanilla” eBooks, which means the text will flow from screen to screen depending on the size and settings of your device without being broken up by page headers or page numbers. Continue reading “George Eliot eBook Collection – 5 Classic Novels”

Riders of the Purple Sage [Large Print]

Riders of the Purple Sage
Unabridged Large Print Edition
by Zane Grey

A classic of the western genre by master storyteller Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage is the story of Lassiter, a black-clad gunslinger who appears in a small frontier town in a remote corner of Utah just in time to thwart the matrimonial designs of a Mormon elder upon an unwilling bride, the young and beautiful rancher Jane Withersteen. Lassiter does not appear by chance, but is on his own quest, which ends with the discovery of a hidden grave on Jane’s ranch.

Propelled by Grey’s characteristic mix of action, adventure, romance, violence, conflict, and sentimentalism, Riders of the Purple Sage is one of the most widely read westerns of all time. Continue reading “Riders of the Purple Sage [Large Print]”

Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility
Unabridged Original Classic Edition
by Jane Austen

This complete and unabridged edition  has been formatted and edited by human editors, based on the classic original edition, and is printed on heavyweight bright white paper with a fully laminated cover. A generous 6×9 page size and 11-point print make this edition easier on the eyes than many “standard” paperbacks.

Published anonymously in three volumes in 1811, Sense and Sensibility was Jane Austen’s first published novel. She began writing it about 1795, titled “Elinor and Marianne,” and worked on it sporadically until she extensively revised it in 1809 and began seriously pursuing its publication. Ultimately it was published under its well-known title after Jane’s family financed the initial costs of producing the book. Continue reading “Sense and Sensibility”

John Marshall and the Constitution [Annotated]

John Marshall and the Constitution
A Chronicle of the Supreme Court
by Edward Samuel Corwin

Widely considered the foremost historian of the Supreme Court for the first half of the 20th century, Corwin brought his historical approach and renowned narrative style to bear in this eminently readable account of the life and work of John Marshall, the single most influential jurist in American history.

Authoritative without being an overly detailed scholarly treatise, this unique work provides an excellent basic text for any reader interested in the roots of Constitutional law in the United States and the life of the man at the center of its early development. Continue reading “John Marshall and the Constitution [Annotated]”

James Joyce eBook Collection – 3 Major Works

Three major works by modernist literary icon James Joyce:

Dubliners
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Ulysses

This collection includes eBook editions of all three works in PDF format, with the complete and unabridged text as originally published, searchable text, and a “clickable” table of contents. These are “free-flow” or “plain vanilla” eBooks, which means the text will flow from screen to screen depending on the size and settings of your device without being broken up by page headers or page numbers. Continue reading “James Joyce eBook Collection – 3 Major Works”

Robinson Crusoe [Large Print]

Robinson Crusoe
Unabridged Large Print Edition
by Daniel Defoe

Not a machine-scanned reproduction of an old version, this quality large print volume is printed on heavyweight bright white paper with a fully laminated cover. Prepared by human editors, It includes the complete text of Daniel Defoe’s classic tale in a freshly formatted edition, along with a detailed biography discussing the incredible real life of the author and an introductory essay, intended for modern readers and not literature classrooms, discussing the literary significance of this work.

Published in 1719, “Robinson Crusoe,” is one of the most widely read, frequently reprinted and widely translated books in the English language. Often recognized as the first modern novel, the book was an immediate success and introduced the realism movement in English literature, as well as originating the still-popular “castaway” genre. Continue reading “Robinson Crusoe [Large Print]”

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice
Unabridged Original Classic Edition
by Jane Austen

Set among the minor gentry in the vicinity of the fictional town of Meryton, near London in Hertfordshire, the novel follows the activities of Elizabeth Bennet, the second of five daughters of a country gentleman and his rather crass and intellectually limited wife. The story opens with the uproar surrounding the news than a nearby manor house has been rented by a well-to-do young single man from London, and the machinations of the local residents with marriageable daughters which ensue. From that starting point through a series of events both momentous and mundane, appearances and judgments are put to the test as various characters are gradually revealed to be something other than what they have appeared. Continue reading “Pride and Prejudice”