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A fantastic retelling of the ancient Greek epic 'The Odyssey' for a young audience, written by English classical scholar Alfred John Church.

Venture to a world of fairies and flowers in this nineteenth-century collection of stories and poems from the beloved author of Little Women.   At the tender age of sixteen, Louisa May Alcott's imagination was already in full bloom. From tales she told her neighbor, Ellen, daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson, she wove together stories and songs about fairies, elves, talking flowers, and animals. With innocence and whimsy, Alcott revealed the shadowy kingdom of the Frost-King; introduced the vain fairy, Thistledown, and his kindly friend, Lily-Bell; descended into the depths of the sea with Ripple, the water-spirit; and more!   The inspiration for the setting of \"Fairyland\" was in fact the wooded area around Walden Pond owned by Emerson, where Henry David Thoreau would lead the Alcott sisters and their friends on the berry-picking adventures that activated a rich fantasy world in young Alcott's mind. As delicately constructed as a butterfly's wings, these fanciful fables offer a sweet and fascinating glimpse into the imagination of a legendary American writer who had just begun to find her voice.   Flower Fables includes \"The Frost King: Or, The Power of Love,\" \"Eva's Visit to Fairy-Land,\" \"The Flower's Lesson,\" \"Lily-Bell and Thistledown,\" \"Little Bud,\" \"Clover-Blossom,\" \"Little Annie's Dream: Or, The Fairy Flower,\" and \"Ripple, the Water-Spirit Fairy Song.\" This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

This beloved volume collects the world's most famous fairy tales, children's classics, and bedtime stories.  The enchanting stories of childhood every girl and boy--and their parents--cherish are collected in this first volume of Andrew Lang's renowned Fairy Books.

This isMark Twain's first novel about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and it has become one of the world's best-loved books. It is a fond reminiscence of life in Hannibal, Missouri, an evocation of Mark Twain's own boyhood along the banks of the Mississippi during the 1840s. \"Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred, \" he tells us. The Mark Twain Library edition contains the only text since the first edition (1876) to be based directly on the author's manuscript and to include all of the \"200 rattling pictures' Mark Twain commissioned from one of his favorite illustrators, True W. Williams. This landmark anniversary edition contains a selection of original documents by Mark Twain, including several letters in his inimitable voice about writing Tom Sawyer and about its original publication.

A man becomes a recluse when he's accused of a crime he did not commit Silas Marner is a skilled weaver working long hours in London for a Calvinist sect that does not appreciate him. When the congregation's funds are stolen, Silas is framed for the theft and excommunicated. Presumed guilty, abandoned by the love of his life, evicted from his modest home, and humiliated by the men he called his brothers, Silas wanders north to a small village in England's bucolic countryside. Forsaking contact with humanity, he throws himself into his work, caring for little other than the constant movement of his hands and the stack of money he is slowly amassing. But fate sees it fit that Silas should lose his newfound wealth and gain the companionship of a young orphan, an experience that proves more valuable than any currency. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices. \"I think Silas Marner holds a higher place than any of the author's works. It is more nearly a masterpiece; it has more of that simple, rounded, consummate aspect which marks a classical work.\" —Henry James

Ten stories from the Tales of a Thousand and One Nights, including the well-known ones of Aladdin and the lamp, Ali Baba. and the forty thieves, and Sinbad the sailor.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. \"Whatever comes,\" she said, \"cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside\" A Little Princess tells the story of Sara Crewe, beloved daughter of the revered Captain Crewe. Sent to board at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, Sara is devastated when her adored father dies. Suddenly penniless, Sara is banished to an attic room where she is starved, abused, and forced to work as a servant. How this exceptionally intelligent girl uses the only resources available to her, imagination and friendship, to overcome her situation and change her fortunes is at the centre of this enduring classic. First published in 1905, 'A Little Princess' is a heart-warming tale of hope, hardship and love set against a backdrop of Victorian England, and is one of the best-loved stories in all of children's literature.

The figure of the detective has long excited the imagination of the wider public, and the English police detective has been a special focus of attention in both print and visual media. Yet, while much has been written in the last three decades about the history of uniformed policemen in England, no similar work has focused on police detectives. This book redresses this by exploring the diverse and often arcane world of English police detectives during the formative period of their profession, from 1842 until the First World War, with special emphasis on the famed detective branch established at Scotland Yard. The book starts by illuminating the detectives' socio-economic background, how and why they became detectives, their working conditions, the differences between them and uniformed policemen, and their relations with the wider community. It then goes on to trace the factors that shaped their changing public image, from the embodiment of ‘un-English’ values to plebeian knights in armour, investigating the complex and symbiotic exchange between detectives and journalists, and analysing their image as it unfolded in the press, in literature, and in their own memoirs.