Simon Prebble
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Description
At the dawn of the nineteenth century, two very different magicians emerge to change England's history. In the year 1806, with the Napoleonic Wars raging on land and sea, most people believe magic to be long dead in England until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers, and becomes a celebrity overnight. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician, the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange. Young, handsome,...
3) On the beach
Author
Language
English
Description
Following a nuclear war in the Northern Hemisphere, the inhabitants of a small Australian community wait for the inevitable aftereffects of the bombs to reach them.
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
A spoof on the thriller genre starring Thomas Lang, an ex-Scots Guards officer who is offered $100,000 to assassinate an industrialist. Lang, an honorable man, rejects the offer and warns the victim, only to discover the victim was the one who put out the contract. From there, laughs and thrills. By a British comedy writer, author of Jeeves and Wooster.
5) 1984
Author
Series
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Framingham - Banned Books
Framingham 2024 Reading Bingo Suggestions
Wayland Library Staff Picks - Classics
Framingham 2024 Reading Bingo Suggestions
Wayland Library Staff Picks - Classics
Description
A chilling portrait of a totalitarian society under the ever-watchful gaze of Big Brother, where love, privacy, and individuality are banned. The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's nightmare vision from 1949 of the world we are becoming is timelier that ever. 1984 is the great modern classic of a 'negative utopia' - a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing
6) Hot money
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
With five ex-wives and nine children, it's no surprise that wealthy gold trader Malcolm Pembroke should preside over a motley clan in constant conflict with one another. But when violent death strikes the least likable of his former spouses, Malcolm himself feels threatened, and he calls on his most capable son, Ian, the family jockey. Ian's task: to protect his father from their nearest, if not always dearest, relatives, and to delve for the final,...
7) Stolen magic
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Simon Malmain, the Earl of Falconer and chief enforcer of the Guardians, must confront Lord Drayton, a rogue Guardian. But the diabolical lord gains the upper hand, using his evil magic to transform Simon into a unicorn. Saved by Lord Drayton's servant Meg, Simon returns the favor by releasing Meg from the spell she is under. Together, they vow to bring Lord Drayton down before his wicked plans turn disastrous. And meanwhile, their mutual attraction...
Author
Language
English
Description
"In one of Verne's supreme adventures, Professor Lidenbrock discovers a centuries-old document which, when decoded by his brilliant nephew Axel, offers instructions to the Earth's core. Accompanied by an Icelandic guide, they set off on a dangerous and exciting trek that begins with a descent into an extinct volcano. As the explorers travel through geologic time, they encounter a living past that holds the secrets to the origins of humanity"--
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
A beautifully designed edition of one of the most beloved science fiction novels of all time...First published in 1895, The Time Machine won author H.G. Wells immediate recognition and has been regarded ever since as one of the great masterpieces in the literature of science fiction. It popularized the concept of time travel and introduced the concept of a "time machine" device that could travel forwards and backwards through the years.It is the story...
Author
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
A young man's quest for eternal youth and beauty ends in scandal, depravity and death. Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The picture of Dorian Gray was a...
11) Hard times
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
"Thomas Gradgrind is the guiding luminary of the Coketown school, stern proponent of the Philosophy of Fact, whose ill-conceived idealism blinds him to the essential humanity of those around, with calamitous results. His daughter Louisa becomes trapped in a loveless marriage and falls prey to an idle seducer, and her brother Tom is ruined thanks to their father's pet theories. Meanwhile Sleary's circus offers a vision of escape and entertainment,...
13) Ivanhoe
Author
Language
English
Description
The epitome of the chivalric novel, Ivanhoe sweeps readers into Medieval England and the lives of a memorable cast of characters. Ivanhoe, a trusted ally of Richard-the-Lion-Hearted, returns from the Crusades to reclaim the inheritance his father denied him. Rebecca, a vibrant, beautiful Jewish woman is defended by Ivanhoe against a charge of witchcraft -- but it is Lady Rowena who is Ivanhoe's true love. The wicked Prince John plots to usurp England's...
Author
Series
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
YA. CLASSIC FICTION. As a small boy at Joe Gargery's forge, Pip meets two people who will affect his whole life - an escaped convict he is forced to help, and the eccentric Miss Haversham, whose beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella young Pip adores. But when a secret benefactor pays for him to go to London to become a gentleman, Pip never dreams he will meet the dreadful Magwitch again, nor just how wrong his expectations are. Introduction by Roddy...
Author
Language
English
Description
After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the aging Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained...
16) The odyssey
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
"The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home. In this fresh, authoritative version--the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman--this stirring tale of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic comes alive in an entirely new way. Written in iambic pentameter verse...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
When Tarzan is orphaned as a baby deep in the African jungle, the apes adopt him and raise him as their own. By the time he's ten, he can swing through the trees and talk to the animals. By the time Tarzan is 18, he has the strength of a lion and rules the apes as their king. But Tarzan knows he's different and yearns to discover his true identity.
19) My revolutions
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
A ghost from Chris Carver's past has sent him on the run.
Author
Language
English
Description
From the bestselling author of Prague comes a witty, inventive, brilliantly constructed novel about an Egyptologist obsessed with finding the tomb of an apocryphal king. This darkly comic labyrinth of a story opens on the desert plains of Egypt in 1922, then winds its way from the slums of Australia to the ballrooms of Boston by way of Oxford, the battlefields of the First World War, and a royal court in turmoil. Just as Howard Carter unveils the...