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Dracula, by Bram Stoker

Dracula, by Bram Stoker

Dracula is a gothic horror novel by Bram Stoker. Published in 1897, it introduced the character of Count Dracula to the world and established many conventions of subsequent vampire fantasy.  The novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse. Dracula has been assigned to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, and gothic fiction.The novel has spawned numerous theatrical, film, and television interpretations. The story of Dracula is told in an epistolary format, as a series of letters, diary entries, newspaper articles, and ships' log entries, whose narrators are the novel's protagonists, and occasionally supplemented with newspaper clippings relating events not directly witnessed. The events portrayed in the novel take place chronologically and largely in England and Transylvania within the same year between May 3rd and November 6th. A short note at the end of the final chapter is written 7 years after the events outlined in the novel.

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Emma, by Jane Austen

Emma, by Jane Austen

"Emma" is a novel by Jane Austen published in 1815.  It is set in the fictional country village of Highbury and the surrounding estates, and involves the relationships among people from a small number of families. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England.  Emma is a comedy of manners, and initiates dialogues about marriage, sex, age, and social status. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like."  Written after Austen's move to Chawton, was her last novel to be published during her lifetime. This novel has been adapted for several films, many television shows, and a long list of stage plays.  

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Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens - Noble Objects

Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens

Oliver Twist is a classic book by Charles Dickens. The author poured his own youthful experience of Victorian London, exposing the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid-19th century.  Masterminded by the loathsome Fagin, the underworld crew features some of Dickens' most memorable characters, including the vicious Bill Sikes, gentle Nancy, and the juvenile pickpocket known as the Artful Dodger. It is Dickens' second novel. It is dark and biting, yet balanced with the main character’s innocence and charm.  Often cited as the first Victorian novel to feature a child protagonist, it was developed as a social commentary and a call for improving the conditions of London's destitute and orphan children. And it was immensely successful in both.  The famous cry of the heart - "Please, sir, I want some more"- has resounded with generations of readers of all ages.

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain

Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer while he and his family were living in Hartford, Connecticut. The novel has been in turn praised and censored, but its impact on American literature is undeniable, and so it is one of the most collectible novels of the 19th century. Beyond the fact that The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is fun to read, there is another reason for the novel's contemporary popularity: It introduces the character of Huck Finn who, with the publication of Twain's 1884 novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn would become one of the greatest characters in American literature.

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Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky - Noble Objects

Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

One of the greatest philosophers of all times, Fyodor Dostoevsky suffered throughout his life and was studying the subject of suffering closely. Dostoevsky said: “Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.” The first American edition of the author’s masterpiece, Crime and Punishment  was published in New York in 1886. The two years before writing it had been bad ones for the author. His wife and brother had died; the magazine he and his brother had started, Epoch, collapsed under its load of debt; and he was threatened with debtor's prison. He received an advance for an unwritten novel, and fled to Wiesbaden, hoping to win enough at the roulette table to get himself out of debt. Instead, he lost all his money.

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The War of the Worlds, by HG Wells

The War of the Worlds, by HG Wells

Long before Steven Spielberg made it into a movie and Tom Cruise starred in it, the War of the Worlds was influencing the greatest minds of our time: Robert H.Goddard, inspired by the book, invented both the liquid-fuelled rocket and multistage rocket, which resulted in the Apollo 11 Moon landing 71 years later. H.G. Wells wrote this incredible story between 1895 and 1897 and it is said to be one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. "Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us".

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Ulysses, by James Joyce

Ulysses, by James Joyce

Hailed as a masterpiece when it debuted in 1922, the 700-plus-page stream-of-consciousness tale has lost none of its charm. Some say it is impossible to read. The others argue, that Ulysses is the greatest English book of the 20th century. “Love loves to love love.” - said the author. The first edition of James Joyce's novel that follows Dubliner Leopold Bloom for a day on June 16, 1904, was published by a bookstore, in Paris, which had never printed a book before, and never would again.  The book was printed in bright “Aegean” blue wrappers, as Joyce specified himself.  750 copies were the normal issue; 150 copies were printed on a larger format, handmade paper; 100 copies were signed by Joyce. Among the people who first purchased the edition were Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway, who purchased several copies. None of the 1,000 were allowed in the United States.  We have seen it on sale for $75,000 at Christie’s. It is very popular among collectors. 

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Candide, by Voltaire

Candide, by Voltaire

A case against Optimism, Candide is a satirical novel published in 1759.  It is the best-known work by Voltaire.  He wrote it in three days, and many generations since then have found that its laughter does not grow old.  As expected by Voltaire, Candide has enjoyed both great success and a great scandal. Immediately after its secretive publication, the book was widely banned. However, the novel has since inspired many later authors and artists to mimic and adapt it. 

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