In Between the Sheets

"SUMMER - Top Classic Novels" This edition included NEW illustrations + Free AudioBook Links + Clickable Table of Contents for both the list of included books and their respective chapters. Navigation couldn't be easier.

The text and chapters are perfectly set up to match the layout and feel of a physical copy, rather than being haphazardly thrown together for a quick release.

Summer is a novel by Edith Wharton published in 1917 by Charles Scribner's Sons. The story is one of only two novels to be set in New England by Wharton, who was best known for her portrayals of upper-class New York society. The novel details the sexual awakening of its protagonist, Charity Royall, and her cruel treatment by the father of her child, and shares many plot similarities with Wharton's better-known novel, Ethan Frome. Only moderately well received when originally published, Summer has had a resurgence in critical popularity since the 1960s.

Edith Wharton ( born Edith Newbold Jones, January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.

The story traces the life of David Copperfield from childhood to maturity. David was born in Blunderstone near Great Yarmouth, Suffolk, England, in 1820, six months after the death of his father. David spends his early years with his mother and their housekeeper, Peggotty. When he is seven years old, his mother re-marries Edward Murdstone. David is given good reason to dislike his stepfather and has similar feelings for Murdstone's sister Jane, who moves into the house soon afterwards. Murdstone thrashes David for falling behind in his studies. Following one of these thrashings, David bites him and soon afterwards is sent away to a boarding school, Salem House, with a ruthless headmaster, Mr. Creakle. There he befriends James Steerforth and Tommy Traddles. David returns home for the holidays to learn that his mother has given birth to a baby boy. Shortly after David returns to Salem House, his mother and her baby died and David returns home immediately. Peggotty marries a man named Mr Barkis. Murdstone sends David to work in a factory in London, of which Murdstone is a joint owner.[4] Copperfield's landlord, Wilkins Micawber, is sent to debtors' prison (the King's Bench Prison) and remains there for several months before being released and moving to Plymouth. No one remains to care for David in London, so he decides to run away. He walks from London to Dover, where he finds his only relative, his unmarried, eccentric aunt Betsey Trotwood. She agrees to raise him, despite Murdstone's attempt to regain custody of David. David's aunt renames him "Trotwood Copperfield" and addresses him as "Trot", and it becomes one of several names to which David answers in the course of the novel.

As David grows to adulthood, a variety of characters enter, leave, and re-enter his life. These include Peggotty and her family, including her orphaned niece "Little Em'ly", who moves in with them and charms the young David. David's romantic but self-serving school friend, Steerforth, seduces and dishonours Little Em'ly, precipitating the novel's greatest tragedy, and his landlord's daughter Agnes Wickfield, becomes his confidante. The novel's two most familiar characters are David's sometime mentor, the debt-ridden Micawber, and the devious and fraudulent clerk, Uriah Heep, whose misdeeds are eventually revealed with Micawber's assistance. Micawber is painted sympathetically even as the narrator deplores his financial ineptitude. Micawber, like Dickens' own father, is briefly imprisoned for insolvency. The major characters eventually get some measure of what they deserve, and few narrative threads are left hanging. Peggotty's brother Dan safely transports Emily to a new life in Australia, accompanied by the widowed Mrs. Gummidge and the Micawbers. All eventually find security and happiness in their adopted country. David marries the beautiful but naïve Dora Spenlow, who dies after failing to recover from a miscarriage early in their marriage. David then searches his soul and marries the sensible Agnes, who had always loved him and with whom he finds true happiness. David and Agnes then have at least four children, including a daughter named after his aunt Betsey Trotwood.

The Island of Doctor Moreau is an 1896 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells, who called the novel "an exercise in youthful blasphemy." The text of the novel is the narration of Edward Prendick, a shipwrecked man rescued by a passing boat who is left on the island home of Doctor Moreau, who creates human-like beings from animals via vivisection. The novel deals with a number of philosophical themes, including pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity, and human interference with nature. At the time of novel's publication in 1896, there was growing discussion in Europe regarding degeneration and animal vivisection. Two years later several interest groups were formed to address the issue such as the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.

The Island of Doctor Moreau is the account of one Edward Prendick, a shipwrecked Englishman with a scientific education. A passing ship takes him aboard and a man named Montgomery revives him. The ship is bound for Noble's Isle. Prendick also meets a grotesque bestial native named M'ling who appears to be Montgomery's manservant. In addition, the ship is transporting a number of animals which belong to Montgomery. As the ship approaches the island, the captain demands Prendick leave the ship with Montgomery. However, Montgomery explains that he will not be able to host Prendick either. Despite this, the captain leaves Prendick in a dinghy, after unloading Montgomery and his animals and sails away. Seeing that the captain has abandoned Prendick, Montgomery takes pity and rescues him. It is explained that ships rarely pass the island so Prendick will be housed in an outer room of an enclosed compound. The island belongs to a Dr Moreau. Prendick remembers that he has heard of Dr Moreau, formerly an eminent physiologist in London whose gruesome experiments in vivisection had been publicly exposed. The next day, Dr Moreau begins working on a puma. Prendick gathers that Dr Moreau is performing a painful experiment on the animal, and its anguished cries drive Prendick out into the jungle. While he wanders, he comes upon a group of people who seem human but have an unmistakable resemblance to hogs. As he walks back to the enclosure, he suddenly realizes he is being followed by a figure in the jungle. He panics and flees and the figure chases. As his pursuer bears down on him, Prendick manages to stun him with a stone and observes the pursuer is a monstrous hybrid of animal and man. When he returns to the enclosure and questions Montgomery, Montgomery refuses to be open with him. After failing to get an explanation, Prendick finally gives in and takes a sleeping draught. Prendick awakes the next morning with the previous night's activities fresh in his mind. Seeing that the door to Moreau's operating room has been left unlocked, he walks in to find a humanoid form lying in bandages on the table before he is ejected by a shocked and angry Dr. Moreau. He believes that Dr. Moreau has been vivisecting humans and that he is the next test subject. He flees into the jungle where he meets an Ape-Man who takes him to a colony of similarly half-human/half-animal creatures. Their leader is a large gray thing named the Sayer of the Law who has him recite a strange litany called the Law that involves prohibitions against bestial behavior and praise for Moreau. Suddenly, Dr. Moreau bursts into the colony looking for Prendick, but Prendick escapes to the jungle. He makes for the ocean where he plans to drown himself rather than allow Dr. Moreau to experiment on him. But Dr. Moreau explains that the creatures called the Beast Folk were not formerly men, but rather animals. Prendick returns to the enclosure where Dr. Moreau explains to him that he has been on the island for eleven years and has been striving to make a complete transformation from animal to human. He explains that while he is getting closer to perfection, his experiments have a habit of reverting to their animal form. Dr. Moreau regards the pain he inflicts as insignificant, and an unavoidable side effect in the name of his scientific experiments. One day, Prendick and Montgomery encounter a half-eaten rabbit. Since eating flesh and tasting blood are strong prohibitions, Dr. Moreau calls an assembly of the Beast Folk and identifies the Leopard-Man (the same one that chased Prendick the first time he wandered into the jungle) as the transgressor. Knowing that he will be sent back to Dr. Moreau's compound for more painful sessions of vivisection, the Leopard-Man flees. Eventually the group corners him in some undergrowth, but Prendick takes pity and shoots him in order to spare him from the vivisection. Prendick also believes that although the Leopard-Man was seen breaking several laws such as drinking water bent down like an animal, chasing men (Prendick), and running on all fours, the Leopard-Man was not solely responsible for the deaths of the rabbits. It was also the Hyena-Swine, the next most dangerous Beast Man on the island. Dr. Moreau is furious that Prendick killed the Leopard-Man. but can do nothing about the situation. As time passes, Prendick becomes inured to the grotesqueness of the Beast Folk. But one day, the puma rips free of its restraints and escapes from the lab. Dr. Moreau pursues it, but the two end up killing each other. Montgomery breaks down and decides to share his alcohol with the Beast Folk. Prendick resolves to leave the island, but later hears a commotion outside in which Montgomery dies after a scuffle with the Beast Folk. At the same time, the compound burns down because Prendick has knocked over a lamp. With no chance of saving any of the provisions stored in the enclosure, Prendick realizes that during the night Montgomery has also destroyed the only boats on the island. Prendick lives with the Beast Folk on the island for months after the deaths of Moreau and Montgomery. As the time goes by, the Beast Folk increasingly revert to their original animal instincts, beginning to hunt the island's rabbits, returning to walking on all fours, and leaving their shared living areas for the wild. They cease to follow Prendick's instructions and eventually kill his faithful companion, a Dog-Man created from a St. Bernard. Luckily for him since his efforts to build a raft have been unsuccessful, a boat that carries two corpses drifts onto the beach (perhaps the captain of the ship that picked Prendick up and a sailor). Prendick uses the boat to leave the island and is picked up three days later. But when he tells his story he is thought to be mad, so he feigns amnesia. Back to England, Prendick is no longer comfortable in the presence of humans who seem to him to be about to revert to the animal state. He leaves London and lives in near-solitude in the countryside devoting himself to chemistry as well as astronomy in the study of which he finds some peace.

Main characters:

Edward Prendick - The narrator and protagonist. Doctor Moreau - A vivisectionist who has fled scandal to live on a remote island in the Pacific to pursue his research of perfecting his Beast Folk. Montgomery - Dr. Moreau's assistant and Prendick's rescuer. A biologist who enjoys a measure of happiness in England. An alcoholic who feels some sympathy for the Beast Folk. Beast Folk - Animals upon which Moreau has experimented upon, giving them human traits via vivisection. They include: M'ling - Montgomery's bear-based servant. Moreau used the DNA of a bear, a dog, and a horse to create him. Sayer of the Law - A large gray unspecified animal that recites Dr. Moreau's teachings about being men to the other Beast Folk. Leopard-Man - A leopard-based rebel who breaks the Law by killing and eating a rabbit. Hyena-Swine - A carnivorous hybrid of hyena and pig who becomes Prendick's enemy in the wake of Dr. Moreau's death. Satyr-Man - A goat creature. He is described as unsettling and "Satanic" in form by Prendick. Fox-Bear Witch - A female hybrid of fox and bear who passionately supports the Law. Prendick quickly takes a dislike to her. Sloth Creature - A small, pink sloth-based creation. Described by Prendick as resembling a flayed child. Dog-Man - A Beast Man created from a St. Bernard who near the end of the book is Prendick's faithful companion. He is killed when the Beast Folk start regressing back to their primitive states. Ape-Man - A monkey or ape creature that considers himself equal to Prendick and refers to himself and Prendick as "Five Men" because they both have five fingers on each hand which is uncommon among the Beast Folk. He is the first Beast Man other than M'ling that Prendick speaks to. He has what he refers to as "Big Thinks" which on his return to England, Prendick likens to a priest's sermon at the pulpit.

Moll Flanders recounts the story of her extraordinary life, from her birth in Newgate prison to her declining years in married prosperity. After being seduced in the home of her adoptive family she lives off her wits and her beauty, as a whore, 'five times a Wife', and a thief, and is eventually transported to Virginia for her crimes. Rich and penitent, Moll reflects on a world that is both good and evil, just as the reader both abhors and admires her. Arguably the first English novel, Moll Flanders is also a romance, its heroine in perpetual search for a lost familial paradise.