19th Century Books - Page 5

Billy Budd and Other Stories (Penguin Classics)

Herman Melville

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Don't listen to the first rating!!!!! 4 out of 5 stars.
12 of 26 people found this review helpful.

Billy Budd is NOT a story of "good versus evil"! If you read it and only get that out, you're an idiot. Furthermore, this was Melville's very last work and was not found until after his death; it is heralded as being just as well-written and compelling as "Moby Dick". The ship is a microcosm for our world, and each character represents different people/ideas. It is not a story of protagonist and antagonist. Melville was not concerned with Claggart or Budd, but rather Captain Veere. Heck, just read until the court martial scene; you'll see.

In closing: Forget the loon who told you this book was nonesense. He/she apparently has never READ the book for UNDERSTANDING.

PS: I'm a college sophomore majoring in English. I should know what I'm talking about. Toodles.

Editorial Review:

The tales in this selection of Melville's shorter works were all written after the publication of "Moby-Dick" and after "Pierre", his first commercial failure. They are products of Melville's complex imagination in its maturity, possessing the power of his earlier work. Included here are "Bartleby", "The Encantadas", "Benito", "Cereno", "The Piazza" and one of Melville's masterpieces, the posthumously published "Billy Budd, Sailor".

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Puffin Classics)

Mark Twain

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 293 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Superbly illustrated, it captures the essence of Tom Sawyer the book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

To understand America in the nineteenth century, you must understand Tom Sawyer. His life, so full of adventure set amidst the bustle of a changing nation, is in many ways the dream of nearly all male children. To spend your time swimming in the creek, gathering "treasures" and eating goodies is truly the good life. Tom's romance with Becky is also the way it is with most boys. Girls are universally considered to have some kind of contagious disease, when I was young, they had cooties, until you see that one perfect girl that you will share everything with.
The wonder and mischief of Tom and Huck are captured in this book, superbly illustrated by Michael Ploog. Tom is wide-eyed, freckled and has bulbous cheeks. Huck has a pointed nose, bright eyes and a suitably scruffy demeanor. With the exception of Sundays, the boy's clothes consist of a series of patches sewn over rags. This book is an excellent introduction to what is the tale of American youth of the nineteenth century, very appropriate for classes in English. Of course, after covering this book, the students should be required to read the original.

Editorial Review:

On the banks of the Mississippi, Tom Sawyer and his friends seek out adventure at every turn. Then one fateful night they witness a murder. The boys swear never to reveal the secret and run away to be pirates and search for hidden treasure. But when Tom gets trapped in a cave with the murderer, can he escape unharmed? Richard Peck is an American novelist known for his young adult books. He was awarded American's highly prestigious Newbery Medal in 2001 for his novel "A Year Down Yonder".

The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden, and the Flood

Mark Twain

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This volume collects the most important writings by Mark Twain in which he used biblical settings, themes and figures. Featuring Twain's singular portrayals of God, Adam, Eve, Satan, Methuselah, Shem, St. Peter and others, the writings stand among Twain's imaginative expressions of his views on human nature and humankind's relation to the Creator and the universe. Composed over four decades (1871-1910), the writings range from farce to fantasy to satire, each one bearing the mark of Twain's unmistakable wit and insights. Among the many delights in store for readers are Adam and Eve's divergent accounts of their domestic troubles; Methuselah's discussion of an ancient version of baseball, complete with a parody of baseball jargon; Shem's hand-wringing account of how material shortages and labour troubles were hampering the progress of the ark his father, Noah, was building; a description of the disruptive actions of the fire-and-brimstone evangelist Sam Jones upon arriving in heaven; Captain Stormfield's revelations of what heaven is really like; Satan's musings on our puerile concepts of the afterlife; and Twain's advice on how to dress and tip properly in heaven. Twain's humour, however, is never gratuitous. As readers laugh their way through this volume, they will find ample evidence of Twain's concerns about scriptural fallacies and inconsistencies, the Bible's rather flat portrayal of important characters, and our limited notions about the nature and meaning of our own - and God's - existence. Many of the pieces in this collection, even the most lighthearted, might still be considered controversial; of some of the darker pieces, Twain himself acknowledged that they would be heretical in any age. Moreover, these writings are valuable cultural artifacts of a time when, across the Western world, fundamental religious beliefs were being called into question by the precepts of Darwinism and the rapid advances of science and technology. Several of this volume's selections are previously unpublished; others, like "Letters from the Earth", are classics. Virtually all have been edited to reflect as closely as possible Twain's final intentions for their form and content. For serious Twain devotees, editors Howard G. Baetzhold and Joseph B. McCullough have supplied background material on the writings, including details on the history of their composition, publication and relevance to the Twain canon.

The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)

Walt Whitman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

!!!EMERALD!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 21 people found this review helpful.

not only the greatest selling poet who has been dead for more than fifty years, not only the poet whose translations are regularly read abroad, not only the poet whose name has in-spired countless others, not only the poet who freed us from the manacles of rhyme and decapitated the tyranny of meter but also a man of enthusiasm, a titan, a man whose soul floods with belch, fume and quake, a man who confronts the ravenous centaurs of humdrum and blugeons them swiftly in a spasmo of frenzy-fire, a wanderer, a searcher, one whose mind travels vig-orously throughout the cosmimosa and embellishes it with jac-inths of thought and blooms of popy! not only a man of gargan-tuan passions, one who rages in the face of metallic storm but also a man whose depressions, fogs, glooms and sensitivity to flowers, softness and the defenseless bloom in stark heart-throb. no doubt he is a poet well worth a place beside such other titano-giants such as goethe, milton and homer, for he too sings the song of war, his book is a chanson of bellum for he sings of the battle of the passions, the climaximum of the emo-ceans, he challenges the raw specters of gash, their eyes oozing of slime-drab and rather than succumb to the oxen of indiffer-ence he instead triumphs over the gray and his book thus re-sounds in shinning claria! his is an adventure of thought sur-real in its gusto, jumping in its excitica and wild in its leap of ideas! thank celestium that he liberated us poets from the ab-surd manacles of rhyme and meter and we can now surge through horiza with countless new devices, metaphors and similies awaiting in our platoons! he is the cougar of innova-tion, the lion of spasmo and the giant of vision.

kyle foley, author of Lorelei Pursued and Wrestles with God

Editorial Review:

In 1855 Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass, the work that defined him as one of America’s most influential voices and that he added to throughout his life. A collection of astonishing originality and intensity, it spoke of politics, sexual emancipation, and what it meant to be an American. From the joyful "Song of Myself" and "I Sing the Body Electric" to the elegiac "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d," Whitman’s art fuses oratory, journalism, and song in a vivid celebration of humanity. Containing all Whitman’s known poetic work, this edition reprints the final, or "deathbed," edition of Leaves of Grass (1891–92). Earlier versions of many poems are also given, including the 1855 "Song of Myself."

Moby-Dick (Dover Giant Thrift Editions)

Herman Melville

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

I love this book!! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

this book has been one of my most loved books since I was a small child. it's just great and though most people wouldn't think to read the book to a child. My father read it to me and so i have read it to mine and we have all enjoyed this amazing book at bedtime.

A Classic; Tough to read, though! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

True, it is an American classic. It gets five stars for that alone. However, it was written in the 2nd quarter of the 19th century, so it is tough to read now in the 21st century.

Not an easy read but worth the trouble... 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Yes, it's not an easy book to read - it's long and some of the chapters are tedious. There are whole passages that I read and reread and do not understand what the author was talking about! However, I urge anyone who loves history and literature to persevere. The book is a wonderful adventure story with so much detail that you feel like you're right there aboard the Pequod on this doomed voyage. The characters are memorable and the environmental theme resonates today. Don't be put off by its length - take the plunge!

Editorial Review:

A masterpiece of storytelling and symbolic realism, this thrilling adventure and epic saga pits Ahab, a brooding sea captain, against the great white whale that crippled him. More than just the tale of a hair-raising voyage, Melville's riveting story passionately probes man's soul.  A literary classic first published in 1851, Moby-Dick represents the ultimate human struggle.

Hope Leslie, Or, Early Times in the Massachusetts (American Women Writers Series)

Catharine Maria Sedgwick

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Absolute Trash 1 out of 5 stars.
11 of 28 people found this review helpful.

Just because it was written by a woman and in the past, does not make it good. There were plenty of women writers during this time period, who we seem to forget today manage to outsell the men every time. In the case of Nate Hawthorne, we can clearly understand why.

In Hope Leslie, Catherine Sedgwick's main goal was to persuade the readers that what they were doing to Native Americans was wrong, and that the English descendants were just as wrong in 1800 as they were in 1600. Unfortunately, although her puritan characters, all stolen from history, are narrow minded, they are very kind. This was not the case people. They hung and pressed "witches," all right? Do you really think they wouldn't punish Hope for breaking two Indian women out of jail? And her little "the devil did it, maybe," excuse wouldn't have flown.

Also, this is not a feminist text. I do not care what anyone says. Simply because Esther realizes she doesn't have to get married does not make it a feminst book. Esther would have married Everell in a heartbeat if given the chance. Remember how she tired to sleep herself to death after he rejectd her?

If you must read this for a class, I will give you a short summary:


Magawisca: Oh, you evil, white men. You have killed my family and rained destruction on this land.

Hope Leslie: I am pretty and my eyes change colors, but I will save you from jail Magawisca, while still believing in my heart that you are inferior, but a really nice girl.

[Stuff happens. A ship blows up. Everell and Hope help Magawisca escape.]

Everell: Live with us, Magawisca, and teach us to be pure, like you!

Magawisca: Thanks, you guys, but you have hurt my people so badly that the white man and indian can never be friends. I will go to the wild woods now, and live in peace with God.

Esther: I will go away and pretend it is not because Everell likes my best friend better. When I come back, everyone will want me, but I learned my lesson with men. My havishhaminess will be attributed to feminism for generations to come.

Editorial Review:

The house at Bethel had, both in front and in rear, a portico, or, as it was more humbly, and therefore more appropriately named, a shed; that in the rear, was a sort of adjunct to the kitchen, and one end of it was enclosed for the purpose of a bed-room, and occupied by Magawisca. Everell found Digby sitting at the other extremity of this portico; his position was prudently chosen. The moon was high, and the heavens clear, and there concealed and sheltered by the shadow of the roof, he could, without being seen, command the whole extent of cleared ground that bordered on the forest, whence the foe would come, if he came at all.

Sister Carrie: The Pennsylvania Edition

Theodore Dreiser

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 107 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fractured Fairy Tale and/or Horror Story on Capitalism 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

"Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth." Mahatma Gandhi

"She (Carrie Meeber) wanted pleasure, she wanted position, and yet she was confused as to what these things might be." p. 145 "Sister Carrie"

Critics may scoff at the immorality of the main characters, the persistently subtle, yet always stinging slams at the evils of Capitalism, or how depressing the novel is. But despite it all, my interest never waned from the first page to the last. Yes, Dreiser's super-duper liberal (although liberal back in 1900 is a tad different than what we consider liberal today), but this man could sure write beautifully! At times, he's almost a poet, as I found myself reading some sentences and paragraphs two to three times over for their sublime brilliance.

Dreiser's prose is both honest and brave. He develops his characters beautifully, at a slow, methodic pace, carefully unraveling the mysterious air of each of the three main characters until the very last pages. Yes, he's iconoclastic. Yes, he gets a bit too preachy toward the end of the novel. Yes, he's a bit dark and discouraging. Yes he's a bit too liberal for many folks. And yes, his bitter, but many times brilliant observations are a tad too cluttered with sarcasm and irony. Yet for me, I just couldn't put this one down, nor forget about it when I finally did.

Carrie, Carrie, Carrie ... it is so easy for all of us to sit back and judge you. You slept your way to the top in many people's eyes. You sold your soul to become successful in our material world. Yet most people who have become successful in our society have led far worse lives than Dreiser's "Sister Carrie" and many of them are lionized. We have to ask ourselves, is it our jealous, judgmental nature that makes many of us go tisk-tisk about the lack of this gal's morals? My glass house is waaaay too thin to do this. Yet, I do not advocate in any way, shape or form using others to get what you want in life. The pursuit of materialism should never mean the sacrifice of one's ethics, morals and values. However, I do believe that Carrie was coming to this realization toward the end of the novel. In order to not disclose too much to those who haven't read this yet, I will say no more.

As I stated above, this classic definitely isn't without its imperfections. If you are a staunch conservative, there's a good chance this writer will irk you a bit. I also thought Dreiser was a bit too harsh in regards to the fate of the book's male protagonist, perhaps punishing him for being the quintessential all-American, conservative Capitalist that he represented early on. He also is a writer who tends to be idealistic to a fault, getting way too preachy and sanctimonious for most of us mere, marred mortals to handle at times.

Overall though, I really, really dug this classic novel. This is the first time I have read Dreiser, and I greatly admire his compelling, penetrative style. The story is well written, no real action, very little plot, mostly a character study of some very realistic people whom we all have known in life. The beauty of this simplistic story is the way it plays on just about every emotion imaginable, which made it for me, never a dull moment.

I loved it. 5 Stars!

Editorial Review:

Unexpurgated version of Dreiser's story of a country girl's rise to riches as the mistress of a wealthy man.

The Turn of the Screw - Literary Touchstone Classic

Henry James

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A struggle not worth the effort 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is the last time that I let Gil Grissom recommend a book for me. Yes, I let a fictional character from a TV show pick a book for me to read. The story is a fairly simple and uninspired Gothic "horror" story. There are some ghosts who never really do anything and a governess who overreacts to everything. The idea that perhaps the governess is insane and this isn't a simple horror story, in my opinion comes from the fact that it is impossible to justify reading this story without that conundrum.

Besides the plot being rather pedestrian is the writing of Henry James. He uses sentences that are confused, confusing, and in many places indecipherable. At 120 pages, the book is probably 100 pages too long. Some examples:

"Such things naturally left on the surface, for the time, a chill that we vociferously denied we felt; and we had all three, with repetition, got into such splendid training that we went, each time, to mark the close of the incident, almost automatically through the very same movements."

"But it was a comfort that there could be no uneasiness in a connexion with anything so beatific as the radiant image of my little girl, the vision of whose angelic beauty had probably more than anything else to do with the restlessness that, before morning, made me several times rise and wander about my room to take in the whole picture and prospect; to watch from my open window the faint summer dawn, to look at such stretches of the rest of the house that I could catch, and to listen, while in the fading dusk the first birds began to twitter, for the possible recourse of a sound or two, less natural and not without but within, that I had fancied I heard."

These were sentences randomly pulled from the book and are a fair representation of the writing style of Henry James. The main part of the story is supposed to be written by the governess so one might try to argue that James is trying to capture something of the governess in this style but the introduction is virtually identical and is not written by the governess. Even the end of the story lacks completion as it leaves the entire tale unresolved. There is nothing to recommend this story for personal reading (other than being able to say you read it) and if it is required reading, at least getting through promises a grade at the end.

As far as this edition of the book, it is fairly well done with a glossary in the back to explain some difficult words and phrases and a points for discussion section at the front. But with such a difficult book, I think most students would appreciate more discussion of the book in a general way and perhaps even a brief description of the action of each chapter. The book itself I would rate rather poor and this edition I would rate as fair. Overall, three stars is a generous review.

Editorial Review:

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classic includes a glossary and reader's notes to help the modern reader more fully appreciate the rich complexity of James' language, images, and symbols. Before there was Alfred Hitchcock, there was Henry James, and before Psycho, there was The Turn of the Screw. Why is the young governess the only one who can see the ghosts? Are her young charges haunted or evil? Or is the governess herself mad? The book that claims to start out as a Christmas Eve ghost story quickly becomes a tale of psychological horror as the governess struggles-and ultimately fails-to protect the children from the "corruption" that only she can conceive of...but cannot name. Richly wrought in Late-Victorian prose, Henry James' most famous novel is both hauntingly beautiful and a shocking glimpse into the ultimate source of evil...the human mind.

The Ambassadors

James Henry

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Editorial Review:

In this book, the sterile New England culture clashes with the exciting and alive old Europe way of life in The Ambassadors, Henry James's masterpiece. Literary critics usually describe "late Henry James" to the sometimes "unbearable syntactical structure, the endless and relentless nuance, the refinement of narrated thought, and the thematic investigation of remorse, regret, and self-reflection through broader themes like youth, age, truth, and beauty." GradeSaver LLC

The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin Classics)

Henry James

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

hmm. 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 13 people found this review helpful.

I like this book. Have to say though, I found it to be a tough read. I hestitate to say anything bad about it, because everyone else gave it 5 star reviews, so I feel like I must've missed the real magic in it. overall, it was ok. I never found the plot to be very well organized-it seemed like the author just kind of wrote whate came to mind and then went where it led rather than work from a definite plan. In fact, it never seems to have much of a plot at all, its really more of a psychological study of the nature of the characters. hence, it is not called the " The Adventures of a Lady." I also would have appreciated a little more dialogue to move to story along, as sometimes it does get rather heavy and dull. However, if you can overlook that, Henry James has a beautiful writing style, creates beautiful characters, and is a necessity on the bookshelf of any serious reader.

Editorial Review:

When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy Aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. She then finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gilbert Osmond, who, beneath his veneer of charm and cultivation, is cruelty itself. A story of intense poignancy, Isabel's tale of love and betrayal still resonates with modern audiences.