Best of
Literature

1880

A Confession


Leo Tolstoy - 1880
    In the course of the essay, Tolstoy shows different attempts to find answers on the examples of science, philosophy, eastern wisdom, and the opinions of his fellow novelists. . . . finding no workable solution in any of these, Tolstoy recognizes the deep religious convictions of ordinary people as containing the key to true answers. The first attempt at its publication took place in 1882 (Russkaya Mysl, No 5), but Tolstoy's work was removed virtually from the whole edition of the journal by Orthodox Church censorship. The text was later published in Geneva (1884), in Russia as late as 1906 (Vsemirnyj Vestnik, No 1).

Palliser Novels


Anthony Trollope - 1880
    "Who will even know that they should be so read?" he complained. Solving this problem in particularly splendid fashion, Oxford is now reissuing the Palliser Novels in an elegantly crafted hard-bound set--with acid-free papers and durable binding--that include the wealth of illustrations that first appeared in the Oxford Illustrated Trollope years ago. Now, a whole new generation of readers can enjoy one of nineteenth-century literature's greatest achievements. While the novels center around the stately politician Plantagenet Palliser, the interest is less in politics than in the lively social scene Trollope creates against a Parliamentary backdrop. His keen eye for the subtleties of character and "great apprehension of the real" impressed contemporary writers from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Henry James, and in the Palliser Novels we find him at his very best. Between the covers of these books we meet a wonderfully rich variety of men and women, among them Alice Vavasor, whose waverings between suitors--and the resulting mess--prompted Trollope to ask Can Your Forgive Her?; the handsome Irish MP Phineas Finn, who grows to maturity as the novels progress; the beautiful enchantress Lizzie Eustace, whose scandalous diamonds are the talk of London high society; Ferdinand Lopez, the unctuous social climber; the elegant and witty Lady Glencora, Plantagenet's wife; and Palliser himself--first as a cabinet aspirant, later as Prime Minister--who is the connecting thread that holds the series together. Along the way we are also introduced to a host of amusing and sharply-drawn characters of less social status who, much like the bumpkins of Shakespeare, offer a distorting yet insightful fun-house mirror to the main action. Nowhere else did Trollope bring to life in such compelling fashion the teeming world of Victorian society and politics, and nowhere else did he create more memorable and living characters than those who populate these six volumes. As a group the Palliser Novels provide us with the most extensive and telling expose of British life during the period of its greatest prestige.

The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus


Joel Chandler Harris - 1880
    It’s been more than a hundred years since the publication of the first Uncle Remus book, and it was in 1955 that all of the delightful and inimitable tales of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Bear, and Brer Wolf were gathered together in one volume.

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ


Lew Wallace - 1880
    This faithful New Testament tale combines the events of the life of Jesus with grand historical spectacle in the exciting story of Judah of the House of Hur, a man who finds extraordinary redemption for himself and his family.A classic of faith, fortitude, and inspiration.

The Golovlyov Family


Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin - 1880
    There Anna Petrovna rules with an iron hand over her servants and family-until she loses power to the relentless scheming of her hypocritical son Porphyry. One of the great classic novels of Russian literature, The Golovlyov Family is a vivid picture of a condemned and isolated outpost of civilization that, for contemporary readers, will recall the otherwordly reality of Macondo in Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.

The Collected Short Stories, Vol 1: 100 Short Stories


Anton Chekhov - 1880
    In this volume, the reader will find one hundred of his best stories:THE DARLING ARIADNE POLINKA ANYUTA THE TWO VOLODYAS THE TROUSSEAU THE HELPMATE TALENT AN ARTIST'S STORY THREE YEARS THE LADY WITH THE DOG A DOCTOR'S VISIT AN UPHEAVAL IONITCH THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY THE BLACK MONK VOLODYA AN ANONYMOUS STORY THE HUSBAND THE PARTY TERROR A WOMAN'S KINGDOM A PROBLEM THE KISS 'ANNA ON THE NECK' THE TEACHER OF LITERATURE NOT WANTED TYPHUS A MISFORTUNE A TRIFLE FROM LIFE THE WIFE DIFFICULT PEOPLE THE GRASSHOPPER A DREARY STORY THE PRIVY COUNCILLOR THE MAN IN CASE GOOSEBERRIES ABOUT LOVE THE LOTTERY TICKET THE BISHOP THE LETTER EASTER EVE A NIGHTMARE THE MURDER UPROOTED THE STEPPE THE CHORUS GIRL VEROTCHKA MY LIFE AT A COUNTRY HOUSE A FATHER ON THE ROAD ROTHSCHILD'S FIDDLE IVAN MATVEYITCH ZINOTCHKA BAD WEATHER A GENTLEMAN FRIEND A TRIVIAL INCIDENT THE HORSE-STEALERS WARD NO. 6 THE PETCHENYEG A DEAD BODY A HAPPY ENDING THE LOOKING-GLASS OLD AGE DARKNESS THE BEGGAR A STORY WITHOUT A TITLE IN TROUBLE FROST A SLANDER MINDS IN FERMENT GONE ASTRAY AN AVENGER THE JEUNE PREMIER A DEFENCELESS CREATURE AN ENIGMATIC NATURE A HAPPY MAN A TROUBLESOME VISITOR AN ACTOR'S END THE SCHOOLMASTER ENEMIES THE EXAMINING MAGISTRATE BETROTHED FROM THE DIARY OF A VIOLENT-TEMPERED MAN IN THE DARK A PLAY A MYSTERY STRONG IMPRESSIONS DRUNK THE MARSHAL'S WIDOW A BAD BUSINESS IN THE COURT BOOTS JOY LADIES A PECULIAR MAN AT THE BARBER'S AN INADVERTENCE THE ALBUMContains an active table of contents for easy reference.This unexpurgated edition contains the complete text with errors and omissions corrected.

The Boy's King Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table


Sidney Lanier - 1880
    Lanier said of the Malory work, "I suspect there are few books in our language which lead a reader - whether young or old - on from one paragraph to another with such strong and yet quiet seduction as this."

Novels 1871–1880: Watch and Ward / Roderick Hudson / The Americans / The Europeans / Confidence


Henry James - 1880
    His first five novels, presented complete in this Library of America volume, are filled with sparkling dialogue, masterfully timed suspense, and the romance of youthful and artistic aspiration. The European-American contrast, which gives a special dimension and sharpness to all of James’s cultural observations, is brilliantly deployed in these early works. And what is additionally appealing about them is an attentiveness, not as frequently found in his other novels, to the American scene in New York and New England.James’s first novel, Watch and Ward (1871), written when he was only 28, is a Pygmalion-type story in which a proper Bostonian gentleman grows to love and eventually marry the much younger woman whose guardian he is.Roderick Hudson (1875) is a novel about a headstrong and proud young American sculptor of generous native talent who loses his way among the entanglements and temptations of Italy. Set in Rome, where James was living when he wrote it, the novel describes the studios, society, and excesses of the cosmopolitan artists’ colony there.The American (1877) was written in Paris and is filled with scenes of Parisian life, the expatriate culture of American tourists, and the closed and protective world behind the barriers of old families and traditions. The confrontations between Old World scheming and New World energy are presented through the efforts of Christopher Newman, a successful, handsome, Western businessman, to marry the beautiful, refined, and tragic Madame de Cintré.In The Europeans (1878) a pristine, conservative, 1830s New England village is invaded by two visiting cousins, brother and sister, from the European branch of one of the town’s leading families. The comic exchanges between Eugenia, with her aura of exoticism and her morganatic marriage, and her American hosts, make this one of James’s most delightful studies in character.Confidence (1880), a little-known and charming novel of American expatriates traveling through the great cities and watering-places of Europe, is a light drawing-room comedy about the romantic entanglements among two old friends and the two very different women they encounter.An immensely engaging introduction to one of the great novelists of our own or any country, this is the first volume in our collection of the complete works of James’s fiction.

The Lonely Island: The Refuge of the Mutineers


R.M. Ballantyne - 1880
    Bounty. It begins with a recounting of the famous mutiny and the casting adrift of Captain Bligh instigated by Fletcher Christian and his comrades due to severe treatment of the men by the infamous Captain. After a brief stay on the island of Otaheite the mutineers finally resolve to find an uninhabited remote island to spend the rest of their days hopefully without being found, enjoying peace and quiet. This being decided, the men and their Otaheitian wives, along with six native men, left in search of an island to colonize. For more than 20 years they remained on the island and were not heard of. The choice for their settlement was Pitcairn s Island, far off the beaten sailing routes of ships at sea. In this intriguing story, learn about what befell these men, their settlement, the consequences of their actions, and how men without a reliance and faith in Jesus Christ, left to their own devises, will not experience peace and success. But, when the powerful work of God begins, change is remarkable: a 20-year redemption story in the making. So the good seed sown under such peculiar circumstances at the beginning of the century continues to grow and spread and flourish, bringing forth fruit to the glory of God. Thus He causes light to spring out of darkness, good to arise out of evil, and The Lonely Island, once an almost unknown rock in the Pacific Ocean, was made a center of blessed Christian influence soon after the time when it became the refuge of the mutineers. R. M. Ballantyne"