The Awakening - Literary Touchstone


Book Description

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary and reader's notes to help the modern reader contend with Kate Chopin's themes and language. As the title suggests, The Awakening, published in 1899, tells the story of one woman's emergence from the conventional Victorian role of wife and mother to face the social consequences of seeking personal fulfillment. More than a mere argument in support of freedom and equality for women, it is a compelling depiction of the subtle burdens that had been traditionally borne by women and the awareness that perhaps there are options.










The Odyssey - Literary Touchstone Edition


Book Description

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classic? includes a glossary and reader's notes to help the modern reader contend with the Odyssey's vocabulary and references to Greek mythology.The epic tale of Odysseus? ten-year journey after the defeat of Troy is, at once, a thrilling adventure story, a passionate love story, and a fantasy rooted in ancient history. It is also the cornerstone on which much of Western literature and thought is based. Three thousand years after ancient bards plucked their lyres and sang the adventures of gods and heroes, we still see much of ourselves in the tales of Odysseus and his men as they battle natural and supernatural forces'and their own human nature'to find their way home.







White Fang: Literary Touchstone Classic


Book Description

The adventures in the northern wilderness of a dog who is part wolf and who eventually makes his peace with man.










Treasure Island - Literary Touchstone Edition


Book Description

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition? includes a glossary and reader's notes to help readers unfamiliar with some of the vocabulary and nautical terms appreciate Stevenson's grand adventure.Everyone dreams of finding buried treasure, and that is why Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island is such an enduring classic. Treasure Island, published in 1883, gave Stevenson his first popular success, and it's easy to see why it remains a favorite of readers of all ages. The tale of young Jim Hawkins and his unlikely band of adventurers strikes at the very heart of our own desire to lose ourselves among hidden chests, cryptic maps, and treacherous companions. If you loved it when you read it earlier, you owe it to yourself to revisit the deceitful Long John Silver, the dull but reliable Dr. Livesey, and the pompously naive Squire Trelawney. If this is your first visit to the high seas, find yourself a comfortable chair, because you won't be putting the book down until the last mutineer is brought to justice and last gold coin counted.




Dracula - Literary Touchstone Edition


Book Description

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classic? includes a glossary and notes to help the modern reader appreciate Stoker?s allusions, rich vocabulary, and Victorian setting.An apparently routine business venture becomes a battle for a young man?s very soul. Almost too late, Jonathan Harker realizes that the charismatic and seductive Count Dracula of Transylvania has come to England with a purpose much more sinister than merely to purchase an English estate. Will the Count succeed in his quest to create a race of blood-lusting creatures of the night?Which will prove the stronger?superstition or science?Defiantly challenging Victorian conventions, Bram Stoker?s Dracula examines the nature of evil and arrives at the horrific conclusion that the forces which would destroy humanity are not lurking in the shadows of the night, but within the human soul.Modern readers still find that their own most-cherished nightmares are evoked by Lucy's and Mina's battle against succumbing to the seductive enticements of the soulless vampire.