Frank Carlson Library

In Uncle Tom's Cabin , Harriet Beecher Stowe created America's first black literary hero as well as the nation's antecedent protest novel. The novel's vast influence on attitudes towards African American slavery was considered an incitation towards the American Civil War; conjointly, its powerful anti-slavery message resonated with readers around the world at its time of publication. With unashamed sentimentality and expressions of faith, Harriet...

One of the very few among the world's great novels which may be properly described as a wholly finished work of art. Universally acclaimed as the greatest novel about the heart, mind, soul of a woman.

An epic of action-filled excitement. Rescued from drowning, a pampered gentleman awakes in a special kind of hell. He's aboard the Ghost, a sealing schooner outbound for months of hunting. Wolf Larson, the devilish captain, a fiendish crew, the cruel sea, and unlikely love make this tale immortal

"A sinful act ruins the lives of three people, especially that of Hester Prynne, a young, beautiful, and dignified woman, who has conceived a child out of wedlock and receives a public punishment of having to wear a scarlet "A" on her clothing. Despite Hester's attempts through the years to distance herself from her past and repent for her sins, she continues to be rejected by society. A best-seller upon its publication in 1850, The Scarlet Letter's...

Presents the adventures of a boy and a runaway slave as they travel down the Mississippi River on a raft. Universally acclaimed as one of the greatest creations of American fiction, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of those few books that are read over and over again, with ever increasing enjoyment.

When Alice follows a strange rabbit down a rabbit hole and passes through a looking glass, she experiences curious sensations and encounters the Mad Hatter, the fiendish Queen of Hearts, and many other odd characters.

Contents: Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, Story of the Bad Little Boy, Cannibalism in the Cars, Day at Niagara, Legend of the Capitoline Venus, Journalism in Tennessee and much more.

With their call for "simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!", for self-honesty, and for harmony with nature, the writings of Henry David Thoreau are perhaps the most influential philosophical works in all American literature. The selections in this volume represent Thoreau at his best. Included in their entirety are Walden, his indisputable masterpiece, and his two great arguments for nonconformity, Civil Disobedience and Life Without Principle. A lifetime...

H.G. Wells's 1894 novel (his first) describes the adventures of his hero, the time-traveler, mostly in the year A.D. 802,701, when he encounters a class-ridden battle between the decadent Eloi and the primitive Morlocks. This multi-voiced presentation works well, especially in the opening and closing scenes when the hero displays his time apparatus to his skeptical friends. Michael York, as the time-traveler, nicely evokes the wonder of encountering...

Relates the adventures of woodsman Natty Bumppo in upper New York State at the time of the Iroquois wars.