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Some of this delightful book was over my four year old's head - though he still listened because it was Pooh and Tigger and Eeyore! - but my husband and I loved it even more. It has so much heart in it - more than the first book, I'd say. The humor is a little more complex and therefore delightful to grown ups than in #1. (Alyssa Bohon)

CONTENTSThe Manchester Marriage By Elizabeth GaskellA Mere InterludeBy Thomas HardyA Faithful Heart By George Moore The Solid Gold Reef Company, LimitedBy Walter Besant The Tree of Knowledge By Henry James

Nathaniel Gould (21 December 1857 - 25 July 1919), commonly known as Nat Gould, was a British novelist. Gould was born at Manchester, Lancashire, the only surviving child of Nathaniel Gould, a tea merchant, and his wife Mary, née Wright. Both parents came from Derbyshire yeomen families. The boy was indulgently brought up and well educated. His father died just before he was to have left school, and Gould tried first his father's tea trade and then farming at Bradbourne with his uncles. Gould became a good horseman but a poor farmer. In 1877, in reply to an advertisement, he was given a position on the Newark Advertiser gaining a good all-round knowledge of press work. After a few years he became restless, and in 1884 sailed for Australia, where he became a reporter on the Brisbane Telegraph in its shipping, commercial and racing departments. In 1887 after disagreements with the Telegraph management, Gould went to Sydney and worked on the Referee as "Verax", its horse-racing editor. Later Gould worked for the Sunday Times, and Evening News. Then followed 18 months at Bathurst as the editor of the Bathurst Times during which time he wrote his first novel, With the Tide, which appeared as a serial in the Referee. He returned to Sydney and the Referee and wrote another six other novels for the same paper. In 1891 his first novel, With the Tide, was published in book form in England under the title of The Double Event and was an immediate success; it sold over 100,000 copies in its first ten years and was still in print in 1919. It was dramatized in Australia and had a long run in 1893. In 1895 Gould returned to England; he had been 11 years in Australia and he felt that his experiences had made a man of him.Gould was a modest man who did not take himself or his work too seriously. His advice to emerging writers was to 'write about men and things you have met and seen; take your characters from the busy world, and your scenes from Nature'. But within its limits his work was very good. He told a simple story exceedingly well in an unaffected way. Many of his books were concerned with horse racing, and no great originality of plot was to be expected, but they were written with such flair and genuine interest that their countless readers took up each book as it was published, confident in their belief that here was another rattling good story. (wikipedia.org)

Not That It Matters is a collection of essays that a appeared in a variety of newspapers at the beginning of the last century, sort of an upper class, mild mannered Dave Barry of the 20's. Many were charming and generally humorous in gentle, whimsical way, as you might expect from the author of Winnie the Pooh. Some were a bit dated such as the essay about the perfect walking stick or the one about pipe smoking and there is some use of some now un-politically correct language; but others felt just as current now as they must have been then, such as the essay titled "Intellectual Snobbery" about the shame one feels about reading popular fiction as opposed to the classics or the one titled "My Library", about the eternal quandary of how to best arrange one's books. (Ruthiella)

CONTENTSINTRODUCTION WURTZEL-FLUMMERY THE LUCKY ONE THE BOY COMES HOME BELINDA THE RED FEATHERS A.A. Milne, in full Alan Alexander Milne, (born January 18, 1882, London, England-died January 31, 1956, Hartfield, Sussex), English humorist, the originator of the immensely popular stories of Christopher Robin and his toy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh.Milne's father ran a private school, where one of the boy's teachers was a young H.G. Wells. Milne went on to attend Westminster School, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge, the latter on a mathematics scholarship. While at Cambridge, he edited and wrote for Granta magazine (then called The Granta, for Cambridge's other river). He took a degree in mathematics in 1903 and thereafter moved to London to make a living as a freelance writer. In 1906 he joined the staff of Punch (where he worked until 1914), writing humorous verse and whimsical essays. He was married in 1913, and in 1915, though a pacifist, he joined the service during World War I as a signalling officer. He served briefly in France, but he became ill and was sent home. He was discharged in 1919.When he was not rehired by Punch, Milne turned his attention to playwriting. He achieved considerable success with a series of light comedies, including Mr. Pim Passes By (1921) and Michael and Mary (1930). Milne also wrote one memorable detective novel, The Red House Mystery (1922), and a children's play, Make-Believe (1918), before stumbling upon his true literary métier with some verses written for his son, Christopher Robin. These grew into the collections When We Were Very Young (1924) and Now We Are Six (1927). These remain classics of light verse for children.Despite Milne's success as a playwright, only these verses and his two sets of stories about the adventures of Christopher Robin and his toy animals-Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, Owl, and Eeyore-as told in Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928) endured into the 21st century. Illustrations by Ernest Shepard added to their considerable charm. In 1929 Milne adapted another children's classic, The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame, for the stage as Toad of Toad Hall. A decade later he wrote his autobiography, It's Too Late Now. (britannica.com)

CONTENTSThe Grey Woman Curious if True Six Weeks at Heppenheim Libbie Marsh's Three Eras Christmas Storms and Sunshine Hand and Heart Bessy's Troubles at Home Disappearances

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (née Stevenson; 29 September 1810 - 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her work is of interest to social historians as well as readers of literature. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848. Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was the first biography of Charlotte Brontë. In this biography, she wrote only of the moral, sophisticated things in Brontë's life; the rest she left out, deciding that certain, more salacious aspects were better kept hidden. Among Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford (1851-53), North and South (1854-55), and Wives and Daughters (1865), each having been adapted for television by the BBC.Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton, was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her ghost stories are in the "Gothic" vein, making them quite distinct from her "industrial" fiction.Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions, including the use of the name "Mrs. Gaskell", she usually framed her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes. Her early works focused on factory work in the Midlands. She usually emphasized the role of women, with complex narratives and realistic female characters. Gaskell said she was influenced by the writings of Jane Austen. She then felt qualified to write a book on one of the greatest authors of all time, smoothing over patches in her life that were too rough for the sophisticated society woman. Her treatment of class continues to interest social historians as well as fiction lovers. (wikipedia.org)

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (née Stevenson; 29 September 1810 - 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her work is of interest to social historians as well as readers of literature. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848. Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was the first biography of Charlotte Brontë. In this biography, she wrote only of the moral, sophisticated things in Brontë's life; the rest she left out, deciding that certain, more salacious aspects were better kept hidden. Among Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford (1851-53), North and South (1854-55), and Wives and Daughters (1865), each having been adapted for television by the BBC.Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton, was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her ghost stories are in the "Gothic" vein, making them quite distinct from her "industrial" fiction.Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions, including the use of the name "Mrs. Gaskell", she usually framed her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes. Her early works focused on factory work in the Midlands. She usually emphasized the role of women, with complex narratives and realistic female characters. Gaskell said she was influenced by the writings of Jane Austen. She then felt qualified to write a book on one of the greatest authors of all time, smoothing over patches in her life that were too rough for the sophisticated society woman. Her treatment of class continues to interest social historians as well as fiction lovers. (wikipedia.org)

My Lady Ludlow is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. It appeared in the magazine Household Words in 1858, and was republished in Round the Sofa in 1859, with framing passages added at the start and end.It recounts the daily lives of the widowed Countess of Ludlow of Hanbury and the spinster Miss Galindo, whose father was a Baronet, and their caring for other single women and girls. It is also concerned with Lady Ludlow's man of business, Mr Horner, and a poacher's son named Harry Gregson whose education he provides for. With Cranford, The Last Generation in England and Mr. Harrison's Confessions, My Lady Ludlow was adapted for television in 2007 as Cranford, with Francesca Annis as the eponymous character, with Alex Etel as Harry Gregson and Emma Fielding as Laurentia Galindo. Mr Horner's name was changed to Mr Carter, and was played by Philip Glenister. The character of Lord Septimus, the Countess' seventh child, is mentioned in the first series as he is in the novel. The book, however, was extended in the first episode of the second series Return to Cranford, featuring the death of Lady Ludlow from bone cancer, and Lord Septimus' return from Italy to claim his estate, where his ne'er-do-well personality is revealed. In the episode, Lord Septimus was portrayed by Rory Kinnear, with Annis, Etel and Fielding reprising their roles. (wikipedia.org)

CONTENTSThe Old Nurse's Story The Poor Clare Lois the Witch The Grey WomanCurious, if TrueElizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (née Stevenson; 29 September 1810 - 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her work is of interest to social historians as well as readers of literature. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848. Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was the first biography of Charlotte Brontë. In this biography, she wrote only of the moral, sophisticated things in Brontë's life; the rest she left out, deciding that certain, more salacious aspects were better kept hidden. Among Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford (1851-53), North and South (1854-55), and Wives and Daughters (1865), each having been adapted for television by the BBC.Gaskell's first novel, Mary Barton, was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her remaining novels are Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her ghost stories are in the "Gothic" vein, making them quite distinct from her "industrial" fiction.Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions, including the use of the name "Mrs. Gaskell", she usually framed her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes. Her early works focused on factory work in the Midlands. She usually emphasized the role of women, with complex narratives and realistic female characters. Gaskell said she was influenced by the writings of Jane Austen. She then felt qualified to write a book on one of the greatest authors of all time, smoothing over patches in her life that were too rough for the sophisticated society woman. Her treatment of class continues to interest social historians as well as fiction lovers. (wikipedia.org)

A Dark Night's Work is an 1863 novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. It was first published serially in Charles Dickens's magazine All the Year Round. The word "dark" was added to the original title by Dickens against Gaskell's wishes. Dickens felt that the altered title would be more striking. The story centers on a country lawyer, Edward Wilkins, and his daughter Ellinor. Edward has an artistic and literary personality, unsuited to his social position as the son of a successful lawyer who takes over his father's practice in the provincial town of Hamley. His legal representation of the local gentry and nobility leads him to try fitting into their social circles, only to be mocked and treated with derision. He develops a drinking problem and spends more money than he can afford to in his attempts to be an equal to his clients. His bad habits lead to problems in his business, and Edward is forced to take on a junior partner named Mr. Dunster.At the same time, Ellinor becomes engaged to a young upcoming country gentleman named Ralph Corbet. Corbet initiates the engagement partly through love of Ellinor and partly because of a promise of money from Edward. Edward continues to drink and overspend, leading to a confrontation with Mr. Dunster. In the heat of the argument, Edward strikes Mr. Dunster, killing him. Ellinor and a family servant named Dixon help Edward to bury the body in their flower garden.Ellinor soon tells Ralph that a possible disgrace hangs over her. Ralph questions Edward about this, and Edward insults him in a drunken tirade. Ralph dissolves his engagement to Ellinor because of this, and because he regrets forming an engagement to someone who offers no opportunity of helping him advance in society. He later marries into the nobility and becomes a judge. Edward drinks himself to death and Ellinor moves to a distant town, East Chester, after the Wilkins's home Ford Bank is rented out in order to provide Ellinor with a living. Dixon remains as a servant to watch over the home and property where the body is buried. The secret goes unknown for about 15 years until the body is dug up during the construction of a railroad. Dixon is arrested for the murder and later convicted by Ralph, who acts as the judge in the case. Ellinor then tells Ralph the truth, and Dixon is pardoned. She returns to East Chester and marries a local clergyman, Canon Livingstone, who she had known in her youth, and has two children with him. (wikipedia.org)

Cranford is one of the better-known novels of the 19th-century English writer Elizabeth Gaskell. It was first published, irregularly, in eight instalments, between December 1851 and May 1853, in the magazine Household Words, which was edited by Charles Dickens. It was then published, with minor revision, in book form in 1853.The novel became immensely popular in the years following Elizabeth Gaskell's death. The novel has been thrice adapted for television by the BBC. The first version was broadcast in 1951, the second in 1972, with Gabrielle Hamilton as Miss Matty, and the third version in 2007. The 2007 version added material from other writings by Gaskell: My Lady Ludlow, Mr. Harrison's Confessions and The Last Generation in England. Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins took the leading roles as Miss Matty and Miss Deborah Jenkyns, with Imelda Staunton cast as the town's gossip, Miss Pole, and Michael Gambon as Miss Matty's former admirer, Mr. Holbrook. The BBC sequel, Return to Cranford, was broadcast in 2009 in the UK and 2010 in the USA. (wikipedia.org)

Cousin Phillis (1864) is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. It was published in four parts, though a fifth and sixth part were planned. The story is about 19-year-old Paul Manning, who moves to the country and befriends his mother's family and his (second) cousin Phillis Holman, who is confused by her own placement at the edge of adolescence.Most critics agree that Cousin Phillis is Gaskell's crowning achievement in the short novel. The story is uncomplicated; its virtues are in the manner of its development and telling. Cousin Phillis is also recognized as a fitting prelude for Gaskell's final and most widely acclaimed novel, Wives and Daughters, which ran in Cornhill Magazine from August 1864 to January 1866. (wikipedia.org)

Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant (born Margaret Oliphant Wilson; 4 April 1828 - 20 June 1897) was a Scottish novelist and historical writer, who usually wrote as Mrs. Oliphant. Her fictional works encompass "domestic realism, the historical novel and tales of the supernatural". The daughter of Francis W. Wilson (c. 1788 - 1858), a clerk, and his wife, Margaret Oliphant (c. 1789 - 17 September 1854), she was born at Wallyford, near Musselburgh, East Lothian, and spent her childhood at Lasswade (Midlothian), Glasgow and Liverpool. A street, Oliphant Gardens in Wallyford is named after her. As a girl, she constantly experimented with writing. In 1849 she had her first novel published: Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland. This dealt with the Scottish Free Church movement, with which her parents had sympathised, and which had met with some success. It was followed by Caleb Field in 1851, the year in which she met the publisher William Blackwood in Edinburgh and was invited to contribute to Blackwood's Magazine. The connection would last for her lifetime, during which she contributed well over 100 articles, including a critique of the character of Arthur Dimmesdale in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.In the 1880s she was the literary mentor of the Irish novelist Emily Lawless. During this time Oliphant wrote several works of supernatural fiction, including the long ghost story A Beleaguered City (1880) and several short tales, including "The Open Door" and "Old Lady Mary". Oliphant also wrote historical fiction. Magdalen Hepburn (1854) is set during the Scottish Reformation, and features Mary, Queen of Scots and John Knox as characters. (wikipedia.org)

Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant (born Margaret Oliphant Wilson; 4 April 1828 - 20 June 1897) was a Scottish novelist and historical writer, who usually wrote as Mrs. Oliphant. Her fictional works encompass "domestic realism, the historical novel and tales of the supernatural". The daughter of Francis W. Wilson (c. 1788 - 1858), a clerk, and his wife, Margaret Oliphant (c. 1789 - 17 September 1854), she was born at Wallyford, near Musselburgh, East Lothian, and spent her childhood at Lasswade (Midlothian), Glasgow and Liverpool. A street, Oliphant Gardens in Wallyford is named after her. As a girl, she constantly experimented with writing. In 1849 she had her first novel published: Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland. This dealt with the Scottish Free Church movement, with which her parents had sympathised, and which had met with some success. It was followed by Caleb Field in 1851, the year in which she met the publisher William Blackwood in Edinburgh and was invited to contribute to Blackwood's Magazine. The connection would last for her lifetime, during which she contributed well over 100 articles, including a critique of the character of Arthur Dimmesdale in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.In the 1880s she was the literary mentor of the Irish novelist Emily Lawless. During this time Oliphant wrote several works of supernatural fiction, including the long ghost story A Beleaguered City (1880) and several short tales, including "The Open Door" and "Old Lady Mary". Oliphant also wrote historical fiction. Magdalen Hepburn (1854) is set during the Scottish Reformation, and features Mary, Queen of Scots and John Knox as characters. (wikipedia.org)

Rhyme and Reason's humorous poetry containing a reprinting of Carroll's longest poem 'Phantasmagoria' and 'The Hunting of the Snark'. It includes the first printings of the poems, 'Echoes', 'A Game of Fives' and the last of the three of the 'Four Riddles' and 'Fame's Penny-Trumpet'.

This is one of only two supernatural novels by prolific nineteenth-century writer Margaret Oliphant. Set in the town of Semur, in the Bourgogne region of France, it is a powerful, sombre fantasy relating the events that unfold after the settlement is besieged by the dead. A departure from her ubiquitous realistic tales of everyday middle-class Victorian life, the novel is presumably inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem of the same name, itself widely available online and well worth seeking out. The story was well-received on publication and is the first in Oliphant's series of 'Tales of the Seen and Unseen'.

A Tangled Tale is a collection of 10 brief humorous stories by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), published serially between April 1880 and March 1885 in The Monthly Packet magazine. Arthur B. Frost added illustrations when the series was printed in book form. The stories, or Knots as Carroll calls them, present mathematical problems. In a later issue, Carroll gives the solution to a Knot and discusses readers' answers. The mathematical interpretations of the Knots are not always straightforward. The ribbing of readers answering wrongly - giving their names - was not always well received (see Knot VI below).In the December 1885 book preface Carroll writes: The writer's intention was to embody in each Knot (like medicine so dexterously, but ineffectually, concealed in the jam of our early childhood) one or more mathematical questions - in Arithmetic, Algebra, or Geometry, as the case might be - for the amusement, and possible edification, of the fair readers of that magazine.Describing why he was ending the series, Carroll writes to his readers that the Knots were "but a lame attempt". Others were more receptive: In 1888 Stuart Dodgson Collingwood wrote "With some people, this is the most popular of all his books; it is certainly the most successful attempt he ever made to combine mathematics and humour." They have more recently been described as having "all the charm and wit of his better-known works". (wikipedia.org)

Sylvie and Bruno, first published in 1889, and its second volume Sylvie and Bruno Concluded published in 1893, form the last novel by Lewis Carroll published during his lifetime. The novel has two main plots: one set in the real world at the time the book was published (the Victorian era), the other in the fantasy world of Fairyland. While the latter plot is a fairy tale with many nonsense elements and poems, similar to Carroll's Alice books, the story set in Victorian Britain is a social novel, with its characters discussing various concepts and aspects of religion, society, philosophy and morality. (wikipedia.org)

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, published in 1886, is a collection of humorous essays by Jerome K. ... A second "Idle Thoughts" book, The Second Thoughts of An Idle Fellow, was published in 1898. The essays had previously appeared in Home Chimes, the same magazine that later serialised Jerome's Three Men in a Boat. (Wikipedia.org)CONTENTSOn the Art of Making Up One's Mind On the Disadvantage of Not Getting What One Wants On the Exceptional Merit attaching to the Things We Meant To Do On the Preparation and Employment of Love Philtres On the Delights and Benefits of Slavery On the Care and Management of Women On the Minding of Other People's Business On the Time Wasted in Looking Before One Leaps On the Nobility of Ourselves On the Motherliness of Man On the Inadvisability of Following Advice On the Playing of Marches at the Funerals Of Marionettes

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog, published in 1889, is a humorous account by English writer Jerome K. Jerome of a two-week boating holiday on the Thames from Kingston upon Thames to Oxford and back to Kingston. The book was initially intended to be a serious travel guide, with accounts of local history along the route, but the humorous elements took over to the point where the serious and somewhat sentimental passages seem a distraction to the comic novel. One of the most praised things about Three Men in a Boat is how undated it appears to modern readers - the jokes have been praised as fresh and witty.The three men are based on Jerome himself (the narrator Jerome K. Jerome) and two real-life friends, George Wingrave (who would become a senior manager at Barclays Bank) and Carl Hentschel (the founder of a London printing business, called Harris in the book), with whom Jerome often took boating trips. The dog, Montmorency, is entirely fictional but, "as Jerome admits, developed out of that area of inner consciousness which, in all Englishmen, contains an element of the dog". The trip is a typical boating holiday of the time in a Thames camping skiff. This was just after commercial boat traffic on the Upper Thames had died out, replaced by the 1880s craze for boating as a leisure activity.Following the overwhelming success of Three Men in a Boat, Jerome later published a sequel, about a cycling tour in Germany, titled Three Men on the Bummel (also known as Three Men on Wheels, 1900). (wikipedia.org)

Three Men on the Bummel (also known as Three Men on Wheels) is a humorous novel by Jerome K. Jerome. It was published in 1900, eleven years after his most famous work, Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog).The sequel brings back the three companions who figured in Three Men in a Boat, this time on a bicycle tour through the German Black Forest. D. C. Browning's introduction to the 1957 Everyman's edition says "Like most sequels, it has been compared unfavourably with its parent story, but it was only a little less celebrated than Three Men in a Boat and was for long used as a school book in Germany." Jeremy Nicholas of the Jerome K. Jerome Society regards it as a "comic masterpiece" containing "set pieces" as funny or funnier than those in its predecessor, but, taken as a whole, not as satisfying due to the lack of as strong a unifying thread. (wikipedia.org)

(Dark Laughter is a 1925 novel by the American author Sherwood Anderson. It dealt with the new sexual freedom of the 1920s, a theme also explored in his 1923 novel Many Marriages and later works. The influence of James Joyce's Ulysses, which Anderson had read before writing the 1925 novel, is expressed in Dark Laughter.Dark Laughter was Anderson's only best-seller during his life, but today he is better known and respected for Winesburg, Ohio. Out of print since the early 1960s, since the late twentieth century the novel has been considered a failure by some critics, including Kim Townsend, the author of a 1985 biography of Anderson.Ernest Hemingway parodied Dark Laughter in his early short work The Torrents of Spring. Hemingway's novella mocked the pretensions of Anderson's style and characters. Gertrude Stein, his former mentor, objected to the young writer's parody of a writer who had helped him get published, and they had a falling-out.The novel was included in Life Magazine's list of the 100 outstanding books of 1924-1944. (wikipedia.org)

Diary of a Pilgrimage is a novel by Jerome K. Jerome published in 1891. It tells of a trip undertaken by Jerome and his friend "B" to see the Oberammergau Passion Play in Germany. Itinerary: They travel by train from London Victoria to Dover and have a rough overnight crossing of the English Channel to Ostend and thence by train to Cologne where they spend a night in a hotel. The following day they visit Cologne Cathedral before catching the train to Munich, travelling alongside the Rhine. They spend Sunday in Munich where Jerome practices his German before catching a train to Oberau and then a carriage to Oberammergau to see the play. They return via Heidelberg. (wikipedia.org)

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, published in 1886, is a collection of humorous essays by Jerome K. Jerome. It was the author's second published book and it helped establish him as a leading English humorist. While widely considered one of Jerome's better works, and in spite of using the same style as Three Men in a Boat, it was never as popular as the latter. A second "Idle Thoughts" book, The Second Thoughts of An Idle Fellow, was published in 1898.The essays had previously appeared in Home Chimes, the same magazine that later serialised Jerome's Three Men in a Boat. (wikipedia.org) CONTENTThe book consists of 14 independent articles arranged by themes: ON BEING IDLE.ON BEING IN LOVE.ON BEING IN THE BLUES.ON BEING HARD UP.ON VANITY AND VANITIES.ON GETTING ON IN THE WORLD.ON THE WEATHER.ON CATS AND DOGS.ON BEING SHY.ON BABIES.ON EATING AND DRINKING.ON FURNISHED APARTMENTS.ON DRESS AND DEPORTMENT.ON MEMORY.

Daddy-Long-Legs is a 1912 epistolary novel by the American writer Jean Webster. It follows the protagonist, Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, as she leaves an orphanage and is sent to college by a benefactor whom she has never seen. This book was Webster's best-known work. Webster herself adapted it into a stage play which debuted in 1914. In addition, it was adapted into a 1952 British stage musical comedy called Love from Judy, as well as films in 1919 (starring Mary Pickford), 1931 (starring Janet Gaynor and Warner Baxter), 1935 (a Shirley Temple adaptation called Curly Top) and a 1955 film, Daddy Long Legs (starring Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron). The latter two film versions departed considerably from the plot of the original novel.The 1990 TV serial Watashi no Ashinaga Ojisan (My Daddy-Long-Legs) was directed by Kazuyoshi Yokota for the Nippon Animation studio as that year's installment of the studio's World Masterpiece Theater.In India, the novel was adapted into a Malayalam movie, Kanamarayathu in 1984. Anokha Rishta, a Hindi remake by the same director was released in 1986.The 2005 Korean movie Kidari Ajeossi has elements of Daddy-Long-Legs transferred into a modern setting.In 2009, the novel was made into a two-person musical play by John Caird (book) and Paul Gordon (music), which premiered at the Rubicon Theatre Company (Ventura, California) and TheatreWorks (Palo Alto, California). On September 27, 2015, the musical premiered Off-Broadway at the Davenport Theatre with Megan McGinnis and Paul Alexander Nolan. (wikipedia.org)

Porgy is a novel written by the American author DuBose Heyward and published by the George H. Doran Company in 1925.The novel tells the story of Porgy, a crippled street beggar living in the black tenements of Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1920s. The character was based on Charlestonian Samuel Smalls.[1] In some of the novel's passages, black characters speak in Gullah, a creole language that had developed among enslaved African Americans during the slavery years on the Sea Islands.The novel was adapted for a 1927 play of the same name by Heyward and his wife, playwright Dorothy Heyward. Even before completing the play, Heyward was in discussions with composer George Gershwin for an operatic version of his novel. This was produced in 1935 as Porgy and Bess (renamed to distinguish it from the play. (wikipedia.org)

Young Jack Dudley yearns for an education that feels out of reach. He and his friends face a nearly intolerable situation at school with a mean school master and several bullies, and have the added stress of financial detain at home. In spite of it all, Jack follows his mother's good example and applies himself to his studies, protects the younger children, and tried to be a good citizen. His hard work does not go unnoticed, and Jack soon finds that if he's willing to work as hard as he ever has, he stands a chance of reaching his dreams. (Tania)

E.F. Benson, in full Edward Frederic Benson, (born July 24, 1867, Wellington College, Berkshire, Eng.-died Feb. 29, 1940, London), writer of fiction, reminiscences, and biographies, of which the best remembered are his arch, satirical novels and his urbane autobiographical studies of Edwardian and Georgian society.The son of E.W. Benson, an archbishop of Canterbury (1883-96), the young Benson was educated at Marlborough School and at King's College, Cambridge. After graduation he worked from 1892 to 1895 in Athens for the British School of Archaeology and later in Egypt for the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. In 1893 he published Dodo, a novel that attracted wide attention. It was followed by a number of other successful novels-such as Mrs. Ames (1912), Queen Lucia (1920), Miss Mapp (1922), and Lucia in London (1927)-and books on a wide range of subjects, totaling nearly 100. Among them were biographies of Queen Victoria, William Gladstone, and William II of Germany. In 1938 he was made an honorary fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Benson's reminiscences include As We Were (1930), As We Are (1932), and Final Edition (1940). (britannica.com)

This is a series of character sketches of the various social types living in Mayfair. We have the snobs, the social climbers, the faddists, the conformists, and one character who imagines herself the heroine of sensational novels. Although it was written in 1916, this could easily have been written today, Eddie and Patsy (of Ab Fab fame) seem to have taken it as their manual on how to behave. A lot of the characters here seem to be forerunners of the characters from 'Mapp and Lucia, humanist famous creations. Amusing, but not as laugh out loud funny as those later books. (Tania)