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To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer-excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained teasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1871 Original Publisher: Fields, Osgood,

"Masterpieces of Literature - The Diamond Collection" is proud to present another classic work which we consider to belong to the best fiction ever written in history. This series offers a large range of out-of-print books and long-lost titles, as well as million sellers that form the essentials of literature. By buying a book from this series you can count on top quality. All books have been digitally revised and optimized for Kindle, including an interactive table-of-contents for easy browsing. We do not sell cheap scanned stuff, all our books must meet our own high standards of reading. If you like to find more books from this series, please use the Amazon search field within the Kindle store and type "Masterpieces of Literature". This will show you the whole range, which grows constantly and almost day-by-day.

Les Misérables is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. It follows the lives and interactions of several French characters over a seventeen-year period in the early 19th century, starting in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion.

The novel focuses on the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption. It examines the nature of law and grace, and expounds upon the history of France, architecture of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, antimonarchism, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love. The story is historical fiction because it contains factual and historic events. (courtesy of wikipedia.com)

The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. The latest generation of titles in this series also feature glossaries and visual elements that complement the classic, familiar format.

With help from CliffsNotes on Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, you explore the first book-length narrative by an ex-slave that reveals the unique brutalities inflicted on enslaved African women in the South.

The chapter summaries and commentaries in this study guide expose you to a harrowing story of degradation and sexual exploitation; the struggle for freedom and self-definition; community and family; and writing as a means of freedom. Other features that help you study include

• An in-depth look at the life of the author, Harriet A. Jacobs
• Character analyses of major players
• A character map that graphically illustrates the relationships among the characters
• Critical essays
• Glossaries of key words and terms
• A review section that tests your knowledge

Classic literature or modern modern-day treasure — you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.

THE PREFACE
The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.

The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.

A sumptuous annotated edition of the great American novel.

"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn," Ernest Hemingway once declared. First published in 1885, the book has delighted millions of readers, while simultaneously riling contemporary sensibilities, and is still banned in many schools and libraries. Now, Michael Patrick Hearn, author of the best-selling The Annotated Wizard of Oz, thoroughly reexamines the 116-year heritage of that archetypal American boy, Huck Finn, and follows his adventures along every bend of the mighty Mississippi River. Hearn's copious annotations draw on primary sources including the original manuscript, Twain's revisions and letters, and period accounts. Reproducing the original E. W. Kemble illustrations from the first edition, as well as countless archival photographs and drawings, some of them previously unpublished, The Annotated Huckleberry Finn is a book no family's library can do without; it may well prove to be the classic edition of the great American novel. 274 illustrations, two-color throughout

Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" in Prose, being a Ghost Story of Christmas. The World's most famous ghost story of Christmas, for 167 years & telling! Ebenezer Scrooge was a wealthy, grumpy old man, who cared little for people and family... Living his life for only himself, he was completely miserable. Scrooge thought this Christmas Eve would be no different... He dreaded another Christmas where he’d be forced to tolerate the joy, happiness and spirit of others. Oh... but this Christmas would be "different" indeed. Grumpy old Scrooge is in for a night that nobody would expect. This is the story of how Ebenezer Scrooge’s life was changed forever. First published on December 19, 1843, by Charles Dickens. This is the world's most famous Ghost Story of Christmas!

One of the first of Jane Austen's novels to be written, and one of the last to be published, Northanger Abbey is both an amusing story of how a naive girl enters society and wins the affection of a witty young clergyman, and a high-spirited parody of the lurid Gothic novels that were popular during Austen's youth. In the process it features a vivid account of social life in late eighteenth-century Bath, and Austen's famous defence of the novel as a literary form. This edition, based on the text of the novel as published posthumously in 1818, is accompanied by explanatory notes, and an appendix summarising the plots and situations of the Gothic fictions that form the basis of much of Austen's comedy. In addition there is an extensive critical introduction covering the context, publication, and critical history of the novel, a chronology of Austen's life, and authoritative textual apparatus.

You who so plod amid serious things that you feel it shame to give yourself up even for a few short moments to mirth and joyousness in the land of Fancy; you who think that life hath nought to do with innocent laughter that can harm no one; these pages are not for you. Clap to the leaves and go no farther than this, for I tell you plainly that if you go farther you will be scandalized by seeing good, sober folks of real history so frisk and caper in gay colors and motley that you would not know them but for the names tagged to them. Here is a stout, lusty fellow with a quick temper, yet none so ill for all that, who goes by the name of Henry II. Here is a fair, gentle lady before whom all the others bow and call her Queen Eleanor. Here is a fat rogue of a fellow, dressed up in rich robes of a clerical kind, that all the good folk call my Lord Bishop of Hereford. Here is a certain fellow with a sour temper and a grim look - the worshipful, the Sheriff of Nottingham.