ELECBOOK CLASSICSHARDTIMESCharles Dickens- Page 2-ELECBOOK CLASSICSebc0006. Charles Dickens: Hard TimesThis file is free for individual use only. It must not be altered or resold.Organisations wishing to use it must first obtain a licence.Low cost licenses are available. Contact us through our web site(C) The Electric Book Co 1998The Electric Book Company Ltd20 Cambridge Drive, London SE12 8AJ, UK...　

Abraham Lincoln and the UnionA Chronicle of the Embattled Northby Nathaniel W. StephensonPREFACEIn spite of a lapse of sixty years, the historian who attempts to portray the era of Lincoln is still faced with almost impossible demands and still confronted with arbitrary points of view. It is out of the question, in a book so brief as this must necessarily be, to meet all these demands or to alter these points of view. Interests that are purely local, events that did not with certainty contribute to the final outcome, gossip, as well as the mere caprice of the scholarthese must obviously be s　

White Liesby Charles ReadeCHAPTER I.Towards the close of the last century the Baron de Beaurepaire lived in the chateau of that name in Brittany. His family was of prodigious antiquity; seven successive barons had already flourished on this spot when a younger son of the house accompanied his neighbor the Duke of Normandy in his descent on England, and was rewarded by a grant of English land, on which he dug a mote and built a chateau, and called it Beaurepaire (the worthy Saxons turned this into Borreper without delay). Since that day more than twenty gentlemen of the same lineage had held　

　Acknowledgments　First and foremost, to my friend and editor, Jason Kaufman, for working so hard on this project and for truly understanding what this book is all about. And to the inparable Heide Lange-tireless champion of The Da Vinci Code, agent extraordinaire, and trusted friend.　I cannot fully express my gratitude to the exceptional team at Doubleday, for their generosity, faith, and superb guidance. Thank you especially to Bill Thomas and Steve Rubin, who believed in this book from the start. My thanks also to the initial core of early in-house supporters, headed by Michael Palgon, Suza　

　　　　In the spring, families in the suburbs of New Orleans-Metairie, Jefferson, Lafayette-hang wreaths on their front doors. Gay straw wreaths of gold and purple and green, wreaths with bells and froths of ribbons trailing down, blowing, tangling in the warm wind. The children have king cake parties. Each slice of cake is iced with a different sweet, sticky topping-candied cherries and colored sugar are favorites-and the child who finds a pink plastic baby in his slice will enjoy a year of good luck. The baby represents the infant Christ, and children seldom choke on it. Jesus loves little chi　

Lavengro, The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priestby George BorrowPREFACEIN the following pages I have endeavoured to describe a dream,partly of study, partly of adventure, in which will be foundcopious notices of books, and many descriptions of life andmanners, some in a very unusual form.The scenes of action lie in the British Islands; - pray be notdispleased, gentle reader, if perchance thou hast imagined that Iwas about to conduct thee to distant lands, and didst promisethyself much instruction and entertainment from what I might tell...　

A Far CountryBy Winston ChurchillI.My name is Hugh Paret. I was a corporation lawyer, but by no means atypical one, the choice of my profession being merely incidental, anddue, as will be seen, to the accident of environment. The book I amabout to write might aptly be called The Autobiography of a Romanticist.In that sense, if in no other, I have been a typical American, regardingmy country as the happy hunting-ground of enlightened self-interest, as afunction of my desires. Whether or not I have completely got rid of thisromantic virus I must leave to those the aim of whose existence is t　

The Expedition of Humphry Clinkerby Tobias SmollettTo Mr HENRY DAVIS, Bookseller, in London.ABERGAVENNY, Aug. 4.RESPECTED SIR,I have received your esteemed favour of the 13th ultimo, wherebyit appeareth, that you have perused those same Letters, the whichwere delivered unto you by my friend, the reverend Mr Hugo Behn;and I am pleased to find you think they may be printed with agood prospect of success; in as much as the objections youmention, I humbly conceive, are such as may be redargued, if notentirely removed And, first, in the first place, as touching...　

Pioneers of the Old South, A Chronicle of English Colonial Beginningsby Mary JohnstonCONTENTSI. THE THREE SHIPS SAILII. THE ADVENTURERSIII. JAMESTOWNIV. JOHN SMITHV. THE SEA ADVENTUREVI. SIR THOMAS DALEVII. YOUNG VIRGINIAVIII. ROYAL GOVERNMENTIX. MARYLANDX. CHURCH AND KINGDOMXI. COMMONWEALTH AND RESTORATIONXII. NATHANIEL BACONXIII. REBELLION AND CHANGEXIV. THE CAROLINASXV. ALEXANDER SPOTSWOODXVI. GEORGIATHE NAVIGATION LAWSBIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTEPIONEERS OF THE OLD SOUTHCHAPTER I. THE THREE SHIPS SAILElizabeth of England died in 1603. There came to the English throne James...　

Memoirs of General William T. Shermanby William Tecumseh ShermanVolume 2CHAPTER XVI.ATLANTA CAMPAIGN-NASHVILLE AND CHATTANOOGA TO BENEBAW.MARCH, APRIL, AND MAY, 1864.On the 18th day of March, 1864, at Nashville, Tennessee, I relieved Lieutenant-General Grant in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, embracing the Departments of the Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee, and Arkansas, commanded respectively by Major-Generals Schofield, Thomas, McPherson, and Steele. General Grant was in the act of starting East to assume command of all the armies of the United States, but more particularl　

NOTE TO GENERAL PREFACE, p. 　

Elizabeth and her German Gardenby "Elizabeth" [Marie Annette Beauchamp]May 7th.I love my garden. I am writing in it now in the late afternoon loveliness, much interrupted by the mosquitoes and the temptation to look at all the glories of the new green leaves washed half an hour ago in a cold shower. Two owls are perched near me, and are carrying on a long conversation that I enjoy as much as any warbling of nightingales. The gentleman owl says [[musical notes occur here in the printed text]], and she answers from her tree a little way off, [[musical notes]], beautifully assenting to and comp　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE SNOWDROPby Hans Christian AndersenIT was winter-time; the air was cold, the wind was sharp, butwithin the closed doors it was warm and comfortable, and within theclosed door lay the flower; it lay in the bulb under thesnow-covered earth.One day rain fell. The drops penetrated through the snowy coveringdown into the earth, and touched the flower-bulb, and talked of thebright world above. Soon the Sunbeam pierced its way through thesnow to the root, and within the root there was a stirring....　

The Wood Beyond the Worldby William MorrisCHAPTER I: OF GOLDEN WALTER AND HIS FATHERAwhile ago there was a young man dwelling in a great and goodly cityby the sea which had to name Langton on Holm. He was but of fiveand twenty winters, a fair-faced man, yellow-haired, tall andstrong; rather wiser than foolisher than young men are mostly wont;a valiant youth, and a kind; not of many words but courteous ofspeech; no roisterer, nought masterful, but peaceable and knowinghow to forbear: in a fray a perilous foe, and a trusty war-fellow.His father, with whom he was dwelling when this tale begi　

　A sea of mist drifted through the cloud forest: soft, grey, luminescent. On the high ridges the fog showed brighter as the morning sun began to warm and lift the moisture, although in the ravine a cool, soundless dimness still counterfeited a pre-dawn twilight.　mander Cordelia Naismith glanced at her team botanist and adjusted the straps of her biological collecting equipment a bit more fortably before continuing her breathless climb. She pushed a long tendril of fog-dampened copper hair out of her eyes, clawing it impatiently toward the clasp at the nape of her neck. Their next survey area 　

THE SLEEPING-CARTHE SLEEPING-CAR1- Page 2-THE SLEEPING-CARI.SCENE: One side of a sleeping-car on the Boston and Albany Road.The curtains are drawn before most of the berths; from the hooks and rodshang hats, bonnets, bags, bandboxes, umbrellas, and other travelling gear;on the floor are boots of both sexes, set out for THE PORTER to black.THE PORTER is making up the beds in the upper and lower berths...