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William Sutherland

William Sutherland

  • Written at the start of the Great War, when his son Borys was at the Western Front, The Shadow-Line is Conrad's supreme effort to open man's eyes to the meaning of war through the stimulus of art. In many ways an autobiographical narrative, this masterpiece relates the story of a young and inexperienced sea captain whose first command finds him with a ship becalmed in tropical seas and a crew smitten with fever. As he wrestles with his conscience and with the sense of isolation that his position imposes, the captain crosses the "shadow-line" between youth and adulthood.

    The qualities needed to confront the ship's crisis symbolize the very qualities needed by humanity, not only to face evil and destruction, but also to come to terms with life.

  • Young people across America are rediscovering G. A. Henty, the nineteenth-century literary genius whose historical adventures inspire boys toward honesty, courage, and duty. Writing from a Christian perspective, Henty weaves the adventures of a fictional boy hero together with real-life events.

    This stirring tale chronicles the last days of the Temple at Jerusalem. As robber bands and political infighting set the stage for the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, John, a fifteen-year-old Galilean, finds himself in the forefront of events. After escaping the massacre at Jotapata, John becomes a hero to the Jews and a scourge to the Romans. He defends Jerusalem during the Roman siege and even fights Titus himself in hand-to-hand combat. Though he is fighting a losing battle, John proves his enduring integrity and honor.

  • G. A. Henty’s latest historical adventure story for boys is set in ancient times during the Punic wars between Carthage and Rome, who are vying for world dominance. It follows the adventures of young Malchus, an officer in Hannibal’s army, as the army makes its incredible journey across the Alps, bringing cannons and elephants to overpower the great Roman Empire. Malchus has an unsullied energy that allows him to escape attacks from lions and wolves and maneuver through Carthage’s subterranean reservoir on a raft. Even though Carthage is eventually defeated, the thrilling clashes and vexing dilemmas gain the listener’s undivided attention, while the fascinating detail of the story provides an absorbing lesson in ancient history.

  • Tales for a Winter's Night brings together eight Arthur Conan Doyle mystery classics that originally appeared in the Strand between July 1898 and January 1899. When first gathered into one volume in 1908, the book was entitled Round the Fire Stories, since the author recommended that they be read ideally "round the fire" upon a winter's night.

    According to Barzun and Taylor in A Catalogue of Crime, "As one reads 'The Man with the Watches,' 'The Lost Special,' 'The Jew's Breastplate,' 'The Black Doctor,' and the rest, one marvels again at Doyle's natural gift of storytelling…The stories are worth reading even around a radiator." Other stories include "The Club-Footed Grocer," "The Sealed Room," "The Brazilian Cat," and "B.24."

  • Compiled after his death in 1662, Pascal's"pens├®es" (thoughts) are his ideas for a book in defense of faith in a rational world. These fragments give evidence of a profoundly original thinker who had resolved the conflict between his scientific mind and his heart-felt faith.

    The book begins with an analysis of the difference between mathematical and intuitive thinking and goes on to consider the value of skepticism, contradictions, feeling, memory, and imagination. It is a powerful look at humanity's weakness and the futility of worldly life. Much of the value ofPens├®eslies in the clarity with which Pascal was able to present his intuitive thoughts.

    Pascal spent much of his life composing this magnum opus, which offers some of the most powerful aphorisms about human experience and behavior ever written.

  • The good Doctor Dolittle, accompanied by his devoted animal friends, sets sail once again. This time it is a voyage of discovery to learn the secret of the Shellfish language—and to teach Tommy Stubbins, the doctor’s young protégé, all there is to know about animals and their languages. The jolly party meets with more adventures than they had anticipated, including a shipwreck, a floating island, and a journey undersea in the Great Glass Sea Snail.

    Winner of the Newbery Award for “the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature in any single year.”

  • In November 1910, the vessel Terra Nova left New Zealand carrying an international team of explorers led by Robert Falcon Scott, an Englishman determined to be the first man to reach the South Pole. Scott kept a detailed journal of his adventures until March 29, 1912, when he and the few remaining members of his team met their ends in a brutal blizzard. The daily progress of the expedition toward the pole is recorded in an immensely vivid and personal narrative, depicting the beauty of the Antarctic tundra, the harsh living conditions, and Scott's own desperation to beat rival explorers to the pole.

    Even in his final hours, Scott continued to make entries of his observations in his journal, allowing the adventure he and his fellow explorers undertook to live on once discovered.

  • Cleopatra lies asleep. One white, rounded arm makes a pillar for her head. The web of her dark hair falls over her like lace. Her limbs are draped in a robe so thin that the gleam of her flesh shines through it. Her rich lips are parted in a smile.

    Harmachis looks down on her, and the sight of Cleopatra's beauty strikes the young Egyptian with all the power of a mortal blow. For a moment, Harmachis aches with grief—that he should have to kill a thing so lovely!

  • William Butler Yeats, the first Irishman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, is not only one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century but one of the most widely read. The landscape, myths, legends, and folklore of his homeland lie at the heart of his poetic imagination, and the unique musicality of Ireland adds to the richness of his verse. But the themes of his poetry are universal and timeless: the conflict between life and death, love and hate, and the meaning of man’s existence in an imperfect world.

    This collection includes such favorites as “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” and “When You Are Old,” as well as two of his longer narrative works, “The Old Age of Queen Maeve” and “Baile and Aillinn.” It traces the poet’s artistry from his early days as a dreamy, late-romantic poet into one of the most individual and visionary voices of twentieth-century verse.

  • “Like all really nice people, you have a weakness for detective stories…The least that I can do is write you one.” So wrote A. A. Milne to his father, to whom he dedicated this delectable mystery. 

    Mark Ablett’s stately mansion, the Red House, is filled with very proper guests when his most improper brother returns from Australia. The prodigal brother enters Mark’s study, the parlor maid hears arguing, and the brother dies—rather suddenly, with a bullet between his eyes. The study is locked from the inside, and Mark is missing!

    Investigating the crime is wealthy Antony Gillingham, who rivals Sherlock Holmes in his remarkable powers of observation. He is aided by his friend, Bill Beverley, a cheerful young man in white flannels. Echoes of Christopher Robin and his friends chime nostalgically throughout this charming classic of detection!

  • “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me…” So begins one of the most beloved hymns of all time. This is the autobiography of the man who penned those words. John Newton, the self-proclaimed “wretch,” was an active slave trader for several years until, on a homeward voyage through a violent storm, he experienced what he was later to refer to as his “great deliverance.” He tells of the events that led him from sin and bondage to a life transformed by God’s amazing grace.