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The dreary March evening is rapidly passing from murky gloom to obscurity.  Gusts of icy rain and sleet are sweeping full against a man who, though driving, bows his head so low that he cannot see his horses.  The patient beasts, however, plod along the miry road, unerringly taking their course to the distant stable door.  The highway sometimes passes through a grove on the edge of a forest, and the trees creak and groan as they writhe in the heavy blasts.  In occasional groups of pines there is sighing and moaning almost human in suggestiveness of trouble.  Never had Nature been in a more dismal mood, never had she been more prodigal of every element of discomfort, and never had the hero of my story been more cast down in heart and hope than on this chaotic day which, even to his dull fancy, appeared closing in harmony with his feelings and fortune.  He is going home, yet the thought brings no assurance of welcome and comfort.  As he cowers upon the seat of his market wagon, he is to the reader what he is in the fading light--a mere dim outline of a man.  His progress is so slow that there will be plenty of time to relate some facts about him which will make the scenes and events to follow more intelligible.

《金银岛》是以真实的历史背景为题材写的，书中的荒岛即科科斯岛，位于太平洋距哥斯达黎加海岸483千米的海中，曾是17世纪海盗的休息站。海盗们经常将掠夺的财宝在此装卸和埋藏，因此为这个并非鸟语花香、景色宜人的小岛平添了许多神秘色彩。据说岛上至少埋有六处宝藏。

Niccolo Machiavelli, the first great Italian historian, and one of the most eminent political writers of any age or country, was born at Florence, May 3, 1469. He was of an old though not wealthy Tuscan family, his father, who was a jurist, dying when Niccolo was sixteen years old. We know nothing of Machiavelli’s youth and little about his studies. He does not seem to have received the usual humanistic education of his time, as he knew no Greek.1 The first notice of Machiavelli is in 1498 when we find him holding the office of Secretary in the second Chancery of the Signoria, which office he retained till the downfall of the Florentine Republic in 1512. His unusual ability was soon recognized, and in 1500 he was sent on a mission to Louis XII. of France, and afterward on an embassy to C?sar Borgia, the lord of Romagna, at Urbino. Machiavelli’s report and description of this and subsequent embassies to this prince, shows his undisguised admiration for the courage and cunning of C?sar, who was a master in the application of the principles afterwards exposed in such a skillful and uncompromising manner by Machiavelli in his Prince.

布鲁尔博士自从被公司解雇以后就整天待在地下室里做有关植物的试验，很少与家人团聚。玛格丽特和凯西很为爸爸担心，同时也对爸爸的试验非常好奇。姐弟俩爸爸外出时偷偷溜进地下室，凯西不小心被植物的叶子紧紧“抓”住。后来爸爸每次有事外出时就把地下室的门锁起来。姐弟俩发现爸爸变得越来越怪了，他的手指弄破了，流出来的血居然是绿色的；他的帽子掉了，露出来的头发居然成了绿色的叶子……究竟发生了什么事？姐弟俩俩爸爸不在家时撬开了地下室的门，结果他们发现……更让他们目瞪口呆和心惊胆战的是，爸爸明明是去机场接妈妈了，可为什么地下室里还有一个爸爸？

《少雨的土地》（1903年）描述了南加利福尼亚州高塞拉山脉和莫哈韦沙漠之间地区的动物、植物和人类，并唤起了神秘主义和灵性。

欢乐之家讲述的故事发生在本世纪初的纽约，一个由男人支配一切的时代，软弱的女人要想拥有财富和地位只能依靠她的男人，而个性独立，敢于同社会抗争的女人只会被视为异类。身在上流社会莉莉·巴特小姐清楚的知道这一点，因此她只得将骨子中的叛逆深深的掩藏起来，以痛苦的假面示人。

"Never was a time when so many brains rustled with hates and panaceas that would sail wide into the air at the lightest jar."

The Innocence of Father Brown is the first book of G.K. Chesterton's ingenious, thoughtful, and lyrically written mystery stories featuring the unassuming little priest who solves crimes by imagining himself inside the mind and soul of criminals, thus understanding their motives. The stories are full of paradox, spiritual insight, and "Chestertonian fantasy," or seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. In this sterling collection, widely considered the author’s best, the beloved detective solves twelve of his most puzzling cases, including The Blue Cross, The Hammer of God, The Eye of Apollo, and nine more. Newly designed and typeset in a modern 6-by-9-inch format by Waking Lion Press.

A Voyage to Arcturus is a novel by the Scottish writer David Lindsay. First published in 1920, it combines fantasy, philosophy and science fiction in an exploration of the nature of good and evil and their relationship with existence. It has been described by the critic and philosopher Colin Wilson as the "greatest novel of the twentieth century" and was a central influence on C. S. Lewis's The Space Trilogy. It was made widely available in paperback form when published as one of the precursor volumes to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in 1968, featuring a cover by illustrator Bob Pepper.