Northanger Abbey is a coming-of-age novel and a satire of Gothic novels written by the English author Jane Austen. Although the title page is dated 1818 and it was published posthumously in 1817 with Persuasion, Northanger Abbey was completed in 1803, making it the first of Austen's novels to be completed in full. The story concerns Catherine Morland, the naïve young protagonist, and her journey to a better understanding of herself and of the world around her after Catherine's fondness for Gothic novels and her active imagination distorts her view of the world.
Alice Adams is a 1921 novel by Booth Tarkington that received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. It was adapted as a film in 1923 by Rowland V. Lee and more famously in 1935 by George Stevens. The narrative centers on the character of a young woman who aspires to climb the social ladder and win the affections of a wealthy young man named Arthur Russell. The story is set in a lower-middle-class household in an unnamed town in the Midwest shortly after World War I.
The Boston Massacre was a confrontation in Boston on March 5, 1770, in which nine British soldiers shot several of a crowd of three or four hundred who were harassing them verbally and throwing various projectiles. The event was heavily publicized as "a massacre" by leading Patriots such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams. British troops had been stationed in the Province of Massachusetts Bay since 1768 in order to support crown-appointed officials and to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation.
Abigail Adams was the wife and closest advisor of John Adams, as well as the mother of John Quincy Adams. She was a founder of the United States, and was both the first second lady and second first lady of the United States, although such titles were not used at the time. She and Barbara Bush are the only two women to have been married to U.S. presidents and to have been the mothers of other U.S. presidents.
The Crucible is a 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government persecuted people accused of being communists. Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.
Lord Edgware Dies is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in September 1933 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Thirteen at Dinner. Before its book publication, the novel was serialised in six issues of The American Magazine as 13 For Dinner.
Rise to Rebellion is a 2001 historical fiction book by Jeff Shaara that tells the story of the events leading up to the American Revolution. The book spans from the Boston Massacre to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The events of the American Revolution are portrayed through the perspectives of multiple characters, including Sentry Hugh White of the British army, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Lieutenant-General Thomas Gage, George Washington, Governor Thomas Hutchinson, Captain James Hall, Abigail Adams, Paul Revere, Dr. Joseph Warren, and Major John Pitcairn. Other characters in the book include King George the Third, George Greenville, Samuel Adams, Issac Barre, John Hancock, John Wilkes, William Pitt, Edmund Burke, Sir Charles Townshend, Sir Will Hills, Francis Bernard, Deborah Franklin, William Franklin, Martha Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, General Jeffrey Amherst, Margaret Kemble Gage, Captain Thomas Preston, Josiah Quincy, Samuel Johnson, Will Strahan, John Quincy Adams, Lord Wedderburn, Thomas Paine, Lord Admiral Richard Howe, John Montagu, Paul Revere, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, Captain John Parker, Walter Laurie, Admiral Graves, Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, Henry Clinton, John Burgoyne, Artemas Ward, William Prescott, General Putnam, Major Gridley, Charles Lee, Horatio Gates, William Tryon, Daniel Morgan, Bonvouloir, Richard Montgomery, Hiram Jones, Lady Germain, Henry Knox, Nathaniel Green, and Robert Livingston. The book covers events leading to the American Revolution, starting with what is known as "The Boston Massacre" and ending with the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Johnny Tremain is a work of historical fiction written in 1943 by Esther Forbes that is set in Boston prior to and during the outbreak of the American Revolution. Intended for teen-aged readers, the novel's themes include apprenticeship, courtship, sacrifice, human rights, and the growing tension between Patriots and Loyalists as conflict nears. Events depicted in the novel include the Boston Tea Party, the British blockade of the Port of Boston, the midnight ride of Paul Revere, and the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
Harriet E. Wilson was an African-American novelist. She was the first African American to publish a novel in North America.
The Lovely Bones is a 2002 novel by American writer Alice Sebold. It is the story of a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches from her personal Heaven as her family and friends struggle to move on with their lives while she comes to terms with her own death. The novel received critical praise and became an instant bestseller. A film adaptation, directed by Peter Jackson, who personally purchased the rights, was released in 2009. The novel was also later adapted as a play of the same name, which premiered in England in 2018.
Captain Thomas Preston was a British military officer who served in Boston, Massachusetts. He commanded the troops involved in the Boston Massacre in 1770 and was tried for murder, but was acquitted. Historians have never settled whether he ordered his men to fire on the colonists. Preston was originally from Ireland; his people were among the Protestants settled there.
Ann Rinaldi was an American journalist and young adult fiction author. She was best known for her historical fiction, including In My Father's House, The Last Silk Dress, An Acquaintance with Darkness, A Break with Charity, Numbering All The Bones and Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons. She wrote more than forty novels, eight of which were listed as notable by the ALA. In 2000, Wolf by the Ears was listed as one of the best novels of the preceding twenty-five years, and later of the last one hundred years. She also wrote for the Dear America series.
The House That Dripped Blood is a 1971 British anthology horror film directed by Peter Duffell and distributed by Amicus Productions. It stars Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Nyree Dawn Porter, Denholm Elliott, and Jon Pertwee. The film is a collection of four short stories concerning a series of inhabitants of the eponymous building. All of the stories were originally written, and subsequently scripted, by Robert Bloch.
Sharpe's Justice is a British television drama, the 13th of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. Unlike most of the other instalments of the series, this episode was not based on a novel by Bernard Cornwell. A key scene in the story is based on the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, reset here to Keighley in Yorkshire, in 1814.
John Adams was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain. During the latter part of the Revolutionary War and in the early years of the new nation, he served the U.S. government as a senior diplomat in Europe. Adams was the first person to hold the office of vice president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. He was a dedicated diarist and regularly corresponded with important contemporaries, including his wife and adviser Abigail Adams and his friend and political rival Thomas Jefferson.
John Adams is a 2008 American television miniseries chronicling most of U.S. president John Adams's political life and his role in the founding of the United States. The miniseries was directed by Tom Hooper and starred Paul Giamatti in the title role. Kirk Ellis wrote the screenplay based on the 2001 book John Adams by David McCullough. The biopic of Adams and the story of the first 50 years of the United States was broadcast in seven parts by HBO between March 16 and April 20, 2008. John Adams received widespread critical acclaim and many prestigious awards. The show won four Golden Globe awards and thirteen Emmy awards, more than any other miniseries in history.
The Notebook is a 2004 American romantic drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes, from a screenplay by Jeremy Leven and Jan Sardi, and based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as a young couple who fall in love in the 1940s. Their story is read from a notebook in the present day by an elderly man, telling the tale to a fellow nursing home resident.
Tituba of Salem Village is a 1964 children's novel by African-American writer Ann Petry about the 17th-century West Indian slave of the same name who was the first to be accused of practicing witchcraft during the 1692 Salem witch trials. Written for children 10 and up, it portrays Tituba as a black West Indian woman who tells stories about life in Barbados to the village girls. These stories are mingled with existing superstitions and half-remembered pagan beliefs on the part of Puritans, and the witchcraft hysteria is partly attributed to a sort of cabin fever during a particularly bitter winter. Petry's portrayal of the helplessness of women in that period, particularly slaves and indentured servants, is key to understanding her view of the Tituba legend.
Matthew Kilroy was an Irish soldier who served in the 29th Regiment of Foot and was present at the Boston Massacre, for which he was found guilty of the manslaughter of one of the five fatalities, Samuel Gray.
Private Hugh Montgomery was an Irish soldier who served in the 29th Regiment of Foot and was present at the Boston Massacre, for which he was found guilty of the manslaughter of one of the five fatalities, Crispus Attucks.
