Reading Comprehension

Now your child can enjoy The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson as a Michael Clay Thompson language-illustrated classic. The novel is reproduced in its entirety and includes Michael's "language illustrations"—close-ups of poetic techniques, four-level analyses of interesting grammar, and comments about writing strategies. Challenging vocabulary is defined at the bottom of each page. The novel is a disturbing account of murder and personality, good and evil, and dangerous experiments in a foggy London of the nineteenth century. Michael describes it as “one of literary history’s great stories of intuitive inspiration.... The reasons that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are famous all lie within the book itself. It is an extraordinary book by one of literature’s most talented writers." In addition, Stevenson’s “On Some Technical Elements of Style in Literature” is included to demonstrate that the author knew what he was about in the craft of writing. Michael believes that Stevenson is under-appreciated as a serious writer and says that this essay is “one of the best statements in literary history of what a supremely talented writer was thinking."

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson) Sample Pages:

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Now your child can enjoy The Time Machine by H.G. Wells as a Michael Clay Thompson language-illustrated classic. The novel is reproduced in its entirety and includes Michael's "language illustrations"—close-ups of poetic techniques, four-level analyses of interesting grammar, and comments about writing strategies. Challenging vocabulary is defined at the bottom of each page. According to Michael, the novel is "a supreme work of the imagination, a work so captivating in its vivid description of the distant future that the reader scarcely notices the radical art of the work, such as the almost total absence of dialogue and the fact that the main character is never named. The astounding final chapters are visionary to a degree almost unique in literature.... The novel has it all: brilliant vocabulary, reflection on the implications of science, subtle and wry commentary on governmental and social systems, reflections on morality, a deep portrait of a creative genius whose mind isolates him even from his friends, luminous poetic writing, dazzling images...everything. It is a one-book humanities course."

The Time Machine (Wells) Sample Pages:

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