APCS Summer Reading

SUMMER READING FOR RISING SENIORS

 

Rising Seniors (Class of 2011) who will be taking either UALR World Literature or English 12: World and British Literature this fall are required to read Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Master of Ballantrae during the summer. The novel, set during the period of the Scottish rebellion of 1745-46, explores Stevenson's favorite theme of human duality in a psychological character study of two brothers locked in a cycle of fratricidal hatred. The Master of Ballantrae, critically acclaimed for both its subtlety and power, is often considered a companion piece to Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Some critics regard it as the author's most mature completed work.

 

Copies of the Modern Library edition of The Master of Ballantrae will be available to students at the beginning of the 2010 fall semester, and the work will be discussed during the first week of classes. Any students wishing to have their own copies will find the book for discounted sale at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Master-Ballantrae-Winters-Library-Classics/dp/0375759301/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275409866&sr=1-1. Those with Kindle readers may find a Kindle edition from Mobile Reference for 95 cents: http://www.amazon.com/Master-Ballantrae-Winters-Tale-ebook/dp/B001CQC9JQ/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2. Finally the novel is available online for free in a Project Gutenberg edition: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/blntr10.txt. Students can download the entire work as a text file and store it in their E-Book folder (see attachment).

 

Mr. Jones, the UALR World Lit and English 12 instructor, has delivered an academic paper on The Master of Ballantrae at an international Stevenson conference; his essay was subsequently published in the Journal of Stevenson Studies (University of Stirling, Scotland, 2007).