Mothers: Classics from the Modern Library — Modern Library

Continuing the Modern Library's series of classic compilations to gladden the heart, we are pleased to offer our celebration of mothers and motherhood. As with Christmas Classics, these poems and stories are ideal for sharing aloud--as bedtime stories for the young ones (Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Land of Nod" and Thomas Dekker's "Lullaby"), or in honor of Mother on her special day (the classic "When Mother Reads Aloud" and "Marmee's Lessons" from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women), or anytime throughout the year when--as perhaps we all should remember more often--our mothers deserve thanks.
        We begin with the story of the Holy Mother Mary from the Gospels according to Luke and Matthew, and move through some of our most cherished poems, such as John Howard Payne's "Home, Sweet Home," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "There Was a Little Girl," and William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, printed here unabridged. You will also find a series of lessons from The New England Primer, used in the late 1600s and much removed from our contemporary ideas about child rearing. Willa Cather's bittersweet story "The Bohemian Girl" is included, along with a musing on motherhood from Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and "Huckleberries," a chapter featuring Jo and her boys from Alcott's Little Men.
        A selection of treasured Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes is here, as are some of Robert Louis Stevenson's best-loved poems from his Child's Garden of Verses. Rounding out this little collection of appreciations is a series of aphorisms by Anne Bradstreet entitled "Meditations," addressed to her son Simon.
        A year-round pleasure for mothers and children alike, Mothers honors our most loyal friend, supporter, confidante, and muse.


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