55 books
—
17 voters
Listopia > Hoyadaisy's votes on the list Best British Books (76 Books)
| 1 |
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Pride and Prejudice
by
"Absolute best and cleverest book ever."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 2 |
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The Pickwick Papers
by
"The first book I remember laughing out loud about, on the street."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 3 |
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The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, #1)
by
"Charming and charming, with one of the most generously drawn women in fiction."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 4 |
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Summer Half (Barsetshire, #5)
by
"Funny, funny look inside a British public school, and the brains of boys everywhere."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 5 |
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The Daughter of Time (Inspector Alan Grant, #5)
by
"Clever, clever, clever. A police detective in hospital is offered the puzzle of Richard III's guilt or innocence as a pastime."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 6 |
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Busman's Honeymoon (Lord Peter Wimsey, #13)
by
"The best of the Sayers mysteries for me, maybe because Bunter's (the valet's) abilities to "manage" are showcased."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 7 |
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Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes
by
"My daughter used to call this "the book that makes Mommy laugh." RLS's sufferings with his donkey are brutally funny."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 8 |
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Complete Barchester Chronicles
by
"The first book, The Warden, is weak, but it's short and optional. The second is, flat out, the funniest book ever (if you like things British)."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 9 |
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Palliser Novels
by
"If you like the Victorians and mordant social commentary, these six LONG books, you can't do better than this."
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| 10 |
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Miss Bunting (Barsetshire, #14)
by
"Angela Thirkell sets her books in Trollope's England, beginning about 50 years after he stopped. Not a genius, but very British and very addicting. Miss Bunting is the perfect governess cum companion."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 11 |
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Parker Pyne Investigates
by
"No one reads it, but it's fabulous. He doesn't really solve crime so much as solve people's problems, fascinatingly."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 12 |
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A Journal of the Plague Year
by
"Not a laugh riot, clearly, but riveting from start to finish, not something I'd say about another piece of British fiction until Jane Austen."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 13 |
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The Remains of the Day
by
"The very repressed emotional life of the perfect butler."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 14 |
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Daniel Deronda
by
"I'd vote for this as her best book: interesting characters, important themes."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 15 |
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Miss Silver Comes to Stay (Miss Silver, #15)
by
"I love Miss Silver. A retired governess who sleuths. She's a sterner Miss Marple. The more she's in the book, the better. I cried when I read the last of the series."
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| 16 |
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Lucky Jim
by
"I read it every year and laugh helplessly."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 17 |
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Ivanhoe
by
"Much more interesting than the title, the description, or the terrible movie would have you believe. It's England being made over by a conqueror with lots of casualties. Two appealing heroines."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 18 |
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The Common Reader
by
"I never liked her novels, but she is THE genius of the essay."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 19 |
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The Jewel in the Crown (The Raj Quartet, #1)
by
"British people ruining themselves and everyone else by being very British in someone else's country."
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| 20 |
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In This House of Brede
by
"Not a lot of modern British novels set in convents. Rumer Godden is the standard. Fascinating details and complex characters have made me read this 3-4 times."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 21 |
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Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
by
"I have no interest in sailors or ships, yet I could not put this book down and started taking out the rest of the series in twos and threes. Total page turners with a really likable main character."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 22 |
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Pomfret Towers (Barsetshire, #6)
by
"Shy young girl goes to her first country-house party. It's crack for an Anglophile."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 23 |
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David Copperfield
by
"Funny, sad, touching. His most perfect book?"
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 24 |
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Persuasion
by
"Sadder and gentler than her other books, but not too gentle."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 25 |
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Lady Audley's Secret
by See Review |
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| 26 |
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Christmas at Fairacre
by
"So tender and sweet I'm almost ashamed of this."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 27 |
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A Christmas Carol
by See Review |
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| 28 |
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Adam Bede
by
"If you can get past the dialect, a wrenching book with a title character you love and pictures of English country life that are so much better than the drivel the Romantic poets spewed."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 29 |
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Cranford
by See Review |
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| 30 |
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Burmese Days
by
"A keen mind applied to colonialism."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 31 |
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Wives and Daughters
by See Review |
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| 32 |
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Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey, #12)
by
"Inside a women's school for this mystery. "
Hoyadaisy
rated it 4 stars
See Review |
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| 33 |
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Macbeth
by See Review |
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| 34 |
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Bleak House
by See Review |
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| 35 |
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Vanity Fair
by See Review |
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| 36 |
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The Canterbury Tales
by
"Only medievalists read all of them, but the prologue and some of the tales ("Wife of Bath's", "Miller's" are piercing or funny or beautiful."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 37 |
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Smiley's People (George Smiley, #7; Karla Trilogy, #3)
by See Review |
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| 38 |
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A Little Princess
by See Review |
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| 39 |
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Bridget Jones’s Diary (Bridget Jones, #1)
by
"So much better than the ghastly movie or the terrible sequel. Made me want to write in incomplete sentences forever."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 4 stars
See Review |
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| 40 |
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I, Claudius (Claudius, #1)
by See Review |
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| 41 |
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His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3)
by
"Not a children's book at all, I thought. I couldn't put it down."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 42 |
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The Lord of the Rings
by See Review |
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| 43 |
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The Secret Garden
by See Review |
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| 44 |
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The Chronicles of Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia, #1-7)
by See Review |
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| 45 |
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)
by See Review |
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| 46 |
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Black Beauty
by See Review |
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| 47 |
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Emma
by
"I mostly hate Emma, but the rest of the characters are priceless."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 48 |
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Frankenstein
by See Review |
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| 49 |
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Jane Eyre
by See Review |
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| 50 |
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Silas Marner
by See Review |
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| 51 |
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Sense and Sensibility
by See Review |
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| 52 |
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Rebecca
by See Review |
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| 53 |
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by
"Flawlessly realized world of an autistic teen, and a good mystery too. I'd love it even if it weren't British."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 54 |
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Five Children and It (The Psammead Trilogy, #1)
by See Review |
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| 55 |
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Below Stairs
by
"Terrific, and terrifically honest, account of live "in service" and before. The gem that working class country parents stayed home from Sunday service for the treat of a little sex while the kids were at Sunday school? Priceless."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 4 stars
See Review |
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| 56 |
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West with the Night
by See Review |
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| 57 |
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All Creatures Great and Small (All Creatures Great and Small, #1-2)
by
"Sweet, gently funny. So much better than the boring series they made out of it."
Hoyadaisy
added it to currently-reading
See Review |
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| 58 |
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My Name Escapes Me: The Diary of a Retiring Actor
by
"intelligent and funny. Guinness also seems to have lunch with every famous British actor of his generation."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 59 |
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The Nine Tailors (Lord Peter Wimsey, #11)
by See Review |
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| 60 |
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Richard III
by
"The most vicious speeches in Shakespeare. Delicious."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 61 |
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The Cavalier Poets: An Anthology
by
"Lots of courtiers with lots of sex on the brain. Also, compact, which is an excellent thing in a poet."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 62 |
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King Lear
by
"Best play ever, period, to my mind."
Hoyadaisy
added it
See Review |
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| 63 |
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Winnie-the-Pooh (Winnie-the-Pooh, #1)
by See Review |
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| 64 |
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A Bear Called Paddington (Paddington, #1)
by See Review |
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| 65 |
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The Headmistress
by See Review |
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| 66 |
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Before Lunch (Barsetshire, #8)
by
"Fascinating look at the early war effort in Britain. Lots more people than were needed. Lots more flawed than Tom Brokaw et al. would have you believe."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 67 |
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Marling Hall (Barsetshire, #11)
by See Review |
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| 68 |
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The Tailor of Panama
by
"Funny spy novel? Yep."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 69 |
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The Egoist
by See Review |
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| 70 |
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Lady Chatterley's Lover
by
"I find D.H. Lawrence a little wearing, but how many sexy British books are there? And this is sexy."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 2 stars
See Review |
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| 71 |
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The Body in the Library (Miss Marple, #2)
by
"I love Miss Marple, and this might be my favorite Miss Marple. All the reactions to the murder are so British: suspicion of the artist fellow, fretting about what the neighbors will think, and the will to carry on."
Hoyadaisy
rated it 5 stars
See Review |
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| 72 |
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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)
by See Review |
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| 73 |
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A Room of One’s Own
by See Review |
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| 74 |
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And Then There Were None
by See Review |
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| 75 |
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Hild (The Hild Sequence, #1)
by See Review |
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| 76 |
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The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
by See Review |
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