Published: 1884

The drifting journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on their raft may be one of the most enduring images of escape and freedom in all of American literature. Although the society it satirized was already history at the time of publication, the book was quite controversial, and has remained so to this day.

Published: 1876

"A young boy grows up in the antebellum South on the Mississippi River in the town of St. Petersberg, based on the town of Hannibal, Missouri."--Wikipedia

Author: Virgil

Published: 1910

Edited by Ernest Rhys, 1859-1946

Translated by George Fyler Townsend.

Published: 1920

Among New York City's upper class of the 1870s, before the advent of electric lights, telephones or motor vehicles, there was a small cluster of aristocratic families that ruled New York's social life. To those at the apex of the social world one's occupation or abilities were secondary to heredity and family connections, and one's reputation and outward appearance was of foremost importance. At the center of the highest circles is Newland Archer, a lawyer set to enter into a socially safe marriage with the sheltered and beautiful May Welland -- a decision Archer is forced to re-consider after the appearance of Countess Ellen Olenska, May's exotic and beautiful cousin, recently returned from a lengthy stay in Europe.

Published: 1847

A novel that addresses the precarious position of a governess, and how it affected a young woman in that position: some critics, in fact, feel that Agnes Grey deserves the reputation of a 'governess novel' far more than Jane Eyre, as it is decidedly more realistic and down-to-earth in its depiction of the life of a governess.

Author: Lewis Carroll

Published: 1871

A sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Published: 1865

Followed by Through the Looking Glass.

Published: 1903

This dark comedy, one of the masterpieces of James' final period, follows the trip of protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether to Europe in pursuit of his widowed fiancée's supposedly wayward son. Strether is to bring the young man back to the family business, but he encounters unexpected complications. (summary from Wikipedia)

Published: 1875

Anna is the jewel of St. Petersburg society until she leaves her husband for the handsome and charming military officer, Count Vronsky. They fall in love, going beyond High Society's acceptance of trivial adulterous dalliances. But when Vronsky's love cools, Anna cannot bring herself to return to the husband she detests...
(Translated by Constance Garnett)

Author: Anonymous

Published: 1914

Published: 1912

This vivid and startlingly new picture of conditions brought about by the race question in the United States makes no special plea for the Negro, but shows in a dispassionate, though sympathetic, manner conditions as they actually exist between the whites and blacks to-day.

Published: c 610 BC

Translated from the Chinese with Introduction and Critical Notes by Lionel Giles, M.A.

Published: 1922

A satire of American values, the power of conformity, and the vacuity of American life.

Published: 1857

The old bishop dies, the archdeacon, Dr. Grantly fails to succeed him and a new bishop, Dr. Proudie is appointed. Dr. Grantly gains a worthy foe, not the new bishop but his wife, Mrs. Proudie, strict sabatarian and power behind the Episcopal throne together with the bishop’s chaplain, Mr. Slope. (Summary from Librivox)

Published: 1100

Translated by Gummere.

Published: 1853

The story concerns a long-running legal dispute which has far-reaching consequences for all involved, and serves as Dickens' assault on the flaws of the British judiciary system (based in part on his own experiences as a law clerk). The author's harsh characterization of the slow, arcane Chancery law process gave voice to widespread frustration with the system, helping to set the stage for its eventual reform in the 1870s.

Published: 1886

Published: 1886

Published: 1879

Generally considered one of Dostoyevsky's greatest novels, on the surface it is the story of a patricide in which all of the murdered man's sons share varying degrees of complicity, but on a deeper level it is a spiritual dramatization of the struggle between faith, doubt, reason, and free will. [Translated by Constance Garnett.]

In "The Age of Fable," Mr. Bulfinch endeavored to impart the pleasure of classical learning to the English reader by presenting the stories of Pagan mythology in a form adapted to modern taste. In this volume the attempt has been made to treat in the same way the stories of the second "age of fable"--the age which witnessed the dawn of the several states of modern Europe. (Revised by E.E. Hale.)

Published: 1903

A domesticated and pampered dog's primordial instincts return when events find him serving as a sled dog in the treacherous, frigid Yukon during the hey-days of the 19th century Gold Rush.

Published: 1906

A wild dog's journey toward becoming civilized during the 19th Century Klondike Gold Rush. White Fang is a companion novel to The Call of the Wild.

"White Fang" is part dog, part wolf and all brute, living in the frozen north; he gradually comes under the spell of man's companionship, and surrenders all at the last in a fight with a bull dog. Thereafter he is man's loving slave.

Author: Voltaire

Published: 1759

Ever since 1759, when Voltaire wrote "Candide" in ridicule of the notion that this is the best of all possible worlds, this world has been a gayer place for readers. Voltaire wrote it in three days, and five or six generations have found that its laughter does not grow old. With an introduction by Philip Littlell.

Published: 14th century

"The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. In a long list of works, including "Troilus and Criseyde", "House of Fame", "Parliament of Fowls", the Canterbury Tales is Chaucer's magnum opus, and a towering achievement of Western culture."--Wikipedia

Published: 1905

Published: 1844

Published: 1845

Published: 1779

Published: 1888

One of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the Communist League and written by communist theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, it laid out the League's purposes and program. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and present) and the problems of capitalism, rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms.--Wikipedia

Published: 1892

A delight for a public which enjoys incident, mystery, and above all that matching of the wits of a clever man against the dumb resistance of the secrecy of inanimate things, which results in the triumph of the human intelligence.

Published: 1894

Eleven classic tales of deduction: Silver Blaze • The Yellow Face • The Stock-Broker's Clerk • The Gloria Scott • The Musgrave Ritual • The Reigate Puzzle • The Crooked Man • The Resident Patient • The Greek Interpreter • The Naval Treaty • The Final Problem

Published: 401

From the 1921 Chatto & Windus edition, translated by Edward Bouverie Pusey.

Published: 1889

An extravagant but cleverly planned burlesque that works as a condemnation of Chivalry, one of Twain's chief aversions.

Published: 1845

A classic adventure novel, often considered Dumas' best work, and frequently included on lists of the best novels of all time. Completed in 1844, and released as an 18-part series over the next two years, Dumas collaborated with other authors throughout. The story takes place in France, Italy, and the Mediterranean from the end of the rule of Napoleon I through the reign of Louis-Philippe.

Published: 1866

From the Russian master of psychological characterizations, this novel portrays the carefully planned murder of a miserly, aged pawnbroker by a destitute Saint Petersburg student named Raskolnikov, followed by the emotional, mental, and physical effects of that action. Translated by Constance Garnett.

Author: Edmond Rostand

Published: 1897

Translated from the French by Gladys Thomas and Mary F. Guillemard.

Author: Henry James

Published: 1879

Published: 1881

Published: 1876

Published: 1849

or The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (which he never meant to publish on any account).

It adds to the charm of this book to remember that it is virtually a picture of the author's own boyhood. It is an excellent picture of the life of a struggling English youth in the middle of the last century. The pictures of Canterbury and London are true pictures and through these pages walk one of Dickens' wonderful processions of characters, quaint and humorous, villainous and tragic. Nobody cares for Dickens heroines, least of all for Dora, but take it all in al,l this book is enjoyed by young people more than any other of the great novelist. After having read this you will wish to read Nicholas Nickleby for its mingling of pathos and humor, Martin Chuzzlewit for its pictures of American life as seen through English eyes, and Pickwick Papers for its crude but boisterous humor.

Published: 1842

Published: 1886

Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude.

Author: James Fenimore Cooper

Published: 1841

Published: 1615

Translated by John Ormsby.
One of the earliest novels in a modern European language, one which many people consider the finest book in the Spanish language.

Published: 1897

The world's best-known vampire story begins by following a naive young Englishman as he visits Transylvania to meet a client, the mysterious Count Dracula. Upon revealing his true nature, Dracula boards a ship for England, where chilling and gruesome disasters begin to befall the people of London...

Published: 1815

The main character, Emma Woodhouse, is described in the opening paragraph as ''rich, beautiful and clever,'' but is also rather spoiled. As a result of the recent marriage of her former governess, Emma prides herself on her ability to matchmake, and proceeds to take under her wing an illegitimate orphan, Harriet Smith, whom she hopes to marry off to the vicar, Mr Elton. So confident is she that she persuades Harriet to reject a proposal from a young farmer who is a much more suitable partner for the girl.

Published: 1907

Published: 1905

Published: 1907

Edited by Edna Turpin.
Introduction
Life Of Emerson
Critical Opinions
Chronological List Of Principal Works
The American Scholar
Compensation
Self Reliance
Friendship
Heroism
Manners
Gifts
Nature
Shakespeare; Or, The Poet
Prudence
Circles
Notes

Published: 1904

Author: Plato

Published: 1871

In Plato's writings there is both unity, and also growth and development; but that we must not intrude upon him either a system or a technical language. Translated by Benjamin Jowett.

Author: Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe, An Appreciation
Life of Poe, by James Russell Lowell
Death of Poe, by N. P. Willis
The Unparalled Adventures of One Hans Pfall
The Gold Bug
Four Beasts in One
The Murders in the Rue Morgue (Audio version)
The Mystery of Marie Rogêt
The Balloon Hoax
MS. Found in a Bottle
The Oval Portrait

Author: Edgar Allan Poe

Published: 1911

The story of a tragic love triangle.

Published: 1875

Published: 1874

Bathsheba Everdene, living in the quiet rural village of Weatherbury, is indeed disrupted by the 'madding crowd'. After shunning the first man to love her, the shepherd Gabriel Oak, she is courted by two others: the lonely and repressed farmer Boldwood, and the charming but faithless Sergeant Troy.

Published: 1861

Translated from Russian to English by Richard Hare.

Author: Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison

Author: Mary Shelley

Published: 1818

The novel begins on a ship sailing north of the Arctic Circle, where the captain spots a figure traveling across the ice on a dog sled. This is Victor Frankenstein's creature, and close behind is Dr. Frankenstein himself. Invited onto the boat, the weak and ill Doctor tells the story of his alchemical studies and eventual construction of a man from inanimate matter.

Published: 1902

British officer Harry Faversham resigns his commission just prior to the Battle of Omdurman for personal reasons, rather than cowardice, but he is faced with censure from three of his comrades, each of whom presents him with a feather, and the loss of the support of his fiancée, who presents him with the fourth feather. Questioning his true motives, Harry resolves to redeem himself in combat, travelling on his own to the war-ravaged Sudan.

Author: Emile Zola

Published: 1885

Translated by Havelock Ellis.

Author: Ford Madox Ford

Published: 1915

A chronicle of the tragedies in the lives of two seemingly ''perfect couples'' whose lives are far from perfect, this novel was loosely based on two real-life incidents of adultery and on Ford's own messy personal life.

Published: 1861

"The story of the orphan Pip, writing his life from his early days of childhood until adulthood and trying to be a gentleman along the way. The story can also be considered semi-autobiographical of Dickens, like much of his work, drawing on his experiences of life and people."--Wikipedia

Author: The Grimm Brothers

Published: 1884

These fairy tales by brothers Grimm are based on the original 1884 translation Household Tales of Margaret Hunt.

Published: 1726

A satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers' tales" literary genre, this is widely considered Swift's greatest work as well as one of the indisputable classics of English literature. Transcribed from the 1892 George Bell and Son edition.

Published: 1854

A bitter and scathing satire on the belief in "Facts, nothing but Facts" in education, the results developed in a tale of deep and pathetic interest.

Published: 1899

The story tells of Charles Marlow, an Englishman who took a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a ferry-boat captain in Africa. Although Conrad does not give the name of the river, at the time, Congo Free State, the location of the large and important Congo River was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver. However, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization, in a cover-up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region. This symbolic story is a story within a story or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he recounts from dusk through to late night, to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary his Congolese adventure. The passage of time and the darkening sky during the fictitious narrative-within-the-narrative parallel the atmosphere of the story. Wikipedia

Translated by G.C. Macaulay

Translated by G.C. Macauley

Published: 431 B.C.

Translated by Richard Crawley.

Published: 1905

One of the first novels of manners to emerge in American literature, and also one of Wharton's best-known works, The House of Mirth centers on Lily Bart, a New York socialite attempting to secure a husband and a place in affluent society.

Published: 1897

Author: Victor Hugo

Published: 1831

The story of a gypsy girl, a misshapen bell-ringer, and the ancient cathedral Notre-Dame.

Published: 1846

Translated by C.J. Hogarth

Published: 1868

Translated by Eva Martin. This is one of the most influential works by Dostoyevsky. The story revolves around Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, who upon his return to Russia finds himself in a very complicated situation.

Author: Homer

Published: 1899

Translated by Alexander Pope.

Author: Oscar Wilde

Published: 1895

A farce, one of the best ever written, cleverly constructed and delightfully amusing. There is only the slightest attempt at the sketching of character, while most of the personages are at best but caricatures; the Wilde's skill is brought to bear chiefly upon the situations and the lines. It so happens that this farce contains more clever lines, puns, epigrams, and deft repartees than any other of modern times, but these are after all accessory. A farce may be written without these additions--it might well be pure pantomime. Wilde has thrown them in for full measure.

Author: Harriet Jacobs

Translated by H.F. Cary

Author: Sigmund Freud

Published: 1920

The publishers of the present book deserve credit for presenting to the reading public the gist of Freud’s psychology in the master’s own words, and in a form which shall neither discourage beginners, nor appear too elementary to those who are more advanced in psychoanalytic study. Authorized English translation by M.D. Eder.

Published: 1819

This, one of the great works of fiction, is of historical value for its graphic picture of the Saxons and Normans in England after the Norman occupation of the land. The tournament at Ashby, the siege of Torquilstone, the trial of Rebecca, the Jewess,--these are a few incidents in this story "of the days of old When knights were bold." Robin Hood, under the name of Locksley the yeoman, appears as one of the characters.

Author: Charlotte Brontë

Published: 1847

A poor governess, Jane Eyre, captures the heart of her enigmatic employer, Edward Rochester. Jane discovers that he has a secret that could jeopardize any hope of happiness between them.

Author: Jules Verne

Published: 1864

Translated by Frederick Amadeus Malleson in 1877.

Published: 1906

A vivid portrayal of life in the Chicago stockyards, with revelations so shocking one cannot read them without being filled with horror.

Published: 1894

Followed by The Second Jungle Book.

Published: 1901

Kim, aka Kimball O'Hara, is the orphan son of a British soldier and a half-caste opium addict in India. While running free through the streets of Lahore as a child he befriends a British secret service agent. Later, attaching himself to a Tibetan Lama on a quest to be freed from the Wheel of Life, Kim becomes the Lama's disciple, but is also used by the British to carry messages to the British commander in Umballa. Kim's trip with the Lama along the Grand Trunk Road is only the first great adventure in the novel...

Published: 1885

Improbable and fable-like, the story tells of English adventurers who travel to the interior of a remote African country, a vanished empire with legends of lost treasure.

Author: James Fenimore Cooper

Published: 1826

Hawkeye and his Mohican companions Chingachgook and Uncas escort the Munro sisters, Cora and Alice, through the woods of New York to Fort William Henry. Also in the expeditin party are British army Major Duncan Heyward and a psalmist named David Gamut. Along the way they are forced to fight against Hurons led by the evil Magua, which leads to an encounter with another American Indian tribe called the Delaware -- a development which will prove crucial at the end of the novel.

Published: 1891

One of the best known American poems.

Published: 1820

Author: Elizabeth Gaskell

Published: 1857

Women ought to be good biographers. They have a talent for personal discourse and familiar narrative, which, when properly controlled, is a great gift, although too frequently it degenerates into a social nuisance. Mrs Gaskell, we regret to say, has, in the present work, so employed her talent that she appears too much in the latter light—as a gossip and a gad-about. There was not much to say of Charlotte Brontë, better known as Currer Bell, but the biographer was determined to say a great deal: she therefore makes a pilgrimage to every spot where her heroine was ever known to have set her foot. -- Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, July 1857

Published: 1862

As much a history or commentary as a work of fiction, Les Misérables is dominated by France's past. While the fictional aspects may seem to be an afterthought, Hugo's craft is apparent as he weaves multiple characters together. (Translated by Isabel F. Hapgood)

Published: 1868

This popular novel concerns the lives and loves of four sisters growing up during the American Civil War, and was based on Alcott's own experiences as a child in Concord, Massachusetts. After much demand, Alcott wrote a sequel, Good Wives, which is often published together with Little Women as if it were a single work. Good Wives picks up three years after the events in the last chapter of Little Women, and includes characters and events often felt by fans to be essential to the story.

Published: 1900

An ambiguous story many consider to be Conrad's best work, it is a story of remorse and of the effort to regain self-respect for a deed of fatal and unexpected cowardice. The sea and secluded Eastern settlements are the background.

The trilogy known as Lost Illusions consists of: Two Poets, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, Eve and David. In many references parts one and three are combined under the title Lost Illusions and A Distinguished Provincial at Paris is given its individual title. Following this trilogy is a sequel, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, which is set directly following the end of Eve and David.

Published: 1857

In a provincial village far from Paris, a doctor named Charles Bovary marries a beautiful farm girl: Emma. She rapidly grows bored with him and takes a rich landowner as a lover. When her lover rejects her, she takes up with a law clerk. Her husband knows nothing of her romances, nor does he know that Emma has ruined him with her waste, poor management, and self-indulgence...

Author: Stephen Crane

Published: 1896

Published: 1918

Pulitzer Prize winner - 1919.

Published: 1920

Carol Milford is a liberal, free-spirited young woman, reared in the metropolis of Minneapolis. She marries Will Kennicott, a doctor, who is a small-town boy at heart. When they marry, Will convinces her to live in his home-town of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota. Carol is appalled at the backwardness of Gopher Prairie. But her disdain for the town’s physical ugliness and smug conservatism compels her to reform it. (Summary from Wikipedia).

Author: George Bernard Shaw

Published: 1903

When the brains of the average reader become tangled up in the mazes of Mr. Shaw's latest offering, "Man and Superman," he will wonder, long before its close, whether he, or the author, is crazy. That is, if he takes the book seriously. If he does not, he will enjoy himself thoroughly, but will have failed to appreciate the spirit and intention of the work's creator.

Published: 1850

A translation of L'homme au masque de fer.

Published: 1814

Fanny Price, young and from a poor family, is raised by her rich uncle and aunt at Mansfield Park. She grows up with her four cousins but is always treated as an inferior; only her cousin Edmund shows any real kindness. Over time, Fanny's gratitude towards Edmund grows into a secret, romantic love.

Published: 1886

Published: 1807

Published: 1912

Translated by David Wyllie.

Author: George Eliot

Published: 1871

Making masterful use of a counterpointed plot, Eliot presents the stories of a number of denizens of a small English town on the eve of the Reform Bill of 1832. The main characters, Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, each long for exceptional lives but are powerfully constrained by their own unrealistic expectations as well as conservative society. The novel is notable for its deep psychological insight and sophisticated character portraits.

Author: Herman Melville

Published: 1851

The voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab, who leads his crew on a hunt for the great whale Moby Dick, reveals a profound meditation on society, nature, and the human struggle for meaning, happiness, and salvation. Often considered the epitome of American Romanticism, the novel is now considered one of the greatest novels in the English language.

Author: Daniel Defoe

Published: 1722

Who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of continu'd Variety for Threescore Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv'd Honest, and dies a Penitent. Written from her own Memorandums . . .

Author: Wilkie Collins

Published: 1868

Widely regarded as the precursor of the modern mystery and suspense novels, The Moonstone tells of the events surrounding the disappearance of a mysterious (and cursed) yellow diamond. T. S. Eliot called it 'the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels'. It contains a number of ideas which became common tropes of the genre, including a crime being investigated by talented amateurs who happen to be present when it is committed, and two police officers who exemplify respectively the 'Scotland Yard bungler' and the skilled, professional detective.

Published: 1918

My Ántonia tells the stories of several immigrant families who move out to rural Nebraska to start new lives in America, with a particular focus on a Bohemian family.

Published: 1855

Published: 1845

The life of a gifted negro who became a famous anti-slavery orator.

Author: Charles Dickens

Published: 1839

This lengthy burlesque novel centers around the life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, a young man who must support his mother and sister after his father dies. While some consider the book to be among the finest works of 19th century comedy, Nicholas Nickleby is occasionally criticized for its lack of character development.

Published: 1919

A study of the contrasts in the daily lives of two friends, Katharine Hilbery and Mary Datchet -- their loves, marriages, happinesses, and successes.

Published: 1818

The terror of Northanger Abbey had no name, no shape -- yet it menaced Catherine Morland in the dead of night! Published posthumously.

Author: Joseph Conrad

Published: 1904

The history of a South American revolution. But on this leading theme there hang such a multitude of side-issues and of individual experiences that it is certainly the hardest of Conrad's novels to summarize. In this story of vast riches, of unbridled passions, of patriotism, of greed, of barbaric cruelty, of the most debased and of the most noble impulses, the whole history of South America seems to be epitomized.

Published: 1864

Published: 1913

In the early 1900s, Alexandra Bergson, daughter of a Swedish immigrant, inherits the family farm when her father dies and she chooses to devote her life to making the farm work -- at a time when other immigrants are leaving the prairies of Nebraska. The novel also follows the romance between Alexandra and a family friend, and between Alexandra's brother and a married woman.

Author: Homer

Published: 1900

This ancient Greek epic poem centers on the hero Odysseus (or Ulysses, as he was known in Roman myths) and his long journey home following the fall of Troy. In the ten years it takes him to reach Ithaca his family assumes he has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors, the Mnesteres, who compete for Penelope's hand in marriage.

Published: 1915

This novel deals with the life of its main character Philip Carey, who, like Maugham, was orphaned and brought up by his pious uncle. Taking the form of a bildungsroman, Maugham traces the protagonist's travels to Germany, Paris, and London while exploring his intellectual and emotional development and later, in the London period, his destructive relationship with the main female character, a crude cockney waitress by the name of Mildred.

Author: Charles Dickens

Published: 1839

Probably the best-known of all Dickens' works, Oliver Twist was originally published as a serial, and sought to bring the public's attention to various contemporary social evils, including the workhouse, child labour and the recruitment of children as criminals.The novel is full of drama, sarcasm and dark humour even as it reveals the hypocrisies of the time.

Author: Charles Darwin

Published: 1859

When on board H.M.S. 'Beagle,' as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species--that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers. On my return home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five years' work I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the conclusions, which then seemed to me probable: from that period to the present day I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.

Published: 1667

The protagonist of this Protestant epic is the fallen angel Satan. From a modern perspective it may appear that Milton presents Satan sympathetically, as an ambitious and prideful being who defies his tyrannical creator, omnipotent God, and wages war on Heaven, only to be defeated and cast down. Some critics regard the character of Satan as a Byronic hero.

Translated by H.F. Cary

Published: 1818

Eight years ago, Anne Elliot fell in love with poor but ambitious naval officer Captain Frederick Wentworth -- a choice which Anne's family was dissatisfied with. Lady Russell, friend and mentor to Anne, persuaded the younger woman to break off the match; now, on the verge of spinsterhood, Anne re-encounters Frederick Wentworth as he courts her spirited young neighbour, Louisa Musgrove. (Published posthumously.)

Author: James M. Barrie

Published: 1904

This edition of Peter Pan has been created in the United States of America from a comparison of various editions determined by age to be in the Public Domain in the United States. There are questions concerning the copyright status in other countries, particulary in members or former members of the British Commonwealth. Anyone who can contribute information as to the copyrights status of earliest editions is encouraged to do so. For the present, this edition of Peter Pan is restricted to the United States, and is not to be for use or included in any storage or retrieval system in any country, other than the United States of America. To assist in the preservation of this edition in proper usage, our edition is claimed as copyright (c)1991 due to our preparations of several sources, our own research, and the inclusions of additions and explanations to the original sources.

Published: 1911

The story of a man named Erik, an eccentric, physically deformed genius who terrorizes the Opera Garnier in Paris. He builds his home beneath it and takes the love of his life, a beautiful soprano, under his wing.

Published: 1890

The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.

Published: 1678

An allegorical novel, written while Bunyan was imprisoned for conducting un-authorized religious services outside the Church of England.

Author: Aristotle

Published: 1920

In the tenth book of the Republic, when Plato has completed his final burning denunciation of Poetry, the false Siren, the imitator of things which themselves are shadows, the ally of all that is low and weak in the soul against that which is high and strong, who makes us feed the things we ought to starve and serve the things we ought to rule, he ends with a touch of compunction: 'We will give her champions, not poets themselves but poet-lovers, an opportunity to make her defence in plain prose and show that she is not only sweet--as we well know--but also helpful to society and the life of man, and we will listen in a kindly spirit. For we shall be gainers, I take it, if this can be proved.' Aristotle certainly knew the passage, and it looks as if his treatise on poetry was an answer to Plato's challenge.

Translated by Ingram Bywater, with a preface by Gilbert Murray.

Published: 1881

Published: 1916

A depiction of the formative years in the life of Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter ego of Joyce and a pointed allusion to the consummate craftsman of Greek mythology, Dædalus.

Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Published: 1872

Translated by Constance Garnett.

Published: 1813

Austen's finest comedy of manners portrays life in the genteel rural society of the early 1800s, and tells of the initial misunderstandings (and mutual enlightenment) between lively and quick witted Elizabeth Bennet and the haughty Mr. Darcy.

Published: 1882

Published: 1894

Translated by H.F. Cary

Published: 1914

The story of Professor Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, who wagers that he can turn a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into the toast of London society merely by teaching her how to speak with an upper-class accent. In the process, he becomes fond of her and attempts to direct her future, but she rejects his domineering ways and marries a young but poor man of the genteel class, Freddy.

Published: 1895

Following the experiences of 19-year-old Henry Fleming, a recruit in the American Civil War, the story is about the meaning of courage. One of the most influential American anti-war stories ever written.

Published: 1878

When first published as a periodical in Victorian Britain, this novel was highly controversial -- and Hardy was forced to add a sixth, unplanned book "Aftercourses" to provide the happy ending demanded by the public.

Published: 1885

Silas Lapham goes from rags to riches, and his ensuing moral susceptibility is the center of this tale. Silas earns a fortune in the paint business, but lacks social standards, a failure which he attempts to remedy through his daughter's marriage to the scion of the aristocratic Corey family.

Published: 1719

Sometimes considered to be the first novel in English, this book is a fictional autobiography of a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Venezuela.

Published: 1908

The story of young Lucy Honeychurch, traveling through Italy and returning to England during the repressive Edwardian period. At once a romance as well as a critique of English society at the beginning of the 20th century.

Published: 1900

The actual experiences during cruise around the world in the Spray with a crew of one, 1895-98.

Published: 1850

In 17th-century Puritan Boston Hester Prynne gives birth after committing adultery and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity.

Published: 1905

In 1792, when the hated aristocrats were being mowed down in France by Madame Guillotine, an intrepid Englishman hid his identity under the nom-de-guerre of "The Scarlet Pimpernel," and headed a band of twenty noblemen whose object was to save as many of the French aristocracy as possible.

Published: 1907

A novel treating of the underworld of London life--the underworld of anarchists and spies. Verloc, "the secret agent," is ostensibly an anarchist, but in reality a spy of one of the big Embassies. He keeps a dim, disreputable shop in side street of Soho, where he lives with his wife, Winnie, his wife's mother, and his half-witted brother-in-law, Stevie. Verloc in his heavy and slothful way is a domesticated man and well pleased with his comfortable existence. So that he is horribly upset when he gets a broad hint from the Embassy that he is not doing enough for his money...

Published: 1909

The book tells the story of Mary Lennox, a spoiled, contrary orphan, who is sent to live in her uncle's manor in Yorkshire. She is left to herself by her uncle Mr. Craven, who travels most of the time, trying to escape from memories of his wife. The only person who has any time for Mary is the chambermaid Martha. It is Martha who tells Mary about the walled garden, Mrs. Craven's favourite garden, which nobody has seen the inside of since she her death; Mr. Craven locked it and buried the key.

Published: 1919

ENGLAND TO AMERICA. By Margaret Prescott Montague
"FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO." By Wilbur Daniel Steele
THEY GRIND EXCEEDING SMALL. By Ben Ames Williams
ON STRIKE. By Albert Payson Terhune.
THE ELEPHANT REMEMBERS. By Edison Marshall
TURKEY RED. By Frances Gilchrist Wood
FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS REWARD. By Melville Davisson Post
THE BLOOD OF THE DRAGON. By Thomas Grant Springer
"HUMORESQUE." By Fannie Hurst
THE LUBBENY KISS. By Louise Rice.
THE TRIAL IN TOM BELCHER'S STORE. By Samuel A. Derieux
PORCELAIN CUPS. By James Branch Cabell
THE HIGH COST OF CONSCIENCE. By Beatrice Ravenel
THE KITCHEN GODS. By G.F. Alsop
APRIL 25TH, AS USUAL. By Edna Ferber

Published: 1811

Two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood (Elinor representing ''sense'' and Marianne ''sensibility''), along with their mother and younger sister Margaret, are left impoverished after the death of their father, and the family is forced to move to a country cottage, offered to them by a generous relative.

Author: Herman Hesse

Published: 1922

An allegorical novel that follows the spiritual journey of an Indian man called Siddhartha during the time of Buddha (6th century B.C.). Beginning with the main character's departure from his Brahmin home the search for enlightenment takes Siddhartha through a series of changes and realizations.

Author: George Eliot

Published: 1861

Wrongly accused of theft and exiled by community of Lantern Yard, Silas Marner settles in the village of Raveloe, living as a recluse and caring only for work and money. Bitter and unhappy, Silas' circumstances change when an orphaned child, actually the unaknowledged child of Godfrey Cass, eldest son of the local squire, is left in his care.

Published: 1900

The story of a woman who flees country life for Chicago, Illinois and falls into a wayward life of sin. One of the most important novels America has ever produced, it ruthlessly exposes the hypocrisy and meanness of middle-class standards, and establishes a new tradition in literary realism.

Published: 1913

The story of Paul Morel, a young man and budding artist, growing up in a working class mining community. Considered by many to be D.H. Lawrence's earliest masterpiece.

Published: 1903

An extraordinarily vital and interesting book by an able advocate of his race's spiritual rights. Mr. Du Bois is a graduate of Harvard University and a professor in the University of Atlanta, and himself a man of great culture, he has always contended for the spiritual uplifting of the negro as opposed to Mr. Booker Washington's practical and material theories.

Published: 1886

The gripping novel of a London lawyer who investigates strange occurrences surrounding his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the misanthropic Mr. Edward Hyde. The work is known for its vivid portrayal of a split personality, split in the sense that within the same person there is both an apparently good and an evil personality each being quite distinct from the other.

Author: Marcel Proust

Published: 1922

Translated from the French by C. K. Scott Moncrieff.

Published: 1859

Sidney Carton is almost the only case in which Dickens has drawn a hero on the true heroic scale, and his famous act of self-sacrifice is unmatched in fiction. The book must be ranked very high among the great tragedies in literature.

Author: Lao Tzu

The Tao and its characteristics. Translated by James Legge

Published: 1912

The novel is the coming-of-age story of John Clayton, born in the western coastal jungles of equatorial Africa to a marooned couple from England, John and Alice Clayton, Lord and Lady Greystoke. Adopted as an infant by the she-ape Kala after his parents are killed by the savage king ape Kerchak, Clayton is renamed Tarzan (''White Skin'' in the ape language) and raised in ignorance of his human heritage.

Author: Thomas Hardy

Published: 1891

"Tess" is an exemplification of all the horrors of malignant destiny. By nature its heroine is incarnate goodness: every fibre of her being is pure; and yet, under the stress of circumstances, the compulsion of force and the beguilement of fraud, partly through ignorance, partly through delirium and desperation, she is harassed, degraded, despoiled, plunged into misery, goaded to the insane commission of homicide, and finally is hanged for murder.

Published: 1920

Wealthy and attractive Princeton student Amory Blaine dabbles in literature and romance, and becomes disillusioned by the greed and social climbing of post-World War I American youth.

Published: 1844

The adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to become a guard of the musketeers. D'Artagnan is not one of the musketeers of the title; those are his friends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.

Author: Sophocles

Antigone
Oedipus at Colonus
Oedipus The King
Translated by Francis Storr, 1912.

Published: 1895

A brilliant fantasy beyond conventional thought...

Author: H.G. Wells

Published: 1897

The Invisible Man of the title is ''Griffin'', a scientist who theorizes that if a person's refractive index is changed to exactly that of air and his body does not absorb or reflect light, then he will not be visible. He successfully carries out this procedure on himself, but begins to become mentally unstable as a result...

Published: 1749

Published: 1883

A masterful tale of ''buccaneers and buried gold''. First published in the children's magazine Young Folks, and considered a coming of age story, it is an adventure tale of superb atmosphere, character, and action, as well as a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality—as seen in Long John Silver—unusual for children's literature then and now. It is one of the most frequently dramatised of all novels, and its influence on popular lore about pirates can not be overestimated.

Published: 1898

A neurotic governess, believing that the two children in her care are being haunted by malevolent ghosts, seeks to exorcize them. One of the great intellectual ghost stories of all time.

Published: 1888

Inspired by the romance between Lord Byron and his mistress Claire Claremont, who in her dotage jealously guarded the poems written by Byron in her honor.

Published: 1870

Sent to investigate mysterious encounters that are disrupting international shipping, Professor Aronnax, his servant Conseil, and disgruntled harpooner Ned Land are captured when their frigate is sunk during an encounter with the "monster." The submarine Nautilus and its eccentric Captain Nemo afford the professor and his companions endless fascination and danger as they're swept along on a yearlong undersea voyage.

Published: 1840

Sailing to California from Boston around Cape Horn, Two Years Before the Mast is both an adventure and an eloquent account of life at sea in the early nineteenth century. Richard Henry Dana is only nineteen when he escapes the patrician world of Boston and Harvard for the arduous voyage. The result is an astonishing book, filled with vivid descriptions of storms, whales, and the ship's mad captain, terrible hardship and magical beauty, and fascinating historical detail.

Published: 1852

The story focuses on the tale of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave, the central character around whose life the other characters--both fellow slaves and slave owners--revolve. The novel dramatizes the harsh reality of slavery while also showing that Christian love and faith can overcome even something as evil as enslavement of fellow human beings.

Published: 1515

Author: William Makepeace Thackeray

Published: 1848

A satire of 19th-century British society.

Author: William James

Published: 1902

Published: 1853

From an artistic point of view, the most perfect of Charlotte Brontë's stories. Practically an autobiography, it abounds with rich humour and keen analysis of character.

Author: Owen Wister

Published: 1902

Widely regarded as being the first American western novel, this loosely constructed story of a naturally aristocratic cowboy is set against the Johnson County War.

Published: 1915

Rachel Vinrace embarks for South America on her father's ship and is launched on a course of self-discovery in this modern version of the mythic voyage. In one of Woolf's wittiest, most satirical novels, we are introduced to Clarissa Dalloway, the central character of Woolf's later novel, Mrs. Dalloway. The mismatched jumble of passengers on the ship provide Woolf with ample opportunity to satirize Edwardian life.

Author: Henry David Thoreau

Published: 1854

When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.

Published: 1869

The novel tells the story of a number of aristocratic families and the entanglements of their personal lives with Napoleon's invasion of Russia. As events proceed, Tolstoy systematically denies his subjects any significant free choice: the onward roll of history determines happiness and tragedy alike. (Translated by Aylmer and Louise Shanks Maude.)

Published: 1898

The War of the Worlds describes the fictional 1895 invasion of Earth by aliens from Mars who use laser-like Heat-Rays, chemical weapons, and mechanical three-legged ''fighting machines'' that could potentially be viewed as precursors to the tank. After defeating the resistance the Martians devastate much of eastern England, including London...

The Horse-Stealers -- Ward No. 6 -- The Petchenyeg -- A Dead Body -- A Happy Ending -- The Looking-Glass -- Old Age -- Darkness -- The Beggar -- A Story Without A Title -- In Trouble -- Frost -- A Slander -- Minds In Ferment -- Gone Astray -- An Avenger -- The Jeune Premier -- A Defenceless Creature -- An Enigmatic Nature -- A Happy Man -- A Troublesome Visitor -- An Actor's End
Translated by Constance Garnett

The Chorus Girl -- Verotchka -- My Life At A Country House -- A Father On The Road -- Rothschild's Fiddle -- Ivan Matveyitch -- Zinotchka -- Bad Weather -- A Gentleman Friend -- A Trivial Incident

Published: 1875

A scathing satire centered on the financial scandals of Victorian England, as well as the pervasive dishonesty of the age, in commercial, political, moral, and intellectual manners.

Published: 1913

Alternately slow-moving and fast-paced, the story focuses on three animal characters in a bucolic version of England, and is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality and camaraderie. It will provide as much pleasure to adult readers as to children, although for rather different reasons.

Published: 1902

The Wings of the Dove, published in 1902, represents to my memory a very old–if I shouldn’t perhaps rather say a very young–motive; I can scarce remember the time when the situation on which this long-drawn fiction mainly rests was not vividly present to me. The idea, reduced to its essence, is that of a young person conscious of a great capacity for life, but early stricken and doomed, condemned to die under short respite, while also enamoured of the world; aware moreover of the condemnation and passionately desiring to “put in” before extinction as many of the finer vibrations as possible, and so achieve, however briefly and brokenly, the sense of having lived.

Author: Elizabeth Gaskell

Published: 1865

Follow the story of Molly Gibson, only daughter of a widowed doctor, as she lives in a provincial English town of the 1830s. The novel was first published as a serial and when Mrs Gaskell died suddenly in 1865, it was not quite complete, so the last section was written by Frederick Greenwood.

Published: 1860

The Woman in White is widely regarded as the first in the genre of 'sensation novels'. It follows the story of two sisters living in Victorian England with their selfish, uninterested uncle as their guardian. Marian Halcombe is the elder of the two sisters, and a remarkably ugly woman, but with courage, strength and resourcefulness in abundance. The younger, her beautiful half-sister Laura Fairlie, is engaged to a rich man by the name of Sir Percival Glyde.

Published: 1901

To quote a reader, ''If all you know of Oz comes from the movie musical then you owe it to yourself to read the book that inspired Hollywood.'' Learn about Dorothy and her friends in the first of thirteen volumes by L. Frank Baum.

Published: 1847

Emily Brontë's only novel, this tale portrays Catherine and Heathcliff, their all-encompassing love for one another, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them both, leading Heathcliff to shun and abuse society. First published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, Wuthering Heights is considered to be a classic of English literature.