MaggieStephen Crane
This harrowing tale of a young girl in the slums is a searing portrayal of turn-of-the-century New York, and Stephen Crane's most innovative work. When published, it broke new ground with its vivid characters, its brutal naturalism, and its empathic rendering of the lives of the poor. It remains both powerful... read more »
The Disintegration MachineArthur Conan Doyle
The Disintegration Machine is a short story written about Professor Challenger by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Professor Challenger is arguing with people who are persistently calling him on the telephone when his young friend Malone, a reporter for the Gazette, enters and requests Challenger accompany him to inspect the... read more »
Felix Holt, The RadicalGeorge Eliot
When the young nobleman Harold Transome returns to England from the colonies with a self-made fortune, he scandalizes the town of Treby Magna with his decision to stand for Parliament as a Radical. But after the idealistic Felix Holt also returns to the town, the difference between Harold's opportunistic values and... read more »
The Making of a SaintW. Somerset Maugham
Immerse yourself in the mystery and intrigue of medieval Italy in this engrossing novel from W. Somerset Maugham, the author of such timeless classics as Of Human Bondage and The Razor's Edge. Though the action of the narrative recounts the way that Filippo Bandolini came to be recognized as a saint, the ups and... read more »
The Madman and the PirateR. M. Ballantyne
The Madman, Antonio Zeppa, is abandoned on Ratinga, an island in the Pacific, where there later appears a miserable ex-pirate called Richard Rosco. The two start up a sort of love-hate relationship. The natives put Rosco on a fire to burn him at the stake, but he is rescued by Zeppa, who carries him up to his cave... read more »
The Secret of SarekMaurice Leblanc
The war has led to so many upheavals that not many people now remember the Hergemont scandal of seventeen years ago. Let us recall the details in a few lines. One day in July 1902, M. Antoine d'Hergemont, the author of a series of well-known studies on the megalithic monuments of Brittany, was walking in the Bois... read more »
The Night-BornJack London
This early work on The night born is a fascinating novel of the period and still an interesting read today. Classic Jack London short stories, including The Night-Born - By Jack London - Classic Jack London. Short Stories including: The Night-Born - The Madness of John Harned - When the World was Young - The Benefit... read more »
Hospital SketchesLouisa May Alcott
Before her wider fame as the author of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott achieved recognition for her accounts of her work as a volunteer nurse in an army hospital. Written during the winter of 1862-63, her lively dispatches appeared in the newspaper Commonwealth, where they were eagerly read by soldiers' friends and... read more »
Piper in the WoodsPhilip K. Dick
Under extreme duress, the human mind can come up with an array of impossibly complex coping mechanisms. Is that what's behind the strange epidemic that army physician Henry Harris has noticed overtaking soldiers who have returned from the distant celestial body known as Asteroid Y-3? Harris makes a trip to the... read more »
The Sunny SideA. A. Milne
The Sunny Side gathers the best short works by the inimitable A. A. Milne. Written for the satire magazine Punch, these brief stories and essays perfectly capture Milne's sly humor, beguiling social insight, and scathing wit. From Odd Verses to War Sketches, Summer Days to Men of Letters, Milne takes his readers... read more »
Rainbow ValleyL. M. Montgomery
Anne Shirley is grown up, has married her beloved Gilbert and now is the mother of six mischievous children. These boys and girls discover a special place all their own, but they never dream of what will happen when the strangest family moves into an old nearby mansion. The Meredith clan is two boys and two girls... read more »
Eugénie GrandetHonoré de Balzac
This is the question that fills the minds of the inhabitants of Saumur, the setting for Eugénie Grandet, one of the earliest and most famous novels in Balzac's Comédie humaine. The Grandet household, oppressed by the exacting miserliness of Grandet himself, is jerked violently out of routine by the sudden arrival... read more »
A Journal of the Plague YearDaniel Defoe
A Journal of the Plague Year is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published in March 1722. The novel is a fictionalised account of one man's experiences of the year 1665, in which the Great Plague struck the city of London. The book is told roughly chronologically, though without sections or chapter headings. (source... read more »
The White PeacockD. H. Lawrence
Focusing on three relationships - one destructively stillborn, one disastrously unfulfilling and one passionately unspoken - Lawrence exploits the language and conventions of the rural tradition to foreground man's alienation from the natural world. His evocation of the vanishing countryside of the English midlands... read more »
DemonsFyodor Dostoyevsky
An extremely political book, Demons is a testimonial of life in Imperial Russia in the late 19th century. As the revolutionary democrats begin to rise in Russia, different ideologies begin to collide. Dostoyevsky casts a critical eye on both the radical idealists, portraying their ideas and ideological foundation as... read more »
KenilworthWalter Scott
Scott's imagination created Kenilworth, a romance novel of conflicting characters. He has brought to life the character of Queen Elizabeth with the most brilliant and enchanting effect. The novel tells the story of the secret, tragic marriage of Amy Robsart to Robert Dudley that is marred by ambition. The theme of... read more »
The Little MinisterJ. M. Barrie
When published, J.M. Barrie's The Little Minister was quickly identified, along with Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, as one of the two great literary events of the year. Within the space of two years the book had sold in excess of 35,000 copies. Set in 'Thrums', the fictional name for the author's native... read more »
The RepairmanHarry Harrison
Take an intergalactic journey with science fiction luminary Harry Harrison. In The Repairman, Harrison recounts the travails of a lone skilled laborer who is charged with the frustrating task of making a crucial repair to malfunctioning equipment on a far-flung planet. read more »
Miss Billy's DecisionEleanor H. Porter
The second in the Miss Billy Trilogy, Miss Billy's Decision is a heart warming tale of love and misunderstandings in love. Billy, all grown up in this sequel, has to face adversaries in order to win the love of the man she desires. Written in a bright and clever style, this book completely transforms the reader into... read more »
Flower FablesLouisa May Alcott
Flower Fables contains wildly imaginative stories that grew out of Alcott's experience as a storyteller to the children of her Concord, Connecticut, neighbors. Through these enticing encounters with fairies, elves, and animals, the author creates a foundation for young people based on the themes of love, kindness... read more »
ClementinaA. E. W. Mason
A fictionalized story of the rescue of Maria Clementina Sobieska from imprisonment so that she could wed James Francis Edward Stuart, also known as Prince James, Prince of Wales (also known as The Old Pretender or The Old Chevalier). read more »
The Incredulity of Father BrownG. K. Chesterton
In The Incredulity of Father Brown, G.K. Chesterton treats us to another set of bizarre crimes that only his 'stumpy' Roman Catholic prelate has the wisdom and mindset to solve. As usual, Chesterton loves playing with early twentieth-century class distinctions, 'common-sense' assumptions, and the often anti-Catholic... read more »
The Corsican BrothersAlexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas weaves the compelling story of Siamese twins who are separated physically but never in spirit. They're raised by two different families, but are still able to 'feel' the emotions of the other, even at a distance. On the island of Corsica they become entwined in the long-running feud between the... read more »
ArrowsmithSinclair Lewis
Small-town physician, Martin Arrowsmith, is a dedicated worker whose efforts lead him to a promising career in the medical research field. A breakthrough discovery in treating the plague promises wealth and power -- but the death of his wife causes him to rethink his priorities. Arrowsmith is arguably the earliest... read more »
Mistress WildingRafael Sabatini
The classic action-adventure romance Mistress Wilding offers something for every Rafael Sabatini fan. Set amidst the turmoil of King James' reign, the tangled love triangle at the center of the novel is beset on all sides by conflict, treachery and intrigue. Will the chivalrous protagonist Anthony Wilding be able to... read more »
An Old-Fashioned GirlLouisa May Alcott
It all starts out with Tom Shaw fighting with his sister, Fan, to go to the station to pick up Fan's friend. Fan does not wish to go because her curls will get ruined in the rain. Finally, Tom agrees to go, and runs to the station. There, he expects to meet a fashionable, breezy young lady, but is instead met by a... read more »
Beyond the DoorPhilip K. Dick
In Beyond the Door, Dick spins the tale of a thoughtful gift that holds unspeakable secrets. Though protagonist Larry Thomas had only the best intentions when he picked out the tchotchke for his wife, it's a decision he'll always regret. read more »
Children of the FrostJack London
American journalist and action-adventure writer Jack London had a life-long fascination with the indigenous tribes of the Pacific Northwest, and he brings his extensive research and first-hand experience in the region to bear in the fiction he wrote about these communities. read more »
The Iron HorseR. M. Ballantyne
How the madman who assaulted me this evening found me out I know not. I was not aware until this day that he had been tracking me, but, judging from what he said, and from what I know about him, I now see that he must have been doing so for some years. Here is the explanation, and, let me add, it intimately concerns... read more »
Love Among the ChickensP. G. Wodehouse
After seeing his friend Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge for the first time in years, Jeremy Garnet is dragged along on holiday to Ukridge's new chicken farm in Dorset. Hilarious situations abound with Garnet's troublesome courting of a girl living nearby and the struggles on the farm, which are worsened by... read more »