The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Volume 2Edgar Allan Poe
Volume two of the complete works in five volumes from one of the leaders of the American Romantics. Macabre parties in isolated castles … Gruesome bestial murders … Talking ravens, hellish black pits, innocents buried alive … Prepare to be chilled and enthralled by the haunting genius of the acknowledged... read more »
The Prince of India (Volume 2)Lew Wallace
The final volume of Wallace's, The Prince of India. The protagonist of this novel is "The Wandering Shoemaker" a figure from medieval Christian folklore whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century. The original legend concerns a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion and was then cursed... read more »
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Vol. 6Edward Gibbon
In the final volume of Gibbon's history we cover the The Crusades; Partition of the Empire by the French and Venetians; Greek Emperors of Nice and Constantinople; CIVIL Wars and the Ruin of the Greek Empire; Moguls, Ottoman Turks; Elevation of Timour or Tamerlane, and His Death; Union of the Greek and Latin... read more »
Plain Tales from the HillsRudyard Kipling
Set and published during the time of the British Raj, a time of subalterns and tea planters, the 40 stories in Plain Tales From The Hills are played out under an unforgiving sun, revealing the deceit, faithlessness, shallowness, despair, mistrust, hate, and petty jealousies rife amongst the British inhabitants of... read more »
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManJames Joyce
Perhaps Joyce's most personal work, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man depicts the intellectual awakening of one of literature's most memorable young heroes, Stephen Dedalus. Through a series of brilliant epiphanies that parallel the development of his own aesthetic consciousness, Joyce evokes Stephen's youth... read more »
Precious BaneMary Webb
Narrated by the central character Prue Sarn, whose life is blighted by having a harelip. Only the weaver, Kester Woodseaves, perceives her inner beauty but Prue cannot believe herself worthy of him. Prue is wrongly accused of murder and only one man can save her and take her away to the happiness she believes she... read more »
Bleak HouseCharles Dickens
Bleak House, Dickens's most daring experiment in the narration of a complex plot, challenges the reader to make connections - between the fashionable and the outcast, the beautiful and the ugly, the powerful and the victims. Nowhere in Dickens's later novels is his attack on an uncaring society more imaginatively... read more »
Once a WeekA. A. Milne
Once A Week is a collection of short stories and vignettes by A. A. Milne originally published in Punch. Stories included are; The Heir, Winter Sport, A Baker's Dozen, Getting Married, Home Affairs, Other People's Houses, Burlesques, Merely Players and The Men Who Succeed. The collection was first published on 15... read more »
Poor FolkFyodor Dostoyevsky
Poor Folk is an epistolary novel -- that is, a tale told as a series of letters between the characters. And oh, what characters these are! Makar Dievushkin Alexievitch is a copy writer, barely squeaking by; Barbara Dobroselova Alexievna works as a seamstress, and both face the sort of everyday humiliation society... read more »
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Vol. 5Edward Gibbon
In this fifth of six volumes, readers will find Chapter 45 ("State of Italy Under the Lombards") through Chapter 51 ("Conquests by the Arabs"), which cover the reign of Justin II; the Lombards' conquest of Italy; the Franks' conquest of Italy; the reign of Tiberius II; the life of Gregory the Great; and the rules of... read more »
A Prefect's UncleP. G. Wodehouse
One of Wodehouse's early novels set in an English public school, a school story that revolves around cricket, stolen money, and an embarrassing uncle (who happens to be younger than his nephew) who enrolls in in his school. The arrival of Farnie at Beckford College brings much excitement and scandal to the school... read more »
White JacketHerman Melville
One of Melville’s most popular novels, White-Jacket is both a brisk sea adventure and a powerful social critique, which also contains some of Melville's best black humor (particularly the hilarious Surgeon of the Fleet episode). In 1843, after three years of voyaging in the South Seas, Melville signed up as an... read more »
BoyhoodLeo Tolstoy
In the 1850s Tolstoy also began his literary career with an autobiographical trilogy: Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth. This, the second novel in the trilogy, tells of the early part of his life, when he was living happily with his family in the countryside. It also portrays his first love affair with Sonya and the... read more »
A Daughter of the SnowsJack London
Set in the Yukon, it tells the story of Frona Welse, a Stanford graduate and physical Valkyrie, who takes to the trail after upsetting her wealthy father's community by her forthright manner and befriending the town's prostitute. She is also torn between love for two suitors: Gregory St Vincent, a local man who... read more »
The Lost WorldArthur Conan Doyle
Long before Michael Crichton's high-tech dinosaurs roamed the bestseller lists, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle envisioned an isolated land of prehistoric life that exists in the 20th century. When Ed Malone, a hotheaded journalist with an insatiable thirst for adventure, is sent to interview the notorious Professor... read more »
The PothuntersP. G. Wodehouse
When someone breaks into the cricket pavilion and steals two silver cups, the whole school is agog. Could it possibly be an inside job? Nothing less than the honour of St Austin's is at stake, not to mention the reputation of Jim Thomson, an excellent athlete with a talent for being in the wrong place at the wrong... read more »
The Red House MysteryA. A. Milne
Droll, finely crafted whodunit from A. A. Milne (author of Winnie-the-Pooh), one of England’s most popular writer’s, sparkles with witty dialogue, deft plotting, and an amusing cast of characters. Amateur detectives Antony Gillingham and his chum Bill Beverley investigate the disappearance of their genial host... read more »
St. IvesRobert Louis Stevenson
The irreverent tale revolves around the exploits of Captain Jacques St. Ives who is captured by the British and thrown in jail. While there, he meets the droll Miss Gilchrist and her lovely niece, Flora, who takes an interest in the prisoner. For Jacques and Flora, it's love at first sight - although Major Chevening... read more »
Martin ChuzzlewitCharles Dickens
Dickens turns his satirical eye on America in "Martin Chuzzlewit", when young Martin embarks on a voyage that is destined to affect the fortunes of his family and his love. A story about the contrasting destinies of two descendants of the brothers Chuzzlewit, both born and bred to the same heritage of selfishness... read more »
Notes from the UndergroundFyodor Dostoyevsky
One of the most profound and most unsettling works of modern literature, Notes from Underground remains a cultural and literary watershed. In these pages Dostoevsky unflinchingly examines the dark, mysterious depths of the human heart. The Underground Man so chillingly depicted here has become an archetypal figure... read more »
Almayer's FollyJoseph Conrad
Lush prose and penetrating psychological insight infuse Conrad's first novel with the qualities that have made him one of the most popular and most studied writers in English literature. The novel chronicles the tragic decline of a Dutch merchant isolated in 19th-century Borneo, the machinations of his bitter... read more »
Tristram ShandyLaurence Sterne
At once endlessly facetious and highly serious, Sterne's great comic novel contains some of the best-known and best-loved characters in English literature--including Uncle Toby, Corporal Trim, Parson Yorick, and Dr. Slop--and boasts one of the most innovative and whimsical narrative styles in all literature.
A... read more »
The Little White BirdJ. M. Barrie
The Little White Bird is a series of short episodes with tones ranging from fantasy and whimsy to social comedy with dark aggressive undertonesm. It accounts the narrator's day to day activities in London of its day, and fanciful tales set in Kensington Gardens and elsewhere. This book also includes the very first... read more »
Margaret OgilvyJ. M. Barrie
Barrie's autobiography of his mother, published after her death, and which tells a lot of Barrie's early emotional life. Barrie descibes how strong minded and intelligent she was and how she wanted everything done done her way. read more »
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of NantucketEdgar Allan Poe
A stowaway aboard the whaling ship Grampus, Arthur Gordon Pym finds himself bound on an extraordinary voyage to the high southern latitudes. Poes novel recounts the incredible adventures and discoveries of Pym and his companions. There is mutiny, appalling butchery, and the exquisite horror of cannibalism premature... read more »
The Trail of the HawkSinclair Lewis
The Trail of the Hawk, by Sinclair Lewis, is the chronicle of an inveterate Rolling Stone. Carl Ericson, a born rebel against conventions, finds himself from boyhood up at war with the combined forces of family, school and society, all three of which unite in trying to mould him into the average colourless human... read more »
The Star RoverJack London
San Quentin, death-row inmate Darrell Standing, escapes the horror of prison life—and long stretches in a straitjacket—by withdrawing into vivid dreams of past lives, including incarnations as a French nobleman and an Englishman in medieval Korea. Based on the life and imprisonment of Jack London’s friend Ed... read more »
Free AirSinclair Lewis
This cheerful little road novel is about Claire Boltwood, who, in the early days of the 20th century, travels by automobile from New York City to the Pacific Northwest, where she falls in love with a nice, down-to-earth young man and gives up her snobbish Estate. read more »
The Wonderful VisitH. G. Wells
It is the tale of a fallen angel who simply cannot adapt to society in a small English village. The angel's reactions to the villagers, his pureness and wholesomeness make him an enemy of the people. As time passes on earth, he becomes more and more human, falling in love and suffering all the human trials and... read more »
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Vol. 4Edward Gibbon
This, the fourth volume, covers the period of the Roman Empire after Marcus Aurelius, from just before 180 to 1453 and beyond, concluding in 1590. They take as their material the behaviour and decisions that led to the decay and eventual fall of the Roman Empire in the East and West, offering an explanation for why... read more »