The Pit and The PendulumEdgar Allan Poe
Pit and The Pendulum is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural. read more »
A Christmas GarlandMax Beerbohm
Seventeen parodies with a Christmas theme of some of the most renowned authors of the period - including Kipling, Henry James, Thomas Hardy, H.G. Wells and Conrad - written by Max Beerbohm, whose reputation as a humourist and writer remains high. It is regarded as one of the finest collection of parodies in the... read more »
BabbittSinclair Lewis
In this sardonic portrait of the up-and-coming middle class during the prosperous 1920s, Sinclair Lewis perfectly captures the sound, the feel, and the attitudes of the generation that created the cult of consumerism. With a sharp eye for detail and keen powers of observation, Lewis tracks successful realtor George... read more »
The Custom of the CountryEdith Wharton
Edith Wharton's satiric anatomy of American society in the first decade of the twentieth century appeared in 1913; it both appalled and fascinated its first reviewers, and established her as a major novelist. The Saturday Review wrote that she had 'assembled as many detestable people as it is possible to pack... read more »
Tono-BungayH. G. Wells
The story of an apprentice chemist whose uncle’s worthless medicine becomes a spectacular marketing success, Tono-Bungay earned H. G. Wells immediate acclaim when it appeared in 1909. It remains a sparkling chronicle of chicanery and human credulity, and is today regarded by many as Wells’s greatest novel. read more »
CarmillaSheridan Le Fanu
Living a lonely existence in a remote schloss in Styria, on the border of Austria and Hungary, Laura and her father play host to an unexpected guest, the beautiful young Carmilla. Her arrival is closely followed by an outbreak of unexplained deaths in the area, while the young women's growing friendship coincides... read more »
The Knights of the CrossHenryk Sienkiewicz
The time and scene of the noble story are laid in the middle ages during the conquest of Pagan Lithuania by the military and priestly order of the "Krzyzacy" Knights of the Cross. And the story exhibits with splendid force the collision of race passions and fierce, violent individualities which accompanied that... read more »
The Innocence of Father BrownG. K. Chesterton
The first book of G.K. Chesterton’s ingenious, thoughtful, and lyrically written mystery stories featuring the unassuming little priest who solves crimes by imagining himself inside the mind and soul of criminals, thus understanding their motives. The stories are full of paradox, spiritual insight, and... read more »
She and AllanH. Rider Haggard
Allan Quartermain -- our hero -- and Ayesha (that is, She Who Must Be Obeyed) share the limelight in this great adventure, but oddly enough considering the stars on stage, it's Umslopogaas the Zulu who steals the show. A supernatural fantasy thriller featuring a magic token, telepathy, powers of the occult, and a... read more »
The Oval PortraitEdgar Allan Poe
Our protagonist takes refuge in an abandoned castle and discovers a room with a series of paintings accompanied by a small book describing them. His attention is attracted by an oval portrait depicting a young woman of rare beauty. The book tells of the artist falling in love with the gir and marrying her. It was... read more »
The House by the ChurchyardSheridan Le Fanu
Set in the village of Chapelizod, near Dublin, in the 1760s the story opens with the accidental disinterment of an old skull in the churchyard, and an eerie late-night funeral. This discovery relates to murders, both recent and historical whose repercussions disrupt the complacent pace of village affairs and change... read more »
The Cask of AmontilladoEdgar Allan Poe
Montressor, angry over insults by his friend Fortunato, a fellow nobleman, plots to murder him during Carnival when the man is drunk, by immurement, sealing him up alive behind walls of bricks. He baits Fortunato by telling him he has obtained, out of season, what he believes to be a pipe of Amontillado, about 130... read more »
The Voyage OutVirginia Woolf
In The Voyage Out, one of Woolf's wittiest, socially satirical novels, Rachel Vinrace embarks for South America on her father's ship, and is launched on a course of self-discovery in a modern version of the mythic voyage. Lorna Sage's Introduction and Explanatory Notes offer guidance to the reader new to Woolf, and... read more »
The Teeth of the TigerMaurice Leblanc
This is one of three novels about Lupin written in World War I. Lupin is a sincere hero who has failings, which ender him to the reader. This romance and adventure/thriller is by far the best of the Lupin series.
**Contents**: D'artagnan, Porthos...And Monte Cristo; A Man Dead; A Man Doomed; The Clouded Turquoise... read more »
The Man Who Was ThursdayG. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton's classic novella tackles anarchy, social order, God, peace, war, religion, human nature, and a few dozen other weighty concepts. And somehow he manages to blend all of it together into a delightful satire, full of tongue-in-cheek commentary that is still relevant today. As the book opens, Gabriel... read more »
Women in LoveD. H. Lawrence
A sequel to Lawrence's earlier novel The Rainbow, it continues the story of the Brangwen sisters in the coal-mining town of Beldover. Based in part on Lawrence's own stormy marriage to German aristocrat Frieda von Richthofen, the tale is charged with intense feelings and psychological insights as it focuses on the... read more »
MS. Found in a BottleEdgar Allan Poe
The plot follows an unnamed narrator at sea who finds himself in a series of harrowing circumstances. As he nears his own disastrous death while his ship drives ever southward, he writes an "MS." or manuscript telling of his adventures which he casts into the sea. Some critics believe the story was meant as a satire... read more »
The Facts in the Case of M. ValdemarEdgar Allan Poe
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar tells the tale of a mesmerist who puts a man in a suspended hypnotic state at the moment of death to see if he can communicate with him after he is dead. While a tale of suspense and horror, it was also, at the time of its publication, a bit of a hoax since it was published... read more »
Aaron's RodD. H. Lawrence
Lawrence's satirical work in which he presents a bitter view of humanity and of the relationship between men and women. Aaron Sisson, a union official in an English mining town, leaves for Italy, deserting his wife and children to pursue politics and his original interest in music. Lawrence seems to foretell the... read more »
The Premature BurialEdgar Allan Poe
Poe's short horror story on the theme of being buried alive, which was a common fear in this period and Poe took advantage of the public interest. The first-person unnamed narrator describes his struggle with "attacks of the singular disorder which physicians have agreed to term catalepsy," a condition where he... read more »
The Gold-BugEdgar Allan Poe
Believing William Legrand to have gone insane following an insect bite, his friend initially decries his quest for gold as the ramblings of a madman. Yet when Legrand's conviction fails to waiver, they set off on a bizarre journey, accompanied by Jupiter, Legrand's loyal and equally sceptical servant. What follows... read more »
King Solomon's MinesH. Rider Haggard
Following the disappearance of his brother, Sir Henry Curtis tracks down Allan Quartermain, a trader and hunter who knows Africa as well as any white man. Curtis’s brother has taken an expedition into the uncharted interior of Africa in search of the fabled diamond mines of King Solomon, but has not returned... read more »
OmooHerman Melville
Named after the Polynesian term for a rover, or someone who roams from island to island, Omoo chronicles the tumultuous events aboard a South Sea whaling vessel and is based on Melville’s personal experiences as a crew member on a ship sailing the Pacific. From recruiting among the natives for sailors to handling... read more »
ScaramoucheRafael Sabatini
When the aristocratic Lord of La Tour d'Azyr murders Andre-Louis's best friend - a young man who is politically active during the French Revolution - Andre-Louis vows to take up his friend's cause and avenge his death. He takes refuge as an actor in a travelling troupe, performing under the name Scaramouche. His... read more »
The Cat of BubastesG. A. Henty
The sacred cat of Bubastes has accidentally been slain; now young Chebron must pay for the offence with his own life, as this is the law of the Pagans in Egypt, 1250 BC. Chebron, the son of a high Egyptian priest, flees for his life taking his sister Mysa, one of the household slaves Amuba and several companions... read more »
In Desert and WildernessHenryk Sienkiewicz
The renowned Polish novelist, inspired by his travels through Africa, gives us a fascinating book recounting adventures and experiences of two children during an escape from Khartoum after the death of General Gordon, and their flight through Africa to the Indian Ocean. The children's adventures in the Egyptian... read more »
The Return of the MuckerEdgar Rice Burroughs
The remarkable story of Billy Byrne, the vicious, hardened Chicago thug and ruffian who, answering to the magical touch of a great love, gradually changed his entire point of view, ethical standards, and character, until from fear and loathing the beautiful Barbara Harding, daughter of a New York millionaire, came... read more »
The Wings of the DoveHenry James
Of the three late masterpieces that crown the extraordinary literary achievement of Henry James, The Wings of the Dove is at once the most personal and the most elemental. James drew on the memory of a beloved cousin who died young to create one of the three central characters, Milly Theale, an heiress with a short... read more »
Night and DayVirginia Woolf
Woolf portrays the fascinations of self-discovery through relationships with other people, and she also looks into the intricacies of love--are we aware of love? Katharine Hilbery is beautiful and privileged but uncertain of her future. She must choose between becoming engaged to the oddly prosaic poet William, and... read more »
The Hollow NeedleMaurice Leblanc
The gentleman thief returns in this intricately plotted tale of disguises, loot, and love. Once more Lupin is at large, snatching fortunes from under the noses of the wealthy. But this time he may have met his match . . . and not in his usual nemeses, Inspector Ganimard or Holmlock Shears, but in a bright school... read more »