The Velveteen RabbitMargery Williams
Given as a Christmas gift to a young boy, the Velveteen Rabbit lives in the nursery with all of the other toys, waiting for the day when the Boy (as he is called) will choose him as a playmate. In time, the shy Rabbit befriends the tattered Skin Horse, the wisest resident of the nursery, who reveals the goal of all... read more »
The Velvet GloveHarry Harrison
This classic short story from sci-fi luminary Harry Harrison offers a sympathetic glimpse into the inner lives of robots. In the future, society has grown ever more dependent on these super-intelligent machines, but despite their increasing autonomy, robots are still looked down on as second-class citizens. The... read more »
The Vinland ChampionsOttilie A. Liljencrantz
It happened first in the history of the New World lands that the Northman Biorn Herjulfsson saw them when he had lost his way in journeying to Greenland. But he lacked the adventuresomeness to go ashore and explore them. Then Leif the Lucky, son of Eric the Red of Greenland, heard of the omission and set out to... read more »
The Virgin and the GipsyD. H. Lawrence
Discovered in France after Lawrence's death, it was immediately recognized as a masterpiece in which he'd distilled and purified his ideas about sexuality and morality, being considered one of Lawrence's most electrifying short novels. Set in a small village in the English countryside, this is the story of a... read more »
The VirginiansW. M. Thackeray
A sequel to Henry Esmond, the novel is set, as is much of its precursor, chiefly in colonial Virginia. The Virginians follows the life of the family and descendants of Henry Esmond of Castlewood, Virginia. Although Esmond’s grandsons take opposing positions during the American Revolution, they reconcile after the... read more »
The Voyage of the BeagleCharles Darwin
When the Beagle sailed out of Devonport on 27 December 1831, Charles Darwin was twenty-two and setting off on the voyage of a lifetime. It was to last five years and transform him from an amiable and somewhat aimless young man into a scientific celebrity. Even more vitally, it was to set in motion the intellectual... read more »
The Voyage of the Dawn TreaderC. S. Lewis
Lucy and Edmund, with their dreadful cousin Eustace, get magically pulled into a painting of a ship at sea. That ship is the Dawn Treader, and on board is Caspian, King of Narnia. He and his companions, including Reepicheep, the valiant warrior mouse, are searching for seven lost lords of Narnia, and their voyage... read more »
The Wages of VirtueP. C. Wren
Sir Montague Merline and his platoon get into a bloody combat in Africa and they are all massacred except for one man. Since her husband is presumed dead, Lady Merline remarries, but Montague emerges a couple of years later in some African village, with no memory. After finding out about his wife's new life, he... read more »
The Wailing AsteroidMurray Leinster
There was no life on the asteroid, but the miles of rock-hewn corridors through which the earth party wandered left no doubt about the purpose of the asteroid. It was a mighty fortress, stocked with weapons of destruction beyond man's power to understand. And yet there was no life here, nor had there been for untold... read more »
The WandererKahlil Gibran
Shortly before his death Gibran completed this book. In these beautiful parables and drawings are crystallized his whole life's message--a message that has consoled and inspired thousands of readers since its publication. read more »
The War ChiefEdgar Rice Burroughs
Arizona Territory...the country of red deserts, rocks, high buttes and mountains--a harsh land but still a land, the Apaches had chosen for their own. The land made the men, and the Indiands were trained from infancy to match their strength, their cunning, their hunting ability against the rigors and pitiless... read more »
The WardenAnthony Trollope
The Warden centers on Mr. Harding, a clergyman of great personal integrity who is nevertheless in possession of an income from a charity far in excess of the sum devoted to the purposes of the foundation. On discovering this, young John Bold turns his reforming zeal to exposing what he regards as an abuse of... read more »
The Ward of King CanuteOttilie A. Liljencrantz
There is an old myth of a hero who renewed his strength each time he touched the earth, and finally was overcome by being raised in the air and crushed. Whether or not the Angles risked a like fate as they raised themselves away from the primitive virtues that had been their life and strength, no one can tell; but... read more »
The WatchersA. E. W. Mason
The Watchers is a novel by A. E. W. Mason (author of At the Villa Rose, The Prisoner in the Opal, etc.), first published in 1899 by the Frederick A. Stokes Company. read more »
The Water of the Wondrous IslesWilliam Morris
Drawing on medieval legend and age-old fantasy tropes, William Morris' Water of the Wondrous Isles combines the best of both of these genres and updates them with an interesting thematic twist: the heroic figure who leads the quest is a plucky, spirited young girl. Fans of classic fantasy will relish this... read more »
The WavesVirginia Woolf
Considered Woolf's most experimental work, it consists of soliloquies spoken by the book's six characters: Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny, and Louis. Set on the coast of England against the vivid background of the sea, the novel introduces six characters—three men and three women—who are grappling with... read more »
The Way of All FleshSamuel Butler
Hailed by George Bernard Shaw as "one of the summits of human achievement," Butler's autobiographical account of a harsh upbringing and troubled adulthood satirizes Victorian hypocrisy in its chronicle of the life and loves of Ernest Pontifex. Along the way, it offers a powerful indictment of 19th-century England's... read more »
The Way We Live NowAnthony Trollope
The Way We Live Now — regarded by many as Anthony Trollope's greatest novel — encompasses in its broad scope much of the business, political, social, and literary life of 1870s London. At its centre is the larger-than-life figure of Augustus Melmotte, a financier of uncertain background who rises to great... read more »
The Well at the World's EndWilliam Morris
Credited with inspiring such fantasy luminaries as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, William Morris' The Well at the World's End follows the travels of a prince, Ralph of Upmeads, who undertakes a journey to find the magical well of the title. Along the way, our hero encounters adventure, travails, and romance. A... read more »
The Wheel SpinsEthel Lina White
Iris Carr is a beautiful, young socialite on her way back home to England after vacationing in Europe. Feeling terribly alone and afraid, she finds comfort in the company of a strange woman she knows only as Miss Froy. But comfort soon turns to horror when Miss Froy mysteriously vanishes without a trace. Fearing... read more »
The Whisperer In DarknessH. P. Lovecraft
The story is told by Albert N. Wilmarth, an instructor of literature at Miskatonic University in Arkham. When local newspapers report strange things seen floating in rivers during a historic Vermont flood, Wilmarth becomes embroiled in a controversy about the reality and significance of the sightings, though he... read more »
The White CompanyArthur Conan Doyle
The story is set in England, France, and Spain, in the years during the Hundred Years' War (1366/67), against the background of the campaign of Edward, the Black Prince to restore Peter of Castile to the throne of the Kingdom of Castile. The climax of the book occurs before the Battle of Nájera. Doyle became... read more »
The White FeatherP. G. Wodehouse
In order to save his reputation and the honour of his house at school after he shames himself by running away from a fight between fellow pupils and toughs from the local town, a studious schoolboy takes up the study of boxing. This charming early novel by P. G. Wodehouse plays a series of witty variations on the... read more »
The White MonkeyJohn Galsworthy
Following her marriage to Michael Mont, Fleur Forsyte throws herself into the Roaring 20s with the rest of London and takes life as it comes. But her marriage is haunted by the ghost of a past love affair, and however vibrant Fleur appears, those closest to her sense her unhappiness. Michael, devoted to Fleur but... 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 »
The Wife and other storiesAnton Chekhov
In this classic short story, Chekhov takes a snapshot of the Russian life, illuminating the harsh complexities and yet subtle simplicities that interact seamlessly together. The cold and gloom of the Russian environment cannot compare to the relationship that Pavel Andreitch, a rich aristocratic, has with his wife... read more »
The Wild Man of the WestR. M. Ballantyne
While Gibault was gazing at this scene with mingled feelings of anxiety, rage, and horror, the whole band of Indians suddenly sprang to their feet and seized their weapons. Almost at the same moment Bounce strode into the circle of light and deposited his cask on the ground. Then, making signs of peace, he advanced... read more »
The Winter Murder CaseS. S. Van Dine
The detective story is a kind of intellectual game. It is more—it is a sporting event. And the author must play fair with the reader. He can no more resort to trickeries and deceptions and still retain his honesty than if he cheated in a bridge game. He must outwit the reader, and hold the reader’s interest... read more »
The Wisdom of Father BrownG. K. Chesterton
Father Brown is a fictional character created by English novelist G. K. Chesterton, who appears in 50 short stories. Father Brown's powers of detection allow him to sit beside the immortal Sherlock Holmes but he is also, to quote Rufus King, 'in all senses a most pleasantly fascinating human being'. You will be... read more »
The Witch and Other StoriesAnton Chekhov
Anton Checkhov's The Witch and other stories is one of his many collection of short stories. Included in this book are fifteen of Chekhov's; The Witch, Peasant Wives, The Post, The New Villa, Dreams, The Pipe, Agafya, At Christmas Time, Gusev, The Student, In the Ravine, The Huntsman, Happiness, A Malefactor... read more »