Excerpt: Volume I. Preface: Nothing is more easy than to state the subject of ?The Ambassadors,? which first appeared in twelve numbers of The North American Review (1903) and was published as a whole the same year. The situation involved is gathered up betimes, that is in the second chapter of Book Fifth, for the reader?s benefit, into as few words as possible-- planted or ?sunk,? stiffly and saliently, in the centre of the current, almost perhaps to the obstruction of traffic....

When Lucy Honeychurch travels to Italy with her cousin, she meets George Emerson, a bohemian and an atheist who falls in love with her. Upon her return to England, she is forced to choose between free-spirited George and her more conventional fiancé, Cecil Vyse. The story is both a romance and a critique of English society at the beginning of the 20th century. (Summary from wikipedia)...

Romance, Fiction, Literature

Stephen Crane's first novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets has been called the first dark flower of American Naturalism for its distinctive elements of naturalistic fiction. The chief character, Maggie, descends into prostitution after being led astray by her lover. Rather than focusing on those that make up the very rich or middle class, the novel highlights the deplorable living conditions of the working class during the so-called Gilded Age in New York's Bowery. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Illiterati)...

Fiction, Literature

Lamb used Homer's Odyssey as the basis for the re-telling of the story of Ulysses's journey back from Troy to his own kingdom of Ithaca. Not a direct translation and deemed modern in its time, Lamb states in the preface that, I have gained a rapidity to the narration which I hope will make it more attractive and give it more the air of a romance to young readers. (Summary by Rebecca)...

Adventure, Fantasy, Teen/Young adult

The Decameron (subtitle: Prencipe Galeotto) is a collection of 100 novellas by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio, probably begun in 1350 and finished in 1353. It is a medieval allegorical work best known for its bawdy tales of love, appearing in all its possibilities from the erotic to the tragic. Many notable writers such as Shakespeare and Chaucer are said to have borrowed from The Decameron. (from Wikipedia)...

Fiction, Literature, Short stories

These whimsical short stories offer fanciful answers to a dozen of childhood's favorite why and how questions. With their generous sprinkling of nonsense words as well as a delightfully rhythmic storytelling feel, they seem to have been written to be read aloud. (summary by rachelellen)...

Animals

This book is the first of a series of stories for supplementary reading the purpose of which is to give children a correct idea of life in different countries, both in the spirit and atmosphere of the story, and in the actual descriptions. These books will also further a spirit of friendliness and good will for children of other nationalities. (Lucy Fitch Perkins in The Dutch Twins) Illustrations for this story may be found at the e-text link....

Children, Fiction

Ozma of Oz: A Record of Her Adventures with Dorothy Gale of Kansas, the Yellow Hen, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, Tiktok, the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger; Besides Other Good People too Numerous to Mention Faithfully Recorded Herein published on July 30, 1907, was the third book of L. Frank Baum's Oz series. It was the first in which Baum was clearly intending a series of Oz books....

Children, Fiction, Fairy tales

Excerpt: The life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Downfallings and Complete Career of the Nickelby Family by Charles Dickens....

This is James Joyce's first novel, the semi-autobiographical story of a young Irish boy who struggles with family, country, and religion to become an artist and a man. (Summary by Peter Bobbe)...

Literature

The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of four crime novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound....

Play, Mystery

Great Expectations is written in the first person and is virtually a fictional autobiography of “Pip” from his childhood, through often painful experiences, to adulthood. It charts his progress as he moves from the Kent marshes - his social status radically changed having gained an unknown benefactor - to busy commercial London. The book is richly populated with a variety of extraordinary characters many of whom, unbeknownst to them, have lives that are inextricably linked to the others. It is all there, love, hate, passion, humour, rejection, duplicity, betrayal, a whole gamut of emotions and human strengths and weaknesses . This is one of Dickens most fascinating, and disturbing novels. (Summary by Peter Keeble)...

Fiction, Literature

When two young girls decide to have a tea party with their dolls and a mysterious dog comes and eats their prized cake, they end up finding a circus run-away, Ben Brown. Ben is a horse master, and loves horses, so when the Moss' take the young boy in they decide to give him work at the neighbors house driving cows (on a horse, of course). After that a series of events happens, and Ben finds out his beloved father is dead. Miss Celia, a neighbor, feels sorry and comforts him, and finally offers to let Ben stay with her and her fourteen-year-old brother, Thornton who is called Thorny. After that may adventures and summer-happenings go on in Celia's house. Sancho gets lost, Ben is accused of stealing, Miss Celia even gets hurt and Ben takes a wild ride on her horse, and… The rest you'll know from reading the book. Summary by Wikipedia, revised by Stav Nisser....

Fiction, Children

The quiet Dutch community of Sleepy Hollow lay in the Adirondack mountains on the western shore of the mighty Hudson River in America’s colonial period. The solitude of the woods was breathtaking, and not even a schoolmaster was immune from the eerie miasma which everyone knew permeated the dense forest. Written in 1820, Washington Irving’s The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow has become a classic of American literature, and has been retold in many different ways. Here is the original, from Irving’s own hand. (Summary by Chip)...

Mystery

Kipling shows his love of the sub continent and its people and understanding of their beliefs in these tales. An older Mowgli roams the jungle with his old friends and investigates the ways of his people, a Prime Minister becomes wandering holy man, scavengers tell their tale and we leave India for the far,far north of Canada. (Summary by Annise)...

Fiction, Children

This delightful novel begins when a family of five children moves from London to the English countryside. While playing in a gravel pit soon after the move, they discover an ancient and rather grumpy sand-fairy known as the Psammead, who agrees to grant one wish of theirs per day. The children’s wishes send them on adventure after adventure, but rarely turn out as expected. (Summary by Kara)...

Children, Adventure, Fantasy

Excerpt: Easter Holidays; Hail! festal Easter that dost bring Approach of sweetly-smiling spring, When Nature?s clad in green: When feather?d songsters through the grove With beasts confess the power of love And brighten all the scene. Now youths the breaking stages load That swiftly rattling o?er the road To Greenwich haste away: While some with sounding oars divide Of smoothly-flowing Thames the tide All sing the festive lay. With mirthful dance they beat the ground, Their shouts of joy the hills resound And catch the jocund noise: Without a tear, without a sigh Their moments all in transports fly Till evening ends their joys....

Table of Contents: Easter Holidays, 1 -- Dura Navis, 2 -- Nil Pejus est Caelibe Vit‘, 4 -- Sonnet to the Autumnal Moon, 5 -- Anthem for the Children of Christ?s Hospital, 6 -- Julia, 7 -- Quae Nocent Docent, 8 -- The Nose, 9 -- To the Muse, 11 -- Destruction of the Bastile, 12 -- Life, 14 -- Progress of Vice, 15 -- Monody on the Death of Chatterton, 16 -- An Invocation, 19 -- Anna and Harland, 20 -- To the Evening Star, 21 -- Pain, 22 -- On a Lady Weeping: Imitation from the Latin of Nicolaus Archius, 23 -- Monody on a Tea-kettle, 24 -- Genevieve, 26 -- On Receiving an Account that his Only Sister?s Death was Inevitable, 27 -- On Seeing a Youth Affectionately Welcomed by a Sister, 28 -- A Mathematical Problem, 29 -- Honour, 32 -- On Imitation, 34 -- Inside the Coach, 35 -- Devonshire Roads, 36 -- Music, 37 -- Sonnet: On Quitting School for College, 38 -- Absence: A Farewell Ode on Quitting School for Jesus College, Cambridge, 39 -- Happiness, 40 -- A Wish: Written in Jesus Wood, Feb. 10, 1792, 43 -- An Ode in the Manner of Anacreon, 44 -- To Disappointment, 45 -- A Fragment Found in a Lecture-Room, 46 -- Ode, 47 -- A Lover?s Complai...

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature. Among Molière's best-known works is Tartuffe or The Hypocrite , written in 1664. Though Tartuffe was received well by the public and even by Louis XIV, its popularity was lessened when the Archbishop of Paris issued an edict threatening excommunication for anyone who watched, performed in, or read the play. Tartuffe, a pious fraud who pretends to speak with divine authority, has insinuated himself into the household of Orgon. When Orgon announces that his daughter Mariane is to marry Tartuffe instead of her fiance Valère, the rest of the family realizes the extent of Tartuffe's influence over Orgon. Tartuffe tries to seduce Orgon's wife Elmire, who traps him into revealing to Orgon his intentions toward her. Orgon throws Tartuffe out of the house, Tartuffe returns with an order of eviction for the family, and at the final moment the tables are turned and the play ends happily. (Summary by Wikipedia and Laurie Anne Walden)...

Satire, Comedy

An Outcast of the Islands is the second novel by Joseph Conrad, published in 1896, inspired by Conrad's experience as mate of a steamer, the Vigar. The novel details the undoing of Peter Willems, a disreputable, immoral man who, on the run from a scandal in Makassar, finds refuge in a hidden native village, only to betray his benefactors over lust for the tribal chief's daughter. The story features Conrad's recurring character Tom Lingard, who also appears in Almayer's Folly (1895) and The Rescue (1920), in addition to sharing other characters with those novels. This novel was adapted for the screen in 1952 by director Carol Reed, featuring Trevor Howard as Willems, Ralph Richardson as Lingard, Robert Morley, and Wendy Hiller....

Adventure, Fiction, Sea stories

Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book (1889) was a beautifully produced and illustrated edition of fairy tales that has become a classic. This was followed by many other collections of fairy tales, collectively known as Andrew Lang's Fairy Books. -Wikipedia...

Children, Animals, Fairy tales