Sword blades and poppy seed

Sword Blades and Poppy Seed (1914) is a poetry collection by Amy Lowell. Published at the beginning of her career as an influential imagist devoted to classical poetic themes and forms, Sword Blades and Poppy Seed is an agile and promising work from a pioneering poet of the early twentieth centur...

Peter whiffle

Madeleine férat

Madeleine Férat (1868) is a novel by French author Émile Zola. Following the success of his third novel, Thérèse Raquin (1867), Zola published Madeleine Férat to lukewarm critical acclaim. Intent on exploring taboo and the lives of people on the edge of society, Zola crafts a narrative capable of...

The fire in the flint

The Fire in the Flint (1924) is a novel by Walter Francis White. Although he is generally recognized for his accomplishments as the longtime leader of the NAACP, White also wrote several novels during the Harlem Renaissance exploring the themes of Alain Locke’s New Negro Movement. Praised by W. E...

The last egyptian

The Last Egyptian (1908) is a novel by L. Frank Baum. Although he is more widely known as the author of the Land of Oz series, Baum also used several pseudonyms to make forays into more conventional fiction for adults. The Last Egyptian, published anonymously, is a story of corruption, betrayal, ...

The big festival of lights

The Big Festival of Lights: Stories and Plays for Hanukkah is a collection of short fiction and plays by nine prominent Jewish figures of the early twentieth-century meant to capture and celebrate the spirit of the holiday. In, “By the Light of Hanukkah: A Play in Three Acts,” by Solomon Fineberg...

The mysteries of marseilles

The Mysteries of Marseilles (1895) is a novel by French author Émile Zola. Originally serialized in Le Messager de Provence in 1867, The Mysteries of Marseilles was written at the very beginning of Zola’s literary career. Intent on exploring taboo and the lives of people on the edge of society, Z...

The rainbow trail

A mysterious stranger, looking for a change in scenery, discovers a small Mormon community where a grown-up Fay Larkin has been taken against her will. Like its predecessor, The Rainbow Trail highlights the oppression of women within their religion. Following the events of Riders of the Purple Sa...

The fat and the thin

The Fat and the Thin (1873) is a novel by French author Émile Zola. The third of twenty volumes of Zola’s monumental Les Rougon-Macquart series is an epic story of family, politics, class, and history that traces the disparate paths of several French citizens raised by the same mother. Spanning t...

The lady of the shroud

The Lady of the Shroud (1909) is a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. Written just before the outbreak of the Balkan Wars, The Lady of the Shroud is a prophetic and politically informed work of fiction that helped to establish the Irish master of Gothic horror’s reputation as a leading writer of ...

Charlotte temple

Charlotte Temple is a naïve girl who is courted by an older man and brought to America where she is left alone, pregnant and afraid. It is a heartbreaking story about lost innocence, betrayal and prolonged guilt. Charlotte Temple is a 15-year-old girl from a loving British family who catches the ...

Don rodriguez

Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley (1922). Having established himself as a bestselling author of short fiction, Dunsany published Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley, his first novel. Recognized as a pioneering author of fantasy and science fiction, Dunsany is a man whose work, in ...

Catriona

Uncovering a governmental conspiracy to frame a friend for murder puts David Balfour on the run and striving to protect the woman he’s come to love. Released with the title David Balfour when originally released in the United States, Catriona is Robert Louis Stevenson’s follow-up to Kidnapped....

The place of dragons

The Place of Dragons (1916) is a mystery novel by Anglo-French writer William Le Queux. Published at the height of Le Queux’s career as a leading author of popular thrillers, The Place of Dragons is a story of mystery, murder, and suspicion. Using his own research and experience as a journalist a...

The heads of cerberus

The Heads of Cerberus (1919) is a science fiction novel by Francis Stevens. Originally serialized in The Thrill Book, a popular pulp magazine, The Heads of Cerberus was recognized as “perhaps the first science fiction fantasy to use the alternate time-track, or parallel worlds, idea” by anthologi...

A masque of poets

A Masque of Poets (1878) is a poetry collection edited by George Parsons Lathrop. Part of Boston-based publisher Roberts Brothers’ “No Name” series, A Masque of Poets presents the works of little-known writers—including Emily Dickinson—alongside such recognized masters as Christina Rossetti and J...

The rolling stones

Rolling Stones is a vast selection of O. Henry’s later works covering a variety of topics such as fear, heartache, friendship, love and even murder. It’s a worthy addition to his legacy of memorable characters and unpredictable plots. Rolling Stones was originally published in 1912, just two year...

The crimson fairy book

Originally published in 1903, The Crimson Fairy Book is a vibrant collection of more than 30 diverse stories from prominent authors across the globe. This is one entry in Andrew Lang’s beloved fairy tale series.The Crimson Fairy Book provides another collection of classic stories for a new genera...

Are parents people?

Are Parents People? (1924) is a collection of stories by Alice Duer Miller. Inspired by her work as an activist for women’s suffrage, Miller explores themes of independence, agency, and female desire while illuminating the subject of divorce. Her work was adapted into a 1925 comedy film starring ...

The grizzly king

James Langdon enjoys his practice of hunting bears in the forests of Canada, convinced that there are few greater thrills. However, as he sets out on a hunt for a towering grizzly bear, Langdon makes a stunning discovery. Different from the start, the hunt begins after the giant grizzly, who is n...

Firecrackers

Firecrackers: A Realistic Novel (1925) is a novel by Carl Van Vechten. Published in the same year as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Anita Loos’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Van Vechten’s novel has been recognized as an important document of the Jazz Age, a decade of bohemian excess and a...

María

María (1867) is a novel by Jorge Isaacs. Partly inspired by his own life, María is a moving story of romance, hope, and tragedy by a leading author of the Spanish Romantic movement. The novel was Isaacs’ debut work of fiction and seemed to promise him a lengthy career in Colombian literature. As ...

The league of the scarlet pimpernel

Following the events of The Scarlet Pimpernel, the mysterious figure continues his efforts to elude captors, while saving French aristocrats from meeting a brutal fate. It’s a collection of memorable stories featuring various characters and hidden obstacles along the way. The Reign of Terror dur...

Armadale

Allan Armadale makes a startling deathbed confession to be shared with his young son once he reaches adulthood—he murdered another man named Allan Armadale. It’s a dark secret that inevitably looms over the child of the perpetrator and his victim. Before dying, Allan Armadale reveals that he pr...

The emily dickinson collection

The Emily Dickinson Collection (2021) compiles some of the best-known works of an icon of American poetry. Out of nearly two-thousand poems discovered after her death, less than a dozen appeared in print during Dickinson’s lifetime. Drawn from such influential posthumous volumes as Poems (1902) a...

Vintage christmas tales

Vintage Christmas Tales: A Holiday Anthology is a collection of short stories and novels by some of the most popular storytellers of the last two centuries meant to capture and celebrate the joy of the holiday.In L. Frank Baum’s, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus as well as it’s sequel A Kid...

The son of clemenceau

While traveling through Europe an unsuspecting man is attacked by a military officer and later discovered by a mysterious old woman with a personal vendetta. It’s a thrilling tale fueled by family, betrayal and hidden agendas. Claudius Ruprecht is a young man who was raised without a traditiona...

The heart of a woman

A young couple falls on hard times when the man is accused of murdering his cousin after he makes a claim on their uncle’s fortune. Together, they must uncover the truth to save their relationship and repair his name. Louise Harris is a bright and beautiful young woman. She’s being courted by L...

The lady in the car

The Lady in the Car (1908) is a novel by Anglo-French writer William Le Queux. Published at the height of Le Queux’s career as a leading author of popular thrillers, The Lady in the Car is a story of romance, adventure, and international crime. Using his own research and experience as a journalis...

Twelve years a slave

"A moving, vital testament." -Saturday Review ”An incredible document, amazingly told and structured. Tough, but riveting.-Rachel Kushner “The best firsthand account of slavery.” -James McPherson Twelve Years a Slave (1853) is considered to be be one of the most riviting and important documents...

The fifth queen

The Fifth Queen: And How She Came to Court (1906) is a novel by Ford Madox Ford. The first installment of Ford’s The Fifth Queen Trilogy is set during the reign of Henry VIII, a tumultuous time of political and religious oppression in a land at the mercy of a murderous King. Ford’s trilogy recrea...

A strange manuscript found in a copper cylinder

A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder (1888) is a novel by James De Mille. Originally serialized in Harper’s Weekly, the novel was published posthumously and, at first, anonymously. Although De Mille’s work predated such popular Lost World novels as H. Rider Haggard’s She (1887) and Kin...

A sicilian romance

A Sicilian Romance (1790) is a novel by Ann Radcliffe. Published anonymously, Radcliffe’s second novel is a tragic story of love and murder set in the sublime landscape of the Sicilian coast. Considered an essential work of Gothic fiction, A Sicilian Romance is an early example of her prowess as ...

Saracinesca

Saracinesca (1887) is a novel by Francis Marion Crawford. Originally serialized in Blackwood’s Magazine, Saracinesca became the first in a series of four novels. Followed by Sant’Ilario (1889), Don Orsino (1892), and Corleone (1897), Saracinesca is an epic tale of history, family, and romance set...

A century of dishonor

A Century of Dishonor (1884) is a work of nonfiction by Helen Hunt Jackson. Inspired by a speech given by Ponca chief Standing Bear in Boston, A Century of Dishonor attempts to reckon with the genocide and displacement of Native Americans and the passage of Indian Appropriations Act of 1871. At h...

My own story

My Own Story (1914) is a memoir by English political activist and suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. Written at the onset of the First World War, My Own Story brings attention to Pankhurst’s cause while defending her decision to cease activism until the end of the war. Notable for its descriptions o...

The perfume of the lady in black

The Perfume of the Lady in Black (1908) is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. The Perfume of the Lady in Black marked the second appearance of popular character Joseph Rouletabille, a reporter and part-time sleuth who features in several of Leroux’s novels. Originally a journalist, Leroux tu...

Tales of men and ghosts

Featuring life-like and compelling characters, Edith Wharton’s Tales of Men and Ghosts is a collection comprised of ten eerie and heart-wrenching narratives. The first story, The Bolted Door, follows Hubert Granice, a failed playwright. Distraught and disappointed in himself, he considers suicid...

Man and nature

After being appointed the United States Minister Resident to the Ottoman Empire in 1849, George P. Marsh had the opportunity to travel the world and visit the sites of ancient civilizations. Troubled by what he saw, Marsh came to the conclusion that these societies were victims of self-destructio...

The gods of mars

Ten years after John Carter was transported back to Earth against his will, he returns to Mars. Having been sent back to Earth before the birth of his child, Carter is desperate to reunite with his wife, Dejah, and meet their child. However, the reunion is forced to be postponed when Carter reali...

The iron heel

The Iron Heel (1907) is a novel by American writer Jack London. A groundbreaking work of dystopian science fiction, The Iron Heel was inspired by London’s socialist views and belief in an eventual global upheaval. Although his predictions proved wrong for the United States of the early-twentieth ...

The innocents

The Appleby’s are happy couple. Often referring to the other as “father” or “mother”, the couple have remained as affectionate and passionate as newlyweds, and both are energetic despite their old age. Though they feel young and full of life, their adult daughter, with whom they share a difficult...

The poison tree

The Poison Tree (1873) is a novel by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Originally serialized in Bangadarshan, a popular literary magazine founded by Chatterjee in 1872 and later edited by Rabindranath Tagore, The Poison Tree is a story that engages with the subject of widow remarriage. “The river flowed...