The history of a crime

The History of a Crime (1877) is a book-length essay by Victor Hugo. While Hugo is famous today for his status as a leading French poet and novelist of the nineteenth century, he was also a gifted historian and memoirist who served on the National Assembly of the Second Republic. Following the co...

Utopia

Utopia (1516) is a work of political satire by Thomas More. Published in Latin while More was serving as Privy Counsellor under King Henry VIII, the text is stylized as a true account of a new civilization discovered in the New World by traveler Raphael Hythlodaeus. While there have been varying ...

The devil's dictionary

The Devil’s Dictionary (1906) is a work of satire by Ambrose Bierce. Although he is commonly remembered for his chilling short stories on the experiences of Civil War soldiers, Bierce was recognized in his day as a leading journalist and humorist who spent decades ruffling feathers and drawing la...

The devil's pool

Two years after his wife’s death, Germain is encouraged to move on and find a new woman and home to accommodate his three growing children. He travels to visit a single woman who is eager to start a new family. Following his daughter’s death, Père Maurice has provided constant support for his so...

The children of the sea

The Children of the Sea (1897) is a novella by Joseph Conrad. The story originally appeared with a title featuring a racial slur, a subject of controversy even before Chinua Achebe published his monumental essay “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness.’” Often considered the fi...

The essays of michel de montaigne

The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1877) is a collection of essays and letters by Michel de Montaigne. Originally published in French as Essais (1580), this edition was translated by English poet Charles Cotton in the late-17th century and republished by William Carew Hazlitt, the grandson of ren...

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...

Red pottage

Red Pottage (1899) is novel by Mary Cholmondeley. Partly based on her experience as an artist from a devoutly religious family, Red Pottage is a story of friendship, romance, and identity that faced backlash from critics for its controversial portrayal of female sexuality. Satirical and deeply ob...

Queen victoria

Known for its advances in literature, industrialization, politics, and science, the Victorian era was a prominent time in British history. However, author Lytton Strachey remembers Queen Victoria as a person instead of just focusing on her accomplishments. First starting with a brief history of h...

The secret garden

“Mary is a tough feisty character, who manages to turn a whole household, and the lives of those in it, completely upside down…the book is brim full of magic and joy.”- Sunday Telegraph “It is only the exceptional author who can write a book about children with sufficient skill, charm, simplicit...

We of the never never

We of the Never Never (1908) is an autobiographical novel by Jeannie Gunn. Based on her experience accompanying her husband Aeneas to the remote cattle station of Elsey, Gunn’s novel is a fascinating masterpiece of Australian literature that explores the landscape of the continent’s Northern Terr...

Rainbow valley

When widower, John Meredith and his four children move to a new town, they quickly bond with Jem, Walter, Nan, Di, Shirley and Rilla Blythe. Despite their questionable reputation, they become close friends spending time at a place called, Rainbow Valley. Anne and Gilbert Blythe are happily mar...

Love among the chickens

Jeremy Garnet is an author from England. In hopes of writing his work-in-progress in peace, Garnet attempts to leave town when he hears that his old friend, Ukridge visits with his new wife, Millie. However, his escape plan is unrealized when Ukridge and Millie quickly seek him out. Though Garnet...

The weary blues

A celebration of music from beginning to end, The Weary Blues is the debut poetry collection by the foremost Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes.Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, / Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, / I heard a Negro play. / Down on Lenox Avenue the other night / By t...

The adventures of an ugly girl

The Adventures of an Ugly Girl (1893) is a novel by Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett. While she is mostly remembered today for New Amazonia, a feminist utopian novel which depicts the emergence of an advanced society of women in the not-so-distant future, Corbett was also a pioneering romance and detec...

Varney the vampire

Varney the Vampire (1847) is a penny dreadful novel by British writers James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest. Originally serialized in cheap volumes, the novel introduced some of the most recognizable tropes of vampire fiction still used today, including the depiction of fangs and the use ...

What's wrong with the world

G.K. Chesterton delivers insightful commentary on modern behavior and social practices influenced by big business, gender roles, government and other notable figures throughout his lifetime. The book is inspired by his own personal beliefs regarding faith, family and the working man. What’s Wron...

Summer

Originally born in an impoverished community, Charity’s parents sought out the most educated man in the nearby New England town to raise their daughter. After being surrendered to a lawyer named Royall, Charity was raised comfortably by Mr. Royall and his wife. However, when Mrs. Royall tragical...

The sport of the gods

The Sport of the Gods (1902) is a novel by African American author Paul Laurence Dunbar. Published while Dunbar was at the height of his career as one of the nation’s leading black writers, The Sport of the Gods examines the lives of poor African Americans who, despite being freed from slavery, s...

Peter whiffle

Deephaven and selected stories

A compilation of Sarah Orne Jewett’s essential works including Deephaven, a novel about two young women who spend a summer visiting a small coastal town. Other notable titles include “From a Mournful Villager” and “An October Ride.” Deephaven centers two young Bostonians, Kate Lancaster and her f...

Love and other stories

Love and Other Stories (1922) is a collection of twenty-three stories by Russian writer Anton Chekhov. Recognized today as foundational for the development of the modern short story, Anton Chekhov has transcended Russian literature to become one of the most popular and acclaimed authors in histor...

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 ...

Romeo and juliet

Romeo and Juliet (1597) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Inspired by an Italian tale adapted for an English audience in 1562 by Arthur Brooke and in 1567 by William Painter, Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet sometime between 1591 and 1595. Alongside Hamlet, it is one of Shakespeare’s most pe...

The king of elfland's daughter

The King of Elfland’s Daughter (1924). Having established himself as a bestselling author of short fiction, Dunsany published The King of Elfland’s Daughter, his second novel. Recognized as a pioneering author of fantasy and science fiction, Dunsany is a man whose work, in the words of H. P. Love...

Indiana

Indiana, a young woman stuck in a loveless marriage, is seduced by a charming neighbor who is not as polished and pure as he appears. She embarks on a journey to find real love, leading to an unexpected discovery about the object of her affection. Indiana is a young woman from French Louisiana...

The lair of the white worm

The Lair of the White Worm (1911) is a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. Published only a year before Stoker’s death, The Lair of the White Worm helped to establish the Irish master of Gothic horror’s reputation as a leading writer of the early-twentieth century. The novel is partly based on the...

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 ...

Claude's confession

Claude’s Confession (1865) is a novel by French author Émile Zola. Written at night while Zola was employed at Hachette, Claude’s Confession proved scandalous upon publication and resulted in the loss of his job. Undeterred by the response to his literary debut, Zola took advantage of his newfoun...

No name

Sisters Magdalen and Norah Vanstone’s lives are dismantled when their illegitimacy is made public, causing them to lose access to their family home and income. The women must fight to regain their financial footing, building a new legacy all their own. Following the deaths of their parents, Ma...

The monster and other stories

The Monster and Other Stories (1899) is a collection of short fiction by American writer Stephen Crane. “The Monster,” a novella, was originally published in 1898 in Harper’s Magazine and has since been recognized as one of Crane’s most important works, a story which critiques the racism prevalen...

The doctor of pimlico

The Doctor of Pimlico (1919) 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 Doctor of Pimlico is a story of mystery, idolization, and international crime. Using his own research and experience ...

The collected meditations of mrs. maria w. stewart

The Collected Meditations of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart (2021) compiles the speeches and writings of Maria W. Stewart. This groundbreaking collection includes some of the best works from across Stewart’s career as the first African American public lecturer, including Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. M...

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...

Serapion and other stories

Serapion and Other Stories (1920) is a collection of stories by Francis Stevens. Using her well-known pseudonym, Gertrude Barrows Bennett published some of the twentieth century’s greatest science fiction stories and novels. “Serapion” been recognized as a powerful tale of dark fantasy for invest...

Sam steele’s adventures on land and sea

Sam Steele’s Adventures on Land and Sea (1906) 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 young adults. Sam Steele’s Adventures on Land and Sea, written u...

The stone axe of burkamukk

The Stone Axe of Burkamukk (1922) is a collection of Aboriginal legends by Mary Grant Bruce. The product of extensive research on the Aboriginal peoples of Gippsland, Victoria, Bruce’s collection was intended to educate Australian settlers regarding the traditions of those they had displaced. Des...

The castle of wolfenbach

The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) is a novel by Eliza Parsons. Employing themes common to the popular genre of Gothic fiction, Parsons crafts a chilling tale of murder and mystery that remains uniquely entertaining to this day. Referred to as a “horrid” novel in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, The ...

Second thoughts of an idle fellow

Featuring twelve simple yet profound essays, Jerome K. Jerome’s Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow is a humorous and clever collection. Each essay is crafted around a timeless and relatable issue, such as the unfortunately common inability to make decisions. On the Art of Making Up One’s Mind ob...

Daughters of destiny

Daughters of Destiny (1906) 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. Daughters of Destiny, written under the pen name “Schuyler Staunton,” is a ...

Ionia

Ionia: Land of Wise Men and Fair Women (1898) is a utopian novel by Alexander Craig. Published with illustrations by renowned German American artist J. C. Leyendecker, Ionia: Land of Wise Men and Fair Women is Craig’s only known novel. Noted for its blend of science fiction and political theory, ...

The grey fairy book

Originally published in 1900, The Grey Fairy Book ushered in a new collection of timeless stories from diverse authors with large followings across the globe. Andrew Lang presents an elite selection of moral and ethics-based tales. Author Andrew Lang’s The Grey Fairy Book is a compilation of 30-p...

Judith wynne

After the death of their patriarch, and a devastating fever that killed all but two of the children, the surviving Reece family, Mrs. Reece, Wolfgang, and Oscar, are left with just the vast property their family had owned for generations. Despite their poor financial situation, the family happily...

The son of tarzan

The Son of Tarzan is the fourth adventure in the saga of the jungle lord and the only volume to focus on his son, Jack. Raised in ignorance of his father’s untamed nature, Jack will learn the truth of his heritage, the exhilaration of its primal power and the mortal danger of its primitive confl...