One of the foremost achievements in Western literature, Homer's Iliad tells the story of the darkest episode of the Trojan War.
Marlowe sails down the Congo in search of Kurtz, a company agent who has, according to rumors, become insane in the jungle isolation. Also includes "Typhoon," and "The Secret Sharer."
The ghost of the King of Denmark tells his son Hamlet to avenge his murder by killing the new king, Hamlet's uncle.
Gulliver's Travels recounts the story of Lemuel Gulliver, a practical-minded Englishman trained as a surgeon who takes to the seas when his business fails.
Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens that follows the journey of an orphan named Pip. Growing up in Kent with his older sister and her husband, Joe, Pip aids an escaped convict. His life takes a turn when he meets the wealthy and eccentric Miss Havisham, falling in love with her adopted daughter, Estella. The novel explores themes of ambition, unrequited love, and the consequences of one’s actions.
A monster assembled by a scientist from parts of dead bodies develops a mind of his own as he learns to loathe himself and hate his creator.
A carefully curated selection of poetry by Marlowe, Shakespeare, Donne, Wheatley, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Longfellow, Emerson, Poe, Browning, Dickinson, Whitman, Dunbar, Kipling, and more.
As daughter of the richest, most important man in the small provincial village of Highbury, Emma Woodhouse is firmly convinced that it is her right--perhaps even her "duty"--To arrange the lives of others. Considered by most critics to be Austen's most technically brilliant achievement, "Emma" sparkles with ironic insights into self-deception, self-discovery, and the interplay of love and power.
After discovering the double identity of the wealthy Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula, a small group of people vow to rid the world of the evil vampire.
Relates the immortal story of the adventurous knight and his squire.
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov is a former law student living in extreme poverty in Saint Petersburg. Upon succumbing to his debt, he devises a plan to murder a wealthy, elderly pawnbroker. After Rodion commits the murders, he must address his guilt and decide whether his horrible sin was worth the sacrifice. This novel, considered the first of Fyodor Dostoevsky's mature writings, helped bring Dostoevsky to the forefront of Russian writers.
Common Sense by Thomas Paine advocates independence from Great Britain to people in the 13 colonies. "The Crisis" was published to reinvigorate the revolutionary cause.
Every lover of classic literature should read Candide , the satirical masterpiece that shocked Paris upon its publication in 1759. The novel challenges many of the core assertions of Enlightenment philosophy and calls into question vast swaths of Christian dogma. Though widely banned after its publication, it propelled Voltaire to literary stardom and remains one of the most popular French novels ever written.
An unusual dog, part Saint Bernard and part Scotch shepherd, is forcibly taken to the Klondike gold fields where he eventually becomes the leader of a wolf pack.
A powerful tale of innocence victimized by harsh reality on the high seas.
An Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines.
As You Like It is truly one of Shakespeare's greatest romantic comedies. The heroine, Rosalind has grown up in the court of her usurping uncle Duke Frederick, her father, the rightful duke, having been exiled by his younger brother. Rosalind falls in love with Orlando, but Orlando is forced to flee when he is persecuted by his older brother Oliver. Soon Rosalind is also banished from the court by her uncle. Switching genders she assumes the identity of Ganymede and with her cousin Celia in tow goes in search of her father. Finding him and his friends in the Forest of Arden the young girls join the exiles before finally being reunited with their lovers, a mellowed Oliver and an evil uncle who has found religion.
Antigone courts her own death by defying the edict of Thebes's new ruler, her uncle Kreon, which forbids giving her dishonored brother a proper burial.
After 18 years of imprisonment in the Bastille, the devoted Doctor Manette is reunited with his daughter in England where a twisting plot of revenge, corruption, and love plays out under the shadow of the guillotine.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is semi-autobiographical, following Joyce's fictional alter-ego through his artistic awakening. The young artist Steven Dedelus begins to rebel against the Irish Catholic dogma of his childhood and discover the great philosophers and artists. He follows his artistic calling to the continent.
Britain's three-hundred-year relationship with the Indian subcontinent produced much fiction of interest but only one indisputable masterpiece: E. M. Forster's A Passage to India , published in 1924, at the height of the Indian independence movement. Centering on an ambiguous incident between a young Englishwoman of uncertain stability and an Indian doctor eager to know his conquerors better, Forster's book explores, with unexampled profundity, both the historical chasm between races and the eternal one between individuals struggling to ease their isolation and make sense of their humanity.
Swift's proposal is a savage comment on England's legal and economic exploitation of Ireland.
A story of order and disorder, reality and appearance and love and marriage.
A Doll’s House is a three-act play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Set in the 1870s, it revolves around the lives of middle-class Norwegians. The central themes include appearances, the power of money, and the role of women in a patriarchal society. The story follows Nora Helmer, a seemingly frivolous housewife who secretly works to repay an illegal loan taken to save her husband, Torvald Helmer. As the play unfolds, secrets are revealed, and the disintegration of their marriage becomes evident .
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is a satirical novel by Mark Twain. It tells the story of Hank Morgan, a man from 19th-century Connecticut who unexpectedly finds himself transported back in time to the court of King Arthur. Armed with modern knowledge, Hank challenges medieval superstitions and tries to introduce advanced technology to the past .
