Irritated and drunken, an itinerant farm-worker sells his wife and child to a stranger. Thus begins The Mayor of Casterbridge, set in rural and small-town England in the mid-1800s. In the original subtitle, Hardy called this the story of "a man of...

Play Ball!!! It's the start of another baseball season at Oakdale Academy. But there is a rivalry brewing between the pitchers. One wants to be a starting pitcher, but he is inconsistent. Another, a new kid from Texas, has been mentored by last...

The tales of King Arthur and his Knights are of Celtic origin. The Celts were the people who occupied Britain at the time when the history of the country opens… It is believed that King Arthur lived in the sixth century, just after the Romans...

Kendall was born in a settler's hut by Yackungarrah Creek near Ulladulla, New South Wales, Australia. He was registered as Thomas Henry Kendall, but never appears to have used his first name. His three volumes of verse were all published under the...

A selection of Shakespeare's poems from The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. (Summary by Clarica)...

The third volume of essays and observations From the Easy Chair of William Curtis, editor of Harper's Weekly and one of the founders of the American Republican party, and served Ulysses S. Grant; although he split from the party in the 1880s over...

Seed Babies piques the child's interest about how seeds grow. It provides interesting information about seeds in a conversational style between two brothers and the various seeds they encounter. These seeds offer grammatical advice, chastises poor...

Conan The Barbarian is after fabulous treasure in this exciting story. But he finds himself in more difficulties than he had counted on. Crafty and powerful human opponents seek to skin him alive, bestial mutations seek to rip his arms off, denizens...

This is a collection of poetry by Robert Bridges. This collection also contains some poems written right after World War I, reflecting the state of international politics very impressively. "This miscellaneous volume is composed of three sections....

The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillan's Magazine in 1880–81 and then as a book in 1881. It is one of James's most popular long novels, and is regarded by critics as one of...

The story concerns the contemplated sale of a famous painting by a proud but relatively cash-strapped British aristocrat to a wealthy American art collector who is bent on buying up treasured masterpieces from the Old World, and the patriotic outcry...

This warm, affectionate duet of essays by two of the early twentieth century's most popular writers is a bit dated but still entertaining. Summary by David Wales....

Rachel Louise Fleckring works for the elderly Mrs Maldon, and although with the woman for only a short time, she is taken into the heart of the family. She falls in love with one of Mrs Maldon's descendents, but along the way, she has to come to...

Anthem is a dystopic science fiction story taking place at some unspecified future date. Mankind has entered another dark age as a result of what Rand saw as the weaknesses of socialistic thinking and economics. Technological advancement is now...

The Physician In Spite of Himself … is written in a most unbounded spirit of mirth, the matrimonial breezes wafting a certain amount of refreshing coolness throughout it all. The way in which Sganarelle is dubbed, or rather drubbed a doctor, is...

Elizabeth Stern was two and a half years old, when her family emigrated from Poland to Pittsburgh. My Mother and I is the story of Stern's Americanization and how it ultimately alienated her from her parents. Stern's father had been a small village...

A look at some of the famous women in European history. Includes biographies on Cleopatra; Isabella of Castile; Joan of Arc; Maria Theresa; Josephine; Elizabeth of England; Mary of Scotland; Catherine of Russia; Marie Antoinette; and Madame Roland....

Fearing that her son, Robert, will grow too intellectual to relate to his parents, Mrs. Fenton starts a "Chautauqua Literary & Scientific Circle" in the town of Centreville. The C.L.S.C. draws in members from all strata of society - from the...

A contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle, Maurice Leblanc (1864-1941) was the creator of the character of gentleman thief Arsène Lupin who, in France, has enjoyed a popularity as long-lasting and considerable as Sherlock Holmes in the English-speaking...

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...