Gramps Ford, his chin resting on his hands, his hands on the crook of his cane, was staring irascibly at the five-foot television screen that dominated the room. On the screen, a news commentator was summarizing the day's happenings. Every thirty seconds or so, Gramps would jab the floor with his cane-tip and shout, "Hell, we did that a hundred years ago."
Emerald and Lou, coming in from the...
The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (commonly known as Martin Chuzzlewit) is a novel by Charles Dickens, considered the last of his picaresque novels. It was originally serialised in 1843 and 1844. Dickens thought it to be his best work, but it was one of his least popular novels. Like nearly all of Dickens' novels, Martin Chuzzlewit was released to the public in monthly instalments....
The Lost Princess of Oz is the eleventh canonical Oz book written by L. Frank Baum. Published on June 5, 1917, it begins with the disappearance of Princess Ozma, the ruler of Oz and covers Dorothy and the Wizard's efforts to find her. The introduction to the book states that its inspiration was a letter a little girl had written to Baum: "I suppose if Ozma ever got hurt or losted, everybody would...
This book content includes:
The Agricultural Interest
Threatening Letter to Thomas Hood from an Ancient Gentleman
Crime and Education
Capital Punishment
The Spirit of Chivalry in Westminster Hall
In Memoriam - W. M. Thackeray
Adelaide Anne Procter
Chauncey Hare Townshend
On Mr. Fechter's Acting
In his Preface to this volume, Lang expressed the view that it would be "probably the last" of the collection. Their continuing popularity, however, demanded subsequent collections.
The Blue Bird
The Half-Chick
The Story of Caliph Stork
The Enchanted Watch
Rosanella
Sylvain and Jocosa
Fairy Gifts
Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla
Prince Featherhead and the Princess...
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his famous detective, and illustrated by Sidney Paget.
The eponymous 1939 film starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce was based on the stage play by William Gillette and was not a direct adaptation of the book.
The 12 stories in this collection are:
A Scandal in Bohemia; Client: The...
Madame Bovary (1856) is the French writer Gustave Flaubert's debut novel. The story focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, who has adulterous affairs and lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life. Though the basic plot is rather simple, even archetypal, the novel's true art lies in its details and hidden patterns. Flaubert was a notorious...
There was once a child, and he strolled about a good deal, and thought of a number of things. He had a sister, who was a child too, and his constant companion. These two used to wonder all day long. They wondered at the beauty of the flowers; they wondered at the height and blueness of the sky; they wondered at the depth of the bright water.
The ironic satire of a decaying German duchy and its rejuvenation by the appearance of an independent-minded American woman. Peopled with a range of characters from aristocrat to mad woman, this novel is a microcosm of Europe before the Great War. The book's driving force is the development of a love between the young Prince, hidebound by tradition, and the exotic beautiful Imma. Written by Noble...
Do you remember that once upon a time Joseph Haydn lived as court musician in the Esterhazy family? He wore a tie wig and a wonderful bright uniform; for he was master of the music in that great house. Now, long after Joseph Haydn's time, Adam Liszt, father of Franz, lived with the Esterhazy's. He was the family steward, having charge of all the property.
And, too, he loved music. So we may...
The Bluebird Books is a series of novels popular with teenage girls in the 1910s and 1920s. The series was begun by L. Frank Baum using his Edith Van Dyne pseudonym,then continued by at least three others, all using the same pseudonym. Baum wrote the first four books in the series, possibly with help from his son, Harry Neal Baum, on the third.
The books are concerned with adolescent girl...
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories is a collection of short semi-comic mystery stories that were written by Oscar Wilde and published in 1891. It includes:
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
The Canterville Ghost
The Sphinx Without a Secret
The Model Millionaire
In later editions, another story, The Portrait of Mr. W. H., was added to the collection.
This book content includes:
Donkey Skin
The Goblin Pony
An Impossible Enchantment
The Story of Dschemil and Dachemila
Janni and the Draken
The Partnership of the Thief and the Liar
Fortunatus and his Purse
The Goat-faced Girl
What came of picking Flowers
The Story of Bensurdatu
The Magician's Horse
The Little Gray Man
Herr Lazarus and the Draken
The Story of the Queen of the...
The Lady of the Shroud is a novella by Bram Stoker (the author of Dracula), written in 1909.
The book is an epistolary novel, narrated in the first person via letters and diary extracts from various characters, but mainly Rupert. The initial sections, leading up to the reading of the uncle's will, told by other characters, suggest that Rupert is the black sheep of the family, and the conditions...
Is Shakespeare Dead? is a short, semi-autobiographical work by American humorist Mark Twain. It explores the controversy over the authorship of the Shakespearean literary canon via satire, anecdote, and extensive quotation of contemporary authors on the subject.
The original publication spans only 150 pages, and the formatting leaves roughly half of each page blank. The spine is thread bound. It...
After they left the train, Colonel Hathaway and his granddaughter, Mary Louise stood silently upon the platform, their luggage beside them, and watched as the porters moved their their trunks from the baggage car. Then the train started, gathered speed, and went rumbling away. When the girl looked around she discovered that the primitive station was really the only barren spot in the...
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851) is a novel by Herman Melville, in which Ishmael narrates the monomaniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, for revenge on the albino sperm whale Moby Dick, which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab's ship and severed his leg at the knee. A commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, its reputation grew immensely during...
The Just So Stories for Little Children are a collection written by the British author Rudyard Kipling. Highly fantasised origin stories, especially for differences among animals, they are among Kipling's best known works.
The stories, first published in 1902, are pourquoi (French for "why") or origin stories, fantastic accounts of how various phenomena came about. A forerunner of these stories...
In compiling the following History from the Archives of Pantouflia, the Editor has incurred several obligations to the Learned. The Return of Benson (chapter xii.) is the fruit of the research of the late Mr. Allen Quatermain, while the final wish of Prince Prigio was suggested by the invention or erudition of a Lady.
A study of the Firedrake in South Africa, where he is called the...