On the Decay of the Art of Lying is a short essay written by Mark Twain in 1880 for a meeting of the Historical and Antiquarian Club of Hartford, Connecticut. Twain published the text in The Stolen White Elephant Etc. (1882). In the essay, Twain laments the four ways in which men of America's Gilded Age employ man's 'most faithful friend'. He concludes by insisting that: “The wise thing...

The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge is one of the fifty-six Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. One of eight stories in the cycle collected as His Last Bow, it is a lengthy, two-part story consisting of The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles and The Tiger of San Pedro, which on original publication in The Strand bore the collective title of A...

George Silverman's Explanation, published in instalments from January to March 1868, was one of the last pieces of fiction written by Charles Dickens, two years before his death. Silverman is born in a Preston cellar, and spends his early years locked in there, often left alone while his parents go out to seek work.

This satire on the U.S.A.'s myth of being the "Home of the Oppressed, where all men are free and equal", is unrelenting in its pursuit of justice through exposure. It draws a scathingly shameful portrait of how Chinese immigrants were treated in 19th century San Francisco. 

Sam took the rebuke all the more meekly as he perceived the stiff black legs of a turkey poking-out from under my grandmother's apron while she was delivering it. To be exhorted and told of his shortcomings, and then furnished with a turkey at Thanksgiving, was a yearly part of his family program. In time he departed, not only with the turkey, but with us boys in procession after him, bearing a...

Great Expectations is Charles Dickens's thirteenth novel. It is his second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age novel, and it is a classic work of Victorian literature. It depicts the growth and personal development of an orphan named Pip. The novel was first published in serial form in Dickens's weekly...

This is the picture of a boy who was born in the north of the world. He loved his mother country and the music which the people sang. But he had music, all his own, that sang and sang in his heart. It was happy music and sad; solemn and joyous. You will hear it some day and love it all. Even when this little boy was in the primary school the music knocked at his heart's door as if it would...

Hard Times – For These Times (commonly known as Hard Times) is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book appraises English society and is aimed at highlighting the social and economic pressures of the times. Hard Times is unusual in several respects. It is by far the shortest of Dickens' novels, barely a quarter of the length of those written immediately before...

Going into Society is Dickens's story of a man who sets up a circus in a respectable neighborhood. The main attraction is a dwarf: "He was a un-common small man, he really was. Certainly not so small as he was made out to be, but where IS your Dwarf as is?"

This book is one of a series known as the Child’s own book of great musicians, written by Thomas Tapper, author of "Pictures from the Lives of the Great Composers for Children," "Music Talks with Children," "First Studies in Music Biography," and others. This series will be found not only to furnish a pleasing and interesting task for the children, but will teach them the main facts with...

When we read about the great composers we learn that they come from all kinds of families. Bach's parents were poor. Mendelssohn's were rich. Schubert's father was a schoolmaster. Mozart's father was a violinist. The story which you are to read in this book and then write out in your own words is about a boy whose parents were neither well-to-do nor well known. His name is George Frederick...

Inspiring stories of heroes from various times and places relating their daring deeds, prompted by their high ideals. Perseus and Hercules are included from Greek mythology and David and Daniel from the Bible. Among the legendary heroes of the middle ages are St. George, King Arthur, Sir Galahad, Siegfried, Roland, Robin Hood, The Cid, and William Tell. Historical persons such as Alfred the...

The designing and making of Costume is a craft-sometimes artistic-with which we are all more or less concerned. It is also, in its own way, one of the living arts, that is, it is still carried forward experimentally by experts directly attached to the "business." It has not yet been subjected to rules of good taste formulated by Academies and Universities; but when Inigo Jones, the great...

His Last Bow, published in September 1917, is one of 56 short stories about Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was first published in Strand Magazine, and, amongst six other stories, was collected in an anthology titled His Last Bow, also called Reminiscensces of Mr. Sherlock Holmes. The narration is in the third person, not, as usual, by Dr. Watson, and it is a spy story,...

Eve's Diary is a comic short story by Mark Twain. It was first published in the 1905 Christmas issue of the magazine Harper's Bazaar, and in book format in June 1906 by Harper and Brothers publishing house. It is written in the style of a diary kept by the first woman in the biblical creation story, Eve, and is claimed to be "translated from the original MS." The "plot" of this novel is the...

How to Tell a Story and Other Essays (1897) is a series of essays by Mark Twain. In them he describes his own writing style, attacks the idiocy of a fellow author, defends the virtue of a dead woman, and tries to protect ordinary citizens from insults by railroad conductors.

Following the Equator (sometimes titled More Tramps Abroad) is a non-fiction travelogue published by American author Mark Twain in 1897. Twain was practically bankrupt in 1894 due to a failed investment into a "revolutionary" typesetting machine. In an attempt to extricate himself from debt of $100,000 (equivalent of about $2.5 million in 2010) he undertook a tour of the British Empire in 1895,...

This is collection of well known fairy tales by Grimm's and others, with an introductory on the history and importance of fairy tales for children. The book includes: One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes The Magic Mirror Hansel and Grethel The Story of Aladdin The White Cat The Second Voyage of Sinbad The Golden Goose The Twelve Brothers Tom Thumb Cinderella Puss in Boots Blue...

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses is an 1895 essay by Mark Twain, written as a satire and criticism of the writings of James Fenimore Cooper. Drawing on examples from The Deerslayer and The Pathfinder from Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, the essay claims Cooper is guilty of verbose writing, poor plotting, glaring inconsistencies, overused clichés, cardboard characterizations, and a host...

Offers stories about real persons who actually lived and performed their parts in the great drama of the world's history. Some of these persons were more famous than others, yet all have left enduring footprints on the 'sands of time,' and their names will be long remembered. Though not strictly biographical, each of the stories contains a basis of truth and an ethical lesson which cannot fail to...