This famous novel needs no introduction: suffice it to say that its enviable reputation as one of the finest English-language novels of all time is fully justified. Scope, emotion, pace, mastery of the language: all of the ingredients for a masterpiece are here, with a perhaps feminine kind of sensitivity to heighten the nuances of awareness, but in no way limited in scope to the feminine experience.
(186,000 words) An e-book is available for downloading below. CHAPTER I
There was no (...)
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Novels
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"Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë (1847)
8 April 2023, by Charlotte Brontë -
"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austin (1813)
5 April 2023, by Jane AustinJane Austin’s second and most famous novel, centered like its predecessor Sense and Sensibility on the subject of match-making in a landed-gentry milieu and on the mindsets of its female protagonists who are absolutely concentrated on this eternal theme.
A well-told story with excellent rhythm, lively dialogues and nicely-delineated personages, one of the most celebrated English novels of the 19th century.
(122,000 words) An e-book is available for downloading below. CHAPTER I
IT is (...) -
"Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austin (1811)
2 April 2023, by Jane AustinThe first of the four novels published during Jane Austin’s lifetime, this classic explores in depth the central theme of all her oeuvre: the anxieties of genteel, well-educated, well-mannered — and totally dependant — young women (and their mothers) embarked upon the search for a suitable mate who will enable them to maintain their desirable social status with as few moral compromises as possible. And it is hard if not quite impossible not to feel empathy for Marianne Dashwood, the (...)
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"Tristam Shandy" by Laurence Sterne (1759)
29 March 2023, by Laurence SterneThis effervescent brimming-over-with-the-joy-of-life novel in the form of a fictional autobiography goes shooting off in every which way as one thought leads to another, so that it takes the verbose but quite spell-bindingly fascinating and funny author a whole 80 pages to bring his life story (that starts naturally enough but nevertheless very originally with the hilarious account of the moment of his conception) up to the moment of his birth. This great book was written in the early days (...)
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"The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling" by Henry Fielding (1749)
26 March 2023, by Henry FieldingTom Jones comes into this history as a new-born baby found one morning in the bed of Mr. Allworthy, a wealthy country squire, who adopts him. The story rapidly skips ahead to when he’s a dashing fellow of eighteen full of life who has a tendency of getting into trouble, in particular with the feminine portion of humanity. He’s expelled from Mr. Allworthy’s home because of a false accusation brought against him by his scheming cousin Blifil, the only son of Mr. Allworthy’s deceased sister – (...)
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"Gulliver’s Travels" by Jonathan Swift (1729)
23 March 2023, by Jonathan SwiftJonathan Swift’s scathing satire of the society of his time in the form of a seafarer’s account of all the amazing peoples he had encountered in strange far-off places – the tiny Lilliputs, the enormous Brobdingnags, the math-and-music-loving peoples of the floating island of Laputa and the interesting mores of their womenfolk, the foolish professors, scientists and artists of Balnibarbi, the famous spectres from all epochs in Glubbdubdrib, the immortals of Luggnagg and, especially, the (...)
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"Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe (1719)
20 March 2023, by Daniel DefoeThe great story – one of the very first English novels – about how an adventurous man in the 17th century accomplishes his destiny when marooned on a desert island, where he manages not only to survive but to prosper, to find spiritual peace and comfort in his condition, to open his heart to a native whose life he has saved, and finally to triumph in a series of extraordinary challenges that have to be read to be believed.
In spite of the archaic mindset of the central character – (...) -
"The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James (1898)
30 September 2022, by Henry JamesThe celebrated ghost story (a novel of 43,000 words) by the author of Washington Square and The Portrait of a Lady.
An e-book is available for downloading below. CONTENTS Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter IV Chapter XV Chapter XVI Chapter XVII Chapter XVIII Chapter XIX Chapter XX Chapter XXI Chapter XXII Chapter XXIII Chapter XXIV
The story had held us, round (...) -
"The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1785) by Rudolf Erich Raspe
15 November 2021, by Rudolf Erich RaspeAn extravagant series of adventures purportedly recounted by the authentic Baron Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen (1720-1797) to the scholar and sometime author Rudolf Eric Raspe on returning to Germany after ten years of serving in the Russian army.
This lively and hard-to-believe but hard-to-leave account first published in English in London in 1785 almost instantly became famous all over Europe of the time.
It was translated into German (and extended) in 1786 by (...) -
"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1927) by B. Traven
15 October 2021, by B. TravenA remarkably realistic novel about a trio of American down-and-outers digging for gold in the troubled Mexico of the post-revolutionary period, told in the inimitably forceful, down-to-earth style of the author of The Death Ship.
A forceful tale brimming with empathy for the common man and his lot in life – but not with Mexican bandits, who get decidedly short shrift – magnificently transposed to the screen by John Huston in 1948 in his Academy-Award-winning film starring Humphrey (...)