Classic Books

When Jill Mariner is arrested for fighting over a parrot and then loses all her money on the same day, she is abandoned by her pompous fiancé and goes to stay with her rich relations on Long Island. Uncle Elmer is delighted to see her – until he finds out that Jill is penniless. Heading for New York, she ends up in the chorus of a musical comedy on Broadway where she eventually finds the man of her dreams. A light romantic comedy in Wodehouse’s most charming manner.

First published in the year 1892, the present book ‘Jill: A Flower Girl’ is a fictional tale written for children by famous writer L. T. Meade.

First published in the year 1886, the present children’s novel ‘Jo’s Boys’ was written by famous American author Louisa May Alcott. The book mostly follows the lives of Plumfield boys who were introduced in Little Men, particularly Tommy, Emil, Demi, Nat, Dan, and Professor Bhaer and Jo’s sons Rob and Teddy, although the others make frequent appearances as well.

“If Beethoven appears to our generation as a Greek statue, Bach, on the contrary, impresses us as one of those Sphinxes of Egypt whose towering head commands the wide expanse of the desert.”
The comparison is imaginative, but seems to me only partially just.
Sphinx in vastness of proportions, I admit; but the image is destroyed when character is taken into consideration. Bach is indisputably the mightiest of musicians; one is seized with awe in perusing the extraordinary catalogue of his works, so seemingly impossible are its dimensions; in casually looking over those forty and more folio volumes; in pausing for an instant to examine more closely any one of the pages, where the smallest detail seems to have been long considered and predetermined, while over all soars the essential thought, always profound and original. But was there ever a thinker less enigmatical?

John Barleycorn’ is an autobiographical novel by Jack London dealing with his enjoyment of drinking and struggles with alcoholism. It was published in 1913. The title is taken from the British folksong “John Barleycorn”.

First published in the year 1892, the present book ‘John Call Dalton, M.D., U.S.V.’ by John Dalton is the beginning of a narrative of the personal military experience of John Call Dalton, M. D., Surgeon U. S. V., written during the last year of his life, at the request of his family.

“The chief of American ornithologists was John James Audubon. Audubon did not begin where Wilson left off. He was also a pioneer, beginning his studies and drawings of the birds probably as early as Wilson did his, but he planned larger and lived longer. He spent the greater part of his long life in the pursuit of ornithology, and was of a more versatile, flexible, and artistic nature than was Wilson. He was collecting the material for his work at the same time that Wilson was collecting his, but he did not begin the publication of it till fourteen years after Wilson’s death. Both men went directly to Nature and underwent incredible hardships in exploring the woods and marshes in quest of their material. Audubon’s rambles were much wider, and extended over a much longer period of time.” -Preface

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts. We have not used OCR, as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc. We have endeavored to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. We feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

This book is very useful for children and is beneficial in the development of children because the best category of pictures and poetry is included in the books. And the curriculum of these books has been given in a way that helps in the development of children.

First published in the year 1906, the present book ‘Josefine Motzenbacher’ was written by Felix Salten. This book is an erotic bestseller novel in Germany. The original novel uses the specific local dialect of Vienna of that time in dialogues and is therefore used as a rare source of this dialect for linguists. It also describes, to some extent, the social and economical conditions of the lower class of that time.

Joseph Andrews, Vol. 1′ is one of the first full length English novels by Henry Fielding. It was first published in the year 1742. It is the story of a good-natured footman’s adventures on the road home from London with his friend and mentor, the absent-minded parson Abraham Adams.

Harijan presented the Mahatma when he was alive in his many moods: friend, philosopher, guide, politician, statesman, saint. He was all that and much more. He was the complete editor. There never was an editor like him before and there never will be another like him in the future. The times, of course, made the man. But the man contributed to his times in many wondrous ways.

Journey to the Center of the Earth’ is an 1864 science fiction novel by noted nineteenth century novelist Jules Verne. The story involves German professor Otto Lidenbrock, who believes there are volcanic tubes going toward the centre of the Earth. He, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans descend into the Icelandic volcano Snaefellsjokull, encountering many adventures, including prehistoric animals and natural hazards, before eventually coming to the surface again in southern Italy, at the Stromboli volcano.

First published in the year 1913, the present book ‘Joyous Gard’ by Arthur Christopher Benson consists of twenty seven essays that offer both philosophical ponderings and practical tips about how to achieve a more fulfilling existence.

Our mother was once present at a meeting where there was talk of ancestry and heredity. One of the speakers dwelt largely upon the sins of the fathers. He drew stern pictures of the vice, the barbarism, the heathenism of the “good old times,” and ended by saying with emphasis that he felt himself “bowed down beneath the burden of the sins of his ancestors.”

Our mother was on her feet in a flash.

“Mr. So-and-So,” she said, “is bowed down by the sins of his ancestors. I wish to say that all my life I have been buoyed up and lifted on by the remembrance of the virtues of mine!”

These words are so characteristic of her, that in beginning the story of her life it seems proper to dwell at some length on the ancestors whose memory she cherished with such reverence.

A homeless New York City boy is taken west by a benefactor to work on a farm and ends up rescuing a little girl kidnapped by a vengeful Indian. Aka: Julius the Street Boy, A Waif’s Rise from Poverty, Life in the West, Out West.

He was the famous Brody Carmical, and rumor had it he was worth a million credits for each of the many richly mounted heads.

“So you’re fresh out of school with a degree in Extra-terrestrial zoology,” Carmical grumbled. “Am I supposed to turn cartwheels?”

Steve cleared his throat. “The Placement Service thought you might have a job—”

“I do, I do. That doesn’t mean any young pup who comes along can fill it. Ever been off the Earth, Mr. Stedman?”

“No.”

“Ever been off the North American continent?”

“No.”

“But you want to go galavanting around the Solar System in search of big game. Tell me—do you think they have a Harvard club on every stinking satellite you’ll visit? Do you think you can eat beefsteak and drink martinis in every frontier-world dive? Let me tell you, Mr. Stedman, the answer is no.”

Just So Stories’ is a collection of stories for little children by British author Rudyard Kipling. He began working on the book by telling the first three chapters as bedtime stories to his daughter Josephine. The stories describe how one animal or another acquired its most distinctive features, such as how the Leopard got his spots.

Now each regardless of a fall,
With crooked stick, oft strikes the ball,
Which o’er the icy surface flies,
The adventr’us game, with ardour plies.

To keep fit is to maintain perfect health; and perfect health depends upon a perfect balance of mind and body, unimpaired physical vigor and absolute inner harmony, and a calm, mental poise which nothing can disturb.

A boy with light blue eyes that just about matched the slightly hazy June sky sat on the float below the town landing at Greenhaven, L. I., and stared thoughtfully across harbor and bay to where, two miles northward, the village of Johnstown stretched along the farther shore. He had a round, healthy, and deeply tanned face of which a short nose, many freckles, the aforementioned blue eyes, and a somewhat square chin were prominent features. There was, of course, a mouth, as well, and that, too, was prominent just now, for it was puckered with the little tune that the boy was softly whistling. Under a sailor’s hat of white canvas the hair was brown, but a brown that only escaped being red by the narrowest of margins. That fact was a sore subject with Toby Tucker.

“Mr. Townsend’s fellow countrymen must feel themselves to be put under a beautiful obligation to him by his work entitled ‘Kentucky in American Letters’. He has thus fenced off for the lovers of New World literature a well watered bluegrass pasture of prose and verse, which they may enter and range through according to their appetites for its peculiar green provender and their thirst for the limestone spring. This strip of pasture is a hundred years long; its breadth may not be politely questioned!” -Introduction

Kidnapped’ is an historical fiction adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It was first published in the magazine Young Folks in 1886. The story is set around 18th-century Scottish events, notably the “Appin Murder”, which occurred near Ballachulish in 1752 in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Many of the characters were real people, including one of the principals, Alan Breck Stewart. The political situation of the time is portrayed from multiple viewpoints, and the Scottish Highlanders are treated sympathetically.