Classic Books

Shakespeare’s Sonnets is the title of a collection of 154 sonnets by William Shakespeare, which covers themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. …

A classic romantic novel that marked the turn of the conventional romantic literature and proved to be a landmark for the Romantic Age of English literature. It was first published in the year 1774. ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’ by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe narrates a sad and tragic, yet romantic story of young Wether, who fall in love with a married girl and eventually, kills himself to prevent any complications in her marriage.

The present book is a 1891 essay written by Oscar Wilde in which he argues that, under capitalism, “the majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism—are forced, indeed, so to spoil them”: instead of realising their true talents, they waste their time solving the social problems caused by capitalism, without taking their common cause away. Thus, caring people “seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see in poverty but their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it” because, as Wilde puts it, “the proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible.”

The Sound and the Fury is a novel by the American author William Faulkner. It employs several narrative styles, including stream of consciousness. Published in 1929, The Sound and the Fury was Faulkner’s fourth novel, and was not immediately successful.

This work is not presented to the reader as a treatise on astronomy, although the different phenomena pertaining to that splendid science are reviewed with some detail, and the established facts bearing upon the subjects discussed are briefly cited in the very words of the great writers upon whose authority they rest. A considerable experience in chemistry, electricity, and the other allied physical sciences long since convinced the author of this work that some simple and uniform principle must control the production of the physical phenomena of astronomy,—some general law capable of being extended in its application to the widest, as well as applied to the narrowest, limits of that science. Knowing the absolute certainty of a magnetic and electrical connection between the sun and the earth, as evidenced by the reflected energy of sun-spots, auroras, etc., and that no known cause except electricity could account for some, at least, of the cometic phenomena, it seemed that any comprehensive law must at all events include this mode of energy as an effective cause, and that if the law be uniform in its application, it must equally exclude all others which may be either antagonistic or not necessary.

The Southern Literary Messenger’ was a periodical published in Richmond, Virginia, from August 1834 until June 1864. Each issue carried a subtitle of “Devoted to Every Department of Literature and the Fine Arts” or some variation and included poetry, fiction, non-fiction, reviews, and historical notes. It was founded by Thomas Willis White who served as publisher and occasional editor until his death in 1843.
Present compendium is its issue 4 of first volume.

The present fictional novel titled ‘The Spell’ was written by famous novelist William Dana Orcutt. It was first published in the year 1909. This is one of the author’s most celebrated works which was written in the typical old French fashion.

Mrs. Gereth had said she would go with the rest to church, but suddenly it seemed to her that she should not be able to wait even till church-time for relief: breakfast, at Waterbath, was a punctual meal, and she had still nearly an hour on her hands. Knowing the church to be near, she prepared in her room for the little rural walk, and on her way down again, passing through corridors and observing imbecilities of decoration, the æsthetic misery of the big commodious house, she felt a return of the tide of last night’s irritation, a renewal of everything she could secretly suffer from ugliness and stupidity. Why did she consent to such contacts, why did she so rashly expose herself? She had had, heaven knew, her reasons, but the whole experience was to be sharper than she had feared. —from this Book

To the gods themselves is due the discovery, to Apollo and Artemis, patrons of the chase and protectors of the hound. As a guerdon they bestowed it upon Cheiron, by reason of his uprightness, and he took it and was glad, and turned the gift to good account.

Yevsey endeavored to escape observation even in his uncle’s home; but here it was difficult. He had to dine and sup in the company of the whole family, and when he sat at the table, Yakov, the uncle’s youngest son, a lusty, red-faced youngster, tried every trick to tease him or make him laugh. He made faces, stuck out his tongue, kicked Yevsey’s legs under the table, and pinched him. He never succeeded, however, in making the Old Man laugh, though he did succeed in producing quite the opposite result, for often Yevsey would start with pain, his yellow face would turn grey, his eyes open wide, and his spoon tremble in his hand.

First published in 1895, ‘The Stark Munro Letters’ by Arthur Conan Doyle is written in the form of twelve long letters. These letters are written by the protagonist J. Stark Munro to his friend, and gives an account of his attempts to create a medical practice in partnership with the brilliant but unorthodox James Cullingworth.

In so far as these pages reflect the thoughts of a busy stockbroker, distracted by many duties and lacking in literary skill, they have but little merit and the writer entertains no illusions regarding them.

“Thus much, however, it is necessary for the reader to know, that, when I planned the work, I had materials by me, collected at different times of sojourn in Venice during the last seventeen years, which it seemed to me might be arranged with little difficulty, and which I believe to be of value as illustrating the history of Southern Gothic. Requiring, however, some clearer assurance respecting certain points of chronology, I went to Venice finally in the autumn of 1849, not doubting but that the dates of the principal edifices of the ancient city were either ascertained, or ascertainable without extraordinary research.” -Preface

First published in the year 1896, English-born Australian novelist Ethel Sybil Turner’s novel ‘The Story of a Baby’ is the story of a lone baby found to a couple.

Robert Shackleton CBE (25 November 1919 – 9 September 1986) was an English French language philologist and librarian. Shackleton was born in Todmorden, now in West Yorkshire. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford and taught French at Brasenose College, Oxford from 1946 to 1966.

Mohandas was the youngest of the six children of Kaba Gandhi. He was the favourite child of the family and was called ‘Moniya’ by his fond parents and their friends. Moniya adored his mother. He loved his father too, but he was a little afraid of him.
As a child, Moniya seldom liked to stay at home. He would go home for his meals and then run away again to play outside. If one of his brothers teased him or playfully pulled his ears he would run home to complain to his mother. ‘Why didn’t you hit him? She would ask.

“The purpose of this book is to tell in simple language how our great inventions came into being, to depict the life-struggles of the men who made them, and, in the telling of the story, to explain the working of the inventions in a way the boy can understand. The stories which are here woven together present the great epochs in the history of physics, and are intended to give to the young reader a connected view of the way in which our great inventions have arisen out of scientific discovery on the one hand, and conditions which we may call social and economic on the other hand. If the book shall appeal to young readers, and lead them to an appreciation of the meaning of a great invention, the author will feel that his purpose has been achieved.” -Introduction

The Story of My Life’ is a novel by Clarence Darrow, which is narrated in first-person from the point of view of Alison Poole, “an ostensibly jaded, cocaine-addled, sexually voracious 20-year-old.” Alison is originally from Virginia and lives in Manhattan, where she is involved in several sexual relationships and is aspiring to become an actress.

The “story” of Perugia is, like the story of nearly all Italian towns, as full and varied as the story of a nation. Every side-light of history is cast upon it, and nearly every phase of man’s policy and art reflected on its monuments. To do justice to so grand a pageant in a narrow space of time and binding was, we may fairly plead, no easy task; and now that the work is done, and the proofs returned to the printer, we are left with an inevitable regret; for it has been impossible for us to retain in shortened sentences and cramped description the charm of all the tales and chronicles which we ourselves found necessary reading for a full knowledge of so wide a subject.

“From the best available sources have been gathered the following biographical particulars of a remarkable family of astronomers—the Herschels.
“They will serve to show the young reader how great a pleasure may be found in the acquisition of knowledge, and how solid a happiness in quietly pursuing the path of duty.
“On the value of biography it is unnecessary to insist. It is now well understood that we may learn to make our own lives good and honest and true, by carefully and diligently following the example of the good and honest and true who have gone before us. and certain it is that the lessons taught by the lives of the Herschels are such as young readers will do well to lay to heart.” -Preface

In this little book, author has endeavoured to maintain the simplicity which is the ideal of this series. Author persuaded that the attempt to make the matter of psychology more elementary than is here done, would only result in making it untrue and so in defeating its own object.

First published in the year 1905, the present book is a fictional fable for young children, written by L. Leslie Brooke. This story is about three little pigs which has been much adored by children all over the world since its inception.

The Story of the Treasure Seekers is a novel by E. Nesbit. First published in 1899, it tells the story of Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice,

THERE was once a Child who lived in a little hut, and in the hut there was nothing but a little bed and a looking-glass which hung in a dark corner. Now the Child cared nothing at all about the looking-glass; but as soon as the first sunbeam glided softly through the casement and kissed his sweet eyelids, and the finch and the linnet waked him merrily with their morning songs, he arose, and went out into the green meadow. And he begged flour of the primrose, and sugar of the violet, and butter of the butter-cup; he shook dew-drops from the cowslip into the cup of a harebell; spread out a large lime leaf, set his little breakfast upon it, and feasted daintily. Sometimes he invited a humming bee, oftener a gay butterfly, to partake his feast; but his favourite guest was the blue dragonfly. The bee murmured a great deal, in a solemn tone, about his riches: but the Child thought that if he were a bee heaps of treasure would not make him gay and happy; and that it must be much more delightful and glorious to float about in the free and fresh breezes of spring, and to hum joyously in the web of the sunbeams, than, with heavy feet and heavy heart, to stow the silver wax and the golden honey into cells.

The present book ‘The Strange Adventures of Mr. Middleton’ is a fictional novel written by the famous writer Wardon Allan Curtis. It is a novel which revolves around a man Mr. Middleton and records the mysteries and adventures that he experience.

Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novel, ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ is about a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson, who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde. The novel’s impact is such that it has become a part of the language, with the very phrase “Jekyll and Hyde” coming to mean a person who is vastly different in moral character from one situation to the next.