5964 books

Metamorfosi by Ovid (1474)

English Poetry Medieval
Ovid’s sensuous and witty poem. In Metamophoses, Ovid brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation—often as a result of love or lust—where men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best-known myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (1707)

English Victorian/Regency
An intimate portrait of a woman, one of literature's most admirable and tragic heroines...Tess Durbeyfield knows what it is to work hard and expect little. But her life is about to veer from the path trod by her mother and grandmother. When her ne'er-do-well father learns that his family is the last of a long noble line, the d'Urbervilles, he sends Tess on a journey to meet her supposed kin—a journey that will see her victimized by lust, poverty, and hypocrisy. Shaped by an acute sense of social injustice and by a vision of human fate cosmic in scope, her story is a singular blending of harsh realism and poignant beauty. Thomas Hardy created in Tess not a standard Victorian heroine but a woman whose intense vitality shines against the bleak backdrop of a dying way of life. The novel shocked contemporary readers with its honesty and remains a timeless commentary on the human condition.

The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald (1872)

English Science Fiction Fantasy
There was once a little princess whose father was king over a great country full of mountains and valleys. His palace was built upon one of the mountains, and was very grand and beautiful. The princess, whose name was Irene, was born there, but she was sent soon after her birth, because her mother was not very strong, to be brought up by country people in a large house, half castle, half farmhouse, on the side of another mountain, about half-way between its base and its peak.

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (1855)

American Poetry
**Leaves of Grass** is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. First published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing and rewriting *Leaves of Grass*, revising it multiple times until his death. There have been held to be either six or nine individual editions of Leaves of Grass, the count varying depending on how they are distinguished.[2] This resulted in vastly different editions over four decades—the first edition being a small book of twelve poems, and the last, a compilation of over 400. (Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass))

A Room with a View by E. M. Forster (1905)

Historical Fiction English Romance Victorian/Regency
Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her, until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Her eyes are opened by the unconventional characters she meets at the Pension Bertolini: flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the Cockney Signora, curious Mr Emerson and, most of all, his passionate son George. Lucy finds herself torn between the intensity of life in Italy and the repressed morals of Edwardian England, personified in her terminally dull fiancé Cecil Vyse. Will she ever learn to follow her own heart?

The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle (1914)

English Victorian/Regency
Even Sherlock Holmes, well-accustomed to the bizarre, finds the elements of this case unusual; the scene of the crime, a moated English country house; the wapon, a very American sawed-off shotgun; the bereaved, strangely dry-eyed; and the solution, backward in time and deep in a VALLEY OF FEAR...

Richard III by William Shakespeare (1597)

English Drama
"containing his treacherous plots against his brother Clarence, the pittiefull murther of his innocent nephewes, his tyrannicall usurpation, with the whole course of his detested life and most deserved death" (Subtitle of the 1597 edition.)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (1818)

English Romance Drama Coming of Age
Stephen Dedalus grows up in Dublin, feeling different from the other boys. His childhood and adolescence are shaped by bullying, his father's weaknesses and the growing realization that in order to make his way in the world he must reject a conventional life and boecome an artist. Penguin Popular Classics are the perfect introduction to the world-famous Penguin Classics series — which encompasses the best books ever written, from Homer's Odyssey to Orwell's 1984 and everything in between.

Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare (1632)

English Drama Comedy
"Professor Schlueter approaches this early comedy as a parody of two types of Renaissance educational fiction: the love-quest story and the test-of-friendship story, which by their combination show high-flown human ideals as incompatible with each other and with human nature. A thoroughly researched, illustrated stage history reveals changing conceptions of the play, which nevertheless often fail to come to terms with its subversive impetus. Since the first known production at David Garrick's Drury Lane Theatre, it has tempted major directors and actors, including John Philip Kemble, William Charles Macready and Charles Kean, who established a tradition of understanding which cast its shadow even on such modern productions as Denis Carey's famous staging for the Bristol Old Vic and Robin Phillips's for the Royal Shakespeare Company. This updated edition includes a new introductory section by Lucy Munro on recent stage and critical interpretations, bringing the performance history completely up to date"--

Coriolanus by William Shakespeare (1734)

English Drama
A proud Roman general conquers the Volscians, leads them against Rome in revenge for his banishment, and is killed by the Volscian general when Coriolanus is persuaded to spare the city.

Anne of the Island by Lucy Maud Montgomery (1915)

English Romance Friendship
New adventures lie ahead for Anne Shirley as she packs her bags, waves goodbye to childhood, and heads for Redmond College. With her old friend Prissy Grant waiting in the bustling city of Kingsport, and frivolous new pal Philippa Gordon at her side, Anne spreads her wings and discovers life on her own terms, filled with surprises: the joys of sharing a house with her irrepressible friends, her very first sale of a story - and a marriage proposal from the worst fellow imaginable!

Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare (1598)

Drama
Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, discusses the author and the theater of his time, and provides quizzes and other study activities.

Der Proceß by Franz Kafka (1825)

Dystopian Fantasy
Byzantine and claustrophobic novel of a man arrested by the secret police and charged with an unspecified crime. Unable to defend himself and disorientated by the legal process at work around him the man soon becomes apathetic and acquiescent, accepting his eventual sentence as inevitable.

πολιτεία by Plato (1554)

Greek
The Republic is Plato's most famous work and one of the seminal texts of Western philosophy and politics. The characters in this Socratic dialogue - including Socrates himself - discuss whether the just or unjust man is happier. They are the philosopher-kings of imagined cities and they also discuss the nature of philosophy and the soul among other things.

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie (1922)

English Mystery Victorian/Regency
Tommy Beresford and Prudence 'Tuppence' Cowley are young, in love… and flat broke. Just after Great War, there are few jobs available and the couple are desperately short of money. Restless for excitement, they decide to embark on a daring business scheme: Young Adventurers Ltd.—"willing to do anything, go anywhere." Hiring themselves out proves to be a smart move for the couple. In their first assignment for the mysterious Mr. Whittingtont, all Tuppence has to do in their first job is take an all-expense paid trip to Paris and pose as an American named Jane Finn. But with the assignment comes a bribe to keep quiet, a threat to her life, and the disappearance of her new employer. Now their newest job are playing detective. Where is the real Jane Finn? The mere mention of her name produces a very strange reaction all over London. So strange, in fact, that they decided to find this mysterious missing lady. She has been missing for five years. And neither her body nor the secret documents she was carrying have ever been found. Now post-war England's economic recovery depends on finding her and getting the papers back. But he two young working undercover for the British ministry know only that her name and the only photo of her is in the hands of her rich American cousin. It isn’t long before they find themselves plunged into more danger than they ever could have imagined—a danger that could put an abrupt end to their business… and their lives.