| Michael Strogoff. |
Jules Verne. |
| The Wide Wide World. |
Eliz. Wetherell. |
| This famous American novel has for many years been
a classic in every home. It is a masterpiece of the best
type of domestic fiction. |
| Hereward the Wake. |
Charles Kingsley. |
| This brilliant romance tells of the last stand of the great
English leader, Hereward, against the advance of the
Normans. The scene is largely laid in the Fen country,
and every page is a record of fierce strife. The fall of Hereward
is one of the greatest death scenes in literature. |
|
David Copperfield—I. |
Charles Dickens. |
| David Copperfield—II. |
Charles Dickens. |
| "David Copperfield" is, by general consent, Dickens's masterpiece,
showing, as it does, all his peculiar merits in their highest form. It
is the most autobiographical of his novels, and the one into which he
put most of his philosophy of life. |
| Jane Eyre. |
Charlotte Brontë. |
| "Jane Eyre" is Charlotte Brontë's first and most famous work. It
was the first realistic novel, in the modern sense of the word, in English
literature, and its influence has been beyond reckoning. It ranks as
one of the great novels of the nineteenth century. |
| Verdant Green. |
Cuthbert Bede. |
| This is the humorous classic of Oxford life. Published more than
half a century ago, its humour is as fresh to-day as ever. |
| Pickwick Papers—I. |
Charles Dickens. |
| Pickwick Papers—II. |
Charles Dickens. |
| Every year sees a new edition of "Pickwick," and the world still
asks for more. It is one of the world's greatest romances of the road,
where adventures fall to those who seek them. It is also a faithful
and loving picture of an older England, from which we have travelled
far to-day. We may become a wiser people, but we shall never again
be so humorous. |
| Windsor Castle. |
Harrison Ainsworth. |
| The romances of Harrison Ainsworth need no advertisement. In
this, as in his "Tower of London" and "Old St. Paul's," he has taken
one of England's great historical sites, and woven around it an appropriate
romance. |
| Peg Woffington. |
Charles Reade. |
| "Peg Woffington" was the first of Charles Reade's romances, and
was founded upon his comedy, "Masks and Faces." The story of the
famous Irish actress who dazzled London in the eighteenth century, and
with whom Garrick was in love, has been made the foundation of a
charming romance. |
|
Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character. |
Dean Ramsay. |
| The only book of jests that has ever attained an honourable place in
literature. Its wealth of genuine humour is a perpetual refutation of
the old slander that Scots joke "wi' deeficulty." |
| Parables from Nature. |
Mrs. Gatty. |
| This is one of the great children's books of the world. It was a classic
in our grandmothers' time, and possesses that imperishable charm which
makes it as attractive to-day as when it was first written. |
| Lavengro. |
George Borrow. |
| The greatest romance of the road in English literature, telling of all
the byways and humours of that older England which is fast disappearing. |
| Little Women. |
Louisa M. Alcott. |
| This delightful book has become a possession of childhood and youth.
It has captured the affections of millions of young people in two continents,
and is certainly the finest piece of work in the whole range of
Miss Alcott's breezy, hopeful, genial, and tender writings. |
| Pride and Prejudice. |
Jane Austen. |
| Sense and Sensibility. |
Jane Austen. |
| Sir Walter Scott was among the earliest to detect the merits of Miss
Austen's work, and of recent years her humour and her keen insight
into human nature have been abundantly recognized, so that to-day she
is probably the most read novelist of her period. In Sir Walter Scott's
phrase she possesses "the exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace
things and characters interesting." |
| Toilers of the Sea. |
Victor Hugo. |
| The Laughing Man. |
Victor Hugo. |
| Les Misérables—I. |
Victor Hugo. |
| Les Misérables—II. |
Victor Hugo. |
| 'Ninety-Three. |
Victor Hugo. |
| Victor Hugo took the romantic novel as invented by Sir Walter Scott
and gave it a new and philosophic interest. All his great romances
have a purpose. "Les Misérables" exposes the tyranny of human
laws; "The Toilers of the Sea" shows the conflict of man with nature;
"The Laughing Man" expounds the tyranny of the aristocratic ideal
as exemplified in England. But being a great artist as well as a great
thinker, he never turned his romances into pamphlets. Drama is always
his aim, and no novelist has attained more often the supreme dramatic
moment. |
| The Heir of Redclyffe. |
C. M. Yonge. |
| This is a reprint of Miss Yonge's most famous tale. It has been
said of her that she domesticated the historical romance, which owed
its origin to Sir Walter Scott, and her characters were for long the
ideal figures of most English households. |
| Wild Wales. |
George Borrow. |
| This book was the result of Borrow's wanderings after the publication
of "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye." He tramped on foot
throughout the country, and the work is a classic of description, both
of the scenery and people. |
| The Cloister and the Hearth. |
Charles Reade. |
| There are many who think this the greatest of all historical novels,
and it is certain that there are few better. It is not a story so much as
a vast and varied transcript of life. It is also a delightful romance, and
Gerard and Margaret are among the immortals of fiction. |
| Romola. |
George Eliot. |
| This is the only novel of George Eliot's in which the scene is laid
outside her own country. It is a story of Florence during the time of
the Renaissance, a marvellous picture of the intellectual and moral
ferment which the New Learning created. With amazing learning and
insight the author portrays the souls of men and women, and her study
of a weak man and a strong woman has rarely been surpassed in English
literature for dramatic power and moral truth. |
| Silas Marner. |
George Eliot. |
| This, the shortest and the most exquisite of George Eliot's tales,
represents her great powers at their best. In the picture of the hero she
shows a profound understanding of human nature, and the feelings which
were then moving rural and industrial England. |
|
The Abbot. |
Sir Walter Scott. |
| One of the Waverley novels which has always been deservedly
popular. |
| Bride of Lammermoor. |
Sir Walter Scott. |
| The story is a tragedy on the lines of Greek drama, and the ending
has been pronounced by great critics to be the most moving in prose
literature. In the Master of Ravenswood, Scott has drawn perhaps his
greatest tragic figure, and in Caleb Balderstone one of his most humorous
creations. |
| The Black Tulip. |
Alexandre Dumas. |
| This was the last of Dumas' great stories. It is a veritable tour de
force, for in it the reader follows with consuming interest the vicissitudes
of a tulip, and the human element in the story is quite subsidiary.
Nevertheless, it contains such strongly-drawn characters as Cornelius
van Baerle, the guardian of the tulip, and Rosa, the jailer's daughter. |
| Tom Cringle's Log. |
Michael Scott. |
| A brilliant story of West Indian life by an author who combined
abundant personal experience with keen observation, sprightly temper,
and delightful humour. "Tom Cringle's Log" has been many times
reprinted, and has lost nothing of its popularity and power to please. |
| Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. |
| Tens of thousands of readers have been led to Shakespeare by the
charmingly told stories which Charles and Mary Lamb, about a hundred
years ago, extracted from the plays of the greatest dramatist of all time.
Though produced by Lamb at the very outset of his literary career,
these stories betray that unique and finished art, that delightful freshness
and rare sympathy, which are the characteristics of his mature
work. |
| The Scarlet Letter. |
Nathaniel Hawthorne. |
| This is one of the most powerful and affecting stories ever conceived.
On its first appearance, in 1850, it immediately leaped high into public
favour, and attained the distinction of an unmistakable classic. The
tragedy of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale is wrought out in the
midst of an austere Puritan community, which exacts the bitterest expiation
for sin. |
