Jude The Obscure Thomas Hardy http://www.feedbooks.com/book/753 urn:isbn:0486452433 en 1895 Novels Hardy's masterpiece traces a poor stonemason's ill-fated romance with his free-spirited cousin. No Victorian institution is spared — marriage, religion, education — and the outrage following publication led the embittered author to renounce fiction. Modern critics hail this novel as a pioneering work of feminism and socialist thought. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/753.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/753.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/753.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/753.mobi Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2699 urn:isbn:0199537054 en 1891 Novels Romance Young Tess Durbeyfield attempts to restore her family's fortunes by claiming their connection with the aristocratic d'Urbervilles. But Alec d'Urberville is a rich wastrel who seduces her and makes her life miserable. When Tess meets Angel Clare, she is offered true love and happiness, but her past catches up with her and she faces an agonizing moral choice. Hardy's indictment of society's double standards, and his depiction of Tess as "a pure woman," caused controversy in his day and has held the imagination of readers ever since. Hardy thought it his finest novel, and Tess the most deeply felt character he ever created. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2699.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2699.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2699.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2699.mobi The Three Strangers Thomas Hardy http://www.feedbooks.com/book/754 urn:isbn:0194230252 en 1883 Short Fiction Horror This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/754.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/754.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/754.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/754.mobi Under the Greenwood Tree Thomas Hardy http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2715 en 1872 Novels The plot concerns the activities of a group of church musicians, the Mellstock parish choir, one of whom, Dick Dewy, becomes romantically entangled with a comely new school mistress, Fancy Day. The novel opens with the fiddlers and singers of the choir--including Dick, his father Reuben Dewy, and grandfather William Dewy--making the rounds in Mellstock village on Christmas Eve. When little band plays at the schoolhouse, young Dick falls for Fancy at first sight. Dick, smitten, seeks to insinuate himself into her life and affections, but Fancy's beauty has gained her other suitors, including a rich farmer and the new vicar at the parish church. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2715.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2715.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2715.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2715.mobi Two on a Tower Thomas Hardy http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2773 en 1882 Novels This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2773.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2773.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2773.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2773.mobi Howards End E. M. Forster http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2071 urn:isbn:0486424545 en 1910 Novels The disregard of a dying woman's bequest, a girl's attempt to help an impoverished clerk, and the marriage of an idealist and a materialist — all intersect at an estate called Howards End. The fate of this country home symbolizes the future of England in an exploration of social, economic, and philosophical trends during the post-Victorian era. This work was published before 1923 and is in the public domain in the USA only. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2071.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2071.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2071.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2071.mobi The Vicar of Wakefield Oliver Goldsmith http://www.feedbooks.com/book/116 urn:isbn:0192805126 en 1766 Novels http://www.feedbooks.com/book/116.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/116.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/116.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/116.mobi A Room with a View E. M. Forster http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2068 urn:isbn:0553213237 en 1908 Novels Romance This Edwardian social comedy explores love and prim propriety among an eccentric cast of characters assembled in an Italian pensione and in a corner of Surrey, England. A charming young Englishwoman, Lucy Honeychurch, faints into the arms of a fellow Britisher when she witnesses a murder in a Florentine piazza. Attracted to this man, George Emerson—who is entirely unsuitable and whose father just may be a Socialist—Lucy is soon at war with the snobbery of her class and her own conflicting desires. Back in England, she is courted by a more acceptable, if stifling, suitor and soon realizes she must make a startling decision that will decide the course of her future: she is forced to choose between convention and passion. This work was published before 1923 and is in the public domain in the USA only. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2068.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2068.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2068.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2068.mobi The Portrait of a Lady Henry James http://www.feedbooks.com/book/413 urn:isbn:0375759190 en 1881 Novels Romance One of the great heroines of American literature, Isabel Archer, journeys to Europe in order to, as Henry James writes in his 1908 Preface, “affront her destiny.” James began The Portrait of a Lady without a plot or subject, only the slim but provocative notion of a young woman taking control of her fate. The result is a richly imagined study of an American heiress who turns away her suitors in an effort to first establish—and then protect—her independence. But Isabel’s pursuit of spiritual freedom collapses when she meets the captivating Gilbert Osmond. “James’s formidable powers of observation, his stance as a kind of bachelor recorder of human doings in which he is not involved,” writes Hortense Calisher, “make him a first-class documentarian, joining him to that great body of storytellers who amass what formal history cannot.” This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/413.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/413.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/413.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/413.mobi Middlemarch George Eliot http://www.feedbooks.com/book/575 urn:isbn:0451529170 en 1871 Novels Vast and crowded, rich in irony and suspense, Middlemarch is richer still in character, with two of the era's most enduring characters, Dorothea Brooke, trapped in a loveless marriage, and Lydgate, an ambitious young doctor. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/575.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/575.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/575.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/575.mobi Moby-Dick Herman Melville http://www.feedbooks.com/book/54 urn:isbn:0553213113 en 1851 Novels Adventure Moby-Dick is an 1851 novel by Herman Melville. The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaling ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale, Moby-Dick, a white whale of tremendous size and ferocity. Comparatively few whaling ships know of Moby-Dick, and fewer yet have encountered him. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg. Ahab intends to exact revenge. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/54.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/54.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/54.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/54.mobi Ivanhoe Sir Walter Scott http://www.feedbooks.com/book/203 urn:isbn:0486436772 en 1820 Novels War Ivanhoe is the story of one of the remaining Saxon noble families at a time when the English nobility was overwhelmingly Norman. It follows the Saxon protagonist, Wilfrid of Ivanhoe, who is out of favour with his father owing to his courting the Lady Rowena and for his allegiance to the Norman king Richard I of England. The story is set in 1194, after the end of the Third Crusade, when many of the Crusaders were still returning to Europe. King Richard, having been captured by the Duke of Saxony, on his way back, was still supposed to be in the arms of his captors. The legendary Robin Hood, initially under the name of Locksley, is also a character in the story, as are his 'merry men,' including Friar Tuck and, less so, Alan-a-Dale. (Little John is merely mentioned.) The character that Scott gave to Robin Hood in Ivanhoe helped shape the modern notion of this figure as a cheery noble outlaw. Other major characters include Ivanhoe's intractable Saxon father Cedric, a descendant of the Saxon King Harold Godwinson; various Knights Templar and churchmen; the loyal serfs Gurth the swineherd and the jester Wamba, whose observations punctuate much of the action; and the Jewish moneylender, Isaac of York, equally passionate of money and his daughter, Rebecca. The book was written and published during a period of increasing struggle for Emancipation of the Jews in England, and there are frequent references to injustice against them. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/203.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/203.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/203.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/203.mobi The Turn of the Screw Henry James http://www.feedbooks.com/book/300 urn:isbn:B0013PTRKK en 1898 Novels Ghost Stories The Turn of the Screw is a short novel or a novella written by American writer Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is ostensibly a ghost story that has lent itself well to operatic and film adaptation. Due to its ambiguous content and narrative skill, The Turn of the Screw became a favorite text of New Criticism. The account has lent itself to dozens of different interpretations, often mutually exclusive, including those of a Freudian nature. Many critics have tried to determine what exactly is the nature of evil within the story. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/300.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/300.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/300.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/300.mobi Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4156 en 1874 Novels Romance Far from the Madding Crowd was the first of Hardy's novels to apply the name of Wessex to the landscape of south-west England, and the first to gain him widespread popularity as a novelist. When the beautiful and spirited Bathsheba Everdene inherits her own farm, she attracts three very different suitors; the seemingly commonplace man-of-the-soil Gabriel Oak, the dashing young soldier Francis Troy, and the respectable, middle-aged Farmer Boldwood. Her choice, and the tragedy it provokes, lie at the centre of Hardy's ambivalent story. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4156.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4156.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4156.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4156.mobi The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri http://www.feedbooks.com/book/206 urn:isbn:0451208633 en 1306 Poetry Dante Alighieri's poetic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, is a moving human drama, an unforgettable visionary journey through the infinite torment of Hell, up the arduous slopes of Purgatory, and on to the glorious realm of Paradise-the sphere of universal harmony and eternal salvation. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/206.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/206.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/206.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/206.mobi The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1523 en 1850 Novels Romance Gothic The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, is an American novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and is generally considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth after committing adultery, refuses to name the father, and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne explores questions of grace, legalism, sin and guilt. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1523.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1523.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1523.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1523.mobi A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce http://www.feedbooks.com/book/222 en 1916 Novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce, first serialized in The Egoist from 1914 to 1915 and published in book form in 1916. It depicts the formative years in the life of Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter ego of Joyce and a pointed allusion to the consummate craftsman of Greek mythology, Daedalus. A Portrait is a key example of the Künstlerroman (an artist's bildungsroman) in English literature. Joyce's novel traces the intellectual and religio-philosophical awakening of young Stephen Dedalus as he begins to question and rebel against the Catholic and Irish conventions he has been brought up in. He finally leaves for Paris to pursue his calling as an artist. The work pioneers some of Joyce's modernist techniques that would later come to fruition in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. The Modern Library ranked Portrait as the third greatest English-language novel of the twentieth century. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50 or in the USA (published before 1923). http://www.feedbooks.com/book/222.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/222.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/222.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/222.mobi The Woodlanders Thomas Hardy http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4067 en 1887 Novels Romance The story takes place in a small woodland village called Little Hintock, and concerns the efforts of an honest woodsman, Giles Winterborne, to marry his childhood sweetheart, Grace Melbury. Although they have been informally betrothed for some time, her father has made financial sacrifices to give his adored only child a superior education and no longer considers Giles good enough for her. When the new doctor – a well-born and handsome young man named Edred Fitzpiers – takes an interest in Grace, her father does all he can to make Grace forget Giles, and to encourage what he sees as a brilliant match. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4067.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4067.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4067.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4067.mobi Desperate Remedies Thomas Hardy http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4049 urn:isbn:0192840703 en 1874 Novels Crime/Mystery Thriller Described by Hardy as a tale of "mystery, entanglement, surprise and moral obliquity", his first published novel violated the literary decorum of its day with blackmail, murder, and romance. It relates the story of Cytherea, a maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe, and the man she loves, Edward Springrove. Upon discovering that Edward is already engaged, Cytherea comes under the influence of Miss Aldclyffe's fascinating, manipulative steward, Manston. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4049.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4049.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4049.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4049.mobi Where Angels Fear to Tread E. M. Forster http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2074 urn:isbn:0679736344 en 1905 Novels When a young English widow takes off on the grand tour and along the way marries a penniless Italian, her in-laws are not amused. That the marriage should fail and poor Lilia die tragically are only to be expected. But that Lilia should have had a baby -- and that the baby should be raised as an Italian! -- are matters requiring immediate correction by Philip Herriton, his dour sister Harriet, and their well-meaning friend Miss Abbott. This work was published before 1923 and is in the public domain in the USA only. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2074.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2074.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2074.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2074.mobi