The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1513 urn:isbn:0553212702 en 1851 Novels Romance Gothic In a sleepy little New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive Pyncheon family. Mysterious deaths threaten the living. Musty documents nestle behind hidden panels carrying the secret of the family’s salvation—or its downfall. Hawthorne called The House of the Seven Gables “a Romance,” and freely bestowed upon it many fascinating gothic touches. A brilliant intertwining of the popular, the symbolic, and the historical, the novel is a powerful exploration of personal and national guilt, a work that Henry James declared “the closest approach we are likely to have to the Great American Novel.” http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1513.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1513.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1513.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1513.mobi The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Washington Irving http://www.feedbooks.com/book/196 urn:isbn:0809594080 en 1820 Short Fiction Horror Ghost Stories http://www.feedbooks.com/book/196.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/196.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/196.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/196.mobi The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde http://www.feedbooks.com/book/6 urn:isbn:0375751513 en 1891 Novels Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is one of his most popular works. Written in Wilde's characteristically dazzling manner, full of stinging epigrams and shrewd observations, the tale of Dorian Gray's moral disintegration caused something of a scandal when it first appeared in 1890. Wilde was attacked for his decadence and corrupting influence, and a few years later the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde's homosexual liaisons, trials that resulted in his imprisonment. Of the book's value as autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be--in other ages, perhaps." http://www.feedbooks.com/book/6.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/6.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/6.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/6.mobi Anna Karenina Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1487 urn:isbn:1593080271 en 1877 Novels Romance Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, playing out the contrasts of city and country life and all the variations on love and family happiness. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1487.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1487.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1487.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1487.mobi Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen http://www.feedbooks.com/book/52 urn:isbn:0553213105 en 1813 Novels Romance Pride And Prejudice, the story of Mrs. Bennet's attempts to marry off her five daughters is one of the best-loved and most enduring classics in English literature. Excitement fizzes through the Bennet household at Longbourn in Hertfordshire when young, eligible Mr. Charles Bingley rents the fine house nearby. He may have sisters, but he also has male friends, and one of these—the haughty, and even wealthier, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy—irks the vivacious Elizabeth Bennet, the second of the Bennet girls. She annoys him. Which is how we know they must one day marry. The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and Darcy is a splendid rendition of civilized sparring. As the characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, Jane Austen's radiantly caustic wit and keen observation sparkle. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/52.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/52.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/52.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/52.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 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 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë http://www.feedbooks.com/book/135 urn:isbn:0553212583 en 1847 Novels Gothic Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë's only novel. It was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and a posthumous second edition was edited by her sister Charlotte. The name of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors on which the story centres (as an adjective, wuthering is a Yorkshire word referring to turbulent weather). The narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/135.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/135.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/135.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/135.mobi Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë http://www.feedbooks.com/book/144 urn:isbn:1551111802 en 1847 Novels Romance Jane Eyre, the story of a young girl and her passage into adulthood, was an immediate commercial success at the time of its original publication in 1847. Its representation of the underside of domestic life and the hypocrisy behind religious enthusiasm drew both praise and bitter criticism, while Charlotte Brontë's striking expose of poor living conditions for children in charity schools as well as her poignant portrayal of the limitations faced by women who worked as governesses sparked great controversy and social debate. Jane Eyre, Brontë's best-known novel, remains an extraordinary coming-of-age narrative, and one of the great classics of literature. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/144.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/144.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/144.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/144.mobi War and Peace Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy http://www.feedbooks.com/book/83 urn:isbn:067003469X en 1869 Novels History War War and Peace is a novel by Leo Tolstoy, first published from 1865 to 1869 in Russkii Vestnik, which tells the story of Russian society during the Napoleonic Era. It is usually described as one of Tolstoy's two major masterpieces (the other being Anna Karenina) as well as one of the world's greatest novels. War and Peace offered a new kind of fiction, with a great many characters caught up in a plot that covered nothing less than the grand subjects indicated by the title, combined with the equally large topics of youth, marriage, age, and death. Though it is often called a novel today, it broke so many conventions of the form that it was not considered a novel in its time. Indeed, Tolstoy himself considered Anna Karenina (1878) to be his first attempt at a novel in the European sense. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/83.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/83.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/83.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/83.mobi Frankenstein Mary Shelley http://www.feedbooks.com/book/91 urn:isbn:0743487583 en 1818 Novels Science Fiction Horror Gothic Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a novel written by the British author Mary Shelley. The title of the novel refers to a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who learns how to create life and creates a being in the likeness of man, but larger than average and more powerful. In popular culture, people have tended to refer to the Creature as "Frankenstein", despite this being the name of the scientist. Frankenstein is a novel infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. It was also a warning against the "over-reaching" of modern man and the Industrial Revolution, alluded to in the novel's subtitle, The Modern Prometheus. The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films. It is arguably considered the first fully realized science fiction novel. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/91.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/91.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/91.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/91.mobi Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift http://www.feedbooks.com/book/159 urn:isbn:0451527321 en 1726 Novels Humor/Satire Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships, is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers' tales" literary sub-genre. It is Swift's best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/159.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/159.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/159.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/159.mobi Emma Jane Austen http://www.feedbooks.com/book/45 urn:isbn:0553212737 en 1816 Novels Romance Emma is a comic novel by Jane Austen, first published in December 1815, about the perils of misconstrued romance. The main character, Emma Woodhouse, is described in the opening paragraph as "handsome, clever, and rich" but is also rather spoiled. Prior to starting the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like." http://www.feedbooks.com/book/45.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/45.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/45.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/45.mobi Great Expectations Charles Dickens http://www.feedbooks.com/book/70 urn:isbn:0192833596 en 1861 Novels Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens first serialised in All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It is regarded as one of his greatest and most sophisticated novels, and is one of his most enduringly popular, having been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times. Great Expectations is written in a semi-autobiographical style, and is the story of the orphan Pip, writing his life from his early days of childhood until adulthood. The story can also be considered semi-autobiographical of Dickens, like much of his work, drawing on his experiences of life and people. The action of the story takes place from Christmas Eve, 1812, when the protagonist is about seven years old, to the winter of 1840. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/70.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/70.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/70.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/70.mobi Oliver Twist Charles Dickens http://www.feedbooks.com/book/56 urn:isbn:0486424537 en 1867 Novels Set in Victorian London, this is a tale of a spirited young innocent's unwilling but inevitable recruitment into a scabrous gang of thieves. Masterminded by the loathsome Fagin, the underworld crew features some of Dickens' most memorable characters, including the vicious Bill Sikes, gentle Nancy, and the juvenile pickpocket known as the Artful Dodger. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/56.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/56.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/56.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/56.mobi David Copperfield Charles Dickens http://www.feedbooks.com/book/673 urn:isbn:0679783415 en 1850 Novels David Copperfield is the novel that draws most closely from Charles Dickens's own life. Its eponymous hero, orphaned as a boy, grows up to discover love and happiness, heartbreak and sorrow amid a cast of eccentrics, innocents, and villains. Praising Dickens's power of invention, Somerset Maugham wrote: "There were never such people as the Micawbers, Peggotty and Barkis, Traddles, Betsey Trotwood and Mr. Dick, Uriah Heep and his mother. They are fantastic inventions of Dickens's exultant imagination...you can never quite forget them." http://www.feedbooks.com/book/673.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/673.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/673.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/673.mobi Dracula Bram Stoker http://www.feedbooks.com/book/88 urn:isbn:0743477367 en 1897 Novels Horror Gothic Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula. Dracula has been attributed to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. Structurally it is an epistolary novel, that is, told as a series of diary entries and letters. Literary critics have examined many themes in the novel, such as the role of women in Victorian culture, conventional and conservative sexuality, immigration, colonialism, postcolonialism and folklore. Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, the novel's influence on the popularity of vampires has been singularly responsible for many theatrical and film interpretations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/88.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/88.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/88.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/88.mobi Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen http://www.feedbooks.com/book/53 urn:isbn:0192804782 en 1811 Novels Romance Elinor and Marianne are two daughters of Mr. Dashwood by his second wife. They have a younger sister, Margaret, and an older half-brother named John. When their father dies, the family estate passes to John and the Dashwood women are left in reduced circumstances. Fortunately, a distant relative offers to rent the women a cottage on his property. The novel follows the Dashwood sisters to their new home, where they experience both romance and heartbreak. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/53.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/53.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/53.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/53.mobi Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson http://www.feedbooks.com/book/97 urn:isbn:1416500294 en 1883 Novels Adventure While going through the possessions of a deceased guest who owed them money, the mistress of the inn and her son find a treasure map that leads them to a pirate's fortune. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/97.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/97.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/97.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/97.mobi Grimm's Fairy Tales Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm Wilhem Karl Grimm http://www.feedbooks.com/book/187 urn:isbn:0517229250 en 1812 Young Readers Collections Children's and Household Tales (German: Kinder- und Hausmärchen) is a collection of German origin fairy tales first published in 1812 by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the Brothers Grimm. The collection is commonly known today as Grimms' Fairy Tales (German: Grimms Märchen). http://www.feedbooks.com/book/187.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/187.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/187.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/187.mobi