Phantastes George MacDonald http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3437 en 1858 Novels Fantasy Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women is a fantasy novel written by George MacDonald, first published in London in 1858. Its importance was recognized in its later revival in paperback by Ballantine Books as the fourteenth volume of the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in April 1970. This was the first prose work published by MacDonald. Because of its limited financial success, MacDonald saw himself forced to turn to writing realistic novels. Phantastes, however, exerted a strong influence on fantasy authors of later generations: for example, C. S. Lewis in his book Suprised by Joy claimed that his imagination had been "baptized" by reading it. The story centers on the character Anodos ("pathless" or "ascent" in Greek) and takes its inspiration from German Romanticism, particularly Novalis. The story concerns a young man who is pulled into a dreamlike world and there hunts for his ideal of female beauty, embodied by the "Marble Lady". Anodos lives through many adventures and temptations while in the other world, until he is finally ready to give up his ideals. In its themes and overall storyline, Phantastes is a kind of dry run for MacDonald's later novel Lilith. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3437.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3437.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3437.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3437.mobi The Princess and the Goblin George MacDonald http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3415 en 1872 Novels Young Readers Fantasy Princess Irene and her newfound friend Curdie battle the goblin king and queen, along with their foul son Prince Froglip, and save the kingdom with old mining knowledge, some thread, and the help of Irene's magical great-great grandmother. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3415.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3415.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3415.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3415.mobi The Princess and Curdie George MacDonald http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3418 en 1883 Novels Young Readers Fantasy A sequel to The Princess and the Goblin: Princess Irene and Curdie are a year or two older, and must overthrow a set of corrupt ministers who are poisoning Irene's father, the king. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3418.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3418.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3418.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3418.mobi Peter Pan (Peter and Wendy) J.M. Barrie http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3413 urn:isbn:0543949796 en 1911 Novels Young Readers Fantasy Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and Peter and Wendy are the stage play and novel (respectively) which tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and his adventures on the island of Neverland with Wendy Darling and her brothers, the fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, the Indian princess Tiger Lily, and the pirate Captain Hook. The story was written by Scottish playwright and novelist J. M. Barrie, inspired by his friendship with the Llewelyn-Davies family. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3413.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3413.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3413.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3413.mobi The Water-Babies Charles Kingsley http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3421 en 1863 Novels Young Readers Fantasy The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby is a children's novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. Written in 1862-1863 as a serial for Macmillan's Magazine, it was first published in its entirety in 1863. The book was extremely popular during its day, and was a mainstay of children's literature through the 1920s. The protagonist is Tom, a young chimney sweep, who falls into a river after encountering an upper-class girl named Ellie and being chased out of her house. There he dies and is transformed into a "water baby", as he is told by a caddis fly — an insect that sheds its skin — and begins his moral education. The story is thematically concerned with Christian redemption, though Kingsley also uses the book to argue that England treats its poor badly, and to question child labour, among other themes. Source: Wikipedia http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3421.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3421.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3421.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3421.mobi Whose Body? Dorothy Leigh Sayers http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3406 en 1923 Novels Crime/Mystery Lord Peter Wimsey investigates the sudden appearance of a naked body in the bath of an architect at the same time a noted financier goes missing under strange circumstances. As the case progresses it becomes clear that the two events are linked in some way. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50 or in the USA (published before 1923). http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3406.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3406.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3406.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3406.mobi The Lost Stradivarius John Meade Falkner http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1605 urn:isbn:1434624242 en 1895 Novels Horror Ghost Stories The Lost Stradivarius (1895), by J. Meade Falkner, is a short novel of ghosts and the evil that can be invested in an object, in this case an extremely fine Stradivarius violin. After finding the violin of the title in a hidden compartment in his college rooms, the protagonist, a wealthy young heir, becomes increasingly secretive as well as obsessed by a particular piece of music, which seems to have the power to call up the ghost of its previous owner. Roaming from England to Italy, the story involves family love, lordly depravity, and the tragedy of obsession, all conveyed in a "high" serious tone not uncommon in late Victorian literature. Preceding M.R. James's ghost stories by several years, it has been called the novel James might have written, had he written novels. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1605.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1605.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1605.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1605.mobi The Sea Fairies Lyman Frank Baum http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3410 en 1911 Novels Young Readers Fantasy Mayre Griffiths, nicknamed Trot, or sometimes Tiny Trot, is a little girl who lives on the coast of southern California. Her father is the captain of a sailing schooner, and her constant companion is Cap'n Bill Weedles, a retired sailor with a wooden leg. (Cap'n Bill had been Trot's father's skipper, and Charlie Griffiths had been his mate, before the accident that took the older man's leg.) Trot and Cap'n Bill spend many of their days roaming the beaches near home, or rowing and sailing along the coast. One day, Trot wishes that she could see a mermaid; her wish is overheard, and granted the next day. The mermaids explain to Trot, and the distressed Cap'n Bill, that they are benevolent fairies; when they offer Trot a chance to pay a visit to their land in mermaid form, Trot is enthusiastic, and Bill is too loyal to let her go off without him. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3410.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3410.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3410.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3410.mobi Heart of the World Henry Rider Haggard http://www.feedbooks.com/book/994 urn:isbn:1600961479 en 1895 Novels Adventure This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/994.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/994.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/994.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/994.mobi The Crack of Doom Robert Cromie http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2877 urn:isbn:B000WCWVR6 en 1895 Novels Science Fiction The rough notes from which this narrative has been constructed were given to me by the man who tells the story. For obvious reasons I have altered the names of the principals, and I hereby pass on the assurance which I have received, that the originals of such as are left alive can be found if their discovery be thought desirable. This alteration of names, the piecing together of somewhat disconnected and sometimes nearly indecipherable memoranda, and the reduction of the mass to consecutive form, are all that has been required of me or would have been permitted to me. The expedition to Labrador mentioned by the narrator has not returned, nor has it ever been definitely traced. He does not undertake to prove that it ever set out. But he avers that all which is hereafter set down is truly told, and he leaves it to mankind to accept the warning which it has fallen to him to convey, or await the proof of its sincerity which he believes the end of the century will produce. (Often quoted as being the first reference to the idea of an atomic bomb.) http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2877.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2877.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2877.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2877.mobi Prince Zaleski Matthew Phipps Shiel http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2657 urn:isbn:1406569925 en 1895 Short Fiction Crime/Mystery Collections This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50 or in the USA (published before 1923). http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2657.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2657.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2657.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2657.mobi Lady Chatterley's Lover David Herbert Lawrence http://www.feedbooks.com/book/87 urn:isbn:0553212621 en 1928 Novels Sexuality Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence written in 1928. Printed privately in Florence in 1928, it was not printed in the United Kingdom until 1960 (other than in an underground edition issued by Inky Stephensen's Mandrake Press in 1929). Lawrence considered calling this book Tenderness at one time and made significant alterations to the original manuscript in order to make it palatable to readers. It has been published in three different versions. The publication of the book caused a scandal due to its explicit sex scenes, including previously banned four-letter words, and perhaps because the lovers were a working-class male and an aristocratic female. The story is said to have originated from events in Lawrence's own unhappy domestic life, and he took inspiration for the settings of the book from Ilkeston in Derbyshire where he lived for a while. According to some critics the fling of Lady Ottoline Morrell with "Tiger", a young stonemason who came to carve plinths for her garden statues, also influenced the story. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/87.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/87.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/87.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/87.mobi Beasts and Super-Beasts Saki http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3399 urn:isbn:1406542865 en 1914 Short Fiction Collections Humor/Satire Beasts and Super-Beasts is a collection of short stories, written by Saki (the literary pseudonym of Hector Hugh Munro) and first published in 1914. Along with The Chronicles of Clovis, Beasts and Super-Beasts is one of Saki's best-known works. It was his final collection of stories before his death in World War I, and several of its stories, in particular "The Open Window" and "Sredni Vashtar", are reprinted frequently in anthologies. The majority of the volume's stories deal in one fashion with animals, providing the source for its title. The character of Clovis Sangrail, featured in earlier works by Saki, appears in several stories. Most of the stories appeared previously in periodicals. Stylistically, Beasts and Super-Beasts displays the simple language, cynicism and wry humor that characterize Saki's earlier literary output. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3399.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3399.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3399.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3399.mobi Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure John Cleland http://www.feedbooks.com/book/84 urn:isbn:1840224177 en 1749 Novels Sexuality Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, popularly known as Fanny Hill, is a novel by John Cleland. Written in 1748 while Cleland was in debtor's prison in London, it is considered the first modern "erotic novel" in English, and has become a byword for the battle of censorship of erotica. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/84.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/84.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/84.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/84.mobi A Dreamer's Tales Lord Dunsany http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3352 en 1910 Short Fiction Fantasy Collections A Dreamer's Tales is the fifth book by Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany, considered a major influence on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula LeGuin and others. It was first published in hardcover by George Allen & Sons in September, 1910, and has been reprinted a number of times since. Issued by the Modern Library in a combined edition with The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories as A Dreamer's Tales and Other Stories in 1917. The book is actually Dunsany's fourth major work, as his preceding book, The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth (March, 1910), was a chapbook reprinting a single story from his earlier collection The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories (October, 1908). In common with most of Dunsany's early books, A Dreamer's Tales is a collection of fantasy short stories. Source: Wikipedia This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50 or in the USA (published before 1923). http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3352.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3352.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3352.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3352.mobi The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3403 en 1910 Novels Crime/Mystery The story of a man named Erik, an eccentric, physically deformed genius who terrorizes the Opera Garnier in Paris. He builds his home beneath it and takes the love of his life, a beautiful soprano, under his wing. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3403.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3403.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3403.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3403.mobi Escape From Paradise Island Michael Graeme http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/3739 en 2007 A 25 minute read by Michael Graeme: Crime doesn't pay. That's what they try to teach you in prison, and fair enough, I might even have left there one day determined to go straight except, suddenly, I was on an island in the China Sea, gazing at a beautiful girl in a yellow Bikini. So maybe it had been worth it after all. But careful now! You had to avoid thinking things like that because they'd a nasty habit of dissolving back into reality and you'd wake up right back in that stinking grey cell: five years of your life already erased, with another two to go, and all because you'd never been able to resist the puzzle of a pretty motor car! fantasy mystery romance short story speculative http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/3739.png http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/3739.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/3739.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/3739.mobi The Lost Continent Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne http://www.feedbooks.com/book/892 urn:isbn:1880418096 en 1900 Novels Science Fiction Fantasy Adventure A classic "lost race" story, with all of the required elements: a seductive empress, a straight-arrow hero, battles, escapes, sorcery, and earth-shattering cataclysms! Eminently readable and very entertaining, without any profundity to distract a fan of Haggard, Aubrey, or Janvier-style fantasy literature. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50 or in the USA (published before 1923). http://www.feedbooks.com/book/892.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/892.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/892.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/892.mobi The Novel of the Black Seal Arthur Machen http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1172 urn:isbn:1419175750 en 1895 Short Fiction Horror This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50 or in the USA (published before 1923). http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1172.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1172.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1172.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1172.mobi The Wood Beyond the World William Morris http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3626 urn:isbn:0345237307 en 1894 Novels Fantasy The Wood Beyond the World is a fantasy novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of much of present-day fantasy literature. When the wife of Golden Walter betrays him for another man, he leaves home on a trading voyage to avoid the necessity of a feud with her family. His efforts are fruitless, as word comes to him enroute that his wife's clan has killed his father. As a storm then carries him to a faraway country, the effect of this news is merely to sunder his last ties to his homeland. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3626.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3626.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3626.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3626.mobi