Utopia Thomas More http://www.feedbooks.com/book/198 urn:isbn:0393961451 en 1515 Non-Fiction Philosophy De Optimo Republicae Statu deque Nova Insula Utopia (translated On the Best State of a Republic and on the New Island of Utopia) or more simply Utopia is a 1516 book by Sir (Saint) Thomas More. The book, written in Latin, is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. The name of the place is derived from the Greek words οὐ u ("not") and τόπος tópos ("place"), with the topographical suffix -εία eía, hence Οὐτοπεία outopeía (Latinized as Utopia), “no-place land.” It also contains a pun, however, because “Utopia” could also be the Latinization of Εὐτοπεία eutopeía, “good-place land,” which uses the Greek prefix ευ eu, “good,” instead of οὐ. One interpretation holds that this suggests that while Utopia might be some sort of perfected society, it is ultimately unreachable. Despite modern connotations of the word "utopia," it is widely accepted that the society More describes in this work was not actually his own "perfect society." Rather he wished to use the contrast between the imaginary land's unusual political ideas and the chaotic politics of his own day as a platform from which to discuss social issues in Europe. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/198.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/198.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/198.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/198.mobi The Prince Niccolò Machiavelli http://www.feedbooks.com/book/94 urn:isbn:0553212788 en 1513 Non-Fiction Philosophy War Politics Il Principe (The Prince) is a political treatise by the Florentine public servant and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. Originally called De Principatibus (About Principalities), it was written in 1513, but not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death. The treatise is not representative of the work published during his lifetime, but it is the most remembered, and the work responsible for bringing "Machiavellian" into wide usage as a pejorative term. It has also been suggested by some critics that the piece is, in fact, a satire. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/94.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/94.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/94.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/94.mobi The Antichrist Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche http://www.feedbooks.com/book/711 urn:isbn:1420925091 en 1888 Non-Fiction Philosophy Friedrich Nietzsche's "The Antichrist" might be more aptly named "The Antichristian," for it is an unmitigated attack on Christianity that Nietzsche makes within the text instead of an exposition on evil or Satan as the title might suggest. In "The Antichrist," Nietzsche presents a highly controversial view of Christianity as a damaging influence upon western civilization that must come to an end. Regardless of ones religious or philosophical point of view, "The Antichrist" makes for an engaging philosophical discourse. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/711.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/711.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/711.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/711.mobi Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche http://www.feedbooks.com/book/172 urn:isbn:1845882423 en 1885 Non-Fiction Philosophy Thus Spoke Zarathustra (German: Also sprach Zarathustra, sometimes translated Thus Spake Zarathustra), subtitled A Book for All and None (Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen), is a written work by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, composed in four parts between 1883 and 1885. Much of the work deals with ideas such as the "eternal recurrence of the same", the parable on the "death of God", and the "prophecy" of the Overman, which were first introduced in The Gay Science. Described by Nietzsche himself as "the deepest ever written", the book is a dense and esoteric treatise on philosophy and morality, featuring as protagonist a fictionalized Zarathustra. A central irony of the text is that the style of the Bible is used by Nietzsche to present ideas of his which fundamentally oppose Judaeo-Christian morality and tradition. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/172.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/172.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/172.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/172.mobi Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche http://www.feedbooks.com/book/676 urn:isbn:1604593210 en 1886 Non-Fiction Philosophy Beyond Good and Evil (German: Jenseits von Gut und Böse), subtitled "Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future" (Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft), is a book by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, first published in 1886. It takes up and expands on the ideas of his previous work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but approached from a more critical, polemical direction. In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche attacks past philosophers for their alleged lack of critical sense and their blind acceptance of Christian premises in their consideration of morality. The work moves into the realm "beyond good and evil" in the sense of leaving behind the traditional morality which Nietzsche subjects to a destructive critique in favour of what he regards as an affirmative approach that fearlessly confronts the perspectival nature of knowledge and the perilous condition of the modern individual. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/676.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/676.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/676.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/676.mobi Les Misérables Victor Hugo http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1559 urn:isbn:0375403175 en 1862 Novels History Les Misérables (1862) is a novel by French author Victor Hugo, and among the best-known novels of the 19th century. It follows the lives and interactions of several French characters over a twenty year period in the early 19th century that starts in the year of Napoleon's final defeat. Principally focusing on the struggles of the protagonist—ex-convict Jean Valjean—who seeks to redeem himself, the novel also examines the impact of Valjean's actions for the sake of social commentary. It examines the nature of good, evil, and the law, in a sweeping story that expounds upon the history of France, architecture of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, law, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love. Les Misérables is known to many through its numerous stage and screen adaptations, of which the most famous is the stage musical of the same name, sometimes abbreviated "Les Mis" or "Les Miz" . http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1559.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1559.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1559.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1559.mobi Anthem Ayn Rand http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2837 urn:isbn:0452281253 en 1938 Novels Science Fiction Psychology Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella by Ayn Rand, first published in 1938. It takes place at some unspecified future date when mankind has entered another dark age as a result of the evils of irrationality and collectivism and the weaknesses of socialistic thinking and economics. Technological advancement is now carefully planned (when it is allowed to occur at all) and the concept of individuality has been eliminated (for example, the word "I" has disappeared from the language). As is common in her work, Rand draws a clear distinction between the "socialist/communal" values of equality and brotherhood and the "productive/capitalist" values of achievement and individuality. Many of the novella's core themes, such as the struggle between individualism and collectivism, are echoed in Rand's later books, such as The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. However, the style of "Anthem" is unique among Rand's work, more narrative-centered and economical, lacking the intense didactic expressions of philosophical abstraction that occur in later works. It is probably her most accessible work. Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/or check the copyright status in your country. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2837.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2837.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2837.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2837.mobi The Heads of Cerberus Francis Stevens http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2580 urn:isbn:B000FC1QUQ en 1919 Novels Science Fiction This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50 or in the USA (published before 1923). http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2580.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2580.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2580.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2580.mobi Metropolis Thea von Harbou http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1123 urn:isbn:1592249787 en 1927 Novels Science Fiction This is Metropolis, the novel that the film's screenwriter -- Thea von Harbou, who was director Fritz Lang's wife, and a collaborator in the creation of the film -- this is the novel that Harbou wrote from her own notes. It contains bits of the story that got lost on the cutting-room floor; in a very real way it is the only way to understand the film. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1123.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1123.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1123.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1123.mobi The Machine Stops E. M. Forster http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2073 urn:isbn:0233991670 en 1909 Short Fiction Science Fiction The Machine Stops is a short science fiction story. It describes a world in which almost all humans have lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual lives in isolation in a 'cell', with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Most humans welcome this development, as they are skeptical and fearful of first-hand experience. People forget that humans created the Machine, and treat it as a mystical entity whose needs supersede their own. Those who do not accept the deity of the Machine are viewed as 'unmechanical' and are threatened with "Homelessness". Eventually, the Machine apocalyptically collapses, and the civilization of the Machine comes to an end. This work was published before 1923 and is in the public domain in the USA only. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2073.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2073.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2073.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2073.mobi Animal Farm George Orwell http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1167 urn:isbn:1854597892 en 1945 Short Fiction Politics Animal Farm is a novella by George Orwell, and is the most famous satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism. Published in 1945, the book reflects events leading up to and during the Stalin era before World War II. Orwell, a democratic socialist, and a member of the Independent Labour Party for many years, was a critic of Joseph Stalin, and was suspicious of Moscow-directed Stalinism after his experiences with the NKVD during the Spanish Civil War. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1167.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1167.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1167.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1167.mobi 1984 George Orwell http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1166 urn:isbn:0452262933 en 1949 Novels Science Fiction Politics Nineteen Eighty-Four (also titled 1984), by George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair), is a 1949 English novel about life under a futuristic totalitarian regime in the year 1984. It tells the story of Winston Smith, a functionary at the Ministry of Truth, whose work consists of editing historical accounts to fit the government's policies. The book has major significance for its vision of an all-knowing government which uses pervasive and constant surveillance of the populace, insidious and blatant propaganda, and brutal control over its citizens. The book had a substantial impact both in literature and on the perception of public surveillance, inspiring such terms as 'Big Brother' and 'Orwellian'. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1166.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1166.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1166.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1166.mobi Venus in Furs Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch http://www.feedbooks.com/book/190 urn:isbn:1440416869 en 1906 Novels Sexuality Psychology Severin is so infatuated with Wanda that he requests to be treated as her slave and encourages her to treat him in progressively more degrading ways. At first Wanda does not want to, but later embraces the idea; though at the same time, she disdains Severin for allowing her to do so. Severin describes his feelings during these experiences as suprasensuality. Wanda treats him brutally as a servant, and recruits a trio of African women to dominate him. The relationship arrives at a crisis point when Wanda herself meets a man to whom she would like to submit. Severin, humiliated by Wanda's new lover, ceases to desire to submit, stating that men should dominate women until the time when women are equal to men in education and rights. Probably the first book which blatantly addresses the issue of female sexual domination, this is today a classic of the genre and it is the author from whom the word masochism takes its name. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/190.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/190.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/190.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/190.mobi The Night Life of the Gods Thorne Smith http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1498 urn:isbn:0375753060 en 1931 Novels Humor/Satire This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1498.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1498.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1498.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1498.mobi Pagan Passions Randall Garrett Laurence Mark Janifer http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1963 urn:isbn:1434492435 en 1959 Novels Science Fiction Sexuality The Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece and Rome had returned to Earth -- with all their awesome powers intact. Overnight, Earth was transformed. War on any scale was outlawed, along with boom-and-bust economic cycles, and prudery. No change was more startling than the face of New York, where the Empire State Building became the Tower of Zeus. In this totally altered world, William Forrester is an acolyte of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, and a teacher of history. Only Maya Wilson, one of his students and a worshipper of Venus, Goddess of Love, had a different sort of grading in mind. Maya is the first of the many Trials of Forrester, every bit as mighty and perilous as the Labors of Hercules. In love with Gerda Symes (like him, a devotee of Athena and a frequenter of the great Temple of Pallas Athena -- formerly known as the 42nd Street Library) and dedicated to the pleasures of the mind -- Forrester falls under the soft, compelling pressure of soft, compelling devotees of Venus and Bacchus. He's going to be in need of all the strength that he and his Goddess, the beautiful and intellectual Athena, can muster! Into this sensuous strife stride the Temple Myrmidons -- religious cops sworn to obey orders without question or hesitation -- with a pickup order for William Forrester. Where he is taken, what happens to him, and the truly fantastic discoveries he makes about himself and the Gods and Goddesses ... here are the ingredients that make up this science fiction novel of suspense, intrigue, mystery and danger! Please read the legal notice included in this e-book and/or check the copyright status in your country. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1963.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1963.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1963.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1963.mobi The Great Gatsby Francis Scott Fitzgerald http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1122 urn:isbn:0743273567 en 1925 Novels The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published on April 10, 1925, it is set in Long Island's North Shore and New York City during the summer of 1922. The novel chronicles an era that Fitzgerald himself dubbed the "Jazz Age." Following the shock and chaos of World War I, American society enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity during the "roaring" 1920s as the economy soared. At the same time, Prohibition, the ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol as mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment, made millionaires out of bootleggers and led to an increase in organized crime. Although Fitzgerald, like Nick Carraway in his novel, idolized the riches and glamor of the age, he was uncomfortable with the unrestrained materialism and the lack of morality that went with it. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1122.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1122.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1122.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1122.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 Uncle Silas Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1505 urn:isbn:0140437460 en 1864 Novels Crime/Mystery Gothic Uncle Silas is a Victorian Gothic mystery/thriller novel by the Anglo-Irish writer J. Sheridan Le Fanu. It is notable as one of the earliest examples of the locked room mystery subgenre. It is not a novel of the supernatural (despite a few creepily ambiguous touches), but does show a strong interest in the occult and in the ideas of Swedenborg. Like many of Le Fanu's novels, it grew out of an earlier short story, "A Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess" (1839), which he also published as "The Murdered Cousin" in the 1851 collection Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery. The setting of the original story was Irish; presumably it was changed to Derbyshire for the novel because this would appeal more to a British audience. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1505.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1505.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1505.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1505.mobi The Monk Matthew Lewis http://www.feedbooks.com/book/331 urn:isbn:0192833944 en 1796 Novels Romance Sexuality Gothic The Monk is remembered for being one of the more lurid and "transgressive" of Gothic novels. It is also the first book to feature a priest as the villain. The story concerns Ambrosio - a pious, well-respected monk in Spain - and his violent downfall. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/331.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/331.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/331.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/331.mobi Carmilla Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1506 urn:isbn:1587155958 en 1871 Short Fiction Horror Sexuality Gothic "Carmilla" is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. First published in 1872, it tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla. "Carmilla" predates Bram Stoker's Dracula by 25 years and has been adapted many times for cinema. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1506.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1506.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1506.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1506.mobi