The Secret Adversary Agatha Christie http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2059 urn:isbn:0451201205 en 1922 Novels Crime/Mystery Hiring themselves out as “young adventurers willing to do anything” is a smart move for Tommy and Tuppence. All Tuppence has to do is take an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris and pose as someone named Jane Finn. But with the job comes a threat to her life, and the disappearance of her mysterious employer. Now Tuppence’s newest job is playing detective—because if there’s a Jane Finn that really exists, she’s got a secret that’s putting both their lives in danger. This work was published before 1923 and is in the public domain in the USA only. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2059.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2059.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2059.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2059.mobi The Island of Dr. Moreau H. G. Wells http://www.feedbooks.com/book/33 urn:isbn:0553214322 en 1896 Novels Science Fiction Edward Prendick is shipwrecked in the Pacific. Rescued by Doctor Moreau's assistant he is taken to the doctor's island home where he discovers the doctor has been experimenting on the animal inhabitants of the island, creating bizarre proto-humans... This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50 or in the USA (published before 1923). http://www.feedbooks.com/book/33.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/33.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/33.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/33.mobi Macbeth William Shakespeare http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2935 urn:isbn:0521606861 en 1606 Plays Macbeth is among the best-known of William Shakespeare's plays, and is his shortest tragedy, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606. It is frequently performed at both amateur and professional levels, and has been adapted for opera, film, books, stage and screen. Often regarded as archetypal, the play tells of the dangers of the lust for power and the betrayal of friends. For the plot Shakespeare drew loosely on the historical account of King Macbeth of Scotland by Raphael Holinshed and that by the Scottish philosopher Hector Boece. There are many superstitions centred on the belief the play is somehow "cursed", and many actors will not mention the name of the play aloud, referring to it instead as "The Scottish play". (From Wikipedia) http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2935.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2935.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2935.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2935.mobi The Awakening & Other Short Stories Kate Chopin http://www.feedbooks.com/book/342 urn:isbn:0679783334 en 1899 Short Fiction Sexuality The Awakening shocked turn-of-the-century readers with its forthright treatment of sex and suicide. Departing from literary convention, Kate Chopin failed to condemn her heroine's desire for an affair with the son of a Louisiana resort owner, whom she meets on vacation. The power of sensuality, the delusion of ecstatic love, and the solitude that accompanies the trappings of middle- and upper-class life are the themes of this now-classic novel. As Kaye Gibbons points out in her Introduction, Chopin "was writing American realism before most Americans could bear to hear that they were living it." http://www.feedbooks.com/book/342.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/342.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/342.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/342.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 The Lost World Arthur Conan Doyle http://www.feedbooks.com/book/67 urn:isbn:0812564839 en 1912 Novels Adventure The Lost World is a novel released in 1912 by Arthur Conan Doyle concerning an expedition to a plateau in South America where prehistoric animals (dinosaurs and other extinct creatures) still survive. The character of Professor Challenger was introduced in this book. Interestingly, for a seminal work of dinosaur-related fiction, the animals only occupy a small portion of the narrative. Much more time is devoted to a war between early human hominids and a vicious tribe of ape-like creatures. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/67.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/67.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/67.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/67.mobi 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 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad http://www.feedbooks.com/book/15 urn:isbn:0486264645 en 1902 Novels Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Polish-born writer Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski). Before its 1902 publication, it appeared as a three-part series (1899) in Blackwood's Magazine. It is widely regarded as a significant work of English literature and part of the Western canon. This highly symbolic story is actually a story within a story, or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he recounts, from dusk through to late night, his adventure into the Congo to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary. The story details an incident when Marlow, an Englishman, took a foreign assignment as a ferry-boat captain, employed by a Belgian trading company. Although the river is never specifically named, readers may assume it is the Congo River, in the Congo Free State, a private colony of King Leopold II. Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver; however, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization in a cover up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/15.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/15.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/15.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/15.mobi 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne http://www.feedbooks.com/book/182 urn:isbn:0812550927 en 1870 Novels Science Fiction Adventure Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (French: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne, published in 1870. It is about the fictional Captain Nemo and his submarine, Nautilus, as seen by one of his passengers, Professor Pierre Aronnax. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/182.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/182.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/182.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/182.mobi The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas http://www.feedbooks.com/book/73 urn:isbn:037576030X en 1845 Novels Adventure The Count of Monte Cristo (French: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. It is often considered, along with The Three Musketeers, as Dumas' most popular work. It is also among the highest selling books of all time. The writing of the work was completed in 1844. Like many of his novels, it is expanded from the plot outlines suggested by his collaborating ghostwriter Auguste Maquet. The story takes place in France, Italy, islands in the Mediterranean and the Levant during the historical events of 1815–1838 (from just before the Hundred Days through the reign of Louis-Philippe of France). The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book. It is primarily concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy, forgiveness and death, and is told in the style of an adventure story. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/73.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/73.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/73.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/73.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 The Art of War Sun Tzu http://www.feedbooks.com/book/168 urn:isbn:0762415983 en -514 Non-Fiction Philosophy War The Art of War is a Chinese military treatise that was written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time. The Art of War is one of the oldest books on military strategy in the world. It is the first and one of the most successful works on strategy and has had a huge influence on Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics, and beyond. Sun Tzu was the first to recognize the importance of positioning in strategy and that position is affected both by objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective opinions of competitive actors in that environment. He taught that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through a to-do list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a competitive environment, http://www.feedbooks.com/book/168.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/168.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/168.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/168.mobi