You stood before its footlights. You knew its comedy—its tragedy. You had honorable and distinguished cast in the great drama that gave it fame in every land beneath the sun and place in Some works transcend simple records to become fine works of literary craftsmanship. Some, and this book is one of them, possess the ability First published in , this fascinating book explores the role that Rasputin played in the downfall of the Russian Empire and the revolution of His deeds were many, his prejudices few, and his autobiography follows his story from the time of his birth in until he was 44 years old.
Google Project Gutenberg. After being stricken by measles and subsequent vision damage while attending Harvard, Dana enlisted as a sailor on a two-year voyage around Cape Horn on the brig Pilgrim. He kept a diary of his travels along the way, known as Two Years Before the Mast , and filled it with passages of practical naval jargon, animated imagery, and some of the first descriptions of s California. Night and Day is a nuanced exploration of the political and personal lives of women in the early 20th century.
The Mississippi River had a profound and pivotal on Twain from the time he was a little boy until his death in It seems like almost all stories coming out of Antarctica either deal with penguins, polar bears, or survival. This is an excellent locked-room mystery set at a country house. During a dinner party one of the guests, the black sheep of the family, is found murdered by a shot to the head.
Comedic at times, rational and by-the-book at others, Milne follows the chief inspector and his sidekick as they interrogate guests to solve the crime. Published anonymously in , nothing can prepare you for this deliciously clever gothic mystery book about the rivalry between two brothers in 17th-century Edinburgh and a powerful stranger known as Gil-Martin who stirs it all up.
Amazon Project Gutenberg. An increasingly nightmarish journey on a steamboat in the Congo turns into a disturbing journey into the human psyche. This novella served as the inspiration for the thriller movie Apocalypse Now , which shifted the action to Vietnam and Cambodia during the Vietnam War, instead of 19th-century Africa.
Later criticized as a xenophobic dehumanization of Africans, it reflects colonial attitudes. Doyle did not invent the fictional detective archetype — that arguably goes to Edgar Allen Poe — but he certainly helped bring it to the mainstream with this classic mystery book. It follows a retired mining engineer who becomes wrapped up in an international plot upon discovering a body in his home and fleeing for his native Scotland. It offers a short read, with a tense introduction into the world of espionage novels.
The book opens with teacher Walter Hartright encountering a mysterious woman in white upon a London road, but it unravels into a sensational love affair with subtle undercurrents of political commentary. Her second novel, The Secret Adversary , introduces the reader to Tommy and Tuppence, two characters who reoccur in other Christie tales down the line. Their goal? To find a woman who vanishes with government documents — and without becoming completely entrenched in a tangle of secret intelligence, false evidence, and dubious affairs.
Considered the first detective story ever written, the short tale is centered on a man named C. Auguste Dupin and his work to unravel the mystery surrounding a baffling double murder on a fictional street in Paris.
Although numerous witnesses heard the suspect, no one can seem to agree on the language spoken, and the only other piece of apparent evidence is a lone strand of hair Dupin believes to be nonhuman. It revolves around a penniless man named Rodion Raskolnikov who executes a plot to kill a corrupt pawnbroker to alleviate his financial woes and rid the world of corruption.
Is murder warranted if it serves a higher purpose? If you like your tragedies bloody and grim, look no further than the Elizabethan playwrights, particularly John Webster. His play The Duchess of Malfi is a gruesome tale of corruption and the perils of being a woman in a world dominated by men.
The central characters are Antonio, a man of low birth but high character, and the smart, kindly Duchess, with whom he falls in love and marries in secret. The plot centers around The Fox, a Venetian gentleman on his deathbed, and the action follows a series of men who attempt to gain his favor to win his fortune. First published in , The Swiss Family Robinson tells the tale of a family of Swiss immigrants who are shipwrecked on an island in the East Indies en route to Australia.
Spanning over 10 years we follow their life on the island as they survive and thrive, building a treehouse and rescuing a young woman shipwrecked on another part of the island. Many of us are only familiar with the first part of the novel, which has been the focus for countless movie, TV, and stage adaptations.
Having served on whaling ships, Melville paints a detailed picture of life at sea in pursuit of whales, largely for oil that was used in lamps, soap, and many other products. This classic book is also packed with references and clever narrative techniques that have proven very influential in the years since its publication in Bernard-Scotch Collie named Buck who is stolen, sold, and forced to survive as a sled dog in the harsh realities of the Arctic.
The main character, Robinson Crusoe, becomes stranded on a desert island following an intense storm at sea, equipped with no more than a pipe, a knife, and an inch of tobacco. He collects lore that his uncle, Dr. Elihu Whipple, has gathered about the house, including details on a number of strange, unexplained deaths and sicknesses. No more Twilight.
As the title suggests, this is a chilling tale of a boy who encounters a bossy ghost who refuses to leave the house. The story is action-packed in an age-appropriate manner so young kids can enjoy it freely. The plot includes various magical and gripping concepts like spirits, inheritance, sharing, and conflict. The language and the general difficulty level are ideal for middle-grade readers, but younger kids can also enjoy it with some help.
Shelley wrote and published Frankenstein by the time she turned Two of the stories take place in s America, two in Paris, but all four focus on self-indulgent artists with their own shortcomings. Lovecraft and others. Still, many argue and provide merit that Dr. Jekyll is more multifaceted than most make him out to be, and to say he has a dual personality is overly simplistic. Like numerous Gothic works of the time, it deals with how even the most moral of characters can be corrupted — in this case a priest who has sex with a young girl disguised as a boy and further delves into other sensational acts of sorcery, incest, torture, murder, and deceit.
This atmospheric horror classic from the s inspired H. If you're an Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you'll have many, many more books to read for "free. There's a big, wide world of cheap and no-cost books to be found on these platforms.
Here are 17 classics to get you started. Entertain your brain with the coolest news from streaming to superheroes, memes to video games. Little Women was a hit from the moment it was published in , and got its latest moment in the sun thanks to the film adaptation starring Emma Watson. It's a coming-of-age novel that follows four sisters into womanhood, and it's been consistently successful over the last years.
Little Women was an acclaimed novel, and has been adapted into plays, films, operas and TV shows. Here's one for parents looking for something to read to their kids, or Disney enthusiasts wanting to read the play that inspired the novel that inspired the classic.
A worthy disclaimer though: It contains portrayal of Native Americans that's very… Like most classics, there's a chance you may have suffered through Frankenstein during English classes in high school.
We've all been there. Picking apart any book in school is enough to turn anyone off a book, but Frankenstein has always been an exception to me. Not only is Frankenstein seen as the first science-fiction novel, it's also a timeless parable, one of the finest examples of gothic literature and a true product of the Romantic movement. If that kind of thing doesn't sell you, you can still laugh at Victor Frankenstein whining as he reaps what he sows.
Another one for the Goths! If you're a fan of our undead friends, it's worth experiencing one of the books that started it all. The story is terrific for those after a good, suspenseful gothic horror. It's easy to think that Dracula must be another hard-to-read classic, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Wouldn't it be great to have a lightweight version? With Kindle, you can. The nifty app lets you create a digital library of your favorite books so you can read anywhere, anytime.
Whether you like it or not, more and more things are being replaced with digital copies. Nowhere is this truer than physical copies of books. In fact, more e-books are published annually than paper-based books. It may not be as pleasurable as holding the copy in your hand, but it is more convenient.
Amazon brings the Kindle free app to multiple platforms. Be it a desktop, tablet, or smartphone, you will have the same books, bookmarks, notes and highlights in your account. Best of all, digital copies tend to be more affordable than the actual book. It just goes to show how serious Amazon is about making reading exciting, fun and accessible.
0コメント