Classics
20 stories
A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by CharlesDickens
CharlesDickens
  • WpView
    Reads 361,898
  • WpVote
    Votes 4,770
  • WpPart
    Parts 46
The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events. The most notable are Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a former French aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Carton is a dissipated English barrister who endeavors to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife. Cover art done by @orangedusk
Frankenstein by _SparkQuote
_SparkQuote
  • WpView
    Reads 32,971
  • WpVote
    Votes 565
  • WpPart
    Parts 25
Pride and Prejudice (1813) by JaneAusten
JaneAusten
  • WpView
    Reads 10,403,906
  • WpVote
    Votes 221,726
  • WpPart
    Parts 61
The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London.
ANIMAL FARM (Completed) by GeorgeOrwell
GeorgeOrwell
  • WpView
    Reads 36,149
  • WpVote
    Votes 859
  • WpPart
    Parts 11
Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell wrote the book between November 1943 and February 1944, when the UK was in its wartime alliance with the Soviet Union and the British people and intelligentsia held Stalin in high esteem. It became a great commercial success when it did appear partly because international relations were transformed as the wartime alliance gave way to the Cold War. Time magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005). It also featured at number 31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels. It won a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996, and is included in the Great Books of the Western World selection.
NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR [1984] (Completed) by GeorgeOrwell
GeorgeOrwell
  • WpView
    Reads 44,682
  • WpVote
    Votes 920
  • WpPart
    Parts 23
Nineteen Eighty-Four, often published as 1984, is a dystopian novel published in 1949 by English author George Orwell. The novel is set in Airstrip One, formerly Great Britain, a province of the superstate Oceania, whose residents are victims of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation. Oceania's political ideology, euphemistically named English Socialism (shortened to "Ingsoc" in Newspeak, the government's invented language that will replace English or Oldspeak) is enforced by the privileged, elite Inner Party. Via the "Thought Police", the Inner Party persecutes individualism and independent thinking, which are regarded as "thoughtcrimes".
A Little Princess by ayeolnation
ayeolnation
  • WpView
    Reads 57,737
  • WpVote
    Votes 2,372
  • WpPart
    Parts 19
By Frances Hodgson Burnett
Emma by Jane Austen by ClassicKnowitAll
ClassicKnowitAll
  • WpView
    Reads 17,442
  • WpVote
    Votes 469
  • WpPart
    Parts 55
Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. The story takes place in the fictional village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls, and Donwell Abbey and involves the relationships among individuals in those locations consisting of "3 or 4 families in a country village".
Great Expectations (1861) by CharlesDickens
CharlesDickens
  • WpView
    Reads 1,401,403
  • WpVote
    Votes 12,095
  • WpPart
    Parts 60
On Christmas Eve, around 1812, Pip, an orphan who is about six years old, encounters an escaped convict in the village churchyard while visiting the graves of his mother, father, and siblings. The convict scares Pip into stealing food and a file to grind away his shackles, from the home he shares with his abusive older sister and her kind, passive husband Joe Gargery, a blacksmith. The next day, soldiers recapture the convict while he is engaged in a fight with another convict; the two are returned to the prison ships from which they escaped...
Heart of Darkness (1899) by JosephConrad
JosephConrad
  • WpView
    Reads 14,727
  • WpVote
    Votes 211
  • WpPart
    Parts 3
Heart of Darkness is a short novel written by Joseph Conrad, presented as a frame narrative, about Charles Marlow's job as an ivory transporter down the Congo River in Central Africa. In the course of his commercial-agent work in Africa, the seaman Marlow becomes obsessed by Mr. Kurtz, an ivory-procurement agent, a man of established notoriety among the natives and the European colonials.
MIDDLEMARCH (Completed) by GeorgeEliot
GeorgeEliot
  • WpView
    Reads 5,679
  • WpVote
    Votes 240
  • WpPart
    Parts 88
Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by the English author George Eliot, first published in eight installments (volumes) during 1871-72. The novel is set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch during 1829-32, and it comprises several distinct (though intersecting) stories and a large cast of characters. Significant themes include the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. Although containing comical elements, Middlemarch is a work of realism that refers to many historical events: the 1832 Reform Act, the beginnings of the railways, the death of King George IV, and the succession of his brother, the Duke of Clarence (the future King William IV). In addition, the work incorporates contemporary medical science and examines the deeply reactionary mindset found within a settled community facing the prospect of unwelcome change.