essentials
19 stories
Mansfield Park (1814) by JaneAusten
Mansfield Park (1814)
JaneAusten
  • Reads 221,551
  • Votes 5,545
  • Parts 48
Fanny Price is a young girl from a large and relatively poor family, who is taken from them at age 10 to be raised by her rich uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas, a baronet, and Lady Bertram, of Mansfield Park. She had previously lived with her own parents, Lieut. Price and his wife, Frances (Fanny), Lady Bertram's sister. She is the second child and eldest daughter, with seven siblings born after her. She has a firm attachment to her older brother, William, who at the age of 12 has followed his father into the navy. With so many mouths to feed on a limited income, Fanny's mother is grateful for the opportunity to send Fanny away to live with her fine relatives.
Gulliver's Travels (1726) by JonathanSwift
Gulliver's Travels (1726)
JonathanSwift
  • Reads 124,363
  • Votes 1,823
  • Parts 42
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known simply as Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers' tales" literary sub-genre.
Little Women (1880) by LouisaMayAlcott
Little Women (1880)
LouisaMayAlcott
  • Reads 678,345
  • Votes 15,883
  • Parts 47
"Little Women" follows the lives of four sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March – and is loosely based on the author's childhood experiences with her three sisters.
THE STORY GIRL (Completed) by LMMontgomery
THE STORY GIRL (Completed)
LMMontgomery
  • Reads 5,140
  • Votes 262
  • Parts 33
The Story Girl is a 1911 novel by Canadian author L. M. Montgomery. It narrates the adventures of a group of young cousins and their friends who live in a rural community on Prince Edward Island, Canada. The book is narrated by Beverley, who together with his brother Felix, has come to live with his Aunt Janet and Uncle Alec King on their farm while their father travels for business. They spend their leisure time with their cousins Dan, Felicity and Cecily King, hired boy Peter Craig, neighbor Sara Ray and another cousin, Sara Stanley. The latter is the Story Girl of the title, and she entertains the group with fascinating tales including various events in the King family history. The book is actually two stories; those of Beverley King and his friends, and the tales told by the Story Girl.
Hemingway Ernest - the old man and the Sea by 453111
Hemingway Ernest - the old man and the Sea
453111
  • Reads 15,609
  • Votes 168
  • Parts 4
To Charlie Shribner And To Max Perkins
THE INVISIBLE MAN (Completed) by hgwells
THE INVISIBLE MAN (Completed)
hgwells
  • Reads 22,784
  • Votes 888
  • Parts 29
The Invisible Man is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells. Originally serialized in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man of the title is Griffin, a scientist who has devoted himself to research into optics and invents a way to change a body's refractive index to that of air so that it neither absorbs nor reflects light and thus becomes invisible. He successfully carries out this procedure on himself, but fails in his attempt to reverse it.
Heart of Darkness (1899) by JosephConrad
Heart of Darkness (1899)
JosephConrad
  • Reads 14,624
  • Votes 208
  • 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.
Anne's House of Dreams (Completed) by LMMontgomery
Anne's House of Dreams (Completed)
LMMontgomery
  • Reads 31,892
  • Votes 1,699
  • Parts 41
Anne's House of Dreams is a novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was first published in 1917 by McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart. The novel is from a series of books written primarily for girls and young women, about a young girl named Anne Shirley. The books follow the course of Anne's life. It is set principally on Canada's Prince Edward Island, Montgomery's birthplace and home for much of her life. Anne's House of Dreams is book five in the series, and chronicles Anne's early married life, as she and her childhood sweetheart Gilbert Blythe begin to build their life together.
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (Completed) by hgwells
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (Completed)
hgwells
  • Reads 72,081
  • Votes 1,156
  • Parts 27
The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells first serialised in 1897 in the UK by Pearson's Magazine and in the US by Cosmopolitan magazine. The novel's first appearance in hardcover was in 1898 from publisher William Heinemann of London. Written between 1895 and 1897, it is one of the earliest stories that detail a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is the first-person narrative of both an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and of his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded by Martians. The novel is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon.