Literary Criticism
Curiosities of Literature
This is the second volume of the collected Curiosities of Literature by Isaac D'Israeli. As in volume one, D'Isreali again takes us on a tou…
The Rider on the White Horse
Hauke Haien, a young man of 24 years, has just beome dikemaster in Northern Frisia. Against the resistance of many of the townfolk, he has a…
Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books
Charles W. Eliot, 21st President of Harvard University, edited this volume of prefaces ... authored by a Who's Who of World Literature: Baco…
The Regeneration of Lord Ernie
"The Regeneration of Lord Ernie is a story about a young man with no passion for life, he was very capable and the heir to a large fami…
The Emperor of Portugallia
Selma Lagerlöf was born in Vaermland, Sweden, in 1858 and enjoyed a long and very successful career as a writer, receiving the Nobel-Pr…
Tales From Dickens
Tales From Dickens offers a unique opportunity to explore the essence of Charles Dickens' most cherished works through the lens of Hallie Er…
Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences
This is Mark Twain's vicious and amusing review of Fenimore Cooper's literary art. It is still read widely in academic circles. Twain's essa…
An Old Man's Love
This was Trollope's last completed novel, and he may have acquired his sympathy for older lovers with age! A not-so-very-old man, Mr. Whittl…
Heart of Darkness
Set in a time of oppressive colonisation, when large areas of the world were still unknown to Europe, and Africa was literally on maps and m…
Victory
Recollections of the life of Axel Heyst, one-time manager of the liquidated Tropical Belt Coal Company in a fictitious island in the Pacific…
The American Language
"It was part of my daily work, for a good many years, to read the principal English newspapers and reviews; it has been part of my work…
The Autobiography of Goethe
This Autobiography of Goethe has a lengthy introduction and short biography of Goethe's life by Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) and was translate…
Fidelity
The small Midwestern town of Freeport was scandalized years ago when Ruth Holland, then a young girl, ran away to the West with a married ma…
The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter
As much as any other work of literature, Henri Murger’s 1851 collection of witty sketches Scènes de la vie de bohème shaped th…
The Romantic
As a simple story told, "The Romantic" is one of Sinclair’s tightest and most compelling. Charlotte Redhead, a young British secre…
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
Stephen Crane's first novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets has been called "the first dark flower of American Naturalism" for its …
The Raven
Poe’s famous narrative poem and the author’s reflections on its composition. (David Wales)
Father Goriot
One of Balzac's most popular works, set around 1815 during the re-ascendancy of the Bourbon kings following the defeat of Napoleon. Said to …
The Chaperon
What on earth is a girl to do when London society has convicted her mother of a dreadful sin and has ostracized her? If blood is thicker tha…
Characters of Shakespeare's Plays
This famous Shakespearean exploration illuminates its plays through the frame of character, while also weighing theme, mood, structure and p…