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Elsie's Children

Martha Finley
This book continues the delightful "Elsie Dinsmore" series. Elsie's children, introduced in the previous volume, live life, grow up, and encounter various problems of their own.
In the Reign of Terror: The Adventures of a Westminster Boy

G. A. Henty
Like all Henty books, this one centers around a young English lad whose courtesy and courage win the day. Harry Sandwith travels to France to serve a French Marquis, despite the rumblings of a revolution. Follow along to benefit from a wholesome story full of historical facts in good, old Henty fashion.
House with the Green Shutters

George Douglas Brown
The House with the Green Shutters is a novel by the Scottish writer George Douglas Brown, first published in 1901 by John MacQueen. Set in mid-19th century Ayrshire, in the fictitious town of Barbie which is based on his native Ochiltree, it consciously violates the conventions of the sentimental kailyard school, and is sometimes quoted as an influence on the Scottish Renaissance.
The novel describes the struggles of a proud and taciturn carrier, John Gourlay, against the spiteful comments and petty machinations of the envious and idle villagers of Barbie (the "bodies").
Taking the Bastile

Alexandre Dumas
Pitou lost his mother when he was small. He was raised by a stern aunt who did not really love him. He starts knowing the world by going to service. How can this man, Pitou the Peasant (as the subtitle of the novel suggests) go on to influence the whole state? How can he go on and take a part in the French revolution? Can his motivation, coming from what he did not have, be enough?
Marie Antoinette Romances, Vol 4: Taking the Bastile

Alexandre Dumas
This 4th volume of the Marie Antoinette Romances begins several years after the close of "The Queen’s Necklace.” It describes the events leading up to and including the storming of the Bastile. Past plots of Count Balsamo (aka, Cogliostro) to destroy the French monarchy are resurrected by the mysterious Dr. Gilbert – a student of Balsamo’s occult arts and the Enlightenment philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Considered by many critics to be a highlight of the Marie Antoinette Romances, Dumas tells this quintessential story of the French Revolution through the lens of the people. As Dumas writes, “The Bastile was the seal of feudalism on the brow of Paris … the monument which had for five centuries weighed like an incubus on the breast of France—a rock of Sisyphus. Less confident than the Titan in her power, France had never thought to throw it off.” Here, history shows us the Titanic power that a people can wield!
His Grace of Osmonde

Burnett, Frances Hodgson
His Grace of Osmonde, being the portions of that nobleman's life omitted in the relation of his Lady's story presented to the world of fashion under the title of 'A Lady of Quality'
Caves of Fear

Harold L. Goodwin
Entry in the Rick Brant series by Goodwin under the name John Blaine, which began in 1947. 'Rick and Scotty travel to the Himalayas again, this time to stop nuclear materials from falling into the wrong hands.' says Wikipedia.
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Desert Drama: Being the Tragedy Of The Korosko

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Also published under the title The Tragedy of the Korosko (1898). A group of European tourists are enjoying their trip to Egypt in the year 1895. They are sailing up the River Nile in a "a turtle-bottomed, round-bowed stern-wheeler", the Korosko. They intend to travel to Abousir at the southern frontier of Egypt, after which the Dervish country starts. They are attacked and abducted by a marauding band of Dervish warriors. The novel contains a strong defence of British Imperialism and in particular the Imperial project in North Africa. It also reveals the very great suspicion of Islam felt by many Europeans at the time.
Watchers

A. E. W. Mason
A dark tale of adventure, piracy, murder, and revenge set on a rugged Cornish island in the mid-1700s. Told with the literary excellence to be expected from the author of The Four Feathers, the tale begins with a dangerous youth who sat in the stocks, and a girl named Helen, and a gang of men watching a granite house at the edge of the sea. NOTE: Contains some language that would be considered offensive to the modern ear. (Christine Dufour)
Anne of Geierstein, Volume 2

Sir Walter Scott
Anne of Geierstein, or The Maiden of the Mist (1829) is an adventure and romance novel by Sir Walter Scott. It is set in Central Europe, mainly in Switzerland, shortly after the Yorkist victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury (1471). It covers the period of Swiss involvement in the Burgundian Wars. ( Wikipedia )
Doom of London

Fred M. White
Here are six stories, each one describing a disaster afflicting London, that were popularly serialized during 1903-1904 in Pearson’s Magazine. The tales depict (1) a deep freeze and unprecedented snowfall; (2) a heavy, blinding, paralyzing blanket of fog; (3) a widespread killer virus; (4) a fraudulent scheme causing financial panic; (5) a minor electrical accident in a tunnel that spirals into catastrophe; and (6) most of the city’s water supply, reportedly contaminated with deadly bubonic bacillus, puts the population in great fear of plague. Is the word “doom” in the book's title accurate, or is it just hyperbole? (Lee Smalley)
Star-Chamber: An Historical Romance, Volume 1

William Harrison Ainsworth
A romance with the backdrop of the notorious Star Chamber of the English legal system. The Chamber began as purely administrative, but gradually took on more of a judicial role, enforcing the monarch's will when the courts could or would not do so. As the mix of fact and fiction unfolds in this tale, the court is beginning to lose favor during the reign of James I as the church once again increased its power, while Parliament's power decreased as the monarch tried to rule without them.
Unto Caesar

Baroness Emma Orczy
"The State," he said, speaking at least as haughtily as Dea Flavia herself, "hath agreed to accept the sum of twenty aurei for this slave. 'Tis too late now to make further bids for her."But a pair of large blue eyes, cold as the waters of the Tiber and like unto them mysterious and elusive, were turned fully on the speaker."Too late didst thou say, oh Taurus Antinor?" said Dea Flavia raising her pencilled eyebrows with a slight expression of scorn, "nay! I had not seen the hammer descend! The girl until then is not sold, and open to the highest bidder. Or am I wrong, O praefect, in thus interpreting the laws of Rome?""This is an exceptional case, Augusta," he retorted curtly."Then wilt thou expound to me that law which deals with such exceptional cases?" she rejoined with the same ill-concealed tone of gentle irony. "I had never heard of it; so I pray thee enlighten mine ignorance. Of a truth thou must know the law, since thou didst swear before the altar of the gods to uphold it with all thy might.""'Tis not a case of law, Augusta, but one of pity."The praefect, feeling no doubt the weakness of any argument which aimed at coercing this daughter of the Cæsars, prompted too by his innate respect of the law which he administered, thought it best to retreat from his position of haughty arrogance and to make an appeal, since obviously he could not command. Dea Flavia was quick to note this change of attitude, and her delicate lips parted in a contemptuous smile."Dost administer pity as well as law, O Taurus Antinor?" she asked coldly.
Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln

Charles Watts Whistler
Troy, Athens, Rome... each has its founding legend. So too does the Lincolnshire town of Grimsby, once the largest fishing port in the world.

Havelok the Dane probably derives from a folk-tale, orally passed down before assuming written form - first in Anglo-Norman French, later in Middle English verse (c. 1280-1300). It tells of the rescue of the Danish prince from a wicked regent, who has tried to procure Havelok's murder. Grim the fisher, the appointed hit-man, thwarts the plan by spiriting the lad to England, where Grim settles with his family on the coast, adopting Havelok as his foster-son and naming the new community after himself.

C.W. Whistler's clever adaptation of the tale (published in 1899) draws on the various medieval sources. The English poem is particularly suited to 'novelisation'. It abounds in homely detail, and the hero's progress from half-dead waif to the triumphant fulfillment of his strength and kingly destiny makes a satisfying arc for the development of plot and character. At the same time, the legend's origins in oral performance are suggested through the choice of a first-person narrator, namely Grim's sober-sided son Radbard, whose plain-spoken account conveys something of the older saga tradition.

Our reader, the gifted Tony Foster, has worked and travelled in Scandinavia. His subtly-inflected narration brings a truly Nordic flavour to this re-creation of life in sixth-century Britain.

Since Charles Whistler published his novel, both Grimsby and its local heroes have been celebrated from time to time - by Elton John in his album Caribou (1974) and recently in a folk rock musical by local band Merlin's Keep (2014). (Introductory summary by Martin Geeson)
Metropolis

Upton Sinclair
In this 1907 novel about the extravagant life of New York City’s high society, the author of The Jungle, presents a portrait of the wealthy elite.Allan Montague, a lawyer of thirty, moves to New York City from Mississippi, along with his mother and cousin Alice, to join his younger brother Oliver, who had moved to the city few years before. Allan discover that Oliver has become a member of a fast-paced social circuit comprising some of the most powerful members of the business class. Oliver introduces Allan to this exclusive group hoping that it will help Allan’s business.Sinclair describes the party life of the very rich, who spend vast sums of money on entertainment and new toys. Expensive cars, private trains, dinners attended by liveried servants, clothing costing thousands of dollars are described with attention to the enormous cost of it all. The author describing the alcoholism, marital affairs, malicious gossip, backstabbing, and shallow values of the wealthy of this Society.
Maid of Maiden Lane (dramatic reading)

Amelia E. Barr
The Maid of Maiden lane is a wonderful love story in which Mrs. Barr intertwines the hot political and social issues that were occurring in America during the last decade of the 18th century with an excellent love story plot. Some of those issues include: the moral dilemma and debate over the French Revolution, and how that event touched the lives of the immigrants in America; the prejudices between the immigrants from England, and those from France or Holland, and how those animosities affected the ordinary lives of the people; and the political debate over titles, foreign policy, and such things(for example)as where the capital of the nation was to reside, New York or Philadelphia. The author gives us a picture of New York City that is vastly different from today, with it's residential areas and tree lined roads as the backdrop for this very interesting drama. Cornelia, the Maiden of Maiden lane, is loved by two young men. Who she chooses, and the obstacles that the two face because of the opposition of their fathers, friends, and a huge mistake that turns everything upside down, propels the story towards its climax, where a surprise character, spiritual in nature, comes to the rescue, while sacrificing her own desire for love to help the two lovers. Good character, love, and the family ties and relationships that existed during those times are very well portrayed by the author, and the book is as interesting from a historical point of view as it is from a truly interesting and sweet old fashioned love story.
Muslin

George Moore
Muslin, better known as A Drama In Muslin, is a realistic novel by George Moore. It describes the lives of five Irish girls after their graduation from convent school. Alice Barton, around whom the story revolves, is unfulfilled by the role society gives her. She wants to find herself, but is prevented from doing so by her gender. Olive, her younger sister, was less popular at school but more "successful" in real life. The sisters could not be more different, and the book explores the rivalry between them. But this book is not only about five girls. It shows the beginning of the battle between landlords and peasants in Ireland, the poverty, and much more. Upon publication, it was considered immoral and banned by the main British libraries. Despite this, due to the public's growing love of realism, it became very popular and is almost constantly in print.
Imperium in Imperio: A Study of the Negro Race Problem

Sutton Griggs
Imperium in Imperio is a historical fiction novel by Sutton Griggs, published in 1899. The novel covers the life of Belton Piedmont, an educated and disciplined black man in the Jim Crow south and his role in a shadow government of black men operated out of a college in Waco, Texas.
Shakspere: Personal Recollections

Joyce, John A.
A fictitious account of a "friend" of William Shakespeare, who accompanies him from his birth to his death and beyond, chronicling Shakespeare's life, adventures, speeches, and impromptu bursts of poetry.
In Search of Mademoiselle

George Gibbs
Preface note by George Gibbs: There were no more vivid episodes in the colonization of the New World than those resulting from the attempts of the French people to gain a permanent foothold on our shores.... The most thrilling chapter in all this history, strangely neglected or overlooked by the romantic writers, is that of the struggle between the Spanish and French colonists for dominion over our own land of Florida. To me, whose profession it is to see pictures in the words of other men and to produce them, this historic page has appealed very strongly as the proper setting for a human drama--an inviting canvas upon which the imagination may paint a moving picture of the emotions, desires and passions--the loves and hates--of men and women like ourselves--against the somber and sometimes lurid background of historic fact.From chapter 1: It is enough that I loved--and now love--Diane better than woman was ever loved, and that I hated Diego with a hate which has outlived death itself.
Nest of the Sparrowhawk: A Romance of the XVIIth Century

Baroness Emma Orczy
This historical novel takes place in Kent in 1657, and focuses on a local nobleman who stops at nothing to gain wealth, and his ward who is a victim of his crimes. The puritan influence and social cultural mores of the time provide interesting parts of the setting.
Tale of Triona

William John Locke
Olivia is a newly orphaned young woman looking for adventure and excitement. She rents out her house to Blaise Olifant whose friend Alexis Triona soon moves in to stay with him. Olivia moves to London and enjoys life in London society before she meets Triona again. Triona writes a book about his rather mysterious past experiences which is an instant bestseller. The book follows their relationship and the strange and totally unexpected path it takes.
Lion's Brood

Duffield Osborne
"Centuries come and go; but the plot of the drama is unchanged, and the same characters play the same parts. Only the actors cast for them are new." For this timeless tale, we are taken back to the Roman forum. With the backdrop of the Punic Wars, we follow the fortunes of Sergius, a young man going off to serve and who impresses his general; and Marcia, the young woman he leaves behind, whom he loves, but who refuses to commit to any attachment for him before he leaves.
Astonishing History of Troy Town

Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
A humorous story about some of the extraordinary inhabitants of a British seaside town.
Uncle Bernac: A Memory of the Empire

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Looking for a replacement to Sherlock Holmes after the author had killed him off in 1894, Doyle wrote this murder mystery in the dying years of the 19th century. Set in Napoleon's era, it involves a Frenchman returning to his native land to join the Emperor's ranks.
'Tilda Jane

Marshall Saunders
When spunky 'Tilda Jane isn't allowed to keep her beloved dog with her at the orphanage, she decides to set out on her own in search of a home where the inseparable pair will be accepted. Throughout her weary travels she encounters many people, both rich and poor, kind and cantankerous -- but will she ever find family? Set in the Canadian wilderness and coast of Maine, 'Tilda Jane is a story of true grit, forgiveness, and unlikely friendship.
Last Rebel

Joseph A. Altsheler
Arthur West has been taken as a prisoner of war by Colonel Hetherhill of the Confederate States of America, and imprisoned at Fort Defiance, where an oddly small number of soldiers are stationed. More odd than the size of the fort's company, however, is the fact that the Civil War ended thirty years prior to West's capture. This is the story of West's attempts to regain his freedom.
With Moore at Corunna

G. A. Henty
Terrence O’Conner, Son of an officer in the “Mayo Fusiliers,” joins as an ensign when the regiment is called out to Portugal to fight the French in the Peninsular War. Terrence quickly distinguishes himself in early battles and is with Sir John Moore when that general invaded Spain. General Moore was forced to retreat to the town of Corunna where the British beat the French and then retreated on their ships without Terrence. Terrence eventually leads a band of Portuguese irregulars and creates the Minho Regiment. He rescues his cousin from a convent and is present at the fall of Oporto. Part 2 of the story is told in the sequel “Under Wellington’s Command.”
Septimus

William John Locke
The book concerns the tangled lives of four people: Zora, a young widow who seeks some purpose in her life; Septimus Dix, an other-wordly but kind-hearted inventor of hopeless things; Clem Sypher, a larger than life businessman who is convinced his quack remedy will save the world; and Emmy, Zora’s younger sister, a rather flighty actress.
Alice of Old Vincennes

Maurice Thompson
This entertaining book of adventure, love and war was a Bestseller in 1900 and 1901. The heroine Alice Roussillon is a brave young woman who grew up in a small town on the Wabash River in Indiana during the revolutionary war. The characters are all distinctive and compelling. It gives a great insight into the frontier life of that era and includes true historical accounts and personages such as the wicked Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton and George Rogers Clarke who was responsible for expelling the British from Fort Sackville in Vincennes in 1779. From the foreword: " "Accept, then, this book, which to those who care only for history will seem but an idle romance, while to the lovers of romance it may look strangely like the mustiest history."
Spoilers

Rex Beach
Rex Beach was born in Atwood, Michigan to a prominent family and pursued a career as a lawyer before being drawn to Alaska at the time of the Klondike Gold Rush. After five years of unsuccessful prospecting, he turned to writing. His first novel, The Spoilers, was based on a true story of corrupt government officials stealing gold mines from prospectors, which Beach witnessed while he was prospecting in Nome, Alaska. The novel begins with the return of Dextry and Roy Glenister to Nome to reclaim their mine, The Midas. On their arrival, they find “The Law” has come to Nome. The problem is “The Law” is crooked, bent on stealing all the best gold mines in Alaska. Alec McNamara is the villain in this novel and rules with a heavy hand through the aging and corrupt Judge Stillman. Helen Chester is the naïve niece of Judge Stillman. She cannot believe her uncle is involved in such treachery. And of course, Roy Glenister is in love with her. After trying to work within the law, the miners eventually form a vigilante group called The Stranglers to right the wrongs while Glenister continues to believe the law can correct the wrongs. A cast of other characters enter the book with various roles; Cherry Malotte, The Bronco Kid (who has a surprise in store for listeners), Slapjack Sims, Struve the crooked lawyer. The climax of the book is…………but then I would be spoiling the ending, wouldn’t I? The Spoilers became one of the bestselling novels of 1906. The novel was made into movies five times, with leading men including Gary Cooper, Randolph Scott and John Wayne.
Joshua

Georg Ebers
Hosea is a commander in Pharaoh's army... and a Hebrew. As he returns home from war, he finds that there has been a great pestilence in Egypt and his people are being blamed for it. Hosea receives a message from his father to follow his people to Succoth, but he is hesitant to give up his position in the army. Someone else also sends a message, containing a new name for him from God. There is much intrigue in this retelling of the Exodus, both among the Hebrews and in the court of Pharaoh.
Glory of Clementina Wing

William John Locke
The book follows the adventures of two main characters - Clementina Wing, a talented artist in her mid 30's with no social graces and Ephraim Quixtus, an older bookish gentleman whose quiet life is abruptly changed for the worse one day. Although the two know each other, a later surprising event brings them together.
Rough Road

William John Locke
The book tells the story of "Doggie" Trevor, who, having been wrapped in cotton wool since babyhood, becomes a snobbish rich dilettante. All this changes as World War I begins and Doggie takes a commission in the Army – with near disastrous results. However, he takes stock of his life and later signs on as a simple English Tommy. He fights in France alongside his friends and the book tells of his improving fortunes, his engagement to equally snobbish Peggy, and his adventures amidst the horrors of life in the trenches – and the unexpected consequences, as he travels the rough road to a happy conclusion.
Pioneers, The

Prichard, Katharine Susannah
The Pioneers is set against the background of pioneering life in the Gippsland region of Victoria in pre-Federation Australia. Mary and Donald Cameron are free-settlers who make a home in the wilderness and grow a prosperous cattle operation that establishes their position as prominent members of the new settlement.
At first, the novel privileges Mary’s perspective as she encounters escaped convicts, bush fires, and raising a son in a remote community. Later, it follows her son, Davey, as he struggles for independence against his father’s harsh authority. Davey encounters further obstacles in the figure of local hotel owner, Thad McNab, who is determined that Davey’s childhood sweetheart, Deirdre, should be his own bride.
Post Haste

R. M. Ballantyne
In this book, Ballantyne weaves the story of Phillip Mayland and his friend, George Aspel with an interesting portrayal of the British Post Office as it existed in the 19th century. In the words of R. M. Ballantyne himself: "This tale is founded chiefly on facts furnished by the Postmaster-General’s Annual Reports, and gathered, during personal intercourse and investigation, at the General Post-Office of London and its Branches.
It is intended to illustrate—not by any means to exhaust—the subject of postal work, communication, and incident throughout the Kingdom.I have to render my grateful acknowledgments to Sir Arthur Blackwood; his private secretary, Charles Eden, Esquire; and those other officers of the various Departments who have most kindly afforded me every facility for investigation, and assisted me to much of the information used in the construction of the tale.
If it does not greatly enlighten, I hope that it will at all events interest and amuse the reader."
R.M. Ballantyne.
Story of Ab

Stanley Waterloo
This is the story of Ab, a man of the Age of Stone, who lived so long ago that we cannot closely fix the date, and who loved and fought well.
Side of the Angels

Basil King
The book is set in New England in the early 20th century in an old established community where times are rapidly changing but nonetheless the rules of a hierarchical society still hold good. Thor, a rich doctor from an old family, in trying to help Rosie, the poor woman he truly loves, offers her money so that his brother Claude can marry her and have the things they will need in life. Things unravel in the close-knit community with an intriguing mixture of philosophy and romance as the younger generation learns to be free in their pursuit of love and life. The approach of the older generation to the different ways of the younger and the church all add to the involvement.
Blind Brother (Version 2 Dramatic Reading)

Homer Greene
A story of repentance and forgiveness set in the times of the the coal mines. Follow a blind boy and his brother determined to get him cured but also determined to live up to a moral code even if that mean years of blindness for Benny. See self sacrifice and family togetherness in this classic tale.
Anna Karenina, Book 8

Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. In Book 8, Vronsky leaves for the Servian war, unable to live without Anna and hoping to die. Back at his farm with a loving wife and baby son, Levin struggles with thoughts of death and the horror of living when he does not understand "the whence, and why, and how, and what [life] was."
Heart of Darkness (version 4)

Joseph Conrad
In this powerful novella based on Joseph Conrad's own experiences in the Belgian Congo, Charles Marlow, an experienced seaman, tells a small group of friends about a profoundly disturbing episode in his life where he was employed by a large colonising enterprise to sail a tinpot steamer up a river into the heart of Africa with a view to bringing out an ivory trader who had gone rogue. Conrad biographer Maya Janasoff has argued that while Marlow's descriptions of Africans are crudely racist, the author binds this racist language with "a potentially radical suggestion. What made the difference between savagery and civilization, Conrad was saying, transcended skin color; it even transcended place. The issue for Conrad wasn’t that 'savages' were inhuman. It was that any human could be a savage."
Complete Original Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant

Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant was, and is to this day, one of the world's most celebrated short story writers. He famously tackled topics like the Franco-Prussian War and the disillusionment of life and relationships. This collection of his works, containing famous stories like "Boule de Suif" and "The Diamond Necklace" show off his lyrical and engaging style. The book is written in accessible language without being simple and is sure to delight a modern audience.
Possessed

Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Although titled The Possessed in the initial English translation, Dostoyevsky scholars and later translations favour the titles The Devils or Demons. An extremely political book, Demons is a testimonial of life in Imperial Russia in the late 19th century. As the revolutionary democrats begin to rise in Russia, different ideologies begin to collide. Dostoyevsky casts a critical eye on both the radical idealists, portraying their ideas and ideological foundation as demonic, and the conservative establishment's ineptitude in dealing with those ideas and their social consequences. This form of intellectual conservativism tied to the Slavophile movement of Dostoyevsky's day, called Pochvennichestvo, is seen to have continued on into its modern manifestation in individuals like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Dostoyevsky's novels focus on the idea that utopias and positivist ideas, in being utilitarian, were unrealistic and unobtainable. The book has five primary characters representing different ideologies. By exploring their differing philosophies, Dostoyevsky describes the political chaos seen in 19th century Russia.
Age of Innocence (Dramatic Reading)

Edith Wharton
The Age of Innocence centers on an upper-class couple's impending marriage, and the introduction of a woman plagued by scandal whose presence threatens their happiness. Though the novel questions the assumptions and morals of 1870s' New York society, it never devolves into an outright condemnation of the institution. In fact, Wharton considered this novel an "apology" for her earlier, more brutal and critical novel, The House of Mirth. Not to be overlooked is Wharton's attention to detailing the charms and customs of the upper caste. The novel is lauded for its accurate portrayal of how the 19th-century East Coast American upper class lived, and this, combined with the social tragedy, earned Wharton a Pulitzer Prize — the first Pulitzer awarded to a woman. Edith Wharton was 58 years old at publication; she lived in that world, and saw it change dramatically by the end of World War I. The title is an ironic comment on the polished outward manners of New York society, when compared to its inward machinations.
Dead Souls

Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer, was first published in 1842, and is one of the most prominent works of 19th-century Russian literature. Gogol himself saw it as an "epic poem in prose", and within the book as a "novel in verse". Despite supposedly completing the trilogy's second part, Gogol destroyed it shortly before his death. Although the novel ends in mid-sentence (like Sterne's Sentimental Journey), it is usually regarded as complete in the extant form.
In Russia before the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, landowners were entitled to own serfs to farm their land. Serfs were for most purposes considered the property of the landowner, and could be bought, sold, or mortgaged against, as any other chattel. To count serfs (and people in general), the measure word "soul" was used: e.g., "six souls of serfs". The plot of the novel relies on "dead souls" (i.e., "dead serfs") which are still accounted for in property registers. On another level, the title refers to the "dead souls" of Gogol's characters, all of which visualise different aspects of poshlost (an untranslatable Russian word which is perhaps best rendered as "self-satisfied inferiority", moral and spiritual, with overtones of middle-class pretentiousness, fake significance, and philistinism).
History of Tom Jones, A Foundling

Henry Fielding
Tom Jones is considered one of the first prose works describable as a novel. The novel is divided into 18 smaller books. Tom Jones is a foundling discovered on the property of a very kind, wealthy landowner, Squire Allworthy. Tom grows into a vigorous and lusty, yet honest and kind-hearted, youth. He develops affection for his neighbor's daughter, Sophia Western. On one hand, their love reflects the romantic comedy genre popular in 18th-century Britain. However, Tom's status as a bastard causes Sophia's father and Allworthy to oppose their love; this criticism of class friction in society acted as a biting social commentary. The inclusion of prostitution and sexual promiscuity in the plot was also original for its time, and also acted as the foundation for criticism of the book's "lowness."
Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse). The tales, some of which are originals and others not, are contained inside a frame tale and told by a group of pilgrims on their way from Southwark to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.

The themes of the tales vary, and include topics such as courtly love, treachery, and avarice. The genres also vary, and include romance, Breton lai, sermon, beast fable, and fabliau. The characters, introduced in the General Prologue of the book, tell tales of great cultural relevance.
The version read here was edited by D. Laing Purves (1838-1873) “for popular perusal” and the language is mostly updated.
Mill on the Floss (Version 2)

George Eliot
The Mill on the Floss is George Eliot’s second novel, and was published in 1860, only a year after her first, Adam Bede. It centres on the lives of brother and sister Tom and Maggie Tulliver growing up on the river Floss near the town of St. Oggs (a fictionalised version of Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire, England) in the years following the Napoleonic Wars, with both as young adults eventually meeting a tragic end by the Mill which the family holds so dear. In large measure, their lives are dominated by their father, a successful miller brought down by his inability to resist settling arguments in a court of law. Character differences between Tom and Maggie - he dour and rigid of thought, she lively and impulsive - seem to matter little in childhood, but eventually strain their relationship beyond breaking point. It is Maggie, however, who is the dominant character of the book, arguably one of the great characters of 19th century literature. Each of her relationships is vital to the narrative: with her parents, with Tom above all, but on a romantic level with Philip Wakem, the sensitive hunchbacked son of her father’s (and Tom’s) bitterest enemy, and with charming and urbane Stephen Guest, fiance of Maggie’s cousin Lucy Deane. Maggie’s life is changed utterly by an impulsive elopement which she turns back from, but too late to stop the inevitable abuse and contempt. This is a semi-autobiographical reflection of the vilification which George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) herself had to endure while openly living with a married man, a time when her brother was willing to communicate with her only through lawyers. Eliot writes of character and relationships with an insight and sharp detail that few authors have ever equaled. It’s a long book, but you will appreciate it for its depth.
Ramona

Jackson, Helen Hunt
Ramona, a novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson (1884), is the story of a part-Scottish and part-Native American orphan girl growing up and getting married in Southern California, suffering racial discrimination and hardship. Originally serialized in the Christian Union on a weekly basis, the novel became immensely popular. Overall, it has had more than 300 printings, been made into four film versions, and has been performed as an outdoor play annually since 1923. The impact the novel had on the culture and image of Southern California was enormous. Its romanticization of Mexican colonial life gave the region a unique cultural identity and its publication coincided with the arrival of railroad lines to the region, bringing in countless tourists who wanted to see the locations in the novel.
Short Stories (Version 2)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky
This is a collection of short stories written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Dostoevsky), who is arguably better-known for his lengthy, contemplative novels. Several of his trademark philosophical, political and religious themes are interwoven throughout these short stories, for example: "Dream of a Ridiculous Man" critiques European nihilism; "The Crocodile" has notes of Russian political commentary; and "Bobok" is critically acclaimed as top-rate Menippean satire. Dostoevsky also provides a Christmas story ("The Heavenly Christmas Tree") with a biting social commentary.
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