Dickens’s second and best-known (and last) historical novel, the one that starts off with the famous opening lines "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, . . .".
This is one of his shortest novels and also his most overtly political one (with Hard Times), centred as it is on the violent injustices of the French revolution and on the despotism of the ancien régime that Dickens sees as having inevitably led to that (…)
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"A Tale of Two Cities" (1859) by Charles Dickens
20 January 2021, by Charles Dickens -
"Make Westing" and other stories by Jack London
16 January 2021, by Jack LondonTABLE OF CONTENTS
1. The Misogynist (1897) A confirmed bachelor wakes up one morning to find that all females have suddenly disappeared and the world is now a purely masculine one! Things start rapidly going to pot as everyone, including our hero, desperately tries to survive. (8,600 words)
2. Their Alcove (1900) A man watches all the letters and mementos of the woman he had loved burn in his fireplace as he muses over the impact that their break-up has made on his life, and tries to (…) -
"Great Expectations" (1861) by Charles Dickens
15 January 2021, by Charles DickensThis is Dickens at his very best, or rather his greatest. A mature work, his penultimate novel, it gets off to a rousing start – the dramatic encounter of young Pip with an escaped convict takes place on page 2 –, the writing is absolutely sparkling, deeply infused with his profound humanity and his ever-present sense of humour, the characters are finely chiseled and marvelously, even famously full of life – notably the quite unforgettable Joe, and Biddy, and Estella, and Mrs. Haversham, and (…)
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"Our Mutual Friend" (1865), by Charles Dickens
10 January 2021, by Charles DickensThis last complete novel of Charles Dickens, his fourteenth, has a very strong theme, one of his best and most timeless: the Thames river that dominates the lives of those who work on and beside and near it and which symbolises the force and power and also violence of the current of life itself, a theme powerfully developed from the dramatic opening scene right through the book.
The novel has the full 800+ page-length that Dickens seems to have felt best at ease with and within which (…) -
"Suicides" and other stories by Guy de Maupassant
7 January 2021, by Guy de MaupassantTABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Suicides (1880) A letter is found beside a 57-year-old man who has just shot himself in a depressed state of mind, as dramatically explained in his letter. (1,800 words)
2. Lasting Love (1882) A group of hunters and their wives are debating the question of long-lasting (or otherwise) love after a copious dinner, and a retired Parisian doctor recounts the most intense and long-lasting affair he had ever encountered, involving a respectable pharmacist and a (...)
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"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" (1869) - the last work of Charles Dickens
5 January 2021, by Charles DickensDickens’s last work, tragically interrupted by his sudden death from a stroke at the age of 58. It was a mystery novel, written to rise to the challenge of showing that he too could write in that new genre after the considerable success of his good friend Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White (1860), generally recognized as being the first mystery thriller in literature — although Dickens himself had innovated in the genre with his creation of the remarkably resourceful and penetrating (…)
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"The World of Null-A" (1945) by A. E. van Vogt
2 January 2021, by A. E. van VogtFirst published in monthly installments in the August-October 1945 issues of Astounding Science Fiction, this fast-paced and very ambitious blockbuster novel set in 2580 A.D. was A. E. van Vogt’s fourth major novel in that glorious heyday-decade of science fiction, the golden forties.
Regularly reissued ever since in hardcover, paperback and foreign-language translations, it is certainly the author’s most-republished work, and one that, with Slan, established him definitively in the front (…) -
"An Enigmatic Nature" and other stories by Anton Chekhov
1 January 2021, by Anton ChekhovTABLE OF CONTENTS
1. AN ENIGMATIC NATURE (Загадочная натура) (1883) A very pretty young lady in a first-class railway car is baring her soul to a budding author who is all too anxious to proffer his psychological expertise on problems of the heart, but the explanation by the lovely lady of her current romantic drama puts a real damper on his effusions. (830 words)
2. FAT AND THIN (Толстый и тонкий) (1883) Two former classmates and close friends, one now very plump and the other (…) -
INDEX OF THE 92 NOVELS ON THIS SITE
1 January 2021, by Ray=> 1. BY AUTHOR
=> 2. BY DATE OF PUBLICATION
1. INDEX OF NOVELS BY AUTHOR AUTHORTITLEDATE 1 Jane Austin Sense and Sensibility 1811 2 Jane Austin Pride and Prejudice 1813 3 J. M. Barrie Peter Pan 1911 4 L. Frank Baum The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 1900 5 Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre 1847 6 Emily Brontë Wuthering Heights 1847 7 Samuel Butler The Way of all Flesh 1903 8 Steven Crane The Red Badge of Courage 1895 9 Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe 1719 10 Charles Dickens The Pickwick (…) -
"The Expendables" and other late-period stories by A. E. van Vogt
9 December 2020, by A. E. van Vogt1. THE EXPENDABLES (1963) A spaceship on an exploration mission encounters crafty and powerful aliens who threaten to take over after they are brought on board – and a ferocious struggle breaks out in parallel among the ship’s leading officers for control of the ship. . (11,400 words)
2. THE REPLICATORS (1965) Steve Matlin is a particularly ornery farmer who comes across a very big alien monster on a back road near his farm, and as he was out on a hunting expedition he shot the thing. So (…)