Books: What to Know
Classic Stories Without the Homework
The plot, the people, the point and the ending — then the Boovie film, where there is one.
The library
1,001 classics
In the library
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 09 (of 10)
Richard Francis Sir Burton · myth
In the library
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 10 (of 10)
Richard Francis Sir Burton · myth
In the library
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume I
John Payne · myth
In the library
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume II
John Payne · myth
In the library
The bridge of San Luis Rey
Thornton Wilder · novel
The story in one page
The Brothers Karamazov
A lecherous father is murdered, his sons are the only suspects, and the soul of Russia hangs in the balance.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky · novel
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The Bruce
John -1395 Barbour · poetry
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The Bucolics and Eclogues
Virgil · poetry
The story in one page
The call of the wild
Stolen from a sunny estate, a heavy-muscled dog learns to trade his collar for the kill-or-be-killed logic of the Arctic.
Jack London · novel
The story in one page
The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems
A rowdy group of pilgrims trades stories on a road trip, followed by a parliament of birds and Trojan heartbreak.
Geoffrey Chaucer · poetry
In the library
The Captivi and the Mostellaria
Titus Maccius Plautus · play
In the library
The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus · poetry
The story in one page
The Castle of Otranto
A giant helmet crushes the heir, and the lord decides the best solution is marrying the fiancée.
Horace Walpole · novel
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The Cattle-Raid of Cualnge (Tain Bo Cualnge) : An Old Irish Prose-Epic
Lucy Winifred Faraday · novel
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The Characters of Theophrastus
Theophrastus · novel
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The Cid
Pierre Corneille · play
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The City of God, Volume II
of Hippo Saint Augustine · ideas
The story in one page
The Clouds
A bankrupt farmer hopes to talk his way out of debt, but learns bad arguments instead.
Aristophanes · play
In the library
The cõforte of louers
Stephen -1523? Hawes · poetry
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The collected works of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. 01 (of 11)
Henrik Ibsen · play
In the library
The collected works of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. 04 (of 11)
Henrik Ibsen · collection
In the library
The collected works of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. 06 (of 11)
Henrik Ibsen · collection
In the library
The collected works of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. 07 (of 11)
Henrik Ibsen · play
In the library
The collected works of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. 08 (of 11)
Henrik Ibsen · collection
In the library
The Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I.
Desiderius Erasmus · ideas
In the library
The Columbiad: A Poem
Joel Barlow · poetry
The story in one page
The Comedies of Terence
Athens is small, everyone is related, and every young man is one clever servant away from a wedding.
Terence · collection
The story in one page
The Comedy of Errors
Two pairs of identical twins arrive in the same city, causing immediate legal, marital, and metaphysical chaos for everyone involved.
William Shakespeare · play
In the library
The Compleat Angler
Izaak Walton · manual
In the library
The Complete Angler 1653
Izaak Walton · manual
The story in one page
The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A Viking's armor, a blacksmith's anvil, and a youth on a frozen mountain define a world where endurance is the ultimate virtue.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · poetry
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The Complete Project Gutenberg Works of Jane Austen
Jane Austen · collection
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The complete works of John Gower, volume 2
John Gower · poetry
The story in one page
The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence.
A Scottish farmer writes his way from the stable to the salon, roasting hypocrites and apologizing to field mice along the way.
Robert Burns · poetry
The story in one page
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Danish princes, Venetian creditors, and shipwrecked sorcerers inhabit this definitive collection of early modern drama and verse.
William Shakespeare · collection
The story in one page
The Confessions of St. Augustine
A man seeks the divine while chasing every distraction in North Africa.
of Hippo Saint Augustine · religious
The story in one page
The Consolation of Philosophy
A man loses his career and his freedom. Philosophy shows up to explain why he shouldn't care.
Boethius · ideas
In the library
The Cornhill Magazine (Vol. I, No. 5, May 1860)
periodical
The story in one page
The Count of Monte Cristo
A man is betrayed on his wedding day and spends fourteen years deciding who pays.
Alexandre Dumas · novel
In the library
The counterfeiters
André Gide · novel
The story in one page
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia
Two princes crash-land in a pastoral utopia, adopt disguises, and accidentally make both the King and Queen fall in love with them.
Philip Sidney · novel
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The Curse of Kehama, Volume 1 (of 2)
Robert Southey · poetry
In the library
The Cyr Readers: Book 8
Ellen M. Cyr · novel
The story in one page
The Dance of Death
A skeletal cup-bearer pours a final drink for the King while the Rich Man discovers his gold cannot bribe the grave.
Hans Holbein · poetry
The story in one page
The Day of Doom; Or, a Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgement
The world ends, the Judge arrives, and the wicked try — and fail — to talk their way out of hellfire.
Michael Wigglesworth · poetry
In the library
The Day of Doom; Or, A Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment
Michael Wigglesworth · poetry
In the library
The De Coverley Papers, From 'The Spectator'
Joseph Addison · ideas
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The Decameron (Day 1 to Day 5)
Giovanni Boccaccio · short story