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
Dickens's Children: Ten Drawings
Jessie Willcox Smith · general
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Divine Comedy, Cary's Translation, Complete
Dante Alighieri · poetry
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Divine Comedy, Cary's Translation, Hell
Dante Alighieri · poetry
In the library
Divine Comedy, Cary's Translation, Paradise
Dante Alighieri · poetry
In the library
Divine Comedy, Cary's Translation, Purgatory
Dante Alighieri · poetry
The story in one page
Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Complete
A poet walks through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven; he sees exactly what you might expect.
Dante Alighieri · myth
In the library
Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Hell
Dante Alighieri · poetry
In the library
Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Paradise
Dante Alighieri · poetry
In the library
Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Purgatory
Dante Alighieri · poetry
The story in one page
Dombey and Son
A wealthy merchant wants an heir, ignores his daughter, and learns that cold accounts don't keep you warm.
Charles Dickens · novel
The story in one page
Don Juan
A Spanish teenager survives shipwrecks, harems, and Russian sieges while his narrator constantly stops to complain about other poets.
George Gordon Byron Baron Byron · myth
The story in one page
Don Quixote
An aging gentleman decides the world needs more dragons and fewer windmills. This ends poorly.
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra · novel
In the library
Don Quixote of the Mancha, Retold by Judge Parry
Edward Abbott Sir Parry · novel
The story in one page
Dracula
A solicitor visits a client in the mountains, only to find the client has teeth.
Bram Stoker · novel
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Dryden's Palamon and Arcite
John Dryden · poetry
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Early English Alliterative Poems
Richard Morris · poetry
The story in one page
Eloisa
A tutor and his aristocratic student exchange high-minded letters until a violent father and a rational husband intervene.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau · novel
In the library
English and Scottish Ballads, Volume VII
Francis James Child · poetry
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English Translations from the Greek: A Bibliographical Survey
Finley Melville Kendall Foster · reference
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Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 01
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
In the library
Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 02
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
In the library
Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 03
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
In the library
Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 04
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
In the library
Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 05
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
In the library
Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 06
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
In the library
Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 09
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
In the library
Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 10
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
In the library
Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 11
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
In the library
Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 12
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
In the library
Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 13
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
In the library
Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 14
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
In the library
Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 15
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
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Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 17
Michel de Montaigne · ideas
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Euthydemus
Plato · ideas
The story in one page
Euthyphro
A man sues his father for murder; Socrates asks him to define piety. It goes poorly.
Plato · dialogue
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Evangeline
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · poetry
The story in one page
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie
Two Acadian lovers are separated by a mass deportation and spend a lifetime crossing a continent to find each other.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · poetry
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Extracts from Adam's Diary, translated from the original ms.
Mark Twain · novel
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Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes
Jean de La Fontaine · collection
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Familiar Studies in Homer
Agnes M. Clerke · history
The story in one page
Father Goriot
A father sells his last silver to fund his daughters' diamonds while a law student learns that social climbing requires blood.
Honoré de Balzac · novel
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Faust — Part 1
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · play
In the library
Faust [part 1]. Translated Into English in the Original Metres
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · play
The story in one page
Faust: A Tragedy
A scholar trades his soul for unlimited knowledge, and the devil starts micromanaging his dating life.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · play
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Faust: a Tragedy [part 1], Translated from the German of Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · play
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Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse
Alfred W. Pollard · play
In the library
First Project Gutenberg Collection of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe · poetry
The story in one page
Five Weeks in a Balloon
Three Englishmen attempt to solve the mysteries of the Nile by floating across the continent in a double-walled hydrogen balloon.
Jules Verne · novel