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
The story in one page
Four Arthurian Romances
Knights errant, runaway sparrow-hawks, and swords for bridges: the standard operating procedure for Arthur's table.
de Troyes active 12th century Chrétien · collection
In the library
Four Plays of Aeschylus
Aeschylus · play
In the library
Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose
Kenneth Sisam · poetry
The story in one page
Frankenstein; or, the modern prometheus
A student builds a giant from old parts, abandons it, and spends the rest of his life being stalked by it.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley · novel
In the library
Franklin's Autobiography
Benjamin Franklin · biography
In the library
French Classics
William Cleaver Wilkinson · history
The story in one page
From Chaucer to Tennyson
Eight centuries of English writing distilled into eight ages, from medieval allegories to the rise of the Victorian novel.
Henry A. Beers · collection
In the library
From the Earth to the Moon, Direct in Ninety-Seven Hours and Twenty Minutes: and a Trip Round It
Jules Verne · novel
The story in one page
From the Earth to the moon; and, round the moon
Bored Civil War veterans decide the only logical use for their giant surplus cannons is to shoot three men at the moon.
Jules Verne · novel
In the library
Galatea
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra · novel
The story in one page
Gargantua and Pantagruel
A giant born from an ear grows up to drink, fight, and philosophize.
François Rabelais · novel
In the library
Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 1
François Rabelais · novel
In the library
Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 2
François Rabelais · novel
In the library
Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 4
François Rabelais · novel
In the library
Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 5
François Rabelais · novel
In the library
Genesis A
Lawrence Mason · poetry
In the library
George Eliot Centenary, November 1919
Coventry . Public Libraries Committee · biography
In the library
Goethe and Schiller's Xenions
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · poetry
The story in one page
Gorgias
Rhetoric is just a shortcut to popularity. Socrates prefers the hard truth, regardless of the consequences.
Plato · dialogue
In the library
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XVIII, No. 2, February 1841
George R. Graham · periodical
In the library
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 6, June 1847
George R. Graham · periodical
In the library
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 6, December 1847
George R. Graham · periodical
In the library
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXIV, No. 4, April 1849
George R. Graham · periodical
The story in one page
Great Expectations
An orphan gets a fortune from a secret source, only to find his new status is a very expensive trap.
Charles Dickens · novel
In the library
Greek tragedy
Gilbert Norwood · play
The story in one page
Grimm's Fairy Stories
A king blows feathers into the wind to pick an heir while a soldier negotiates a living bear-skin suit.
Jacob Grimm · collection
In the library
Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swift · novel
In the library
Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
Jonathan Swift · novel
The story in one page
Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World
A ship's surgeon visits a land of six-inch politicians and a kingdom of giants who treat him like a doll.
Jonathan Swift · novel
The story in one page
Hamlet
A mourning prince meets his father's ghost, feigns madness, and delays a murder until almost everyone is dead.
William Shakespeare · play
The story in one page
Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales
A prince brings a rose, a princess brings a pea, and everyone is vaguely dissatisfied.
H. C. Andersen · collection
The story in one page
Heart of Darkness
A man sails up a river to find a trader. He finds silence.
Joseph Conrad · novel
In the library
Helen of Troy, and Other Poems
Sara Teasdale · poetry
The story in one page
Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica
A farmer explains the weather, gods fight for their lives, and the missing chapters of the Trojan War finally appear.
Hesiod · poetry
In the library
Hiero
Xenophon · ideas
In the library
Highways of Canadian Literature
J. D. Logan · history
In the library
Hippolytus; The Bacchae
Euripides · collection
In the library
History of English Literature from "Beowulf" to Swinburne
Andrew Lang · reference
In the library
History of English Literature Volume 1 (of 3)
Hippolyte Taine · history
In the library
History of English Literature Volume 2 (of 3)
Hippolyte Taine · history
In the library
History of English Literature Volume 3 (of 3)
Hippolyte Taine · ideas
The story in one page
History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
A foundling loves a girl, makes constant mistakes, and manages to stumble into success.
Henry Fielding · novel
In the library
Homer and His Age
Andrew Lang · myth
In the library
Homer: The Iliad; The Odyssey
W. Lucas Collins · myth
In the library
Horace and His Influence
Grant Showerman · ideas
In the library
Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm
Jacob Grimm · myth
In the library
Hudibras, in Three Parts, Written in the Time of the Late Wars
Samuel Butler · poetry
In the library
Hurst & Blackett's Standard Library (1895)
Hurst & Blackett · reference