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
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 04
Charles Dudley Warner · ideas
In the library
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 06
Charles Dudley Warner · collection
In the library
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 07
Charles Dudley Warner · poetry
In the library
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 08
Charles Dudley Warner · poetry
In the library
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 09
Charles Dudley Warner · poetry
In the library
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 11
Charles Dudley Warner · novel
In the library
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 12
Charles Dudley Warner · novel
In the library
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 13
Charles Dudley Warner · novel
In the library
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 15
Charles Dudley Warner · collection
In the library
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 16
Charles Dudley Warner · collection
The story in one page
Life Is a Dream
A prince raised in a cell is released to rule, just to see if he's actually sane.
Pedro Calderón de la Barca · play
The story in one page
Little Dorrit
A girl born in a debtors' prison finds a fortune, while a man seeking the truth finds himself in her cell.
Charles Dickens · novel
In the library
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott · novel
The story in one page
Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy
Four sisters try to be good while dealing with temper, poverty, and an overly imaginative neighbor.
Louisa May Alcott · novel
The story in one page
Locrine
King Brutus leaves his sons a divided nation, a Scythian invader, and a secret affair that drowns the royal family.
William Shakespeare · play
The story in one page
Lord Jim
A merchant officer jumps from a sinking ship; he spends the rest of his life explaining why.
Joseph Conrad · novel
The story in one page
Lucian's True History
A weary traveler promises the absolute truth about moon-men, space-spiders, and living inside a whale, then admits he is lying.
of Samosata Lucian · novel
The story in one page
Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems (1798)
Two poets swap their fancy vocabulary for plain talk and find the world is suddenly weirder.
William Wordsworth · poetry
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Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age
A. H. Bullen · poetry
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Lysis
Plato · ideas
The story in one page
Lysistrata
The men won't stop fighting, so the women stop everything else. War loses its supply line.
Aristophanes · play
The story in one page
Macbeth
A general hears he will be king. His wife suggests he skip the waiting.
William Shakespeare · play
In the library
Macmillan's Three-and-Sixpenny Library of Books by Popular Authors December 1905
Macmillan & Co. · reference
The story in one page
Manon Lescaut
He abandons his life for a woman who loves luxury more than poverty, and she knows it.
abbé Prévost · novel
The story in one page
Martin Chuzzlewit
A wealthy patriarch tests his family by pretending to be senile while his grandson tries to survive an American swamp.
Charles Dickens · novel
The story in one page
Measure for Measure
A Duke goes undercover to watch his replacement enforce a sex ban, only for the new guy to demand a bribe.
William Shakespeare · play
The story in one page
Medea of Euripides
Jason leaves his wife for a princess, failing to anticipate her rather extreme plan for alimony.
Euripides · play
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Meditations
Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius · ideas
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Menexenus
Plato · play
The story in one page
Meno
A man asks if virtue can be taught; he is immediately trapped in a logic maze.
Plato · dialogue
The story in one page
Metamorphosis
A traveling salesman transforms into a giant insect, and his family is mostly just annoyed by his poor work attendance.
Franz Kafka · novel
The story in one page
Middlemarch
An idealistic young woman marries a dry clergyman, and the town collectively wonders why she bothered.
George Eliot · novel
The story in one page
Minor Dialogues, Together With the Dialogue on Clemency
A Roman advisor writes to his friends about keeping calm when everything is actively falling apart.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · dialogue
In the library
Minor Poets of the Caroline Period, Vol. III
George Saintsbury · poetry
The story in one page
Moby Dick; Or, The Whale
A vengeful captain drafts a crew into his private war against a specific sperm whale with a grudge.
Herman Melville · novel
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Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
Herman Melville · novel
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Modern English Books of Power
George Hamlin Fitch · ideas
The story in one page
Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes
An alphabet starts with a pie, a hen lays eggs for gentlemen, and a knave regrets his pastry theft.
John Gilbert · poetry
The story in one page
Mrs. Dalloway
Clarissa plans a party while a stranger's life unravels just blocks away.
Virginia Woolf · novel
The story in one page
Much Ado about Nothing
Two couples are tricked into love while a villain ruins a wedding with a lie.
William Shakespeare · play
In the library
Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896]
John Stephen Farmer · poetry
The story in one page
New Atlantis
A shipwrecked crew finds a hidden island where the locals have solved everything, including physics.
Francis Bacon · novel
The story in one page
Nicholas Nickleby
A young man loses his fortune, his uncle turns predator, and the world is predictably awful.
Charles Dickens · novel
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Nobody's boy (Sans famille)
Hector Malot · novel
The story in one page
Northanger Abbey
A girl gets invited to an old manor and promptly assumes everyone is a serial killer.
Jane Austen · novel
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Notes and Queries, Number 15, February 9, 1850
periodical
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Notes and Queries, Number 183, April 30, 1853
George Bell · periodical
In the library
Notes and Queries, Number 187, May 28, 1853
George Bell · periodical