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.
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1,001 classics
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Notes and Queries, Number 195, July 23, 1853
George Bell · periodical
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Notes and Queries, Number 200, August 27, 1853
periodical
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Notes and Queries, Number 215, December 10, 1853
George Bell · periodical
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Notes and Queries, Number 62, January 4, 1851
periodical
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Notes and Queries, Number 70, March 1, 1851
George Bell · periodical
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Notes and Queries, Number 76, April 12, 1851
George Bell · periodical
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Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 121, February 21, 1852
George Bell · periodical
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Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 129, April 17, 1852
George Bell · periodical
The story in one page
Notre-Dame de Paris
An archdeacon, a bellringer, and a poet obsess over a dancer while the cathedral watches a city outgrow its walls.
Victor Hugo · novel
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Oblomov
Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov · novel
The story in one page
Oedipus King of Thebes
Thebes is dying of plague, and King Oedipus hunts the murderer to end it.
Sophocles · play
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Old English Poems
Cosette Faust Newton · poetry
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Old-Time Stories
Charles Perrault · myth
The story in one page
Oliver Twist
A hungry orphan asks for more gruel, flees to London, and accidentally joins a charmingly professional circle of pickpockets.
Charles Dickens · novel
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Oliver Twist, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Charles Dickens · novel
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Oliver Twist, Vol. 2 (of 3)
Charles Dickens · novel
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Oliver Twist, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Charles Dickens · novel
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Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress. Illustrated
Charles Dickens · novel
The story in one page
On the Nature of Things
A Roman poet explains that since you are just a temporary collection of atoms, you can finally stop fearing death.
Titus Lucretius Carus · poetry
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On the Sublime
active 1st century Longinus · ideas
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On Translating Homer
Matthew Arnold · ideas
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One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature
Grolier Club · reference
The story in one page
Orlando Furioso
A paladin goes mad, a hippogriff visits the moon, and two lovers fight fate to start an Italian dynasty.
Lodovico Ariosto · myth
The story in one page
Othello
A general marries for love, but his own lieutenant decides to ruin everything for sport.
William Shakespeare · play
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Our Catholic Heritage in English Literature of Pre-Conquest Days
Emily Henrietta Hickey · history
The story in one page
Paradise Lost
A disgraced angel launches a spite-driven insurgency against Heaven, targeting a new couple in a garden to settle the score.
John Milton · myth
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Paradise Regained
John Milton · poetry
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Parmenides
Plato · ideas
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Parzival: A Knightly Epic (vol. 1 of 2)
von Eschenbach Wolfram · poetry
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Parzival: A Knightly Epic (vol. 2 of 2)
von Eschenbach Wolfram · poetry
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Peace
Aristophanes · play
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Pearl-Fishing; Choice Stories from Dickens' Household Words; Second Series
Charles Dickens · short story
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Pericles, Prince of Tyre
William Shakespeare · play
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Personae
Ezra Pound · poetry
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Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc — Volume 1
Mark Twain · novel
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Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc — Volume 2
Mark Twain · novel
The story in one page
Peter Pan
A boy flies into a nursery, steals three siblings, and refuses to apologize for it.
J. M. Barrie · novel
The story in one page
Phaedo
A philosopher drinks hemlock, but not before checking the math on his own soul.
Plato · dialogue
The story in one page
Phaedrus
Two men leave the city walls to critique a speech about romance and rhetoric.
Plato · dialogue
The story in one page
Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women
A young man steps through his bedroom door into a forest where trees hunt, shadows cling, and marble breathes.
George MacDonald · novel
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Philebus
Plato · ideas
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Philoktetes
Sophocles · play
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Physical science in the time of Nero
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · ideas
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Pinocchio: The Tale of a Puppet
Carlo Collodi · novel
The story in one page
Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone
An oracle delivers a horrific prophecy, a king tries to outrun it, and his children inherit the resulting rubble.
Sophocles · collection
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Plutarch on the Delay of the Divine Justice
Plutarch · ideas
The story in one page
Plutarch's Morals
A man who lived through the Roman Empire offers advice on how not to be a disaster.
Plutarch · ideas
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Poems 1918-21, Including Three Portraits and Four Cantos
Ezra Pound · poetry