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
The story in one page
Poems and Songs of Robert Burns
A farmer writes poetry about mice and theology. The Church is not amused.
Robert Burns · poetry
The story in one page
Politics: A Treatise on Government
A philosopher lists how cities fall, how they thrive, and why citizens shouldn't sing the wrong songs.
Aristotle · ideas
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Preface to the Works of Shakespeare (1734)
Mr. Theobald · collection
The story in one page
Pride and Prejudice
A mother hunts for rich sons-in-law while her daughter enjoys hating the man she is destined to marry.
Jane Austen · novel
The story in one page
Protagoras
A man wakes Socrates at dawn to meet a celebrity teacher. Socrates demands receipts.
Plato · dialogue
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Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, March 18, 1893
F. C. Burnand · periodical
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Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 109, July 20, 1895
F. C. Burnand · periodical
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Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, December 26, 1917
periodical
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Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend
Thomas Sir Browne · ideas
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Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume 1 (of 3)
Thomas Percy · history
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Remedia Amoris; or, The Remedy of Love
Ovid · poetry
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Representative English Comedies, v. 1. From the beginnings to Shakespeare
Charles Mills Gayley · collection
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Rob Roy — Volume 01
Walter Scott · novel
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Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe · novel
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Robinson Crusoe — in Words of One Syllable
Daniel Defoe · novel
The story in one page
Romeo and Juliet
Two teenagers meet at a party, marry by dawn, and die by Thursday.
William Shakespeare · play
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Round the World in Eighty Days
Jules Verne · novel
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Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, and Salámán and Absál
Omar Khayyam · poetry
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Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, Rendered into English Verse
Omar Khayyam · poetry
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Rule a Wife, and Have a Wife
John Fletcher · play
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Saint Joan
Bernard Shaw · play
The story in one page
Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act
A princess dances for her stepfather, demanding the head of a prophet on a platter.
Oscar Wilde · play
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Sappho: A New Rendering
Sappho · poetry
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Sappho: Memoir, text, selected renderings, and a literal translation
Henry Thornton Wharton · poetry
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Scenes of Clerical Life
George Eliot · short story
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Sejanus: His Fall
Ben Jonson · play
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Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology
J. W. Mackail · poetry
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Select Masterpieces of Biblical Literature
Richard G. Moulton · religious
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Selected Essays of Plutarch, Vol. I.
Plutarch · ideas
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Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 1: Texts
Joseph Hall · poetry
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Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 2: Notes
Joseph Hall · novel
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Selections from Five English Poets
Mary E. Litchfield · poetry
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Selections from Poe
Edgar Allan Poe · poetry
The story in one page
Seneca's Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency
The crowd says go one way; the Stoics suggest doing the exact opposite.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · ideas
The story in one page
Sense and Sensibility
Two sisters navigate romance. One does it with logic, the other with a dramatic fainting spell.
Jane Austen · novel
The story in one page
Shakespeare's First Folio
Two actors collect their friend's work. It becomes the bedrock of English literature.
William Shakespeare · collection
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Shakespeare's play of the Merchant of Venice
William Shakespeare · play
The story in one page
Shakespeare's Sonnets
A poet tries to talk a handsome friend into fatherhood before pivoting to professional jealousy and a very messy breakup.
William Shakespeare · poetry
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Shorter novels, vol. 3
Samuel Johnson · collection
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Sir Walter Scott: A Lecture at the Sorbonne
W. P. Ker · ideas
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Six Centuries of English Poetry: Tennyson to Chaucer
James Baldwin · poetry
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Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Ancient Welsh Bards
Evan Evans · poetry
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Songs and lyrics of Robert Burns
Robert Burns · poetry
The story in one page
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
A piper charts the shift from sun-drenched meadows to the soot-stained streets of a cynical, adult London.
William Blake · poetry
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Sonnets on Sundry Notes of Music
William Shakespeare · poetry
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Special Method in the Reading of Complete English Classics
Charles A. McMurry · novel
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Specimens of Greek Tragedy — Aeschylus and Sophocles
Aeschylus · play
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Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Edmund Spenser · poetry