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Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851) is a novel by Herman Melville, in which Ishmael narrates the monomaniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, for revenge on the albino sperm whale Moby Dick, which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab's ship and severed his leg at the knee. A commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, its reputation grew immensely during...

The Just So Stories for Little Children are a collection written by the British author Rudyard Kipling. Highly fantasised origin stories, especially for differences among animals, they are among Kipling's best known works. The stories, first published in 1902, are pourquoi (French for "why") or origin stories, fantastic accounts of how various phenomena came about. A forerunner of these stories...

The Marvelous Land of Oz: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, commonly shortened to The Land of Oz, published on July 5, 1904, is the second of L. Frank Baum's books set in the Land of Oz, and the sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This and the next 34 Oz books of the famous 40 were illustrated by John R. Neill. The book was made into an episode of...

Little Dorrit is a serial novel by Charles Dickens, originally published between 1855 and 1857. It is a work of satire on the shortcomings of the government and society of the period. Much of Dickens's ire is focused upon the institutions of debtors' prisons, in which people who owed money were imprisoned, unable to work, until they repaid their debts. The representative prison in this case is...

Man's inclination to decorate his belongings has always been one of the earliest signs of civilisation. Art had its beginning in the lines indented in clay, perhaps, or hollowed in the wood of family utensils; after that came crude colouring and drawing. Among the first serious efforts to draw were the Egyptian square and pointed things, animals and men. The most that artists of that day...

Master Humphrey's Clock was a weekly periodical edited and written entirely by Charles Dickens and published from April 4, 1840 to December 4, 1841. It began with a frame story in which Master Humphrey tells about himself and his small circle of friends (which includes Mr. Pickwick), and their penchant for telling stories. Several short stories were included, followed by the novels The Old...

There may be children whose education has been so neglected that they have not read Prince Prigio. As this new story is about Prince Prigio’s son, Ricardo, you are to learn that Prigio was the child and heir of Grognio,King of Pantouflia. The fairies gave the little Prince cleverness, beauty, courage; but one wicked fairy added,“You shall be too clever.” His mother, the queen,...

A charming volume of old English Christmas traditions written by famed American author Washington Irving and illustrated by renowned British illustrator Randolph Caldecott. This book has been restored and reprinted from the 1886 edition. It is a high quality reproduction that retains the typesetting and illustrations of the original, which adds to the charming antique feel of the book. The image...

This book is the result of twelve years' experience in teaching university students to write special feature articles for newspapers and popular magazines. By applying the methods outlined in the following pages, young men and women have been able to prepare articles that have been accepted by many newspaper and magazine editors. The success that these students have achieved leads the author to...

Master of the World (French: Maître du monde), published in 1904, is one of the last novels by French pioneer science fiction writer, Jules Verne, and is a sequel to Robur the Conqueror. At the time Verne wrote the novel, his health was failing, and Master of the World is a "black novel," filled with the fear of the coming of tyrants like the novel's villain, Robur, and totalitarianism. A...

Little Lord Fauntleroy is the first children's novel written by English playwright and author Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was originally published as a serial in the St. Nicholas Magazine between November 1885 and October 1886, then as a book byScribner's in 1886. The accompanying illustrations by Reginald Birch set fashion trends and Little Lord Fauntleroy also set a precedent in copyright law...

Pictures from Italy is a travelogue by Charles Dickens, written in 1846. The book reveals the concerns of its author as he presents, according to Kate Flint, the country "like a chaotic magic-lantern show, fascinated both by the spectacle it offers, and by himself as spectator." In 1844, Dickens took a respite from writing novels and for several months traveled through France and Italy with his...

When best friends, Jack and Jill, tumble off their sled, their injuries cause them to be bedridden for many months. Their parents fill their days with the joys of Christmas preparations, a theatrical production and many other imaginative events.

When Paul spoke in that tone and wore that look, Lillian felt as if they had changed places, and he was the master and she the servant. She wondered over this in her childish mind, but proud and willful as she was, she liked it, and obeyed him with unusual meekness when he suggested that it was time to return.

Robert Fulton (1765-1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat. He also designed a new type of steam warship. In 1800 he was commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte to design Nautilus, which was the first practical submarine in history. Eli Whitney (1765-1825) was an American inventor best known as the inventor of the...

The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one of eight stories in the cycle collected as His Last Bow, and is the second and final appearance of Mycroft Holmes. Doyle ranked The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans fourteenth in a list of his nineteen favourite Sherlock Holmes stories. The...

It is early summer, 1661, and the royal court of France is in turmoil. Can it be true that the King is in love with the Duchess d'Orleans? Or has his eye been caught by the sweet and gentle Louise de la Valliere? No one is more anxious to know the answer than Raoul, son of Athos, who loves Louise more than life itself. Behind the scenes, dark intrigues are afoot. Louis XIV is intent on making...

Kilmeny of the Orchard is a novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. It is the story of a young man named Eric Marshall who goes to teach a school on Prince Edward Island and meets Kilmeny, a mute girl who has perfect hearing. He sees her when he is walking through an old orchard and hears her playing the violin. He visits her a number of times and gradually falls in love with her. When he proposes she...

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, originally published in 1894, by Arthur Conan Doyle. The twelve stories (eleven in American editions) of the Memoirs are: Silver Blaze Clients: none The Adventure of the Cardboard Box (this story is in His Last Bow in American editions of the canon) Client: Susan Cushing The Adventure of the Yellow Face Client: Grant...

This is a book of legends from around the world. Mostly they are from Eurasian areas and traditions, but there are a few from North America, too. While it claims in the title to be a book of legends that children should know, that is entirely arrogant, and not hardly true. At the very least it is stories for older "children," and possibly even older teens. But then you have the trouble where the...