While examining a golden ring under a microscope, a chemist discovers a sub-atomic world. During his examination of this world he sees a beautiful young girl. After developing chemicals that will allow him to either shrink or grow larger in size, he and three friends journey to this small world. (Summary by Richard Kilmer)
Science fiction
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, better known as The Pickwick Papers, is the first novel by Charles Dickens. Written for publication as a serial, The Pickwick Papers consists of a sequence of loosely-related adventures. Its main literary value and appeal is formed by its numerous unforgettable heroes. Each personage in The Pickwick Papers (just as in many other Dickens' novels) is drawn comically, often with exaggerated features of character. (Wikipedia)
Satire
At the Court of Liang at the period of Yang Chu, about 300 B.C., the philosophers were treated as guests of the reigning king, who reserved for them lodging and maintenance, and encouraged all who had any pretence to the pursuit of truth and wisdom. Whether or not Yang Chu was actually a native of the Wei State, or whether he came there drawn by the attraction of a critical and unrivalled audience, it is at least certain that he settled there as small proprietor, probabl...
Philosophy
The two eldest Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, one of whom (Elinor) embraces practicality and restraint while the other (Marianne) gives her whole heart to every endeavor. When the Dashwoods - mother Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor, Marianne, and youngest sister Margaret - are sent, almost impoverished, to a small cottage in Devonshire after the death of their father and the machinations of their brother's wife, they accept their new circumstances with as much cheer as they...
Romance
This is a series of short messages written by the South African minister, Andrew Murray. They deal with the necessity and joy of surrendering our lives completely to God. (Summary written by Joy Chan)
Essay/Short nonfiction, Religion
volunteers bring you nine different recordings of Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven , by William Butler Yeats. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of December 10th, 2006.
Poetry
This collection recognizes Black History Month, February 2007. Two excellent resources for public domain African American writing are http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/African_American_Writers_%28Bookshelf%29 African American Writers (Bookshelf) and http://www.bartleby.com/269/ The Book of American Negro Poetry , edited by James Weldon Johnson. Johnson's collection inspired the Harlem Renaissance generation to establish a firm African-American literary tradition in the Unite...
Poetry, Essay/Short nonfiction
The Amendments to the Constitution of the USA are a continuously modified document that attempts to secure all basic and other rights for American citizens. The most recent amendment was made in the early 1970's during the Vietnam war; this amendment lowered the voting age to 18. The first ten amendments (A.K.A. the Bill of Rights) was made by the founding fathers shortly after the actual constitution was made. The Bill of Rights covers all those things that the settlers...
History
With no written language, Native Americans living in the Lake Superior region passed their cultural identity down through the generations by way of stories. Far more than mere tales to amuse children, they passed along the collective wisdom of the tribes. In the 1830s, government Indian Agent and ethnologist Henry R Schoolcraft learned the language of these people and went out to collect and preserve their stories before the tribes disappeared under the westward rush of ...
Fairy tales, Children, Short stories
Following Anne of Green Gables, the book covers the second chapter in the life of Anne Shirley. Anne of Avonlea follows Anne from the age of 16 to 18, during the two years that she teaches at Avonlea school. It includes many of the characters from Anne of Green Gables, as well new ones like Mr Harrison, Miss Lavendar Lewis, Paul Irving, and the twins Dora and Davy. (Summary from Wikipedia.org)
Humour, Children, Teen/Young adult
Cædmon was an Anglo-Saxon herdsman attached to the double monastery of Streonæshalch (657–681). Originally ignorant of the art of song, Cædmon learned to compose one night in the course of a dream. Cædmon’s only known surviving work is Cædmon’s Hymn, the nine-line alliterative vernacular praise poem in honour of the Christian god he supposedly learned to sing in his initial dream. The poem is one of the earliest attested examples of Old English and is one of three candid...
Chamber Music is a collection of poems by James Joyce, first published in May of 1907. The collection originally comprised thirty-four love poems, but two further poems were added before publication (All day I hear the noise of waters and I hear an army charging upon the land). Although the poems did not sell well, they received some critical acclaim. Ezra Pound admired the delicate temperament of these early poems, while Yeats described I hear an army charging upon the ...
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) began writing his autobiography long before the 1906 publications of these Chapters from my Autobiography. He originally planned to have his memoirs published only after his death but realized, once he’d passed his 70th year, that a lot of the material might be OK to publish before his departure. These chapters were published in serial form in the North American Review during 1906-1907. While much of the material consists of stories about the ...
Biography, Humour
Childhood, published in 1852, is the first novel in Leo Tolstoy’s autobiographical trilogy, which also includes Boyhood, and Youth. Published when Tolstoy was twenty-three, the book gained immediate notice among Russian writers including Ivan Turgenev, and heralded the young Tolstoy as a major figure in Russian letters. Childhood is an expressionist exploration of the internal life of a young boy, Nikolenka, and was a new form in Russian writing, mixing fact, fiction and...
Biography
J'aurais pu rendre mes Contes plus agréables en y mêlant certaines choses un peu libres dont on a accoutumé de les égayer; mais le désir de plaire ne m'a jamais assez tenté pour violer une loi que je me suis imposée de ne rien écrire qui pût blesser ou la pudeur ou la bienséance. Voici un Madrigal qu'une jeune Demoiselle de beaucoup d'esprit a composé sur ce sujet, et qu'elle a écrit au-dessous du Conte de Peau d'Ane que je lui avais envoyé. Le Conte de Peau d'Ane est ic...
Children, Fairy tales
A light and whimsical collection of poems by the celebrated children's author E Nesbit, in collaboration with Saretta Nesbit. (Summary by David Barnes)
Literature, Poetry
In this children's classic, a girl named Alice follows falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy realm full of talking creatures. She attends a never-ending tea party and plays croquet at the court of the anthropomorphic playing cards. (Summary written by Gesine)
Children, Fantasy
Lucy Maud Montgomery’s classic children’s novel, Anne of Green Gables tells the story of a red headed orphan girl with a personality you can’t help but love. Despite her “tragical” past, Anne’s optimism and imagination have helped her to always see the best in things. Anne’s life changes considerably when she is accidentally adopted by the Cuthberts, a brother and sister who thought they were getting a boy to help out on the farm. The Cuthberts decide Anne will have to b...
Herbert Allen Giles (1845-1935) spent several years as a diplomat in China and in 1897 was appointed Cambridge University’s second professor of Chinese. His published works cover Chinese language and literature, history and philosophy.This series of lectures, published as “China and the Chinese”, was given at Columbia University in 1902, to mark the establishment of a Chinese professorship there. The lectures were not intended for the specialist, more to urge a wider and...