The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only novel written by the iconic Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde. First published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890 (and heavily revised into a book in 1891), it is a cornerstone of Gothic and decadent literature. Fusing the Faustian bargain with acute psychological insight, the novel serves as a dazzling philosophical exploration of art, hedonis…
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) are two of the most celebrated works of literary nonsense and children’s fantasy ever written. Authored by the English mathematician and writer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, these timeless masterpieces transport readers into surreal, dreamlike wor…
The story is set during the American Civil War, in the spring of 1865. Five men—alongside a faithful dog—escape from a Confederate prison camp in Richmond, Virginia, by hijacking a massive observation balloon during a violent hurricane
Aesop's Fables is a collection of brief, allegorical tales traditionally credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. While historians debate whether Aesop was a single historical figure or a composite of storytellers, the fables themselves have become a foundational cornerstone of Western literature, folklore, and moral education.
Billy Budd and Other Stories brings together the final masterpiece and landmark short fiction of Herman Melville (best known for Moby-Dick). Left unfinished at Melville’s death in 1891 and published posthumously, the titular novella Billy Budd, Sailor is widely regarded as one of the most profound psychological and ethical allegories in American literature. The broader collection typically fe…
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) is the brilliant, surreal sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, writing under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. In this timeless classic, Alice steps through her drawing-room mirror into a bizarre, inverted reflection of reality governed by the rigid, logical rules of a giant chessboard.
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: Once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book', thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations ? '
First published on December 19, 1843, Charles Dickens’s immortal novella is the ultimate holiday classic. It tells the magical, redemptive story of a bitter, miserly old loan shark who is given a final, harrowing chance to change his ways after being visited by four ghostly apparitions on Christmas Eve.
A Christmas Carol is a classic 1843 novella by English author Charles Dickens. One of the most famous and enduring holiday stories in English literature, it tells the transformative tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, a cold-hearted, miserly old man who despises Christmas and cares for nothing outside of wealth. Through a harrowing night of supernatural visitations, Scrooge is given a chance at redemptio…