Interactive Media: 1158 books

An officer by the name of Jilin served in the army in the Caucasus. One day he received a letter from home. It was from his mother, who wrote, 'I am getting old now, and I want to see my beloved son before I die. Come and say good-bye to me, and when you have buried me, with God’s grace, you can return...

A selection of horror stories for adults from the master of mystery and fantasy storytelling Edith Nesbit. This selection includes: The Ebony Frame, John Charrington's Wedding, Uncle Abraham's Romance, The Mystery of the Semi-detached, From the Dead, Man-size in Marble, The Mass for the Dead.

It appears to me a most excellent thing for the physician to cultivate Prognosis; for by foreseeing and foretelling, in the presence of the sick, the present, the past, and the future, and explaining the omissions which patients have been guilty of, he will be the more readily believed to be acquainted...

Early in the beginning of spring, and through the summer, and towards winter, many of those who had been long gradually declining, took to bed with symptoms of phthisis; in many cases formerly of a doubtful character the disease then became confirmed; in these the constitution inclined to the phthisical....

A comic epic poem in prose, the story of a good-natured footman's adventures on the road home from London with his friend and mentor, the absent-minded parson Abraham Adams. The novel represents the coming together of the two competing aesthetics: the mock-heroic and neoclassical approach of Augustans...

The novel is taking place largely in London during 1733. It describes the hardships suffered by a young couple newly married. Against her mother's wishes, Amelia marries Captain William Booth, a dashing young army officer. The couple run away to London. In Book II, William is unjustly imprisoned in...

Your outlook on life is so different from mine that I can hardly imagine you being built of the same stuff as myself. Yet I venture to put my difficulty before you. It is, of course, no question of mental grasp or capacity or artistic endowment. I am, so far as these are concerned, merely the man...

Santa Claus, as a baby is found in the Forest of Burzee and placed in the care of the lioness Shiegra. The Wood Nymph, Necile, breaks the law of the forest and takes the baby because she desires to raise a child of her own as mortals do. Necile calls him Claus, meaning little one in the old Burzee language.

Dostoevsky was still a student when he started writing Poor Folk. His parents were very hard-working, but so poor that they lived with their five children in only two rooms. This story was published by the established poet of the time Nekrassov in his review and was received with acclamations. The shy, unknown youth Fyodor Dostoyevsky found himself instantly something of a celebrity.

The author of the diary and the diary itself are, of course, imaginary. Nevertheless it is clear that such persons as the writer of these notes not only may, but positively must, exist in our society, when we consider the circumstances in the midst of which our society is formed. I have tried to expose...

Bouvard et Pécuchet details the adventures of two Parisian copy-clerks, François Denys Bartholomée Bouvard and Juste Romain Cyrille Pécuchet, of the same age and nearly identical temperament. They meet one hot summer day in 1838 by the canal Saint-Martin and form an instant, symbiotic friendship. When Bouvard inherits a sizable fortune, the two decide to move to the countryside.

Emma Bovary, a doctor's wife, has a highly romanticized view of the world and craves beauty, wealth, passion, and high society. The disparity between these romantic ideals and the realities of her country life lead her into extramarital love affairs as well as causing her to accrue an insurmountable...

On the 8th of April, 1492, in a bedroom of the Carneggi Palace, about three miles from Florence, were three men grouped about a bed whereon a fourth lay dying.

In Scotland, the unlucky name is 'Stuart'. Robert I, founder of the race, died at twenty-eight of a lingering illness. Robert II, the most fortunate of the family, was obliged to pass a part of his life, not merely in retirement, but also in the dark, on account of inflammation of the eyes, which made...