Explore nineteenth-century America through the pen of one of the most celebrated authors of all time, Charles Dickens. American Notes is a detailed travelogue of Dickens' 1842 tour of North America, and in it, the author deploys his incisive wit and unparalleled gift for observation to convey his experiences traveling across the continent by steamship, coach, and rail. A rip-roaring read that will please Dickens fans and American history buffs alike.

Around the World in 80 Days is a classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager (equal to about £2 million in 2016) set by his friends at the Reform Club. It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works. The story starts in London on Tuesday, October 1, 1872. Phileas Fogg is a rich British gentleman living in solitude. Despite his weal...

A Room with a View is a novel by English writer E. M. Forster, about a young woman in the restrained culture of Edwardian era England. Set in Italy and England, the story is both a romance and a critique of English society at the beginning of the 20th century. Merchant-Ivory produced an award-winning film adaptation in 1985. The Modern Library ranked A Room with a View 79th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century (1998). The first part of the novel is set in...

A Pair of Blue Eyes is a novel by Thomas Hardy, published in 1873, first serialised between September 1872 and July 1873. It was Hardy's third novel, but the first to bear his name on publication. The book describes the love triangle of a young woman, Elfride Swancourt, and her two suitors from very different backgrounds. Stephen Smith is a socially inferior but ambitious young man who adores her and with whom she shares a country background. Henry Knight is the respectable, established, o...

Black Beauty is a novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she remained in her house as an invalid. The novel became an immediate best-seller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, but having lived long enough to see her only novel become a success. With fifty million copies sold, Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time. While forthrightly teaching animal welfare, it also teaches how to treat peop...

This yearly planner is perfect for big planning. Plan for a month from now or a year from now in one convenient planner.This yearly planner will help you to accomplish your goals over the next year, once you spend time to think of them, plan for them, write them down and schedule them in your planner.The Yearly Goal Planner:.: Features action plan and goal checklist layouts to provide ample space for writing..: Weeks start with Monday to Sunday and ...

Edwin Dingle's book China on Foot details his trip through Hong Kong and Shanghai, and finally into Tibet, where he would be one of the first Westerners to enter a Tibetan Monastery. There he learned certain advanced spiritual forms of yogic breathing and meditation, which later inform his spiritual practices. Later Dingle would change his name (who wouldn't?) to "Ding Le Mei," which was given to him by his spiritual guide in Tibet. This book is a recount of his trip through China in the e...

Analects of Confucius is a collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Chinese philosopher Confucius and his contemporaries, traditionally believed to have been compiled and written by Confucius' followers. It is believed to have been written during the Warring States period (475 BC–221 BC), and it achieved its final form during the mid-Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). By the early Han dynasty the Analects was considered merely a "commentary" on the Five Classics, but the status of the A...

Howards End is a novel by E. M. Forster, about social conventions, codes of conduct, and personal relationships in turn-of-the-century England. Howards End is considered by some to be Forster's masterpiece. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Howards End 38th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. The story revolves around three families in England at the beginning of the 20th century: the Wilcoxes, rich capitalists with a fortune made in the Colonies; the ...

2 B R 0 2 B is a science fiction short story by Kurt Vonnegut. The title is pronounced "2 B R naught 2 B", referencing the famous phrase "to be, or not to be" from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In this story, the title refers to the telephone number one dials to schedule an assisted suicide with the Federal Bureau of Termination. Vonnegut's 1965 novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater describes a story by this name, attributing it to his recurring character Kilgore Trout, alt...

The novel A Dark Night's Work is the engrossing apogee of Gaskell's foray into Gothic ghost stories and tales of horror. Fans of these genres won't be disappointed. Elizabeth Gaskell, (29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor, and are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature. He...

Deathworld is the name of a series of science fiction novels by Harry Harrison including the books Deathworld (first published 1960, serialized in Astounding Science Fiction), Deathworld 2 (1964, initially titled The Ethical Engineer and serialized in Analog) and Deathworld 3 (1968, serialized in Analog as The Horse Barbarians), plus the short story "The Mothballed Spaceship" (1973, written as part of a tribute to John W. Campbell). The central hero is a gambler who becomes involved with c...