"Ragged Dick is a well-told story of street-life in New York, that will, we should judge, be well received by the boy-readers, for whom it is intended. The Hero is a boot-black, who, by sharpness, industry, and honesty, makes his way in the world, and is, perhaps, somewhat more immaculate in character and manners than could naturally have been expected from his origin and training. We find in this, as in many books for boys, a certain monot ...
A predecessor to such monumental works as «Crime and Punishment» and «The Brothers Karamazov», «Notes From Underground» represents a turning point in Dostoyevsky's writing towards the more political side. In this work we follow the unnamed narrator of the story, who disillusioned by the oppression and corruption of the society in which he lives withdraws from that society into the underground. A dark and politically charged novel, «Notes Fr ...
An early work by the Marquis de Sade «Justine, Or, The Misfortunes of Virtue» was originally written during a two week period in 1787 while the author was imprisoned in the Bastille. The story is concerned with the titular character, a twelve year old maiden who sets off, to make her way in France, and follows her through age twenty-six in her quest for virtue. In the search for work and shelter Justine continuously falls prey to a series of sco ...
"The Log of a Cowboy" is the captivating tale of an 1882 cattle drive up the old Western Trail from the Rio Grande to just south of the Canadian border in Montana. While a fictional narrative, «The Log of a Cowboy» is rich with authentic detail of the old west, due largely to the fact that the author, Andy Adams, spent more than a decade in Texas in the 1880s driving cattle on the Western Trail. A delightful story of a bygone era, «The Log ...
"What's Wrong With the World" is G. K. Chesterton's 1910 collection of essays in which he puts forth his economic philosophy of Distributism. Along with Hillaire Belloc, Chesterton formulated the idea of Distributism as an economic order that was more in line with the principles articulated by the Roman Catholic Church. Put simply Distributism argues that the means of production should be spread as widely as possible amongst the p ...
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) is regarded as one of the greatest novelist in the English language, though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties. A Polish-born English novelist, Conrad was a master prose stylist who is viewed as a precursor of modernist literature. He wrote stories and novels predominantly with a nautical or seaboard setting that portray trials of the human spirit by the demands of duty and honor. «Youth ...
John Ruskin (1819-1900) was an aesthetician, art historian, reformer and economist, who is perhaps best known for his works on social reform. One of his earliest, and most surprising, is a fairy tale called "The King of the Golden River. Ruskin wrote the story in 1841 (it was not published until 1851) for nineteen-year-old Euphenia Chalmers Gray, whom he married in 1848. The story is set in the ancient country of Stiria, in a beautiful and ferti ...
"A Study in Scarlet" is the first published story of one of the most famous literary detectives of all time, Sherlock Holmes. Here Dr. Watson, who has just returned from a war in Afghanistan, meets Sherlock Holmes for the first time when they become flat-mates at the famous 221 B Baker Street. In «A Study in Scarlet» Sherlock Holmes investigates a murder at Lauriston Gardens as Dr. Watson tags along with Holmes while narratively detailing h ...
