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  • Narrated by Jim Hawkins as an old man, this adaptation relays all the horrors of his childhood adventures. Retaining all the qualities of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous tale of pirates, ships and buried treasure, this adaptation vividly brings characters such as Long John Silver, Ben Gunn and Blind Pew to life.
  • "And why Tom Tiddler's ground?" said the Traveller. "Because he scatters halfpence to Tramps and such-like," returned the Landlord, "and of course they pick 'em up. And this being done on his own land (which it is his own land, you observe, and were his family's before him), why it is but regarding the halfpence as gold and silver, and turning the ownership of the property a bit round your finger, and there you have the name of the children's game complete. And it's appropriate too," said the Landlord, with his favourite action of stooping a little, to look across the table out of window at vacancy, under the window-blind which was half drawn down. "Leastwise it has been so considered by many gentlemen which have partook of chops and tea in the present humble parlour."
  • The Three Musketeers is one of the most famous historical novels ever written. It is also one of the world's greatest historical adventure stories, and its heroes have become symbols for the spirit of youth, daring, and comradeship. The action takes place at the court of Louis XIII, where the musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, with their companion, the headstrong d'Artagnan, are engaged in a battle against Richelieu, the King's minister, and the beautiful, unscrupulous spy, Milady. Behind the flashing blades and bravura, in this first adventure of the Musketeers, Dumas explores the eternal conflict between good and evil.
  • EVEN the brilliance of the morning sun and the crisp, tangy morning breeze, could not make the bookstall-lined Fourth Avenue block other than a sluggish back-eddy of the city's flood. Grey men dwelt sleepily here among their grey books; men and books equally withdrawn from life. Elsewhere, the eager day was beginning for thousands of school children, stenographers and clerks, laborers and brokers, shopkeepers and mechanics. Here the night's sleep yawned only into a waking drowse, a desultory dealing in tattered volumes, a browsing among out-dated magazines.

  • The young minister and the elderly skipper discussed the subject of marriage in a shabby antique room of small size, which had the appearance of having been used to more aristocratic cornpany. The ’dark-oak panelled walls, the grotesquely-carved Ceiling-beams, the Dutch-tiled fire-place, with its ungainly brass dogs, and the deep slanting embrasure of the lozenge-paned casement, suggested Georgian beaux and belles dancing buckram minutes, or at least hard-riding country squires plotting Jacobite restoration. But these happenings were in the long-ago, but this stately Essex manor-house had declined woefully from its high estate, and now sheltered a rough and ready mariner, who camped, rather than dwelt, under its roof.

  • More adventures amongst the terrors of revolutionary France. No one has uncovered the identity of the famous Scarlet Pimpernel - no one except his wife Marguerite and his arch-enemy, citizen Chauvelin. Sir Percy Blakeney is still at large however, evading capture¬.
  • C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mysterious brutal murder of two women. Numerous witnesses heard a suspect, though no one agrees on what language was spoken. At the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human. As the first true detective in fiction, the Dupin character established many literary devices which would be used in future fictional detectives including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it.
  • Narnia: A magical land full of wonder and excitement. A place where you will meet Aslan, the bravest of lions, and a beautiful but wicked Witch. There are lots of other fabulous creatures too: giants and dwarfs and animals that talk. It all begins when four children -- Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy -- discover a strange old wardrobe. Stepping inside, they find that it's stranger still, because behind all the fur coats there is a wondrous land of trees and mountains, all glistening with snow. The White Witch has spread an icy winter everywhere. Only Aslan can defeat her and reverse her wicked spell. The children must find the lion before it is too late. If they fail, the Witch will make them her prisoners forever. In the fifty years since it was written, The Lion, the Witch And the Wardrobe has become one of the great classics of children's literature. Now younger children can share the magical experience, stepping into a world of enchantment that will forever lure them back.
  • Jane Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility is a wonderfully entertaining tale of flirtation and folly that revolves around two starkly different sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. While Elinor is thoughtful, considerate, and calm, her younger sister is emotional and wildly romantic. Both are looking for a husband, but neither Elinor’s reason nor Marianne’s passion can lead them to perfect happiness—as Marianne falls for an unscrupulous rascal and Elinor becomes attached to a man who’s already engaged. Startling secrets, unexpected twists, and heartless betrayals interrupt the marriage games that follow. Filled with satiric wit and subtle characterizations, Sense and Sensibility teaches that true love requires a balance of reason and emotion.
  • Beatrix Potter wrote and published it, the idea has been turned down by six commercial publishers. One year later finally, a editor discovered the great talent. Having seen a copy, Frederick Warne decided to publish ›Peter Rabbit‹, and within a year he already had to produce six editions to meet demand. This was the start of the most successful children's book series of all times.
  • What began life as a sequel to Tom Sawyer quickly became one of the most important of all American novels, in an exuberant and gently nostalgic tale in which a young hobo and an escaped slave set off to find freedom on the Mississippi .
  • Excerpt: ...I alighted there were tears of eagerness in my eyes. "Yes," I replied breathlessly, "oh, sir, yes." "Then pick up that," he cried dramatically, pointing to a cigar butt on the parade ground. I didn't wait for the laughter. I didn't have to. It was forthcoming immediately. Huge peals of it. Sailors are a very low tribe of vertebrate. They seem to hang around most of the time waiting for something to laugh at **
  • “Don’t drink our sherry, Charles?” Mr Preenham, the butler, stood by the table in the gloomy servants’ hall, as if he had received a shock. “No, sir; I took ’em up the beer at first, and they shook their heads and asked for wine, and when I took ’em the sherry they shook their heads again, and the one who speaks English said they want key-aunty.” **
  • This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them. **
  • Reproduction of the original: The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems by Geoffrey Chaucer **
  • Tom Sawyer lived with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid. Tom dirties his clothes in a fight and is made to whitewash the fence the next day, as a punishment. He cleverly persuades his friends to trade him small treasures for the privilege of doing his work. He trades the treasures for Sunday School tickets which one normally receives for memorizing scriptures, redeeming them for a bible, much to the surprise and bewilderment of the superintendent who thought "it was simply preposterous that this boy had warehoused two thousand sheaves of Scriptural wisdom on his premises—a dozen would strain his capacity, without a doubt." Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get "engaged" by kissing him. But their romance collapses when she learns Tom has been "engaged" previously, to a girl named Amy Lawrence. Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn to the graveyard at night, where they witness the murder of Dr. Robinson.
  • The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire, written by British author Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 Sherlock Holmes stories collected between 1921 and 1927 as The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in the January 1924 issues of The Strand Magazine in London and Hearst's International Magazine in New York.
  • Violet Hunter takes a job as a governess at the Copper Beeches. But she is puzzled when her employers ask her to cut her hair and wear a special dress. Things get stranger still when she finds a lock of hair that looks like her own and a mysterious hallway. Violet turns to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson for help, but is it already too late?
  • Holmes is just days away from bringing down the biggest criminal ringleader in London. But his quick and wicked foe is as cautious and intelligent as he. When Moriarty learns of Holmes' plans against him he releases an evil on England the likes of which no civilised man had ever seen. ...

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