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  • The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics consider it to be one of Shakespeare's "problem plays" because the first three acts are filled with intense psychological drama, while the last two acts are comedic and supply a happy ending.
  • While the word “gentlemen” suggests that its heroes are adults, The Two Gentlemen of Verona is more intelligible if we think of them as boys, leaving home for the first time. One has a crush on a girl, Julia, though he hasn’t yet told her. Sent to court to learn to be “perfect gentlemen,” Valentine and Proteus are derailed by their attraction to Sylvia, the ruler’s daughter. Valentine’s mental denseness does not deter Sylvia from returning his love, but he is caught, and banished, when he tries to elope with her. Proteus’s desire for Sylvia wipes out his former love, leading him into despicable acts that win scorn from Sylvia and wound Julia, who has pursued him disguised as a boy. When Sylvia follows Valentine into banishment, Proteus follows Sylvia, and Julia follows Proteus, the stage is set for a disturbing ending. But the stage is also set for the “gentlemen” to take small steps toward maturity.
  • 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 mystery by E. Phillips Oppenheim starts out in the Sierra Nevada mountains, 500 miles from San Francisco, at a gold mining camp. Bryan came to America from England, chasing a man who may have papers which explain Bryan's mysterious origins. Enter heroine, the beautiful orphan Myra Mercier who is arriving to the camp where women are not allowed. Murder and mayhem ensue before the pair escapes to San Francisco. Bryan abandons Myra and travels back to England alone, where he takes up residence in the country, near the home of Lady Helen, the ward of Lord Wessemer. Bryan seeks to improve himself, and his status, in order to win the hand of the beautiful, but cold, Lady Helen. Finally, Myra makes her way to England as a actress, and Bryan decide who to wed.
  • Dixon Wells, a fashionable playboy, is always late. What will it cost him this time? Sideways into time, lie the worlds of 'if', where many answers await.
  • In the scriptures and the chronicles of the League of the Long Bow, or fellowship of foolish persons doing impossible things, it is recorded that Owen Hood, the lawyer, and his friend Crane, the retired Colonel, were partaking one afternoon of a sort of picnic on the river-island that had been the first scene of a certain romantic incident in the life of the former, the burden of reading about which has fallen upon the readers in other days. Suffice it to say that the island had been devoted by Mr. Hood to his hobby of angling, and that the meal then in progress was a somewhat early interruption of the same leisurely pursuit. The two old cronies had a third companion, who, though considerably younger, was not only a companion but a friend. He was a light-haired, lively young man, with rather a wild eye, known by the name of Pierce, whose wedding to the daughter of the innkeeper of the Blue Boar the others had only recently attended.
  • 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.
  • The Tempest has Romantics elements of both tragedy and comedy.  The Tempest  is one of two of Shakespeare’s works that is set on an island.  The action takes place over the course of one day. Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, has been exiled to the island by his brother Antonio who had usurped his title twelve years before.  Antonio was able to achieve this with the help of Alonso, the King of Naples. Prospero lives on the island with his fifteen year old daughter Miranda.
  • 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.

  • A short and inspirational work by Charles Dickens written as a Christmas story. Outshined by Dickens much more well known Christmas story, this short story has received scant notice. Yet I found it most delightful and comforting and can heartily recommend it. Written in the first person, Dickens tell of being a "poor traveller," and discovering a humble inn during his travels. Set up as a charitable hostel by a gentlemen deceased over a century previously, the inn offers to "six poor traveller's," true in heart, free lodging for one night plus enough money to purchase a simple meal. After satisfying himself of the bona fides of this charitable work, the "seventh poor traveller," as Dickens refers to the narrator, determines to contribute his own gift to his fellow "traveller's," it being Christmas Eve. Securing a sumptuous meal for the holy occasion, and preparing his own secret recipe of wassail, he shares a most satisfying Christmas Eve meal with his fellows, topping off the night with a personal story that befits a Christ-like life of humble service to the meanest among us. The story told, and following activities, serve to illustrate well the concept Dickens wishes to drive home, which is that at best we are all "poor traveller's" together in this life, and make the best of it all by sharing with a true heart whatever good and honest fare comes our way. Without the burden of judging harshly those whom we encounter who seem beneath our station, true happiness may be achieved before we, too, depart this veil of tears.
  • 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¬.
  • The setting is an English country house, where Mark Ablett has been entertaining a house party consisting of a widow and her marriageable daughter, a retired major, a wilful actress, and Bill Beverley, a young man about town. Mark's long-lost brother Robert, the black sheep of the family, arrives from Australia and shortly thereafter is found dead, shot through the head. Mark Ablett has disappeared, so Tony Gillingham, a stranger who has just arrived to call on his friend Bill, decides to investigate. Gillingham plays Sherlock Holmes to his younger counterpart's Doctor Watson; they progress almost playfully through the novel while the clues mount up and the theories abound.
  • The Phantom of the Opera is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. Christine Daaé travels with her father, a famous fiddler, throughout Europe, and plays folk and religious music. When Christine was six years old, her mother died and her father was taken to rural France by a patron, Professor Valerius. While Christine was a child, her father told her many stories about the "Angel of Music", who is the personification of musical inspiration. Christine meets and befriends the young Raoul, Viscount of Chagny. One of Christine and Raoul's favourite stories is one of Little Lotte, a girl who is visited by the Angel of Music and possesses a heavenly voice. Christine now lives with "Mamma" Valerius, the elderly widow of her father's benefactor. She eventually is given a position in the chorus at the Paris Opera House (Palais Garnier). She begins hearing a beautiful, unearthly voice which sings to her and speaks to her. She believes this must be the Angel of Music and asks him if he is. The Voice agrees and offers to teach her "a little bit of heaven's music". The Voice, however, belongs to Erik, a physically deformed and mentally disturbed musical genius who was one of the architects who took part in the construction of the opera house. He is in love with Christine.
  • 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.

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