First published in 1881, Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon is an adventure novel in two parts by Jules Verne, having a basis in codes and cryptography. Unlike many of his other stories, it is not a work of science fiction. Rather, it describes a voyage down the Amazon River on a large raft, or jan...

Have you ever wondered what happened to Cinderella after she married the prince? Have you ever asked yourself if it was really "happy ever after?" Actually, in this Victorian melodrama, it's not. 35-years-old Emily Fox-Seton, quite penniless and a little lonely, saves herself from becoming an old ma...

This book contains eighteen beautiful children's short stories by Frances Hodgson Burnett including M re Giraud's Little Daughter, Esmeralda and Little Saint Elizabeth In M re Giraud's Little Daughter, Laure is the favoured child, young and stunningly beautiful she is the pride and joy of her mother...

“Extreme busyness…is a symptom of deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity.” What comforting words for the idle among us! Like many of the best essayists, Stevenson is very much the genial fireside companion: opinionated, but...

A collection of essays about writing: "On some technical elements of style in literature", "The morality of the profession of letters", "Books which have influenced me", "A note on realism", "My first book: ‘Treasure Island’", "The genesis of ‘the master of Ballantrae’" & "Preface to ‘the master of ...

Fables Contents “The Persons of the Tale” “The Devil and the Innkeeper” “The Penitent” “The Yellow Paint” “The House of Eld” “The Four Reformers” “The Man and His Friend” “The Reader” “The Citizen and the Traveller” “The Distinguished Stranger” “The Cart-horses and the Saddle-horse” “The Tadpole and...

Like The Begum's Millions, which Verne published in 1879, it has the theme of France and the entire world threatened by a super-weapon (what would now be called a weapon of mass destruction) with the threat finally overcome through the force of French patriotism.

Familiar Studies of Men and Books, by Robert Louis Stevenson (1882), is a collection of essays, remarkable for a certain youthful originality and daring in the expression of opinion. “In truth,” the author writes, “these are but the readings of a literary vagrant. One book led to another, one study ...

Father Damien (Damien de Veuster, 1840-1889) was a Roman Catholic missionary from Belgium. He went to the leper settlement at Molokai in 1873, where he helped the sufferers of the disease. Damien himself contracted leprosy and died of it in 1889. RLS’s pamphlet, Father Damien (March 1890) was a resp...

First published in 1863, Five Weeks in a Balloon depicts an insightful journey undertaken by a group of intrepid explorers into the partly uncharted African continent, as they aim to explore its exotic wonders. Apart from concentrating on themes including exploration, loyalty, friendship, determinat...