Classics

Hemingway's words strike you, each one, as if they were pebbles fetched fresh from a book.' In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway's most celebrated novel, his stark and emotive style of writing reaches its zenith. The plot follows the doomed lov...

Northanger Abbey, written during the same period as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, represents Jane Austen's genius at its freshest and most enchanting. It grew out of her distaste for the absurdities of the novels of her time and i...

Once considered scandalizingly immoral, Flaubert’s exquisite debut novel unsparingly depicts a woman’s gradual corruption and the human mind in search of transcendence. Unhappily married to a devoted, clumsy local doctor, Emma fulfils her epicurea...

James Joyce’s Ulysses, a landmark of modernist literature, takes place over a single day—16 June 1904—in Dublin, as Leopold Bloom journeys through the city. Drawing structural inspiration from Homer’s Odyssey, Joyce reimagines classical figures in...

Sons and Lovers is considered to be D.H. Lawrence’s first mature novel. What is unique about this novel is its profound psychological insights into the complex relationships between son and mother and between son and other women. Novel is largely ...

Mansfield Park is a unique novel in its moral design, with a heroine remarkably different from the author’s previous creations. This young lady, Miss Fanny Price, the eldest daughter of a large improvident family, is brought to live at Mansfield P...

Heart of Darkness is the finest of all Conrad's tales, showing him at the height of his powers as a writer of great vividness, intensity, and sophistication. The story has come to be regarded as classic of the twentieth century. Its ambiguity has ...

Wuthering Heights is a classic tale of possessive and thwarted passion, one of the forerunners of today's soap operas and romance novels. The tempestuous and mythic story of Catherine Earnshaw, the precocious daughter of the house, and the ruggedl...

Antony and Cleopatra is a well-known tragedy by William Shakespeare. Its first known appearance in print came in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives, and follows the relationship between Cle...

In the bustling streets of seventeenth-century Paris, a young and ambitious swordsman from Gascony, D'Artagnan, arrives seeking to join the illustrious Musketeers of the Guard. Little does he know that his journey will intertwine with the lives of...

Collection of (1) Oliver Twist : The only token of identity left by Dicken's dying mother to Oliver Twist – born in the workhouse, and orphaned at birth – is stolen. Spending his early childhood in neglect and near starvation Oliver joins the work...

Regarded notoriously pornographic when published in 1928, the novel is a triumph of passion, an erotic celebration of life, exploring the emotions of a lonely woman, Constance Chatterley, trapped in a sterile marriage and her growing love for Mell...

Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, The Age of Innocence is a social satire, a bitter-sweet romance, bringing to life the grandeur and hypocrisy of the stuffy upper crust of 1870s New York. Rich, intriguing and beautifully written,...

The Way of the World is based around two lovers Mirabell and Millamant. In order for the two to get married and receive Millamant’s full dowry, Mirabell must receive the blessing of Millamant’s aunt, Lady Wishfort. Unfortunately, she is a very bit...

Candida, a classic comedy, was written in 1894. Set in London’s East End during the Victorian era, the play is about the domestic turmoil that ensues when an impetuous young poet comes between a progressive-minded clergyman and his charismatic wif...

“It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.” The Trial by Franz Kafka, first published posthumously in 1925, is a haunting exploration of bureaucracy, guilt and the oppressive nature of authority. The novel...

A universal classic and a masterful exploration of humanity’s unending struggle with sin, guilt and pride, The Scarlet Letter is a foundational work of American literature. Set in an early New England colony, the novel shows the terrible impact a ...

The novel is set in the period of George Eliot’s own childhood, in the pre-railway, pre-industrial age, with its settled and secure order, and patterns of life and trade inherited from the earlier period. Tom and Maggie, the principal characters, ...

Tess of the D’Urbervilles, a brilliant tale of seduction, love, betrayal, and murder, is generally regarded as Thomas Hardy’s finest novel. This is a tragic story of the intelligent, charming and naturally dignified Tess. Daughter of a poor villa...

Emma was the last novel which Jane Austen lived to see through the press and is perhaps her most accomplished and representative work, happily combining the qualities for which she has been most praised—irony, wit, realism, vivid characterization,...

Interest in supernatural phenomena was high during the time of Charles Dickens. He was open-minded, willing to accept, and put to test the existence of spirits. A fascinating and lesser known side of Dickens’s work is his flair for ghost stories. ...

Volpone (or The Fox) is a comedy in five acts, performed about 1605–1606 and published in 1607, drawing on elements of city comedy and beast fable. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonson's most-performed play, and it is ranked amo...

Eleanor H. Porter's Pollyanna narrates the story of eternally optimistic Pollyanna who goes to live with her strict aunt Polly after being orphaned. Despite her challenging situation, Pollyanna introduces her "Glad Game," finding joy in even the m...

The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), is an exquisite portrait of village life whose idealization of the countryside, where sentimental moralizing, and melodramatic incidents are based on a sharp but good-natured irony. It was one of the most popular an...

Collection of (1) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his most famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The individual stories had been s...

The Mayor of Casterbridge displays the influence of Hardy's upbringing, rural background, and architectural studies. His characters are primitive and exhibit all the passions, hates, loves and jealousies that rustic life seems to inspire. Yet thes...

Collection of (1) Robinson Crusoe: "Published in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has remained one of the best-known and most read of English novels. It gained popularity among children and adults alike. The adventure story became one of the classics of Engl...

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. In the heart of Blunderstone, England, David Copperfield's idyllic life with his loving mother is shattered by th...

The Hound of the Baskervilles is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s third crime novel featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. It was originally serialized in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902 and published in the book form in 1902. The sto...

India: What can it Teach Us? is a captivating compilation of lectures delivered by Friedrich Max Müller, a distinguished scholar of the nineteenth century. Originally published in 1883, this book consists of seven enlightening lectures where he de...

Friedrich Max Müller's Sri Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings is an intimate portrayal of the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, one of the greatest spiritual leaders from nineteenth-century India. Müller captures the essence of Ramakrishna's d...

“A noble mind finds its purest joy in the accomplishment of its duty, and to that willingly sacrifices its inclination.” Johann David Wyss's The Swiss Family Robinson, a thrilling adventure of survival and ingenuity, unfolds in the uncharted wilde...

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essays: First and Second Series presents a collection of his most influential writings, originally published in the 1840s. These essays explore profound themes such as self-reliance, nature, individuality, and the inner spiri...

Collection of (1) Lady Chatterley's Lover : "Regarded notoriously pornographic when published in 1928, the novel is a triumph of passion, an erotic celebration of life, exploring the emotions of a lonely woman, Constance Chatterley, trapped in a s...

Moll Flanders was one of the first social novels to be published in English and draws heavily on Defoe's experience of the topography and social conditions prevailing in the London of the late seventeenth century. If it is on one level a Puritan’s...

Great Expectations is a superbly constructed novel of spellbinding mystery and is full of comic and tragic twists. It is generally considered to be one of the best masterpieces of Dickens. Pip, an orphan, is brought up by his cranky older sister a...

The Portrait of a Lady (1881) is Henry James's early novel of psychological realism, in which various types of American character are transplanted into the European environment. Upon her father's death, the high-minded heroine Isabela Archer is vi...

The Nigger of the 'Narcissus', published in 1897, is widely regarded as the finest and the strongest picture of the sea and sea life that the English language possesses. Framed around a sea voyage from Bombay to London, the action concentrates on ...

The Ambassadors, published in 1903, is considered by theauthor himself to be his most 'perfect' work of art. In this novel, with much humour and delicacy of perception, the author depicts the reaction of different American types to the European en...

Silas Marner is an impressive narrative, spiced with rustic humour and replete with forceful village characters. Accused of a false charge of theft that Silas Marner did not commit, he leaves his small religious community and takes refuge in the a...

A Tale of a Tub, Jonathan Swift’s first major and his most masterly work. It presents a satire of religious excess. When it was written, politics and religion were so closely linked in England, that the religious and political aspects of the satir...

She Stoops to Conquer is based on the two incidents of being the target of practical jokes, and being out on blind dates, creating a complicated, convoluted plot based on miscommunication and mistaken identities. Wealthy countryman, Mr. Hardcastle...

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and t...

"Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man." An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume is a seminal work of philosophy, published in 1948, that delves into the nature of human cognition, perception and the li...

प्रेमचंद द्वारा रचित निर्मला उपन्यास एक पंद्रह वर्षीय लड़की जो बनारस के एक मध्यमवर्गीय परिवार से है, इस पर आधारित है। इस उपन्यास के जरिए प्रेमचंद ने समाज की नारी के प्रति सोच, दहेज प्रथाए नारी की पुरुष पर निर्भरता और अनमोल विवाह जैसे महत्वपूर्ण मुद...

“For we women are not only the deities of the household fire, but the flame of the soul itself.” The Home and the World (originally Ghare-Baire), written by Rabindranath Tagore, is a profound exploration of nationalism, identity and human conflict...

In Booms and Depressions, economist Irving Fisher provides a groundbreaking analysis of the cyclical nature of economic activity, focusing on the causes and consequences of financial booms and subsequent depressions. First published in 1932, Fishe...

The Wind in the Willows is a book of linked animal tales that began as a series of bedtime stories and was published in 1908. It is beautifully written with evocative descriptions of the countryside interspersed with exciting adventures and became...

Collection of (1) The Mayor of Casterbridge; The Mayor of Casterbridge displays the influence of Hardy's upbringing, rural background, and architectural studies. His characters are primitive and exhibit all the passions, hates, loves and jealousie...

Set in the rural midlands of England, The Rainbow chronicles the lives of three generations of the Brangwen family, conveying how their rural existence is gradually but profoundly changed by the influx of industry and urbanism. But it is far more ...

Collection of (1) Pride And Prejudice; In the delightful social comedy of Pride and Prejudice (1813) Jane Austen delicately handles the problem of love and money in marriage where, in spite of many hurdles, eventually love triumphs over 'pride' an...

Jude the Obscure is a haunting love story and a raging indictment of Victorian society. In addition to its literary qualities, the novel is a rich source of social history, accurately reflecting the encroachment of the modern, developing world on ...

Scott’s most beloved and exciting adventure, Ivanhoe is a vivid recreation of Norman-Saxon conflict in 12th century England. Framing a royal myth of national cultural identity and drawing on the conventions of Gothic fiction with its risky and rac...

Henry IV, Part One is a history play, believed to have been written no later than 1597. It is the second play in Shakespeare's tetralogy dealing with the successive reigns of Richard II, Henry IV (two plays, including Henry IV, Part Two), and Henr...

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts." Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, first published in 1558, is a timeless collection of personal reflections from one of history's greatest Roman emperors. Written as a private ...

प्रेमचंद का उपन्यास प्रतिज्ञा भारतीय समाज की गहराई में छिपे नैतिकता, सुधारवाद और स्त्री-उत्थान जैसे विषयों पर आधारित है। इस कहानी के मुख्य पात्र अमृतराय और पूर्णा हैं। अमृतराय एक आदर्शवादी युवक है जो समाज में व्याप्त रूढ़िवादी धारणाओं और परंपराओं ...

"The Wild still lingered in him, and the wolf in him merely slept." White Fang, published in 1906 by Jack London, is an enthralling adventure novel set in the harsh Yukon wilderness during the Klondike Gold Rush. It follows the journey of White F...

"The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man." Fyodor Dostoevsky's masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov, tells a gripping tale of three brothers bou...

"Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth." Crime and Punishment, first published in 1866, is a seminal novel by Russian author Fyodor Dost...

“Pain, anguish and suffering in human life are always in proportion to the strength with which a man is endowed.” In The Man in the Iron Mask, the final book of The D'Artagnan Romances, Alexandre Dumas delivers a tale of political conspiracy, dark...