Classic Fiction - Action and Adventure

“But man is not made for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” This tremendously famous novella, written in 1952, underlined Hemingway's influence and presence in the literary world. The Old Man and the Sea is a story of fr...

Gulliver's Travels, first published in 1726, was an immediate success and was read 'from the Cabinet - council to the Nursery' (Gay). It continues to appeal to readers of all ages, both as a travel book and as a powerful satire. George Orwell rate...

Treasure Island, a wonderfully crafted edition of Stevenson’s classic adventure story, is known for its great plot, immortal characters and vivid images. Its captivating story, that holds the readers’ interest throughout, relates of a great treasu...

Around the World in Eighty Days is a classic adventure novel by Jules Verne. It is the story of a rich English gentleman living a life of modesty and solitude. Phileas Fogg accepts a challenge from his fellow members at the Reform Club and sets of...

Newly married Tara struggles through the formative years of advocacy, attempting to balance her roller coaster professional and personal life. She soon discovers that material success matters, yet selfless pursuits often yield greater satisfaction...

Three Men in a Boat, published in 1889, is a humorous account of a two-week boating holiday on the Thames from Kingston upon Thames to Oxford and back to Kingston. The book was initially intended to be a serious travel guide, with accounts of loca...

The Merchant of Venice is a 16th century play written by Shakespeare between 1596-1598 in which a merchant in Venice must default on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. It is usually classified as a romantic comedy though its d...

When the starving French masses rise in hate to overthrow a corrupt and decadent government, both the guilty and innocent become victims of their frenzied anger. Soon nothing stands in the way of the chilling figure they enlist for their cause - L...

Kim, a picaresque novel by Rudyard Kipling, was published serially in McClure’s Magazine, before being published in book form in 1901. The story is set in India in the backdrop of the political conflict between Russia and Britain, after the end of...

“But the great leveler, Death: not even the gods can defend a man, not even one they love, that day when fate takes hold and lays him out at last.” Composed in the 8th century BCE, Homer's The Odyssey narrates the arduous journey of Odysseus, the ...

Journey to the Centre of the Earth published in 1864 in French as Voyage au centre de la Terre is the second book in Verne's popular science-fiction series Voyages Extraordinaires (1863-1910). The story involves German professor Otto Lidenbrock wh...

King Solomon’s Mines, the first English adventure novel set in Africa describes a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the missing brother of one of the party. The novel is Allan Quatermai...

Oliver Twist, Dickens's critique of the harsh Poor Law of 1834, and a grim picture of the sordid reality the London underworld of Dickens's times, shows Dickens's deep concern for the underprivileged. The only token of identity left by his dying m...

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...

The Return of the Native, both powerful and sombre, is considered to be the most representative of Hardy’s novels. It is set in Egdon Heath whose lowering, titanic presence dominates the men and women who live on it, and whose menace and beauty Ha...

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 ...

(1) The Jungle Books: - Kipling's allegory, The Jungle Books, set in India and filled with high adventure and extraordinary characters that touch both our intellect and our emotions, is an unforgettable mythic tale of a boy Mowgli, the fearless ma...

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...

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...

“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...

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 ...

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 ...

"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...

“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...

Joseph Andrews is Fielding's first novel, and although directed against Samuel Richardson's Pamela which was a great success, it is far from being a simple parody. To cite Fielding himself 'The fable consists of a series of separate adventures...a...

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway chronicles the temperaments and lifestyles of young, hard-drinking English and American expatriates on an expedition to Spain. Jake, with his friends, travels from the 1920s nightlife of Paris to Spain to wit...

The novel is based on a story told to George Eliot by her aunt Elizabeth Evans, a Methodist preacher, of a confession made to her by a girl in the condemned cell at Nottingham gaol awaiting execution for the murder of her child. Hetty Sorrel, pret...