Literary Criticism
The Naturewoman
The Mastersons, a wealthy Bostonian family, await the arrival of their cousin Anna in the wake of her grandfather's death. Though born in Bo…
Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences
Fenimore Cooper - author of The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, etc - has often been praised, but just as often been criticised for hi…
Pearl
Written in the 14th century by the Gawain poet, 'Pearl' is an elegiac poem reflecting on the death of a young daughter, pictured as a pearl …
The Idiot
The extraordinary child-adult Prince Myshkin, confined for several years in a Swiss sanatorium suffering from severe epilepsy, returns to Ru…
Greek Literature
"The Greeks were the most intellectual people of the old world. … The study of Greek literature is therefore a proper element in a libe…
Celibates
The author is considered the first great Irish writer of realist fiction and is said to have been an inspiration for James Joyce. Celibates …
The Portrait of a Lady
The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillan's Magazine in 1880-1881 …
A Tale of a Tub
A Tale of a Tub was the first major work written by Jonathan Swift, composed between 1694 and 1697, that was eventually published in 1704. I…
The Death of Society
A weary survivor of the Great War, Major Rane Smith wanders in a great ennui amidst the mystical beauties of the fjords of Norway after the …
The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson
Billed as a satire concerning the dishonest advertising and business practices of the day, it tells the tale of an upstart clothing business…
The Voyage Out
The Voyage Out is the first novel by Virginia Woolf, published in 1915 by Duckworth; and published in the U.S. in 1920 by Doran. One of Wool…
The Rider on the White Horse
Hauke Haien, a young man of 24 years, has just beome dikemaster in Northern Frisia. Against the resistance of many of the townfolk, he has a…
The Power of a Lie
Norby is requested to guarantee a bank loan for Wangen and he obliges, signing the loan document in the presence of a witness. Some time lat…
Fidelity
The small Midwestern town of Freeport was scandalized years ago when Ruth Holland, then a young girl, ran away to the West with a married ma…
The Flaw in the Crystal
One of May Sinclair’s “uncanny” stories, this novella explores many of Sinclair’s most treasured themes: the bounds of marriage, the conflic…
The Longest Journey
Frederick Elliot is a student at early 20th century Cambridge, a university that seems like paradise to him, amongst bright if cynical compa…
The Beast in the Jungle
The Beast in the Jungle is a poignant exploration of fate and the human condition, centered on John Marcher, a man who believes he is destin…
A Child of the Jago
A Child of the Jago immerses listeners in the gritty reality of London's East End during the late 19th century. Through the eyes of its youn…
Hagar's Daughter
Hagar's Daughter was first published serially in "The Colored American Magazine" in 1901-1902 by Pauline E. Hopkins, a prominent A…
Old and New Masters
Jane Austen, WB Yeats, Chesterton, Shaw... these are personal and intelligent short essays on a selection of great (and great-ish) writers: …