Before Adamby Jack London"These are our ancestors, and their history is ourhistory. Remember that as surely as we one day swungdown out of the trees and walked upright, just assurely, on a far earlier day, did we crawl up out ofthe sea and achieve our first adventure on land."CHAPTER IPictures! Pictures! Pictures! Often, before I learned,did I wonder whence came the multitudes of picturesthat thronged my dreams; for they were pictures thelike of which I had never seen in real wake-a-day life.They tormented my childhood, making of my dreams a...　

The Little Dukeby Charlotte M. YongeCHAPTER IOn a bright autumn day, as long ago as the year 943, there was a great bustle in the Castle of Bayeux in Normandy.The hall was large and low, the roof arched, and supported on thick short columns, almost like the crypt of a Cathedral; the walls were thick, and the windows, which had no glass, were very small, set in such a depth of wall that there was a wide deep window seat, upon which the rain might beat, without reaching the interior of the room. And even if it had come in, there was nothing for it to hurt, for the walls were of rough stone, and　

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange ThingsBy Lafcadio HearnA Note On Japanese PronunciationAlthough simplified, the following general rules will help the readerunfamiliar with Japanese to come close enough to Japanese pronunciation.There are five vowels: a (as in fAther), i (as in machIne), u (as infOOl), e (as in fEllow), and o (as in mOle). Although certain vowels becomenearly "silent" in some environments, this phenomenon can be safely ignoredfor the purpose at hand.Consonants roughly approximate their corresponding sounds in English,...　

History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 17by Thomas CarlyleTHE SEVEN-YEARS WAR: FIRST CAMPAIGN.1756-1757.Chapter I.WHAT FRIEDRICH HAD READ IN THE MENZEL DOCUMENTS.The ill-informed world, entirely unaware of what Friedrich had been studying and ascertaining, to his bitter sorrow, for four years past, was extremely astonished at the part he took in those French- English troubles; extremely provoked at his breaking out again into a Third Silesian War, greater than all the others, and kindling all Europe in such a way. The ill-informed world rang violently, then and long after, with a Controversy, "　

The Purcell Papers, Volume 2by Joseph Sheridan Le FanuWith a Memoir byALFRED PERCEVAL GRAVESCONTENTS OF VOL. II.PASSAGE IN THE SECRET HISTORY OF AN IRISH COUNTESSTHE BRIDAL OF CARRIGVARAHSTRANGE EVENT IN THE LIFE OF SCHALKEN THE PAINTERSCRAPS OF HIBERNIAN BALLADSTHE PURCELL PAPERS.PASSAGE IN THESECRET HISTORY OF AN IRISHCOUNTESS.Being a Fifth Extract from the Legacy of the late FrancisPurcell, P.P. of Drumcoolagh....　

The Red One, and Othersby Jack LondonContents:The Red OneThe HussyLike Argus of the Ancient TimesThe PrincessSTORY: THE RED ONETHERE it was! The abrupt liberation of sound! As he timed it withhis watch, Bassett likened it to the trump of an archangel. Wallsof cities, he meditated, might well fall down before so vast andcompelling a summons. For the thousandth time vainly he tried toanalyse the tone-quality of that enormous peal that dominated theland far into the strong-holds of the surrounding tribes. The...　

Joan of Naples1343-1382By ALEXANDER DUMAS, PERECHAPTER IIn the night of the 15th of January 1343, while the inhabitants of Naples lay wrapped in peaceful slumber, they were suddenly awakened by the bells of the three hundred churches that this thrice blessed capital contains. In the midst of the disturbance caused by so rude a call the first bought in the mind of all was that the town was on fire, or that the army of some enemy had mysteriously landed under cover of night and could put the citizens to the edge of the sword. But the doleful, intermittent sounds of all these fills, which distu　

Miss or Mrs.?Miss or Mrs.?by Wilkie Collins1- Page 2-Miss or Mrs.?PERSONS OF THE STORY.Sir Joseph Graybrooke. . . . . . . . . .(Knight) Richard Turlington . . . .(Of the Levant Trade) Launcelot Linzie . .(Of the College of Surgeons)James Dicas. . . . . .(Of the Roll of Attorneys) ThomasWildfang. . . . . .(Superannuated Seaman) Miss Graybrooke. . . . . . (Sir...　

SOPHOCLESOEDIPUS THE KINGTranslation by F. Storr, BAFormerly Scholar of Trinity College, CambridgeFrom the Loeb Library EditionOriginally published byHarvard University Press, Cambridge, MAandWilliam Heinemann Ltd, LondonFirst published in 1912ARGUMENTTo Laius, King of Thebes, an oracle foretold that the child born...　

KING RICHARD IIIKING RICHARD IIIWilliam Shakespeare1- Page 2-KING RICHARD IIIACT I.2- Page 3-KING RICHARD IIISCENE 1.London. A streetEnter RICHARD, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, solusGLOUCESTER. Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious...　

The Adventures of Pinocchioby C. Collodi[Pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini]CHAPTER 1How it happened that Mastro Cherry, carpenter,found a piece of wood that wept and laughed like a childCenturies ago there lived"A king!" my little readers will say immediately.No, children, you are mistaken. Once upon a timethere was a piece of wood. It was not an expensive pieceof wood. Far from it. Just a common block of firewood,one of those thick, solid logs that are put on the fire inwinter to make cold rooms cozy and warm....　

Alexandria and her Schoolsby Charles KingsleyPREFACEI should not have presumed to choose for any lectures of mine such a subject as that which I have tried to treat in this book. The subject was chosen by the Institution where the lectures were delivered. Still less should I have presumed to print them of my own accord, knowing how fragmentary and crude they are. They were printed at the special request of my audience. Least of all, perhaps, ought I to have presumed to publish them, as I have done, at Cambridge, where any inaccuracy or sciolism (and that such defects exist in these pages,　

NEW BURLESQUESNEW BURLESQUESby Bret Harte1- Page 2-NEW BURLESQUESCHAPTER IRUDOLPH OF TRULYRURALANIAWhen I state that I was own brother to Lord Burleydon, had an incomeof two thousand a year, could speak all the polite languages fluently, was apowerful swordsman, a good shot, and could ride anything from an...　

Early Kings of Norwayby Thomas CarlyleThe Icelanders, in their long winter, had a great habit of writing; and were, and still are, excellent in penmanship, says Dahlmann. It is to this fact, that any little history there is of the Norse Kings and their old tragedies, crimes and heroisms, is almost all due. The Icelanders, it seems, not only made beautiful letters on their paper or parchment, but were laudably observant and desirous of accuracy; and have left us such a collection of narratives (_Sagas_, literally "Says") as, for quantity and quality, is unexampled among rude nations. Snorro　

The Aspern Papersby Henry JamesTHE ASPERN PAPERSII had taken Mrs. Prest into my confidence; in truth withouther I should have made but little advance, for the fruitfulidea in the whole business dropped from her friendly lips.It was she who invented the short cut, who severed the Gordian knot.It is not supposed to be the nature of women to rise as a general thingto the largest and most liberal viewI mean of a practical scheme;but it has struck me that they sometimes throw off a bold conception...　

The Great War Syndicateby Frank StocktonIn the spring of a certain year, not far from theclose of the nineteenth century, when the politicalrelations between the United States and Great Britainbecame so strained that careful observers on both sidesof the Atlantic were forced to the belief that aserious break in these relations might be looked for atany time, the fishing schooner Eliza Drum sailed froma port in Maine for the banks of Newfoundland.It was in this year that a new system of protectionfor American fishing vessels had been adopted in...