The ChimesThe Chimes1- Page 2-The ChimesCHAPTER I - First Quarter.HERE are not many people - and as it is desirable that a story- tellerand a story-reader should establish a mutual understanding as soon aspossible, I beg it to be noticed that I confine this observation neither toyoung people nor to little people, but extend it to all conditions of people:little and big, young and old: yet growing up, or already growing down...
Rasselas, Prince of Abyssiniaby Samuel JohnsonCHAPTER I - DESCRIPTION OF A PALACE IN A VALLEY.YE who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow, attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.Rasselas was the fourth son of the mighty Emperor in whose dominions the father of waters begins his course - whose bounty pours down the streams of plenty, and scatters over the world the harvests of Egypt.
Tales of TroyTales of Troyby Andrew Lang1- Page 2-Tales of TroyTHE BOYHOOD AND PARENTSOF ULYSSESLong ago, in a little island called Ithaca, on the west coast of Greece,there lived a king named Laertes. His kingdom was small andmountainous. People used to say that Ithaca "lay like a shield upon thesea," which sounds as if it were a flat country. But in those times shields...
The Divine Comedyby DANTE ALIGHIERI(1265-1321)TRANSLATED BYHENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW(1807-1882)Incipit Comoedia Dantis Alagherii,Florentini natione, non moribus.The Divine Comedytranslated by Henry Wadsworth LongfellowINFERNOInferno: Canto IMidway upon the journey of our lifeI found myself within a forest dark,For the straightforward pathway had been lost.Ah me! how hard a thing it is to sayWhat was this forest savage, rough, and stern,Which in the very thought renews the fear.So bitter is it, death is little more;...
The Libraryby Andrew LangContents:PREFATORY NOTEAN APOLOGY FOR THE BOOK-HUNTERTHE LIBRARYTHE BOOKS OF THE COLLECTORILLUSTRATED BOOKSBooks, books again, and books once more!These are our theme, which some miscallMere madness, setting little storeBy copies either short or tall.But you, O slaves of shelf and stall!We rather write for you that holdPatched folios dear, and prize "the small,Rare volume, black with tarnished gold."A. D.PREFATORY NOTEThe pages in this volume on illuminated and other MSS. (with the exception of some anecdotes about Bussy Rabutin and Julie de Rambouillet) have been con
ContentsIntroduction1. The Cyclone2. The Council with the Munchkins3. How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow4. The Road Through the Forest5. The Rescue of the Tin Woodman6. The Cowardly Lion7. The Journey to the Great Oz8. The Deadly Poppy Field9. The Queen of the Field Mice10. The Guardian of the Gates...
ENDYMION: A POETIC ROMANCEby John KeatsPREFACE"The stretched metre of an antique song"INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS CHATTERTONPREFACEKNOWING within myself the manner in which this Poem has beenproduced, it is not without a feeling of regret that I make it public.What manner I mean, will be quite clear to the reader, who must soonperceive great inexperience, immaturity, and every error denoting afeverish attempt, rather than a deed accomplished. The two first...
The Love Affairs Of A Bibliomaniacby Eugene FieldIntroductionThe determination to found a story or a series of sketches on the delights, adventures, and misadventures connected with bibliomania did not come impulsively to my brother. For many years, in short during the greater part of nearly a quarter of a century of journalistic work, he had celebrated in prose and verse, and always in his happiest and most delightful vein, the pleasures of book-hunting. Himself an indefatigable collector of books, the possessor of a library as valuable as it was interesting, a library containing volumes o
The wind blew hard and joggled the water of the ocean, sending ripples across its surface.Then the wind pushed the edges of the ripples until they became waves, and shoved the waves around until they became billows.The billows rolled dreadfully high: higher even than the tops of houses.Some of them, indeed, rolled as high as the tops of tall trees, and seemed like mountains; and the gulfs between the great billows were like deep valleys. All this mad dashing and splashing of the waters of the big ocean, which the mischievous wind caused without any good reason whatever, resulted in a ter
A Discourse of Coin and Coinageby Rice Vaughan1675A Discourse of Coin and Coinage: The first Invention, Use,Matter, Forms, Proportions and Differences, ancient & modern:with the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Rise and Fallthereof, in our own or Neighbouring Nations: and the Reasons.Together with a short Account of our Common Law therein.by Rice Vaughan, late of Grayes-Inn, Esq;London, Printed by Th. Dawks, for Th. Basset, at the George, nearCliffords-Inn, in Fleet-street. 1675.To the Right Honourable Henry Earl of Clarendon, ViscountCornbury, and Baron Hide of Hindon; Lord Chamberlain to
Caesar and Cleopatraby George Bernard ShawACT IAn October night on the Syrian border of Egypt towards the end ofthe XXXIII Dynasty, in the year 706 by Roman computation,afterwards reckoned by Christian computation as 48 B.C. A greatradiance of silver fire, the dawn of a moonlit night, is risingin the east. The stars and the cloudless sky are our owncontemporaries, nineteen and a half centuries younger than weknow them; but you would not guess that from their appearance.Below them are two notable drawbacks of civilization: a palace,and soldiers. The palace, an old, low, Syrian building of...
The Lion and the Unicornby Richard Harding DavisIN MEMORY OF MANY HOT DAYS AND SOME HOT CORNERSTHIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TOLT.-COL. ARTHUR H. LEE, R.A.British Military Attache with the United States ArmyContentsTHE LION AND THE UNICORNON THE FEVER SHIPTHE MAN WITH ONE TALENTTHE VAGRANTTHE LAST RIDE TOGETHERTHE LION AND THE UNICORNPrentiss had a long lease on the house, and because it stood inJermyn Street the upper floors were, as a matter of course,turned into lodgings for single gentlemen; and because Prentisswas a Florist to the Queen, he placed a lion and unicorn over his...
Letters on LiteratureLetters on LiteratureBy Andrew Lang1- Page 2-Letters on LiteratureDEDICATIONDear Mr. Way,After so many letters to people who never existed, may I venture ashort one, to a person very real to me, though I have never seen him, andonly know him by his many kindnesses? Perhaps you will add another tothese by accepting the Dedication of a little work, of a sort experimental in...
The Bravo of Venice - A Romanceby M. G. LewisINTRODUCTION.Matthew Gregory Lewis, who professed to have translated this romanceout of the German, very much, I believe, as Horace Walpole professedto have taken The Castle of Otranto from an old Italian manuscript,was born in 1775 of a wealthy family. His father had an estate inIndia and a post in a Government office. His mother was daughter toSir Thomas Sewell, Master of the Rolls in the reign of George III.She was a young mother; her son Matthew was devoted to her from the...