The Surprising Adventures of Baron MunchausenBy Rudolph Erich RaspeINTRODUCTIONIt is a curious fact that of that class of literature to which Munchausen belongs, that namely of /Voyages Imaginaires/, the three great types should have all been created in England. Utopia, Robinson Crusoe, and Gulliver, illustrating respectively the philosophical, the edifying, and the satirical type of fictitious travel, were all written in England, and at the end of the eighteenth century a fourth type, the fantastically mendacious, was evolved in this country. Of this type Munchausen was the modern original, 　

ELECBOOK CLASSICSPride andPrejudiceJane Austen- Page 2-ELECBOOK CLASSICSebc0017. Jane Austen: Pride and PrejudiceThis file is free for individual use only. It must not be altered or resold.Organisations wishing to use it must first obtain a licence.Low cost licenses are available. Contact us through our web site(C) The Electric Book Co 1998The Electric Book Company Ltd...　

THE BIRTHMARKIn the latter part of the last century there lived a man ofscience, an eminent proficient in every branch of naturalphilosophy, who not long before our story opens had madeexperience of a spiritual affinity more attractive than anychemical one. He had left his laboratory to the care of anassistant, cleared his fine countenance from the furnace smoke,washed the stain of acids from his fingers, and persuaded abeautiful woman to become his wife. In those days when thecomparatively recent discovery of electricity and other kindredmysteries of Nature seemed to open paths into the regi　

Benthamby John Stuart MillLondon and Westminster Review, Aug. 1838, revised in 1859 in Dissertations and Discussion, vol. 1.There are two men, recently deceased, to whom their country is indebted not only for the greater part of the important ideas which have been thrown into circulation among its thinking men in their time, but for a revolution in its general modes of thought and investigation. These men, dissimilar in almost all else, agreed in being closet-students secluded in a peculiar degree, by circumstances and character, from the business and intercourse of the world: and both were,　

THE BLACK THIEFAND KNIGHT OF THE GLEN.IN times of yore there was a King and a Queen in the south ofIreland who had three sons, all beautiful children; but theQueen, their mother, sickened unto death when they were yet veryyoung, which caused great grief throughout the Court, particularlyto the King, her husband, who could in no wise be comforted.Seeing that death was drawing near her, she called the King to herand spoke as follows:`I am now going to leave you, and as you are young and inyour prime, of course after my death you will marry again. Now...　

SHERLOCK HOLMESTHE ADVENTURE OF THE MAZARIN STONEby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleIt was pleasant to Dr. Watson to find himself once more in theuntidy room of the first floor in Baker Street which had been thestarting-point of so many remarkable adventures. He looked round himat the scientific charts upon the wall, the acid-charred bench ofchemicals, the violin-case leaning in the corner, the coal-scuttle,which contained of old the pipes and tobacco. Finally, his eyes cameround to the fresh and smiling face of Billy, the young but very...　

Last Days in a Dutch Hotelby William Dean HowellsWhen we said that we were going to Scheveningen, in the middle ofSeptember, the portier of the hotel at The Hague was sure we should bevery cold, perhaps because we had suffered so much in his house already;and he was right, for the wind blew with a Dutch tenacity of purpose fora whole week, so that the guests thinly peopling the vast hostelry seemedto rustle through its chilly halls and corridors like so many autumnleaves. We were but a poor hundred at most where five hundred would nothave been a crowd; and, when we sat down at the long table　

ADVENTUREADVENTUREby Jack London1- Page 2-ADVENTURECHAPTER ISOMETHING TOBE DONEHe was a very sick white man. He rode pick-a-back on a woolly-headed, black-skinned savage, the lobes of whose ears had been piercedand stretched until one had torn out, while the other carried a circularblock of carved wood three inches in diameter. The torn ear had been...　

FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENTHE THORNY ROAD OF HONORby Hans Christian AndersenAN old story yet lives of the "Thorny Road of Honor," of amarksman, who indeed attained to rank and office, but only after alifelong and weary strife against difficulties. Who has not, inreading this story, thought of his own strife, and of his own numerous"difficulties?" The story is very closely akin to reality; but stillit has its harmonious explanation here on earth, while reality oftenpoints beyond the confines of life to the regions of eternity. The...　

The Peterkin Papers By Lucretia P. HaleMrs. Peterkin Puts Salt into Her Coffee.Dedicated To Meggie (The Daughter of The Lady From Philadelphia) To Whom These Stories Were First ToldThe Peterkin Papers By Lucretia P. HalePreface to The Second Edition of The Peterkin PapersTHE first of these stories was accepted by Mr. Howard M. Ticknor for the "Young Folks." They were afterwards continued in numbers of the "St. Nicholas."A second edition is now printed, containing a new paper, which has never before been published, "The Peterkins at the Farm."It may be remembered that the Peterkins originall　

Down the Mother Lode - Pioneer Tales of CaliforniaBy Vivia HemphillForewordSo many inquiries have been made as to exactly where, and what is the "Mother Lode"!The geologist and the historian agree as to its location and composition, but the old miners and "sojourners" of the vanished golden era give strangely different versions of it. Some of these are here set down, if not all for your enlightenment at least, I hope, for your entertainment.That is, after all, the principal aim of these tales of the old days in California, that are gone "for good." Mark Twain says in his preface to "Roughing 　

Cabin Feverby B. M. BowerCONTENTSCHAPTERI THE FEVER MANIFESTS ITSELFII TWO MAKE A QUARRELIII TEN DOLLARS AND A JOB FOR BUDIV HEAD SOUTH AND KEEP GOINGV BUD CANNOT PERFORM MIRACLESVI BUD TAKES TO THE HILLSVII INTO THE DESERTVIII MANY BARREN MONTHS AND MILESIX THE BITE OF MEMORYX EMOTIONS ARE TRICKY THINGSXI THE FIRST STAGESXII MARIE TAKES A DESPERATE CHANCEXIII CABIN FEVER IN ITS WORST FORMXIV CASH GETS A SHOCKXV AND BUD NEVER GUESSEDXVI THE ANTIDOTEXVII LOVIN CHILD WRIGGLES INXVIII THEY HAVE THEIR TROUBLES...　

Cressyby Bret HarteCHAPTER I.As the master of the Indian Spring school emerged from the pinewoods into the little clearing before the schoolhouse, he stoppedwhistling, put his hat less jauntily on his head, threw away somewild flowers he had gathered on his way, and otherwise assumed thesevere demeanor of his profession and his mature agewhich was atleast twenty. Not that he usually felt this an assumption; it wasa firm conviction of his serious nature that he impressed others,as he did himself, with the blended austerity and ennui of deep and...　

On The Ruin of Britain (De Excidio Britanniae)by GildasTranslation by J.A. GilesThe Works of Gildas surnamed "Sapiens", or The Wise.I. The Preface1. Whatever in this my epistle I may write in my humble but wellmeaning manner, rather by way of lamentation than for display,let no one suppose that it springs from contempt of others or thatI foolishly esteem myself as better than they; -for alas! the subjectof my complaint is the general destruction of every thing that isgood, and the general growth of evil throughout the land;butthat I rejoice to see her revive therefrom: for it is my present...　

The Country Doctorby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Ellen Marriage and Clara Bell"For a wounded heartshadow and silence."To my Mother.CHAPTER ITHE COUNTRYSIDE AND THE MANOn a lovely spring morning in the year 1829, a man of fifty or thereabouts was wending his way on horseback along the mountain road that leads to a large village near the Grande Chartreuse. This village is the market town of a populous canton that lies within the limits of a valley of some considerable length. The melting of the snows had filled the boulder-strewn bed of the torrent (often dry) that flows through this valley, 　

The Half-Brothersby Elizabeth GaskellMy mother was twice married. She never spoke of her first husband,and it is only from other people that I have learnt what little Iknow about him. I believe she was scarcely seventeen when she wasmarried to him: and he was barely one-and-twenty. He rented a smallfarm up in Cumberland, somewhere towards the sea-coast; but he wasperhaps too young and inexperienced to have the charge of land andcattle: anyhow, his affairs did not prosper, and he fell into illhealth, and died of consumption before they had been three years man...