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Stover at Yale

Dink Stover was introduced to readers in earlier volumes of the Lawrenceville Stories as a brash young newcomer whose biggest ambition is to play football for his school. At the start of Stover at Yale he seems much the same, arriving at the prestigious university determined to captain the football team, earn a place in the most prestigious secret society, and generally become the hero of a much less interesting novel. Gradually, though, the novel shifts its focus, as both Stover and the novel move outside the comfortable world of Stover’s prep school chums and examine the ways in which the school fails to live up to its “democratic” ideals.

Owen Johnson · Drama · 28 ch

The Middle Temple Murder

Spargo, reporter extraordinaire for the Watchman, stumbles over a murdered man in London’s Middle Temple Lane, and, based on a journalistic hunch, decides to investigate. As the circle of interest widens, strange connections start to emerge; connections that lead towards an unsuspected conspiracy of twenty years before. The Middle Temple Murder is one of the prolific J.

J. S. Fletcher · Mystery · 36 ch

Lavengro

Lavengro, the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest, published in 1851, is a heavily fictionalized account of George Borrow’s early years. Borrow, born in 1803, was a writer and self-taught polyglot, fluent in many European languages, and a lover of literature. The Romany Rye, published six years later in 1857, is sometimes described as the “sequel” to Lavengro, but in fact it begins with a straight continuation of the action of the first book, which breaks off rather suddenly.

George Borrow · Drama · 101 ch

The Hoosier Schoolmaster

Ralph Hartsook has taken a teaching job in Flat Creek. It’s a rough assignment—the last few teachers quit after getting beat up, or “licked,” by the stronger pupils. Ralph meets Bud Jones, one of the biggest and toughest pupils, who warns him how tough it’ll be to keep the school in order, and Ralph quickly decides he’ll have to win Bud over to his side.

Edward Eggleston · Drama · 36 ch

Pan Michael

The third and final book of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy takes a closer and more intimate look at one of the series’ protagonists: Pan Michael Volodyovski. The Polish Commonwealth has been through intense periods of war, and the peace that follows leaves one of its greatest heroes, Pan Michael, finally free to marry his beloved Panna Anusia. But in a twist of fate, she falls ill and dies, leaving Michael despairing of life—to the point of him joining a monastery.

Henryk Sienkiewicz · Historical · 63 ch

Khaled

Khaled is a hard-working and faithful genie who, in his zeal, goes a little too far and kills a faithless man. This puts him under scrutiny from the powers above, who curse him to live as a human. Since genies have no souls, he will vanish from existence when he dies; but, if he can find true love, he’ll be granted a soul and thus be allowed into heaven.

F. Marion Crawford · Fantasy · 26 ch

The Eustace Diamonds

Lady Eustace—more familiarly known as Lizzie—is very beautiful, very clever, and very rich. On closer inspection, she turns out also to be a “nasty, low, scheming, ill-conducted, dishonest little wretch.” Her calculated marriage to a wealthy but sickly young baronet brought her the wealth she desired, including a spectacular diamond necklace which she wore in the days before her husband’s demise. Upon his death, the lawyer for the estate is determined to recover it as a family heirloom.

Anthony Trollope · Drama · 80 ch

Anna of the Five Towns

Anna of the Five Towns, first published in 1902, is one of Arnold Bennett’s earliest published works. It’s his first novel to take place in the Five Towns, a fictional district in Middle England based on the real Stoke-on-Trent, and the setting for many of his later books. The story takes place in an industrial district in late nineteenth-century England, where the rigid social structures and morals of the Methodist church define the area’s way of life.

Arnold Bennett · Drama · 15 ch

A Hazard of New Fortunes

Basil March jumps at the chance to leave his boring job to become the founding editor of a new magazine. But this also means that he must leave comfortable Boston for the confusion and chaos of 1890s New York. As March and his wife try to find a decent place to live, he also struggles to find contributors and readers.

William Dean Howells · Drama · 68 ch

An Outback Marriage

The posh, English daughter of an Australian pastoralist is sent to Kuryong station to learn the ropes. At the same time, a search is underway across the desolate innards of regional New South Wales for the lost son of a wealthy uncle. These stories collide to give a humorous take on the values of family, marriage and hard work, set in the beautiful backdrop of the Australian Outback.

Banjo Paterson · Drama · 29 ch

The Middle Five

The Middle Five, written by the Omaha ethnologist Francis La Flesche, is a series of vignettes portraying La Flesche’s childhood growing up on the Omaha Reservation and attending a Presbyterian mission school. Published in 1909, the book portrays both the cultural conflicts arising from the assimilatory nature of the mission school and the youthful escapades of Frank (La Flesche’s younger self), Brush, Edwin, Warren, and Lester, who together make up the titular gang of schoolboys called the “Middle Five.” Like Zitkála-Šá’s short story “The School Days of an Indian Girl” from American Indian Stories, The Middle Five depicts life in an American Indian residential school, but takes place much closer to the reservation and thus portrays the interactions between the mission school and reservation life. It is regarded as a classic work of Native American literature and is often assigned in classrooms as a vivid firsthand account of 19th-century indigenous life.

Francis La Flesche · Drama · 17 ch

The Damnation of Theron Ware

Theron Ware is a young Methodist pastor raised in a strict religious tradition and without much of a worldly education. As his career begins, he quickly finds himself reassigned to a congregation in Octavius, a small town in the Adirondacks. As Ware and his wife settle into their new roles in small-town America, he meets Celia, a young girl fascinated by music, poetry, and literature—and he quickly finds himself struggling with both carnal temptation, and the world of experience outside of religion.

Harold Frederic · Drama · 32 ch

The Cloven Foot

The Cloven Foot follows the fortunes of John Treverton, who is at a very low point in his life. He has squandered his small inheritance and has had to sell his commission as a lieutenant in a cavalry regiment. Though he has been making a small amount of money from drawing comic sketches, he is feeling desperate and miserable when a telegram unexpectedly summons him to the death-bed of his wealthy uncle Jasper.

M. E. Braddon · Mystery · 47 ch

Barriers Burned Away

Dennis Fleet is a hard-working and pious young Christian man who’s come to the big city of Chicago in order to earn money for his poor family. As he braves his first icy winter, he quickly moves up the rungs of business until he finds himself working for the prosperous art dealer Mr. Ludolph. Ludolph’s beautiful daughter Christine quickly catches Dennis’s eye—but much to his chagrin, she’s a non-believer.

Edward Payson Roe · Drama · 51 ch