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Waverley

Edward Waverley is a young English gentleman, the heir to his uncle, Sir Everard Waverley. After receiving a commission in the English army and being stationed in Scotland, he comes into contact with Jacobites, supporters of the pretender Charles Stuart, who seeks to reclaim the throne of England. After becoming enamored with the Jacobite cause and subsequently being suspected of treason, Waverley decides to openly join the uprising on the side of the rebels, during which his honorable conduct wins him favor on both sides of the conflict.

Walter Scott · Adventure · 77 ch

The Golden Triangle

Captain Belval, learning of a threat to his beloved nurse Little Mother Coralie, rescues her from her would-be assailants and is promptly dragged into a plot involving her husband and millions of francs worth of gold. As layer upon layer of conspiracy emerges with no obvious thread to follow, there’s only one man who can be counted on to uncover the truth. The Golden Triangle (also known as The Return of Arsène Lupin ) was published in 1917 in both the original French and this English translation.

Maurice Leblanc · Mystery · 19 ch

The Four Feathers

Recently engaged Harry Feversham, son of a soldier and descendant of a long line of soldiers, receives word that his regiment is going overseas. For complex reasons he suddenly resigns rather than be deployed. This action brands him a coward among his fellow officers and his fiancée, who present him with white feathers, a symbol of cowardice.

A. E. W. Mason · Adventure · 35 ch

The Roots of the Mountains

Immediately after the publication of The House of the Wolfings in 1889, William Morris set to work on its successor. This story would move on in time from its predecessor, and adopt a slightly different style: less poetic and less overtly Germanic, but retaining the vaguely medieval setting, and the heroic, saga-like tone. The result was The Roots of the Mountains.

William Morris · Fantasy · 61 ch

The Black Arrow

Richard “Dick” Shelton fights in the service of Sir Daniel, an unprincipled knight who continually changes sides in the War of the Roses. Dick helps a young lady, dressed as a man, who is escaping Sir Daniel’s attempt to marry her off. In the meantime, Dick suspects that the man he serves had a hand in killing his father, and must figure out who his real friends are.

Robert Louis Stevenson · Adventure · 33 ch

The World Set Free

After learning of atomic physics, H. G. Wells began to think of its potential impact on human society.

H. G. Wells · Sci Fi · 7 ch

The Wood Beyond the World

William Morris is famous in no small part for his contributions to defining the genre of modern fantasy literature, and The Wood Beyond the World is a classic example of that influence. Written in a purposefully antiquated prose style reminiscent of Sir Thomas Malory or other aged fairy tales, The Wood Beyond the World can be difficult for some readers; but those who follow through will enjoy a charming and influential series of picaresque adventures. The book follows Golden Walter, a man leaving home who finds himself swept away to an enchanted land.

William Morris · Fantasy · 36 ch

Moving the Mountain

John, a man who has spent the last thirty years in Tibet recovering from a head injury and totally unaware of his surroundings, regains consciousness and returns home, only to find that society has rapidly and drastically changed. The world as he knew it has become a feminist utopia, where civil rights, efficiency, and quality are of the utmost importance. The residents do their best to explain all of the societal changes that have happened in the past thirty years to John—who they consider to be a sociological dinosaur—while also pointing out all the flaws in the system they left behind.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman · Sci Fi · 13 ch

The Princess and Curdie

Following the events of The Princess and the Goblin, Curdie has returned to his provincial life of hard but satisfying work with his father in the king’s silver mines. When an act of youthful cruelty leads him to a meeting with Princess Irene’s great-great-grandmother, he’s charged with a mysterious quest—one that will require strength, wit, and courage. Bestowed with a supernatural ability to aid him on his mission, Curdie and a ferocious new companion must journey to the capital where Princess Irene and her father, the king, face a grave threat to the entire kingdom.

George MacDonald · Fantasy · 35 ch

The Beetle

The Beetle was published in 1897, the same year as Dracula —and outsold it six to one that year. Like Dracula, the novel is steeped in the evil mysteries of an ancient horror: in this case, a mysterious ancient Egyptian creature bent on revenge. The story is told through the sequential points of view of a group of middle-class Victorians who find themselves enmeshed in the creature’s plot.

Richard Marsh · Horror · 52 ch

The Story of the Treasure Seekers

This is the story of the six Bastable children: Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noël and little Horace Octavius, known as H. O. Due to their mother tragically passing away and their father’s business partner running away with the money, the ancient and most noble House of Bastable, as the children like to call it, has fallen.

E. Nesbit · Adventure · 17 ch

She

A professor is entreated by a dying colleague to take custody of the colleague’s five-year old son, raise him to adulthood, and at that time pass on a chest to him. The professor does so, and when the child reaches adulthood and the chest is revealed, it leads them on an adventure to Africa. There they encounter a young queen of a lost race who says she’s over two thousand years old, with an equally startling claim about the young man.

H. Rider Haggard · Adventure · 29 ch

The Luck of Barry Lyndon

The Luck of Barry Lyndon was first published as a serial in Fraser’s Magazine, then later as a complete volume entitled The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. —a title Thackeray disliked, but that was selected by his publisher. Thackeray had great difficulty composing the novel, and found himself frequently frustrated in his attempts to get Barry out of yet another jam.

William Makepeace Thackeray · Comedy · 20 ch

The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective

Loveday Brooke, an “altogether nondescript” woman, is one of the detective agency Lynch Court’s most able investigators. Her shrewd brain and immense common sense make it easy to look past the obvious solution to get to the heart of the matter, whenever her skills are called for. In this collection of short stories, Miss Brooke solves cases that have stumped the local police, including burglaries, missing people, and even murders.

Catherine Louisa Pirkis · Mystery · 7 ch

The Master Mind of Mars

The Master Mind of Mars is the sixth installment in the Martian series. It was published as a novel by A. C.

Edgar Rice Burroughs · Fantasy · 16 ch

The Teeth of the Tiger

The fortunes of Don Luis Perenna seem set to only increase after the will of his friend, Cosmo Mornington, is read. Perenna stands to benefit by one million francs if he finds the true heir, and by one hundred million if they can’t be found. But after both a detective and a potential recipient of the fortune die in the in the same way as Mornington, Perenna (alias Arsène Lupin ) must fight to prove his innocence and discover the real murderer.

Maurice Leblanc · Mystery · 21 ch

The Man in the Queue

Standing in line in a long queue for a show at a theater, a young man collapses—and it quickly becomes apparent that he has been stabbed in the back. Inspector Alan Grant of the Metropolitan Police is soon on the case, though he finds it deeply puzzling—not least because the identity of the victim is itself a mystery. The Man in the Queue, published in 1929, was the first in a series of successful detective novels written by the Scottish author Elizabeth MacKintosh writing under the pen name Josephine Tey, though it was first published using the pseudonym “Gordon Daviot.”

Josephine Tey · Mystery · 18 ch

Evelina

Evelina is an epistolary novel that follows the titular Evelina Anville as she navigates the challenging (and sometimes absurd) nuances of 18th-century English society. The novel begins as Evelina is invited to London by the Mirvan family, marking her first true exposure to English high society. She soon encounters a series of misunderstandings, social embarrassments, and would-be suitors.

Fanny Burney · Comedy · 88 ch

Maiwa’s Revenge

After a day’s worth of shooting at his estate, legendary hunter Allan Quatermain settles down, lights a pipe, and tells his companions of a journey he undertook in the wilds of Africa. On expedition, Quatermain, while searching for ivory, meets Maiwa, a runaway African princess who is intent on avenging her child. She also carries a desperate note from an old friend, once thought dead.

H. Rider Haggard · Adventure · 9 ch

The Four Just Men

With his determination to push through a controversial government bill that would allow the forced return of political refugees to their country of origin, the British Foreign Secretary has become the target of the “Four Just Men,” a vigilante group famous for executing those who cannot be reached by traditional law. When the Four send warning letters threatening the Foreign Secretary with death if the government doesn’t withdraw the bill, the police are tasked with safeguarding his life. But despite numerous precautions and several clues leading to the identification of one of the Four, the nefarious group continues to move closer to achieving their goal as the deadline draws nearer.

Edgar Wallace · Adventure · 13 ch