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Agnes Grey

Agnes Grey, published in the month of December, 1847, is the debut novel of Anne Brontë, writing under the pen name of Acton Bell. Written largely based on Anne’s own personal experiences as a governess, the novel tries to highlight what a governess’ work entailed in the 1800s and the consequences it had on the protagonist. Agnes, an eager young woman, tired of being treated as the youngest and filled with overwhelming ambition, takes on work as a governess for the rich and cruel Bloomfields.

Anne Brontë · Drama · 25 ch

The Return of the Native

The Return of the Native opens with Thomasin Yeobright returning from her wedding, which was aborted because of an error on the marriage license. She was supposed to wed Damon Wildeve, who seems ambivalent about the marriage, and still secretly longs for Eustacia Vye, a former lover. Eustacia imagines a better life than that of a lonely young woman living with her grandfather in the rural southwest of England.

Thomas Hardy · Drama · 49 ch

The First Men in the Moon

Mr. Bedford, an aspiring playwright, moves to the British countryside in hope of writing a successful play that will cure his financial troubles. There, he becomes acquainted with Mr. Cavor, an eccentric and reclusive scientist, who hopes to create an anti-gravitational material. After the two men accidentally create the material, they decide to use it to land on the Moon—Cavor motivated by expanding the realms of knowledge, and Bedford by the prospective mining of lunar minerals.

H. G. Wells · Sci Fi · 26 ch

Nicholas Nickleby

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby tells the story of the eponymous hero and his sister Kate after the death of their father leaves them and their mother destitute and dependent on the support of their uncle Ralph Nickleby. The latter is a cold, hard man whose only interest is in amassing money and influence, and who has no empathy for the plight of his brother’s wife and children. Though he is very rich, Ralph offers them almost nothing, other than arranging for Nicholas and Kate to be employed in degrading jobs and for their mother to live in a near-derelict house he owns.

Charles Dickens · Drama · 67 ch

Sons and Lovers

Sons and Lovers, a story of working-class England, is D. H. Lawrence’s third novel.

D. H. Lawrence · Drama · 17 ch

The Enchanted April

Four strangers, each enchanted by an advertisement addressed “To Those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine,” impulsively pool their savings to lease a medieval Italian castle for the month of April. All are deeply dissatisfied with life and in need of escape: awkward Mrs. Wilkins, increasingly resentful of a husband who largely ignores her; proper Mrs. Arbuthnot, whose own marriage seems headed toward estrangement; beautiful and unmarried Lady Caroline Dester, tired of men constantly “grabbing” at her; and elderly Mrs. Fisher, widowed and walled off in memories of the past. As they come to know one another, each woman finds herself gradually transformed by the beauty of San Salvatore—a magical place where conflict just might turn to friendship, and even the most soured relationship has a chance of being salvaged.

Elizabeth von Arnim · Drama · 22 ch

Captains Courageous

Fifteen year old Harvey Cheyne is heir to a vast fortune. He’s also a spoiled, obnoxious brat, well on his way to becoming a spoiled, obnoxious adult. But Harvey’s fate is changed forever during a trans-Atlantic ocean voyage with his parents when he falls overboard and, against all odds, is rescued by a fishing boat on the Grand Banks.

Rudyard Kipling · Adventure · 10 ch

Anne of the Island

Anne Shirley leaves home to attend Redmond College and pursue a degree. Some of her classmates are going with her, including her childhood enemy turned friend Gilbert Blythe, while other childhood friends are staying in Avonlea to work, get married, and start families. She is also leaving behind her friends and family, but will stay in touch with them through letters and visits home during winter breaks and summer vacations.

L. M. Montgomery · Drama · 41 ch

The Man from the Clouds

Roger Merton, a young naval lieutenant from the volunteer reserves, is on a balloon reconnaissance mission with an officer when their balloon loses its moorings and drifts into the fog. Blown to they know not where, Merton’s colleague bails, while Merton waits until he’s more certain of being over land. When he does parachute to safety, Merton finds that he’s not in enemy territory, but rather in one of the islands in the North Sea off the Scottish coast.

J. Storer Clouston · Drama · 33 ch

The Beautiful and Damned

Anthony Patch, the grandson of a wealthy businessman, spends his youth in idle relaxation expecting to inherit his grandfather’s fortune. But when he meets Gloria, a vibrant young flapper, the two feel an irresistible attraction and quickly get married despite their clashing personalities. The two embark on a lifestyle of Jazz Age living: hard partying, profligate spending, and generally living the high life.

F. Scott Fitzgerald · Drama · 16 ch

Fathers and Children

Arkady, a university graduate, returns from St. Petersburg to his father’s estate with his mentor Bazarov—a nihilist. Fathers and Children (also known as Fathers and Sons ) is a novel written in 1862 by Russian writer Ivan Turgenev and published in Moscow by The Russian Messenger. The main theme of the novel is the conflict between two generations—the “fathers,” the liberal serf owners, and the “children,” nihilists who reject their authority and traditions.

Ivan Turgenev · Drama · 28 ch

This Side of Paradise

This Side of Paradise chronicles the coming of age of Amory Blaine, born to a wealthy midwestern family. It begins with Amory as a spoiled youth, doted on by his eccentric mother Beatrice. It follows him as he attends preparatory school and Princeton, and then briefly attempts but quickly abandons at a career in advertising.

F. Scott Fitzgerald · Drama · 12 ch

The Black Gang

Having just survived the horrors of the First World War, Great Britain faces a new, more insidious threat: all across the country, clandestine groups of radicals are committing acts of sabotage and terror, with the ultimate goal of bringing about a Communist revolution in Britain. But these terrorists face a new terror of their own as their plans are foiled, their meetings raided, and their members kidnapped—all by a mysterious band of men dressed in black. Who’s behind the so-called “Black Gang”?

H. C. McNeile · Adventure · 18 ch

The Wisdom of Father Brown

Father Brown, G. K. Chesterton’s crime-solving Catholic priest, is back in this second collection of Father Brown short stories.

G. K. Chesterton · Mystery · 12 ch

The Food of the Gods

In the early twentieth century, two scientists develop a substance to promote continuous growth in plants and animals. In testing it on poultry at an experimental farm, the “Food of the Gods” is carelessly scattered about, resulting in giant insects, giant rats, and so on. When anxious parents give it to sickly children, it creates a race of giant humans.

H. G. Wells · Sci Fi · 12 ch

Shirley

Shirley, published in 1849, was Charlotte Brontë’s second novel after Jane Eyre. Published under her pseudonym of “Currer Bell,” it differs in several respects from that earlier work. It is written in the third person with an omniscient narrator, rather than the first-person of Jane Eyre, and incorporates the themes of industrial change and the plight of unemployed workers.

Charlotte Brontë · Drama · 37 ch

The Road to Oz

The Road to Oz tells the story of Dorothy Gale as she escorts a shaggy traveler who appears outside her farm. They soon find themselves transported to a fantasy land. Upon realizing this, Dorothy and the Shaggy Man travel down the road with the assumption that it will lead them to Oz, revealing a way for Dorothy to return home.

L. Frank Baum · Fantasy · 25 ch

Pudd’nhead Wilson

Pudd’nhead Wilson is a thought-provoking novel set in the fictional town of Dawson’s Landing, Missouri. The story revolves around the peculiar character of David Wilson, known as “Pudd’nhead” Wilson, a quirky and eccentric young lawyer with the unusual hobby of collecting fingerprints. As he experiments with this new forensic science, Wilson becomes entangled in the lives of two infants, Tom Driscoll, the son of a wealthy local family, and Chambers, a slave child.

Mark Twain · Drama · 23 ch

At the Back of the North Wind

As a poor cabbie and his wife eke out a meager existence in Victorian London, their little boy, Diamond—named after his father’s horse—is befriended by the North Wind. While Diamond learns much about life through his travels with North Wind, his visit to the country at her “back” proves to be transformative. As life in London grows especially hard, that moment provides Diamond with the resources to touch those around him with beauty and truth.

George MacDonald · Fantasy · 38 ch

Five Children and It

Initially published in The Strand Magazine, which explains its episodic nature, Five Children and It was later collected into a book. Like many of E. Nesbit’s works, it has proven popular with children and adults to this day.

E. Nesbit · Fantasy · 11 ch