Pellucidar, the sequel to At the Earth’s Core, was published in 1915. It continues the adventures of David Innes as he returns to the hollow interior of the Earth in search of his friend Perry and his lost love Dian the Beautiful. He takes with him many tools and weapons, intent on bringing civilization to the savage world within, which is populated with dinosaurs and neolithic creatures.
Edgar Rice Burroughs · Sci Fi · 16 ch
Anne Elliot is the under-valued daughter of a vain and improvident English baronet, Sir Walter Elliot. Some years previously, at the urging of a family friend, Anne had rejected a marriage proposal from a young but impoverished naval captain. When she unexpectedly encounters him again, she is filled with regrets.
Jane Austen · Romance · 24 ch
Peter Pan, a young boy who refuses to grow up, takes Wendy to the lost boys on the fantasy island of the Neverland to be their mother. Wendy’s two brothers, John and Michael, accompany them on their many adventures, including skirmishes with the Native Americans who reside there, and battles with pirates, led by Pan’s nemesis Captain Hook, who is said to be feared even by Captain Flint and Long John Silver. Peter and Wendy, J.
J. M. Barrie · Fantasy · 17 ch
Phantastes was published in 1858. It tells the story of Anodos, who, on coming of age, is examining the effects of his deceased father. To his astonishment, in doing so he sees an apparition of a fairy woman, who tells him that he has some fairy blood and conveys him to Fairy Land.
George MacDonald · Fantasy · 28 ch
High politics are not always centrally in view in Anthony Trollope’s Palliser novels, but parliamentary life comes to the fore throughout Phineas Finn, the second in the series. The hero of the tale is the young son of an Irish country doctor, now attaining manhood and striking out in life. Although training for the Bar, he feels the lure of Parliament and manages to secure a seat.
Anthony Trollope · Drama · 76 ch
At the end of Phineas Finn, the second of Anthony Trollope’s Palliser series, Phineas has abandoned his parliamentary career, accepted a sinecure in the civil service in Dublin, and married his Irish sweetheart. As Phineas Redux begins, he is a widower and tired of Dublin life. Fortunately for him, his friends in London believe he might be enticed back to take a role as a member of Parliament in the face of the latest political crisis.
Anthony Trollope · Drama · 81 ch
As Salem Chapel concludes, a new minister has arrived, quickly paired off with his leading deacon’s daughter, the pink and plump Phoebe Tozer. She has her own ambitions, and as Phoebe, Junior begins, twenty years have passed since the family left Carlingford. They have risen in the “connection,” and in London society.
Margaret Oliphant · Drama · 45 ch
The sons of the Roland family, Pierre and Jean, return home in the lull between the completion of their studies and the start of their professional careers, bringing the Roland family back together again, in a way. This peace, though, is broken when the younger brother Jean is left a life-changing inheritance by Maréchel, an old family friend—and Pierre is left with nothing. Despite the happiness in the rest of the family, unanswered questions start gnawing at Pierre.
Guy de Maupassant · Drama · 9 ch
Rosemary, the former love of Peter Blakeney, is about to be married to one of Peter’s friends. A famous journalist, she is asked to come to Transylvania and report on the Romanian occupation following the First World War, having travelled there many times in her childhood with Peter’s mother. She agrees to move up her wedding so that her fiancé can travel with her.
Baroness Orczy · Adventure · 50 ch
Eleven year-old Pollyanna, having recently been orphaned by her widower father, is sent back East to be cared for by her dutiful and stoic Vermont aunt. Naive and ever-literal, this very positive young girl brings with her an infectious habit of instinctive gratitude that was taught to her as “the game” by her late father. This game serves her well, while also uplifting the turn of the century New England community which becomes her home.
Eleanor H. Porter · Drama · 32 ch
In Pollyanna Grows Up we follow the titular character as she “grows up” through a story told in two connected parts. The first part takes place in Boston when she is age 13, having just been rehabilitated from severe injuries sustained in an automobile accident. As she leaves the hospital, she is sent to stay with a nearby dowager, who has long withdrawn into grief, pining for her lost nephew.
Eleanor H. Porter · Drama · 49 ch
In 1840s St. Petersburg the ageing copyist Makar Dievushkin is, with various degrees of subtlety, trying to woo Barbara Dobroselova, a young woman who has had a swift fall in fortunes. Told in alternating letters to each other, their past stories and current hopes play out in raw and personal detail, as the daily realities of an uncaring and expensive town take hold. Poor Folk was Fyodor Dostoevsky’s first novel and was written to try and cover his escalating debts from his expensive lifestyle and gambling addiction.
Fyodor Dostoevsky · Drama · 55 ch
Pride and Prejudice may today be one of Jane Austen’s most enduring novels, having been widely adapted to stage, screen, and other media since its publication in 1813. The novel tells the tale of five unmarried sisters and how their lives change when a wealthy eligible bachelor moves in to their neighborhood.
Jane Austen · Romance · 61 ch
Otto likes to hunt and enjoy life, while leaving the rule of his small kingdom in the hands of his wife and her trusted advisor. He hears talk of socialist revolution in his land, and when he tries to take charge, he finds that it’s not so easy to resume his rule. With intrigue and betrayal at every corner, all the players must figure out where they really stand.
Robert Louis Stevenson · Drama · 24 ch
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
A naive law student lodges in a shabby Paris boarding house beside a mysterious old man who has given everything to his daughters. A story about money, ambition, and what family costs in the big city.
Honoré de Balzac · Drama · 12 ch
In Nero’s Rome, a young Roman officer falls in love with a Christian hostage while the early Church faces persecution. Their story unfolds against the intrigues of the imperial court and the burning of the city.
Henryk Sienkiewicz · Historical · 75 ch
Both Rachel Ray’s mother and elder sister are widows. They live a quiet life in their rural village, under the shadow of the nearby town of Baslehurst. When Rachel’s attractions catch the eye of Luke Rowan—a young man recently arrived in town to develop a brewery in which he has a commercial interest—reactions are varied.
Anthony Trollope · Drama · 31 ch
Dick Hunter is a shoeshiner working and living on the streets of New York City in the mid-19th century. Despite being dealt a bad hand, Dick attempts to extricate himself from his situation and become respectable. But it won’t be easy, thanks to the bullies, con men, and thieves that roam the city.
Horatio Alger Jr. · Drama · 28 ch
Riceyman Steps, first published in 1923, is set in “dingy and sordid” Clerkenwell, in central London, where “existence was a dangerous and difficult adventure in almost frantic quest of food, drink and shelter.” It’s there that Henry Earlforward runs a gloomy, dusty store full of secondhand books. He eats less and less with every day, keeps his young servant Elsie working long hours for minimal pay, and never lights a candle when darkness will do. One day he takes notice of Violet, a middle-aged widow who owns a confectionary shop nearby, and they become husband and wife soon after.
Arnold Bennett · Drama · 50 ch