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The Airlords of Han

The Airlords of Han, the sequel to Armageddon 2419 A.D., continues the adventures of Buck Rogers, the famous sci-fi adventure hero of early comics and radio shows. Originally published in Amazing Stories in 1929, in the 1960s this novella was later combined with Nowlan’s original piece and re-published under the title Armageddon 2419 A.D.

Philip Francis Nowlan · Sci Fi · 16 ch

The Amateur Cracksman

A. J. Raffles and his friend “Bunny” Manders are the quintessential rich young socialites; but behind the high-living façade, they’ve exhausted their funds.

E. W. Hornung · Drama · 8 ch

The Ambassadors

A middle-aged man named Lambert Strether is sent to Paris by his wealthy wife-to-be in order to convince her son Chad to return home to America and take over the lucrative family business. This turns out to be much easier said than done, as Strether finds Chad much better adapted to European life than anyone expected. James’ characteristically dense prose is matched by a cast of subtly realized characters who rarely say exactly what they mean.

Henry James · Drama · 37 ch

The American Senator

When John Morton returns to his rural English estate from a diplomatic posting in Washington, he returns not only with an American senator seeking to understand England, but also with a fiancée, the aristocratic beauty Arabella Trefoil. Morton’s return also brings him back into contact with his slightly older and estranged cousin, Reginald, who still resides in Dillsborough, their ancestral town. Out of these elements, Trollope constructs a “chronicle of a winter at Dillsborough”—as the Senator of the title does not, in fact, take pride of place, which instead goes to the goings-on among residents of the town and its environs.

Anthony Trollope · Drama · 79 ch

The Arrow of Gold

The young narrator of The Arrow of Gold, a British seaman called Monsieur George, finds himself in Marseilles, France, in the 1870s during the time of the Third Carlist War. Supporters of the pretender are smuggling arms into Spain, and the narrator soon becomes entangled in this undercover plot. His benefactor is the mysterious Doña Rita, and their relationship is the plot’s focal point.

Joseph Conrad · Drama · 27 ch

The Avenger

When a severed head is discovered, Mike Brixan of the Foreign Office is asked to return from Europe and assist in apprehending the murderer, known as “The Headhunter.” The trail leads to Chichester and the set of a motion picture crew located on an English manor. Brixan discovers that the scriptwriter has a connection with both The Headhunter and an unscrupulous neighbor with a history of misadventure, a love of exotic pets, and an enthusiasm for young ladies. Published in 1926, The Avenger was adapted for film in 1960.

Edgar Wallace · Adventure · 47 ch

The Awakening

The Awakening charts Edna Pontellier’s journey of self-discovery. The time spent with a younger friend on a summer holiday on Grand Isle in Lousiana unlocks a feeling in her that she can’t close away again. On returning to her family home in New Orleans, she starts to transition from unthinking housewife and mother into something freer and more confident, although this doesn’t meet with the full approval of the society she’s a part of.

Kate Chopin · Drama · 39 ch

The Beasts of Tarzan

The Beasts of Tarzan, the third book in the Tarzan series, was first published in All-Story Cavalier magazine in 1914. It was later published as a novel in 1916. Tarzan’s old enemy, Nikolas Rokoff, escapes prison and plans his revenge by kidnapping the Tarzan’s son, the heir of Greystoke.

Edgar Rice Burroughs · Adventure · 21 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

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 Benson Murder Case

Philo Vance is a snobbish art collector who happens to be the longtime friend of John Markham, the New York County District Attorney. When a wealthy Wall Street broker is found shot in his own home, Vance finds himself drawn into the case. Seeing both Markham and the police content to accept the superficial evidence of the crime scene, Vance must intervene, and elucidate an entirely different approach to solving the mystery.

S. S. Van Dine · Mystery · 30 ch

The Big Bow Mystery

On a foggy morning in the Bow district of London, a popular labor organizer is found in his bed with his throat cut. It seems impossible for the wound to be self-inflicted, but it seems equally impossible that anyone could have entered his room during the night. The crime and its bizarre circumstances become the talk of the town, as retired Scotland Yard detective George Grodman finds himself pitted against his younger successor, not only to identify the perpetrator but also to explain how the murder was committed.

Israel Zangwill · Mystery · 24 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 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 Blacker the Berry

The Blacker the Berry, Wallace Thurman’s debut novel, follows the life of Emma Lou, a dark-skinned young woman from Boise, as she graduates high school and enters adult life as a college student. After being the target of colorist prejudice from her fellow African-American students at the University of Southern California, Emma Lou decides to drop out and move to Harlem—where she’s swept into a torrid love affair that only deepens her sense of color-consciousness. Written and set during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, The Blacker the Berry was one of the first African-American novels to address the themes of colorism and homosexuality.

Wallace Thurman · Drama · 6 ch

The Blithedale Romance

Miles Coverdale is a young poet who goes to work on a communal farm in New England. He joins other idealists who seek to leave behind what they see as a corrupt society, and to live off the land by honest work. They will escape the world, and at the same time improve it by their example.

Nathaniel Hawthorne · Drama · 30 ch

The Blue Castle

L. M. Montgomery is perhaps best known as an author of youth fiction, especially her Anne of Green Gables series.

L. M. Montgomery · Romance · 45 ch

The Blue Lagoon

After being shipwrecked in the South Pacific, cousins Dick and Emmeline Lestrange are stranded upon an island, fortunately populated with plentiful resources and the beauty of nature. With the guidance of the ship’s cook, the only other survivor, they learn how to live off the land, foregoing their civilized upbringing and adopting a more primitive way of life. Of course, with this environment and its pleasures come a great number of dangers, from animal attacks to hazardous weather, and as Dick and Emmeline mature they experience one of the strongest forces of nature: love.

H. de Vere Stacpoole · Adventure · 49 ch

The Book of Khalid

After being turned out by his parents for his disobedience, a Maronite teenager named Khalid scrapes up the funds to emigrate to the United States of America by working as a muleteer. Crossing the Atlantic with his friend Shakib, Khalid sets himself up in New York city as a peddler of counterfeit trinkets “made in the Holy Land.” He quickly loses interest in peddling and develops eccentric philosophical views as he immerses himself in various turn-of-the-century subcultures, including the freethought movement, Bohemianism, and Tammany Hall. Spurred on by his love for his cousin Najma, Khalid returns to his Lebanese hometown, Baalbek, where his iconoclastic philosophy earns him the enmity of the religious and secular authorities.

Ameen Rihani · Comedy · 33 ch

The Brothers Karamazov

Dmitri Karamazov and his father Fyodor are at war over both Dmitri’s inheritance and the affections of the beautiful Grushenka. Into this feud arrive the middle brother Ivan, recently returned from Moscow, and the youngest sibling Alyosha, who has been released into the wider world from the local monastery by the elder monk Zossima. Through a series of accidents of fate and wilful misunderstandings the Karamazovs edge closer to tragedy, while the local townspeople watch on.

Fyodor Dostoevsky · Psychological · 96 ch