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The Prime Minister

Plantagenet Palliser, now the Duke of Omnium, is a familiar character to the readers of the Barchester and Palliser series, but only now, at a moment of political crisis, does he take center stage. Neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives can command a majority in Parliament; the Duke is called upon as the only figure capable of forming a coalition government. He does so, but only with deep misgivings about whether the role of Prime Minister suits his character.

Anthony Trollope · Drama · 80 ch

The Prince and the Pauper

The Prince and the Pauper remains one of Twain’s more popular novels, having been adapted many times for the stage, screen, and elsewhere. When Tom Canty, a young pauper in London, meets Prince Edward, the two switch clothes and assume the other’s identity. Tom then learns the life of royalty, while the true prince discovers the troubles of commoners.

Mark Twain · Historical · 36 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 Princess and the Goblin

The Princess and the Goblin is a children’s fantasy novel in the vein of the best classic fairy tales. The simple narrative follows Princess Irene as she discovers a ghostly relative living in a castle tower only she can access. During a walk outside one day, she encounters the threat of the lair of goblins living near the castle—and meets a new friend, a young miner named Curdie.

George MacDonald · Fantasy · 32 ch

The Prisoner in the Opal

A pretty American implores wine enthusiast Ricardo to alter his plans for an upcoming visit to vineyards in France to protect her friend, who she fears is threatened by ominous occult forces. He tries to evade responsibility, only to find that his plans have been switched for him. Thrust unanticipated among unfamiliar guests at the chateau, including, unexpectedly, the pretty American, he witnesses odd events and senses sinister intrigue.

A. E. W. Mason · Mystery · 29 ch

The Prisoner of Zenda

The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope is an adventure novel first published in 1894 that takes place in the fictional Kingdom of Ruritania. It tells the story of Rudolph Rassendyll, who is, because of past indiscretions in the family and unbeknownst to him, the near twin of King Rudolph V of Ruritania. Labeled a ne’er-do-well by his sister-in-law, young Rudolph determines to escape his family and secretly travel to Ruritania for the coronation of his distant relative.

Anthony Hope · Adventure · 22 ch

The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft

Henry Ryecroft is an older English man of letters who, upon inheriting a small legacy, retires to a small cottage in the countryside. There he writes a diary, his “private papers,” which George Gissing purports to have edited and published in this volume. In reality Ryecroft is a fictional character, and his diary is a semi-autobiographical account of Gissing’s own career as an author and literary critic, and of his personal philosophical musings.

George Gissing · Drama · 104 ch

The Professor’s House

A prestigious award gives the middle-aged professor Godfrey St. Peter the funds to buy a new house, but he’s reluctant to let go of his old one. His wife and two daughters welcome the change, seeing it as a well-deserved step up in the world. St. Peter instead focuses his attention on editing the journals of Tom Outland, his former student and would-be son-in-law—before his life was taken in the Great War.

Willa Cather · Drama · 29 ch

The Purple Cloud

Adam Jeffson, the narrator of The Purple Cloud, is recruited to join a polar expedition after the suspicious death of another crewmate. Jeffson and the rest of crew of the Boreal are hoping to claim a multimillion dollar prize for the first expedition to reach the North Pole. During the long voyage, Jeffson discovers an ominous purple cloud which transforms his Arctic adventure.

M. P. Shiel · Sci Fi · 18 ch

The Railway Children

The Railway Children is Edith Nesbit’s most well-known and well-loved book for young readers. Since its first book publication in 1906, it has been made into movies, radio plays and television series several times, dramatised in the theatre, performed in actual railway stations, and even turned into a musical. It tells the story of three children: Roberta, Peter and Phyllis, who with their mother are forced to leave their comfortable suburban home and go to live in a small cottage in the country, after their father is taken away from them for what at first seem inexplicable reasons.

E. Nesbit · Drama · 14 ch

The Rainbow

The Rainbow is an epic tale spanning three generations of Brangwens, a family of farmers living in Nottinghamshire around the time of the Industrial Revolution. The tale begins with Tom Brangwen, the very epitome of a rural English farmer leading the old way of life. We follow him as a youth easing in to the rhythm of rural existence.

D. H. Lawrence · Drama · 29 ch

The Red Badge of Courage

Henry Fleming has joined the Union army because of his romantic ideas of military life, but soon finds himself in the middle of a battle against a regiment of Confederate soldiers. Terrified, Henry deserts his comrades. Upon returning to his regiment, he struggles with his shame as he tries to redeem himself and prove his courage.

Stephen Crane · Drama · 24 ch

The Red and the Black

An ambitious young man of humble birth tries to rise in Restoration France by talent, love affairs, and calculated hypocrisy. A sharp portrait of desire colliding with a society built to contain it.

Stendhal · Drama · 76 ch

The Rescue

Tom Lingard, captain of the vessel Lightning, is returning to the Malaysian Archipelago to fulfill his promise to an exiled Malaysian prince and princess to help them retake control of their kingdom. Lingard’s plans are interrupted when his ship encounters a small boat that’s stranded on the same island that Lingard is to rendezvous with the prince. Upon arriving Lingard meets the boat’s passengers: Mr. Travers, a successful businessman and the boat’s owner, his wife Edith, and Mr. d’Alcacer, a Spanish acquaintance of theirs.

Joseph Conrad · Drama · 43 ch

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

The Return of Sherlock Holmes is the third collection of Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1905. It includes stories published in The Strand Magazine in 1903 and 1904, bringing Holmes for the first time into the twentieth century. Doyle had memorably “killed off” Holmes in a struggle with his nemesis Professor Moriarty in the story “The Final Problem,” which had appeared in 1893 (and which is included in the collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes ).

Arthur Conan Doyle · Mystery · 13 ch

The Return of Tarzan

The Return of Tarzan was first published in the pulp New Story Magazine between June and December of 1913, and later published as a novel in 1915. The story picks up shortly after the events in the first book as Tarzan is traveling to France from the United States. While on the ship, he intervenes in the plots of a man named Nikolas Rokoff and his companion Alexis Paulvitch.

Edgar Rice Burroughs · Adventure · 26 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 Rise of Silas Lapham

Silas Lapham’s long-lasting paint, made with minerals found on his family’s farm in Vermont, has helped make him a millionaire—as has hard work, ambition, and tough business sense. Now that he’s reached late middle age, he’s a success. A newspaper is writing him up in its “Solid Men of Boston” series, his family goes to seaside resorts in the summer, the scion of the aristocratic Covey family has joined his firm, his daughters have made inroads into 1880s society, and he’s even having a lavish house built in the newly fashionable Back Bay.

William Dean Howells · Drama · 27 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

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