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Kim

Rudyard Kipling’s novel Kim, published in 1901, tells the story of Kimball O’Hara (“Kim”), the orphaned son of an Anglo-Irish soldier, who grows up as a street-urchin on the streets of Lahore in India during the time of the British Raj. Knowing little of his parentage, he is as much a native as his companions, speaking Hindi and Urdu rather than English, cunning and street-wise. At about the age of twelve, Kim encounters an old Tibetan lama on a pilgrimage in search of a holy river.

Rudyard Kipling · Adventure · 15 ch

King Solomon’s Mines

King Solomon’s Mines was published in September 1885, becoming an immediate best seller by tapping into people’s excitement for the unknown: in this case, the unexplored regions of Africa. Haggard wrote the novel in a very short period, between six and sixteen months, on a bet with his brother to try to match Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. In the process he created a new literary genre known as the “Lost World” genre, which would later influence other writers like Arthur Conan Doyle and H.

H. Rider Haggard · Adventure · 22 ch

Kipps

Kipps is the story of Arthur “Artie” Kipps, an illegitimate orphan raised by his aunt and uncle on the southern coast of England in the town of New Romney. Kipps falls in love with neighbor friend Ann Pornick but soon loses touch with her as he begins an apprenticeship at a drapery establishment in the port town of Folkestone. After a drunken evening with his new friend Chitterlow, an aspiring playwright, Kipps discovers he is to inherit a house and sizable income from his grandfather.

H. G. Wells · Comedy · 20 ch

Lady Audley’s Secret

Lady Audley’s Secret was the most successful of a long series of novels written by Mary Elizabeth Braddon in what was then called the “sensation” genre because of the inventive and slightly scandalous plots of such works. Published in 1862, Lady Audley’s Secret was immediately popular and is said to have made a fortune for its author. It has never been out of print and has been the basis for a number of dramas and movies.

M. E. Braddon · Mystery · 41 ch

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

One of the most controversial novels of the twentieth century, Lady Chatterley’s Lover follows the story of Lady Constance Chatterley, unhappily married to disabled World War I veteran and coal tycoon Sir Clifford Chatterley, as she takes as a lover the gamekeeper of her estate, Oliver Mellors, a working class man of the earth. Constance struggles with the guilt of her infidelity, but realizes that her marriage is over and wants to get more out of her life. Oliver, a veteran himself with some education, enjoys her company but worries about his own position in society.

D. H. Lawrence · Drama · 21 ch

Last and First Men

Last and First Men is an extended think piece about the possible future history of humankind, extending from the 1930s into the extreme far future, hundreds of millions of years from now. It’s supposedly narrated by one of the “Last Men,” and dictated to a modern-day “First Man” by a kind of time-travel telepathy. As time moves further and further into the future, Stapledon switches to overviews of vast stretches of time rather than detailing the events in the lives of individual people.

Olaf Stapledon · Sci Fi · 18 ch

Lavengro

Lavengro, the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest, published in 1851, is a heavily fictionalized account of George Borrow’s early years. Borrow, born in 1803, was a writer and self-taught polyglot, fluent in many European languages, and a lover of literature. The Romany Rye, published six years later in 1857, is sometimes described as the “sequel” to Lavengro, but in fact it begins with a straight continuation of the action of the first book, which breaks off rather suddenly.

George Borrow · Drama · 101 ch

Les Misérables

Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo has been described as one of literature’s greatest novels. The first two volumes were published in French in March 1862 and translated into English later the same year. Since then it has been translated by numerous others and has been adapted for film, television, radio, animation and the stage.

Victor Hugo · Historical · 371 ch

Lilith

Lilith, first published in 1895, tells the story of Mr. Vane, the owner of a library that seems to be haunted by a raven—the ghost of the library’s former owner. Mr. Vane eventually follows this strange figure through a mirror and into another world, the “region of seven dimensions.” There Vane meets a number of characters, including Biblical characters like Adam and his first wife Lilith. Thus begins a battle of good versus evil that reverberates through dimensions.

George MacDonald · Fantasy · 48 ch

Little Dorrit

Little Dorrit, like many of Charles Dickens’ novels, was originally published in serial form over a period of about 18 months, before appearing in book form in 1857. The novel focuses on the experiences of its protagonist Arthur Clenham, who has spent some twenty years in China helping his father run the family business there. After his father dies, Arthur returns home to London.

Charles Dickens · Drama · 71 ch

Little Lord Fauntleroy

In Little Lord Fauntleroy, an American boy named Cedric is transported from the impoverished streets of New York City to the grandeur of his ancestral home, Dorincourt Castle. Here he learns how to become an English aristocrat from the Earl of Dorincourt, his cold and cynical grandfather. Frances Hodgson Burnett published this, her first children’s story, in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1885.

Frances Hodgson Burnett · Drama · 15 ch

Little Women

Little Women is the classic coming-of-age tale of four sisters on their journey to adulthood. Though today it’s considered a classic, Little Women almost wasn’t written: Alcott wanted to publish a collection of short stories instead, but her publisher and her father pressed her to write a book that would appeal to a wide audience of young girls. The first volume was written quickly and published in 1868; it was a huge success, and Alcott composed the second volume just as quickly and published it in 1869.

Louisa May Alcott · Drama · 48 ch

Look Homeward, Angel

Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe’s debut novel, is a coming-of-age novel that follows the life of Oliver Gant and his family in the fictional town of Altamont, North Carolina. The story begins with Oliver’s early years, capturing the struggles of post-Civil War Southern life. Later, the focus shifts to Eugene, Oliver’s son, an aspiring writer torn between his artistic ambition and his small-town roots.

Thomas Wolfe · Drama · 42 ch

Looking Backward

In Looking Backward, well-to-do Julian West of Boston falls asleep for 113 years and awakes to find the world of 2000 fundamentally changed. An old man and his daughter care for him and take him on a tour of the new world. In the new society, a single nationalized corporation-state under a single political party guarantees work, comfort, and luxury to everyone in the “industrial army.” Looking Backward is a watershed utopian novel following in the path laid by books like Thomas More’s Utopia, Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World, and Louis-Sébastien Mercier’s The Year 2440.

Edward Bellamy · Sci Fi · 29 ch

Lord Jim

Lord Jim was first published as a serial in Blackwood’s Magazine between October 1899 and November 1900. The first edition of the complete book was published by William Blackwood and Sons in 1900. The story begins when the young British seaman Jim, one of the crew of the steamer Patna, abandons the ship while it’s in distress.

Joseph Conrad · Adventure · 46 ch

Lorna Doone

John Ridd, a young yeoman farmer, chances upon a beautiful girl in an injudicious visit to a secret valley. It’s a brief but life-defining moment, for John falls in love at first sight. Yet there are complications.

R. D. Blackmore · Adventure · 76 ch

Lost Face

The first anthology of short stories by Jack London, Lost Face tells seven stories about the Klondike gold rush. In “Lost Face,” the fur thief Subienkow faces gruesome torture and execution by a tribe of Indians, armed with only his wits. “Trust” is a story about the dangers of the Yukon River.

Jack London · Drama · 8 ch

Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary, often ranked among the greatest novels of all time, is Flaubert’s first novel, and considered to be both his masterpiece and one of the most influential works in literary history, with authors from Henry James to Proust to Nabokov heaping it with praise. The novel tells the story of Emma Bovary, a commoner wife of a country doctor, and her attempts to escape the drudgery of day-to-day mediocrity by engaging in adulterous affairs and overspending on luxuries. She remains unsatisfied even though her husband adores her and they want for little, and her shallowness eventually leads to their ruin.

Gustave Flaubert · Drama · 36 ch

Magnificent Obsession

Robert “Bobby” Merrick, a college-aged only child from a wealthy Michigan family, is neither expected nor inclined to do anything with his life except “loaf.” But when he indirectly causes the death of an esteemed Detroit brain surgeon, Bobby decides to change his ways dramatically to compensate for his role in the tragedy. In the course of this he discovers the deceased surgeon’s secret journal, which reveals a spiritual obsession that will transform Bobby’s life even further. Lutheran Christian minister Lloyd C.

Lloyd C. Douglas · Drama · 22 ch

Main Street

Carol Milford grows up in a mid-sized town in Minnesota before moving to Chicago for college. After her education, during which she’s exposed to big-city life and culture, she moves to Minneapolis to work as a librarian. She soon meets Will Kennicott, a small-town doctor, and the two get married and move to Gopher Prairie, Kennicott’s home town.

Sinclair Lewis · Drama · 40 ch