Jack Sheppard.Harrison Ainsworth.
Masterman Ready.Captain Marryat.
Michael Strogoff.Jules Verne.
The Wide Wide World.Eliz. Wetherell.
This famous American novel has for many years been a cla.s.sic in every home. It is a masterpiece of the best type of domestic fiction.
Hereward the Wake.Charles Kingsley.
This brilliant romance tells of the last stand of the great English leader, Hereward, against the advance of the Normans. The scene is largely laid in the Fen country, and every page is a record of fierce strife. The fall of Hereward is one of the greatest death scenes in literature.
IVDavid Copperfield-I.Charles d.i.c.kens.
David Copperfield-II.Charles d.i.c.kens.
"David Copperfield" is, by general consent, d.i.c.kens"s masterpiece, showing, as it does, all his peculiar merits in their highest form. It is the most autobiographical of his novels, and the one into which he put most of his philosophy of life.
Jane Eyre.Charlotte Bronte.
"Jane Eyre" is Charlotte Bronte"s first and most famous work. It was the first realistic novel, in the modern sense of the word, in English literature, and its influence has been beyond reckoning. It ranks as one of the great novels of the nineteenth century.
Verdant Green.Cuthbert Bede.
This is the humorous cla.s.sic of Oxford life. Published more than half a century ago, its humour is as fresh to-day as ever.
Pickwick Papers-I.Charles d.i.c.kens.
Pickwick Papers-II.Charles d.i.c.kens.
Every year sees a new edition of "Pickwick," and the world still asks for more. It is one of the world"s greatest romances of the road, where adventures fall to those who seek them. It is also a faithful and loving picture of an older England, from which we have travelled far to-day. We may become a wiser people, but we shall never again be so humorous.
Windsor Castle.Harrison Ainsworth.
The romances of Harrison Ainsworth need no advertis.e.m.e.nt. In this, as in his "Tower of London" and "Old St. Paul"s," he has taken one of England"s great historical sites, and woven around it an appropriate romance.
Peg Woffington.Charles Reade.
"Peg Woffington" was the first of Charles Reade"s romances, and was founded upon his comedy, "Masks and Faces." The story of the famous Irish actress who dazzled London in the eighteenth century, and with whom Garrick was in love, has been made the foundation of a charming romance.
VReminiscences of Scottish Life and Character.Dean Ramsay.
The only book of jests that has ever attained an honourable place in literature. Its wealth of genuine humour is a perpetual refutation of the old slander that Scots joke "wi" deeficulty."
Parables from Nature. Mrs. Gatty.
This is one of the great children"s books of the world. It was a cla.s.sic in our grandmothers" time, and possesses that imperishable charm which makes it as attractive to-day as when it was first written.
Lavengro.George Borrow.
The greatest romance of the road in English literature, telling of all the byways and humours of that older England which is fast disappearing.
Little Women.Louisa M. Alcott.
This delightful book has become a possession of childhood and youth. It has captured the affections of millions of young people in two continents, and is certainly the finest piece of work in the whole range of Miss Alcott"s breezy, hopeful, genial, and tender writings.
Pride and Prejudice.Jane Austen.
Sense and Sensibility.Jane Austen.
Sir Walter Scott was among the earliest to detect the merits of Miss Austen"s work, and of recent years her humour and her keen insight into human nature have been abundantly recognized, so that to-day she is probably the most read novelist of her period. In Sir Walter Scott"s phrase she possesses "the exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting."
Toilers of the Sea.Victor Hugo.
The Laughing Man.Victor Hugo.
Les Miserables-I.Victor Hugo.
Les Miserables-II.Victor Hugo.VI "Ninety-Three.Victor Hugo.
Victor Hugo took the romantic novel as invented by Sir Walter Scott and gave it a new and philosophic interest. All his great romances have a purpose. "Les Miserables" exposes the tyranny of human laws; "The Toilers of the Sea" shows the conflict of man with nature; "The Laughing Man" expounds the tyranny of the aristocratic ideal as exemplified in England. But being a great artist as well as a great thinker, he never turned his romances into pamphlets. Drama is always his aim, and no novelist has attained more often the supreme dramatic moment.
The Heir of Redclyffe. C. M. Yonge.
This is a reprint of Miss Yonge"s most famous tale. It has been said of her that she domesticated the historical romance, which owed its origin to Sir Walter Scott, and her characters were for long the ideal figures of most English households.
Wild Wales.George Borrow.
This book was the result of Borrow"s wanderings after the publication of "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye." He tramped on foot throughout the country, and the work is a cla.s.sic of description, both of the scenery and people.
The Cloister and the Hearth.Charles Reade.
There are many who think this the greatest of all historical novels, and it is certain that there are few better. It is not a story so much as a vast and varied transcript of life. It is also a delightful romance, and Gerard and Margaret are among the immortals of fiction.
Romola.George Eliot.
This is the only novel of George Eliot"s in which the scene is laid outside her own country. It is a story of Florence during the time of the Renaissance, a marvellous picture of the intellectual and moral ferment which the New Learning created. With amazing learning and insight the author portrays the souls of men and women, and her study of a weak man and a strong woman has rarely been surpa.s.sed in English literature for dramatic power and moral truth.
Silas Marner.George Eliot.
This, the shortest and the most exquisite of George Eliot"s tales, represents her great powers at their best. In the picture of the hero she shows a profound understanding of human nature, and the feelings which were then moving rural and industrial England.
VIIThe Abbot. Sir Walter Scott.
One of the Waverley novels which has always been deservedly popular.
Bride of Lammermoor. Sir Walter Scott.
The story is a tragedy on the lines of Greek drama, and the ending has been p.r.o.nounced by great critics to be the most moving in prose literature. In the Master of Ravenswood, Scott has drawn perhaps his greatest tragic figure, and in Caleb Balderstone one of his most humorous creations.
The Black Tulip.Alexandre Dumas.
This was the last of Dumas" great stories. It is a veritable tour de force, for in it the reader follows with consuming interest the vicissitudes of a tulip, and the human element in the story is quite subsidiary. Nevertheless, it contains such strongly-drawn characters as Cornelius van Baerle, the guardian of the tulip, and Rosa, the jailer"s daughter.
Tom Cringle"s Log.Michael Scott.
A brilliant story of West Indian life by an author who combined abundant personal experience with keen observation, sprightly temper, and delightful humour. "Tom Cringle"s Log" has been many times reprinted, and has lost nothing of its popularity and power to please.
Lamb"s Tales from Shakespeare.
Tens of thousands of readers have been led to Shakespeare by the charmingly told stories which Charles and Mary Lamb, about a hundred years ago, extracted from the plays of the greatest dramatist of all time. Though produced by Lamb at the very outset of his literary career, these stories betray that unique and finished art, that delightful freshness and rare sympathy, which are the characteristics of his mature work.
The Scarlet Letter.Nathaniel Hawthorne.
This is one of the most powerful and affecting stories ever conceived. On its first appearance, in 1850, it immediately leaped high into public favour, and attained the distinction of an unmistakable cla.s.sic. The tragedy of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale is wrought out in the midst of an austere Puritan community, which exacts the bitterest expiation for sin.
VIII THE NELSON CLa.s.sICS.