Variety Books: 101 books

Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published on 16 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London, England, under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was published the following year by Harper &...

Descriptive of Their Manners, Customs, Habits and Religious Opinions Made During a Twelve Years' Residence in Their Immediate Society

An Essay on Man is a poem published by Alexander Pope in 1734. Is an effort to rationalize or rather "vindicate the ways of God to man", a variation of John Milton's claim in the opening lines of Paradise Lost, that he will "justify the ways of God to men"....

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (sometimes shortened to Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) is abook of history written by the English historian Edward Gibbon, which traces the trajectory of Western civilization (as well as theIslamic and Mongolian conquests)...

The play is significant for its critical attitude toward 19th century marriage norms. It aroused great controversy at the time, as it concludes with the protagonist, Nora, leaving her husband and children because she wants to discover herself. Ibsen was inspired by the belief that "a woman cannot...

Ivanhoe is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, first published in 1820 in three volumes and subtitled A Romance.Ivanhoe, set in 12th-century England, is sometimes credited for increasing interest in romance and medievalism; John Henry Newman claimed Scott...

Beyond Good and Evil is a book by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, first published in 1886. It draws on and expands the ideas of his previous work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but with a more critical and polemical approach.

Lysistrata is a comedy by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end the Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their...

Euthyphro is one of Plato's early dialogues, dated to after 399 BC. Taking place during the weeks leading up to Socrates's trial, the dialogue features Socrates and Euthyphro, a religious expert also mentioned at Cratylus 396a and 396d, attempting to define piety or holiness.

Carmilla is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction. It was first published in 1871 as a serial narrative in The Dark Blue. It tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named...

Le Morte d'Arthur  is a compilation by Sir Thomas Maloryof traditional tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table. Malory interprets existing French and English stories about these figures and adds original material (the Gareth story).

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare is a novel by G. K. Chesterton, first published in 1908. The book is sometimes referred to as a metaphysical thriller.  

Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, commonly known as Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), is a satire by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, that is both a satire on human...

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated...