| Michael Strogoff. | Jules Verne. |
| The Wide Wide World. | Eliz. Wetherell. |
| This famous American novel has for many years beena classic in every home. It is a masterpiece of the besttype of domestic fiction. |
| Hereward the Wake. | Charles Kingsley. |
| This brilliant romance tells of the last stand of the greatEnglish leader, Hereward, against the advance of theNormans. The scene is largely laid in the Fen country,and every page is a record of fierce strife. The fall of Herewardis one of the greatest death scenes in literature. |
| David Copperfield—I. | Charles Dickens. |
| David Copperfield—II. | Charles Dickens. |
| "David Copperfield" is, by general consent, Dickens's masterpiece,showing, as it does, all his peculiar merits in their highest form. Itis the most autobiographical of his novels, and the one into which heput most of his philosophy of life. |
| Jane Eyre. | Charlotte Brontë. |
| "Jane Eyre" is Charlotte Brontë's first and most famous work. Itwas the first realistic novel, in the modern sense of the word, in Englishliterature, and its influence has been beyond reckoning. It ranks asone of the great novels of the nineteenth century. |
| Verdant Green. | Cuthbert Bede. |
| This is the humorous classic of Oxford life. Published more thanhalf a century ago, its humour is as fresh to-day as ever. |
| Pickwick Papers—I. | Charles Dickens. |
| Pickwick Papers—II. | Charles Dickens. |
| Every year sees a new edition of "Pickwick," and the world stillasks 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 faithfuland loving picture of an older England, from which we have travelledfar to-day. We may become a wiser people, but we shall never againbe so humorous. |
| Windsor Castle. | Harrison Ainsworth. |
| The romances of Harrison Ainsworth need no advertisement. Inthis, as in his "Tower of London" and "Old St. Paul's," he has takenone of England's great historical sites, and woven around it an appropriateromance. |
| Peg Woffington. | Charles Reade. |
| "Peg Woffington" was the first of Charles Reade's romances, andwas founded upon his comedy, "Masks and Faces." The story of thefamous Irish actress who dazzled London in the eighteenth century, andwith whom Garrick was in love, has been made the foundation of acharming romance. |
| Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character. | Dean Ramsay. |
| The only book of jests that has ever attained an honourable place inliterature. Its wealth of genuine humour is a perpetual refutation ofthe 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 classicin our grandmothers' time, and possesses that imperishable charm whichmakes 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 allthe 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 ofMiss 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 MissAusten's work, and of recent years her humour and her keen insightinto human nature have been abundantly recognized, so that to-day sheis probably the most read novelist of her period. In Sir Walter Scott'sphrase she possesses "the exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplacethings and characters interesting." |
| Toilers of the Sea. | Victor Hugo. |
| The Laughing Man. | Victor Hugo. |
| Les Misérables—I. | Victor Hugo. |
| Les Misérables—II. | Victor Hugo. |
| 'Ninety-Three. | Victor Hugo. |
| Victor Hugo took the romantic novel as invented by Sir Walter Scottand gave it a new and philosophic interest. All his great romanceshave a purpose. "Les Misérables" exposes the tyranny of humanlaws; "The Toilers of the Sea" shows the conflict of man with nature;"The Laughing Man" expounds the tyranny of the aristocratic idealas exemplified in England. But being a great artist as well as a greatthinker, he never turned his romances into pamphlets. Drama is alwayshis aim, and no novelist has attained more often the supreme dramaticmoment. |
| The Heir of Redclyffe. | C. M. Yonge. |
| This is a reprint of Miss Yonge's most famous tale. It has beensaid of her that she domesticated the historical romance, which owedits origin to Sir Walter Scott, and her characters were for long theideal figures of most English households. |
| Wild Wales. | George Borrow. |
| This book was the result of Borrow's wanderings after the publicationof "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye." He tramped on footthroughout the country, and the work is a classic of description, bothof 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 asa vast and varied transcript of life. It is also a delightful romance, andGerard 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 laidoutside her own country. It is a story of Florence during the time ofthe Renaissance, a marvellous picture of the intellectual and moralferment which the New Learning created. With amazing learning andinsight the author portrays the souls of men and women, and her studyof a weak man and a strong woman has rarely been surpassed in Englishliterature 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 sheshows a profound understanding of human nature, and the feelings whichwere then moving rural and industrial England. |
| The Abbot. | Sir Walter Scott. |
| One of the Waverley novels which has always been deservedlypopular. |
| Bride of Lammermoor. | Sir Walter Scott. |
| The story is a tragedy on the lines of Greek drama, and the endinghas been pronounced by great critics to be the most moving in proseliterature. In the Master of Ravenswood, Scott has drawn perhaps hisgreatest tragic figure, and in Caleb Balderstone one of his most humorouscreations. |
| The Black Tulip. | Alexandre Dumas. |
| This was the last of Dumas' great stories. It is a veritable tour deforce, for in it the reader follows with consuming interest the vicissitudesof a tulip, and the human element in the story is quite subsidiary.Nevertheless, it contains such strongly-drawn characters as Corneliusvan 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 combinedabundant personal experience with keen observation, sprightly temper,and delightful humour. "Tom Cringle's Log" has been many timesreprinted, 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 thecharmingly told stories which Charles and Mary Lamb, about a hundredyears 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 freshnessand rare sympathy, which are the characteristics of his maturework. |
| 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 publicfavour, and attained the distinction of an unmistakable classic. Thetragedy of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale is wrought out in themidst of an austere Puritan community, which exacts the bitterest expiationfor sin. |