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1984
by George Orwell
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Perhaps no other novel in this century has had a greater impact upon the way we think and talk about our world than George Orwell's classic, 1984. "Big Brother," "doublespeak," and "the thought police" have become part of our everyday lexicon, and the term "Orwellian" has become a familiar adjective for any situation-real or imagined-where conformity is compulsory and where someone always seems to be watching.
Orwell's novel also has the distinction of being, along with Aldous Huxley's Brave N... more info>>
Category: Classic Literature
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43 Reader Ratings:
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2
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The Sign of Four [Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection #2]
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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It is in this, the second Holmes novel, that the great detective comes fully to life--not only as a melancholic and an inscrutable master of deduction, but also as an incurable drug addict. "Which is it today?" Watson asks Holmes matter-of-factly on the opening page of the novel, "morphine or cocaine?" "It is cocaine," Holmes famously replies. "A seven-per-cent. solution. Would you like to try it?" Mary Morstan comes to Holmes in the hope that he will be able to solve a mystery. Ten years earlie... more info>> (Published: 1890)
Words: 43138 - Reading Time: 123-172 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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51 Reader Ratings:
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3
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The Divine Comedy
by Dante Alghieri
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Dante Alighieri's poetic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, is a moving human drama, an unforgettable visionary journey through the infinite torment of Hell, up the arduous slopes of Purgatory, and on to the glorious realm of Paradise--the sphere of universal harmony and eternal salvation. [Translation by H. W. Longfellow.] (Published: 1472)
Words: 130570 - Reading Time: 373-522 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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26 Reader Ratings:
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4
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The Return of Tarzan [Tarzan Series #2]
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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Tarzan had renounced his right to the woman he loved, and civilization held no pleasure for him. After a brief and harrowing period among men, he turned back to the African jungle where he had grown to manhood. It was there he first heard of Opar, the city of gold, left over from fabled Atlantis. It was a city of hideous men--and of beautiful, savage women, over whom reigned La, high priestess of the Flaming God. Its altars were stained with the blood of many sacrifices. Unheeding of the dangers... more info>> (Published: 1913)
Words: 89642 - Reading Time: 256-358 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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5
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Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte
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Emily Bronte's only novel, Wuthering Heights is one of the pinnacles of 19th century English literature. It's the story of Heathcliff, an orphan who falls inlove with a girl above his class, loses her, and devotes the rest of his life to wreaking revenge on her family. (Published: 1847)
Words: 116578 - Reading Time: 333-466 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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20 Reader Ratings:
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6
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Anthem
by Ayn Rand
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This expanded edition of Ayn Rand's classic tale of a future dark age of the great "We"--in which individuals have no name, no independence, and no values--is a beautifully written, powerful novel that projects current social trends into the future, and anticipates such later Rand masterpieces as The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
Words: 19508 - Reading Time: 55-78 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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96 Reader Ratings:
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7
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The Jungle
by Upton Sinclair
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This muckraking novel changed the course of history with its gruesomely detailed picture of the meat-packing industry. Historically accurate and humanistic, the book remains an invaluable mirror by which we may still examine ourselves and society today. (Published: 1906)
Words: 152840 - Reading Time: 436-611 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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8 Reader Ratings:
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8
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Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
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Classic tale of a scientist who learns the secrets of life and death--with horrifying results. (Published: 1818)
Words: 75505 - Reading Time: 215-302 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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92 Reader Ratings:
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9
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Before Adam
by Jack London
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A young man in modern America is terrorized by visions of an earlier, primitive life. Across the enormous chasm of thousands of centuries, his consciousness has become entwined with that of Big-Tooth, an ancestor living at the dawn of humanity. Big-Tooth makes his home in Pleistocene Africa, a ferocious, fascinating younger world torn by incessant conflict between early humans and protohumans. Before Adam is a remarkable and provocative tale that thrust evolution further into the public spotligh... more info>> (Published: 1907)
Words: 39095 - Reading Time: 111-156 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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8 Reader Ratings:
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10
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The Beasts of Tarzan [Tarzan Series #3]
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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As the rich Lord Greystoke, Tarzan found himself the target of greedy, evil men. Stranded on a desert island, his wife and son kidnapped, Tarzan's plight seemed helpless. But with the help of Sheeta, the ferocious panther, and the great ape Akut, Tarzan crafted his escape with the giant Mugambi. Yet the trail of the kidnappers led deep into the interior--and it would take all of Tarzan's skills to reach his family in time. (Published: 1914)
Words: 63613 - Reading Time: 181-254 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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19 Reader Ratings:
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11
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Hard Times
by Charles Dickens
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The 'terrible mistake' was the contemporary utilitarian philosophy, expounded in Hard Times as the Philosophy of Fact by the hard-headed disciplinarian Thomas Gradgrind. But the novel, Dickens's shortest, is more than a polemical tract for the times; the tragic story of Louisa Gradgrind and her father is one of Dickens's triumphs. When Louisa, trapped in a loveless marriage, falls prey to an idle seducer, the crisis forces her father to reconsider his cherished system. Yet even as the developmen... more info>> (Published: 1854)
Words: 103524 - Reading Time: 295-414 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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88 Reader Ratings:
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12
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The Invisible Man
by H. G. Wells
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One of the most famous scientific fantasies ever written, this highly imaginative tale focuses on the powers and bold ventures of a scientist, who, after discovering the means to make himself invisible, unleashes a bizarre streak of terror on the inhabitants of an English village. Filled with suspense and psychological nuances of plot. (Published: 1897)
Words: 48733 - Reading Time: 139-194 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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13
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Moby-Dick
by Herman Melville
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Written by one of America's greatest authors, Moby-Dick is a work of tremendous power and depth--one of world literature's great poetic epics. In the novel, published in 1851 after sixteen months of writing, Herman Melville recounts the Promethean quest of Captain Ahab, who, having lost a leg in a earlier battle with White Whale, is determined to catch the beast and destroy it. By the time readers meet Ahab, he is a vengeful, crazed, and terror-provoking figure, for Moby-Dick has come to represe... more info>>
Words: 213741 - Reading Time: 610-854 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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33 Reader Ratings:
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14
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The Sirens of Titan
by Kurt Vonnegut
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"His best book," Esquire wrote of Kurt Vonnegut's 1959 novel The Sirens of Titan, adding, "he dares not only to ask the ultimate question about the meaning of life, but to answer it." This novel fits into that aspect of the Vonnegut canon that might be classified as science fiction, a quality that once led Time to describe Vonnegut as "George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer ... a zany but moral mad scientist." The Sirens of Titan was perhaps the novel that began ... more info>> (Published: 2002)
Category: Classic Literature
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29 Reader Ratings:
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15
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Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut
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Unstuck in time, the hero of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five--an unforgettable Everyman named Billy Pilgrim--is never sure what part of his life he is going to have to act in next. Vonnegut's wildly imaginative, witty and affecting novel tells Billy Pilgrim's story in just that fashion. It spins back and forth through time, layering in the elements of Billy's life, which begins, chronologically, in 1922 in the upstate New York town of Ilium, and ends over 50 years later, when he is a success... more info>> (Published: 2002)
Category: Classic Literature
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32 Reader Ratings:
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16
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Don Quixote
by Miguel del Cervantes
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Widely regarded as the world's first modern novel, Don Quixote chronicles the famous picaresque adventures of the noble knight-errant Don Quixote de La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. [Translated by John Ormsby.] (Published: 1605)
Words: 403600 - Reading Time: 1153-1614 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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17 Reader Ratings:
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17
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Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
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In Conrad's haunting tale, Marlow, a seaman and wanderer, recounts his physical and psychological journey in search of the enigmatic Kurtz. Traveling to the heart of the African continent, he discovers how Kurtz has gained his position of power and influence over the local people. Marlow's struggle to fathom his experience involves him in a radical questioning of not only his own nature and values but the nature and values of his society. (Published: 1899)
Words: 38566 - Reading Time: 110-154 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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28 Reader Ratings:
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18
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A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
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Charles Dickens' compelling portrait of the results of terror and treason, love and supreme sacrifice continues to captivate readers around the world. With Frank Muller's brilliant performance, unforgettable characters--the ever-knitting Madame Defarge, the lovely Lucie Manette, her broken father, the honorable Charles Darnay, and the sometimes scurrilous Sydney Carton--burst from the pages, full of life and passion. (Published: 1850)
Words: 139658 - Reading Time: 399-558 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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156 Reader Ratings:
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19
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Metamorphosis
by Franz Kafka
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In this, his most famous story, Kafka explores the notions of alienation and human loneliness through extraordinary narrative technique and depth of imagination. Gregor Samsa awakens one morning to find himself transformed into a repulsive bug. Trapped inside this hideous form, his mind remains unchanged--until he sees the shocked reaction of those around him. He begins to question the basis of human love and, indeed, the entire purpose of his existence. But this, it seems, is only the beginning... more info>> (Published: 1915)
Words: 22127 - Reading Time: 63-88 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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58 Reader Ratings:
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20
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The Son of Tarzan [Tarzan Series #4]
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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Tarzan's young son narrowly escaped the wrath of his father's nemesis Paulvitch, and he was forced to flee into the savage African jungles where Tarzan himself had been reared. There the civilized boy would have to learn to face the great beasts and exotic dangers only his father had ever conquered. And as he became known as Korak the Killer--whose legend would rival that of Tarzan--he would learn that the dangers of the jungle were nothing compared to those devised by men... (Published: 1914)
Words: 95109 - Reading Time: 271-380 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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21
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Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar [Tarzan Series #5]
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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An amnesic Tarzan has been caught plundering the treasure vaults of the lost city of Opar. But a mysterious treasure hunter and a band of thieves have also learned of the hidden wealth. When a bag of jewels Tarzan had taken falls into the hunter's hands, a game of deadly double- and triple-cross begins--and the winner claims the treasure! (Published: 1916)
Words: 66178 - Reading Time: 189-264 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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22
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Jungle Tales of Tarzan [Tarzan Series #6]
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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This is actually a collection of several short stories about the times when Tarzan was a young boy and a teenager being raised by the great apes. The young Tarzan was unlike the great apes who were his only companions and playmates. Theirs was a simple, savage life, filled with little but killing or being killed. But Tarzan had all of a normal boy's desire to learn. He had painfully taught himself to read from books left by his dead father. Now he sought to apply this book knowledge to the world... more info>> (Published: 1919)
Words: 74398 - Reading Time: 212-297 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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13 Reader Ratings:
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23
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Anna Karenina
by Leo Nikoleyvich Tolstoy
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In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy moved away from the vast historical sweep of War and Peace to tell, with extraordinary understanding, the story of an aristocratic woman who brings ruin on herself. Anna's tragedy is interwoven with the courtship and marriage of Kitty and Levin as well as the lives of many other characters. Rich in incident, powerful in characterization, the novel also expresses Tolstoy's own moral vision. Translated by Constance Garnett. (Published: 1882)
Words: 358898 - Reading Time: 1025-1435 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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12 Reader Ratings:
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24
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The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
by Charles Darwin
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In The Origin of Species Darwin challenged many of the most deeply held beliefs of the Western world. Arguing for a material, not divine, origin of species, he showed that new species are achieved by 'natural selection'. Development, diversification, decay, extinction and absence of plan are all inherent to his theories. Darwin read prodigiously across many fields; he reflected on his experiences as a traveller, he experimented. His profoundly influential concept of 'natural selection' condenses... more info>> (Published: 1859)
Words: 155770 - Reading Time: 445-623 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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25
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The Spirit of the Border
by Zane Grey
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America's master storyteller makes the frontier live again. West of Fort Henry, in the wild and lawless country, the tribes are massing for a unified attack that will smash and destroy the isolated white settlements. The settlers are doomed unless a few grizzled veterans of the Indian Wars can save them. (Published: 1905)
Words: 88315 - Reading Time: 252-353 min.
Category: Classic Literature
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7 Reader Ratings:
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