Ambrose Bierce's collection of short parables, published under the pen name of Dod Grile, is similar to Aesop's Fables. This compilation is comprised of "Fables of Zambri, the Parsee," "Brief Seasons of Intellectual Dissipation" and the "Divers Tales," all of which were first serialized in the magazine "FUN." A great read for any lover of short stories or poetry with faraway lands, talking animals and supernatural occurrences!

Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta on Suomen taiteen kultakauden kirjailijan Johannes Linnankosken tunnetuin teos. Vuonna 1905 julkaistu kirja on ensimmäisiä suomalaisia bestseller-kirjoja. Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta pohjautuu Don Juanin taruun. Kirja kertoo nuoresta Olavi Koskelasta, joka riitautuu vanhempiensa kanssa ja pestautuu tukkilaisporukkaan. Matkan varrella hän hurmaa lukuisia naisia, jotka hän kuitenkin hylkää tukkilaisporukan jatkaessa matkaansa. Kirjan tapahtumat sijoittuvat Linnankosken nuoruuden maisemiin Askolaan Vakkolan kylään 1800-luvun loppupuolelle. (from Wikipedia)

Song of the Blood-Red Flower is the most famous book written by Johannes Linnankoski, one of th...

In this 1892 novel of London's Jewish East End, Israel Zangwill sets the apparently irrational and decidedly indecorous religious practices of transplanted eastern European Jews against the forces of assimilation. Zangwill's knowledge of Yiddishkeit and skill in melodrama created a series of unforgettable vignettes that had a significant effect on the public perception of this much stigmatized immigrant group.

Israel Zangwill (1864-1926) was born in London of Russian and Polish parents. He coined the term cultural "melting pot".

"A Happy Boy" was written in 1859 and 1860. It is, in my estimation, Bjørnson's best story of peasant life. In it the author has succeeded in drawing the characters with remarkable distinctness, while his profound psychological insight, his perfectly artless simplicity of style, and his thorough sympathy with the hero and his surroundings are nowhere more apparent. This view is sustained by the great popularity of "A Happy Boy" throughout Scandinavia. (From the Preface)

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1903.

The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad is another in the long line of children's books by conservationist Thornton W. Burgess. In this book, we follow the adventures of Old Mr. Toad as he joins the Spring Chorus at the Smiling Pool, shows off his babies, displays his special tongue to Peter Rabbit and has a very special encounter with Buster Bear. We also learn little lessons about life such as pride can burst like a great big bubble, your friends' hidden talents may surprise you and it is considered impolite to watch someone change his clothes - especially when he eats them.

Jane Austen, WB Yeats, Chesterton, Shaw... these are personal and intelligent short essays on a selection of great (and great-ish) writers: some well known, and some a bit more obscure to the average reader today. Robert Lynd (1879 – 1949) is best known as a literary essayist and Irish nationalist. He published many essays, all written in an easy, conversational style. Lynd was an essayist after the manner of Charles Lamb, and deserves to be better known. A complete list of his works is available at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Wilson_Lynd

This is a quite amusing nautical tale of the British Navy of the around the year 1700. While, as with much early 'humor', it is somewhat heavy-handed, the sympathies of the author are clear and good, and cruelty is often averted by good fortune or background characters. First published under the title 'The Dog Fiend', the primary characters are an evil captain of a cutter and his dog. The dog seems indestructible, as is the poor cabin boy who is the butt of the captain's ill humor, and who often is chewed on by the dog. The cutter is sent against smugglers, transporting ' Alamodes and lute strings' - a term for foreign silks. But, the smugglers really are Jacobites plotting agai...

"The Shades of the Wilderness" is the seventh book of the Civil War Series by Joseph A. Altsheler. Picking up where "The Star of Gettysburg" left off, this story continues the Civil War experiences of Harry Kenton and his friends in the Southern army, from the retreat after Gettygurg, to Richmond, and then through the battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, to Robert E. Lee's heroic stand during the siege of Petersburg.

Other books in the Civil War series are: "The Guns of Bull Run," "The Guns of Shiloh," "The Scouts of Stonewall," "The Sword of Antietam", "The Star of Gettysburg","The Rock of Chickamauga", and "The Tree of Appomattox."

In 1915, as the "Great War" (World War 1) entered its second year Rudyard Kipling made a journalistic tour of the front, visiting French armed forces. By then he was already winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (the first writer in English to be so honoured). He published his observations in articles in the Daily Telegraph in England, and in the New York Sun. At that stage of the war nationalistic sentiments were running high but the true cost of war was beginning to be understood "at home".

The collection of journalistic pieces is preceded by a poem, "France", that had been published before the outbreak of war (in 1913) which has a more overblown jingoistic feel to it than...

The classic early American epistolary novel about the seduction and ruin of a passionate young woman. Based on the true story of Elizabeth Whitman, whose lonesome death in childbirth in a Connecticut inn sparked widespread discussion and outrage, the novel went through many editions and innumerable printings in the century after its initial publication in 1797.