In the preparation of this little work the writer has kept one end in view, viz.

The success of a fairy book, I am convinced, depends on the due admixture of the comic and the romantic: Grimm and Asbjörnsen knew this secret, and they alone.

We have called our stories Fairy Tales though few of them speak of fairies (For some recent views on fairies and tales about fairies, see Notes.)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) is one of the most famous and influential classical musicians of all time.

H.G. Wells' 1897 science fiction novella The Invisible Man tells the story of a scientist named Griffin who theory is this.

H. G. Wells' The Time Machine, from 1895, popularized the idea of a vehicle that allows its user to travel intentionally and selectively across time, and indeed Wells is credited with coining the very term time machine.

Another visionary novel from the great science fiction writer H. G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau tackles the thorny issues thrown up when humankind plays God and explores notions of society and identity, bringing the mythical chimera.

H. G. Wells' 1901 science fiction novel The First Men in the Moon tells the story of a voyage to the moon by Mr. Bedford, a businessman plagued by financial problems, and Dr. Cavor, a brilliant and somewhat eccentric scientist.

Patriotism, or love of country, is one of the tests of nobility of character. No great man ever lived that was not a patriot in the highest and truest sense.

What does laughter mean? What is the basal element in the laughable?

In Edgar Rice Burroughs' At the Earth's Core the narrator tells of his travels in the Sahara where he encounters David Innes, the pilot of an amazing vehicle and the owner of a remarkable story.

Tarzan of the Apes is Edgar Rice Burroughs' first novel in the series starring the man raised by apes.

The Return of Tarzan is Edgar Rice Burroughs' second novel in the series starring the man raised by apes, and the story picks up where Tarzan of the Apes left off.

The Emerson System treats the voice as a natural reporter of the individual, constantly emphasizing the tendency of the voice to express appropriately any mental concept or state of feeling.

It is a curious fact that of that class of literature to which Munchausen belongs, that namely of Voyages Imaginaires, the three great types should have all been created in England.

Heidi is a novel for children written in 1880 which remains one of the most well-known pieces of Swiss literature.

Sir Joshua Reynolds laid down principles of art from the point of view of a man of genius who had made his power felt, and with the clear good sense which is the foundation of all work that looks upward and may hope to live.

There is nothing more disenchanting to man than to be shown the springs and mechanism of any art.

Selecting his cut and uncut jewels from very various Buddhistic sources, Mr. Bowden has here supplied those who buy and use the book with rubies and sapphires and emeralds of wisdom, compassion, and human brotherhood.

The Country of the Blind and Other Stories brings together thirty-three of H. G. Wells' science fiction and fantasy short stories which were previously published separately in a variety of periodicals.