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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is a crime novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle starring the great detective of Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes. Wealthy landowner Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead in the parkland surrounding his manor.

Nations yet to come will look back upon his history as to some grand and supernatural romance.

This fascinating travelogue details the visit of author Ellen Clacy to the massive gold mines that were erected in Australia in the nineteenth century.

A remarkable writer and intellectual in her own right, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley first encountered the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley when she was only a teenager. After fathering three of her children, Shelley drowned during a storm.

A beautiful young man, Dorian Gray, sits for a portrait. In the garden of the artist's house he falls into conversation with Lord Wotton.

Jane Eyre is raised in her aunt's house after the death of her parents.

Oscar Wilde's play An Ideal Husband is a comedy about politics, blackmail and corruption.

Leaves of Grass is a collection of poems by Walt Whitman originally published in 1855 at the poet's own expense.

The Land That Time Forgot is an Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novel that starts out as a nerve-wracking wartime naval adventure but develops into the story of a unique and mysterious prehistoric lost world.

Notes from the Underground is Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1864 masterpiece following the ranting, slightly unhinged memoir of an isolated, anonymous civil servant.