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OUT of the darkest depths of life, where vice and crime and misery abound, comes the Byron of the twentieth century, the poet of the vagabond and the proletariat, Maxim Gorky. Not like the beggar, humbly imploring for a crust in the name of the Lord, nor like the jeweller displaying his precious stones to dazzle and tempt the eye, he comes to the world,—nay, in accents of Tyrtaeus this commoner of Nizhni Novgorod spurs on his troops of freedom-loving heroes to conquer, as it were, the placid, self-satisfied literatures of to-day, and bring new life to pale, bloodless frames.

Like Byron’s impassioned utterances, “borne on the tones of a wild and quite artless melody,” is Gorky’s mad, unbridled, powerful voice, as he sings of the “madness of the brave,” of the barefooted dreamers, who are proud of their idleness, who possess nothing and fear nothing, who are gay in their misery, though miserable in their joy.

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare’ is a novel by G. K. Chesterton. It was first published in the year 1907. It is an amusing blend of emotions and genres ranging widely from fantasy to thriller to philosophy and adventure.

Rudyard Kipling’s short story ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ was first published in the year 1888. It is about two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. The story was inspired by the exploits of James Brooke, an Englishman who became the first White Rajah of Sarawak in Borneo; and by the travels of American adventurer Josiah Harlan, who was granted the title Prince of Ghor in perpetuity for himself and his descendants.

It is the story of American Army lieutenant Philip Nolan, who renounces his country during a trial for treason and is consequently sentenced to spend the rest of his days at sea without so much as a word of news about the United States. Though the story is set in the early 19th century, it is an allegory about the upheaval of the American Civil War and was meant to promote the Union cause.

A delicate and close observer, quick to detect the absurd, bold in exposing, but inclined to push his fun too far, Gogol is in the first place a very lively satirist. He is merciless towards fools and rascals, but he has only one weapon at his disposal—irony. This is a weapon which is too severe to use against the merely absurd, and on the other hand it is not sharp enough for the punishment of crime; and it is against crime that Gogol too often uses it. His comic vein is always too near the farcical, and his mirth is hardly contagious. If sometimes he makes his reader laugh, he still leaves in his mind a feeling of bitterness and indignation; his satires do not avenge society, they only make it angry.

First published in the year 1894, the present romantic novel ‘The Manxman’ by Sir Hall Caine was set in the Isle of Man and concerned a romantic triangle. The novel has as its central themes, the mounting consequences of sin and the saving grace of simple human goodness.

First published in the year 2000, the present book ‘The Mary Frances First Aid Book’ by Jane Eayre Fryer consists of ready references of ordinary accidents and illnesses with their cures and home remedies. The home remedies suggested in this book are approved by experts.

First published in the year 1842, the present book ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ by Edgar Allan Poe is a gothic short story that follows Prince Prospero’s attempts to avoid a dangerous plague, known as the Red Death, by hiding in his abbey.

The Master Builder depicts a powerful man whose illusions collapse in the face of a young woman’s courageous common sense. In Rosmersholm, an idealist is forced to question his beliefs and confront terrible truths about the past, while Little Eyolf portrays a man’s self-deception, which brings both tragic repercussions for his family and new hope for their future. and in John Gabriel Borkman, a dying woman returns to reclaim the affections and loyalty of her nephew, resulting in a bitter struggle with her sister.

HELIUM, June 8th, 1925
MY DEAR MR. BURROUGHS:
It was in the Fall of nineteen seventeen at an officers’ training camp that I first became acquainted with John Carter, War Lord of Barsoom, through the pages of your novel “A Princess of Mars.” The story made a profound impression upon me and while my better judgment assured me that it was but a highly imaginative piece of fiction, a suggestion of the verity of it pervaded my inner consciousness to such an extent that I found myself dreaming of Mars and John Carter, of Dejah Thoris, of Tars Tarkas and of Woola as if they had been entities of my own experience rather than the figments of your imagination.
It is true that in those days of strenuous preparation there was little time for dreaming, yet there were brief moments before sleep claimed me at night and these were my dreams. Such dreams! Always of Mars, and during my waking hours at night my eyes always sought out the Red Planet when he was above the horizon and clung there seeking a solution of the seemingly unfathomable riddle he has presented to the Earthman for ages.

Deepest chord in the human heart. A human voice, rich and resonant, may awaken sympathetic response from the chords of a harp, thus creating its own accompaniment. And so the appeal of a
noble grief is profound and universal.

HE had come gently and observantly up the glen, tapping here and scratching there as he climbed, and ever and anon straightening an elderly back to deliver a small cough. Also at intervals he would turn his face to the way by which he had come to rest the plantar muscles and study the lie of the land.
Chance-led he came and unadventurously, as one might say, and with no more premonition of impending change, or of this being a White Day in his life than had you, yourself, dear reader, when you left your breakfast-table this morning.
He was a little person in the clerical wideawake and dark tweeds of a don in vacation,[Pg 2] elderly and grey, with heavy, lower-middle-class features refined by expression as a sunset refines a dull street.

A collection of tragic and frolic short stories, ‘The Matador of the Five Towns and Other Stories’ consists of 22 stories written by famous British novelist Arnold Bennett. This collection was first published in the year 1912.

This little book has been written for the young and inexperienced mother. It is intended to furnish her with that information which the experience and observation of some years convince the author, young mothers, almost without any exception, do not possess; and yet, from ignorance of which, the constitution of many an infant has received irretrievable injury, and life itself but too frequently fallen a sacrifice.
In the first chapters, devoted to the general management of the child in health, the author has endeavoured to teach the young mother, that the prevention of disease is her province, not its cure; that to this object all her best efforts must be directed; and, moreover, that to tamper with medicine, when disease has actually commenced, is to hazard the life of her offspring.

Set in a fictional town of Casterbridge, ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ is a 1886 novel by one of the most read and crittically acclaimed novelists of nineteenth century Thomas Hardy. It is one of his Wessex novels, set in rural England.

“The theory of relativity is intimately connected with the theory of space and time. I shall therefore begin with a brief investigation of the origin of our ideas of space and time, although in doing so I know that I introduce a controversial subject. The object of all science, whether natural science or psychology, is to co-ordinate our experiences and to bring them into a logical system. How are our customary ideas of space and time related to the character of our experiences?” -an excerpt

The constant and growing use of the Binet-Simon intelligence scale in public schools, institutions for defectives, reform schools, juvenile courts, and police courts is sufficient evidence of the intrinsic worth of the method. It is generally recognized, however, that the serviceableness of the scale has hitherto been seriously limited, both by the lack of a sufficiently detailed guide and by a number of recognized imperfections in the scale itself. The Stanford revision and extension has been worked out for the purpose of correcting as many as possible of these imperfections, and it is here presented with a rather minute description of the method as a whole and of the individual tests.

First published in the year 1914, “This book was written primarily for students of forestry to whom a knowledge of the technical properties of wood is essential. The mechanics involved is reduced to the simplest terms and without reference to higher mathematics, with which the students rarely are familiar. The intention throughout has been to avoid all unnecessarily technical language and descriptions, thereby making the subject-matter readily available to every one interested in wood.” -Preface

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts, We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

A compandium of memoirs of the famous Italian adventurer and writer Giacomo Casanova, ‘The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete’ was first published in the year 1894. This volume includes his memoirs that were written between 1725-1798.

Xenophon gives us an alternative to Plato’s accounts of the lessons of Socrates. As you probably know if you are reading this, Socrates left nothing behind by way of written teachings. All we know of the great philosopher’s teachings come from the accounts of his students. Xenophon’s version (Memorabilia of Socrates) is stylistically different from Plato’s dialogues(e.g. Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo), though Socrates’ wisdom and method (questioning) remain consistent.

The summer camp of Woodcrest Military Institute was always an exciting event to the Mercer boys and Terry Mackson. But when the cadets camped near Rustling Ridge, the boys ran into a series of startling occurrences: a horse stampede, a mysterious fire, the disappearance of a little girl, and most frightening of all, the Ghost of Rustling Ridge, who seemed determined to drive the cadets away.
Don and Jim, along with Terry, were appointed to the camp’s Ghost Patrol, and how they solved the mystery of the ghost makes one of the most exciting adventures in the Mercer Boys Series.

The Mercer Boys head to Southern California to search for buried Spanish gold. The Mercer Boys on a Treasure Hunt is the third book in the popular boys’ mystery-adventure series by Capwell Wyckoff.

The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies, but it remains deeply controversial. The text may seem anti-Semitic; yet repeatedly, in performance, it has revealed a contrasting nature. Shylock, though vanquished in the law-court, often triumphs in the theatre. In his intensity he can dominate the play, challenging abrasively its romantic and lyrical affirmations. What results is a bitter-sweet drama.

Though The Merchant of Venice offers some of the traditional pleasures of romantic comedy, it also exposes the operations of prejudice. Thus Shakespeare remains our contemporary

First published in the year 1887, the present book ‘The Merry Men, and Other Tales and Fables’ by famous British writer Robert Louis Stevenson is a collection of short fantasy tales.

Before the narrative which follows was placed in my hands, I had never seen Dr. Walter T. Goodwin, its author.

When the manuscript revealing his adventures among the pre-historic ruins of the Nan-Matal in the Carolines (The Moon Pool) had been given me by the International Association of Science for editing and revision to meet the requirements of a popular presentation, Dr. Goodwin had left America. He had explained that he was still too shaken, too depressed, to be able to recall experiences that must inevitably carry with them freshened memories of those whom he loved so well and from whom, he felt, he was separated in all probability forever.

Chaos is divided by the Deity into four Elements: to these their respective inhabitants are assigned, and man is created from earth and water. The four Ages follow, and in the last of these the Giants aspire to the sovereignty of the heavens; being slain by Jupiter, a new race of men springs up from their blood. These becoming noted for their impiety, Jupiter not only transforms Lycaon into a wolf, but destroys the whole race of men and animals by a Deluge, with the exception of Deucalion and Pyrrha, who, when the waters have abated, renew the human race, by throwing stones behind them. Other animated beings are produced by heat and moisture: and, among them, the serpent Python. Phœbus slays him, and institutes the Pythian games as a memorial of the event, in which the conquerors are crowned with beech; for as yet the laurel does not exist, into which Daphne is changed soon after, while flying from Phœbus. On this taking place, the other rivers repair to her father Peneus, either to congratulate or to console him; but Inachus is not there, as he is grieving for his daughter Io, whom Jupiter, having first ravished her, has changed into a cow. She is entrusted by Juno to the care of Argus; Mercury having first related to him the transformation of the Nymph Syrinx into reeds, slays him, on which his eyes are placed by Juno in the tail of the peacock. Io, having recovered human shape, becomes the mother of Epaphus.

SCENE I (Music Master, Dancing Master, Musicians, and Dancers)
(The play opens with a great assembly of instruments, and in the middle of the stage is a pupil of the Music Master seated at a table composing a melody which Monsieur Jourdain has ordered for a serenade.)
MUSIC MASTER: (To Musicians) Come, come into this room, sit there and wait until he comes.
DANCING MASTER: (To dancers) And you too, on this side.
MUSIC MASTER: (To Pupil) Is it done?
PUPIL: Yes.
MUSIC MASTER: Let’s see. . . This is good.
DANCING MASTER: Is it something new?
MUSIC MASTER: Yes, it’s a melody for a serenade that I set him to composing here, while waiting for our man to awake.

First published in the year 1860, the present fictional novel ‘The Mill on the Floss’ was written by one of the foremost novelists and social critic of the Victorian era George Eliot. The novel spans a period of 10 to 15 years and details the lives of Tom and Maggie Tulliver, siblings growing up at Dorlcote Mill on the River Floss at its junction with the more minor River Ripple near the village of St. Ogg’s in Lincolnshire, England. Both the river and the village are fictional.

When I was twenty-seven years old, I was a mining-broker’s clerk in San Francisco, and an expert in all the details of stock traffic. I was alone in the world, and had nothing to depend upon but my wits and a clean reputation; but these were setting my feet in the road to eventual fortune, and I was content with the prospect.
My time was my own after the afternoon board, Saturdays, and I was accustomed to put it in on a little sail-boat on the bay. One day I ventured too far, and was carried out to sea. Just at nightfall, when hope was about gone, I was picked up by a small brig which was bound for London. It was a long and stormy voyage, and they made me work my passage without pay, as a common sailor. When I stepped ashore in London my clothes were ragged and shabby, and I had only a dollar in my pocket. This money fed and sheltered me twenty-four hours. During the next twenty-four I went without food and shelter.