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TOM BROWN’S SCHOOLDAYS CHAPTER I – THE BROWN FAMILY “I’m the Poet of White Horse Vale, sir, With liberal notions under my cap.” – Ballad The Browns have become illustrious by the pen of Thackeray and the pencil of Doyle, within the memory of the young gentlemen who are now matriculating at the universities. Notwithstanding the well-merited but late fame which has now fallen upon them, any one at all acquainted with the family must feel that much has yet to be written and said before the British nation will be properly sensible of how much of its greatness it owes to the Browns....

Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo. By Richard F. Burton. In Two Volumes Vol. I. London: 1876 “Quisquis amat Congi fines peragrare nigrantes, Africæ et Æthiopum cernere regna, domus, * * * * * * *Perlegat hunc librum.” Fra Angelus de Map. Piccardus. “Timbuctoo travels, voyages to the poles, Are ways to benefit mankind as truePerhaps as shooting them at Waterloo.”–Don Juan. Trieste, Jan. 31, 1875. My Dear Sir George, Our paths in life have been separated by a long interval....

by Anton Checkov UNCLE VANYA SCENES FROM COUNTRY LIFE IN FOUR ACTS CHARACTERS ALEXANDER SEREBRAKOFF, a retired professor HELENA, his wife, twenty-seven years old SONIA, his daughter by a former marriage MME. VOITSKAYA, widow of a privy councilor, and mother of Serebrakoff’s first wife IVAN (VANYA) VOITSKI, her son MICHAEL ASTROFF, a doctor ILIA (WAFFLES) TELEGIN, an impoverished landowner MARINA, an old nurse A WORKMAN The scene is laid on SEREBRAKOFF’S country place UNCLE VANYA ACT I A country house on a terrace....

VITTORIA By George Meredith BOOK 3. XIV. AT THE MAESTRO’S DOORXV. AMMIANI THROUGH THE MIDNIGHT XVI. COUNTESS AMMIANIXVII. IN THE PIAZZA D’ARMIXVIII. THE NIGHT OF THE FIFTEENTHXIX. THE PRIMA DONNA CHAPTER XIV AT THE MAESTRO’S DOOR The house of the Maestro Rocco Ricci turned off the Borgo della Stella. Carlo Ammiani conducted Vittoria to the maestro’s door. They conversed very little on the way. ‘You are a good swordsman?’ she asked him abruptly....

WASHINGTON IN DOMESTIC LIFE. From Original Letters and Manuscripts. By Richard Rush. 1857. GENTLEMEN:– In confiding to your house the publication of this brief paper on some points in the character of Washington, I beg leave to say, that for any deficiency in the cost of publishing, after all your charges in having it fitly done are defrayed, I will be responsible. And in the very remote probability of the sale of a production so limited as this, in the face of a thousand better things on Washington’s character already before the world, ever yielding anything in the way of profit after your proper expenditures are all satisfied, it will go, however small, to the Washington Monument Fund, existing in the metropolis of our country....

Wilhelm Tell by Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller Translator: Theodore Martin INTRODUCTORY NOTE Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was born at Marbach, Wurtemberg, Germany, November 10, 1759. His father had served both as surgeon and soldier in the War of the Austrian Succession, and at the time of the poet’s birth held an appointment under the Duke of Wurtemberg. Friedrich’s education was begun with a view to holy orders, but this idea was given up when he was placed in a military academy established by the Duke....

CELEBRATED CRIMES VOLUME 6(of 8), Part 1 By Alexandre Dumas, Pere JOAN OF NAPLES1343-1382 CHAPTER I In the night of the 15th of January 1343, while the inhabitants of Naples lay wrapped in peaceful slumber, they were suddenly awakened by the bells of the three hundred churches that this thrice blessed capital contains. In the midst of the disturbance caused by so rude a call the first bought in the mind of all was that the town was on fire, or that the army of some enemy had mysteriously landed under cover of night and could put the citizens to the edge of the sword....

Listlessly turning the magazine’s pages, as if searching for an elusive treasure, she suddenly came upon something which dispelled her languor. An observer could have read her thoughts and told that she had discovered some image or dream which brought her nearer to her unattained goal than any image or dream she had seen before. It was only a bit of vers libre, that pitiful compromise of the poet who overleaps prose yet falls short of the divine melody of numbers; but it had in it all the unstudied music of a bard who lives and feels, and who gropes ecstatically for unveiled beauty....

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON, V4 BY CONSTANT PREMIER VALET DE CHAMBRE TRANSLATED BY WALTER CLARK 1895 CHAPTER XXIII. It was the 2d of January, 1805, exactly a month after the coronation, that I formed with the eldest daughter of M. Charvet a union which has been, and will I trust ever be, the greatest happiness of my life. I promised the reader to say very little of myself; and, in fact, how could he be interested in any details of my own private life which did not throw additional light upon the character of the great man about whom I have undertaken to write?...

Ermengarde’s hand was sought in matrimony by two ardent lovers. ’Squire Hardman, who had a mortgage on the old home, was very rich and elderly. He was dark and cruelly handsome, and always rode horseback and carried a riding-crop. Long had he sought the radiant Ermengarde, and now his ardour was fanned to fever heat by a secret known to him alone—for upon the humble acres of Farmer Stubbs he had discovered a vein of rich GOLD!...

THE DAREDEVIL By MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS Author of “The Melting of Molly,” “Miss Selina Lue,” “Over Paradise Ridge, etc.” 1916 [Illustration] Frontispiece from Painting by E. Sophonisba Hergesheimer ToJessie Morson GrahameWho expects “the best” of me CONTENTS I SPARKLING WAVES OVER HIGH EXPLOSIVES II VIVE LA FRANCE! III THAT MR. G. SLADE OF DETROIT IV THE IMPOSSIBLE UNCLE ROBERT V “HERE’S MY BOY, GOVERNOR” VI “WE BOTH NEED YOU” VII THE GIRL BUNCH VIII IN THE DRESS OF MAGNIFICENCE IX “O’ER THE LAND OF THE FREE–“ X VITRIOL AND THE HOODOO XI BUSINESS AND PIE XII THE BEAUTIFUL MADAM WHITWORTH XIII BROTHERS BY BLOODSHED XIV TO BEAR MEN AND TO SAVE THEM XV “BEHOLD, I AM A SPY!...

Later he had learned about George Rogers. The man had been on the Tussaud staff, but some trouble had developed which led to his discharge. There were aspersions on his sanity and tales of his crazy forms of secret worship—though latterly his success with his own basement museum had dulled the edge of some criticisms while sharpening the insidious point of others. Teratology and the iconography of nightmare were his hobbies, and even he had had the prudence to screen off some of his worst effigies in a special alcove for adults only....

THE ORDEAL OF RICHARD FEVEREL By George Meredith 1905 BOOK 6. XXXIX. THE LITTLE BIRD AND THE FALCON: A BERRY TO THE RESCUE!XL. CLARE’S DIARYXLI. AUSTIN RETURNSXLII. NATURE SPEAKSXLIII. AGAIN THE MAGIAN CONFLICTXLIV. THE LAST SCENEXLV. LADY BLANDISH TO AUSTIN WENTWORTH CHAPTER XXXIX At a season when the pleasant South-western Island has few attractions to other than invalids and hermits enamoured of wind and rain, the potent nobleman, Lord Mountfalcon, still lingered there to the disgust of his friends and special parasite....

THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS A PERSONAL NARRATIVE BY ROBERT LANSING WITH ILLUSTRATIONS CONTENTS I. REASONS FOR WRITING A PERSONAL NARRATIVE II. MR. WILSON’S PRESENCE AT THE PEACE CONFERENCE III. GENERAL PLAN FOR A LEAGUE OF NATIONS IV. SUBSTITUTE ARTICLES PROPOSED V. THE AFFIRMATIVE GUARANTY AND BALANCE OF POWER VI. THE PRESIDENT’S PLAN AND THE CECIL PLAN VII. SELF-DETERMINATION VIII. THE CONFERENCE OF JANUARY 10, 1919 IX. A RESOLUTION INSTEAD OF THE COVENANT X....

THE PROSE WORKS OF JONATHAN SWIFT VOL. IX GEORGE BELL & SONSLONDON: YORK STREET, COVENT GARDENCAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL & CO. NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO. [Illustration: Jonathan Swift from the picture by Charles Jervas in the Bodlean Library Oxford] THE PROSE WORKS OF JONATHAN SWIFT, D.D. EDITED BY TEMPLE SCOTT VOL IX CONTRIBUTIONS TO “THE TATLER,” “THE EXAMINER,” “THE SPECTATOR,” AND “THE INTELLIGENCER” LONDONGEORGE BELL AND SONS 1902 CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO....

THE PURSUIT OF THE HOUSE-BOAT by John Kendrick Bangs CHAPTER I: THE ASSOCIATED SHADES TAKE ACTION The House-boat of the Associated Shades, formerly located upon the River Styx, as the reader may possibly remember, had been torn from its moorings and navigated out into unknown seas by that vengeful pirate Captain Kidd, aided and abetted by some of the most ruffianly inhabitants of Hades. Like a thief in the night had they come, and for no better reason than that the Captain had been unanimously voted a shade too shady to associate with self-respecting spirits had they made off with the happy floating club-house of their betters; and worst of all, with them, by force of circumstances over which they had no control, had sailed also the fair Queen Elizabeth, the spirited Xanthippe, and every other strong-minded and beautiful woman of Erebean society, whereby the men thereof were rendered desolate....

WHEN Bartley Hubbard went to interview Silas Lapham for the “Solid Men of Boston” series, which he undertook to finish up in The Events, after he replaced their original projector on that newspaper, Lapham received him in his private office by previous appointment. “Walk right in!” he called out to the journalist, whom he caught sight of through the door of the counting-room. He did not rise from the desk at which he was writing, but he gave Bartley his left hand for welcome, and he rolled his large head in the direction of a vacant chair....

The Sea-Hawk by Rafael Sabatini NOTE Lord Henry Goade, who had, as we shall see, some personal acquaintance with Sir Oliver Tressilian, tells us quite bluntly that he was ill-favoured. But then his lordship is addicted to harsh judgments and his perceptions are not always normal. He says, for instance, of Anne of Cleves, that she was the “ugliest woman that ever I saw.” As far as we can glean from his own voluminous writings it would seem to be extremely doubtful whether he ever saw Anne of Cleves at all, and we suspect him here of being no more than a slavish echo of the common voice, which attributed Cromwell’s downfall to the ugliness of this bride he procured for his Bluebeard master....

Scanner’s Notes: What this is and isn’t. This was taken from a copy of Shakespeare’s first folio and it is as close as I can come in ASCII to the printed text. The elongated S’s have been changed to small s’s and the conjoined ae have been changed to ae. I have left the spelling, punctuation, capitalization as close as possible to the printed text. I have corrected some spelling mistakes (I have put together a spelling dictionary devised from the spellings of the Geneva Bible and Shakespeare’s First Folio and have unified spellings according to this template), typo’s and expanded abbreviations as I have come across them....

The Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow Contents On the art of making up one’s mind.On the disadvantage of not getting what one wants. On the exceptional merit attaching to the things we meant to do. On the preparation and employment of love philtres. On the delights and benefits of slavery. On the care and management of women.On the minding of other people’s business. On the time wasted in looking before one leaps....