Bøger af 510 Classics

Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist who is impressed and infatuated by Dorian's beauty; he believes that Dorian's beauty is responsible for the new mode in his art as a painter. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: that beauty and sensual fulfilment are the only things worth pursuing in life.Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied and amoral experiences; all the while his portrait ages and records every soul-corrupting sin.

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow fall into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references.

Dickens gave his first formal expression to his Christmas thoughts in his series of small books, the first of which was the famous "Christmas Carol." There followed four others: "The Chimes," "The Cricket on the Hearth," "The Battle of Life," and "The Haunted Man." The five are known today as the "Christmas Books." Of them all the "Carol" is the best known and loved, and "The Cricket on the Hearth," although third in the series, is perhaps next in popularity, and is especially familiar to Americans through Joseph Jefferson's characterisation of Caleb Plummer.The title creature is a sort of barometer of life at the home of John Peerybingle and his much younger wife Dot. When things go well, the cricket on the hearth chirps; it is silent when there is sorrow. Tackleton, a jealous old man, poisons John's mind about Dot, but the cricket through its supernatural powers restores John's confidence and all ends happily.

Bill and Frances are visiting their widowed friend, who has just come back home. Her home, the Towers, seems to have kept her bigoted preacher husband's essence. Nothing ever happens in the Towers. The thing is, the most frightening thing here is the wait. They constantly expect something, anything really, to make itself known. That lack of action is the actual story and its essence is in its atmosphere.

Presented in first person, the story is a collection of journal entries written by a woman whose husband has rented an old mansion for the summer. Foregoing other rooms in the house, the couple moves into the upstairs nursery. As a form of treatment she is forbidden from working, and is encouraged to eat well and get plenty of exercise and air, so she can recuperate from what he calls a "temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency", a diagnosis common to women in that period. She hides her journal from her husband, fearful of being reproached for overworking herself. Because it's a nursery the room's windows are barred, to prevent children from climbing through them, and there is a gate across the top of the stairs, though she and her husband have access to the rest of the house and its adjoining estate.The story depicts the effect of understimulation on the narrator's mental health and her descent into psychosis. With nothing to stimulate her, she becomes obsessed by the pattern and color of the wallpaper. In the end, she imagines there are women creeping around behind the patterns of the wallpaper and comes to believe she is one of them. She locks herself in the room, now the only place she feels safe, refusing to leave when the summer rental is up. "For outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow. But here I can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose my way."

A Classic English Mystery.Catherine Ann Crowe, née Stevens, (20 September 1803 in Borough Green, Kent - 14 June 1876 in Folkestone), was an English novelist, story writer and playwright, who also wrote for children.

Cap'n Bill and Trot journey to Oz and, with the help of the Scarecrow, the former ruler of Oz, overthrow the villainous King Krewl of Jinxland. Cap'n Bill and Trot had previously appeared in two other novels by Baum, The Sea Fairies and Sky Island. Based in part upon the 1914 silent film, His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz. This was allegedly L. Frank Baum's personal favourite Oz book.

"The Little Mermaid" (Danish: Den lille havfrue) is a fairy tale by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince.The tale was first published in 1837 and has been adapted to various media, including musical theatre and animated film.

Meet Rinkitink--a kindhearted king who's as fat and jolly as old Saint Nick himself! When the jovial monarch sails for a visit to the island kingdom of Pingaree, he and his talking goat, Bilbil, are welcomed with open arms. Before long, Rinkitink's lighthearted ways and merry songs endear him to the king and queen of Pingaree, as well as to their son, Prince Inga.But when the peaceful isle is invaded by fierce warriors, everyone from the rulers to the smallest child is taken off in chains. Only Prince Inga, Rinkitink, and Bilbil escape the conquerors. And so the three friends set out--aided by the magical Pearls of Pingaree--to rescue the prince's people.Their perilous quest takes them across the vast Nonestic Ocean to the terrible islands of Regos and Coregos to the dark underground domains of the Nome King. Victories are followed by setbacks, which are in turn followed by strokes of good fortune. Just when it seems our friends have met their match in the clever Nome King, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz arrive to lend a hand.Thrilling tale of adventure from a master storyteller, Rinkitink in Oz is sure to enjoyed by Oz fans far and wide and by all who delight in tales of enchantment and adventure.

Richard Barnham Middleton's "The Ghost Ship" is one of the best-loved ghost stories in English literature, about which Arthur Machen wrote, "I declare I would not exchange this short, crazy, enchanting fantasy for a whole wilderness of seemly novels." Middleton himself (1882-1911) was a tragic figure, a young man impatient for success, who managed to live the archetypal life of the Romantic Bohemian poet, complete with poverty, unrequited love for an impossible woman (a prostitute), despair, and an early suicide. While he published many pieces in the best magazines of the day, no volumes of his work were published in his lifetime. As soon as he was dead, he was "discovered." Four volumes of his collected works were in print within eighteen months. Three more followed in the next two decades. His poetry was acclaimed in the press as a new Keats, both for the brilliance of his work and the brevity of his life. He is remembered today for a handful of superbly crafted, eerie fantasies, such as "The Coffin Merchant," "On the Brighton Road," and "The Conjurer," which only hint at the richness of the larger body of his work, and suggest what kind of a literary artist he would have become if he had lived.

Dorothy and Toto are off again on an exciting adventure down The Road to Oz!In order to help the lovable, ever-wandering Shaggy Man, Dorothy and Toto must journey through magical and mysterious lands. Soon the three are joined by a lost lad named Button-Bright and the beautiful young Polychromethe Rainbow's Daughter. With magic at work and danger about, these new friends must journey through cities of talking beasts, across the Deadly Desert into the Truth Pond, and through many other strange and incredible places before they can reach the Emerald City.Along the way, Dorothy and her companions encounter a whole new assortment of fantastic and funny characters--the crafty King Dox of Foxville, the magical donkey King Kik-a-bray, the terrible bigheaded Scoodlers, and Johnny Dooit (who can do anything)--along with old friends Jack Pumpkinhead, Tik-tok, Billina, and, of course, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, and the wonderful Wizard himself.

Peace, prosperity, and happiness are the rule in the marvelous Land of Oz, but in a faraway corner of this magical domain dwell two tribes--the Flatheads and the Skeezers--who have declared war on each other. Determined to keep her subjects from fighting, the Ruler of Oz, Princess Ozma, along with her dearest friend, Princess Dorothy Gale (formerly of Kansas), embarks on a quest to restore peace.When the Supreme Dictator of the Flatheads refuses to cooperate with Ozma, she and Dorothy seek out Queen Coo-ee-oh of the Skeezers, hoping she will be more reasonable. But the queen imprisons Ozma and Dorothy in her grand city and then traps them by submerging the whole city under water. Now it is up to Glinda the Good to save the day. She assembles all of Ozma's counsellors--including such beloved Oz friends as the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion, Patchwork Girl, Shaggy Man, Tik-Tok, and Wizard of Oz--and they set out to rescue their friends. Will the magic powers of Glinda and the Wizard combined be enough to free Ozma and Dorothy?A rousing tale of suspense, magic, and adventure, Glinda of Oz is the fourteenth and final Oz book by L. Frank Baum. It's a grand conclusion to his chronicles of America's favorite fairyland.

These stories were written for my own amusement during a period of enforced seclusion. The flowers which were my solace and pleasure suggested titles for the tales and gave an interest to the work. If my girls find a little beauty or sunshine in these common blossoms, their old friend will not have made her Garland in vain. L.M. ALCOTT. SEPTEMBER, 1887.

The play Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers.

Buck, a sturdy crossbreed canine (half St. Bernard, half Shepard), is a dog born to luxury and raised in a sheltered Californian home. But then he is kidnapped and sold to be a sled dog in the harsh and frozen Yukon Territory. Passed from master to master, Buck embarks on an extraordinary journey, proving his unbreakable spirit...

Ozma of Oz: A Record of Her Adventures with Dorothy Gale of Kansas, Billina the Yellow Hen, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, Tik-Tok, the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger; Besides Other Good People too Numerous to Mention Faithfully Recorded Herein published on July 30, 1907, was the third book of L. Frank Baum's Oz series. It was the first in which Baum was clearly intending a series of Oz books.It is the first Oz book where the majority of the action takes place outside of the Land of Oz. Only the final two chapters take place in Oz itself. This reflects a subtle change in theme: in the first book, Oz is the dangerous land through which Dorothy must win her way back to Kansas; in the third, Oz is the end and aim of the book. Dorothy's desire to return home is not as desperate as in the first book, and it is her uncle's need for her rather than hers for him that makes her return.

A man meets an ex-acquaintance on a train journey who has apparently swiped 75,000 Pounds Sterling. The man is accused of complicity at first and then he is written off with a simple mistaken identity.The events which I am about to relate took place between nine and ten years ago. Sebastopol had fallen in the early spring, the peace of Paris had been concluded since March, our commercial relations with the Russian empire were but recently renewed; and I, returning home after my first northward journey since the war, was well pleased with the prospect of spending the month of December under the hospitable and thoroughly English roof of my excellent friend, Jonathan Jelf, Esq., of Dumbleton Manor, Clayborough, East Anglia. Travelling in the interests of the wellknown firm in which it is my lot to be a junior partner, I had been called upon to visit not only the capitals of Russia and Poland, but had found it also necessary to pass some weeks among the trading ports of the Baltic; whence it came that the year was already far spent before I again set foot on English soil, and that, instead of shooting pheasants with him, as I had hoped, in October, I came to be my friend's guest during the more genial Christmas-tide.

In Edwardian era London, Gabriel Syme is recruited at Scotland Yard to a secret anti-anarchist police corps. Lucian Gregory, an anarchistic poet, lives in the suburb of Saffron Park. Syme meets him at a party and they debate the meaning of poetry. Gregory argues that revolt is the basis of poetry. Syme demurs, insisting the essence of poetry is not revolution but law. He antagonizes Gregory by asserting that the most poetical of human creations is the timetable for the London Underground. He suggests Gregory isn't really serious about anarchism, which so irritates Gregory, that he takes Syme to an underground anarchist meeting place, revealing his public endorsement of anarchy is a ruse to make him seem harmless, when in fact he is an influential member of the local chapter of the European anarchist council.The central council consists of seven men, each using the name of a day of the week as a cover name; the position of Thursday is about to be elected by Gregory's local chapter. Gregory expects to win the election but just before, Syme reveals to Gregory after an oath of secrecy, that he is a secret policeman. Fearful Syme may use his speech in evidence of a prosecution, Gregory's weakened words fail to convince the local chapter that he is sufficiently dangerous for the job. Syme makes a rousing anarchist speech and wins the vote. He is sent immediately as the chapter's delegate to the central council.In his efforts to thwart the council, Syme eventually discovers that the other five members are also undercover detectives; each was employed just as mysteriously and assigned to defeat the Council. They soon find out they were fighting each other and not real anarchists; such was the mastermind plan of their president, Sunday. In a surreal conclusion, Sunday is unmasked as only seeming to be terrible; in fact, he is a force of good like the detectives. Sunday is unable to give an answer to the question of why he caused so much trouble and pain for the detectives. Gregory, the only real anarchist, seems to challenge the good council. His accusation is that they, as rulers, have never suffered like Gregory and their other subjects and so their power is illegitimate. Syme refutes the accusation immediately, because of the terrors inflicted by Sunday on the rest of the council.The dream ends when Sunday is asked if he has ever suffered. His last words, "can ye drink of the cup that I drink of?", is the question Jesus asks St. James and St. John in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, vs 38-39, to challenge their commitment in becoming his disciples.

This is the story of a young Irish boy named Sandy Kilday, who at the age of sixteen, being without home or relatives, decides to try his luck in the new country across the sea. Accordingly he slips aboard one of the big ocean liners as a stowaway, but is discovered before the voyage is half over and in spite of his entreaties is told he must be returned by the next steamer. Sandy, however, who has a winning way and sunny smile, arouses the interest of the ship's doctor, who pays his passage and gives him some money with which to start his new life. On the voyage Sandy has made friends with a lad in steerage named Ricks Wilson, who earns his living by peddling, and he decides to join him in this career. Sandy has also been deeply impressed by the face of a lovely young girl who is one of the cabin passengers and when he discovers that she is Miss Ruth Nelson of Kentucky he decides to make that state his destination. He and Ricks remain companions for sometime although Sandy's strong sense of honor causes disagreements as to the methods of their dealings. Sandy finally becomes disgusted with this life and after catching a glimpse of Ruth at a circus, where he is dispensing his wares in a humorous manner, he decides to abandon it altogether.He parts from Ricks and falling ill by the roadside is picked up by a colored woman named Aunt Melvy, who is in the employ of Judge Hollis. The latter takes Sandy to his home and his wife nurses him through a long fever and then, as they are childless, they adopt him into their household. The Judge gives Sandy a good education, sends him to college and he becomes a successful lawyer. All this time his love for Ruth has been unswerving though she has not responded to his advances. Judge Hollis is shot by an unknown assailant and Sandy, who discovers the assailant to be Ruth's dissipated brother Carter, refuses to give evidence against him. Sandy is kept in jail until freed by Ruth's intervention, Carter having confessed his crime to his sister before his death. The Judge recovers from his wound and Sandy and Ruth are happily married to the satisfaction of all concerned.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the original title of a novella written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson that was first published in 1886. The work is commonly known today as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or simply Jekyll & Hyde. It's about a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde.The work is commonly associated with the rare mental condition often called "split personality", where within the same body there exists more than one distinct personality. In this case, there are two personalities within Dr. Jekyll, one apparently good and the other evil. Gabriel John Utterson, a lawyer, is on his weekly walk with his cousin, Richard Enfield. During that walk, they reach a door leading into a rather large house, and this motivates Enfield to tell Utterson of an encounter he had seen some months ago while coming home late at night between a man and a young girl. The man, a sinister figure named Edward Hyde, and a young girl, who has run to get a doctor, accidentally bump into one another, but Hyde proceeds to trample her. Enfield chases after Hyde, brings him back to the scene, and, after the doctor assures them that the girl is okay, though frightened, joins with the girl's family in forcing Hyde to pay £100 to avoid the scandal they will otherwise spread for his despicable behavior. Hyde leads them to the building in front of which Enfield and Utterson have now paused, where he disappears, and re-emerges with £10 in gold and a check for the rest, drawn on the account of a reputable gentleman. (Later revealed to be Dr. Henry Jekyll.) Much to Utterson's surprise, Hyde willingly offers Utterson his address. After one of Jekyll's dinner parties, Utterson stays behind to discuss the matter of Hyde with Jekyll. This causes Jekyll to turn pale, which Utterson notices. Yet Jekyll assures Utterson that everything involving Hyde is in order and that Hyde should be left alone.One night in late October, a servant girl witnesses Hyde beat a man to death with a heavy cane. The victim was MP Sir Danvers Carew, another of Utterson's clients, who was carrying a letter addressed to Utterson when he was killed. The police, who suspect Hyde, contact Utterson. He leads the officers to Hyde's apartment, feeling a sense of foreboding amid the eerie weather. (The morning is dark and wreathed in fog.) When they arrive at the apartment, the murderer has vanished, but they find half of the cane left behind a door. It is revealed to be one which Utterson himself gave to Jekyll. Shortly thereafter, Utterson again visits Jekyll, who now claims to have ended all relations with Hyde. Jekyll shows Utterson a note, allegedly written to Jekyll by Hyde, apologizing for the trouble that he has caused him and saying goodbye. That night, however, Utterson's clerk, Mr. Guest, points out that Hyde's handwriting bears a remarkable similarity to Jekyll's own.In late February, Utterson goes out walking with Enfield, and they see Jekyll at a window of his laboratory. The three men start conversing, but a look of horror suddenly comes over Jekyll's face, and he slams the window and disappears. Soon afterwards, Jekyll's butler, visits Utterson in a state of desperation and explains that Jekyll has secluded himself in his laboratory for several weeks. Utterson and Poole travel to Jekyll's house through empty, windswept, sinister streets. Once there, they find the servants huddled together in fear. They go to see the laboratory where they hear that the voice coming from inside is not the voice of Jekyll and the footsteps are light and not the heavy footsteps of the doctor. After arguing, the two of them resolve to break into Jekyll's laboratory.

Originally published in 1867, this classic and popular tale reminds us of a different time, a different place. The Ghost is a Christmas story in the tradition of A Christmas Carol and was later titled Netty Renton.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. Its narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre.

A classic collection of supernatural fiction, featuring the following tales: THE EMPTY HOUSE, A HAUNTED ISLAND, A CASE OF EAVESDROPPING, KEEPING HIS PROMISE, WITH INTENT TO STEAL, THE WOOD OF THE DEAD, SMITH: AN EPISODE IN A LODGING-HOUSE, A SUSPICIOUS GIFT, THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PRIVATE SECRETARY IN NEW YORK, SKELETON LAKE: AN EPISODE IN CAMP.

"One day, Mr. H. M. Woggle-Bug, became separated from his comrades who had accompanied him from the Land of Oz. Finding that time hung heavy on his hands -- and he had four of them -- he decided to walk down the Main Street of the City and try to discover something-or-other of interest." So begins the adventures of the largest Woggle-Bug you have ever seen -- if you have ever seen even one -- in a thoroughly modern 1905 American city -- strutting down the street, his pink handkerchief in hand, his cane swirling . . . only to fall in love with the most stirringly enchanting beauty in a windowThe Woggle-Bugs befuddled heart will lead him into a twisting series of adventures, from a ride in a balloon to run-ins with weasels -- and kings

The blackness of eternal night encompassed me. The intense darkness oppressed and stifled me so that I struggled for breath.Having been condemned to death by the Spanish Inquisition, the narrator descends into a kind of hell. Dizzy with weakness and fainting with fear, he experiences such torments that death itself would be welcome. What troubles him most is the eternal question: how will he die?Toledo Prison is notorious for the torture of the condemned. What minds have dreamed up the terror of the pit in the center of the cell? What is the significance of the painted figure of Time with his menacing pendulum? Why do the walls glow with heat?Experience with the narrator the intensity of his suffering when death seems inevitable but its form uncertain. Can anything, or anybody, help him?

Dr. Cathcart and his nephew Mr. Simpson go on a moose hunting trip deep into the wilderness of northern Canada with their guides Hank Davis and the French Canadian Joseph Défago, along with their Indian cook, Punk. They split up to cover more ground, Dr. Cathcart with Hank and Simpson with Défago, but the rumor of a creature that wanders the wild where they are headed begins to stir in their minds.When Défago takes off unexpectedly, Simpson attempts to follow him, but Défago is so swift that he is unable to keep up. The strange tracks he leaves, however, reveal that Défago was chasing something else, something with even stranger tracks. Stranger still is the lingering scent of something unexplainable that those who have smelled it can only describe as the "odor of lions."Simpson somehow is able to make it back to the original camp alone. Dr. Cathcart and Hank are surprised to see him, especially without his guide. But when Défago returns on his own, he is somehow changed. Dr. Cathcart might know something of his condition, but it is Punk's response in the end that is most telling.

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in Graham's Magazine in 1841. It has been claimed as the first detective story; Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of ratiocination". Similar works predate Poe's stories, including Das Fräulein von Scuderi (1819) by E.T.A. Hoffmann and Zadig (1748) by Voltaire.C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mysterious brutal murder of two women. Numerous witnesses heard a suspect, though no one agrees on what language was spoken. At the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human.As the first true detective in fiction, the Dupin character established many literary devices which would be used in future fictional detectives including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it. Dupin himself reappears in "The Mystery of Marie Roget" and "The Purloined Letter".

The follow-up volume to "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" collects seven more of Montague Rhodes James's classic horror stories, including "A School Story," "The Rose Garden," "Casting the Runes," and "Martin's Close." "...gifted with an almost diabolic power of calling horror by gentle steps from the midst of prosaic daily life, is the scholarly Montague Rhodes James, Provost of Eton College, antiquary of note, and recognized authority on mediæval manuscripts and cathedral history. Dr. James, long fond of telling spectral tales at Christmastide, has become by slow degrees a literary weird fictionist of the very first rank!" -- H.P. Lovecraft

Walter Hubbell spent six weeks living in the haunted house in Amherst and investigating an account of the mysterious manifestations that took place in the presence of Esther Cox in Amherst. The introduction states, "The manifestations described in this story commenced one year ago. No person has yet been able to ascertain their cause. Scientific men from all parts of Canada and the United States have investigated them in vain. Some people think that electricity is the principal agent; others, mesmerism; whilst others again, are sure they are produced by the devil. Of the three supposed causes, the latter is certainly the most plausible theory, for some of the manifestations are remarkably devilish in their appearance and effect. For instance, the mysterious setting of fires, the powerful shaking of the house, the loud and incessant noises and distinct knocking, as if made by invisible sledge-hammers, on the walls; also, the strange actions of the household furniture, which moves about in the broad daylight without the slightest visible cause. As these strange things only occur while Miss Esther Cox is present, she has become known as the "Amherst Mystery" throughout the entire country." The Great Amherst Mystery was a notorious case of reported poltergeist activity in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada between 1878 and 1879. From Wikipedia "The frightened family called in a doctor. During his visit, bedclothes moved, scratching noises were heard, and the words "Esther Cox, you are mine to kill" appeared on the wall by the head of Esther's bed. The following day the doctor administered sedatives to Esther to calm her and help her sleep, whereupon more noises and flying objects manifested themselves. Attempts to communicate with the "spirit" resulted in tapped responses to questions."

1912. One of Zane Grey's Ken Ward series of books for boys. A great adventure read from the great author of Western fiction. The book begins: What a change from the Arizona desert The words broke from the lips of Ken Ward as he leaned from the window of the train which was bearing his brother and himself over the plateau to Tampico in Tamaulipas, the southeastern state of Mexico. He had caught sight of a river leaping out between heavily wooded slopes and plunging down in the most beautiful waterfall he had ever seen.