Les Misérables Victor Hugo http://feedbooks.com/book/1559 urn:isbn:0375403175 en 1862 Novels History Les Misérables (1862) is a novel by French author Victor Hugo, and among the best-known novels of the 19th century. It follows the lives and interactions of several French characters over a twenty year period in the early 19th century that starts in the year of Napoleon's final defeat. Principally focusing on the struggles of the protagonist—ex-convict Jean Valjean—who seeks to redeem himself, the novel also examines the impact of Valjean's actions for the sake of social commentary. It examines the nature of good, evil, and the law, in a sweeping story that expounds upon the history of France, architecture of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, law, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love. Les Misérables is known to many through its numerous stage and screen adaptations, of which the most famous is the stage musical of the same name, sometimes abbreviated "Les Mis" or "Les Miz" . http://feedbooks.com/book/1559.png http://feedbooks.com/book/1559.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/1559.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/1559.mobi Paradise Lost John Milton http://feedbooks.com/book/174 urn:isbn:0393924289 en 1667 Poetry Religion Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books; a second edition followed in 1674, redivided into twelve books (in the manner of the division of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification. The poem concerns the Judeo-Christian story of the Fall of Man; the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton's purpose, stated in Book I, is "justify the ways of God to men" and elucidate the conflict between God's eternal foresight and free will. http://feedbooks.com/book/174.png http://feedbooks.com/book/174.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/174.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/174.mobi Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert http://feedbooks.com/book/2042 urn:isbn:0192840398 en 1857 Novels Romance Madame Bovary scandalized its readers when it was first published in 1857. And the story itself remains as fresh today as when it was first written, a work that remains unsurpassed in its unveiling of character and society. It tells the tragic story of the romantic but empty-headed Emma Rouault. When Emma marries Charles Bovary, she imagines she will pass into the life of luxury and passion that she reads about in sentimental novels and women's magazines. But Charles is an ordinary country doctor, and provincial life is very different from the romantic excitement for which she yearns. In her quest to realize her dreams she takes a lover, Rodolphe, and begins a devastating spiral into deceit and despair. And Flaubert captures every step of this catastrophe with sharp-eyed detail and a wonderfully subtle understanding of human emotions. http://feedbooks.com/book/2042.png http://feedbooks.com/book/2042.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/2042.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/2042.mobi Siddhartha Hermann Hesse http://feedbooks.com/book/3374 urn:isbn:0553208845 en 1922 Novels Philosophy Religion Siddhartha is an allegorical novel by Hermann Hesse which deals with the spiritual journey of an Indian boy called Siddhartha during the time of the Buddha. The book, Hesse's ninth novel, was written in German, in a simple, yet powerful and lyrical, style. It was first published in 1922, after Hesse had spent some time in India in the 1910s. It was published in the U.S. in 1951 and became influential during the 1960s. The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in the Sanskrit language, siddha (gotten) + artha (meaning or wealth). The two words together mean "one who has found meaning (of existence)" or "he who has attained his goals". The Buddha's name, before his renunciation, was Prince Siddhartha Gautama, later the Buddha. In this book, the Buddha is referred to as "Gotama". Source: Wikipedia This work was published before 1923 and is in the public domain in the USA only. http://feedbooks.com/book/3374.png http://feedbooks.com/book/3374.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/3374.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/3374.mobi The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka http://feedbooks.com/book/8 urn:isbn:0553213695 en 1912 Short Fiction Horror The Metamorphosis (German: Die Verwandlung) is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a "monstrous vermin". This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://feedbooks.com/book/8.png http://feedbooks.com/book/8.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/8.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/8.mobi The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri http://feedbooks.com/book/206 urn:isbn:0451208633 en 1306 Poetry Dante Alighieri's poetic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, is a moving human drama, an unforgettable visionary journey through the infinite torment of Hell, up the arduous slopes of Purgatory, and on to the glorious realm of Paradise-the sphere of universal harmony and eternal salvation. http://feedbooks.com/book/206.png http://feedbooks.com/book/206.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/206.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/206.mobi The Antichrist Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche http://feedbooks.com/book/711 urn:isbn:1420925091 en 1888 Non-Fiction Philosophy Friedrich Nietzsche's "The Antichrist" might be more aptly named "The Antichristian," for it is an unmitigated attack on Christianity that Nietzsche makes within the text instead of an exposition on evil or Satan as the title might suggest. In "The Antichrist," Nietzsche presents a highly controversial view of Christianity as a damaging influence upon western civilization that must come to an end. Regardless of ones religious or philosophical point of view, "The Antichrist" makes for an engaging philosophical discourse. http://feedbooks.com/book/711.png http://feedbooks.com/book/711.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/711.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/711.mobi Candide Voltaire http://feedbooks.com/book/709 urn:isbn:0553211668 en 1759 Novels Philosophy Candide, ou l'Optimisme (1759) is a French satire by the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire, English translations of which have been titled Candide: Or, All for the Best (1759); Candide: Or, The Optimist (1762); and Candide: Or, Optimism (1947). The novella begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply optimism) by his tutor, Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this existence, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not outright rejecting optimism, advocating an enigmatic precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds". http://feedbooks.com/book/709.png http://feedbooks.com/book/709.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/709.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/709.mobi The Confessions Jean-Jacques Rousseau http://feedbooks.com/book/349 urn:isbn:0192822756 en 1768 Non-Fiction Biography In his Confessions Jean-Jacques Rousseau tells the story of his life, from the formative experience of his humble childhood in Geneva, through the achievement of international fame as novelist and philosopher in Paris, to his wanderings as an exile, persecuted by governments and alienated from the world of modern civilization. In trying to explain who he was and how he came to be the object of others' admiration and abuse, Rousseau analyses with unique insight the relationship between an elusive but essential inner self and the variety of social identities he was led to adopt. http://feedbooks.com/book/349.png http://feedbooks.com/book/349.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/349.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/349.mobi Walden Henry David Thoreau http://feedbooks.com/book/3914 urn:isbn:0807014257 en 1854 Non-Fiction Philosophy Essay Biography Politics Walden (also known as Life in the Woods) by Henry David Thoreau is one of the best-known non-fiction books written by an American. Published in 1854, it details Thoreau's life for two years and two months in second-growth forest around the shores of Walden Pond, not far from his friends and family in Concord, Massachusetts. Walden was written so that the stay appears to be a year, with expressed seasonal divisions. Thoreau called it an experiment in simple living. Walden is neither a novel nor a true autobiography, but a social critique of the Western World, with each chapter heralding some aspect of humanity that needed to be either renounced or praised. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, and manual for self reliance. (from Wikipedia) http://feedbooks.com/book/3914.png http://feedbooks.com/book/3914.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/3914.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/3914.mobi Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad http://feedbooks.com/book/15 urn:isbn:0486264645 en 1902 Novels Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Polish-born writer Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski). Before its 1902 publication, it appeared as a three-part series (1899) in Blackwood's Magazine. It is widely regarded as a significant work of English literature and part of the Western canon. This highly symbolic story is actually a story within a story, or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he recounts, from dusk through to late night, his adventure into the Congo to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary. The story details an incident when Marlow, an Englishman, took a foreign assignment as a ferry-boat captain, employed by a Belgian trading company. Although the river is never specifically named, readers may assume it is the Congo River, in the Congo Free State, a private colony of King Leopold II. Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver; however, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization in a cover up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://feedbooks.com/book/15.png http://feedbooks.com/book/15.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/15.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/15.mobi Crime and Punishment Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky http://feedbooks.com/book/38 urn:isbn:0679420290 en 1866 Novels Psychology The poverty-stricken Raskolnikov, believing he is exempt from moral law, murders a man only to face the consequences not only from society but from his conscience, in this seminal story of justice, morality, and redemption from one of Russia's greatest novelists. http://feedbooks.com/book/38.png http://feedbooks.com/book/38.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/38.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/38.mobi Notes From The Underground Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky http://feedbooks.com/book/361 urn:isbn:0199536384 en 1864 Novels Notes from Underground (Russian: Записки из подполья, Zapíski iz podpól'ja, also translated in English as Notes from the Underground or Letters from the Underworld while Notes from Underground is the most literal translation) (1864) is a short novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It is considered by many to be the world's first existentialist novel. It presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator (generally referred to by critics as the Underground Man) who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. http://feedbooks.com/book/361.png http://feedbooks.com/book/361.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/361.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/361.mobi The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky http://feedbooks.com/book/180 urn:isbn:0486437914 en 1880 Novels Psychology The Brothers Karamazov is the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, and is generally considered the culmination of his life's work. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing The Brothers Karamazov, which was published as a serial in The Russian Messenger and completed in November 1880. Dostoevsky intended it to be the first part in an epic story titled The Life of a Great Sinner,[1] but he died less than four months after its publication. The book portrays a parricide in which each of the murdered man's sons share a varying degree of complicity. On a deeper level, it is a spiritual drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, reason, free will and modern Russia. Dostoevsky composed much of the novel in Staraya Russa, which is also the main setting of the novel. http://feedbooks.com/book/180.png http://feedbooks.com/book/180.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/180.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/180.mobi The Death of Ivan Ilych Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy http://feedbooks.com/book/137 urn:isbn:0451528808 en 1886 Short Fiction This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://feedbooks.com/book/137.png http://feedbooks.com/book/137.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/137.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/137.mobi Anna Karenina Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy http://feedbooks.com/book/1487 urn:isbn:1593080271 en 1877 Novels Romance Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, playing out the contrasts of city and country life and all the variations on love and family happiness. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://feedbooks.com/book/1487.png http://feedbooks.com/book/1487.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/1487.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/1487.mobi On the Duty of Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau http://feedbooks.com/book/219 urn:isbn:1604244291 en 1849 Non-Fiction Essay Politics Thoreau wrote his famous essay, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, as a protest against an unjust but popular war and the immoral but popular institution of slave-owning. http://feedbooks.com/book/219.png http://feedbooks.com/book/219.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/219.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/219.mobi Frankenstein Mary Shelley http://feedbooks.com/book/91 urn:isbn:0743487583 en 1818 Novels Science Fiction Horror Gothic Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a novel written by the British author Mary Shelley. The title of the novel refers to a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who learns how to create life and creates a being in the likeness of man, but larger than average and more powerful. In popular culture, people have tended to refer to the Creature as "Frankenstein", despite this being the name of the scientist. Frankenstein is a novel infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. It was also a warning against the "over-reaching" of modern man and the Industrial Revolution, alluded to in the novel's subtitle, The Modern Prometheus. The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films. It is arguably considered the first fully realized science fiction novel. http://feedbooks.com/book/91.png http://feedbooks.com/book/91.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/91.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/91.mobi Dream Psychology Sigmund Freud http://feedbooks.com/book/176 urn:isbn:0380010003 en 1920 Non-Fiction Psychology The Interpretation of Dreams is a book by Sigmund Freud. The first edition was first published in German in November 1899 as Die Traumdeutung (though post-dated as 1900 by the publisher). The publication inaugurated the theory of Freudian dream analysis, which activity Freud famously described as "the royal road to the understanding of unconscious mental processes". This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://feedbooks.com/book/176.png http://feedbooks.com/book/176.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/176.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/176.mobi War and Peace Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy http://feedbooks.com/book/83 urn:isbn:067003469X en 1869 Novels History War War and Peace is a novel by Leo Tolstoy, first published from 1865 to 1869 in Russkii Vestnik, which tells the story of Russian society during the Napoleonic Era. It is usually described as one of Tolstoy's two major masterpieces (the other being Anna Karenina) as well as one of the world's greatest novels. War and Peace offered a new kind of fiction, with a great many characters caught up in a plot that covered nothing less than the grand subjects indicated by the title, combined with the equally large topics of youth, marriage, age, and death. Though it is often called a novel today, it broke so many conventions of the form that it was not considered a novel in its time. Indeed, Tolstoy himself considered Anna Karenina (1878) to be his first attempt at a novel in the European sense. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://feedbooks.com/book/83.png http://feedbooks.com/book/83.pdf http://feedbooks.com/book/83.epub http://feedbooks.com/book/83.mobi