Excerpt: Chapter 1. An excursion beyond the immediate suburbs of London, projected long before his pony-carriage was hired to conduct him, in fact ever since his retirement from active service, led General Ople across a famous common, with which he fell in love at once, to a lofty highway along the borders of a park, for which he promptly exchanged his heart, and so gradually within a stone?s-throw or so of the river-side, where he determined not solely to bestow his affections but to settle for life. It may be seen that he was of an adventurous temperament, though he had thought fit to loosen his swordbelt. The pony-carriage....

Excerpt: An Ambuscade. Early in the year VIII., at the beginning of Vendemiaire, or, to conform to our own calendar, towards the close of September, 1799, a hundred or so of peasants and a large number of citizens, who had left Fougeres in the morning on their way to Mayenne, were going up the little mountain of La Pelerine, half-way between Fougeres and Ernee, a small town where travelers along that road are in the habit of resting....

Excerpt: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens).

Excerpt: The Trial, or More Links of the Daisy Chain by Charlotte M. Yonge.

Excerpt: The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac, translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley.

Excerpt: We had been talking about the masters who had achieved but a single masterpiece--the artists and poets who but once in their lives had known the divine afflatus and touched the high level of perfection. Our host had been showing us a charming little cabinet picture by a painter whose name we had never heard, and who, after this single spasmodic bid for fame, had apparently relapsed into obscurity and mediocrity. There was some discussion as to the frequency of this phenomenon; during which, I observed, H- sat silent, finishing his cigar with a meditative air, and looking at the picture which was being handed round the table. ?I don?t know how common a case it is,? he said at last, ?but I have seen it....

Excerpt: The New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells.

Excerpt: Chapter 1. It was Sunday, and, according to his custom on that day, McTeague took his dinner at two in the afternoon at the car conductors? coffee-joint on Polk Street. He had a thick gray soup; heavy, underdone meat, very hot, on a cold plate; two kinds of vegetables; and a sort of suet pudding, full of strong butter and sugar. On his way back to his office, one block above, he stopped at Joe Frenna?s saloon and bought a pitcher of steam beer. It was his habit to leave the pitcher there on his way to dinner....

Excerpt: Some Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens.

Contents A CHRISTMAS TREE ......................................................................................................................................... 4 WHAT CHRISTMAS IS ................................................................................................................................... 22 AS WE GROW OLDER................................................................................................................................... 22 THE POOR RELATION?S STORY ................................................................................................................. 27 NOBODY?S STORY.......................................................................................................................................... 54...

Excerpt: Plutarch?s Lives -- Volume One. translated by Arthur Hugh Clough.

Contents THESEUS.............................................................................................................................. 5 ROMULUS ........................................................................................................................... 34 COMPARISON OF ROMULUS WITH THESEUS .............................................................. 64 LYCURGUS .......................................................................................................................... 68 NUMA POMPILIUS........................................................................................................... 101 COMPARISON OF NUMA WITH LYCURGUS ................................................................ 126 SOLON .............................................................................................................................. 132 POPLICOLA...................................................................................................................... 160 COMPARISON OF POPLICOLA WITH SOLON ............................................................. 178 THEMISTOCLES...........................

Excerpt: This beginning-part is not made out of anybody?s head, you know. It?s real. You must believe this beginning-part more than what comes after, else you won?t understand how what comes after came to be written. You must believe it all; but you must believe this most, please. I am the editor of it. Bob Redforth (he?s my cousin, and shaking the table on purpose) wanted to be the editor of it; but I said he shouldn?t because he couldn?t. He has no idea of being an editor....

Excerpt: Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac, translated by Clara Bell and others.

Excerpt: Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne.

Excerpt: The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Excerpt: Mrs. Lirriper?s Lodgings by Charles Dickens.

Excerpt: Note. It is somewhat remarkable that Balzac, dealing as he did with traits of character and the minute and daily circumstances of life, has never been accused of representing actual persons in the two or three thousand portraits which he painted of human nature....

Excerpt: Sandra Belloni by George Meredith.

Excerpt: Oliver Twist or the Parish Boy?s Progress by Charles Dickens.

Excerpt: After a voyage, during which the captain of the ship has displayed uncommon courage, seamanship, affability, or other good qualities, grateful passengers often present him with a token of their esteem, in the shape of teapots, tankards, trays, &c. of precious metal. Among authors, however, bullion is a much rarer commodity than paper, whereof I beg you to accept a little in the shape of this small volume. It contains a few notes of a voyage which your skill and kindness rendered doubly pleasant; and of which I don?t think there is any recollection more agreeable than that it was the occasion of making your friendship....

Excerpt: In the first narrative of my experience in slavery, written nearly forty years ago, and in various writ ings since, I have given the public what I considered very good reasons for withholding the manner of my escape. In substance these reasons were, first, that such publication at any time during the existence of slavery might be used by the master against the slave, and prevent the future escape of any who might adopt the same means that I did. The second reason was, if possible, still more binding to silence: the publication of details would certainly have put in peril the persons and property of those who assisted....

Contents MY ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY ...... 4 RECONSTRUCTION ..................... 16