Description Details
Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff discover the perils of love, assumed identities, and telling the truth in Oscar Wilde's classic play. (Summary by Toby Paradis)...

Excerpt Details
Play, Comedy

Description Details
Action, intrigue, and a touch of romance in the farthest reaches of northern Canada. Sergeant Billy MacVeigh of the Canadian Northwest Mounted, with his only partner Pelliter are the only official representatives in the lonely and desolate reaches of Point Fullerton, hundreds of miles from the next nearest outpost, and from any civilization. Both are nearing the end of their service in those regions, and their main function has been to try to find the elusive murderer Scottie Deane, and if they happen upon anybody trading in Eskimo women to haul them in also. Then one day, one of those traders happens to show up at their cabin, and what follows is some close calls and long trips across the barrens of northern Canada that uncovers clues to the whereabouts of the notorious Scottie Deane and his wife, and all deal with near death experiences primarily due to loneliness, bitter cold, and fatigue, not to mention the red death. Will they find Deane and his wife? If so, what affect will he have on them and their respective conditions? (Summary by Roger Melin)...

Excerpt Details
Adventure, Fiction

Description Details
The Murders in the Rue Morgue is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1841. Poe referred to it as a tale of ratiocination featuring the brilliant deductions of C. Auguste Dupin; it is today regarded as one of the first detective stories and is almost certainly the first locked room mystery. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

Excerpt Details
Horror/Ghost stories

Description Details
He made one mistake in the beginning. He pushed the chestnut too hard the first and second days, so that on the third day he was forced to give the gelding his head and go at a jarring trot most of the day. On the fourth and fifth days, however, he had the reward for his caution. The chestnut's ribs were beginning to show painfully, but he kept doggedly at his work with no sign of faltering. The sixth day brought Andrew Lanning in close view of the lower hills. And on the seventh day he put his fortune boldly to the touch and jogged into the first little town before him.. (Introduction by Publisher)...

Excerpt Details
Adventure, Fiction, Westerns

Description Details
A Collection of Australian Aboriginal Legendary Folk-Lore Tales, legends of the Narran tribe, known among themselves as Noongahburrahs.

Excerpt Details
Myths/Legends

Description Details
A top ten bestseller of 1906, The House of a Thousand Candles is part adventure/mystery and part romance. The book begins with young Jack Glenarm returning from various exploits in Europe and Africa for the reading of his grandfather’s will. In it, he stands to inherit his grandfather’s estate, but only if he can remain for one year in residence at the old man’s unfinished “House of a Thousand Candles” in Annandale, Indiana, with only his grandfather’s mysterious valet for company. If he violates the terms of the will, the house will go to a young woman, heretofore unknown to him, whom the will also forbids Jack to marry if he wants to retain his inheritance. This all sounds very mundane to Jack and he fully expects to be quite bored in very short order. Soon after Jack’s arrival at Glenarm House, however, various strange occurrences ensue, and he soon finds himself absorbed in the most lively adventure of his life! (summary by J. M. Smallheer)...

Excerpt Details
Mystery

Description Details
’s Short Mystery Story Collection 002: a collection of 10 short works of mysterious fiction in the public domain read by a group of members.

Excerpt Details
Mystery

Description Details
A collection of classic mystery and detective stories, collected and edited by Julian Hawthorne. Note: the second chapter of Dickens’ The Haunted House is not included in this edition. (Summary by Julie VW)...

Excerpt Details
Mystery

Description Details
A collection of ten pieces, read by various readers, about the unreal edges of this world in legend and story; tales of love, death and beyond. If just one story prickles the hair on the back of your neck, or prickles your eyelids with the touch of tears, we will have succeeded.(Summary by Peter Yearsley)...

Excerpt Details
Horror/Ghost stories

Description Details
It has been said that behind every successful man is a good woman. This is certainly true in the case of James Orlebar Cloyster. However, some funny things happened on his road to success. His story is humorously told from the point of view of several parties involved. According to Wikipedia, the book is a humorous, fictionalized account of Wodehouse's early years as a journalist, with Wodehouse being portrayed by the character of Cloyster. (Summary by Debra Lynn)...

Excerpt Details
Humor

Description Details
It was a night to drive any man indoors. Not only was the darkness impenetrable, but the raw mist enveloping hill and valley made the open road anything but desirable to a belated wayfarer like myself. Being young, untrammeled, and naturally indifferent to danger, I was not averse to adventure; and having my fortune to make, was always on the lookout for El Dorado, which, to ardent souls, lies ever beyond the next turning. Consequently, when I saw a light shimmering through the mist at my right, I resolved to make for it and the shelter it so opportunely offered. But I did not realize then, as I do now, that shelter does not necessarily imply refuge, or I might not have undertaken this adventure with so light a heart. Yet, who knows? The impulses of an unfettered spirit lean toward daring, and youth, as I have said, seeks the strange, the unknown and, sometimes, the terrible. (Exerpt from Chapter I)...

Excerpt Details
Fiction, Mystery, Romance

Description Details
Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad is the second of the ten book series of Aunt Jane's Nieces. The story continues with the three much loved girls - the sweet and generous Patsy, the cunning Louise, and the sullen Beth. This time they're on a tour of Europe with their down-to-earth uncle John Merrick. The benevolent uncle and his nieces meet mysterious and sinister Victor Valdi, his daughter Tato, and a pretend nobleman, Count Ferralti, who fancies Louise. The story revolves around travel and kidnapping, and the subsequent adventures of the three young girls, told in Baum's own inimitable style that keeps us at the edge of our seats. (Summary by Neeru Iyer)...

Excerpt Details
Teen/Young adult

Description Details
Beverly Of Graustark is the second book in the Graustark series. Lorry and his wife, the princess, made their home in Washington, but spent a few months of each year in Edelweiss. During the periods spent in Washington and in travel, her affairs in Graustark were in the hands of a capable, austere old diplomat--her uncle, Count Caspar Halfont. Princess Volga reigned as regent over the principality of Axphain. To the south lay the principality of Dawsbergen, ruled by young Prince Dantan, whose half brother, the deposed Prince Gabriel, had been for two years a prisoner in Graustark, the convicted assassin of Prince Lorenz, of Axphain, one time suitor for the hand of Yetive. (Project Gutenberg)...

Excerpt Details
Fiction, Mystery, Romance

Description Details
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen's first published novel, focuses on the lives and loves of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. The sensible Elinor and the sensitive Marianne both fall for men whose affections are otherwise engaged. The novel includes a wonderful cast of colorful supporting characters, as well as Austen's trademark dry wit and ironic narration. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

Excerpt Details
Romance, Literature

Description Details
This is a collection of scenes from Shakespeare's plays, mainly comprising dialogues between two characters. The theme for this collection is Wooing, Wedding, and Repenting (inspired by a line from Much Ado About Nothing). (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

Excerpt Details
Play

Description Details
This autobiographical work describes the author's harrowing experience caught on a small drifting piece of ice, while crossing a frozen bay by dog team on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. (Summary by Sean Michael Hogan)...

Excerpt Details
Memoirs

Description Details
The Drums of Jeopardy is a 1920 American novel by Harold MacGrath. The story was serialized by the The Saturday Evening Post beginning in January of 1920. In 1922 the book was made into a Broadway play and the following year a motion picture. A second film version appeared in 1931. It is said that a young Boris Karloff, who previously had a few uncredited film roles, chose his stage name for his first screen credit in 1920 from a Russian mad scientist character named Boris Karlov in this novel. The name Boris Karlov was used from MacGrath's book for the 1922 Broadway play, but by 1923 with actor Boris Karloff using the similar sounding variation, the film version renamed the character, played by Wallace Beery, Gregor Karlov. In the 1931 film version, however, with Warner Oland playing the character, the mad scientist's name is restored to Boris Karlov, less than a year before Frankenstein would make Boris Karloff a household word for generations. Ironically, Boris Karloff would play many mad scientists on screen, but never Boris Karlov. : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Drums_of_Jeopardy...

Excerpt Details
Fiction, Horror/Ghost stories

Description Details
Written in 1910, this cyclopedia is full of information that was quite useful at the time. A hundred years later, its text is more humorous than practical -- although some advice never goes out of style. (Summary by Rachelellen)...

Excerpt Details
Essay/Short nonfiction

Description Details
Wood and Garden reads like a walk through the garden with reknowned garden designer Gertrude Jekyll as she discusses her plant choices and placement, how she integrates nature into her design, and how she maintains and enjoys the garden. (Summary by A. Gramour)...

Excerpt Details
Nature, Instruction

Description Details
The country club house The Whispering Pines was closed for the winter, but only one day after he locked the place personally, the narrator sees smoke come out of the chimney. He decides to investigate and enters the house. Hidden in the dark, he sees the sister of his fiance, the girl he secretly loves, run out of the house with tears in her eyes. Upstairs then, he discovers the dead body of his betrothed... (Introduction by Carolin)...

Excerpt Details
Mystery, Fiction