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Would you like to be rich? Yes? Well, who wouldn't. The Science of Getting Rich is a book written by the New Thought Movement writer Wallace D. Wattles. The book is still in print after almost 100 years. According to USA Today, the text is divided into 17 short, straight-to-the-point chapters that explain how to overcome mental barriers, and how creation, not competition, is the hidden key to wealth attraction. (Summary by Diana Majlinger and Wikipedia)...

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Advice

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A book of short stories and humorous anecdotes by Mark Twain, published together in 1906. (Summary by Tricia G)

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Fiction, Short stories, Humor

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Long before I knew that the speech of men was misused by them and that they lied in the hearing of the gods perpetually in those early days through which all men have passed, during which one believes what one is told, an old and crusty woman of great wealth, to whom I was describing what I intended to do with life (which in those days seemed to me of infinite duration), said to me, ( You are building castles in Spain.' I was too much in awe of this woman not on account of the wealth, but on account of the crust to go further into the matter, but it seemed to me a very foolish thing to say, for I had never been to Spain, and I had nothing wherewith to build a castle and indeed such a project had never passed through my head.” -- Hilaire Belloc...

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Essay/Short nonfiction

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In the South African wilderness, six men got together to mine for diamonds and become very rich. They agree that the wealth is to be split equally between them or their heirs after a few years and that the share of any one who died without leaving an heir or whose heir died before the time would be split between the remaining partners. Soon, all heirs are notified and wait expectantly for the first of January, on which the diamonds are to be divided between the partners. However, the diamonds are becoming increasingly blood stained, and January the first is still some time off... (Summary by Carolin)...

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Fiction, Mystery, Romance

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A large inheritance greatly transforms the lives of three people: a good man, who would have inherited at least a part of the fortune if his uncle hadn't passed away before altering the will, his cousin, who inherits all but is prevented from enjoying it, and a gambler, who is in desperate need of such a sum of money. The connection of the three ends fatal for at least one of them. (Summary by Carolin)...

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Historical Fiction, Mystery, Tragedy

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William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice was probably written between 1596 and 1598, and was printed with the comedies in the First Folio of 1623. Bassanio, an impoverished gentleman, uses the credit of his friend, the merchant Antonio, to borrow money from a wealthy Jew, Shylock. Antonio pledges to pay Shylock a pound of flesh if he defaults on the loan, which Bassanio will use to woo a rich heiress, Portia. A subplot concerns the elopement of Shylock's daughter Jessica with a Christian, Bassanio's friend Lorenzo. In its focus on love and marriage, the play shares certain concerns with Shakespeare's other comedies. Yet its depiction of the tensions between Jews and Christians in early modern Venice - and its highly dramatic trial scene in Act 4 - create darker currents in the play. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

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Comedy, Play

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Allen's books illustrate the use of the power of thought to increase personal capabilities. Although he never achieved great fame or wealth, his works continue to influence people around the world, including the New Thought movement. Allen's most famous book, As a Man Thinketh, was published in 1902. It is now considered a classic self-help book. Its underlying premise is that noble thoughts make a noble person, while lowly thoughts make a miserable person....

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Philosophy

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Percy Keese Fitzhugh (September 7, 1876 - July 5, 1950) was an American author of nearly 100 books for children and young adults. The bulk of his work revolves around the fictional town of Bridgeboro, New Jersey and has a scouting theme. One of his major characters was Pee Wee Harris. The title, Pee Wee Harris, was the first in a series of 13 Pee Wee Harris books. Pee Wee is just that; small in stature but huge in heart and ever so loyal as a scout should be. In the first installment, Pee Wee visits his Aunt Jamsiah and Uncle Eb in a small New Jersey backwoods village called Everdoze. The village is aptly named. Pee Wee’s energy is boundless and he promptly sets to work to put Everdoze on the map through scout enterprise to earn money to buy tents for his scout troop. A series of adventures and a new friendship develop even as things go awry. This book is light and enjoyable listening for both children and adults alike. Enjoy! (Summary modified partially from Wikipedia and Tom Weiss)...

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Fiction, Teen/Young adult

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The Austrian nobility in Rome forms a very close circle, into which only those of high rank and wealth are admitted. They managed to get along with Cecil Sterzl, who, although not one of their own, is regarded as quite an amiable man. However, when he brings his younger sister Zinka into that circle, she is received very coldly at first, if at all. And when, with her fresh and unaffected manners, she wins one heart after another, especially that of the handsome Count Sempaly, she also excites jealousy and contempt in many members of that set. They are not willing to give up the old notions of social rank and status without a fight... Ossip Schubin [Aloisia Kirschner] is a now half-forgotten Austrian novelist of Bohemian descent, who has herself spent several years of her youth in Rome....

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Fiction, Romance

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This classic mystery produces its first dead body during a clandestine midnight meeting. Already nothing is what it seems... (Summary by Gesine)

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Mystery

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Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, despite an impressive record of productivity and creativity as a novelist, playwright, short fiction writer, editor, actress, and singer, is an African-American woman writer who has essentially been consigned to the dustbins of American literary history. Though contemporary with Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Charles W. Chesnutt, and Paul Laurence Dunbar, Hopkins is only now beginning to receive the kind of critical attention that Harper has enjoyed for a slightly longer period and that Chesnutt and Dunbar have always had. Hopkins had work published in several genres, but her reputation today rests primarily upon Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South, the novel she published in 1900. (Introduction by Margaret)...

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Romance, Literature

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The story revolves around Carter Brent, an alcoholic and gambler who had struck gold many times in the Yukon, but gambled and drank it away in Dawson; and Snowdrift, the half-breed who had spent her life with a wandering band of Indians in the frozen north country. Snowdrift had been raised by Wananebish, yet never knew who her father was, and yet Wananebish had somehow been able to send her to be schooled at a nearby mission. The paths of this unlikely pair would cross in the barren lands of the Yukon where Brent had hopes of finding more gold, but it was well known that there was no gold in the region between Dawson and the MacKenzie. But Brent had that certain knack for striking gold, and due to his way of life, also had a certain knack for gambling and drinking it away. Plenty of action follows, while Brent performs his search with little or no money, runs across Snowdrift, and while a band of fellow gamblers who know of his luck follows closely on his trail, he must get his prize back to Dawson. (Introduction by Roger Melin)...

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Adventure, Fiction

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P. T. Barnum exposes some of the chief humbugs of the world with his usual entertaining style. He looks at medicine and quacks, ghosts, witchcraft, religious humbugs, money manias, adventurers, personal reminiscences, and much more. (Summary by Barry Eads)...

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Humor, Instruction, Memoirs

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A child teaches a man that money isn’t everything at Christmas time and changes his life. (Summary by Carolyn Frances) **This summary will be fleshed out later....

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Holiday

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Gwendoline Wynn, our heroine, is an orphan-heiress who lives on the river Wye. She will live with aunt until she comes of age and her money. Vivian Ryecroft, our hero and a captain in the Hussars, is on a leave of absence in Herefordshire, salmon fishing on the Wye. Gwen and Vivian have a chance, and brief, encounter on the Wye, and Vivian is enchanted. Will our hero and heroine find love? Will it last? [Summary by Ann Boulais]...

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Literature, Romance

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Beautiful Jean Briggerland is the epitome of evilness in this twisting and turning thriller. She plots many different ways to steal her new victim's riches including lies and murder. Only Jack Glover the lawyer of Jean's most recent victim, is aware of her true nature. Can he stop her crime spree and bring her to justice before she murders her way to wealth and happiness? Don't count on it! Page after page offers action, new twists, and unexpected surprises that will keep the reader listening for more! (Summary by Allyson Hester)...

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Adventure, Fiction, Mystery

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James Fenimore Cooper's second novel, The Spy (1821), is based on Sir Walter Scott's Waverly series, and tells an adventure tale about the American Revolution. The protagonist is Harvey Birch, a supposed loyalist who actually is a spy for George Washington, disguised as 'Mr Harper.' The book brought Cooper fame and wealth, and is regarded as the first great success in American fiction. (Summary by Gord MacKenzie)...

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Spy stories

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There is no more pathetic figure in our world to-day than the common figure of the poor young lady, crushed between classes above and below, and left with scarce a chance of earning her bread with decency. So says Juliet Appleton’s boss, encouraging her to put her story into print. How will this college-educated 23-year-old survive the Darwinian Battle of Life in late Victorian England? She’s fundless in London but armed, by way of adaptive structures, with those two high-tech devices of the day: a bicycle for mobility and a typewriter for utility. (Summary by Grant Hurlock)...

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Fiction

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Dickens' last complete novel was published serially 1864-5. It begins with an intriguing fortune offered to John Harmon by his late father, a rich dust contractor, in his will. To receive the money, John must marry a certain Bella Wilfer who he does not know from Eve. He is returning from the exile enforced by his father and confides in a ship's mate who attempts to murder him. The mate gets killed instead, leaving one inconvenient corpse. Because John is considered dead (the body is found with his papers), the money passes to Mr Boffin, old Harmon's foreman. Harmon adopts Bella and John comes into his employ disguised as John Rokesmith. Bella does not fall for John but through kindly Boffin's contrivances learns to hate money and fall for her suitor under his false name. Eventually she learns of his true identity as the Boffins had previously, and the villainous one-legged Silas Wegg's plot to blackmail Mr Boffin is brought to light. There is also a story running behind the main plot about a certain Eugene Wrayburn and his love for Lizzie Hexam, and his rival's attempt to murder him. The two plots are only really connected through ...

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Fiction

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How can you tell when your pig is fat enough? Why should you never buy mustard? What's wrong with eating potatoes? Which is better, beer or tea? And what type of straw makes the best bonnets? William Cobbett is the man to ask. Here is his book of practical advice to the rural labouring 'cottager' (first published as a part-work in 1821-22), the precursor in many ways to the handbooks on self-sufficiency that today entice so many city-dwellers. A champion of the rural working class at a time of huge social and industrial change, a radical politician and a prolific writer, Cobbett is opinionated, passionate and enlightening, making 'Cottage Economy' a fascinating and entertaining window on daily life for the smallholders of his day, and still inspirational, almost 200 years later, to those who seek 'a good living' as the foundation of happiness. (Introduction by Philippa) The figures referred to in the section on ice houses can be viewed http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32863/32863-h/images/i_147.jpg here...

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Cookery, Advice, Instruction