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An Essay on Criticism was the first major poem written by the English writer Alexander Pope (1688-1744). However, despite the title, the poem is not as much an original analysis as it is a compilation of Pope's various literary opinions. A reading of the poem makes it clear that he is addressing not so much the ingenuous reader as the intending writer. It is written in a type of rhyming verse called heroic couplets. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Poetry

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“These papers were originally published as prefaces to the separate books of Dickens in one of the most extensive of those cheap libraries of the classics which are one of the real improvements of recent times. Thus they were harmless, being diluted by, or rather drowned in Dickens. My scrap of theory was a mere dry biscuit to be taken with the grand tawny port of great English comedy; and by most people it was not taken at all--like the biscuit.Nevertheless the essays were not in intention so aimless as they appear in fact. I had a general notion of what needed saying about Dickens to the new generation, though probably I did not say it. I will make another attempt to do so in this prologue, and, possibly fail again. (Summary by G. K. Chesterton)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Literature

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On Modern Library's list of 100 Best Non-Fiction books, Eminent Victorians marked an epoch in the art of biography; it also helped to crack the old myths of high Victorianism and to usher in a new spirit by which chauvinism, hypocrisy and the stiff upper lip were debunked. In it, Strachey cleverly exposes the self-seeking ambitions of Cardinal Manning and the manipulative, neurotic Florence Nightingale; and in his essays on Dr Arnold and General Gordon, his quarries are not only his subjects but also the public-school system and the whole structure of nineteenth-century liberal values....

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Biography, Essay/Short nonfiction

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Appreciations, with an Essay on Style, is a collection of Walter Pater's previously-published essays on literature. The collection was well received by public and critic since its first edition, in 1889. The volume includes an appraisal of the poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, first printed in 1883, a few months after Rossetti's death; an essay on Thomas Browne, whose Baroque style Pater admired; and a discussion of Measure for Measure, one of Pater's most often reprinted pieces. The second edition, published in 1890, had a few modifications, and is the basis for all other editions of the book. (Summary by Leni)...

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Art, Essay/Short nonfiction

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This year is the 200th anniversary of Dickens' birth. This is the third volume of this collection, which aims to catalogue as many as possible of Dickens' short works which have not previously been recorded for .(Summary by Ruth Golding)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry, Short stories

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This is a series of short messages written by the South African minister, Andrew Murray. They deal with the necessity and joy of surrendering our lives completely to God. (Summary written by Joy Chan)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Religion

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A collection of prose and poetry written principally in the 18th Century. These works of world literature are written in the English language or are in English translation....

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Poetry, Essay/Short nonfiction

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Collection of short essays concerning French novelist and critic Paul Bourget. Included: What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us and A Little Note to M. Paul Bourget. (Summary by John Greenman)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Humor

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Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb was born on June 23, 1876. At seventeen years of age, he began writing for the Paducah Daily News , his hometown paper. At nineteen he became the managing editor; up to that point, our nation's youngest. He worked as a columnist, a humorist and an author. But 'horror,' and 'short stories,' are not why he is remembered. He is remembered because he was, and still is, funny. And although he is now dead--he died March 11, 1944--this work Cobb's Anatomy, among others, has left an indelible mark upon mankind: a smile. (Summary by Carl Vonnoh, III)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Comedy

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A comic look at the curious habits and customs of the inhabitants of 'Stage Land'. Dedicated to 'that highly respectable but unnecessarily retiring individual, of whom we hear so much but see so little, the earnest student of drama...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Comedy, Play

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A collection of Muir's previously unpublished essays, released shortly after his death. This volume will meet, in every way, the high expectations of Muir's readers. The recital of his experiences during a stormy night on the summit of Mount Shasta will take rank among the most thrilling of his records of adventure. His observations on the dead towns of Nevada, and on the Indians gathering their harvest of pine nuts, recall a phase of Western life that has left few traces in American literature. ... The landscapes that Muir saw ... will live in good part only in his writings, for fire, axe, plough, and gunpowder have made away with the supposedly boundless forest wildernesses and their teeming life. (From the Editor's note to the 1918 first edition)...

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Biography, Essay/Short nonfiction, Memoirs, Nature

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A great dog story, a well told tale--the naturalist and adventurer John Muir recounts how he and his companion, a dog named Stickeen, each, alone, confronted and conquered their fears of an icy Alaskan glacier in 1880. (Summary by Sue Anderson)...

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Animals, Essay/Short nonfiction

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The Sunny Side is a collection of short stories and essays by A. A. Milne. Though Milne is best known for his classic children's books, especially Winnie The Pooh, he also wrote extensively for adults, most notably in Punch, to which he was a contributor and later Assistant Editor. The Sunny Side collects his columns for Punch, which include poems, essays and short stories, from 1912 to 1920. Wry, often satirical and always amusingly written, these pieces poke fun at topics from writing plays to lying about birdwatching. They vary greatly in length so there is something for everyone. (Summary by wikipedia and Phil Chenevert)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Humor

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This is a series of late-19th Century essays about Florida's flora & fauna written by a Massachusetts-based naturalist. (Summary by BellonaTimes) note: page 142 was read from Google Books as it was missing from the Gutenberg version....

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Animals, Essay/Short nonfiction, Nature, Science

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Is There A Santa Claus? was the headline that appeared over an editorial in the September 21, 1897 edition of the New York Sun . The editorial, which included the response of Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus, has become an indelible part of popular Christmas lore in the United States. brings you eight different versions of this classic. (Summary from wikipedia.org)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Children

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The Compleat Angler is a celebration of the art and spirit of fishing in prose and verse. Walton did not profess to be an expert with the fly, but in the use of the live worm, the grasshopper and the frog Piscator could speak as a master. There were originally only two interlocutors in the opening scene, Piscator and Viator; but in the second edition, as if in answer to an objection that Piscator had it too much in his own way in praise of angling, he introduced the falconer, Auceps, changed Viator into Venator and made the new companions each dilate on the joys of his favourite sport....

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Instruction

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This is a letter to the Toronto Board of Trade regarding copyrights.

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History, Essay/Short nonfiction

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The Brothers Orville (1871 - 1948) and Wilbur (1867 – 1912) Wright made the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air flight, on 17th December 1903. They were not the first to build and fly aircraft, but they invented the controls that were necessary for a pilot to steer the aircraft, which made fixed wing powered flight possible. The Early History of the Airplane consists of three short essays about the beginnings of human flight. The second essay retells the first flight: This flight lasted only 12 seconds, but it was nevertheless the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight, had sailed forward without reduction of speed and had finally landed at a point as high as that from which it started. (Introduction by Availle)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, History, Short stories

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Simply put, this is a book of 9 short vignettes each of which describes a different scenario which demonstrates the age old adage: 'where there's a will, there's a way'. (Summary by Roger Melin)...

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Advice, Essay/Short nonfiction, History, Teen/Young adult, Short stories

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’s 2007 Christmas Short Works Colletion containing public domain short stories, essays, poems, and scripture passages recorded by a variety of members....

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Holiday, Essay/Short nonfiction, Religion, Short stories, Poetry