Description

Barchester Towers, published in 1857, is the sequel to Trollope’s The Warden and continues the story of the clerical doings in the fictional cathedral town of Barchester.

As this novel opens, the old Bishop of Barchester lies dying, and there is considerable doubt as to who will replace him. The Bishop’s son Dr. Grantly, the Archdeacon, has high hopes of succeeding him, but these hopes are dashed and a new Bishop, Dr. Proudie, is appointed. Along with Dr. Proudie comes his domineering wife and their ambitious chaplain the Reverend Mr. Slope.

The old clerical party headed by Dr. Grantly and the new, championed by Mrs. Proudie and Mr. Slope, are soon in contention over Church matters. These two parties represent a then-significant struggle between different evangelical approaches in the Church of England. One local issue in particular is fought over—the appointment of a new Warden for Hiram’s Hospital, the focus of the preceding book.

Mrs. Eleanor Bold is the daughter of Mr. Harding, the prior Warden. She has recently been widowed. The wealth she inherited from her late husband makes her an attractive match, and her affections are in contention from several prospective suitors, including the oily Mr. Slope. All of this lends itself to considerable humor and interest.

Though not well received by critics on its initial publication, Barchester Towers is now regarded as one of Trollope’s most popular novels. Together with The Warden, it was made into a very successful television series by the BBC in 1982.

Description

Published in 1915, The Thirty-Nine Steps is a thriller set in Britain on the eve of the First World War.

The novel’s protagonist, Richard Hannay, is an expatriate Scot who has just returned to London after many years in South Africa working in the mining industry. He finds England extremely dull and is just considering returning to South Africa when he is accosted by another inhabitant of the block of flats where he is living.

This man, Scudder, tells Hannay he knows of a fantastical plot by England’s enemies to create a diplomatic scandal. Hannay, at first skeptical, eventually accepts that there is something in it and harbours Scudder in his own flat. Returning to his flat some days later, Hannay is horrified to find Scudder stabbed to death. Realising that he will be suspected by the police, and that he may also be in danger from the plotters, Hannay flees London.

What follows is an exciting chase across Scotland, with Hannay frequently coming close to capture.

The Thirty-Nine Steps was immediately popular, particularly with troops in the trenches of the First World War. It has remained popular and has been used as the basis for several movies including one directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935. It could also be seen as the prototype of several similarly-themed movies and television shows such as The Fugitive.

John Buchan continued the adventures of Richard Hannay in a series of sequels. He also had a highly distinguished government and diplomatic career, ultimately becoming Governor General of Canada.

Description

Flatland is uniquely both a social critique and a primer on multi-dimensional geometry. Written in two parts in 1884 by Edwin A. Abbott, an English mathematician and theologian, it tells the story of a square living in Flatland: a two-dimensional realm. After a dream of a restrictive one-dimensional existence and the difficulties this poses, he is visited by a sphere from a three-dimensional space who wishes to enlighten him into the ways of “Upward, yet not Northward.”

Edwin A. Abbott wrote other theological fiction and non-fiction (including several biographies), but he is best remembered for Flatland. While it was mostly forgotten after publication, it received a revived interest from the 1960s onwards, and has more recently had several sequels and film adaptations. This edition of is based on the second published edition and includes its preface, which in part attempts to address some of the contemporary accusations of misogyny.

Description

Phantastes was published in 1858. It tells the story of Anodos, who, on coming of age, is examining the effects of his deceased father. To his astonishment, in doing so he sees an apparition of a fairy woman, who tells him that he has some fairy blood and conveys him to Fairy Land.

In Fairy Land Anodos undergoes a long series of strange adventures and spiritual experiences. He is frequently under threat, at first from malevolent trees, and later from his own evil Shadow. At one point he discovers Pygmalion’s cave and sees the form of a beautiful woman enclosed in transparent alabaster. He falls instantly in love with this woman and contrives to free her from the stone, but she flees from him. Later, he encounters the Arthurian knight Sir Percivale, who has just come off the worst of an encounter with the evil Maid of the Alder-Tree. Eventually, after many trials and hazards, Anodos encounters Sir Percivale again and becomes his squire. Together they carry out deeds of chivalry before Anodos eventually returns to the mundane world.

Phantastes is now regarded as a classic of the fantasy genre and has been an important influence on later generations of fantasy writers, including such names as C. S. Lewis.

Description

Published in 1818, Peacock’s novella Nightmare Abbey is a gentle satire of the then-popular gothic movement in literature. He pokes fun at the genre’s obsessions and most of the book’s characters are caricatures of well-known personages of the time.

Young Scythrop is the only son of Mr. Glowry, living in the semi-ruined Nightmare Abbey on his estate in Lincolnshire. Mr. Glowry, the survivor of a miserable marriage, is addicted to the depressing and the morbid, surrounding himself with servants whose names, such as Raven, Graves and Skellet, reflect his obsessions. His friends, also, are chosen from those who best reflect his misanthropic views.

Scythrop himself imagines himself a philosopher with a unique view of the world, and to this end has written a treatise titled “Philosophical Gas; or, a Project for a General Illumination of the Human Mind.” Only seven copies of this treatise have ever been sold, and Scythrop dreams of being united with one of the buyers. His passions, though, become more earthy when he falls in love both with his cousin Marionetta and then also with a mysterious woman who appears in his apartment and begs him for asylum, thus creating a situation of romantic farce as he tries to decide between the two.

These events are interleaved between entertaining discussions among the varied guests at Nightmare Abbey, richly filled with humor, allusions and quotation.

Nightmare Abbey is probably Peacock’s most successful work of fiction, and helped establish his position as an important satirist of his times. His satire, though, is light-hearted rather than savage and is directed more at foolish opinions than attacking particular persons.

Description

This Side of Paradise chronicles the coming of age of Amory Blaine, born to a wealthy midwestern family. It begins with Amory as a spoiled youth, doted on by his eccentric mother Beatrice. It follows him as he attends preparatory school and Princeton, and then briefly attempts but quickly abandons at a career in advertising. His service in World War I is mentioned but mostly glossed over. Covered in much more detail are his various romances: youthful dalliances, a correspondence-based relationship that ends as soon as the couple spends time together in person, a deep love with the debutante sister of one of his close friends, and an intense summer fling.

The book shows Amory’s attempts to define himself as a person and find his place in a world rapidly changing through World War, the “Jazz Age,” and Prohibition. It provides the reader with a good picture of what life was like for a privileged young man of the era.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise was published in 1920 when he was 23 years old, and was widely praised by critics. The semi-autobiographical work launched his career as one of America’s most well-known writers. As a direct result of the publishing of the novel, Zelda Sayre (the inspiration for the character of the debutante Rosalind Connage) agreed to marry Fitzgerald. The couple became an icon of the excesses of the Jazz Age.

Description

It would be hard to nominate a more well-known character in English literature than that of the austere analytical detective Sherlock Holmes, created by Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 1880s. Holmes, alongside his friend and biographer Dr. John Watson, appeared in two initial novels and dozens of short stories serialized in popular magazines, attracting a devoted, almost fanatical following which continues to this day.

The Hound of the Baskervilles, serialized in 1901–1902, was the third novel featuring Holmes and Watson. Sherlock Holmes is consulted in his Baker Street apartment by Dr. Mortimer, a physician now living on the fringes of Dartmoor. He gives Holmes and Watson an account of a centuries-old legend, in which a hell-hound slaughtered the debauched heir of the Baskerville family who had been in lecherous pursuit of an innocent maiden across the moor. The same hound is reputed to have harrowed several of the subsequent heirs to the estate.

This ancient story might be dismissed as mere fancy, but for the fact that the elderly Sir Charles Baskerville recently died in very mysterious circumstances, apparently fleeing in terror from something which came from the moor. Dr. Mortimer is concerned that the new heir, Sir Henry, just returned from Canada, may be at risk from this supernatural beast. Holmes is intrigued, but being too busy to go himself, sends Dr. Watson to accompany Sir Henry to the ancestral home on Dartmoor and to report anything suspicious.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is arguably the best, and certainly the most popular, of Doyle’s novels featuring his iconic detective. It has been translated into almost every language in the world and been the basis of dozens of movies (starting as early as 1914), radio plays and comic books.

Description

In a Glass Darkly is a collection of five short stories, presented as posthumous papers of cases of the “metaphysical” doctor Dr. Martin Hesselius. First appearing in “Green Tea,” originally published in 1869, Dr. Hesselius became one of the first literary occult detectives.

J. Sheridan Le Fanu often made revisions to his work and re-released several under new names, including two from In a Glass Darkly: “The Familiar,” a revised version of “The Watcher,” published in 1851, and “Mr. Justice Harbottle,” a revised version of “An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street,” published in 1853.

Most notably, this collection includes what is likely Sheridan Le Fanu’s most famous work, “Carmilla.” A young countess turned vampire, Countess Mircalla uses the anagram of her name, Carmilla, to disguise herself in order to prey on unsuspecting young women. “Carmilla” would heavily influence Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which would later become the prototypical vampire archetype.

Description

Wodehouse once described his writing as “musical comedy without music,” and Love Among the Chickens is one of the earliest examples of his trademark style. The narrator, Jeremy Garnet, is a mild-mannered author attempting to finish his next novel in peace and quiet. Enter Stanley Ukridge, a man brimming with endless schemes, who draws the narrator into his latest, “the idea of a lifetime”—running a chicken farm.

With little practical knowledge, yet boundless ambition, they move to a country house and put the plan into action. Along the way, Garnet falls headlong in love with a woman on the train, and becomes consumed with winning her heart, despite formidable obstacles.

The original edition of Love Among the Chickens was published in the UK in 1906. This newer edition dates from 1921 and is described as “entirely rewritten by the author.” It is the first introduction in print of the character Ukridge, who would appear again in other short stories and novels by Wodehouse.

Description

Nikolai Gogol spent most of his literary career writing short stories, drawing inspiration from his childhood in Ukraine and his adult life in St. Petersburg. His stories are filled with larger than life yet relatable characters and perfectly described locations, and span many genres from historical epics to early horror and surrealism.

His influence on Russian literature cannot be understated: Fyodor Dostoevsky is quoted as saying “We all come out from Gogol’s ‘Overcoat,’ ” (presented here as “The Mantle”) and mentioned him by name in Crime and Punishment; Mikhail Bulgakov stated that “no-one can compare with him,” and Vladimir Nabokov wrote a full biography. Many of the stories in this collection have been adapted for stage and film, including “The Nose” as an opera by Dmitri Shostakovich.

Collected here are all of the public domain translations into English of Gogol’s short stories, in chronological order of the original Russian publication. They were translated by Claud Field, Isabel F. Hapgood, Vizetelly and Company, and George Tolstoy.