The two years before he wrote Crime and Punishment (1866) had been bad ones for Dostoyevsky. His wife and brother had died; the magazine he and his brother had started, Epoch, collapsed under its load of debt; and he was threatened with debtor's prison. With an advance that he managed to wangle for an unwritten novel, he fled to Wiesbaden, hoping to win enough at the roulette table to get himself out of debt. Instead, he lost all

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When orphaned, eleven-year-old Pollyanna comes to live with austere and wealthy Aunt Polly, her philosophy of gladness brings happiness to her aunt and other unhappy members of the community.

After climbing through the mirror in her room, Alice enters a world similar to a chess board where she experiences many curious adventures with its fantastic inhabitants.

Little Lord Fauntleroy Frances Hodgson Burnett - In a shabby New York City side street in the mid-1880s, young Cedric Errol lives with his mother (known to him as "Dearest") in genteel poverty after the death of his father, Captain Cedric Errol. One day, they are visited by an English lawyer named Havisham with a message from young Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, an unruly millionaire who despises the United States and was very disappointed...

Through the Looking-Glass is a novel by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), and is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Set some six months later than the earlier book, Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it. Through the Looking-Glass includes such celebrated verses as "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter", and the episode involving Tweedledum...

A collection of six short mystery and crime stories by the author of The Leavenworth Case. Known as "the mother of the detective novel," Anna Katharine Green invented many of the genre's most enduring characteristics. In this collection she masterfully combines an American sensibility with well-crafted, legally accurate plotlines. Set in Baltimore just before the Civil War, "The Bronze Hand" tells the story of a man who answers a beautiful woman's...

For two weeks Washington has been abuzz with talk about what happened at the Moore house. The historic old building, dating back to colonial times, has long been a subject of unease as the site of multiple deaths. But pretty young Veronica Moore decides to defy superstition and hold her lavish wedding at the ancestral property-an event that turns tragic when a guest's lifeless body is discovered. Now, a man has reported to the police that he spotted...

The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, in seven parts, with preface, introduction, and concluding remarks, is the classic translation of what is arguably the world's oldest sex manual and relationship advice handbook. Much more than just erotic advice, this is a revelation of the social mores and customs of the ancient world and the daily lives of men and women in India, their views of intimacy, love and communication between the sexes -- all filtered through...

When Ronicky Doone arrives in Twin Springs, he finds himself in the midst of a deadly feud between two rival families. The stakes are high - honor, revenge, and rich ranch land. Though the townsmen favor the Jenkinses, Ronicky is drawn to the Bennetts - and especially the beautiful Elsie Bennett. As the struggle builds up in violence and shifting alliances, only Ronicky has the power to restore the peace.

Short story written by famous American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne.