Mary Shelley

1840 portrait by Richard Rothwell

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) is by far best known for her legendary 1818 novel, Frankenstein, Or: The Modern Prometheus, in which she essentially invented the genre of science fiction. Married, at the time, to the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (who purpled up the prose of Frankenstein quite a bit), she famously came up with the idea for the story for a ghost-story competition during "Year Without a Summer" between her, Percy, Lord Byron, Mary's step-sister and Byron's lover Claire Clairmont, and John William Polidori, and wouldn't you have liked to be a fly on the wall for that gathering. She went on to write several other novel, travelogues, and biographies and appears to have been rather a political radical, possibly influenced by the works (if not the specific ideas) of her father, anarchistic philosopher William Godwin, and her mother, noted women's rights activist and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft (whom Mary Shelley herself never knew).


Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus:

Volume One, Letters I to IV:

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Volume One, Chapters One and Two:

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Volume One, Chapters Three and Four:

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Volume One, Chapters Five and Six:

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Volume One, Chapter Seven:

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Volume Two, Chapters One and Two:

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Volume Two, Chapters Three and Four:

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Volume Two, Chapters Five to Seven:

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Volume Two, Chapters Eight and Nine:

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Volume Three, Chapters One and Two:

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Volume Three, Chapter Three:

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Volume Three, Chapter Four:

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Volume Three, Chapters Five and Six:

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Volume Three, Chapter Seven:

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Washington Irving

Daguerreotype copy by
Mathew Brady, original
by John Plumbe

Washington Irving (1783-1859) was America's first truly internationally successful writers, with his 1819-1820 collection of short stories The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. achieving great success both in the States and in Europe. Though only a couple of his stories are especially well-known now, he published successfully throughout his life, writing short stories, essays, histories, and massive biographies. He also served as the US ambassador to Spain from 1842-1846, apparently. Huh.


"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow":
In which an itinerant schoolmaster courts a lovely young lady and draws the ire of another of her suitors, and possibly that of the local demonic decapitated equestrian as well.

Part One:

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Part Two:

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F. Scott Fitzgerald

1921 photograph from
"The World's Work"

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) is the primary, if not the only, author that people think about when they think of the Jazz Age. His writings on disaffected youths were enormously influential on American literature and culture. Most well known for his seminal novel The Great Gatsby (which isn't in the public domain, so don't get your hopes up), he was primarily supported by his short stories published in magazine like The Saturday Evening Post.


"Bernice Bobs Her Hair":
In which a country mouse is made over by her city cousin and jealousy and humiliation ensue.


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H. G. Wells

Photograph by George
Charles Beresford, 1920

Herbert George "H. G. " Wells (1866-1946) wrote on a number of subjects, but became legendary for his pioneering work in science fiction. He didn't invent the genre, but he did help refine it into the form we now know. He held strong socialist and pacifist views that he worked into his books, especially in his later years when he primarily wrote social commentary in various forms.


The Time Machine
In which an unnamed time traveler travels in time with his time machine to the far future, and observes what has become of the human race.

Chapters One and Two:

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Chapters Three and Four:

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Chapter Five:

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Chapters Six and Seven:

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Chapters Eight to Nine:

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Chapters Ten to Twelve and Epilogue:

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Deleted Text - "The Grey Man":

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Grimm's Fairy Tales, by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

1843 drawing by younger brother
Ludwig Emil Grimm (1790-1863)

In 1812, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1785-1863 and 1786-1859, respectively), commonly known collectively as the Brothers Grimm, published a volume of folk tales they had collected throughout their native Germany. This volume, titled Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales), was followed by a second in 1815. Later editions collected the volumes together, adding, deleting, and editing stories here and there. Later editions made changes such as turning wicked mothers into wicked stepmothers so as not to impugn the sacrament of marriage, toning down sexual references, and cranking up some of the violence (especially as retribution against villains.) Many of the resulting tales, now usually known in English as Grimm's Fairy Tales, are among the most well-known stories in Western literature, even some of those that haven't been adapted by Disney.


"Snow White and Rose Red":
In which two sisters encounter a very nice Bear and a very ungrateful Dwarf, and no she isn't that Snow White.


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Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen

Published in 1811 under the creative pseudonym of "A Lady," this was Jane Austen's first published novel (Pride and Prejudice was written first, but published later.) One of the prototypes of what would eventually be called the "romantic comedy," it focuses on the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, and their vastly different temperaments. Elinor is calm, sensible, and reserved, while Marianne allows every feeling to be the MOST IMPORTANT FEELING EVER. How they respectively fare in romance is the main of the plot, but as important (and often forgotten by those with only a passing acquaintance with Austen's work) is a razor sharp wit that also makes this one of the prototypical comedies of manners.

Volume the First

Volume the First, Chapters One to Three:

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Volume the First, Chapters Four to Eight:

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Volume the First, Chapters Nine to Eleven:

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Volume the First, Chapters Twelve to Fourteen:

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Volume the First, Chapters Fifteen to Seventeen:

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Volume the First, Chapters Eighteen and Nineteen:

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Volume the First, Chapters Twenty and Twenty-One:

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Volume the First, Chapter Twenty-Two:

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Volume the Second

Volume the Second, Chapters One and Two:

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Volume the Second, Chapters Three and Four:

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Volume the Second, Chapters Five and Six:

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Volume the Second, Chapters Seven and Eight:

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Volume the Second, Chapter Nine:

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Volume the Second, Chapters Ten and Eleven:

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Volume the Second, Chapters Twelve and Thirteen:

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Volume the Second, Chapter Fourteen:

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Volume the Third

Volume the Third, Chapter One:

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Volume the Third, Chapters Two and Three:

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Volume the Third, Chapters Four and Five:

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Volume the Third, Chapters Six and Seven:

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Volume the Third, Chapter Eight:

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Volume the Third, Chapters Nine and Ten:

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Volume the Third, Chapters Eleven and Twelve:

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Volume the Third, Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen:

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O. Henry

1909 portrait by E. M. Vanderweyde

William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), better known by his pen name "O. Henry," was one of the great American writers of the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. He specialized in short stories, often humorous sketches of working-class folks. He was especially fond of, and well known for, ending his stories with some sort of clever twist, most of which have been spoiled for everyone by a century's worth of parodies and homages.


"The Ransom of Red Chief"
In which a most terrible villain takes two innocent kidnappers captive.