The published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada during the Klondike Gold Rush in the 1890s. Strong sled dogs were in demand, and that’s how Buck the St Bernard cross Scotch Shepherd ended up in the wilds of Alaska.

‘Heart of Darkness’, the famous novella by Joseph Conrad, first published in 1902, reveals the disgust at the cruelty that the author observed when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. Although no territory is named in the text, the story is based on a journey that Conrad took up the Congo River in 1890, during King Leopold II of Belgium’s abusive rule of the area. The main narrative follows the journey of the ferry-boat captain Marlow in his job as an ivory transporter on the river. Ma...

‘Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe’, published in 1861, is the third novel by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans. The seemingly simple story of the weaver Silas Marner deals with issues like community, industrialisation and positive transformation, in sophisticated and engaging ways. Silas, a weaver in a city in the north of England, is falsely accused of theft and cast out by his circle of friends. He moves to a city in the Midlands where he lives as a loner for many years. H...

A story by Edgar Allan Poe, about a black cat, or rather two black cats. The narrator relates his own story, about how he deteriorated from a man who loved animals, to a cruel abuser. He thought that he had gotten away with murder, but the second black cat exposed his crime.

Besides the boy Mowgli, the characters are animals or rather human archetypes in animal form. The stories, set in a forest in India, have themes like abandonment followed by fostering, law and freedom, respect and obedience.

The King in Yellow is a book of ten classic short stories about the supernatural. The first four mention ‘The King in Yellow,’ a forbidden play which induces despair or madness in those exposed to it. The tales have a macabre undertone, focusing on characters that are inhabitants of the demi-monde.

"Give me liberty, or give me death!" is a quotation attributed to Patrick Henry, from his speech to the Second Virginia Convention on 23 March, 1775, at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia. Henry spoke without notes, and no transcript of his exact words have survived. The only known version of his speech was reconstructed in the early 1800s by William Wirt, a biographer who corresponded with various attendees of the convention.

'Ethan Frome' is a 1911 book by Edith Wharton, set in the fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. In this haunting tale, Wharton’s characters are not of the upper class, but ordinary townsfolk. The prologue opens with an unnamed male narrator who’s spending a winter in Starkfield while on business, describing a limping man with a compelling demeanor. The narrative is characterized by frequent flashbacks, and mainly involves Ethan’s sickly wife, Zeena, and Mattie, a cousin who helps t...

The Allegory of the Cave appears in Plato’s Republic and compares the effect of education and the lack of it on human nature. It is written as a dialogue between Plato's brother and Socrates, who tells of people that have been chained to the wall of a cave their whole lives. They see shadows projected on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them. Socrates explains that the philosopher is like a prisoner who has escaped the cave and realizes that the shadows on the wall a...

‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ is told by an unnamed narrator who tries to convince the reader of the narrator’s sanity while simultaneously describing a murder they committed. The narrator's guilt feelings result in hearing a rhythmic thumping sound, which the narrator interprets as the victim's beating heart.

Discourse on the Method, originally published in 1637, still stands as one of the greatest philosophical works. Perhaps most famous for the phrase "I think, therefore I am", Discourse contains many other noteworthy quotations and statements. Discourse is divided into six parts.

Common Sense, a pamphlet by Thomas Paine, was published anonymously in 1776, six months before the Declaration of Independence. It is an impassioned call for America to free itself from British rule and set up an independent republican government. Paine criticised hereditary kingship and urged his adopted country to embrace personal freedom and social equality.