I did not, even that romantic morning, invest her with any attributes save those she possessed. I mention this in this place, of a fixed purpose, because it is the clew by which I am to be followed into my poor labyrinth. According to my experience, the conventional notion of a lover cannot be always true. The unqualified truth is, that when I loved Estella with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I l

Young Robinson Crusoe, obsessed with the idea of sea and adventures, leaves his home against the will of his parents. He goes on board a ship to see the world and experience many new things. He tempts his fate all the time. After a series of fatal adventures, he comes on board a ship bound to the coast of Africa. By an unhappy chance, Robinson and other seamen get caught in a terrible storm which seems never to end. In this storm, nobody survives but Robinson Crusoe. He finds himself on a desert island whic

It was the best of time, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom and foolishness, it was the epoch of belief and disbelief, it was the season of Light and Darkness... The story takes place in the 18th century in two cities, London and Paris. A political prisoner called Alexander Manette is released from prison after his long imprisonment and recalled to life by his daughter Lucie. His life seems to go better: his haunted fears and memories are quietened down, his daughter gets married and he wor

There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion, said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness whi

Jane Eyre is an orphan who lives with her aunt, Mrs Reed, at Gateshead Hall. She is hated and scorned there by her aunt continuously. In addition, Mrs Reed's children never miss the opportunity to beat and humiliate little Jane when possible. Over time, having lost her precious patience, Mrs Reed sends Jane to a charity-school. There Jane does her best to survive in conditions of starvation and cold. Eight years pass in a monotonous way. Jane becomes a good teacher and leaves Lowood to work as a private gov

The story is presented in the first person. David Copperfield tells about his uneasy life from his childhood till the present time in his book. He begins his story from the day of his birth: when his aunt visits his poor widowed mother and then left it angrily afterwards, knowing that a boy was born instead of a girl. David lives very happily with his mother and nurse at first. But then, unfortunately, his mother marries a fierce man whose hatred towards David has no boundaries. Shortly afterwards, his moth

Events take place in England in the 19th century. A boy was born in a workhouse, whose mother died immediately after his birth. Thus Oliver Twist becomes a poor orphan in the workhouse. Hunger and cold never leave his side, and a kind word has never been spoken to him. In the workhouse, he endures abuse and mockery all the time. The heartlessness of people forces Oliver to escape the workhouse and to go to London in the search of better life. Unluckily, Oliver falls into the hands of criminals and have no o

Dorian Gray is a young, handsome man, whose heart and soul were never spoiled by sin. One day, a talented artist paints a portrait of extraordinary beauty, which reveals Dorian's beauty and purity. Dorian begins to grow jealous of his own portrait. He makes a wish to look always young and handsome, and the portrait to grow old and ugly instead of him. By some mysterious coincidence, his wish comes true and Dorian remains young and handsome for years. He lives his life without limits, searching for new sensa

A famous English scientist (the Time Traveller) tells his friends about his vision of time and space. Moreover, he shows them a model of his own time machine which he is going to use in the next few days. Despite his best intentions, his friends take his story entirely with a degree of scepticism. Nevertheless, the Time Traveller risks everything and travels through time into a very far future. Thus he goes to the year 802701 A.D. There he finds himself in an absolutely different England, which looks rather

Edward Malone is a young journalist who fell in love with a beautiful woman. He looks for dangerous and thrilling adventures in order to win the heart of his lady. By an incredible coincidence, he meets with the most extraordinary zoologist of our modern age - Professor Challenger. The Professor tells him of his journey to the Amazon where he had discovered a great number of prehistoric animals. Malone believes Challenger's story in spite of general public disbelief. Thus, after a big scientific meeting, th

I took a walk round the garden three or four times, feeling the need of fresh air. On returning Gowing noticed I was not smoking: offered me another cigar, which I politely declined. Gowing began his usual sniffing, so, anticipating him, I said: You're not going to complain of the smell of paint again? He said: No, not this time; but I'll tell you what, I distinctly smell dry rot. I don't often make jokes, but I replied: You're talking a lot of dry rot yourself. I could not help roaring at this, and Carrie

Come, come; this is all an effusion of immediate want of spirits, Edward. You are in a melancholy humour, and fancy that any one unlike yourself must be happy. But remember that the pain of parting from friends will be felt by every body at times, whatever be their education or state. Know your own happiness. You want nothing but patience—or give it a more fascinating name, call it hope. Your mother will secure to you, in time, that independence you are so anxious for; it is her duty, and it will, it must e

I was more confounded with the money than I was before with the love, and began to be so elevated that I scarce knew the ground I stood on. I am the more particular in this part, that if my story comes to be read by any innocent young body, they may learn from it to guard themselves against the mischiefs which attend an early knowledge of their own beauty. If a young woman once thinks herself handsome, she never doubts the truth of any man that tells her he is in love with her; for if she believes herself c

We have been privileged to overhear a prehistoric tragedy, the sort of drama which occurred among the reeds upon the border of some Jurassic lagoon, when the greater dragon pinned the lesser among the slime, said Challenger, with more solemnity than I had ever heard in his voice. It was surely well for man that he came late in the order of creation. There were powers abroad in earlier days which no courage and no mechanism of his could have met. What could his sling, his throwing-stick, or his arrow avail h

For now she need not think about anybody. She could be herself, by herself. And that was what now she often felt the need of—to think; well, not even to think. To be silent; to be alone. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others. Although she continued to knit, and sat upright, it was thus that she felt herself; and this self having shed its attachments was

Before Rowland could reply a shout from the crow's-nest split the air. Ice, yelled the lookout; ice ahead. Iceberg. Right under the bows. The first officer ran amidships, and the captain, who had remained there, sprang to the engine-room telegraph, and this time the lever was turned. But in five seconds the bow of the Titan began to lift, and ahead, and on either hand, could be seen, through the fog, a field of ice, which arose in an incline to a hundred feet high in her track. The music in the theater ceas

'Look at the way you are shut up here. I said to Clifford: If that child rebels one day you'll have yourself to thank!' 'But Clifford never denies me anything,' said Connie. 'Look here, my dear child'—and Lady Bennerley laid her thin hand on Connie's arm. 'A woman has to live her life, or live to repent not having lived it. Believe me!' And she took another sip of brandy, which maybe was her form of repentance. 'But I do live my life, don't I?'

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way— in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities

Only the fact that we are unaware how well our nearest know us enables us to live with them. Love is the most impregnable refuge of self-esteem, and we hate the eye that reaches to our nakedness. If Glennard did not hate his wife it was slowly, sufferingly, that there was born in him that profounder passion which made his earlier feeling seem a mere commotion of the blood. He was like a child coming back to the sense of an enveloping presence: her nearness was a breast on which he leaned.

'You believe me,' I said gratefully. 'Of course I do,' and he held out his hand. 'I believe everything out of the common. The only thing to distrust is the normal.' He was very young, but he was the man for my money. 'I think they're off my track for the moment, but I must lie close for a couple of days. Can you take me in?' He caught my elbow in his eagerness and drew me towards the house. 'You can lie as snug here as if you were in a moss-hole. I'll see that nobody blabs, either. And you'll give me some m