Comfortable ClassicsComfortable Classics8 books
A collection of America's founding documents, the texts that shaped the nation's government and ideals.
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An ancient Chinese treatise on military strategy attributed to Sun Tzu, generally dated to the 5th century BC, and still read today for its insights on conflict and leadership.
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Benjamin Franklin's account of his own life, written between 1771 and 1790 and published after his death. It traces his rise from a printer's apprentice to a public figure.
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Nikola Tesla's own account of his life and his work on electricity, first serialized in Electrical Experimenter magazine in 1919.
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Charles Darwin's 1859 work explaining evolution by natural selection, one of the most influential books in the history of science.
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Niccolò Machiavelli's treatise on political power, written in 1513 and published in 1532, and one of the founding works of modern political thought.
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Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical work (1883–1885), written as the teachings of the prophet Zarathustra, which introduced ideas such as the Übermensch.
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Henry David Thoreau's 1854 reflection on simple living, drawn from the two years he spent in a cabin near Walden Pond in Massachusetts.
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The Old English epic poem of the hero Beowulf, who battles the monster Grendel, Grendel's mother, and finally a dragon. It is one of the oldest surviving long poems in English.
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Thomas Bulfinch's 1855 retelling of the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, plus Norse and other legends, written so general readers could enjoy them.
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The first part of Dante's 14th-century Divine Comedy, in which the poet, guided by Virgil, descends through the nine circles of Hell.
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Dante Alighieri's epic poem, completed around 1320, follows the poet's journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. It is a cornerstone of Italian and world literature.
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Goethe's dramatic poem (Part One 1808, Part Two 1832) about the scholar Faust, who makes a pact with the devil Mephistopheles.
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Homer's ancient Greek epic of the Trojan War, centered on the wrath of Achilles.
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Sir James Knowles's 1862 retelling of the Arthurian legends, drawn largely from Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, covering Camelot, the Round Table, and the quest for the Holy Grail.
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Homer's ancient Greek epic of Odysseus's ten-year journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.
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Shakespeare's tragedy of two young lovers from feuding families in Verona, written in the mid-1590s.
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Lewis Carroll's two Alice books (1865 and 1871), in which Alice falls down a rabbit hole and later steps through a mirror into worlds of wordplay, logic puzzles, and unforgettable characters.
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The folk tales collected by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, first published in 1812. They include stories such as Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and Snow White.
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The fairy tales of the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, published between 1835 and 1872, including The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, and The Snow Queen.
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J. M. Barrie's story of the boy who wouldn't grow up, and of Wendy Darling's adventures with him in Neverland. It was first staged as a play in 1904 and published as a novel in 1911.
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Tales from L. Frank Baum's Land of Oz, the magical world he introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and returned to in many sequels.
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Kenneth Grahame's 1908 riverbank tale of Mole, Rat, Badger, and the irrepressible Mr. Toad.
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Jules Verne's 1870 novel follows Professor Aronnax and his companions aboard Captain Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus, on an undersea voyage around the world.
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Mark Twain's 1884 novel follows Huck and Jim, a man escaping slavery, on a raft journey down the Mississippi River. It is often cited as one of the great American novels.
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Mark Twain's 1876 novel of boyhood along the Mississippi River, set in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri.
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Jack London's 1903 novel about Buck, a domestic dog stolen and sold as a sled dog during the Klondike Gold Rush, who gradually answers the call of the wild.
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Jonathan Swift's 1726 satire, in which ship's surgeon Lemuel Gulliver visits Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and other strange lands.
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James Fenimore Cooper's 1826 historical novel, set in 1757 during the French and Indian War, follows the frontiersman Hawkeye and his Mohican companions.
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Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 adventure story of young Jim Hawkins, a treasure map, and the pirate Long John Silver.
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Voltaire's 1759 satirical novel, in which the young Candide's unshakable optimism is tested by one disaster after another.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1866 novel about Raskolnikov, a poor former student in St. Petersburg who commits a murder and then struggles with guilt and conscience.
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Charles Dickens's 1861 novel follows the orphan Pip from a Kentish marsh village to London as he pursues his hopes of becoming a gentleman.
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Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella, in which the sailor Marlow travels up the Congo River in search of the ivory trader Kurtz.
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Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel follows an orphaned governess who becomes a teacher at Thornfield Hall and falls in love with its brooding master, Mr. Rochester.
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Louisa May Alcott's novel (1868–1869) follows the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, as they grow from girlhood to womanhood in New England.
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Willa Cather's 1918 novel of immigrant pioneer life on the Nebraska prairie, told through Jim Burden's memories of his childhood friend Ántonia Shimerda.
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Jane Austen's 1813 novel of manners follows Elizabeth Bennet and the proud Mr. Darcy through misunderstandings, first impressions, and love.
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Stephen Crane's 1895 novel of the American Civil War, told through the fear and courage of a young Union soldier, Henry Fleming.
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Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel, set in Puritan Boston, about Hester Prynne, who is forced to wear a scarlet "A" after bearing a child out of wedlock.
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Emily Brontë's 1847 novel of the passionate, destructive bond between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff on the Yorkshire moors.
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Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic novel, told through letters and diaries, about Count Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England and the band of people who oppose him.
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Mary Shelley's 1818 novel about Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who brings a creature to life and then abandons it. It is often called the first science fiction novel.
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H. G. Wells's 1897 science fiction novel about Griffin, a scientist who makes himself invisible but cannot reverse the process.
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Washington Irving's tales, first published in The Sketch Book (1819–1820), including the story of schoolmaster Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman.
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Stories by H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937), the American writer of weird fiction whose tales of cosmic horror first appeared in pulp magazines such as Weird Tales.
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Gaston Leroux's novel (1909–1910) about a masked, mysterious figure who haunts the Paris Opera House and becomes obsessed with the young soprano Christine Daaé.
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Oscar Wilde's only novel (1890) is about a young man whose portrait ages and records his sins while he stays youthful and beautiful.
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Henry James's 1898 ghost story, in which a governess caring for two children at a remote English country house becomes convinced that the estate is haunted.
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