Satire
Flatland
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 science fiction novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott. As a satire, Flat…
William
The world’s most confident, most chaos-creating eleven year old boy is at it again in these fourteen glorious and funny 1924 short stories. …
That Unfortunate Marriage
This is the funny, romantic, slightly tongue-in-cheek story of how little May Cheffington makes her way in the world despite being the sole …
The Priceless Pearl
Pearl Leavitt is habitually fired from her New York City office jobs for being "too beautiful" and thereby causing all the men to …
The Secret Agent
The Secret Agent tells the story of Adolf and Winnie Verloc. He is a phony anarchist and agent provocateur of the title, and the plot centre…
Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels is a satirical adventure that takes readers on a journey through fantastical lands, exploring the absurdities of human na…
Orley Farm
Orley Farm is Trollope at his best (as good as the Barsetshire series), which means some of the best characterizations in the English langua…
Miss Mapp
E. F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia series, consists of six novels and three short stories. The novels are: Queen Lucia, Lucia in London, Miss Map…
Self and Self-management
Bennett's essays always provide food for thought and bring a wry smile to the lips. Human nature, it appears, changes little over the ages, …
Alice in Blunderland
From Alice in Blunderland: "Certain of our members claim that they have a right to sell their votes for $500 apiece--" "Mercy…
Gulliver's Travels
First published in 1726, Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" presents, as a mock travel tale, a series of thought experiments mi…
Anti-imperialist Writings
Anti-imperialist Writings presents a thought-provoking collection of Mark Twain's reflections on imperialism, drawn from his diverse body of…
Hard Times
Charles Dickens' 1854 novel opens with the philosophy of education espoused by the eminently practical Mr. Gradgrind, who prizes "facts…
Knickerbocker's History of New York
Washington Irving, an author, biographer, historian, and diplomat, completed his first major work, a satire of contemporary local history an…
Fraternity
A satire of middle-class complacency and artistic aspiration. It is the story of a strange bohemian upper-class love triangle, and of a myst…
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle follows the life of its titular character, an egotistical dandy navigating the complexities of 18th-centu…
Hard Times
Hard Times, the shortest of Dickens's full-length novels, is set in the fictitious Victorian-England city of Coketown, where facts are the r…
The Devil's Dictionary
The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce is a sharp and witty exploration of language and human nature, presented in the form of a satirical…
Love and Mr Lewisham
Love and Mr Lewisham is a witty exploration of the complexities of love, ambition, and societal expectations in late 19th century England. H…
Little Dorrit
Born in the Marshalsea Prison for Debtors, Amy—Little Dorrit—the daughter of the ruined, but self-respectful William Dorrit, has put her ent…