Library
Homer
Iliad
The rage of Achilles and the cost of war. The foundational epic of Western literature.
363 pages14h 10m
Plato
The Republic
What is justice? Plato imagines the ideal city and the examined life, culminating in the Allegory of the Cave.
287 pages11h 32m
Homer
Odyssey
The long road home. Odysseus navigates gods, monsters, and temptation to return to Ithaca.
274 pages10h 24m
Plato
Apology
Socrates on trial for his life, arguing that the unexamined life is not worth living.
27 pages1h 3m
Plato
Crito
A dialogue on justice, injustice, and the proper response to injustice.
12 pages
Plato
Phaedo
The last hours of Socrates. A conversation about death, the soul, and why a philosopher should not fear dying.
70 pages2h 36m
Plato
Symposium
A series of speeches on the nature of love, culminating in Socrates' account.
58 pages
Plato
Meno
A dialogue exploring whether virtue can be taught.
30 pages
Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle's most important work on ethics, exploring virtue and the good life.
210 pages
Aristotle
Politics
An examination of political life, the state, and the best forms of government.
218 pages
Aristotle
Poetics
The foundational work of Western literary theory.
13 pages
Herodotus
The Histories
The first great work of history, covering the Greco-Persian Wars.
304 pages
Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War
The definitive account of the war between Athens and Sparta.
238 pages
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations
Personal reflections of the Roman Emperor on Stoic philosophy.
109 pages
Epictetus
Discourses
Teachings on Stoic ethics as recorded by Arrian.
135 pages
Lucretius
On the Nature of Things
A poetic exposition of Epicurean physics and philosophy.
165 pages
Tacitus
The Annals
A history of the Roman Empire from Tiberius to Nero.
174 pages
Plutarch
Parallel Lives (Selections)
Biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs.
131 pages
John Milton
Paradise Lost
The epic poem of the Fall of Man — Satan's rebellion, the temptation of Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from Eden.
203 pages
Augustine
Confessions
Augustine's spiritual autobiography — his journey from sin to Christian faith.
297 pages
Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy
Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise — the supreme poem of the Middle Ages.
267 pages
Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales
A collection of stories told by pilgrims on their way to Canterbury Cathedral.
651 pages
Niccolò Machiavelli
The Prince
The foundational text of modern political philosophy — a handbook on acquiring and maintaining power.
127 pages
Michel de Montaigne
Essays
The pioneering personal essays — wide-ranging reflections on life, death, knowledge, and human nature.
1251 pages
William Shakespeare
Hamlet
The tragedy of Prince Hamlet's quest to avenge his father's murder.
77 pages
William Shakespeare
Othello
The tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice — jealousy, manipulation, and destruction.
66 pages
William Shakespeare
Macbeth
The tragedy of Macbeth — ambition, guilt, and the corruption of power.
44 pages
William Shakespeare
King Lear
The tragedy of King Lear — madness, betrayal, and the bonds between parents and children.
59 pages
William Shakespeare
The Tempest
Prospero's magical island — a romance of forgiveness, power, and freedom.
42 pages
Miguel de Cervantes
Don Quixote
The first modern novel — a deluded knight's comic adventures across Spain.
1032 pages
Thomas Hobbes
Leviathan
The foundational work of modern political philosophy — the social contract and the sovereign state.
576 pages
René Descartes
Discourse on the Method
The foundation of modern philosophy — 'I think, therefore I am.'
59 pages
Baruch Spinoza
Ethics
A systematic treatise on God, nature, the mind, and human freedom — written in geometric form.
228 pages
Blaise Pascal
Pensées
Fragments of a defense of Christianity — the famous wager, the misery of man without God.
250 pages
John Locke
Second Treatise of Government
The theory of natural rights, consent of the governed, and the right of revolution.
142 pages
Jonathan Swift
Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's voyages to Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the Houyhnhnms — satire of human nature.
262 pages
David Hume
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
A systematic examination of the origins and limits of human knowledge.
135 pages
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Social Contract
The theory of popular sovereignty — 'Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.'
157 pages
Adam Smith
The Wealth of Nations
The foundational work of modern economics — the invisible hand, division of labor, and free markets.
1005 pages
Immanuel Kant
Critique of Pure Reason
The critical examination of the powers and limits of human reason.
572 pages
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay
The Federalist Papers
85 essays arguing for ratification of the US Constitution.
531 pages
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Faust
The scholar who sells his soul to the devil — the supreme drama of German literature.
92 pages
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy — the archetypal romance of manners.
308 pages
Jane Austen
Emma
Emma Woodhouse — 'handsome, clever, and rich' — meddles in the love lives of her neighbors.
394 pages
Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy in America
The classic analysis of American democratic society and its institutions.
503 pages
Søren Kierkegaard
Fear and Trembling
A meditation on faith through the story of Abraham and Isaac.
204 pages
George Eliot
Middlemarch
A panoramic portrait of English provincial life — ambition, marriage, and reform.
805 pages
Herman Melville
Moby Dick
Captain Ahab's obsessive hunt for the great white whale.
582 pages
Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamazov
The great Russian novel of faith, doubt, and parricide.
873 pages
Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace
The epic of Russia during the Napoleonic Wars — history, philosophy, and the lives of three families.
1551 pages
Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species
The theory of evolution by natural selection — the most important book in the history of biology.
423 pages
Friedrich Nietzsche
Beyond Good and Evil
A critique of past philosophy and an exploration of the will to power.
184 pages
Mark Twain
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Huck and Jim's journey down the Mississippi — the great American novel.
250 pages
Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness
Marlow's journey up the Congo River to find the mysterious Kurtz.
96 pages
Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights
Heathcliff's obsessive, vengeful love for Catherine—a force both destructive and eternal—shatters lives across generations on the wild moors.
289 pages10h 25m
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Crime and Punishment
A student murders for an idea, believing himself beyond conventional morality. His subsequent psychological torment—and the detective's relentless pursuit—lay bare the human need for confession and redemption.
543 pages
Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre
An orphaned governess asserts her independence and passion in a world that seeks to diminish her—uncovering the gothic secrets of Thornfield Hall.
457 pages
Victor Hugo
Les Misérables
The unyielding hand of justice versus the human heart. Jean Valjean seeks redemption, relentlessly pursued by Inspector Javert—a vast portrait of 19th-century France's social struggle.
1424 pages
Franz Kafka
The Metamorphosis
Waking transformed into a monstrous insect—Gregor Samsa faces his grotesque new reality. This is Kafka's unsettling vision of radical alienation and the absurdities of existence.
53 pages
Frederick Douglass
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
The journey from chattel to voice—Frederick Douglass's groundbreaking autobiography details the horrors of slavery and his fight for freedom.
100 pages
Livy
The History of Rome
From myth to empire—Livy chronicles Rome's foundational history, examining the characters and moral struggles that forged a republic.
586 pages
William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
Forbidden love and feuding families—two young souls defy destiny. Their desperate passion ignites a devastating tragedy in Verona.
61 pages
Daniel Defoe
Robinson Crusoe
Shipwrecked and alone, Robinson Crusoe confronts the wilderness—building a world from scratch, a testament to human endurance.
284 pages
Henry Fielding
Tom Jones
A foundling with a generous heart—and a taste for trouble—navigates a bawdy, hypocritical England on a quest for love and identity.
917 pages
Laurence Sterne
Tristram Shandy
Tristram Shandy attempts his autobiography—but can't stop digressing. This comedic novel explodes narrative form, finding profound meaning in tangents.
387 pages
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Sorrows of Young Werther
The agony of unrequited love—a Romantic's descent into despair. Werther's passionate letters detail his all-consuming obsession with Lotte and his tragic end.
115 pages
Benjamin Franklin
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
A self-made man's blueprint for success—and a nation's founding. Franklin's journey from humble printer to iconic statesman.
171 pages
Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility
Two sisters—one of acute sense, the other of passionate sensibility—navigate love, loss, and social constraint to find happiness.
304 pages
Mary Shelley
Frankenstein
A scientist reanimates dead flesh—and unleashes a creature of despair. Shelley's chilling meditation on creation, abandonment, and what makes us human.
188 pages
Washington Irving
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
A timid schoolmaster pursues an heiress in a tranquil, haunted valley—until a legendary headless horseman rides him into oblivion.
31 pages
Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy in America
Alexis de Tocqueville observes nascent American democracy—forecasting its unique strengths, the dangers of majority rule, and its future across the globe.
503 pages
Søren Kierkegaard
Fear and Trembling
The terrifying paradox of faith—Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac, commanded by God against all human ethics.
204 pages
Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist
An orphan’s struggle for survival and identity in the grim underworld of Victorian London—a world of workhouses, thieves, and unexpected kindness.
399 pages
Alexandre Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo
Betrayal and elaborate revenge. Edmond Dantès, unjustly imprisoned, transforms into the enigmatic Count of Monte Cristo—meticulously seeking retribution across decades.
1180 pages
William Makepeace Thackeray
Vanity Fair
A world of social climbing and relentless ambition—a "fair" where every character seeks advantage. Thackeray's biting satire exposes the human heart's vanities.
775 pages
Charles Dickens
David Copperfield
From orphanhood to adulthood, David Copperfield navigates a vast Victorian world—encountering indelible characters who shape his identity and destiny.
873 pages
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter
Branded with a scarlet 'A', Hester Prynne faces public shame—but her quiet strength reveals the deep hypocrisy and hidden sin of Puritan New England.
214 pages
Henry David Thoreau
Walden
Two years by Walden Pond. Thoreau's experiment in simple living—a radical blueprint for self-reliance and confronting life's fundamental truths.
283 pages
Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary
Trapped by provincial life, Emma Bovary longs for passion and luxury—her romantic illusions lead to a tragic unraveling.
314 pages
Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times—the French Revolution erupts, drawing lives from London into a maelstrom of sacrifice and redemption.
360 pages
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
An orphan's sudden "great expectations" elevate him to London society—but reveal a world of illusion, snobbery, and the true cost of ambition.
449 pages
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Notes from Underground
A blistering confession from the underground. A bitter, isolated man dissects his own tormented consciousness—and rails against human reason and progress.
108 pages
Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Down the rabbit hole Alice tumbles—into a world where logic is inverted. Tea parties are mad, queens are cruel, and childhood wonder reigns amidst the absurd.
64 pages
Louisa May Alcott
Little Women
Four sisters come of age amidst Civil War austerity—chasing dreams, enduring hardship, and forging their own paths to womanhood.
455 pages
Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Idiot
Prince Myshkin—an exceptionally good and innocent man—enters a Russian society consumed by passion and intrigue. His purity acts as a mirror, exposing its corruption and moral decay.
610 pages
Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina
Passionate defiance against a rigid society—Anna Karenina pursues a doomed love affair, while Levin seeks meaning in family and faith.
890 pages
Henrik Ibsen
A Doll's House
A wife's secret debt shatters the illusion of her perfect marriage—a suffocating doll's house she must dramatically abandon for freedom.
62 pages
Henry James
The Portrait of a Lady
An independent American heiress seeks freedom in Europe—only to be ensnared by manipulative forces and a suffocating marriage. Isabel Archer confronts the bitter cost of her choices.
318 pages
Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island
A map to buried treasure ignites a perilous sea adventure for young Jim Hawkins. He confronts mutiny, piracy, and the captivating villainy of Long John Silver.
163 pages
Friedrich Nietzsche
Beyond Good and Evil
Why do we believe in "good" and "evil"? Nietzsche excavates the psychological roots of morality—and the hidden motives of philosophers.
184 pages
Robert Louis Stevenson
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
A terrifying experiment in duality. Dr. Jekyll's attempt to separate good from evil unleashes the monstrous Mr. Hyde—a chilling exploration of the human psyche.
62 pages
Arthur Conan Doyle
A Study in Scarlet
A mysterious murder draws Dr. Watson into the world of the eccentric Sherlock Holmes—a master of deduction making his unforgettable debut.
107 pages
Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Faustian bargain for eternal youth—Dorian Gray's sins are etched onto a hidden portrait, leaving his own beauty untouched, yet increasingly monstrous.
193 pages
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The game is afoot. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson unravel a dozen perplexing cases across Victorian London—showcasing the detective's unparalleled powers of observation and logic.
254 pages
Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest
Two gentlemen invent the dashing "Ernest" to escape social duties and pursue romance—a hilarious critique of Victorian hypocrisy and identity.
52 pages
Bram Stoker
Dracula
An ancient evil stalks Victorian England—Count Dracula brings seductive terror and a thirst for blood to London. A battle for souls against the immortal undead.
379 pages
Henry James
The Turn of the Screw
Are they ghosts, or madness? At a remote English estate, a young governess confronts terrifying apparitions—or her own unraveling mind.
103 pages
Samuel Butler
The Way of All Flesh
The struggle to be oneself—free from the suffocating grip of family and Victorian piety. Butler's autobiographical novel satirizes generational conflict and hypocrisy.
398 pages
Theodore Dreiser
Sister Carrie
Drawn by the city's glittering promise, a young woman pursues a life of material comfort. Her rise through society—driven by desire and circumstance—unmasks the true cost of the American dream.
393 pages
L. Frank Baum
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Torn from Kansas by a cyclone, Dorothy journeys through Oz with unlikely friends. Along the yellow brick road, she discovers magic, courage—and the true meaning of home.
93 pages
Rudyard Kipling
Kim
An orphaned Anglo-Irish boy, living on the streets of colonial India, is drawn into the Great Game of espionage—his double life intertwined with a lama's spiritual quest.
260 pages
Henry James
The Ambassadors
An American sent to retrieve a young man from the corrupting influence of Paris instead finds himself transformed—discovering the intoxicating imperative to "live all you can.
410 pages
Jack London
The Call of the Wild
From pampered pet to primal beast—Buck is stolen and thrust into the brutal Yukon. He answers the ancient call, embracing the wild within.
80 pages
W.E.B. Du Bois
The Souls of Black Folk
The problem of the color line—and the "double consciousness" it creates. Du Bois explores the spiritual and social costs of being Black in America.
181 pages
Joseph Conrad
Nostromo
The corrupting weight of silver—unleashing revolution and moral decay. Conrad dissects how material wealth warps the fictional republic of Costaguana.
471 pages
J.M. Barrie
Peter Pan
Neverland calls the Darling children, where Peter Pan offers a world of pirates, mermaids, and eternal childhood—but growing up is the ultimate betrayal.
114 pages
Edith Wharton
The House of Mirth
Lily Bart—beautiful, charming, and penniless—fights for survival in New York's Gilded Age elite, a society that demands wealth and ultimately destroys her.
332 pages
Joseph Conrad
The Secret Agent
A botched act of political terror shatters a family—and exposes London's seedy anarchist underworld. Conrad explores the moral decay within mundane lives.
235 pages
E.M. Forster
A Room with a View
From stifling English convention to the liberating passion of Italy—Lucy Honeychurch seeks her own truth, and a room with a view.
167 pages
L.M. Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables
An orphan's vivid imagination arrives at Green Gables—and transforms a quiet life into a vibrant world of friendship and belonging.
252 pages
Arnold Bennett
The Old Wives' Tale
Two sisters, two radically different lives—one in sleepy Bursley, one in vibrant Paris. Bennett's panorama of love, loss, and the relentless passage of time.
596 pages
E.M. Forster
Howards End
The fate of England—and a beloved country house—hangs in the balance. Three families clash over class, property, and the meaning of connection.
293 pages
Max Beerbohm
Zuleika Dobson
Zuleika Dobson's irresistible charm descends upon Oxford, prompting every undergraduate to fall in love—and then drown himself in the Isis. A devastating satire of infatuation.
215 pages
D.H. Lawrence
Sons and Lovers
Caught between his possessive mother and two distinct lovers, Paul Morel struggles to define himself. Lawrence's semi-autobiographical novel probes the complexities of desire, family, and self-discovery.
393 pages
W. Somerset Maugham
Of Human Bondage
Philip Carey's lifelong struggle for freedom—from his clubfoot, a suffocating existence, and the torment of an obsessive love. A powerful semi-autobiographical exploration of human suffering.
637 pages
Ford Madox Ford
The Good Soldier
A world of "good people" collapses—narrated by a husband oblivious to his own deception. Ford unearths a devastating tale of adultery and betrayal beneath polite society.
141 pages
D.H. Lawrence
The Rainbow
The elusive promise of a fuller life. D.H. Lawrence traces three generations of the Brangwens—their passionate desires and struggles for selfhood in a changing England.
464 pages
James Joyce
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A young man's soul forging—rebelling against nation, church, and family—to create his conscience as an artist.
206 pages
Booth Tarkington
The Magnificent Ambersons
The proud Ambersons face their fall. A spoiled heir resists the automobile age—and the inevitable decline of his family's grand, vanishing world.
272 pages
Sherwood Anderson
Winesburg, Ohio
The stifled lives and secret longings of Winesburg, Ohio. Anderson’s "grotesques" reveal the quiet desperation—the psychological isolation—beneath the small-town surface.
177 pages
Sinclair Lewis
Main Street
The suffocating conformity of small-town life. Carol Kennicott's idealism clashes with Gopher Prairie's narrow worldview—a struggle for meaning in provincial America.
455 pages
Edith Wharton
The Age of Innocence
Gilded Age New York—a society of rigid rules and veiled desires. Newland Archer must choose between a conventional marriage and a passion that defies every expectation.
259 pages
D.H. Lawrence
Women in Love
Two sisters, two men—their intense and often destructive quest for passion and meaning. Lawrence explores the complex, evolving nature of human love.
459 pages
James Joyce
Ulysses
A single day in Dublin, 1904. Leopold Bloom's epic consciousness transforms the mundane into a vast, modern odyssey.
671 pages
E.M. Forster
A Passage to India
Can an Englishman and an Indian ever truly connect? Amidst the British Raj—a mysterious incident in the Marabar Caves exposes the profound chasms of empire and misunderstanding.
260 pages
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
The glittering façade of the Jazz Age—and the desperate, ultimately tragic quest of Jay Gatsby to reclaim a lost love. The unraveling of the American Dream.
119 pages
Willa Cather
Death Comes for the Archbishop
Building a spiritual home in the vast American Southwest. A lifetime of faith, challenge, and quiet endurance—recounted as Bishop Latour approaches his final days.
177 pages
Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms
Love and war collide on the Italian front. An ambulance driver attempts to forge a separate peace—only to confront fate’s brutal terms.
209 pages
Richard Hughes
A High Wind in Jamaica
A high wind strands children with pirates—unleashing a profound, unsettling disruption. Childhood innocence becomes a terrifying, amoral force at sea.
144 pages
Dashiell Hammett
The Maltese Falcon
The black bird — a priceless statuette at the heart of murder and deception. Sam Spade untangles a web of greed and betrayal in San Francisco.
164 pages
Joseph Conrad
Lord Jim
A single act of cowardice—jumping from a sinking ship—sends Lord Jim on a desperate quest for honor and redemption in a remote land.
348 pages
Charles Dickens
Bleak House
The fog of London—and the Chancery court—suffocates all caught in the endless Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit. Dickens exposes a corrupt legal system devouring lives.
861 pages
Theodore Dreiser
An American Tragedy
The desperate ambition of Clyde Griffiths—his ruthless climb for love and status—culminates in murder. An indictment of the American Dream's darkest costs.
450 pages
William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury
The Compson family unravels—their fragmented minds revealing a searing portrait of memory, loss, and the inescapable burden of the past.
223 pages
Franz Kafka
The Trial
Arrested for an unknown crime—Josef K. is ensnared by an inscrutable legal system. A harrowing descent into bureaucratic absurdity and assumed guilt.
203 pages
Friedrich Nietzsche
Thus Spake Zarathustra
From the mountain, Zarathustra announces the death of God and the Übermensch—a poetic, provocative call to revalue all values and transcend humanity.
292 pages
Stendhal
The Red and the Black
Driven by ruthless ambition, Julien Sorel navigates love and class in Restoration France—torn between the army's red and the church's black.
469 pages
Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The carefree days of boyhood on the Mississippi—Tom Sawyer's world of pranks, first love, and a dangerous encounter with a killer.
183 pages
René Descartes
Meditations on First Philosophy
Descartes' radical quest for certainty. He doubts all knowledge—sensory experience, even his own existence—to prove the self, God, and the external world.
59 pages
Henry James
The Wings of the Dove
An American heiress—fragile as a dove—becomes the unwitting target of a mercenary plot, forcing a moral reckoning for all involved.
204 pages
Ford Madox Ford
Parade's End
The world breaks apart around Christopher Tietjens—the last English gentleman—as the Great War shatters his honor, marriage, and sanity.
294 pages
Stendhal
The Charterhouse of Parma
A young aristocrat's passionate pursuit of love and ambition—from Waterloo's chaos to the intrigues of an Italian court.
235 pages
Ivan Turgenev
Fathers and Sons
The clash of generations in 19th-century Russia. A radical nihilist challenges tradition and romance—questioning life's meaning amidst social upheaval.
181 pages
Thornton Wilder
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
When a bridge collapses in Peru, killing five, a friar investigates each victim's life—searching for meaning or divine justice.
80 pages
Ernest Hemingway
The Sun Also Rises
Post-war disillusionment among the "Lost Generation." They seek solace in drink and the Spanish sun—a poignant study of damaged love and aimless longing.
159 pages
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
The Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont—masters of seduction and manipulation—play a dangerous game of hearts through letters. Their epistolary plots reveal society's moral corruption.
345 pages
Henry James
The Golden Bowl
Two intertwined marriages—a father and daughter, each married to the other's former lover—struggle with a delicate deception, poised to shatter.
566 pages
Virgil
The Aeneid
Aeneas flees Troy and founds the Roman race — Virgil's epic of duty, fate, and empire.
274 pages
Sophocles
Oedipus Rex
A king discovers he has unwittingly fulfilled a terrible prophecy — the foundational tragedy of Western literature.
23 pages