Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was first published in London, England in 1818. It contains elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. It was also a warning against the “over-reaching” of modern man and the Industrial Revolution. The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films. It is often considered the first science fiction novel. The novel itself begins with a series of letters from the...

A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel by Charles Dickens. The plot centers on the years leading up to the French Revolution and culminates in the Jacobin Reign of Terror. It tells the story of two men, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, who look similar but are very different in personality. Darnay is a romantic French aristocrat, while Carton is a cynical English barrister. However, the two are in love with the same woman, Lucie Manette.

The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells, is an early science fiction novel which describes an invasion of England by aliens from Mars. It is one of the best-known depictions of an alien invasion of Earth. In book one, the narrator witnesses a series of strange occurrences on the surface of Mars.

Mark and Ruth’s parents sell their plantation and move to Florida. The children have many adventures in their new home state.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797-98 and published in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1798. Along with other poems in Lyrical Ballads, it was a signal shift to modern poetry and the beginning of British Romantic literature. In the first part, an old mariner stops a group on their way to a wedding. The leader of the group listens to the mariner's story. The mariner's tale starts out with calm seas and...

Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw. It tells the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can successfully pass off a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as a refined society lady by teaching her how to speak with an upper class accent and training her in etiquette. In act one, foul weather brings a common flower girl, note-taker, and gentleman together. The note-taker and the gentleman reveal their identities to one...

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a suspense novel by Oscar Wilde, narrating the tale of Dorian Gray, and his mysterious life. The novel opens with Basil and Lord Henry discussing a painting, as well as the subject of the painting, and theories of art. Basil wants to keep things secret from Lord Henry, but finds that he is unable to do so.

Dracula is a horror novel by Bram Stoker, narrated in first person diary entries and letters, telling the story of an encounter with Count Dracula. In chapter one, Jonathan Harker journals about his travel to Dracula’s Castle and the foreboding messages he gets from town folk along the way.

A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court is a satirical novel that depicts a contemporary American, Hank Morgan, who is transported to medieval England. In the court of the legendary King Arthur, Morgan uses his modern knowledge to face the trials and tribulations of the middle ages. In chapter one, the Yankee and Clarence come upon a town of poorly-dressed peasants and a huge procession. They follow the procession to the castle. The Yankee assumes that the castle is an asylum.

James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a fictional, tragic tale about a young mulatto's coming-of-age in the early 20th century. The unnamed narrator, who has a black mother and white father, is light-skinned enough to pass for a white man but his emotional connections to his mother's heritage make him unable to fully embrace that world. In chapter one, the narrator describes his early life at home with his mother.