Zora Neale Hurston

Digital Fire

One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

George Orwell

The novel was chosen by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present. Although, it almost remained unpublished due to its savage attack on Stalin, Britain’s then ally and got turned down by publisher after publisher, today it’s known to be one of Orwell’s best works and a world-famous classic. The animals on Mr. Jones' farm revolt against their human masters and violently expel them. Led by the pigs they decide to run the farm themselves on egalitarian principles. In Course of time the pigs themselves become corrupted by power and a new tyranny is established under their leader Napoleon. Cast in the form of a satirical fable directed primarily against Stalin's Russia, Animal Farm by George Orwell tells us how power game can become the quintessential story of greed, corruption, betrayal and ruination.

Animal Farm

Vladimir Ilich Lenin

Originally published in 1916, it was one of the first attempts to account for the increasing importance of the world market in the twentieth century. The essay is a synthesis of Lenin’s modifications and developments of economic theories that Karl Marx formulated in ‘Das Kapital’. This remarkable Marxist text explains fully the inescapable flaws and destructive power of Capitalism. Lenin offers a predictive scenario of a world shaken by competitive instability, warfare and crisis, dominated by monopolies, the merging of finance and industrial capital, and fierce territorial competition. Its pertinence is now greater than ever. Lenin vaticinated that those third world countries used merely as capitalist labour would have no choice but to join the Communist revolution in Russia. His theoretical framework remains the best method for understanding recent global developments.

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism

Gaston Leroux

‘The Phantom of the Opera’ is the most famous work of French author Gaston Leroux. First published in French as a serial in 1909, the story revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine's childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins singing successfully on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous 'ghost' of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster. Part horror story, part historical romance, and part detective thriller, the timeless tale of a masked, disfigured musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opera House is familiar to millions of readers, as well as to movie and theater-goers. At the heart of the story's long-standing popularity lies its questioning of a universal theme: the relationship between outward appearance and the beauty or darkness of the human soul. Despite finding little success in print after its 1911 publication, interest in and acclaim for Gaston Leroux’s ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ intensified as a result of numerous film and stage adaptations, most notably Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1986 stage adaptation.

The Phantom of the Opera

AW Tozer

A Cloud by Day, a Fire by Night represents A.W. Tozer's teaching on the will of God, taken from sermons he preached just before he left his successful church in Chicago. A.W. Tozer (1897-1963) was a self-taught theologian, pastor, and writer, whose powerful words continue to grip the intellect and stir the soul of today's believers. He authored more than forty books. The presence of God was his classroom, his notebooks and tools consisted of prayer, God's Word, and the writings of early Christians and theologians, the Puritans, and great men of faith. An important theme in Tozer’s ministry was the subject of God’s will for each of our lives. He wrestled with it from the time he was a new Christian until the day he passed into eternity. Throughout this book, he discusses the battles Christians face almost every day. He frames these battles as taking place in Canaan, as he calls it the land of promise where we are living today. Tozer could look at something so negative and find positives from a spiritual point of view. This book is about more than finding God’s will for your next step or decision in life—it is about following His will to the end. So much in life can bring us to that point of discouragement where all we want to do is quit, especially when God’s will for us is unclear. With only our human resources, following God would be impossible. But when we cross that line into the deeper life, we enter into the grace of God that enables us to do His will.

A Cloud by Day, a Fire by Night

William Clement Stone

Often the rules for success are so simple and so obvious they aren't even seen. But when you search for them, you, too, can find them. And during the search something wonderful happens—you acquire knowledge, you gain experience and you become inspired. And then you begin to realize the necessary ingredients for success. All of these things and more can be yours if you will follow a few simple rules and put to work the easy to follow principles in this book. Within these pages, it is proven that success can be reduced to a formula…to a system that NEVER fails. In your hands lies the golden key to a glittering future and the true riches of life.

The Success System that Never Fails

Norman Vincent Peale

Norman Vincent Peale's philosophy of positive thinking has had an unprecedented influence on millions of people throughout the world. This book will show you how you can deal more effectively with tough situations and difficult people, and dramatically improve your performance and confidence. It contains the wisdom of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's best-selling original and Peale's sage advice about developing the mental acumen to surmount obstacles and maintain a positive outlook. He provides people with the positive approach needed to achieve the major goals in life, showing them how to maximize their talent and energies, to give them confidence when they need it most.

The Power of Positive Thinking

Brenda Ueland

Brenda Ueland was a journalist, editor, freelance writer, and teacher of writing. In If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit she shares her philosophies on writing and life in general. Ueland firmly believed that anyone can write, that everyone is talented, original, and has something important to say. In this book she explains how find that spark that will make you a great writer. Carl Sandburg called this book the best book ever written about how to write. Join the millions of others who've found inspiration and unlocked their own talent.

If You Want to Write

Anne Frank

In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. She recorded daily events, her personal experiences and her feelings in her diary for the next two years. It is one of the most celebrated and enduring books of the last century and it remains a deeply admired testament to the indestructible nature of human spirit. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period.

The Diary of a Young Girl

Olga Lengyel

Olga Lengyel tells, frankly and without compromise, one of the most horrifying stories of all time. This true, documented chronicle is the intimate, day-to-day record of a beautiful woman who survived the nightmare of Auschwitz and Birchenau. This book is a necessary reminder of one of the ugliest chapters in the history of human civilization. It was a shocking experience. It is a shocking book.

Five Chimneys

Sigmund Freud

First published in 1920, ‘Dream Psychology’ is an audacious masterpiece of Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and the founding father of psychoanalysis, a method for treating mental illness and also a theory that explains human behavior. Freud believed that events in our childhood hold a great impact on our adult lives, shaping our personality. In creating psychoanalysis, Freud designed therapeutic techniques such as the use of free association and discovered transference, establishing its central role in the analytic process. Freud's analysis of dreams as wish-fulfillments provided him with models for the clinical analysis of symptom formation and the mechanisms of repression as well as for elaboration of his theory of the unconscious. Freud postulated the existence of libido, an energy with which mental processes and structures are invested and which generates erotic attachments, and a death drive, the source of compulsive repetition, hate, aggression, and neurotic guilt. In his later work, Freud developed a wide-ranging interpretation and critique of religion and culture.

Dream Psychology

William Faulkner

First published in 1932, ‘Light in August’ is a novel that contrasts stark tragedy with optimistic perseverance in the face of mortality, written by William Faulkner, a Nobel Prize-winning American author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, Faulkner’s reputation is based on his novels, novellas, and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter. The novel is set in the American South during prohibition and features an ensemble cast of Faulkner’s most memorable characters: honest and brave Lena Grove, in search of the father of her unborn child; Reverend Gail Hightower, a lonely outcast haunted by visions of Confederate glory; and Joe Christmas, a desperate, enigmatic drifter consumed by his mixed ancestry. These characters tussle with alienation, racism, and heartbreak across a nonlinear narrative. Classified as a Southern gothic and modernist novel, it is considered a seminal work in 20th-century American literature.

Light in August

Thomas Hardy

First published in 1874, ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ was Thomas Hardy’s first major literary success that gave the name of Wessex to the landscape of southwest England and was the first to gain him widespread fame as a novelist. In rural Victorian England, liberated and wilful Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her courageous presence draws three very different suitors—Gabriel Oak (a generous shepherd), Boldwood (a proud, relentless Farmer), and Sergeant Troy (charming, unethical soldier). Each, in striking ways, perturbs her decisions, entangles her life, and tragedy emerges, threatening the stability of the whole community. Authentically portraying the superstitions and traditions of a countryside community, it shows the speculative position of a woman in a man's world. The novel depicts the many faces of love, including heartfelt love and unscrupulous and manipulative adoration. It portrays a deep understanding of human sentiment and is undeniably one of Hardy's greatest love stories.

Far From the Madding Crowd

Frances Hodgson Burnett

First published in 1905, ‘A Little Princess’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett—a British novelist and playwright, narrates the story of youthful Sara Crewe, the privileged daughter of an affluent diamond merchant. All the other girls at Miss Minchin's school treat Sara as if she indeed were a princess. Charming and imaginative, she soon becomes the envy of the other girls. But, when Captain Crewe's fortune is sadly lost, Sara's fate changes. The tragedy suddenly takes away Sarah’s fine clothes and privileges, her schoolmates wait to see if she will give up. But, now living in the school’s dirty attic and working long hours for the demanding students who were earlier her friends, Sarah’s benevolent spirit remains unaffected by the adversity and cruelty. Her intense perseverance to maintain her dignity and remain a princess has captivated and charmed readers for almost a hundred years, even inspiring a recent popular feature film.

A Little Princess

Oscar Wilde

First published in 1887, ‘The Canterville Ghost’ tells the tale of a malicious ghost who discovers there is no peace to be found when a rumbustious American family takes over his ancestral home—written by Oscar Wilde, an Irish poet, and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. A frightening ghost is tormenting the ancient mansion of Canterville Chase, complete with creaking floorboards, clanking chains, and gruesome disguises – but the new occupants seem strangely undisturbed by his presence. Deftly contrasting the conventional gothic ghost story with the pragmatism of the modern world, Wilde creates a gently comic fable of the conflict between old and new.

The Canterville Ghost

Yevgeny Zamyatin

Originally written in Russian in 1920 and first published in English in 1924, ‘We’ is a dystopian novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin, a Russian author of science fiction, philosophy, literary criticism, and political satire. Despite being the son of a Russian Orthodox priest, Zamyatin lost his faith in Christianity at an early age and became a Bolshevik. The story takes place hundreds of years into a gloomy future, where the citizens live under the total control and surveillance of a police state, called One State. The country is made almost entirely out of glass, which makes it easier for the government to watch every move of its citizens. One State manages all aspects of the society with a rigid, scientific discipline where art and passion are restricted. Citizens are expected to march in step, wear the prescribed uniforms, and are only able to refer to each other by their assigned numbers, rather than names. The main character is D-503, a mathematician who lives willingly under One State’s strict rules until he meets and falls in love with I-330, a rebel who lives her life with the creativity and lust prohibited and feared by One State. The novel continues to be an intriguing and vivid work of science fiction and social commentary.

Johanna Spyri

Heidi is one of the best-selling books of all time, not only a defining work of Swiss literature, but a beloved masterpiece of children’s fiction. When an aunt drops five-year-old Heidi off to live with her grandfather in the Alps—the two of them alone in a small hut on a hill—she's initially very lonely. Soon, however, she comes to appreciate her new, simple life; she loves walking through the pastures with her friend Peter the goatherd and spending quiet time with her grandfather. Three years later, Heidi's aunt returns to take her to the town to become a companion for Clara, a sick little girl of a wealthy family. But even though Heidi bonds with Clara and brings new life to the household, she becomes more and more homesick and wants desperately to return to her grandfather. Since its original publication in Switzerland in 1880, Johanna Spyri's classic story has delighted generations of children. The book has been translated into more than fifty languages and has sold over fifty million copies.

Heidi

Ernest Hemingway

First published in 1926, ‘The Sun Also Rises’ is Ernest Hemingway’s first novel and a classic example of his spare but influential writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. Based on Hemingway's experiences, it is the story of a group of American and English expatriates living in Paris who take an excursion to Pamplona, Spain. The novel has forever associated Hemingway with bullfights and the running of the bulls. This powerful work of modern fiction, filled with memorable characters and universal themes, is summarized in this volume, which is enhanced by thought-provoking critical extracts and focused biographical details. The novel helped to establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.

The Sun Also Rises

Manly P. Hall

Originally published in 1928, The Secret Teachings of All Ages is Manly P. Hall's celebrated 20th century tome, where readers delight in discussions about ancient symbolism, rituals, and mythology. Manly P. Hall was a Canadian Author of over 150 published works, the best known of which are Initiates of the Flame, The Story of Healing, The Divine Art, Aliens Magic and Sorcery The Secret Teachings of All Ages, and An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy. Symbolism is the language of the Mysteries; in fact it is the language not only of mysticism and philosophy but of all Nature, for every law and power active in universal procedure is manifested to the limited sense perceptions of man through the medium of symbol. Every form existing in the diversified sphere of being is symbolic of the divine activity by which it is produced. By symbols men have ever sought to communicate to each other those thoughts which transcend the limitations of language. This book is often hailed as an encyclopedia for all things hidden, ancient, and arcane, and it explores a vast array of topics, from secret societies and the Zodiac to Mystic Christianity and William Shakespeare's identity. Despite some of the outdated and controversial ideas it poses now in the 21st century, it continues to fascinate students of the cryptic and mysterious.

The Secret Teachings of All Ages

This ebook contains all of Oscar Wilde's plays (including the fragments), his only novel, his fairy tales and short stories, the poems, all of his essays, lectures, reviews, and other newspaper articles, based on the 1909 edition of his works. For easier navigation, there are tables of contents for each section and one for the whole volume. At the end of each text there are links bringing you back to the respective contents tables. I have also added an alphabetical index for the poems and a combined one for all the essays, lectures, articles, and reviews.

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