Books

C. S. Lewis proposes that the quality of books should be measured not by how they are written, but by how they are read, that a quality book is one that someone, anyone, will re-read.  

Read online at archive.org. 

The rabbits of Sandleford Warren set out to find a new home on Watership Down. This edition includes maps drawn by Pauline Baynes. The cover art was first used for the 1973 Puffin edition.

Read online at archive.org. 

Jo March has married Professor Bhaer and started a boarding school for boys on advanced lines.

Read online at archive.org. 

A story of the author’s youth in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The highlights are the snowball battle on Slater’s hill and the celebration of the 4th of July. Read online at archive.org.

This collection includes “The Faeries” which was illustrated to great effect by Richard Doyle. The cover image is from an 1884 reprint by G. Philip & Son. The text below is from the 1860 edition. Read for free online at Internet Archive.

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich, fancies her self a match-maker, but after her first effort, she can’t seem to do anything right.

Sir Thomas Bertram considers he is bestowing a great favor on Fanny Price when he takes her into his home, but in the end finds himself in her debt.

In Northanger Abbey Catherine Morland spends six weeks in Bath where she makes the acquaintance of General Tilney’s son and daughter. When the General invites her to return with them to Northanger Abbey she is prepared for all the gothic horrors such a residence implies.

Persuasion is considered by many to be its author’s greatest work. Anne Elliot ‘with an elegance of mind and sweetness of character,which must have placed her high with any people of real understanding’ is burdened with a father and older sister given over to self-love and fashion. Persuaded in the first flowering of her young womanhood to give up her engagement to a young naval commander with no prospects, she is forced now to see him rich and courting her brother-in-law’s younger sisters.

When Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy refuses to dance with her Elizabeth Bennett is confirmed in her prejudice that he is filled with pride. On further acquaintance she is forced to revise her opinion.

When Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters find themselves in realtive poverty with only the income of ten thousand pounds ($100,000 per year in current money) to live on, she determines to move to a different part of the country, near a cousin who offers them a suitable residence at a small rent. The elder Miss Dashwood is already in love and her younger sister soon contrives to fall in love as well.

Margaret goes to stay with her cousins, but her two mischievous brothers come as well and threaten to spoil everything.

After experiencing a tough neighborhood growing up, an alley cat finally finds a home.

Read online at archive.org

Velvet enters her horse, The Piebald, in England’s premier steeplechase -- The Grand National.

Miss Hickory has a hickory nut for a head, but her body is an applewood twig.

Read online at archive.org. 

An Indian boy befriends wild animals and adopts a wolf cub.

Read online at archive.org

Shasta of the Wolves is a feral child novel by Olaf Baker. It was originally published in 1919 by Dodd, Mead and Company with illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. It was reprinted a number of times up until 1959.

Although stranded on a South Pacific Island, three boys make it an adventure.

Manuela has a special fifth birthday.

Orphaned by the war, Johnny learns that he might have family in the west of England and sets out in search of them.

In one of the most exciting volumes in the Oz series, Dorothy meets the Shaggy Man and along with Button Bright and Polychrome, the Rainbow’s daughter, makes her way to Oz. Johnny Dooit helps them cross the Deadly Desert and John R. Neill’s illustrations are some of his best. Read online at Hathitrust.