Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

"It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end [...] Neither are any wars so furious and bloody, or of so long continuance a those occasioned by difference in opinion, especially if it be in things indifferent."— Musings upon the Big/Little end heresy, Gulliver's Travels

"One of the precursors of Speculative Fiction, [Gulliver's Travels], was written by Jonathan Swift as a parody of the now-dead genre of traveller's tale, satirising 18th century follies, but is now, sadly, largely remembered as a children's tale, despite being Swift'sMagnum Opus and a heavily satirical and adult book."- Tv Tropes

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Pelle the Conqueror by Martin Andersen Nexø

"The great charm of the book seems to me to lie in the fact that the writer knows the poor from within; he has not studied them as an outsider may, but has lived with them and felt with them, at once a participant and a keen-eyed spectator... His sympathy is of the widest, and he makes us see tragedies behind the little comedies, and comedies behind the little tragedies, of the seemingly sordid lives of the working people whom he loves." - Otto Jespersen, Introductory note to English translation (1913)



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A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

"If nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full."

"The word PRINCESS doesn't mean what it used to and I want to reclaim the meaning of this word from the pink swathed, tiara wearing, big eyed, marketing manufactured princesses now captivating the minds of most little girls under the age of eight."- books4yourkids review

"I loved it because at its heart this is a story about one of my very favourite themes: the power of stories and the imagination. It’s a story about how they help make us more compassionate by stepping into the shoes of fictional others, how they save us, how they can be a refuge, and how they give us hope."  - Things Mean a Lot review


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Jennie Gerhardt by Theodore Dreiser

The novel is referenced by  Harvey Pekar in the film American Splendor (2003).

"In a 1911 review, H. L. Mencken wrote, "Jennie Gerhardt is the best American novel I have ever read, with the lonesome but Himalayan exception of Huckleberry Finn." Beautiful, vital, generous, but morally naïve and unconscious of social conventions, Jennie is a working-class woman who emerges superior to the succession of men who exploit her. There are no villains in this novel; in Dreiser's view, everyone is victimized by the desires that the world excites but can never satisfy." - The Library of America

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The Octopus: A Story of California by Frank Norris

[Image description: a political cartoon depicting a giant, smiling octopus with "railroad monopoly" written on it. Its tentacles are wrapped around a bank, a ship, a truck, and several farmers. On the bottom of the page are several graves, with "mussel slough" written beside it.]

The first part of a planned but uncompleted trilogy, The Epic of Wheat. It describes the raising of wheat in California, and conflicts between the wheat growers and a railway company. Norris was inspired by the role of the Southern Pacific Railroad in events surrounding the Mussel Slough Tragedy - Wikipedia

"Norris's antagonists are not cardboard heavies but conflicted, complex characters, who often resort to blaming the very system they thrive in...Nor are the novel's farmers always long-suffering victims, but often headstrong and ill-tempered figures, whose pride precipitates violence." - Zola in San Francisco


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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Spirited Elizabeth Bennet matches wits and wiles of the heart with the arrogant Mr. Darcy in this entertaining portrait of matrimonial rites and rivalries in Regency England.

"This is the important point to remember about classic literature--the reason why it even became classic in the first place: classic works can be read simply because they're enjoyable to read, simply because when truth and insight are added to fiendish complexity of plot and a strong capacity for wit, the results are rarely dry fodder for academics." -About.com review

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