Notable Quotes
Passages worth revisiting from classic literature.
Frankenstein; or, the modern prometheus
These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
Middlemarch
These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
Wuthering Heights
These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
Oscar Wilde's trivial comedy for serious people operates through a single, devastating mechanism: the inversion. Every moral certainty is turned inside out, eve...
Jane Eyre: An Autobiography
These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
Pride and Prejudice
These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
Romeo and Juliet
The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is driven by a relentless velocity. The play begins not with love, but with a street brawl that establishes the lethal stakes of...
The Count of Monte Cristo
These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
A Room with a View
These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
Meditations
The line states the central Stoic boundary between judgment and circumstance.
Moby Dick; Or, The Whale
This iconic opening line establishes the narrator's persona and sets the existential tone for the entire novel. It immediately signals a retreat from society an...
The Mysteries of Udolpho
These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
The Adventures of Roderick Random
These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
The Enchanted April
These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
On the Trail of the Space Pirates
These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
The History of Sir Richard Calmady: A Romance
These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice’s boredom with the real world is the catalyst for her journey, revealing a child’s preference for engagement over dry instruction.
Boys and Girls Bookshelf; a Practical Plan of Character Building, Volume I (of 17) Fun and Thought for Little Folk
These source-exact passages are selected from the public-domain text and paired with concise reading commentary.
The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
This opening portrait establishes Utterson as the novel’s moral anchor and rational investigator, a man whose emotional restraint and austere demeanor mask a de...
The City of God, Volume I
This passage establishes the immediate historical catalyst for the entire treatise: the sack of Rome in 410 A.D. Augustine clarifies that his motivation was not...
The Great Gatsby
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