What is a classic book? Some people confine it to ancient Greek and Latin works; others use it to describe books by Isaac Asimov or Barbara Cartland. Our definition is a book which has been read, enjoyed, and had an influence on people over two or more generations. In the final analysis, there is no other test than survival.
An ex-classic is a book which used to be a classic, as defined above, but is no longer read much, or at all.
When reading the blurb etc. to a book by Charles Dickens or Charlotte Bronte, say, you will often come across sentences like "Favourite reading included . . ."
If it's good enough for them, you think, it's good enough for me. So off you go to the library or bookshop, to be met first with blank stares and then with the information that the book has been out of print for decades. This web site is dedicated to rescuing these works from obscurity and making them available online, both for reading directly, and for downloading.
· Foxe's Book of Martyrs
·
The
History of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating
·
The
Newgate Calendar
· Pico della
Mirandola, by Thomas More et al.
· The Life of Beau
Nash, by Oliver Goldsmith.
·
A
History of the Protestant Reformation in England, by William Cobbett.
·
The
Martyrdom of Man, by Winwood Reade
· The Memoirs of Jozef Borowlaski, The Last Court
Dwarf
· The Memoirs of Lętitia Pilkington
· The History of King Richard the Third, by Thomas
More
· Hudibras by Samuel Butler
·
The
Poetical Works of Ossian, by James Macpherson
·
The
Rowley Poems, by Thomas Chatterton
·
Reliques
of Ancient English Poetry, edited by Thomas Percy
·
The
Ingoldsby Legends, by The Rev. Richard H. Barham
Ex-classic Ballads & Short
Poems
Chevy Chase
The Shepherd Swaine
Bonnie Annie Laurie, by William Douglas
Lilliburlero, by Thomas Wharton
Sally in our Alley, by Henry Carey
The Vicar of Bray
Johnnie Cope, by Adam Skirving
Casabianca, by Felicia Hemans
Stagolee
The Song of the Shirt, by Thomas Hood
The Sands of Dee, by Charles Kingsley
Christmas Day in the Workhouse, by George Sims
· Gil Blas by A-R LeSage, Trans. Tobias Smollett
·
The
Devil on Two Sticks by A-R. LeSage
·
Knocknagow,
by Charles Kickham
·
The
Guardian Angel, by Paul de Kock
·
A
Groat's Worth of Wit Bought with a Million of Repentance by Robert Greene
·
Out
of the Hurly Burly by Max Adeler
· The Anatomy of Melancholy, By "Democritus
Junior" (Robert Burton)
· The Consolation of
Philosophy, by Boethius
· Scepsis
Scientifica, or the Vanity of Dogmatizing, by Joseph Glanvill
· The Masterpiece, and other works of
"Aristotle, the Famous Philosopher"
· Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies
· The Book of Household Management, by Mrs. Isabella
Beeton
· English as She is
Spoke, by Pedro Carolino and Jose da Fonseca
· The
Poems of
· The Memoirs
of Lętitia Pilkington, Vol. 3.
· Collections
· Special requests
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