The Ex-Classics Web Site
Find Books Author Index Subject Index Title Index Search Site	Latest Additions Gerard's Herbal. This vast and exhaustive work of early modern botany, illustrated with nearly two thousand woodcuts,  had its final edition in 1633.  Almost every plant known to European  herbalists at the time is included, with a picture, description, uses, and   anecdotes of the plant, its discoverers and much more. Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4 (of 5) are now available - the final volume will follow by year-end 2020.  Part of our Gossip in a Library project -- see here for Gosse's  article. Volume 4 added 24th April 2020. Volume 3 added 15th July 2019. Volume 2 added 3rd March 2019. Volume 1 added 21st August 2018. Cats by Francois-Augustin Paradis de Moncrif This charming book of anecdotes and poetry about cats was published in 1728. Moncrif, a member of the French Academy,  is largely forgotten except as its author.  Nowadays such a work would be quite ordinary, but it was the first ever of this kind. In that Augustan age, writing on such a subject was considered a trivial waste of time for an author with any pretensions to gentility; Augustin was subjected to so much mockery that he withdrew the book from circulation. Nonetheless, we can enjoy it as it was intended; even cat-haters might find entertainment here. Our version has both an English translation and the original French. Part of our Gossip in a Library project -- see here for Gosse's  article. Added 13 April 2020 The Quakers' Spiritual Court Proclaimed We first came across this little curiosity in a note to Hudibras by Samuel Butler.  It is a short pamphlet published in 1669 by a disillusioned ex-Quaker, and consists largely of abuse, both theological and personal, of that sect. Smith was involved in a dispute with a fellow-quaker, and expelled after what he regarded as a grossly unfair trial, conducted by George Fox himself. Added 28th February 2020. The Covent Garden Calendar As a kind of companion piece to The Newgate Calendar, we have prepared an anthology of  accounts of prostitutes, courtesans and mercenary spouses in 18^th Century Britain. It is in three parts: Book 1: The Night-time Scene has a number of essays describing of the milieu; Book 2: Individual Courtesans gives the lives of eight ladies of the Ton, and finally Book 3: Fiction has four short novels about prostitutes.  The pieces chosen are almost all contemporary, ranging from 1696 to 1803, and in attitude run the gamut from picaresque approval to moral condemnation to compassion for the suffering of the women forced into prostitution. Added 13th January 2020. The Silver Fox, by Somerville and Ross Edith OEnanthe Somerville and "Martin Ross" (Violet Martin) are best known for their humourous Irish R.M. stories; their novels The Real Charlotte and The Big House at Inver are also still deservedly popular. The Silver Fox , a short novel, was first published in 1898 and reprinted several times in the next ten years. It seems to have then fallen into complete obscurity and has not been republished since. This is a pity, for it is a miniature masterpiece. It has been included here at the request of Professor Declan Kiberd of University College, Dublin. Prof. Kiberd devotes an entire chapter of his definitive Irish Classics (Granta Books, 2000) to The Silver Fox, describing it as "a novella of true genius". We agree. Added 2nd January 2020  The Life of John Buncle, by Thomas Amory. Thomas Amory (1691-1788) had a very long and adventurous life. John Buncle (1756-66) was his major work. Part of our Gossip in a Library project -- see here for Gosse's article; and in Gosse's words: "No odder book than John Buncle was published in England throughout the long life of Amory. Romances there were, like Gulliver's Travels and Peter Wilkins, in which the incidents were much more incredible, but there was no supposition that these would be treated as real history. The curious feature of John Buncle is that the story is told with the strictest attention to realism and detail, and yet is embroidered all over with the impossible. There can be no doubt that Amory, who belonged to an older school, was affected by the form of the new novels which were the fashion in 1756. He wished to be as particular as Mr. Richardson, as manly as Captain Fielding, as breezy and vigorous as Dr. Smollett, the three new writers who were all the talk of the town.  . . . . . . To lovers of odd books, John Buncle will always have a genuine attraction. Its learning would have dazzled Dr. Primrose, and is put on in glittering spars and shells, like the ornaments of the many grottoes that it describes. It is diversified by descriptions of natural scenery, which are often exceedingly felicitous and original, and it is quickened by the human warmth and flush of the love passages, which, with all their quaintness, are extremely human"            Added 27th October 2019 The Black Book by Thomas Middleton Robert Greene, auhor of The Complete Cony-Catcher and A Groatsworth of Wit, promised a work called The Black Book (in his "Black Book's Messenger") but did not live to write it.  Middleton is best known as a dramatist, but could turn his pen to anything that would bring in some money. He cashed in on Greene's popularity by Middleton appropriated his title for this short account of Elizabethan low life and low-lifes, bringing forth a pamphlet called The Black Book in 1604. In it, the Devil makes a tour of his minions in London, visiting brothel-keepers, swindlers, gamblers, corrupt officials and other of his followers. Added 9th September 2019 More Crimes from the Newgate Calendar Another batch of  18th Century pirates and  highwayme to add to our existing collection from the ex-classic compendium of crime. These are all taken from Johnson's History of Pirates and Highwayman etc.  Added 15th Feb. 2019. The History of the Human Heart. The History of the Human Heart, or The Adventures of a Young Gentleman was published anonymously in 1759, the same year as John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill), and is another high point in 18^th Century erotica. It is set in the same milieu of seduction and brothels, it is however written from a male point of view. The protagonist Camillo, like many young men, is led by his penis, and being from a wealthy family, has the means to go where it leads him. He is not a wicked person, but he is headstrong, impulsive and thoughtless, and he undergoes sexual adventures and misadventures which are variously hilarious and horrifying. Added 6th November 2018. Theauraujohn Tani his Second Part of his Theous-Ori Apokolipikal: or, God's Light declared in Mysteries and The Serpent's Subtlety Discovered by Ambrose Rigg In the introduction to our Radical Pamphlets from the English Revolution we lamented not being able to find anything by Theauraujohn, the maddest of them all. We have now tracked down one of his works, and also Ambrose Rigg's defence of Quakerism,  and here they are.  Added 21st August 2018. Death's Duel, by John Donne. Donne's final and most magnificent sermon, which he rose from his deathbed to give, and died a short time later. Illustrated with a portrait of himself as if dead.  Part of our Gossip in a Library project -- see here for Gosse's article. Added 15th June 2018. A Modest Defence of Public Stews, by Bernard Mandeville Mandeville, though little known today, was a leading social theroist and contrarian of the early 18th Century.  Like many before and since, he examined the question of prostitution and its problems. His conclusion was that it should be controlled by making commercial sex only available in publicly-owned and run "stews" i.e. brothels. This proposal is argued with much wit and sense in the form of a classical oration.  Added 11th April 2018. The Diary of a Lover of Literature by Thomas Green Green was a bibliophile who flourished at the end of the 18th and start of the 19th Century. This is his diary of his everyday doings, and of the books he read, with his comments on them. A great insight into the mind of a pre-romantic self-taught intellectual.  Part of our Gossip in a Library project -- see here for Gosse's article. Added 13th  February 2018. Ultra-Crepidarius, by Leigh Hunt and William Hazlitt. A ferocious attack, in verse (by Hunt) and prose (by Hazlitt) on William Gifford, editor of the Quarterly Review.  Part of our Gossip in a Library project -- see here for Gosse's article. Added 27th January 2018. Gossip in A Library, by Edmund Gosse The noted bibliophile's reviews of some of his favourite books. Many are ex-classics, and some are already on our site. We plan to publish all of them we can find.  Added 11th November 2017. The Memoirs of Colonel Monro Originally entitled Monro his expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment called Mac-Keys Regiment. It describes his seven years' service as a mercenary in the Thirty Years' War from 1626 to 1634, where he served under Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and took part in many battles.  Colonel Monro himself is not wholly unknown to those who have read A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott; for it was he who provided a good deal of the material for character of  Dugald Dalgetty?the valorous soldier of fortune and military theorist, who returned to Scotland just in time to take part in Montrose's campaigns, and to edify his brothers-in-arms with endless reminiscences of the time when he followed "the invincible Gustavus Adolphus, the Lion of the North, and the Bulwark of the Protestant Faith".  Added 30th October 2017. The History of Pompey the Little by Francis Coventry Pompey the Little was an Italian lapdog. At an early age he was carried away from the boudoir of his Italian mistress by Hillario, an English gentleman  illustrious for his gallantries, who brought him to London. The rest of the history is really a chain of social episodes, each closed by the incident that Pompey becomes the property of some fresh person. In this way we find ourselves in a dozen successive scenes, each strongly contrasted with the others. It is the art of the author that he knows exactly how much to tell us without wearying our attention, and is able to make the transition to the next scene a plausible one. Added 20th July 2017 The Complete Cony-catcher by Robert Greene The cozeners of Elizabethan England, and their artful ways of robbing and swindling. By the author of A Groat's-worth of Wit. Added 14th May 2017. Studies in the Art of Rat-Catching, by H. C. Barkley The classical education provided by English schools in the 19th century was hated by the pupils and did nothing to qualify them to make a living. Barkley proposes to solve both these problems by teaching them rat-catching, which boys love and which is an honourable and useful profession. This is the definitive text-book of the art. Added 26th January 2017. The True Story of John Carteret Pilkington The early adventures and misfortunes of the youngest son and amanuensis of Laetitia Pilkington, whose memoirs are also on this site. Also contains the correspondence of Laetitia Pilkington and Lord Kingsborough, and some poems and a play scene by J.C. Pilkington. Added 11th January 2017. The Memoirs of Mrs.Margaret Leeson The leading courtesan and madam of late 18th Century Dublin, she published these memoirs in old age. Funny and frankly written, they show a wide panorama of life from debtors' prison to the Ascendancy at the height of their power and irresponsibility. Added 8th October 2016. The Adventures of Bampfylde-Moore Carew, King of the Beggars. The wildly picaresque life of a parson's son who ran away from school to become a vagabond, swindler, mountebank and self-crowned "King". Added 2nd September 2016. More Crimes from the Newgate Calendar Another batch of 172 18th Century pirates, highwayman, forgers and sundry malefactors to add to our existing collection from the ex-classic compendium of crime Added 26th July 2016. Radical Pamphlets from the English Civil War During the English Civil War and in the republic which followed, a wide range of radical ideas and movements flourished. There were Seekers and Ranters, Diggers and Levellers,  Quakers, Fifth Monarchists and Muggletonians; and a flood of remarkable pamphlets promoting their ideas poured from the printing presses.  Our selection includes such classics as A Fiery Flying Roll,  The Lamb's Officer is Gone Forth with the Lamb's Message, and the wonderfully-titled Tyranipocrit Discovered. Added 14th February 2016. The Emperor's New Clothes -- Original Version Hans Christian Anderson rewrote this mediaeval Spanish tale for the more fastidious audiences of the 19th Century. The original is well worth reading.  Added 3rd February 2016. Lives and Anecdotes of Misers, by F. Somner Merryweather As read by Silas Wegg to Mr. Boffin in Dickens' Our Mutual Friend. Added 18th January 2016. The Metamorphosis of Ajax by Sir John Harington The first flush toilet, described together with a wealth of cloacal learning and philosophy by Queen Elizabeth I's scapegrace godson. Added 4th September 2015. The Poems of John Skelton John Skelton (1460?-1529) is a poet whose works have hovered on the edge of the canon, never being forgotten or lacking advocates, but never making it into the schools. Robert Graves thought him better than Milton. Howard Fish, now the Grand Old Man of American Literary Criticism (and proud to be the model for David Lodge's Morris Zapp) published a book-length study of Skelton in 1965, and more recently, Helen Cooper, professor of English at Cambridge, called him "one of the great figures of English poetry." Added 13th July 2015.	Extras Latest Additions In preparation All the books as one Zip file Ex-classics at Other Web Sites