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. Volume 1 is now available - the rest will follow.  Part of our Gossip in a Library project -- see here for Gosse's  article. Added 21st August 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