l001 -<>- Shakespeare compilation -<>- Works of William Shakespeare ---------------------------- Many of these files exist in two versions (or, in one case, three). As you may be aware there is often disagreement about which is the 'original' version of a work as they have been amended and altered many times over the past four hundred years, often by the playwright himself in revision. Also the spelling and punctuation in common usage in the sixteenth century was somewhat different from that used today. A third consideration is that the pronunciation of words has changed so that a phrase which 'scanned' in Shakespeare's time would sound awkward now, and so sometimes phrases have become slightly changed with time The first version is therefore the 'simplest'. Quite often this means that contemporary spelling is used and the text may be slightly altered from the original. Where a second version exists this may be rather more 'authoritive' and could be taken from original (or closer to the original) texts. For use in schools I would recommend that the first version should be used. It will be easier to understand and might relieve the Teacher from the tedious task of explaining why it was OK for Shakespeare to spell that way, but..... As an example, the following extracts are taken from the first and second versions of 'Sonnets' respectively. When forty winters shall beseige thy brow, And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now, Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held: Then being ask'd where all thy beauty lies, Where all the treasure of thy lusty days, To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes, Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise. How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use, If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,' Proving his beauty by succession thine! This were to be new made when thou art old, And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold. When fortie Winters shall beseige thy brow, And digge deep trenches in thy beauties field, Thy youthes proud liuery so gazed on now, Wil be a totter'd weed of smal worth held: Then being askt,where all thy beautie lies, Where all the treasure of thy lusty daies; To say within thine owne deepe sunken eyes, Were an all-eating shame,and thriftlesse praise. How much more praise deseru'd thy beauties vse, If thou couldst answere this faire child of mine Shall sum my count,and make my old excuse Proouing his beautie by succession thine. This were to be new made when thou art ould, And see thy blood warme when thou feel'st it could, Includes: Alls Well the Ends Well - version 1 Alls Well the Ends Well - version 2 Anthony and Cleopatra As You Like It - version 1 As You Like It - version 2 The Comedy of Errors - version 1 The Comedy of Errors - version 2 Coriolanus Cymbeline The Two Gentlemen of Verona Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Henry IV part 1 - version 1 Henry IV part 2 - version 1 Henry IV part 1 - version 2 Henry IV part 2 - version 2 Henry V - version 1 Henry V - version 2 Henry VI part 1 - version 1 Henry VI part 2 - version 1 Henry VI part 3 - version 1 Henry VI part 1 - version 2 Henry VI part 2 - version 2 Henry VI part 3 - version 2 Henry VIII - version 1 Henry VIII - version 2 Henry VIII - version 3 Julius Caesar - version 1 Julius Caesar - version 2 King John King Lear A Lovers Complaint Love's Labour's Lost - version 1 Love's Labour's Lost - version 2 Macbeth (The Scottish Play) Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice - version 1 The Merchant of Venice - version 2 A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing - version 1 Much Ado About Nothing - version 2 Othello The Passionate Pilgrim Pericles, Prince of Tyre The Phoenix and the Turtle The Rape of Lucrece King Richard The Second - version 1 King Richard The Second - version 2 King Richard The Third - version 1 King Richard The Third - version 2 Romeo and Juliet - version 1 Romeo and Juliet - version 2 The Sonnets - version 1 The Sonnets - version 2 The Tempest Timon of Athens - version 1 Timon of Athens - version 2 Titus Andonicus - version 1 Titus Andonicus - version 2 Troilus and Cressida Twelfth Night The Taming of the Shrew - version 1 The Taming of the Shrew - version 2 Passionate Pilgrim Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music, Love's Answer Phoenix and the Turtle Venus and Adonis - version 1 Venus and Adonis - version 2 A Winter's Tale - version 1 A Winter's Tale - version 2 The Merry Wives of Windsor - version 1 The Merry Wives of Windsor - version 2 _____________________________________________________________________________
l002 -<>- Of Human Bondage -<>- W.Somerset Maugham _____________________________________________________________________________
l003 -<>- Jane Eyre -<>- Charlotte Bronte Including the Authors preface to the second edition _____________________________________________________________________________
l004 -<>- The Woman in White -<>- Wilkie Collins One of the great classics from the man who 'invented' the detective novel. _____________________________________________________________________________
l005 -<>- Ivanhoe -<>- Sir Walter Scott The great popular English Romantic Novel from which were born so many of the legends of Robin Hood, King Richard, and medieval England beloved of Hollywood scriptwriters. Even without the historical interest it's a tremendous story. _____________________________________________________________________________
l006 -<>- Sherlock Holmes collection -<>- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Contains - Second Stain, Three Students, Six Napoleons, Adv of Abbey Grange, Hound of the Baskervilles, Adv of the Beryl Coronet, Black Peter, Blue Carbuncle, Bascombe Valley Mystery, Bruce- Partington Plans, Cardboard Box, Copper Beeches, Crooked Man, Dancing Men, Devil's Foot, Dying Detective, Empty House, Engineers Thumb, Final Problem, "Gloria Scott", Greek Interpreter, His Last Bow, Case of Identity, Diss. of Lady Frances Carfax, Charles Augustus Milverton, Missing Three- Quarter, Musgrave Ritual, Naval Treaty, Norwood Builder, Noble Bachelor, Orange Pips, Golden Pince-Nez, Poison Belt, Priory School, Red Circle, League of Red Headed Men, Reigate Puzzle, Resident patient, Scandal in Bohemia, Sign of Four, Silver Blaze, Solitary Cyclist, Speckled Band, Stck-Broker's Clerk, Man with the Twisted Lip, Valley of Fear, Wisteria Lodge, Yellow Face and, of course, the story that introduced Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet. Plus bibliographies of book titles and a list of works by other Author's in which Sherlock Holmes appears. _____________________________________________________________________________
l007 -<>- The Canterbury Tales -<>- Geoffrey Chaucer One of the most original and best loved works of English literature. It's been turned into films, plays, and even a musical. This disc contains two complete versions. The first is a single large file (600K) in 'original' English. As it was written in 1380 this can be hard going. The second version is more contemporary without losing the 'feel' of the original and is split into 'tales' for convenience. _____________________________________________________________________________
l008 -<>- Hans Christian Andersen -<>- 129 stories from the master children's storyteller. Including such favourites as The Emperor's New Suit, The Ice Maiden, The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Pea, The Red Shoes, The Snow Man, The Ugly Duckling, and The Snow Queen. Getting your young children to use these is a great way of teaching them basic 'computer skills'. _____________________________________________________________________________
l009 -<>- Classic Children's stories -<>- Aesop's Fables Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll The Song of Hiawatha - Henry W. Longfellow The Marvellous Land of Oz - L. Frank Baum (part of the Oz collection) _____________________________________________________________________________
l010 -<>- Little Women -<>- Louisa May Alcott _____________________________________________________________________________
l011 -<>- The 'Anne' Trilogy -<>- Lucy Maud Montgomery Anne of Green Gables, Anne of the Island, Anne of Avonlea. Three of the most famous children's books ever. Still as popular today as at the time they were written. _____________________________________________________________________________
l012 -<>- Tom Sawyer collection -<>- Mark Twain Contains 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Huckleberry Finn' plus two short novels 'Tom Sawyer Abroad'' and 'Tom Sawyer, Detective'. As Mark Twain said in the prefice: "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." By Order of the Author _____________________________________________________________________________
l013 -<>- More Mark Twain -<>- Contains 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court', 'The Prince and the Pauper', and 'Pudd'nhead Wilson'. _____________________________________________________________________________
l014 -<>- Classical Literature -<>- 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey' by Homer, both translated by Samuel Butler and 'The Georgics' and 'The Eclogues' by Virgil. Tightly packed onto one 800K disc _____________________________________________________________________________
l015 -<>- Tacitus -<>- 'The Annals' and 'Histories' by Cornelius Tacitus, both translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb. _____________________________________________________________________________
l016 -<>- Jules Verne -<>- Three classic 'science fiction' books - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Around the World in Eighty Days Journey to the Centre of the Earth _____________________________________________________________________________
l017 -<>- Edgar Rice Burrough -<>- The Gods of Mars, Thuvia, Maid of Mars, The Warlord of Mars, and the book which began this popular series, A Princess of Mars. If you haven't read any of these books before then read A Princess of Mars first, otherwise you won't understand what's going on! Far more fun than his more famous Tarzan books. _____________________________________________________________________________
l018 -<>- Iain Hotchkiss -<>- This and the following disc are NOT Public Domain texts but copyright, unpublished, books by a modern author. They do contain some explicit sexual material (they are NOT soft porn, just modern novels). Gathering Daisies - 110,000 word novel written in 1993. The hero is a 17-year-old lad who loves heavy metal, has a rubber/latex fetish, and plays in a band with two friends. The novel charts two weeks in his hectic life in a humorous style The Hidden Agenda - 138,000 word novel about sex, death and medicine written in a 57-day frenzy of fevered imagination in 1994. Briefly, a 40 year old married GP succumbs to the advances of an attractive pharmaceutical rep. Guilt is not the only penalty as his life falls apart. How he sorts this out and finds the evil mind responsible for his downfall is what its all about! Contains only a small amount of gratuitous sex, very little violence (except at the end), and some humour! _____________________________________________________________________________
l019 -<>- Iain Hotchkiss -<>- Dream Home - A massive (215,000 word) horror novel. It concerns a gynecologist and his family who move to an old house in rural Cheshire. Soon, BAD things start to happen! The novel was written in 1988/1989 It is divided into three sections: Greystones, Zachary and The Malevolence Eye of the Beholder - A short (65,000 word) novella, written in 1992 about a psychopathic serial killer who believes that by eating body parts he can experience the sensations of his victims! Not for the squeamish and contains scenes of graphic carnage and sexual material of a violent nature. _____________________________________________________________________________
l021 -<>- The Book of Mormon -<>- Project Guttenberg version of the Book of Mormon. Heavy going but essential reading for anyone studying American history as these people and their beliefs had (and still have) such influence _____________________________________________________________________________
l022 -<>- Jack London -<>- I'm not a great fan of Jack London, but I am dismayed to note that his books seem to be vanishing from library shelves. People of the Abyss should certainly be required reading for anyone silly enough to give credence to the 'trickle-down' economic doctrine. Not always easy to read, but worth the effort. The People of the Abyss, To Build a Fire, The Call of the Wild, The Iron Heel, Selected Klondike Short Stories, The Sea Wolf, Son of the Wolf, White Fang, and Selected Stories. _____________________________________________________________________________
l023 -<>- Moby Dick -<>- Melville Herman You may have seen the glitsy Hollywood film, but it bears little resemblance to the book. A complex tale of obsession. If you don't want to jump in at the deep end with this rather large book try the much shorter work 'Billy Budd' from the same author who wrote about the sea and sailors in the early 19th century. _____________________________________________________________________________
l024 -<>- Classic Horror Stories -<>- Three of the greatest tales of horror ever. Personally I think Frankenstein is over-rated, but there's no doubt that Dracula is one of the most gripping tales of suspense from any age. If you want something a bit shorter then Jekyl and Hyde is not too long. I don't think there can be many people who don't 'know' all of these stories - but how many have actually read them? You won't be disappointed. Dracula by Bram Stoker Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley The Strange Case of Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde by R.L.Stevenson _____________________________________________________________________________
l025 -<>- War and peace -<>- Leon Tolstoy's great novel set against the background of the French invasion of Russia. _____________________________________________________________________________
l026 -<>- Anna Karenina -<>- The other well known Tolstoy classic. There's enough material on this disc and L025 to keep anyone in reading matter for even the wettest fortnight's holiday in Blackpool. _____________________________________________________________________________
l028 -<>- Edgar Allan Poe -<>- Nearly 3Mb of the works of the famous horror and mystery writer. Three Sundays in a Week, Cask of Amontillado, Angel of the Odd, Domain or Arnheim, Thou Art The Man, The Assignation, Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Ballon Hoax, Berenice, Black Cat, Bon-Bon, The Business Man, Colloquy of Monos and Una, Conversation of Eiros and Charmion, Criticism, Devil in the Belfry, Diddling, Eleonora, Four Beasts In One, The Gold-Bug, Why The Little Frenchman Wears His Hand In a Sling, Hans Phaal, Hop-Frog, Fall of the House of Usher, Imp of the Perverse, Island of the Fay, Tale of Jerusalem, King Pest, Duc de L'Omlette, Landor's Cottage, Landscape Garden, Ligeia, Lionizing, Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Loss of Breath, Descent into the Maelstrom, Man of the Crowd, Marginalia, Mystery of Marie Roget, Mellonta Tauta, Mesmeric Revelation, Metzengerstein, Morella, Morning on the Wissahiccon, MS. Found in a Bottle, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Mystification, Never Bet The Devil Your Head, Oblong Box, Oval Portrait, X-ing a Paragrab, Pit and the Pendulum, A Predicament, Premature Burial, Purloined Letter, Tale of the Ragged Mountains, Masque of the Red Death, The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade, Shadow, Silence, The Spectacles, The Sphinx, System of Dr.Tarr and Prof.Fether, Tell-Tale Heart, Man that was Used Up, Facts in the Case of M.Valdemar, Von Kempelen and his Discovery, William Wilson, Words With a Mummy, How To Write A Blackwood Article, PLUS - over forty poems, including Annabel Lee and The Raven. _____________________________________________________________________________
l029 -<>- Classic Poetry -<>- 68 poems by Keats, over 400 (yes, four hundred) by Yeats, plus - Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard - Thomas Gray Christabel - Samuel Taylor Coleridge Kubla Khan - Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge Jabberwocky - Lewis Carroll The Rubaiyat - Omar Khyyam _____________________________________________________________________________
l030 -<>- Ben-Hur -<>- Lew Wallace The epic tale, with chariot race, but otherwise just a little bit different from the hollywood version. _____________________________________________________________________________
l031 -<>- The Arabian Nights -<>- Sir Richard Burton Most of these stories (Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor, etc.) have been adopted into English culture as children's stories. In the process they've become so anglicised that much of the original magic has been lost. _____________________________________________________________________________
l032 -<>- The Voyage of the Beagle -<>- Charles Darwin The history, as a journal, containing the observations on which he based his great work The Origins of Species which caused so much uproar. _____________________________________________________________________________
l033 -<>- Charles Dickens -<>- A collection of discs, each containing one or more books. One reason these are so popular is that most weren't written as novels. Dickens wrote for weekly magazines, and what we now see as a 'chapter' was originally a week's instalment of the story. This may make for a rather unstructured novel, but ideal for kids as these long, complex, tales are told in manageable chunks, often with cliffhanger endings to the chapters (and I suspect that sometimes Dickens wasn't quite sure what would happen next). Not great literature, but they are a great read! Barnaby Rudge, Hard Times, Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers A Christmas Carol, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Uncommercial Traveller _____________________________________________________________________________
l034 -<>- Charles Dickens -<>- Three books, David Copperfield, Dombey and Son, Our Mutual Friend. _____________________________________________________________________________
l035 -<>- John Buchan -<>- Three of his most popular novels, The Thirty Nine Steps, Greenmantle and Mr Standfast _____________________________________________________________________________
l036 -<>- L. Frank Baum -<>- Although you may not know this Author's name you will have heard of the Wizard of Oz. I don't know if he ever wrote a book of that name but he wrote lots of others about the magical land. The Emerald City, Glinda of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, The Lost Princess of Oz, The Magic of Oz, The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Ozma of Oz, The Road to Oz, Rinkitink In Oz, The Scarecrow of Oz, Tik-Tok of Oz, The Tin Woodman of Oz. _____________________________________________________________________________
l037 -<>- H.G.Wells -<>- Ann Veronica, The Door in the Wall, The Invisible Man, When the Sleeper Wakes, The Time Machine, Tono Bungay, War of the Worlds. _____________________________________________________________________________
l038 -<>- Robert Louis Stevenson -<>- Across the Plains, Catriona (sequel to Kidnapped), Memoir of Fleeing Jenkin, The Inland Voyage, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped, The Master of Ballantyne, The Silverado Squatters, In the South Seas. _____________________________________________________________________________ © Aaron Timbrell and 3QD Developments Ltd 22/04/2026