Humor and Comedy

From Mark Twain to Abraham Lincoln to O. Henry to Gilbert and Sullivan to Jonathan Swift to Henry Fielding to Rabelais to Moliere to William Shakespeare to Lucian to Oscar Wilde, this CD, intended for use with Windows PCs and recent Macs (OS X), contains the full text of 482 books and magazine issues.

Intended for use with PCs (Windows or Linux) and recent Macs (OS X), these books are in plain-text format, organized for easy access.

Complete Table of Contents:

About Humor and Comedy

• On the Idea of Comedy by George Meredith
• Essay on Wit, 1748
• Komik und Humor: eine psychooogisch-Aesthetishe Untersuchung (in German) by Theodor Lipps
• Poetics by Aristotle, translated by S.H. Butcher
• The Present State of Wit by John Gay, 1711

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Anthologies

• The Best American Humorous Shot Stories edited by Alexander Jessup
• THE LITTLE FRENCHMAN AND HIS WATER LOTS (1839) by George Pope Morris
• THE ANGEL OF THE ODD (1844) by Edgar Allan Poe
• THE SCHOOLMASTER'S PROGRESS (1844) by Caroline M.S. Kirkland
• THE WATKINSON EVENING (1846) by Eliza Leslie
• TITBOTTOM'S SPECTACLES (1854) by George William Curtis
• MY DOUBLE; AND HOW HE UNDID ME (1859) by Edward Everett Hale
• A VISIT TO THE ASYLUM FOR AGED AND DECAYED PUNSTERS (1861) by Oliver Wendell Holmes
• THE CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY (1865) by Mark Twain
• ELDER BROWN'S BACKSLIDE (1885) Harry Stillwell Edwards
• THE HOTEL EXPERIENCE OF MR. PINK FLUKER (1886) Richard Malcolm Johnston
• THE NICE PEOPLE (1890) by Henry Cuyler Bunner
• THE BULLER-PODINGTON COMPACT (1897) by Frank Richard Stockton
• COLONEL STARBOTTLE FOR THE PLAINTIFF (1901) by Bret Harte
• THE DUPLICITY OF HARGRAVES (1902) by O. Henry
• BARGAIN DAY AT TUTT HOUSE (1905) by George Randolph Chester
• A CALL (1906) by Grace MacGowan Cooke
• HOW THE WIDOW WON THE DEACON (1911) by William James Lampton
• GIDEON (1914) by Wells Hastings
• The Humorous Poetry of the English Language, from Chaucer to Saxe, edited by James Parton
• Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor, edited by Thomas L. Masson, volume 4
• A Plea for Humor by Agnes Repplier
• An Unmarried Female by Marietta Holley
• Selections from a Brace of Boys by Fitzhugh Ludlow
• Rheumatism Movement Cure by Robert Jones Burdette
• An Aphorism and a Lecture by Oliver Wendell Holmes
• The Harp of a Thousand Strings by Joshua S. Morris
• My First Visit to Portland by Seba Smith
• The Mosquito by William Cullen Bryant
• Country Burial-places by John Carver
• The Hoosier and the Salt-pile by Danforth Marble
• The Quilting by Anne Bache
• A Fragment by Fitz-Greene Halleck
• Domestic Happiness by Fitz-Greene Halleck
• One of Mr. Ward's Business Letters by Charles F. Browne ("Artemus Ward")
• On "Forts" -- by Charles F. Browne ("Artemus Ward")
• Without and Within -- by James Russell Lowell
• Street Scenes in Washington by Louisa May Alcott
• Mis' Smith by Albert Bigelow Paine
• A Boston Lullaby by James Jeffrey Roohe
• Irish Astronomy Charles Graham Halpine
• Bessie Brown, M. D. by Samuel Minturn Peok
• A Monody by Robert C. Sands
• The Poster Girl by Carolyn Wells
• The Conundrum of the Golf Links by James Gardner Sanderson
• The Minister's Wooing by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Mrs. Johnson by William Dean Howells
• The Trout, the Cat and the Fox The British Matron by Anonymous
• Best Short Stories [jokes] collected by Thoms Masson
• The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes
• Good Stories [jokes] reprinted from the Ladies' Home Journal, 1907
• Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jolliites by Robert Surtees
• More Toasts: Jokes, Stories, and Quotations complied by Marion Mosher
• Peck's Compendium of Fun by George Peck
• The Silly Syclopedia by Noah Lots

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Magazines

Punch or the London Charivari

• Volume 1
• July 17, 1841
• July 24, 1841
• July 31, 1841
• August 7, 1841
• August 14, 1841
• August 21, 1841
• August 28, 1841
• September 5, 1841
• September 12, 1841
• September 18, 1841
• September 25, 1841
• October 2, 1841
• October 9, 1841
• October 16, 1841
• October 23, 1841
• October 30, 1841
• November 6, 1841
• November 13, 1841
• November 20, 1841
• November 27, 1841
• December 4, 1841
• December 11, 1841
• December 18, 1841
• December 25, 1841
• Volume 99
• July 5, 1890
• July 12, 1890
• July 19, 1890
• July 26, 1890
• August 2, 1890
• August 9, 1890
• August 16, 1890
• August 23, 1890
• August 30, 1890
• September 6, 1890
• September 13, 1890
• September 20, 1890
• September 27, 1890
• October 4, 1890
• October 11, 1890
• October 18, 1890
• October 25, 1890
• November 1, 1890
• November 8, 1890
• November 15, 1890
• November 22, 1890
• November 29, 1890
• December 6, 1890
• December 13, 1890
• December 20, 1890
• Punch Among the Planets, Christmas 1890
• December 27, 1890
• Volume 100
• January 3, 1891
• January 10, 1891
• January 17, 1891
• January 24, 1891
• January 31, 1891
• February 7, 1891
• February 14, 1891
• February 21, 1891
• February 28, 1891
• March 7, 1891
• March 14, 1891
• March 21, 1891
• March 28, 1891
• April 4, 1891
• April 11, 1891
• April 18, 1891
• April 25, 1891
• May 2, 1891
• May 9, 1891
• May 16, 1891
• May 23, 1891
• May 30, 1891
• June 6, 1891
• June 13, 1891
• June 20, 1891
• June 27, 1891
• Volume 101
• July 4, 1891
• July 11, 1891
• July 18, 1891
• July 18, 1891 jubilee issue
• July 25, 1891
• August 1, 1891
• August 8, 1891
• August 15, 1891
• August 22, 1891
• August 29, 1891
• September 5, 1891
• September 12, 1891
• October 3, 1891
• October 10, 1891
• October 17, 1891
• October 24, 1891
• October 31, 1891
• September 5, 1891
• September 12, 1891
• September 19, 1891
• September 26, 1891
• November 7, 1891
• November 14, 1891
• November 21, 1891
• November 28, 1891
• December 5, 1891
• December 12, 1891
• December 19, 1891
• December 26, 1891
• Volume 102
• January 2, 1892
• January 9, 1892
• January 16, 1892
• January 23, 1892
• January 30, 1892
• February 6, 1892
• February 13, 1892
• February 20, 1892
• February 27, 1892
• March 5, 1892
• March 12, 1892
• March 19, 1892
• March 26, 1892
• April 2, 1892
• April 9, 1892
• April 16, 1892
• April 23, 1892
• April 30, 1892
• May 7, 1892
• May 14, 1892
• May 21, 1892
• May 28, 1892
• June 4, 1892
• June 11, 1892
• June 18, 1892
• June 25, 1892
• Volume 103
• July 2, 1892
• July 9, 1892
• July 16, 1892
• July 23, 1892
• July 30, 1892
• August 6, 1892
• August 13, 1892
• August 20, 1892
• August 27, 1892
• September 3, 1892
• September 10, 1892
• September 17, 1892
• September 24, 1892
• October 10, 1892
• October 15, 1892
• November 5, 1892
• November 12, 1892
• Volume 146
• January 7, 1914
• January 14, 1914
• January 21, 1914
• Volume 152
• January 3, 1917
• January 10, 1917
• January 17, 1917
• January 24, 1917
• January 31, 1917
• February 7, 1917
• February 28, 1917
• March 7, 1917
• March 14, 1917
• March 21, 1917
• March 28, 1917
• April 4, 1917
• Volume 153
• April 7, 1917
• April 25, 1917
• May 2, 1917
• May 9, 1917
• May 16, 1917
• May 23, 1917
• June 6, 1917
• June 13, 1917
• June 27, 1917
• July 11, 1917
• July 18, 1917
• July 25, 1917
• August 1, 1917
• August 8, 1917
• August 15, 1917
• August 22, 1917
• August 29, 1917
• September 5, 1917
• September 12, 1917
• September 19, 1917
• September 26, 1917
• October 3, 1917
• October 10, 1917
• October 17, 1917
• October 24, 1917
• October 31, 1917
• November 7, 1917
• November 14, 1917
• November 21, 1917
• November 28, 1917
• December 5, 1917
• December 12, 1917
• December 19, 1917
• December 26, 1917
• Volume 156
• January 1, 1919
• January 8, 1919
• January 15, 1919
• January 22, 1919
• January 29, 1919
• February 5, 1919
• February 12, 1919
• February 19, 1919
• February 26, 1919
• March 5, 1919
• March 12, 1919
• March 19, 1919
• March 26, 1919
• April 2, 1919
• April 9, 1919
• April 16, 1919
• April 23, 1919
• April 30, 1919
• May 7, 1919
• May 14, 1919
• May 21, 1919
• May 28, 1919
• June 4, 1919
• June 11, 1919
• June 18, 1919
• June 25, 1919
• Mr. Punch's History of the Great War
• Volume 158
• March 17, 1920

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Apuleius

• Cupid and Psyche (in Latin)
• The Golden Ass, Translated by William Adlington (first published in 1566)

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Ariosto

• Orlando Furioso
• in English
• in Italian with accents
• in Italian without accents

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Aristophanes

• The Acharnians
• The Birds
• The Clouds, translated by William James Hickie
• Peace
• The Frogs
• Lysistrata
• 11 Comedies
• volume 1
• The Kinghts
• The Acharnians
• Peace
• Lysistrata
• The Clouds
• volume 2
• The Wasps
• The Birds
• The Frogs
• The Thesmophoriazusae
• The Ecclesiazusae
• Plutus

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Honore de Balzac

• Droll Stories, in English
• volume 1
• volume 2
• volume 3

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Francis Beaumont (1584-1616) and John Fletcher (1579-1625)

• Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
• Volume 1 of 10, introductory matter
• The Beggar's Bush
• The Custom of the Country
• The Elder Brother
• The Faithful Shepherdess
• The Humorous Lieutenant
• A King and No King
• The Maid's Tragedy
• Philaster
• The Scornful Lady
• The Spanish Curate
• Wit Without Money
• The False One
• The Laws of Candy
• Rule a Wife and Have a Wife

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Ambrose Bierce

• The Devil's Dictionary
• Fantastic Fables

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Boccaccio

• The Decameron, volume 1, translated by J.M. Rigg

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Willard Bronte

• Fun and Nonsense

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William Wells Brown

• Clotelle: a Tale of the Southern States

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Gelett Burgess

• Are You a Bromide?

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Samuel Butler (19th century)

• The Humour of Homer and Other Essays

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Samuel Butler (17th century)

• Hudibras

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Thomas Carlyle

• Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdrockh

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Lewis Carroll

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• The Hunting of the Snark (poem)
• Phantasmagoria and Other Poems
• Sylvie and Bruno
• Through the Looking Glass

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Miguel de Cervantes

• Don Quixote
• in English, Translated by John Ormsby
• in Spanish

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Geoffrey Chaucer

• The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems, edited "for popular perusal" by D. Laing Purves
• about Chaucer
• Chaucer's Official Life by James Root Hulbert
• Chaucer by Adolphus William Ward

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W.A. Clouston

• The Book of Noodles: Stories of Simpletons

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William Congreve

• The Double-Dealer
• Incognita
• Love for Love
• The Old Bachelor
• The Way of the World

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Ebenezer Cook

• The Sot-Weed Factor, poem (source of John Barth's novel with the same title) ["sot-weed" means tobacco]

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Alphonse Daudet

• Fromont and Risler
• Nabob, translated by W. Blaydes
• Tartarin of Tarascon, translated by Oliver C. Colt.
• Tartarin sur les Alpes
• in French with accents
• in French without accents

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Thomas Dekker

• The Wonderfull Yeare

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Peggy Edmund and Harold Workman Williams

• Toaster's Handbook: Jokes, Stories, and Quotations

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Desiderius Erasmus

• The Praise of Folly

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Henry Fielding

• Amelia (volume 1 of works in 12 volumes)
• The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great (volume 10 of works)
• The History of Tom Jones, a foundling.
• The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon
• A Journey from this World to the Next
• Miscellanies (volume 2 of works)
• The Author's Farce, Acts I and II
• The Tragedy of Tragedies; or, the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great
• Pasquin; a Dramatic Satire on the Times
• An Essay on Conversation
• The True Patriot, No. XIII
• The Covent-Garden Journal, No.'s X, XXXIII
• Familiar Letter
• about Fielding
• Fielding by Austin Dobson

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Theophile Gautier

• Captain Fracasse, in English

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John Gay

• The Beggar's Opera

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William S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan

• Complete plays (14 of them)
• Gondoliers
• H.M.S. Pinafore
• Iolanthe
• The Mikado
• Pirates of Penzance
• Princess Ida
• Ruddigore
• The Sorcerer
• Thespis
• The Sorcerer
• Trial by Jury
• Utopia, Limited
• Yeomen of the Guard
• Patience

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Nikolai Gogol

• Dead Souls, translated By D. J. Hogarth
• The Inspector General, translated by Thomas Seltzer
• St. John's Eve, translated by Isabel F. Hapgood
• Taras Bulba and Other Stories
• Taras Bulba
• St. John's Eve
• The Cloak
• How the Two Ivans Quarrelled
• The Mysterious Portrait
• The Calash

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Oliver Goldsmith

• She Stoops to Conquer

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Lady Gregory (1852-1932)

• New Comedies
• The Bogie Man
• The Full Moon
• Coats
• Danner's God
• McDonough's Wife

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George and Weedon Grossmith

• The Diary of a Nobody

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William Hazlitt

• Liber Amoris, or, The New Pygmalion

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Washington Irving

• Bacebridge Hall or The Humorists

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O. Henry

• Cabbages and Kings
• The Four Million
• The Gentle Grafter
• The Heart of the West
• Options
• Roads of Destiny
• Rolling Stones
• Sixes and Sevens
• Strictly Business
• The Trimmed Lamp
• The Voice of the City
• Waifs and Strays
• Whirligigs

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Jerome K. Jerome

• All Roads Lead to Calvary
• The Angel and the Author
• Diary of a Pilgrimage
• Fanny and the Servant Problem
• Idle Ideas in 1905
• Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
• John Ingerfield
• Malvina of Brittany
• The Master of Mrs. Chilvers -- an Improbable Comedy
• Novel Notes
• Paul Kelver
• Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
• Sketches in Lavender
• Stage-Land
• Tea-Table Talk
• They and I
• Three Men in a Boat
• Three Men on the Bummel
• Told After Supper
• Tommy and Co.

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Andrew Lang

• How to Fail in Literature: a Lecture
• Old Friends

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Edward Lear

• Book of Nonsense
• Nonsense Books
• More Nonsense
• Nonsense Songs
• Laughable Lyrics

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Jacob Lenz

• Der Hoffman
• in German with accents
• in German without accents

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Abraham Lincoln

• Lincoln's Yarns and Stories: A Complete Collection of the Funny and Witty Anecdotes that made Abraham Lincoln, Famous as America's Greatest Story Teller, with Introduction and Anecdotes by Colonel Alexander K. McClure
• The Lincoln Story Book compiled by Henry Williams

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Lucian of Samosata

• The Works of Lucian of Samosata, complete in four volumes (three of which are on this CD), translated by H.W. Fowler and F.G. Folwer
• volume 1
• volume 2
• volume 3

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Pierre Calet Chamlain de Marivaux (1688-1763)

• Selection from the Comedies of Marivaux edited by Everett Ward Olmsted (in French with introduction in English0
• Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard
• Le Legs
• Les Fausses Confidences

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Guy de Maupassant

• Bel-Ami or the History of a Scoundrel
• Complete Short Stories
• Mademoiselle Fifi
• in French with accents
• in French without accents
• Pierre and Jean, translated by Clara Bell
• Strong as Death
• Yvette

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Moliere (pseudonumn of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (1622-1673)

• Amphritryon, translated to English by A.R. Waller
• L'Avare, in French
• with accents
• without accents
• The Bores (Les Facheux in English)
• The Countess of Escarbagnas (La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas)
• Don Garcia of Navarre (Don Garcie de Navarre in English)
• Don Juan
• with accents
• without accents
• L'Etourdi, in French
• with accents
• without accents
• The Imaginary Invalid (Le Malade Imaginaire), 1673, translated by Charles Wall
• The Impostures of Scapin (Les Fourberies de Scapin), 1677, translated by Charles Wall
• The Learned Women (Les Femmes Savantes), 1692, translated by Charles Wall
• The Love Tiff (Le Depit Amoureux in English)
• The Magnificent Lovers (Les Amants Magnifiques in English)
• Le Mariage Force
• with accents
• without accents
• The Middle Class Gentleman, translated to English by Phililp Dwight Jones
• The Miser (L'Avare in English)
• Mr. de Pourceaugnac (in English)
• Les Precieuses Ridicules
• with accents
• without accents
• The Pretentious Young Ladies (Les Precieuses Ridicules in English)
• Psyche, translated by Charles Wall
• The School for Husbands (L'Ecole de Maris in English)
• Sganarelle
• in French with accents
• in French without accents
• The Shopkeeper Turned Gentleman (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme)
• Tartuffe, translated to English by Curtis Hidden Page
about Moliere
• Vie de Moliere by Voltaire
• with accents
• without accents
• Another look at Moliere's l'Avare (The Miser) by Richard Seltzer (short)

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Bill Nye

• Comic History of England

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Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866)

• Crochet Castle
• Headlong Hall
• Nightmare Abbey

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Alexander Pope

• Essay on Man

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Francois Rabelais

The Lives, Heroic Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and His Son Pantagruel, translated by Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty and Peter Antony Motteux

• Book 1
• Book 2
• Book 3
• Book 4
• Book 5

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E.T. Roe

• Fun and Frolic

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Edmond Rostand

• Cyrano de Bergerac
• in English
• in French without accents

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Saki (H.H. Munro)

• Beasts and Superbeasts
• Chronicles of Clovis
• Reginald
• Reginald in Russia
• Toys of Peace
• The Unbearable Bassington

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William Shakespeare

• All's Well That Ends Well
• As You Like It
• The Comedy of Errors
• The Merry Wives of Windsor
• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Much Ado About Nothing
• The Taming of the Shrew
• Twelfth Night
• Two Gentlemen of Verona

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Richard Sheridan

• The Duenna
• School for Scandal
• St. Patrick's Day
• A Trip to Scarborough
• about Sheridan
• Memoirs of the Life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan by Thomas Moore

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Tobias Smollett

• The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, in which are included Memoirs of a Lady of Quality
• The Adventures of Roderick Random
• The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom
• The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves
• The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
• Travels Through France and Italy

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Laurence Sterne

• The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.
• A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

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Cal Stewart

• Uncles Josh's Punkin Centre Stories

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Donald Ogden Stewart

• A Parody Outline of History, wherein may be found a curiously irreverent treatment of American Historical Events, Imagining them as they would be narrated by American's most characteristic contemporary authors

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Jonathan Swift

• The Battle of the Books and Other Short Pieces
• The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers, etc., Annus Mirabilis, Predictions for the Year 1708
• Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
• The Journal to Stella
• A Modest Proposal
• A Tale of a Tub

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William Makepiece Thackeray

• The Second Funeral of Napoleon

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Mark Twain

• The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories
• 1601, Conversation as it was by the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The Adventures of Tom SawyerAlonzo Fitz and Other Stories
• The American Claimant
• A Burlesque Autobiography
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
• Curious Republic of Gondour and Other Whimsical Sketches
• A Dog's Tale
• Extracts From Adam's Diary
• Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut
• Goldsmith's Friend Abroad Again
• A Horse's Tale
• How to Tell a Story
• In Defence of Harriet Shelley
• The Innocents Abroad
• Life on the Mississippi
• The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories
• Rambling Idle Excursion
• Sketches New and Old
• The Stolen White Elephant
• Those Extraordinary Twins
• A Tramp Abroad

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Voltaire

• Le Blanc et le Noir
• in French with accents
• in French without accents
• Candide, in French
• Jeannot et Colin
• Le Monde Comme Il Va
• in French with accents
• in French without accents
• Letters on England
• L'Ingenu, in French
• Memnon, in French
• Zadig, in French

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Kate Douglas Wiggin

• Bluebeard

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Oscar Wilde

• An Ideal Husband
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Lady Windemere's Fan
• A Woman of No Importance

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Gideon Wurdz

• The Foolish Dictionary

"Talking" software included on this book CD:

Text-to-voice conversion software can allow you to hear as well as read these books. So you can test this capability and decide if it might be valuable to you, we include the include the installation file for ReadPlease 2003 on this CD. (This version of the software is intended for Windows PCS, not Macs.) You can use that file to install a trial copy of ReadPlease Plus, which is a commercial-quality product and can read files of any size. This trial copy is good for 30 days, after which, if you wish, you could buy a license from ReadPlease for $49.95. As an alternative, you can use that same file to install their free version, which doesn't expire, but which can only handle 16K of text at a time; which means that to read a book, you would have to copy and paste one peice of text after another.

When the rapid, automatic 10 Mbyte installation is done, you will be able to open ReadPlease by clicking on an icon on your desktop. Controls in the right column allow you to change the speed of the voice (with a sliding bar), change the font size (with a sliding bar), and switch among four different voices (with the right and left arrows.

When you run ReadPlease, you see the text, with yellow highlighting moving from one word to the next, while you hear that same text. And you can at any time edit the text in the video window. Just position your cursor, click you mouse, and type whatever you like -- for instance, annotation or marks to show where you last stopped reading. Then save the edited file on your hard drive.