Classic English Literature For Teens

It is 1642 in the Puritan town of Boston. Hester Prynne has been found guilty of adultery and has born an illegitimate child. In lieu of being put to death, she is condemned to wear the scarlet letter "A" on her dress as a reminder of her shameful act.

For every fan who has wished Jane Austen herself might have enjoyed the romance and happy ending she so carefully crafted for all her heroines: The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen, by Shannon Winslow. What if the tale Jane Austen told in her last, most poignant novel was inspired by momentous events in her own life? Did she in fact intend Persuasion to stand forever in homage to her one true love?

Thomas Hardy brings us an England that once existed but no more. It is rural, traditional, pastoral - a society of mannered conduct that flows like a deep river where powerful currents eddy and swirl. In this powerful novel of love and disillusion, Hardy's heroine is torn between the three men in her life. Passionate but capricious, her romantic involvements have fascinated generations of readers.

George MacDonald once declared, “I do not write for children, but for the childlike, whether of five, or 50, or 75.” The Day Boy and the Night Girl is a splendid example of such writing. With words of wonder, beauty, and adventure, and with acute spiritual insight and sensitivity, MacDonald spins an enchanting tale of two children, a boy and a girl, who grow up from infancy in the castle of a witch. Unaware of each other’s presence in the castle, the children are victims of an unnatural design upon them.

The adventures of a charismatic band of animal characters in the English countryside. One of the best-loved stories of all time.

Penny’s father is a newspaper owner being sued for libel in his home base of New York. He sends her on a western ski vacation in order to avoid the legalities, but she manages to gain entrance to a room with a mysterious Green Door, an entrance to an illegal fur importation racket from Canada. The culprits turn out to be those pursuing the libel situation back east. She is threatened with possible death, but not only solves the fur racket but winds up scooping a rival reporter.

Jim Hawkins (who narrates the tale) discovers the long-lost Treasure Map, on which X marks the spot, in the belongings of a dead pirate. He takes it to the local Doctor and Squire who determine to buy a ship, set sail, and recover the treasure from the Island. In a masterstroke of plot, Stevenson has the excited but gullible Squire recruit a crew made up, mostly, of the very crew of Buccaneers and Pirates who plundered this treasure in the first place, under the Captaincy of Flint! They are now led by the one-legged, cunning, and charismatic, Long John Silver.

Three years after the close of Little Women, the March girls and their friend Laurie are young adults with only their futures to find. Along the way, they all face painful trials, from Meg's difficult lessons in housekeeping to Laurie's heartbreak in a love tragedy. Each of the girls finds happiness, but not always in the ways they expect.

Heidi who has been orphaned, is taken from her alpine home with her beloved grandfather by her less than loving aunt to be a companion for a crippled child of a wealthy family in Frankfurt. They become bosom friends but Heidi becomes ill and has to return home, but when her crippled friend comes to the Alps for a visit, well, we don't want to spoil the story for you.

"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (often shortened to "Huck Finn") is a novel written by Mark Twain and published in 1884. It is commonly regarded as one of the "Great American Novels" and is one of the first major American novels written in the vernacular, characterized by local color regionalism. It is told in the first person by Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, best friend of Tom Sawyer and narrator of two other Twain novels.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the first great American novels. The book is noted for its innocent young protagonist, its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River, and its sober and often scathing look at the entrenched attitudes, particularly racism, of the time. The journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on their raft may be one of the most enduring images of escape and freedom in all of American literature.

An action-packed allegory that captures spiritual growth from nonbeliever to mature Christian. Carved from the Blood Mountains, a perpetual reminder of God's great purchase of mankind, the Bloodstone opens a gateway into another dimension. As they visit fantastic worlds, three children discover the depths of God's love, the principles of his kingdom, and the reality of spiritual conflict in their journey toward Christian maturity. Dramatized with multiple voices; narrated by Bill Myers.

Pen's life is about secrets: the secret of the city's spirits, deities and monsters, living just beyond the notice of modern Londoners; the secret of Pen's intricate scars that disfigure her so cruelly; and the most closely guarded secret of all: Parva, her mirror-sister, forged from her reflections in a school bathroom mirror.

Rule by head or rule by heart? Elinor Dashwood is a great believer in "sense," while her exuberant younger sister Marianne feels keenly that only "sensibility" (what today we'd call passion) serves to guide the heart. Through vicissitudes and, in the case of Marianne, outright betrayal by her lover, these two women learn the value in the other's outlook, and thereby prepare themselves for later domestic bliss that is the hallmark resolution of Jane Austen's novels.

Set and written in 1726, This is a marvelously imaginative tale of the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver. He finds himself shipwrecked and the prisoner of captors ranging in size from 6 inches tall to 60 feet tall and of various other persuasions. But this is just the beginning of a story written, strangely enough to satirize the foolishness and vices of modern men as they were perceived at the time. No one, young or old, can ever forget the Lilliputians and the Yahoos that starred in these wonderful and riveting stories of long ago.

Latina Harmen knew she was going to hate Missouri. "There's nothing in Missouri!" she had told her father when he announced they were to spend the summer there. And now she knew she had been 110 percent right. Latina had taken for granted that she would be spending another happy summer vacation with her friends at Periwinkle Cove on the East Coast. After all, her family had spent summers there as long as she could remember.

It is an INVASION! H. G. Wells' classic story of Martians invading an unsuspecting and unprepared world continues to thrill and terrify listeners around the world. Following strange explosions on the surface of Mars, metallic cylinders crash in the English countryside - objects that carry hideous aliens possessed of deadly weapons and a rabid hunger for human flesh. No army can stop these monstrous hordes, no weapons can harm them - a terrified humanity watches helpless as cities are reduced to cinders and ash. There is no hope...here is no future...our world is lost - unlessa?S

Ever dreamt of being a superhero? For 14-year-old Riley, Taisia, Evelina, and Skyler it’s not a dream, but a painful reality. They were born with powers that could wield fire, water, wind, and earth. But they were never told about their true identities. In fact, they didn’t know about each other until their acceptance to one of the most prestigious schools in San Francisco, Aditus High School. Riley and Taisia become best friends and embark on a journey to unravel the mystery behind their true identities. Along the way, they face the challenges of a normal high school lifestyle.

Eleven-year-old Vincent van Gogh discovers a curious new world through a tunnel on the moor. A mysterious white rabbit introduces Vincent to Alice, and their quest begins - defeat the dreaded Jabberwock before it consumes all of Wonderland. A slithy tove, an ill-tempered caterpillar, and the Cheshire cat meet them along the path as their adventures take them through fields dancing with flowers, tangled forests, and looking-glass pools.

The Turn of the Screw has been described by many critics as the most sophisticated and terrifying ghost story in the English language. It is considered one of the great intellectual "spook tales" of all time. The story concerns a naive young governess who is hired to take care of two children in a large mansion in the English countryside. Everything is going fine, until she discovers that the children are not as innocent as they seem.