World's Best Known Books and Stories

Written by: Peggy Parish

Cover and illustrated by: Fritz Siebel

Published by: Harper & Row

Published: 1968

Number of pages: 38

“Oh, Amelia Bedelia, your first day of work, and I can't be here.”

Written by: Henry Fielding

Published: December, 1751

Number of pages: 687

Published by: Ulan Publishing

“Such indeed was her image, that neither could Shakespeare describe, nor Hogarth paint, nor Clive act, a fury in higher perfection.”

Written by: L. Frank Baum

Illustrated by: W.W. Denslow

Published: May 17, 1900

Publsher: George M. Hill Company

Number of pages: 184

“True courage is in facing danger when you are afraid...” 

Written by: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Translated by: Gregory Rabassa

Publisher: Editorial Sudamericana, Harper & Row (US), Jonathan Cape (UK)

Published: 1967, Published in English: 1970

Number of pages: 448

“One minute of reconciliation is worth more than a whole life of friendship!”

Written by: Chinua Achebe

Published by: William Heinemann Ltd.

Published: 1958

Number of pages: 224

“If you don't like my story, write your own”

Written by: William Shakespeare

First performed: 1599 - 1601

Number of pages: 128

“Conscience doth make cowards of us all.”

Written by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Published: 1605, 1615, 1612, 1620

Publisher: Francisco de Robles

Number of pages: 992

“There is no book so bad...that it does not have something good in it.” 

Written by: Moliere

First performed: June 1, 1666

Number of pages: 104

“The world will not alter for all your meddling.”

Written by: William Shakespeare

First performed: 1606

Number of pages: 384

“Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.“

Written by: William Shakespeare

First performed: 1603

Number of pages: 114

“Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, Chaos is come again.”

Written by: Thomas Hobbes

Published: 1851

Number of pages: 468

“I often observe the absurdity of dreams, but never dream of the absurdity of my waking thoughts.”

Written by: Issac Newton

Publication date: 1687 (1st ed.)

Published in English: 1728

Number of pages: 466

“This most beautiful system [The Universe] could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.”

Written by: William Shakespeare

First performed: 1623

Number of pages: 177

“How say you? My prisoner? Or my guest? by your dread ‘Verily’, One of them you shall be.”

Written by: Anonymous

Written: Date disputed (c. 700–1000 AD)

Manuscript: Cotton Vitellius A. xv (c.  975–1010 AD)

First printed edition: Thorkelin (1815)

“And if death does take me, send the hammered mail of my armor to Higlac, return the inheritance I had from Hrethel, and he from Wayland. Fate will unwind as it must!”

Written by: Lord George Gordon Byron

Published: 1819–1824

Number of pages: 404

“Why do they call me misanthrope? Because They hate me, not I them.”

Written by: Moliere

First performed: February 15, 1665

Number of pages: 322

“What a terrible thing to be a great lord, yet a wicked man.”

Written by: William Shakespeare

First performed: 1610 - 1611

Number of pages: 160

“What's past is prologue.”

Written by: William Shakespeare

First performed: 1623

Number of pages: 157

“I do not ask you much, I beg cold comfort.”

Written by: Richard Wagamese

Published by: Douglas & McIntyre

Published: February 12, 2014

Number of pages: 240

“When your innocence is stripped from you, when your people are denigrated, when the family you came from is denounced and your tribal ways and rituals are pronounced backward, primitive, savage, you come to see yourself as less than human. That is hell on earth, that sense of unworthiness. That's what they inflicted on us.”

Written by: Fred Gipson

Illustrated by: Carl Burger

Published: 1951

Publisher: Harper & Brothers

Number of pages: 192

“But that isn’t the only way life is. A part of the time, it’s mighty good. And a man can’t afford to waste all the good part, worrying about the bad parts. That makes it all bad…. You understand?”

Written by: Winston Rawls

Published by: Doubleday

Published: 1961

Number of pages: 245

“I buried Little Ann by the side of Old Dan. I knew that was where she wanted to be. I also buried a part of my life along with my dog.”

Written by: Daniel P. Mannix

Illustrator: John Schoenherr

Published by: E.P. Dutton

Published: September 11, 1967

Number of pages: 255

“I'm sorry, Tod. Honey, Copper's gonna come back a trained huntin' dog. A real killer.”

Written by: Ben Jonson

First performed: 1610

“And you, too, will give the cause, forsooth? You will insult and a primacy in the divisions?”

Written by: C.S. Lewis

Illustrated by: Pauline Baynes

Cover by: Pauline Baynes

Publisher: The Bodley Head

Published: May 2, 1955

Number of pages: 183

“No great wisdom can be reached without sacrifice.”

Written by: William Shakespeare

First Performed: 1599

Number of pages: 263

“I pray you, do not fall in love with me, for I am falser than vows made in wine.”

Written by: Gord Downie

Illustrated by: Jeff Lemire

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Number of pages: 96

Published: October 18, 2016

“Weeds standing shoulder high.”

Written by: Michael Turner

Published by: Arsenal Pulp

Published: 1993

Number of pages: 208

“There's two ways to look at it: Billy wants the models and limousines, while I'm happy with hookers and taxicabs.”

Written by: Maurice Sendak

Illustrated by: Maurice Sendak

Publisher: Harper’s Row

Published: November 13, 1963

Number of pages: 40

“And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!”

Written by: C.S. Lewis

Illustrator: Pauline Baynes

Cover artist: Pauline Baynes

Publisher: The Bodley Head

Published: September 4, 1956

Number of pages: 184

“Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

Written by: Marquis de Sade

Edited by: Dr. Eugene Duhren

Published: 1903

Publisher: Club des Bibliophiles

Number of pages: 340

“I would, thank God, watch the universe perish without shedding a tear.”

Written by: C.S. Lewis

Illustrator: Pauline Baynes

Cover artist: Pauline Baynes

Published by: The Bodley Head

Published: May 2, 1955

Number of pages: 183

“Look for the valleys, the green places, and fly through them. There will always be a way through.”

Written by: C.S. Lewis

Illustrator: Pauline Baynes

Cover artist: Pauline Baynes

Publisher: Geoffrey Bles

Published: September 6, 1954

Number of pages: 199

“And certainly both Horses were doing, if not all they could, all they thought they could; which is not quite the same thing.”

Written by: C.S. Lewis

Illustrator: Pauline Baynes

Cover artist: Pauline Baynes

Publisher: Geoffrey Bles

Published: September 7, 1953

Number of pages: 217

“Life isn't all fricasseed frogs and eel pie.”

Written by: C.S. Lewis

Illustrator: Pauline Baynes

Cover artist: Pauline Baynes

Publisher: Geoffrey Bles

Published: September 15, 1952

Number of pages: 223

“One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to facts.”

Written by: C.S. Lewis

Illustrator: Pauline Baynes

Cover artist: Pauline Baynes

Publisher: Geoffrey Bles

Published: October 15, 1951

Number of pages: 195

“But all night, Aslan and the Moon gazed upon each other with joyful and unblinking eyes.”

Written by: C.S. Lewis

Illustrator: Pauline Baynes

Cover artist: Pauline Baynes

Publisher: Geoffrey Bles

Published: October 16, 1950

Number of pages: 224

“One day, you will be old enough to start reading fairytales again.”

Written by: Ellie Wiesel

Translators: Stella Rodway (Hill & Wang): 1960, Marion Wiesel (Hill & Wang/Oprah Book Club): 2006

Translations: La Nuit (French). Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit: 1958

Published in English: Night (New York: Hill & Wang; London: MacGibbon & Kee) (1960)

Number of pages: 248, 178, 116

“I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the right questions.”

Written by: Stephen King

Cover by: Ned Dameron

Published: August 1991

Publisher: Grant

Number of pages: 512

“Fasten your seatbelts and prepare for turbulence: you’re flying into . . . the Roland Zone!”

Written by: Mary Norton

Illustrated by: Diana L. Stanley, Beth Krush, and Joe Krush

Publisher: J. M. Dent; Harcourt, Brace

Published: 1952, 1953

Number of pages: 159, 180

“And what if it were only a story?” said Mrs. May quickly, “so long as it was a good story? Keep your sense of wonder, child, and don’t be so literal. Anything we haven’t experienced for ourselves sounds like a story. All we can ever do is sift the evidence.”

Written by: George Selden

Illustrated by: Garth Williams

Publisher: Ariel Books

Published: 1960

Number of pages: 144

“Talent is something rare and beautiful and precious,
and it must not be allowed to go to waste.”

Written by: Beatrix Potter

Illustrated by: Beatrix Potter

Publisher: Frederick Warne & Co.

Published: October, 1902

Number of pages: 32

“Peter was not very well during the evening. His mother put him to bed, and made some chamomile tea: "One table-spoonful to be taken at bedtime.”

Written by: Beverly Cleary

Illustrated by: Louis Darling

Published William Morrow

Published: 1955

Number of pages: 155

“Tiddlywinks, tiddlywinks, I want to play tiddlywinks," chanted Ramona, shaking her head back and forth.”

Written by: Gertrude Chandler Warner

Illustrated by: L. Kate Deal

Publisher: Rand McNally

Published: 1924

Number of pages: 160

“One warm night four children stood in front of a bakery. No one knew them. No one knew where they had come from.”

Written by: Edith Nesbit

Cover by: H.R. Miller

Published: 1904

Publisher: Newnes

Number of Pages: 289

"'I wish they taught magic at school,' Jane sighed. 'I believe if we could do a little magic it might make something happen."

Written by: Florence Atwater and Richard Atwater

Cover by: Robert Lawson

Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers

Published: 1938

Number of pages: 139

“This parcel of penguins really performs!”

Written by: Russell Hoban

Cover and illustrated by: Lillian Hoban

Publisher: Harper & Row

Published: 1967

Number of pages: 256

“The mouse and his child, who had learned so much and had prevailed against such overwhelming odds, never could be persuaded to teach a success course.”

Written by: Maya Angelou

Published: January 1, 1969

Publisher: Bantam Books

Number of Pages: 246

“The caged bird sings with a fearful trill,
of things unknown, but longed for still,
and his tune is heard on the distant hill,
for the caged bird sings of freedom.”

Written by: David Morrell

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Publication date: January 1, 1972

Number of pages: 320

“For a colonel, the way you're talking, you don't seem to like the military very much." "Of course I don't. Who in his right mind would?”