ARTales Library
Explore original works, translations, and curated public-domain editions. ARTales is being built as a living library: a place where texts keep their structure, context, editions, and reading layers.
Public domain
Language: English
A classic Sherlock Holmes mystery blending eerie folklore with sharp deduction. When a nobleman fears a legendary spectral hound haunting the moors, Holmes and Watson uncover a web of greed, deception, and family secrets. Atmospheric landscapes, rising tension, and a chilling sense of the supernatural make this one of Doyle’s most iconic and compelling investigations.
Public domain
Language: English
A darker and more mature collection of Sherlock Holmes stories that explores the detective’s sharp intellect in cases filled with deception, obsession, and moral ambiguity. From eerie domestic mysteries to complex criminal schemes, Holmes and Watson confront some of their most challenging investigations. The volume offers a compelling blend of tension, atmosphere, and Doyle’s refined storytelling.
Public domain
Language: English
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve detective stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, following Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as they solve a wide range of mysteries. The stories showcase Holmes’s deductive brilliance, explore darker themes, and introduce key figures such as Mycroft Holmes and Professor Moriarty. Cases range from the disappearance of a racehorse in Silver Blaze to ancient family secrets in The Musgrave Ritual, early episodes from Holmes’s youth in The Gloria Scott, and political intrigue in The Naval Treaty. The collection culminates in The Final Problem, where Holmes confronts Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls in what was intended to be the detective’s final appearance
Public domain
Language: English
A thrilling adventure in which Professor Challenger leads an expedition into a remote South American plateau where prehistoric creatures still survive. As the team confronts dinosaurs, hidden dangers, and rival tribes, the story blends scientific curiosity with high suspense. Doyle’s imaginative world offers both excitement and a classic exploration of discovery and survival.
Public domain
Language: English
A fast‑paced Sherlock Holmes mystery that begins with a cryptic summons and unfolds into a tale of hidden treasure, betrayal, and long‑buried secrets. As Holmes and Watson follow a trail across London’s darker corners, they uncover a complex conspiracy rooted in colonial history. Suspense, deduction, and emotional undercurrents make this one of Doyle’s most engaging adventures.
Public domain
Language: English
A compelling collection marking Sherlock Holmes’s dramatic return after his presumed death at Reichenbach. These thirteen stories follow Holmes and Watson as they confront blackmailers, impostors, secret societies, and intricate deceptions across London. Blending sharp deduction with atmospheric tension, the volume reestablishes Holmes as the unrivaled master of investigative brilliance.
Public domain
Language: English
A classic collection of twelve Sherlock Holmes stories showcasing the detective’s sharp intellect, keen observation, and mastery of deduction. From blackmail and stolen treasures to mysterious disappearances, each case reveals a different facet of Victorian London’s secrets. The stories blend suspense, wit, and atmosphere, making this anthology a defining cornerstone of detective fiction.
Public domain
Language: English
A gripping Sherlock Holmes mystery that intertwines a brutal country‑house murder with a hidden past rooted in secret societies and betrayal. As Holmes unravels cryptic clues, the story shifts between England and America, revealing how long‑buried loyalties ignite deadly consequences. A tense, atmospheric novel blending deduction with dark intrigue.
Public domain
Language: English
A landmark collection of one hundred stories framed by a group of young Florentines seeking refuge from the plague. Their tales range from comic and romantic to tragic and morally reflective, capturing the vibrancy, wit, and humanity of medieval life. Boccaccio’s work blends sharp social insight with lively storytelling, making it a cornerstone of European literature.
Public domain
Language: English
Carmen enters the story as a woman who refuses to be bound — proud, free, and loyal above all to herself. Don José cannot resist her, and what begins as attraction slowly turns into a passion filled with jealousy, unease, and the need to hold on too tightly. But Carmen has no intention of belonging to anyone. The more José tries to keep her for himself, the more their relationship becomes a dangerous collision between love, freedom, and possession.
Public domain
Language: English
During the war, an unexpected chain of events carries a group of people aboard a German U-boat far beyond familiar routes, until a land appears on the horizon that seems almost to belong to another world. The Land That Time Forgot takes its characters beyond the forbidding cliffs of Caprona into a world where creatures from a vanished age still move through dense, tropical wilderness. Burroughs reveals the mysteries of this strange country little by little, so that every discovery leads naturally to the same question: what lies farther inland? It is the kind of adventure that makes one more chapter almost impossible to resist.
Public domain
Language: English
Pride and Prejudice is one of those books that is easy to settle into — among visits, dances, family conversations, and glances that often say more than words. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy find their way toward one another through wit, pride, misunderstanding, and the gradual unsettling of their own certainties. Austen lets their relationship grow with such patience and lightness that every small shift feels meaningful. There is romance here, but also humour and the quiet pleasure of discovering that love can begin where we least expect it.
Public domain
Language: English
Some lives are changed not by what happened, but by what a person never allowed to happen. Newland Archer has the future his world considers proper: a suitable marriage, a secure place in society, and a life without surprises. Then he meets a woman who does not fit neatly within those carefully arranged rules, and another possibility begins to emerge. The Age of Innocence finds its beauty in what remains restrained and unspoken — in desire, duty, and the haunting sense of a life that might have taken a different shape.
Public domain
Language: English
Some stories begin with injustice, but do not end there. The Count of Monte Cristo follows a man whose life is suddenly stripped of everything he once held dear, only to offer him an unexpected chance to begin again. Alongside its adventure and suspense, it is a story of patience, transformation, and the question of whether revenge can ever truly deliver what we hope it will. The more time we spend with its hero, the more the novel becomes a reflection on what a person can preserve, even after losing almost everything.
Public domain
Language: English
Around the World in Eighty Days is filled with distant horizons, the rhythm of wheels, and the constant tension that the next ship, train, or unexpected turn may decide everything. Every stop opens another corner of the world while time keeps slipping away. Verne combines the pleasure of discovery with the urgency of a race, keeping adventure and uncertainty side by side. That is what gives the journey its momentum — the world is vast, time is short, and the need to keep moving only grows stronger.
Public domain
Language: English
The Great Gatsby glows with parties, music, and the promise of a life that always seems just within reach. Beneath the glitter, however, lies something quieter: the desire to recover a lost dream and believe that the past can somehow be remade. Fitzgerald captures hope, loneliness, and self-deception with a lightness that still feels strikingly modern. It is a book about how brightly dreams can shine — and how they can keep receding even as we move toward them.
Public domain
Language: English
The Portrait of a Lady carries the allure of a life that seems full of possibility. Isabel Archer enters the world determined to choose her future for herself, armed with curiosity, courage, and confidence in her own judgement. Europe, new relationships, and unexpected opportunities keep opening doors before her — but not every door leads to freedom. Henry James turns that journey into a subtle, compelling portrait of a woman who wants to belong to herself and slowly discovers how complicated that desire can become.
Public domain
Language: English
Sometimes a single day is enough to open an entire life. In Mrs Dalloway, London streets, preparations for a party, and passing moments become intertwined with memories, old choices, and questions that never fully disappear. Virginia Woolf captures how closely joy, loneliness, regret, and the desire for connection can exist beside one another. The novel feels like a bright summer day with something deeper moving beneath it — time, memory, and the life that unfolds most intensely within us.
Public domain
Language: English
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde reminds us that a person is not always quite what they seem. Behind a respectable face, something restless, suppressed, and darker may still be waiting to emerge. Stevenson turns this divided nature into a story filled with secrecy, tension, and unease. Perhaps that is why it still feels so powerful: the line between what we accept in ourselves and what we try to hide is never as secure as we would like to believe.
Public domain
Language: English
The Story of My Life carries the quiet strength of someone who had to discover the world in a different way. It is not simply a book about obstacles, but about patience, trust, and the moment when things begin to connect with words, meaning, and the nearness of others. Helen Keller does not feel like a distant symbol here, but like a sensitive and curious person whose life reminds us that learning the world can be one of the deepest forms of courage.
Public domain
Language: English
Some stories are shaped less by what happened than by how long its consequences endure. The Scarlet Letter follows lives marked by guilt, secrecy, and the judgement of others, without offering easy answers. Beneath the portrait of a strict society lies a deeply human story about dignity, resilience, and the price we sometimes pay for our choices. A novel quieter than its reputation suggests, yet one that often lingers long after the final page.
Public domain
Language: English
The War of the Worlds has the force of a night-time report no one quite wants to believe. Into quiet streets, gardens, and country roads comes something that suddenly strips humanity of the feeling that the world is understood and safely its own. Wells evokes not only fear of visitors from the stars, but the strange vertigo of finding humankind cast as the weaker, observed creature. That is what still makes the book so powerful: it turns our gaze upward — and then back upon ourselves.
Public domain
Language: English
The Wind in the Willows carries the quiet kindness of books that seem to wait for our return. To come back to the river, the cosy burrows, the friendships, and the small adventures is to feel the world slow down for a while. It is more than a tale of animal characters; it is the feeling that somewhere there is a place where curiosity, mischief, and the need for safety are all gently welcomed. Perhaps that is why readers return to it like an echo of childhood that has never quite faded.
Public domain
Language: English
Romeo and Juliet endures not only because of the love at its centre, but because of its fragility. Young love flares within a world too proud, divided, and unforgiving to make room for it. That is why the play still feels so immediate: it reminds us how easily something pure can meet barriers built by others. A work that holds both the beauty of first enchantment and the sorrow of knowing that love, however sincere, cannot always change the world around it.
Public domain
Language: English
Heart of Darkness is not only a journey into an unknown landscape, but a descent toward questions people often prefer not to face. Conrad’s work carries a dense, unsettling power: the land, the silence, and human ambition gradually become something disturbingly uncertain. It does not draw readers in with easy answers, but with the unease it leaves behind. It reminds us that darkness may not lie far beyond civilisation — sometimes it waits much closer than we wish to believe.
Public domain
Language: English
The Shadow Over Innsmouth is one of those stories in which unease arrives quietly, step by step. Deserted streets, strange glances, and a town turned away from the world create an atmosphere that slowly settles beneath the reader’s skin. Lovecraft is not dealing only with fear of the unknown here, but with the sense that the past can leave marks deeper than we are willing to admit. It is a story for moments when mystery draws us in precisely because we suspect we should not come too close.
Public domain
Language: English
Red Shadows carries the dark pull of old adventure tales, where justice asks nothing about comfort or safety. Solomon Kane moves through the world like a man driven by a restless conscience — stern, solitary, and unwilling to turn away from evil. Howard’s story draws us in with its harsh atmosphere, distant horizons, and the sense that some journeys begin not with a thirst for glory, but with the need to face darkness. It is a tale for readers ready to step into a world of shadows, blades, and relentless resolve.
Public domain
Language: English
Some adventures begin with a map, but rarely end where one expects them to. Treasure Island opens a world of shifting loyalties, dangerous choices, and characters who resist simple labels. The pirates here are neither purely heroic nor purely villainous, which is exactly what makes the story still feel alive today.
Public domain
Language: English
Not every great love story offers comfort — some are filled with defiance, longing, and emotions too tangled to settle easily. Wuthering Heights draws readers into a harsh landscape of complicated relationships, fierce attachment, and feelings that refuse simple explanations. A novel people tend to either deeply love or struggle with at first — but rarely forget.
Public domain
Language: English
Some books seem to carry the wind of open country and a voice that refuses to grow quiet. My Brilliant Career invites readers into the company of a young mind alive with restlessness, imagination, and the desire for a life not already decided. It holds sharpness and tenderness, defiance and vulnerability, laughter and the ache of a world that asks for obedience where the heart longs for freedom. That is why it still feels so fresh: a reminder that one’s own path sometimes begins with the refusal to become smaller than one feels.
Public domain
Language: English
If some stories seem made for autumn evenings, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow surely belongs among them. In a landscape shaped by whispered legends and quiet uncertainty, the line between reality and imagination slowly begins to blur. Some stories do not frighten us outright — they simply make us glance over our shoulder a little longer.
Public domain
Language: English
The Song of Roland feels like a story meant to be spoken aloud, carried from one listener to the next. It brings us into a world of solemn vows, pride, and loyalty, where a person is measured by what they remain faithful to, even at great cost. More than an echo of ancient heroism, it offers a glimpse of an age that believed honour could outlive the body, and a name could enter the memory of a people.
Public domain
Language: English
What if youth and beauty never had to fade? The Picture of Dorian Gray begins with a question that feels almost irresistible, gradually unfolding into something far more unsettling about identity, morality, and the cost of our desires. A novel that manages to be both captivating and quietly disturbing — often at the same time.
Public domain
Language: English
The sea here is not merely a setting, but a force that tests, tempts, and consumes. Moby-Dick belongs to those stories in which desire slowly hardens into obsession, and courage crosses into something far more dangerous. Beneath its vastness lies adventure, fate, and the unsettling question of whether a person is truly struggling against the world outside — or against something within himself.
Public domain
Language: English
Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a book about longing to feel life again — not as a social role, a duty, or a quiet form of endurance, but as nearness, breath, touch, and shared understanding. It tells of two people who awaken in one another something long silenced: tenderness, courage, and the ability to be truly present. There is pain as well as gentleness here, and the fragile strength of a body becoming a path back to the soul. It reminds us that love can also be a return to one’s own aliveness.
Public domain
Language: English
Hadleyburg is a town proud of its spotless reputation — and that is exactly what makes its certainty so fragile. The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg is one of those stories that first makes us smile, then slowly reveals how sharply it cuts into pride, hypocrisy, and the wish to appear better than we are. With wit and irony, Twain reminds us that virtue may be at its most vulnerable when it is most proudly displayed.
Public domain
Language: English
Home is not always a place. Sometimes, it is the people with whom we share our joys, losses, and hopes for the future. Little Women follows four sisters, each searching for her own path while holding on to the bond that connects them. Beneath the quiet rhythm of everyday life lies a story about growing up, family, and the changes time inevitably brings. Readers return to this novel for its warmth, humanity, and gentle reminder that the simplest moments are often the ones we cherish most.
Public domain
Language: English
Some books stay with us not only because of the story, but because of the person at their centre. Jane Eyre follows a young woman searching for her place in the world, for independence, and for love without losing herself along the way. Alongside mystery and strong emotion, it becomes an unexpectedly intimate story about trusting one’s own heart while holding on to one’s sense of self.
Public domain
Language: English
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is not a book to be read merely as a portrait of another time. It carries the pain of injustice, the force of compassion, and the question of how long a society can look away from human suffering. Its power lies not only in the fact that it once spoke to history, but in its reminder that literature can give voice to those whose pain might otherwise remain unheard. This is a book that does not invite distance, but human attention.
Public domain
Language: English
Don Quixote begins as a quest for glory, yet gradually becomes something far more human. It holds laughter at the mistakes of a man who reshapes the world according to his dreams, and a quiet sadness at how little room the world sometimes leaves for nobility. Beside him walks Sancho Panza, full of common sense, appetite, loyalty, and unexpected wisdom. Together, they remind us that imagination and reality do not simply oppose one another — sometimes the enduring story lives between them.
Public domain
Language: English
What begins to change when someone crosses a boundary once thought impossible? Often remembered for its scientific experiment, Frankenstein is, beneath the surface, a surprisingly human story about loneliness, responsibility, and choices that cannot easily be undone. A novel that often surprises readers by how deeply human it truly feels.
Public domain
Language: English
Some books become famous long before we ever open them, and Dracula is often one of them. Yet beyond the story of a mysterious count lies a world of growing unease, unfamiliar places, and tension that builds almost unnoticed. Perhaps that is why it still feels so vivid today — some fears never fade as much as we imagine.
Public domain
Language: English
At first glance, an adventure story — but underneath, a journey shaped by conscience, freedom, and the search for one’s own path. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn lets its protagonist move through a world without easy answers, and its questions still feel unexpectedly relevant today. Some books grow alongside their readers, and this may be one of them.
Public domain
Language: English
Sometimes the search for something important begins when the familiar world suddenly turns into something unknown. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz brings together adventure, friendship, and the quiet courage needed to keep moving forward, even without knowing what lies ahead. Beneath its colourful world and unforgettable characters lies a story that speaks surprisingly well to adult readers, too.
Public domain
Language: English
What happens when we decide to follow something that makes very little sense? Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland begins with a fall into a world where size changes without warning, animals speak, and questions often matter more than answers. Beneath its playful absurdity lies a story that can feel both enchanting and disorienting — perhaps that is why readers find something different in it at every stage of life.
Public domain
Language: English
Sons and Lovers is a book about feelings that shape us before we fully understand them. Lawrence portrays family closeness as something deeply tender and painfully binding at once — a space where love can offer support, but also become difficult to step away from. It is a novel about the maturing of the heart, about guilt, desire, and the search for one’s own voice among the people we love. That is why it still feels so alive: it reminds us that the path toward oneself often leads through the relationships that formed us most deeply.
Public domain
Language: English
A Tale of Two Cities is one of those books in which private lives burn against the backdrop of history. Dickens evokes a world shaken by fear, anger, and the longing for justice, yet the novel is most moving where it reveals the quiet strength of love, loyalty, and sacrifice. More than a portrait of a turbulent age, it reminds us that even in the midst of chaos, the human heart may find the courage to act beyond itself.
Public domain
Language: English
The Hour of the Dragon opens a world where kingdoms rest not only on thrones and crowns, but on the courage to stand when everything has been taken away. Conan is not merely a warrior here, but a force that refuses to break beneath betrayal, sorcery, and ancient threats. The story carries the rough grandeur of old legends, the darkness of forgotten powers, and the restless pull of adventure. A book for readers who want to feel the breath of an older world, where fate is claimed through will, steel, and an unyielding heart.
Public domain
Language: English
Some love stories are far removed from fairy tales. The Phantom of the Opera unfolds in a world of music, admiration, and mystery, while quietly exploring loneliness, longing, and feelings that struggle to find their place. Perhaps that is why it lingers not only as a tale of suspense, but also with a certain melancholy.
