Here are some ideas...
I have more ideas about Russian ones, but these are the ones that I used for English books at one time or another:
Project Gutenberg This is free digital library of books no longer in copyright. So you'll find a great many classic texts here. The full Gutenberg collection I think over 5,000 books. Good collection.
The problem with this one is that it is tad bit difficult to find your way around there ( I guess that is the downside of a large collection, ha!), and you need to know
exactly what you are looking for. However if you have an idea and just want to get a copy, that is a great place.
Their books are usually in plain text (ASCII) format so it is not easy to read “as is” and it is better to copy and paste them into more user friendly program, like Word.
http://www.gutenberg.netAdelaide University Electronic Texts Collection ( but I think you found that one already, I just realised
) Their collection of e-texts continually growing- currently more than 700 – includes some classic works of Literature
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.auAnd then, this is my favourite:
The Harvard Classics Here is a short description in their own words:
“
The most comprehensive and well-researched anthology of all time comprises both the 50-volume “5-foot shelf of books” and the the 20-volume Shelf of Fiction. Together they cover every major literary figure, philosopher, religion, folklore and historical subject through the twentieth century.”
This is found on
http://www.bartleby.com/This is the the easiest to search, well organized site. There are reference, fiction, poetry and non-fiction divisions. I used this resource in my classical curriculum in the private christian school that we managed in South America, as well as in some english teaching and found it helpful.
And here are just a few ideas to start with:
Æsop Legendary Greek fabulist. According to Herodotus, he was a slave who lived in Samos in the 6th cent. B.C. and eventually was freed by his master. Here is collection of his 82 fables - tales of caution veiled in the actions of animals and other character types.
Fun and educational, you can make plays out of these ones
http://www.bartleby.com/17/1/Hans Christian Andersen 1805–75, Danish poet, novelist, and writer of fairy tales. His sense of fantasy, power of description, and acute sensitivity contributed to his mastery of the genre. Among his many widely beloved stories are “The Fir-Tree,” “The Little Match Girl,” “The Ugly Duckling,” “The Snow Queen,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “The Red Shoes
http://www.bartleby.com/17/3/ Stories from the Thousand and One Nights Translated by Edward William Lane
Revised by Stanley Lane-Poole
The desperate entertainments of a wife delaying execution by her husband, this translation of 42 stories from a much larger collection has become the most well-known of folk tales for younger readers: Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp, the Voyages of Sinbad, and Ali-Baba and the Forty Thieves.
http://www.bartleby.com/16/John Bunyan 1628–88, English author, b. Elstow, Bedfordshire.… Bunyan wrote nine books, his masterpiece The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come, published in 1678
http://www.bartleby.com/people/Bunyan-J.htmlMiguel de Cervantes Saavedra 1547–1616, Spanish novelist, dramatist, and poet, author of Don Quixote de la Mancha, b. Alcalá de Henares.
http://www.bartleby.com/people/Cervante.htmlJacob and Wilhelm Grimm 1785–1863, German philologist and folklorist, He is best known for his work on German folk tales, known as Grimm’s Fairy Tales (1812–15), which he collected with his brother, Wilhelm Grimm, 1786–1859, and which did much to encourage the romantic revival of folklore
http://www.bartleby.com/17/2/William Shakespeare Here is collection of his works. I used some excerpts for young students about 11-12 years, the trick was to keep it short and fun, we actually watched some excerpts from plays and then read some… and acted
http://www.bartleby.com/70/Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish novelist, poet, and essayist, b. Edinburgh. At an early age he had begun to write, and gradually he devoted himself to literature.… His first popular books were Treasure Island (1883), a swashbuckling adventure story of a search for Captain Kidd’s buried treasure, and the fantasy Prince Otto (1885). A Child’s Garden of Verses appeared in 1885
http://www.bartleby.com/188/ , some other works you can get from Project Guttenberg
Mark Twain pseud. of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910, American author, b. Florida, Mo. As humorist, narrator, and social observer, Twain is unsurpassed in American literature. His novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a masterpiece of humor, characterization, and realism, has been called the first (and sometimes the best) modern American novel. You can get it from Project Guttenbergs site…
Another good one, but I don’t think you can find it for free on line, as it is a later edition is the
Christian Mother Goose Big Book by Marjorie Ainsborough Decker. Some of our nephews and nieces were raised on these poems, and it was highly recommended to me by my husband’s mom ( and she has very high standard for children’s reading materials). I just found it, and was looking through some of the poems, -- really good quality ( gives children a sense of good rhyme), but at the same time with very good high morals ( most of the poems not just make sense ( differently from original Mother Goose) but also have some really good lessons.
These are just a few ideas. Depending on what you are looking for, you might find some of them helpful. And I am sure, others will have some other great ideas to share
Hope it helps.
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