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The Reader, by Alexander Ver Huell, c. 1880

About Us

The Ex-Classics project was founded in 2000 to fill an unmet need.  When reading the blurb etc. to a book by Charles Dickens or Charlotte Bronte, say, we would often come across sentences like "Favourite reading included . . ."  If  it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us. So off we go to the library or bookshop, to be met first with blank stares and then with the information that the book has been out of print for decades. Our first two books were Gil Blas and Hudibras, which are prime examples of this This web site is dedicated to rescuing these works from obscurity and making them available online, both for reading directly, and for downloading.

Book of the Month -- September  2023

Chevy Chase


Chevy Chase, the American comedian, whose real name is Cornelius, got his nickname from this poem, which used to be one of the best-known English ballads. It tells the story (fictitious) of a poaching expedition by the Earl of Northumberland into Scotland on the lands of  Lord Douglas; Douglas showed up with his men and there was a battle  in which both were killed. There ae several versions of the ballad; We have three, and also an article about it by Joseph Addison published in The Spectator in  1711.

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Max Adeler contemplating the Patent Office Report, by Arthur B. Frost

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