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Treasure Island is a classic adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks from October 1881 to January 1882 under the title The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys (or Treasure Island; or, the mutiny of the Hispaniola) and using the pseudonym "Captain George North." It was first published in book form on November 14, 1883, by Cassell & Co., marking Stevenson's breakthrough commercial and critical success. The idea originated in the summer of 1881 in Braemar, Scotland, during a rainy period when Stevenson, inspired by drawing a treasure map to entertain his 12-year-old stepson Lloyd Osbourne, began crafting a thrilling tale of buccaneers, buried gold, mutiny, and a derelict ship. Drawing influences from earlier works like Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Washington Irving's pirate tales, Edgar Allan Poe's stories, and Captain Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates, Stevenson created a vivid, action-packed narrative set in the 18th century. The book popularized many enduring pirate tropes in popular culture—such as treasure maps marked with an "X," deserted islands, one-legged sailors with parrots, and the black spot—and remains a cornerstone of adventure and coming-of-age literature for readers of all ages.

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, commonly known as Alice in Wonderland, is a beloved 1865 children's novel written by Lewis Carroll, the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, an Oxford mathematics lecturer and Anglican deacon. The story originated on July 4, 1862, during a boating trip on the River Isis when Dodgson entertained the three young daughters of his friend Henry Liddell — Lorina, Alice, and Edith — by improvising a fantastical tale about a girl named Alice who tumbles down a rabbit hole into a nonsensical world of anthropomorphic creatures, absurd logic, and wordplay. Inspired particularly by ten-year-old Alice Pleasance Liddell, Dodgson later expanded the oral story into a manuscript titled Alice's Adventures Under Ground, which he refined and published in 1865 as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with iconic illustrations by John Tenniel. Initially met with mixed reviews, the book quickly gained enduring popularity for its whimsical satire of Victorian society, playful exploration of identity and growing up, and groundbreaking use of nonsense literature, eventually becoming one of the most influential and widely translated works in English children's literature, spawning a sequel (Through the Looking-Glass in 1871) and countless adaptations across media.

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King Lear is one of William Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, believed to have been written between 1605 and 1606 and first performed shortly thereafter. Drawing from the ancient legend of Leir of Britain—a mythical pre-Roman king found in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136)—Shakespeare transforms the story into a profound exploration of familial betrayal, ingratitude, madness, and the fragility of human nature. The play follows the aging King Lear as he impulsively divides his kingdom among his three daughters based on their flattery, disowning the honest Cordelia and unleashing a chain of deception, cruelty, and civil war involving parallel plots of filial treachery in the households of Lear and his nobleman Gloucester. Renowned for its raw emotional power, stormy imagery, and philosophical depth, King Lear probes themes of authority, justice, sight (both literal and metaphorical), and redemption amid suffering, cementing its place as one of the most harrowing and influential works in English literature.

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