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Theme: mortality

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Dracula / Life and Death

Author: Bram Stoker (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, decay, resurrection, the macabre, the supernatural  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-02-02

Into two of these I went, but saw nothing except fragments of old coffins and piles of dust; in the third, however, I made a discovery. There, in one ...
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Frankenstein / Unexpected Encounter

Author: Mary Shelley (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, identity, resurrection, mystery, nature  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-31

Their first supposition was that it was the corpse of some person who had been drowned and was thrown on shore by the waves, but on examination they f...
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Frankenstein / Revenge and Survival

Author: Mary Shelley (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, revenge, conflict, despair, resilience  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-24

How I have lived I hardly know; many times have I stretched my failing limbs upon the sandy plain and prayed for death. But revenge kept me alive; I d...
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Dracula / Resting Place

Author: Bram Stoker (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, urban vs rural, nostalgia, finality, introspection  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-23

Lucy lies in the tomb of her kin, a lordly death-house in a lonely churchyard, away from teeming London; where the air is fresh, and the sun rises ove...
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Dracula / Loss and Mourning

Author: Bram Stoker (Gutenberg)  | Themes: grief, family, vulnerability, mortality, solace  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-13

The wind rushed in through the broken window, and the door slammed to. They lifted off the body of my dear mother, and laid her, covered up with a she...
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Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea / Existential Journey

Author: Jules Verne (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, exploration, entropy, human progress, nature's fate  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-05

Can it give heat to a dead body?” “Not that I know of.” “Well, my friend, this earth will one day be that cold corpse; it will become uninhabitable an...
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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes / Descent into Chaos

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mystery, mortality, dread, urgency, vulnerability  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-04

At first I thought that she had not recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out in a voice which I shall never forget, ‘Oh, my God...
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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes / Illness and Inquiry

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, duty, social hierarchy, emotional detachment  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-03

“There is serious news this morning,” Lestrade observed. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is despaired of.” “An elderly man, I presume?” s...
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Dracula / Science and Belief

Author: Bram Stoker (Gutenberg)  | Themes: knowledge versus ignorance, mortality, the supernatural, human understanding, skepticism  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-03

Then, friend John, am I to take it that you simply accept fact, and are satisfied to let from premise to conclusion be a blank? Then tell me--for I am...
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Dracula / Confronting the Unknown

Author: Bram Stoker (Gutenberg)  | Themes: fear, confrontation, time, mortality, determination  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-03

Do not fear any of us, we are all devoted to this cause, and to-day shall see the end. The time is coming for action; to-day this Vampire is limit to ...
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Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea / Wreckage and Despair

Author: Jules Verne (Gutenberg)  | Themes: loss, sacrifice, mortality, struggle, nature  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2026-01-03

The keel seemed to be in good order, and it had been wrecked at most some few hours. Three stumps of masts, broken off about two feet above the bridge...
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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes / Threshold of Escape

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle (Gutenberg)  | Themes: survival, mortality, redemption, transformation  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-12-17

For an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself through, and lay half-fai...
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Gulliver's Travels / Cultural Curiosities

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: immortality, cultural exchange, travel, personal experience, curiosity  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-12-16

I thought this account of the _struldbrugs_ might be some entertainment to the reader, because it seems to be a little out of the common way; at least...
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The War of the Worlds / Urban Conflict

Author: H.G. Wells (Gutenberg)  | Themes: violence, mortality, trauma, urban decay  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-12-13

Going on towards Brompton, the streets were quiet again. Here I came once more upon the black powder in the streets and upon dead bodies. I saw altoge...
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The War of the Worlds / Confronting Death

Author: H.G. Wells (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, violence, revelation, vulnerability, fate  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-12-10

When it came, I saw that he was a sturdy man, cheaply but not shabbily dressed; his head was bent under his body, and he lay crumpled up close to the ...
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Dracula / Dreadful Transformation

Author: Bram Stoker (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, decay, horror, fear, the supernatural  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-12-09

If I was shocked when I saw her yesterday, I was horrified when I saw her to-day. She was ghastly, chalkily pale; the red seemed to have gone even fro...
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Gulliver's Travels / Existence and Indifference

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, human nature, satirical critique, agricultural practices, emotional detachment  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-12-09

With tools made of these flints, they likewise cut their hay, and reap their oats, which there grow naturally in several fields; the _Yahoos_ draw hom...
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Dracula / Desire and Duty

Author: Bram Stoker (Gutenberg)  | Themes: temptation, mortality, sacrifice, supernatural  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-12-02

I dared not pause to look on her as I had on her sister, lest once more I should begin to be enthrall; but I go on searching until, presently, I find ...
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The War of the Worlds / Concealment and Urgency

Author: H.G. Wells (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, secrecy, vulnerability, societal norms, fragility  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-11-22

My brother pushed the pony and chaise back into the hedge, and the man drove by and stopped at the turn of the way. It was a carriage, with a pole for...
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Dracula / Consciousness and Death

Author: Bram Stoker (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, grief, family bonds, love, sacrifice  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-11-20

It will be much difference, mark me, whether she dies conscious or in her sleep. Wake that poor boy, and let him come and see the last; he trusts us, ...
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Dracula / Cliffs and Shadows

Author: Bram Stoker (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, isolation, regional dialect, duty, darkness  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-11-19

Making straight for the steep cliff, where the churchyard hangs over the laneway to the East Pier so steeply that some of the flat tombstones--“thruff...
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Gulliver's Travels / Struldbrug Society

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, aging, societal critique, dignity, existential dread  | Source: Project Gutenberg  | Published: 2025-11-16

“If a _struldbrug_ happen to marry one of his own kind, the marriage is dissolved of course, by the courtesy of the kingdom, as soon as the younger of...