Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?

The poetry of Rabbie (Robert) Burns.

He led a life of grind, hustle and debauchery, and his poetry is remarkable for its thematic breadth- Burns talks of love, solidarity, nationalism, drinking and everything else that concerns an intelligent young man of ambition and low birth.

Its sort of a mix of Trainspotting (the book) and rap set 250 years ago in Scotland.

The Phantom Rickshaw and other Eerie Tales, Rudyard Kipling. This is the one that includes "The Man Who Would be King" that's a fairly well known film with Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

His other short story books, such as The Jungle Book and Just So Stories - so much better than the Disney.

The Time Machine and other Stories, H G Wells.

As a kid I really enjoyed the Winnetou stories by Karl May

Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Sloacum.

My favourite fiction book, well worth the read, and the author was hugely influential on a lot of later well known-English writers including, Lewis Carroll, and according to Wikipedia, a major influence on "W. H. Auden, J. M. Barrie, Lord Dunsany, Hope Mirrlees, Robert E. Howard, L. Frank Baum, T.H. White, Lloyd Alexander, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, E. Nesbit, Peter S. Beagle, Neil Gaiman and Madeleine L'Engle."