"Les tribulations d'un chinois en Chine" by Jules Verne is a novel published in 1879. Kin-Fo, a wealthy young Chinese man indifferent to life, believes himself ruined and asks his philosopher friend Wang to kill him within a set timeframe, hoping to finally feel emotion through fear of death. When Kin-Fo discovers he isn't ruined after all, Wang has vanished. Now desperately wanting to live, Kin-Fo must chase Wang across China to cancel his own death sentence. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
These books are free to read. Each is in the public domain in the United States; check your own country's rules before you copy or share one.
