Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of an impoverished family, must navigate a world of desire and romance once she meets Alec d'Urberville. The son of a rich widow, he takes a fancy to her and gets her a position as the poultry keeper on his family's estate. However, her good fortune is soon complicated by Alec's libertine ways, and Tess returns home shamed. Once recovered, she separates herself from the gossip by finding work at a dairy farm outside...

Step into the charming world of "Cranford" by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. This delightful novel invites you to a quaint English village, where the lives of its eccentric and endearing inhabitants are interwoven in a tapestry of humor, heartwarming moments, and social observations. Set in the early 19th century, the narrative unfolds through the eyes of Mary Smith, an outsider welcomed into the close-knit community. As she navigates the idiosyncrasies...

Twenty years earlier a white girl was found hanging from a bridge in a small town in New Mexico. The story arouses the curiosity of Will Sawyer, a new resident, and he decides to find out why. A study of curiosity, why some people have it and others don't.

Thus begins Elizabeth von Arnim's delightful companion to the famous Elizabeth and Her German Garden, a witty, lyrical account of a rejuvenating summer. Descriptions of magnificent larkspurs and burning nasturtiums give way to those of cooling forest walks - and of clambering up the mud bank when the miller is not in view. Rainy days prompt a little philanthropy, until the sun returns Elizabeth to the refuge of her beloved plants. Yet the months are...

The latest addition to the Fairacre series introduces the inimitable Mrs. Pringle, whose stormy personality dominates the village where so many adventures unfold.

In a rural Kentucky river town, "Old Jack" Beechum, a retired farmer, sees his life again through the shades of one burnished day in September 1952. Bringing the earthiness of America's past to mind, The Memory of Old Jack conveys the truth and integrity of the land and the people who live from it. Through the eyes of one man can be seen the values Americans strive to recapture as we arrive at the next century. - Back cover.

In the Irish town of Schancarrig, the young carve their initials -- and those of their loves-into the copper beech tree in front of the schoolhouse. But not even Father Gunn, the parish priest, who knows most of what goes on behind Shancarrig's closed doors, or Dr. Jims, the village doctor, who knows all the rest, realizes that not everything in the placid village is what it seems.