First serialized in "The Century Magazine" in 1885 and 1886, Henry James's "The Bostonians" is the story of Basil Ransom and his cousin Olive Chancellor and their competition for the allegiance and affection of the talented and beautiful Verena Tarrant. Basil, a conservative lawyer and Civil War veteran, has gone to Boston to visit his cousin Olive, an outspoken and independent feminist who is very active in the cause. Olive takes her cousin to hear...

At once endlessly facetious and highly serious, Sterne's great comic novel contains some of the best-known and best-loved characters in English literature--including Uncle Toby, Corporal Trim, Parson Yorick, and Dr. Slop--and boasts one of the most innovative and whimsical narrative styles in all literature. This revised edition of Sterne's extraordinary novel retains the text based on the first editions of the original nine volumes (with Sterne's...

Read the classic that helped cement Daniel Defoe's literary legacy.The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll FlandersThe definitive edition • Features an uplifting extended biography of the life and experiences of Daniel Defoe • Remastered for premium quality print and easy reading The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders is a book by Daniel Dafoe, written in 1722. This book tells the thrilling story of Flanders and his...

Cousin Bette (1846) is a novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Part of Balzac's La Comédie humaine sequence, the novel is recognized as being the author's last fully-realized work, and features several characters who appear elsewhere throughout his legendary series. It has inspired several film and television adaptations, as well as earned comparisons to Shakespeare's Othello and Tolstoy's War and Peace. The novel focuses on the life and exploits...

First published serially between January and December of 1878 in the sensationalistic monthly London magazine "Belgravia", Thomas Hardy's "The Return of the Native" is the author's sixth published novel. Set in Egdon Heath, an area of Thomas Hardy's fictionalized Wessex known for the thorny evergreen shrubs, called furze or gorse, which are cut there by its residents for fuel. When the story begins, on Guy Fawkes Night, we find Diggory Venn, a merchant...

The Professor, by Charlotte Brontë, is a remarkable exploration of ambition, identity, and resilience, themes that resonate deeply in today's society. Set in the 19th century, the novel follows William Crimsworth, an Englishman who rejects a life of servitude to his wealthy relatives and seeks independence and success on his own terms. William's journey takes him to Belgium, where he becomes a teacher and grapples with cultural displacement, professional...

Sense and Sensibility is a captivating tale that unfolds amidst the picturesque landscapes of early 19th-century England. At its core, the story revolves around the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, whose lives take unexpected turns as they navigate the complexities of love, societal expectations, and personal resilience. Upon the death of their father, the Dashwood sisters find themselves thrust into a world of financial uncertainty, as the...

"Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in the real world, so when she takes on a job in a convenience store while at university, they are delighted for her. For her part, in the convenience store she finds a predictable world mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the workers should act and what they should say, and she copies her coworkers' style of dress and speech...

First published in two volumes in French in 1920 and 1921, "The Guermantes Way", is the third book in the "In Search of Lost Time" series by French author Marcel Proust. The series centers around the narrator's memories of his childhood through adulthood in late nineteenth and early twentieth century upper class French society. The seven volumes of the series explore the themes of time, memory, sexuality, and death, and are widely regarded as one...

"Don Quixote" is a novel written by Miguel de Cervantes and published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615. It is one of the most famous works in world literature. The novel tells the adventures of a nobleman named Alonso Quichano, who becomes obsessed with chivalry tales and decides to become a knight-errant under the name Don Quixote. With his squire, Sancho Panza, Don Quixote sets out on a quest for heroic adventures to defend the oppressed and restore...