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In Washington Square (1880), Henry James reminisces about the New York he had known thirty years before as he tells the story of Catherine Sloper and her fortune-seeking suitor Morris Townsend. This perceptively drawn human drama is James' most accessible work and an enduring literary triumph. The plot of Washington Square has the simplicity of old-fashioned melodrama: a plain-looking, good-hearted young woman, the only child of a rich widower, is...
2) Babbitt
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"Zenith is the finest example of American life and prosperity to be found anywhere." Zenith is the Midwestern city where George F. Babbitt lives and works. A successful real estate agent, his business provides all the material trappings and comfort he thinks he ought to have. He is a member of all the right clubs, and unquestioningly shares the same aspirations and ideas as his friends and fellow Boosters. Yet even complacent, conformist Babbitt dreams...
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Jack London's 1904 novel "The Sea Wolf" is the story of Humphrey van Weyden, an effete gentleman who finds himself shipwrecked when the San Francisco ferry his is aboard collides with another ship in the fog. Adrift in the bay, Humphrey is rescued by Wolf Larsen, the brutish captain of a seal-hunting schooner, the "Ghost". However his relief in being saved is short-lived, for he is soon put to work, essentially enslaved as a cabin boy forced to do...
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Colonel Pyncheon does well in denouncing Old Matthew: he founds a New England dynasty and builds a remarkable mansion; but on its opening day he is found dead, slaked in his own blood. By 1840, that dynasty is almost spent; amid the dust and decay of the Seven Gables, Clifford and Hepzibah believe in their own continued nobility as much as they believe in the mysterious curse still tracking the Pyncheons. After 30 years in prison for a murder he did...
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While going through the possessions of a deceased guest who owed them money, the mistress of the inn and her son, Jim Hawkins, find a treasure map that leads to a pirate fortune as well as great danger. Jim sets out for Treasure Island with honest Captain Smollett, heroic Dr. Livesey, and obtuse Squire Trelawney, encountering Long John Silver and his band of pirates along the way. The unexpected and complex relationship that develops between Silver...
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Harvey Cheyne was fifteen years old, the son of an American business tycoon and spoiled by his parents. But then he was washed overboard from a transatlantic steamship and rescued by fishermen, and neither Harvey, nor his affluence could persuade them to take him ashore. However, the Captain of the WE'RE HERE, Disko Troop, took him on as a member of the crew until they returned to port. Harvey befriended the captain's son, Dan, with whom he had many...
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Great excitement and awe greeted its publication in 1873, and today Around the World in Eighty Days remains Jules Verne's most successful novel. A daring wager by the eccentric and mysterious Englishman Phileas Fogg that he can circle the globe in just eighty days initiates this marvelous travelogue and exciting suspense story. Together with his manservant, Passepartout, Fogg makes a breathless world tour, overcoming wild misadventures and finding...
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Virginia Woolf said of Emily Brontë that her writing could : "make the wind blow and the thunder roar," and so it does in Wuthering Heights. Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and the windswept moors that are the setting of their mythic love are as immediately stirring to the reader of today as they have been for every generation of readers since the novel was first published in 1847. With an introduction by Katherine Frank.
9) Ulysses
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Regarded today as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, Ulysses entered the world in a firestorm of controversy. Denounced as obscure, unintelligible, nonsensical, and obscene, it was first published in Paris in 1922 and remained banned in the United States until 1933. Among the innovations that shocked and outraged critics were Joyce's revolutionary use of the interior monologue (better known as "stream of consciousness") and other...
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Ship's surgeon Lemuel Gulliver is stranded on the island of Lilliput after his boat founders. In the first of many weird and wonderful adventures he meets a diminutive people prepared to wage war over the correct way to crack an egg. The castaway also visits a land full of giants, with wasps the size of partridges; a floating island where the best brains are engaged in trying to extract sunshine from cucumbers; and a land of civilized, rational-minded...
11) Jane Eyre
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Jane Eyre ranks as one of the greatest and most perennially popular works of English fiction. Although the poor but plucky heroine is outwardly of plain appearance, she possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage. She is forced to battle against the exigencies of a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. All of which circumscribe her life and position when she becomes governess to the daughter of the mysterious,...
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"A swashbuckling epic of chivalry, honor, and derring-do, it is set in France during the 1620s and richly populated with romantic heroes, unattainable heroines, kings, queens, cavaliers, and criminals in a whirl of adventure, espionage, conspiracy, murder, vengeance, love, scandal, and suspense. Dumas transforms major and minor historical figures into larger-than-life characters: the brave d'Artagnan, an impetuous young man in pursuit of glory; the...
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Tells the story of Samuel Pickwick, a good-hearted old gentleman and president of the Pickwick Club. With three other members of the club, Pickwick travels around the English countryside, where he becomes caught up in a serious of comic adventures, from romantic to legal misunderstandings.
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The adventures of a boy and a runaway slave as they travel down the Mississippi River on a raft. Originally intended as a sequel to his immensely popular Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn stands on its own as one of America's most important and beloved literary classics. For generations, young and old alike have delighted in the unforgettable adventures of runaways Huck Finn and Jim, a slave. In vivid, often gripping...
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Meet the charming and cunning Becky Sharp, insinuating upward through the social ranks with the fervor of Napoleon plowing through Europe, and the subtlety of a butterfly. More so than any other picaresque character, Becky Sharp's name has become synonymous with a gold-digging, amoral, opportunistic social charmer who is also shrewd and strong-a portrait of a complex woman of her time. She is the anti-heroine you love to hate, and yet at the same...
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The Oxford School Shakespeare has become the preferred introduction to the literary legacy of the greatest playwright in the English language. This exclusive collection of the Bard's best works has been designed specifically for readers new to Shakespeare's rich literary legacy. Each play is presented complete and unabridged. Every book is well illustrated, and starts with a commentary and character summary, Scene synopses and character summaries...
17) Romeo and Juliet
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Has any other love story become so enmeshed in our culture as the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet? In fair Verona the families of Montague and Capulet are locked in a long-standing, bitter blood feud when young Romeo Montague slips into a masquerade party at the Capulet's. During the dance he glimpses Juliet, the daughter of the house, and is struck by love at first sight. She returns his passion and they promise each other everlasting love notwithstanding...
18) Roughing it
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Originally published over one hundred years ago, "Roughing It" tells the (almost) true story of Mark Twain's rollicking adventures across the United States. A hilarious account of how the author tried finding wealth in the rocks of Nevada, it was published before his most famous works and shows why he would grow to become one of the most beloved American writers of all time. The story follows many of Twain's early adventures, including a visit to...