Set in an industrial city in Northern England during the Victorian era, Thomas Gradgrind, a wealthy and retired man, devotes his life to the rationalist philosophy, and raises his children, Louisa and Tom, to never engage in any imaginative activity. The two grow up feeling confused, like something is missing in their lives, yet are unable figure out what exactly that is and affected differently by their upbringing. Louisa struggles to feel joy, and...

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY has more twists to its plot than should be allowed, and is far too complex for reconstruction here. Suffice it to say that in Elinor and Marianne Dashwood we are presented with contrasting qualities of character, the one practical and conventional, the other emotional and sentimental. The outcome turns on these young women mastering their primary characteristics and finding true happiness when in the one sense gives way to sensibility,...

A TIMELESS MASTERPIECE FOR THE GENERATIONS This timeless masterpiece, teeming with colorful characters, unexpected plot twists, and Dickens' vivid rendering of the vast tapestry of mid-Victorian England, Great Expectations is considered by many to be Dickens' finest novel. It continues to enthrall new generations of readers Dickens tells the story of humble, orphaned Philip Pirrip (Pip), the book's narrator, who is taken under the wing of the reclusive,...

Unique Elements  • About the Author • Historical Context • Jane Austen's WITTY SATIRE of Gothic novels at the turn of the 19th century. NORTHANGER ABBEY, written by BRITISH author JANE AUSTEN, is a coming-of-age novel with a satirical turn first published in 1817, posthumously, in the UNITED KINGDOM. An all-time classic novel, the first completed by the pen of beloved authoress, .Jane Austen, follows the journey of Catherine...

Sara Crewe, young daughter of a wealthy diamond merchant, struggles to keep her dignity after her father loses his fortune and the other girls at Miss Minchin's school begin to treat her differently.

"A stranger with a troubled past, Silas Marner is new to the town of Raveloe. He cares only for money, which he make by weaving cloth. Totally alone, shunned by everyone in town, Silas's only comfort is his pile of gold. But when the gold is stolen. Silas's world turns upside down. And little does he know that the crime is only one in a chain of events that will change is life forever."

A man dwelling in darkness...

Lord Julian Caldicott has come home from the war in ragged health and with a reputation in tatters. All he wants is to recuperate in private without bringing any further scandal on the family's good name. His godmother inveigles him into serving as her escort to a rural house party, whereupon circumstances conspire to prevent Julian from resuming his reclusive existence.

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Spirited Elizabeth Bennet copes with the suit of the snobbish Mr. Darcy while trying to sort out the romantic entanglements of two of her sisters, sweet and beautiful Jane and scatterbrained Lydia.

The last novel written by English author Virginia Woolf, telling of the undercurrents swirling behind the scenes of the annual pageant at Pointz Hall, especially among unhappy Isa Oliver, her handsome husband Giles, and Mrs. Manresa, a guest who is pursuing him.

"Inspector Ian Rutledge's 22nd case revolves around two young women found dead in utterly unexpected places. Scheduled to give evidence in an ongoing investigation, Rutledge can't go to the village of Avebury--where a body has been found stabbed to death in the center of a circle of prehistoric stones--in the place of Chief Inspector Brian Leslie when Rutledge's nemesis, Chief Superintendent Markham, sends Leslie there when he'd been looking forward...