Rickie Elliot is a student at early 20th century Cambridge, a university that seems like paradise to him, amongst bright if cynical companions, when he receives a visit from two friends, an engaged young woman, Agnes Pembroke, and her elder brother, Herbert. The Pembrokes are Rickie's only friends from home. An orphan who grew up living with cousins, he was sent to a public school where he was shunned and bullied because of his lame foot, an inherited...

From the Publisher: When David Copperfield's widowed mother remarries, David suffers from his stepfather's abuse. At age 8, David is sent away to a harsh school where the principal routinely beats the students. David's circumstances become even worse when he is removed from school and, at age 10, forced to labor from morning to night in a London warehouse. David then decides to take desperate action. He will run away to his great-aunt, who lives in...

From publisher's description: Howards End, a house in the Hertfordshire countryside, becomes the symbol of the conflict of three distinctly social groups. The Wilcoxes are wealthy upper middleclass landowners; the two Schlegel sisters embrace art and freedom; and Leonard Bast, living at the grim edge of poverty and ruin, aspires to a higher level of culture and comfort.

Hard Times (originally Hard Times—For These Times) was published in 1854, and is the shortest novel Charles Dickens ever published. It’s set in Coketown, a fictional mill-town set in the north of England. One of the major themes of the book is the miserable treatment of workers in the mills, and the resistance to their unionization by the mill owners, typified by

...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness that provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from the acclaimed Booker Prize–winning, internationally bestselling author.

One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century
“A...

""Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." It's one of the most famous opening lines in literature, that of Virginia Woolf's beloved masterpiece of time, memory, and the city. In the wake of World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic, Clarissa Dalloway, elegant and vivacious, is preparing for a party and remembering those she once loved. In another part of London, Septimus Smith is suffering from shell- shock and on the brink of madness....

Four English children find a wonderful world of magic through an enchanted wishing ring.

Step into a world of witty banter and romantic misunderstandings in P. G. Wodehouse's classic comedy, "A Damsel in Distress." From the bustling streets of London to the charming manor of Belpher Castle, this delightful tale whisks you away on a rollercoaster of mishaps and merrymaking. Meet George Bevan, a lovelorn American composer, and Lady Maud Marsh, a spirited damsel yearning for adventure. When fate throws them together in a taxi cab, a...

The Rainbow is about three generations of the Brangwen family of Nottinghamshire from the 1840s to the early years of the twentieth century. Within this framework Lawrence s essential concern is with the passionate lives of his characters as he explores the pressures that determine their lives, using a religious symbolism in which the rainbow of the title is his unifying motif. His primary focus is on the individual's struggle to growth and fulfillment...

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...