When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first...

This Jane Austen tale deals with money and marriage, and how strongly they affect each other. Shy, fragile, Fanny Price is the consummate "poor relation." Sent to live with her wealthy uncle Thomas, she clashes with his spoiled, selfish daughters and falls in love with his son. Their lives are further complicated by the arrival of a pair of witty, sophisticated Londoners whose flair for flirtation collides with the quiet, conservative ways of Mansfield...

Presents a shortened version of the journal kept by Charles Darwin while on an 1831 voyage to chart the coasts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, in which he recorded his observations about geology, natural history, and other topics.

"Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of the Château d’If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and becomes determined not only to escape but to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. A huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s, Dumas was inspired by a real-life...

A monumental new translation--the first in more than twenty years--of Russia's greatest family drama, rendered with all the passion, humor, and soul of the original. Dostoevsky's final, greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov, paints a complex and richly detailed portrait of a family tormented by its extraordinarily cruel patriarch, Fyodor Pavlovich, whose callous decisions slowly decimate the lives of his sons--the eponymous brothers Karamazov--and...

"A TIMELESS CLASSIC! Emma Woodhouse believes herself to be an excellent matchmaker, though she herself does not plan on marrying. But as she meddles in the relationships of others, she causes confusion and misunderstandings throughout the village, and she just may be overlooking a true love of her own." -- Amazon.com.

One of the most harrowing novels ever written, this vivid depiction of the meatpacking industry in Chicago not only aroused the indignation of the public but was instrumental in bringing about the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act.

"Louisa May Alcott's beloved children's novel Little Women is one of the classics of American literature. The novel follows the lives of the March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, and details their passage from childhood to womanhood during the years of the American Civil War. The story was loosely based on Alcott and her sisters' own experiences of growing up in Concord, Massachusetts. The book became an immediate roaring success when it was published...

Northanger Abbey is both a perfectly aimed literary parody and a withering satire of the commercial aspects of marriage among the English gentry at the turn of the nineteenth century. But most of all, it is the story of the initiation into life of its naïve but sweetly appealing heroine, Catherine Morland, a willing victim of the contemporary craze for Gothic literature who is determined to see herself as the heroine of a dark and thrilling romance....

Persuasion is the story of Anne and Captain Wentworth and their long awaited union. Anne Elliot is a young woman of perfect breeding and unwavering integrity. Austen wrote of her, "She is almost too good for me." The world of country gentry in Regency England serves as a setting while portraying the many aspects of proper society - its failings and humor.