This is one of the early mystery stories, first published in 1860. The hero, Walter Hartright, encounters a solitary, terrified and beautiful woman dressed in white one moonlit night in north London. He feels impelled to solve the mystery of her distress. The intricate plot is peopled with a finely characterized case, from the peevish invalid Mr. Fairlie to the corpulent villain Count Fosco and the enigmatic woman in white herself. [From the back...

War and Peace broadly focuses on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the most well-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves his family behind to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman who intrigues both men. A s Napoleon’s...

In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce. A story-telling competition between a group of pilgrims from all walks of life is the occasion for a series of tales that range from the Knight’s account of courtly love and the ebullient Wife of Bath’s Arthurian legend, to the ribald anecdotes of the Miller and the Cook. Rich...

The novel that set the pattern for the modern Western, Riders of the Purple Sage was first published in 1912, immediately selling over a million copies. In the remote border country of southern Utah, a man is about to be whipped by the Mormons in order to pressure Jane Withersteen into marrying against her will. The punishment is halted by the arrival of the hero, Lassiter, a gunman in black leather, who routs the persecutors and then gradually recounts...

Named by The Modern Library as the best non-fiction book of the 20th century, this autobiography plots Adams' own history against that of the U.S. during his lifetime. As a journalist, historian, and novelist born into a distinguished family that included two past presidents of the United States, Henry Adams was inescapably a part of the American experience. The Education of Henry Adams recounts his own and the country's development from 1838, the...

Newland Archer, a young lawyer in upper-crust 1870's New York, becomes a victim of social expectations and restrictions when he becomes infatuated with his docile fiancee's nonconformist cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska.

Babbitt turns the spotlight on middle America and strips bare the hypocrisy of business practice, social mores, politics, and religious institutions. In his introduction and notes Gordon Hutner explores the novel's historical and literary contexts, and highlights its rich cultural and social references. --from publisher description

The story of the lives and emotional conflicts of two sisters. Ursula falls in love with Birkin, and Gudrun has a tragic affair with Gerald, the son of the local colliery owner.

Abandoned at birth and threatened with a life in service, Defoe's young rebel sets her heart on independence. One fatal seduction and five husbands later, she resorts to a life of self-supporting crime.

Considered by some to be the greatest novel ever written, Anna Karenina is Tolstoy's classic tale of love and adultery set against the backdrop of high society in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A rich and complex masterpiece, the novel charts the disastrous course of a love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer. Tolstoy seamlessly weaves together the lives of dozens of characters, and in doing so captures...