A novel of Regency England that centers upon a self-assured young lady who is determined to arrange her life and the lives of those around her into a pattern dictated by her romantic fancy.

A ne'er-do-well exploits his gentle daughter's beauty for social advancement in this masterpiece of tragic fiction. Hardy's 1891 novel defied convention to focus on the rural lower class for a frank treatment of sexuality and religion. Then and now, his sympathetic portrait of a victim of Victorian hypocrisy offers compelling reading.

In Edmond Rostand's beloved 1897 stage play "Cyrano De Bergerac", the titular soldier-poet is hopelessly in love with Roxane, the most beautiful woman in all of Paris. Believing he has no chance with her because of his extremely large nose, he agrees to write love letters on behalf of the slow-witted Christian, who also pines for Roxane. Rostand's work is a fictionalization of the real life novelist Cyrano De Bergerac, who in addition to being a novelist...

Adam Smith's groundbreaking work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, delves into the principles that underpin economic prosperity and the functioning of free markets. Written during the Scottish Enlightenment, this influential text offers a thorough examination of political economy at the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Smith explores key concepts such as the division of labor, the pursuit of self-interest, and...

Serialized first in the Little Review in 1918 and published first in Paris in 1922, although its censorship for obscenity in America and England were not lifted until the mid-1930sIn terms of its story it defies abridgement or explanation except that it all takes place on one day, 16 June 1904, or Bloomsday, which was the anniversary of Joyces first walk with his beloved Nora Barnacle. It (very) loosely follows the episodes of Ulysses from the Odyssey...

This work introduces the reader to some of the finest Russian sort storywriters such as Pushkin, Gogol, Chekhov, Dostoyevsky, Turgenev and many more.

Few have failed to be charmed by the witty and independent spirit of Elizabeth Bennet in Austen’s beloved classic Pride and Prejudice. 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...

When "Lord Jim" first appeared in 1900, many took Joseph Conrad to task for couching an entire novel in the form of an extended conversation - a ripping good yarn, if you like (one critic in The Academy complained that the narrator 'was telling that after-dinner story to his companions for eleven solid hours'). Conrad defended his method, insisting that people really do talk for that long, and listen as well. In fact his chatty masterwork requires...

Depicts the events, thoughts, and actions of a single day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway.

"Like his near-namesake of Greek myth, Stephen Dedalus want to throw off the shackles of family, faith and country that constrain his artistic ambitions. Stephen grows from lisping infancy, expressing a child's-eye view of the world, to uneasy adulthood, and follows his search for identity."-- Provided by publisher.