Eloise Fairfax

The fantastic story of the semimythical folk hero who has delighted generations of readers all over the world
Published anonymously in 1785, The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen defies logic, the laws of physics, and even rational thought.
 
Karl Friedrich von Munchausen, also known as the Baron of Lies, was a retired army captain famed for his outlandish accounts of his war and hunting exploits. In this...

First published in 1751, "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals" by David Hume, the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, was the enquiry subsequent to his 1748 work "Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" and is often referred to as "the second Enquiry". In Hume's own opinion it was the very best of all his writings. In "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals", Hume expands upon his ideas of morality first discussed in his earlier...

British novelist, short story writer, and poet of the naturalist movement. He captured the epoch just before the railways and the industrial revolution changed the English countryside. His works are pessimistic and bitterly ironic, and his writing is rough but capable of immense power. His first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, finished by 1867, failed to find a publisher and Hardy destroyed the manuscript. Only parts of the novel remain. He was...

"The Mysterious Stranger, published posthumously in 1916, belies the popular image of the affable American humorist. In this antireligious tale, Twain denies the existence of a benign Providence, a soul, an afterlife, and even reality itself."--Back cover.

The Professor was the first novel that Charlotte Brontë completed. Rejected by the publisher who took on the work of her sisters in 1846—Anne's Agnes Grey and Emily's Wuthering Heights—it remained unpublished until 1857, two years after Charlotte Brontë's death. Like Villette (1853), The Professor is based on her experiences as a language student in Brussels in 1842. Told from the point of view of William Crimsworth, the only male narrator...

"Hospital Sketches" by Louisa May Alcott stands as a poignant testament to the human spirit amidst the turmoil of the American Civil War. This slim yet powerful volume encapsulates Alcott's firsthand experiences as a nurse, weaving together a collection of vivid narratives that offer an unfiltered glimpse into the stark realities of wartime hospitals and the resilient souls who inhabited them. In this autobiographical work, Alcott paints a vivid...

Edith Wharton's Bunner Sisters takes place in New York, 1916, where hard times have fallen upon two sisters who run a shabby little dressmaker's shop adjacent to their dwelling.
The younger sister, Ann Eliza, has encountered a sickly, but educated clockmaker who sells her a clock. At first, knowledge of his personality and previous lifestyle are unknown to the sisters, but they slowly befriend the lonely man and his visits to the home are frequent...

She and Allan is one of H. Rider Haggard's most exciting novels of adventure and romance. In bringing together two of his most compelling characters, Allan Quatermain, the quirky English Big-Game hunter and explorer, and the seductive and iconic supernatural African Queen Ayesha, or popularly known as "she-who-must-be-obeyed," Haggard has created one of the most exciting stories in his body of work. When Allan Quatermain seeks out the Zulu witch-doctor...

Susy Branch and Nick Lansing, two members of New York high society who are financially strapped, decide to get married so that they can remain in the social circles to which they have become accustomed, planning to use their wedding gifts to better position one another's opportunity to remarry for money.

The Enchanted Castle (1907) is a children's fantasy novel by English writer Edith Nesbit. Using elements of magic and mystery familiar to readers of her beloved Bastable and Psammead Trilogies, Nesbit crafts a tale of wonder and adventure for children and adults alike. While on a school holiday, children Jerry, Jimmy, and Kathy explore the open landscape of rural southwestern England. One day, they discover an immense country estate, designed like...