"Thomas Gradgrind is the guiding luminary of the Coketown school, stern proponent of the Philosophy of Fact, whose ill-conceived idealism blinds him to the essential humanity of those around, with calamitous results. His daughter Louisa becomes trapped in a loveless marriage and falls prey to an idle seducer, and her brother Tom is ruined thanks to their father's pet theories. Meanwhile Sleary's circus offers a vision of escape and entertainment,...

Scott's young hero Francis Osbaldistone is plunged into the intrigue and adventure of the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion when he is falsely accused of highway robbery on his journey to the North of England. In his fight for both love and justice he must outwit his villainous cousin, Rashleigh, and travel to Scotland--a land of breathtaking beauty and dark foreboding--where his salvation can only be obtained with the help of the greatest outlaw of all, Robert...

From the moment of his adoption by the Earnshaws, the foundling boy Heathcliff devotes himself to their young daughter Catherine. Growing up together, the two share a love that blossoms into romance, until Catherine's hurtful betrayal. But Heathcliff's emotions know no bounds and acknowledge no limits--not even death. Determined to secure the family estate of Wuthering Heights as his own, the tyrannical Heathcliff vents his bitterness on his and Catherine's...

This novel tells a story of crossed inheritance. One Ralph Newton, a handsome ne'er-do-well, has the expectation of the family property. His cousin (also Ralph Newton) is a wholly worthy fellow, but a bastard and may not by law inherit what his father desperately wants to bequeath him. This situation provides Trollope with the occasion for a profound analysis of moral worth and legal right. It is a novel of Trollope's maturity, featuring the darker...

Lizzie Eustace is young, beautiful, and widowed. Her determination to hold on to the Eustace family's diamond necklace in the face of legal harassment by her brother-in-law's solicitor entangles her in a series of crimes - apparent and real - and contrived love-affairs.

A translation of Thucydide's history of the wars between Athens and Sparta is critically introduced.

A brash American expatriate confronts the profound differences between the Old and New Worlds in this classic tale. Soon after wealthy businessman Christopher Newman decides to leave America for a life of leisure in Europe, he becomes acquainted with Claire de Cintré, a beautiful widow whose family-the Bellegardes-are mainstays of the French aristocracy. Determined to win Claire's affection, Newman befriends her brother, Valentin, and pursues his...

The Age of Reason follows in the tradition of eighteenth-century British deism, and challenges institutionalized religion and the legitimacy of the Bible. The Age of Reason presents common deistic arguments, highlighting what Paine saw as corruption of the Christian Church and criticizing its efforts to acquire political power.

An enduring tale of love, desire, and the universal longing both to leave one's home and to return to it, this novel is one of Hardy's greatest and most affecting works. Hardy's passionately drawn characters and his vivid rendering of their valiant but ultimately ineffective struggle in destiny's web result in a masterpiece of melancholy brilliance.