Abandoned child Tom is raised by the rich and benevolent squire Mr. Allworthy, much to the chagrin of Allworthy's mean-natured nephew Blifil, and develops into a good-natured rake. But Tom's inability to resist a pretty face lands him in hot water when he impregnates Blifil's betrothed. When the lovely Sophia runs away to London, Tom pursues, embarking upon a series of riotous and amorous adventures. However, further frouble and the revelation of...

The Mill on the Floss follows the life of Maggie Tulliver, a young girl growing up in a rural English town. Maggie is a passionate and intelligent girl who struggles to reconcile her desires with the expectations of her family, friends, and society. She finds solace in her relationship with her brother Tom and her childhood friend Philip Wakem. The novel follows her journey from childhood to adulthood as she navigates her family's financial struggles...

This novel is about the evil influence of a woman in Egson Heath, a gloomy moor in southern England. Clym Yeobright, tired of Paris city life, returns to open a school on Egdon Heath, and in spite of his mother's opposition marries Eustacia. Mrs. Yeobright walks over to her son's cottage, but Eustacia, entertaining her lover Wildeve, does not answer the door. Mrs. Yeobright is found by Clym, unconscious and dying of an adder bite. Clym blames Eustacia,...

Meet the charming and cunning Becky Sharp, insinuating upward through the social ranks with the fervor of Napoleon plowing through Europe, and the subtlety of a butterfly. More so than any other picaresque character, Becky Sharp's name has become synonymous with a gold-digging, amoral, opportunistic social charmer who is also shrewd and strong-a portrait of a complex woman of her time. She is the anti-heroine you love to hate, and yet at the same...

"A new translation of Dostoevsky's epic masterpiece, Crime and Punishment (1866). The impoverished student Raskolnikov decides to free himself from debt by killing an old moneylender, an act he sees as elevating himself above conventional morality. Like Napoleon he will assert his will and his crime will be justified by its elimination of "vermin" for the sake of the greater good. But Raskolnikov is torn apart by fear, guilt, and a growing conscience...

"A swashbuckling epic of chivalry, honor, and derring-do, it is set in France during the 1620s and richly populated with romantic heroes, unattainable heroines, kings, queens, cavaliers, and criminals in a whirl of adventure, espionage, conspiracy, murder, vengeance, love, scandal, and suspense. Dumas transforms major and minor historical figures into larger-than-life characters: the brave d'Artagnan, an impetuous young man in pursuit of glory; the...

A collection of the classic fables includes Sour Grapes, Slow but Sure, Town Mouse and Country Mouse, and more than two hundred others. Many of these tales are so well known they have given us phrases we use every day, like dog in the manger or sour grapes, but even the rarer ones seem familiar, because their simple morals are based on universal truths. From the tortoise and the hare or the boy who cried wolf to the treacherous partridge or big and...

Abraham Lincoln read it with approval, but Emily Dickinson described its bold language and themes as "disgraceful." Ralph Waldo Emerson found it "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet produced." Published at the author's expense on July 4, 1855, Leaves of Grass inaugurated a new voice and style into American letters and gave expression to an optimistic, bombastic vision that took the nation as its subject. Unlike many...

Towering classic of dystopian satire, BRAVE NEW WORLD is a brilliant and terrifying vision of a soulless society--and of one man who discovers the human costs of mindless conformity. Hundreds of years in the future, the World Controllers have created an ideal civilization. Its members, shaped by genetic engineering and behavioral conditioning, are productive and content in roles they have been assigned at conception. Government-sanctioned drugs and...

Drawing upon everyday incidents, common situations, and rural imagery, Robert Frost fashioned poetry of great lyrical beauty and potent symbolism. His language is simple, clear, and colloquial, yet dense with meaning and wider significance. This brilliant collection features some of Frost's greatest works, including "The Road Not Taken," "Asking for Roses," "The Death of the Hired Man," "In the Home Stretch," "Into My Own," "Meeting and Passing,"...