Set against the background of political upheaval in France following the rule of Napoleon I, the novel tells the story of the peasant Jean Valjean, a convict struggling to escape his past and on the run, hunted by Inspector Javert, a police agent with a ruthless conscience. Their world encompasses a broad section of the outcasts, rejects and rebels of early 19th-century French society, as events take in a tour of the city's sewers, the battle of Waterloo...

"The first-person narrative relates the coming-of-age of Pip (Philip Pirrip). Reared in the marshes of Kent by his disagreeable sister and her sweet-natured husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery, the young Pip one day helps a convict to escape. Later he is sent to live with Miss Havisham, a woman driven half-mad years earlier by her lover's departure on their wedding day....When an anonymous benefactor makes it possible for Pip to go to London for an...

The Last of the Mohicans is the second and most popular of James Fenimore Cooper's five Leatherstocking Tales. Set in 1757 during the fierce French and Indian wars, Cooper's classic novel of adventure follows an adroit scout and his companion as they weave through the lush and spectacular wilderness of upstate New York, fighting to save the beautiful daughters of a fort commander from a treacherous Huron renegade. With its death-defying chases and...

Oliver Twist is born in the harsh confines of a workhouse, his mother expiring in childbirth, his father unknown. After enduring years of brutal treatment, Oliver runs away to London, where he falls in with a band of child pickpockets led by the villainous Fagin. His foray into a life of crime soon lands him into the arms of the law, when Oliver's fortunes finally appear to turn as the robbery victim becomes his benefactor. But Fagin isn't about to...

Alice falls down a rabbit hole and discovers a world of nonsensical and amusing characters. She has a series of adventures as she daringly follows the White Rabbit. She meets the grinning Cheshire Cat and has tea with the Mad Hatter. She avoids losing her head and then plays croquet using a flamingo as a mallet. Finally, the ugly duchess, the quarrelsome queen and the hookah-smoking caterpillar all make Alice's day one she will never forget.

Man can move easily enough in the three dimensions of space - why not the fourth: Time? An intriguing after-dinner conversation takes an unexpected turn when the host produces a small machine, which promptly disappears into thin air. It has been sent into the future, he says. Or maybe the past. As his skeptical guests try to fathom what they have seen, the host unveils a full-size machine, nearing completion. At a similar gathering one week later...

Relates episodes in seven-year-old Julian's life which include getting into trouble with his younger brother Huey, planting a garden, what he did to try to grow taller, losing a tooth, and finding a new friend.

When his best friend, Gloria, receives a new bike, seven-year-old Julian spends the summer avoiding her because of his fear of bikes.

When Julian, his little brother Huey, and their friend Gloria decide to be "crime busters," they find themselves in one adventure after another.

When a young pioneer girl smuggles a cat aboard the wagon train taking her family from Missouri to Oregon, it turns out to be the best thing she could have done.