Includes nine masterful portraits of black and white inhabitants of Louisiana's bayou and urban areas. Written with grace, delicate humor, and a keen understanding of the female psyche.

The disregard of a dying woman's bequest, a girl's attempt to help an impoverished clerk, and the marriage of an idealist and a materialist — all intersect at an estate called Howards End.

Over 400 timeless observations, including "A true friend is one soul in two bodies" (Aristotle), "Friendship is like money, easier made than kept," (Samuel Butler), many more. Great browsing, reference book.

DIV16th-century classic by English ecclesiastic and scholar envisioned a tolerant, patriarchal island kingdom free of private property, violence, bloodshed and vice. Forerunner of many later attempts. /div

Classic story of wasted lives, set against a bleak New England background. Superbly delineated characters in a hauntingly grim tale of thwarted love. Considered by many to be Wharton's masterpiece.

Praised as "the most amazing story ever written," this 1885 story tells the tale in which Allan Quatermain, a gentleman adventurer, is hired to locate a man who has disappeared into the heart of Africa while hunting for the legendary lost diamond mines of King Solomon.

The epic poem depicts the creation, fall, and redemption of humankind and the moral and spiritual dilemmas of God's judgment.

Classic 1845 novel offered a powerful indictment of dehumanizing effects of industrialization. Thomas Gradgrind raises his children in strict observance of practicality, only to see them fall into lives of desperation and despair.

A stranger arrives in a Russian backwater community with a bizarre proposition for the local landowners: cash for their "dead souls," the serfs who have died in their service. A comic masterpiece.

Splendid early novel (1918) evokes the Nebraska prairie life of the author's childhood, and touchingly commemorates the spirit and courage of the immigrant pioneers who settled the land.