D. H. Lawrence's 1915 novel "The Rainbow" is the story of three generations of the Brangwens family. While tame by today's standards, "The Rainbow", for its frank treatment of human sexuality, caused Lawence to be prosecuted on an obscenity charge in England when it was first published. Through richly personal characterizations, "The Rainbow" deals profoundly with the very nature of human relations as it explores the sexuality of Ursula Brangwen and...

After seven years of marriage, Lady Brenda Last is mildly bored with country life in the Victorian Gothic mansion that is the symbol of her husband's family pride. The affair she drifts into with a wholly worthless young man begins as a diversion fashionable in her class and generation--and becomes a vortex of calamities.

This is a study of three families - the Bertrams, the Crawfords and the Prices - in which Jane Austen uses the unlikely heroine, Fanny Price, to explore the social and moral values by which these families' lives are ordered.

Abandoned by her cruel Aunt Reed, the young and spirited Jane Eyre finds herself living in a spartan, oppressive orphanage. After the death of her best friend, Jane resolves to search out a brighter and more independent life for herself. She finds work as a governess for Adele, the ward of Edward Rochester, enigmatic master of Thornfield Hall. As days pass, Jane feels the intensity of love build between her and Rochester as he reveals all but the...

An anthology of poetry about cats that covers a wide range of periods, cultures, and styles.

"Wuthering Heights tells us a story about the life in northern England between 1771 till 1783. The two main characters are Catherine Earnshaw and Hareton Earnshaw, who fall in love with each other when they are children but become separated when they are grown up. The book tells us also about the life of Heathcliff, a homeless boy who loved Catherine. It's seen as a representative work of the gothic novel genre, despite its troubling subject matter...

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with marginal notes and explanations and full descriptions of each character.

"Considered by many to be Dickens' finest novel, Great Expectations traces the growth of the book's narrator, Philip Pirrip (Pip), from a boy of shallow dreams to a man with depth of character. From its famous dramatic opening on the bleak Kentish marshes, the story abounds with some of Dickens' most memorable characters. Among them are the kindly blacksmith Joe Gargery, the mysterious convict Abel Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Havisham and her beautiful...