What a study in contrasts is the friendship between Henry Jekyll and his boon companion, Edward Hyde. Where Jekyll is a handsome and respected man of science, Hyde is a surly and brutish misanthrope. Nevertheless, Jekyll has allowed Hyde free access to his home and laboratory and, surprisingly, made him the sole beneficiary of his will. Given the closeness of their bond, it seems peculiar that no one has ever seen the two men together in public. And...

George E. Babbitt, a conniving, prosperous real estate man from Zenith, Ohio, revels in his popularity, his success, and, especially, in the material rewards they bring. He bullies his wife, flirts with other women, and patronizes the less successful. But when his best friend is sent to prison for killing his wife, Babbitt's middle-class complacency is shattered, and he rebels, seeking a more "meaningful" life. His small revolt is quickly defeated,...

Alluring, high-spirited American heiress Isabel - "I always want to know the things one shouldn't do ... so as to choose"--Is in Europe to seek her own destiny. But after refusing marriage proposals from both Lord Warburton, a "prince" of the aristocracy, and Caspar Goodwood, a "prince" of American industry, Isabel becomes utterly captivated by the languid charms of Gilbert Osmond, whom she sees as the "prince" she has been looking for. To him, she...

D. H. Lawrence declared in Women in Love, his masterpiece that presaged the erotic consciousness of the 20th century, "Let us hesitate no longer to state that the sensual passions and mysteries are equally sacred with the spiritual mysteries and passions." Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen, two sisters, serve as the main characters' eyes as Lawrence examines love, sex, passion, and marriage. The two very different sisters pursue passionate, scorching adventures...

Presents American author Willa Cather's first novel, published in 1912, about Bartley Alexander, a bridge builder who is torn between two women who represent different stages of his life.

Tolstoy based "Resurrection", the last of his novels, on a true story of a philanderer whose misuse of a beautiful young orphan girl leads to her ruin. Fate brings the two together many years later and the meeting awakens the man's moral conscience. Anger, intimacy, forgiveness, and grace result. While the situation of Tolstoy's plot is alien to most people, his nuanced treatment of mortal life is familiar to all. Late in his life Tolstoy confessed...

"The story of a young woman from Wisconsin who goes to Chicago, becomes an actress, marries and moves to New York, and when her husband loses his job, returns to the stage." ***"A powerful account of a young working girl's rise to the 'tinsel and shine' of worldly success, and of the slow decline of her lover and protector Hurstwood." Oxford Companion to Engl Lit. ***"Plain, unaffected, and unconventional story of the actual life of the lower middle-classes...

Hester Prynne is the adulteress, forced by the Puritan community to wear a scarlet letter A on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister and the secret father of her child, Pearl, struggles with the agony of conscience and his own weakness. Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband, revenges himself on Dimmesdale by calculating assaults on the frail mental state of the conscience-stricken cleric. The result is an American tragedy of stark...

"Wuthering Heights is one of the most famous love stories in the English language. It is also one of the most potent revenge narratives. The intense and unbreakable bond between the fiery Catherine Earnshaw and the foundling Heathcliff has startled and fascinated readers since its first publication in 1847. Of uncertain parentage and ethnicity, Heathcliff comes to Wuthering Heights as a child when Catherine's father finds him wandering alone through...

Based on the life of Paul Gauguin, The Moon and Sixpence is W. Somerset Maugham's ode to the powerful forces behind creative genius. Charles Strickland is a staid banker, a man of wealth and privilege. He is also a man possessed of an unquenchable desire to create art. As Strickland pursues his artistic vision, he leaves London for Paris and Tahiti, and in his quest makes sacrifices that leave the lives of those closest to him in tatters. Through...