"The novel takes place entirely in the environs of Egdon Heath, and, with the exception of the epilogue, covers exactly a year and a day. The narrative begins on the evening of Guy Fawkes Night as Diggory Venn drives slowly across the heath, carrying a hidden passenger in the back of his van. When darkness falls, the country folk light bonfires on the surrounding hills, emphasizing--not for the last time--the pagan spirit of the heath and its denizens."...

"First published in 1932, this classic satirical novel tells the story of sensible Flora Poste, who is orphaned at age 19. Leaving the city to go live with relatives in deepest Sussex at the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the gloomy and eccentric Starkadder family, headed by reclusive Aunt Ada Doom. Flora's penchant for practicality and organization soon shakes things up. -- Description by Dawn Towery."--from NoveList.

Thomas Hardy's classic tale of a woman brave enough to defy convention: Soon to be a major motion picture starring Carey MulliganSpirited, impulsive, and beautiful, Bathsheba Everdene arrives in Wessex to live with her aunt. She strikes up a friendship with a neighbor, Gabriel Oak, and even saves the young shepherd's life. But when he responds by asking for her hand in marriage, she refuses. She cannot sacrifice her independence for a man she does...

The tiny, well-ordered seaside village of Merham holds little to interest the adventurous-- except for Arcadia, the breathtaking art deco house perched above the shoreline. Lottie Swift surrenders freely to its temptations and ultimately must face the hard consequences of her actions. Years later Daisy Parsons, a designer hired to make over the now-empty Arcadia, is fleeing a broken relationship. Daisy finds refuge at Arcadia, and a love she thought...

On May Day during the annual fair in the small village of Thrush Green, complications develop in the relationships of a group of inhabitants, in a new edition of the first novel in the Thrush Green series.

Sense and Sensibility is one of the best loved of Jane Austen's novels, populated by great comic creations like Mrs. Jennings, the unscrupulous cad Willoughby, and guileless and artful women. As ever, Austen suffuses her work with great ironic observation and tremendous wit, producing a masterpiece of romantic entanglement that time and a very different set of mores cannot diminish. Sense and Sensibility was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be...

"Love and the erratic heart are at the center of Hardy's "woodland story." Set in the beautiful Blackmoor Vale, The Woodlanders concerns the fortunes of Giles Winterborne, whose love for the well-to-do Grace Melbury is challenged by the arrival of the dashing and dissolute doctor, Edred Fitzpiers. When the mysterious Felice Charmond further complicates the romantic entanglements, marital choice and class mobility become inextricably linked. Hardy's...

Tess, a simple country girl in nineteenth-century England, is sent by her family to meet her supposed kin, but is destroyed by her father's continued and determined efforts to use her in order to regain the family's former social standing.

As the spring unfolds, so do the dramas of village life. Dotty Harmer serves up an herbal brew to her neighbor Albert Piggott, who has a soft spot for her despite his crusty facade. Architect Edward Young overhears a rumor that the old people's home he designed may be a bit cramped, and an American stranger arrives in search of family connections. At the Fuchsia Bush restaurant, Albert's wife, Nellie, finds herself in charge when the owner Mrs. Peters...

The last novel in the beloved Fairacre series finds Miss Read with important decisions to make. Gradually worsening health forces her to consider an early retirement. John Jenkins, a handsome newcomer, competes for her affections with the newly widowed Henry Mawne. However, Miss Read has more on her mind than men. Orphans living in her former house have bolstered the village school's roll, but these new students seem to be having problems with their...