Mark Twain's darkly comic short classic set in the antebellum South stands as a literary condemnation of slavery and racial inequality. Each enriched classic edition includes: A concise introduction that gives readers important background information. A chronology of the author's life and work. A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context. An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations....

Timothy Carrier is sitting in a bar when the man next to him mistakes him for someone else and hands him an envelope with $10,000. The man leaves after handing Tim a photo of a woman marked for death and her address. Soon the killer arrives believing Tim is the one who wants to hire him.

"[In the author's first collection of short fiction, she] pinpoints the questionable decisions, missed connections, and sometimes extraordinary coincidences that make up a life. Indeed, she writes what were all thinking--if only we could express it with the wit of a master satirist, the storytelling gifts of an old-fashioned raconteur, and the vision of an American original"--Amazon.com.

Louisa Bell didn't want to be a dance-hall singer, but circumstances forced her hand. She gets by with help from her brother in the cavalry, so when he runs afoul of his commanding officer she undertakes a visit to Fort Reno. Major Daniel Adams can barely control his rowdy troops, much less two adolescent daughters. He must find someone suitable to guide his children, or lose them to his mother-in-law. When Louisa arrives with reading materials, she's...

Harriet, Duchess of Berrow, is tired of her title and the responsibilities that come along with it. Enough with proper tea parties and elegant balls; what Harriet wants is to attend an outrageous soiree where she can unleash her wildest dreams and desires. But to attend such an event - especially if the event in question is Lord Justinian Strange's rollicking fete, filled with noble rogues and rotters, risqué ladies and illicit lovers - would be...

It is 1998, the year in which America is whipped into a frenzy of prurience by the impeachment of a president, and in a small New England town an aging classics professor, Coleman Silk, is forced to retire when his colleagues decree that he is a racist. --- [Exerpt from back cover.]

John Hayes is a Special Operations legend who went rogue on a deep-cover mission and betrayed his own soldiers. Disgraced and on the run, he returns to the United States to get back to his wife and daughter and take revenge on his accusers with a series of devastating attacks. Only one man can stop him: Thomas Byrne. He once fought alongside Hayes as a combat medic, but he gave up the gun. Now a surgeon, he moves from town to town, trying to forget...

Is nature born or bred? That is the question pondered by Benny Rosato after her twin sister, Alice, drugs her, buries her underground in a remote field, drives away, and then just slips easily into Benny's life. What Alice doesn't count on is Benny escaping. When Benny doesn't count on is that everyone believes Alice when she says that Benny is the sociopath, deranged sister.

Mistaken identity--or the real thing? Laura Stevenson goes to the Bahamas for plastic surgery and then opens a frame shop in Boston with a friend, with the goal of starting afresh. But then peculiar things began to happen: she's almost hit by an out-of-control car; a wild dog attacks her; items in her home are moved; and then Matt Kruger shows up, claiming to be a close friend of her brother's. This last even is the strangest of all, since Laura's...

"Published in 1882, The Prince and the Pauper is a delightful piece of historical fiction set in 1547. The young British Prince Edward, son of Henry VIII, switches place with a young pauper boy, Tom Canty, who happens to look exactly like the Prince. Tom takes over royal duties when King Henry dies and enjoys life in the palace. The real Prince is tossed out on the streets of London and learns about the life and misery of the common people of England...