A classic tale of an orphan growing up in the 1800's of England. Intimately rooted in the author's own biography and written as a first-person narrative, "David Copperfield" charts a young man's progress through a difficult childhood in Victorian England to ultimate success as a novelist, finding true love along the way.

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the aging Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained...

"In this enduring and internationally popular novel, Mark Twain combines social satire and dime-novel sensation with a rhapsody on boyhood and on America's pre-industrial past. Tom Sawyer is resilient, enterprising, and vainglorious. In a series of adventures along the banks of the Mississippi, he usually manages to come out on top. From petty triumphs over his friends and over his long-suffering Aunt Polly, to his intervention in a murder trial,...

"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...

Contemporary fiction. 'I walk'd about on the shore, lifting up my hands, and my whole being, as I may say, wrapt up in the contemplation of my deliverance . . . reflecting upon all my comrades that were drown'd, and that there should not be one soul sav'd but my self . . . ' Who has not dreamed of life on an exotic isle, far away from civilization? Here is the novel which has inspired countless imitations by lesser writers, none of which equal the...

The lovable Jo March-introduced to us in Little Women-is now married, with two sons of her own and an adopted family of twelve boys. And she couldn't be happier. Since starting an informal school at Plumfield, Jo and Professor Bhaer provide a haven for poor orphaned boys who thrive on warmth, goodness, and the affectionate interest of the March and Bhaer families. Sometimes it's difficult to tame the manners and spirits of wild boys who have had no...

A reprint of "the first modern dog story," originally published in 1872, presented here as an example of sentimental literature in which realism and credibility are subordinate to grand emotional tragedy.

"Jimmy may not be the biggest or toughest fellow in the Green Meadows, but he certainly has the respect of everyone because of his special "perfume." Even so, there are adventures to have and choices to make." -- Back cover.

The story of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by a series of ghostly visitors. On Christmas Eve Scrooge sits in his counting-house with not a kind word for a soul, just wanting to be left alone until the 'humbug' of Christmas is over. Four ghostly visitors (his partner Marley, followed by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come) show him the error of his ways. By the time Christmas...

The Professor is based on the author's experiences as a language student in Brussels in 1842. Told from the point of view of William Crimsworth, the only male narrator that she used, the work formulated a new aesthetic that questioned many of the presuppositions of Victorian society. Read less