Description Montague Rhodes James was a respected scholar of medieval manuscripts and early biblical history, but he is best remembered today as a writer of ghost stories. His work has been much esteemed by later writers of horror, from H. P. Lovecraft to Steven King. The stereotypical Jamesian ghost story involves a scholar or gentleman in a European village who, through his own curiosity, greed, or simple bad luck, has a horrifying supernatural encounter. For example, in “ ‘Oh, Whistle, and

Description As the Civil War bears down on a small North Carolina town, a tight-knit community of enslaved men and women is preparing for the coming battle and the possibility of freedom. Into this ensemble cast of characters comes Iola Leroy, a young woman who grew up unaware of her African ancestry until she is lured back home under false pretenses and immediately enslaved. Amidst a backdrop of battlefield hospitals and clandestine prayer meetings, this quietly stouthearted novel is a story

Description Not only was Hamlet one of William Shakespeare’s most popular works during his lifetime, it is also considered among the most powerful and influential works of world literature. “To be, or not to be,” a line from one of Hamlet’s soliloquies, is one of the most widely known quotes in modern English and has been referenced in countless works of literature, theater, film, and music. During a dark winter night Horatio and a pair of watchmen encounter a ghost that resembles the late King

Description Vladimir Sanine has arrived back to the family home where his mother and younger sister live, after several years away. While deciding what to do with his life, he meets up with a circle of friends and acquaintances, old and new, and spends his time as many carefree young adults do: in a whirl of parties, politics, picnics, and philosophical talk. But the freedoms of early twentieth century Russia are still held back by the structures of historical conduct, and their carefree

Description Affable and honourable, Lord Dawlish is the second poorest peer in England, relying on his income as a club secretary. Claire Fenwick, his beautiful fiancée, will not marry him until he has some money, so he draws up plans to travel to New York and make his fortune. When he unexpectedly comes into an inheritance, he attempts to give it to the person he believes is the more deserving recipient. This, however, proves more difficult than expected. Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was an

Description Although known for her later experiments with style and structure, Virginia Woolf set out in her early novels to master the traditional form. Her second novel, Night and Day, presents itself as a seemingly conventional marriage plot, complete with love triangles, broken engagements, and unrequited affections. Beneath these conventional trappings, however, the book’s deeper concerns are resolutely subversive. The main characters—a quartet of friends and would-be lovers—come together,

Description In Pollyanna Grows Up we follow the titular character as she “grows up” through a story told in two connected parts. The first part takes place in Boston when she is age 13, having just been rehabilitated from severe injuries sustained in an automobile accident. As she leaves the hospital, she is sent to stay with a nearby dowager, who has long withdrawn into grief, pining for her lost nephew. Pollyanna is to be her “cure.” After leaving Boston, Pollyanna leaves the country with her

Description Clarissa Harlowe, or The History of a Young Lady is one of the longest novels in the English language. Written by Samuel Richardson over a period of several years and published in 1748, it is composed entirely of letters. Though this may seem daunting, the novel is highly regarded and is considered by many critics as one of the greatest works of English literature, appearing in several lists of the best British novels ever written. The novel tells the story of young Clarissa,

Description Edmond Dantès is a young man about to be made captain of a cargo vessel and marry his sweetheart. But he is arrested at his pre-wedding feast, having been falsely accused of being a Bonapartist. Thrown into the notorious Château d’If prison, he eventually meets an ancient inmate who teaches him language, science, and passes hints of a hidden fortune. When Edmond makes his way out of prison, he plots to reward those who stood by him (his old employer, for one), and to seek revenge on

Description G.K. Chesterton was an English writer, journalist, philosopher, poet and lay theologian. He delighted in standing conventional wisdom on its head in order to expose what he considered to be the lack of substance in the “vague modern.” In Heretics, he touches on a range of topics, including social Darwinism, eugenics, nihilism and atheism, while enumerating the flaws he finds in the work of his intellectual contemporaries such as Rudyard Kipling, Friedrich Nietzsche, George Bernard