In 1811, Jane Austen's first published work, Sense and Sensibility," " marked the debut of England's premier novelist of manners. Believing that "3 or 4 families in a country village is the very thing to work on," she created a brilliant tragicomedy of flirtation and folly. Romantic walks through lush Devonshire and genteel dinner parties at a stately manor draw two pretty sisters into the schemes and manipulations of landed gentry determined to marry...

Persuasion by Jane Austen. What does persuasion mean - a firm belief, or the action of persuading someone to think something else? Anne Elliot is one of Austen's quietest heroines, but also one of the strongest and the most open to change. She lives at the time of the Napoleonic wars, a time of accident, adventure, the making of new fortunes and alliances. A woman of no importance, she maneuvers in her restricted circumstances as her long-time love...

The Puritans thought Hester Prynne's crime was unforgiveable. She was convicted, imprisoned -- and then forced to wear, forever, a public reminder of her sin. The Scarlet Letter. The Letter was unending punishment: it set Hester apart from society, it tormented her days and haunted her soul. But the Letter haunted others, as well. Its mystery turned Roger Chillingworth from a gentle healer into a man driven by revenge. Its meaning burned into Rev....

A 19th-century woman pursues her romantic dreams through a series of lovers.

A lawyer in Victorian London tries to understand the nature of the strange relationship between his physician friend and the cruel and violent man he seems to protect. Illustrated sidebar notes provide historical background to the text.

Blessed with enormous talents and the energy and ambition to go with them, Franklin was a statesman, author, inventor, printer, and scientist. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and later was involved in negotiating the peace treaty with Britain that ended the Revolutionary War. He also invented bifocals, a stove that is still manufactured, a water-harmonica, and the lightning rod. Franklin's extraordinary range of interests and accomplishments...

A governess arrives at an isolated English mansion to care for two seemingly angelic but rather strange young children, and the appearance of two evil phantoms leads her to question her sanity.

In this book, the author depicts the glittering salons of Gilded Age New York with precision and wit, even as she movingly portrays the obstacles that impeded women's choices at the turn of the century. The beautiful, much-desired Lily Bart has been raised to be one of the perfect wives of the upper class, but her spark of character and independent drive prevent her from becoming one of the many women who succeed in those circumstances. Though her...

"Published by E.M. Forster in 1908, A Room with a View follows the story of Lucy Honeychurch, a well-to-do young woman living in the restrained culture of Edwardian era England. While on vacation in Italy, she finds her somewhat neatly ordered existence thrown off balance, when she meets and falls for the passionate, but conventionally unsuitable, George Emerson. With a cast of flamboyant and memorable characters, including romantic novelist Eleanor...