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1) Adam Bede
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Originally published in 1859, "Adam Bede" is the first novel by George Eliot, which was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. Eliot was one of the leading British writers of the Victorian era, as well as a noted journalist, poet, and translator. "Adam Bede" concerns a small, tight-knit, and fictional rural community called Hayslope and the romantic drama that develops between four of its young residents: the title character Adam, a young carpenter, the...
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Among the other stories are "The Offshore Pirate," in which the protagonist falls in love with the pirate who captures her. "Heads and Shoulders," the tale of a couple who undergo a role reversal; and "The Cut-Glass Bowl," about an objet d'art that features in various difficult or tragic events endured by a New York couple. Dating from the beginning of Fitzgerald's career, this entertaining collection reveals an American society on the verge of jumping...
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Thomas Hardy's "The Woodlanders" was first published serially in 1887. The tale takes place in the woodland village of Little Hintock and is centers around the romantic dramas of its inhabitants. The story begins with Giles Winterborne, an honest woodsman, who wishes to marry his childhood sweetheart, Grace Melbury. While the two have been informally betrothed to each other since they were young, Grace gains an education through her father's persistent...
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Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
5) Dubliners
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Dubliners is a collection of short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. It's a snapshot of Dublin society in the early 20th century, capturing the lives of ordinary people in various stages of their existence. The stories are interconnected thematically, offering a vivid portrayal of the city and its inhabitants. The collection consists of 15 stories, each exploring different facets of human experience, often with a focus on the mundane...
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First published in 1862, Ivan Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons" is widely considered to be the author's greatest literary achievement. It is a novel about the clash of ideologies of two generations. The older generation, the fathers, represents an upper class whose power and influence is fading and giving way to the younger generation, the sons, who represent an increasing objection to the status quo. This conflict is embodied in the characters of Arkady...
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An embattled inheritance, accusations of madness, scheming villainy and much more tie into the labyrinthine plot of one of the most celebrated and sensational novels of the Victorian era.
A young man just beginning a new job in London meets with a strange woman on a moonlit road, offers her assistance getting into the city and then finds she may have just escaped an asylum. Hidden connections are unveiled between the family that employs the young...
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"The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" is the second and final novel by the English author Anne Brontë. It was first published in 1848 under the pseudonym Acton Bell. Probably the most shocking of the Brontës' novels, it had an instant and phenomenal success, but after Anne's death her sister Charlotte prevented its re-publication. The novel is framed as a series of letters from Gilbert Markham to his friend and brother-in-law about the events leading to...
10) Dombey and Son
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Charles Dickens was an English short story writer, dramatist, essayist, and the most popular novelist to come out of the Victorian era. Many of his novels, with their frequent concern for social reform, were first published in magazines in serial form under the pseudonym, Boz. Unlike authors who completed entire novels before serialization, Dickens often created the episodes as they were being serialized. The continuing popularity of his novels and...
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"A Room with a View" by E. M. Forster is a captivating novel that takes readers on a journey of self-discovery, love, and societal conventions. Set in the early 20th century, the story follows Lucy Honeychurch, a young Englishwoman torn between societal expectations and her desire for personal freedom.
Lucy's life takes a transformative turn when she travels to Italy with her chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett. Amid the stunning landscapes of Florence,...
12) Vanity fair
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A deliciously satirical attack on a money-mad society, Vanity Fair, which first appeared in 1847, is an immensely moral novel, and an immensely witty one. Called in its subtitle A Novel Without a Hero, Vanity Fair has instead two heroines: the faithful, loyal Amelia Sedley and the beautiful and scheming social climber Becky Sharp. It also engages a huge cast of wonderful supporting characters as the novel spins from Miss Pinkerton's academy for young...
13) Two on a Tower
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In "Two on a Tower," a love story set against the background of the stellar universe, Hardy defied social norms of the day and shocked his readers. In what is today seen as the author's most important portrayal of love across physical and societal divides, the novel tells the story of Lady Constantine, a married, older, aristocratic, religious woman who falls in love with Swithin St. Cleeve, a young astronomer, single, lower class, and agnostic. Hardy's...
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Thomas Hardy’s classic tale of a woman brave enough to defy convention: Now a major motion picture starring Carey Mulligan
Spirited, 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...
Spirited, 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...
15) Black Beauty
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Black Beauty is the "autobiography" of a horse, chronicling his life experience at the hands of his owners. Some are cruel, with no empathy, while others are kind and gentle.
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The final novel by Charles Dickens, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", was unfinished at the time of his death in 1870. The novel revolves around John Jasper, choirmaster and opium addict, who is the guardian of his orphaned nephew Edwin Drood. Before the death of his parents, Edwin was promised to marry Rosa Bud, another orphan, but their affections have cooled upon reaching adulthood. Rosa has also attracted the affections of Jasper, her teacher, as...
17) Jane Eyre
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A Romance Novel For The Ages>/b> Written in 1847 this English literature classic is set somewhere in the north of England during the reign of King George III.
It chronicles the different stages of a woman's life from child through adulthood, and approaches the topics of class, sexuality, religion and feminism. The main character, Jane Eyre, is an impoverished orphan who possesses neither exceptional beauty nor captivating charm. She must rely...
18) Emma
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"Handsome, clever, and rich, Emma Woodhouse delights in interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protégée, Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected."--Publishers description.
19) The Professor
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The Professor (1857) is English writer Charlotte Brontë's first novel. Rejected by several publishing houses, Brontë shelved the novel in order to write her masterpiece Jane Eyre (1847). After her death, The Professor was edited by Brontë's widower, Arthur Bell Nichols, who saw that the novel was published posthumously. Based on Brontë's experience as a student and teacher in Brussels-which similarly inspired her novel Villette-The Professor is...
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