While going through the possessions of a deceased guest who owed them money, the mistress of the inn and her son find a treasure map that leads them to a pirate's fortune. Includes study guide.

In early nineteenth-century Yorkshire, the tumultuous relationship between a headstrong girl and a foundling boy raised in the same home wreaks havoc on them and those around them, even into the next generation.

Uncle Tom, Topsy, Sambo, Simon Legree, little Eva: their names are American bywords, and all of them are characters in Harriet Beecher Stowe's remarkable novel of the pre-Civil War South. Uncle Tom's Cabin was revolutionary in 1852 for its passionate indictment of slavery and for its presentation of Tom, "a man of humanity," as the first black hero in American fiction. Labeled racist and condescending by some contemporary critics, it remains a shocking,...

Romeo and Juliet are young lovers separated by the ancient and enduring hatred between their families. This text includes an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare, an introduction to the play, and a note on the text used.

A classic adventure novel detailing the savagery of life in the northern wilds. Its central character is a ferocious and magnificent creature, half dog, half wolf, through whose experiences we feel the harsh rhythms and patterns of wilderness life among animals and men.

Charles Dickens called his novel David Copperfield, his "favorite child," and wiser than most parents or authors in his choice of a favorite; always in favor of the most prolonged effort, David Copperfield came to him quickly. The story bore him irresistibly along, and he was probably never less harassed by interruptions and breaks in his narrative, says Mr. Forster. Yet Dickens made the book his favorite, agreeing, probably, with the majority of...

In the past, Ulysses has been labeled dirty, blasphemous, and even unreadable. None of these adjectives, however, do the slightest justice to the novel. To this day it remains the modernist masterpiece, in which the author takes both Celtic lyricism and vulgarity to splendid extremes. It is funny, sorrowful, and even (in a close-focus sort of way) suspenseful. And despite the exegetical industry that has sprung up in the last 75 years, Ulysses is...

Faulkner's harrowing account of a family's stuggle to get their mother properly buried is a tour de force of literary intervention. With the coffin in a wagon they trek across the mississippi countryside, where they encounter castastrophes of flood and fire, as well as the chaos of their own feelings. Each of the family members attempts to restore som order in his life, and it is in Faulkner's imagining of the thoughts and feelings of these inarticulate...

To the Lighthouse is a 1927 novel by Virginia Woolf. The novel centers on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920. Virginia Woolf was born into an intellectually gifted family. Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen, is the author of the massive Dictionary of National Biography, a sixty-two volume compilation of the lives of important British citizens. Virginia's sister Vanessa was a gifted painter, and her...

The beloved New York Times bestselling author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays.

"Any story that starts will also end." As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart.

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