A seminal work of Realism, and one of the most influential novels ever written.

"What is remarkable in Madame Bovary is that its mediocre beings, with their earthbound ambitions and pedestrian problems, impress us, by virtue of the structure and the writing that create them, as beings who are out of the ordinary within their ordinary manner of being." - Mario Vargas Llosa, in The Perpetual Orgy

The novel focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, as she spirals out of control trying to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life.

Publishers Weekly #1 Best Seller for 1921.

Sinclair Lewis is the first American to receive a Nobel Price for literature. Main Street was initially awarded the 1921 Pulitzer Price, but the Board of Trustees overturned the jury decision and awarded the prize to Edith Wharton for Age of Innocence.

The novel is an indictment of the 'vacuous respectability' of small town America and an exploration of the conflict between those who strive for intensity and those who are content with a routine existence. Lewis's characters are skillfully drawn and he shows subtle and compelling insights into their psychology. In spite of it's critical stance the initial publication of the book was a political and and social event.

Tells the story of Chavalier des Grieux's ill-fated love for the beautiful but mercenary and immoral Manon. From a heady and passionate beginning Des Grieux soon find himself struggling to support Manon's taste for luxury. Manon cannot live within Des Grieux's means, but cannot bring herself to leave him. It was controversial in its time and was banned in France upon publication. Despite this it became very popular and pirated editions were widely distributed.

At the age of ten, Fanny Price is sent by her poor family to live with her rich uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram and their four children at Mansfield Park. Living in a world where wealth and status matter, Fanny is often left to feel inferior but in turn develops into a virtuous young woman of high character. When the dazzling Mary Crawford and her brother Henry arrive in the area, drama and disruption soon follow. All at Mansfield Park succumb to their charms and ways, all except for Fanny Price. Mansfield Park showcases once again, Jane Austen's brilliance.

Mary Barton is a millworker's daughter who comes into contact with the son of a wealthy family. She must decide between her devoted lover and the possibilities of joining a middle class family. The book explores the British lower classes' frustration, the false sense of class mobility of the 1800s, at a time when the working class were not able to vote. Much of this novel is autobiographical, incorporating incidents from Gaskell's own life.

The story Master and Man tells the tale of a master and his peasant who journey to another town for business in a blizzard. Lost on their way, the peasant begins to suffer from hypothermia verging on death. The master nonetheless feels compelled to press on in the journey until a moral revelation befalls him. How will he try to save his peasant? A very moving story. Classic Tolstoy story-telling.