Emma is the comic novel by Jane Austen that centres around the "handsome, clever and rich", if somewhat spoilt, Emma Woodhouse who fancies herself as a match-maker to her friends. Set in Regency England, comedy ensues as Emma throws herself into the pursuits of love and marriage for others whilst herself remaining apparently immune to the charms of the opposite sex. Witty and charming - quintessential Jane Austen.

The temptations of illicit passion are a theme in Ethan Frome. Wharton had been advised to take up writing more seriously to relieve her stress and tension, and many point to the possibility of autobiographical elements in the novel. Wharton delivers austere and penetrating impressions of rural working-class New England as the environment to explore Ethan Frome's marriage to an unsympathetic Zeena and the infatuation he develops for their maid.

Therese Raquin begins an affair with a friend of her husband. Their passion is such a contrast to her dry almost loveless marriage that they plot to drown her husband. The novel caused a scandal when it was published and Zola continued to be a controversial and notorious figure.

1872 Best Seller.

In his day E. P. Roe was a bigger seller than Mark Twain.

A story of the Chicago fire.

"We accord a hearty commendation to this work. The narrative is vigorous, often intense, but rarely if ever melodramatic. Its language is usually no less chaste than forcible and impressive. It betrays a power of invention and description which is not met with every day in the best of writers of popular fiction." -- Dr. Ripley, in the New York Tribune (contemporary review)

1895 Best Seller.

Sketches of rural Scottish life based on the authors experiences as a minister in Perthshire.

1898 Best Seller.

A new minister arrives at a mining and lumber boomtown in the 1880's West. He is determined to 'clean up the town' and win a few souls, but the task proves more challenging than he anticipated.

1863 Best Seller.

Whitney was an opponent of women's suffrage, although in keeping with her philosophy she took no part in public life. Her message of then merely conservative values meant that her books sold very well to the parents of girls.