1894 Best Seller.

A fictionalised 'autobiography' of the true story of a dog named 'Beautiful Joe'. Joe's abusive original owner savagely mistreated him. The book became very popular and greatly contributed to the worldwide awareness of animal cruelty.

The novel follows Georges Duroy's corrupt rise to power. With assistance from a series of powerful mistresses Duroy quickly rises from a lowly returned serviceman to one of the most influential men of Paris.

Lewis "Lew" Wallace was a lawyer, governor, Union general in the American Civil War, and American statesman. He is best remembered for Ben-Hur, an historical fiction set amongst the characters of the New Testament. It was America's best selling novel for nearly sixty years after it's publication.

Follow the wikipedia link to see a great photo of the author.

An heroic epic poem where Beowulf, a hero of a Germanic tribe from southern Sweden, travels to Denmark to help defeat a monster named Grendel. It is sometimes called "England's national epic". J. R. R. Tolkien of Lord of the Rings fame was a Beowulf scholar and many parallels can also be drawn between Beowulf and The Hobbit. The work has served as the inspiration for many books and films including Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead.

1895 Best Seller.

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

1859 Best Seller.

The novel follows the orphaned Beulah from childhood in the Antebellum South through a troubled and stormy struggle for independence.

Nietzsche soars in philosophic thought in Beyond Good and Evil. He transcended most of his 19th century contemporaries and considered the bulk of their philosophic thinking to be greatly limited by their acceptance of Christian premises. Denying a universal morality for all people, Nietzsche instead proposed that the individual's "will to power" upon the world was the means to move beyond good and evil. Agree? Disagree? Agree to disagree? Brilliantly thought provoking.