"Set in the Parisian underworld and plotted like a detective story, the work follows Jean Valjean, a victim of society who has been imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. A hardened criminal upon his release, he eventually reforms, becoming a successful industrialist and mayor of a northern town. Despite this he is haunted by an impulsive, regretted former crime and is pursued relentlessly by the police inspector Javert. Valjean eventually...

Three sons find their violent and vengeful lives exposed when their despicable father is murdered, and each man struggles to come to terms with his guilt over his involvement in the crime.

Widely believed to be her masterpiece, Elizabeth Gaskell's "Wives and Daughters" was originally published serially in "Cornhill Magazine" between August 1864 and January 1866. The work, which was nearly finished at the time of Gaskell's death in 1865, was completed by Frederick Greenwood. The novel's heroine is Molly Gibson, the only daughter of a widowed country doctor in a small town in England. Molly, lonely and motherless, is befriended by the...

A novel whose principal characters are the servants in Jane Austen's Pride and prejudice. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants' hall threatens to be completely,...

As she emerges from the prison of a Puritan New England town, Hester Prynne defies the dark gloom much as the rose blooms against the prison door. With her illegitimate baby, Pearl, clutched in her arms and the letter A -- the mark of an adultress -- embroideredin scarlet thread on her breast, Hester holds her head high as she faces the malice and scorn of the townsfolk. Her powerful, bittersweet story is an American Classic that continues to touch...

If you love Bridgerton, you'll love Georgette Heyer

A fiery debutante. An ill-tempered bachelor. A romance for the ages.

Arabella, the daughter of an impoverished country parson, dreams of a new life in London. But her beauty and charm will only get her so far—and when Arabella embarks on her first London season armed with nothing but a benevolent godmother and her own notoriously short temper, she quickly runs afoul

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Looks at the disparate lives of the residents of an Edinburgh apartment building, including the overwhelmed new parents of twins, a newly engaged couple, and a hen-pecked husband and his overbearing wife.

"Ana Newport, ostensibly a music tutor, leads a secret life as a petty burglar, but then meets Hollis Darby, a gentleman who secretly writes penny dreadfuls. Can they successfully lead double lives and still find love together?"--

In this Jane Austen-era romance, when a handsome new estate owner discovers a mysterious woman living on his property, he's determined to uncover her secrets.

Having decided she will never marry, Kate Worthington plans to escape her meddlesome family by travelling to India. Her mother agrees on the condition that she gets--and rejects--three marriage proposals. To fulfill her end of the bargain Kate travels to the manor of Blackmoore in northern England, where her plans go awry.