Twenty-seven-year old Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell.

Romola is a brilliant young woman who unknowingly falls in love with a handsome stranger whose true nature is fueled by greed, status and ego. Over the course of the novel, she uncovers his many transgressions and secret dealings. A handsome stranger called Tito Melema arrives in Florence and is immediately smitten by Romola, the daughter of a local scholar. The two eventually marry as Tito gains access to various social circles. He becomes an influential...

A model is murdered in this “first-rate” detective story by the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master (Kirkus Reviews).
On a ship traveling back to England, Miss Agatha Troy finds Inspector Roderick Alleyn tedious and dull; he thinks she’s a bohemian cliché. They may be destined for romance, but there’s a murder in the way: No sooner has Alleyn settled in to his mother’s house, eager for a...

Master Mainard makes the blind Sabina his mistress, expecting that his wife Bertrild will be glad to be rid of him, since his face is horridly disfigured. Then Bertrild is murdered and Mainard is suspected. Magdalene la Bâtarde, whoremistress of the Old Priory Guesthouse, works with Sir Bellamy of Itchen to untangle the hatred and blackmail that resulted in Bertrild's death. [2nd of the Magdalene la Bâtarde mysteries] Historical Mystery by Roberta

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Wives and Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies...

Helen Huntingdon, having left her unhappy marriage to save her son from the influence of his alcoholic father, struggles to make her way in the restrictive society of Victorian England.

Paradise Lost is the greatest epic poem in English literature, and Milton's Satan one of its most compelling figures. The controversy has been exceeded only by its tremendous influence: countless masters of English verse have paid homage to Milton and Paradise Lost. A profound meditation on the role of man under God, Pardise Lost is essential reading.

A late spring in 1142 has the monks of Shrewsbury Abbey dismayed, for there may be no roses by June 22. For three years, wealthy young widow Judith Perle has rented her house to the monks for the price of a single white rose each year, in honor of her late husband. When nature finally complies, a pious monk is sent to pay the rent—and found murdered beside the hacked rosebush.

Without a rose, the monks' rental contract becomes void,

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Was her life to be always like this? - always bringing some new source of inward strife?' When the miller Mr Tulliver becomes entangled in lawsuits, he sets off a chain of events that will profoundly affect the lives of his family and bring into conflict his passionate daughter Maggie with her inflexible but adored brother Tom. As she grows older, Maggie's discovery of romantic love draws her once more into a struggle to reconcile familial and

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A British police detective looks into sinister doings in the South of France in a crime thriller with “more than a little excitement” (Kirkus Reviews).
Inspector Roderick Alleyn has decamped for the South of France on a family vacation—though for him, the vacation will involve some official poking around. Unfortunately, the object of his poking—the cultish denizens of a sinister and luxurious chateau—are...