The stern and highminded hero, Adam Bede, loves the vain and selfish Hetty Sorrel, but their happiness is ruined when Hetty is seduced by a young squire.

In turn-of-the-century London, an undercover, counter-revolutionary mole provokes a radical group he has penetrated into an act of violence that will bring about its own destruction. The scene is turn-of-the-century London. The characters include idealistic revolutionaries, ruthless ideologues, bureaucratic police, and at the center, an undercover, counter revolutionary mole whose mission is to provoke the radical group he has penetrated into a monstrous...

"After her employer dies, the employer’s son begins making advances toward her. The virtuous girl tries to stave off his advances, but Mr. B’s desperation eventually causes him to kidnap her in a misguided attempt to try and make her understand how much he loves her. When he realizes that Pamela is truly a chaste and innocent girl, he begins to treat her in a new and more respectful manner. In return, Pamela forgives her oppressor and tries to...

The pilgrim Christian forsakes the world in order to undertake the dangerous journey to the Celestial City, experiencing numerous crises and temptations along the way.

The sixth and final novel in Trollope's "Palliser" series, this 1879 work begins after the unexpected death of Plantagenet Palliser's beloved wife, Lady Glencora. Though wracked by grief over his loss, this Duke of Omnium and former Prime Minister must now become more involved in the lives of his three grown children. He soon discovers that this will be quite the challenge, for his son and heir Lord Silverbridge has been sent down from Oxford, his...

Kafka's last novel, The Castle is set in a remote village covered almost permanently in snow and dominated by a castle and its staff of dictatorial, sexually predatory bureaucrats. The novel breaks new ground in exploring the relation between the individual and power, asking why the villagers so readily submit to an authority which may exist only in their collective imagination. Published only after Kafka's death, The Castle appeared in the same decade...

A kind-hearted and idealistic youth enters the grasping Parisian society of the 1820s, where his education in the realities and costs of city life begin among the residents of a shabby but respectable boardinghouse. Père Goriot - one of the outstanding novels in The Human Comedy, Balzac's panoramic study of Parisian life - features richly detailed settings, a skillfully related plot, and a vibrant cast of characters. Acclaimed by critic Leslie Stephen...

Written after several years of traveling through France and Italy, Laurence Sterne wrote "A Sentimental Journey" as an account of his experiences abroad, and ultimately established travel writing as the dominant literary genre of the second half of the 18th century. This book is sometimes seen as an epilogue to his previous more famous work, "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman", but was immensely popular in its own right because of...