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James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is the fictional account of the life of a young American man in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. With his bi-racial heritage, the Ex-Colored Man is faced with the choice of embracing his black culture and its ragtime music, or passing as a white man and living a mediocre middle-class existence. While not actually an autobiography, Johnson based the book on his
...For a fascinating glimpse into eighteenth-century morals and values, take a look at Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. A blockbuster of a bestseller in its day, Pamela recounts the tribulations of a poor housekeeper who is forced constantly to fend off the prurient advances of her employer. Her reward? Pamela is offered—and accepts—her lustful master's hand in marriage and is thrust into upper-class society.
...3) On the Eve
On the eve of the Crimean war a young woman, Elena, is pursued by two men. She disappoints them and her affected, social-climbing family when she marries a Bulgarian revolutionary. Sickness and war intervene in their lives, sending tragic shock waves through an entire society.
4) Hunger
A must-read for fans of modernist literature, Hunger is a literary tour de force that was influenced equally by Dostoyevsky and Zola but made new by author Knut Hamsun's unique creative approach. The novel details the descent into near-starvation of a young intellectual and the downward spiral of misadventures he encounters in the course of trying to find food.
5) Finished
The third installment in H. Rider Haggard's Zulu trilogy, Finished is a detailed historical account of the decline of the once-mighty Zulu nation, recounted from the perspective of globe-trotting adventurer Allan Quatermain. From the thrill of the safari to battlefield play-by-plays, this novel will not disappoint fans of the classic action-adventure genre.
6) Free Air
One of the earliest road-trip novels, Free Air tells the story of Claire Boltwood, who travels from New York City to the Pacific Northwest by automobile. She leaves her rich, snobbish family behind and falls in love with a good, down-to-earth man.
Originally published in serialized form, Ragged Dick is the type of heartwarming young-adult novel for which Horatio Alger is well-known. The story follows the adventures of the eponymous Dick, a young shoe polisher who overcomes his low circumstances and rises through the ranks of society by dint of his diligence, persistence, and general good cheer.
Originally published in serialized form in a border-town newspaper, Mariano Azuela's The Underdogs is a gripping tale that recounts the personal and political havoc that surrounded the Mexican Revolution. Equal parts action-packed war novel and philosophical meditation on the costs of conflict, The Underdogs is a must-read for fans of historical fiction or Hispanic literature buffs.
In this satirical novel from renowned French author Gustave Flaubert, two Paris-dwelling clerks, François Bouvard and Juste Pécuchet, have a chance encounter one day and instantly become the best of friends. When Bouvard comes into some family money, the two chums decide to pull up stakes and move to the country to pursue a life of intellectual inquiry. But after plowing through much of the world's literature, poetry, and scientific
...Is it morally permissible to conduct often-painful experiments on innocent animals? That contentious debate is still going on today, but it has its roots in the Victorian era, when the issue of 'vivisection' had only recently made its way into the public discourse. In Heart and Science, self-professed animal lover Wilkie Collins uses fiction to mount a compelling attack on animal experimentation. This thought-provoking and entertaining novel
...Another Study of Woman is a narrative hovering between a short story and a novella in terms of length, extracted from Honore de Balzac's multi-volume masterpiece The Human Comedy. At a private dinner party, guests warmed by the flush of fine food and drink begin to banter about the qualities and attributes that characterize the ideal woman. Gradually, the guests begin to reminisce about their own experiences and encounters with perfect
...One of the most popular novels of the early twentieth century, Booth Tarkington's The Two Vanrevels is a gripping and entertaining romp that effortlessly weaves together many of the elements that define the author's oeuvre, including a passionate love triangle, a case of mistaken identity, and a look at how political and social events can often intrude on the personal sphere.
13) The Provost
John Galt's novel The Provost details the rise to power of James Pawkie, an aspiring businessman and politician who becomes a big-time mover and shaker in the Scottish town of Irvine. Galt uses Pawkie's ascendance to comment on the perils of acquiring influence rapidly, as well as the all-too-keen temptation to misuse it for personal gain.
Rather than consistently falling back on romance as an overarching framework for her novels, as did many of her peers, Virginia-born writer Ellen Glasgow often preferred the rough-and-tumble world of politics as a lens through which to explore the human condition. In One Man in His Time, an up-and-coming politician confounds many of the longstanding mores of Southern society.
15) Fathers and Sons
Clashes and conflicts between fathers and sons are a story as old as humanity itself. Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev uses the turbulence of familial relations as a symbolic lens through which to explore the changing of the ideological guard in his native country. Turgenev's best-known work, Fathers and Sons is widely regarded as the first Russian novel to gain prominence and critical acclaim in Western literary circles.
16) Rob Roy
Walter Scott's novel Rob Roy follows a young Englishman, Frank Osbaldistone, to Scotland, where he travels to retrieve a debt. The story is set during the 1715 Jacobite Rising, and Frank becomes embroiled in Jacobite politics when he falls in love. The novel realistically portrays the living conditions of Highland and Lowland Scotland at the time, comparing the natives to "savage" native Americans. Though the title character, famous outlaw
...The Longest Journey (1907) follows the young Rickie Elliot's journey to maturity. Orphaned and lame as a child, Rickie was teased at boarding school and finds Cambridge to be a kind of paradise. He is not an intellectual, but is deeply affected by art and poetry, and is accepted within a philosophical circle of students. His new sense of belonging is challenged when he is visited by old friends from home.
Writer Marie Corelli rocketed to remarkable literary fame in the late nineteenth century, largely on the strength of her irresistibly action-packed plots. Vendetta is no exception. Readers will instantly be drawn in to this tale, which begins with a family tragedy and soon shifts course into a story of satisfying revenge.
Essayist and newspaper columnist Fanny Fern enjoyed a rapid—and highly unlikely—rise to fame after an early life beset by tragedy and misfortune. Soon after accepting the position that established her as the highest-paid female writer in the United States, Fern began work on Ruth Hall, a highly autobiographical novel that paralleled her own life experiences in many regards. Today, scholars and critics agree that the novel is
...In a marked departure from the genre mysteries that brought him literary fame, Fu Manchu creator Sax Rohmer switches gears and crafts a pastoral idyll in the sophisticated romance novel The Orchard of Tears. Prone to intellectual musings, protagonist Paul Merle spends his days critically analyzing the world around him. Will he ever find room for an affair of the heart?
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