Classics

The Essential Prose of John Milton

by John Milton, William Kerrigan & John Rumrich

Edited by William Kerrigan, John Rumrich, and Stephen M. Fallon

The legendary author of Paradise Lost and other poems was also a superb and provocative prose writer. Culled from Modern Library’s definitive...

The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde

A truly classic gothic horror novel for the ages. A Picture of Dorian Gray has captivated generations of readers with its ethical and artistic questions. What are the true costs of excess? What happens when...

Comic Tragedies

by Louisa May Alcott

Fans of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women will remember the elaborate plays which the March sisters loved to perform. This volume, published after Alcott's death, is a compilation of the real plays written by...

Flower Fables

by Louisa May Alcott

A collection of her lesser known work, Flower Fables contains wildly imaginative stories that grew out of Alcott's experience as a storyteller to the children of her Concord, Connecticut, neighbors. Through...

An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving

by Louisa May Alcott

"You will see what I can do. Ma said I was to use my judgment about things, and I'm going to. All you children have got to do is to keep out of the way, and let Prue and me work. Eph, I wish you'd put a fire...

A Modern Cinderella

by Louisa May Alcott

Among green New England hills stood an ancient house, many-gabled, mossy-roofed, and quaintly built, but picturesque and pleasant to the eye; for a brook ran babbling through the orchard that encompassed it...

A Garland for Girls

by Louisa May Alcott

This is a series of vignettes by Louisa May Alcott that illustrate the idea by Sir Philip Sidney that "They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts." The reader is introduced to several young...

Lady Chatterley's Lover

by D. H. Lawrence

In Lady Chatterley's Lover, Lawrence argues for individual regeneration, which can be found only through the relationship between man and woman (and, he asserts sometimes, man and man). Love and personal relationships...

Jungle Tales of Tarzan

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

It was true that Tarzan and Tantor were the best of friends, and that Tarzan never yet had tasted of the flesh of the elephant; but the Gomangani evidently had slain one, and as they were eating of the flesh...

Florville and Courval

by de, Marquis Sade

Courval has asked Florville to marry him. Florville decides that before she can marry him she must confess all of her sins to him so that they will have no secrets. The tales are sordid and come together in...

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll

This beloved classic describes a little girl's adventures in a topsy-turvy land underground and her encounters with such improbable characters as the White Rabbit, March Hare and Mad Hatter; the sleepy Dormouse;...

The Short Stories from 1896-1901

by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Lucy Maud Montgomery was born at Clifton (now New London), Prince

Edward Island, Canada, on November 30, 1874. She achieved

international fame in her lifetime, putting Prince Edward Island and

Canada on the world...

Marjorie's Three Gifts

by Louisa May Alcott

Can't get enough of Little Women? Try Marjorie's Three Gifts, a similarly engaging and heartwarming tale from Louisa May Alcott, the author who brought to life Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, some of the most beloved...

The Newcomes

by William Makepeace Thackeray

The Newcomes is a sprawling novel by English author William Makepeace Thackeray, who also penned the popular novel Vanity Fair. Considered by many critics to be Thackeray's finest work, The Newcomes follows...

Germinal

by Emile Zola

The novel's central character is …tienne Lantier, previously seen in L'Assommoir (1877), a young migrant worker who arrives at the forbidding coalmining town of Montsou in the bleak far north of France to...

Return of the Native

by Thomas Hardy

The novel takes place entirely in the environs of Egdon Heath, and, with the exception of the epilogue, covers exactly a year and a day. The narrative begins on the evening of Guy Fawkes Night as Diggory Venn...

Erewhon & Erewhon Revisited

by Samuel Butler

Erewhon, set in a thinly disguised New Zealand, ended with the escape of its protagonist from the native Erewhonians by balloon. In the sequel, narrated by his son John. Higgs returns to Erewhon and meets his...

Madame Bovary

by Gustave Flaubert

Charles Bovary, a mediocre and dull man, has his life planned out for him by his mother. She marries him to a widow, who dies shortly after marriage. He then falls in love with Emma, who has fantasies about...

Lady Susan

by Jane Austen

Lady Susan is a selfish, attractive woman who tries to trap the best possible husband while maintaining a relationship with a married man. She subverts all the standards of the romantic novel: she has an active...

Jane Eyre

by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre is the story of a small, plain-faced, intelligent, and passionate English orphan. Jane is abused by her aunt and cousin and then attends a harsh charity school. Through it all she remains strong and...