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First published in 1912, G. K. Chesterton’s “Manalive” is the fascinating and incredible story of Innocent Smith, a man who can be described as a “holy fool”. Innocent arrives at Beacon House, a London boarding establishment, and breathes new life into the residents with his games and antics. All in one day he creates the “High Court of Beacon”, decides to elope with one of the residents, and convinces another lodger to declare his love for the landlady’s niece. However, the authorities arrive and it is soon discovered that Smith is a suspected criminal who is to be brought up on charges of burglary, desertion of a spouse, polygamy, and attempted murder. The boarding house’s residents decide to keep his presence a secret and convene their own “High Court of Beacon” to determine Smith’s innocence or guilt. Smith’s trial is a comical affair where curious and hilarious explanations are given for the charges against Smith, proving that he is not a criminal but is instead a lovable, but naïve and foolish man. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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First published in 1903, “The Log of a Cowboy: A Narrative of the Old Trail Days” by American author Andy Adams is the fascinating and captivating tale of an 1882 cattle drive of 3,000 head of cattle up the Great Western Trail from the Rio Grande to just south of the Canadian border in Montana. While written as a fictional narrative, “The Log of a Cowboy” is rich with authentic detail of the old west, due largely to the fact that the author Adams spent more than a decade in Texas in the 1880s driving cattle. The drive took five months from Brownsville, Texas to Northern Montana and the tale of the journey is full of dangerous river crossings, escapes from stampedes, gunfights between the cowboys, and fascinating characters, such as Bull Durham and Bill Blades. A delightful story of a bygone era, “The Log of a Cowboy” is considered to this day to be one of the most realistic depictions of cowboy life and cattle drives ever written. Adams’s tale of adventure and hard work on the frontier will entertain fans of the western genre and old west history buffs alike.

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The first novel of English magistrate Henry Fielding, “Joseph Andrews” was written in 1742 as a complete extension of the author’s pamphlet “Shamela”. The latter contains an impressively coarse parody of “Pamela”, the Samuel Richardson novel that rewards a servant girl with marriage for protecting her virtue. Shamela, however, utilizes a coy and artificial modesty to procure for herself a husband of wealth. Fielding went on to write “Joseph Andrews”, a work relating the adventures of a footboy after he is dismissed from his employment. He rejects the advances of the lady of the house, and his life after losing his position begins a journey filled with crime, poverty, and varying types of maliciousness, as well as uplifting comedy and love in many forms. This experimental novel, however, grows out of its original parody, for it objects as much to the mechanics as of the limited ideas of the literature of its day. “Joseph Andrews” not only reveals the corruption of Fielding’s contemporary society, but it does so in a prose fiction that is as sophisticated as it is satirical.

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“The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade” is the 1857 novel by Herman Melville, his ninth and final work. It tells the interlocking stories of a group of travelers aboard a steamboat on the Mississippi River making their way towards New Orleans. Emulating the style of Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”, the novel centers on its title character, the Confidence-Man, a mysterious figure who sneaks aboard the steamboat and successively tests the confidence of the passengers. He adopts various disguises, such as a handicapped beggar, a sophisticated businessman, and a cosmopolitan gentleman, swindling his fellow passengers in many small ways. The story consists primarily of the reactions of the travelers to this schemer and in doing so the dishonesties and pretensions of the passengers are exposed and their true natures are revealed. Melville took a satirical approach to contemporary cultural figures in much of the novel and it is believed that many of the characters were based on popular authors, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allen Poe. “The Confidence-Man” is a rich exposition on the nature of human identity set against the vivid imagery of the Mississippi riverboat era. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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H. Rider Haggard’s “She” was wildly popular when first published in England in 1887. The novel follows Leo Vancey and Horace Holly on an expedition to Africa as they encounter many serious and dangerous trials, including shipwreck, sickness, and hostile natives, before discovering a legendary lost city in a system of underground caverns. It is here that they meet Ayesha, or She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, a white queen who is wise, beautiful, terrible in her love, and two thousand years old. Ayesha is a mythological monstrous and all-powerful female, as mysterious and frightening as she is desirable, and absolutely lethal. “She” is both of the imagination and immediately real, for her magical walk through a pillar of fire has rendered her immortal, yet she lives on interminably to wait for the reincarnation of her love Kallikrates. When Ayesha becomes certain that Leo is her reincarnated love, he and his friend must decide if the goal of their quest is worth risking their lives. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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Written in just fifty-two days in 1839, “The Charterhouse of Parma” has since become known as one of Stendhal’s finest works. Evidence of haste is infrequently apparent in this remarkable story, which follows the eventful life of the young Italian nobleman Fabrizio del Dongo. From his childhood in the family castle by Lake Como to the battlefields of Waterloo, Fabrizio proves himself charmingly headstrong and painfully naïve. Upon returning injured to Italy, the young man begins to recover and pursue ill-fated amorous exploits while his well-intentioned aunt Gina tries to plan a successful career for him with the help of her lover Count Mosca. When a period of confinement in prison leads Fabrizio to meet the beautiful and passionate Clélia, Stendahl’s amazing skill with psychological insight comes to the fore, testing the courage of his characters as never before. Considered by contemporary readers to be one of the greatest French novels of its time, “The Charterhouse of Parma” overflows with military feats, court intrigue, and romance that encapsulates both youthful excitement and the harsh realities that test happiness at every turn.

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First serialized in the “Christian Union”, and then published as a novel in 1884, “Ramona”, by Helen Hunt Jackson, is the fictional story of its title character, a part Scottish and part Indian orphan girl who endures great discrimination while growing up in the late 19th century. Immensely popular when it first appeared, “Ramona” is set in Southern California shortly after the Mexican-American War and is well known for its depiction of Mexican colonial life and the unique culture of the region. The novel follows the difficult life of Ramona as she grows up in the loveless care of Señora Moreno, the sister of Ramona’s deceased foster mother. Ramona falls in love with Alessandro, a Native American sheep shearer who works on the Moreno ranch, and elopes with him after Señora Moreno disapproves of their relationship. Ramona and Alessandro face great hardship and tragedy as they try to create a life together in a harsh and unforgiving world dominated by greedy American settlers and violent conflict. “Ramona” is a timeless and touching story of discrimination, displacement, heartache, and ultimately, hope and resilience. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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“The Rise of Silas Lapham” is William Dean Howells’ 1885 novel which tells the story of its title character, who inherits his father’s paint business and subsequently makes a great deal of money. Silas moves his family from their home in rural Vermont to Boston in order to try and improve his social position. The consequences of his ambitions for his family are both humorous and tragic. He attempts to see his younger and lovelier daughter married off to an aristocratic Boston family as a way to gain entry into the higher social strata, but his manipulations do not go as planned. Silas also gets involved in dubious business schemes that result in the loss of most of his fortune and the family is forced to move back to their country home, though Silas is able to preserve his morality even as he loses his wealth. Howells is often considered the father of American realism and he denounced the romanticism so often found in novels of his era. “The Rise of Silas Lapham” shows that Howells earned his reputation fairly in this unflinching portrayal of wealth, social hierarchy, and the vast gulf that can exist between city and country values. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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First published in 1862 after Dostoyevsky’s imprisonment in a Siberian labor camp, “The House of the Dead” is a collection of memoirs, related by themes, that portrays the horrific life of convicts. The author drew on his own experiences in prison to depict the squalor, destitution, and severity of a Siberian camp with remorseless detail. Dostoyevsky reveals the characters of many of the other convicts, which includes the depravity many have come to expect through their mental and physical suffering. The protagonist is Aleksandr Petrovich, a gentleman who additionally struggles with the malice of the largely peasant-populated prison. He gradually comes to accept his situation, experiencing a spiritual re-awakening in the unremitting strife of penal servitude. Though told with uncharacteristic detachment, “The House of the Dead” is a work of humanity, not without sympathy or admiration of those in Siberia, which proclaims the tragedy of those institutions, both for the inhabitants and for the country of Russia, and stands to this day as one of Dostoyevsky’s masterpieces. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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First published in 1778, this novel of manners tells the story of Evelina, a young woman raised in rural obscurity who is thrust into London’s fashionable society at the age of eighteen. There, she experiences a sequence of humorous events at balls, theatres, and gardens, that teach her how quickly she must learn to navigate social snobbery and veiled aggression. Evelina, the embodiment of the feminine ideal for her time, undergoes numerous trials and grows in confidence with her abilities and perspicacity. As an innocent young woman, she deals with embarrassing relations, being beautiful in an image-conscious world, and falling in love with the wonderfully eligible Lord Orville. Burney gives the heroine a surprisingly shrewd opinion of fashionable London. This work, then, is not only satirical concerning the consumerism of this select group, but also aware of the role of women in late-eighteenth century society, paving the way for writers such as Jane Austen, in this comic, touching love story. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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