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First published serially in “St. Nicholas Magazine” from 1885 to 1886, “Little Lord Fauntleroy” was the first children’s book by the acclaimed English-American author Francis Hodgson Burnett, who would go on to write “A Little Princess” and “The Secret Garden”. “Little Lord Fauntleroy” is the story of seven-year-old Cedric Errol, who is living in poverty with his mother in New York after the death of his father, Captain Cedric Errol. Little Cedric suddenly inherits the title of “Lord Fauntleroy” and becomes the heir of his grouchy and very rich grandfather after the death of his father’s older brothers. Cedric’s grandfather never approved of his son marrying an American and had disinherited him. He demands that Cedric come alone to England so that he may transform Cedric in anticipation of his future role as the lord of the manor. However, it is Cedric who transforms his grandfather with his kind-heartedness, generosity, and innocent belief in the goodness of others. Cedric softens his grandfather’s hard heart and helps to finally mend the rift between his mother and his grandfather. This children’s classic was immensely popular after its publication and remains a charming and heart-warming tale of kindness and forgiveness to this day. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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First published in 1889, “Three Men in a Boat” by Jerome K. Jerome is the humorous story of three Englishman who find themselves in need of a vacation and decide to take a holiday boating on the Thames. The three friends, Jerome (referred to as “J”), George, and Harris, pile into a boat with food, clothes, and a fox terrier named Montmorency, and set off from London to see the English countryside. “Three Men in a Boat” is a first-class comic masterpiece, as the well-to-do upper-class gentlemen are beset by a series of comic mishaps, including unreliable weather forecasts, culinary challenges, and troublesome tow ropes. A commercial success and instant classic when published, “Three Men in a Boat” has been translated into numerous languages and continues to inspire fans to embark on a recreation of the trio’s iconic boating trip, where they discover very little has changed in over a hundred years. Jerome K. Jerome's masterful tale is a hilarious critique of the self-centered behavior of the English upper classes typical of Victorian England and still continues to entertain and delight audiences until today. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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First published in Russian in 1866, “The Gambler”, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, is a gripping narrative of the dangers of gambling. As was common with Dostoyevsky’s other writings, he draws upon his own life in a semi-autobiographical way. Dostoyevksy himself suffered from a compulsion to gambling and had to complete “The Gambler” under a strict deadline to pay off his own debts. These first-hand experiences bring a depth of realism to the novel and to his portrayal of the main character, Alexei Ivanovitch, a young man who is working as a tutor to a Russian family living in a German hotel. This wealthy family has money troubles of their own and as a result of his association with them and their reckless attitude towards money, Alexei becomes addicted to the game of roulette. Alexei wins and loses vast sums of money in his pursuit of love, wealth, and acceptance by the aristocracy that he works for. Yet, like his winnings, these relationships are transitory, superficial, and ultimately sacrificed for his addiction. “The Gambler” is an insightful look at the compulsive nature of the gambling addict and the tragic consequences of such an addiction. This edition follows the translation of C. J. Hogarth and includes a biographical afterword.

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First published in 1922, “The Enchanted April” by British author Elizabeth von Arnim is the story of four very different English women who spend a month vacationing together in Italy at the Tuscan Villa, San Salvatore. Each finding themselves in need of a holiday from their dreary lives back home, the four women rent an Italian castle on the Mediterranean coast and experience a reawakening in life through their shared realizations and experiences there. While the women vary widely in temperament and taste each struggle with relationships in their lives. Rose Arbuthnot and Lotty Wilkins think they have little in common, but discover they are both doing their best to make their unhappy marriages work. The beautiful but remote Lady Caroline Dester is reexamining the value of her upper crust life in London after losing her only true love in World War I and the elderly and emotionally distant Mrs. Fisher rediscovers the value of friendship and human connection. “The Enchanted April” has remained a popular and heart-warming tale concerning the struggles of life and the rejuvenating power of beauty, hope, and love, in facing those struggles. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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The final novel by Charles Dickens, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”, was unfinished at the time of his death in 1870. The novel revolves around John Jasper, choirmaster and opium addict, who is the guardian of his orphaned nephew Edwin Drood. Before the death of his parents, Edwin was promised to marry Rosa Bud, another orphan, but their affections have cooled upon reaching adulthood. Rosa has also attracted the affections of Jasper, her teacher, as well as Neville Landless, a fellow orphan and the twin brother of Rosa’s friend, Helena. While Rosa and Edwin have ended their engagement on pleasant terms and remain friendly, Neville is jealous and angry and it takes him and Edwin sometime to settle their differences over Rosa. At the same time, Jasper lives a shadowy and secret double life in opium dens and also harbors hidden desires for Rosa, his pupil. Suddenly and mysteriously Edwin disappears and Neville is quickly accused of murdering him, though Jasper is also a likely suspect. While uncompleted, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” is a fascinating tale whose ending, as Dickens may have intended, will remain forever shrouded in mystery and speculation. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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“I am glad that I am alive, if, for no other reason, because of the joy of reading this book.”—Jack London. First published in 1915, “Victory” follows the character Axel Heyst, a Swede who renounces the world and lives on a remote island in the Malay Archipelago. He is shaken from his self-imposed isolation, however, after a chance encounter with Lena, a young Englishwoman in a touring ladies’ orchestra. Axel comes to her aid when she is accosted by a loutish hotel owner. They seek refuge on his island, and Axel begins to see the value of life as a relationship with Lena unfolds. All too soon, however, three men set on revenge for the hotel owner, arrive on the island. The events that follow spiral into a devastating tragedy, and Conrad ultimately compels readers to decide on what constitutes defeat or victory in this characteristically descriptive, powerful narrative. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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Pierre Choderlos de Laclos produced “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”, or “Dangerous Liaisons”, in an effort to “write a work which departed from the ordinary, which made a noise, and which would remain on this earth after his death”. He did just that. First published in 1782 in four volumes, “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” was an immediate success, and has since inspired a large number of literary commentaries, plays, and films. The novel is an epistolary piece, written as letters between members of the French noble class. An egotistical battle for control ensues between the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, with the promise of sexual gratification to the victor. The primary victims are Cecile, a naïve but pretty young girl, her admirer, the Chavelier Danceny, and Madame de Tourvel, a virtuous married young woman. This scandalous web of sexual desire, intrigue, infidelity, the struggle for power, and the corruption of the French upper class is a masterpiece from one of the most subtle and skillful novelists of the 18th Century.

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William Wells Brown, who is credited with being the first African American novelist, crafts a groundbreaking piece of American fiction in his 1853 work “Clotel; Or, The President’s Daughter”. The long untouched subject matter of mixed race identity during the antebellum South is here treated with great deft and bravery. William Wells Brown confronts the hypocrisy of slavery, examining the detrimental effects it has on society. Even more direct is Brown’s confrontation of Thomas Jefferson’s controversial intimacy with his slaves, a relationship which bore many mixed race children. In “Clotel”, we follow the story of Clotel, a mixed-race daughter of Thomas Jefferson. Through this central character we witness the struggles of a person of mixed race in dealing with their split identity in a racially divided society. In her quest for freedom we find an ill-fated soul caught up in the difficulty of race relations in early American life. This tragic story brilliantly explores the complex history of slavery in the first part of the 19th century.

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Charles Brockden Brown was an American novelist, historian, and editor, who has been recognized as one of the first American novelists and an early proponent of the Gothic romance genre. Brown’s works are a combination of his own Romantic imagination and Enlightenment ideals, and are often characterized by elements of the sensational and violent. His work also reflects an interest in the early feminist movement, and frequently draws on Enlightenment-era medical writings by authors like Erasmus Darwin. “Wieland”, Brown’s most highly regarded novel, is deemed to be the first gothic novel by an American. This epistolary and highly psychological novel details the horrible events that befall siblings Clara and Theodore Wieland and their family. “Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist” was published in fragments in Brown’s Literary Magazine later, and tells the story of Carwin prior to his involvement in “Wieland”. This unfinished story clarifies some of the uncertainty surrounding Carwin’s character in “Wieland”. These two works, Brown’s most important, are collected together here in this volume.

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Henry James’s 1904 novel “The Golden Bowl” is the story of Prince Amerigo, an impoverished but charismatic Italian nobleman who travels to London to marry Maggie Verver, the only child of the immensely wealthy American financier and art collector, Adam Verver. While in London, Prince Amerigo meets his former mistress, Charlotte Stant, who is Maggie’s close friend and soon to marry Maggie’s widowed father. Amerigo and the beautiful Charlotte find themselves often in each other’s company and the two are soon engaged in an adulterous affair. While Maggie is at first naïve and unaware of her husband and friend’s connection, she becomes wiser and more assertive as the novel progresses. No longer content to let her husband and his mistress have their way to detriment of both her father’s marriage and her own, she adeptly maneuvers everyone concerned till she finally has them where she wants them. Considered by some to be the last work of Henry James’ “major phase”, which was marked by the publication of “The Wings of the Dove” in 1902 and “The Ambassadors” in 1903, “The Golden Bowl” is a complex and insightful examination of marriage, family, and adultery. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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