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The first major work of the father of French Naturalism, “Thérèse Raquin” is the shocking and scandalous initial big success in Emile Zola’s impressive writing career. Zola’s third novel was published serially in 1867 and then as a book in 1868. The story revolves around a young woman, Thérèse, who is unhappily married to her first cousin Camille, largely due to her domineering, if well-intentioned, aunt and Camille’s mother, Madame Raquin. Camille, selfish and spoiled by his mother, decides to move the little family to Paris to pursue a career. While there Camille meets up with an old friend, Laurent, who quickly becomes Thérèse's lover. Thérèse and Laurent go to terrible and horrific lengths to be together, but the happy ending they think they will find eludes them and they cannot escape their guilt. It eventually become their undoing, proving them to be the “human beasts” that Zola attempted to portray in a scientifically detached manner in this grisly and intense experimental novel. A sinister story of adultery and murder in lower class Parisian society, “Thérèse Raquin” is a dreadfully realistic novel that remains one of Zola’s most masterful works. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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First appearing as an anonymous serial in «Harper’s Magazine» in 1895, “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc” was Mark Twain’s final novel and was published as a complete work under his name in 1896. The novel is a stark departure from Twain’s usual comic and satirical writings, which is why Twain insisted it initially be published anonymously so that the public would take it seriously. The work is told from the perspective of a fictionalized version of Joan’s page, Louis de Conte, and is divided into three parts based on Joan’s life: her upbringing, her victorious time as a military commander, and her trial at Rouen. The novel is sympathetic to Joan and suggests that the English deliberately rigged the trial of Joan of Arc to convict her of witchcraft and heresy, a view that recent scholarship seems to support. Twain was deeply fascinated by Joan of Arc for much of his life. He considered “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc” to be his best and most important work and spent nearly 15 years researching and working on the novel. The result is a work of sincere and engrossing historical fiction. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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The second novel of Anthony Trollope’s “Chronicles of Barsetshire” series and widely considered one of his best and most popular works, “Barchester Towers” was published in 1857 and continues the story of Mr. Harding and his daughter Eleanor in the beautiful cathedral city of Barchester. Upon the death of the popular and beloved bishop, the citizens fully expect his son, Archdeacon Grantly, to fill the vacancy. Much to their consternation, however, the far more Evangelical Bishop Proudie is given the position. A struggle for power ensues between these traditional and new forces. Mrs. Proudie, the Bishop’s overbearing wife, and the Bishop’s new chaplain, the distasteful and hypocritical Mr. Slope, use their power to control the selection of the new warden of the local hospital over the objections of the rest of the clergy. Clerical reinforcements are called in on both sides and the struggle between the different factions of the church plays out amid the romantic entanglements and dramas of the town’s inhabitants. In the end, the results are more than satisfactory for Eleanor and other citizens of Barchester in this witty comedy. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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Originally published in Polish in 1896 by Nobel Prize-winning author Henryk Sienkiewicz, “Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero" is the story of a love that develops in Rome between a young Christian woman, Lygia, and Marcus Vinicius, a Roman patrician, during the reign of Nero in 64 AD. The title “Quo Vadis” is translated from Latin as “Where are you going?” The quote is a reference to the New Testament verse John 13:36, which states “Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards.” Sienkiewicz exhaustively researched the Roman Empire and the result is an incredibly detailed and believable story. The novel is one of contrasts: the violence of ancient Rome and its gladiators contrasted with the sweet and touching love story between Marcus and Lygia, and the contrast between the piety, poverty, and spirituality of the early Christians with the decadence and waste of Nero and his court. “Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero” is a captivating and timeless tale of love and devotion amid violence and ruin.

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One of the most famous of Honore de Balzac’s novels, “Lost Illusions” paints a faithful picture of the spectacular but superficial world of mid-19th century French society, and the indissoluble relationship between the bourgeois and aristocratic classes. Originally published serially from 1837 to 1843, the story features the main characters Lucien Chardon, a vain and naïve poet and journalist, and his friend and brother-in-law David Sechard, an innovative, hard-working young printer from the provincial Angouleme, with aspirations to revolutionize the production of paper and provide for his new family. The victim of a callous father and unscrupulous competitors, David finds himself in constant turmoil from the reckless exploits and betrayals of his friend Lucien. Lucien, in contrast, is full of grand dreams and aspirations and must leave for Paris as the result of a scandalous affair. He seeks fame and fortune in the city as a poet, while his impetuous actions wreak havoc for many at home. Readers will be drawn to the intertwined stories of these two men in a novel that exemplifies the eternal battles of love, ambition, greed, loyalty, vanity, and betrayal. This edition follows the translation of Ellen Marriage and includes a biographical afterword.

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“The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution” is Mariano Azuela’s fictional account of the Mexican Revolution. Originally published as a newspaper serial in 1915, then as a complete novel in 1920, it was first translated into English in 1929 and was a critical and financial success. Based closely on Azuela’s own experiences, it is the story of Demetrio Macias, a peasant who is mistreated by government soldiers and must flee his home. He runs to the mountains and forms a group of revolutionaries to help overthrow the corrupt dictator, Porfirio Diaz. Macias and his comrades are a motley group of outcasts who are often unsure of what precisely they are fighting for and are sometimes no better than the cruel government they are rebelling against. Rather than a simple struggle of honorable peasants against an unjust government, Azuela’s tale is sophisticated and nuanced and captures in stunning detail the lives of the poor, the passion of the revolutionaries, and the heartbreaking disillusionment they must often face. In Azuela’s depiction of Demetrio Macias, he captures the complicated spirit of the Mexican people and his masterful telling of this conflict between the rebels and the federales helped to establish him as one of Mexico’s preeminent novelists.

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First published in 1923, “The Murder on the Links” is Agatha Christie’s second novel featuring her most famous character, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and his assistant, Arthur Hastings. Poirot and Hastings have traveled to France to meet Paul Renauld, who has recently requested their help. They are too late however and arrive to find him brutally murdered and buried in a newly dug grave near a local golf course. Poirot notices many things about Renauld’s death that are strange and unexplained. Frighteningly, before a suspect is caught, a second man turns up dead in nearly identical circumstances. Poirot clashes with local law enforcement who resent his interference, but he is dogged in his quest to find the truth. Using his uncanny memory for detail and deep understanding of human nature, Poirot soon sees what everyone else has missed and solves this complicated case of greed, blackmail, and deceit. “The Murder on the Links” was published to great critical praise and commercial success, with many reviewers favorably comparing Christie’s writing and the character Poirot to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the iconic Sherlock Holmes. This classic continues to entertain and thrill all fans of mystery and suspense. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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First published in 1923, “Cane” by Jean Toomer, is one of the most significant books to come out of the Harlem Renaissance. Jean Toomer, born Nathaniel Pinchback Toomer in Washington D. C. in 1894, was raised by his mother and her wealthy parents after being abandoned by his father as a baby. While he spent much of his life on the East Coast and at various colleges in Chicago and Wisconsin, he worked for several months in 1921 as a principal at a newly formed agricultural and industrial school for blacks in rural Sparta, Georgia, near where his father had lived. This experience gave Toomer a new-found understanding of the struggle of African-Americans in a society full of white supremacy and racial violence. At the end of his time in the South, Toomer began writing “Cane” and based the book on both the rural and urban lives of blacks in early 20th century America. The novel is organized into a series of loosely and thematically related vignettes and contains numerous literary styles, such as prose, poetry, and dramatic play-like passages of dialogue. “Cane” is a classic masterpiece of modernism and an important testament on the lives and struggles of African-Americans in the early part of the 20th century.

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Renowned English novelist, poet, playwright, and literary critic, Dorothy L. Sayers’s “Whose Body?” was first published in 1923. In this novel we are introduced to her most famous character, the aristocratic amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey. Lord Wimsey has developed an interest in solving crimes and joins in to help his friend Inspector Charles Parker and the official investigation into the disappearance of a famous financier. A naked body is discovered in the bathtub of a nearby flat and it seems to be the missing businessman, but Lord Wimsey cleverly deducts that it is a deceptive look-alike and resolves to get to the bottom of the disappearance and find the connection to the body. In this entertaining and suspenseful mystery set in London after World War I, Lord Wimsey uses his intelligence and intuition to solve the case and escape murder at the hands of the suspect. “Whose Body?” was a commercial and critical success upon its publication and Sayers would go on to write many more thrilling mysteries set in London in the exciting years before World War II and starring her beloved Lord Wimsey and his brilliant mind.

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“The Prophet”, by Lebanese-American poet and artist Kahlil Gibran, is one of the world’s most famous books. Published in 1923, it has been translated into over one hundred languages and has sold nearly ten million copies in the United States. Gibran was born to a poor, Christian family in Lebanon in 1883 and emigrated to America with his mother and siblings at age 12. While he received little education as a child, he became a serious art student as a young adult and studied at the Académie Julian in Paris. Gibran began working on “The Prophet” in 1912 and continued perfecting his most well-known work for over a decade. Gibran was greatly influenced by his Catholic upbringing, as well as Islam, Sufi mystics, Western Classicism and Romanticism, surrealism, and the Bahai Faith. These varied religions are evident in the wisdom that the main character, Al Mustafa, shares with his fellow shipmates in “The Prophet”. The diverse topics he discusses include love, marriage, laws, freedom, pain, friendship, religion, death, and most every important aspect of the human condition. This masterpiece of spiritual wisdom, told in 26 prose and poetry fables, is widely considered one of the most beautiful books ever written.

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