Includes 7 superbly crafted tales of love and marriage, divorce and other topics: "Souls Belated," "The Pelican," "The Muse's Tragedy," "Expiation," "The Dilettante," "Xingu," and "The Other Two."
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton Classic story of wasted lives, set against a bleak New England background. Superbly delineated characters in a hauntingly grim tale of thwarted love. Considered by many to be Wharton's masterpiece.
The Beast in the Jungle and Other Stories by Henry James One of James's finest moments, "The Beast in the Jungle" is a portrait of a man alienated from life and love. Also includes "The Jolly Corner" and "The Altar of the Dead." Note.
Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster This early Forster novel is an exciting and eventful tale that intriguingly contrasts English and Italian lives and sensibilities, revealing, as ever, Forster's deep fascination with all of human experience.
Great Short Stories by American Women by Candace Ward Choice collection of 13 stories includes "Life in the Iron Mills" by Rebecca Harding Davis, Zora Neale Hurston's "Sweat," plus superb fiction by Kate Chopin, Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, many others.
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton Deeply moving study of the tyrannical and rigid requirements of New York high society in the late 19th century and the effect of those strictures on the lives of three people.
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe The moving abolitionist novel that fueled the fire of the human rights debate in 1852 and melodramatically condemned the institution of slavery through powerfully realized characters.