In this classic satire of small-town America, beautiful young Carol Kennicott comes to Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, with dreams of transforming the provincial old town into a place of beauty and culture. But she runs into a wall of bigotry, hypocrisy and complacency. Main Street established Lewis as a major American novelist.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin First published in 1899, this controversial novel of a New Orleans wife's search for love outside a stifling marriage shocked readers. Today, it remains a first-rate narrative with superb characterization. New introductory Note.
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson In a deeply moving collection of interrelated stories, this 1919 American classic illuminates the loneliness and frustrations — spiritual, emotional and artistic — of life in a small town.
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.
The Egg and Other Stories by Sherwood Anderson Published two years after the 1919 masterpiece Winesburg, Ohio, this collection of short stories explores intriguing psychological depths, redolent with personal epiphanies, erotic undercurrents, and bursts of passion among seemingly repressed, inarticulate Midwesterners.
The Octopus by Frank Norris Based on an actual bloody dispute in 1880 between wheat farmers and the Southern Pacific Railroad, this tale of greed, betrayal, and a lust for power is played out during the waning days of the western frontier.
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis A personal crisis jars a middle-aged real estate agent from his complacency in this satire of middle-class American life. Sinclair Lewis' great novel offers a scathing portrait of the consequences of clinging to conventional values.
Lilacs and Other Stories by Kate Chopin From the author of The Awakening comes this collection, which features 24 distinctive tales of Southern life, filled with fascinating characters, idiosyncratic customs, and sometimes shocking details.
