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Aaron's Rod

D. H. Lawrence
Flutist Aaron Sisson is caught up in the aftermath of WWI. A lost soul, he attempts to find himself in the comfort of bar-room talk and alcohol and a woman. Moving on, he spends time with a mining executive's relatives. But he finds the family a stuffy middle-class lot, bored with each other and themselves. He leaves his wife and children and strikes out for the open road. During a playing engagement at an opera performance, he reunites with the mining executive's family. Talk is of love and war, none of it very satisfying to anyone. At dinner with one of the women, Aaron reveals that he is indifferent to most things in life and just wants to be left alone. So it goes with this lost soul among lost souls. One wonders how he will ever find himself or happiness.
Romance of Two Worlds, A

Corelli, Marie
The book starts with a young heroine telling her story of coping with a debilitating illness that includes depression and thoughts of suicide. Her doctor is unable to help her and sends her off on a holiday where she meets a mystical character by the name of Raffaello Cellini, an Italian artist. Cellini offers her a strange potion which immediately puts her into a tranquil slumber, in which she experiences divine visions. This is the beginning of her journey to health, both spiritual and physical.
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Olive

Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock
Inspired by Jane Eyre, Dinah Maria Craik's 1850 novel, Olive, was one of the first to feature a disabled central character. 'Slightly deformed' from birth, Olive believes that she will never be able to marry like other women, so she devotes her life to her art, her mother, and above all, her religion. It takes a dark secret from the past and a new, fascinating acquaintance, to make her realize what her life could be.
Genius

Theodore Dreiser
"The only figure of literary repute who ever rated The "Genius" as first among the novels of Theodore Dreiser was Theodore Dreiser," literary historian Larzer Ziff observed. His fifth published novel, The "Genius" was actually the third novel Dreiser began work on and, as his most autobiographical work, remained the novel closest to his heart. He worked on it in stages over a four-year period. The credit he felt he deserved (and did not receive) for his honesty about sexual urges and damaged relationships and his original publisher's decision not to stand by the novel in the face of criticism contributed to his lifelong feeling that the book had never been given its due. After An American Tragedy, it is his longest book; the final draft ran to over 700 pages in a close-set type. While the protagonist of the book is in many ways a portrait of its author, Dreiser also loosely based Eugene Witla on some of the painters, artists working in an Ashcan realist style, whom he knew in New York at the time and whose studios he visited. The most likely candidate for a model is Everett Shinn, who painted urban scenes of the kind attributed to Witla and who was known as a promiscuous man.

The novel is divided intro three sections: "Youth," "Struggle," and "Revolt." In Book I, Eugene Witla (like Sister Carrie, in Dreiser's earlier novel) escapes the confines of the small town in Illinois where he has been raised to make his way in Chicago. There he studies painting at the Chicago Art Institute and enjoys the excitement of the city and his first sexual experiences. He becomes engaged to a young woman, Angela Blue, with whom he is intimate before their marriage but, at all times, he finds it difficult to remain faithful. A life based on monogamy seems beyond him. In Book II, Eugene and Angela move to New York City, where he makes a name for himself in the art world as an urban realist but finds his marriage with the increasingly conventional Angela painfully limiting. They travel to Europe, he suffers a breakdown, and they return to New York where Eugene attempts to make a better living in the advertising world. Book III chronicles the deterioration of Eugene and Angela's marriage as he begins an affair with Suzanne Dale. (Wikipedia)
Man and Wife

Wilkie Collins
This 1870 novel by Wilkie Collins centers around a peculiarity of Scottish law of that time, according to which any man and woman 'who were legally entitled to marry and who asserted that they were married before witnesses, or in writing, were regarded in Scotland as being married in law.' This strange law causes the characters Arnold and Geoffrey both possibly accidentally marrying Anne, though one is engaged to another woman and the other is searching for a more wealthy wife to accommodate his lifestyle. In these circumstances, Anne needs to catch an actual husband in order to save her reputation...
King Coal

Upton Sinclair
King Coal is a book by Upton Sinclair, first published in 1917, that exposes the dirty working conditions in the coal mining industry in the western United States during the 1910s. As in an earlier work, The Jungle, Sinclair expresses his socialist viewpoints from the perspective of a single protagonist, Hal Warner, caught up in the schemes and plots of the oppressive American capitalist system. The book itself is based on the 1914-1915 Colorado coal strikes.
History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great

Henry Fielding
This novel is sometimes thought of as [Fielding's] first because he almost certainly began composing it before he wrote Shamela and Joseph Andrews. It is a satire of Walpole that draws a parallel between Walpole and Jonathan Wild, the infamous gang leader and highwayman. He implicitly compares the Whig party in Parliament with a gang of thieves being run by Walpole, whose constant desire to be a "Great Man" (a common epithet for Walpole) should culminate only in the antithesis of greatness: being hanged.
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Paul and Virginia

Saint-Pierre, Jacques-Henri Bernardin de
Paul and Virginia was first published in 1787. The novel's title characters are very good friends since birth who fall in love, but sadly die when the ship Le Saint-Geran is wrecked. The story is set in the island of Mauritius under French rule, then named Île de France, which the author had visited. Written on the eve of the French Revolution, the novel is hailed as Bernardin's finest work. It records the fate of a child of nature corrupted by the false, artificial sentimentality that prevailed at the time among the upper classes of France.
Simple Story, A

Inchbald, Elizabeth
The story could really have been simple: Miss Milner, who is admired for her beauty and charm, could have been a socialite, marry a respectable and good looking man and be happy in the standards of her time. But if it was so, why would there be a book? Miss Milner, beautiful and charming as she is, announces her wish to marry her guardian, a catholic priest. But women in the 18th century do not declare their wishes or speak about their passions, and- after all- he is a catholic priest… And if he finds a way to marry her, is this her road to happiness?
Fanny Herself

Ferber, Edna
[i]Fanny Herself[/i] is the story of Fanny Brandeis, a young girl coming of age in the Midwest at the turn of the 20th century. It is generally considered to have been based on Ferber’s own experiences growing up in Appleton, Wisconsin. Regarded by many as the “greatest American woman novelist of her day,” Ferber would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize in a 1925 for her book [i]So Big[/i], and is also the author of Showboat and Cimarron, which along with other of her later works were successfully adapted for stage and screen.
Cricket on the Hearth, The

Dickens, Charles
John Peerybingle, a carrier, lives with his wife Dot (who is much younger than he), their baby, their nanny Tilly Slowboy, and a mysterious lodger. A cricket constantly chirps on the hearth and acts as a guardian angel to the family, at one point assuming a human voice to warn John that his suspicions that Dot is having an affair with the lodger are wrong.
The life of the Peerybingles frequently intersects with that of Caleb Plummer, a poor toymaker employed by the miser Mr. Tackleton. Caleb has a blind daughter Bertha and a son Edward, who travelled to South America and seemingly never returned. Tackleton is now on the eve of marrying Edward's sweetheart, May.
In the end, the lodger is revealed to be none other than Edward. Tackleton's heart is melted by the Christmas season, like Ebeneezer Scrooge, and surrenders May to marry her true love. It is suggested ambiguously that Bertha regains her sight at the end. (Wikipedia)
More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter by Robert Louis and Fanny van de Grift Stevenson

Stevenson, Robert Louis
More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter (1885) is a collection of linked short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Vandegrift. Three gentlemen of little means and no occupation meet in the Bohemian Cigar Divan, a tobacco shop with couches to sit and smoke. They read of a reward offered for information as to the whereabouts of a man with big moustaches and a sealskin coat. They agree among themselves that they will separate and search for the man so as to claim the reward. The stories that follow concern their adventures. They meet again in the cigar divan in an epilogue to their travels.
Growth of the Soil

Knut Hamsun
Growth of the Soil (Markens Grøde) is the novel by Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. The essential elements of this novel are expressed in the words of the English translator W.W. Worster in his footnote in December 1920: 'It is the life story of a man in the wilds, the genesis and gradual development of a homestead, the unit of humanity, in the unfilled, uncleared tracts that still remain in the Norwegian Highlands. It is an epic of earth; the history of a microcosm. Its dominant note is one of patient strength and simplicity; the mainstay of its working is the tacit, stern, yet loving alliance between Nature and the Man who faces her himself, trusting to himself and her for the physical means of life, and the spiritual contentment with life which she must grant if he be worthy. . .The story is epic in its magnitude, in its calm, steady progress and unhurrying rhythm, in its vast and intimate humanity. The author looks upon his characters with a great, all-tolerant sympathy, aloof yet kindly, as a god.'
Younger Sister

Catherine Anne Hubback
Emma Watson, the youngest child of six from a poor family, was sent away as a child to be raised by her wealthy aunt and uncle. When her uncle dies and her aunt remarries, Emma (now a pretty, well-educated, and opinionated young woman) returns home to help care for her ailing father and reconnect with her estranged siblings. She quickly must learn how to behave among the less affluent and navigate her way through the affections of many young men vying for her attention.

The Younger Sister is the first published completion of Jane Austen's unfinished novel The Watsons.
Daughter of the Commandant

Alexander Pushkin
"The Daughter of the Commandant" (better known as "The Captain's Daughter") is a historical novel by the Russian writer Alexander Pushkin, and is considered to be his finest prose work. The novel is a romanticized account of Pugachev's Rebellion in 1773-1774.

The 17-year-old Pyotr Andreyich is sent by his father to military service in a remote Russian outpost, where he leans honor and love while being caught up in a violent uprising of tribal groups against the imperial government.
Captives of the Flame

Samuel R. Delany
Chip Delany's 2nd novel -- the first is The Jewels of Aptor (1962) -- published by Ace Books in 1963. Set in the 35th Century, the survivors of a nuclear war live on the coastline and an island in a kingdom ruled by a royal family in disrepair. A young victim -- the son of a wealthy merchant -- of their wrath becomes a working-class hero as he fights to get back his good name, aided by a disaffected member of the royal family. This was later rewritten as Out of The Dead City by Delany as part of the Towers Trilogy, an early masterpiece, IMO.
Helen

Maria Edgeworth
Maria Edgeworth was a prolific Anglo-Irish writer of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe. She held advanced views, for a woman of her time, on estate management, politics and education.

Here is what one biographer of Maria Edgeworth has to say about Helen.
"It was in 1830–when already past sixty years of age–that Miss Edgeworth set to work upon the last, and what, at the time it was written, was possibly the most successful of all her novels–namely, Helen. Any reader who will take it down from its shelf, and glance over it, will quickly perceive that it is a novel of a very much more modern type than any other by the same hand. In reading it we are aware that the eighteenth century has at last dropped out of sight, and that we are well out upon the nineteenth, not indeed as yet 'Victorian', but in a sort of midway region, on the road to that superior epoch."
Outlet

Andy Adams
Andy Adams worked as a cowboy on trail drives from Texas for eight years. This is an account of a drive when he was the foreman of a herd of Texas cattle being driven to Montana. Expect the same quality writing as found in other books by Adams.
No Thoroughfare

Dickens, Charles
Two boys from the Foundling Hospital are given the same name, with disastrous consequences in adulthood. Two associates, wishing to right the wrong, are commissioned to find a missing heir. Their quest takes them from fungous wine cellars in the City of London to the sunshine of the Mediterranean—across the Alps in winter. Danger and treachery would prevail were it not for the courage of the heroine and the faithful company servant. - The story contains crafted descriptions, well-drawn and diverse characters, eerie and exotic backgrounds, mystery, semi-concealed identities, brinkmanship with death, romance, the eventual triumph of Good over Evil, and many other elements expected in classic Dickens. - First published in 1867 there are thematic parallels with other books from Dickens' mature writings, including Little Dorrit (1857) and especially Our Mutual Friend (1865). The Listener will decide if this story yields insights into The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished 1870). - Wilkie Collings collaborated with Charles Dickens to produce this ‘Christmas’ book and the stage play of the same name. In the book Collins assisted in Act 1 and Act 4; Collins scripted most of the stage play with Dickens’ assistance. If this book were released today it would be splashed "THE BOOK OF THE FILM".
When William Came

Saki
We have had many novels about alternate histories, often of the 'What would have happened if Hitler had won the war' type and this is another - except that this one is set in 1913 and the 'William' of the title is that old bogeyman 'Kaiser Bill'. For some reason, at the height of Britain's power, the fear of invasion was common at that time. (See 'The Riddle of the Sands', 'The Battle of Dorking', 'Spies of the Kaiser' or even 'The War of the Worlds')
WARNING:- Contains mild anti-semitism and jingoism typical of the period
Shoes and Stockings: A Collection of Short Stories

Louisa May Alcott
Here are tales of love and war, modesty and frivolity, laughter and tears. Louisa May Alcott wrote many, many short stories. This collection shares but 6/7 of them.
Chance

Conrad, Joseph
Apparently a two part story about a Damsel and a Knight, perhaps a damsel who depends upon the kindness of strangers. It was originally entitled "Dynamite" and first published by installments in the New York Herald. The book itself was the biggest commercial success for Conrad up until that time, 1913. It allowed Conrad for the first time to settle his financial affairs. The author's disdain for people who live on the land is apparent. A new understanding of the word "enthusiastic" is promulgated. And it is a love story. Let us see how the tale goes.
Battle of Life

Charles Dickens
While "The Battle of Life" is one of Charles Dickens' Christmas Books - his annual release of a story just before Christmas - this one breaks the tradition by not being concerned with Christmas. Rather, its subtitle, "A Love Story", reveals more of the plot.

The major events of this book take place on land that once was a battleground. That is just a backdrop for Dickens' idea of the real battle of life - finding and winning the right partner, so that life will go on to the next generation. The family that lives there is rather confused in its affections and intentions regarding who should end up with whom. We are thrust into the fight to make things work out, and, happily for a Christmas book, Dickens leads us on to a happy ending.
And Then the Town Took Off

Richard Wilson
The town of Superior, Ohio, certainly was living up to its name! In what was undoubtedly the most spectacular feat of the century, it simply picked itself up one night and rose two full miles above Earth! Radio messages stated simply that Superior had seceded from Earth. But Don Cort, stranded on that rising town, was beginning to suspect that nothing was simple about Superior except its citizens. Calmly they accepted their rise in the world as being due to one of their local townspeople, a crackpot professor. But after a couple of weeks of floating around, it began to be obvious that the professor had no idea how to get them down. So then it was up to Cort: either find a way to anchor Superior, or spend the rest of his days on the smallest—and the nuttiest—planet in the galaxy!
Prince and Betty

P. G. Wodehouse
The Prince and Betty is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse. It was originally published in Ainslee's Magazine in the United States in January 1912, and, in a slightly different form, as a serial in Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom between February and April 1912, before being published in book form, in the UK only, by Mills & Boon, London, on 1 May that year. A substantially different version, which incorporated the plot of Psmith, Journalist, was published in the US by W. J. Watt, New York on 14 February 1912, and is the only version now widely available. (This is the version presented here.) The story tells of how unscrupulous millionaire Benjamin Scobell decides to build a casino on the small Mediterranean island of Mervo, dragging in the unwitting heir to the throne to help. Little does he know that his stepdaughter Betty has history with the young man John Maude, and his schemes lead to a rift between the newly-reunited pair. (Introduction from Wikipedia)
Devil's Pool, The

Sand, George
George Sand (the pen name of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin 1804-1876) is famous for flaunting the convertions of behaviour expected of women of her standing in France at the time and for her numerous romantic liaisons including her long standing affair with Frederic Chopin. The Devil’s Pool (published in 1846 as La Mare au Diable) is one of several short pastoral novels drawn from her childhood experiences in the rural French region of Berri. It tells the story of a young widower, Germain, who, at the insistence of his father-in-law, sets out to remarry so that he will have someone to help raise his three young children.
Louis Lambert

Honoré de Balzac

Louis Lambert is an 1832 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), included in the Études philosophiques section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Set mostly in a school at Vendôme, it examines the life and theories of a boy genius fascinated by the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772).

Balzac wrote Louis Lambert during the summer of 1832 while he was staying with friends at the Château de Saché, and published three editions with three different titles. The novel contains a minimal plot, focusing mostly on the metaphysical ideas of its boy-genius protagonist and his only friend (eventually revealed to be Balzac himself). Although it is not a significant example of the realist style for which Balzac became famous, the novel provides insight into the author’s own childhood. Specific details and events from the author’s life – including punishment from teachers and social ostracism – suggest a fictionalized autobiography.

While he was a student at Vendôme, Balzac wrote an essay called Traité de la Volonté (”Treatise on the Will”); it is described in the novel as being written by Louis Lambert. The essay discusses the philosophy of Swedenborg and others, although Balzac did not explore many of the metaphysical concepts until much later in his life. Ideas analyzed in the essay and elsewhere in the novel include the split between inward and outward existence; the presence of angels and spiritual enlightenment; and the interplay between genius and madness.

Although critics panned the novel, Balzac remained steadfast in his belief that it provided an important look at philosophy, especially metaphysics.
These Twain

Arnold Bennett
Hilda is saved from destitution by Edwin Clayhanger who marries her. The two, with Hilda's son by her disastrous 'marriage' to George Cannon, are living in Bursley. Edwin does not enjoy an entirely happy marriage with Hilda because of her outspokenness. Hilda has strong opinions on matters which at the time were considered to be a male preserve – for example, on Edwin’s business. She also does things without telling him. As a consequence, Edwin has his doubts about their marriage and is angered by his wife just as he had been by his father. The book shows how Hilda and Edwin attempt to compromise, its title being a play on words: does it mean "these two" or "these separate"? It is suggested that they had both become perhaps too set in their ways before their marriage, even though each was in some way 'saved' by their union.
Deal With The Devil

Eden Phillpotts
A Deal with the Devil is a classic tale with a humorous twist. We find that on the night preceeding his 100th birthday Grandpapa, a cantankerous yet loveable sort, has made a deal with the devil, which his granddaughter, in part, will pay.
Miss Billy Married

Eleanor H. Porter
At the opening to this second sequel to Miss Billy (Miss Billy, Miss Billy's Decision, Miss Billy Married), we find Bertram and Billy finally at the altar. Will wedded bliss ensue and are the patter of little feet on the horizon? Or is misunderstanding and heartache in the cards again? Find out in Miss Billy Married!
Coming of Bill (or: Their Mutual Child; or: The White Hope)

P. G. Wodehouse
The Coming of Bill tells the story of Kirk Winfield, his marriage to Ruth, and their child called Bill. Bill's upbringing is threatened by the interference of Ruth's busybody writer aunt, Mrs Lora Delane Porter
Youth

Leo Tolstoy
Youth is the third in Tolstoy's trilogy of three autobiographical novels, including Childhood and Boyhood, published in a literary journal during the 1850s.
Job, The

Lewis, Sinclair
'The Job' is an early work by American novelist Sinclair Lewis. It is considered an early declaration of the rights of working women. The focus is on the main character, Una Golden, who desires to establish herself in a legitimate occupation while balancing the eventual need for marriage. The story takes place in the early 1900-1920's and takes Una from a small Pennsylvania town to New York. Forced to work due to family illness, Una shows a talent for the traditional male bastion of commercial real estate and, while valued by her company, she struggles to achieve the same status of her male coworkers. On a parallel track, her quest for traditional romance and love is important but her unique role as a working woman... makes it tough to find an appropriate suitor.
Covered Wagon

Emerson Hough
"Look at 'em come, Jesse! More and more! Must be forty or fifty families." This is an old-fashioned adventure tale set on the Oregon Trail, just before the California Gold Rush. It is the story of a wagon train bound for the west, and the conflict which arises due to of a love triangle. Indian fights, buffalo hunts, dangerous river crossings and other dangers of the trail add to a gripping and entertaining yarn.
Heart and Science: A Story of the Present Time

Wilkie Collins
Heart and Science is one of Wilkie Collins' didactic novels. It is the story of young doctor Ovid Vere, who fights for his love against all resistance of his family and their immediate circle of acquaintances. The novel features a large inheritance, a secret engagement, and an evil stepmother, but what makes the novel truly remarkable is that Wilkie Collins, who was always very fond of animals, speaks out in this volume against animal cruelty in the sciences.
Lord Tony's Wife

Baroness Emma Orczy
Another adventure of the Scarlet pimpernel! As the title suggests, it follows the story of Lord Tony and his wife, Yvonne. It is full of suspense adventure and romance. Lord Tony and Yvonne elope after some disturbing happenings including an angry mob and an assault on Yvonne by her own father. Later a man set on revenge and with the help of Chauvelin steal Yvonne away, and Lord Tony must go to the Scarlet Pimpernel for assistance. Will they be able to save her and her father from the clutches of Pierre Adet and Chauvelin? Will Lord Tony ever even see his wife again?
Intrusion of Jimmy

P. G. Wodehouse
The action begins with playboy bachelor Jimmy Pitt in New York; having fallen in love on a transatlantic liner, he befriends a small-time burglar and breaks into a police captain's house as a result of a bet. The cast of characters head to England, and from there on it is a typically Wodehousian romantic farce, set at the stately Dreever Castle, overflowing with imposters, detectives, crooks, scheming lovers and conniving aunts.(from Wikipedia)
History of the Caliph Vathek, The

Beckford, William
This is one of the earliest Gothic novels. The Caliph Vathek is one of the wealthiest and most powerful men who ever lived. But this is not enough for him. He seeks also forbidden knowledge, and doesn't care who he has to hurt to get it. Aided by his depraved mother Carathis, Vathek proceeds to damn himself, and those around him.
Wanderer, The

Burney, Fanny
This is the fourth and final novel by Fanny Burney, the author of Evelina, Cecilia, and Camilla. "Who is "Miss Ellis?" Why did she board a ship from France to England at the beginning of the French revolution? Anyway, the loss of her purse made this strange "wanderer" dependent upon the charity of some good people and, of course, bad ones. But she always comforts herself by reminding herself that it's better than "what might have been..." This is not only a mystery, not at all. It's also a romance which reminds readers of novels by Jane Austen. Published in 1814, the same year as Mansfield Park, it shares some themes with it. It is also very modern, speaking freely of independent women (like Elinor), weak male characters, and unrequited love. Yes, a love triangle is lurking behind the scenes, and, in this case, it is not clear if the happy ending is suitable. At the time when it was published, critics did not like this political novel, and said that the difficulties which "Ellis" faced while trying to support herself were clearly fictional. However, don't let this deter you. It's a wonderful and mature novel, ahead of it's time by about 100 years. Happy reading!
Passionate Friends, The

Wells, H. G.
H. G. Wells is best known for his science fiction, but some of his greatest works were in other genres. The Passionate Friends is a love story. It also is a story about dreams, despair, jealousy, sex, the struggle against social convention, the future of civilization, and much much more. It is written by a father to his son, "not indeed to the child you are now, but to the man you are going to be." He writes it so that one day, perhaps when he is dead, his grown son can read it and rediscover him as a friend and equal. In the process, he tries to make sense of a lifetime's experiences and distill some kind of wisdom from them. It is quite simply a beautiful book, both inspiring and heartbreaking.
Unleavened Bread

Grant, Robert
A businessman's selfish wife forces her way into upper society.
Harrington

Maria Edgeworth
Harrington follows the protagonist of the same name who tries to explore his memories in order to understand his views on Jews. It begins with Harrington's early images of Jews, which are formed by a collection stories told by his maid, of Simon the Jew. His parents further strengthen this image by rewarding Harrington's antisemitism. Only after going to public school and coming face to face with the bully Mowbray are Harrington's views on Jews changed. Mowbray's tormenting of a Jewish peddler Jacob causes this sudden shift in thinking. Then with the introduction of Berenice Montenero, an American Jew who moved to England with her wealthy father, all does not run smoothly.
Winsome Winnie and other New Nonsense Novels

Leacock, Stephen
Eight silly stories by Canadian humourist Stephen Leacock.
Autumn Leaves, Original Pieces in Prose and Verse

Abbot, Anna Wales
The pieces gathered into this volume were, with two exceptions, written for the entertainment of a private circle, without any view to publication. The editor would express her thanks to the writers, who, at her solicitation, have allowed them to be printed. They are published with the hope of aiding a work of charity,—the establishment of an Agency for the benefit of the poor in Cambridge,—to which the proceeds of the sale will be devoted.
Mudfog and Other Sketches

Dickens, Charles
The Mudfog Papers was written by Victorian era novelist Charles Dickens and published from 1837–38 in the monthly literary serial Bentley's Miscellany, which he then edited. They were first published as a book as 'The Mudfog Papers and Other Sketches. The Mudfog Papers relates the proceedings of the fictional 'The Mudfog Society for the Advancement of Everything', a Pickwickian parody of the British Association for the Advancement of Science founded in York in 1831, one of the numerous Victorian learned societies dedicated to the advancement of Science. Like The Pickwick Papers, The Mudfog Papers claim affinity with Parliamentary reports, memoirs, and posthumous papers. The serial was illustrated by George Cruikshank. The fictional town of Mudfog was based on Chatham in Kent, where Dickens spent part of his youth. Mudfog was described by Dickens as being the town where Oliver Twist was born and spent his early years when the story first appeared in 'Bentley's Miscellany' in February 1837, making it a continuation of The Mudfog Papers, but this allusion was removed when the story was printed in book form. At the conclusion of his first contribution, about the mayor of the provincial town of Mudfog, Dickens explains that "this is the first time we have published any of our gleanings from this particular source," referring to 'The Mudfog Papers'. He also suggests that "at some future period, we may venture to open the chronicles of Mudfog."
Pit

Frank Norris
The Trilogy of The Epic of the Wheat includes the following novels:
THE OCTOPUS, a Story of California.
THE PIT, a Story of Chicago.
THE WOLF, a Story of Europe.
The first novel, "The Octopus," deals with the war between the wheat grower and the Railroad Trust; the second, "The Pit," is the fictitious narrative of a "deal" in the Chicago wheat pit; while the third, "The Wolf," will probably have for its pivotal episode the relieving of a famine in an Old World community.
New Magdalen

Wilkie Collins
Mercy Merrick is living a difficult life on the streets, but when she meets the young and charismatic clergyman Julian Gray, she desires to leave this life behind and start afresh. She packs her things and volunteers as a nurse in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. It is, however, very difficult to leave your life behind, and even harder to start a new life in a society so dependent on social connections. So when she sees that Grace Roseberry is killed by a shell, Mercy assumes Grace's identity and social position...
Stories by English Authors: London

F. Anstey
This book collects seven short stories by some of England's best turn-of-the-(last)-century's writers. The collection begins with the humor of J. M. Barrie, of Peter Pan fame. A later and equally humorous story is by Israel Zangwill, also widely known for his exposures of social and economic problems. The immensely popular Marie Corelli’s contribution is the last, and among the most moving. (NB: Though a less prominent writer than some represented here, Corelli was so popular that her literary sales exceeded those of Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells and Rudyard Kipling – combined.)
In short, these writers offer great variety as to style, tone and topic, ranging from breezy tales to poignant proofs of the kindness and grace that can underlie the deepest tragedies. But while diverse, these writers have in common that they clearly know and clearly express genuine emotional truth. They hold our attention by conveying their stories honestly. They have no need for the tricks and devices of melodrama, shallow emotionalism, or shocking plot twists.
This accomplishment – this evidence of high literary quality – is all the more impressive in historical and social context. They lived in a time of widespread suffering. Yet even as most of these writers begin by drawing our attention to terrible and extensive suffering (and go on by holding it there), they end by keeping our attention in writing clearly and convincingly about important things they really know - leaving us moved, convinced, and a little richer for the experience.
Fifth Queen, The

Ford, Ford Madox
The Fifth Queen trilogy is a series of connected historical novels by English novelist Ford Madox Ford. It consists of three novels, The Fifth Queen; And How She Came to Court (1906), Privy Seal (1907) and The Fifth Queen Crowned (1908), which present a highly fictionalized account of Katharine Howard's marriage to King Henry VIII.
That Affair at Elizabeth

Burton Egbert Stevenson
A detective novel set in turn-of-the-century New York City, in which a young lawyer plays the sleuth. Packed with plot twists (and the ubiquitous romantic complication, of course).
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