Modern Library

Jane Eyre is a wildly emotional romance, with a lonely heroine and a tormented Byronic hero, pathetic orphans, dark secrets, and a mad-woman in the attic. When it was published in 1847 it was a great popular success. The power of the writing, the masterly handling of narrative, and the boldly realistic style were much admired. But when Currer Bell,...

(A Modern Library E-Book)Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all timeWinner of the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in 1918,The Magnificent Ambersonschronicles the changing fortunes of three generations of an American dynasty. The protagonist of Booth Tarkington's great historical drama is George Amberson...

The Enigmatic Problems of Prof. Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, Ph. D., LL. D., F. R. S., M. D., M. D. S.This irascible genius, this diminutive egghead scientist, known to the world as The Thinking Machine, is no less than the newly rediscovered literary link between Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe: Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, whowith only...

'Like so many fond parents I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child,' wrote Charles Dickens. 'And his name is David Copperfield.'Of all of Dickens's novels, David Copperfield most closely reflects the events of his own life. The story of an abandoned waif who discovers life and love in an indifferent world, this classic tale of childhood is...

(A Modern Library E-Book)The Awakening shocked turn-of-the-century readers and reviewers with its treatment of sex and suicide. In a departure from literary convention, Kate Chopin failed to condemn her heroine's desire for an affair with the son of a Louisiana resort owner, whom she meets on vacation. The power of sensuality, the delusion of...

In 1851 Leo Tolstoy enlisted in the Russian army and was sent to the Caucasus to help defeat the Chechens. During this war a great Avar chieftain, Hadji Murd, broke with the Chechen leader Shamil and fled to the Russians for safety. Months later, while attempting to rescue his family from Shamils prison, Hadji Murd was pursued by those he had...