"The War of the Worlds (1898) conjures a terrifying, tentacled race of Martians who devastate the Earth and feed on their human victims while their voracious vegetation, the red weed, spreads over the ruined planet. The novel's hero is trapped in what is left of London, despairing at the destruction of human civilization, when he discovers that life on Earth is more resilient than he had imagined. Adapted by Orson Welles for his notorious 1938 radio...

Nicholas Nickleby, a gentleman's son fallen upon hard times, must set out to make his way in the world. Along the way various older, money-grubbing villains attempt to injure him. Eventually, with the assistance of kind patrons, he and his family achieve economic security and a happy home.

When old drunken sailor Billy Bones dies at the Admiral Benbow Inn, the innkeeper's son Jim Hawkins finds a map amongst his possessions. The local physician, Doctor Livesey, and the squire, Trelawney, believe the map is of an island where the infamous pirate Captain Flint buried his treasure. They decide to buy a ship to go and find it, and Jim decides to join the crew as cabin boy. But also joining Captain Smollett's crew is a one-legged cook with...

A story of a young woman's awakening as an artist and her struggle to escape the constraints of a small town in Colorado.

"The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home. In this fresh, authoritative version--the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman--this stirring tale of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic comes alive in an entirely new way. Written in iambic pentameter verse...

First published in 1910, Howards End is the novel that earned E. M. Forster recognition as a major writer. Soon to be a limited series on Starz. At its heart lie two families, the wealthy and business-minded Wilcoxes and the cultured and idealistic Schlegels. When the beautiful and independent Helen Schlegel begins an impetuous affair with the ardent Paul Wilcox, a series of events is sparked, some very funny, some very tragic, that results in a dispute...

A portrait of a woman who reflects the conventions of her age even as she defies them, and whose transformations embody the decline and coarsening of the American frontier. An American version of Madame Bovary.

"Clyde Griffiths was born poor and is poorly educated, but his prospects begin to improve when he is offered a job by a wealthy uncle who owns a shirt factory. Soon he achieves a managerial position, and despite being warned to stay away from the women he manages, he becomes involved with Roberta, a poor factory worker who falls in love with him. At the same time, he catches the eye of Sondra, the glamorous socialite daughter of another factory owner,...

"In a series of overlapping stories, John Dos Passos's Manhattan Transfer takes us from the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age in a narrative collage that brings the complexity of the urban environment to life. From Wall Street to the waterfront, from the Bowery to the Village, from the city's grand avenues to its gritty alleys, its wealthy power brokers and its struggling immigrants, this kaleidoscopic novel conveys the restless energy of life in Manhattan....