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A towering work of twentieth-century American literature, Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop tells the story of the French Catholic priest Jean Marie Latour, the first bishop of the diocese of New Mexico, which was created after the Mexican-American War. With his friend and vicar Joseph Vaillant, Latour makes the long journey to the newly annexed territory of New Mexico. Once'the cradle of the Faith in the New World,'now old mission churches have fallen into ruin and a reduced priesthood lacks guidance and discipline. Latour and Vaillant encounter a strange and unfamiliar brand of Catholicism, but in time the two priests learn to adjust to the ways of New World Catholics and open their eyes to Native American religious ideas so seemingly distant from their own beliefs.This new annotated edition of Cather's New Mexico masterpiece includes an introductory essay and notes by historian and critic Richard W. Etulain.

“A heart-wrenching story of love, family, and spirituality.” —People MagazineFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Boy Erased, an electrifying, deeply moving novel about the love story between two men in Puritan New England.Cana, Massachusetts: a utopian vision of 18th-century Puritan New England. To the outside world, Reverend Nathaniel Whitfield and his family stand as godly pillars of their small-town community, drawing Christians from across the New World into their fold. One such Christian, physician Arthur Lyman, discovers in the minister's words a love so captivating it transcends language.As the bond between these two men grows more and more passionate, their families must contend with a tangled web of secrets, lies, and judgments which threaten to destroy them in this world and the next. And when the religious ecstasies of the Great Awakening begin to take hold, igniting a new era of zealotry, Nathaniel and Arthur search for a path out of an impossible situation, imagining a future for themselves which has no name. Their wives and children must do the same, looking beyond the known world for a new kind of wilderness, both physical and spiritual.Set during the turbulent historical upheavals which shaped America's destiny and following in the tradition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, All the World Beside reveals the very human lives just beneath the surface of dogmatic belief. Bestselling author Garrard Conley has created a page-turning, vividly imagined historical tale that is both a love story and a crucible.

Dive into the haunting world of'The Scarlet Letter'by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Set in 17th-century Puritan Massachusetts, this novel weaves a gripping tale of love, sin, and redemption. Follow the enigmatic Hester Prynne, marked by the scarlet letter'A'as a symbol of her adulterous affair. As secrets unravel, Reverend Dimmesdale grapples with his own hidden guilt. With vivid prose, Hawthorne explores the consequences of societal judgment and the enduring power of love.'The Scarlet Letter'is a timeless exploration of human nature, morality, and the pursuit of truth that continues to captivate readers today. Delve into this classic and discover the enduring impact of Hester's scarlet letter.ABOUT THE AUTHORNathaniel Hawthorne, born on July 4, 1804, was a renowned American novelist and short story writer. He is best known for his novel'The Scarlet Letter', a classic of American literature. Hawthorne's writing often delved into themes of sin, guilt, and the human condition, and his works are celebrated for their intricate symbolism and psychological depth. Hawthorne's early life was marked by tragedy, as his father died when he was just four years old. He later attended Bowdoin College and befriended future literary giants like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His career took off with the publication of'Twice-Told Tales', a collection of short stories. However, it was'The Scarlet Letter,'published in 1850, that catapulted him to literary stardom. The novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman shamed for bearing an illegitimate child, and explores the harsh moral judgments of Puritan society. Hawthorne's writing style, characterized by its rich prose and exploration of the human soul, left an indelible mark on American literature. He continued to write novels such as'The House of the Seven Gables'and'The Blithedale Romance'.Nathaniel Hawthorne's literary legacy endures, and he remains a key figure in the American literary canon. He passed away on May 19, 1864, leaving behind a body of work that continues to captivate readers with its timeless themes and compelling narratives.

Shortlisted for the National Book Award A story of forbidden love and fugitive faith in the nineteenth century Arctic Circle'Transports readers deep into an unfamiliar world, yet with familiar conflicts and desires. I was absorbed and changed. Absolutely beautiful'Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of Girl With a Pearl Earring In 1851, at a remote village in the Scandinavian tundra, a Lutheran minister known as Mad Lasse tries in vain to convert the native Sámi reindeer herders to his faith. But when one of the most respected herders has a dramatic awakening and dedicates his life to the church, his impetuous son, Ivvár, is left to guard their diminishing herd alone. By chance, he meets Mad Lasse's daughter Willa, and their blossoming infatuation grows into something that ultimately crosses borders―of cultures, of beliefs, and of political divides―as Willa follows the herders on their arduous annual migration north to the sea. Gorgeously written and sweeping in scope, Hanna Pylväinen's The End of Drum-Time immerses readers in a world lit by the northern lights, steeped in age-old rituals, and guided by passions that transcend place and time.

An American classic widely considered to be one of the best novels of the 20th century In 1851, Father Jean Marie Latour becomes the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. While the area is American by law, it's still Mexican and Indian by custom and belief. During the years that follow, Latour tirelessly but gently spreads his faith while facing external and internal obstacles. Loosely based on the life of Jean-Baptiste Lamy and the construction of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, this novel chronicles the events that occur after the capture of the southwest by American forces during the Mexican-American war.

Death Comes for the Archbishop is Willa Cather's best known novel. This epic is a dream like, mythic story of a life lived simply in the southwestern desert. Father Jean Marie Latour is transferred to serve as the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. He finds a vast territory of hills, arroyos, and loneliness. Cather delivers a story of a simple life lived well and full in this her tour de force.

Hazel has never felt normal. Struggling with OCD and anxiety, she isolates herself from others and sticks to rigid routines in order to cope with everyday life. But when she forms an unlikely friendship with Virginia, a church minister, Hazel begins to venture outside her comfort zone. Having rebuilt her own life after a traumatic loss, Virginia has become the backbone of her community, caring for those in need and mentoring disadvantaged young people. Yet a shock accusation threatens to unravel everything she has worked for. Told with warmth, compassion and gentle humour, Braver is an uplifting story about the strength that can be drawn from friendship and community.

Hazel has never felt normal. Struggling with OCD and anxiety, she isolates herself from others and sticks to rigid routines in order to cope with everyday life. But when she forms an unlikely friendship with Virginia, a church minister, Hazel begins to venture outside her comfort zone.Having rebuilt her own life after a traumatic loss, Virginia has become the backbone of her community, caring for those in need and mentoring disadvantaged young people. Yet a shock accusation threatens to unravel everything she has worked for.Told with warmth, compassion and gentle humour, Braver is an uplifting story about the strength that can be drawn from friendship and community.

Father James Ennis's life is fulfilling enough. He's content to tend to the concerns of his aging parishioners at St. Patrick--including the Brennans, whom he suspects are being swindled--and be a loving, if remote, uncle to his sister Lizzie's two children. There's also the matter of coping with the growing insistence of the sinister, unseen presence that has inhabited his life for two decades now. Twenty-seven-year-old Emily Bell is desperate to fit into the rarefied world of her colleagues at the Manhattan auction house where she works. When a weekend jaunt to Newport, Rhode Island, ends in pain and humiliation, it's too much to bear. On a hot, sticky summer night, Father Ennis gets a phone call that upends more than the routine of his days. It brings Jim and Emily together, marking the start of a friendship between savior and saved that will change them both forever. It also marks the beginning of a battle against evils both ordinary and supernatural. Alive with memorable characters, Ryan's finely crafted novel explores the ability of love to forge bonds of friendship, to mend broken places, and to summon the courage to face even the most daunting darkness.

Barry Eric Odell Pain was born at 3 Sydney Street in Cambridge on 28th September 1864. He was one of 4 children.He was educated at Sedbergh School and then Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.In 1889, Cornhill Magazine published his short story ‘The Hundred Gates'. This opened the way for Pain to advance his literary career on several fronts. He became a contributor to Punch and The Speaker, as well as joining the staff of both the Daily Chronicle and Black and White. Pain was also a noted and prominent contributor to The Granta and from 1896 to 1928 a regular contributor to the Windsor Magazine.It is often said that Pain was discovered by Robert Louis Stevenson, who compared his work to that of Guy de Maupassant. It's an apt comparison. Pain was a master of disturbing prose but was also able to inject parody and light comedy into many of his works. A simple premise could in his hands suddenly expand into a world very real but somehow emotionally fraught and on the very edge of darkness.Barry Pain died on 5th May 1928 in Bushey, Hertfordshire.

The Sunday Times (London) Novel of the Year “Luminous…a writer to watch—and to savor.” —Oprah Daily From the award-winning author of West and The Redemption of Galen Pike, a “sublime” (The Toronto Star) and propulsive novel that follows an Englishman seeking refuge in a remote hill town in India who gets caught in the crossfire of local tensions.In this “jewel of a novel” (The Observer), Hilary Byrd flees his demons and the dark undercurrents of contemporary life in England for a former British hill station in south India. Charmed by the foreignness of his new surroundings and by the familiarity of everything the British have left behind, he finds solace in life's simple pleasures, travelling by rickshaw around the small town with his driver Jamshed and staying in a mission house beside the local presbytery where, after a chance meeting, the Padre and his adoptive daughter Priscilla take Hilary under their wing. The Padre is concerned for Priscilla's future, and as Hilary's friendship with the young woman grows, he begins to wonder whether his purpose lies in this new relationship. But religious tensions are brewing and the mission house may not be the safe haven it seems. A “skillful drama of well-meant misunderstandings and cultural divisions” (The Wall Street Journal), The Mission House boldly and imaginatively explores postcolonial ideas in a world fractured between faith and nonbelief, young and old, imperial past and nationalistic present. Tenderly subversive and meticulously crafted, it is a deeply human story of the wonders and terrors of connection in a modern world.

As A.G. Mojtabai's Thirst opens, Lena has been summoned to the bedside of her ailing'brother'Theo, an aging country priest who has started to refuse food and drink. What Lena faces is complicated by the fact that she left the faith long ago. First cousins and closest childhood friends, Theo and Lena were raised in a small Catholic farming community in Texas, named for the village their parents left behind in Germany, a place where all questions, asked and unasked, were answered for all time. The known world was bounded by the iron fence of the parish cemetery containing nearly all their dead. Beyond it lurked disorder, the dragons of unbelief. Now faced with the mysteries of mortality and loss, both are struggling to come to terms with the choices that have defined them. Thirst is a book hard to classify--a novella, certainly, but it is also in part a tone poem, a contemporary book of hours, and a meditation engaging issues of faith and doubt, death and healing. Roger Rosenblatt has said of A.G. Mojtabai:'It is rare to find a gorgeous stylist and a writer of substance yoked in the same artist. Her work shows heart and unsentimental kindness that leaves the reader enlightened and wiser.'

Paris (1898) is a novel by French author Émile Zola. Paris is the final installment in Zola's celebrated Three Cities Trilogy. Published toward the end of Zola's career, the trilogy is an ambitious, sweeping study of one man's struggle with faith in political, religious, and social life. Following his protagonist Abbé Pierre Froment, Zola provides a striking portrait of the soul of modern man in crisis with itself and with an ever-changing world. Paris finds Abbé Froment back in his home city, disheartened in his life and in his faith. Having failed in his quest to reform the Church, he turns his attention from institutional change to helping the poor and sick. As his reputation as an almsgiver grows, he draws the ire of his Church superiors, who are wary of his socialistic ideals. Regardless, Pierre dedicates himself to his subjects, taking in the poverty and destitution of a great city's slums and forgetting his former ambitions. When a near-death experience involving an anarchist bombing brings him back in touch with his estranged brother Guillaume, Froment begins to wonder whether his fate must rely on an institution unwilling, and perhaps unable, to change. In the thrilling conclusion to his Three Cities Trilogy, Zola explores the meaning of faith in a faithless world through the eyes of one good man. This edition of Émile Zola's Paris is a classic work of French literature reimagined for modern readers. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Rome (1896) is a novel by French author Émile Zola. Rome is the second installment in Zola's celebrated Three Cities Trilogy. Published toward the end of Zola's career, the trilogy is an ambitious, sweeping study of one man's struggle with faith in political, religious, and social life. Following his protagonist Abbé Pierre Froment, Zola provides a striking portrait of the soul of modern man in crisis with itself and with an ever-changing world. In Rome, Abbé Froment—inspired by his pilgrimage to the holy city of Lourdes—writes a book on socialistic Catholicism aimed at reforming the Church in order to benefit its most vulnerable subjects. Facing censure from Vatican officials, he travels to the heart of the Catholic world, where he hopes to gain an audience with the Pope in order to vindicate himself. Filled with hope, and perhaps more than a little naïve, Froment believes he can inspire radical institutional changes for the Church. When he gets to Rome, however, he finds himself waiting endlessly for his chance to arrive. As days turn into weeks, and weeks turn to months, Pierre grows tired of the city's ancient beauty, which never fails to remind him of his fate as a member of an institution brought low by its commitment to tradition. Soon, he is faced with a choice—to continue to hope for change, or to change his own, small life. This edition of Émile Zola's Rome is a classic work of French literature reimagined for modern readers. Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

The daughter of one of the South's most famous Baptist preachers discovers a shocking secret about her father that puts her at odds with both her faith and her family in this debut novel. “Spellbinding…Revival Season should be read alongside Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus.” —The Washington Post A New York Times Book Review Editors'ChoiceEvery summer, fifteen-year-old Miriam Horton and her family pack themselves tight in their old minivan and travel through small southern towns for revival season: the time when Miriam's father—one of the South's most famous preachers—holds massive healing services for people desperate to be cured of ailments and disease. But, this summer, the revival season doesn't go as planned, and after one service in which Reverend Horton's healing powers are tested like never before, Miriam witnesses a shocking act of violence that shakes her belief in her father—and her faith. When the Hortons return home, Miriam's confusion only grows as she discovers she might have the power to heal—even though her father and the church have always made it clear that such power is denied to women. Over the course of the following year, Miriam must decide between her faith, her family, and her newfound power that might be able to save others, but if discovered by her father, could destroy Miriam. Celebrating both feminism and faith, Revival Season is a “tender and wise” (Ann Patchett) story of spiritual awakening and disillusionment in a Southern, Black, Evangelical community.

Three wise, witty novels in the saga following the residents of a rural English town in the Victorian era. In the nineteenth century, Anthony Trollope created the fictional world of Barsetshire, the setting for a series of classic novels that addressed love, murder, religion, politics, and the ordinary lives of locals both rich and poor.Framley Parsonage: A young vicar's ambition drives him into a costly bargain in this comedic love story that brilliantly examines the intersection of romance and social class.The Small House at Allington: This witty novel follows the amorous misadventures of a pair of sisters.The Last Chronicle of Barset: A clergyman's daughter falls in love with a member of high society, while her father stands accused of a terrible crime.

Three novels of life and death in a rural town in Victorian England by a master of drama and social satire. In the nineteenth century, Anthony Trollope created the fictional world of Barsetshire, the setting for a series of classic novels that addressed love, murder, religion, politics, and the ordinary lives of locals both rich and poor.The Warden: A well-meaning public official finds himself embroiled in a scandal.Barchester Towers: A bishop passes away, leading the town to become caught up in church politics.Doctor Thorne: A young noble is drawn to a woman, but his family is displeased by her lack of fortune and social standing, in this sweeping love story.

“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”The Scarlet Letter is a literary landmark, chronicling Hester Prynne's affair and the punishment she receives from the Puritan Colony in which she resides.One of the first mass-produced books in America, Nathaniel Hawthorne's masterpiece is a chilling exploration of shame, social stigma, and society's unquenchable thirst for revenge.This cautionary tale, drenched in symbolism and psychological complexity, forces the reader to consider if guilt, sin, and evil are inherent in all of us. A testament to the novels staying power, it is revered and referenced across the artistic spectrum; from film, literature, and television to music, opera, and the theatre; from D. H. Lawrence and Henry James to Childish Gambino and Taylor Swift.The Legend Classics series:Around the World in Eighty DaysThe Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThe Importance of Being EarnestAlice's Adventures in WonderlandThe MetamorphosisThe Railway ChildrenThe Hound of the BaskervillesFrankensteinWuthering HeightsThree Men in a BoatThe Time MachineLittle WomenAnne of Green GablesThe Jungle BookThe Yellow Wallpaper and Other StoriesDraculaA Study in ScarletLeaves of GrassThe Secret GardenThe War of the WorldsA Christmas CarolStrange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr HydeHeart of DarknessThe Scarlet LetterThis Side of ParadiseOliver TwistThe Picture of Dorian GrayTreasure IslandThe Turn of the ScrewThe Adventures of Tom SawyerEmmaThe TrialA Selection of Short Stories by Edgar Allan PoeGrimm Fairy TalesThe AwakeningMrs DallowayGulliver's TravelsThe Castle of OtrantoSilas MarnerHard Times

“This gentle, gorgeously written book may be one of my favorites ever.” —Jenna Bush Hager (A Today show “Read with Jenna” Book Club Selection!) This “moving portrait of love and friendship set against a backdrop of social change” (The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice) traces two married couples whose lives become entangled when the husbands become copastors at a famed New York city congregation in the 1960s.Charles and Lily, James and Nan. They meet in Greenwich Village in 1963 when Charles and James are jointly hired to steward the historic Third Presbyterian Church through turbulent times. Their personal differences however, threaten to tear them apart. Charles is destined to succeed his father as an esteemed professor of history at Harvard, until an unorthodox lecture about faith leads him to ministry. How then, can he fall in love with Lily—fiercely intellectual, elegantly stern—after she tells him with certainty that she will never believe in God? And yet, how can he not? James, the youngest son in a hardscrabble Chicago family, spent much of his youth angry at his alcoholic father and avoiding his anxious mother. Nan grew up in Mississippi, the devout and beloved daughter of a minister and a debutante. James's escape from his desperate circumstances leads him to Nan and, despite his skepticism of hope in all its forms, her gentle, constant faith changes the course of his life. In The Dearly Beloved, Cara wall reminds us of “the power of the novel in its simplest, richest form: bearing intimate witness to human beings grappling with their faith and falling in love,” (Entertainment Weekly, A-) as we follow these two couples through decades of love and friendship, jealousy and understanding, forgiveness and commitment. Against the backdrop of turbulent changes facing the city and the church's congregation, Wall offers a poignant meditation on faith and reason, marriage and children, and the ways we find meaning in our lives. The Dearly Beloved is a gorgeous, wise, and provocative novel that is destined to become a classic.

'Barchester Towers'concerns the leading clergy of the cathedral city of Barchester. The much loved bishop having died, all expectations are that his son, Archdeacon Grantly, will succeed him. Instead, owing to the passage of the power of patronage to a new Prime Minister, a newcomer, the far more Evangelical Bishop Proudie, gains the see. His wife, Mrs Proudie, exercises an undue influence over the new bishop, making herself as well as the bishop unpopular with most of the clergy of the diocese.

This prize-winning novel of a fugitive priest in Mexico is quite simply “Graham Greene's masterpiece” (John Updike, The New York Review of Books). In the Mexican state of Tabasco in the 1930s, all vestiges of Catholicism are being outlawed by the government. As churches are razed, icons are banned, and the price of devotion is execution, an unnamed member of the clergy flees. He's known only as the “whisky priest.” Beset by heretical vices, guilt, and an immoral past, he's torn between self-destruction and self-preservation. Too modest to be a martyr, too stubborn to follow the law, and too craven to take a bullet, he now travels as one of the hunted—attending, in secret, to the spiritual needs of the faithful. When a peasant begs him to return to Tabasco to hear the confessions of a dying man, the whisky priest knows it's a trap. But it's also his duty—and possibly his salvation. Named by Time magazine as one of the hundred best English-language novels written since 1923, The Power and the Glory is “a violent, raw” work on “suffering, strained faith, and ultimate redemption” (The Atlantic).

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM, was born in Kirriemuir, Angus the ninth of ten children on May 9th, 1860. From early formative experiences, Barrie knew that he wished to follow a career as an author. His family wished otherwise and sought to persuade him to choose a profession, such as the ministry. The compromise was that he would attend university to study literature at the University of Edinburgh. He graduated with an M.A. on April 21st, 1882. His first job was as a staff journalist for the Nottingham Journal. The London editor of the St. James's Gazette'liked that Scotch thing'in Barrie's short stories about his mother's early life. They also served as the basis for his first novels. Barrie though was increasingly drawn to working in the theatre. His first play, a biography of Richard Savage, was only performed once and critically panned. Undaunted he immediately followed this with Ibsen's Ghost in 1891, a parody of Ibsen's plays Hedda Gabler and Ghosts. Barrie's third play, Walker, London, in 1892 led to an introduction to his future wife, a young actress by the name of Mary Ansell. The two became friends, and she helped his family to care for him when he fell very ill in 1893 and 1894. Barrie proposed and they were married, in Kirriemuir, on July 9th, 1894. By some accounts the relationship was unconsummated and indeed the couple had no children. The story of Peter Pan had begun to formulate when Barrie became acquainted with the Llewelyn Davis family in 1897, meeting George, Jack and baby Peter with their nanny in London's Kensington Gardens. In 1901 and 1902, Barrie had back-to-back theatre successes with Quality Street and The Admirable Crichton. The character of'Peter Pan'first appeared in The Little White Bird in 1902. This most famous and enduring of his works; Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up had its first stage performance on December 27th, 1904. Peter Pan would overshadow everything written during his career. He continued to write for the rest of his life contributing many other fine and important works. Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM, died of pneumonia on June 19th,1937 and was buried at Kirriemuir next to his parents and two of his siblings.

Henry Fielding was an English writer and dramatist best known for his satirical wit. Fielding is also notable for helping to create London's first police force. Fielding was a prolific author and some of his best known books, including Tom Jones, Joseph Andrews, and Shamela, are still widely read today. Joseph Andrews was Fielding's first novel. The humorous book tells the story of the adventures of a good-natured footman.

“Southernmost engages my most deeply hidden fears and hopes... I love this book, and for it, I love Silas House.” —Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina Asher Sharp is willing to give up everything for what he believes in. Except his son. In the aftermath of a flood that washes away much of a small Tennessee town, evangelical preacher Asher Sharp offers shelter to two gay men. In doing so, he starts to see his life anew—and risks losing everything: his wife, locked into her religious prejudices; his congregation, which shuns Asher after he delivers a passionate sermon in defense of tolerance; and his young son, Justin, caught in the middle of what turns into a bitter custody battle. With no way out but ahead, Asher takes Justin and flees to Key West, where he hopes to find his brother, Luke, whom he'd turned against years ago after Luke came out. And it is there, at the southernmost point of the country, that Asher and Justin discover a new way of thinking about the world, and a new way of understanding love.In this stunning literary page-turner about judgment, courage, heartbreak, and change, bestselling author Silas House wrestles with the limits of belief, and with love and its consequences.

Three keenly observant and profoundly moving novels from an international bestselling British writer “with heart, soul, and a dark and a naughty wit” (The Observer). “Patrick Gale writes with the understated fluency that is the hallmark of contemporary British fiction, and with the irony that usually accompanies it.” In the three novels collected here, the author of the international bestseller Notes from an Exhibition explores the complexities and ironies of men who have removed themselves from society and painful situations, only to find there's no escaping their inner turmoil as they follow individual journeys of growth (Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post). Little Bits of Baby: Robin retreated to a remote island monastery after his childhood playmate, Candida, became engaged to Jake, their irresistibly sexy mutual friend. Now Candida is a mother, and she wants her long-lost friend to be the child's godfather. When he returns to London after his five-year exile, Robin finds the city overwhelming and unfamiliar, but he must fight through his feelings if he is to conclude the unfinished business that originally caused him to flee, and take his place in the world once again. “[A] blithe, original, engaging satire.” —The New York Times Facing the Tank: For American academic Evan Kirby, the English city of Barrowcester—pronounced “Brewster”—is a welcome escape from the US and his brutal divorce. A historian of angels and demons, he has come to explore the cathedral library, but he will find there are no angels in this peculiar little village. From the agnostic bishop and his cannabis cookie–addicted mother to the sex-mad cardinal and the schoolboy with a very unusual relationship with his spaniel, every Barrower has a secret, each more shocking than the last. “[A] ridiculously crazy tour de force... If E. F. Benson, Iris Murdoch and Fay Weldon were to produce a story in some mad collusion, the result might be something like this.” —Publishers Weekly Tree Surgery for Beginners: Armistead Maupin has said of Patrick Gale: “There's really no one he can't inhabit, understand, and forgive.” That certainly applies to the arborist Lawrence Frost in this epic redemptive novel, who is forced into a journey of self-searching after being accused of killing his wife. Following Frost's pilgrimage to the Caribbean and eventually to the redwoods of northern California, Gale compassionately chronicles the healing of “a man whose work as a tree surgeon is a metaphor for the growth of his soul and family” (Publishers Weekly). “Playful and wise. In prose of sparkling precision, Gale serves up misadventures—satirical, farcical and tragic.” —The New York Times

New York Times Bestseller: The “touching and effective” story of an American minister who returns home from WWII with five orphaned Holocaust survivors (The New York Times). Rev. Johnny Fletcher serves wounded soldiers from the battlefield as a military chaplain during World War II. His forté is spiritual solace in the darkest of times, but his life changes when he performs a public heroic act: facing down an angry mob intent on attacking five young Holocaust survivors. Upon learning they have no homes or families to return to, Fletcher decides to bring them to America. To his dismay, his coal-mining community of Barryfield, Pennsylvania, greets this makeshift family with prejudice and distrust. Beneath the town's placid surface run buried religious divisions. Fletcher's commitment to raising the children according to their individual faiths—two Protestant, two Catholic, and one Jewish—meets with horrific levels of intolerance. Dealing with such prejudice turns more sinister still when a local newspaper publisher cynically uses the story for his own purposes. Together with Lorry Summerfield, the beautiful, disillusioned daughter of Barryfield's most powerful figure, Fletcher must try to awaken the townspeople to the better angels of their nature before it's too late.

Ernest William Hornung was born in Middlesbrough, England on 7th June 1866, the third son and youngest of eight children.Although spending most of his life in England and France he spent two years in Australia from 1884 and that experience was to colour and influence much of his written works.His most famous character A. J. Raffles, ‘the gentleman thief', was published first in Cassell's Magazine during 1898 and was to make him famous across the world as the new century dawned.Hornung also wrote several stage plays and was a gifted poet.Spending time with the troops in WWI he published Notes of a Camp-Follower on the Western Front during 1919, a detailed account of his time there. This was especially close to his heart as his son, and only child, was killed at the Second Battle of Ypres on 6th July 1915.Ernest William Hornung died in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the south of France on 22nd March 1921.

Chios Classics brings literature's greatest works back to life for new generations. All our books contain a linked table of contents. The Chronicles of Barsetshire is a series of six novels written by British author Anthony Trollope. The books center around the clergy and the gentry, and the political and social issues that go on between them. The Chronicles of Barsetshire includes the following books: The Warden Barchester Towers Doctor Thorne Framley Parsonage The Small House at Allington The Last Chronicle of Barset

Chios Classics brings literature's greatest works back to life for new generations. All our books contain a linked table of contents. The Warden, published in 1855 by British author Anthony Trollope, is the first novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series. The story follows an elderly warden of Hiram's Hospital.

Chios Classics brings literature's greatest works back to life for new generations. All our books contain a linked table of contents. The Barchester Towers is a classic novel written by British author Anthony Trollope. The plot follows the clergy of the cathedral city of Barchester.

This nineteenth-century classic about the fall of a Methodist minister is “of great interest both as a novel and as a double-barrelled social document” (Manchester Guardian).The Damnation of Theron Ware is the story of a young pastor who comes to a small town in the Adirondacks to spread the gospel. Once he gets there, his congregation slowly leads him down a path of secular enlightenment, encouraging him to question the very same scripture he has devoted his life to. Through new friends, he has encounters beautiful art and music and gains new insights into the world of Darwinian science. But when he finds himself carried away by these fresh new experiences, where they lead him is not at all what he expected. A forerunner of the classic naturalistic novels of the early twentieth century, Harold Frederic's work is considered one of the great American novels of his time. “Containing the realism of Howells, the moral complexity of James, and the comic manner of Mark Twain, the novel—a finer book, incidentally, than Lewis's Elmer Gantry—warrants reading.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch “The combination of delicate mannerliness and merciless savagery with which Frederic sets about abasing Theron is not easy to describe; but, if one could make the admittedly prodigious effort of imagining an Emma written from the point of view of Mr. Elton by an ebullient exile from Utica, New York... some idea of its shocking comprehensivity might be grasped.” —Times Literary Supplement

Margaret Oliphant Wilson was born on April 4th, 1828 to Francis W. Wilson, a clerk, and Margaret Oliphant, at Wallyford, near Musselburgh, East Lothian.Her youth was spent in establishing a writing style and by 1849 she had her first novel published: Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland.Two years later, in 1851 Caleb Field was published and also an invitation to contribute to Blackwood's Magazine; the beginning of a life time business relationship.In May 1852, Margaret married her cousin, Frank Wilson Oliphant. Their marriage produced six children but, tragically, three died in infancy. When her husband developed signs of the dreaded consumption (tuberculosis) they moved to Florence, and then to Rome where, sadly, he died.Margaret was naturally devastated but was also now left without support and only her income from writing to support the family. She returned to England and took up the burden of supporting her three remaining children by her literary activity.Her incredible and prolific work rate increased both her commercial reputation and the size of her reading audience. Tragedy struck again in January 1864 when her only remaining daughter Maggie died.In 1866 she settled at Windsor to be closer to her sons, who were being educated at near-by Eton School.For more than thirty years she pursued a varied literary career but family life continued to bring problems. Cyril Francis, her eldest son, died in 1890. The younger son, Francis, who she nicknamed ‘Cecco', died in 1894.With the last of her children now lost to her, she had little further interest in life. Her health steadily and inexorably declined.Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant died at the age of 69 in Wimbledon on 20th June 1897. She is buried in Eton beside her sons.

Margaret Oliphant Wilson was born on April 4th, 1828 to Francis W. Wilson, a clerk, and Margaret Oliphant, at Wallyford, near Musselburgh, East Lothian.Her youth was spent in establishing a writing style and by 1849 she had her first novel published: Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland.Two years later, in 1851 Caleb Field was published and also an invitation to contribute to Blackwood's Magazine; the beginning of a life time business relationship.In May 1852, Margaret married her cousin, Frank Wilson Oliphant. Their marriage produced six children but, tragically, three died in infancy. When her husband developed signs of the dreaded consumption (tuberculosis) they moved to Florence, and then to Rome where, sadly, he died.Margaret was naturally devastated but was also now left without support and only her income from writing to support the family. She returned to England and took up the burden of supporting her three remaining children by her literary activity.Her incredible and prolific work rate increased both her commercial reputation and the size of her reading audience. Tragedy struck again in January 1864 when her only remaining daughter Maggie died.In 1866 she settled at Windsor to be closer to her sons, who were being educated at near-by Eton School.For more than thirty years she pursued a varied literary career but family life continued to bring problems. Cyril Francis, her eldest son, died in 1890. The younger son, Francis, who she nicknamed ‘Cecco', died in 1894.With the last of her children now lost to her, she had little further interest in life. Her health steadily and inexorably declined.Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant died at the age of 69 in Wimbledon on 20th June 1897. She is buried in Eton beside her sons.

Margaret Oliphant was a 19th century Scottish writer of historical fiction and supernatural tales. Oliphant was a very prolific author, having written over 100 books throughout her career. This edition of The Curate in Charge includes a table of contents.

Karpathos publishes the greatest works of history's greatest authors and collects them all together to make it easy and affordable for readers to have them all at the push of a button. All of our collections include a linked table of contents. Anthony Trollope was a great British author during the Victorian era. Trollope's most famous work is the six novel series titled The Chronicles of Barsetshire. This collection includes the following: The Warden Barchester Towers Doctor Thorne Framley Parsonage The Small House at Allington The Last Chronicle of Barset

“This novel asks us to look at the ‘rules'we might just have to break to heal our own life... Laugh-out-loud and cry-out-loud moments.” —Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times–bestselling author of The Bookshop at Water's End Laugh-out-loud funny and unabashedly uplifting, with just the right amount of Southern sass, USA Today–bestselling author Sally Kilpatrick's wonderful novel centers on one woman's journey from an unhappy marriage to a surprising second chance... On the day Posey Love discovers that her born-again husband has been ministering to some of his flock a little too eagerly, she also learns that he's left her broke and homeless. Posey married Chad ten years ago in hopes of finding the stability her hippie mother couldn't provide. Instead she got all the trappings of security—house, car, seemingly respectable husband—at the price of her freedom. Posey's mother, Lark, accepts her daughter's return home with grace, though her sister can't resist pointing out that being a sweet Southern wife hasn't worked out as planned. And so, with the Seven Deadly Sins as a guide, Posey decides to let loose for once. Envy is easy to check off the list—Posey only has to look at her best friend's adorable baby for that. One very drunken night out takes care of gluttony. As for lust—her long-time friend, John, is suddenly becoming much more than a pal. One by one, Posey is bulldozing through her old beliefs about love, family—and what it really means to be good. And she's finding that breaking a few rules might be the perfect way to heal a heart... Praise for the writing of Sally Kilpatrick “Don't miss this quirky, fun love story. I could

New York Times bestselling author Philip Caputo tells the story of a Franciscan priest struggling to walk a moral path through the shifting and fatal realities of an isolated Mexican villageThe Mexican village of San Patricio is being menaced by a bizarre, cultish drug cartel infamous for its brutality. As the townspeople try to defend themselves by forming a vigilante group, the Mexican army and police have their own ways of fighting back. Into this volatile mix of forces for good and evil (and sometimes both) steps an unlikely broker for peace: Timothy Riordan, an American missionary priest who must decide whether to betray his vows to stop the unspeakable violence and help the people he has pledged to protect. Riordan's fellow expatriate Lisette Moreno serves the region in a different way, as a doctor who makes “house calls” to impoverished settlements, advocating modern medicine to a traditional society wary of outsiders. To gain acceptance, she must keep secret her rocky love affair with artist Pamela Childress, whose troubled emotions lead Moreno to question their relationship.Together, Lisette and Riordan tend to their community. But when Riordan oversteps the bounds of his position, his personal crisis echoes the impossible choices facing a nation beset by instability and bloodshed.Based on actual events, propelled by moral conflict, and animated by a keen and discerning sensibility, Some Rise by Sin demonstrates yet again Philip Caputo's generous and insightful gifts as a storyteller.

From one of our greatest living writers comes a “powerful story” (New York Post) about sin cloaked in sacrament, shame that enforces silence, and the courage of one priest who dares to speak the truth.Sent away from his native Australia to Canada due to his radical preaching against the Vietnam War, apartheid, and other hot button issues, Father Frank Docherty now enjoys a satisfying career as a psychologist and monk. When he returns to Australia to lecture on the future of celibacy and the Catholic Church, he is unwittingly pulled into the lives of two people—a young man and an ex-nun—both of whom claim to have been sexually abused by a prominent monsignor. As a member of the commission investigating sex abuse within the Church, and as a man of character and conscience, Docherty decides he must confront each party involved and try to bring the matter to the attention of both the Church and the secular authorities. What follows will shake him to the core and call into question many of his own choices. This riveting and timely novel is “the work of a richly experienced and compassionate writer [with] an understanding of a deeply wounded culture” (Sydney Morning Herald). It is an exploration of what it is to be a person of faith in the modern world, and of the courage it takes to face the truth about an institution you love.

A well-meaning public official finds himself embroiled in a political scandal in this acclaimed satire. Set in an almshouse in rural England, The Warden features the realism, satire, and biting social commentary that helped establish Anthony Trollope as one of the preeminent English novelists of his day. Septimus Harding is the modest and wizened warden of Hiram's Hospital, a charitable institution funded by money bequeathed to the Diocese of Barchester. When young upstart John Bold stages a campaign that challenges the use of these charitable funds—and Harding's seemingly exorbitant earnings—critics come out of the woodwork to question the hospital's dealings. And making matters personal, Bold is courting Harding's daughter, Eleanor. The first installment in the Chronicles of Barsetshire, The Warden illuminates perceived Christian hypocrisies, yet strikes a light-hearted tone. A clear-eyed and humane work of satire, it brilliantly examines issues just as relevant today as in Victorian England. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

The enduring love story and satirical comedy by a master of the English novel. A young vicar's ambition drives him into a costly bargain in this classic tale from one of the Victorian era's finest novelists. Set in rural England in the fictitious county of Barsetshire, the fourth novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire brilliantly examines the intersection of romance and social class. Mark Robarts is a young, ambitious vicar from the village of Framley, who is living off a benefice provided by Lady Lufton, the mother of his childhood friend, Ludovic. When Robarts decides to try his hand at advancing his wealth and social standing by seeking connections and business opportunities among the county's upper crust, he is pressured into providing a loan to Mr. Sowerby, a member of Parliament and notorious debtor. All the while, Ludovic, Lord Lufton, pursues Robarts's sister Lucy, despite objections from Lady Lufton, who urges her son to enter into courtship with a girl better suited to his title and social class. As debt collectors look to inventory Robarts's possessions—and as Lucy vows to avoid Lord Lufton if she cannot receive his mother's blessing—the stage is set for a hilarious and unforgettable climax. Comparing, Framley Parsonage to the other novels in the Chronicles of Barsetshire, its author noted, “There was much Church, but more love-making.” Filled with realistic detail and delightful turns of phrase, Framley Parsonage is a testament to Anthony Trollope's unique ability to combine high-minded insight with popular appeal. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

The beloved ecclesiastical satire—and enduring political novel—by one of the finest English authors of the nineteenth century. Part social commentary, part high comedy, the second installment in the Chronicles of Barsetshire is one of Anthony Trollope's most beloved novels, and cemented the author's reputation as the preeminent chronicler of Victorian England. When the well-regarded bishop of Barchester Cathedral unexpectedly passes away, the Evangelical Bishop Proudie—rather than the deceased bishop's son, Archdeacon Grantly—gains the episcopal see, enraging the rural English community. With the new bishop's meddlesome wife, Mrs. Proudie, unduly influencing church politics—including an unpopular veto of Septimus Harding's return to the role of warden of Hiram's Hospital—the stage is set for a low-stakes war within the confines of the tiny countryside church. And for his part, the hapless Harding, who served as the protagonist for The Warden, will once again finds an enemy vying for the hand of his now-widowed daughter, Eleanor. Playing on timely doctrinal schisms between adherents of the High Church and Evangelicals, Trollope delightfully lampoons the prevailing ecclesiastical politics of his day. Barchester Towers is Trollope at his best, and its unique composition—fifty-three short but deliciously decadent chapters—makes for a truly pleasurable and engaging read. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

A clergyman's daughter falls in love with a member of high society while her father stands accused of a terrible crime in this classic Victorian novel. The final installment of the Chronicles of Barsetshire provides a fitting close to the delightful tales author Anthony Trollope developed over the course of six unforgettable and influential novels. When Rev. Josiah Crawley, the perpetual curate of Hogglestock, is accused of stealing a check, the allegation hinders the romantic aspirations of his daughter, Grace, who hopes to marry the archdeacon's widowed son, Maj. Henry Grantly. Grace must overcome the objections raised by Grantly's family and win their favor while her father stands accused. The final masterwork in a groundbreaking saga that did much to elevate the status of the English novel, The Last Chronicle of Barset is one of the most beloved novels in the Barsetshire treasury, as well as Trollope's personal favorite. The author ties together many of the loose threads from the series, turning an attentive eye to some of the Chronicles'most beloved—and most loathed—characters. Readers will delight in visiting Barsetshire's cathedral and hamlets one last time. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

The classic tale of romance and betrayal from a distinguished master of English satire. The fifth novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire epitomizes the wit, attention to detail, and thoughtful analysis of class and gender issues that made Anthony Trollope one of Victorian England's most beloved novelists. The Small House at Allington moves away from the earlier books'overt ecclesiastical concerns to focus on a small dower house on the edge of Christopher Dale's estate—Dale being the unlikely Squire of Allington. Dale has made the dower house available to his widowed sister-in-law and her daughters, Bell and Lily, and the novel mainly follows the romantic exploits of the sisters. Lily is engaged to the rising Adolphus Crosbie, who is smitten with Lady Alexandrina de Courcy. Meanwhile, John Eames has pined for Lily for years, but the young clerk seems helpless to wrench her away from her duplicitous beau. In trademark Trollope fashion, The Small House at Allington twists through a number of minor characters and subplots before reaching its satisfying conclusion. Trollope's uncanny ability to derive the universal from the specific has kept his work evergreen well into the twenty-first century, with class struggles and romantic miscues just as relatable today as they were one hundred years ago. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

The breathtaking love story of an illegitimate girl and the young noble who would choose her above all. Gender issues and economic hardships are dealt with deftly in Doctor Thorne, the third novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire, and arguably the saga's finest love story. Set in rural England in the fictitious county of Barsetshire, this Victorian novel is one of Anthony Trollope's most optimistic and engaging works. When Henry Thorne seduces local villager Mary Scatcherd, her stonemason brother, Roger, avenges the indignity by murdering Thorne in cold blood. While Roger goes off to prison, Mary follows a promising suitor to the Americas, leaving her illegitimate daughter in the hands of Dr. Thomas Thorne, brother to her murdered lover. The physician names the girl Mary, after her mother, and in an effort to protect the girl's reputation—and keep her away from her murderous uncle—he keeps her lineage a secret. Later, when young Mary falls in love with the heir of the squire of Greshamsbury, the lad is put in the precarious position of pursuing the girl despite his family's clear desire for him to marry a woman with titles and a much better financial standing. Doctor Thorne is one of the most lighthearted and hopeful tales by Trollope. Addressing the flaws inherent in the social mores of his day, the author, a master of the English novel, entreats readers to consider—as his characters must—profound issues of life, love, and morality. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on March 13th, 1884. His parents had moved to New Zealand in 1877, but his mother, Mildred, unable to settle there, eventually persuaded her husband, Somerset, an Anglican clergyman, to accept another post, this time in New York in 1889. Walpole's early years involved being educated by a Governess until, in 1893, his parents decided he needed an English education and the young Walpole was sent to England. He first attended a preparatory school in Truro. He naturally missed his family but was reasonably happy. A move to Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow in 1895, found him bullied, frightened and miserable. The following year, 1897, the Walpole's returned to England and Walpole was moved to be a day boy at Durham School. His sense of isolation increased. His refuge was the local library and reading. From 1903 to 1906 Walpole studied history at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and there, in 1905, had his first work published, the critical essay'Two Meredithian Heroes'. Walpole was also attempting to cope with and come to terms with his homosexual feelings and to find “that perfect friend”. After a short spell tutoring in Germany and then teaching French at Epsom in 1908 he found the desire to fully immerse himself in the literary world. He moved to London to become a book reviewer for The Standard and to write fiction in his spare time. In 1909, he published his first novel, The Wooden Horse. The book received good reviews but sold little. Better was to come in 1911 when he published Mr Perrin and Mr Traill. In early 1914 Henry James wrote an article for The Times Literary Supplement surveying the younger generation of British novelists. Walpole was greatly encouraged that one of the greatest living authors had publicly ranked him among the finest young British novelists. As war approached, Walpole realised that his poor eyesight would disqualify him from service and accepted an appointment, based in Moscow, reporting for The Saturday Review and The Daily Mail. Although allowed to visit the front in Poland, these dispatches were not enough to stop hostile comments at home that he was not ‘doing his bit'for the war effort. Walpole was ready with a counter; an appointment as a Russian officer, in the Sanitar. He explained they were “part of the Red Cross that does the rough work at the front, carrying men out of the trenches, helping at the base hospitals in every sort of way, doing every kind of rough job”. During a skirmish in June 1915 Walpole rescued a wounded soldier; his Russian comrades refused to help and this meant Walpole had to carry one end of a stretcher, dragging the man to safety. He was awarded the Cross of Saint George. By late 1917 it was clear to Walpole, and the authorities, that his work was at an end. In London Walpole joined the Foreign Office and remained there until resigning in February 1919. For his wartime work he was awarded the CBE in 1918. Walpole continued to write and publish and now also began a career on the highly lucrative lecture tour in the United States. In 1924 Walpole moved to a house, Brackenburn, near Keswick in the Lake District. Although he maintained a flat in Piccadilly, Brackenburn was to be his main home for the rest of his life. At the end of 1924 Walpole met Harold Cheevers, who soon became his friend and constant companion and remained so for the rest of his life; “that perfect friend”. Hollywood, in the shape of MGM, invited him in 1934 to write the script for a film of David Copperfield. He also had a small acting role in the film. In 1937 Walpole was offered a knighthood. He accepted although Kipling, Hardy, Galsworthy had all refused. “I'm not of their class... Besides I shall like being a knight,'he said. Unfortunately his health was undermined by diabetes made worse by the frenetic pace of his life. Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE died of a heart attack at Brackenburn, aged 57 on

A novel of marital bickering—and murder—based on a historical case in Victorian England, from the bestselling author of The Birthday Boys. In the winter of 1884, John Selby Watson, a clergyman and headmaster living in London, writes a series of love letters—including a marriage proposal—to a woman he met only briefly at a social gathering many years before. Though Anne Armstrong does not remember Watson, she is desperate to escape poverty and the miserable life she shares with her sister in a moldy Dublin boarding house. So she accepts. Despite the abrupt circumstances of their engagement—and Anne's initial distaste for her betrothed—several years of happy marriage follow. But Watson soon becomes entrenched in his studies of classical literature, leaving his wife feeling alienated and dejected. Trivial disputes agitate the couple's domestic life with increasing frequency—a letter goes missing, the page of a book gets stained—until the bickering erupts into full-blown abuse and, during a night of drinking, their toxic environment reaches its destructive climax. Based on a real nineteenth-century murder case, Watson's Apology is a speculative novel about the complex psychological motivations that underlie a seemingly straightforward domestic tragedy. Using dark irony and twisted humor, award-winning British author Beryl Bainbridge reveals the terror that resides in the banal, and the suspense that can be found in the mysteries of the mind and heart.

The Scarlet Letter set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

“You'll smile with joy turning every page.” —Barry Hannah Reverend Maloney isn't the world's greatest spiritual advisor. He drinks gin out of his coffee cup and has sex dreams about the Holy Ghost. His best friend Eli isn't perfect either, but he's a chess genius, so Maloney sees an opportunity in traveling around the country so Eli can win major chess tournament after chess tournament (while Maloney pockets Eli's winnings). Chased by a blind headhunter named Jack Cataract, the Reverend, his girlfriend, and Eli race across North America and around New York City, from Washington Square Park to a jetski ride to the great green gown of Lady Liberty. In this uproariously funny, unabashedly sexy, and highly-anticipated novel, Michael Bible delivers a devastating story about the American South, chess tournaments, and one debaucherous reverend's struggle with spirituality. In the spirit of Nicholson Baker and Barry Hannah, Sophia is an adventure with a raunchy and obviously flawed cast of characters, written with enormous heart.

Hailed by Henry James as'the finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in the country,'Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter reaches to our nation's historical and moral roots for the material of great tragedy. Set in an early New England colony, the novel shows the terrible impact a single, passionate act has on the lives of three members of the community: the defiant Hester Prynne; the fiery, tortured Reverend Dimmesdale; and the obsessed, vengeful Chillingworth.With The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne became the first American novelist to forge from our Puritan heritage a universal classic, a masterful exploration of humanity's unending struggle with sin, guilt and pride.

A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy is a novel by the Irish-born English author Laurence Sterne, written and first published in 1768, as Sterne was facing death. In 1765 Laurence Sterne travelled through France and Italy as far south as Naples, and after returning determined to describe his travels from a sentimental point of view. The novel can be seen as an epilogue to the possibly unfinished work The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and also as an answer to Tobias Smollett's decidedly unsentimental Travels through France and Italy. (Sterne met Smollett during his travels in Europe, and strongly objected to his spleen, acerbity and quarrelsomeness. He modeled the character of Smelfungus on him.)The novel was extremely popular and influential and helped establish travel writing as the dominant genre of the second half of the 18th century. Unlike prior travel accounts which stressed classical learning and objective non-personal points of view, A Sentimental Journey emphasized the subjective discussions of personal taste and sentiments, of manners and morals over classical learning. Throughout the 1770s women travel writers began publishing significant numbers of sentimental travel accounts. Sentiment also became a favorite style among those expressing non-mainstream views including political radicalism.The narrator is the Reverend Mr. Yorick, who is slyly represented to guileless readers as Sterne's barely disguised alter ego. The book recounts his various adventures, usually of the amorous type, in a series of self-contained episodes. The book is less eccentric and more elegant in style than Tristram Shandy and was better received by contemporary critics. It was published on February 27, and on March 18 Sterne died.