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,...

At the age of ten, Fanny Price leaves the poverty of her Portsmouth home to be brought up among the family of her wealthy uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, in the chilly grandeur of Mansfield Park. There she accepts her lowly status, and gradually falls in love with her cousin Edmund. When the dazzling and sophisticated Henry and Mary Crawford arrive, Fanny watches as her cousins become embroiled in rivalry and sexual jealousy, she struggles to retain her...

An abridged version of Dicken's story of the orphan forced to practice thievery and live a life of crime in nineteenth-century London. Illustrated notes throughout the text explain the historical background of the story.

A horse in nineteenth-century England recounts his experiences with both good and bad masters. Illustrated notes throughout the text explain the historical background of the story.

The adventures of Mowgli, man-child, reared by the jungle wolf packs and educated by wild animals. Includes other classic jungle stories by Kipling.

Classic fiction. On the grounds of Misselthwaite, her Uncle Archibald's estate near the Yorkshire moors, nine-year-old Mary Lennox finds a walled-in garden that has been locked securely for years. With the help of Dickon Sowerby, a young local boy who can charm animals, Mary cultivates the garden, an experiences that both improves her health and raises her spirits. Ultimately, the secret garden proves beneficial not only to to Mary, but to her sickly...

"Heidi is a work of children's fiction published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as Heidi's years of learning and travel and Heidi makes use of what she has learned. It is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care, in the Swiss Alps. It was written as a book "for children and those who love children". Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known...

Pocahontas: a story about a sweet little Indian girl who dramatically saved an Englishman's life? Hardly. This book covers the remarkable life of America's First Lady and depicts the fascinating times of the early 17th century, when a new age was awakening and the brave were seizing it.

A collection of stories, drawn from the tales Kipling's Indian nurses told to him, in which Kipling creates the enchantment of the dawn of the world, when animals could talk and think like people. The laziness of the Camel, the curiosity of the Elephant Child, the cleverness of the hedgehog, the confusions of the Painted Jaguar and all the rest of Kipling's delightful menagerie come alive. Offers Kipling's well-known imaginative animal story collection...