"Basil Ransom, an attractive young Mississippi lawyer, is on a visit to his cousin Olive, a wealthy feminist, in Boston when he accompanies her to a meeting on the subject of women's emancipation. One of the speakers is Verena Tarrant, and although he disapproves of all she claims to stand for, Basil is immediately captivated by her and sets about 'reforming' her with his traditional views. But Olive has already made Verena her protégée, and soon...
"The greatest classic of Japanese literature, sometimes called the world's first real novel, The Tale of Genji was completed by Lady Murasaki in the early years of the eleventh century... A lady of the Japanese imperial court, Lady Murasaki found in that court and its life the subject for a delicate and detailed study of the essential movements of the human heart."--Front cover flap.
Dead souls describes the gambits of a quixotic opportunist in provincial Russia who sets out to buy deceased serfs at a low-cost from their owners. Chichikov requires evidence of "property," since he wishes to marry an heiress, and is able to amass the "souls" because their owners must pay taxes on them until they are officially declared dead in the rolls of the next census. An affable and personable business man, he is wined and dined in luxurious...
The story is set in rural Shropshire shortly after the Napoleonic Wars. It is narrated by the central character, Prue Sarn, whose life is blighted by having a harelip. Only the weaver, Kester Woodseaves, perceives the beauty of her character, but Prue cannot believe herself worthy of him. Her brother Gideon is overridingly ambitious to attain wealth and power, regardless of who suffers while he does so. Gideon is set to wed his sweetheart Jancis,...
Presents the satiric novel that many claim as their favorite among Maugham's works, about a man born of English peasants who gained fame only after he became old.
