When their father dies, the Dashwood women--Mrs. Dashwood, Elinor, Marianne, and young Margaret--are plunged into poverty. Things take a turn for the better when sensible Elinor finds herself falling deeply in love with shy kindred spirit Edward Ferrars. But they are soon split apart when the Dashwoods move to a small cottage on the country estate of distant relatives. There Marianne, an impulsive romantic, is swept off her feet by the seemingly perfect...

Jane Eyre is an orphan, penniless, and plain, but endowed with courage and spirit. She is hired as governess, by Mr. Rochester, a brooding, melancholy man with a fiery temper and a dark secret.

Twenty-seven-year old Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell.

Bleak House, Dickens's most daring experiment in the narration of a complex plot, challenges the reader to make connections - between the fashionable and the outcast, the beautiful and the ugly, the powerful and the victims. Nowhere in Dickens's later novels is his attack on an uncaring society more imaginatively embodied, but nowhere either is the mixture of comedy and angry satire more deftly managed. Bleak House defies a single description. It...

This riveting tale of mistaken identities, surprise revelations, locked rooms, and an unorthodox villain has enthralled readers since first published more than 140 years ago.

Charmingly imperfect Catherine Morland is invited to Northanger Abbey, the home of new friends. Hearing exaggerated reports of her wealth, the head of household General Tilney encourages a marriage between his son Henry and Catherine. Before matters can be settled, Catherine must learn to distinguish between books and real life, false friends and true.

Maisie Dobbs is back and this time she has been hired to find a wealthy grocery magnate's daughter who has fled from home. What seems a simple case at first becomes complicated when Maisie learns of the recent violent deaths of three of the heiress's old friends. Is there a connection between her mysterious disappearance and the murders? Who would kill such charming young women? As Maisie investigates, she discovers that the answers to all her questions...

Linnet Doyle is young, beautiful, and rich. She's the girl who has everything-including the man her best friend loves. Linnet and her new husband take a cruise on the Nile, where they meet the brilliant detective Hercule Poirot. It should be an idyllic trip, yet Poirot has a vague, uneasy feeling that something is dangerously amiss ...