A monoplane falling out of the sky on a hot afternoon can shatter the leisurely peace of a croquet game below. And an injured aviator like Geoffrey Trafford can quite disrupt the calm of a girl like Marjorie Pope. All obstacles - her modern views, her socialism, her cool engagement to the worldly Mr Magnet - are swept away; and, as in every misguided fairy tale, 'the poor dears haven't the shadow of a doubt they will live happily ever after'. Written...

The Eagle's Shadow (1904) is the debut novel of James Branch Cabell, a master of fantasy fiction and an underrated figure of twentieth-century American literature. The novel is significant for being among few of Cabell's works to take place both around the time of its publication and to be set in the contemporary world. Like many of his works, however, it paints an intricate portrait of romance and power, immersing its reader into a fiction more real...

Set in England, The Golden Bowl is Henry James's highly charged exploration of adultery, jealousy, and possession that continues-and challenges? James's characteristic exploration of the battle between American innocence and European experience. Maggie Verver, a young American heiress, and her widowed father, Adam, lead a life of wealth and refinement in London. They are both getting married: Maggie to Prince Amerigo, an impoverished Italian aristocrat,...

The Twelfth Hour (1907) is a novel by Ada Leverson. Having established herself as a journalist and short story writer, Leverson published her debut novel to moderate acclaim. Entertaining and effortlessly witty, Leverson's prose paints a stunning portrait of the Edwardian era, a time when hope and relative peace proved prosperous for many. Often compared to her close friend Oscar Wilde, Leverson, a pioneering Jewish woman, remains a unique and refreshing...

Although author Gertrude Atherton was born and died in her beloved home state of California, she spent a significant amount of time touring and living in Europe. In Ancestors, she puts her experience as a world traveler to good use, spinning an entertaining yarn about several aristocratic English ladies who decide to liven up their twilight years by touring the rough-and-tumble landscape of the American frontier.

Jenny (1911) is a novel by Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset. Published during the author's social realist phase, a period in which her writing focused on the lives of everyday Norwegians, Jenny is a moving portrait of idealism and ambition and a tragic tale of talent gone to seed. Although Undset's later fiction-inspired by her conversion to Catholicism-won her the 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature, her earlier work has remained essential to her legacy. Finding...

Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy is one of the high-water marks of science fiction. It is the monumental story of a Galactic Empire in decline, and the secret society of scientists who seek to shorten the inevitable Dark Age with the science of psychohistory. Now, with the permission -- and blessing -- of the Asimov estate, the epic saga continues. Fate -- and a cruel Emperor's arbitrary power -- have thrust Hari Seldon into the First Ministership...

"The Blue Castle" by Lucy Maud Montgomery is a charming and uplifting novel that enchants readers with its tale of transformation and self-discovery. Set in the early 20th century, the story follows the journey of Valancy Stirling, a timid and repressed woman who dares to break free from societal expectations. Valancy's mundane life takes an unexpected turn when she receives a terminal medical diagnosis. Liberated by the news, she defies her overbearing...

Eleonora Edgar Allan Poe-The story follows an unnamed narrator who lives with his cousin and aunt in "The Valley of the Many-Colored Grass", an idyllic paradise full of fragrant flowers, fantastic trees, and a "River of Silence". It remains untrodden by the footsteps of strangers and so they live isolated but happy. After living like this for fifteen years, "Love entered" the hearts of the narrator and his cousin Eleonora.