When their father is taken away by strangers, the lives of three children are altered forever. They move with their mother to a cottage by a railway. The railway becomes their playground, and they befriend the rail workers and passengers who eventually help to reunite them with their father.

The Scarlet Letter was originally published in 1850 and was a bestseller at the time. This powerful American story of secret love and sin, of spiritual hypocrisy and moral courage, and of female bravery during a time when women were rarely respected, resonated with readers then and continues to do so now.

Set in the staunchly Puritan world of 1600s Boston Hester Prynne has committed adultery and given birth to an illegitimate daughter,

A beautiful young man, Dorian Gray, sits for a portrait. In the garden of the artist's house he falls into conversation with Lord Wotton, who convinces him that only beauty is worth pursuing. Gray wishes that his portrait, and not himself, might age and show the effects of time. His wish comes true, and wild, hedonistic pursuits horribly disfigure the portrait. This Faustian story caused much controversy when it was first published, as it discusses

A cautionary tale wrapped up in a Christmas bow, Charles Dickens' novella, A Christmas Carol, has touched readers for decades with its study of moneylender Ebenezer Scrooge, who on Christmas Eve is forced to examine his bitter, greedy life with help from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.

Through the Ghosts Scrooge sees all of the opportunities he has missed, all the unhappiness he has created, and all the misery and tragedy

Avonlea's new schoolma'am, at the age of 15, is barely older then her pupils. Anne earnestly strives to win the affection of every student while maintaining the decorum of her new role. Her irrepressible spirit and lively imagination, however, often sidetrack her into amusing mischief and mortifying scrapes, all eventually remedied by the warmth of friendship and goodwill.
In this classic sequel to Anne of Green Gables, the author once

Nick Carraway meets Jay Gatsby, a young millionaire with shady business connections and who is love with Daisy Buchanan, Nick's cousin.

Shakespeare's comedy play Much Ado About Nothing pivots around the impediments to love for young betrothed Hero and Claudio when Hero is falsely accused of infidelity and the "lover's trap" set for the arrogant and assured Benedick who has sworn of marriage and his gentle adversary Beatrice. The merry war between Benedick and Beatrice with the promptings of their friends soon dissolves into farcical love, while Hero's supposed infidelity

Emma stands a little apart from Jane Austen's other novels. It is perhaps the most self-aware, socially critical and ironic of all her works. Her protagonist, Emma Woodhouse, is a beautiful, rich girl who is also spoiled, proud and blinded by her own situation in life. She begins to understand herself and life a little better when her romantic schemes - charitable good works to those around her - become entangled in tensions of class and

Although best known for his novel Call of the Wild, Jack London was a talented and prolific writer whose fiction spanned multiple genres. For its time, London's work also displayed a rare degree of experimentation with narrative form. Although Smoke Bellew is a traditional novel on many levels, it also plays with structure in interesting ways. Some literary experts point out that Smoke Bellew may more accurately be described