Author: Agatha Christie Why Didn’t They Ask Evans: Was it a misstep that sent a handsome stranger plummeting to his death from a cliff? Or something more sinister? Fun-loving adventurers Bobby Jones and Frances Derwent’s suspicions are certainly roused–especially since the man’s dying words were so peculiar: Why didn’t they ask Evans? Bobby and Frances would love…
Author: Marcel Proust Within A Budding Grove: First published in 1919, Within a Budding Grove was awarded the Prix Goncourt, bringing the author immediate fame. In this second volume of Remembrance of Things Past, the narrator turns from the childhood reminiscences of Swann’s Way to memories of his adolescence. Having gradually become indifferent to Swann’s…
Author: D. H. Lawrence Women In Love: “An analytical study of sexual depravity” and “an epic of vice” were two of the critical expressions which greeted the publication of “Women in Love”. Yet Lawrence regarded this novel as his best book and F. R. Leavis considered it Lawrence’s supreme masterpiece. The novel tells of the…
Author: Emily Brontë Wuthering Heights: Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine’s father. After Mr Earnshaw’s death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine’s brother Hindley and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves…
Author: John Steinbeck The Wayward Bus: In his first novel to follow the publication of his enormous success, The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck’s vision comes to life in this imaginative and unsentimental chronicle of a bus traveling California’s back roads, transporting the lost and the lonely, the good and the greedy, the stupid and the scheming, the…
Author: John Steinbeck The Short Reign of Pippin IV: Steinbeck’s only work of political satire turns the French Revolution on its head, as amateur astronomer Pippin Heristal is drafted in to rule the unruly French. Enchanting comedy ensues as Steinbeck creates the most hilarious royal court ever around the brief, bold reign of the corduroy-clad…
Author: John Steinbeck The Long Valley: This classic collection of short stories serves as the ideal introduction to Steinbeck’s work. Set in the idyllic Salinas Valley in California, where simple people farm the land and struggle to find a place for themselves in the world, these stories reflect many of the concerns key to Steinbeck…
Author: John Steinbeck The Pastures of Heaven: Each of these delightful interconnected tales is devoted to a family living in a fertile valley on the outskirts of Monterey, California, and the effects that one particular family has on them all. Steinbeck tackles two important literary traditions here; American naturalism, with its focus on the conflict…
Author: John Steinbeck Sweet Thursday: In Monterey, on the California coast, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those days that are just naturally bad. Returning to the scene of Cannery Row, the weedy lots and junk heaps and flophouses of Monterey, John Steinbeck once more brings to…
Author: John Steinbeck From the mid-1650s through the 1660s, Henry Morgan, a pirate and outlaw of legendary viciousness, ruled the Spanish Main. He ravaged the coasts of Cuba and America, striking terror wherever he went. Morgan was obsessive. He had two driving ambitions: to possess the beautiful woman called La Santa Roja and to conquer…
