Delve into the whimsical world of "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman," a groundbreaking novel that revolutionized the literary landscape. Sterne's work, inspired by the likes of Cervantes and John Locke, challenges traditional narrative forms through its playful digressions, innovative typography, and satirical tone. The novel humorously narrates the life of Tristram Shandy, making it a pioneering precursor to stream of consciousness...

At the age of ten, Fanny Price leaves the poverty of her Portsmouth home to be brought up among the family of her wealthy uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, in the chilly grandeur of Mansfield Park. There she accepts her lowly status, and gradually falls in love with her cousin Edmund. When the dazzling and sophisticated Henry and Mary Crawford arrive, Fanny watches as her cousins become embroiled in rivalry and sexual jealousy, she struggles to retain her...

The Travels of Marco Polo is unquestionably one of the world’s greatest travel books and the memoir of the West’s most famous traveler. Composed in 1298, the book describes Marco Polos travels across the entire continent of Asia and provides the only comprehensive travelogue of a European traveler in the East in the Middle Ages. In a magisterial geographical sweep, The Travels of Marco Polo traces Polos epic journey to the farthest reaches of...

Eustacia Vye criss-crosses the wild Egdon Heath, eager to experience life to the full in her quest for 'music, poetry, passion, war'. She marries Clym Yeobright, native of the heath, but his idealism frustrates her romantic ambitions and her discontent draws others into a tangled web of deceit and unhappiness.

After John Harmon is murdered on his way to marry Bella Wilfer and receive a large inheritance, his father's assistant, Nicodemus Boffin, becomes the new heir and adopts Bella, who evokes an uncommon interest from Boffin's assistant.

In Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, one of the towering figures of English literature is revealed with unparalleled immediacy and originality, in a biography to which we owe much of our knowledge of the man himself. Through a series of richly detailed anecdotes, Johnson emerges as a sociable figure, vigorously engaging and fencing with great contemporaries such as Garrick, Goldsmith, Burney and Burke, and of course with Boswell himself. Yet anxieties...

"Discusses the view that individual religious experiences, rather than the tenets of organized religions, form the backbone of religious life."--

Pilgrims on their way to worship at the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket in Canterbury stop at the Tabard Inn. They represent a cross-section of medieval English society. To amuse themselves on their journey, they agree that each will tall a tale that really tells much about each individual. This is often called the first book of peotry written in English.