“Can it be that I have not lived as one ought?” suddenly came into his head. “But how not so, when I’ve done everything as it should be done?”― Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.

A gripping, vivid novel which brings to life Europe in the Middle Ages, in all its beauty and horror.

A selection of Maupassants brilliant glittering stories set in the Parisian beau monde and Normandy countryside

This is as much a mystery as the Immaculate Conception, which of itself must make a doctor an unbeliever.’ A stunning pair of short stories about faith and sacrificial love.

Here are stories lyrical and savage poems epic and intimate essays satirical and inspirational and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.

This pessimistic case study of bourgeois society’s ills after the French Revolution tells the intertwined stories of Eugène de Rastignac, an ambitious but penniless young man, and old Goriot, a father who sacrifices everything for his children.

The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons―the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young …