"It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is one of the best-loved novels of all time--and today, it's more popular than ever. When the wealthy and very eligible bachelor Charles Bingley purchases an estate in the Bennets' small town, he and the beautiful Jane immediately fall in love. But Bingley's arrogant friend Darcy just as quickly alienates Lizzy when she overhears him speaking dismissively of her. These...

"Dickens' tale of Scrooge's discovery of the true Christmas spirit is presented with Rackham's famous pictorial interpretations." --

When David Copperfield's widowed mother remarries, David suffers from his stepfather's abuse. At age 8, David is sent away to a harsh school where the principal routinely beats the students. David's circumstances become even worse when he is removed from school and, at age 10, forced to labor from morning to night in a London warehouse. David then decides to take desperate action. He will run away to his great-aunt, who lives in Dover. Having never...

An abridged version of the story of an orphaned young English woman who accepts employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall, a country estate owned by the mysteriously remote Mr. Rochester.

In their six years of marriage, Elizabeth and Darcy have forged a peaceful, happy life for their family at Pemberley, Darcy's impressive estate. Her father is a regular visitor; her sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; the marriage prospects for Darcy's sister, Georgiana, are favorable. And preparations for their annual autumn ball are proceeding apace. But on the eve of the ball, chaos descends. Lydia Wickham, Elizabeth's disgraced...

When her friend's husband is wrongfully accused of murdering Lord Basil Fortescue, Lady Emily Ashton searches for answers, in a case that risks her own fiancé's life and takes her from London's glittering ballrooms to Vienna's sordid alleys.

Threatened by powerful enemies, William Blackburn, Earl of Ketterham, lives in exile in the Scottish Highlands with his daughter Vanessa. When she comes of age William urges her to return to her mother in England to make her debut. Raised with all the advantages and freedom a boy would have, Vanessa doubts she can fit into the mold of a proper young lady. Still, she agrees to re-enter fashionable society, determined to end the vendetta against her...

Victorian England is a country of sharp divides between rich and poor, but James Lionel Falconer is everything a self-made man should be: handsome, ambitious, charming, and brimming with self-confidence. Even as a boy working in his father's market stall in Camden, he was determined to become a merchant prince. Through hard work and a single-minded determination, James rises quickly through the ranks, with a loving wife, devoted children, and a lofty...

A tale of two turbulent love affairs plays out amidst a tangled web of wealth, corruption, passion and betrayal in 1860s London.