Classic Love

Can one man sleep his way through the alphabet? Here’s the wager—it’s as easy as A-B-C. Make love to twenty-six women across the alphabet, from “Abigail” to “Zelda.” Our hero beds divas and debutantes, playgirls and politicos, evangelists and entrepreneurs, throughout the boudoirs...

Mary hears on the radio that the British warship her husband is on has sunk, leaving few survivors. Waiting for daybreak to bring news, Mary escapes into memories of her past. Sincere and engaging - a ‘hot-water bottle’ novel - Mariana by Monica Dickens is full of sharply remembered detail...

A bestselling and award-winning debut collection from one of South Korea's most prominent young writers. In crisp, unembellished prose, Eun-young Choi paints intimate portraits of the lives of young women in South Korea, balancing the personal with the political. In the title story, a fraught...

For every fan who has wished Jane Austen herself might have enjoyed the romance and happy ending she so carefully crafted for all her heroines: The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen, by Shannon Winslow. What if the tale Jane Austen told in her last, most poignant novel was inspired by momentous events in her own life? Did she in fact intend Persuasion to stand forever in homage to her one true love?

With swordfights and romance, adventure and treachery set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, this is the book that made Sabatini famous. Andre-Louis Moreau has good prospects as a young lawyer, but an unfair duel with the ruthlessly cruel Count de La Tour d'Azyr leaves Andre-Louis' best friend dead and Andre-Louis himself a fugitive from the King's justice. While incognito, he becomes both a wildly popular actor and a firebrand of the Revolution.

A major literary event: available for the first time in an English language edition, an early autobiographical novel from the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Gulag Archipelago—“among the greatest Russian writers (Wall Street Journal)—which chronicles his service and Soviet Russia’s...

Belinda is the ultimate fantasy. A golden-haired object of desire, fresh and uninhibited. But to Jeremy Walker, a handsome and famous 44-year-old illustrator of children's books, Belinda is a forbidden passion. She's sweet sixteen - and the most seductive woman he's ever known...

A dramatic portrait of the dissolution of a marriage, written with brutal and lyrical precision, and nominated for the Nordic Prize. Jon, who is losing his wife to another man, is trying to understand what happened to his Great Love, by working, painfully, to see the story from her perspective...

The Metamorphosis begins as its protagonist, Gregor Samsa, wakes up one morning to find that he has become a huge insect. This change is understandably difficult for Gregor, not to mention his family and business. It ends up costing him his life.

Love and Freindship [sic] is a juvenile story by Jane Austen, dated 1790, when Austen was 14 years old. Love and Freindship (the misspelling is one of many in the story) is clearly a parody of romantic novels Austen read as a child. This is clear even from the subtitle, "Deceived in Freindship and Betrayed in Love," which neatly undercuts the title. Written in epistolary form, it resembles a fairy tale as much as anything else, featuring wild coincidences and turns of fortune, but Austen is determined to lampoon the conventions of romantic stories.

Thought-provoking, lyrical, and timeless, this collection lingers in the imagination long after the final word. Press play now and let Bliss and Other Stories transport you into a world where every glance, gesture, and thought brims with meaning, subtle revelation, and unforgettable beauty.

Raymond Carver called Anton Chekhov "the greatest short story writer who has ever lived". This unequivocal verdict on Chekhov's genius has been echoed many times by writers as diverse as Katherine Mansfield, Somerset Maugham, John Cheever, and Tobias Wolf. While his popularity as a playwright has sometimes overshadowed his achievements in prose, the importance of Chekhov's stories is now recognized by readers as well as by fellow authors. Their themes - alienation, the absurdity and tragedy of human existence - have as much relevance today as when they were written.

What if the brightest charm hid the darkest truths beneath it? In Je ne Parle pas Français by Katherine Mansfield, you step into the mind of Raoul Duquette, a cynical Parisian narrator whose sharp observations, moral contradictions, and unsettling humor reveal far more about himself than about the people he judges.

Enjoy these classic love poems by women authors you may know and poets you may be encountering for the first time. The journey begins in adoration, endures trials, and ends with a hint of past wonders.

As the First World War takes hold, a young girl comes of age in a troubled London. Capturing the longing, excitement and poignant comedy of adolescence, The Beautiful Visit is the debut novel from the beloved author of the Cazalet Chronicles, Elizabeth Jane Howard. 'She helps us to do the...

A ragtag band of misfits gets swept up in Holy Land politics in Travelers Along the Way by Aminah Mae Safi, a thrilling YA remix of the classic legend of Robin Hood. Jerusalem, 1192. The Third Crusade rages on. Rahma al-Hud loyally followed her elder sister Zeena into the war over the Holy Land...

It only takes a moment for a life to change forever. Ethan Denton is a lucky man. Most things have gone his way, and being granted full custody of Nate, his young son and “North Star,” has given him a near-perfect life. On a crisp winter morning just before the start of deer season, Ethan...

The Battle of Life: A Love Story is an 1846 novel by Charles Dickens. It is the fourth of his five "Christmas Books", coming after The Cricket on the Hearth and followed by The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain. The setting is an English village that stands on the site of an historic battle. Some characters refer to the battle as a metaphor for the struggles of life, hence the title. Battle is the only one of the five Christmas Books that has no supernatural or explicitly religious elements. (One scene takes place at Christmas time, but it is not the final scene.)

In the year leading up to the First World War, four people’s lives intertwine, only to be pulled apart. A landmark of gay and pacifist literature, Rose Allatini’s story foregrounding conscientious objectors and queer love amidst wartime turmoil was banned months after its publication. At a...

Romance blossoms when Catherine, a 47-year-old widow, and the 25-year-old Christopher meet at repeated performances of a poorly attended play. However, 1920s London society is shocked by such a match, its disapproval shared by Catherine’s daughter and son-in-law, the curate Stephen. As events unfold, can their relationship survive the opprobrium of those around them as well as the disparity in their ages?