Family Classics

A masterpiece of American fiction and a best seller upon its publication in 1935, BUtterfield 8 lays bare with brash honesty the unspoken and often shocking truths that lurked beneath the surface of a society still reeling from the effects of the Great Depression. One Sunday morning, Gloria wakes up in a stranger's apartment with nothing but a torn evening dress, stockings, and panties. When she steals a fur coat from the wardrobe to wear home, she unleashes a series of events that can only end in tragedy.

Pregnant with her second child, Martha King finds her marriage to lawyer Austin King more and more frustrating when her husband befriends his young foster cousin, Nora, and, in the process, unwittingly jeopardizes his marriage, career, and place in the community.

When young minister Noah and his dutiful wife arrive at their new post in the hills, they find a gray and wet little town where it's been raining for as long as anyone can remember. Noah's wife is determined to help her husband revive this soggy congregation, but she soon finds her efforts thwarted by her eccentric new neighbors, among them an idiom-wielding Italian hardware store owner, a towering town matriarch, and a lovelorn zookeeper determined to stand by his charges.

A father and three of his seven children work brutal hours in a mine, facing hazards such as landslides, fire, and poisoned air, to scrape together enough money for food. When their lodger, Étienne, shares ideas about a workers' revolt, the family gradually embraces his plans. Soon the settlement is aflame with resolve to strike for better wages and working conditions. Savage and horrifying events ensue as miners clash with management and with each other.

When Arkady Petrovich returns home from college, his father finds his eager, naïve son changed almost beyond recognition, for the impressionable Arkady has fallen under the powerful influence of the friend he has brought home with him. A self-proclaimed nihilist, the ardent young Bazarov shocks Arkady's father with his determination to overthrow the traditional values of society. Vividly capturing the hopes and fears of a changing Russia in the 19th century, Fathers and Sons is Ivan Turgenev's masterpiece. Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

One of the greatest of French novelists, Balzac, trained as a lawyer, was a great judge of human nature. In 1833 he conceived the idea of linking together his novels so that they would comprehend the whole society in a series of books. This plan eventually led to 90 novels and novellas (including more than 2,000 characters) that he called "The Human Comedy". Balzac's huge and ambitious plan drew a picture of the customs, atmosphere, and habits of the bourgeois France.

When Father is taken away unexpectedly, Roberta, Peter, Phyllis and their mother have to leave their comfortable life in London to go and live in a small cottage in the country. The children seek solace in the nearby railway station and make friends with Perks the Porter and the Station Master himself. Each day, Roberta, Peter and Phyllis run down the field to the railway track and wave at the passing London train, sending their love to Father.

Alice Lethbury, a young wife stuck in a dull, passionless marriage, decides to adopt a baby, Jane, with the consent of her reluctant husband. As Jane grows up, it becomes clear that she has entered the Lethburys' lives for a reason.

Eight-year-old Elsie Dinsmore is enjoying a blissful Christmas holiday season with her family and friends when a crisis arises that threatens life as she knows it. She believes that obeying a request her father has made would violate her conscience, and she must refuse him. He, in turn, believes Elsie is being willful and disobedient, and he fails to see her refusal as a matter of her deep, abiding faith in God.

This is the story of unlikely heroine Ophelia Jane Worthington-Whittard who doesn't believe in anything that can't be proven by science. She and her sister Alice are still grieving for their dead mother when their father takes a job in a strange museum in a city where it always snows. On her very first day in the museum Ophelia discovers a boy locked away in a long forgotten room. He is a prisoner of Her Majesty, the Snow Queen. And he has been waiting for Ophelia's help. As Ophelia embarks on an incredible journey to rescue the boy everything that she believes will be tested.

Edna Pontellier is married, twenty-eight, and at a crossroads in her life. She is passionate and artistic but has no one who understands her deep yearnings. She jumps at the chance to spend a summer away from her husband and the heat of New Orleans at a small coastal retreat.

It's Christmas time for Emily Elizabeth and Clifford! While they count down the days to their favorite holiday, Clifford gets a tree, a stocking, and a surprise under the mistletoe.

The entire family is thrown into turmoil, however, when a carriage accident threatens the life and sanity of Grandpa Dinsmore and Aunt Enna, and Violet is burned with a troublesome secret. Everyone in the family is thrilled as young Elsie blossoms under the warmth of new love, but sorrow strikes as Lily is gathered into the arms of the Good Shepherd despite all the efforts to save her life.

Emmy Carter's mother is a prostitute - and her life has made Emmy determined to avoid the same fate. But Emmy is beautiful, so attracts unwanted attention; her mother's protector has his eye on her, as does evil Marcus Armistead, her employer's nephew. Marcus is excited by Emmy's virginity and has her kidnapped, but Emmy hits him over the head and escapes. Marcus, further enraged, kills her mother and becomes even more determined to rape Emmy, but the combined efforts of the local parson and Emmy's young suitor manage to keep her safe from harm.

En esta bellísima historia, Tolstói nos habla del amor y del matrimonio a través de la historia de Masha y Serguéi. Ella es doce años más joven que él, pero entre ambos surge un amor que se consuma en un dichoso matrimonio. Se casa con él, y al principio viven tiempos felices, sin embargo, su felicidad conyugal se verá alterada cuando la pareja se traslade a San Petersburgo y al éxito de Masha en la vida de la alta sociedad le acompañen los celos de su esposo.

The Aldens are visiting a small town known for its harvest festival. The town is beautiful in the fall, but rumors of the harvest moon and a werewolf are keeping people away. Can the Aldens get to the bottom of who - or what - is causing such a stir?

'Twas the night before Christmas. Ebenezer Scrooge was alone, when suddenly he heard a ghostly moan. A ghost it was, took him back to the past, then to the present and future days in hope that Scrooge would mend his ways.

When Mary Lennox was uprooted from her home in India and sent to live with her mysterious uncle, Mr. Craven, at gloomy Misselthwaite Manor, a very contrary Mary assumed the worst. But after exploring the grounds, she discovered that it just takes a little bit of magic to help gardens and friendships bloom.

Die südfranzösische Stadt Plassan ist der Ursprung der bürgerlichen Familien Rougon und Macquart, deren weit verzweigte Familiengeschichte hier ihren Anfang nimmt. Im Zuge des Staatsstreiches vom 2. Dezember 1851 und den damit verbundenen Aufständen in ganz Frankreich, gelingt es einigen Familienmitgliedern durch Intrigen, Betrug und Verrat sich gesellschaftlich in der Kleinstadt zu etablieren; andere stürzen grausam ab.

Jules Verne achieved a triumph when his imagination, fired by Rudolph Wyss’ The Swiss Family Robinson was impelled to carry the story a step farther in The Castaways of the Flag. An island was ever his spiritual home; and no one was ever happier upon one. The Castaways of the Flag is a satisfactory sequel to The Swiss Family Robinson because it is the production of Jules Verne, an original genius, set in motion by Rudolph Wyss. Wherever The Swiss Family Robinson is heard, The Castaways of the Flag should also be heard.