Barnes Noble: 2826 books

The author reanimates “The Virginian” in these short tales lamenting the passing of the wild American west: “The smell of the sage-brush! After several years it was getting to me again. All day long it breathed a welcome and a sigh, as if the desert whispered: ‘Yes, I look as if I were here;...

This 1870 novel is the tale of Puck, a precocious Maltese terrier, who narrates his own story. He is a commodity that is bought and sold again and again—and as such, he is in a unique position to offer insight and commentary into the flagrant materialism of his day, while also enjoying whatever luxuries his owners lavish upon him.

Published in 1913, this controversial novel—banned for a time—featured the story of Mary O'Neill, a fallen woman ostracized by society for a sexual indiscretion.  Caine's sympathetic portrait of his heroine was too much for Edwardian critics to stomach, but the public made the book one of the best selling of the author's illustrious career.

In this invaluable resource for fans and students, Gissing turns his keen critical eye to the life and work of Dickens. Gissing focuses on Dickens’s storytelling skills, characterizations, satirical bent, and his growth as a man and writer.

Michael Snowdon, in possession of a secret fortune, lives frugally, never revealing his wealth to anyone. He rescues his granddaughter from a life of toil, hoping to leave his wealth in her charitable hands. But the money complicates their lives, his plan fails, and this tale ends tragically for father, son, and granddaughter.

The heroine of this 1862 historical novel is Agnes, a country girl living amidst the spiritual tranquility of an Italian convent. With her hand sought by a cast-out Italian prince, she is torn between the prospect of love and her sense of duty to the charismatic monk Savonarola, the instigator of the original and actual fifteenth-century “Bonfire of the Vanities.”

Synge's first play, originally performed in 1903, is a bleak one-act set in an isolated farmhouse in Ireland.  A tramp wanders into what seems a tragic scene—a wife mourning her dead, and considerably older, husband.  But when the wife leaves to find her lover, and the supposedly dead man returns to life, events take an unexpected turn.

Inspired by a medieval French farce, The Well of the Saints depicts a blind married couple who have their sight miraculously restored by a traveling saint, only to discover that their happiness was based on illusions. Their hope of falling back in love depends on losing their sight once again.

This 1916 guide to the art of reading is no primer for schoolchildren but rather an attempt to teach adults how to gain the most from the reading experience.  Chapters include "Learning to Read," "Muckraking the Dictionary," "The World Outside Us and the World Within," and "How to Read a Novel." 

This 1817 volume of critical essays on Shakespeare's plays brings a fresh psychological perspective to the characters, as well as addressing the dramatic and poetic qualities of the works, placing special value on the great tragedies. The volume is a watershed in Shakespearean criticism, and has deeply influenced generations of scholars and critics. 

Hazlitt's essays delight with unexpected felicities of thought and expression.  Published in 1821-22, this collection shows him at the height of his powers.  In such essays as "The Indian Juggler" and "On Good Nature," a personal detail or anectdote serves as the basis for ruminations on life as profound as they are charming.

English essayist William Hazlitt was a respected writer and lecturer on range of literary subjects, from the characters in Shakespeare’s plays to the English comic writers to Milton’s poetry. This collection of essays, indispensable for students of literature, was drawn from a series of Hazlitt’s...

This collection of essays, published in 1850, features Emerson's thoughts and reflections on such eminent men of history as Plato, Swedenborg, Shakespeare, Montaigne, Napoleon, and Goethe, and includes the essay "Uses of Great Men." 

In this 1879 addition to the English Men of Letters series, Pattison explores the life and work of John Milton, the author of the definitive Paradise Lost. The volume touches on Milton’s pamphlets, famous works of poetry, and even his religious beliefs. Pattison judges only Shakespeare to be Milton’s superior in the realm of English poetry.