Originally published in two volumes in 1858-59, this historical novel is a sequel to Henry Esmond and a prequel of sorts to Pendennis. It follows Esmond's twin grandsons, George and Henry Warrington, as they try, in different ways, to crawl out from beneath the thumb of their mother. They may succeed-but they may also be seriously deceived.

When Washington Irving returned to America after seventeen years abroad, he headed west on a surveying mission deep into Native American territory. Irving, as Crayon, is a careful observer of the great range of human life, his skills evident in A Crayon Miscellany, a collection of sketches about his experiences on the frontier.

The sensational bestselling story of Little Nell, the beautiful child thrown into a shadowy, terrifying world, seems to belong less to the history of the Victorian novel than to folklore, fairy tale, or myth. The sorrows of Nell and her grandfather are offset by Dickens's creation of a dazzling contemporary world inhabited by some of his most brilliantly drawn characters-the eloquent ne'er-do-well Dick Swiveller; the hungry maid known as the "Marchioness";...

A failed mutiny lands the narrator in a Tahitian jail where he and his companion, Doctor Long Ghost, are treated with curiosity and kindness. After their eventual release, the two embark on a series of adventures as they work at odd jobs, view traditional rites and customs on the island, and contrive an audience with the Tahitian queen. Thought-provoking, humorous glimpses of a vanished 19th-century world in the South Seas.