The adventures of an unusual dog, part St. Bernard, part Scotch shepherd, who is forcibly taken to the Klondike gold fields where he eventually becomes the leader of a wolf pack. Buck is a dog born to luxury, but his life changes dramatically when he is sold to be a sled dog in the Yukon Terrority. He earns a reputation for his strength and courage, and is rescued from a series of bad owners by John Thornton, who teaches him to love. When John is...

"First published in 1913 and regarded by many critics as her most substantial novel, The Custom of the Country is Edith Wharton's powerful saga about the beautiful, ruthless Undine Spragg. A woman of extraordinary ambition and exuberant vitality, Undine is consigned by virtue of her sex to the shadow world of the drawing room and boudoir. Marriage remains the one institution through which she can exercise her will as she entrances man after man, marrying...

"An elaborate and moving coming-of-age story about Eugene Gant, a restless and energetic character whose passion to experience life takes him from his small, rural hometown in North Carolina to Harvard University and the city of Boston. The novel's pattern is artfully simple--a small town, a large family, high school and college--yet the characters are monumental in their graphic individuality and personality." --

"Poetic passages from Wolfe's prose, printed as free verse".

"A young colonist on Mars befriends a strange round creature called Willis who gets him into trouble when he goes away to school, but whose presence and friendship finally enable the colonials to negotiate a treaty with the Martians." --

Bored with farm life and anxious for excitement, Henry Fleming joins the Union troops fighting the Civil War to prove his patriotism and courage; but when suddenly thrust into the slaughter, he is overcome with blind fear and runs from battle. In an effort to redeem himself, he later begins to fight and, in the heat of battle, seizes the regiment's colors in a daring charge that proves him truly courageous.

The story of a young white South African police lieutenant, idolized in his Afrikaner community, who violates one of the strictest laws of that country governing the relationship between white and black. It is a portrayal of the desperate struggle within himself of a conscience-stricken man, a story told with almost unbearable suspense and bringing to life, in its unfolding, a whole family of unforgettable characters: Pieter the young police lieutenant...