"Composed around 730 B.C., Homer's Iliad recounts the events of a few momentous weeks in the protracted ten-year war between the invading Achaeans, or Greeks, and the Trojans in their besieged city of Ilion. From the explosive confrontation between Achilles, the greatest warrior at Troy, and Agamemnon, the inept leader of the Greeks, through to its tragic conclusion, The Iliad explores the abiding, blighting facts of war. Carved close to the original...

"A novel 'with a double plot interest. The heroine, Dorothea Brooke, longs to devote herself to some great cause and, for a time, expects to find it in her marriage to Rev. Mr. Casaubon, an aging scholar. Mr. Casaubon lives only eighteen months after their marriage, a sufficient period to disillusion her completely. He leaves her his estate, with the ill-intentioned proviso that she will forfeit if she marries his young cousin Will Ladislaw, whom...

The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized—and sometimes outraged—millions of readers.
One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven...

"Sons and Lovers" by D.H. Lawrence delves into the intricate dynamics of the Morel family, set in a small mining community in early 20th-century England. The novel focuses on Paul Morel and his intense, often suffocating relationship with his mother, Gertrude. Disillusioned with her marriage to Walter, a miner prone to drinking and quarreling, Gertrude channels her affection and ambitions into her sons, particularly Paul. His journey from childhood...

Mark Twain tells of his years as a young tenderfoot adrift in the Wild West, mixing memoir, reporting, social satire, humorous anecdotes, and tall tales.