Explorations of Society and Identity

This collection delves into the intricate relationships between individuals and their societal contexts, exploring themes of identity, class, and morality through the lens of classic literature. Each work offers a unique perspective on the struggles and triumphs of characters navigating their social landscapes.

Silas Marner

par George Eliot Lu par Tadhg 4.8
Reputed as Eliot’s favourite novel Silas Marner is set in the early years of the 19th century. Marner, a weaver, is a member of a small cong…

The Old Curiosity Shop

par Charles Dickens Lu par Mil Nicholson 4.8
Written in the years 1840 to 1841, when Dickens was twenty-eight years old, this is a ‘Road’ tale in the very best tradition. Little Nell Tr…

Sense and Sensibility

par Jane Austen Lu par Elizabeth Klett 4.8
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen's first published novel, focuses on the lives and loves of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. The…

Mrs. Dalloway

par Virginia Woolf Lu par Hannah Dormor 4.7
Clarissa Dalloway is having a party. Join her and a web of connections in exploring London, their memories and their innermost thoughts and …

The Portrait of a Lady

par Henry James Lu par Elizabeth Klett 4.5
The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillan's Magazine in 1880–81 an…

Passing

par Nella Larsen Lu par Elizabeth Klett 4.6
Nella Larsen, a novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, wrote two brilliant novels that interrogated issues of gender and race. In Passing, her…

Dombey and Son

par Charles Dickens Lu par Mil Nicholson 4.9
Charles Dickens the author of Dombey and Son, originally wrote the book in installments which were published from October 1846 to April 1848…

Howards End

par E. M. Forster Lu par Elizabeth Klett 4.6
The book is about three families in England at the beginning of the twentieth century. The three families represent different gradations of …

Far From The Madding Crowd

par Thomas Hardy Lu par Tadhg 4.8
Far From The Madding Crowd is Hardy's fourth novel. It centres on the lives of five characters: Gabriel Oak, Bathsheba Everdene, Mr Boldwood…

The Brothers Karamazov

par Fyodor Dostoyevsky Lu par Bruce Pirie 4.8
Originally published in serial form in 1879-80, “The Brothers Karamazov” is recognized as one of the very greatest masterpieces of world lit…

The House of Mirth

par Edith Wharton Lu par Elizabeth Klett 4.6
The House of Mirth (1905), by Edith Wharton, is a novel about New York socialite Lily Bart attempting to secure a husband and a place in ric…

Doctor Thorne

par Anthony Trollope Lu par Nicholas Clifford (1930-2019) 4.8
Doctor Thorne is the third of Trollope's Barsetshire novels, and unlike some of the others, has little to do with the politics and personali…

The Idiot

par Fyodor Dostoyevsky Lu par Martin Geeson 4.7
The extraordinary child-adult Prince Myshkin, confined for several years in a Swiss sanatorium suffering from severe epilepsy, returns to Ru…

The Age of Innocence

par Edith Wharton Lu par Elizabeth Klett 4.7
Edith Wharton became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with this 1920 novel about Old New York society. Newland Archer …

The Awakening

par Kate Chopin Lu par Elizabeth Klett 4.4
Kate Chopin's 1899 novella The Awakening is about the personal, sexual, and artistic awakening of a young wife and mother, Edna Pontellier. …

The Death of Ivan Ilyitch

par Leo Tolstoy Lu par Laurie Anne Walden 4.7
The Death of Ivan Ilyitch is the story of a socially ambitious middle-aged judge who contracts an unexplained and untreatable illness. As I…