Set in South Africa under white rule, Doris Lessing's first novel is both a riveting chronicle of human disintegration and a beautifully understated social critique. Mary Turner is a self-confident, independent young woman who becomes the depressed, frustrated wife of an ineffectual, unsuccessful farmer. Little by little the ennui of years on the farm work their slow poison, and Mary's despair progresses until the fateful arrival of an enigmatic and...

"Thomas De Quincey, infamous for his memoir, 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater', is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London forty-three years earlier...Desperate to clear his name but crippled by opium addiction, De Quincey is aided by his devoted daughter Emily and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives." --inside front cover.

The third-largest country in Latin America, Mexico is hugely diverse, having both rural backwaters where time seems to have stood still and manic urban centers like Mexico City, one of the most densely populated and exciting cities in the world. This complex and fascinating country is where European and American civilizations first clashed. The repercussions of the meeting in 1519 between the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and the Aztec Emperor...

The Scarlet Letter is the story of three New England settlers at odds with the puritan society in which they live. Roger Chillingworth, an ageing scholar, arrives in New England after two years separation from his wife Hester to find her on trial for adultery. For refusing to reveal her lover's identity, she is condemned to wear a letter °' sewn onto her clothes. Roger resolves to discover and destroy the man who has stolen his honour. For the...

The chronicle of another chapter in the life and times of the residents of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota.