“It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.” Chapter 1: The Shepherd Meets a Stranger […]
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
“Justice was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Æschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess.” Phase the First: The Maiden Tess Durbeyfield, a poor country […]
Middlemarch
“If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we […]
Frankenstein
“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” Letters 1–4: The Arctic Expedition Captain Robert Walton writes letters to his sister, Margaret, […]
Emma
“Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.” Volume 1 […]
David Copperfield
“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.” — […]
A Tale of Two Cities
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Book One: Recalled to Life The novel opens in 1775, contrasting the turmoil in England and […]
Great Expectations
“I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” Part 1: Pip’s Childhood Young Pip, an orphan raised […]
Wuthering Heights
“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” — Wuthering Heights Volume 1 Chapters 1–3: The novel begins with Mr. Lockwood, a new tenant […]
Jane Eyre
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” — Jane Eyre Early Life at Gateshead (Chapters 1-4) […]