Family Life Classics

To all appearances, John Wilder has all the trappings of success, circa 1960: a promising career in advertising, a loving family, a beautiful apartment, even a country home. John's evenings are spent with associates at quiet Manhattan lounges and his weekends with friends at glittering cocktail parties. But something deep within this seemingly perfect life has long since gone wrong.

Kelly Whitely is at the height of her career, selling the latest miracle drug to doctors and pharmacies across the country. But concerns about the side effects have her longing for the day when she can quit her high-paying job and really focus on saving her marriage and teenage daughter. She keeps trying to talk to her husband, Daniel, about it, but every time she brings it up, he retreats further and further away from her.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840s in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived as a boy. In the novel Tom Sawyer has several adventures, often with his friend Huckleberry Finn. Originally a commercial failure, the book ended up being the best selling of any of Twain's works during his lifetime. Tom Sawyer, an orphan, lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother Sid in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri sometime in the 1840s.

Uno dei grandi romanzi di Dickens, scritto tra il 1855 e il 1857, pubblicato in fascicoli mensili Esso è diviso in due libri: Povertà, in cui si parla delle misere condizioni della famiglia Dorrit, la cui madre è morta e il padre è in carcere per debiti, e della bontà della piccola Amy; compare inoltre tutta una folla di piccoli personaggi, seconda la tradizione di Dickens, che si ritroveranno poi nel corso di tutto il libro.

Now married, Jo Bhaer (nee March) couldn't be happier. Jo, along with her husband Professor Friedrich Bhaer, operates the Plumfield Estate School. Plumfield is a haven for poor orphans which is attended by 12 adopted boys as well as Jo's own two sons. Although Plumfield is a place of trust and warmth, the boys occasionally struggle to maintain good manners.

In the evening, the back porch of the country home took on an aura of enchantment. As dusk settled and the lamp was lit, children wandered in from their play to sit on the floor or snuggle in their parents' laps. Glasses of iced tea were refilled and someone would settle back, look up at the stars and say, "I remember when..." Thus began one of many tales, often embellished with some distant imagining. Each one taught a lesson of life.

Tallulah MacBride hasn't been back to North Carolina since her parents' tragic deaths 20 years ago. But now, Tal heads to cousin Delta Whittlespoon's famous Crossroads Café in the mountains above Asheville, hoping to find a safe hiding place for her young daughter, Eve. What she finds is cousin Delta gone, the café in a biscuit crisis, and a Scotsman who refuses to believe she's passing through instead of "running from." He believes she needs a knight in shining flannel.

An older New York City couple, Mr. and Mrs. Seth Appleby, decides to leave the city for Cape Cod where they open a tea room. The tea room fails but that's just the beginning of their adventures. With no money and no prospects, they set out as hobos and roam the countryside meeting people and gaining new experiences for the first time in their lives.

Durraghglass is a beautiful mansion in Southern Ireland, now crumbling in neglect. The time is the present - a present that churns with the bizarre passions of its owners' past. The Swifts - three sisters of marked eccentricity, defiantly christened April, May and Baby June, and their only brother, one-eyed Jasper - have little in common, save vivid memories of darling Mummy, and a long lost youth peculiarly prone to acts of treachery.

La storia di Eugénie è ambientata a Saumur, piccolo paesino della campagna francese. Il padre di Eugénie, che in città è conosciuto come papà Grandet, è un vecchio vignaiuolo arricchitosi grazie all'eredità paterna fatta fruttare tramite giusti investimenti finanziari, ha un fiuto infallibile per gli affari e ad una proverbiale avarizia, che suscita in lui un notevole attaccamento all'oro che “sembrava aver comunicato il suo colore al suo viso”. Nonostante la sua ricchezza, quindi, il padrone di casa fa di tutto per nasconderla, non parlarne e, soprattutto, non spenderla.

Set on the Mississippi Delta in 1923, this story captures the mind and manners of the Fairchilds, a large aristocratic family, self-contained and elusive as the wind. The vagaries of the Fairchilds are keenly observed, and sometimes harshly judged, by nine-year-old Laura McRaven, a Fairchild cousin who takes The Yellow Dog train to the Delta for Dabney Fairchild’s wedding.

William Dorrit has been a resident of the Marshalsea debtors prison for so many years that he has gained the nickname "The Father of the Marshalsea". However, his suffering is eased by his close bond with youngest daughter Amy, or "Little Dorrit". The dashing Arthur Clennam, returning to London after many years in China, enters their lives and the Dorrits' fortunes begin to rise and fall. A biting satirical work on the shortcomings of 19th-century government and society.

Primo romanzo di Lawrence, pubblicato nel 1913, in parte di ispirazione autobiografica (il personaggio di Miriam è ispirato alla migliore amica della giovinezza dello scrittore), il libro offre descrizioni dettagliate della vita dell’epoca nella zona mineraria di Nottingham. Il tema delle relazioni, sempre centrale nell’opera di Lawrence, che viene qui trattato è il rapporto madre figlio, in cui la eccessiva vicinanza emozionale voluta dalla madre rende il figlio incapace di amare.

A Tale of Two Cities, pubblicato nel 1859 , a puntate settimanali, è l’unico romanzo storico scritto da Dickens. Con più di 200 milioni di copie, è considerato il libro più venduto di sempre. Il romanzo, ambientato a Parigi e Londra durante la Rivoluzione francese e negli anni del Regime del Terrore, unisce l’intreccio avvincente e la caratterizzazione di svariati personaggi, tipica dello scrittore, alle descrizioni dell’ambiente e degli avvenimenti, fra cui la presa della Bastiglia.

Die südfranzösische Stadt Plassan ist der Ursprung der bürgerlichen Familien Rougon und Macquart, deren weit verzweigte Familiengeschichte hier ihren Anfang nimmt. Im Zuge des Staatsstreiches vom 2. Dezember 1851 und den damit verbundenen Aufständen in ganz Frankreich, gelingt es einigen Familienmitgliedern durch Intrigen, Betrug und Verrat sich gesellschaftlich in der Kleinstadt zu etablieren; andere stürzen grausam ab.

B.J. Harrison reads Louisa May Alcotts famous novella "Behind a Mask", which is widely considered to be Alcotts masterpiece in sensation fiction. A wealthy Victorian-era family recruits Jean Muir as sixteen-year-old Bellas governess. But soon enough, Jean Muir appears to have everyone under her spell, and to have the power to do everything as she pleases. This novella from the late 19th century was initially published under Louisa May Alcotts pseudonym A. M. Barnard...

Published in 1871, Little Men is a sequel to the novel, Little Women. It tells the continuing story of Jo March, who has married Professor Bhaer, with whom she now runs a small school.

"Casa Howard" è ormai considerato il capolavoro di Edward M. Forster, ed è certamente uno dei "classici" della letteratura del ventesimo secolo. La ricchezza del romanzo sta nella pregnanza di una narrazione piena di tensioni, in parte irrisolte perché lo stesso Forster è partecipe di esse e il "solo connettere" del sottotitolo del romanzo gli è impossibile solo in parte, come egli ben sa. Ma forse il fascino di "Casa Howard" sta proprio in questa difficoltà a risolvere contraddizioni ancora irrisolvibili.

It starts with a simple wish, and Emma Davies hardly notices when it comes true. She’s too preoccupied with a life she isn’t happy in - the spark in her marriage has fizzled, her career is headed nowhere and her boss is a misogynist. Her teenage daughter has grown distant, and her heart breaks daily for her teenage son with cerebral palsy. But soon Emma discovers her wishes are coming true, and she realizes that she has been given the power to change her life. Either that, or she’s going insane.

À Fordham, par une nuit d'hiver, Ruth, la jeune apprentie de Mrs Mason n'a pas le temps de s'ennuyer : demain, c'est le grand bal de la ville et toutes les couturières sont mobilisées ! Choisie pour sa beauté, elle se tiendra dans le vestibule de la salle de bal afin de réparer les accrocs aux robes des danseuses et fera la connaissance de M. Bellingham. Ils sympathisent puis naît une relation qui vaut à Ruth d'être congédiée. Malgré le jugement de la société, ils passent des jours heureux dans le pays de Galles.