Faith, Hope, Mercy, Envy, Ignorance, Guilt: These are not abstract concepts, but the names of vividly imagined, sharply drawn human characters encountered by Christian, the hero of The Pilgrim`s Progress.

First published in 8 A.D., Ovid`s Metamorthoses remains one of the most accessible and attractive avenues to the treasures of Greek mythology

At first glance, Three Lives seems to be three straightforward portraits of woman living in the early twentieth century. "The Good Anna" describes an exacting German house servant; "Melanctha" explores the love affair of an African American woman; and "The Gentle Lena" narrates the fate of a patient German maid

The Time Machine, H.G.Well`s first novel, is a tale of Darwinian evoluation taken to extremes. Its hero, a young scientist, travels 800,000 years into the future and discovers a dying earth populated by two humanoid species: the brutal Morlocks and gentle Eloi. The invisible Man mixes terror, suspense, and psychology in a tale of an equally adventuresome scientist who discovers the formula for invisibility - a secret that drivers him mad

Set in and around New Orleans, The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother. While a vacation, Edna meets the son of a Louisiana resort owner, with whome she gradually falls in love. As she pulls away from her husband, Edna begins to develop a sense of her-self as a whole perpon, with unique wants, interests, and desires. Determined to control her own life, she flouts convention by moving out of her husband`s house, having an adulterous affair, and becoming an artist

The Rise of Silas Lapham, one of the first American novels of manners, one of the first to look at the American businessman and self-made millionaire, and one of the first to employ realism - a style that would come to dominate twentieth-century American fiction

A master of characterization, Stendhal paints a fascinating, multi-layered portrait of Julien Sorel, who endures as one of literature`s most complex and sirprisingly sympathetic characters - a would-be manipulator out of his depth in a sea of sharks

Through first published in 1908, when "motor-cars" were new and rare, The Wind in the Willows presents surprisingly contemporary - and uproariously funny - portraits of speed-crazed Mr.Toad, generous Badger, poetic Ratty, and newly emancipated Mole. And lurking all the while within the humor and good spirits, Grahame proffers deep-felt comments about the values of courage, generosity, and friendship

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle narrates about adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The book contains the following novels: "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes", "His Last Bow", "The Case book of Sherlock Holmes"

Highly controversial because of its frank look at the sexual hypocrisy of Victorian society, Thomas Hardy`s Tess of the d`Urbervilles was nonetheless a great commercial success when it appeared in 1891. It is now considered one of the finest novels in English