'The Ladies' Paradise' recounts the spectacular development of the modern department store in late 19th-century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, & of the bourgeois family; it is emblematic of consumer culture & the changes in sexual attitudes & class relations taking place at the end of the century.

'Pride and Prejudice' is one of the best loved and most intimately known of Jane Austen's novels. Her sense of comedy and satire makes this an enduring classic of English literature.

In Basil's secret and unconsummated marriage to the linen-draper's sexually precocious daughter, and the shocking betrayal, insanity, and death that follow, Collins reveals the bustling, commercial London of the 19th century wreaking its vengeance on a still powerful aristocratic world.

This novel tells the story of a group of working men who are joined one day by Owen, a journeyman-prophet with a vision of a just society. Owen's spirited attacks on the greed and dishonesty of the capitalist system rouse his fellow men from their political quietism.

This selection represents the full range of Blake's accomplishment as a poet, ranging from early Poetical Sketches to late lyrics and including such major works as The Book of Thel, Songs of Innocence, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Songs of Experience.

Kim (1901) is one of Kipling's masterpieces. Through the story of the young orphan Kimball O'Hara, and his vocation in the Secret Service, Kipling presents a vivid picture of India, its teeming populations, religions, and superstitions, and the life of the bazaars and the road.