A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
by Charles Dickens
Set during the French Revolution and the Reign ofTerror, the plot concerns Dr. Manette, who has been wrongfully confined to the Bastile for eighteen years by the villainous Marquis de St. Everemonde, and the love triangle between Manette's daughter Lucie, Darnay, who is the nephew of the marquis, and the wastrel English lawyer Sydney Carton whose heroic sacrifice provides the novel's climax.
The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance (1897)
by H. G. Wells
A brilliant young scientist named Griffin discovers the power of invisibility, but once invisible, Griffin becomes increasingly desperate, ruthless, and remorseless. Disguising himself with fake facial hair, oversized spectacles, and clothing covering his whole body, Griffin reeks havoc on the little village of Iping. When stories of the invisible man's thefts reach the newspapers, the police pursue Griffin, hoping to put an end to his reign of terror.
Leather-Stocking Tales (1823)
by James Fenimore Cooper
In these five tales, set in the colonial American frontier, Cooper captures the often tragic result of the tension between civilization and wilderness, as the Europeans overwhelm and dispossess the Native Peoples and despoil the land. Hovering between the two worlds, Natty Bumppo, legendary frontier scout, hunter, trapper and friend to the Indians, represents the best of civilization as he bravely works to preserve the wilderness and avoid unecessary conflict and bloodshed.
Red Dragon (1981)
by Thomas Harris (American writer)
FBI Agent Will Graham is pulled out of retirement to work on the case of a grisly serial murderer preying on happy families. Graham has the uncanny ability to get inside the killer's head. However, in order to find the killer, he must accept help from mental patient Dr. Hannibal Lecter, whom he put in jail years before.
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter depicts the punishment and redemption of Hester Prynne, a young woman out-cast from her Puritan community for adultery. Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" on the bodice of her dress as a symbol of her transgression. The tale explores the self-destructive guilt of Hester's lover and the poisoned bitterness of Hester's husband.
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