Sara Nichols

Two nineteenth-century French priests pioneer through the American Southwest in this stunning classic from a Pulitzer Prize–winning author. Following the Mexican-American War, two French Jesuits leave Sandusky, Ohio, on a mission. Bishop Jean Marie Latour and his friend Father Joseph Vaillant are venturing to New Mexico territory to establish a Roman Catholic diocese. But this is no easy task. When the Jesuits arrive in the unforgiving landscape,...

Set during the Gilded Age in New York City, The Age of Innocence follows Newland Archer, a poised and pedigreed gentleman lawyer who is eagerly anticipating his impending union with May Welland, a paragon of Old New York grace. The arrival of Countess Ellen Olenska, May's enigmatic and alluring cousin, shatters the tranquility of Archer's carefully structured world. Recently returned from Europe, Ellen exudes an air of cosmopolitan mystery as whispers...

A founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of New York City writers, critics, and actors, Dorothy Parker rose to literary fame during the first part of the 20th century. An accomplished poet, writer, critic, satirist, playwright, and screenwriter, Parker was known for her sharp wit in describing 20th century urban life. Although she disliked this characterization, because she thought it undermined her writing, it is primarily for this...

"Her life was a bridge from the nineteenth century to the twentieth, from the time-hallowed beauty and rigidity of a samurai household to the disorienting, forward-looking freedoms of the West." --Janice P. Nimura, from the foreword. This is the story of one woman's remarkable life successfully navigating two very different cultures--the first memoir of an Asian-American woman. Beautifully told, this immigrant's account of an unforgettable journey...

Orlando: A Biography is a groundbreaking English novel by Virginia Woolf that explores English history, gender roles and sexual politics in a way few books have before or since. Inspired by the life of Woolf's friend and lover Vita Sackville-West, an accomplished poet and novelist, the story follows the life of an aristocratic nobleman who changes sex from man to woman and goes on to live for centuries, meeting all of the most influential and powerful...

Collected here are three of Dorothy Parker's earliest works: two collections of poetry-"Enough Rope" and "Sunset Gun" as well as her short, hilarious collection of stories recounting all of the men she managed to avoid marrying named (appropriately) "Men I'm Not Married To." One of the 20th century's most celebrated and renowned humorists, Parker burst upon the unsuspecting literary world with these best-selling books, delivering biting, satiric and...

A blistering criticism of the literary world in which she lived, Charlotte Brontë's "The Biographical Notes on the Pseudonymous Bells" contains two fascinating and insightful essays by the author of "Jane Eyre" addressing her late sisters' Emily and Anne's writing careers (Emily wrote "Wuthering Heights," Anne created "Agnes Grey" and"The Tenant of Wildfell Hall"). With surprising frankness and honesty, Charlotte offers a glimpse of the challenges...

One of E.M. Forster's most cherished and critically-acclaimed works, "Howards End" is an examination of social mores, class strife and personal relationships in turn-of-the-century England. The story revolves around three disparate families: the idealistic Schlegels (consisting of Margaret, Helen and brother Tibby), the wealthy Wilcox family (parents Henry and Ruth and their children) and the impoverished Basts (Leonard and his wife Jacky)....

Nebraska native Willa Cather set many of her books - including her second novel, "O Pioneers" - in the Midwest and often touched on themes of immigration, the challenges of the agricultural industry and the struggles of workaday farmers in her novels. The fact that she actually grew up amid the same people whose stories she depicts gave her books an authenticity that made her novels extremely popular. In "O Pioneers," we meet the Bergsons, a family...

"Pride and Prejudice," written in 1813, was the second of six books by legendary British author Jane Austen. In this story, we are introduced to the Bennet family: Mr. and Mrs. Bennet...and their five daughters, each of whom (according to Mrs. Bennet) must find rich husbands as soon as possible. When Mr. Bingley - a wealthy bachelor - takes up residence in a nearby estate, the Bennets kindle hopes that he might be a good match for their eldest,...