Author Edna Ferber described the story of So Big as being about a "material man, son of his earth-grubbing, idealistic mother". Left an orphan at 19 years old in the late 1880s, Selina Peake needs to …
Arrowsmith is often described as the first "scientific" novel. The books explores medical and scientific themes in a fictional way and it is difficult to think of an earlier book that does this. Altho…
Alice Adams, the daughter of middle-class parents, wants desperately to belong with the people of "high society" who live in her town. Ultimately, her ambitions are tempered by the realities of her si…
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1965, The Keepers of the Houseis Shirley Ann Grau’s masterwork, a many-layered indictment of racism and rage that is as terrifying as it is wise.
This tells the poignant tale of a Chinese farmer and his family in old agrarian China. The humble Wang Lung glories in the soil he works, nurturing the land as it nurtures him and his family. Nearby, …
Enjoyed by millions since its first publication in 1958 The Travels Of Jaimie McPheeters is the lively story of a 13-year-old boy's adventures on a journey across America in 1849. This million-copy Pu…
