Romance - 19th Century Authors

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

This novel describes the passionate love between the courageous orphan Jane Eyre and the brilliant, brooding, and domineering Rochester. The loneliness and cruelty of Jane's childhood strengthens her natural independence and spirit, which prove invaluable when she takes a position as a governess at Thornfield Hall. But after she falls in love with her sardonic employer, her discovery...

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Both a social commentary and the romantic story of a young lady, Margaret Hale, who is relocated with her family from the affluent South of England to the industrial North. Margaret comes in contact with the difficulties of the working class and her sympathies are engaged. She also encounters the fascinating John Thornton, a wealthy local mill owner and a man of true integrity.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

One of literature's most disturbing explorations into the dark side of romantic passion. Heathcliff and Cathy believe they're destined to love each other forever, but when cruelty and snobbery separate them, their untamed emotions literally consume them.

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Emma Bovary, a bored provincial housewife, abandons her husband to pursue the libertine Rodolphe in a desperate love affair. A succès de scandale in its day, Madame Bovary remains a powerful and arousing novel.

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy Aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. She then finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gilbert Osmond, who, beneath his veneer of charm and cultivation, is cruelty itself. A story of...

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

A headstrong young woman and her aristocratic suitor must overcome their respective impediments to a happy ending - his pride must be humbled and her prejudice dissolved. The consummate artistry of the author transforms this effervescent tale of a rural romance into a witty, shrewdly observed satire of English country life.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

A sophisticated woman who is respectably married to a government bureaucrat, Anna begins a passionate, all-consuming involvement with a rich army officer. Refusing to conduct a discreet affair, she scandalizes society by abandoning both her husband and her young son for Count Vronsky - with tragic consequences. Running parallel is the story of the courtship and marriage of Konstantin...

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

A young woman, named Hester Prynne, has been led from the town prison with her infant daughter in her arms, and on the breast of her gown "a rag of scarlet cloth" that "assumed the shape of a letter." It is the uppercase letter "A." The Scarlet Letter "A" represents the act of adultery that she has committed and it is to be a symbol of her sin - a badge of shame - for all to see. A...

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

The novel is set in impoverished rural Wessex during the Long Depression. Tess is the eldest child of John and Joan Durbeyfield, uneducated rural peasants. One day, Parson Tringham informs John that he has noble blood. Tringham, an amateur genealogist, has discovered that "Durbeyfield" is a corruption of "D'Urberville", the surname of a noble Norman family, now extinct. The news...

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

Here is the haunting drama of Quasimodo, the hunchback; Esmeralda, the gypsy dancer; and Claude Frollo, the priest tortured by his own damnation. Shaped by a profound sense of tragic irony, it is a work that gives full play to the author's brilliant imagination.