Published in 1839, Nicholas Nickleby is Charles Dickens' third novel. In it, Nicholas Nickleby must earn a living to support his mother and sister after his father dies unexpectedly. Turning to a wealthy uncle in London for help, Nicholas is hired on as assistant to Wackford Squeers, a sadistic and small-minded schoolmaster. Meanwhile, his sister must take a job in a milliner's studio and is occasionally pressed into service by their uncle who exploits...

Martin Eden (1909) is a novel by American writer Jack London. The book follows the tradition of the Künstlerroman, a narrative that traces the life and development of an artist, to tell the story of a young man not unlike London himself. Part fiction, part autobiography, Martin Eden examines the consequences of dreams and achievements, successes and failures, for a young artist struggling with fame. The novel is heavily influenced by London's socialist...

D.H. Lawrence's third novel and one of his most beloved, Sons and Lovers is considered the author's most autobiographical book, following the life of Paul Morel. Paul is an emerging young artist born to a mother who married for passion and came to regret it. Both Paul and his brother William are in their mother's thrall to the point where they find it difficult to detach and pursue romance for themselves. The depictions of their liaisons resulted...

Serialized from 1848-1850, The History of Pendennis is the coming-of-age story of Arthur Pendennis, a young country-born gentleman who travels to London to make his fortune. There, as Thackeray depicts with his customary satirical flair, he finds work as a journalist and is drawn into the machinations of his scheming uncle, Major Pendennis.

The Black Arrow, first serialized in 1883, was eventually published as a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1888. Although it was initially written for children, and has since remained relatively undervalued by critics, The Black Arrow has garnered praise from such figures as John Galsworthy for its richly imagined setting and vibrant dialogue. Set in fifteenth-century England during the infamous War of the Roses, The Black Arrow follows the young...

Based on his adventures with Neal Cassady, Kerouac tells the story of two friends, whose four cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. Teeming with the rhythms of fifties underground America, jazz, illicit drugs, and the mystery and promise of the open road, Kerouac's novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be "Beat"--Adapted from publisher description.

Overview: The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club. Chuck Palahniuk's outrageous and startling debut novel that exploded American literature and spawned a movement. Every weekend, in the basements and parking lots of bars across the country, young men with white-collar jobs and failed lives take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded just as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with...

"You know the future that people in the 1950s imagined we'd have? Well, it happened. In Tom Barren's 2016, humanity thrives in a techno-utopian paradise of flying cars, moving sidewalks, and moon bases, where avocados never go bad and punk rock never existed. because it wasn't necessary. Except Tom just can't seem to find his place in this dazzling, idealistic world, and that's before his life gets turned upside down. Utterly blindsided by an accident...

Dead people try to communicate with a short-order cook, who serves as a small desert town's reluctant confidant. Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary guy with a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo Grill, and he is rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, Stormy Llewellyn.

An aging lawyer hires a new copyist to help with his firm's workload, and at first he finds himself pleased with his new employee. Bartleby is quiet, efficient and he doesn't display any of the loud eccentricities of the firm's other two copyists, Nippers and Turkey. But one day, when the lawyer asks Bartleby if he will help him compare copies, Bartleby simply replies, "I would prefer not to." As time goes by and Bartleby's strange refusals multiply,...