Classic Fiction

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to...

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…' A Tale of Two Cities is arguably the greatest story of mistaken identity ever told, interweaving a heart-breaking family tragedy with the bloody French Revolution. Dr Manette is released from imprisonment in the Bastille and is...

A new translation of one of the most popular satires on the Russian Revolution and on Soviet society - first time in Penguin Classics. This is Bulgakov's semi-autobiographical story of a writer who fails to sell his novel and fails to commit suicide. When his play is taken up by the theatre, literary success beckons, but he has reckoned without...

Jane Austen revolutionised the literary romance, using it as a platform from which to address issues of gender politics and class consciousness among the British middle-class of the late eighteenth century. The novels included in this collection from the elegant Knickerbocker Classics series - Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Lady Susan -...

Enjoy Jane Austen's mastery of irony, dialogue, and realism in the unforgettable love story Pride and Prejudice, then share this classic piece of literature with a new generation. When headstrong and independent Elizabeth Bennet is required to find a wealthy husband, her encounter with the arrogant Mr. Darcy leads to one of the most entertaining and satisfying courtships ever imagined....

In case you didn't know, the Moomins are kind, loyal, and welcoming creatures with smooth round snouts, who live in a tall blue house shaped like an old stove in a valley in the forests of Finland. They love sunshine and sleep right through the winter, when the snow turns their house into a great snowball. In spring they wake...

This collection of Chekhov's finest early writing reveals a young writer mastering the art of the short story. The Steppe, which established his reputation, is the unforgettable tale of a boy's journey to a new school in Kiev, travelling through majestic landscapes towards an unknown destiny. Gusev depicts an ocean voyage, where the sea takes on a terrifying, primeval power;...

The greatest classic of Vietnamese literature in a stunning new verse translation. "This manuscript is ancient, priceless, bamboo-rolled, perfumed with musty spices. Sit comfortably by this good light, that you may learn the hard-won lesson that these characters contain." The Song of Kieu is the greatest classic of Vietnamese literature. It tells the story of the beautiful Vuong Thoy Kieu,...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics — irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Thirteen ingeniously crafted stories make up Vladimir Nabokov's baker's dozen. In some of these stories, shadowy people pass through, cooped up by life, with nowhere to escape. In others, elusive glimpses of fleeting happiness, which...

In Youth is Pleasure is a gay classic coming-of-age novel and an unforgettable slice of British interwar upper-middle-class life. Orvil Pym does not fit in. A waifish, eccentric, sensitive fifteen-year-old, he hates school and longs to be alone. Spending his Summer holidays in a genteel Surrey hotel with his mysterious father and two brothers who don't understand him, he explores...

A breathtaking graphic novel of Richard Adams's masterpiece Watership Down, adapted and illustrated by James Sturm and Joe Sutphin. Watership Down: The Graphic Novel captures Richard Adams's epic tale of courage, friendship, hope, and survival. Spectacularly adapted by award-winning author James Sturm and gorgeously illustrated by bestselling artist Joe Sutphin. Every page of this adaptation is a loving tribute to...

Engaged to the ambitious and self-serving Adolphus Crosbie, Lily Dale is devastated when he jilts her for the aristocratic Lady Alexandrina. Although crushed by his faithlessness, Lily still believes she is bound to her unworthy former fiancé for life and therefore condemned to remain single after his betrayal. When a more deserving suitor pays his addresses, she is unable to...

Mad, lascivious, sadistic and ridiculous, the provincial schoolteacher Peredonov torments his students and has hallucinatory fantasies about acts of savagery and degradation, yet to everyone else he is an upstanding member of society. A dark classic of Russia's silver age, this blackly funny novel recounts a schoolteacher's descent into sadism, arson and murder. As he pursues the idea of marrying...

When Reverend Josiah Crawley, the impoverished curate of Hogglestock, is accused of theft, it causes a public scandal, sending shockwaves through the world of Barsetshire. The Crawleys desperately try to remain dignified while they are shunned by society, but the scandal threatens to tear them, and the community, apart. Drawing on his own childhood experience of genteel poverty, Trollope gives...

The fourth and final book in Mishima's landmark tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. The dramatic climax of The Sea of Fertility tetralogy. It is the 1960s, and Honda, now an aged and wealthy man, discovers and adopts a sixteen-year-old orphan, Toru. Honda believes that the boy is the reincarnation of the tragic protagonists of the three previous novels, each of...

The paperback publication of the first volume of the new, substantially complete translation of one of the best-known and most influential classics of world literature. Every night for three years, the vengeful King Shahriyar sleeps with a different virgin, executing her the next morning. To end this brutal pattern and save her own life, the vizier's daughter, Shahrazad, begins to...

The second novel in Mishima's masterful Sea of Fertility tetralogy. Runaway Horses is the second book in Mishima's Sea of Fertility tetralogy. It is a story of political violence, traditional samurai values, and nihilism. Isao is a young, engaging patriot and a fanatical believer in the ancient samurai ethos. He turns terrorist, organising a violent plot against the new industrialists,...

Little Clothbound Classics - irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Filled with rich description and luxurious beauty, these ten tales of loss and longing from one of Japan's greatest writers show the pull between duty and desire, ecstasy and death. Experience stories of a mother lost...

One of the most celebrated works of classic literature for children, Wind in the Willows follows Mole, Rat, Toad and Badger from one adventure to the next—in gipsy caravans, stolen sports cars, to prison and back to the Wild Wood. A story of animal cunning and human camaraderie, this remains a timeless tale nearly 100 years after its publication.

When a man plunges down a cliff, two adventurous young friends decide to find his killer… While playing an erratic round of golf, Bobby Jones slices his ball over the edge of a cliff. His ball is lost, but on the rocks below he finds the crumpled body of a dying man. With his final breath, the man opens his...

The Thirty-Nine Steps follows the thrilling story of Richard Hannay, who finds his return to England from years in South Africa to be dreadfully monotonous. This uneventful existence in London takes a dramatic turn when a murder occurs in his flat. Just days earlier, Hannay had a chance encounter with an American who revealed an assassination plot with the potential...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. The Thirty-Nine Steps 'My guest was lying sprawled on his back. There was a long knife through his heart which skewered him to the floor.' Richard Hannay has just returned to England after years in South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his life in London. But...

A beautiful edition of Anne Brontë's most enduring novel, to accompany her sisters' greatest books in Penguin Clothbound Classics. Gilbert Markham is deeply intrigued by Helen Graham, a beautiful and secretive young woman who has moved into nearby Wildfell Hall with her young son. He is quick to offer Helen his friendship, but when her reclusive behaviour becomes the subject...

Puffin Classics: the definitive collection of timeless stories, for every child. Rediscover the Puffin Classics collection and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this bold edition of The Jungle Book. Saved from the jaws of the evil tiger Shere Khan, young Mowgli is adopted by a wolf pack and taught the law of the jungle by...

In this haunting, magical fairy-tale collection, Oscar Wilde beautifully evokes (among others) the Happy Prince who was not so happy after all, the Selfish Giant who learned to love little children and the Star Child who did not love his parents as much as he should. Each of the stories shines with poetry and magic and will be enjoyed by...

Classic science-fiction tales from the twentieth century's master of the weird. In the deep glens of Massachusetts, in the wild hills of Vermont, and in Australia's sandy wastes, unfathomable things lurk. Things that shine with an unnatural light, that speak and buzz strangely in the night, that prowl in the mind. Things not of our Earth. Widely considered to be...

Life is good for Buck in Santa Clara Valley, where he spends his days eating and sleeping in the golden sunshine. But one day, a treacherous act of betrayal leads to his kidnap, and he is forced into a life of toil and danger. Dragged away to be a sledge dog in the harsh and freezing cold Yukon, Buck must...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. The Call of the Wild 'The facts of life took on a fiercer aspect and, while he faced that aspect uncowed, he faced it with all the latent cunning of his nature aroused.' The biting cold and the aching silence of the far North become an unforgettable...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics—irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Emerging from their smoke-filled rooms at 21B Baker Street, Holmes and Watson grapple with the forces of crime that stalk the streets of London. From the first story, A Scandal in Bohemia, where Holmes is foiled by...

Tawny Scrawny Lion is one of the bestselling Little Golden Books of all time. Once there was a tawny scrawny lion who chased monkeys on Monday, kangaroos on Tuesday, zebras on Wednesday, bears on Thursday, camels on Friday, and on Saturday, elephants! So begins the classic story of a family of ten fat rabbits that teaches the hungry lion to...

A very special 75th anniversary edition of this beloved tale. Puffin classics - the definitive collection of timeless stories, for every child. The Moomins are one of the most loved and iconic creations in children's books. This limited edition, complete with a stunning new cover design, celebrates 75 years of Finn Family Moomintroll. They seem to grow in wisdom and...

Vintage Quarterbound Classics - Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of the most famous anti-war novel ever written, translated by Brian Murdoch. 'A necessary, shattering read' - Irish Times In 1914, a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the 'glorious war'. With the fire and patriotism of...

Fall down the rabbit hole with this stunning illustrated edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Explore the nonsensical and comical adventures with the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and the Queen of Hearts in this abridged edition of the timeless tale. Join Alice on her adventure through Wonderland as she meets classic companions such as the March...

HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. Wuthering Heights poses the question: Is Mr. Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil? Set on the bleak moors of Yorkshire, Lockwood is forced to seek shelter at Wuthering Heights, the home of his new landlord, Heathcliff. The intense and wildly...

The New York Times bestseller and basis for the Tony Award–winning hit musical, soon to be a major motion picture starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. With millions of copies in print around the world, Gregory Maguire’s Wicked is established not only as a commentary on our time but as a novel to revisit for years to come. Wicked relishes...

In the years following the First World War, a new generation emerges, wistful and vulnerable beneath the glitter. The Bright Young Things of twenties Mayfair, with their paradoxical mix of innocence and sophistication, exercise their hedonistic whims and vile bodies in every kind of capricious escapade. In a quest for treasure, a favourite party occupation, a vivid assortment of characters...

No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder. Her sentimental companion, Amelia, however, longs only for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of Regency society, battles—military and domestic—are fought,...

New to Penguin Classics, the great underwater adventure story in a stunning clothbound edition with original images. In this thrilling adventure tale by the 'Father of Science Fiction', three men embark on an epic journey under the sea with the mysterious Captain Nemo aboard his submarine the Nautilus. Over the course of their fantastical voyage, they encounter the lost city...

Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends George and Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a T. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather forecasts and tins of pineapple chunks—not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.'s...

The Summer Garden is a novel of the enduring power of love and commitment – against the forces of war and the equally dangerous forces of keeping the peace. From the bestselling author of The Girl in Times Square, comes the magnificent conclusion to the saga that was set in motion when Tatiana fell in love with her Red Army...

HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. ’I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two’ A London lawyer is drawn into a series of strange occurrences concerning his old friend Henry Jekyll and the...

The Sound of Waves is a classic, elegant romance set in a Japanese fishing village. In a remote fishing village in Japan, two very different young people fall in love. Shinji is a hard-working fisherman, while Hatsue is the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest man in the village. She is also a diver for pearls and seaweed alongside the other...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics—irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. A countess with a card trick; love letters filled with deception; a desperate man with a pistol. The Queen of Spades, one of Pushkin's most popular and chilling stories, is accompanied here by the thrilling Dubrovsky and...

The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens' last novel, is centred around a mystery involving a presumed crime: the murder of a nephew by his uncle. Tragically, Dickens passed away before completing the story, leaving the mystery unsolved and prompting successive generations of readers to take on the role of detective. Beyond the engrossing nature of this intriguing crime, the novel...

The Monk tells the story of Ambrosio, the esteemed superior of the Capuchins of Madrid, who succumbs to the temptations of Matilda, a fiendishly inspired seductress. Disguised as a boy, Matilda enters the monastery as a novice, causing Ambrosio to stray from his righteous path. As his downfall progresses, Ambrosio falls in love with one of his penitents, ultimately murdering...

The second heart-stopping book in the Hidden Iceland series from the Icelandic crime-writing sensation. The island of Elli aey sits off the Icelandic coast. Accessible only by boat, its isolation makes it the perfect place to vanish. During a long, hot summer, four friends visit the island. Only three will return. They each share a past, and a dark secret...

With his face swaddled in bandages, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses, and his hands covered even indoors, Griffin, the new guest at The Coach and Horses, is at first assumed to be a shy accident victim. But the true reason for his disguise is far more chilling: he has developed a process that has made him invisible and is...

Launching a major new paperback series - Penguin English Library The Penguin English Library Edition of The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton “It was characteristic of her that she always roused speculation, that her simplest acts seemed the result of far-reaching intentions” A searing, shocking tale of women as consumer items in a man's world, The House of Mirth...

A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighbouring squire, though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. But when his amorous escapades earn the disapproval of his benefactor, Tom is banished to make...

Fantastic new B format package for the entire Hornblower series! June, 1808 - off the Coast of Nicaragua, Captain Horatio Hornblower has his hands full... Now in command of HMS Lydia, a thirty-six-gun frigate, Hornblower has instructions to form an alliance against the Spanish colonies with a mad and messianic revolutionary, El Supremo; to find a water route across the...

VINTAGE DECO - Nine blazing, daring novels to celebrate the 1920s - 100 years on. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. The world and his mistress are at Jay Gatsby's party. But Gatsby stands apart from the crowd, isolated by a secret longing. In between...

New edition of this classic novel, edited by Philip Horne and Ruth Yeazell. This story of the alliance between Italian aristocracy and American millionaires is "a work unique among all James's novels—it is his only novel in which things come out right for his characters... he had finally resolved the questions, curious and passionate, that had kept him at his...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics – irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry showcases the work of one of the most popular American writers of the twentieth century, a true master of the short story. This selection of tales ranges...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden party if they had ordered it. A windless, warm day greets the Sheridan family on the day of their garden party. As daughter Laura takes the reins on party preparations, the news of a neighbour's...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics — irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. The Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim's brilliant, irrepressible novella, tells the tale of four very different women who, upon answering an advertisement in The Times, find themselves far away from the drizzle of London and...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. The Day of the Locust explores the story of Tod Hackett, a brilliant young artist and a man in danger of losing his heart. Brought to an LA studio as a set-designer, he is soon caught up in a fantasy world where the cult of celebrity rules....

Set in Lombardy during the Spanish occupation of the late 1620s, The Betrothed tells the story of two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia, prevented from marrying by the petty tyrant Don Rodrigo, who desires Lucia for himself. Forced to flee, they are then cruelly separated and must face many dangers, including plague, famine, and imprisonment. They confront a variety of...

Anthony and Gloria are the essence of Jazz Age glamour. A brilliant and magnetic couple, they fling themselves at life with an energy that is thrilling. New York is a playground where they dance and drink for days on end. Their marriage is a passionate theatrical performance; they are young, rich, alive and lovely and they intend to inherit the...

Vintage Deco: Nine blazing, daring novels to celebrate the 1920s - 100 years on. We can't behave like people in novels, though, can we? Newland Archer and May Welland are the perfect couple. He is a wealthy young lawyer, and she is a lovely and sweet-natured girl. All seems set for success until the arrival of May's unconventional cousin, Ellen...

Beautifully designed, clothbound edition Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting...

Tender is the Night tells the story of Dick and Nicole Diver who have transformed the French Riviera into a playground for the rich and glamorous. Within their exclusive circle is Rosemary Hoyt, a beautiful starlet innocent to the corruption and dark secrets shadowing their marriage. As Dick becomes entangled with Rosemary, he destabilises the fragile bond with Nicole, leading...

One of the great novels of the twentieth century, now with a gorgeous new cover. The marriage of Gertrude and Walter Morel has become a battleground. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes violent husband, delicate Gertrude devotes her life to her children, especially to her sons, William and Paul—determined they will not follow their father into working down the coal...

On his twenty-fifth birthday, Leo Vincey opens the silver casket that his father has left to him. It contains a letter recounting the legend of a white sorceress who rules an African tribe and of his father's quest to find this remote race. To find out for himself if the story is true, Leo and his companions set sail for...

"It seems to me as certain of immortality as anything written in English for half a century" — John Buchan. Seven Pillars of Wisdom is an unusual and rich work. It encompasses an account of the Arab Revolt against the Turks during the First World War alongside general Middle Eastern and military history, politics, adventure, and drama. It is also...

Rob Roy is Scott's invigorating tale of the battle between the English and the Scots. When young Francis Osbaldistone discovers that his vicious and scheming cousin Rashleigh has designs both on his father's business and his beloved Diana Vernon, he turns in desperation to Rob Roy for help. Chieftain of the MacGregor clan, Rob Roy is a brave and fearless...

Meaningful and moving – the classic million-copy bestselling love story from Cecelia Ahern. Some people wait their whole lives to find their soul mates. But not Holly and Gerry. Childhood sweethearts, they could finish each other’s sentences. No one could ever imagine them without each other. When Gerry dies, Holly is devastated. But Gerry has left her a bundle of...

Hilarious, intelligent, and moving, Pnin is the tale of a generation irrevocably severed from its past. Professor Timofey Pnin, late of Tsarist Russia, is now precariously perched at the heart of an American campus. Battling with American life and language, Pnin must face great hazards in this new world—the ruination of his beautiful lumber-room-as-office; the removal of his teeth and...

J. M. Barrie’s classic children's story is reimagined in this delightful full-colour deluxe edition filled with all-new illustrations and ten removable features specially designed by MinaLima, the award-winning design studio behind the graphics for the Harry Potter films. For more than a century, the adventures of Peter Pan—the boy who can fly and never grows up—and Wendy Darling have captured...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. All children, except one, grow up. It was Friday night. Mr and Mrs Darling were dining out. Nana had been tied up in the backyard. The poor dog was barking, for she could smell danger. And she was right - this was the night that Peter Pan...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics - irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Clare Kendry, elegant, fair-skinned and ambitious, is married to a white man who is unaware of her African-American heritage. When she reunites with childhood friend Irene, who has not hidden her origins, both women are...

Our Mutual Friend is Dickens' last completed novel, portraying a dark, macabre London. Our Mutual Friend centres on an inheritance—Old Harmon's profitable dust heaps—and its legatees: young John Harmon, presumed drowned when a body is pulled out of the River Thames, and kindly dustman Mr Boffin, to whom the fortune defaults. With brilliant satire, Dickens portrays a dark, macabre London,...

Virginia Woolf's most unusual and fantastic creation, a funny, exuberant tale that examines the very nature of sexuality. With introductions by Peter Ackroyd and Margaret Reynolds. As his tale begins, Orlando is a passionate young nobleman whose days are spent in rowdy revelry, filled with the colourful delights of Queen Elizabeth's court. By the close, he will have transformed into...

Orlando, deciding not to grow old, pursues his quest for passion, adventure, fulfilment and protracted youth. Chasing a dream through the centuries, he bounds from Elizabethan England and imperial Turkey to the modern world. Will he find happiness with the exotic Russian Princess Sasha? Or is the dashing explorer Shelmerdine the ideal man? And what form will Orlando take on...

A playful mock 'biography' of a chameleonic historical figure, written for Virginia Woolf's intimate friend Vita Sackville-West. Orlando has always been an outsider... His longing for passion, adventure and fulfilment takes him out of his own time. Chasing a dream through the centuries, he bounds from Elizabethan England and imperial Turkey to the modern world. Will he find happiness with...

A gorgeous clothbound edition of Woolf's fantastical and dazzlingly playful novel. Orlando has always been an outsider... His longing for passion, adventure, and fulfilment takes him out of his own time. Chasing a dream through the centuries, he bounds from Elizabethan England and imperial Turkey to the modern world. Will he find happiness with the exotic Russian Princess Sasha? Or...

Launching a major new paperback series: Penguin English Library The Penguin English Library Edition of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 'A parish child - the orphan of a workhouse - the humble, half-starved drudge - to be cuffed and buffeted through the world, despised by all, and pitied by none' Dark, mysterious and mordantly funny, Oliver Twist features some of...

Monsieur Goriot is one of a disparate group of lodgers at Madame Vauquer's dingy Parisian boarding house. At first, his wealth inspires respect, but as his circumstances are mysteriously reduced, he becomes shunned by those around him. Soon, his only remaining visitors are his two beautifully dressed daughters. Goriot's fate is intertwined with two other fellow boarders—the young social climber,...

George Eliot's masterful classic, in a gorgeous new clothbound edition. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Middlemarch, George Eliot's most ambitious novel, is a masterly evocation of diverse lives and changing fortunes in a...

A tale of inheritance and destiny, this is the story Dickens considered his best. The greed of his family has led wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit to become suspicious and misanthropic, leaving his grandson and namesake to make his own way in the world. And so young Martin sets out from the Wiltshire home of his supposed champion, the scheming architect...

Madame Bovary tells the story of Emma Bovary, a beautiful and bored woman trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, voracious spending, and eventually, in adultery. However, even her affairs bring her disappointment,...