Classic General Fiction

Palo Alto is the debut of a powerful new literary voice. Written with an immediacy and sense of place, Palo Alto traces the lives of an extended group of teenagers as they experiment with vices of all kinds, struggle with their families and one another, and succumb to self-destructive, often heartless nihilism. Franco presents his characters in all their raw...

'He stretched himself. He rose. He stood upright in complete nakedness before us, and while the trumpets pealed "Truth! Truth! Truth!" we have no choice left but confess - he was a woman.' A young man in the court of the ageing Queen Elizabeth I, the beautiful Orlando seems to belong everywhere and nowhere. One morning, Orlando awakens transformed—transported into...

Night and Day is new to Modern Classics. Katharine Hilbery is beautiful and privileged but uncertain of her future. She must choose between becoming engaged to the oddly prosaic poet William, and her dangerous attraction to the lower-class Ralph. As she struggles to decide, the lives of two other women—women’s rights activist Mary Datchet and Katharine’s mother, struggling to weave...

"This is not a romance - I have too often faced the music of life to the tune of hardship to waste time in snivelling and gushing over fancies and dreams; neither is it a novel, but simply a yarn - a real yarn. Oh!" Written with all the high spirits of youth, My Brilliant Career is the unforgettable tale...

The fierce, irreverent novel of aspiration and rebellion that is both a cornerstone of Australian literature and a feminist classic. Miles Franklin began the candid, passionate, and contrary My Brilliant Career when she was only sixteen, intending it to be the Australian answer to Jane Eyre. But the book she produced—a thinly veiled autobiographical novel about a young girl hungering...

A rich historical novel about the aftermath of betrayal, from the Booker prize-winner. 'What was freedom, she thought, other than the right to exercise one's choices?' Isabel Osmond, a spirited, intelligent young heiress, flees to London after being betrayed by her husband, to be with her beloved cousin Ralph on his deathbed. After a sombre, silent existence at her husband's...

A compelling collection of new Kafka translations in a Penguin Classics Deluxe edition. A brilliant new translation of Kafka's best-known work, published for the 125th anniversary of his birth. This collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka's works that he thought worthy of publication. It includes Metamorphosis, his most famous work, an exploration of horrific transformation...

An exquisite depiction of a doomed love affair, set in noirish 1950s New York. In a Manhattan bar, a middle-aged man tells a young woman of his love affair with a lonely divorcee; of how one night she was offered one thousand dollars to sleep with a stranger; and of how he and she would subsequently betray each other in...

'A work of pure brilliance', Seattle Times From the winner of the Man Booker Prize 2014, this is his Commonwealth Writers' Prize-winning novel. Once upon a time, which was called 1828, before all fishes in the sea and all living things on the land were destroyed, there was a man named William Buelow Gould. A white convict who fell in...

Wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit, a young aristocrat is sent to pay his dues in Van Diemen's Land. As a criminal in this new colony, Richard Devine is forced to endure tremendous suffering and inhumanity, from the baseless cruelty of those in power to the harsh brutalities of an untamed country. Yet, with enduring human spirit...

'The places, events and people are all real. I have invented nothing.' Natalia Ginzburg wrote her masterful, Strega Prize-winning novel Family Lexicon while living in London in the 1960s. Homesick for her big, noisy Italian family, she summoned them in this novel, which is a celebration of the routines and rituals, in-jokes and insults, and above all, the repeated sayings...

Effi Briest is only seventeen when she is married off to Baron von Innstetten, travelling to live with him in a provincial town on the remote Baltic coast of Prussia. He is twenty years her senior, an ambitious bureaucrat who is uninterested in his young wife, and lively Effi becomes increasingly isolated, bored and anxious in her stifling surroundings. A...

In Dubliners, James Joyce takes us on an extraordinary journey with the ordinary men and women from the city of his birth. In 'Araby', a young boy struggles with everyday tasks in the face of a growing infatuation with his neighbour's sister; in 'The Boarding House', a single mother orchestrates a marriage proposal for her daughter; in 'The Dead', the...

When Wim and Marie, a young Dutch couple, agree to hide a Jewish man in their home during the Nazi occupation, they think they are fulfilling their patriotic duty. Tension and awkwardness reign in the house as they try to adapt to this forbidden guest, whom they know as Nico. Small accidents and unexpected encounters ensue as the dynamic unsettles...

A fun and festive tale by the author of Love in a Cold Climate The formidable, fox-hunting obsessed Lady Bobbin has put together a Christmas house party at Compton Bobbin. This includes her rebellious daughter Philadelphia, the girl's pompous suitor, a couple of children obsessed with newspaper death notices, and an aspiring writer whose deadly (in more ways than one)...

A biting science fiction satire of American racism, and one of the first works of Afrofuturism. It's New Year's Day in 1933 in New York City and Max Disher, a young black man, has just heard the news: a mysterious doctor has discovered a strange process that can turn black skin white—a new way to 'solve the American race problem'....

A gorgeous new centennial edition of Ernest Hemingway’s landmark short story of returning veteran Nick Adams’s solo fishing trip in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, illustrated with specially commissioned artwork by master engraver Chris Wormell and featuring a revelatory foreword by John N. Maclean. "The finest story of the outdoors in American literature." —Sports Illustrated A century since its publication in...

The first major poem in English literature, translated by Howell D. Chickering with the Old English on facing pages, Beowulf tells the story of the life and death of the legendary hero Beowulf in his three great battles with supernatural monsters. The ideal Anglo-Saxon warrior-aristocrat, Beowulf is an example of the heroic spirit at its finest. Leading Beowulf scholar Howell...

Generations of readers have been bewitched by the epic love story of a beautiful young girl imprisoned in the magical castle of a monstrous beast. Now, the classic fairy tale is brought to life in this spectacular illustrated edition as originally envisioned by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740. With specially commissioned, full-colour artwork and nine exclusive interactive features, including:...

Explore Dickens' classic tale of order and disorder, death and resurrection with A Tale of Two Cities. Taking place in London and Paris in the eighteenth century, in the years leading up to and during the French Revolution, Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities is one of injustice, revenge, rebirth, love, and sacrifice. Originally published in thirty-one weekly installments...

Both a love song to Italy and a criticism of class and patriarchy in England at the time, this young adult illustrated edition is an exquisite, tumultuous romance. 'One doesn't come to Italy for niceness,' was the retort; 'one comes for life. Buon giorno! Buon giorno!' Lucy's rigid, middle-class life is meticulously mapped out for her. Boredom and monotony await,...

Delve into this stunning gift edition boasting the complete collection of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Other Tales with original, iconic illustrations by John Tenniel. The next elegant edition in the Timeless Classics series, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Other Tales is unabridged and complete, and comprised of: Both Alice books (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass) The...

Shinako has been ousted from her marriage by her husband Shozo and his younger lover Fukuko. She's lost her home, status, and respectability, but the only thing she longs for is Lily, the elegant tortoiseshell cat she shared with her husband. As Shinako pleads for Lily's return, Shozo's reluctance to part with the cat reveals his true affections, and the...

This beautifully designed, jacketed hardcover edition of The Secret Garden is unabridged and includes 8 illustrations by Charles Robinson. When Mary Lennox is sent from India to the moors of England to live with her uncle after losing her parents, not only does she discover a secret garden, but she also discovers the true meaning of family, friendship, and perseverance....

Part of the Timeless Classics series, The Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe contains every known tale written by the famous gothic American writer. His often macabre and dark works, which span the years from 1827 to his death in 1849, include "The Raven," "The Black Cat," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "Annabelle Lee." For Poe fans worldwide, this...

Triumphs of the imagination Stephen Fry The treasured fairy tales of Oscar Wilde in a stunning gift edition featuring exquisite illustrations by the celebrated artist Philippe Jullian with an afterword by Wilde's son, Vyvyan Holland. For nearly 150 years, the classic fairy stories of Oscar Wilde have been cherished by readers of all ages. Rediscover all nine of the stories...

WINNER, Indie Book Award for Fiction SHORTLISTED, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards SHORTLISTED, Australian Book Industry Awards SHORTLISTED, ALS Gold Medal 'It is quite a feat to write characters with such nuance...in harnessing her storytelling facility to expose the flaws in the system with what is becoming trademark empathy, Laguna is an author proving the novel is a crucial document of...

The Call of the Wild and White Fang, two American classics by Jack London, are presented together in this elegantly designed jacketed hardcover edition featuring an introduction by Jack London scholar Kenneth K. Brandt. The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906) are two classic American adventure novels depicting the evolution of two dogs in the wild. The...

Enjoy Jane Austen's mastery of irony, dialogue, and realism in this gorgeous edition of Pride and Prejudice. 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. Beyond the romance, Pride and Prejudice is a book full of...

Originally told as a tale by J. M. Barrie to five brothers and first produced as a play in 1904, Peter Pan is the beloved and classic story about the boy who never grows up. Follow the Darling children - Wendy, John, and Michael - as they fly over the rooftops of London to Neverland and have adventures with the...

Published after Jane Austen's death in 1817, Persuasion is a poignant and passionate story of love, disappointment, loss, and redemption. Twenty-seven-year-old Anne Elliot is resigned to an unhappy fate and is forced to move with her family to humbler lodgings when an old, lost love reenters her life. The handsome young naval officer, whose marriage proposal she was persuaded to...

With an Introduction by Gabriel García Márquez. A new translation by Douglas J. Weatherford. In this stunning masterpiece of the surreal, Juan Preciado sets out on a strange quest, bound by a promise to his dying mother. Embarking down a parched and dusty road, Juan goes to seek his father, Pedro Páramo, from whom they fled many years ago. The...

I am a sick person. I am a spiteful person. An unattractive person, too... In the depths of a cellar in St. Petersburg, a retired civil servant spews forth a passionate and furious note on the ills of society. The underground man's manifesto reveals his erratic, self-contradictory, and even sadistic nature. Yet Dostoyevsky's disturbing character causes an uncomfortable flicker of...

This breathtaking collection is a marvel ... One of my literary foremothers.' Tayari Jones 'Astute, brilliantly observed, these timeless stories are remarkable. It's all the more poignant to know the writer died at such a heartbreakingly young age:' Jackie Kay And she was becoming frightened too, looking at all those white faces pressed against the windowpanes. One Black family comes...

A gorgeous edition of a classic tale to share with the next generation, Little Women is a coming-of-age story of virtue and true love in nineteenth-century America. A true classic, Little Women follows the lives of Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March, four spirited sisters living in Civil War-era America. Join the Marches as they navigate New England life with...

A classic tale to share with the next generation, Little Women is a coming-of-age story of virtue and true love in nineteenth-century America. A true classic, Little Women follows the lives of Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March, four spirited sisters living in Civil War-era America. Join the Marches as they navigate New England life with a father at war,...

In Irish Folk and Fairy Tales, William Butler Yeats delivers a vast collection of stories, songs, and poetry from his home country and Ireland's historical and legendary past. These writings helped secure Yeats' recognition as a leading proponent of Irish nationalism and cultural independence, and they also helped him spearhead the Irish Literary Revival. Originally published in two separate books...

'A forgotten classic: darkly funny and startlingly contemporary, full of witty one-liners and stop-you-in-your-tracks observations about romance, work, and life.' (Monica Heisey, Really Good, Actually). Lord, I have been more chased than chaste . . It feels remarkable to be a deserted wife when one is only twenty-four. New York, 1924. Patricia and Peter are a thoroughly modern married couple....

Dive into a world of romance, village life, and even a little silliness in Jane Austen's timeless novel. Despite the fact that Jane Austen set out to write a story with a heroine whom she said that "no one but myself will much like," Emma has resonated with readers since its original publication in 1815 and has been retold many...

Dive into a world of romance, village life, and even a little silliness in this stunning edition of Jane Austen's timeless novel, Emma. Self-satisfied Emma Woodhouse thinks she is above romance of any kind, but when she decides she is a great matchmaker and sets out to find a wealthy husband for her friend, the sweet yet pitiable Harriet Smith,...

The only novel written by one of the most popular writers of the twentieth century. Zweig's fictional masterpiece - The Guardian 'An intoxicating, morally shaking read... A real reminder of what fiction can do best' - Ali Smith 'It's just a masterpiece. When I read it I thought, how is it that I don't already know about this?' - Wes...

Follow the adventures of spirited orphan Anne Shirley as she settles into her new home, makes friends, and stirs up trouble. Farm-owning siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert want to adopt a boy to help them around the farm. In a mix-up, the orphanage sends them the active and imaginative Anne Shirley instead. They make the most of the mistake as...

From the Australian Nobel Laureate. This Patrick White masterpiece, now in a Vintage Classics edition. The Vivisector follows Hurtle Duffield, a painter incapable of loving anything except what he paints. The men and women who court him during his long life are, above all, the victims of his art. He is the vivisector, dissecting their weaknesses with cruel precision—his sister's...

The Story of the Stone (c. 1760), also known as The Dream of the Red Chamber, is one of the greatest novels of Chinese literature. The fifth part of Cao Xueqin's magnificent saga, "The Dreamer Awakes", was carefully edited and completed by Gao E some decades later. It continues the story of the changing fortunes of the Jia dynasty, focusing...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in not out’ In the first volume of her critical essays, Virginia Woolf discusses the greatest authors of the literary canon -...

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World' HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’ Elizabeth Bennet, full of vivacity and wit, lives a quiet country existence with her four sisters....

A beautiful hardback edition of a Wodehouse fan favourite, with a brand new introduction from Radio 1 DJ Greg James. 'One of the greatest and silliest stories ever told' - Greg James 'A brilliant writer. Extraordinary' - Philip Pullman Poor Pongo Twistleton must endure his sixty-year-old Uncle Fred once a year. But this year, mischievous Uncle Fred has gone too...

'You don't analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour.' Stephen Fry 'A comic master' David Walliams 'Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale . . . A world for us to live and delight in' Evelyn Waugh A veritable feast of comedy awaits with this delightful collection of Wodehouse stories featuring the infamous Bertie Wooster and...

The Story of the Stone (c.1760) is one of the greatest novels of Chinese literature. The first part of the story, The Golden Days, begins the tale of Bao-yu, a gentle young boy who prefers girls to Confucian studies, and his two cousins: Bao-chai, his parents' choice of a wife for him, and the ethereal beauty Dai-yu. Through the changing...

Over 1 Million Andrew Taylor Novels Sold! A Times Historical Crime Novel of the Year ‘An absolute delight in a series that goes from strength to strength’ — S. G. McLean, prize-winning author of the Seeker series ‘This is Taylor at his unassailable best’ — Financial Times London 1671 The damage caused by the Great Fire still overshadows the capital....

A new translation and abridgement of one of the four classical Chinese novels, this is the epic story of the fall of the Han dynasty and rise of the Three Kingdoms. Part historical and part legendary, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms dramatizes the lives of feudal lords and their retainers, recounting their personal and military battles, intrigues, and struggles...

Fairy tales, ghost stories, detective fiction and comedies of manners - the stories collected in this volume made Oscar Wilde's name as a writer of fiction, showing breathtaking dexterity in a wide range of literary styles. Victorian moral justice is comically inverted in Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and The Canterville Ghost, and society's materialism comes under sharp, humorous criticism in...

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. Akutagawa was one of the towering figures of modern Japanese literature and is considered the father of the Japanese short story. This paradigmatic selection, which includes the stories that inspired Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon, showcases the...

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...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?” In London, 1888, the razor-sharp detective skills of Sherlock Holmes are to be put to the test. Mary Morstan reports two seemingly unconnected and inexplicable events:...

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young… If it was only the other way! The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde's first and only published novel, recounts the story of handsome Dorian Gray who, upon having his...

The great epic of Western literature, translated by the acclaimed classicist Robert Fagles. A Penguin Classic Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning modern-verse translation. "Sing to me of the...

Few books have been as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince. A beautiful gift edition for adults of this touching and wise classic book. Featuring the original translation by Katherine Woods and full-colour illustrations by the author. A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see the most extraordinary little fellow standing before...

The classic Chandler mystery, reissued in B format. Derace Kingsley's wife ran away to Mexico to get a quickie divorce and marry a Casanova-wannabe named Chris Lavery. Or so the note she left her husband insisted. Trouble is, when Philip Marlowe asks Lavery about it, he denies everything and sends the private investigator packing with a flea lodged firmly in...

This bawdy novel from Ancient Rome is given new significance by renowned Australian philosopher Peter Singer. Peter Singer has breathed new life into Apuleius's The Golden Ass—a hilarious, bawdy tale and one of the earliest novels. Apuleius's The Golden Ass, one of a handful of surviving ancient novels, has remained relatively unknown—until now. Renowned philosopher and animal rights activist Peter...

The Complete Fables provides a meticulous translation of the entire Aesopian collection of fables. This edition offers readers an insightful introduction that delves into the transmission of fable "stock" from Sanskrit to Aesop. The introduction also examines the precise nature of the animals featured within these fables. It aims to rescue the stories from a long-standing tradition of moralistic interpretation...

The enduring children's tale The Adventures of Pinocchio, retold for a new generation in this spectacular full-colour deluxe gift edition, is packed with beautiful artwork and seven interactive features created by the award-winning design studio behind the graphics for the Harry Potter film franchise, MinaLima. Originally published in 1883, The Adventures of Pinocchio is one of the best-known and beloved...

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 charming edition of Little Women complete with a stunning new cover. Christmas won't be the same this year in the March household, with Father at war and Mother struggling to make...

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. There is no greater sorrow then to recall our times of joy in wretchedness. Considered one of the greatest medieval poems written in the common vernacular of the time, Dante’s Inferno begins on Good Friday in the year 1300. As he wanders through a dark forest, Dante loses...

For the bicentennial of its first publication, Mary Shelley's original 1818 text, introduced by National Book Critics Circle award-winner Charlotte Gordon. Mary Shelley's classic novel, presented in its original 1818 text, with an introduction from National Book Critics Circle award-winner Charlotte Gordon. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read. The original 1818 text of...

Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie is an ingenious murder mystery, now presented as a sumptuous special edition hardback. Beautiful Caroline Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband, yet there were five other suspects: Philip Blake (the stockbroker) who went to market; Meredith Blake (the amateur herbalist) who stayed at home; Elsa Greer (the three-time divorcée) who had roast beef;...

Sophie Irwin is an exciting and original voice. She's a must-buy author for me. — Taylor Jenkins Reid A delicious Regency romp for fans of Bridgerton. — Red A lifetime of duty Widowed at just seven-and-twenty from her marriage of convenience, Eliza, now Countess of Somerset, is bequeathed a fortune, hers to keep — provided she can steer clear of...

The renowned gothic novel is now available in an affordable softcover edition featuring a striking cover and distinctive interior design elements, making it ideal for classic fiction lovers, readers in high-school or college literature courses, and fans of reading challenges and "Required Reading" lists. The Wuthering Heights softcover edition: Presents Emily Brontë's famed gothic novel of the turbulent love affair...

The Marjolein Bastin Classics Series is a chance to rediscover classic literature in collectible, luxuriously illustrated volumes. For the first time ever, the internationally celebrated artwork of Marjolein Bastin graces the pages of a timeless classic, Wuthering Heights — the story of Heathcliff and Catherine. Beyond bringing these stories to life, Bastin’s series adds elaborately designed ephemera, such as four-colour...

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...

A spellbinding novel looking at the harshness of life in the northern wilds, through nature's ruthless eyes. Born in the wilds of the freezing cold Yukon, White Fang—half-dog, half-wolf—is the only animal in the litter to survive. He soon learns the harsh laws of nature and of the world's indifference, yet buried deep inside him are the distant memories of...

A classics tale of romance in urban nineteenth-century America When timid and plain Catherine Sloper acquires a dashing and determined suitor, her father, convinced that the young man is nothing more than a fortune-hunter, decides to put a stop to their romance. Torn between her desire to win her father's love and approval and her passion for the first man...

True History of the Kelly Gang is Peter Carey's stunning, Booker Prize-winning novel about Australia's most famous outlaw. As he flees the police, Ned Kelly scribbles his narrative in semiliterate but magically descriptive prose. To his pursuers, he is a thief and a murderer. To his own people, he's a hero for opposing the English. Ned, who saw his first...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. Every summer, the Ramsays visit their summer home on the beautiful Isle of Skye, surrounded by the excitement and chatter of family and friends, mirroring Virginia Woolf’s own joyful holidays of her youth. But as time passes, and in its wake the First World War, the transience of...

Twenty new titles in the much-loved and hugely successful Penguin English Library series. The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye that opened suddenly and softly in the evening. To the Lighthouse is at once a vivid impressionistic depiction of a family holiday, and a meditation on marriage, on parenthood and childhood, on grief, tyranny and...

A beautiful edition of the groundbreaking classic novel, with a new introduction by award-winning writer Susan Choi. The enduring power of this iconic classic flows from the brilliance of its narrative technique and the impressionistic beauty of its prose. Though the novel turns on the death of its central figure, Mrs. Ramsay, her presence pervades every page in a poetic...

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...

Featuring beautiful cover art from artist Laci Fowler, this exclusive collector's edition of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a must-have for book lovers and fans of the Broadway show or film Wicked who want to know the original story that inspired their favourite adaptation. Journey down the Yellow Brick Road with Dorothy and friends in this...

HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics. The Woman in White is a novel where "the woman who first gives life, light, and form to our shadowy conceptions of beauty, fills a void in our spiritual nature that has remained unknown to us till she appeared." One of the earliest works of detective fiction, The Woman...

Part of a series of new editions of Henry James's most famous novels and short stories. Emerging from the grit and stigma of poverty to a life of fairytale privilege under the wing of her aunt, the beautiful and financially ambitious Kate Croy is already romantically involved with promising journalist Merton Densher when they become acquainted with Milly Theale, a...