Frank Carlson Library

The classic story of the relationship between Jane Eyre, a governess, and the eccentric millionaire Rochester.

Thomas Gradgrind destroys the spiritual and emotional lives of his children by denying the importance of human feelings.

Perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives, Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American history. It recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation. After his rescue, Northup published...

Young man's inheritance of his father's estate depends upon the conditions of his marriage. Dickens's last complete and full length novel, first published in 1865. For other editions, see Author Catalog.

The tale of a passionate, independent woman and her three suitors, Far from the Madding Crowd tells the story of Bathsheba Everdene and her relationships with the devoted Gabriel Oak, the dashing Sergeant Troy, and the reclusive gentleman farmer, Mr. Boldwood. Through her wayward nature and a winding path of events propelled by Thomas Hardy's recurring feminist themes, Bathsheba is led to tragedy and, finally, true love. Written in 1874, Far from...

A detailed historical account of the serial killer calls on never before examined primary documents to reveal how he managed to take advantage of the crowds drawn by the 1893 World's Fair to create his own castle of horrors. Herman W. Mudgett, better known by his alias, H.H. Holmes, is considered America's first-- and most notorious-- serial killer. During the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, the basement of his house in Englewood, Illinois contained...

In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave...

Presents a narrative history of the 1889 Johnstown Flood to chronicle key events, the damage that rendered the flood one of America's worst disasters, and the pivotal contributions of key figures, from dam engineer John Parke to American Red Cross founder Clara Barton. "A gripping new history celebrating the remarkable heroes of the Johnstown Flood--the deadliest flood in U.S. history--from NBC host and legendary weather authority Al Roker. Central...

It is two years before the Civil War, and Congressman Daniel Sickles and his lovely wife Teresa are popular fixtures in Washington, D.C. society. Because Congressman Sickles is frequently out of town, he trusts his friend, U.S. Attorney Philip Barton Key--son of Francis Scott Key--to escort the beautiful Mrs. Sickles to parties in his absence. Then one day an anonymous note sets into motion a tragic course of events that culminates in a shocking murder...