National Network for Equitable Library Service

From the celebrated early American author of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow": The nineteenth-century classic work of fantasy about one man's twenty-year nap. In the years before the American Revolutionary War, in a village at the foot of New York's Catskill Mountains, lives a kindhearted Dutchman named Rip Van Winkle. He's admired by all his fellow villagers except for his wife, who incessantly nags. One day, in order to avoid her, Rip heads off into the mountains. There he discovers a group of mysterious men wearing antiquated clothes and playing ninepins.

The spirits of Ireland come alive in this nineteenth-century collection of stories, songs, and poems selected and edited by Nobel Prize winner W. B. Yeats. Lose yourself in these supernatural tales of mischievous fairies, changelings, mysterious merrows, solitary leprechauns, shape-changing pookas, wailing banshees, ghosts, dangerous witches, helpful fairy doctors, and massive giants! W. B.

New characters mix with old favorites in a dazzling adventure that continues the epic fantasy begun in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Dorothy may have defeated the Wicked Witch of the West and returned home to Kansas, but all is not well for those who remain in the Land of Oz. In L. Frank Baum's second Oz novel, readers are introduced to poor orphan boy Tip, who has been raised by nasty Wicked Witch Mombi.

A classic children's tale of loyalty, perseverance, and the bond of friendship between a boy and his dog. Ever since he lost his parents as a baby, Nello has been raised by his caring grandfather in a small village near Antwerp in Flanders. One day they find a dog, injured and alone. Naming the pitiable creature Patrasche, Nello and his grandfather nurse him back to health-and forever after, the child and pup are inseparable.

From one of the world's best-loved children's authors: The timeless story of a mischievous bunny and a very angry gardener. If there's one thing Peter Rabbit's mother has always told him, it's to stay away from Mr. McGregor's vegetable garden-or else he might end up becoming a pie like his poor father. But while his obedient sisters, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail, go smartly down the lane to pick blueberries, Peter has ideas of his own, and he goes off snacking on tasty lettuce and radishes from Mr. McGregor's garden.

Secrets and scandals steer a young woman's life as she comes of age and finds love in Victorian England. Seventeen-year-old Molly Gibson has grown up under the watchful eye of her widowed father, the doctor Mr. Gibson. After one of his apprentices develops an interest in Molly, Mr. Gibson feels the only way to protect her is to send her to live with the Hamley family. With his daughter away, Gibson decides to remarry, giving Molly a new mother and sister.

This precursor to the works of Jane Austen and Maria Edgeworth takes a witty look at romance and womanhood in eighteenth-century high society. Denied by her aristocratic libertine father and raised by a clergyman in the English countryside, Evelina Anville is a stranger to fashionable London society. But with the arrival of her eighteenth year comes the time for her formal debut, whether or not she'or London'is ready. Through a series of societal faux pas, Evelina learns about the complexities of society and attracts the eyes of dashing and distinguished bachelors.

This classic story of two nineteenth-century social climbers is the basis for countless films and TV series, and one of the UK's "Best-Loved Novels." Before the Real Housewives, there were Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley. Ruthless and cunning, Becky may have been born in a lower class, but now that she's graduated from school, she's ready to climb up to a better life-and do whatever it takes to get there. Her friend Emmy, however, is the opposite. She may have mastered music, dancing, and embroidery like any young woman of her class, but she utterly lacks a backbone.

A noblewoman travels from colonial Africa to revolutionary France in search of love in this nineteenth-century romantic classic. On the Ile Bourbon off the coast of Madagascar, Indiana is miserable in her marriage to the cold Colonel Delmare. Although she has a friendly companion in the ever-present Englishman Sir Ralph, she yearns to feel passion and desire. When she catches the interest of the handsome young Raymon de Ramiere, Indiana is willing to take any risk, including running away to France as the July Revolution rages in Paris.

A married aristocratic woman succumbs to desire in this nineteenth-century English novel. Lady Isabel Vane married for all the wrong reasons-only to one day find her lawyer husband neglecting her for another woman. Seething with jealousy, she leaves behind her husband and their child for the flirtatious Francis Levison. It's a risk she takes willingly, but it comes with a heavy price that will lead her to the depths of despair and a quest for redemption.