National Network for Equitable Library Service

A highly influential philosophical work of the Victorian era, John Stuart Mill’s book promotes the application of utilitarianism, an ethical system based on maximizing overall well-being and happin

The striving, vulgar Chichikov travels around the countryside collecting “dead souls” (deceased serfs still on the tax rolls) from landowners as a way to inflate his social standing.

Amory Blaine, a charming and romantic egotist, escapes his Midwestern family for a life of privilege, but is set on a disastrous course by his love for the dazzling, grasping Rosalind.

A governess is hired to look after two orphaned children living at their absentee uncle’s grand estate and soon becomes convinced that her charges are controlled by the ghosts of the former governe

One of the masterpieces of world literature, Dante’s vision of the afterlife remains a powerful allegory for the soul’s journey to God.

A bitter old miser gets visited by a bunch of gnarly ghosts on Christmas Eve and decides to stop being such a jerk to his secretary.

Relegated to a small cottage by the death of their aristocratic father, passionate Marianne (sensibility) and practical Elinor (sense) are as vulnerable in love as they are in fortune.

Thought by many to have helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War by stirring the empathy of Northern whites for the plight of Southern slaves, this novel follows the long-suffering, deeply relig

In turn of the century England, the Wilcoxes are wealthy, the Schlegels are intellectuals and the Basts are poor.

When the eccentric Miss Havisham and her beautiful niece Estella draw orphan Pip into the decayed luxury of their world, he begins to form desires above his station.

Like her sister Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, Anne Brontë’s classic lays bare the vulnerable position of the governess in 19th century England.

Unusual for its "dog's eye" perspective on an important moment in American history, this is a spirited adventure tale that brings the days of the Alaskan Gold Rush vividly to life.

Edmund Dantès is your typical nice guy, until he loses everything to a ruthless rival.

A brilliant young doctor discovers the secret of animating life and creates a monster out of dead body parts, without thinking what place such a creature might have in society.

Furious at being cuckolded, a sultan beds a new virgin each night, then murders each before she can betray him.