Category

19th Century, C 1800 to C 1899

Beyond the Hundredth Meridian
In Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, Wallace Stegner recounts the sucesses and frustrations of John Wesley Powell, the distinguished ethnologist and geologist who explored the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon, and the homeland of Indian tribes of the American Southwest. A prophet without honor who had...
Booth

Booth 2022

In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the next sixteen years. Junius Booth—breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one—is at once a...
Buchanan Dying
To the list of John Updike’s well-intentioned protagonists—Rabbit Angstrom, Richard Maple, Henry Bech—add James Buchanan, the harried fifteenth president of the United States (1857–1861). In what the author calls “a kind of novel, conceived in the form of a play,” Buchanan’s political and private...
Centennial

Centennial 2026

The spectacular story of the Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876, a world's fair to mark America’s hundredth birthday—and a moment of reckoning for a nation barrelling toward the Gilded Age. “Those who were there felt that the wheel of history itself had turned before their eyes.” Held at...
Chenneville
Union soldier John Chenneville suffered a traumatic head wound in battle. His recovery took the better part of a year as he struggled to regain his senses and mobility. By the time he returned home, the Civil War was over, but tragedy awaited. John’s beloved sister and her family had been brutally...
Confederates
In the summer of 1862, as the Civil War rages on, a ragtag Confederate army consisting of young boys and old men, storekeepers, farmers, and teachers, gathers in Virginia under the leadership of Tom "Stonewall" Jackson, ready to follow their sainted commander to glory—or hell. One of these men,...
The Demon of Unrest
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict,...
The Devil in the White City
Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most...
Don
Gwen has a brilliant beyond brilliant idea. It’s 1857, and anxious debutante Beth has just one London debutante season to snag a wealthy husband, or she and her mother will be out on the street. But playing the blushing ingenue makes Beth’s skin crawl and she’d rather be anywhere but here. Gwen, on...
Gods and Generals
In this brilliantly written epic novel, Jeff Shaara traces the lives, passions, and careers of the great military leaders from the first gathering clouds of the Civil War. Here is Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, a hopelessly by-the-book military instructor and devout Christian who becomes the greatest...
Horse

Horse 2024

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the...
The Lamplighter’s Bookshop
When Evelyn Seaton and her mother are ejected by the bailiffs from their Yorkshire manor house, the blame lies squarely with Evelyn’s father, a gambler and chancer who has left them destitute. Seeking refuge with an elderly aunt in an unfashionable corner of York, their predicament is intensified by...
Lee and Grant at Appomattox
Designed for young readers, this illustrated history recounts the events that led to the surrender of the Confederacy, and the personalities involved. From the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Andersonville comes the story of an unforgettable moment in American history: the historic meeting between...
Lightning Beneath the Sea
In 1854, the American entrepreneur Cyrus Field set out to lay a 2,000-mile telegraph cable across the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Nothing like it had ever been attempted. Field knew nothing about telegraphy, electricity, ships, or oceans, and science itself still lacked a universal theory of...
Long Remember
Long Remember was the first realistic novel about the Civil War. Originally published in 1934, it received rave reviews from the New York Times Book Review and was a main selection of the Literary Guild. It is an account of the Battle of Gettysburg, as viewed by a pacifist who comes to accept the...
Mansfield Park
At the center of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park is Fanny Price, the classic “poor cousin” who has been brought to live with the rich Sir Thomas Bertram and his wife as an act of charity. Over time, Fanny comes to demonstrate forcibly those virtues Austen most admired: modesty, firm principles, and a...
A Matter of Persuasion
New York, 1882. Amy Eaton is a bestselling authoress, much to the embarrassment of her family. Proudly ‘old money’, they see her professionalism as an impropriety. Despite their undisguised disdain for her, Amy is bound by a promise she made to her dying mother to look after her two sisters and...
American Grammar
A new history of US education through the nineteenth century that rigorously accounts for Black, Native, and white experiences; a story that exposes the idea of American education as “the great equalizer” to not only be a lie, but also a myth that reproduces past harms. Education is the epicenter...
Mightier Than the Sword
Uncle Tom's Cabin is likely the most influential novel ever written by an American. In a fitting tribute to the two hundredth anniversary of Harriet Beecher Stowe's birth, Bancroft Prize-winning historian David S. Reynolds reveals her book's impact not only on the abolitionist movement and the...
Amity

Amity 2025

New Orleans, 1866. The Civil War might be over, but formerly enslaved Coleman and June have yet to find the freedom they’ve been promised. Two years ago, the siblings were separated when their old master, Mr. Harper, took June away to Mexico, where he hoped to escape the new reality of the...
Anna Karenina
Sensual, rebellious Anna falls deeply and passionately in love with the handsome Count Vronsky. When she refuses to conduct the discreet affair that her cold, ambitious husband (and Russian high society) would condone, she is doomed. Set against the tragic love of Anna and Vronsky, the plight of the...
Persuasion

Persuasion 1992

Anne Elliot, daughter of the snobbish, spendthrift Sir Walter Elliot, is a woman of quiet charm and deep feelings. When she was nineteen, she fell in love with—and was engaged to—a naval officer, the fearless and headstrong Captain Wentworth. But the young man had no fortune, and Anne allowed...
Pride and Prejudice
In a remote Hertfordshire village, far off the good coach roads of George III's England, a country squire of no great means must marry off his five vivacious daughters. At the heart of this all-consuming enterprise are his headstrong second daughter Elizabeth Bennet and her aristocratic suitor...
Sense and Sensibility
Its two heroines, Marianne and Elinor—so utterly unlike each other–both undergo the most violent passions when they are separated from the men they love. What differentiates them, and gives this extraordinary book its complexity and brilliance, is the way each expresses her suffering:...
To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth
On June 19, 1864, just off the coast of France, one of the most dramatic naval battles in history took place. On a clear day with windswept skies, the dreaded Confederate raider Alabama faced the Union warship Kearsarge in an all-or-nothing fight to the finish, the outcome of which would effectively...
Wuthering Heights
The title of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors of the story. The narrative centres on the all-encompassing, passionate, but ultimately doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and the people around them.
The Devil in the White City
Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most...
Centennial

Centennial June 9, 2026

The spectacular story of the Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876, a world's fair to mark America’s hundredth birthday—and a moment of reckoning for a nation barrelling toward the Gilded Age. “Those who were there felt that the wheel of history itself had turned before their eyes.” Held at...
Lightning Beneath the Sea
In 1854, the American entrepreneur Cyrus Field set out to lay a 2,000-mile telegraph cable across the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Nothing like it had ever been attempted. Field knew nothing about telegraphy, electricity, ships, or oceans, and science itself still lacked a universal theory of...
The Demon of Unrest

The Demon of Unrest March 10, 2026

On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict,...
American Grammar

American Grammar October 14, 2025

A new history of US education through the nineteenth century that rigorously accounts for Black, Native, and white experiences; a story that exposes the idea of American education as “the great equalizer” to not only be a lie, but also a myth that reproduces past harms. Education is the epicenter...
Amity

Amity September 2, 2025

New Orleans, 1866. The Civil War might be over, but formerly enslaved Coleman and June have yet to find the freedom they’ve been promised. Two years ago, the siblings were separated when their old master, Mr. Harper, took June away to Mexico, where he hoped to escape the new reality of the...
A Matter of Persuasion

A Matter of Persuasion July 1, 2025

New York, 1882. Amy Eaton is a bestselling authoress, much to the embarrassment of her family. Proudly ‘old money’, they see her professionalism as an impropriety. Despite their undisguised disdain for her, Amy is bound by a promise she made to her dying mother to look after her two sisters and...
The Lamplighter’s Bookshop
When Evelyn Seaton and her mother are ejected by the bailiffs from their Yorkshire manor house, the blame lies squarely with Evelyn’s father, a gambler and chancer who has left them destitute. Seeking refuge with an elderly aunt in an unfashionable corner of York, their predicament is intensified by...
Chenneville

Chenneville September 24, 2024

Union soldier John Chenneville suffered a traumatic head wound in battle. His recovery took the better part of a year as he struggled to regain his senses and mobility. By the time he returned home, the Civil War was over, but tragedy awaited. John’s beloved sister and her family had been brutally...
To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth
On June 19, 1864, just off the coast of France, one of the most dramatic naval battles in history took place. On a clear day with windswept skies, the dreaded Confederate raider Alabama faced the Union warship Kearsarge in an all-or-nothing fight to the finish, the outcome of which would effectively...
Horse

Horse January 16, 2024

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the...
Don
Gwen has a brilliant beyond brilliant idea. It’s 1857, and anxious debutante Beth has just one London debutante season to snag a wealthy husband, or she and her mother will be out on the street. But playing the blushing ingenue makes Beth’s skin crawl and she’d rather be anywhere but here. Gwen, on...
Booth

Booth March 8, 2022

In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the next sixteen years. Junius Booth—breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one—is at once a...
Lee and Grant at Appomattox

Lee and Grant at Appomattox October 15, 2016

Designed for young readers, this illustrated history recounts the events that led to the surrender of the Confederacy, and the personalities involved. From the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Andersonville comes the story of an unforgettable moment in American history: the historic meeting between...
Confederates

Confederates December 22, 2015

In the summer of 1862, as the Civil War rages on, a ragtag Confederate army consisting of young boys and old men, storekeepers, farmers, and teachers, gathers in Virginia under the leadership of Tom "Stonewall" Jackson, ready to follow their sainted commander to glory—or hell. One of these men,...
Buchanan Dying

Buchanan Dying April 9, 2013

To the list of John Updike’s well-intentioned protagonists—Rabbit Angstrom, Richard Maple, Henry Bech—add James Buchanan, the harried fifteenth president of the United States (1857–1861). In what the author calls “a kind of novel, conceived in the form of a play,” Buchanan’s political and private...
Mightier Than the Sword

Mightier Than the Sword June 13, 2011

Uncle Tom's Cabin is likely the most influential novel ever written by an American. In a fitting tribute to the two hundredth anniversary of Harriet Beecher Stowe's birth, Bancroft Prize-winning historian David S. Reynolds reveals her book's impact not only on the abolitionist movement and the...
The Devil in the White City

The Devil in the White City February 10, 2004

Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most...
Long Remember

Long Remember August 7, 2000

Long Remember was the first realistic novel about the Civil War. Originally published in 1934, it received rave reviews from the New York Times Book Review and was a main selection of the Literary Guild. It is an account of the Battle of Gettysburg, as viewed by a pacifist who comes to accept the...
Gods and Generals

Gods and Generals May 13, 1997

In this brilliantly written epic novel, Jeff Shaara traces the lives, passions, and careers of the great military leaders from the first gathering clouds of the Civil War. Here is Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, a hopelessly by-the-book military instructor and devout Christian who becomes the greatest...
Persuasion

Persuasion June 30, 1992

Anne Elliot, daughter of the snobbish, spendthrift Sir Walter Elliot, is a woman of quiet charm and deep feelings. When she was nineteen, she fell in love with—and was engaged to—a naval officer, the fearless and headstrong Captain Wentworth. But the young man had no fortune, and Anne allowed...
Mansfield Park

Mansfield Park June 2, 1992

At the center of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park is Fanny Price, the classic “poor cousin” who has been brought to live with the rich Sir Thomas Bertram and his wife as an act of charity. Over time, Fanny comes to demonstrate forcibly those virtues Austen most admired: modesty, firm principles, and a...
Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility March 10, 1992

Its two heroines, Marianne and Elinor—so utterly unlike each other–both undergo the most violent passions when they are separated from the men they love. What differentiates them, and gives this extraordinary book its complexity and brilliance, is the way each expresses her suffering:...
Beyond the Hundredth Meridian
In Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, Wallace Stegner recounts the sucesses and frustrations of John Wesley Powell, the distinguished ethnologist and geologist who explored the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon, and the homeland of Indian tribes of the American Southwest. A prophet without honor who had...
Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice October 15, 1991

In a remote Hertfordshire village, far off the good coach roads of George III's England, a country squire of no great means must marry off his five vivacious daughters. At the heart of this all-consuming enterprise are his headstrong second daughter Elizabeth Bennet and her aristocratic suitor...
Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights October 15, 1991

The title of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors of the story. The narrative centres on the all-encompassing, passionate, but ultimately doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and the people around them.
Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina June 1, 1984

Sensual, rebellious Anna falls deeply and passionately in love with the handsome Count Vronsky. When she refuses to conduct the discreet affair that her cold, ambitious husband (and Russian high society) would condone, she is doomed. Set against the tragic love of Anna and Vronsky, the plight of the...