Best of
19th-Century

1862

Les Misérables: Volume Two


Victor Hugo - 1862
    First published in France in 1862, it is Victor Hugo's greatest achievement--the ultimate tale of redemption. Former prisoner Jean Valjean struggles to live virtuously after an unexpected act of forgiveness by a kindly bishop changes his life. His righteous actions change people's lives in surprising ways and culminate in romance between two young people. Now available as part of the Word Cloud Classics series, Les Miserables is a must-have addition to the libraries of all classic literature lovers.

Goblin Market


Christina Rossetti - 1862
    Published in 1862, this phantasmagoric tale of two maidens seduced by lewd goblin men provides a startling glimpse into the depths of the Victorian psyche. Full color throughout .

Goblin Market and Other Poems


Christina Rossetti - 1862
    Like Emily Dickinson, she lived in self-imposed isolation, writing of God and lost love with a sensuality and passion that seemed to emanate from the soul.This edition of 53 works combines a number of her best-known sonnets, ballads, and shorter lyrics with her long masterpiece, the narrative fable Goblin Market. A haunting fairy tale in verse, Goblin Market was once labeled a children's poem, yet its intricate symbolism and themes of temptation, sin, and redemption mark it for an adult audience. Among other works included in this choice collection are "The Convent Threshold," "Up-hill," "Cousin Kate," "Winter: My Secret," "Maude Clare," "No, Thank You, John," and "After Death."

Complete Poems


Christina Rossetti - 1862
    This collection brings together fantasy poems, such as Goblin Market, and terrifyingly vivid verses for children, love lyrics and sonnets, and the vast body of her devotional poetry. Rossetti's poems weave connections between love and death, triumph and loss, heavenly joys and earthly pleasures. The directness and clarity of her lyrics still have the power to startle us with their truth and beauty.

Stories for Christmas


Charles Dickens - 1862
     The present Edition includes, in addition, the following five stories: 'A Christmas Tree', 'The Poor Relation's Story', 'The Child's Story', 'The Schoolboy's Story', and 'Nobody's Story', which originally appeared in Reprinted Pieces.A Christmas carol --The chimes --The cricket on the hearth --A Christmas tree --What Christmas is as we grow older --The poor relations story --The child's story --The schoolboy's story --Nobody's story --The seven poor travellers --The holly tree --The wreck of the Golden Mary --The perils of certain English prisoners --Going into society --The haunted house --A message from the sea --Tom Tiddlers ground --Somebody's luggage.

Fathers and Sons


Ivan Turgenev - 1862
    But soon Bazarov’s outspoken rejection of authority and social conventions touches off quarrels, misunderstandings, and romantic entanglements that will utterly transform the Kirsanov household and reflect the changes taking place across all of nineteenth-century Russia. Fathers and Sons enraged the old and the young, reactionaries, romantics, and radicals alike when it was first published. At the same time, Turgenev won the acclaim of Flaubert, Maupassant, and Henry James for his craftsmanship as a writer and his psychological insight. Fathers and Sons is now considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century.A timeless depiction of generational conflict during social upheaval, it vividly portrays the clash between the older Russian aristocracy and the youthful radicalism that foreshadowed the revolution to come—and offers modern-day readers much to reflect upon as they look around at their own tumultuous, ever changing world. Introduction by Jane Costlow

The Tutor's First Love


George MacDonald - 1862
    Deep spiritual insights are artfully woven into the intriguing plot.

No Name


Wilkie Collins - 1862
    Disinherited by law and brutally ousted from Combe-Raven, the idyllic country estate which has been their peaceful home since childhood, the two young women are left to fend for themselves. While the submissive Norah follows a path of duty and hardship as a governess, her high-spirited and rebellious younger sister has made other decisions. Determined to regain her rightful inheritance at any cost, Magdalen uses her unconventional beauty and dramatic talent in recklessly pursuing her revenge. Aided by the audacious swindler Captain Wragge, she braves a series of trials leading up to the climactic test: can she trade herself in marriage to the man she loathes?Written in the early 1860s, between The Woman in White and The Moonstone, No Name was rejected as immoral by critics of its time, but is today regarded as a novel of outstanding social insight, showing Collins at the height of his powers.

The Gambler/Bobok/A Nasty Story


Fyodor Dostoevsky - 1862
    Presents the stories such as The Gambler, a portrayal of an intense and futile obsession; Bobok, a blackly comic satire in which a desolate writer becomes drawn into the conversations of the dead; and, A Nasty Story, a humorous look at the disparity between a man's exaggerated ideal of himself and the sad reality.

A Memory Of Solferino


Henry Dunant - 1862
    Three years later he published Un Souvenir de Solferino at his own expense and presented it to leading figures in Europe. The next year, due to his efforts, the Red Cross was founded.Excerpt:At last, in 1897, he was discovered in the Swiss village of H eiden, where he was living in misery, in a Home for old men, with almost no means other than a small pension received from the Empress of Russia.