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Professor St. Peter is not truly old, but he is starting to feel old. He and his wife have moved into an elegant new house, and he struggles to leave his previous study-the spartan attic room where he wrote his eight-volume life's work, a history of the Spanish in North America. Visits from his now-married daughters and their husbands leave him unexpectedly distraught. He begins to feel discomfort with his own life, home, and family.As the professor searches for harmony, he reflects back on an earlier time when his student Tom Outland, an orphan from the Southwest, brought a unique energy and joy into his life. Though Tom was killed in World War I, the impact he had on the professor's family changed their lives in ways both good and bad, and the professor reflects on this as he revisits a notebook from Tom's discovery and exploration of an abandoned cliff dwelling in New Mexico. One of Cather's less well-known novels, The Professor's House is considered a masterpiece by many. Themes of innocence and civilization, friendship and family, intertwine as the professor searches for an answer to his questions about what makes life worth living.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein is a classic horror story as well as an early foray into the genre of science fiction. An astute study of the hubris of a man who reached too far, this tale of obsession and terror has resonated through the centuries.

An old, limping man captures the attention of a newcomer to the rural town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, who sets out to learn the tragic story behind Ethan Frome's physical scars and subdued interactions. As the story skips back in time twenty-four years, a lifetime of misfortunes, a misguided love affair, and a terrible sledding accident come to light in Wharton's 1911 tale, set against the backdrop of stark New England winters, of a man unable to escape the harsh hand of fate.

A young sailor is unexpectedly made captain of a ship with a mysterious past and sails out confidently, only to face a crisis beyond anything he could have imagined. As he struggles to sail the vessel past a ghostly "shadow-line" at sea, the tragic figure of the previous captain looms in the crew's minds and a deadly illness rips through the ship. One of Conrad's later works, The Shadow-Line is a suspenseful nautical tale that hauntingly captures the painful transition from youth to maturity and the terrifying reality of life at sea.

New Mexico has passed into American hands, and two French missionary priests are sent to assume responsibility for the new diocese. Bishop Jean Marie Latour and Vicar Joseph Vaillant, friends from boyhood, arrive at a time when all travel is still by foot or on horseback and the region is undergoing great change. As they work to expand the Catholic church's influence and care for the residents, they come to understand the impact of European expansion on native groups and develop a deep respect for the people of the desert region.Along the way they endure life-threatening adventures, from snowstorms to outbreaks of disease to the unstable politics of the time, contend with the scandalous behavior of local priests, and come to terms with the responsibilities of faith at the intersection of American colonial pressure and native resistance.Throughout the novel, which is based loosely on historical characters, Willa Cather beautifully renders the dramatic landscapes of the Southwest, painting scenes of stark mountains, dangerous canyons, and lush secret springs that nourish the land.

A young boy's mind begins to awaken to love and beauty; an old man cherishes a final season of companionship as the end of his life draws near. These two stories by John Galsworthy, set nearly two decades apart, probe the emotions connected to family, passion, and art as they are deeply felt by both grandson and grandfather, who never meet each other but are tied together through their family history. The works form the interludes of the author's celebrated Forsyte Saga, but readers will discover each also stands alone as a captivating work of fiction.

The residents of Villa Rubein lead a quiet and generally conventional existence until one spring day when Greta, twelve years old, outspoken, and inquisitive, follows her mischievous dog Scruff into a previously abandoned house and meets the painter Alois Harz. Harz is drawn into a friendship with the entire family, growing closer to all of them but especially nineteen-year-old Christian, who soon finds herself torn between her intense love for the painter and her love for her family.

Is love essential to a happy marriage? Is marriage essential to a satisfying life? Night and Day, Virginia Woolf's second published novel, follows four Londoners-Katharine Hillbery, Mary Datchet, Ralph Denham, and William Rodney-through a period of their intertwined lives as they grapple with questions of love, happiness, and marriage.

How does your family's history define you?Jenny considers herself American, independent, and in control of her own destiny, yet she struggles to escape her European parents' experience in Trieste during World War II, a time when painful choices were necessary and deep trauma occurred--trauma they have always avoided speaking of to their daughter. As she moves into an unsettling marriage, she finds herself challenged by the lines between past and present, family and self, until a tragic accident forces her to reevaluate her own identity. Years later, as Jenny travels to the Riviera with a new love, echoes of the past return to blur the present, casting shadows on some memories and illuminating others. She must finally come to terms with her place in her family's history and decide whether it will define her. Marriage of the Smila-Hoffmans brings together Maryann D'Agincourt's insightful novels Shade and Light and August. Now finally available together in a single volume with a new prologue and interlude by the author, they present a sweeping story of love, history, trauma, and art that readers will not want to miss.

In August 1984, Jenny and her second husband Jonas take a belated honeymoon on the Ligurian coast. They stay in the same hotel her late first husband Eric had frequented for business where she unexpectedly discovers clues to Eric's boyhood trauma during the war. This knowledge jolts her view of Eric, her view of herself, and her relationship with Jonas. August is a novel about the power of secrets to transform lives. A sequel to Maryann D'Agincourt evocative novel Shade and Light.

From the author of National Book Award-nominated Journal of Eva Morelli, this insightful collection of short stories takes the reader on a journey through a diverse array of lives and relationships, from a journalist finding new love after the death of her husband to a schoolgirl shocked to discover her mothers secrets. DAgincourt delves deep into the emotional lives of her characters and sheds light on the mysteries of human decisions and the significance of art and music in our lives. Inspired by Oscar Kokoschkas masterpiece Two Nudes (Lovers), 1913, DAgincourt writes in the unique literary genre of art fiction. All MOST, is the second work of fiction in Maryann D'Agincourt's Art Fiction series. What is Art Fiction? Maryann D'Agincourt has merged her passions for art and literature into a unique and powerful form of storytelling. Art Fiction is a literary genre in which art is not solely an object, but is a reflection of what is human in all of us. Other examples are:Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy ChevalierTo the Lighthouse by Virginia WoolfMay Name is Asher Lev by Chaim PotokMoon and Sixpence by Somerset MaughamThe Shadow Catcher by Marianne WigginsThe Real Thing by Henry JamesThe Gold Finch by Donna TarttThe Art Forger by B.A. ShapiroThe Birth of Venus by Sarah DunantThe Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland

Recognized as a finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Competition by the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society, Journal of Eva Morelli is psychologically astute and compelling. Psychiatrist Stephen Forester and his wife Brea left the frenzy of New York City ten years before in search of a quiet life in a tranquil seaside community in New Hampshire. But when the elusive Eva Hathaway steps into Stephen's office and begins to reveal the story of her own tragic past, his convictions start to crumble. Over the sweltering summer that follows, Stephen becomes more and more haunted by obscure memories of his childhood as he wonders what secret could be so terrible that Eva can only reveal it in her journal.