18 books like The Return of the Native
Black Sheep
With her high-spirited intelligence and good looks, Abigail Wendover was a most sought-after young woman. But of all her high-placed suitors, there was none Abigail could love. Abigail was kept busy when her pretty and naive niece Fanny falls head over heels in love with Stacy Calverleigh, a good-looking town-beau of shocking reputation and an acknowledged seductor. She was determined to prevent…
Shares: Mate selection, Social life and customs, Romance, History
Parlour games
A game of "Questions and Commands" depicted by [[James Gillray, 1788]]
Shares: Adultery, Married people, Social life and customs
Any Man Of Mine
Living with three brothers has taught me what I don't want in a husband. "Guys" who can only converse about farming, welding and hockey won't cut it. And those who prefer a rodeo to a symphony or dusty jeans to a nice suit are not for me.Unfortunately, my hometown is full of guys just like my brothers. So I've been planning to move to the city for a fresh start. But now I'm having second…
Shares: Mate selection, Romance
Ruth (volume II)
Ruth Volume 2 By Elizabeth Gaskell A sensitive portrayal of relationships within small towns and an exploration of seduction and illegitimacy within a small Dissenting community where tolerance and rigid morality clash.
Shares: Mothers and sons, Social conditions, Social life and customs, History
Анна Каренина
Described by William Faulkner as the best novel ever written and by Fyodor Dostoevsky as “flawless,” Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and thereby exposes herself to the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of…
Shares: Adultery, Social conditions, Social life and customs, Romance
A Particular Eye for Villainy
From "an accomplished veteran" of crime fiction, a Victorian murder mystery featuring a female sleuth and her detective husband (Kirkus Reviews).When Mr. Thomas Tapley is found bludgeoned to death in his sitting room, his neighbor, Inspector Benjamin Ross of Scotland Yard, is immediately summoned.Little is known about the elusive gentleman until Mr. Jonathan Tapley, QC, hears of the news, and the…
Shares: Social conditions, History
The Painted Veil
A story of the beautiful but love-starve Kitty Fane who is forced to accompany her husband to the heart of a cholera epidemic. She is compelled by her awakening conscience to reassess her life and learn how to love.
Shares: Adultery, Married people
The well-beloved
Jocelyn Pierston, a sculptor of growing fame, is determined to find his ideal in womanhood, a quest that has led to many fruitless encounters. For just as it seems he has found his heart's desire, disillusionment sets in and his burning love turns to ashes. Returning to Portland, his birthplace, he meets young, innocent Avice Caro. They are betrothed until a fateful meeting with the self-assured…
Shares: Wessex, Romance
Amelia
Against her mother's wishes, Amelia marries Captain William Booth, a young army officer, and runs away to London. William is unjustly imprisoned in Newgate, and is subsequently seduced by Miss Matthews. Amelia stays faithful to her husband and forgives his transgression, but William soon draws them into trouble again as he accrues gambling debts trying to lift the couple out of poverty.
Shares: Married people, Social conditions, Social life and customs
The Good Soldier
This is the saddest story I have ever heard. We had known the Ashburnhams for nine seasons of the town of Nauheim with an extreme intimacy - or, rather with an acquaintanceship as loose and easy and yet as close as a good glove's with your hand. My wife and I knew Captain and Mrs Ashburnham as well as it was possible to know anybody, and yet, in another sense, we knew nothing at all about…
Shares: Adultery, Married people, Social life and customs, History
Emma
Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively comedy of manners among her characters. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a…
Shares: Mate selection, Social life and customs, Romance
Jude the Obscure
Hardy's last work of fiction, Jude the Obscure is also one of his most gloomily fatalistic, depicting the lives of individuals who are trapped by forces beyond their control. Jude Fawley, a poor villager, wants to enter the divinity school at Christminster. Sidetracked by Arabella Donn, an earthy country girl who pretends to be pregnant by him, Jude marries her and is then deserted. He earns a…
Shares: Adultery, Social life and customs, Romance, History
The Woodlanders
When country-girl Grace Melbury returns home from her middle-class school she feels she has risen above her suitor, the simple woodsman Giles Winterborne. Though marriage had been discussed between her and Giles, Grace finds herself captivated by Dr Edred Fitzpiers, a sophisticated newcomer to the area - a relationship that is encouraged by her socially ambitious father. Hardy's novel of…
Shares: Wessex, Social life and customs, Romance
Under the Greenwood Tree or, The Mellstock quire
Under the Greenwood Tree is the story of the romantic entanglement between church musician, Dick Dewey, and the attractive new school mistress, Fancy Day. A pleasant romantic tale set in the Victorian era, Under the Greenwood Tree is one of Thomas Hardy's most gentle and pastoral novels.
Shares: Wessex, Romance
The Trumpet-Major, and Robert His Brother
Set against a backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, this is a novel about a young woman and the three very different suitors who vie for her hand. Two of the men are brothers involved in the fighting, one an easygoing sailor, the other an honest and diffident trumpet major, the third suitor being the cowardly son of the local squire.
Shares: Wessex, Social life and customs, History
Tent-life in Siberia and adventures among the Koraks and other tribes in Kamchatka and northern Asia
An account of a period living in Siberia in pursuit of a plan to carry a telegraph line across land to Europe through Siberia in consequence of the failure of efforts to carry a telegraph line to Europe under the Atlantic.
Shares: Travel, Social life and customs
Domestic manners of the Americans
When Fanny Trollope set sail for America in 1827 with hopes of joining a Utopian community of emancipated slaves, she took with her three of her children and a young French artist, leaving behind her son Anthony, growing debts and a husband going slowly mad from mercury poisoning. But what followed was a tragicomedy of illness, scandal and failed business ventures. Nevertheless, on her return to…
Shares: Social conditions, Travel, Social life and customs, History
McKettrick's choice
When news arrived that there was trouble back in Texas, Holt McKettrick left a mail-order bride and his family on the spot. And he never looked back. He just prayed he'd be in time to save the man who had raised him as a son and keep his best friend from the gallows. He knew he'd encounter rustlers, scoundrels and thieves, but he'd never expected to find a woman like Lorelei Fellows.
Setting…
Shares: Mate selection, Romance