The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies...

"The first novel from award-winning author Gianfranco Calligarich to be published in English, Last Summer in the City is a witty and despairing classic of Italian literature. Biting, tragic, and endlessly quotable, this translated edition features an introductory appreciation from longtime fan New York Times bestselling author Andrae Aciman"-- In a city smothering under the summer sun and an overdose of la dolce vita, Leo Gazarra spends his time...

"Originally conceived as a novel but then transformed into a play by Ayn Rand, Ideal is the story of beautiful but tormented actress Kay Gonda. Accused of murder, she is on the run, and she turns for help to six fans who have written letters to her, eachtelling her that she represents their ideal a respectable family man, a far-left activist, a cynical artist, an evangelist, a playboy, and a lost soul. Each reacts to her plight in his own way, their...

The Mr. and Mrs. Tulliver live at Dorlcote Mill on the river Floss with their two children, Tom and Maggie. This is the story of their lives at the Mill and the catastrophic flood that takes the lives of the brother and sister.

Lauren Tranter knows what she saw: in her hospital room, a woman tried to take her newborn twins and replace them with her own creatures. Everyone thinks she's imagining things. A month passes-- and one morning the babies disappear from Lauren's side in a park. When they're found, something is different about them. The infants look like Morgan and Riley-- to everyone else. But to Lauren, something is off. Determined to bring her true infant sons home,...

A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. This intense novel follows Tony Webster, a middle-aged man, as he contends with a past he never thought much about-until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly...

"Penny has never met anyone smarter than her. That's par for the course when you're a savant--one of less than one hundred in the world. But despite her photographic memory and super-powered intellect, there's one question Penny doesn't know the answer to: where did her father go when he left her and her mother years ago? On Penny's 21st birthday, she receives a card in the mail from her father, just as she has every year since he left. But this birthday...

Widower Will Barrett of Linwood, North Carolina, and Allison Vaught--two alienated souls both questioning their faith in God--together heal one another and return to a Christian community that rejects their methods of healing.

To cool-headed, fastidious Pricilla Messing, Italy will be an escape, a brief glimpse of freedom from a life that's starting to feel like one long decline. Rescued from the bedside of her difficult mother, forty-something Cilla finds herself called away to Rome to keep an eye on her wayward teenage niece, Hannah. But after years of caregiving, babysitting is the last thing Cilla wants to do. Instead she throws herself into Hannah's youthful, heedless...

"A terrifying tale of small-town secrets and murder. Ari Wilburn's life ended long ago--the day she watched her little sister die in a tragic accident and did nothing to stop it. Crippled with self-blame and resented by her parents, she stumbles through life ... and onto an unexpected clue that casts doubt on whether the death was accidental. Now a psychological wreck, Ari joins a suicide support group where she meets Tina, a sex-enslaved escapee...