Over time, the land of the Mechoopda Indians, where elk herds grazed on blue-stemmed grass, became Rancho Arroyo Chico, the land chosen by California pioneer John Bidwell for his stately creekside mansion. Bidwell later founded the town of Chico with its wooden plank sidewalksand iron-front and brick commercial buildings. Today Chico is a dynamic modern city with its own California State University, a wide, tree-lined Esplanade, and�thanks to the legacy of Annie Bidwell�the eighth-largest ...

A Yorkshire village, a post-girl on her round, and two men who want her — one of them a gentleman with a temper. Booth wrote the East Riding down as it was actually spoken, weather and dialect and all; the book was a great success in America in 1908 and has been quietly out of sight ever since. This edition adds fifty-six plates of painting bound with the text, among them works by George Clausen, Henry Herbert La Thangue, William Orpen and Philip de László.

In "The Post-Girl," Edward Charles Booth crafts a poignant narrative that delves into the complexities of identity and societal expectations in a rapidly changing world. Set against the backdrop of post-war Britain, the novel interweaves elements of realism with lyrical prose, employing a fragmented structure that mirrors the psychological landscapes of its characters. Booth's exploration of themes such as alienation, longing, and the impact of technology on human connection highlights his...

Rural Life and Community: The novel provides a detailed and affectionate portrayal of rural English life, capturing the rhythms and routines of a small village. Sylvia’s interactions with the villagers reveal the close-knit nature of the community, as well as the various social dynamics at play.Romance and Personal Growth: Sylvia’s journey is also one of personal growth and self-discovery. Throughout the novel, she navigates the complexities of love and relationships, including her own rom...

When Fan's mum Agnes announces that the family is moving to Western Australia to take care of Agnes's father - a man they've never spoken of before now - Fan finds herself a stranger in a new town, living in a home whose currents and tensions she cannot read or understand. Resentful of her mother's decision to move, Fan forms an alliance with her grandfather, Edwin Salt, a convict transported to Australia in 1861. As she listens to memories of his former life in England, Fan starts snoopin...

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • The basis for George Stevens’s major motion picture starring Katharine Hepburn in her Oscar-nominated leading role.In a small Midwestern town in the wake of World War I, Alice Adams delightedly finds herself being pursued by Arthur Russell, a gentleman of a higher social class in life. Desperate to keep her family's lower-middle-class status a secret, she and her parents concoct various schemes to keep their family afloat. Though the realiti...

In "A Girton Girl," Annie Edwards weaves a rich tapestry of female empowerment and academic ambition against the backdrop of late 19th-century England. The narrative follows the life of a spirited young woman navigating the challenges of a male-dominated society while pursuing her education at Girton College, the first institution in England to offer degrees to women. Edwards employs a realist literary style, characterized by its meticulous attention to detail and a deep psychological insi...

A manufacturing company is downsizing and wants to know the impact on employee morale. A computer corporation is considering moving its headquarters and needs to determine how many employees intend to relocate. A multinational consulting firm has had a rash of sexual harassment complaints and seeks to determine the extent of the problem. To address these and other business-related issues, organizations are increasingly turning to surveys. Surveys are popular in organizations because--when ...

Edward P. Jones is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the critically acclaimed novel The Known World. A finalist for the National Book Award, Lost in the City features 15 poignant short stories, each set in Washington, D.C. Far removed from marble monuments and the offices of rich politicians, the nation's capital that Jones captures is inhabited by self-willed African-Americans struggling to live their lives as best they can.

High Society Romance: 40 Gilded Age Novels surveys the glittering yet precarious world of wealth, marriage, inheritance, and social ambition across a broad transatlantic canon. Its selections range from drawing-room comedy and sentimental courtship to psychological realism, sensation fiction, social satire, and morally searching domestic drama. Beneath scenes of balls, country houses, fashionable resorts, and carefully brokered engagements, the volume exposes tensions of class mobility, ge...

40 Gilded Age Romances gathers courtship plots, domestic dramas, social comedies, and tales of ambition into a capacious portrait of love under the pressures of wealth, class, reputation, and modern change. Its range extends from realist observation and sentimental narrative to mystery-inflected intrigue, melodrama, satire, and psychologically searching fiction. Alongside stories of marriageable daughters, self-made men, and imperiled inheritances, the volume includes distinguished explora...

In fourteen sublime stories, the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Known World shows that his grasp of the human condition is firmer than ever.Returning to the city that inspired his first prizewinning book, Lost in the City, Jones has filled this new collection with people who call Washington, D.C., home. Yet it is not the city's power brokers that most concern him but rather its ordinary citizens. All Aunt Hagar's Children turns an un...