Books in the Rediscovered Classics series

Sappho Clark--beautiful, mysterious, Southern--arrives in Boston to earn her living as a stenographer. She lodges with the Smith family and immediately becomes a source of fascination to the them: Ma Smith is impressed by Sappho's financial independence; Dora Smith admires Sappho's quiet self-possession; and Will Smith, Dora's brother, falls madly in love with Sappho. But as Sappho enters the Smiths' community, it becomes clear that her beauty is a lure to bad actors, including someone who entertains dark suspicions about her past. . . A murder mystery, the story of a friendship, and a romance set in Boston's thriving, politically active middle-class Black community, Contending Forces is an unjustly forgotten American classic.

Susy Branch and Nick Lansing are typical Wharton heroes: popular, attractive, and much poorer than their "international set" friends. Like Lily Bart in The House of Mirth, the two depend on the largesse of more privileged acquaintances to get by. Recognizing in each other a desire for the finer things in life, they decide to get married and, knowing that their friends will happily provide fabulous accommodations, live rent-free on an extended honeymoon until either one of them finds a better match--at which point they will amicably divorce and sail off into their separate, wealthier sunsets. But a romantic tour of Europe can confuse even the most mercenary hearts. And when a friend asks for a favor in exchange for the use of her palazzo, Susy and Nick realize that everything in this sophisticated world comes at a price: one that their hearts and consciences may no longer allow them to pay. . .

"If it had not rained on a certain May morning, Valancy Stirling's whole life would have been entirely different. . ." One day, Valancy Stirling, a quiet, shy old maid, decides to stop listening to her nosy, small-minded relatives and start doing exactly as she pleases. Over the next year, Valancy's choices will transform her life, outrage her family, confuse the entire town of Deerwood--and bring her into close contact with the mischievous, mysterious, violet-eyed Barney Snaith. This is a heartwarming romance with a bold, contemporary message--a life spent appeasing other people is a wasted one--from the beloved author of the Anne of Green Gables series.

One of the first dystopian novels ever written, The Last Man traces the impact of an unstoppable pandemic as it slowly overtakes the world. Beginning in the year 2073, the story follows Lionel Vesey--the titular last man--and his circle of friends as the disease creeps from continent to continent and erodes the foundations of civilization. Published in 1826, after the death of Shelley's husband, her stepsister, and her two children, The Last Man is both an eerily accurate story about humanity wrestling with disaster and a moving fable about surviving personal grief.

Five men survive a South Seas shipwreck and wash up on a seemingly deserted beach, only to discover that five beautiful, winged women live on the island as well. Dazzled and soon in love, the men will do anything to possess these flying women . . . but what they plan, and how the magical women respond, is tellingly--and very predictably--human. First published in 1914, and praised by Ursula K. LeGuin as "a real rediscovery--romantic, satiric, funny, fanciful, and a good read," Angel Island is an adventure story and a genre-defining tale about women's rights.

The World's Desire begins with Odysseus utterly alone. His kingdom of Ithaca is an empty, abandoned wasteland. His beloved wife Penelope is dead. His patron goddess Athena has forsaken him. But then Aphrodite visits Odysseus and sends him on a quest to find the world's desire, the face that launched a thousand ships: the woman he once knew as Helen of Troy. Armed with his legendary bow, Odysseus's final journey takes him to a court riven by murderous factions, ruled by a queen who is haunted by dreams of Odysseus's face . . .