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The novel that introduced the first great American hero: the cowboy.

The Virginian cuts an impressive figure when the unnamed narrator of Owen Wister’s groundbreaking novel first encounters him in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Dark-haired and physically imposing, the charismatic Virginian quickly befriends the narrator, whom he nicknames “the tenderfoot,” and the two embark on a three-hundred-mile journey to the ranch where the Virginian works. Life on the frontier is unforgiving—filled with hardship and violence—and as they travel together, the tenderfoot recognizes all the ways in which the stoic and principled Virginian exemplifies the heroism and romance of life in the Wild West.

Published in 1902 and considered to be the first true Western, The Virginian broke the trail for every great poet of the frontier, from Zane Grey to Louis L’Amour to John Ford.

The classic novel that inspired Apocalypse Now.

A European trading concern hires Marlow to pilot a boat up the Congo River in search of Kurtz—a first-class ivory agent and the manager of the company’s highly profitable Inner Station—who is believed to be on his deathbed. With a handful of pilgrims as his passengers and a crew of cannibals, Marlow steams his way into the African interior. The terrifying discovery he makes at the end of his journey and the horrors he witnesses along the way have thrilled and disturbed readers for more than a century.

A searing indictment of imperialism and a haunting exposé of mankind’s savage nature, Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad’s masterpiece.

Kate Chopin’s groundbreaking novel of early feminism set against the evocative backdrop of turn-of-the-century New Orleans.

Edna Pontellier is trapped. By her marriage, by her responsibilities to two young sons, by the expectations of Creole society. When she falls in love with the charming and flirtatious Robert Lebrun during a summer on the Louisiana coast, Edna awakens to a new sense of herself, and to the possibility of true independence. Mademoiselle Reisz, a locally renowned musician, offers one example of the self-sufficient, artistic existence Edna might lead. An affair with the notorious womanizer Alcée Arobin warns of the passion and danger inherent in living outside the boundaries of convention. Torn between the life that was handed to her and the one she wants to live, Edna makes a shocking decision.

Overwhelmingly criticized in its day for its frank depictions of female sexuality, marriage, and a woman’s desire for independence, The Awakening is now celebrated as one of the earliest—and most revolutionary—feminist novels in American literature.

Widely considered to be D. H. Lawrence’s finest novel, Women in Love shows this classic author at his provocative best.

It is the early twentieth century, and the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula, live in a coal-mining town in the Midlands of England.

Ursula, a teacher, and Gudrun, an artist, are on a quest for happiness and intellectual fulfillment when they meet Rupert and Gerald. Rupert is decidedly attractive, and Ursula gravitates toward him immediately; Gerald is good looking and wealthy, and his friendship with Gudrun soon becomes something more. The four bond deeply through life’s tragedies and joys, and periods of alternating intense passion and strife. They move in and out of one another’s minds, lives, and beds in unexpected ways.

Suffused with a sense of deep and compelling humanity, Women in Love is widely considered to be Lawrence’s greatest achievement—an exploration of love and sexuality in all its varied, beautiful, and devastating forms.