There are women who cannot grow alone as standard trees;-for whom the support and warmth of some wall, some paling, some post, is absolutely necessary;-who, in their growth, will bend and incline themselves towards some such prop for their life, creeping with their tendrils along the ground till they reach it when the circumstances of life have brought no such prop within their natural and immediate reach. Of most women it may be said that it would be well for them that they should marry, -as indeed of most men also, seeing that man and wife will each lend the other strength, and yet in...

There are men who cannot communicate themselves to others, as there are also men who not only can do so, but cannot do otherwise. And it is hard to say which is the better man of the two. We do not specially respect him who wears his heart upon his sleeve for daws to peck at, who carries a crystal window to his bosom so that all can see the work that is going on within it, who cannot keep any affair of his own private, who gushes out in love and friendship to every chance acquaintance; but then, again, there is but little love given to him who is always wary, always silent as to his own...

It is generally supposed that people who live at home, -good domestic people, who love tea and their arm-chairs, and who keep the parlour hearth-rug ever warm, -it is generally supposed that these are the people who value home the most, and best appreciate all the comforts of that cherished institution. I am inclined to doubt this

Excerpt from Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite
Sir Harry Hotspur of Humblethwaite was a mighty person in Cumberland, and one who well understood of what nature were the duties, and of what sort the magnificence, which his position as a great English commoner required of him. He had twenty thousand a year derived from land. His forefathers had owned the same property in Cumberland for nearly four centuries, and an estate nearly as large in Durham for more than a century and a half. He had married an earl's daughter, and had always lived among men and women not only of high rank, but also...

Excerpt from The American Senator: A Novel
I Never could understand why any body should ever have begun to live at Dillsborough, or why the population there should have been at any time recruited by new-comers. That a man with a family should cling to a house in which he has once established himself is intelligible. The butcher who supplied Dillsborough, or the baker, or the iron-monger, though he might not drive what is called a roaring trade, nevertheless found himself probably able to live, and might well hesitate before he would encounter the dangers of a more energetic locality. But...

When Clara Amedroz' brother gambles away the family fortune and then commits suicide, Clara is faced with the prospect of being penniless when her father dies. The new heir to the estate is a distant cousin, Will Belton, a wealthy farmer from Norfolk. Will wishes to marry Clara but she is torn between Will, who her head tells her is the far better man, and Captain Aylmer, the local MP, with whom she is in love. She becomes engaged to Captain Aylmer but soon realises that he is cold and passionless and she breaks off her engagement. Will still wishes to marry Clara but she is stubborn and too...

Dive into the literary classics with "The Claverings" by notable Victorian author Anthony Trollope.
"The Claverings" tells the tale of young Harry Clavering, an aspiring engineer and son of a clergyman. Harry falls in love with a young and beautiful woman, only to have her swept away by a wealthy Earl. She later returns, but only after young Harry has entered into a relationship with another woman. This is a classic love triangle story that is centered on human nature and the tough decisions we all must make. The characters are rich and real, flawed and driven by emotion, with layers that...

John Munroe Bell had been a lawyer in Albany, State of New York, and as such had thriven well. He had thriven well as long as thrift and thriving on this earth had been allowed to him. But the Almighty had seen fit to shorten his span.

" ...]father disliked the spirit almost worse than the results; and was therefore often irritated and unhappy. And the difficulties about the girl were almost worse to bear that those about the boys. She had done nothing wrong. She had given no signs of extravagance or other juvenile misconduct. But she was beautiful and young. How was he to bring her out into the world? How was he to decide whom she should or whom she should not marry? How was he to guide her through the shoals and rocks which lay in the path of such a girl before she can achieve matrimony? It was the fate of the family...

In this novel, the characters of Plantagenet Palliser, his wife Lady Glencora and their uncle the ailing Duke of Omnium are in the background. The plot centres on Lizzie Greystock, a fortune-hunter who ensnares the sickly, dissipated Sir Florian Eustace and is soon left a very wealthy widow and mother. While clever and beautiful, Lizzie has several character flaws; the greatest of these is an almost pathological delight in lying, even when it cannot benefit her. (Trollope comments that Lizzie sees lies as "more beautiful than the truth.") Before he dies, the disillusioned Sir Florian...