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Max Weber's best-known and most controversial work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, first published in 1904, remains to this day powerful and fascinating. Weber's highly accessible style is just one of many reasons for his continuing popularity. The book contends that the Protestant ethic made possible and encouraged the development of capitalism in the West.

In Siddhartha, Herman Hesse conveys a very profound message for all those who seek meaning in their lives. Though set in India, the concerns of Siddhartha are universal, expressing Hesse's general interest in the conflict between mind, body, and spirit. It is a story of a Brahmin boy who follows his heart and ventures out into the world to experience life as a pious Brahmin, a Samana, a rich merchant, a lover, and ordinary ferryman to a father - each life bringing a new awakening, bringing him closer to the truth until he is finally one with Buddha.

In the 1950s, the street boys of Singapore caught and bet on their wrestling spiders, gaining not only money but also power and prestige as they won. Backgrounded against age-old vices, superstitions, urban legends, as well as a dangerous world of youth gangs and a tumultuous period in Singapore's history, Spider Boys is a moving and sensual story that draws the listener in as if by a beguiling, hypnotic force, alternating arousing and repelling him.

In this classic Twain tale, a poor commoner and a young prince each find out how the other half lives. Tom Canty is a young man from a laboring family who bears a striking resemblance to Prince Edward, the son of King Henry VIII and heir to his throne. Tom and Edward meet by chance, and they decide to exchange places briefly, as a lark; Edward will get to live as an ordinary boy, and Tom will enjoy the perks of royalty. But the two are separated before they can let everyone in on the joke, and Tom discovers as he pretends to be Price Edward that the castle is awash in corruption.

"Steppenwolf" by Hermann Hesse is a captivating and introspective novel that delves into the psyche of its protagonist, Harry Haller. Set in post-World War I Germany, the story unfolds as Haller grapples with the complexities of modern urban life and his own inner turmoil. The term "Steppenwolf" refers to Haller's perception of himself as a lone wolf, an outsider caught between the worlds of bourgeois society and the untamed wilderness.

D.H. Lawrence tells the story of Constance Reid, also known as Lady Chatterley, who is married to Sir Clifford Chatterley, an aristocrat who becomes paralyzed from the waist down during World War I. Their marriage suffers due to Sir Clifford's disability and his obsession with his writing and intellectual pursuits. Feeling neglected and emotionally isolated, Lady Chatterley begins an affair with the gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. Their passionate and physical relationship contrasts sharply with her cold, sterile marriage.

Charles Dickens' classic novel David Copperfield is loosely based on the life of the author. It tells the story of David Copperfield’s life from childhood to adulthood with all of the hardships, changes, and good fortune that David encounters on his life journey. It focuses on the relationships he develops with a huge cast of characters who he meets as he travels from rags to riches and back again.

Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, is dismayed to find that many of the people he knows support presidential candidate Berzelius Windrip. The suspiciously fascist Windrip is offering to save the nation from sex, crime, welfare cheats, and a liberal press. But after Windrip wins the election, dissent soon becomes dangerous for Jessup. Windrip forcibly gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States into a totalitarian state.

Having been born into a life of wealth and privilege, Edith Wharton was part of the small clique of aristocratic families that held sway over New York City's social and cultural life at the turn of the nineteenth century. In The Age of Innocence, Wharton looks back fondly on the life that was enjoyed by the privileged class of the East Coast before the many changes wrought by World War I.

Animal Farm tells the story of Farmer Jones’s animals, led by Napoleon the pig, who rise up in rebellion and take over the farm. Tired of being exploited solely for human gain, the animals—who have human characteristics such as speech—vow to create a new and more just society. However, as time goes on, it becomes clear that the society the animals have constructed is not equal at all when the pigs begin their crusade to consolidate their power and the other animals make the daunting realization that “some animals are more equal than others.”

Cho-Cho San (Butterfly), a young Japanese girl, marries Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, a young US Navy lieutenant and is denounced by her family for forsaking their ancestral religion. When he leaves her to return to his world, Butterfly confidently and patiently awaits his homecoming. Three years later, Pinkerton’s ship finally anchors in the harbor again, but Butterfly does not get the happy ending she was hoping for.

Jack London’s Call of the Wild is a beautiful tale of Buck, a house dog torn from the comforts of hearth and home in sunny California and thrust into the unforgiving wild. Through Buck, London takes us on a journey where the shackles of civilization are left behind, leading us to a simultaneously unknown and familiar past. Forgotten senses are awakened and survival is key. The story awakens in us something primal - the desire to be truly free.

Widely regarded as one of the Great American Novels, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn follows the title character and his unlikely companion, a runaway slave named Jim, as they attempt to escape the confines of “sivilized” life. Written in the first person vernacular and brimming with satire, insight, and good old fashioned adventure, Twain’s tale is ideal for listening.

Despite her intelligence, Emma Woodhouse has little to do and is often quite weary of her empty everyday life. Having few companions of her own age, Emma often entertains herself by attempting to make matches between those around her. She jumps at the chance to help a destitute girl of unknown parentage, Harriet Smith, on her quest to secure the local vicar, Mr. Elton, as a potential suitor.

After living a miserable life with her aunt, ten year old orphan Jane Eyre is sent to Lowood, a boarding school for poor children. Within her petite frame and simple manner lies a heart full of passion and spirit. Jane learns to hide her temper, but the injustices of the world still burn in her soul.

Jane Austen's Persuasion focuses on the regret and loneliness of Anne Elliot, who had rejected a proposal of marriage upon advice of a dear friend, from the one man she truly loved. The story takes place less than a decade after the proposal, following her simultaneous anticipation and dread of the rejected lover's return to the community. She struggles between the validity of the reasons for the old rejection and the flittering hope that their love had persevered.

Eighteen of the very best American short stories, each a classic in its own right. Stories include "The Little Frenchman and his Water Lots", by George Pope Morris; "The Angel of the Odd", by Edgar Allan Poe; "The Schoolmasters’s Progress", by Caroline M.S. Kirkland; "The Watkinson Evening", by Eliza Leslie; "Titbottom’s Spectacles", by George William Curtis; "My Double and "How He Undid Me", by Edward Everett Hale; "A Visit to the Asylum for Aged and Decayed Punsters", by Oliver Wendell; and more.

Emily Brontë’s only novel, published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate - yet thwarted - love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. Hear how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them.

Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography, written under the pseudonym Linda Brent, details her experiences as a slave in North Carolina, her escape to freedom in the north, and her ensuing struggles to free her children. The narrative was partly serialized in the New York Tribune, but was discontinued because Jacobs’ depictions of the sexual abuse of female slaves were considered too shocking. It was published in book form in 1861.

The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, magnum opus, tells the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth two years after separation from her husband and is condemned to wear the scarlet letter A on her breast as punishment for her adultery. She resists all attempts of the 17th century Boston clergy to make her reveal the name of her child’s father while she struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity.