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The Cossacks is a short novel by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1863. It tells the story of the nobleman Dmitry Olenin who joins the army in the hope of escaping the boredom and superficiality of daily life. He longs to find fulfilment among the people of the Caucasus. While spending life as a Cossack, he learns lessons about the nature of reality, moral philosophy, the complexities of psychology, and his own inner life.

O Pioneers! is a 1913 novel by Willa Cather, the first of her “prairie trilogy” of novels. It tells the story of the Bergsons, a family of Swedish immigrants in the farm country near the fictional town of Hanover, Nebraska, at the turn of the 20th century. The protagonist, Alexandra Bergson, inherits the family farm when her father dies, and devotes her life to making the farm a success at a time when many other families are giving up and leaving the land.

Kate Chopin (1850-1904) was a Louisiana-based author of short stories and novels, and is considered a forerunner of 20th-century feminist authors from the South. In "The Storm", a man seeks shelter at the home of his former lover, a visit which reignites their passion, while "Her Letters" is a story about the husband of a woman who dies before she is able to destroy the letters written to her by a lover. In "Unexpected", Randall and Dorothea fall in and out of love; "The Locket" tells the tale of two young lovers during the American Civil War; and "Kiss" has a humorous twist.

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, and popularizer of Russian literature in the West. Fathers and Sons (1862), one of the most acclaimed Russian novels of the 19th century, deals with the growing cultural divide between two generations or mindsets of Russians. Both the nihilists (the "sons") and the 1830s liberals (the "fathers") sought Western-style social change. "Mumu" (1854) is the story of Gerasim, a deaf-mute serf whose life of poverty is thrown into stark relief by his rescue of the dog Mumu.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) had a profound influence on the shape of 19th-century thought and political discourse. His view of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to the unrestricted state. Mill favoured decentralised forms of socialism because he thought that a centralised model would discourage competition, neglect talent, and disregard freedom.

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865) was a writer, a minister’s wife, and mother of four daughters who worked among the poor and traveled widely. In the novel The Moorland Cottage, Maggie Browne, the daughter of a deceased clergyman, gives up her own life to devote herself to her brother, Edward. The nonfiction work An Accused Race is Gaskell’s reformist treatise on the oppression of the Cagots in Europe.

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) is considered the first important Black American novelist. The Conjure Woman is a collection of seven stories that began appearing in magazines in 1887 and were first published together in 1899. The narrator of The Conjure Woman is a White man from the North living in the South who passes along the stories told to him by the ex-slave Julius McAdoo. The narratives provide a realistic picture of the pre-Civil War South, including descriptions of brutish slave owners.

Daniel Defoe (c. 1660-1731) was an English trader, author, and journalist. Defoe was a prolific writer, publishing more than 300 works on a range of topics including economics, politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, and the supernatural. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719).

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was a prominent sociologist, novelist, and writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. In the short story "If I Were a Man", a married woman named Mollie Mathewson yearns with all her heart to be a man and is suddenly transported into the body and mind of her husband, Gerald. Through the character of Mollie, Gilman illustrates the roles and attitudes of women in early 19th-century society. The utopian novel Herland describes an isolated society composed entirely of women, with an ideal social order free of war, conflict, and domination.

Aristotle's Poetics is the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory and the first extant philosophical treatise on literary theory. The philosopher presents a treatise on what he defines as poetry, which includes verse drama, the satyr play, lyric poetry, and epic poetry.

Villette (1853), was Charlotte Brontë's third novel and the last published during her lifetime. After an unspecified family catastrophe, the main character, Lucy Snowe, travels to Belgium to teach in a boarding school in the fictional town of Villette. She falls in love with a man she cannot marry, which triggers a nervous breakdown. Ultimately, a new, strong Lucy emerges who becomes the owner and head of her own school.

Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They provide a portrait of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. Each of the stories offers glimpses into the lives of ordinary Dubliners, and together they paint a portrait of a nation. Ireland was at a crossroads of history and culture at that time, pursuing a search for national identity and purpose.

Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer. Three of his most prominent works are included here: Gitanjali is a cycle of 103 poems about the bliss of living and dying in wonder of the creation, while Stray Birds is a collection of some 300 poems. The poems are short but profound and the imagery lingers. The novel, The Home and the World is set on an estate in 1908; it’s a blend of love story and political intrigue against the background of the conflict in India.

John Bunyan (1628-1688) was an English author and Puritan preacher. Best known for his famous allegorical works, Pilgrim’s Progress and The Holy War, Bunyan published 42 works in his lifetime, while another 16 were published posthumously. This collection includes his spiritual autobiography Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, the allegorical novel The Life and Death of Mr. Badman, and sermons such as "Justification by an Imputed Righteousness".

Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by the Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad, about a voyage up the Congo River into the Belgian Congo in the Heart of Africa. Charles Marlow, the narrator, tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames. The story is based on a journey that Conrad took up the Congo River in 1890, during King Leopold II of Belgium’s abusive rule of the area. It exposes the cruelty that the author observed during his visit to the area.

Joseph Conrad’s novel The Secret Agent (1907) is a tragic tale based on the themes of espionage, double agents, anarchism, and terrorism. The story is set in London in 1886 and deals with Mr. Verloc, who works as a spy for an unnamed country. When he becomes involved in an anarchist plot to blow up the Greenwich Observatory, things go haywire, revealing an unholy mess that involves politicians, policemen, foreign diplomats, and London's high society.

The novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë was published under the pen name "Currer Bell" in 1847. Considered one of the most famous romance novels of all time, Jane Eyre is a Bildungsroman which chronicles the experiences of Jane, including her childhood as an orphan, her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr. Rochester, the master of Thornfield Hall. It was the first English novel that focused on its protagonist's moral and spiritual development by way of an intimate first-person narrative, in which events are marked by psychological intensity.

The Holy War Made by King Shaddai Upon Diabolus, or, The Losing and Taking Again of the Town of Mansoul is a 1682 novel by John Bunyan. Written in the form of an allegory, it tells the story of the town Mansoul which rebels against king Shaddai, replacing his benign rule with that of Diabolus who turns out to be a harmful ruler. The king sends his son Emmanuel to reclaim the city. Salvation can come to the city only by the victory of Emmanuel.

The novel Shirley by Charlotte Brontë (1849) followed the huge popular success of her debut, Jane Eyre. The setting is an environment which is industrializing at a rapid pace during the Napoleonic Wars. This is the story of two heroines occupying vastly different social positions in life. Caroline Helstone, trapped in a Yorkshire rectory, serves as a symbol of all the single women of the time. On the other hand, there’s Shirley Keeldar, an independent woman whose wealth has liberated her.

The Way to Wealth, an essay by Benjamin Franklin, is a collection of wisdom sayings and advice published in Poor Richard's Almanac from 1733-1758. These proverbs and sayings are woven into an ethical code advocating industry and frugality as a “way to wealth”, thereby securing personal virtue. It is presented as a speech given by Father Abraham to a group of people. Many of the phrases Father Abraham uses continue to be familiar today, such as "There are no gains, without pains", "One today is worth two tomorrows" and "Get what you can, and what you get, hold".