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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.

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is an expose of the cruelty that the author observed when he worked briefly in the Belgian Congo. 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. The main thread follows the journey of the ferry-boat captain, Marlow, who must return Kurtz, an ivory trader, to Europe. The severely ill Kurtz dies on the journey after handling Marlow a collection of papers. Back in Europe, Marlow gives these to a journalist instead of those for which they were intended.

The Marble Faun of 1860 was the last of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s four major romances. Set in Italy, the narrative blends elements of the travel guide, fable, and gothic novel. The main characters include Miriam, a beautiful painter with a mysterious past who is compared to Beatrice, Cleopatra and Eve, and Hilda, an innocent young woman with strong moral principles. The sculptor Kenyon has an eye for Hilda, whilst Donatello, the Count of Monte Beni, is besotted by Miriam. Donatello bears a resemblance to the statue type called the Faun of Praxiteles.

Henry James's story Julia Bride appeared in Harper's magazine in 1908. Julia Bride is being courted by Basil French, the son of a wealthy but very traditional New York family. He wants to know more about her background, but she is reluctant to let him know that she has been engaged six times, and that her mother has been divorced twice and is likely heading for a third one. Julia is caught between America’s class mobility, social fluidity and personal freedoms, and the rigid ethics, snobbery, and social codes that the east coast elite had imported from Europe.

"Ligeia" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1838. An unnamed narrator’s beautiful and gifted wife Ligeia, falls ill and dies. After her death, the narrator marries Lady Rowena Trevanion, to whom the same thing happens. As the grief-stricken narrator keeps vigil overnight, he sees Rowena showing signs of life, in a sequence of violent revivals and relapses. When the shrouded Rowena gets up, he recognizes Ligeia, his strange and brilliant first wife. There is, however, a possibility that the narrator experienced a hallucination induced by opium.

The Blithedale Romance (1852) by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a dark romantic novel set in the farming commune of Blithedale where some utopian city slickers have gathered in order to improve the world. The narrator, Miles Coverdale, gets acquainted with the reformer Hollingsworth, the feminist Zenobia, her sister Priscilla, her father Old Moodie, and Professor Westervelt. They pursue their individual egotistical paths and get entangled in their conflicting ambitions.

A Girl of the Limberlost, a novel by the writer and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter, was published in 1909 as the sequel to her earlier novel Freckles. The tale unfolds in and around the Limberlost Swamp of north-eastern Indiana and in the nearby town of Onabasha. The main character, Elnora Comstock, lives with her widowed mother, Katharine Comstock, on the edge of the wetlands. The embittered Katharine blames her daughter for the death of her husband, who was swallowed by quicksand.

Gradiva is a novel on childhood love excavated by Norbert Hanold from the ruins of Pompeii. The novel by the little-known German novelist would have remained obscure but for Freud, who used the dreams in the novel in support of his theory of dreams. It is an outstanding work for its scope of imagination and the insight of the author.

Yegor the huntsman, walking down a country road, accidentally meets his estranged wife Pelageya to whom he's been married for 12 years, but who he seldom visited. She weeps and implores him to visit her more often. He tries to explain why he could not abide living in a village.

"Zinotchka" is a story told through the eyes of a young boy. He saw his governess, Zinotchka, kissing and cuddling with his older brother, Sasha. Eventually, Zinotchka became his sister-in-law.

In this story of a woman’s plan to get a wealthy husband, Nathalie’s plans are almost spoiled by the action of a family friend, but she explains the situation on time. In the end, she marries Mr Brantain and his millions.