Books published by publisher Norilana Books

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders &c. (1722) by Daniel Defoe is a picaresque adventure-filled life story of a tenacious, smart, beautiful, and charismatic woman who aspires to be a lady but who begins her life as the daughter of a convict in Newgate prison. At various points engaging in prostitution, incest, theft, cons and machinations, and ultimately finding penitence, security, and true love, is Moll Flanders an amoral criminal or a sympathetic woman trying to survive harsh circumstances and better her life?

The Professor (1857) was Charlotte Brontë's first and least regarded novel, rejected by all publishers during her lifetime and published posthumously by her widower A. B. Nicholls. Charlotte herself defended the novel passionately. "I said to myself that my hero should work his way through life as I had seen real living men work theirs -- that he should never get a shilling he had not earned." Indeed, William Crimsworth, the hero, is the self-made master of all his life's ambiguous fortune, including his career as a professor in Brussels, and his true love. Whatever the comparisons to Charlotte Brontë's other, more popular novels, The Professor deserves a closer examination and a new reader perspective.

A Daughter of the Land (1918) by Gene Stratton Porter is, above all, a love song of a woman and the land from which she sprung. Kate Bates, tireless and hardworking, strapping and robust, stubborn and headstrong, is a sterling example of the American work ethic, the youngest daughter of a tight-fisted land baron -- Adam Bates, the Land King of Bates Corners, Hartley, Indiana -- and the sibling of a whole brood of Bates sons and daughters. The family has an intense relationship with the many acres of land they possess. Kate is the only one who rebels against her father, running away to make a difficult life for herself on her own terms -- and to escape the one man she cannot have and who has touched her heart. Her world is filled with "man's work," with tough loves and passionate hates, with seasons of cultivating land other than her own, despair, disappointment, and fulfillment in the eleventh hour. All throughout, Kate makes the best of things and "takes the wings of morning" until she can truly fly. And always, the land, in its glory, beckons.

Barchester Towers (1857) by Anthony Trollope is one of the charming series of loosely connected novels set in Barsetshire. This is the second book to appear in the series, but may be read as a standalone work, and enjoyed on its own merits. The residents and clergy of Barchester are faced with the continuation of the wardenship controversy, the tyranny of the controlling Mrs. Proudie (the new bishop's spouse), and the insinuating onslaught of hypocrite and social climber Mr. Obadiah Slope -- to amusing effect, and culminating in rather satisfying circumstances.

Hunger by Knut Hamsun is a strange, semi-delirious, gorgeous narrative of a young man who wanders the Norwegian urban milieu and spends most of his time starving and contemplating eccentric ways of obtaining food for a few coins. The occasional income he gets from his writing is barely adequate to keep him alive, and between the bouts of hunger he hallucinates and imagines -- and sometimes engages in -- sensuality in all its forms. Food and sex and vivid creative daydreams, in combination with a peculiar personal pride, keep him on the fringes, apart from others. And yet, his need for nourishment in every sense, physical and emotional, is overwhelming. Even though it was completed in 1890, Hunger is considered a psychological masterpiece of the early 20th century.

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880) by Lew Wallace is one of the most popular and beloved 19th century American novels. This faithful New Testament tale combines the events of the life of Jesus with grand historical spectacle in the exciting story of Judah of the House of Hur, a man who finds extraordinary redemption for himself and his family. A classic of faith, fortitude, and inspiration.

THE HERO (1901) by W. Somerset Maugham is a complex psychological exploration of the stifling of deepest personal urges and the resulting disillusionment. James Parsons returns home after military service in South Africa and finds his worldview changed. His family's affections are oppressive, his betrothed, Mary, now seems repulsive, and life has become a hollow burden. A powerful, bittersweet, and ironic work by a true master of the human psyche.

WIVES AND DAUGHTERS by Elizabeth Gaskell, originally serialized in Cornhill Magazine from 1864 to 1866, is one of her most popular works, a classic of British literature. Gaskell died just before finishing the novel, and it was completed by Frederick Greenwood. Earnest and young Molly Gibson is at the heart of the story of family relationships, family secrets, and unrequited love and longing, spanning Victorian middle class and genteel society. When her widower father decides to remarry, Molly gains a shallow stepmother and a beautiful and sparkling stepsister Cynthia who becomes her unwitting rival for the love of Roger Hamley, the younger son of the local squire.

THE HERO (1901) by W. Somerset Maugham is a complex psychological exploration of the stifling of deepest personal urges and the resulting disillusionment. James Parsons returns home after military service in South Africa and finds his worldview changed. His family's affections are oppressive, his betrothed, Mary, now seems repulsive, and life has become a hollow burden. A powerful, bittersweet, and ironic work by a true master of the human psyche.

Cousin Henry (1879) by Anthony Trollope, is one of the more non-traditional storylines of its time, subverting expectations and dwelling deeper into the psychology of character. And still it contains all the elements for which the author is so well-loved, the ups and downs, tragedy and joy of relationships, rendered with the sensibility of Jane Austen and the quirky humor of Dickens. Henry Jones, a vacillating and weak man is faced with the moral dilemma of telling the truth about a lost will in favor of another relative or keeping an inheritance that is not rightfully his.