Books in Cover to Cover series

Candide, published simultaneously in five European capitals in 1759, became an instant bestseller and is now regarded as one of the key texts of the Enlightenment. Voltaire’s preoccupations with evil and with various kinds of human folly and intolerance found a perfect vehicle in the philosophical tale. A master storyteller, he combined often wildly entertaining action with profoundly serious sense, parodying the traditional chivalric and oriental tales with which his public was more familiar to create a witty allegory of a young man whose optimism gives way to disillusionment after a series of terrible misfortunes.

Fleeing a disastrous marriage, Helen Huntingdon retreats to the desolate mansion, Wildfell Hall, with her son, Arthur. There, she makes her living as a painter. Finding it difficult to avoid her neighbors, she is soon an object of speculation and gossip. Brontë portrays Helen's eloquent struggle for independence at a time when society defined a married woman as her husband's property.

Jane Eyre, one of the most widely read English novels, has extraordinary emotional and narrative power. It introduces a new type of hero and heroine with an unconventional love story. Jane, a penniless orphan who survives the miseries of a charitable school, is employed at Thornfield Hall as a governess to Mr. Rochester's ward, Adèle. Rochester is fascinated by Jane Eyre's sharp wit and independence, and they fall in love. But overwhelming obstacles stand in the way of their marriage.

Abandoned at birth by a mother who faces transportation to Virginia, the young Moll Flanders sets out to make her way in the world. Threatened with a life in service, our rebellious heroine sets her heart on a life of independence. One fatal seduction and five husbands later, she resorts to a life of self-supporting crime. On her downward path from the relative respectability of London's underworld, Newgate Prison, and eventual deportation, Moll Flanders gives her frank opinion of temptation, flattery, fortune-hunters, and innocence corrupted in the world of men.

This masterpiece of love, rejection, and reconciliation is the story of Maggie Tulliver and her resourceful but insensitive brother Tom, as they grow up in the narrowly puritanical atmosphere of rural Victorian society. Too intelligent and imaginative for a woman of her times, Maggie's rebellious nature, and the thoughtlessness of the man she comes to love causes her to be ostracized by society and by the brother she loves so intensely.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times " The opening words of Charles Dickens' great French Revolution romance set the scene for a heart-stopping historical adventure that dashes back and forth between London and Paris during the nightmare of Terror. Dr. Manette is imprisoned at the Bastille, and his daughter Lucie must choose between two suitors, one French, one English. Martin Jarvis delivers a wonderful narration of this classic story.

Late one moonlit night, drawing master Walter Hartright encounters a solitary, terrified, and beautiful woman, dressed all in white. He saves her from capture by her pursuers, and determines to solve the mystery of her distress and terror. Arriving at Limmeridge House to take up his new position as tutor, Walter meets Marion Halcombe and Laura Fairlie, her half-sister, and is astounded to see how closely Laura resembles the woman in white. He realizes that the strange young woman's story could be entangled with the sisters' lives. Together, Walter and Marion delved deeper into the mystery, pitting their wits against the diabolical team of Sir Percival Glyde and his enigmatic friend, Count Fosco. This gripping tale of murder, intrigue, madness, and mistaken identity has never been out of print since its publication.