Romance

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The Pact: A Love Story (1998) by Jodi Picoult tells the story of teens Emily Gold and Chris Harte who enter into a pact to die by suicide. Emily’s death has taken place by the novel’s opening, but Chris is swiftly charged with her murder. As the novel unfolds, the complicated dynamics of the lives of the teens—lifelong best friends who grew up next door to one another—are presented. The nature of the “pact” that... Read The Pact Summary

The Painted Veil (1925) is the 11th novel by British novelist and playwright William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965). He obtained the title from the opening lines of an untitled sonnet by British Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, posthumously published in 1824: “Lift not the painted veil which those who live / Call Life” (Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Lift Not the Painted Veil.” 1824. Reprint. The Reader, 6 Feb. 2017. Accessed 17 Jul. 2022). The novel originally appeared... Read The Painted Veil Summary

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British author Jeannette Winterson reimagines events from Napoleon Bonaparte’s reign in her 1987 novel The Passion. The novel is a work of historical metafiction that follows Henri, a young French soldier, and Villanelle, a vivacious Venetian, as they navigate war and love in early 19th-century Europe.The Passion begins in Henri’s voice; he’s a young, bright-eyed soldier in Napoleon’s army who dreamed of being a drummer but is assigned to cook instead. After coming to the... Read The Passion Summary

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Welsh historical-novelist Sarah Waters’s sixth novel, The Paying Guests (2014), tells the tale of a mother and daughter in 1920s London who must take on lodgers to afford their house. The result of taking on these paying guests is a devastating love affair and a terrible crime. The novel was nominated for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, became a New York Times Best Seller, and was ranked as the best book of 2014 by... Read The Paying Guests Summary

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower is Stephen Chbosky’s first novel and was published in 1999. It is young adult fiction and a coming-of-age tale told from the perspective of Charlie, a freshman in high school. The epistolary novel is comprised of a series of letters that Charlie writes to someone he calls “friend,” although he has never met this friend in person. He makes it immediately clear that he wants to remain anonymous with... Read The Perks of Being a Wallflower Summary

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux is a Gothic mystery novel first published serially in 1910. The novel follows a “ghost” who haunts the Paris Opera and the mysterious incidents attributed to this figure. The characters and the narrator himself try to uncover the secret of this ghost, who is really a masked man infatuated opera singer, Christine Daaé. The novel has been adapted into several formats, most notably a 1925 silent film... Read The Phantom of the Opera Summary

The Pilot’s Wife, by Anita Shreve, was first published in 1998 by Little Brown, and was Oprah’s Book Club selection for March of 1999. Shreve, who died in 2018, was also the author of the bestselling novel, The Weight of Water, adapted into a film starring Sean Penn and Sarah Polley. Shreve’s work is known for its depth, interiority, and examination of women’s emotional lives. The Pilot’s Wife is the third novel of four in... Read The Pilot's Wife Summary

Elizabeth Acevedo’s award-winning 2018 young adult novel, The Poet X, brings to life the inner world of protagonist Xiomara Batista. Xiomara is 15 years old, and from her bedroom in Harlem, she writes poetry in order to put on the page all the feelings and ideas she cannot seem to be able to say out loud. Xiomara resigns herself to writing in her notebook and sharing her thoughts with only a few trusted individuals until... Read The Poet X Summary

The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James, is considered one of the most important novels written in English. It was published first in serial form between 1880 and 1881, and later revised for another edition in 1908. The novel details the experience of a young American woman, Isabel Archer, who travels to Europe. She is committed to her freedom, rejecting two marriage proposals. After she inherits an unexpected fortune, she falls victim to the... Read The Portrait of a Lady Summary

Patricia Highsmith published The Price of Salt in 1952 under a pseudonym, Claire Morgan, because of the lesbian relationship between the two main characters—Therese and Carol. The Price of Salt is a romance, mystery, and coming-of-age tale. Highsmith wrote many short stories and over 20 novels. Like her other works, The Price of Salt contains autobiographical elements; like Therese, Highsmith worked at a department store, became captivated by a woman she met there, and was... Read The Price of Salt Summary

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The Princess Bride is a 1973 adventure novel by American author and screenwriter William Goldman. It uses a unique framing narrative to tell two interwoven stories and claims to be a retelling of an older novel (one that does not actually exist). The Princess Bride was adapted into a film in 1987. Critics regard the film as one of the greatest cinematic accomplishments of all time, and it appears on numerous “best of” lists, including... Read The Princess Bride Summary