The Red Badge of Courage

Captain Ahab hunts the white whale that took his leg, and drags his whole crew into his obsession. Melville's epic of the sea, now in a clean, fully searchable edition instead of a scanned copy.

Herman Melville

Jay Gatsby throws lavish parties every weekend for a woman who never comes, while Nick Carraway watches from next door. Our own Project Aldus edition of the novel that defined the Jazz Age.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Huck runs away from his drunken father and floats down the Mississippi on a raft with Jim, an enslaved man escaping to freedom. The novel Hemingway said all modern American literature comes from.

Mark Twain

In Puritan Boston, Hester Prynne is forced to wear a scarlet A for adultery and refuses to name her lover. Hawthorne's dark masterpiece on sin, shame and hypocrisy.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March grow up during the Civil War, each chasing a different dream. Alcott's warm novel about sisterhood, ambition and growing up, led by the unforgettable Jo.

Louisa May Alcott