A Village Romeo and JulietPaperback, 15 March 2015

Inspired by the suicides of two real-life sweethearts, this impassioned novel evokes the overwhelming beauty of young love and nature but is ultimately pessimistic about the possibility of such beauty surviving in the real world. Although it attracted controversy when it was first published in 1856, this timeless story is a fine example of 19th-century poetic realism.