Anna Karenina is certainly somewhat unhappy in her life, but presents a strong and vivacious character when called in to smooth over a major crack that’s appeared in her brother’s marriage. Unfortunately, the very visit designed to help her brother introduces her to Count Alexei Vronsky and sets in motion a chain of events that will ripple through families and the unforgiving society of wealthy Moscow and St. Petersburg. Initially serialized over five years in The Russian Messenger, Anna Karenina was first published as a two-volume novel in 1878. It was Leo Tolstoy’s second novel, coming after War and Peace and further cementing his role as the primary Russian author of his age. Tolstoy drew on his aristocratic upbringing to set the scene for the novel, and it’s widely believed that he wrote his own experiences and struggles with religion (documented in A Confession) into the central character of Konstantin Levin. This edition compiles into a single volume the 1901 English translation by Constance Garnett.

Cogewea, a mischievous young rancher, lives with her older sister and brother-in-law on their homestead, the Horseshoe Bend Ranch, located in the Flathead Indian Reservation. A member of the Okanogan tribe, Cogewea is nevertheless stigmatized as a “breed”—a derogatory term historically applied to people of mixed Native American and European descent. Drama arrives at the Horseshoe Bend with the person of Alfred Densmore, a businessman who has set out from the Eastern states in search of adventure and money. After he breaks his arm by being thrown by a half-tame bronco, Densmore develops a romantic interest in Cogewea, sparking a rivalry with Cogewea’s friend Jim, who is the ranch’s foreman and a fellow breed. Cogewea must navigate the interwoven challenges of choosing a suitor and reckoning with her ethnic identity, with the aid of advice in the form of stories told by her grandmother, the Stemteemä. Cogewea was one of the first novels ever published by a Native American woman. It was the product of collaboration between Mourning Dove and her editor, Lucullus Virgil McWhorter, a Euro-American anthropologist and advocate of indigenous American cultures. Critics have debated the extent of McWhorter’s influence on the final product, but Mourning Dove’s own correspondence with McWhorter suggests that McWhorter revised her draft significantly and introduced his own voice into the novel. Cogewea continues to be studied as an early example of Native American literature.

The wealthy Bengali zamindar Nikhil has spent his last nine years of marriage trying to modernize and westernize his wife Bimala. But when he invites his friend Sandip, a fiery pro-Swadeshi activist fighting for Indian independence, to his home, Bimala becomes enraptured by the nationalist cause—and by the fascinating figure himself. The Home and the World is a complex exploration of the contradictions of the anti-British Swadeshi movement in the early 1900s. Rabindranath Tagore was himself active in the early days of the movement, but later became disillusioned, for reasons this novel examines in depth. The novel is also an examination of the traditional organization of wealthy Bengali households, in which women are kept separate from the outside world. The Home and the World was adapted into a 1984 Golden Palm nominated film by Satyajit Ray.