Set in New England, Summer is a romance novel which deals with themes of social class, the role of women in society, destructive relationships, sexual awakening and the desire of its protagonist, named Charity Royall. Charity is bored with her life in the small town of North Dormer, living under the tutorship of town's learned person Mr. Royall who makes inappropriate advances toward her. The exciting life she dreams of finds her in the form of a visiting architect named Lucius Harney. Charity becomes his companion as he explores the town and they fall in love. Mr. Royall tries to sabotage their relationship, but it only helps them get closer and develop an intimate bond. However, things change when Charity finds out that Lucius went out of the town with Annabel Balch, a local society girl, while suspects she might be pregnant.

Damon Wildeve, a local innkeeper known for his fickleness is preoccupied with Eustacia Vye, an exotically beautiful young woman who broke up with him when Clym, a successful diamond merchant, returned from Paris to his native Egdon Heath. Eustacia sees him as a way to escape the hated heath and begin a grander, richer existence in a glamorous new location. When he sees that Eustacia is lost to him, Wildeve marries Thomasin Yeobright, who gives birth to a daughter. After realizing that Clym won't fulfill her dreams, Eustacia becomes desperate, but another opportunity shows up. Wildeve has unexpectedly inherited a large sum of money, and is now in a better position to fulfill Eustacia's hopes, but he now has a wife and a child.

This is a historical romance novel written by an anonymous author who published a series of books about Elizabethan era England. Excerpt: "I denounce thee, in the presence of this menial, as a traitor and a spy!" A flash of anger mounted to Hildebrand's cheeks at these words, and his rapier, on which his grasp had already been fastened, leaped from its scabbard on the instant. "Such terms would provoke an angel! Stand on thy guard!" he said and jumped."

The León Roch tells the story of love and passionate triangle between two women and a man, in the environment of Madrid's upper class in the second half of the nineteenth century. León is an industrious Krausist, intelligent and heir to a great fortune, who arrives from Valencia accompanying the Marquises of Fúcar, whose daughter, Pepa, is secretly in love with León. But in Madrid, the intellectual is going to fall under the spell of the fiery, imaginative and sensual temperament of María Egyptiaca, the last link of the ruined marquises of Tellería.

Olinda's Adventures: The Amours of a Young Lady is a story of a young middle-class English woman told through the series of letters she writes to her platonic confidant Cleander. Olinda lives in 18th century London in humble and modest conditions and she folds under her mother's persuasion and agrees to an arranged marriage out of interest, while also having a lover who is married. As she pours her heart on the paper in her letters to Cleander, spilling the emotional dilemmas and asking for approval and support, Olinda also follows the progress of Cleander's wooing to Ambrisia, advising him on his moves.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton was an English novelist, poet, playwright and politician. He wrote in a variety of genres, including historical fiction, mystery, romance, the occult, and science fiction. Bulwer-Lytton's literary works were highly popular and bestselling novels at the time. Excerpt: "You are mistaken, my dear Monkton! Your description of the gaiety of "the season" gives me no emotion. You speak of pleasure; I remember no labour so wearisome; you enlarge upon its changes; no sameness appears to me so monotonous. Keep, then, your pity for those who require it. From the height of my philosophy I compassionate you. No one is so vain as a recluse; and your jests at my hermitship..."

Griffith Gaunt is a tale of a poor man who makes his fortune and a fine living, but has one weakness in the form of an insane jealousy. This weakness prevents him from being happy in marriage with Catharine Peyton, a Cumberland heiress, so he leaves her, finding a new romance with a lovely innkeeper Mercy. Griffith assumes the identity of his illegitimate brother, Thomas Leicester, and marries Mercy, but his passion again leads to jealousy which drives him to trials and tribulations that surpass false representation.