From the comfort of the hills of Kentucky traveled Celia and her husband Seth to the desolate prairies of Kansas, where cyclones, tornadoes, and endless wind were to greet them. Always, there was the wind cutting across the plains as the young couple builds their home while working the soil, while Seth awaits the wise men of the east to begin building the magic city where he has staked his territory on the plains. But sometimes life plays cruel tricks upon us. Sometimes our hopes are dashed by happenstance...

This warm, affectionate duet of essays by two of the early twentieth century's most popular writers is a bit dated but still entertaining.

Charlotte Temple, a cautionary tale for young women, follows the unfortunate adventures of the eponymous heroine as she is seduced by a dashing soldier, Montraville. Influenced by both her lover and an unruly teacher at her boarding school, she is persuaded to run away to America, where she is eventually abandoned by Montraville after he becomes bored, leaving her alone and pregnant. First published in England in 1791, it went on to become America's bestselling novel, only being ousted by Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.

The Plastic Age (1924) is a novel by Percy Marks, which tells the story of co-eds at a fictional college called Sanford. With contents that covered or implied hazing, partying, and "petting", the book sold well enough to be the second best-selling novel of 1924. The following year, it was adapted into a film of the same name, starring Clara Bow.

"I am very glad that "The Story of the Seven Who Were Hanged" will be read in English. The misfortune of us all is that we know so little, even nothing, about one another—neither about the soul, nor the life, the sufferings, the habits, the inclinations, the aspirations of one another. Literature, which I have the honor to serve, is dear to me just because the noblest task it sets before itself is that of wiping out boundaries and distances."-- Leonid Andreyev, in a letter to Herman Bernstein

Botchan is the story of a young math teacher from Tokyo whose first assignment takes him to a middle school in the country side. His arrival there is not very lucky: The pupils are bound to test his perseverance and cheerily comments every one of his perceived missteps. In the teacher's room, he soon finds himself in the middle of an intrigue between the jovial "Porcupine" and the fat "Hubbard Squash" on one side, and the effeminate "Red Shirt" and his follower "Clown" on the other. Will Botchan choose the right side in the end? Botchan - with morality as the main theme - is one of the most popular novels in Japan...