In this course we will study five major 19th-century masterpieces that have passed the test of time, including a spirited, romantic novel of love, loss and social class in Regency England !a classic French novel about great fortunes, great crimes, and lost love within the context of “the human comedy;” a singular love story considered an anticipation of modernism as well as the apotheosis of stormy romanticism; a profound Russian novel of love, death, politics, and the dawn of modernity; a rediscovered American classic that still speaks to major social and psychological issues in American society. Ranging from novella to short novel in length, readings have been chosen for their literary importance and their suitability to an online format: Jane Austen, Persuasion; Honore de Balzac, Eugenie Grandet; Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights; Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons; Harold Frederick, The Damnation of Theron Ware.