Originally conceived as a brief, light story about the complications created in her family's social set by a young girl coming of age, the novel expands into a general treatment of decadence and corruption in English.
Benjamin Franklin, John Woolman, William Penn, Plato, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Francis Bacon, John Milton, Thomas Browne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Burns, Saint Augustine, Thomas à Kempis, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Cicero, Pliny the Younger, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, Plutarch, Virgil, Miguel de Cervantes, John Bunyan, Izaak Walton, Aesop, The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, John Dryden, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, David Garrick, Oliver Goldsmith, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Browning, George Gordon Byron, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christopher Marlowe, Dante Alighieri, Alessandro Manzoni, Homer, Richard Henry Dana, Edmund Burke, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Carlyle, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Molière, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Friedrich von Schiller, Philip Sidney, Ben Jonson, Abraham Cowley, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Samuel Johnson, Sydney Smith, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, Thomas De Quincey, Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Makepeace Thackeray, John Ruskin, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Alan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, James Russell Lowell, Michael Faraday, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz, Simon Newcomb, Archibald Geikie, Benvenuto Cellini, Michel de Montaigne, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Ernest Renan, Immanuel Kant, Giuseppe Mazzini, Herodotus, Tacitus, Francis Drake, Philip Nichols, Francis Pretty, Walter Bigges, Edward Haies, Walter Raleigh, René Descartes, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, William Henry Harrison, Niccolò Machiavelli, William Roper, Thomas More, Martin Luther, John Locke, George Berkeley, Hippocrates, Ambroise Pare, William Harvey, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Joseph Lister, Louis Pasteur, William Shakespeare, Thomas Dekker, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, John Webster, Philip Massinger, Blaise Pascal, Charles W. Eliot, William A. Neilson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Jane Austen, Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Edward Everett Hale, Henry James, Victor Hugo, Honoré Balzac, George Sand, Alfred de Musset, Alphonse Daudet, Gottfried Keller, Guy de Maupassant, Theodor Storm, Theodor Fontane, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ivan Turgenev, Juan Valera, Bjornstjerne Bjornson & Alexander L. Kielland
Adam Smith, Aeschylus, Aesop, Alessandro Manzoni, Alexander L. Kielland, Alfred de Musset, Alphonse Daudet, Aristophanes, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Benjamin Franklin, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Blaise Pascal, Bret Harte, Miguel de Cervantes, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Christopher Marlowe, Dante Alighieri, David Hume, Edgar Allan Poe, Edmund Burke, Edward Everett Hale, Epictetus, Euripides, Francis Bacon, Friedrich von Schiller, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Berkeley, George Eliot, George Sand, Gottfried Keller, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Guy de Maupassant, Hans Christian Andersen, Henry Fielding, Henry James, Hermann von Helmholtz, Homer, Honoré Balzac, Ivan Turgenev, Izaak Walton, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Jane Austen, Jean Froissart, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Jean Racine, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, John Bunyan, John Dryden, John Locke, John Milton, John Stuart Mill, John Webster, John Woolman, Juan Valera, Laurence Sterne, Leo Tolstoy, Lord Byron, Lord Kelvin, Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Mark Twain, Martin Luther, Michael Faraday, Molière, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Niccolò Machiavelli, Oliver Goldsmith, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Philip Massinger, Pierre Corneille, Plato, Pliny the Younger, Plutarch, Ralph Waldo Emerson, René Descartes, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Richard Henry Dana, Robert Browning, Robert Burns, Saint Augustine, Simon Newcomb, Sir Archibald Geikie, Sir Thomas Browne, Sir Thomas Malory, Sir Thomas More, Sir Walter Scott, Sophocles, Theodor Fontane, Theodor Storm, Thomas à Kempis, Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Hobbes, Eirikr Magnusson, William Morris, Francis B. Gummere, John O'Hagan, Sir Edwin Arnold, Whitley Stokes, Victor Marie Hugo, Virgil, Voltaire, Washington Irving, William Harrison, William Makepeace Thackeray, William Penn, William Roper & William Shakespeare
Charles W. Eliot, Benjamin Franklin, John Woolman, William Penn, Plato, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Francis Bacon, John Milton, Thomas Browne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Burns, Saint Augustine, Thomas à Kempis, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Cicero, Pliny the Younger, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, Plutarch, Virgil, Miguel de Cervantes, John Bunyan, Izaak Walton, Aesop, The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, John Dryden, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, David Garrick, Oliver Goldsmith, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Browning, George Gordon Byron, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christopher Marlowe, Dante Alighieri, Alessandro Manzoni, Homer, Richard Henry Dana, Edmund Burke, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Carlyle, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Molière, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Friedrich von Schiller, Philip Sidney, Ben Jonson, Abraham Cowley, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Samuel Johnson, Sydney Smith, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, Thomas De Quincey, Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Makepeace Thackeray, John Ruskin, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Alan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, James Russell Lowell, Michael Faraday, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz, Simon Newcomb, Archibald Geikie, Benvenuto Cellini, Michel de Montaigne, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Ernest Renan, Immanuel Kant, Giuseppe Mazzini, Herodotus, Tacitus, Francis Drake, Philip Nichols, Francis Pretty, Walter Bigges, Edward Haies, Walter Raleigh, René Descartes, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, William Henry Harrison, Niccolò Machiavelli, William Roper, Thomas More, Martin Luther, John Locke, George Berkeley, Hippocrates, Ambroise Pare, William Harvey, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Joseph Lister, Louis Pasteur, William Shakespeare, Thomas Dekker, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, John Webster, Philip Massinger, Blaise Pascal, William A. Neilson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Jane Austen, Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Edward Everett Hale, Henry James, Victor Hugo, Honoré Balzac, George Sand, Alfred de Musset, Alphonse Daudet, Gottfried Keller, Guy de Maupassant, Theodor Storm, Theodor Fontane, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ivan Turgenev, Juan Valera, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson & Alexander L. Kielland
Benjamin Franklin, Plato, William Shakespeare, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Darwin, John Woolman, William Penn, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Francis Bacon, John Milton, Thomas Browne, Robert Burns, Saint Augustine, Thomas à Kempis, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Cicero, Adam Smith, Pliny the Younger, Plutarch, Virgil, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, John Bunyan, Izaak Walton, Anonymous, Aesop, Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Andersen, John Dryden, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Oliver Goldsmith, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christopher Marlowe, Dante Alighieri, Alessandro Manzoni, Homer, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Edmund Burke, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Carlyle, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Molière, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Friedrich von Schiller, Michael Faraday, Hermann von Helmholtz, Lord Kelvin, Simon Newcomb, Sir Archibald Geikie, Benvenuto Cellini, Michel de Montaigne, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Ernest Renan, Immanuel Kant, Giuseppe Mazzini, Herodotus, Tacitus, Philiip Nichols, Francis Pretty, Walter Bigges, Edward Haies, Walter Raleigh, René Descartes, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, Sir Thomas Malory, William Harrison, Niccolò Machiavelli, William Roper, Sir Thomas More, Martin Luther, John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume, Hippocrates, Ambroise Pare, William Harvey, Edward Jenner, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Joseph Lister, Louis Pasteur, Charles Lyell, Confucius, Christian, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, John Webster, Philip Massinger, Blaise Pascal, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Francis Bret Harte, Samuel L. Clemens, Edward Everett Hale, Henry James, Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, George Sand, Alfred de Musset, Alphonse Daudet, Guy de Maupassant, Gottfried Keller, Theodor Storm, Theodor Fontane, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ivan Turgenev, Juan Valera, Bjornstjerne Bjornson, Alexander L. Kielland & Charles Eliot
Walt Whitman, George Eliot, Herman Hesse, Kahlil Gibran, Anton Chekhov, Herman Melville, Oscar Wilde, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Marcus Aurelius, Nikolai Gogol, James Joyce, Henry David Thoreau, T. S. Eliot, John Keats, Charles Baudelaire, Walter Scott, Daniel Defoe, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo, Jules Verne, Lewis Carroll, Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Agatha Christie, Wallace D. Wattles, James Allen, Sigmund Freud, Miguel de Cervantes, Frederick Douglass, Voltaire, Sun Tzu, Plato, Upton Sinclair, Anthony Trollope, E. M. Forster, Theodore Dreiser, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, D. H. Lawrence, William Makepeace Thackeray, Marcel Proust, H.G. Wells, Edgar Allan Poe & Ernest Hemingway
Alexandre Dumas, Anne Brontë, Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Daniel Defoe, Dante Alighieri, D. H. Lawewnce, Edith Wharton, Émile Zola, Emily Brontë, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, George Eliot, Gustave Flaubert, Hans Christian Andersen, The Brothers Grimm, Henry James, Herman Melville, Homer, Honoré de Balzac, Jack London, James Joyce, Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, Jonathan Swift, Laurence Sterne, Leo Tolstoy, Marcel Proust, Mark Twain, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Nikolai Gogol, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Butler, Stendhal, Victor Hugo, Virginia Woolf & William Makepeace Thackeray
Jane Austen, Guy de Maupassant, Sabine Baring-Gould, Eliza Haywood, Maria Edgeworth, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Fanny Burney, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mrs. Olifant, William Makepeace Thackeray, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Alexandre Dumas, Henry James, Leo Tolstoy, Edith Wharton, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, Thomas Hardy, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Grace Livingston Hill, Catharine Trotter Cockburn, Fanny Fern, Lady Charlotte Bury, D. K. Broster, Mary Angela Dickens, Robert Williams Buchanan, Georg Ebers, Philip Meadows Taylor, Gilbert Parker, Anthony Trollope, F. Scott Fitzgerald, María Ruiz de Burton, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Mary Hays, Louis Hémon, Madame de La Fayette, Lady Sydney Morgan, A. E. W. Mason & Georgette Heyer
Plato, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Francis Bacon, John Milton, Thomas Browne, Benjamin Franklin, John Woolman, William Penn, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Burns, Saint Augustine, Thomas à Kempis, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Cicero, Pliny the Younger, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, Plutarch, Virgil, Miguel de Cervantes, John Bunyan, Izaak Walton, Aesop, The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, John Dryden, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, David Garrick, Oliver Goldsmith, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Browning, George Gordon Byron, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christopher Marlowe, Dante Alighieri, Alessandro Manzoni, Homer, Richard Henry Dana, Edmund Burke, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Carlyle, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Molière, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Friedrich von Schiller, Philip Sidney, Ben Jonson, Abraham Cowley, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Samuel Johnson, David Hume, Sydney Smith, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, Thomas De Quincey, Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Makepeace Thackeray, John Ruskin, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Alan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, James Russell Lowell, Michael Faraday, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz, Simon Newcomb, Archibald Geikie, Benvenuto Cellini, Michel de Montaigne, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Ernest Renan, Immanuel Kant, Giuseppe Mazzini, Herodotus, Tacitus, Francis Drake, Philip Nichols, Francis Pretty, Walter Bigges, Edward Haies, Walter Raleigh, René Descartes, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, William Henry Harrison, Niccolò Machiavelli, William Roper, Thomas More, Martin Luther, John Locke, George Berkeley, Hippocrates, Ambroise Pare, William Harvey, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Joseph Lister, Louis Pasteur, William Shakespeare, Thomas Dekker, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, John Webster, Philip Massinger, Blaise Pascal, Charles W. Eliot, William A. Neilson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Jane Austen, Walter Scott, George Eliot, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Edward Everett Hale, Henry James, Victor Hugo, Honoré Balzac, George Sand, Alfred de Musset, Alphonse Daudet, Guy de Maupassant, Gottfried Keller, Theodor Storm, Theodor Fontane, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ivan Turgenev, Juan Valera, Bjornstjerne Bjornson & Alexander L. Kielland
