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DeutschThe most popular books in English.
What books are currently the most popular and which are the all time classics? Here we present you with a mixture of those two criteria. We update this list once a month.
W. Somerset Maugham
Then and Now is a historical novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Set in Florence, Italy during the Renaissance, the story focuses on three months in the life of Niccolo Machiavelli, the Florentine politician, diplomat, philosopher and writer in the early years of the 16th century. The …
Sigmund Freud
This remarkable book takes as its subject one of the most outstanding men that ever lived. The ultimate prodigy, Leonardo da Vinci was an artist of great originality and power, a scientist, and a powerful thinker. According to Sigmund Freud, he was also a flawed, repressed …
Friedrich Hölderlin
Hyperion is a novel by Friedrich Hölderlin first published in 1797 and 1799. The full title is Hyperion oder Der Eremit in Griechenland. The work is composed of letters from Hyperion to his friend Bellarmin, along with a few letters between Hyperion and his love Diotima. It is …
Francis Bacon
New Atlantis is an incomplete utopian novel by Sir Francis Bacon, published in 1627. In this work, Bacon portrayed a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge, expressing his aspirations and ideals for humankind. The novel depicts the creation of a utopian land where …
E.J. Wagner
The Science of Sherlock Holmes: From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear is a book by E.J. Wagner.
André Brink
Rumours of Rain is a South African novel by André Brink, published in 1978. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It is set on a South African farm during apartheid.
Peter Sloterdijk
Critique of Cynical Reason is a book by the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, published in 1983 in two volumes under the German title Kritik der zynischen Vernunft. It discusses philosophical Cynicism and popular cynicism as a societal phenomenon in European history. In the …
Brian Moore
Catholics is a novel by Northern Irish-Canadian writer Brian Moore. It was first published in 1972, and was republished in 2006 by Loyola Press with an introduction by Robert Ellsberg and a series of study questions. Most of the action of the novel takes place on an island …
Andrew Crumey
Sputnik Caledonia is a novel by Andrew Crumey, for which he won the Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award. It depicts a Scottish boy who longs to be a spaceman, is transported to a parallel communist Scotland where he takes part in a space mission to a black hole, and returns …
Sheila Watson
The Double Hook is a novel written by Sheila Watson, which is considered "a seminal work in the development of contemporary Canadian literature." Published in 1959, The Double Hook is written in a style more like prose poetry than fiction. It is often considered to be Canada's …
Beatrix Potter
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter as part of the Peter Rabbit series, the book contains eight chapters and numerous illustrations. Though the book was one of Potter’s last publications in 1930, it was one of the first …
Beatrix Potter
The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in December 1918. The tale is based on the Aesop fable, "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse", with details taken from Horace's Satires …
Beatrix Potter
The Tale of Mr. Tod is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1912. The tale is about a badger called Tommy Brock and his arch enemy Mr. Tod, a fox. Brock kidnaps the children of Benjamin Bunny and his wife …
Joseph Roth
Confession of a Murderer details the interior life of a man consumed by jealousy and hatred. In a Russian restaurant on Paris's Left Bank, Russian exile Golubchik alternately fascinates and horrifies a rapt audience with a wild story of collaboration, deception, and murder in …
Simon Winchester
Korea, A Walk Through the Land of Miracles is a book by Simon Winchester. He recounts his experience walking across South Korea, from Jeju in the south to the DMZ in the north, roughly following a route originally taken by a group of Dutch sailors, reportedly the first Europeans …
Dionys Burger
Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe is a 1965 novel by Dionys Burger, and is a sequel to Flatland, a novel by "A Square". The novel expands upon the social and mathematical foundations on which Flatland is based. It is markedly different from the …
Charles Bukowski
The night torn mad with footsteps is a poetry book written by Charles Bukowski.
Susan Sontag
Under the Sign of Saturn is Susan Sontag's third collection of criticism, comprising seven essays. The collection was originally published in 1980. All of the essays were originally published in The New York Review of Books except for "Approaching Artaud," which was originally …
Robert Reed
Beyond the Veil of Stars is a science-fiction novel by Robert Reed, first published in 1994. It describes a world in which the sky undergoes a transformation that prevents people from seeing the stars, giving them instead a view of the other side of the world, as if the Earth …
Gilbert Sorrentino
Mulligan Stew is a novel by Gilbert Sorrentino. It was first published in 1979 by Grove Press, simultaneously in hardcover and softcover. The title is a direct reference to the hodge-podge nature of the food. More cryptically, it is a punning allusion to the character Buck …
A. E. van Vogt
Null-A Three, usually written Ā Three, is a 1985 science fiction novel by A. E. van Vogt. It incorporates concepts from the General semantics of Alfred Korzybski and refers to non-Aristotelian logic. The novel is a continuation of the adventures of Gilbert Gosseyn from the The …
Lucius Shepard
The Jaguar Hunter is a collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror stories by American author Lucius Shepard. Illustrated by J. K. Potter, it was released in May, 1987 and was the author's first book published by Arkham House. It was originally published in an edition of …
Howard Sounes
Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life, a book by Howard Sounes, published in 1998 by Grove Press, is a biography of American writer Charles Bukowski.
Robert Silverberg
A Time of Changes is a 1971 science fiction novel by Robert Silverberg. It won the Nebula Award for that year, and was also nominated for the Hugo and Locus Awards for in 1972.
Clark Ashton Smith
The Emperor of Dreams is a collection of fantasy author and poet Clark Ashton Smith's short tales arranged in chronological order. It was published by Gollancz as the 26th volume of their Fantasy Masterworks series. The collection contains stories from Smith's major story cycles …
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Galíndez is a novel by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, published in 1991 that centres on a real, dramatic and dark episode of the history of the Dominican Republic: the kidnapping, torturing and murdering of Jesús de Galíndez in 1956, representative of the Basque government in exile …
Hans Hellmut Kirst
The Night of the Generals: A Novel is the 15th novel by the German writer Hans Hellmut Kirst, published in 1962.
Dave Sim
Rick's Story is the eighth novel in Canadian cartoonist Dave Sim's Cerebus comic book series. It is made up of issues #220-231 of Cerebus. It was collected as Rick's Story in one volume in November 1998, and was the 12th collected "phonebook" volume. Rick, Jaka's ex-husband from …
Karl Marx
Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 are a series of notes written between April and August 1844 by Karl Marx. Not published by Marx during his lifetime, they were first released in 1927 by researchers in the Soviet Union.
William S. Burroughs
Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs is a collection of diary entries made by Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs between November 16, 1996 and July 30, 1997, only a few days before his death on August 2 at the age of 83. The collection was first …
Myra Friedman
Buried Alive: The Biography of Janis Joplin is a book written by Myra Friedman.
John Barnes
Candle is a science fiction novel by John Barnes that was published in 2000, it is part of the author's Century Next Door series.
S. M. Stirling
The Stone Dogs by S. M. Stirling is the third book in the alternate history series, The Domination. The Stone Dogs details the life of Eric von Shrakenberg's niece, Yolande Ingolfsson, and Chantal Lefarge's children, Frederick and Marya. Eric later becomes the Archon during the …
John Langstaff
Frog Went A-Courtin' is a book by John Langstaff and illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky. Released by Harcourt, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1956. It is based on the folk song "Frog Went A-Courting."
Anthony Powell
The Kindly Ones is a novel by Anthony Powell that forms the sixth in his twelve-volume sequence, A Dance to the Music of Time. Nonetheless the story stands up on its own and may be enjoyed without having read the preceding books. The novel captures the dying fall of the period …
Randall Jarrell
Pictures from an Institution is a 1954 novel by American poet Randall Jarrell. It is an academic satire, focusing on the oddities of academic life, in particular the interpersonal relationships among the characters and their private lives. The nameless narrator, a Jarrell-like …
Jeffery Deaver
Death of a Blue Movie Star is a novel by crime writer Jeffery Deaver. First published in 1988, it is the second book in the Rune Trilogy.
Jonathan Swift
A Tale of a Tub was the first major work written by Jonathan Swift. It is arguably his most difficult satire, and perhaps his most masterly. The Tale is a prose parody which is divided into sections of "digression" and a "tale" of three brothers, each representing one of the …
Augusto Roa Bastos
I, the Supreme is a historical novel written by exiled Paraguayan author Augusto Roa Bastos. It is a fictionalized account of the nineteenth-century Paraguayan dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, who was also known as "Dr. Francia." The book's title derives from the fact …
Bernard Malamud
God's Grace is the final novel written by American author Bernard Malamud, published in 1982 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The novel focuses on Calvin Cohn, the supposed sole survivor of thermonuclear war and God's second Flood, who attempts to rebuild and perfect civilization …
Carlos Fuentes
Where the Air Is Clear is a 1958 novel by Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes. His first novel, it became an "instant classic" and made Fuentes into an immediate "literary sensation". The novel's success allowed Fuentes to leave his job as a diplomat and become a full-time author. The …
Tom Wolfe
Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine is a 1976 book by Tom Wolfe, consisting of eleven essays and one short story that Wolfe wrote between 1967 and 1976. It includes the essay in which he coined the term "the 'Me' Decade" to refer to the 1970s. In addition to the …
Martha Hopkins
InterCourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook is a 1997 cookbook written by Martha Hopkins and Randall Lockridge with photography by Ben Fink, and published by Terrace Publishing. It focuses primarily on recipes and foods appropriate for romantic settings and seduction, covering …
Gypsy Rose Lee
Gypsy: A Memoir is a 1957 autobiography of renowned striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, which inspired the Broadway musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable. The book tells Lee's life story in three acts, the first beginning with her early childhood days in theatre when she toured with her …
William L. Shirer
The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940 by William L. Shirer deals with the collapse of the French Third Republic as a result of Hitler's invasion during World War II.
Whitley Strieber
Billy is a 1990 novel by Whitley Strieber. The novel tells the story of the abduction of a child and the terror of his experience.
Siegfried Kracauer
From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film is a book by film critic and writer Siegfried Kracauer, published in 1947. The book is considered one of the first major studies of German film between World War I and World War II. Among other things, the book …
James Baldwin
Blues for Mister Charlie is James Baldwin's second play, a tragedy in three acts. It was first produced and published in 1964. It is dedicated to the memory of Medgar Evers, and his widow and his children, and to the memory of the dead children of Birmingham." The play is …
Ann Rinaldi
A Ride into Morning is a historical novel by Ann Rinaldi. It is part of the Great Episodes series. It is told in first-person narration.
Oscar Wilde
The Happy Prince and Other Tales is a collection of stories for children by Oscar Wilde first published in May 1888. It contains five stories: "The Happy Prince", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Devoted Friend", and "The Remarkable Rocket".
Margaret Kennedy
The Constant Nymph is a 1924 novel by Margaret Kennedy. It tells how a teenage girl falls in love with a family friend, who eventually marries her cousin. The two girls show mutual jealousy over their common love for the man. The novel was a best-seller after it was first …
Robin Klein
Came Back to Show You I Could Fly is a novel by Robin Klein. It tells the story of a friendship between a lonely 11-year-old boy and a drug-addicted, pregnant 20-year-old woman. It was made into a film in 1993 called Say a Little Prayer, directed by Richard Lowenstein. It was …
Jeanne Kalogridis
Mindshadow is a Star Trek: The Original Series novel written by J.M. Dillard. It was the first novel written by Dillard, and featured the debut of Lt. Ingrid Tomson who went on to appear in several further Star Trek works.
Poul Anderson
Hrolf Kraki's Saga is a fantasy novel by Poul Anderson. It was first published by Ballantine Books as the sixty-second volume of the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in October, 1973, and has been reprinted a number of times since. The novel was nominated for the …
Mark Clifton
They'd Rather Be Right is a science fiction novel by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley.
David Malouf
Fly Away Peter is a 1982 novel by Australian author David Malouf. It won The Age Book of the Year award in 1982, and is often studied at senior level in Australian high schools.
Andrew Lih
The Wikipedia Revolution: How A Bunch of Nobodies Created The World's Greatest Encyclopedia is a 2009 popular history book by new media researcher and writer Andrew Lih. At the time of its publication it was "the only narrative account" of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. It …
Peter Temple
Bad Debts is a Ned Kelly Award winning novel by Australian author Peter Temple. This is the first novel in the author's Jack Irish series.
Martin Booth
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, THE AMERICAN, STARRING GEORGE CLOONEY AND DIRECTED BY ANTON CORBIJN The locals in the Italian village where he lives call him Signor Farfalla--Mr. Butterfly--for he appears to be a discreet gentleman who paints rare butterflies. But as …
Peter O'Donnell
Sabre-Tooth is the title of an action-adventure novel by Peter O'Donnell which was first published in 1966, featuring the character Modesty Blaise which O'Donnell had created for the comic strip of the title. It was the second novel to feature the character, though technically …
Yukihiro Matsumoto
Ruby is an absolutely pure object-oriented scripting language written in C and designed with Perl and Python capabilities in mind. While its roots are in Japan, Ruby is slowly but surely gaining ground in the US. The goal of Yukihiro Matsumoto, creator of Ruby and author of this …
R. L. Stine
A Night in Terror Tower is the twenty-seventh book in Goosebumps, the series of children's horror fiction novellas created and authored by R. L. Stine. It was adapted into a two-part episode, an audiobook, and a board game.
Robert J. Sawyer
Foreigner is a science fiction novel by the Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer, originally published in 1994 by Ace Books. It is the final book of the Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy, following Far-Seer and Fossil Hunter. The book depicts an Earth-like world on a moon which orbits a …
Robert Ardrey
African Genesis: A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man, usually referred to as African Genesis, is a 1961 nonfiction work by Robert Ardrey. It posited the hypothesis that man evolved on the African continent from carnivorous, predatory ancestors who …
Michelle Cliff
No Telephone to Heaven, the sequel to Abeng, is the second novel published by Jamaican-American author Michelle Cliff. The novel continues the story of Clare Savage, Cliff’s semi-autobiographical character from Abeng, through a set of flashbacks that recount Clare’s adolescence …
Samuel R. Delany
They Fly at Çiron is a 1993 science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany, wholly rewritten and expanded from a novelette written in the 1960s.
Mary Appelhof
Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up & Maintain a Worm Composting System is a book by Mary Appelhof self-published under the company name Flower Press. The book gives instruction for vermicomposting. It explains how to build, or where to buy, a bin for worm composting, each …
Katherine Roberts
Song Quest is a fantasy novel by Katherine Roberts. It is the first book in The Echorium Sequence followed by Crystal Mask and Dark Quetzal. The novel was first published in 1999 by Chicken House as a hardback copy; later on in 2001, the first paperback was published. Song Quest …
Roger Zelazny
The Mask of Loki is an epic science fiction/fantasy novel by Roger Zelazny and Thomas T. Thomas, detailing a centuries long struggle between the avatars of Loki and Ahriman.
Desmond Bagley
The Vivero Letter is a first-person narrative novel written by English author Desmond Bagley, and was first published in 1968. It was also made into a film in 1998 of the same name starring Robert Patrick and Chiara Caselli.
P. G. Wodehouse
A Few Quick Ones is a collection of ten short stories by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United States on 13 April 1959 by Simon & Schuster, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 26 June 1959 by Herbert Jenkins, London. All the stories in the collection …
Mahatma Gandhi
The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas is a collection of Gandhi's writings edited by Louis Fischer. The book outlines how Gandhi became the Mahatma and introduces Gandhi's opinions on various subjects. It is split into two parts: The Man …
Anita Desai
The Zigzag Way is a 2004 novel by Anita Desai. The novel is about an American academic and writer who goes with his girlfriend to Mexico and rediscovers his passion for fiction writing. The novel was received with mixed reviews. Liz Hoggard of The Guardian emphasized how the …
Leo Marx
The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America is a 1964 work of literary criticism written by Leo Marx and published by Oxford University Press. The title of the book refers to a trope in American literature representing the interruption of pastoral …
Anne Isaacs
Swamp Angel is a book written by Anne Isaacs and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky.
Joyce Sidman
Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors is a children's picture book written by American children's author Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, and published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. The book follows the changes of the seasons throughout the year by …
Anthony Trollope
The Belton Estate is a novel by Anthony Trollope, written in 1865. The novel concerns itself with a young woman who has accepted one of two suitors, then discovered that he was unworthy of her love. It was the first novel published in the Fortnightly Review.
Jack Vance
Lurulu is a science fiction adventure novel by Jack Vance, the followup to Ports of Call. It continues to follow Myron Tany on a picaresque journey through the Gaean Reach.
Nathalie Mallet
The Princes of the Golden Cage is Nathalie Mallet’s debut novel; the first installment in The Prince Amir Mystery series. It is a fantasy/mystery; however this novel has also been classified as historical fantasy, which is a subgenre of fantasy. The second book in the series, …
Matt de la Pena
We Were Here is a 2009 young adult novel by Matt de la Peña. It follows the story of Miguel, a teenager who rebels against the law. We Were Here was recognized as an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA-SALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, and a Junior Library Guild …
Roddy Doyle
The Dead Republic: A Novel is a 2010 novel by Irish author Roddy Doyle which concluded The Last Roundup trilogy. The first book in the trilogy was A Star Called Henry, and the second was Oh, Play That Thing!.
Ann M. Martin
Belle Teal is a novel written by Ann M. Martin in 2001. It tells the story of Belle Teal Harper, her mother Adele, her grandmother Belle Teal Rhodes, and their friends and community. Belle teal is now going into 5th grade, and this year is very special. she is going to have the …
Spider Robinson
Starmind is a science fiction novel by Spider Robinson and Jeanne Robinson. It first appeared as a four-part serial in Analog Science Fiction and Fact in 1994, and in book form the following year.
Maya Angelou
Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes is author Maya Angelou's first cookbook. It pairs 28 essays written by Angelou with 73 recipes. Angelou got the title from an African-American spiritual. The book's audio version, which was produced at the same …
Chris Bunch
Vortex is the seventh book in Chris Bunch and Allan Cole's The Sten Adventures.
Chris Bunch
Empire's End is the eighth and final book in Chris Bunch and Allan Cole's The Sten Adventures.
Peter Goldsworthy
Three Dog Night is a 2003 novel by Australian author Peter Goldsworthy.
John Bellairs
The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb is a gothic horror novel directed at child readers. It was written by John Bellairs and originally published in 1988. The book was illustrated by Edward Gorey.
Caroline B. Cooney
For All Time was a 2000 made-for-TV-movie released in 2000 starring Mark Harmon, Mary McDonnell, and Catherine Hicks. It was based on The Twilight Zone episode, A Stop at Willoughby written by Rod Serling. The teleplay was by Vivienne Radkoff and it was directed by Steven …
Harry Turtledove
A World of Difference is a 1990 science fiction novel by Harry Turtledove.
Michael Reisman
Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper is a book published in 2007 that was written by Michael Reisman.
Alejandro Casona
La dama del alba is a Spanish play, very popular in its own country, written by playwright Alejandro Casona in 1944. It is a fantasy-drama in which Death personified is the main character. It takes place in a small village in the Spanish Principality of Asturias. The play …
W. E. B. Griffin
The Soldier Spies is a book published in 1986 that was written by W. E. B. Griffin.
David Zindell
The War in Heaven is a book published in 1998 that was written by David Zindell.
Nora Roberts
A story of misplaced expectations and unexpected passion from #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts.For a change of pace, renowned anthropologist Kasey Wyatt takes a job working for bestselling author Jordan Taylor, who needs helps researching his latest novel about …
Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralised by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality …
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Towers of Darkover is an anthology of fantasy and science fiction short stories edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley. The stories are set in Bradley's world of Darkover. The book was first published by DAW Books in July, 1993.
Adam Rapp
"Adam Rapp’s brilliant and haunting story will break your heart. But then his words will mend it. . . . Absolutely unforgettable." – Michael CartOn the run in a stolen car with a kidnapped baby in tow, Custis, Curl, and Boobie are three young people with deeply troubled pasts …
Robin Jarvis
The Oaken Throne is the second novel in the Deptford Histories Trilogy by Robin Jarvis.
John Feinstein
A Civil War: Army vs. Navy is a book published in 1996 by popular sports author John Feinstein. In it, Feinstein writes about his experiences spending time with both American football teams of the United States Military Academy and the United States Naval Academy during the 1995 …
Jackie Kessler
Rage is a 2011 young adult novel by Jackie Morse Kessler and the second book in the Riders of the Apocalypse series.
Jacqueline Wilson
Worry Website is a popular children's novel written in 2002 by Jacqueline Wilson.
Nancy Mitford
Nancy Mitford’s most controversial novel, unavailable for decades, is a hilarious satirical send-up of the political enthusiasms of her notorious sisters, Unity and Diana.Written in 1934, early in Hitler’s rise, Wigs on the Green lightheartedly skewers the devoted followers of …
Friedrich Torberg
This is Friedrich Torberg's tribute to the largely Jewish coffeehouse world that flourished in Vienna amidst the afterglow of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until its final collapse in 1938. Based on Torberg's personal memories of intellectuals and eccentrics of the time, including …
Francisco Coloane
"These stories, well translated from the Spanish, describe the severe beauty and cruelty of southern Chile—cold, inhospitable, full of craggy, treacherous channels—the end of the world. As in Jack London’s stories, the environment forms a crucible in which man’s true—or perhaps …
Guillermo Arriaga
From the award-winning, internationally acclaimed screenwriter of Amores perros, 21 Grams, and Babel, A Sweet Scent of Death is Guillermo Arriaga's tale of deception, passion, and violence fused together by the tragic killing of a young girl in a small Mexican village. Early …
Peter Stamm
Agnes asks her lover to write about her. As she sits for him, he begins to write everything that had happened to them, from the time they met at the Chicago Public Library. Soon the borders of fiction and non-fiction start to strain, as Agnes finds they remember events …
Jack Heath
The Lab is Australian writer Jack Heath's debut novel, first released as a paperback in 2006. Jack Heath started writing The Lab when he was 13 and attending Lyneham High School. Jack started writing The Lab to impress a girl at school who liked reading. He finished the first …
Alex Capus
A little known backwater of the history of the Great War is vividly rendered by a great story-teller - the central characters and events of this book are based on fact, but their surroundings and experiences are richly drawn from the author's imagination and detailed research.
Penelope Fitzgerald
Beautiful Chiara is the last of the Ridolfi, a Florentine family of long lineage and eccentric habits. She is smitten with Salvatore, a brilliant but penniless doctor, a rational man who wants nothing to do with romance. This is the story of how these two--with the best …