Unpublished in Melville’s lifetime, BILLY BUDD is considered one of his greatest works. It began as a ballad, but grew into a short novel with an ambiguous plot that raises more questions than it answers, about good and evil, ju...

Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1st, 1819, the third of eight children. At the age of 7 Melville contracted scarlet fever which was to permanently diminish his eyesight. At this time Melville was described as being...

The third novel in the "Anne of Green Gables" saga, Lucy M. Montgomery's "Anne of the Island" first debuted in 1915. The plucky young Anne Shirley is now all grown up into a smart beautiful young woman. Having left...

Twelve of the finest tales by great French writers — from Voltaire to Renard. Includes 'The Necklace' by Maupassant; 'The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaler' (Flaubert), 'The Unknown Masterpiece' (Balzac), 'The Attack on the Mi...

The Third Policeman is Flann O'Brien's brilliantly dark comic novel about the nature of time, death, and existence. Told by a narrator who has committed a botched robbery and brutal murder, the novel follows him and his adventures in ...

Gordon Comstock is a poor young man who works in a grubby London bookstore and spends his evenings shivering in a rented room, trying to write. He is determined to stay free of the "money world" of lucrative jobs, family res...

First published in A.D. 8, Ovids Metamorphoses remains one of the most accessible and inspirational introductions to Greek mythology.

Set in the troubled South Africa of the 1940s, this is the deeply moving story of a Zulu pastor, his son, and a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Passionately African, yet timeless and universal, it is a work of searing bea...

A classic collection From the exquisite lyric "To Helen," to the immortal masterpieces "Annabel Lee," "The Bells," and "The Raven," The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates the author...

In the title story of this collection of Edgar Allan Poe's writings, C. Auguste Dupin, investigator extraordinaire and the inspiration for the more famous Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, demonstrates his ability to solve the most chal...

Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is a pivotal work in which Poe calls attention to the act of writing and to the problem of representing the truth. It is an archetypal American story of esc...

Porter's reputation as one of americanca's most distinguished writers rests chiefly on her superb short stories. This volume includes the collections Flowering Judas; Pale Horse, Pale Rider; and The Leaning Tower as well as four stori...

One of the most important Vedic texts, THE UPANISHADS, contains sacred revelations, insights, and divine truths by saints and seers. They are translated here from the original Sanskrit by Prabhavananda, who is credited with making Hin...

"Beautifully composed and splendidly written, it has great power and real point ... the command of the contemporary scene is masterly.... One of the best characters that have appeared in fiction for a very long time." - Walt...

Swann in Love is a study of sexual jealousy that forms a fully self-contained crucial component of the vast, unfolding structure of Proust’s masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time. Swann, owner of large estate and at ease in Parisian h...

The first volume of Proust's seven-part novel "In Search of Lost Time," also known as "A Remembrance of Things Past," "Swann's Way" is the auspicious beginning of Proust's most prominent work. A mature, u...

The long-awaited penultimate volume—"the very summit of Proust's art" (Slate)—in the acclaimed Penguin translation of Marcel Proust's greatest work, in time for the 150th anniversary of his birth "The great...

It is the early days of The Great War. As the curtain rises, Sara Lee is sitting by the fire in her aunt and uncle's home, knitting a baby afghan. Her beau's name is Harvey. He has his eye on a little house that is just perfect for tw...

Dr. Dick Livingston has joined his uncle David in his general practice in small East Coast village. Dick is a quiet man with a mysterious past. Apparently, he can only remember the last ten years of his life. During his practice Dick ...

A middle-aged spinster rents a country house for the summer and soon finds herself plunged into a nasty scenario of bank defaults, stolen securities, and murder in this entertaining blend of intrigue, villainy, and heart-pounding susp...

Letting Go is Roth's first full-length novel, published just after Goodbye, Columbus, when he was twenty-nine. Set in 1950s Chicago, New York, and Iowa city, Letting Go presents as brilliant a fictional portrait as we have of a mid-ce...

The passionate Andre-Louis Moreau makes an unexpected entrance into the French Revolution when he vows to avenge his best friend's death. His target: Monsieur de La Tour d'Azyr, the aristocratic villain who killed his friend. Andre-Lo...

James Salter, a West Pointer who went to Korea as a jet fighter pilot, has written a novel of that Far Eastern event that has none of the hokum that (for the sake of specific comparison with recent popular Korean war tales) marks Jame...

"Marvelously captivating." — The New York Times. First published in 1940, Saroyan's international bestseller recounts the exploits of an Armenian clan in northern California at the turn of the 20th century. Based on the ...

Sciascia's subtext, which straddles the line between cynicism and despair, is that in an insane society, the quest for truth can only be a psychopathic act. This understanding is the engine that drives Sciascia's fictions, sturdy as t...

In an attempt to win the heart of her king and a nightly stay of execution, the beautiful and wise Scheherazade spares her life and enchants her husband with exotic tales of jinn, magic lamps, daring heroics and true love. First dated...

One of Sir Walter Scott's most popular and influential works, "Ivanhoe" is the story of one of the last remaining Saxon noble families. At the beginning of the novel we find its titular character, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who...

A young prince meets with his father's ghost, who alleges that his own brother, now married to his widow, murdered him. The prince devises a scheme to test the truth of the ghost's accusation, feigning wild madness while plotting a br...

In this final play of the tetralogy describing the War of the Roses and the restoration (despite Richard III's efforts) of the Tudor Dynasty, is there nothing Richard will not do to save his crown? Bloodthirsty, spiteful, ambitious, a...

The play begins shortly after the death of the Roman emperor, with his two sons, Saturninus and Bassianus, squabbling over who will succeed him. Their conflict seems set to boil over into violence until a tribune, Marcus Andronicus, a...