Classics

Pride and Prejudice is the story of Mr and Mrs Bennet (minor gentry), their five daughters, and the various romantic adventures at their Hertfordshire residence of Longbourn. The parents' characters are greatly contrasted: Mr Bennet being a wise and witty gentleman; while Mrs Bennet is permanently distracted by the issue of marrying off her daughters at any cost. The reason for Mrs Bennet's obsession is that their estate will pass by law after Mr Bennet's death to his closest blood relative: his... more info>>

Jane Austen's classic romance story in which the young Anne Elliott is persuaded by her plotting family to reject the man she loves, and her attempt to rekindle that love years later. Although written over 180 years ago the story is nevertheless a gripping tale for modern romance fans, packed with irony, wit, and powerful characters.

"His best book," Esquire wrote of Kurt Vonnegut's 1959 novel The Sirens of Titan, adding, "he dares not only to ask the ultimate question about the meaning of life, but to answer it." This novel fits into that aspect of the Vonnegut canon that might be classified as science fiction, a quality that once led Time to describe Vonnegut as "George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer ... a zany but moral mad scientist." The Sirens of Titan was perhaps the novel that began ... more info>>

In Conrad's haunting tale, Marlow, a seaman and wanderer, recounts his physical and psychological journey in search of the enigmatic Kurtz. Traveling to the heart of the African continent, he discovers how Kurtz has gained his position of power and influence over the local people. Marlow's struggle to fathom his experience involves him in a radical questioning of not only his own nature and values but the nature and values of his society.

Tarzan had renounced his right to the woman he loved, and civilization held no pleasure for him. After a brief and harrowing period among men, he turned back to the African jungle where he had grown to manhood. It was there he first heard of Opar, the city of gold, left over from fabled Atlantis. It was a city of hideous men--and of beautiful, savage women, over whom reigned La, high priestess of the Flaming God. Its altars were stained with the blood of many sacrifices. Unheeding of the dangers... more info>>

This first of Jane Austen's published novels is the story of two starkly different English sisters: Elinor Dashwood, the epitome of prudence and self-control, and her younger, more impetuous sister Marianne, who embodies emotion, openness, and sheer enthusiasm. Elinor's good sense and readiness to observe social forms contrast with Marianne's impulsive candor and warm but excessive sensibility. Both struggle to maintain their integrity and find happiness in the face of a competitive marriage mar... more info>>

Emily Bronte's only novel, Wuthering Heights is one of the pinnacles of 19th century English literature. It's the story of Heathcliff, an orphan who falls inlove with a girl above his class, loses her, and devotes the rest of his life to wreaking revenge on her family.

Mansfield Park is highly regarded by Austen followers as a tale of character and sensibility very much along the lines of Emma and confronting similar issues of marriage and social class while acting as a serious critique of Regency values. Austen began writing it in 1811 and it was published in 1814, just as she began writing Emma. The novel is founded upon the solid and stern but kind-hearted Sir Thomas Bertram, owner of Mansfield Park. He is a throwback to the conservative values and beliefs ... more info>>

Written by one of America's greatest authors, Moby-Dick is a work of tremendous power and depth--one of world literature's great poetic epics. In the novel, published in 1851 after sixteen months of writing, Herman Melville recounts the Promethean quest of Captain Ahab, who, having lost a leg in a earlier battle with White Whale, is determined to catch the beast and destroy it. By the time readers meet Ahab, he is a vengeful, crazed, and terror-provoking figure, for Moby-Dick has come to represe... more info>>

The year is 2137, over 160 years ago the "Great War" was fought in Europe. The Western Hemisphere stayed out of the conflict, as much as possible, using the slogan: "The East for the East ... The West for the West." For all this time the USA did not go past 30 degrees or 175 degrees latitude. Until.... The aero-submarine, "Coldwater" in command of Lieutenant Jefferson Turck is blown past the 30 in a raging storm. Damaged, the ship landed in Europe only to find that it was not the enemy that was ... more info>>

This expanded edition of Ayn Rand's classic tale of a future dark age of the great "We"--in which individuals have no name, no independence, and no values--is a beautifully written, powerful novel that projects current social trends into the future, and anticipates such later Rand masterpieces as The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

An incredibly handsome young man in Victorian England retains his youthful appearance over the years while his portrait reflects both his age and evil soul as he pursues a life of decadence and corruption.

In the remote border country of South Utah, a man is about to be whipped by the Mormons in order to pressure Jane Withersteen into marrying against her will. The punishment is halted by the arrival of the hero, Lassiter, a gunman in black leather, who routs the persecutors and then gradually recounts his own history of an endless search for a woman abducted long ago by the Mormons. Secrecy, seduction, captivity, and escape: out of these elements Zane Grey built his acclaimed story of the America... more info>>

In 1845 Thoreau leased some land owned by his friend and mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson on Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts, and lived in a cabin on it for two years, two months, and two days. The experience gave Thoreau the chance to make keen observations on the world around him. The result became an American classic: Walden explores not only the soul of the searching Thoreau, but defines what it means to be a truly free person, and distills the essence of our relationship with Nature.

Three Timeless Romances! Sense and Sensibility is the classic story of passion and divided hearts, of the dashing Darcy's tempestuous relationship with self-possessed, idealistic Elizabeth Bennet (Austen's favorite among her characters). Mansfield Park is another masterful Austen novel of misunderstood hearts seeking each other through the complications and confusions of their lives, an exploration of the themes of faith and constancy and the threat that city ways can pose to simpler ways of lif... more info>>

Margaret Mitchell's epic novel of love and war won the Pulitzer Prize and went on to give rise to two authorized sequels and one of the most popular and celebrated movies of all time. Many novels have been written about the Civil War and its aftermath. None take us into the burning fields and cities of the American South as Gone With the Wind does, creating haunting scenes and thrilling portraits of characters so vivid that we remember their words and feel their fear and hunger for the rest of o... more info>>

Tarzan's young son narrowly escaped the wrath of his father's nemesis Paulvitch, and he was forced to flee into the savage African jungles where Tarzan himself had been reared. There the civilized boy would have to learn to face the great beasts and exotic dangers only his father had ever conquered. And as he became known as Korak the Killer--whose legend would rival that of Tarzan--he would learn that the dangers of the jungle were nothing compared to those devised by men...

Lewis Carroll's masterpiece, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, was followed six years later by the sequel Through the Looking-Glass. In the topsy-turvy world that lies beyond the looking-glass, Alice meets such fantastical characters as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Humpty Dumpty, and the Jabberwock.

More than a century after its first publication, Dracula remains the ultimate horror story, thrilling readers with its hair-raising portrait of a bloodthirsty vampire set loose on an English port town. Spawning countless film adaptations and literary spin-offs, Stoker's novel--a patchwork of letters, diary entries, and newspaper clippings--was the first to capture vampire mythology as we know it. We can still trace its abiding influence among the cinemas, bookstores, and television programs of t... more info>>

As the rich Lord Greystoke, Tarzan found himself the target of greedy, evil men. Stranded on a desert island, his wife and son kidnapped, Tarzan's plight seemed helpless. But with the help of Sheeta, the ferocious panther, and the great ape Akut, Tarzan crafted his escape with the giant Mugambi. Yet the trail of the kidnappers led deep into the interior--and it would take all of Tarzan's skills to reach his family in time.

Unstuck in time, the hero of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five--an unforgettable Everyman named Billy Pilgrim--is never sure what part of his life he is going to have to act in next. Vonnegut's wildly imaginative, witty and affecting novel tells Billy Pilgrim's story in just that fashion. It spins back and forth through time, layering in the elements of Billy's life, which begins, chronologically, in 1922 in the upstate New York town of Ilium, and ends over 50 years later, when he is a success... more info>>

It is in this, the second Holmes novel, that the great detective comes fully to life--not only as a melancholic and an inscrutable master of deduction, but also as an incurable drug addict. "Which is it today?" Watson asks Holmes matter-of-factly on the opening page of the novel, "morphine or cocaine?" "It is cocaine," Holmes famously replies. "A seven-per-cent. solution. Would you like to try it?" Mary Morstan comes to Holmes in the hope that he will be able to solve a mystery. Ten years earlie... more info>>

Dante Alighieri's poetic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, is a moving human drama, an unforgettable visionary journey through the infinite torment of Hell, up the arduous slopes of Purgatory, and on to the glorious realm of Paradise--the sphere of universal harmony and eternal salvation. [Translation by H. W. Longfellow.]

Four major works by the prominent late 18th/early 19th Century British writer Jane Austen (1775-1817): Northanger Abbey (1803), Lady Susan (a short piece probably written about 1805), Sense and Sensibility (1811), and Pride and Prejudice (1813).

Paradise Lost is the greatest work of one of the most acclaimed poets in English literature. It has had a profound influence on Western culture, and has attracted a vast amount of critical commentary of every sort.