In Brooklyn, New York, in 1927, Carl Brown and Annie McGairy meet and fall in love. Though only eighteen, Annie travels alone to the Midwestern university where Carl is studying law to marry him.

Little did they know how difficult their first year of marriage would be, in a faraway place with little money and few friends. But Carl and Annie come to realize that the struggles and uncertainty of poverty and hardship can be overcome by the strength of a loving, loyal relationship. An unsentimental yet uplifting story, Joy in the Morning is a timeless and radiant novel of marriage and young love.

Go Tell It on the Mountain, originally published in 1953, is James Baldwin's first major work, a semi-autobiographical novel that has established itself as an American classic. This novel chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.

With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin tells the story of the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem. This "truly extraordinary" novel (Chicago Sun-Times) opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.

1919, the second volume of John Dos Passos's U.S.A. trilogy, continues his vigorous and sweeping panorama of twentieth-century America, lauded on publication of the first volume not only for its scope, but also for its groundbreaking style.

Employing a host of experimental devices that would inspire a whole new generation of writers to follow, Dos Passos captures the many textures, flavors, and background noises of modern life with a cinematic touch and unparalleled nerve.

1919 opens to find America and the world at war, and Dos Passos's characters, many of whom we met in the first volume, are thrown into the snarl. We follow the daughter of a Chicago minister, a wide-eyed Texas girl, a young poet, a radical Jew, and we glimpse Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Unknown Soldier.

The Railway Children is a much-loved children's classic first published in 1906. It tells the story of three well-mannered siblings whose comfortable lives are greatly altered when their father is taken away by two mysterious men one evening.

With their family's fortunes considerably reduced in his absence, the children and their mother are forced to live in a simple country cottage near a railway station. There, the young trio—Roberta, Peter, and young Phyllis—befriend the porter and station master.

The youngsters' days are filled with adventure and excitement, including their successful attempt to avert a horrible train disaster. However, the mysterious disappearance of their father continues to haunt them.

The solution to that painful puzzle, along with many other details and events of the children's lives, come to vivid life in this perennial favorite. This story has captivated generations of readers and, more recently, delighted television and movie audiences. It continues to charm young readers with its warmth and appeal.

Born Free is a story that has captivated audiences since its original publication in 1960. Joy Adamson's remarkable tale of a lion cub, Elsa, highlights the transition between captivity and the wild. This journey is a testament to the unique bond that can form between humans and animals, bridging the seemingly unbridgeable gap between their worlds.

Joy Adamson beautifully captures the abilities of both humans and animals to coexist and thrive. Her account is an idyll and a model for understanding the sanctity of the wild, especially in times when it is threatened by human development and natural disasters.

Illustrated with evocative photographs, this book invites readers to experience one of the most heartwarming associations between man and animal. Rediscover the magic of Elsa's story, a narrative that continues to inspire and enchant readers around the world.

The Stories of John Cheever is a remarkable collection of sixty-one stories that chronicle the lives of what has been called "the greatest generation." From the early wonder and disillusionment of city life in "The Enormous Radio" to the surprising discoveries and common mysteries of suburbia in "The Housebreaker of Shady Hill" and "The Swimmer," Cheever tells us everything we need to know about "the pain and sweetness of life."

This collection spans the duration of Cheever’s long and distinguished career, showcasing tales that have helped define the short story form. Cheever’s crowning achievement is his ability to be simultaneously generous and cynical, acknowledging that the absurd and the profound can reside in the same moment.

The Moon and Sixpence, inspired by the life of Paul Gauguin, is W. Somerset Maugham's exploration of the complexities of artistic genius. Charles Strickland, a middle-aged stockbroker, abandons his family to become an artist. His journey from London to Paris, and finally Tahiti, is marked by his relentless pursuit of art, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. Strickland's story is a reflection on the sacrifices made for art, the selfishness of genius, and the irrevocable changes it brings to the lives of those involved.

Where the Red Fern Grows is a beloved tale of a young boy named Billy and his two loyal hunting dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann. Together, they form an inseparable trio, exploring the dark hills and river bottoms of Cherokee country. With Old Dan's strength, Little Ann's intelligence, and Billy's determination, they become the finest hunting team in the valley.

As they embark on thrilling adventures, they find themselves enveloped in a world of glory and victory. However, their journey is not without its hardships, and they will face challenges that test their bond. The story is a heartwarming and exciting exploration of love, friendship, and the adventures that await in the wild.

It's an unforgettable adventure that captures the essence of the bond between a boy and his dogs, and a story that continues to resonate with readers of all ages.

Scandale dans une pension de famille « comme il faut », sur la Côte d'Azur du début du siècle : Mme Henriette, la femme d'un des clients, s'est enfuie avec un jeune homme qui pourtant n'avait passé là qu'une journée...

Seul le narrateur tente de comprendre cette « créature sans moralité », avec l'aide inattendue d'une vieille dame anglaise très distinguée, qui lui expliquera quels feux mal éteints cette aventure a ranimés chez elle.

Ce récit d'une passion foudroyante, bref et aigu comme les affectionnait l'auteur d'Amok et du Joueur d'échecs, est une de ses plus incontestables réussites.

In the hopeful 1950s, Frank and April Wheeler appear to be a model couple: bright, beautiful, talented, with two young children and a starter home in the suburbs. Perhaps they married too young and started a family too early. Maybe Frank's job is dull. And April never saw herself as a housewife. Yet they have always lived on the assumption that greatness is only just around the corner. But now that certainty is now about to crumble. With heartbreaking compassion and remorseless clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April mortgage their spiritual birthright, betraying not only each other, but their best selves.

Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the gulf beds that once brought great wealth to the kings of Spain and now provide Kino, Juana, and their infant son with meager subsistence. Then, on a day like any other, Kino emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a sea gull’s egg, as “perfect as the moon.” With the pearl comes hope, the promise of comfort and of security.

A story of classic simplicity, based on a Mexican folk tale, The Pearl explores the secrets of man’s nature, greed, the darkest depths of evil, and the luminous possibilities of love.

Betsy, Tacy, and Tib are twelve—old enough to do lots of things... even go downtown on their own. There they see their first horseless carriage, discover the joys of the public library, and see a real play at the Opera House. They even find themselves acting in one!

Best of all, they help a lonely new friend feel at home in Deep Valley—the most wonderful place in the world to grow up.

Ever since their first publication in the 1940s, the Betsy-Tacy stories have been loved by each generation of young readers.

Arthur Rimbaud is remembered as much for his volatile personality and tumultuous life as he is for his writings, most of which he produced before the age of eighteen. This book brings together his poetry, prose, and letters, including "The Drunken Boat," "The Orphans' New Year," "After the Flood," and "A Season in Hell," considered by many to be his finest works.

Complete Works is divided into eight "seasons": Childhood, The Open Road, War, The Tormented Heart, The Visionary, The Damned Soul, A Few Belated Cowardices, and The Man with the Wind at His Heels - that reflect the facets of Rimbaud's life.

Insightful commentary by translator and editor Paul Schmidt reveals the courage, vision, and imagination of Rimbaud's poetry and sheds light on one of the most enigmatic figures in letters.

One of the greatest love stories of all time, this novel has fascinated generations of readers. Dumas's subtle and moving portrait of a woman in love is based on his own love affair with one of the most desirable courtesans in Paris. This is a completely new translation commissioned for the World's Classics.

The Cruel Sea is a powerful novel set during World War II, chronicling the harrowing experiences of the British ships Compass Rose and Saltash as they engage in a desperate cat-and-mouse game with Nazi U-boats in the North Atlantic. Originally published in 1951, this classic novel vividly captures the endurance and daring of its characters.

The story is based on the author's own experiences serving in corvettes in the North Atlantic, providing a matter-of-fact yet moving portrayal of ordinary men learning to fight and survive amidst brutal conditions. The narrative spans seven chapters, each depicting a year of the war, offering gripping details of the Battle of the Atlantic and the relentless struggle against both the elements and a ruthless enemy.

The Cruel Sea remains a timeless piece of literature that conveys the raw courage and resilience of those who fought in one of history's most challenging naval battles.

In Anthony Burgess's influential nightmare vision of the future, criminals take over after dark. Teen gang leader Alex narrates in fantastically inventive slang that echoes the violent intensity of youth rebelling against society. Dazzling and transgressive, A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom.

This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition, and Burgess’s introduction, “A Clockwork Orange Resucked.”

Holmes is hired by the King of Bohemia to recover blackmail evidence, held by the woman whom the king once promised to marry, but who he abandoned for a woman of noble birth.

Join Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion Dr. John Watson as they embark on a thrilling adventure filled with twists, turns, and unexpected revelations. Set against the backdrop of Victorian London, A Scandal in Bohemia follows Holmes as he is enlisted by the King of Bohemia to retrieve a compromising photograph from the clutches of the beautiful and elusive Irene Adler.

Themes of deception, betrayal, and cunning abound as Holmes employs his keen powers of deduction to unravel the mystery surrounding Adler and her elusive past. With his razor-sharp intellect and unparalleled powers of observation, Holmes navigates a web of intrigue and deceit, uncovering secrets that threaten to shake the very foundations of society.

On the Road is a quintessential novel of America and the Beat Generation. It chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, a sideburned hero of the snowy West. As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience.

Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance. This classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be "Beat" and has inspired every generation since its initial publication.

Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber have earned their place as all-time classics of imaginative literature. Now here are all ten novels, together in one magnificent omnibus volume. Witness the titanic battle for supremacy waged on Earth, in the Courts of Chaos, and on a magical world of mystery, adventure, and romance.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.

The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of twentieth-century literature.

Star Maker is a science fiction novel by Olaf Stapledon, published in 1937. The book describes a history of life in the universe, dwarfing in scale Stapledon's previous book, Last and First Men (1930), a history of the human species over two billion years. Star Maker tackles philosophical themes such as the essence of life, of birth, decay, and death, and the relationship between creation and creator. A pervading theme is that of progressive unity within and between different civilizations.

Some of the elements and themes briefly discussed prefigure later fiction concerning genetic engineering and alien life forms. Arthur C. Clarke considered Star Maker to be one of the finest works of science fiction ever written. The narrative is a contemplative journey through space and time, exploring how galaxies of stars formed from nebulae, how planets came into existence, and how intelligent life evolved. The book provides a profound perspective on mankind's existence in universal time and space.

There are touching moments and exciting battles, both tragedy and comedy. Uplifting victories and crushing defeats fill the pages, making this book a very engaging read. The final chapters provoke deep ponderings about life and intelligence, leaving the reader with lifelong questions to mull over.

Winesburg, Ohio depicts the strange, secret lives of the inhabitants of a small town. In "Hands," Wing Biddlebaum tries to hide the tale of his banishment from a Pennsylvania town, a tale represented by his hands. In "Adventure," lonely Alice Hindman impulsively walks naked into the night rain. Threaded through the stories is the viewpoint of George Willard, the young newspaper reporter who, like his creator, stands witness to the dark and despairing dealings of a community of isolated people.

The Life of Our Lord is a heartwarming and simple retelling of the life of Jesus Christ, adapted from the Gospel of St. Luke. In this delightful narrative, Charles Dickens shares the story of Jesus with his young children, aiming to instill in them the values of religion and faith.

Written during the years 1846 to 1849, this work remained a cherished family secret for over eighty-five years, passed down through generations. Dickens refused its publication during his lifetime, intending it solely for his children's understanding and spiritual growth.

Eventually published in 1934, this narrative captures the essence of Dickens's storytelling, blending faith and family in a unique portrayal of Jesus's teachings and background.

The Iliad/The Odyssey, two masterpieces of Greek literature, have been captivating readers for millennia. The Iliad is the tale of the Trojan War, marked by the fierce wrath of Achilles. Translator Robert Fagles breathes new life into this age-old story with a contemporary linguistic flair.

Complementing the tale of war is The Odyssey, a testament to the human spirit's quest for home and identity. It chronicles Odysseus's perilous journey back to his homeland after the fall of Troy. Fagles' translation is celebrated for its narrative drive and poetic elegance, making it a joy to read or recite aloud.

Both epics are presented with insightful introductions and critical commentary by renowned classicist Bernard Knox, deepening the reader's understanding of these foundational works of Western literature. This edition is a treasure for both its scholarly value and its sheer narrative power.

Heart of Darkness, a novel by Joseph Conrad, was originally a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899. It is a story within a story, following a character named Charlie Marlow, who recounts his adventure to a group of men onboard an anchored ship. The story told is of his early life as a ferry boat captain. Although his job was to transport ivory downriver, Charlie develops an interest in investigating an ivory procurement agent, Kurtz, who is employed by the government.

Preceded by his reputation as a brilliant emissary of progress, Kurtz has now established himself as a god among the natives in one of the darkest places on earth. Marlow suspects something else of Kurtz: he has gone mad.

A reflection on corruptive European colonialism and a journey into the nightmare psyche of one of the corrupted, Heart of Darkness is considered one of the most influential works ever written.

The Interpretation of Dreams is one of the most revolutionary works in the history of psychology, penned by the esteemed psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud. This groundbreaking book unveils the concept that dreams are a window into our unconscious mind, offering insights into our hidden desires and wishes.

Freud introduces his theory with profound depth and clarity, emphasizing that dreams represent the hidden fulfillment of our unconscious wishes. This work serves as a pivotal foundation for understanding the psychoanalytic theory and has significantly contributed to the field of dream analysis.

Through this book, Freud invites readers to explore the complex layers of the unconscious mind, encouraging a journey of self-discovery and intellectual exploration. The insights gained from this work continue to influence the realms of psychology and beyond.

Made for Each Other?

Betsy Ray has always thought that she and the fascinating Joe Willard would make the perfect couple. Now, in her senior year at Deep Valley High School, it looks as though she'll get her wish. As soon as Joe returns from his summer job in North Dakota, he's on the Rays' porch with sweet words for Betsy. It's going to be a wonderful senior year!

Then Tony Markham, Betsy's longtime chum, comes calling — and his intentions are definitely romantic. Betsy is torn. She really cares for Joe, but she doesn't want to hurt Tony. Can she figure out a way to follow her heart without ruining her friendship?

The war between two groups of Hungarian boys living in Budapest. One with Hungarian national colours (red, white, green) is defending the square from redshirts (from Garibaldi's redshirts), who want to occupy the square.

Ray Bradbury's second short story collection is back in print, offering chilling encounters with funhouse mirrors, parasitic accident-watchers, and strange poker chips. Both sides of Bradbury's vaunted childhood nostalgia are on display, in the celebratory "Uncle Einar," and haunting "The Lake," the latter a fine elegy to childhood loss.

This edition features a new introduction by Bradbury, an invaluable essay on writing, wherein the author tells of his "Theater of Morning Voices," and, by inference, encourages you to listen to the same murmurings in yourself.

The October Country is many places: a picturesque Mexican village where death is a tourist attraction; a city beneath the city where drowned lovers are silently reunited; a carnival midway where a tiny man's most cherished fantasy can be fulfilled night after night. The October Country's inhabitants live, dream, work, die—and sometimes live again—discovering, often too late, the high price of citizenship.

Here a glass jar can hold memories and nightmares; a woman's newborn child can plot murder; and a man's skeleton can war against him. Here there is no escaping the dark stranger who lives upstairs...or the reaper who wields the world. Each of these stories is a wonder, imagined by an acclaimed tale-teller writing from a place of shadows. But there is astonishing beauty in these shadows, born from a prose that enchants and enthralls.

Going After Cacciato captures the peculiar mixture of horror and hallucination that marked the Vietnam War. In a blend of reality and fantasy, this novel tells the story of a young soldier who one day lays down his rifle and sets off on a quixotic journey from the jungles of Indochina to the streets of Paris. Ultimately it's about the forces of fear and heroism that do battle in the hearts of us all.

The Satyricon is the most celebrated work of fiction to have survived from the ancient world. It is often described as the first realistic novel and the father of the picaresque genre.

The narrative follows a pair of literature scholars as they wander through the cities of the southern Mediterranean. Along their journey, they encounter a series of vivid characters: a teacher in higher education, a libidinous priest, a vulgar freedman turned millionaire, a manic poet, a superstitious sea-captain, and a femme fatale. Each character is wickedly satirized, offering a vibrant depiction of Roman society's underbelly.

Petronius masterfully blends humor and critique, crafting a story that is both entertaining and insightful. This new translation by P.G. Walsh captures the original's gaiety, accompanied by an introduction and notes that illuminate the text's rich literary in-jokes and allusions.

"She was a brazen hussy.""She wasn't. And she was pretty, wasn't she?""I didn't look ... And tell your girls, my son, that when they're running after you, they're not to come and ask your mother for you - tell them that - brazen baggages you meet at dancing classes"

The marriage of Gertrude and Walter Morel has become a battleground. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes violent husband, delicate Gertrude devotes her life to her children, especially to her sons, William and Paul - determined they will not follow their father into working down the coal mines. But conflict is evitable when Paul seeks to escape his mother's suffocating grasp through relationships with women his own age. Set in Lawrence's native Nottinghamshire, Sons and Lovers is a highly autobiographical and compelling portrayal of childhood, adolescence and the clash of generations.

To Have and Have Not is the dramatic, brutal story of Harry Morgan, an honest boat owner who is forced into running contraband between Cuba and Key West as a means of keeping his crumbling family financially afloat. His adventures lead him into the world of the wealthy and dissipated yachtsmen who swarm the region, and involve him in a strange and unlikely love affair.

In this harshly realistic, yet oddly tender and wise novel, Hemingway perceptively delineates the personal struggles of both the "haves" and the "have nots" and creates one of the most subtle and moving portraits of a love affair in his oeuvre. In turn funny and tragic, lively and poetic, remarkable in its emotional impact, To Have and Have Not takes literary high adventure to a new level. As the Times Literary Supplement observed, "Hemingway's gift for dialogue, for effective understatement, and for communicating such emotions the tough allow themselves, has never been more conspicuous."

Jorge Luis Borges has been called the greatest Spanish-language writer of our century. Now for the first time in English, all of Borges' dazzling fictions are gathered into a single volume, brilliantly translated by Andrew Hurley. From his 1935 debut with The Universal History of Iniquity, through his immensely influential collections Ficciones and The Aleph, these enigmatic, elaborate, imaginative inventions display Borges' talent for turning fiction on its head by playing with form and genre and toying with language. Together these incomparable works comprise the perfect one-volume compendium for all those who have long loved Borges, and a superb introduction to the master's work for those who have yet to discover this singular genius.

The Tripods Boxed Set of 4 presents a captivating series of novels that tell the story of how the Tripods came to rule the Earth. It follows a small group of boys who bravely work to retain their autonomy and win freedom for Earth's people.

This thrilling adventure series combines elements of science fiction and dystopian themes, capturing the reader's imagination as they explore the dynamics of power, freedom, and resistance.

When Pushkin first read some of the stories in this collection, he declared himself amazed. "Here is real gaiety," he wrote, "honest, unconstrained, without mincing, without primness. And in places what poetry! . . . I still haven't recovered."

More than a century and a half later, Nikolai Gogol's stories continue to delight readers the world over. Now a stunning new translation presents these stories in all their inventive, exuberant glory to English-speaking readers.

For the first time, the best of Gogol's short fiction is brought together in a single volume: from the colorful Ukrainian tales that led some critics to call him "the Russian Dickens" to the Petersburg stories, with their black humor and wonderfully demented attitude toward the powers that be.

All of Gogol's most memorable creations are here: the minor official who misplaces his nose, the downtrodden clerk whose life is changed by the acquisition of a splendid new overcoat, the wily madman who becomes convinced that a dog can tell him everything he needs to know.

These fantastic, comic, utterly Russian characters have dazzled generations of readers and had a profound influence on writers such as Dostoevsky and Nabokov. Now they are brilliantly rendered in the first new translation in twenty-five years—one that is destined to become the definitive edition of Gogol's most important stories.

No play in the modern theatre has so captured the imagination and heart of the American public as Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. As Williams's first popular success, it launched the brilliant, if somewhat controversial, career of our pre-eminent lyric playwright. Since its premiere in Chicago in 1944, with the legendary Laurette Taylor in the role of Amanda, Menagerie has been the bravura piece for great actresses from Jessica Tandy to Joanne Woodward, and is studied and performed in classrooms and theatres around the world. The Glass Menagerie (in the reading text the author preferred) is now available only in its New Directions Paperbook edition. A new introduction by the editor of The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, Robert Bray, reappraises the play more than half a century after it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

This edition of The Glass Menagerie also includes Williams's essay on the impact of sudden fame on a struggling writer, The Catastrophe of Success, as well as a short section of Williams's own Production Notes.

Vita Nuova (1292-94) is regarded as one of Dante's most profound creations. The thirty-one poems in the first of his major writings are linked by a lyrical prose narrative celebrating and debating the subject of love.

Composed upon Dante's meeting with Beatrice and the "Lord of Love," it is a love story set to the task of confirming the "new life" inspired by this meeting.

With a critical introduction and explanatory notes, this is a new translation of a supreme work which has been read variously as biography, religious allegory, and a meditation on poetry itself.

Breakfast of Champions is a story featuring one of Kurt Vonnegut's most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout. Trout discovers, much to his dismay, that a Midwest car dealer has taken his fiction for reality. What ensues is a satirical romp that deftly critiques American society.

Vonnegut takes aim at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and environmental pollution, challenging the reader to see past the absurdity and recognize the underlying truths.

Featuring his world-famous masterpiece, Death in Venice, this collection of Nobel laureate Thomas Mann's stories and novellas reveals his artistic evolution. In a widely acclaimed translation that restores the controversial passages that were censored from the original English version, Death in Venice tells about a ruinous quest for love and beauty amid degenerating splendor. Gustav von Aschenbach, a successful but lonely author, travels to the Queen of the Adriatic in search of an elusive spiritual fulfillment that turns into his erotic doom. Spellbound by a beautiful Polish boy, he finds himself fettered to this hypnotic city of sun-drenched sensuality and eerie physical decay as it gradually succumbs to a secret epidemic.

Also included in this volume are eleven other stories by Mann: Tonio Kroger, Gladius Dei, The Blood of the Walsungs, The Will for Happiness, Little Herr Friedmann, Tobias Mindernickel, Little Lizzy, Tristan, The Starvelings, The Wunderkind, and Harsh Hour. All of the stories collected here display Mann's inimitable use of irony, his subtle characterizations, and superb, complex plots.

Boethius was an eminent public figure under the Gothic emperor Theodoric, and an exceptional Greek scholar. When he became involved in a conspiracy and was imprisoned in Pavia, it was to the Greek philosophers that he turned. The Consolation of Philosophy was written in the period leading up to his brutal execution. It is a dialogue of alternating prose and verse between the ailing prisoner and his 'nurse' Philosophy.

Her instruction on the nature of fortune and happiness, good and evil, fate and free will, restore his health and bring him to enlightenment. The Consolation of Philosophy was extremely popular throughout medieval Europe and his ideas were influential on the thought of Chaucer and Dante.

Who is going to marry Eugénie Grandet? This is the question that fills the minds of the inhabitants of Saumur, the setting for Eugénie Grandet (1833), one of the earliest and most famous novels in Balzac's Comédie Humaine.

The Grandet household, oppressed by the exacting miserliness of Grandet himself, is jerked violently out of routine by the sudden arrival of Eugénie's cousin Charles, recently orphaned and penniless. Eugénie's emotional awakening, stimulated by her love for her cousin, brings her into direct conflict with her father, whose cunning and financial success are matched against her determination to rebel.

Eugénie's moving story is set against the backdrop of provincial oppression, the vicissitudes of the wine trade, and the workings of the financial system in the aftermath of the French Revolution. It is both a poignant portrayal of private life and a vigorous fictional document of its age.

Euripides' classic drama delves into the often mortifying consequences of the unbridled—and frequently hysterical—celebration of the feast of Dionysus, the God of wine.

This powerful narrative explores themes of divine retribution and the clash between order and chaos, as Dionysus exacts revenge on Pentheus, the King of Thebes, and his people.

A Roman soldier, Marcellus, wins Christ's robe as a gambling prize. He then sets forth on a quest to find the truth about the Nazarene's robe—a quest that reaches to the very roots and heart of Christianity and is set against the vividly limned background of ancient Rome. Here is a timeless story of adventure, faith, and romance, a tale of spiritual longing and ultimate redemption.

The Instruction Manual, the first chapter, is an absurd assortment of tasks and items dissected in an instruction-manual format.

Unusual Occupations, the second chapter, describes the obsessions and predilections of the narrator's family, including the lodging of a tiger—just one tiger—for the sole purpose of seeing the mechanism at work in all its complexity.

Finally, the Cronopios and Famas section delightfully characterizes, in the words of Carlos Fuentes, "those enemies of pomposity, academic rigor mortis and cardboard celebrity—a band of literary Marx Brothers."

Nelson Algren's most powerful and enduring work, The Man with the Golden Arm, offers a devastating portrait of the savage, subterranean world of gamblers, junkies, alcoholics, prostitutes, thieves, and degenerates. It remains unsurpassed as an authentic depiction of human depravity.

Only a master like Algren could create such a passionate and dramatic novel on the daring theme of a man's struggle against dope addiction. The novel tells the story of Frankie Machine, a card-dealing WWII veteran, who is caught in the act of slowly cutting his own heart into wafer-thin slices. For Frankie, a murder committed may be the least of his problems.

The literary critic Malcolm Cowley called it "Algren's defense of the individual," while Carl Sandburg wrote of its "strange midnight dignity." This literary tour de force suggests a defense of human dignity and a reason for hope, despite the challenges of drug addiction, poverty, and human failure.

Set amid the splendor of London drawing rooms and gilded Venetian palazzos, The Wings of the Dove is the story of Milly Theale, a naïve, doomed American heiress, and a pair of lovers, Kate Croy and Merton Densher, who conspire to obtain her fortune. In this witty tragedy of treachery, self-deception, and betrayal, Henry James weaves together three ill-fated and wholly human destinies unexpectedly linked by desire, greed, and salvation.

As Amy Bloom writes in her Introduction, “The Wings of the Dove is a novel of intimacy. . . . [James] gives us passion, he gives us love in its terrible and enchanting forms.”

Elective Affinities was written when Goethe was sixty and long established as Germany's literary giant. This is a new edition of his penetrating study of marriage and passion, bringing together four people in an inexorable manner.

The novel asks whether we have free will or not and confronts its characters with the monstrous consequences of repressing what little "real life" they have in themselves, a life so far removed from their natural states that it appears to them as something terrible and destructive.