Paradise Lost by John Milton is a monumental epic poem in the English language. It chronicles the dramatic story of the Fall of Man, filled with rebellion, treachery, and the clash between innocence and corruption. The narrative unfolds across three distinct realms - heaven, hell, and earth - as Satan and his cohort of rebel angels conspire against God.

Central to this cosmic conflict are Adam and Eve, whose human frailties lead them to temptation, yet their story is ultimately one of enduring love. Paradise Lost is renowned for Milton's extensive knowledge and his ambitious undertaking of the epic form. For centuries, it has captivated audiences and left a lasting impact on Western culture.

The Divine Comedy describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide; his ascent of Mount Purgatory and encounter with his dead love, Beatrice; and finally, his arrival in Heaven. Examining questions of faith, desire and enlightenment, the poem is a brilliantly nuanced and moving allegory of human redemption.

Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265 and belonged to a noble but impoverished family. His life was divided by political duties and poetry, the most famous of which was inspired by his meeting with Bice Portinari, whom he called Beatrice, including La Vita Nuova and The Divine Comedy. He died in Ravenna in 1321.

The Last Day of a Condemned Man (1829) is a short novel by Victor Hugo. Having witnessed several executions by guillotine as a young man, Hugo devoted himself in his art and political life to opposing the death penalty in France. Praised by Dostoevsky as "absolutely the most real and truthful of everything that Hugo wrote," The Last Day of a Condemned Man is a powerful story from an author who defined nineteenth-century French literature.

If you knew when and where you would die, how would you spend your final moments? For Hugo’s unnamed narrator, such an existential question is made reality. Sentenced to death for an unspecified crime, he reflects on his life as its last seconds wane in the shadows of a cramped prison cell. Recording his emotional state, observations, and conversations with a priest and fellow prisoner, the condemned man forces us to not only recognize his humanity, but question our own.

With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Victor Hugo’s The Last Day of a Condemned Man is a classic work of French literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Conquest of Happiness is Bertrand Russell's recipe for good living. First published in 1930, it pre-dates the current obsession with self-help by decades.

Leading the reader step by step through the causes of unhappiness and the personal choices, compromises, and sacrifices that may lead to the final, affirmative conclusion of 'The Happy Man', this is popular philosophy, or even self-help, as it should be written.

Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan.

Fast, funny, often outrageous, the French philosopher's immortal narrative takes Candide around the world to discover that -- contrary to the teachings of his distinguished tutor Dr. Pangloss -- all is not always for the best. Alive with wit, brilliance, and graceful storytelling, Candide has become Voltaire's most celebrated work.

The Machine Stops is a science fiction short story by E. M. Forster. Initially published in The Oxford and Cambridge Review in November 1909, this story was later included in Forster's collection The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928.

This novella is particularly notable for its remarkable predictions of new technologies such as instant messaging and the internet.

Ranked among the classic novels of the English language and the inspiration for several unforgettable movies, this early work of H. G. Wells was greeted in 1896 by howls of protest from reviewers, who found it horrifying and blasphemous. They wanted to know more about the wondrous possibilities of science shown in his first book, The Time Machine, not its potential for misuse and terror. In The Island of Dr. Moreau, a shipwrecked gentleman named Edward Prendick, stranded on a Pacific island lorded over by the notorious Dr. Moreau, confronts dark secrets, strange creatures, and a reason to run for his life.

While this riveting tale was intended to be a commentary on evolution, divine creation, and the tension between human nature and culture, modern readers familiar with genetic engineering will marvel at Wells’s prediction of the ethical issues raised by producing “smarter” human beings or bringing back extinct species. These levels of interpretation add a richness to Prendick’s adventures on Dr. Moreau’s island of lost souls without distracting from what is still a rip-roaring good read.

The Kite Runner is an unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant. Set against the backdrop of a country in turmoil, this beautifully crafted novel explores themes such as the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption.

Discover the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies—in this sweeping story of family, love, and friendship. Told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is a powerful novel that has become a beloved classic.

Tarzan of the Apes is a novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first in a series of books about the title character Tarzan. It was first published in the pulp magazine All-Story Magazine in October, 1912. The character was so popular that Burroughs continued the series into the 1940s with two dozen sequels.

Raja Gidh (Urdu: راجه گدھ) by Bano Qudsia is one of the most widely read and acclaimed Urdu novels. Gidh is the Urdu word for a vulture, and Raja is a Hindi synonym for king. The name anticipates the kingdom of vultures. In fact, parallel to the main plot of the novel, an allegorical story of such a kingdom is narrated.

The metaphor of the vulture as an animal feeding mostly on the carcasses of dead animals is employed to portray the trespassing of ethical limits imposed by society or religion. Bano Qudsia has written this novel drawing on the religious concept of Haraam and Halaal.

Many readers interpret Raja Gidh as a sermon, in which Bano Qudsia puts forth her theory of hereditary transmission of Haraam genes. The plot supports her thesis, suggesting that the pursuance of Haraam—be it financial, moral, or emotional—results in the deterioration of a person's normality in some sense. This abnormality is transferred genetically to the next generation.

Apart from this implication, the novel explores many social, emotional, and psychological aspects. The nostalgic narration of the historical Government College Lahore and Lawrence Garden Lahore sheds light on the days of the seventies and eighties.

Bano Qudsia is among those Urdu writers who think ten times before writing a sentence. Yet she does not sacrifice the flow of the narrative anywhere in this novel. Her characters are not black and white, as some critics suggest. Every sensitive reader who has attended college or university in a Pakistani setting is bound to find similarities between themselves and one of the characters.

Plot: Seemin Shah, from an upper-middle-class family, falls in love with her handsome class fellow Aftab in the MA Sociology class at Government College Lahore. Seemin is a modern and attractive urban girl who attracts most of her male classmates, including the narrator (Abdul) Qayyum and the young liberal professor Suhail. Aftab belongs to a Kashmiri business family. Though he loves her, he cannot rise above his family values and succumbs to his parents' pressure to marry someone against his wishes and leaves for London to look after his family business. Thus, the long story of separation begins.

The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk's boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining novel of life--and mutiny--on a Navy warship in the Pacific theater, was immediately embraced, upon its original publication in 1951, as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple with the moral complexities and the human consequences of World War II. In the intervening half century, The Caine Mutiny has sold millions of copies throughout the world, and has achieved the status of a modern classic.

When the last honest citizen of Poisonville was murdered, the Continental Op stayed on to punish the guilty--even if that meant taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of Nobody's Boy (Sans Famille) by Hector Malot. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Brideshead Revisited is the most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, looking back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmain family, a world of privilege that is rapidly disappearing.

Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, and then by his doomed Catholic family, Charles is particularly captivated by his remote sister, Julia. Through his connections to the Marchmains, Charles experiences the heights of privilege, but he eventually comes to recognize the spiritual and social distance that separates him from them.

How is it that the law enforcer itself does not have to keep the law? How is it that the law permits the state to lawfully engage in actions which, if undertaken by individuals, would land them in jail? These are among the most intriguing issues in political and economic philosophy. More specifically, the problem of law that itself violates law is an insurmountable conundrum of all statist philosophies.

The problem has never been discussed so profoundly and passionately as in this essay by Frédéric Bastiat from 1850. The essay might have been written today. It applies in every way to our own time, which is precisely why so many people credit this one essay for showing them the light of liberty. Bastiat's essay here is timeless because it applies whenever and wherever the state assumes unto itself different rules and different laws from that by which it expects other people to live.

And so we have this legendary essay, written in a white heat against the leaders of 19th century France, the reading of which has shocked millions out of their toleration of despotism. This new edition from the Mises Institute revives a glorious translation that has been out of print for a hundred years, one that circulated in Britain in the generation that followed Bastiat's death. This newly available translation provides new insight into Bastiat's argument. It is a more sophisticated, more substantial, and more precise rendering than any in print.

The question that Bastiat deals with: how to tell when a law is unjust or when the law maker has become a source of law breaking? When the law becomes a means of plunder it has lost its character of genuine law. When the law enforcer is permitted to do with others' lives and property what would be illegal if the citizens did them, the law becomes perverted.

Bastiat doesn't avoid the difficult issues, such as why should we think that a democratic mandate can convert injustice to justice. He deals directly with the issue of the expanse of legislation: It is not true that the mission of the law is to regulate our consciences, our ideas, our will, our education, our sentiments, our exchanges, our gifts, our enjoyments. Its mission is to prevent the rights of one from interfering with those of another, in any one of these things. Law, because it has force for its necessary sanction, can only have the domain of force, which is justice.

More from Bastiat's The Law: Socialism, like the old policy from which it emanates, confounds Government and society. And so, every time we object to a thing being done by Government, it concludes that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of education by the State - then we are against education altogether. We object to a State religion - then we would have no religion at all. We object to an equality which is brought about by the State then we are against equality, etc., etc. They might as well accuse us of wishing men not to eat, because we object to the cultivation of corn by the State.

How is it that the strange idea of making the law produce what it does not contain - prosperity, in a positive sense, wealth, science, religion - should ever have gained ground in the political world? The modern politicians, particularly those of the Socialist school, found their different theories upon one common hypothesis; and surely a more strange, a more presumptuous notion, could never have entered a human brain. They divide mankind into two parts. Men in general, except one, form the first; the politician himself forms the second, which is by far the most important.

Two hundred years ago, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published the first volume of Children’s and Household Tales. Now, at a veritable fairy-tale moment—witness the popular television shows Grimm and Once Upon a Time and this year’s two movie adaptations of “Snow White”—Philip Pullman, one of the most popular authors of our time, makes us fall in love all over again with the immortal tales of the Brothers Grimm.

From much-loved stories like “Cinderella” and “Rumpelstiltskin”, “Rapunzel” and “Hansel and Gretel” to lesser-known treasures like “Briar-Rose”, “Thousandfurs”, and “The Girl with No Hands”, Pullman retells his fifty favorites, paying homage to the tales that inspired his unique creative vision—and that continue to cast their spell on the Western imagination.

Kafka's first and funniest novel, Amerika tells the story of the young immigrant Karl Rossmann who, after an embarrassing sexual misadventure, finds himself "packed off to America" by his parents. Expected to redeem himself in this magical land of opportunity, young Karl is swept up instead in a whirlwind of dizzying reversals, strange escapades, and picaresque adventures.

Although Kafka never visited America, images of its vast landscape, dangers, and opportunities inspired this saga of the "golden land." Here is a startlingly modern, fantastic and visionary tale of America "as a place no one has yet seen, in a historical period that can't be identified," writes E. L. Doctorow in his new foreword. "Kafka made his novel from his own mind's mythic elements," Doctorow explains, "and the research data that caught his eye were bent like rays in a field of gravity."

Here, meine Damen und Herren, is Christopher Isherwood's brilliant farewell to a city which was not only buildings, streets, and people, but was also a state of mind which will never come around again.

In linked short stories, he says goodbye to Sally Bowles, to Fraulein Schroeder, to pranksters, perverts, political manipulators; to the very, very guilty and to the dwindling band of innocents.

It is goodbye to a Berlin wild, wicked, breathtaking, decadent beyond belief and already - in the years between the wars - welcoming death in through the door, though more with a wink than a whimper.

J.R.R. Tolkien's 4-Book Boxed Set: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is a collection that brings together the essential works of Tolkien's high-fantasy universe. Included in this set are The Hobbit and the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings, which are The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.

In The Hobbit, we follow Bilbo Baggins as he is swept away from a quiet life by the wizard Gandalf and a group of dwarves. Their journey leads them to confront Smaug the Magnificent, a formidable dragon guarding a vast treasure hoard.

The Lord of the Rings chronicles the epic quest of Frodo Baggins and the Fellowship of the Ring, which includes Gandalf the wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the dwarf; Legolas the elf; Boromir of Gondor; and the enigmatic Strider. Their mission is fraught with danger and high adventure, set against the backdrop of the magical landscape of Middle-earth.

Twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does he begin to understand the dark secrets behind this fragile community.

Ged, the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, was called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth. Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.

With stories as perennial and universally beloved as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of The Rings—but also unlike anything but themselves—Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea novels are some of the most acclaimed and awarded works in literature.

Join the millions of fantasy readers who have explored these lands. As The Guardian put it, "Ursula Le Guin's world of Earthsea is a tangled skein of tiny islands cast on a vast sea. The islands' names pull at my heart like no others: Roke, Perilane, Osskil..."

"Listen, Bond," said Tiffany Case. "It’d take more than Crabmeat Ravigotte to get me into bed with a man. In any event, since it’s your check, I’m going to have caviar, and what the English call 'cutlets,' and some pink champagne. I don’t often date a good-looking Englishman and the dinner’s going to live up to the occasion."

Meet Tiffany Case, a cold, gorgeous, devil-may-care blonde; the kind of girl you could get into a lot of trouble with—if you wanted. She stands between James Bond and the leaders of a diamond-smuggling ring that stretches from Africa via London to the States. Bond uses her to infiltrate this gang, but once in America, the hunter becomes the hunted. Bond is in real danger until help comes from an unlikely quarter, the ice-maiden herself…

A thirst for blood, nocturnal debauchery, hypnotic trances ... this is Dracula. Jonathan Harker is travelling to Castle Dracula to see the Transylvanian noble, Count Dracula. He is begged by locals not to go there, because on the eve of St. George's Day, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will come full sway. But business must be done, so Jonathan makes his way to the Castle - and then his nightmare begins. His beloved wife Meena and other lost souls have fallen under the Count's horrifying spell. Dracula must be destroyed.

Dubliners is a collection of vignettes of Dublin life at the end of the 19th Century, written by Joyce in a manner that captures some of the unhappiest moments of life. The dominant themes include lost innocence, missed opportunities, and an inability to escape one’s circumstances.

Joyce’s intention in writing Dubliners was to write a chapter of the moral history of his country, choosing Dublin as the scene because it seemed to him to be the centre of paralysis. He presented the stories under four different aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life, with each section reflecting different stages of life in Ireland.

‘The Sisters’, ‘An Encounter’, and ‘Araby’ are stories from childhood; ‘Eveline’, ‘After the Race’, ‘Two Gallants’, and ‘The Boarding House’ from adolescence; ‘A Little Cloud’, ‘Counterparts’, ‘Clay’, and ‘A Painful Case’ focus on mature life; and stories from public life are ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’, ‘A Mother’, and ‘Grace’. ‘The Dead’ is the last story in the collection and is probably Joyce’s greatest, standing alone and concerned with death.

Dating to the ninth century B.C., Homer's timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves inexorably to the wrenching, tragic conclusion of the Trojan War.

Renowned classicist Bernard Knox observes in his superb introduction that although the violence of the Iliad is grim and relentless, it coexists with both images of civilized life and a poignant yearning for peace.

Combining the skills of a poet and scholar, Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, brings the energy of contemporary language to this enduring heroic epic. He maintains the drive and metric music of Homer's poetry, and evokes the impact and nuance of the Iliad's mesmerizing repeated phrases in what Peter Levi calls "an astonishing performance."

Is it a gesture of goodwill or a sinister trap that lures Rupert St. Vincent and his family to a magnificent estate?

How desperate is Joyce Lambert, a destitute young widow whose only recourse is to marry a man she despises?

What unexpected circumstance stirs old loyalties in Theodora Darrell, an unfaithful wife about to run away with her lover?

In this riveting collection of short stories, the answers are as unexpected as they are satisfying. The Queen of Mystery takes bizarre romantic entanglements, supernatural visitations, and classic murder to inventive new heights.

A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr. Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighboring squire—though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. When Tom is banished to make his own fortune and Sophia follows him to London to escape an arranged marriage, the adventure begins.

A vivid Hogarthian panorama of eighteenth-century life, spiced with danger and intrigue, bawdy exuberance and good-natured authorial interjections, Tom Jones is one of the greatest and most ambitious comic novels in English literature.

Guy de Maupassant's scandalous tale of an opportunistic young man corrupted by the allure of power, Bel-Ami is translated with an introduction by Douglas Parmee in Penguin Classics. Young, attractive and very ambitious, George Duroy, known to his admirers as Bel-Ami, is offered a job as a journalist on La Vie francaise and soon makes a great success of his new career. But he also comes face to face with the realities of the corrupt society in which he lives - the sleazy colleagues, the manipulative mistresses, and wily financiers - and swiftly learns to become an arch-seducer, blackmailer and social climber in a world where love is only a means to an end.

Written when Maupassant was at the height of his powers, Bel-Ami is a novel of great frankness and cynicism, but it is also infused with the sheer joy of life - depicting the scenes and characters of Paris in the belle epoque with wit, sensitivity, and humanity. Douglas Parmee's translation captures all the vigour and vitality of Maupassant's novel. His introduction explores the similarities between Bel-Ami and Maupassant himself and demonstrates the skill with which the author depicts his large cast of characters and the French society of the Third Republic.

William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar’s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a “proper” family estranges him from his parents; his career is stymied; his wife and daughter turn coldly away from him; a transforming experience of new love ends under threat of scandal. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude.

John Williams’s luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.

The Canterbury Tales is a timeless piece of literature, penned by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. This vibrant collection of stories is presented in the form of a storytelling contest by a group of pilgrims on their journey to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The tales, most of which are in verse with some in prose, showcase Chaucer's unparalleled wit and insight into the human condition.

Each character, from the noble Knight to the bawdy Wife of Bath, is drawn with vivid detail, bringing to life the social spectrum of Chaucer's time. The stories themselves range from romantic adventures to moral allegories, reflecting the rich diversity of medieval society. Chaucer's daring use of the English language, rather than the conventional Latin, marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of English literature.

Although The Canterbury Tales remains an unfinished masterpiece, with some tales left incomplete and others lacking final revision, its legacy endures. The work continues to captivate readers with its complex characters, intricate narratives, and biting social commentary.

The serene and maternal Mrs. Ramsay, the tragic yet absurd Mr. Ramsay, and their children and assorted guests are on holiday on the Isle of Skye. From the seemingly trivial postponement of a visit to a nearby lighthouse, Woolf constructs a remarkable, moving examination of the complex tensions and allegiances of family life and the conflict between men and women.

As time winds its way through their lives, the Ramsays face, alone and simultaneously, the greatest of human challenges and its greatest triumph—the human capacity for change.

Four outstanding works by the great 19th-century Russian author, Nikolai Gogol:

• The Nose - a savage satire of Russia's incompetent bureaucrats.
• Old-Fashioned Farmers - a pleasant depiction of an elderly couple living in rustic seclusion.
• The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich - one of Gogol's most famous comic stories.
• The Overcoat - widely considered a masterpiece of form.

L'Assommoir (1877), the seventh novel in the Les Rougon-Macquart cycle, is a poignant story of a woman's struggle for happiness in working-class Paris. At the heart of this narrative is Gervaise, who begins with the dream of a better life by starting her own laundry business, achieving success for a while. However, her husband's addiction to the local drinking spot, the Assommoir, leads them down a path of poverty and despair.

This novel not only became a contemporary bestseller but also sparked a fierce debate about the scope of modern literature. It outraged conservative critics with its unflinching portrayal of the harsh realities faced by the working poor, capturing both the brutality and the pathos of its characters' lives.

The Earthsea Quartet is a mesmerizing collection of stories that follows the journey of Ged, a young dragonlord known by his use-name Sparrowhawk. Initially a humble goatherd on the island of Gont, Ged discovers his innate powers over nature and sets off to the island of Roke to learn the true way of magic at the School of Wizards.

A natural magician, Ged's journey is filled with challenges and growth as he becomes an Archmage, helping the High Priestess Tenar escape from a labyrinth of darkness. Over the years, Ged witnesses the struggle between true magic and the encroaching powers of evil and death.

This collection includes the beloved titles: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, and Tehanu. Each tale is a testament to the enduring power of magic and the ancient ways, filled with epic adventures, heroic journeys, and legendary sagas.

Will Ged succumb to the forces of darkness, or will his courage and wisdom hold them at bay? Dive into this classic fantasy series and embark on an unforgettable journey through the mystical world of Earthsea.

The Virginian rides into the untamed West, a land where pioneers test their fortunes and their wills. The Wyoming territory is a harsh, unforgiving landscape, governed by an unwritten code of honor that dictates the lives and deaths of its men.

Into this rugged environment enters the Virginian, a solitary figure whose unbending will guides him through life. His beliefs in right and wrong face trials as he endeavors to prove his love to a woman who struggles to accept his sense of justice.

At the same time, a betrayal by his most trusted friend forces him to confront the corruption that plagues the land. This epic tale, still as exciting and meaningful as when it was first published over a century ago, exemplifies enduring themes in American literature.

With remarkable character depth and vivid passages, The Virginian stands not only as the first great novel of American Western literature but also as a testament to the eternal struggle between good and evil in humanity.

The revised edition of Feynman's legendary lectures includes extensive corrections and updates collated by Feynman and his colleagues.

A new foreword by Kip Thorne, the current Richard Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech, discusses the relevance of the new edition to today's readers.

This boxed set also includes Feynman's new Tips on Physics—the four previously unpublished lectures that Feynman gave to students preparing for exams at the end of his course. Thus, this 4-volume set is the complete and definitive edition of The Feynman Lectures on Physics.

Packaged in a specially designed slipcase, this 4-volume set provides the ultimate legacy of Feynman's extraordinary contribution to students, teachers, researchers, and lay readers around the world.

Cuentos de Amor de Locura y de Muerte is a collection of short stories by Horacio Quiroga that delves into the themes of illness, family tragedy, personal despair, geographical exile, and the often brutal nature of humanity. This anthology, selected by the author himself, showcases Quiroga's mastery of the short story form, often drawing comparisons to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, and Jack London.

The stories explore the humanization of animals, with rational thought guiding the narratives, yet ultimately succumbing to the brute force of man. Another prevalent theme is the dehumanization of individuals who surrender to their most primitive instincts, leading to conflict and the unfolding of various plots. The element of appearance also plays a significant role, as Quiroga invites readers to question their initial perceptions, culminating in the author's own revelations.

Henry Fleming has joined the Union army because of his romantic ideas of military life, but soon finds himself in the middle of a battle against a regiment of Confederate soldiers. Terrified, Henry deserts his comrades. Upon returning to his regiment, he struggles with his shame as he tries to redeem himself and prove his courage.

The Red Badge of Courage is Stephen Crane’s second book, notable for its realism and the fact that Crane had never personally experienced battle. Crane drew heavy inspiration from Century Magazine, a periodical known for its articles about the American Civil War. However, he criticized the articles for their lack of emotional depth and decided to write a war novel of his own. The manuscript was first serialized in December 1894 by The Philadelphia Press and quickly won Crane international acclaim before he died in June 1900 at the age of 28.

The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector's consummate final novel, may well be her masterpiece. Narrated by the cosmopolitan Rodrigo S.M., this brief, strange, and haunting tale is the story of Macabéa, one of life's unfortunates.

Living in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and eking out a poor living as a typist, Macabéa loves movies, Coca-Cola, and her rat of a boyfriend; she would like to be like Marilyn Monroe, but she is ugly, underfed, sickly, and unloved. Rodrigo recoils from her wretchedness, and yet he cannot avoid the realization that for all her outward misery, Macabéa is inwardly free. She doesn't seem to know how unhappy she should be.

Lispector employs her pathetic heroine against her urbane, empty narrator—edge of despair to edge of despair—and, working them like a pair of scissors, she cuts away the reader's preconceived notions about poverty, identity, love, and the art of fiction. In her last novel, she takes readers close to the true mystery of life, and leaves us deep in Lispector territory indeed.

For over 40 years, J. I. Packer's classic has been an important tool to help Christians around the world discover the wonder, the glory, and the joy of knowing God.

Stemming from Packer's profound theological knowledge, Knowing God brings together two important facets of the Christian faith:

1. Knowing about God
2. Knowing God through a close relationship with Jesus Christ

Written in an engaging and practical tone, this thought-provoking work seeks to transform and enrich the Christian understanding of God. Explaining both who God is and how we can relate to him, Packer divides his book into three sections:

• The first directs our attention to how and why we know God.
• The second explores the attributes of God.
• The third discusses the benefits enjoyed by those who know Him intimately.

This guide leads readers into a greater understanding of God while providing advice on gaining a closer relationship with Him as a result.

Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected.

With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work.

D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover explores the intense physical and emotional relationship between Constance Chatterley, an upper-class woman, and Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper of her husband's estate. Set against the backdrop of post-World War I England, this novel challenges the social norms of the time, particularly with regards to class, love, and sexuality.

The frank portrayal of the extramarital affair and the explicit sexual explorations of its central characters caused this controversial book to be banned as pornography until 1960. Now considered a masterpiece, Lady Chatterley's Lover is a bold exploration of human intimacy and the power of love to transcend societal constraints.

The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. The subject of major film and stage adaptations, the novel's prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game - a game which they must win.

This new translation gives Laclos a modern voice, and readers will be able to judge whether the novel is as "diabolical" and "infamous" as its critics have claimed, or whether it has much to tell us about the kind of world we ourselves live in. David Coward's introduction explodes myths about Laclos's own life and puts the book in its literary and cultural context.

Lord Edgware Dies is a classic mystery novel by the renowned author Agatha Christie, featuring the brilliant Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. When Lord Edgware is found murdered, the police are baffled. His estranged actress wife was seen visiting him just before his death, and Poirot himself heard her brag of her plan to “get rid” of him.

But how could she have stabbed Lord Edgware in his library at exactly the same time she was seen dining with friends? It’s a case that almost proves to be too much for the great Poirot, as he navigates through a web of deceit and alibis to uncover the true culprit.

Readers and audiences have long greeted As You Like It with delight. Its characters are brilliant conversationalists, including the princesses Rosalind and Celia and their Fool, Touchstone. Soon after Rosalind and Orlando meet and fall in love, the princesses and Touchstone go into exile in the Forest of Arden, where they find new conversational partners. Duke Frederick, younger brother to Duke Senior, has overthrown his brother and forced him to live homeless in the forest with his courtiers, including the cynical Jaques. Orlando, whose older brother Oliver plotted his death, has fled there, too.

Recent scholars have also grounded the play in the issues of its time. These include primogeniture, passing property from a father to his oldest son. As You Like It depicts intense conflict between brothers, exposing the human suffering that primogeniture entails. Another perspective concerns cross-dressing. Most of Orlando’s courtship of Rosalind takes place while Rosalind is disguised as a man, “Ganymede.” At her urging, Orlando pretends that Ganymede is his beloved Rosalind. But as the epilogue reveals, the sixteenth-century actor playing Rosalind was male, following the practice of the time. In other words, a boy played a girl playing a boy pretending to be a girl.

In Agatha Christie’s classic, A Pocket Full of Rye, the bizarre death of a financial tycoon has Miss Marple investigating a very odd case of crime by rhyme. Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his “counting house” when he suffered an agonizing and sudden death.

On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals. Yet, it was the incident in the parlor which confirmed Miss Marple’s suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme.

Luke Fitzwilliam, a retired colonial policeman, has returned to England and chances to converse on a train with a woman who reminds him of a favorite aunt. She informs him that she is reporting three murders to Scotland Yard and is hoping to prevent a fourth, that of a village doctor. Before she can do so, she is killed by a car, and a short time later the doctor she mentioned is killed. Fitzwilliam decides to investigate these five deaths.

It was just Luke Fitzwilliam's luck to be stuck next to a dotty old woman like Miss Fullerton on the London-bound train—although he found himself quite entertained with her tall tales about a series of perfect murders in the quaint village of Wychwood. But when he reads the next day of the freak accident that killed her, too, Fitzwilliam's amusement turns to grave concern. A visit to the isolated village confirms his worst fears. For Wychwood seems to be divided by an eccentric lot of locals: those who are in on a dark and dangerous secret—and those who don't live long enough to share it.

The Swiss Family Robinson, originally written to entertain his four young sons, Johann David Wyss based this classic adventure on Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719). Upon its initial publication in 1812, The Swiss Family Robinson was received with great enthusiasm not only as a first-rate adventure story but also as a practical guide to self-sufficiency.