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.

Praise of Folly, the most popular and lively of all Erasmus's satirical works, is a cheerful pamphlet against what he perceived as the ills of humanity: superstition, fanaticism, ignorance, the violence of the world and power, and false and grotesque science.

Written at the beginning of the 16th century, it delivers a fatal blow to old ideas and concepts, in a world shaken by the winds of the Renaissance.

Praise of Folly starts with a satirical aspect and then takes on a darker tone, in a series of orations. Since folly appreciates self-deprecation, it proceeds to a satirical appreciation of the superstitious abuses of Catholic doctrine and the alleged corrupt practices of the Roman Catholic Church.

The essay concludes with a clear and sometimes moving testament to Christian ideals.

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.

Miles from anywhere, Darracott Place is presided over by the irascible Lord Darracott. The recent drowning of his eldest son has done nothing to improve his temper. For now, he must send for the unknown offspring of the uncle whom the family is never permitted to mention.

The new heir is Major Hugo Darracott, “that damned weaver's brat” from the Yorkshire wilderness. The family members are ordered to lick Hugo into shape for his new status. However, Hugo is actually very, very rich and was raised to be a credit to both sides of his family. But his sense of humor makes it impossible to resist playing the ill-bred yokel of the Darracotts' worst fears.

Making the best of a bad situation, Anthea Darracott was civil to her newly-met cousin Hugh--but barely. For Anthea, reduced to accepting the charity of Lord Darracott, had been ordered to marry Hugh, new heir to the Darracott fortune. Lord Darracott's plan seemed perfect--to him: Hugh, the offspring of his son and a common weaver's daughter, might bring an unsuitable wife into the family. To prevent this disaster, Hugh must marry the impoverished, 22-year-old spinster Anthea. Knowing this, the two young people detested one another on sight.

But even she doesn't guess what he's capable of, until a family crisis arises and only Hugo can preserve the family's honor, leading everybody on a merry chase in the process.

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.

Exercises in Style presents a simple plot: a man engages in an argument with another passenger on a bus. However, this anecdote is retold ninety-nine times, each in a radically different style. Imagine it as a sonnet, an opera, in slang, and in many more permutations. This virtuoso set of variations acts as a linguistic rust-remover and a guide to literary forms.

Gone with the Wind is the tale of Scarlett O'Hara, the beautiful, spoiled daughter of a well-to-do Georgia plantation owner, who must use every means at her disposal to claw her way out of the poverty she finds herself in after Sherman's March to the Sea. The story is set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Civil War and Reconstruction periods.

Scarlett is determined to salvage her plantation home despite the genteel life she has been accustomed to being swept away by the war. Her journey of survival is marked by her tumultuous relationship with the charming and daring Captain Butler, whom she initially dislikes due to his arrogance. However, their fates become intertwined as they navigate the challenges of their time.

Margaret Mitchell's monumental epic of the South not only won a Pulitzer Prize but also inspired one of the most popular motion pictures of our time. This beloved American saga remains a revered literary work and continues to captivate readers worldwide.

Green Mansions tells the story of a failed revolutionary attempt that drives the hero of Hudson's novel to seek refuge in the primeval forests of south-western Venezuela. There, in the 'green mansions' of the title, Abel encounters the wood-nymph Rima, the last survivor of a mysterious aboriginal race. The love that flowers between them is soon overshadowed by cruelty and sorrow.

One of the acknowledged masters of natural history writing, W. H. Hudson forms an important link between nineteenth-century Romanticism and the twentieth-century ecological movement. First published in 1904 and a bestseller after its reissue a dozen years later, Green Mansions offers its readers a poignant meditation on the loss of wilderness, the dream of a return to nature, and the bitter reality of the encounter between savage and civilized man.

The Journey to the East by Hermann Hesse is a mesmerizing tale of a journey that is both geographic and spiritual. The story is narrated by H.H., a German choirmaster, who joins an expedition with the League, a secret society that includes notable figures like Paul Klee, Mozart, and Albertus Magnus.

The participants traverse both space and time, encountering Noah's Ark in Zurich and Don Quixote at Bremgarten. Their ultimate destination is the East, the "Home of the Light," where they hope to find spiritual renewal. However, the initial harmony begins to unravel into conflict. Each traveler finds the group intolerable and ventures off alone, with H.H. blaming others for the journey's failure.

Only long after the trip, while examining records in the League archives, does H.H. uncover his own role in the group's dissolution and the ominous significance of the journey itself.

Double Indemnity presents a gripping tale that delves deep into the human psyche, exploring themes of guilt, duplicity, and the destructive nature of obsessive, loveless love. James M. Cain, a master of the roman noir, crafts a story that is both tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful.

The narrative follows Walter Huff, an insurance salesman with an uncanny instinct for detecting potential trouble. His path crosses with Phyllis Nirdlinger, a woman with a dangerous plan. Phyllis desires to purchase an accident policy for her husband—with the ultimate aim of orchestrating his "accident." Caught in a web of attraction, Walter is drawn into Phyllis's scheme, willing to betray everything he stands for, to be with her. Together, they embark on a journey to commit the perfect murder, only to find themselves ensnared in a trap of their own making.

Few readers need any introduction to the work of the most influential poet of the twentieth century. In addition to the title poem, this selection includes "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", "Gerontion", "Ash Wednesday", and other poems from Mr. Eliot's early and middle work.

"In ten years' time," wrote Edmund Wilson in Axel0s Castle (1931), "Eliot has left upon English poetry a mark more unmistakable than that of any other poet writing in English." In 1948 Mr. Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work as trail-blazing pioneer of modern poetry.

Bleak House opens in the twilight of foggy London, where fog grips the city most densely in the Court of Chancery. The obscure case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in which an inheritance is gradually devoured by legal costs, the romance of Esther Summerson and the secrets of her origin, the sleuthing of Detective Inspector Bucket and the fate of Jo the crossing-sweeper, these are some of the lives Dickens invokes to portray London society, rich and poor, as no other novelist has done.

Bleak House, in its atmosphere, symbolism and magnificent bleak comedy, is often regarded as the best of Dickens. A 'great Victorian novel', it is so inventive in its competing plots and styles that it eludes interpretation.

The reference to the Antichrist is not intended to refer to the biblical Antichrist but is rather an attack on the "slave morality" and apathy of Western Christianity. Nietzsche's basic claim is that Christianity is a poisoner of western culture and perversion of the words of and practice of Jesus. Throughout the text, Nietzsche is very critical of institutionalized religion and its priest class, from which he himself was descended.

The majority of the book is a systematic attack upon the interpretations of Christ's words by St. Paul and those who followed him. Nietzsche claimed in the Foreword to have written the book for a very limited readership. In order to understand the book, he asserted that the reader "... must be honest in intellectual matters to the point of hardness to so much as endure my seriousness, my passion." The reader should be above politics and nationalism. Also, the usefulness or harmfulness of truth should not be a concern. Characteristics such as "Strength which prefers questions for which no one today is sufficiently daring; courage for the forbidden" are also needed. He disdained all other readers.

Merry Christmas! ...every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding.

Dickens' story of solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by a series of ghostly visitors, has proved one of his most well-loved works. Since its publication in 1843, it has had an enduring influence on the way we think about the traditions of Christmas.

Dickens' other Christmas writings collected here include:

• The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton, the short story from The Pickwick Papers on which A Christmas Carol was based;
• The Haunted Man, a tale of a man tormented by painful memories;
• along with shorter pieces, some drawn from the 'Christmas Stories' that Dickens wrote annually for his weekly journals.

In all of them, Dickens celebrates the season as one of geniality, charity, and remembrance.

Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil is translated from the German by R.J. Hollingdale with an introduction by Michael Tanner in Penguin Classics. Beyond Good and Evil confirmed Nietzsche's position as the towering European philosopher of his age. The work dramatically rejects the tradition of Western thought with its notions of truth and God, good and evil. Nietzsche demonstrates that the Christian world is steeped in a false piety and infected with a 'slave morality'. With wit and energy, he turns from this critique to a philosophy that celebrates the present and demands that the individual imposes their own 'will to power' upon the world.

This edition includes a commentary on the text by the translator and Michael Tanner's introduction, which explains some of the more abstract passages in Beyond Good and Evil.

Frederich Nietzsche (1844-1900) became the chair of classical philology at Basel University at the age of 24 until his bad health forced him to retire in 1879. He divorced himself from society until his final collapse in 1899 when he became insane. A powerfully original thinker, Nietzsche's influence on subsequent writers, such as George Bernard Shaw, D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann and Jean-Paul Sartre, was considerable.

If you enjoyed Beyond Good and Evil you might like Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, also available in Penguin Classics.

Written initially to guide his son, Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography is a lively, spellbinding account of his unique and eventful life, now a classic of world literature that is sure to inspire and delight readers everywhere. Few men could compare to Benjamin Franklin. Virtually self-taught, he excelled as an athlete, a man of letters, a printer, a scientist, a wit, an inventor, an editor, and a writer, and he was probably the most successful diplomat in American history. David Hume hailed him as the first great philosopher and great man of letters in the New World.

The World of Winnie-the-Pooh invites you into the enchanting Thousand Acre Wood, home to the whimsical philosopher Winnie-the-Pooh and his delightful friends: Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga, and Christopher Robin. Despite calling himself a Bear of Very Little Brain, Pooh is wise and loving, always ready for an adventure and, of course, some honey.

This beautifully illustrated book, with delicate paintings that have charmed generations, perfectly captures the essence of childhood wonder and friendship. Join Pooh and his friends in a world where imagination knows no bounds.

Considered the most important work of modern Iranian literature, The Blind Owl is a haunting tale of loss and spiritual degradation. Replete with potent symbolism and terrifying surrealistic imagery, Sadegh Hedayat's masterpiece details a young man's despair after losing a mysterious lover. And as the author gradually drifts into frenzy and madness, the reader becomes caught in the sandstorm of Hedayat's bleak vision of the human condition.

The Blind Owl, which has been translated into many foreign languages, has often been compared to the writing of Edgar Allan Poe.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.

This cult classic of gonzo journalism is not just about reckless behavior; beneath the hallucinogenic facade is a stinging criticism of American greed and consumerism. The narrative follows Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo as they embark on a surreal quest that blurs the line between reality and fantasy, fueled by nearly every drug imaginable in search of the elusive American dream.

Also a major motion picture directed by Terry Gilliam, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro, this 50th Anniversary Edition celebrates the enduring legacy of Hunter S. Thompson's work.

First published in 1960, The Violent Bear It Away is now a landmark in American literature. It is a dark and absorbing example of the Gothic sensibility and bracing satirical voice that are united in Flannery O'Connor's work.

In it, the orphaned Francis Marion Tarwater and his cousins, the schoolteacher Rayber, defy the prophecy of their dead uncle—that Tarwater will become a prophet and will baptize Rayber's young son, Bishop.

A series of struggles ensues: Tarwater fights an internal battle against his innate faith and the voices calling him to be a prophet while Rayber tries to draw Tarwater into a more "reasonable" modern world. Both wrestle with the legacy of their dead relatives and lay claim to Bishop's soul.

O'Connor observes all this with an astonishing combination of irony and compassion, humor and pathos, resulting in a novel where range and depth reveal a brilliant and innovative writer acutely alert to where the sacred lives and to where it does not.

The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man is a short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky written in 1877. It begins with a man walking the streets of St. Petersburg while musing upon how ridiculous his life is, as well as its distinct lack of meaning or purpose. This train of thought leads him to the idea of suicide, which he resolves to commit using a previously-acquired gun. However, a chance encounter with a distressed little girl in the street derails his drastic plans.

The Moonstone is a page-turner, writes Carolyn Heilbrun. It catches one up and unfolds its amazing story through the recountings of its several narrators, all of them enticing and singular. Wilkie Collins’s spellbinding tale of romance, theft, and murder inspired a hugely popular genre–the detective mystery. Hinging on the theft of an enormous diamond originally stolen from an Indian shrine, this riveting novel features the innovative Sergeant Cuff, the hilarious house steward Gabriel Betteridge, a lovesick housemaid, and a mysterious band of Indian jugglers.

This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the definitive 1871 edition.

Swallows and Amazons is the first title in Arthur Ransome's classic series, originally published in 1930. It's a book for children, for grownups, for anyone captivated by the world of adventure and imagination.

Swallows and Amazons introduces the lovable Walker family, the camp on Wild Cat Island, the able-bodied catboat Swallow, and the two intrepid Amazons, Nancy and Peggy Blackett. Join them as they embark on a summer filled with unforgettable discoveries and incredible adventures, setting sail on the open waters and exploring the enchanting landscapes of the English countryside.

The Sign of Four, the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes, was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and first published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in February 1890. Set in 1888, the novel presents a flashback of characters working for the East India Company and the Indian Rebellion of 1857, involving a treasure heist, four convicts, and corrupt prison guards.

It is in this narrative that Doyle first delves into Holmes's drug addiction, providing a more human aspect to his character than seen in the preceding novel, A Study in Scarlet. This story also introduces Dr. Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan, who brings a perplexing mystery to Holmes—a mystery that he eagerly embraces as a stimulating challenge.

Mary Morstan seeks Holmes's help to solve the enigma surrounding her father, Captain Arthur Morstan, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances ten years prior upon returning to London from India, where he and his friend Thaddeus Sholto had discovered a vast treasure.

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin is a profound narrative set in a future where Terrans have established a logging colony and military base named 'New Tahiti' on a planet inhabited by the Athsheans—a species with a culture deeply intertwined with lucid dreaming.

Terran exploitation clashes with the Athsheans' way of life, leading to a spiraling overturn of the ancient society. Interstellar travel has become commonplace amongst humans, and the novel introduces the ansible—a device enabling instantaneous communication across light years—and the formation of the League of All Worlds.

The peaceful Athsheans call their world 'Athshe,' meaning 'forest,' a stark contrast to the Terrans' 'dirt.' The Terran colonists' approach to colonization mirrors the destructive patterns of the 19th century, including deforestation, farming, mining, and enslavement. Without a cultural understanding of tyranny, slavery, or war, the Athsheans initially offer no resistance—until a single act of violence ignites a rebellion that forever alters the inhabitants of both worlds.

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (Persian: رباعیات عمر خیام‎) is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and numbering about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), a Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer. A ruba'i is a two-line stanza with two parts (or hemistichs) per line, hence the word rubáiyát (derived from the Arabic language root for "four"), meaning "quatrains".

Omar Khayyám was an eleventh-century Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer. Renowned in his own time for his scientific achievements, his fame was reborn in the nineteenth century when Edward Fitzgerald published a translation of his rubáiyát (quatrains in a style popular among Persian intellectuals of his day). Fitzgerald's first translation was first published anonymously in 1859. (His revised editions were published in 1868, 1872, and 1879). FitzGerald's translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is perhaps the most frequently read Victorian poem of all time.

First published in Paris in 1955 and originally banned in America, J. P. Donleavy's first novel is now recognized the world over as a masterpiece and a modern classic of the highest order.

Set in Ireland just after World War II, The Ginger Man is J. P. Donleavy's wildly funny, picaresque classic novel of the misadventures of Sebastian Dangerfield, a young American ne'er-do-well studying at Trinity College in Dublin.

Dangerfield's appetite for women, liquor, and general roguishness is insatiable—and he satisfies it with endless charm.

La vida es sueño es la creación más lograda y de carácter más universal de Calderón. En síntesis, la plasmación barroca de la idea de la fugacidad de la vida con todos los aditamentos geniales de construcción, caracteres y estilo que el autor supo imprimirle. Con este pesimismo radical sobre el valor de la vida humana se interfiere el libre albedrío como afirmación personal de Segismundo —“¿y teniendo yo más vida / tengo menos libertad?”—. Estos dos principios combinados crean una riqueza enorme de sentidos, que en esta edición son desmenuzados críticamente por Ciriaco Morón Arroyo.

The poems in Sylvia Plath's Ariel, including many of her best-known such as 'Lady Lazarus', 'Daddy', 'Edge' and 'Paralytic', were all written between the publication in 1960 of Plath's first book, The Colossus, and her death in 1963. 'If the poems are despairing, vengeful and destructive, they are at the same time tender, open to things, and also unusually clever, sardonic, hardminded . . . They are works of great artistic purity and, despite all the nihilism, great generosity . . . the book is a major literary event.' A. Alvarez in the Observer

This beautifully designed edition forms part of a series with five other cherished poets, including Wendy Cope, Don Paterson, Philip Larkin, Simon Armitage and Alice Oswald.

Peter Blood, an Irish physician and former soldier, is happily settled in an English town in the 1680s when the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth catches him by accident. He saves a man's life, as a doctor must try to do, but the man is a rebel. The infamous Judge Jeffreys sentences him to ten years as an indentured slave in the Caribbean colonies.

Once there, his skills as a physician are recognized, and he meets and falls in love with the daughter of the man who owns his servitude. A Spanish ship attacks the town, and while the Spaniards celebrate their victory, he boldly steals their ship. He and his fellow convicts sail off to become the boldest and most fearless of pirates among the islands and on the Spanish Main.

But all the glory of his adventures cannot help him, for the woman he loves cannot love a "thief and pirate." Even when he destroys England's enemies, even at his most triumphant... but wait! Is that...?

The classic novel of adventure and romance, and one of Sabatini's best.