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..."

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Far From the Madding Crowd was Thomas Hardy's first major literary success. Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, the soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy, and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole community.

One of his first works set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex, Hardy's novel of swift passion and slow courtship is imbued with his evocative descriptions of rural life and landscapes, and with unflinching honesty about sexual relationships. This edition, based on Hardy's original 1874 manuscript, is the complete novel he never saw published, and restores its full candor and innovation. Rosemarie Morgan's introduction discusses the history of its publication, as well as the biblical and classical allusions that permeate the novel.

El Arte de la Guerra, traducido por primera vez por un jesuita en 1772 con el título de Los Trece Capítulos, que lo dio a conocer en Europa, se convirtió rápidamente en un texto fundacional de estrategia militar para las distintas cortes y estados mayores europeos.

Pocas veces un libro antiguo (escrito entre los siglos VI y III a.C.) se ha mantenido tan moderno, porque esta filosofía de la guerra y la política basada en la astucia y el fingimiento, más que en la fuerza bruta, que describe, sigue siendo actual. Incluso fuera de lo "militar", Sun Tzu sigue siendo una gran referencia para descifrar la estrategia de empresa y la política. La formulación precisa y pictórica de Sun Tzu añade al interés del texto un toque de sabiduría milenaria.

Historias de cronopios y de famas es uno de los libros legendarios de Julio Cortázar. Postulación de una mirada poética capaz de enfrentar las miserias de la rutina y del sentido común, el escritor argentino toma aquí partido por la imaginación creadora y el humor corrosivo de los surrealistas. Esta colección de cuentos y viñetas entrañables es una introducción privilegiada al mundo inagotable de uno de los más grandes escritores de este siglo y un antídoto seguro contra la solemnidad y el aburrimiento.

Sin duda, Cortázar sella un pacto de complicidad definitiva e incondicional con sus lectores.

Andrew Harlan is an Eternal, a man whose job it is to range through past and present Centuries, monitoring and, where necessary, altering Time's myriad cause-and-effect relationships. But when Harlan meets and falls for a non-Eternal woman, he seeks to use the awesome powers and techniques of the Eternals to twist time for his own purposes, so that he and his love can survive together.

Thomas Pynchon's classic post-modern satire, which tells the wonderfully unusual story of Oedipa Maas, first published in 1965. When her ex-lover, wealthy real-estate tycoon Pierce Inverarity dies and designates her the co-executor of his estate, California housewife Oedipa Mass is thrust into a paranoid mystery of metaphors, symbols, and the United States Postal Service. Traveling across Southern California, she meets some extremely interesting characters, and attains a not-inconsiderable amount of self-knowledge.

First published in French as a serial in 1909, The Phantom of the Opera is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, which eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully.

All goes well until Christine's childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous 'ghost' of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears.

The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster. Gaston Leroux's work, with characters ranging from the spoiled prima donna Carlotta to the mysterious Persian from Erik's past, has been immortalized by memorable adaptations. Despite this, it remains a remarkable piece of Gothic horror literature in and of itself, deeper and darker than any version that follows.

The Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka, which was first published in 1915. It tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect and subsequently struggles to adjust to this new condition.

The novella has been widely discussed among literary critics, with differing interpretations being offered. The text was first published in the October issue of the journal Die weißen Blätter under the editorship of René Schickele. The first edition in book form appeared in December 1915 in the series Der jüngste Tag, edited by Kurt Wolff.

With a length of about 70 printed pages over three chapters, it is the longest of the stories Kafka considered complete and published during his lifetime. In popular culture and adaptations of the novella, the insect is commonly depicted as a cockroach.

A timeless American classic and one of the most beloved children’s books ever written, Old Yeller is a Newbery Honor Book that explores the poignant and unforgettable bond between a boy and the stray dog who becomes his loyal friend.

When his father sets out on a cattle drive toward Kansas for the summer, fourteen-year-old Travis Coates is left to take care of his family and their farm. Living in Texas Hill Country during the 1860s, Travis comes to face new, unanticipated, and often perilous responsibilities in the frontier wilderness. A particular nuisance is a stray yellow dog that shows up one day and steals food from the family. But the big canine who Travis calls “Old Yeller” proves his worth by defending the family from danger. And Travis ultimately finds help and comfort in the courage and unwavering love of the dog who comes to be his very best friend.

Fred Gipson’s novel is an eloquently simple story that is both exciting and deeply moving. It stands alongside works like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Where The Red Fern Grows, and Shiloh as a beloved and enduring classic of literature. Originally published in 1956 to instant acclaim, Old Yeller later inspired a hit film from Walt Disney. Just as Old Yeller inevitably makes his way into the Coates family’s hearts, this book will find its own special place in readers’ hearts.

Adam Deveril, the new Viscount Lynton, is madly in love with the beautiful Julia Oversley. But he has returned from the Peninsular War to find his family on the brink of ruin and his ancestral home mortgaged to the hilt. He has little choice when he is introduced to Mr. Jonathan Chawleigh, a City man of apparently unlimited wealth and no social ambitions for himself-but with his eyes firmly fixed on a suitable match for his only daughter, the quiet and decidedly plain Jenny Chawleigh.

Adam desperately needs money to keep his fatherless family together, and a marriage to Jenny would solve all his problems. And Jenny's father, a man of great wealth and ambition for his daughter, is only too happy to arrange a suitable match with a title for her. Adam chafes under Mr. Chawleigh's generosity, and Julia's jealous behavior upon hearing of the betrothal nearly brings them all into a scandal. But Adam didn't reckon with the Jenny nobody knew, or the unknown quality that lay hidden behind her demure and plain facade, who bring him comfort and eventually more....

When it was first published in 1917, Growth of the Soil was immediately recognized as a masterpiece. Ninety years later it remains a transporting literary experience. In the story of Isak, who leaves his village to clear a homestead and raise a family amid the untilled tracts of the Norwegian back country, Knut Hamsun evokes the elemental bond between humans and the land. Newly translated by the acclaimed Hamsun scholar Sverre Lyngstad, Hamsun's novel is a work of preternatural calm, stern beauty, and biblical power—and the crowning achievement of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience is an illustrated collection of poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases. A few first copies were printed and illuminated by William Blake himself in 1789; five years later he bound these poems with a set of new poems in a volume titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.

Dana, a modern Black woman, is celebrating her 26th birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him.

Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

Eugene Onegin is the master work of the poet whom Russians regard as the fountainhead of their literature. Set in 1820s Russia, Pushkin's novel in verse follows the fates of three men and three women. It was Pushkin's own favourite work, and this new translation conveys the literal sense and the poetic music of the original.

Engaging, full of suspense, and varied in tone, it contains a large cast of characters and offers the reader many literary, philosophical, and autobiographical digressions, often in a highly satirical vein. Eugene Onegin was Pushkin's own favourite work, and this new translation seeks to retain both the literal sense and the poetic music of the original, and capture the poem's spontaneity and wit.

Resurrection (1899) is the last of Tolstoy's major novels. It tells the story of a nobleman's attempt to redeem the suffering his youthful philandering inflicted on a peasant girl who ends up a prisoner in Siberia. Tolstoy's vision of redemption, achieved through loving forgiveness and his condemnation of violence, dominate the novel. An intimate, psychological tale of guilt, anger, and forgiveness, Resurrection is at the same time a panoramic description of social life in Russia at the end of the nineteenth century, reflecting its author's outrage at the social injustices of the world in which he lived.

This edition, which updates a classic translation, has explanatory notes, and a substantial introduction based on the most recent scholarship in the field.