Xanth was the enchanted land where magic ruled—where every citizen had a special spell only he could cast. It was a land of centaurs and dragons and basilisks. For Bink of North Village, however, Xanth was no fairy tale. He alone had no magic. And unless he got some—and got some fast!—he would be exiled. Forever.
But the Good Magician Humfrey was convinced that Bink did indeed have magic. In fact, both Beauregard the genie and the magic wall chart insisted that Bink had magic. Magic as powerful as any possessed by the King or by Good Magician Humfrey—or even by the Evil Magician Trent. Be that as it may, no one could fathom the nature of Bink’s very special magic. Bink was in despair. This was even worse than having no magic at all... and he would still be exiled!
The Mists of Avalon transports us to a vividly reimagined world of Arthurian legend, seen through the eyes of the women who wielded power from behind the throne. This spellbinding novel delves into the lives of these influential women, revealing a tale of passion, politics, and power.
As the great Arthurian epic unfolds, we witness the rise and fall of King Arthur, the valiant deeds of the Knights of the Round Table, and the enchantments of Merlin and Viviane. The women of Camelot, including Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar, navigate the intricate web of fate and ambition, each playing a pivotal role in the shaping of Arthur's kingdom.
The narrative weaves a tapestry of old and new religions, the conflict between differing worlds, and the ultimate destiny of the Isle of Avalon, as it fades into the mists of memory. This extraordinary literary achievement invites readers to explore the tumultuous and adventurous court of Camelot, as it has never been seen before.
Published in 1975, Ragtime changed our very concept of what a novel could be. An extraordinary tapestry, Ragtime captures the spirit of America in the era between the turn of the century and the First World War. The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, New York, at the home of an affluent American family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. And almost magically, the line between fantasy and historical fact, between real and imaginary characters, disappears. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud, and Emiliano Zapata slip in and out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow's imagined family and other fictional characters, including an immigrant peddler and a ragtime musician from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice drives him to revolutionary violence.
The Sea-Wolf is a 1904 psychological adventure novel by Jack London about a literary critic Humphrey van Weyden. The story starts with him aboard a San Francisco ferry, called Martinez, which collides with another ship in the fog and sinks. He is set adrift in the Bay, eventually being picked up by Wolf Larsen.
Larsen is the captain of a seal-hunting schooner, the Ghost. Brutal and cynical, yet also highly intelligent and intellectual, he rules over his ship and terrorizes the crew with the aid of his exceptionally great physical strength.
The Betrothed unfolds in the picturesque landscape of Lombardy during the tumultuous Spanish occupation of the late 1620s. This compelling historical novel portrays the enduring passion of two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia, whose dreams of marriage are thwarted by the petty tyrant, Don Rodrigo, who covets Lucia for himself.
Forced to flee, the lovers are cruelly separated and face numerous perils including plague, famine, and imprisonment. They encounter a variety of intriguing characters: the mysterious Nun of Monza, the fiery Father Cristoforo, and the sinister "Unnamed". Their journey is a vivid exploration of love, power, and faith against the backdrop of seventeenth-century Italian life.
The Betrothed is celebrated as one of the greatest European historical novels, offering a whirling panorama of society and a profound reflection on human resilience and hope amidst adversity.
This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered - not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives...
This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome... but so is war.
Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teacher's fierce intellect and sense of discipline. When Narcissus persuades the young student that he is not meant for a life of self-denial, Goldmund sets off in pursuit of aesthetic and physical pleasures, a path that leads him to a final, unexpected reunion with Narcissus.
David Brin's Uplift novels are among the most thrilling and extraordinary science fiction ever written. Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War together make up one of the most beloved sagas of all time. Brin's tales are set in a future universe in which no species can reach sentience without being "uplifted" by a patron race. But the greatest mystery of all remains unsolved: who uplifted humankind?
The Terran exploration vessel Streaker has crashed in the uncharted water world of Kithrup, bearing one of the most important discoveries in galactic history. Below, a handful of her human and dolphin crew battles armed rebellion and a hostile planet to safeguard her secret—the fate of the Progenitors, the fabled First Race who seeded wisdom throughout the stars.
The story centers on individual human and dolphin characters, highlighting themes of courage, determination, friendship, love, and betrayal, both for the humans and the dolphins.
Twice a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, author Barbara Tuchman tackles the pervasive presence of folly in governments throughout the ages. Defining folly as the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests, despite the availability of feasible alternatives, Tuchman details four decisive turning points in history that illustrate the very heights of folly in government:
The March of Folly brings the people, places, and events of history alive for today's reader, showcasing Tuchman's incomparable talent for animating history.
In the Oresteia—the only trilogy in Greek drama which survives from antiquity—Aeschylus took as his subject the bloody chain of murder and revenge within the royal family of Argos.
Moving from darkness to light, from rage to self-governance, from primitive ritual to civilized institution, their spirit of struggle and regeneration becomes an everlasting song of celebration.
Newly-orphaned Anne Beddingfeld is a nice English girl looking for a bit of adventure in London. But she stumbles upon more than she bargained for! Anne is on the platform at Hyde Park Corner tube station when a man falls onto the live track, dying instantly. A doctor examines the man, pronounces him dead, and leaves, dropping a note on his way. Anne picks up the note, which reads "17.1 22 Kilmorden Castle". The next day the newspapers report that a beautiful ballet dancer has been found dead there-- brutally strangled. A fabulous fortune in diamonds has vanished. And now, aboard the luxury liner Kilmorden Castle, mysterious strangers pillage her cabin and try to strangle her. What are they looking for? Why should they want her dead? Lovely Anne is the last person on earth suited to solve this mystery... and the only one who can! Anne's journey to unravel the mystery takes her as far afield as Africa and the tension mounts with every step... and Anne finds herself struggling to unmask a faceless killer known only as 'The Colonel'.
Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is summoned to France after receiving a distressing letter with an urgent cry for help. Upon his arrival in Merlinville-sur-Mer, the investigator finds the man who penned the letter, the South American millionaire Monsieur Renauld, stabbed to death and his body flung into a freshly dug open grave on the golf course adjoining the property.
Meanwhile, the millionaire's wife is found bound and gagged in her room. Apparently, it seems that Renauld and his wife were victims of a failed break-in, resulting in Renauld's kidnapping and death.
There's no lack of suspects: his wife, whose dagger served as the weapon; his embittered son, who would have killed for independence; and his mistress, who refused to be ignored - and each felt deserving of the dead man's fortune.
The police think they've found the culprit. But Poirot has his doubts. Why is the dead man wearing an overcoat that is too big for him? And who was the impassioned love-letter in the pocket for? Before Poirot can answer these questions, the case is turned upside down by the discovery of a second, identically murdered corpse...
Brendan Doyle, a specialist in the work of the early-nineteenth century poet William Ashbless, reluctantly accepts an invitation from a millionaire to act as a guide to time-travelling tourists. But while attending a lecture given by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1810, he becomes marooned in Regency London, where dark and dangerous forces know about the gates in time.
Caught up in the intrigue between rival bands of beggars, pursued by Egyptian sorcerers, and befriended by Coleridge, Doyle somehow survives and learns more about the mysterious Ashbless than he could ever have imagined possible...
Discover the compelling and addictive adventure from one of the nation's favourite historical writers, perfect for fans of Game of Thrones. 'A brilliant storyteller, The Lymond Chronicles will keep you reading late into the night' - The Times Literary Supplement.
'I despised men who accepted their fate. I shaped mine twenty times and had it broken twenty times in my hands' - 1547. After five years imprisonment and exile far from his homeland, Francis Crawford of Lymond - scholar, soldier, rebel, nobleman, outlaw - returns to Edinburgh. But for many in an already divided Scotland, where conspiracies swarm around the infant Queen Mary, he is not welcome. Lymond is wanted for treason and murder, and he is accompanied by a band of killers and ruffians who will only bring further violence and strife. Is he back to foment rebellion? Does he seek revenge on those who banished him? Or has he returned to clear his name? No one but the enigmatic Lymond himself knows the truth - and no one will discover it until he is ready.
The Butter Battle Book, Dr. Seuss's classic cautionary tale, introduces readers to the important lesson of respecting differences. The Yooks and Zooks share a love of buttered bread, but animosity brews between the two groups because they prefer to enjoy the tasty treat differently.
Engaged in a long-running battle, the Yooks and the Zooks develop more and more sophisticated weaponry as they attempt to outdo each other.
The timeless and topical rhyming text is an ideal way to teach young children about the issues of tolerance and respect. Whether in the home or in the classroom, The Butter Battle Book is a must-have for readers of all ages.
A Separate Peace is a poignant exploration of adolescence set against the backdrop of World War II. This American classic, which has captivated readers for over thirty years, unfolds within the confines of an all-boys boarding school in New England. We witness the story of Gene, an introverted intellectual, and his friendship with Phineas, a charismatic and daring athlete.
Their summer together is marked by a series of events that irrevocably change both their lives, mirroring the loss of innocence experienced by the country as a whole during the war. John Knowles' novel is not only a bestseller but also a profound parable about the darker aspects of adolescence and the complexities of friendship.
Inspired by D.H. Lawrence, Chekhov and Hemingway, Bukowski's writing is passionate, extreme and has attracted a cult following. His life was as weird and wild as the tales he wrote.
This collection of short stories gives an insight into the dark, dangerous lowlife of Los Angeles that Bukowski inhabited. From prostitutes to classical music, Bukowski ingeniously mixes high and low culture in his 'tales of ordinary madness'.
These are angry yet tender, humorous and haunting portrayals of life in the underbelly of Los Angeles.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a profound narrative that explores the story of a young woman deeply in love with a man who is caught in a battle between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing habits. Another strand of the story involves one of his mistresses and her modestly faithful lover. This compelling novel skillfully weaves together geographically distant locales, ingenious and playful musings, and a diverse array of styles, asserting its place as a significant accomplishment by one of the world's truly exceptional writers.
It was a deadly mistake. Joseph Malik, editor of a radical magazine, had snooped into rumors about an ancient secret society that was still alive and kicking. Now his offices have been bombed, he's missing, and the case has landed in the lap of a tough, cynical, streetwise New York detective. Saul Goodman knows he's stumbled onto something big—but even he can't guess how far into the pinnacles of power this conspiracy of evil has penetrated.
Filled with sex and violence—in and out of time and space—the three books of The Illuminatus! Trilogy are only partly works of the imagination. They tackle all the cover-ups of our time—from who really shot the Kennedys to why there's a pyramid on a one-dollar bill—and suggest a mind-blowing truth.
Anne Shirley has left Redmond College behind to begin a new job and a new chapter of her life away from Green Gables. Now she faces a new challenge: the Pringles. They're known as the royal family of Summerside—and they quickly let Anne know she is not the person they had wanted as principal of Summerside High School.
But as she settles into the cozy tower room at Windy Poplars, Anne finds she has great allies in the widows Aunt Kate and Aunt Chatty—and in their irrepressible housekeeper, Rebecca Dew. As Anne learns Summerside's strangest secrets, winning the support of the prickly Pringles becomes only the first of her delicious triumphs.
New adventures lie ahead as Anne Shirley packs her bags, waves good-bye to childhood, and heads for Redmond College. With her old friend Prissy Grant waiting in the bustling city of Kingsport and her frivolous new friend Philippa Gordon at her side, Anne tucks her memories of rural Avonlea away and discovers life on her own terms, filled with surprises . . . including a marriage proposal from the worst fellow imaginable, the sale of her very first story, and a tragedy that teaches her a painful lesson.
But tears turn to laughter when Anne and her friends move into an old cottage and an ornary black cat steals her heart. Little does Anne know that handsome Gilbert Blythe wants to win her heart, too. Suddenly Anne must decide whether she's ready for love.
It was a time of crisis, a time of tragedy and a time of transcendent courage and determination. Leon Uris's novel is set in the midst of the ghetto uprising that defied Nazi tyranny, as the Jews of Warsaw boldly met Wehrmacht tanks with homemade weapons and bare fists. Here, painted on a canvas as broad as its subject matter, is the compelling story of one of the most heroic struggles of modern times.
Essays and Lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson covers the most productive period of his life, 1832–1860. Emerson, known as America's eloquent champion of individualism, acknowledges the countervailing pressures of society in American life. As he extols what he called “the great and crescive self,” he also dramatizes and records its vicissitudes.
This volume includes indispensable and renowned works such as “The American Scholar” - our intellectual Declaration of Independence, “The Divinity School Address”, considered atheistic by many of his listeners, and the summons to “Self-Reliance”. More embattled realizations appear in “Circles” and “Experience”. Emerson also offers wide-ranging portraits of Montaigne, Shakespeare, and other “representative men,” along with astute observations on the habits, lives, and prospects of the English and American people.
This collection includes Nature; Addresses, and Lectures (1849), Essays: First Series (1841), and Essays: Second Series (1844), plus Representative Men (1850), English Traits (1856), and The Conduct of Life (1860). These works established Emerson’s colossal reputation in America and earned him admirers abroad, including Carlyle, Nietzsche, and Proust.
Emerson’s enduring power is felt throughout American literature: in those like Whitman and major twentieth-century poets who seek to corroborate his vision, and among those like Hawthorne and Melville who questioned, qualified, and struggled with it. His vision reverberates in American philosophy, notably in the writings of William James and John Dewey, and in the works of his European admirers.
Follow the exhilarating, exploratory movements of Emerson's mind in this comprehensive gathering of his work. This volume is not merely another selection of essays; it includes all his major books, conveying the exhilaration and exploratory energy of perhaps America's greatest writer.
Pet Sematary is a gripping tale of horror where the boundary between life and death is blurred. When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, everything seems perfect: a physician father, a beautiful wife, a charming little daughter, and an adorable infant son, all complemented by an idyllic home. The friendly cat adds to the family's happiness, but the nearby woods harbor a chilling secret.
Behind the children's pet cemetery lies another graveyard, one from which the dead return. The Creeds are about to discover that sometimes, dead is indeed better, as they are drawn into a sinister world where the line between the living and the dead is frighteningly thin.
Master storyteller Stephen King presents the classic #1 national bestseller of the ultimate vehicle of terror!
This is the story of a lover’s triangle…It was bad from the start. And it got worse in a hurry. It’s love at first sight for high school student Arnie Cunningham when he and his best friend Dennis Guilder spot the dilapidated 1958 red-and-white Plymouth Fury for sale—dubbed “Christine” by its original cantankerous owner—rusting away on a front lawn of their suburban Pennsylvania neighborhood. Dennis knows that Arnie’s never had much luck in the looks or popularity department, or really taken an interest in owning a car... but Christine quickly changes all that. Arnie suddenly has the newfound confidence to stick up for himself, going as far as dating the most beautiful girl at Libertyville High—transfer student Leigh Cabot—even as a mysteriously restored Christine systematically and terrifyingly consumes every aspect of Arnie’s life. Dennis and Leigh soon realize that they must uncover the awful truth behind a car with a horrifying and murderous history. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and heaven help anyone who gets in Christine’s way…
Anne's own true love, Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor, and in the sunshine of the old orchard, among their dearest friends, they are about to speak their vows. Soon the happy couple will be bound for a new life together and their own dream house, on the misty purple shores of Four Winds Harbor.
A new life means fresh problems to solve, fresh surprises. Anne and Gilbert will make new friends and meet their neighbors: Captain Jim, the lighthouse attendant, with his sad stories of the sea; Miss Cornelia Bryant, the lady who speaks from the heart—and speaks her mind; and the tragically beautiful Leslie Moore, into whose dark life Anne shines a brilliant light.
From palace coups in the lost city of Hattusas to treachery in the Egyptian court of Tutankhamun, I, the Sun, the saga of the Hittite king Suppiluliumas, rings with authenticity and the passion of a world that existed fourteen hundred years before the birth of Christ. They called him Great King, Favorite of the Storm God, the Valiant. He conquered more than forty nations and brought fear and war to the very doorstep of Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt, but he could not conquer the one woman he truly loved.
The Book of the New Sun is an extraordinary epic, set a million years in the future, on an Earth transformed in mysterious and wondrous ways. In this time, our present culture is no longer even a memory.
Severian, the central character, is a torturer, exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his victims. He journeys to the distant city of Thrax, armed with his ancient executioner's sword, Terminus Est.
This edition contains the first four volumes of the series.
This book is a confession, a document, and a record of people's memory. More than 200 women share their stories, describing how young girls, who dreamed of becoming brides, became soldiers in 1941. Over 500,000 Soviet women participated alongside men in the Second World War, the most terrible conflict of the 20th century.
Women not only rescued and bandaged the wounded but also fired sniper rifles, blew up bridges, went on reconnaissance missions, and killed... They killed the enemy who, with unprecedented cruelty, attacked their land, homes, and children.
Soviet writer of Belarus, Svetlana Alexievich, spent four years working on this book, visiting over 100 cities, towns, settlements, and villages to record the stories and reminiscences of women war veterans.
The most important aspect of the book is not merely the front-line episodes but the heart-rending experiences of women during the war. Through their testimony, the past makes an impassioned appeal to the present, denouncing yesterday's and today's fascism.
Set in the bleak Fen Country of East Anglia, and spanning some 240 years in the lives of its haunted narrator and his ancestors, Waterland is a book that takes in eels and incest, ale-making and madness, the heartless sweep of history, and a family romance as tormented as any in Greek tragedy.
Waterland, like the Hardy novels, carries with all else a profound knowledge of a people, a place, and their interweaving. Swift tells his tale with wonderful contemporary verve and verbal felicity. A fine and original work.
An unabridged Miss Marple mystery from the Queen of Crime.
For an instant, the two trains ran together, side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth witnessed a murder. Helplessly, she stared out of her carriage window as a man remorselessly tightened his grip around a woman's throat. The body crumpled.
Then the other train drew away. But who, apart from Miss Marple, would take her story seriously? After all, there were no suspects, no other witnesses...and no corpse.
Rabbit, Run is the book that established John Updike as one of the major American novelists of his—or any other—generation. Its hero is Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a onetime high-school basketball star who on an impulse deserts his wife and son. He is twenty-six years old, a man-child caught in a struggle between instinct and thought, self and society, sexual gratification and family duty—even, in a sense, human hard-heartedness and divine Grace. Though his flight from home traces a zigzag of evasion, he holds to the faith that he is on the right path, an invisible line toward his own salvation as straight as a ruler’s edge.
"Captains and the Kings" is a sweeping and captivating novel about the amassing of a colossal fortune, the political power that comes with it, and the operation of a curse laid on an Irish-American dynasty and the ruthless driving man who founded it.
Joseph Francis Xavier Armagh was thirteen years old when he first saw America through a dirty porthole on the steerage deck of The Irish Queen. It was the early 1850s, and he was a penniless immigrant, an orphan cast on a hostile shore to make a home for himself and his younger brother and infant sister. Some seventy years later, from his deathbed, Joseph Armagh last glimpsed his adopted land from the gleaming windows of a palatial estate. A multi-millionaire, one of the most powerful and feared men, Joseph Armagh had indeed found a home.
Captains and the Kings is the story of the price that was paid for it in the consuming, single-minded determination of a man clawing his way to the top; in the bitter-sweet bliss of the love of a beautiful woman; in the almost too-late enjoyment of extraordinary children; and in the curse which used the hand of fate to strike in the very face of success itself.
Once again, Taylor Caldwell has looked into America's roistering past as a setting for a drama of the consequences of savage ambition - and its meaning then and now.
Exodus is an international publishing phenomenon—the towering novel of the twentieth century's most dramatic geopolitical event. Leon Uris magnificently portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies—the beginning of an earthshaking struggle for power. Here is the tale that swept the world with its fury: the story of an American nurse, an Israeli freedom fighter caught up in a glorious, heartbreaking, triumphant era. Here is Exodus—one of the great bestselling novels of all time.
Life on the Mississippi is Mark Twain’s most brilliant and personal non-fiction work. Fashioned from the same experiences that would inspire the masterpiece Huckleberry Finn, it is an affectionate evocation of the vibrant river life during the steamboat era and a melancholic reminiscence of its passing after the Civil War.
This book is a priceless collection of humorous anecdotes and folktales, offering a unique glimpse into Twain’s life before he began to write. Written in a prose style hailed as among the greatest in English literature, Life on the Mississippi established Twain not only as the most popular humorist of his time but also as America’s most profound chronicler of the human comedy.
Join Twain on his journey as he navigates the ever-changing Mississippi River, reflecting on the transition from the boom years preceding the Civil War to the sober times that followed. This work is infused with the irreverent humor that is Twain's trademark.
Angels tells the story of two born losers. Jamie has ditched her husband and is running away with her two baby girls. Bill is dreaming of making it big in a life of crime. They meet on a Greyhound bus and decide to team up.
So begins a stunning, tragic odyssey through the dark underbelly of America – the bars, bus stations, mental wards, and prisons that play host to Jamie and Bill as they find themselves trapped in a downward spiral through rape, alcohol, drugs, and crime, to madness and death.
From the author of Tree of Smoke, this novel offers a vivid portrayal of America's dispossessed, lighting the trek with wit and a personal metaphysics that defiantly takes on the world.
Different Seasons is a gripping collection of four novellas by Stephen King, each narrative presenting a distinct tone and season, offering a departure from the author's signature horror genre.
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption - A profound tale of injustice and an unconventional escape, echoing the sentiments of The Count of Monte Cristo.
Apt Pupil - The disturbing bond between a seemingly perfect California schoolboy and an old man with a horrific history, culminating in a chilling symbiosis.
The Body - A coming-of-age story where four adventurous boys encounter life, death, and the stark reality of mortality in the Maine woods.
The Breathing Method - A mysterious narrative shared within an unusual club, about a woman's unwavering determination to give birth against all odds.
Few first novels have created as much popular excitement as The Pickwick Papers–-a comic masterpiece that catapulted its 24-year-old author to immediate fame. Readers were captivated by the adventures of the poet Snodgrass, the lover Tupman, the sportsman Winkle &, above all, by that quintessentially English Quixote, Mr Pickwick, & his cockney Sancho Panza, Sam Weller. From the hallowed turf of Dingley Dell Cricket Club to the unholy fracas of the Eatanswill election, via the Fleet debtor’s prison, characters & incidents sprang to life from Dickens’s pen, to form an enduringly popular work of ebullient humour & literary invention.
We is the classic dystopian novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin that has influenced writers from George Orwell to Ayn Rand. In a glass-enclosed city of absolute straight lines, ruled over by the all-powerful 'Benefactor', the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState live out lives devoid of passion and creativity - until D-503, a mathematician who dreams in numbers, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul.
Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, We was suppressed for many years in Russia and remains a resounding cry for individual freedom, yet is also a powerful, exciting and vivid work of science fiction. Clarence Brown's brilliant translation is based on the corrected text of the novel, first published in Russia in 1988 after more than sixty years' suppression.
The Wisdom of Pooh. Is there such thing as a Western Taoist? Benjamin Hoff says there is, and this Taoist's favorite food is honey. Through brilliant and witty dialogue with the beloved Pooh-bear and his companions, the author of this smash bestseller explains with ease and aplomb that rather than being a distant and mysterious concept, Taoism is as near and practical to us as our morning breakfast bowl. Romp through the enchanting world of Winnie-the-Pooh while soaking up invaluable lessons on simplicity and natural living.
T.C. Boyle's riotous first novel, now in a new edition for its 25th anniversary. Twenty five years ago, T.C. Boyle published his first novel, Water Music, a funny, bawdy, extremely entertaining novel of imaginative and stylistic fancy that announced to the world Boyle's tremendous gifts as a storyteller.
Set in the late eighteenth century, Water Music follows the wild adventures of Ned Rise, thief and whoremaster, and Mungo Park, a Scottish explorer, through London's seamy gutters and Scotland's scenic highlands to their grand meeting in the heart of darkest Africa. There they join forces and wend their hilarious way to the source of the Niger.
Carson McCullers’ prodigious first novel was published to instant acclaim when she was just twenty-three. Set in a small town in the middle of the deep South, it is the story of John Singer, a lonely deaf-mute, and a disparate group of people who are drawn towards his kind, sympathetic nature. The owner of the café where Singer eats every day, a young girl desperate to grow up, an angry drunkard, a frustrated black doctor: each pours their heart out to Singer, their silent confidant, and he in turn changes their disenchanted lives in ways they could never imagine.
A gripping tale of capitalist exploitation and rebellion, set amid the mist-shrouded mountains of a fictional South American republic, employs flashbacks and glimpses of the future to depict the lure of silver and its effects on men. Conrad's deep moral consciousness and masterful narrative technique are at their best in this, one of his greatest works.
The year is 1327. Benedictines in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon—all sharpened to a glistening edge by wry humor and a ferocious curiosity. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where “the most interesting things happen at night.”
Emily Starr never knew what it was to be lonely--until her beloved father died. Now Emily's an orphan, and her mother's snobbish relatives are taking her to live with them at New Moon Farm. She's sure she won't be happy. Emily deals with stiff, stern Aunt Elizabeth and her malicious classmates by holding her head high and using her quick wit.
Things begin to change when she makes friends, with Teddy, who does marvelous drawings; with Perry, who's sailed all over the world with his father yet has never been to school; and above all, with Ilse, a tomboy with a blazing temper. Amazingly, Emily finds New Moon beautiful and fascinating. With new friends and adventures, Emily might someday think of herself as Emily of New Moon.
Book four in Frank Herbert's magnificent Dune Chronicles--one of the most significant sagas in the history of literary science fiction.
Millennia have passed on Arrakis, and the once-desert planet is green with life. Leto Atreides, the son of the world's savior, the Emperor Paul Muad'Dib, is still alive but far from human. To preserve humanity's future, he sacrificed his own by merging with a sandworm, granting him near immortality as God Emperor of Dune for the past thirty-five hundred years.
Leto's rule is not a benevolent one. His transformation has made not only his appearance but his morality inhuman. A rebellion, led by Siona, a member of the Atreides family, has risen to oppose the despot's rule. But Siona is unaware that Leto's vision of a Golden Path for humanity requires her to fulfill a destiny she never wanted--or could possibly conceive.