Introduction by Jeffrey Eugenides Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author's most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray's moral disintegration caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novel's corrupting influence, he responded that there is, in fact, "a terrible moral in "Dorian Gray."" Just a few years later, the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by...
Introduction by Jeffrey Eugenides Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who...
The Call of the Wild--Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time To this day Jack London is the most widely read American writer in the world," E. L. Doctorow wrote in The New York Times Book Review. Generally considered to be London's greatest achievement, The Call of the Wild brought him international acclaim when it was published in 1903. His story of the dog Buck, who learns to survive in the bleak Yukon wilderness, is viewed by many as his symbolic autobiography. "No other popular writer of his time did any better writing than you will find...
The Call of the Wild--Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time To this day Jack London is the most w...
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time Newland Archer saw little to envy in the marriages of his friends, yet he prided himself that in May Welland he had found the companion of his needs--tender and impressionable, with equal purity of mind and manners. The engagement was announced discreetly, but all of New York society was soon privy to this most perfect match, a union of families and circumstances cemented by affection. Enter Countess Olenska, a woman of quick wit sharpened by experience, not afraid to flout convention and determined to...
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time Newland Archer saw little to envy in the marriages of his friends,...
First published in 1910, Howards End is the novel that earned E. M. Forster recognition as a major writer. At its heart lie two families--the wealthy and business-minded Wilcoxes and the cultured and idealistic Schlegels. When the beautiful and independent Helen Schlegel begins an impetuous affair with the ardent Paul Wilcox, a series of events is sparked--some very funny, some very tragic--that results in a dispute over who will inherit Howards End, the Wilcoxes' charming country home. As much about the clash between individual wills as the clash between the sexes and the...
First published in 1910, Howards End is the novel that earned E. M. Forster recognition as a major writer. At its heart lie two families...
The third in the Modern Library's series of original compilations, The Raven and the Monkey's Paw is a collection of classic tales and poems to engage our fear-seeking senses. The beauty of these stories and poems lies in their readability: ideal for sharing aloud around the campfire or for a quick, thrilling dip . . . under the covers with a flashlight. The writing itself sends as many awe-inspired shivers down the spine as do the ghosts and goblins on these pages. Edgar Allan Poe, the master of the horror story and the chiming lyric poem, opens the volume with his best-loved...
The third in the Modern Library's series of original compilations, The Raven and the Monkey's Paw is a collection of classic tales and poems to...
"Virginia Adair speaks directly and unaffectedly, in an accent stripped of mannerism and allusion. Ants on the Melon exhibits enough formal variety, freshness, and intelligence to confirm, at one stroke, that Ms. Adair is a poet of accomplishment and originality." --Brad Leithauser, The New York Times Book Review "Extraordinarily moving. Her voice is clear, assured, varied, and utterly her own." --A. Alvarez, The New York Review of Books "The rhyme is ingenious, the humor saucy and unsparing, and the author clearly takes a delight in perversity, in an inversion of the...
"Virginia Adair speaks directly and unaffectedly, in an accent stripped of mannerism and allusion. Ants on the Melon exhibits enough formal variety, f...
" Thorne Smith] created the modern American ghost. A ghost with style and wit. A ghost that haunts us still." --The New York Times Thorne Smith is a master of urbane wit and sophisticated repartee. Topper, his best-known work, is the hilarious, ribald comedy on which the hit television show and movie (starring Cary Grant) were based. It all begins when Cosmo Topper, a law-abiding, mild-mannered bank manager, decides to buy a secondhand car, only to find it haunted by the ghosts of its previous owners--the reckless, feckless, frivolous couple who met their untimely demise when the...
" Thorne Smith] created the modern American ghost. A ghost with style and wit. A ghost that haunts us still." --The New York Times Thorne Smit...
Why do people read science fiction? In hopes of receiving such writing as this a ravishingly accurate vision of things unseen; an utterly unexpected yet necessary beauty. So says Ursula K. Le Guin in her Introduction to The First Men in the Moon, H. G. Wells s 1901 tale of space travel. Heavily criticized upon publication for its fantastic ideas, it is now justly considered a science fiction classic. Cavor, a brilliant scientist who accidentally produces a gravity-defying substance, builds a spaceship and, along with the materialistic Bedford, travels to the moon. The coldly...
Why do people read science fiction? In hopes of receiving such writing as this a ravishingly accurate vision of things unseen; an utterly unexpected y...
Introduction by China Mieville Long acknowledged as a master of nightmarish visions, H. P. Lovecraft established the genuineness and dignity of his own pioneering fiction in 1931 with his quintessential work of supernatural horror, At the Mountains of Madness. The deliberately told and increasingly chilling recollection of an Antarctic expedition's uncanny discoveries-and their encounter with untold menace in the ruins of a lost civilization-is a milestone of macabre literature. This exclusive new edition, presents Lovecraft's masterpiece in fully restored form, and includes his...
Introduction by China Mieville Long acknowledged as a master of nightmarish visions, H. P. Lovecraft established the genuineness and dignity of h...
