Victor Baxter is a young boy when a secretive stranger known simply as "the Captain" takes him from his boarding school to live in London. Victor becomes the surrogate son and companion of a woman named Liza, who renames him "Jim" and depends on him for any news about the world outside their door. Raised in these odd yet touching circumstances, Jim is never quite sure of Liza's relationship to the Captain, who is often away on mysterious errands. It is not until Jim reaches manhood that he confronts the Captain and learns the shocking truth about the man, his allegiances, and the nature of...
Victor Baxter is a young boy when a secretive stranger known simply as "the Captain" takes him from his boarding school to live in London. Victor beco...
Raven is an ugly man dedicated to ugly deeds. His cold-blooded killing of a European Minister of War is an act of violence with chilling repercussions, not just for Raven himself but for the nation as a whole. The money he receives in payment for the murder is made up of stolen notes and when the first of these is traced, Raven becomes a man on the run. As he tracks down the agent who has been double-crossing him and attempts to elude the police, he becomes both hunter and hunted: an unwitting weapon of a strange kind of social justice. In doing so, he sets the stage for Greene's next novel,...
Raven is an ugly man dedicated to ugly deeds. His cold-blooded killing of a European Minister of War is an act of violence with chilling repercussions...
One of the novels that galvanized W. Somerset Maugham's reputation as a literary master The Moon and Sixpence follows the life of one Charles Strickland, a bourgeois city gent whose dull exterior conceals the soul of a genius. Compulsive and impassioned, he abandons his home, wife, and children to devote himself slavishly to painting. In a tiny studio in Paris, he fills canvas after canvas, refusing to sell or even exhibit his work. Beset by poverty, sickness, and his own intransigent, unscrupulous nature, he drifts to Tahiti, where, even after being blinded by leprosy, he produces...
One of the novels that galvanized W. Somerset Maugham's reputation as a literary master The Moon and Sixpence follows the life of one Charl...
Born in Nicaragua, Ruben Dario is known as the consummate leader of the Modernista movement, an esthetic trend that swept the Americas from Mexico to Argentina at the end of the nineteenth century. Seeking a language and a style that would distinguish the newly emergent nations from the old imperial power of Spain, Dario's writing offered a refreshingly new vision of the world--an artistic sensibility at once cosmopolitan and connected to the rhythms of nature. The first part of this collection presents Dario's most significant poems in a bilingual format and organized thematically in the way...
Born in Nicaragua, Ruben Dario is known as the consummate leader of the Modernista movement, an esthetic trend that swept the Americas from Mexico to ...
When it first appeared in 1898, this fourth novel by celebrated Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun captured instant acclaim for its poetic, psychologically intense portrayal of love's predicament in a class-bound society. Set in a coastal village of late nineteenth-century Norway, Victoria follows two doomed lovers through their thwarted lifelong romance. Johannes, the son of a miller, finds inspiration for his writing in his passionate devotion to Victoria, an impoverished aristocrat constrained by family loyalty. Separated by class barriers and social pressure, the fated pair parts ways, only to...
When it first appeared in 1898, this fourth novel by celebrated Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun captured instant acclaim for its poetic, psychologically ...
A firsthand account of Scott's disastrous Antarctic expeditionThe Worst Journey in the World recounts Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. Apsley Cherry-Garrard--the youngest member of Scott's team and one of three men to make and survive the notorious Winter Journey--draws on his firsthand experiences as well as the diaries of his compatriots to create a stirring and detailed account of Scott's legendary expedition. Cherry himself would be among the search party that discovered the corpses of Scott and his men, who had long since perished from...
A firsthand account of Scott's disastrous Antarctic expeditionThe Worst Journey in the World recounts Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fat...
The last of John Steinbeck's play-novelettes, Burning Bright was the author's final attempt after 1937's Of Mice and Men and 1942's The Moon is Down to create what he saw as a new, experimental literary form. Four scenes, four people: the husband who yearns for a son, ignorant of his own sterility; the wife who commits adultery to fulfill her husband's wish; the father of the child; and the outsider whose actions will affect them all. In this turn on a medieval morality play, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck casts an unwavering light on these four intertwined lives,...
The last of John Steinbeck's play-novelettes, Burning Bright was the author's final attempt after 1937's Of Mice and Men and 1942's ...
The original novel--a classic of Japanese and world literature and a stunningly beautiful story Written in the eleventh century, this exquisite portrait of courtly life in medieval Japan is widely celebrated as the world's first novel--and is certainly one of its finest. Genji, the Shining Prince, son of an emperor, is a passionate character whose tempestuous nature, family circumstances, love affairs, alliances, and shifting political fortunes form the core of this magnificent epic. Royall Tyler's superb translation is detailed, poetic, and true to the Japanese original while...
The original novel--a classic of Japanese and world literature and a stunningly beautiful story Written in the eleventh century, this exqu...
It takes a very inclusive anthology to encompass the protean personality and range of interests of Benjamin Franklin, but The Portable Benjamin Franklin succeeds as no collection has. In addition to the complete Autobiography, the volume contains about 100 of Franklin's major writings--essays, journalism, letters, political tracts, scientific observations, proposals for the improvement of civic and personal life, literary bagatelles, and private musings. The selections are reprinted in their entirety and organized chronologically within six sections that represent the full range of...
It takes a very inclusive anthology to encompass the protean personality and range of interests of Benjamin Franklin, but The Portable Benjamin Fra...
"The Adventures of Augie March is the great American Novel. Search no further." -Martin Amis As soon as it first appeared in 1953, this novel by the great Saul Bellow was hailed as an American classic. Augie, the exuberant narrator-hero is a poor Chicago boy growing up during the Great Deptression. A "born recruit," Augie makes himself available for a series of occupations, then proudly rejects each one as unworthy. His own oddity is reflected in the companions he encounters--plungers, schemers, risk-takers, and "hole-and corner" operators like the would-be tycoon Einhorn...
"The Adventures of Augie March is the great American Novel. Search no further." -Martin Amis As soon as it first appeared in 1953, ...
