A social satire of the British literati in the years following World War I, Crome Yellow focuses on a comical cast of outlandish characters who have gathered in the small town of Crome on the country estate of Henry Wimbush. In addition to the party's host and his attractive niece, Anne, there's Mr. Scogan, who's planning a «Rational State,» much like the one Huxley describes in his 1932 classic, Brave New World; Denis Stone, a se ...
One of the world's first bestsellers, this tragic masterpiece attained an instant and lasting success upon its 1774 publication, catapulting the author to the forefront of the German literary movement known as Sturm und Drang. A burst of parodies, operas, poems, and plays based on The Sorrows of Young Werther rapidly ensued, along with the cultlike following of young romantics across Europe who affected the manner of the novel's passio ...
"Now order the ranks, and fling wide the banners, for our souls are God's and our bodies the king's, and our swords for Saint George and for England!" With that rousing proclamation, twelve hundred knights ride into battle, accompanied by the stalwart archers known as the White Company.Fueled by their appetite for glory, this motley crew of freebooters stands united in their unswerving devotion to the company commander, Sir Nigel ...
In the early part of the twentieth century, Upton Sinclair earned a reputation as a prolific writer, committed socialist, and political activist. He gained enormous popularity when his eloquent 1906 novel The Jungle exposed conditions in the U.S. meat-packing industry, and years later, he earned a Pulitzer Prize for his series tale, Dragon's Teeth. In The Money Changers, Sinclair explores the Wall Street panic of 1907 in novel form, exposin ...
A blind musician with amazing talent is called upon to perform for the dead. Faceless creatures haunt an unwary traveler. A beautiful woman — the personification of winter at its cruelest — ruthlessly kills unsuspecting mortals. These and seventeen other chilling supernatural tales — based on legends, myths, and beliefs of ancient Japan — represent the very best of Lafcadio Hearn's literary style. The ...
Charles Chesnutt was perhaps the most influential African-American fiction writer during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The House Behind the Cedars, his dramatic masterpiece, was crafted during the tumultuous post-Civil War era in the South, when many in white society feared the «evils» of interracial relationships. Boldly, with vivid detail and memorable characters, this novel explores the practice of «passing,» as John and ...
A monumental classic and one of the most widely read novels in history, Les Misérables portrays the epic struggle between good and evil in the soul of one man: Jean Valjean. In a world brutalized by poverty and ignorance, the ex-convict struggles to renew his life and reaffirm his humanity. But he is haunted, both by his seemingly inescapable past and the malignant shadow of the infamous police detective Javert. Rich in detail, packed w ...
"Of lasting appeal to readers of all countries and centuries."—Vladimir NabokovRussian literature's first major prose novel, this gripping work was a primary influence on Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and other great nineteenth-century writers. Mikhail Lermontov, «the poet of the Caucasus,» drew upon his personal Byronic exploits to create these tales of treachery, abductions, and sexual intrigue. Published in 1840, one year before t ...
"Before hearing my death sentence I was aware that my lungs breathed, that my heart beat, and that my body lived in the community of other men; now, I plainly saw that a barrier had sprung up between them and me. Nothing was the same as before." The imprisoned narrator of this profoundly moving novel awaits execution—and waits, and waits. Although his guilt is undeniable, his essential humanity emerges as he struggles with the cer ...
