Every day the miserly Silas Marner works, and every night he takes his hoard of gold out from under his floorboards and counts it. Then his fortunes change abruptly. And when an abandoned child, Eppie
Orphaned and penniless, young David Balfour sets out to find his last living relative. But in doing so he will become caught up the greatest and most frightening adventure of his life, involving kidna
Adolph Verloc leads a double life. As well as running his seedy Soho shop, he is also a secret agent, operating for an underground anarchist cell – and his job is about to get far more dangerous. When
At twenty-nine, Lily Bart dazzles at New York balls and soirees, but she knows that her days as a fascinating beauty are numbered, as she has not yet found a husband. But when she is accused of an aff
In Kristin Lavransdatter (1920-1922), Sigrid Undset interweaves political, social, and religious history with the daily aspects of family life to create a colorful, richly detailed tapestry of Norway
This masterful performance of historical fiction centers on Katharine Howard -- clever, beautiful, and outspoken -- who catches the jaded eye of Henry VIII and becomes his fifth Queen. Corruption and
Featuring his world-famous masterpiece, "Death in Venice," this new collection of Nobel laureate Thomas Mann's stories and novellas reveals his artistic evolution. In this new, widely acclaimed transl
A simple invitation to join his friend Davies on a yachting expedition in the Baltic is the beginning of an extraordinary and dangerous adventure for the bored and worldly but clever Carruthers. As th
Joe Keller and Herbert Deever, partners in a machine shop during the war, turned out defective airplane parts, causing the deaths of many men. Deever was sent to prison while Keller escaped punishment
When Dr. Philip Raven, an intellectual working for the League of Nations, dies in 1930, he leaves behind a powerful legacy - an unpublished 'dream book'. Inspired by visions he has experienced for ma
Famous for the mistaken panic that ensued from Orson WellesA's 1938 radio dramatization, The War of the Worlds remains one of the most influential of all science fiction works. The night after a shoo
Adrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain, is rescued by a vessel carrying an unusual cargo—a menagerie of savage animals. Nursed to recovery by their keepe
With his face swaddled in bandages, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses, and his hands covered even indoors, Griffin—the new guest at the Coach and Horses—is at first assumed to be a shy accident vict
When timid and plain Catherine Sloper acquires a dashing and determined suitor, her father, convinced that the young man is nothing more than a fortune-hunter, decides to put a stop to their romance.
Together, librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan created some of the best-loved musical works in the world, with a finely honed yet anarchic sensibility that found its expression in up
The 'terrible mistake' was the contemporary utilitarian philosophy, expounded in Hard Times (1854) as the Philosophy of Fact by the hard-headed disciplinarian Thomas Gradgrind. But the novel, Dickens'
Shaw wrote the part of Eliza Doolittle—'an east-end dona with an apron and three orange and red ostrich feathers'—for Mrs Patrick Campbell, with whom he had a passionate but unconsummated affair. From
In 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson escaped from his numerous troubles - poor health, tormented love, inadequate funds - by embarking on a journey through the Cevennes in France, accompanied by Modestine,
Out of the intellectual ferment of the English Renaissance came a number of outstanding critical works that sought to define and defend the role of literature in society and to comment on the craft of
When Arthur Clennam returns to England after many years abroad, he takes a kindly interest in Amy Dorrit, his mother’s seamstress, and in the affairs of Amy’s father, William Dorrit, a man of shabby g
