The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal -- a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Here...  more

The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal -- a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.  

Written when women -- and workers generally -- had few rights in England, Agnes Grey exposes the brutal inequities of the rigid class system in mid-nineteenth century Britain. Agnes comes from a respectable middle-class family, but their financial reverses have forced her to seek work as a...  more

Written when women -- and workers generally -- had few rights in England, Agnes Grey exposes the brutal inequities of the rigid class system in mid-nineteenth century Britain. Agnes comes from a respectable middle-class family, but their financial reverses have forced her to seek work as a governess. Pampered and protected at home, she is unprepared for the harsh reality of a governess's life. At the Bloomfields and later the Murrays, she suffers under the snobbery and sadism of the selfish, self-indulgent upper-class adults and the shrieking insolence of their spoiled children. Worse, the unique social and economic position of a governess -- "beneath" her employers but "above" their servants -- condemns her to a life of loneliness.

No growing pains have ever been more hilarious than those suffered loudly by the riotous Gilbreth clan. First, there are a dozen red-haired, freckle-faced kids to contend with. Then there's Dad, a famous efficiency expert who believes a family can be run just like a factory. And there's...  more

No growing pains have ever been more hilarious than those suffered loudly by the riotous Gilbreth clan. First, there are a dozen red-haired, freckle-faced kids to contend with. Then there's Dad, a famous efficiency expert who believes a family can be run just like a factory. And there's Mother, his partner in everything except discipline. How they all survive such escapades as forgetting Frank, Jr., in a roadside restaurant or going on a first date with Dad in the backseat or having their tonsils removed en masse will keep you in stitches. You can be sure they're not only cheaper, they're funnier by the dozen.

Tragic story of wasted lives, set against a bleak New England background. A poverty-stricken New England farmer, his ailing wife and a youthful housekeeper are drawn relentlessly into a deep-rooted domestic struggle in this hauntingly grim tale of thwarted love. Considered by many Wharton's...  more

Tragic story of wasted lives, set against a bleak New England background. A poverty-stricken New England farmer, his ailing wife and a youthful housekeeper are drawn relentlessly into a deep-rooted domestic struggle in this hauntingly grim tale of thwarted love. Considered by many Wharton's masterpiece.

The best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Hemingway's frank portrayal of the love between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, caught...  more

The best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Hemingway's frank portrayal of the love between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, caught in the inexorable sweep of war, glows with an intensity unrivaled in modern literature, while his description of the German attack on Caporetto -- of lines of fired men marching in the rain, hungry, weary, and demoralized -- is one of the greatest moments in literary history. A story of love and pain, of loyalty and desertion, A Farewell to Arms, written when he was 30 years old, represents a new romanticism for Hemingway.

This is the classic and immensely popular first novel in the series about Anne Shirley, an irrepressible red-headed orphan. The Cuthberts decide to adopt an orphan -- a strong, hardworking boy to help with the farm chores. Anne is sent to live with them by mistake. Talkative, romantic and...  more

This is the classic and immensely popular first novel in the series about Anne Shirley, an irrepressible red-headed orphan. The Cuthberts decide to adopt an orphan -- a strong, hardworking boy to help with the farm chores. Anne is sent to live with them by mistake. Talkative, romantic and imaginative, Anne must convince the Cuthberts to keep her. Once adopted, Anne embraces her new life with energy, and no one who meets her is ever the same. As soon as Anne Shirley arrived at the snug, white farmhouse called Green Gables, she knew she wanted to stay forever... but would the Cuthberts send her back to the orphanage? Anne knows she's not what they expected -- a skinny girl with decidedly red hair and a temper to match. If only she could convince them to let her stay; she'd try very hard not to keep rushing headlong into scrapes or blurt out the very first thing she had to say. Anne was not like anybody else, everyone at Green Gables agreed; she was special -- a girl with an enormous imagination. This orphan girl dreamed of the day when she could call herself Anne of Green Gables.

This is the story of young Victor Frankenstein, who longed to seek out the answers to life and death. Day and night he worked to create something that the world had never seen. But he did not know that one day his efforts would destroy him and everything he had. Chris Mould's unique style...  more

This is the story of young Victor Frankenstein, who longed to seek out the answers to life and death. Day and night he worked to create something that the world had never seen. But he did not know that one day his efforts would destroy him and everything he had. Chris Mould's unique style brings Mary Shelley's classic story dramatically to life. With color illustrations that capture the dark mood of the monster's plight, Mould follows the story from the sweeping icescapes of the Arctic through the birth of the monster and his escape, and on to the tale's tragic end. Children and adults alike will be entranced by this riveting introduction to Frankenstein.

Margaret Mitchell's epic novel of love and war won the Pulitzer Prize and went on to give rise to two authorized sequels and one of the most popular and celebrated movies of all time. Many novels have been written about the Civil War and its aftermath. None take us into the burning fields and...  more

Margaret Mitchell's epic novel of love and war won the Pulitzer Prize and went on to give rise to two authorized sequels and one of the most popular and celebrated movies of all time. Many novels have been written about the Civil War and its aftermath. None take us into the burning fields and cities of the American South as Gone With the Wind does, creating haunting scenes and thrilling portraits of characters so vivid that we remember their words and feel their fear and hunger for the rest of our lives. In the two main characters, the white-shouldered, irresistible Scarlett and the flashy, contemptuous Rhett, Margaret Mitchell not only conveyed a timeless story of survival under the harshest of circumstances, she also created two of the most famous lovers in the English-speaking world since Romeo and Juliet.

THE GREAT GATSBY captures all the romance and glitter of the Jazz Age in its portrayal of a young man and his tragic search for love and success. It is a rare combination: a literary masterpiece - and one of the most popular novels of our time.

In 1872, English gentleman Phileas Fogg has many adventures as he tries to win a bet that he can travel around the world in eighty days.

Charlotte Bronte's impassioned novel is the love story of Jane Eyre, a plain yet spirited governess, and her employer, the arrogant, brooding Mr. Rochester. Published in 1847, under the pseudonym of Currer Bell, the book heralded a new kind of heroine -- one whose virtuous integrity, keen...  more

Charlotte Bronte's impassioned novel is the love story of Jane Eyre, a plain yet spirited governess, and her employer, the arrogant, brooding Mr. Rochester. Published in 1847, under the pseudonym of Currer Bell, the book heralded a new kind of heroine -- one whose virtuous integrity, keen intellect and tireless perseverance broke through class barriers to win equal stature with the man she loved. Hailed by William Makepeace Thackeray as "the masterwork of a great genius," JANE EYRE is still regarded, over a century later, as one of the finest novels in English literature. With an Introduction by Joyce Carol Oates

Lyric and sensual, D.H. Lawrence's last novel is  one of the major works of fiction of the twentieth  century. Filled with scenes of intimate beauty,  explores the emotions of a lonely woman trapped in  a sterile marriage and her growing love for...  more

Lyric and sensual, D.H. Lawrence's last novel is  one of the major works of fiction of the twentieth  century. Filled with scenes of intimate beauty,  explores the emotions of a lonely woman trapped in  a sterile marriage and her growing love for the  robust gamekeeper of her husband's estate. The most  controversial of Lawrence's books, Lady  Chatterly's Lover joyously affirms the  author's vision of individual regeneration through  sexual love. The book's power, complexity, and  psychological intricacy make this a completely original work -- a triumph of passion, an erotic celebration of life.

Clarence Day's comic stories of his father, Clarence "Clare" Day Senior are taken from the "New Yorker" magazine. They portray a rambunctious, overburdened Wall Street broker who demands that everything from his family should be just so. When it isn't, all hell breaks...  more

Clarence Day's comic stories of his father, Clarence "Clare" Day Senior are taken from the "New Yorker" magazine. They portray a rambunctious, overburdened Wall Street broker who demands that everything from his family should be just so. When it isn't, all hell breaks loose and an amusing sight it is too from a safe enough distance. Clare is intolerant, tyrannical and plain obnoxious in his constant battle to harness the world to his way of thinking. He rages against his staff, his cook, his wife, his horse, salesmen, the need for holidays, the need to be ill and, of course, the inability of his children to live up to his impossible standards. Yet, the more he rails, the more comic a figure he cuts and the more he blusters, the more lovable this makes him to his own beleaguered family.

LOST HORIZON is the tale of three men and a woman seeking escape from a political upheaval in the Orient. Their airplane crashes high on a Tibetan plateau. They are saved by a party of natives and taken to Shangri-La. Finding themselves prisoners at first, then visitors, they soon become...  more

LOST HORIZON is the tale of three men and a woman seeking escape from a political upheaval in the Orient. Their airplane crashes high on a Tibetan plateau. They are saved by a party of natives and taken to Shangri-La. Finding themselves prisoners at first, then visitors, they soon become willing captives until they discover the secret of that hidden paradise.

For this novel of French bourgeois life in all its inglorious banality, Flaubert invented a paradoxically original and wholly modern style. His heroine, Emma Bovary, a bored provincial housewife, abandons her husband to pursue the libertine Rodolphe in a desperate love affair. A succès de...  more

For this novel of French bourgeois life in all its inglorious banality, Flaubert invented a paradoxically original and wholly modern style. His heroine, Emma Bovary, a bored provincial housewife, abandons her husband to pursue the libertine Rodolphe in a desperate love affair. A succès de scandale in its day, Madame Bovary remains a powerful and arousing novel. Translated with notes and an introduction by Geoffrey Wall New Preface by Michèle Roberts

In a career that lasted little more than a decade, O. Henry wrote more than two hundred short stories that have become staples of American literature. His slice-of-life tales of ordinary men and women struggling to cope with the incongruous circumstances of life often ended with an ironic or...  more

In a career that lasted little more than a decade, O. Henry wrote more than two hundred short stories that have become staples of American literature. His slice-of-life tales of ordinary men and women struggling to cope with the incongruous circumstances of life often ended with an ironic or amusing twist that became his trademark. This literary omnibus reprints all of the short fiction published in his thirteen story collections - masterpieces that run the emotional gamut from comedy to pathos and that include "The Gift of the Magi", "The Cop and the Anthem," "Mammon and Archer," "A Retrieved Reformation," and "The Ransom of Red Chief." O. Henry: The Fiction is part of Barnes & Noble's Library of Essential Writers. Each title in the series presents the finest works - complete and unabridged - from one of the greatest writers in literature in magnificent, elegantly designed hard-back editions. Every volume also includes an original introduction that provides the reader with enlightening information on the writer's life and works.

Tells a story about the strange relationship of two migrant workers, who are able to realize their dreams of an easy life until one of them succumbs to his weakness for soft, helpless creatures and strangles the farmer's wife. Tragic tale of a retarded man and the friend who loves and tries to...  more

Tells a story about the strange relationship of two migrant workers, who are able to realize their dreams of an easy life until one of them succumbs to his weakness for soft, helpless creatures and strangles the farmer's wife. Tragic tale of a retarded man and the friend who loves and tries to protect him.

On the elegant, plush Orient Express, the famous train from Istanbul to Paris, Ratchett, an imperious millionaire gangster, killer, kidnapper, and child abuser, confronts Inspector Hercule Poirot and offers the little Belgian $20,000 if he will help him stay alive. Poirot declines, adding,...  more

On the elegant, plush Orient Express, the famous train from Istanbul to Paris, Ratchett, an imperious millionaire gangster, killer, kidnapper, and child abuser, confronts Inspector Hercule Poirot and offers the little Belgian $20,000 if he will help him stay alive. Poirot declines, adding, "I do not like your face, Monsieur." Later that evening, as the train sits halted and snowbound, Ratchett is found dead inside a room locked from the inside, a victim of multiple stab wounds. Can Poirot solve this baffling crime by the time the train reaches Paris? Also published as Murder in the Calais Coach

Illustrated. The last of Jane Austen's works to be published (in 1817), the novel is modeled after the day's popular romances and Gothic thrillers, which it then proceeds to ridicule. The heroine is Catherine Morland, who encounters upper-crust society at Bath, falls in love, and becomes...  more

Illustrated. The last of Jane Austen's works to be published (in 1817), the novel is modeled after the day's popular romances and Gothic thrillers, which it then proceeds to ridicule. The heroine is Catherine Morland, who encounters upper-crust society at Bath, falls in love, and becomes targeted by misinformed fortune-seekers. After moving to Northanger Abbey, her imagination goes to work and dreams up mysteries that lead to various social disasters.

Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is one of his most popular works. Written in Wilde's characteristically dazzling manner, full of stinging epigrams and shrewd observations, the tale of Dorian Gray's moral disintegration caused...  more

Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is one of his most popular works. Written in Wilde's characteristically dazzling manner, full of stinging epigrams and shrewd observations, the tale of Dorian Gray's moral disintegration caused something of a scandal when it first appeared in 1890. Wilde was attacked for his decadence and corrupting influence, and a few years later the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde's homosexual liaisons, trials that resulted in his imprisonment. Of the book's value as autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be--in other ages, perhaps."

Featuring the brilliantly drawn Roxanna, a mulatto slave who suffers dire consequences after switching her infant son with her master’s baby, and the clever Pudd’nhead Wilson, an ostracized small-town lawyer, Twain’s darkly comic masterpiece is a provocative exploration of...  more

Featuring the brilliantly drawn Roxanna, a mulatto slave who suffers dire consequences after switching her infant son with her master’s baby, and the clever Pudd’nhead Wilson, an ostracized small-town lawyer, Twain’s darkly comic masterpiece is a provocative exploration of slavery and miscegenation. Leslie A. Fiedler described the novel as “half melodramatic detective story, half bleak tragedy,” noting that “morally, it is one of the most honest books in our literature.” Those Extraordinary Twins, the slapstick story that evolved into Pudd’nhead Wilson, provides a fascinating view of the author’s process. The text for this Modern Library Paperback Classic was set from the 1894 first American edition.

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again ... With these words the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone manse on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband...  more

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again ... With these words the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone manse on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room in the immense, foreboding estate were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten -- a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house's current occupants. And with an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim's first wife -- the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.

In his youth Mark Twain drifted through the West. He worked as a civil servant, gold prospector, reporter, lecturer. ROUGHING IT is Twain's record--fact and impression--of those early years. Twain tried his luck at everything. He disputed with vigilantes; crossed Slade the Terrible, whose...  more

In his youth Mark Twain drifted through the West. He worked as a civil servant, gold prospector, reporter, lecturer. ROUGHING IT is Twain's record--fact and impression--of those early years. Twain tried his luck at everything. He disputed with vigilantes; crossed Slade the Terrible, whose equally terrible wife shot not from the hip but from the petticoat; met people famous and obscure, from Brigham Young, the ambitious Mormon leader, to Hank Erickson, a farmer who sought advice on turnips from Horace Greeley and fulminated against him because he could not decipher the answer.

George Eliot's timeless tale of simple people in small-town England, has the unwarranted reputation of being moralistic and saccharine; it is, in fact, one of George Eliot's most comic, balanced, and moving works of fiction. Falsely accused of theft, Silas Marner flees his home town and takes up...  more

George Eliot's timeless tale of simple people in small-town England, has the unwarranted reputation of being moralistic and saccharine; it is, in fact, one of George Eliot's most comic, balanced, and moving works of fiction. Falsely accused of theft, Silas Marner flees his home town and takes up residence in Raveloe, where he works as a weaver but remains an outsider. Embittered, alienated from humanity, and old before his time, he becomes a miser, able to love only his hoard of money, until he takes in a child who comes to him for shelter and redeems him through the power of love. Eliot's third novel, published in 1861, SILAS MARNER contains many echoes of its author's life, including her loss of religious faith and her concern for the traditional trades and ways of life that were beginning, even then, to disappear from the English countryside.

"My greatest thought in living is  Heathcliff. If all else perished, and he remained, I should  still continue to be... Nelly, I am  Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as  a pleasure... but as my own being."  Wuthering Heights is the...  more

"My greatest thought in living is  Heathcliff. If all else perished, and he remained, I should  still continue to be... Nelly, I am  Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as  a pleasure... but as my own being."  Wuthering Heights is the only novel of  Emily Bronte, who died a year after its  publication, at the age of thirty. A brooding Yorkshire tale  of a love that is stronger than death, it is also  a fierce vision of metaphysical passion, in which  heaven and hell, nature and society, are  powerfully juxtaposed. Unique, mystical, with a timeless  appeal, it has become a classic of English  literature.

The Baxter family of inland Florida and their wild, hard, satisfying life, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings has written one of the great novels of our times. A rich and varied story - tender in its understanding of boyhood, crowded with the excitement of the backwoods hunt, with vivid descriptions of...  more

The Baxter family of inland Florida and their wild, hard, satisfying life, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings has written one of the great novels of our times. A rich and varied story - tender in its understanding of boyhood, crowded with the excitement of the backwoods hunt, with vivid descriptions of the primitive, beautiful hammock country, with humor and earthy philosophy - The Yearling is a novel for readers of all tastes and ages. Its glowing picture of life that is far and refreshingly removed from modern patterns of living becomes universal in its revelation of simple courageous people and the abiding beliefs they live by. Winner of Pulitzer Prize in 1938.