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Originally published in 1864, this classic remains popular today for readers of all ages!Jules Verne's classic science fiction novel, Journey to the Center of the Earth, takes readers deep below the world's surface and inside the author's inventive, visionary mind.The story revolves around Professor Otto Lidenbrock, an eccentric German scientist who decodes the cryptic notes of a famous medieval scholar, discovering a map which describes a method to access a tunnel leading directly to the earth's core. The adventurous geology professor can't resist the opportunity to investigate, and persuades his sixteen-year-old nephew Axel to travel with him on the most remarkable human quest ever taken.Epitomizing the subterranean fiction genre, one of the best storytellers who ever lived, Verne takes readers on an incredible journey through a prehistoric world incorporating well-researched Victorian science with some of literature's most unforgettable characters.They set off across Iceland with Hans Bjelke, a native Icelandic guide and descend into Snæfellsjökull, Iceland's famous dormant volcano. As they travel down into the unexplored, subterranean world beneath their feet, they discover that there is more to life than what is on the surface of the earth as they contend with many unexpected dangers.After facing cave-ins, subpolar tornadoes, prehistoric creatures, a vast subterranean ocean, and a living past that holds the secrets to the origins of human existence, they are eventually shot back to the surface by Stromboli, an active Italian volcano.JULES VERNE (1828 –1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His adventure novels include Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days.

The pampered daughter of a wealthy Georgian plantation owner of Irish descent, sixteen-year-old Scarlett O'Hara soon realizes that young men can't resist her charms, despite her forthright manners and her refusal to embrace her mother's ladylike ways. Her romantic intrigues lead her to an early marriage, but when the war between the Union and the Southern States breaks out and she is left a young widow, Scarlett's life is turned upside down, and she finds herself embroiled, together with the world surrounding her, in a long struggle for survival. Both a coming-of-age tale and a historical epic, Gone with the Wind is regarded as one of the great American novels, and is perhaps one of the most popular stories in the Western canon. Famously inspiring the iconic 1939 Oscar-winning film starring Vivien Leigh as Scarlett and Clark Gable as the rakish but cynical Rhett Butler, it is Margaret Mitchell's only published novel, and a living testament to the irrepressible resilience of the American spirit.

A respectable young widow and mother of two children, the Marquise of O— finds herself inexplicably pregnant after being rescued by a Russian officer from the attentions of his soldiers during the storming of her town's citadel. Convinced of her own innocence and wishing to vindicate her own integrity, the Marquise places an advert in the newspapers, appealing for the father to come forward and promising to marry him. But will this be enough to quench her family's doubts and the derision of the society around her? Will this help her solve the mystery and urge the perpetrator to acknowledge paternity of the child? One of the great classics of German literature, Heinrich von Kleist's sexually charged novella is as edgy today as it was when it was first published in 1808, and is accompanied here by two other celebrated stories, ‘The Earthquake in Chile'and ‘The Foundling', showcasing the range of their author's narrative abilities and his taste for the ambiguous and the paradoxical.

Deeply bored by the lack of mental stimulus and the dull routine of existence, Sherlock Holmes is about to resort to his daily dose of cocaine when an elegantly dressed young woman called Mary Morstan enters his room and presents her case to him and Watson. Following the mysterious disappearance of her father ten years ago, and after answering, four years later, a newspaper advert enquiring for her, she has begun to receive each year, on the same date, a precious pearl in the post from an unknown benefactor. Now, with the last pearl, she has also received a message, telling her she is “a wronged woman” and asking for a meeting that very night outside the Lyceum Theatre. Will the great detective accompany her and help her unravel the mystery? First published in 1880, The Sign of the Four – the second Sherlock Holmes novel after A Study in Scarlet, published three years earlier – will sweep the readers away into a story of murders, betrayals, double-crossings and stolen treasures, and is an enduring testament to the storytelling genius of Arthur Conan Doyle.

As the sensitive and delicate Gertrude Morel begins to shrink from her drunken and violent husband, their marriage becomes a battleground. Gertrude turns increasingly towards her two eldest sons, William and Paul, and determines that they will not grow up to be coal miners living in poverty like their father. Yet soon William falls ill, and Paul seeks to escape his mother's suffocating influence through a series of relationships. Closely autobiographical, and widely regarded as Lawrence's finest achievement, Sons and Lovers is the affecting portrait of a mining family torn apart by class divisions and the conflict between filial love and the urge to follow one's own desires.

‘Without a doubt, one of the outstanding novels I've read about the fate of a Jew and the Jews under the Nazis. I don't really know of one like it.'Philip Roth ‘An astonishing work of fiction... Jirí Weil has ac

A welcome reissue of one of Patrick Hamilton's best, with an introduction by Doris Lessing.The Slaves of Solitude is set in a wartime boarding house in a small town on the Thames. The Rosamund Tea Rooms is an oppressive place, as gre

En el verano de 1816, el poeta Percy Bysshe Shelley y su esposa Mary se reunieron con Lord Byron y su médico Polidori en una villa a orillas del lago Leman. A instancias de Lord Byron y para animar una velada tormentosa, decidieron que cada uno inventaría una historia de fantasmas. La más callada y reservada, Mary Shelley, dio vida así a quien sería su personaje más famoso: el doctor Frankenstein. Al cabo de un año completaría la novela, hoy día un clásico imperecedero de la literatura. La historia es de todos conocida: un científico decide crear una criatura con vida propia a la que luego rechaza. Metáfora sobre la vida, la libertad y el amor, Frankenstein es una maravillosa fábula con todos los ingredientes de los grandes mitos.

A partir de la publicación, en 1949, de la obra ya clásica de Fernand Braudel “La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen à l'époque de Philippe II”, los estudiosos han dedicado particular atención al Mediterráneo como sujeto histórico y han contribuido al conocimiento de las civilizaciones que se asomaban a esta cuenca y de sus interacciones. Colectivos caracterizados por una gran movilidad, en primer lugar los mercantiles, fueron protagonistas de los intercambios económicos y culturales. En el bajo medioevo los toscanos fueron de los mercaderes más dinámicos y emprendedores. Presentes con sus compañías en las mayores plazas de Europa y del Mediterráneo, se caracterizaron por una amplia diversificación de las inversiones, pero sobre todo por las competencias financieras que los llevaron a desempeñar el papel de banqueros, tesoreros y acuñadores de príncipes, reyes y papas. Introduciéndose en esta tradición de investigación sobre la historia urbana Mediterránea y sobre la circulación de las élites, este libro está dedicado al estudio de la presencia de Florentinos, Pisanos y Lucchesi en la Barcelona del Quattrocento. En esta plaza mercantil operaron hombres de negocios integrados en compañías que ocupaban un lugar de absoluta relevancia en el comercio internacional; eran individuos caracterizados por una gran especialización profesional y por un importante bagaje de cultura política. El análisis de una rica documentación inédita y los métodos prosopográficos permiten la disección de negocios, procedimientos de inserción social, estrategias patrimoniales, conflictos y conexiones con el poder, en una dialéctica constante entre comportamientos de grupo y trayectorias personales, entre prosopografía y biografía de los individuos que bien expresa la complejidad del fenómeno.

It is perhaps one of the best known and most influential novels in all of literature: 1897's Dracula didn't merely inspire countless adaptations for stage and film, it invented an entire genre of horror: the vampire story, which continues to evolve today into wildly varied directions, from noir detective pastiches (the vampire as night-owl P.I.) to tween romances (the vampire as dreamy but distant boyfriend). Anyone who wants to know where it all began must read this 1897 work, still startling and still terrifying even today. The story of English solicitor Jonathan Harker and his strange new client, Transylvanian aristocrat Count Dracula, this is the classic work of Victorian gothic horror, the continuing eerie wellspring of many of our cultural fantasies and nightmares.

Description based on print version record.

Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman Letter from an Unknown Woman Fantastic Night The Fowler Snared The Invisible Collection Buchmendel Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman is the story of a middle-aged English widow who travels to escape loneliness and boredom. One evening at the Monte Carlo Casino, she becomes mesmerised by the obsessive gambling of a young Polish aristocrat. This fateful encounter leads to passion, despair and death, changing their lives forever. Letter from an Unknown Woman, Zweig's poignant and heartbreaking tale of the strength and madness of unrequited love. In 1948 it was made into a film by Max Ophuls starring Joan Fontaine. In The Fowler Snared, it is the man whose passion remains unrequited. Fantastic Night is the story of an evening that transforms the life of a rich and bored young man. His experiences jolt him out of his languor and give him a newfound relish for life, which is then cut short by the Great War. The Invisible Collection and Buchmendel, two of Zweig's most powerful works, explore lives led in the single minded pursuit of art and literature against a backdrop of poverty and corruption.

'To be or not to be'confounded by Shakespeare-that is the question.Hamlet is an action-packed thriller with apparitions, murder, revenge, deception, poisons, and diabolical traps. With timeless themes, it explores friendship, relationships, honor, fate, madness, and more. Now you can savor Hamlet in a modern, easy-to-understand translation that makes reading it quick and painless. Other aids make following the action and grasping the meaning a snap:A brief synopsis of the plot and actionA comprehensive character list that describes the characteristics, motivations, and actions of each major playerA visual character map that shows the relationships of major charactersA cycle-of-death graphic that pinpoints the sequence of deaths and includes who dies, how they die, and whyReflective questions that help you understand the themes of the playWith Shakespeare on the Double! Hamlet, you'll be enlightened instead of confounded.

'For never was a story of more woeThan this of Juliet and her Romeo.'Romeo and Juliet is the tragic story of'star-crossed lovers'from feuding families. Complete with a masquerade ball, a duel, a secret marriage, a sleeping potion, and pushy parents, the play packs a lot of action and emotion into five days of passion, romance, duplicity, and tragedy. Now you can end your Shakespearian woes with this modern translation and aids that make understanding the play quick and painless:A brief synopsis of the plot and actionA comprehensive character list that describes the characteristics, motivations, and actions of each major playerA visual character map that shows the relationships of major charactersA cycle-of-death graphic that pinpoints the sequence of deaths and includes who dies, how they die, and whyReflective questions that help you understand the themes of the playWith Shakespeare on the Double! Romeo and Juliet, you may just fall in love with the Bard.

Mark Twain wrote The Prince and the Pauper and dedicated it to his two daughters, Clara and Susie. In a departure from his usual style, Twain weaves a delightful story of the prince who wants to see something of the world, and the pauper who wants to escape from the cruelty of his world. It is lavishly illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings.

In the CliffsComplete guides, the novel's complete text and a glossary appear side-by-side with coordinating numbered lines to help you understand unusual words and phrasing. You'll also find all the commentary and resources of a standard CliffsNotes for Literature.CliffsComplete Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is revered as both a work of childhood whimsy and nonsense and as a satirical examination of the nature of language, Victorian morality, and the English legal system.Embark on your own adventure through magical worlds and social commentary — and save yourself valuable studying time — all at once. Enhance your reading of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with these additional features: A summary and insightful commentary for each chapterBibliography and historical background on the author, Lewis CarrollA look at the historical context and structure of the novelDiscussions on the novel's symbols and themesA character map that graphically illustrates the relationships among the charactersReview questions, a quiz, discussion topics (essay questions), activity ideasA ResourceCenter full of books, articles, films, and Internet sitesStreamline your literature study with all-in-one help from CliffsComplete guides!

Having drawn on local knowledge and private information for The Spy and on his own boyhood experiences for The Pioneers, it was inevitable that Cooper would seek a way to convert yet another area of his special knowledge into art. His first choice of career had been the U.S. Navy, in which he served as a midshipman from 1808 to 1810.In 1823, Cooper began writing The Pilot, which he saw as a sea novel that seamen would appreciate for its fidelity and yet one that landsmen could understand.“Cooper's poetic power is reserved for the sea, which is no backdrop but a separate world with forces and laws of its own. The individuation of the ships, particularly the personification of the Ariel, contributes to the magic, but the exhilaration of the book comes from the triumph of human skill and intelligence over the uncertainties and downright hostilities of a world of waves, winds, and hidden reefs. The land offers neither a comparable challenge nor so heady a victory.” — from the Introduction.

Crime and Punishment is the story of a murder committed on principle, of a killer who wishes by his action to set himself outside and above society. A novel of fearful tension, physical, and psychological, it is pervaded by Dostoevsky's sinister evocation of St Petersburg, yet in the life of its gloomy tenements and drink-shops provides moments of wild humour. Crime and Punishment was marked by Dostoevsky's own harrowing experiences. He had himself undergone interrogation and trial, and was condemned to death, a sentence commuted to penal servitude. In prison he was particularly impressed by one hardened murderer who seemed to have attained a spiritual equilibrium beyond good and evil: yet witnessing the misery of other convicts also engendered in Dostoevsky a belief in the Christian idea of salvation through suffering. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.