Tuintessential American family story,Little Women captured readers' hearts right from the start. A bestseller from the time it was originally published in 1868, it is the story of the four March sisters: Meg, Beth, Jo, and Amy. Louisa May Alcott recreates her own family's dramatic and sometimes comic experiences in this American novel, inspiration for numerous dramatic and film versions. LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, daughter of famous New England transcendentalist Bronson Alcott. was born in 1832 and after an extremely successful writing career which brought her international renown, died in 1888.

Our Mutual Friend, Dickens' last complete novel, gives one of his most comprehensive and penetrating accounts of Victorian society. Its vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values emerges not just through its central narratives, but through its apparently incidental characters and scenes. The chief of its several plots centres on John Harmon who returns to England as his father's heir. He is believed drowned under suspicious circumstances - a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity until he can evaluate Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. The story is filled with colourful characters and incidents - the faded aristocrats and parvenus gathered at the Veneering's dinner table, Betty Higden and her terror of the workhouse and the greedy plottings of Silas Wegg.

尼克和艾米是一对具有完美吸引力的男女，是别人眼中的模范夫妻。艾米每天都用日记来记录婚后生活，每个结婚纪念日都会精心设置充满惊喜的“寻宝游戏”，但生活却不可阻挡地越来越平淡如水……然而，这仅仅是表象。 在他们结婚五周年纪念日当天，豪宅里美丽聪慧的女主人离奇失踪了！尼克焦虑无奈，通过媒体深情告白，然而，被发现的艾米的日记指向尼克有*的嫌疑……尼克的一连串谎言、欺瞒和失控也随之曝光，真相反转。顿时，人人都重新审视自己的枕边人，而这，才仅仅是开始。 'What are you thinking, Amy?' The question I'veasked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not tothe person who could answer. I suppose these questions stormcloudover every marriage: 'What are you thinking? How are you feeling?Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?'Just how well can you ever know the person

In Los Angeles in 1988, a sixteen-year-old girl disappearedfrom her home and was later found dead of a gunshot wound to thechest. The death appeared at first to be a suicide-but some of theevidence contradicted that scenario, and detectives came to believethis was in fact a murder. Despite a by-the-book investigation, noone was ever charged. Now Detective Harry Bosch is back with theLAPD with the sole mission of closing unsolved cases, and thisgirl's death is the first he's given. A DNA match makes the casevery much alive again, and it turns out to be anything but cold.The ripples from this death have destroyed at least two otherlives, and everywhere he probes, Bosch finds hot grief, hot rage,and a bottomless well of betrayal and malice. And it's not just thegirl's family and friends whose lives Bosch is stirring up afresh.With each new development, Harry Bosch finds increasing resistancefrom within the police force itself. Old enemies are close at hand.Even as he pushes relentlessly to find the truth,

Cook's three voyages of discovery, which took place between 1768 and 1779, are among the most remarkable achievements in the history of exploration. Cook charted vast areas of the globe with astonishing accuracy, and the voyages also made a significant contribution towards solving some of the great problems of cartography and navigation. With crews containing gifted sailors and navigators, as well as botanists, painters and scientists, Cook provides the link between the speculative, profit-hungry voyages of the Elizabethan seafarers and the scientific expeditions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

“This compact, adamantine début dips in and out of theconsciousness of a New England patriarch named George WashingtonCrosby as he lies dying on a hospital bed in his living room,‘right where they put the dining room table, fitted with its twoextra leaves for holiday dinners’…In Harding’s skillful evocation,Crosby’s life, seen from its final moments, becomes a mosaic ofmemories, ‘showing him a different self every time he tried to makean assessment.’”—The New Yorker “Harding’s interest is in the universalities: nature and time andthe murky character of memory…The small, important recollectionsare rendered with an exactitude that is poetic…Harding's prose islyrical and specific...Tinkers is a poignant exploration of wherewe may journey when the clock has barely a tick or two left and wereally can’t go anywhere at all.”—The Boston Globe "At only a very brief 192 pages, it still packs an emotional punchthat books of three times its length often lack. It's a novel thatyou'll

A delightfully dishy novel about the all-time most impossible boss in the history of impossible bosses. Andrea Sachs, a small-town girl fresh out of college, lands the job “a million girls would die for.” Hired as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, the high-profile, fabulously successful editor of Runway magazine, Andrea finds herself in an office that shouts Prada! Armani! Versace! at every turn, a world populated by impossibly thin, heart-wrenchingly stylish women and beautiful men clad in fine-ribbed turtlenecks and tight leather pants that show off their lifelong dedication to the gym. With breathtaking ease, Miranda can turn each and every one of these hip sophisticates into a scared, whimpering child. THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA gives a rich and hilarious new meaning to complaints about “The Boss from Hell.” Narrated in Andrea’s smart, refreshingly disarming voice, it traces a deep, dark, devilish view of life at the top only hinted at in gossip columns and over Cosmopolitans at

This is the new "Roy Grace" novel from the bestselling author of "Dead Tomorrow". Don't imagine for one moment that I'm not watching you...The Metropole Hotel, Brighton. After a heady New Year's Eve ball, a woman is brutally raped as she returns to her room. A week later, another woman is attacked. Both victims' shoes are taken by the offender...Detective Superintendent Roy Grace soon realises that these new cases bear remarkable similarities to an unsolved series of crimes in the city back in 1997. The perpetrator had been dubbed 'Shoe Man' and was believed to have raped five women before murdering his sixth victim and vanishing. Could this be a copycat, or has Shoe Man resurfaced? When more women are assaulted, Grace becomes increasingly certain that they are dealing with the same man. And that by delving back into the past - a time in which we see Grace and his missing wife Sandy still apparently happy together - he may find the key to unlocking the current mystery. Soon Grace and his team will find themse

Virginia Woolf's Orlando 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth's England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Costantinople, awakes to find that he is a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women.

In his debut novel， The Kite Runner， Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do。 He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country’s political turmoil--in this case， Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over。 And he does this on his first try。 The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir， the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul， and Hassan， the son of Amir’s father’s servant。 As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s， the boys are inseparable。 They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever， and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted。 Even after Amir and his father flee to America， Amir r

One of the most beloved children's books of all time and the inspiration for a feature film, a television miniseries, and a Broadway musical, The Secret Garden is the best-known work of Frances Hodgson Burnett. In this unforgettable story, three children find healing and friendship in a magical forgotten garden on the haunting Yorkshire moors. British-born FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT (1849—1924) emigrated at age sixteen to Tennessee and was one of the most popular writers of her time. Her other books include A Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy.

"Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did." Sobegins the story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Walls'sno-nonsense, resource- ful, and spectacularly compellinggrandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses.At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town--riding fivehundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned todrive a car and fly a plane. And, with her husband, Jim, she ran avast ranch in Arizona. She raised two chil dren, one of whom isJeannette's memorable mother, Rosemary SmithWalls, unforgettablyportrayed in The Glass Castle. Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the GreatDepression,and the most heartbreakingpersonal tragedy. In this true-life vel,Jeannette Walls channels the life of an incredible woman.Destined to be a classic. Half Broke Horses will transfix readerseverywhere.

My Dearest Reader, When you hear my story,perhaps you will think me a man unable to control his own hungers…his own temptations.But I warn you that I am no such thing.I am simply a man who knows what he wants,and what he can’t live without. It is only fair to tell you that my clan is one descended from magic.I have learned these powers are both a blessing and a curse-for the magic that flows through my blood controls my fate utterly and completely. When I first saw the beautiful Loris,I knew she was my unoliaeth,my oneness,the woman I am destined to unite with for all eternity.At that moment,I allowed my passion to lead me to do the unthinkable:I employed a forbidden magic to win Loris’s heart. How did I know that my error would lead to a black curse that still haunts me today? How could I have known that the curse would irrevocably cast Loris’affection for me to another man? Now I am left to ponder how I might win Loris back-black curse be damned.I believe there must be

Set in Hardy’s Wessex，Tess of the d’Urbervilles is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards。 Its challenging sub-title，A Pure Woman，infuriated critics when the book was first published in 1891，and it was condemned as immoral and pessimistic。 It tells of Tess Durbeyfield，the daughter of a poor and dissipated villager，who learns that she may be descended from the ancient family of d'Urberville。 In her search for respectability her fortunes fluctuate wildly，and the story assumes the proportions of a Greek tragedy。 It explores Tess’s relationships with two very different men，her struggles against the social mores of the rural Victorian world which she inhabits and the hypocrisy of the age。 In addressing the double standards of the time，Hardy’s masterly evocation of a world which we have lost，provides one of the most compelling stories in the canon of English literature，whose appeal today defies the judgement of Hardy’s contemporary critics。

A concise introduction that gives readers important background information A chronology of the author's life and work A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations Detailed explanatory notes Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.

No more than a dark pencil line on a blank page. A horizon line, maybe. But also a slot for blackness to pour through... A terrible construction site accident takes Edgar Freemantle's right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. A marriage that produced two lovely daughters suddenly ends, and Edgar begins to wish he hadn't survived the injuries that could have killed him. He wants out. His psychologist, Dr. Kamen, suggests a "geographic cure," a new life distant from the Twin Cities and the building business Edgar grew from scratch. And Kamen suggests something else. "Edgar, does anything make you happy?" "I used to sketch." "Take it up again. You need hedges...hedges against the night." Edgar leaves Minnesota for a rented house on Duma Key, a stunningly beautiful, eerily undeveloped splinter of the Florida coast. The sun setting into the Gulf of Mexico and the tidal rattling of shells on the beach

Supporters will hail this New Age self-help book on the law of attraction as a groundbreaking and life-changing work, finding validation in its thesis that one's positive thoughts are powerful magnets that attract wealth, health, happiness... and did we mention wealth? Detractors will be appalled by this as well as when the book argues that fleeting negative thoughts are powerful enough to create terminal illness, poverty and even widespread disasters. The audio version of this controversial book, read by Byrne and contributing authors such as John Gray and Neale Donald Walsch, is uneven at best. The cheesy, obvious sound effects will not do much to add intellectual respectability to a work that has been widely denounced as pseudoscience. Mostly, this audio is hampered by its confusing and disjointed organization—techniques that worked reasonably well in the print version and the movie, such as cutting every few seconds from one enthusiastic expert to another, make for a choppy and somewhat bewildering list

An international best-seller with more than one million copies in print and a winner of France's Prix Goncourt, The Lover has been acclaimed by critics all over the world since its first publication in 1984. Set in the prewar Indochina of Marguerite Duras's childhood, this is the haunting tale of a tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl and her Chinese lover. In spare yet luminous prose, Duras evokes life on the margins of Saigon in the waning days of France's colonial empire, and its representation in the passionate relationship between two unforgettable outcasts. Long unavailable in hardcover, this edition of The Lover includes a new introduction by Maxine Hong Kingston that looks back at Duras's world from an intriguing new perspective--that of a visitor to Vietnam today. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. 作者简介： Marguerite Duras is the author of many novels and screenplays, including the film * for Hiroshima, Mon Amour

A murder trial takes a diabolical turn when the wife of the accused takes a stand...A woman's sixth--and a loaded revolver--signal premonitions of doom...A stranded motorist seeks refuge in a remote mansion, and is greeted with a dire warning...Detective Hercule Poirot faces his greatest challenge when his services are enlisted--by the victim--in a bizarre locked-room murder. From the stunning title story (which inspired the classic film thriller) to the rarest gems in detective fiction, these 11 tales of baffling rime and brilliant deduction showcase Agatha Christie at her dazzling best. 作者简介： Agatha Christie is the world's best-known mystery writer. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in 44 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare.

From the acclaimed - and controversial - Chinese novelist, "Brothers" is a big-spirited comedy of society running amok in modern China. When Baldy Li's mother marries Song Gang's father their lives become entangled. Then when both their parents die, Song Gang swears never to forsake his younger brother. In the event, though, both are undone by their love for one woman. Sprawling, rambunctious, energetic and brutal, Brothers is a dizzying rollercoaster ride through life in a newly capitalist world. 'Yu Hua has long been considered one of China's most important novelists' - Nell Freudenberger. 'This is modern China coming to terms with itself in a mixture of gore, laughter and self-mockery' - "Independent". '"Brothers" gives us contemporary China with a picaresque panache that Western critics have been quick to call Rabelaisian, but which is actually Chinese all the way' - "Financial Times". 'Yu Hua effortlessly moves from the grotesque to the tragic and from the ironic to the dramatic ...There is Hemingway in

Ce roman pourrait s'intituler " portrait d'un monstre ", celuide Leslie Shand, un père de famille au-dessus de tout soup?on, qui,pendant des années, a martyrisé avec une perversion inou?e sa femmeet ses filles avant de recevoir une balle en pleine poitrine. Quil'a tué ? Sa femme ? l'une de ses filles ? un voisin... ? Vingt ansplus tard, fascinée par cette histoire, une journaliste reprendl'enquête à zéro. Dans cette vertigineuse descente aux enfers del'?me humaine, l'auteur de L'Amant anglais (prix du Polar européen/ Le Point) nous plonge dans un univers trouble, littéralementenvo?tant...

“尽管他们的责任巨大，时刻面对激烈的争论甚至暴力冲突，在美国历史上也仅有4位联邦法官在任上被谋杀.雷蒙德法官却成为了第五位。他的尸体在用来度假的湖边自建小屋中被发现。他未能出现在周一法庭上，工作人员报警了，不久人们就找到了谋杀现场。那里没有强行进入或挣扎的痕迹，仅有的只是两具尸体—法官大人和他的秘书。我不认识法官大人，但我知道谁为什么杀了他。我是个律师，我被关押在监，这可说来话长了。” 马尔科姆·班尼斯特（MalcolmBannister）是一名正在监狱服刑的前任律师。他知道谁是杀害一位联邦法官的幕后黑手。不过美国联邦调查局想要从他口中换取线索，就得满足他所提出的条件：用情报换自由。 Given the importance of what they do, and the controversies thatoften surround them, and the violent people they sometimesconfront, it is remarkable that in the history of the

Sookie Stackhouse is the main character in The Southern Vampire Mysteries, a series of eight books written by bestselling author Charlaine Harris