Along with Blake and Dickens, Mark Twain was one of the nineteenth century s greatest chroniclers of childhood. These two novels reveal different aspects of his genius: Tom Sawyer is a much-loved story about the sheer pleasure of being a boy; Huckleberry Finn , the book Hemingway said was the source of all the American fiction that followed it, is both a hilarious account of an incorrigible truant and a tremendous parable of innocence in conflict with the fallen adult world.

Our Mutual Friend was the last novel Charles Dickenscompleted and is, arguably, his darkest and most complex. The basicplot is vintage Dickens: an inheritance up for grabs, a murder, arocky romance or two, plenty of skullduggery, and a host ofunforgettable secondary characters. But in this final outing theauthor's heroes are more flawed, his villains more sympathetic, andthe story as a whole more harrowing and less sentimental. The moodis set in the opening scene in which a riverman, Gaffer Hexam, andhis daughter Lizzie troll the Thames searching for drowned menwhose pockets Gaffer will rifle before turning the body over to theauthorities. On this particular night Gaffer finds a corpse that islater identified as that of John Harmon, who was returning fromabroad to claim a large fortune when he was apparently murdered andthrown into the river. Harmon's death is the catalyst for everything else that happensin the novel. It seems the fortune was left to the young man on thecondition that he marry a girl he'd

This complete collection includes all the published stories ofEudora Welty. There are forty-one stories in all, including theearlier collections A Curtain of Green, The Wide Net, The GoldenApples, and The Bride of the Innisfallen, as well as previouslyuncollected stories. With a Preface written by the Authorespecially for this edition.

Sixteen-year-old suburbanite Chris Lloyd and his mate Tonispend their free time wishing they were French, making up storiesabout strangers, and pretending to be fl?neurs. When they grow upthey'd like to be "artists-in-residence at a nudist colony." Ifyouthful voyeurism figures heavily in their everyday lives, so,too, do the pleasures of analogy, metaphor, and deliberatemisprision. Sauntering into one store that dares to call itself MANSHOP, Toni demands: "One man and two small boys, please." Julian Barnes could probably fill several books with these boys'clever misadventures, but in his first novel he attempts somethingmore daring--the curve from youthful scorn to adult contentment. In1968, when Chris goes off to Paris, he misses the May événementsbut manages, more importantly, to fall in love and learn thepleasures of openness: "The key to Annick's candour was that therewas no key. It was like the atom bomb: the secret is that there isno secret." The final section finds Chris back in suburb

In Barcelona, an aging Brazilian prostitute trains her dog toweep at the grave she has chosen for herself. In Vienna, a womanparlays her gift for seeing the future into a fortunetellingposition with a wealthy family. In Geneva, an ambulance driver andhis wife take in the lonely, apparently dying ex-President of aCaribbean country, only to discover that his political ambition isvery much intact. In these twelve masterly stories about the livesof Latin Americans in Europe, Garcia Marquez conveys the peculiaramalgam of melancholy, tenacity, sorrow, and aspiration that is theemigre experience.

Almayer’s Folly, Joseph Conrad’s first novel, is a tale ofpersonal tragedy as well as a broader meditation on the evils ofcolonialism. Set in the lush jungle of Borneo in the late 1800s, ittells of the Dutch merchant Kaspar Almayer, whose dreams of richesfor his beloved daughter, Nina, collapse under the weight of hisown greed and prejudice. Nadine Gordimer writes in herIntroduction, “Conrad’s writing is lifelong questioning . . . Whatwas ‘Almayer’s Folly’? The pretentious house never lived in? Hisobsession with gold? His obsessive love for his daughter, whoseprogenitors, the Malay race, he despised? All three?” Conradestablished in Almayer’s Folly the themes of betrayal, isolation,and colonialism that he would explore throughout the rest of hislife and work.

Mild, harmless and ugly to behold, the impoverished Pons is anageing musician whose brief fame has fallen to nothing. Living aplacid Parisian life as a bachelor in a shared apartment with hisfriend Schmucke, he maintains only two passions: a devotion to finedining in the company of wealthy but disdainful relatives, and adedication to the collection of antiques. When these relativesbecome aware of the true value of his art collection, however,their sneering contempt for the parasitic Pons rapidly falls awayas they struggle to obtain a piece of the weakening man'sinheritance. Taking its place in the Human Comedy as a companion toCousin Bette, the darkly humorous "Cousin Pons" is among of thelast and greatest of Balzac's novels concerning French urbansociety: a cynical, pessimistic but never despairing considerationof human nature.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Three classic crime novels by amaster of the macabre appear here together in hardcover for thefirst time. Suave, agreeable, and completely amoral, PatriciaHighsmith's hero, the inimitable Tom Ripley, stops at nothing--noteven murder-- to accomplish his goals. In achieving for himself theopulent life that he was denied as a child, Ripley shows himself tobe a master of illusion and manipulation and a disturbinglysympathetic combination of genius and psychopath. As Highsmithnavigates the mesmerizing tangle of Ripley's deadly and sinistergames, she turns the mystery genre inside out and takes us into themind of a man utterly indifferent to evil. The Talented Mr.RipleyIn a chilling literary hall of mirrors, Patricia Highsmithintroduces Tom Ripley. Like a hero in a latter-day Henry Jamesnovel, is sent to Italy with a commission to coax a prodigal youngAmerican back to his wealthy father. But Ripley finds himself veryfond of Dickie Greenleaf. He wants to be like him--exactly likehim.

In this celebrated novel, Nobel Prize-winning author ToniMorrison created a new way of rendering the contradictory nuancesof black life in America. Its earthy poetic language and strikinguse of folklore and myth established Morrison as a major voice incontemporary fiction. Song of Solomon begins with one of the most arresting scenes inour century's literature: a dreamlike tableau depicting a manpoised on a roof, about to fly into the air, while cloth rosepetals swirl above the snow-covered ground and, in the astonishedcrowd below, one woman sings as another enters premature labor. Thechild born of that labor, Macon (Milkman) Dead, will eventuallycome to discover, through his complicated progress to maturity, themeaning of the drama that marked his birth. Toni Morrison's novelis at once a romance of self-discovery, a retelling of the blackexperience in America that uncovers the inalienable poetry of thatexperience, and a family saga luminous in its depth, imaginativegenerosity, and universality. I

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Introduction by CatherinePeters A panoramic satire of English society during the NapoleonicWars, Vanity Fair is William Makepeace Thackeray's masterpiece. Atits center is one of the most unforgettable characters innineteenth-century literature: the enthralling Becky Sharp, acharmingly ruthless social climber who is determined to leavebehind her humble origins, no matter the cost. Her more gentlefriend Amelia, by contrast, only cares for Captain George Osborne,despite his selfishness and her family's disapproval. As both womenmove within the flamboyant milieu of Regency England, the politicalturmoil of the era is matched by the scheming Becky's sensationalrise--and its unforeseen aftermath. Based in part upon Thackeray'sown love for the wife of a friend, Vanity Fair portrays thehypocrisy and corruption of high society and the dangers ofunrestrained ambition with epic brilliance and scathing wit.

Hermann Hesse's classic novel "Siddhartha" has delighted,inspired, and influenced generations of readers, writers, andthinkers. Though set in a place and time far removed from theGermany of 1922, the year of the book's debut, the novel is infusedwith the sensibilities of Hesse's time, synthesizing disparatephilosophies-Eastern religions, Jungian archetypes, Westernindividualism-into a unique vision of life as expressed through oneman's search for meaning. It is the story of the quest ofSiddhartha, a wealthy Indian Brahmin who casts off a life ofprivilege and comfort to seek spiritual fulfillment and wisdom. Onhis journey, Siddhartha encounters wandering ascetics, Buddhistmonks, and successful merchants, as well as a courtesan namedKamala and a simple ferryman who has attained enlightenment.Traveling among these people and experiencing life's vitalpassages-love, work, friendship, and fatherhood-Siddharthadiscovers that true knowledge is guided from within. SusanBernofsky's magnificent new translation br

Stephen Lewis, a successful writer of children's books, isconfronted with the unthinkable: his only child, three-year-oldKate, is snatched from him in a supermarket. In one horrifyingmoment that replays itself over the years that follow, Stephenrealizes his daughter is gone. With extraordinary tenderness andinsight, Booker Prize-winning author Ian McEwan takes us into thedark territory of a marriage devastated by the loss of a child.Kate's absence sets Stephen and his wife, Julie, on diverging pathsas they each struggle with a grief that only seems to intensifywith the passage of time. Eloquent and passionate, the novelconcludes in a triumphant scene of love and hope that gives fullrein to the author's remarkable gifts. The winner of the WhitbreadPrize, The Child in Time is an astonishing novel by one of thefinest writers of his generation.

(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed) Introduction by JohnCarey

The real Life of Sebastian Knight is a perversely magicalliterary detective story--subtle, intricate, leading to atantalizing climax--about the mysterious life of a famouswriter.

Hailed as one of Joseph Conrad's finest literary achievements,this is the story of a young man unwittingly caught in thepolitical turmoil of pre-Revolutionary czarist Russia. A grippingnovel that ultimately questions our capacity for moral strength andthe depths of human integrity. This new edition includes commentaryand a reading group guide.

As a student in college, David Kepesh styles himself " a rakeamong scholars, a scholar among rakes." Little does he realize howprophetic this motto will be-- or how damning. For as Philip Rothfollows Kepesh from the domesticity of childhood into the vastwilderness of erotic possibility, from a me nage a trois in Londonto the throes of loneliness in New York, he creates a supremelyintelligent, affecting, and often hilarious novel about the dilemmaof pleasure: where we seek it; why we flee it; and how we struggleto make a truce between dignity and desire.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Now joining Everyman'sLibrary--the most extensive and distinguished collectible libraryof the world's greatest works--is an appealing new collection in asmall Pocket Classics format, perfect for gift giving and readingpleasure. "Christmas Stories" is a treasury of short fiction bygreat writers of the past two centuries--from Dickens and Tolstoyto John Updike and Alice Munro. As a literary subject, Christmashas inspired everything from intimate domestic dramas to fancifulflights of the imagination, and the full range of its expression isrepresented in this wonderfully engaging anthology. Goblins frolicin the graveyard of an early Dickens tale and a love-struck ghostdisrupts a country estate in Elizabeth Bowen's "Green Holly." Theplight of the less fortunate haunts Chekhov's "Vanka" and WillaCather's "The Burglar's Christmas" but takes a boisterously comicturn in Damon Runyon's "Dancing Dan's Christmas" and in JohnCheever's "Christmas Is a Sad Season for the Poor." From VladimirN

A national bestseller, Snobbery examines the discriminatingqualities in all of us. With dishy detail, Joseph Epstein skewersall manner of elitism in contemporary America. He offers his archobservations of the new footholds of snobbery: food, fashion,high-achieving children, schools, politics, being with-it,name-dropping, and much more. Clever, incisive, and immenselyentertaining, Snobberyexplores the shallows and depths of statusand taste -- with enviable results.

This is, in short, a complete, unsettling, and frequentlyexhilarating vision of the world, starting with the voyage ofNoah's ark and ending with a sneak preview of heaven!