Arguably India's greatest gift to the world, The Bhagavadgita ('The Song of the Blessed') forms an episode in the sixth book of the Hindu epic The Mahabharata and is the supreme work of that religion. The Gita consists of the dialogue between Prince Arjuna and his mentor and friend, Lord Krishna, on the eve of the climactic battle of Kuruksetra. This discourse contains an exposition of the Hindu philosophy of Karma Yoga (disciplined action performed in the right spirit) as Prince Arjuna struggles with his understandable 'existential' anguish at having to join battle against his gurus and kinsmen. The Gita, although almost 2,500 years old, contains profound truths of great relevance to contemporary society in India and the West.
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。
Drafted into working for the Order of Merciful Aid, mercenaryKate Daniels has more paranormal problems than she knows what to dowith. And in Atlanta, where magic comes and goes like the tide,thatas saying a lot. But when Kateas werewolf friend Derek isdiscovered nearly dead, she must confront her greatest challengeyet.
This collection of Poe’s best stories contains all the terrifying and bewildering tales that characterize his work。 As well as the Gothic horror of such famous stories as The Pit a,d th Pendulum。 The Fall of the House of Usher。 The Premature grial and The TelI-Tale Heart。 all of Po’s Auguste Dupin stories are included。 These are the first modern detective stories，and include The Murders in the Rue Morgue。 The Mystery of Marie Roget and The Purloned Letter。
Old Martin Chuzzlewit has a great fortune, but to whom can he leave it? He and his likable grandson, young Martin, have fallen out. Beyond that, a tangle of sly, grasping relatives coil about him. Throughout, the reader is rooting for the gentle Tom Pinch and his lovely sister, Mary. But before all can be decided, Dickens puts both Tom and young Martin through murder, mayhem and a brief purgatory in the United States. Reader Davidson quickly tunes into Dickens's ferocious irony, but his paramount strength is his uncanny ability to find and maintain the perfect voice for each of the vintage characters: drippy, insinuous, vicious, sly, bold American backwoods, or London Cheapside. Each is a distinct creation! Dickens lovers will treasure every tape in this two-volume masterpiece. P.E.F.An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
This comic novel describes the boating expedition on the Thames of three friends and their dog, Montmerency. The difficulties and vicissitudes of these innocents abroad are magnified to epic proportions, and give the book an air of fresh innocence.
Jordan Buchanan is thrilled that her brother and best friendare tying the knot. The wedding is a lavish affair–for the marriageof Dylan Buchanan and Kate MacKenna is no ordinary occasion. Itrepresents the joining of two family dynasties. The ceremony andreception proceed without a hitch–until a crasher appears claimingto be a MacKenna guest. The disheveled and eccentric professor ofmedieval history warns that there’s “bad blood” between thecouple’s clans, stemming from an ancient feud that originated inScotland, and involving the Buchanan theft of a coveted MacKennatreasure. Jordan has always led a cautious life and has used herintelligence and reason to become a successful businesswoman. Soshe is intrigued but skeptical of the professor’s claims that thefeud has been kept alive by the grave injustices the Buchanans haveperpetrated over the centuries. But when Noah Clayborne, a closefamily friend and a man who has never let a good time or a prettygirl pass him by, accuses Jordan of
After one troubled college-age student disappears and two are found slashed to death, Lucas Davenport finds himself hunting what appears to be a modern-day Jack the Ripper. But Lucas keeps getting the sneaking suspicion that there is something else involved. Something very bad, very dark, and as elusive as a phantom.
The Call Of The Wild is the story of Buck, a dog stolen from his home and thrust into the merciless life of the Arctic north to endure hardship, bitter cold, and the savage lawlessness of man and beast. White Fang is the adventure of an animal -- part dog, part wolf --turned vicious by cruel abuse, then transformed by the patience and affection of one man. Jack London's superb ability as a storyteller and his uncanny understanding of animal and human natures give these tales a striking vitality and power, and have earned him a reputation as a distinguished American writer.
The Well-Beloved completes the cycle of Hardy's great novels reiterating his favourite themes of man’S eternal quest for perfection in both Iove and art，and the suffering that ensmI}S．Iocelyn Pierston，celebrated sculptor，tries to create an image of his ideal woman-his imaginary Well-Beloved in stone，jUSt as he tries to find her in the flesh．Powerful symbolism marks this romantic fantasy that Hardy has grounded firmly in reality with a characteristically authentic rendering 0f location，the Isle of Slingers，or Portland as we know it．Overt exploration 0f the relationship between erotic faSCination and creativity makes thiS novel a nineteenth centU ry Iandma rk in the persistent debate aboUt art， aesthetics and gender。 This volume breaks new ground by including in full the 1892 serialised version of the novel-The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved。
In his newest adventure, Indiana Jones travels to Indiaaccompanied by a female torch singer named Willie Scott and aneleven-year-old boy named Short Round, his self-appointedside-kick.
The Diary of a Nobody is so unassuming a work that even its author, George Grossmith, seemed unaware that he had produced a masterpiece. For more than a century this wonderfully comic portrayal of suburban life and values has remined in print, a source of delight to generations of readers, and a major literary influence, much imitated but never equalled. If you don't recognise yourself at some point in The Diary you are probably less than human. If you can read it without laughing aloud you have no sense of humour.
This novel is Lawrence’s semi-autobiographical masterpiece in which he explores emotional conflicts through the protagonist, Paul Morel, and his suffocating relationships with a demanding mother and two very different lovers. Lawrence’s novels are perhaps the most powerful exploration in the genre in English of family, class, sexuality and relationships in youth and early adulthood.
Adapted from Sir Richard F. Burton's lavish unexpurgated translation, this volume illuminates the sensual mystery and lushness of the original Arabic tales. It includes a wide variety of tales--from magic fairy tales to torrid erotic tales--that reveal a great deal about what life was like in the Middle East during the Medieval period. The companion volume to the popular Signet Classic edition of Arabian Nights (8/91), also edited by Jack Zipes Jack Zipes is the author of several books of fairy tales and is the editor of the Signet Classic edition of The Complete Fairy Tales Of Oscar Wilde (5/96) These volumes offer the uncensored, erotic versions of the tales, not the rewritten fairy tales for children 作者简介： A. S. Byatt is the author of The Biographer's Tale, Elementals, and the Booker Prize winning novel Possession, among other books. She lives in London. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Since its first publication in 1908,generations of adults and children have cherished kenneth Grahame's classic,The Wind in the Wilows,For in this entrancing,Lyrical world of gurgling rivers and whispering reeds live four of the wisest,Wittiest,noblest,and most lovable creatures in literature-Rat,Mole,Badger,and Toad of Toad Hall,Like true adventurers,they glory in life's simplest pleasures and natural wonders,But it is Toad,cocky and irrepressible in his goggles and overcoat,whose passion for motorcars represents the free and fearless spirit in all of us;as it is toad's downfall that inspires the others to test Grahame's most precious theme—the miracle of loyalty and firendship.
BUCK'S FIRST DAY...WAS LIKE A NIGHTMARE HE HAD BEEN SUDDENLY JERKED FROM THE HEART OF CIVILIZATION AND FLUNG INTO THE HEART OF THINGS PRIMORDIAL. NO LAZY, SUNKISSED LIFE WAS THIS, WITH NOTHING TO DO....HERE WAS NEITHER PEACE, NOR REST, NORA MOMENT'S SAFETY.ALL WAS CONFUSION AND ACTION,AND EVERY MOMENT LIFE AND LIMB WERE IN PERIL....FOR THESE DOGS AND MEN WERE NOT TOWN DOGS AND MEN. THEY WERE SAVAGES, ALL OF THEM....
ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP The compelling, semiautobiographical story of an artist and his relationship to his culture, his family, and his inner self. EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES: 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 Enriche
One of the great classics of Western literature，Les Miserables is a magisterial work which is rich in both character portrayal and meticulous historical de*ion. Characters such as the absurdly criminalised Valjean. the street urchin Gavroche.the rascal Thenardier. the implacable detective lavert， and the pitiful figure of the prostitute Fantine and her daughter Cosotte， have entered the pantheon of literary dramatis persoae. The reader is also treated to the unforgettable de*ions of the Battle of Waterloo and Valjean's flight through the Paris sewers.
Oliver Twist was Dickens's second novel and one of his darkest, dealing with burglary, kidnapping, child abuse, prostitution, and murder. Alongside this gallery of horrors are the corrupt and incompetent institutions of 19th-century England set up to address social problems and instead making them worse. The author's moral indignation drives the creation of some of his most memorably grotesque characters: squirming, vile Fagin; brutal Bill Sykes; the brooding, sickly Monks; and Bumble, the pompous and incorrigibly dense beadle. Clearly, a reading of this work must carry the author's passionate narrative voice while being flexible and broad enough to define the wide range of character voices suggested by the text. John Wells's capable but bland reading only suggests the rich possibilities of the material. Restraint and Dickens simply don't go together. The abridgment deftly and seamlessly manages to deliver all major characters and plot lines, but there are many superior audiobook versions of this material, bo
It is a Wednesday in mid-June 1923 andMrs Dalleway is to have a party. As Shespends the day in preparation, worryingabout the evening's success, she looks backover her life at the choices that have led herhere. Then an unexpected visitor calls ... PENGUIN POPULAR CLASSICS are the per-fect introduction to the world-famousPENGUIN CLASSICS series - which en-compasses the best books ever written,from Homer's Odyssey to Orwelrs 1984and everything in between. For a full listand ideas on what to read next, visitwww.penguinclassics.com
Based on Charlotte Bronte's personal experience as a teacher in Brussels. Villette is a moving tale of repressed feelings and subjection to cruel circumstance and position, borne with heroic fortitude. Rising above the frustrations of confinement within a rigid social order, it is also a story of a woman’s right to love and be loved.
When Maggie was published, society was unprepared for its grimand stark tale of a pretty young girl's fall in New York's Bowery,and its criticism of the irresponsibility of men toward women.Stephen Crane also exhibits his stunning genius in the five otherstories of this collection, from the local color of small-town lifeto the bustle of the city to war stories full of the irony ofheroism. The six make up an enduring testimony to one of America'sfinest writers.
During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible. By turns insightful and funny, thrilling and terrifying, City of Thieves is a gripping, cinematic World War II adventure and an intimate coming-of-age story with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men.
