Gathered together in one hardcover volume: three timeless novelsfrom the founding father of science fiction. The first great novelto imagine time travel, "The Time Machine" (1895) follows itsscientist narrator on an incredible journey that takes him finallyto Earth's last moments--and perhaps his own. The scientist whodiscovers how to transform himself in "The Invisible Man" (1897)will also discover, too late, that he has become unmoored fromsociety and from his own sanity. "The War of the Worlds"(1898)--the seminal masterpiece of alien invasion adapted by OrsonWelles for his notorious 1938 radio drama, and subsequently byseveral filmmakers--imagines a fierce race of Martians whodevastate Earth and feed on their human victims while theirvoracious vegetation, the red weed, spreads over the ruined planet.Here are three classic science fiction novels that, more than acentury after their original publication, show no sign of losingtheir grip on readers' imaginations.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) It has been said that VictorHugo has a street named after him in virtually every town inFrance. A major reason for the singular celebrity of this mostpopular and versatile of the great French writers is "LesMiserables "(1862). In this story of the trials of the peasant JeanValjean--a man unjustly imprisoned, baffled by destiny, and houndedby his nemesis, the magnificently realized, ambiguously malevolentpolice detective Javert--Hugo achieves the sort of rare imaginativeresonance that allows a work of art to transcend its genre. "LesMiserables "is at once a tense thriller that contains one of themost compelling chase scenes in all literature, an epic portrayalof the nineteenth-century French citizenry, and a vitaldrama--highly particularized and poetic in its rendition butuniversal in its implications--of the redemption of one humanbeing.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Naguib Mahfouz's magnificentepic trilogy of colonial Egypt appears here in one volume for thefirst time. The Nobel Prize--winning writer's masterwork is theengrossing story of a Muslim family in Cairo during Britain'soccupation of Egypt in the early decades of the twentieth century.The novels of "The Cairo Trilogy" trace three generations of thefamily of tyrannical patriarch Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, whorules his household with a strict hand while living a secret lifeof self-indulgence. "Palace Walk" introduces us to his gentle,oppressed wife, Amina, his cloistered daughters, Aisha and Khadija,and his three sons-the tragic and idealistic Fahmy, the dissolutehedonist Yasin, and the soul-searching intellectual Kamal.Al-Sayyid Ahmad's rebellious children struggle to move beyond hisdomination in "Palace of Desire," as the world around them opens tothe currents of modernity and political and domestic turmoilbrought by the 1920s. "Sugar Street" brings Mahfouz's vividtapestr

One of the towering figures of world literature, Goethe hasnever held quite as prominent a place in the English-speaking worldas he deserves. This collection of his four major works, togetherwith a selection of his finest letters and poems, shows that he isnot only one of the very greatest European writers: he is alsoaccessible, entertaining, and contemporary. The Sorrows of Young Wertheris a story of self-destructive love that made its author acelebrity overnight at the age of twenty-five. Its exploration ofthe conflicts between ideas and feelings, between circumstance anddesire, continues in his controversial novel probing theinstitution of marriage, Elective Affinities. The cosmic drama ofFaust goes far beyond the realism of the novels in a poeticexploration of good and evil, while Italian Journey, written in theauthor’s old age, recalls his youth in Italy and the impact ofMediterranean culture on a young northerner.

A brilliant new translation of the work that Herman Hessecalled "the first great masterpiece of European storytelling." Inthe summer of 1348, with the plague ravaging Florence, ten youngmen and women take refuge in the countryside, where they entertainthemselves with tales of love, death, and corruption, featuring ahost of characters, from lascivious clergymen and mad kings todevious lovers and false miracle-makers. Named after the Greek for"ten days," Boccaccio's book of stories draws on ancient mythology,contemporary history, and everyday life, and has influenced thework of myriad writers who came after him. J. G. Nichols's newtranslation, faithful to the original but rendered in eminentlyreadable modern English, captures the timeless humor of one of thegreat classics of European literature.