As daughter of the richest, most important man in the small provincial village of Highbury, Emma Woodhouse is firmly convinced that it is her right--perhaps even her "duty"--To arrange the lives of others. Considered by most critics to be Austen's most technically brilliant achievement, "Emma" sparkles with ironic insights into self-deception, self-discovery, and the interplay of love and power.

In this story of the trials of the peasant Jean Valjean - a man unjustly imprisoned, baffled by destiny, and hounded by his nemesis, the magnificently realized, ambiguously malevolent police detective Javert - Hugo achieves the sort of rare imaginative resonance that allows a work of art to transcend its genre.

Easily the most influential book published in the nineteenth century, Darwin's The Origin of Species is also that most unusual phenomenon, an altogether readable discussion of a scientific subject. On its appearance in 1859 it was immediately recognized by enthusiasts and detractors alike as a work of the greatest importance: the revolutionary theory of evolution by means of natural selection that it presented provoked a furious reaction that continues...

Collects three early novels by the influential English author. Burmese days: In the hermetic world of 1930s colonial Burma, a corrupt Burmese politician uses the powers of his office to win membership in a British club. Keep the aspidistra flying: A poor young Londoner, who disdains conventional lifestyles and goals, works by day in a bookstore and writes by night in a cold rented room. Coming up for air: An insurance salesman's win of a small sum...

"Here in one volume is an exceptional selection from Chester Himes's acclaimed Harlem Detectives series. Winner of France's prestigious Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and lauded by Jean Cocteau as a "prodigious masterpiece," A Rage in Harlem introduces detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson in a searing escapade. In The Real Cool Killers, the duo investigates a shooting and discovers an unsettling personal connection. In The Crazy...