Classic

The novel opens with a scene introducing Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky ("Stiva"), a Moscow aristocrat and civil servant who has been unfaithful to his wife Darya Alexandrovna ("Dolly"). Dolly has discovered his affair with the family's governess, and the household and family are in turmoil. Stiva's affair and his reaction to his wife's distress show an amorous personality that he cannot seem to suppress. In the midst of the turmoil, Stiva informs the household that his married sister, Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, is coming to visit from Saint Petersburg. Meanwhile, Stiva's childhood friend, Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin ("Kostya"), arrives in Moscow with the aim of proposing to Dolly's youngest sister, Princess Katerina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya ("Kitty"). Levin is a passionate, restless, but shy aristocratic landowner who, unlike his Moscow friends, chooses to live in the country on his large estate. He discovers that Kitty is also being pursued by Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky, an army officer. Whilst at the railway station to meet Anna, Stiva bumps into Vronsky who is there to meet his mother, the Countess Vronskaya. Anna and Vronskaya have traveled and talked together in the same carriage. As the family members are reunited, and Vronsky sees Anna for the first time, a railway worker accidentally falls in front of a train and is killed. Anna interprets this as an "evil omen." Vronsky, however, is infatuated with her. Anna is uneasy about leaving her young son, Sergei ("Seryozha"), alone for the first time. At the Oblonsky home, Anna talks openly and emotionally to Dolly about Stiva's affair and convinces her that Stiva still loves her despite the infidelity. Dolly is moved by Anna's speeches and decides to forgive Stiva... (Excerpt from Wikipedia)

"In a world where freedom is a forgotten word, and individuality is sacrificed for stability, humanity has traded its soul for comfort and control. Genetic engineering determines your fate, and the soothing grip of 'soma' keeps you blissfully compliant. But what happens when a man from outside this perfect society begins to question its foundations? Through the eyes of 'John the Savage,' Aldous Huxley explores a chilling dystopia where progress and happiness come at the ultimate cost: our humanity. Brave New World is a haunting vision of the future that forces us to confront the price of utopia."

In The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald captures the flamboyance, the carelessness and the cruelty of the wealthy during America's Jazz Age. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition features an afterword by David Stuart Davies. The Great Gatsby lives mysteriously in a luxurious Long Island mansion, playing lavish host to hundreds of people. And yet no one seems to know him or how he became so rich. He is rumoured to be everything from a German spy to a war hero. People clamour for invitations to his wild parties. But Jay Gatsby doesn't heed them. He cares for one person alone - Daisy Buchanan, the woman he has waited for all his life. Little does he know that his infatuation will lead to tragedy and end in murder.

ONE OF THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS BOOKS AND WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE _______________________________ 'Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice' Gabriel García Márquez's great masterpiece is the story of seven generations of the Buendía family and of Macondo, the town they built. Though little more than a settlement surrounded by mountains, Macondo has its wars and disasters, even its wonders and its miracles. A microcosm of Columbian life, its secrets lie hidden, encoded in a book, and only Aureliano Buendía can fathom its mysteries and reveal its shrouded destiny. Blending political reality with magic realism, fantasy and comic invention, One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most daringly original works of the twentieth century. _______________________________ 'As steamy, dense and sensual as the jungle that surrounds the surreal town of Macondo!' Oprah, Featured in Oprah's Book Club 'Should be required reading for the entire human race' The New York Times 'The book that sort of saved my life' Emma Thompson 'No lover of fiction can fail to respond to the grace of Márquez's writing' Sunday Telegraph

'If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.' The first of J. D. Salinger's four books to be published, The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most widely read and beloved of all contemporary American novels. 'The handbook of the adolescent heart' The New Yorker

Grownup Meg, tomboyish Jo, timid Beth, and precocious Amy. The four March sisters couldn't be more different. But with their father away at war, and their mother working to support the family, they have to rely on one another. Whether they're putting on a play, forming a secret society, or celebrating Christmas, there's one thing they can't help w...

Pride and Prejudice is an 1813 romantic novel of manners written by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. A classic pie...

Since it was first published in English, in 1946, Albert Camus's first novel, THE STRANGER (L'etranger), has had a profound impact on millions of American readers. Through this story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with t...

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no Adult, supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and e...

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Alice Walker's iconic modern classic is now a Penguin Book.A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentiethcentury rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty t...

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, ...

Before The Testaments, there was The Handmaids Tale: an instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction (New York Times).The Handmaids Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was...

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Toni Morrison?s Beloved is a spellbinding and dazzlingly innovative portrait of a woman haunted by the past.Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful f...

Dorothea Brooke is a beautiful and idealistic young woman set on filling her life with good deeds. She pursues the pompous Edward Casaubon, conviced that he embodies these principles, and becomes trapped in an unhappy marriage. Then there is Tertius Lydgate, an anguished progressive whose determination to bring modern medicine to the provinces is m...

Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matte...

Naval Ravikant's answer to "first book which started your lifelong journey of reading?"

Among Shakespeare's plays, "Hamlet" is considered by many his masterpiece. Among actors, the role of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is considered the jewel in the crown of a triumphant theatrical career. Now Kenneth Branagh plays the leading role and codirects a brillant ensemble performance. Three generations of legendary leading actors, many of whom...

Sylvia Plath's shocking, realistic, and intensely emotional novel about a woman falling into the grip of insanityEsther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going undermaybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's breakdown wit...

This landmark book is a founding work in the literature of black protest. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868_x0096_1963) played a key role in developing the strategy and program that dominated early 20thcentury black protest in America. In this collection of essays, first published together in 1903, he eloquently affirms that it is beneath the dignity of a human be...

Richard Branson recommended this book on his "70 must-read books" blog post.

Recommended on Jordan Peterson's website.

If I had my way, every idiot who goes around with Merry Christmas on his lips, would be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. Merry Christmas Bah humbug!'Introduction and Afterword by Joe WheelerTo bitter, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, Christmas is just another day. But all that changes when the ghost of his...

When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries about his client and his castle. Soon afterwards, a number of disturbing incidents unfold in England: an unmanned ship is wrecked at Whitby; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; and the inmate of a lu...

He succeeds in placing before the reader a vision of the world in cosmic time' Norman NicholsonThe Time Traveller knew that Time was only a kind of Space. The fantastic story of his adventures in a machine which could travel in any direction of Space and Time has captured the imagination of millions.H. G. Wells, one of the giants of twentiethcent...

The first adventure in this highly popular series tells how the little monkey Curious George, caught in the jungle and brought back to the city by a man in a yellow hat, can't help being interested in all the new things around him. Though well meaning, George's curiosity always gets him into trouble. Young readers can easily relate, and Rey's cheer...

Two sisters of opposing temperament but who share the pangs of tragic love provide the subjects for Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.Part of the Macmillan Collectors Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. G...

It all begins with a letter. Fall in love with Penguin Drop Caps, a new series of twentysix collectible and hardcover editions, each with a type cover showcasing a gorgeously illustrated letter of the alphabet. In a design collaboration between Jessica Hische and Penguin Art Director Paul Buckley, the series features unique cover art by Hische, a ...

The first title in Arthur Ransome's classic series, Swallows and Amazons was originally published in 1930 and remains to this day an intrepid story of sailing, exploration, and friendship for children, grownups, and anyone captivated by a world of adventure and imagination. Set in England_x0092_s Lake District in 1929, the story follows the Walker family...

Twentysevenyear old Anne Elliot is Austen's most Adult, heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and longlasting ...

A little bunny keeps running away from his mother in an imaginative and imaginary game of verbal hideandseek; children will be profoundly comforted by this lovingly steadfast mother who finds her child every time.The Runaway Bunny, first published in 1942 and never out of print, has indeed become a classic. Generations of readers have fallen in l...

The Davis family is unhappy with life in Missouri. So they decided to strike out for a new life in the rich gold fields of California. In no time they've packed everything they own, even their kitten, Nugget, and are ready to make the long journey west. There are mountains and deserts to be crossed, plenty of rousing campfire songs, and even Indian...

Into the FourStory Mistake, an oddlooking house with a confused architectural history, move the Melendy family Mona, Rush, Randy, Oliver, Father, and Cuffy, the housekeeper. Though disappointed about leaving their old brownstone in New York City, and apprehensive about living the country life, the four Melendy kids soon settle into this unusua...

This complete and unabridged collection contains all 23 of Beatrix Potter's Tales in one deluxe volume with all their original illustrations. The stories are arranged in the order in which they were first published so they may be read in their proper sequence. A special section at the end of this volume contains four additional works by Beatrix Pot...

From dressing the chicken to dusting the furniture, Amelia Bedelia does exactly what Mr. and Mrs. Rogers tell her. ...But somehow things never turn out quite right....

The five Mitchell children are based on the author's own family. In the first of three books about their adventures, Daddy has just gone off to World War II. One of his final words to his daughter Joan is, "No dogs " She would dearly love such a pet, but life is full and so many new friends pets as well as people join the Mitchells, she hardl...

A modern classic that no child should miss. Since it was first published in 1939, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel has delighted generations of children. Mike and his trusty steam shovel, Mary Anne, dig deep canals for boats to travel through, cut mountain passes for trains, and hollow out cellars for city skyscrapers the very symbol of indust...

The paperback editions of The Boxcar Children Mysteries: #1, The Boxcar Children; #2, Surprise Island; #3, The Yellow House Mystery; and #4, Mystery Ranch are offered together in a cardboard case....

In this famous story of seduction, two highly intelligent but amoral French aristocrats plot the downfall of a respectable young married woman and a fifteen year old girl who has only just emerged from the convent. The letters these two conspirators exchange are remarkably frank in describing how they manage to achieve their ends and, at the same t...

A special treat for Hardy Boys fans! The first six books in the classic mystery series are packaged together in a collectible box set featuring a newly redesigned slipcover. Titles included are "#1 The Tower Treasure," "#2 The House on the Cliff," "#3 The Secret of the Old Mill," "#4 The Missing Chums," "#5 Hunting for Hidden Gold," and "#6 The Sho...

Portions of Harriet Jacobs's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" first appeared serially in 1861 in the New York Tribune; however publication ceased before the completion of the narrative due to its being deemed as too shocking for the average newspaper reader of the day. Harriet Jacobs wrote under the pseudonym of Linda Brent because, as an es...

Jancsi is overjoyed to hear that his cousin from Budapest is coming to spend the summer on his father's ranch on the Hungarian plains. But their summer proves more adventurous than he had hoped when headstrong Kate arrives, as together they share horseback races across the plains, country fairs and festivals, and a dangerous runin with the gypsies...

The adventures for the Hollisters begin as soon as they move into their new house on the shore on Pine Lake in Shoreham. First, the moving van carrying their toys and their father's important new invention disappears. Next, they learn that their house may be haunted, with a treasure hidden somewhere inside! Right away they all set out to solve thes...

Sixthgrader Rufus Mayflower doesn't set out to become a millionaire. He just wants to save on toothpaste. Betting he can make a gallon of his own for the same price as one tube from the store, Rufus develops a stepbystep production plan with help from his good friend Kate MacKinstrey. By the time he reaches the eighth grade, Rufus makes more tha...

"Mountain," Baldwin said, "is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else." Go Tell It On The Mountain, first published in 1953, is Baldwin's first major work, a novel that has established itself as an American classic. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unr...