First published in 1905, The House of Mirth shocked the New York society it so deftly chronicles, portraying the moral, social, and economic restraints on a woman who dared to claim the privileges of marriage without assuming the responsibilities. Lily Bart, beautiful, witty, and sophisticated, is accepted by “old money” and courted by the growing […]
Jules Vernes career as a novelist began in 1863, when he struck a new vein in fiction-stories that combined popular science and exploration. In Around the World in Eighty Days, Phileas Fogg rashly bets his companions ?20,000 that he can travel around the entire globe in just eighty days, and he is determined not to […]
This is the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories, first published by H.G. Wells in 1898. The novel begins ominously, as the lone voice of a narrator tells readers that “No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater […]
Edgar Allan Poe remains the unsurpassed master of works of mystery and madness in this outstanding collection of Poes prose and poetry are sixteen of his finest tales, including “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “William Wilson,” “The Black Cat,” […]
A pauper caught up in the pomp of the royal court. A prince wandering horror-stricken through the lower depths of English society. Out of the theme of switched identities, Mark Twain fashioned both a scathing attack upon social hypocrisy and injustice, and an irresistible comedy imbued with the sense of high-spirited play that belongs to […]
Beginning with a short story appearing in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1978, the publication of Stephen Kings epic work of fantasy-what he considers to be a single long novel and his magnum opus-has spanned a quarter of a century. Set in a world of extraordinary circumstances, filled with stunning visual imagery […]
Say youve spent the first 10 years of your life sleeping under the stairs of a family who loathes you. Then, in an absurd, magical twist of fate you find yourself surrounded by wizards, a caged snowy owl, a phoenix-feather wand, and jellybeans that come in every flavor, including strawberry, curry, grass, and sardine. Not […]
Harry Potter is midway through both his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup with Hermione, Ron, and the Weasleys. He wants to dream about Cho Chang, his crush (and maybe do more than dream). He wants […]
This must-read fantasy takes you inside Hogwarts again for Harrys 6th year. Whats in store for the wizard and his friends? What danger does his greatest enemy have planned? And who is the half-blood prince? Find out in this long-awaited adventure! Winner of two 2005 Quill Book Awards: Best Childrens Chapter Book in the middle […]
“There is a door at the end of a silent corridor. And its haunting Harry Potters dreams. Why else would he be walking in the middle of the night, screaming in terror? Harry has alot on his mind for this, his fifth year at Hogwarts: A Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher with a personality […]
The second volume in J.R.R. Tolkiens epic adventure The Lord of the Rings “Here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron.” — C. S. Lewis “Among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century. The book presents us with the richest profusion of new lands and new creatures, from […]
Pullmans heroic, at times heart-wrenching novel, The Golden Compass, a story ostensibly for children but one perhaps even better appreciated by adults. The protagonist of this complex fantasy is young Lyra Belacqua, a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Oxford University. But it quickly becomes clear that Lyras Oxford is not precisely like […]
Anyone who has spent time in the developing world will know that one of Bombays claims to fame is the enormous film industry that churns out hundreds of musical fantasies each year. The other, of course, is native son Salman Rushdie–less prolific, perhaps than Bollywood, but in his own way just as fantastical. Though Rushdies […]