George Orwell’s timeless and timely allegorical novel—a scathing satire of a downtrodden society’s blind march towards totalitarianism.“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penn...

Whimsy, imagination, and sentiment have been banned in the Gradgrinds' upper-class household, but in Coketown, whose working class inhabitants fight for their very survival, the ban becomes a merciless creed. There, all that matters are the grinding wheels of production. Hard Times reflects a harsh world of grueling labor and pitiless relationships. But it is also a story of hope, of something elemental in the human spirit that rises above its bleak surroundings.

This first title in the popular mystery series by playwright and novelist John Mortimer features Horace Rumpole, an English barrister who stands before the jury with the flourish of a Shakespearean actor and the ingenuity of a Sherlock Holmes. Rumpole—expert on bloodstains and fingerprint forgery—who has a wit so dry and razor sharp that most of his duller colleagues miss its cutting edge entirely; who prefers, nay depends upon a daily nip of Pommeroy’s ordinary claret; who recites Matthew...

With all the adventure and suspense of an Indiana Jones movie, this 1885 novel recounts the journey of four men-three Englishmen and a regal native named Umbopa-who enter Africa's dark interior in search of the original site of King Solomon's Mines, reputed to be the location for a great stockpile of diamonds. Who and what these unlikely companions encounter along the way is the stuff of high adventure, one of the great jungle epics of all time.

In the 19th century, Sir Richard Francis Burton-Oxford-educated spy and adventurer-became the first Englishman to enter the Muslim city of Mecca. Disguised as a dervish, Burton braved the harsh desert climate, Bedouin bandits, and the scrutiny of Muslim travelers to reach the forbidden city. He recorded his experiences in this book, a fascinating adventure of unique anthropological significance.

It is 1857, and Reverend Geoffrey Wilson has departed England to prove the literal truth of the Bible. The expedition heads towards Tasmania, where he is convinced he will find the real Garden of Eden. But the other passengers have their own agendas. Dr Potter is developing a sinister thesis, and the ship is crewed by smugglers of contraband brandy and tobacco. As the English passengers near Peevay's land, their bizarre notions become painfully at odds with reality. Their destination is no...

A new edition Wilkie Collins's classic novel with a new introduction by bestselling crime author Val McDermidThe Moonstone, a yellow diamond looted from an Indian temple and believed to bring bad luck to its owner, is bequeathed to Rachel Verinder on her eighteenth birthday. That very night the priceless stone is stolen again and when Sergeant Cuff is brought in to investigate the crime, he soon realizes that no one in Rachel’s household is above suspicion…"The first, the lon...

Napoleon's surrender and retreat from Moscow in 1812 is a pinnacle of military horror. Of the 600,000 men who crossed into Russia in June of 1812, only 25,000 would survive. Jakob Walter, a conscript soldier, was one of those survivors. His observant diary captures the everyday circumstances that soldiers suffered during the campaign.

Virginia Woolf once called Thomas Hardy “the greatest tragic writer among English novelists.” Set against the serene British countryside, his atmospheric novels were often considered shocking upon their publication.Returning to Egdon Heath from Paris, Clym Yeobright intends to settle down and improve the lives of his townspeople. But the alluring and mysterious Eustacia Vye has other plans. She believes Clym can provide the cosmopolitan life she craves, if only they return to Paris...

Oliver Goldsmith earned instant acclaim when he published The Vicar of Wakefield, a marvelous mixture of burlesque and satire. The simple village vicar, Mr. Primrose, is living with his wife and six children in complete tranquility until unexpected calamities force them to weather one hilarious adventure after another. Goldsmith plays out this classic comedy of manners with a light, ironic touch that is irresistibly charming.

" The great panther leaped as a kitten leaps at a dead leaf whirling overhead, struck left and right into the empty air that sung under the strokes, landed noiselessly and leaped again and again, while the half purr, half growl gathered head as steam rumbles in a boiler. ' I am Bagheera-- in the jungle-- in the night, and my strength is in me. Who shall stay my stroke?'" -- from " Letting in the Jungle" For Rudyard Kipling, the jungle was at once a fierce and an infinitely gentle place. Th...

English Passengers presents the diverse and often conflicting perspectives of a remarkable cast of characters—including British convicts, government officials, missionaries who impose their European standards and self-serving rules on the native population, aboriginal Tasmanians caught in a desperate struggle for survival, and members of a bizarre expedition searching for the Garden of Eden.The narrative begins in 1857, as Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley of the Sincerity, thwarted i...