This is the biography of one of the most colourful and dashing young monarchs who ever lived. His shortcomings—impulsiveness, quick temper, weakness for women—were offset by his truly generous nature. He became a surprising liberal, the only reigning monarch to defy and outwit Metternich, "the evil genius of the reaction," and he was at one time offered the thrones of Spain and Greece.With a mad grandmother, a mother whose lovers and political intrigues were a court scandal, and a f...

**From the great Brazilian author, an exotic tale of greed, madness, and a dispute between two powerful families over land on the cocoa-rich coast of BahiaA Penguin Classic**The siren song of the lush, cocoa-growing forests of Bahia lures them all—the adventurers, the assassins, the gamblers, the brave and beautiful women. It is not a gentle song, but a song of greed, madness, and blood. It is a song that promises riches untold, or death for the price of a swig of rum . . ....

After all, the “Moscarda” he believed himself to be was different when he was alone, or with his wife, his tenant, or his friends. And there were hundreds—no, thousands—of additional Moscardas in the minds of everyone who had met or heard of him.Moscarda grappled with this new knowledge: that he was not who he thought he was, nor who anyone else thought he was. And the people around him? They were not who he thought they were either.So he decided, in his own words, to “...fi...

Contains Don Quixote, in Samuel Putnam's acclaimed translation, substantially complete, with editorial summaries of the omitted passages; two 'Exemplary Novels, 'Rinconete and Cortadillo' and 'Man of Glass'; and 'Foot in the Stirrup,' Cervantes's extraordinary farewell to life from The Troubles of Persiles and Sigismunda.

An unforgettable epic history of war and rebellion that has been called "the Bible of Brazilian nationality."Euclides da Cunha's classic account of the brutal campaigns against religious mystic Antonio Conselheiro has been praised by readers around the world as perhaps the greatest book ever written about Brazil. An epic of nonfiction that reads like a novel, it has been hailed by the likes of Stefan Zweig and Elizabeth Hardwick for its prose and its insights into ...

A Penguin ClassicPublished here for the first time in English in a brilliant translation by the peerless Gregory Rabassa, The Discovery of America by the Turks is a whimsical Brazilian take on The Taming of the Shrew that will remind readers why Jorge Amado is to Portuguese-American literature what Jorge Luis Borges is to Spanish-American literature. It follows the adventures of two Arab immigrants—“Turks,” as Brazilians call them—who arrive in th...

A Penguin ClassicWidely considered the greatest work by the foremost Brazilian author of the twentieth century, The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray comes to Penguin Classics in a new translation by the dean of Portuguese-language translators, Gregory Rabassa. It tells the story of Joaquim Soares da Cunha, who drops dead after he abandons his life of upstanding citizenship to assume the identity of Quincas Water-Bray, a “champion drunk” and bum who is wh...

**A Brazilian Lord of the Flies, about a group of boys who live by their wits and daring in the slums of BahiaA Penguin Classics**They call themselves “Captains of the Sands,” a gang of orphans and runaways who live by their wits and daring in the torrid slums and sleazy back alleys of Bahia. Led by fifteen-year-old “Bullet,” the band—including a crafty liar named “Legless,” the intellectual “Professor,” and the sexually precocious “Cat”—pulls off heists and escapa...

Hailed as the greatest novel of the Mexican Revolution,The Underdogsrecounts the story of an illiterate but charismatic Indian peasant farmer’s part in the rebellion against Porfirio Díaz, and his subsequent loss of belief in the cause when the revolutionary alliance becomes factionalized. Azuela’s masterpiece is a timeless, authentic portrayal of peasant life, revolutionary zeal, and political disillusionment.

"Hard Times" is the 1854 novel by Charles Dickens that sought to highlight the social and economic divide that was growing between capitalistic mill owners and workers during the Victorian era of Great Britain. Originally published in serial form in Dickens's own periodical journal "Household Words", "Hard Times" is unique in that it is not set in London, like many of his works, but in the fictitious Victorian town of Coketown. A critical examination of the poor working conditions in many ...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the master of the legal thriller comes a “deeply engaging and enjoyable” (USA Today) novel featuring one of John Grisham’s most colorful, outrageous, and vividly drawn characters ever.ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST AND NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAROn the right side of the law—sort of—Sebastian Rudd is not your typical street lawyer. He drinks small-batch bourbon and carries a gun. Hi...

Edge of Eternity is the epic, final novel in Ken Follett’s captivating and hugely ambitious Century trilogy. On its own or read in sequence with Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, this is a compulsive, gripping blockbuster about the fight for personal freedom set during the Cold War.A FIGHT AGAINST INJUSTICE1961, and in the United States George Jakes, a bright young lawyer in the Kennedy administration and fi...