A collection of Valéry’s shorter prose writingsThis book brings together smaller volumes and booklets in which Paul Valéry published selections of his shorter prose writings: aphorisms, moral reflections, poetic observations, flashes of wit or fancy, even jokes—a variety of remarks and impressions, many of them first recorded in his Notebooks.The Collected Works of Paul Valéry, the first collected edition of the writer in English, features new tran...

Three award-winning works of adventure, survival, and the early days of aviation from the celebrated author of The Little Prince, collected in one volume.Ranging from the northern skies of France to the South American Andes, this volume includes two memoirs and a novel, each informed by the lauded pilot and poet's experiences as a pioneering aviator during World War II.Wind, Sand and StarsRecounting his early days f...

The Stranger, also published in English as The Outsider, is a novella by French author Albert Camus.The title character is Meursault, an indifferent French settler in Algeria described as "a citizen of France domiciled in North Africa, a man of the Mediterranean, an homme du midi yet one who hardly partakes of the traditional Mediterranean culture." He kills an Arab man in French Algiers, who was involved in a conflict with one of Meursault's neighbors. Meursault is tried and senten...

From the author of the beloved classic The Little Prince and a winner of the Grand Prix of the Académie Française, Wind, Sand and Stars captures the grandeur, danger, and isolation of flight. Its exciting account of air adventure, combined with lyrical prose and the spirit of a philosopher, makes it one of the most popular works ever written about flying. Translated by Lewis Galantière.

Heart of Darkness (1899) is a short novel by Joseph Conrad, written as a frame narrative, about Charles Marlow's life as an ivory transporter down the Congo River in Central Africa. The river is "a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land." In the course of his travel in central Africa, Marlow becomes obsessed with Mr. Kurtz....

The classic memoir of Africa, aviation, and adventure—the inspiration for Paula McLain's Circling the Sun and "a bloody wonderful book" (Ernest Hemingway).A New York Times BestsellerBeryl Markham's life story is a true epic. Not only did she set records and break barriers as a pilot, she shattered societal expectations, threw herself into torrid love a...

Jim, a young British seaman, becomes first mate on the Patna, a ship full of pilgrims travelling to Mecca for the hajj. When the ship starts rapidly taking on water and disaster seems imminent, Jim joins his captain and other crew members in abandoning the ship and its passengers. He is publicly censured for this action and the novel follows his later attempts at coming to terms with his past.

Today H. G. Wells’s reputation rests almost entirely upon his science fiction novels, which include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898), all of which are acknowledged classics of the science fiction genre and continue to be widely read and adapted into other media. “The Door in the Wall” is considered by both readers and critics to be his finest short story.As well as The Door in the Wall this collecti...

Travelling through Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the twilight of the French colonial regime, Norman Lewis witnesses these ancient civilisations as they were before the terrible devastation of the Vietnam War. He creates a portrait of traditional societies struggling to retain their integrity in the embrace of the West. He meets emperors and slaves, brutal plantation owners and sympathetic French officers trapped by the economic imperatives of the colonial experiment. From tribal animists t...

‘Classic . . . the definitive account of aerial combat – full of passion and poetry’ – Max Arthur, Independent ‘Magical evocation of the lonely battle fought in the clouds’ – The Daily Telegraph ‘This is a book everyone should read. It is the autobiography of an ace, and no common ace either. The boy had all the noble tastes and qualities, love of beauty, soaring imagination, a brilliant endowment of good looks . . . this prince of pilots . . . had a charmed life in every sense of the word...

A chilling post-apocalyptic novel that imagines a world transformed by disaster. Set in the distant future after a devastating plague has destroyed modern civilization, the story follows an old survivor recounting the fall of humanity to a younger generation. Once-great cities and knowledge have faded, replaced by fear, struggle, and primitive survival. As memories of the past emerge, the novel explores how quickly society can collapse when order, science, and structure disappear. The cont...

Set on the snaking, sinuous Danube River, Algernon Blackwood's tale "The Willows" represents a high point in the development of the horror genre. Indeed, acknowledged master H.P. Lovecraft regarded it as the best supernatural tale ever written. More awe-inspiring and thought-provoking than gory or terrifying, "The Willows" is a must-read for fans of classic ghost stories.