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 matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils...

Darkly fascinating short novel depicts the struggles of a doubting, supremely alienated protagonist in a world of relative values. Seminal work introduced moral, religious, political and social themes that dominated Dostoyevsky's later masterworks. Constance Garnett's authoritative translation is reprinted here, with a new introduction. A minor official brutally scrutinizes himself and decides to go "underground," away from society. This is a strange...

First published in 1516, Saint Thomas More's Utopia is one of the most important works of European humanism. Through the voice of the mysterious traveller Raphael Hythloday, More describes a pagan, communist city-state governed by reason. Addressing such issues as religious pluralism, women's rights, state-sponsored education, colonialism, and justified warfare, Utopia seems remarkably contemporary nearly five centuries after it was written, and it...

The poverty-stricken Raskolnikov, a talented sutdent, devises a theory about extraordinary men being above the law, since in their brillance they think "new thoughts" and so contribute to society. He then sets out to prove his theory by murdering a vile, cynical old pawnbroker and her sister. The act brings him into contact with his own buried conscience and with two characters, the deeply religious Sonia, who has endured great suffering, and Porfiry,...

The three laws of Robotics: 1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm 2) A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. With these three, simple directives, Isaac Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when...

Nineteen interconnected stories set in the world of rabbits. In one of them the rabbit hero, El-ahrairah, obtains for his people the sense of smell, in another he saves them from an invasion by rats. A sequel to the 1974 novel, Watership Down.

Spread the Christmas cheer with this whimsical retelling of Clement C. Moore's cherished poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas." This new edition of the classic features the text of Moore's original poem, illustrated with beautifully detailed LEGO brick scenes and characters. See the colorful stockings hung by the chimney in the fanciful brick house, and look on at the visions of dancing brick sugarplums. Turn the pages to reveal Saint Nicholas with his...

A true 20th-century classic from the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Sound and the Fury: the famed harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother.
As I Lay Dying is one of the most influential novels in American fiction in structure, style, and drama. Narrated in turn by each of the family members, including Addie herself as well as others,...

Set against the background of political upheaval in France following the rule of Napoleon I, the novel tells the story of the peasant Jean Valjean, a convict struggling to escape his past and on the run, hunted by Inspector Javert, a police agent with a ruthless conscience. Their world encompasses a broad section of the outcasts, rejects and rebels of early 19th-century French society, as events take in a tour of the city's sewers, the battle of Waterloo...

The haunting story of a wealthy Midwestern family's struggle to adapt to the rapidly changing world at the dawn of the 20th century.