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A massacre at a colonial garrison, the kidnapping of two pioneer sisters by Iroquois tribesmen, the treachery of a renegade brave, and the ambush of innocent settlers create an unforgettable, spine-tingling picture of American frontier life in this classic 18th-century adventure — the most popular of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales.First published in 1826, the story — set in the forests of upper New York State during the French and Indian War — movingly portrays the relationship between Hawkeye, a gallant, courageous woodsman, and his loyal Mohican friends, Chingachgook and Uncas. Embroiled in one of the war's bloody battles, they attempt to lead the abducted Munro sisters to safety but find themselves instead in the midst of a final, tragic confrontation between rival war parties.Imaginative and innovative, The Last of the Mohicans quickly became the most widely read work of the day, solidifying the popularity of America's first successful novelist in the United States and Europe. Required reading in many American literature classics, the novel presents a stirring picture of a vanishing people and the end to a way of life in the eastern forests.

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A sense of impending evil hovers over a cathedral town, where one man, an outwardly respectable opium addict, is consumed with jealousy over the engagement of his nephew, Edwin Drood, to a lovely young lady. So enraged is he, that he even plots the younger man's murder. But Drood's sudden disappearance halts further scheming and leaves only one big mystery. What happened to Edwin Drood? And what became of his body?Unfinished at the time of his death, Charles Dickens's intriguing story has become all the more tantalizing for its lack of an ending, leaving a grim puzzle that avid readers, over the years, have tried to solve. A gem for lovers of murder mysteries and the legions of Dickens fans, The Mystery of Edwin Drood remains a gripping and haunting masterpiece.

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A masterpiece of storytelling, this epic saga pits Ahab, a brooding and fantastical sea captain, against the great white whale that crippled him. In telling the tale of Ahab's passion for revenge and the fateful voyage that ensued, Melville produced far more than the narrative of a hair-raising journey; Moby-Dick is a tale for the ages that sounds the deepest depths of the human soul. Interspersed with graphic sketches of life aboard a whaling vessel, and a wealth of information on whales and 19th-century whaling, Melville's greatest work presents an imaginative and thrilling picture of life at sea, as well as a portrait of heroic determination. The author's keen powers of observation and firsthand knowledge of shipboard life (he served aboard a whaler himself) were key ingredients in crafting a maritime story that dramatically examines the conflict between man and nature. «A valuable addition to the literature of the day,» said American journalist Horace Greeley on the publication of Moby-Dick in 1851 — a classic piece of understatement about a literary classic now considered by many as «the great American novel.» Read and pondered by generations, the novel remains an unsurpassed account of the ultimate human struggle against the indifference of nature and the awful power of fate. Much of Moby Dick was inspired by the 1821 work Narratives of the Wreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, which in turn inspired the 2015 movie In the Heart of the Sea, directed by Ron Howard and starring Chris Hemsworth.

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One of the most distinguished critics and innovative authors of the twentieth century, Virginia Woolf published two novels before this collection appeared in 1921. However, it was these early stories that first earned her a reputation as a writer with «the liveliest imagination and most delicate style of her time.» Influenced by Joyce, Proust, and the theories of William James, Bergson, and Freud, she strove to write a new fiction that emphasized the continuous flow of consciousness, time's passage as both a series of sequential moments and a longer flow of years and centuries, and the essential indefinability of character.Readers can discover these and other aspects of her influential style in the eight stories collected here, among them a delightful, feminist put-down of the male intellect in «A Society» and a brilliant and sensitive portrayal of nature in «Kew Gardens.» Also included are «An Unwritten Novel,» «The String Quartet,» «A Haunted House,» «Blue & Green,» «The Mark on the Wall,» and the title story.In recent years, Woolf's fiction, feminism, and high-minded sensibilities have earned her an ever-growing audience of readers. This splendid collection offers those readers not only the inestimable pleasures of the stories themselves, but an excellent entrée into the larger body of Woolf's work.

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When Fanny Price comes to live with her well-to-do cousins at Mansfield Park, the modest, retiring ten-year-old is treated condescendingly by members of the Bartram family. A poor relation, dependent on the goodwill of her aristocratic relatives, the sweet, sensitive, and frequently ignored Fanny nevertheless eventually develops into the ethical center of the family.Trouble begins with the arrival of Mary Crawford and her brother Henry. Their sophisticated London tastes, and penchant for flirtatious activities, shatter the tranquility of the Bartram home, creating social havoc and precipitating a crisis in the family. But Fanny — always clever, graceful, and pleasant — provides a bulwark of moral strength, eventually winning her family's complete acceptance (and the love of her cousin Edmund).Described by Lionel Trilling as the most experimental and modern of Jane Austen's works, Mansfield Park is also Austen's most serious novel, written in the full flower of the novelist's maturity. Enlivened by an amusing cast of busybodies, ne'er-do-wells, and social climbers, this acclaimed novel of early-19th-century English society will also appeal to readers as an entertaining study of the interplay between manners, education, and ethics.

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First published in 1900, Lord Jim is widely regarded as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. Its central message about the consequences of straying from personal responsibility and ethical integrity is as powerful today as it was over one hundred years ago.In a split-second impulse of self-preservation, a young ship's officer abandons his imperiled vessel and its passengers. He survives, but suffers a wretched existence. He must go forward facing the scorn of the world and his own guilt, as he seeks atonement for the dishonorable choice he made. The author's deep moral consciousness and skillful narrative style are fully revealed in this unforgettable story, long a staple of high school and college literature courses. Students, teachers, and general readers will appreciate this inexpensive, unabridged edition.

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The restless, questing intellect of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle spurred him far beyond the ingenious puzzles he constructed for Sherlock Holmes. In The Lost World, Doyle, a devotee of the occult and fantastic tales of adventure and discovery, introduces his readers to Professor Challenger, an eccentric paleontologist, on his suspense-filled search for prehistoric creatures in the wilds of the Amazon. Professor Challenger's doughty troupe includes a skeptical colleague, Professor Summerlee; the cool-headed, plucky sportsman Lord John Roxton; and the narrator, the intrepid reporter Edward Malone. When their bridge to civilization collapses, the explorers find themselves marooned among dinosaurs and savage ape-people.Originally published in 1912, this imaginative fantasy unfolds with humor and good-natured satirical eye for pedantry. Fans of Arthur Conan Doyle will delight in this rare gem, as will dinosaur fanciers and adventure story aficionados.

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Murder and romance, innocence and experience dominate this masterfully constructed novel set in Rome during the mid-19th century.Three young American artists and their friend, an Italian count, find their lives irrevocably linked when one of them commits a murder. Nathaniel Hawthorne's final novel symbolizing the Fall of Man is a captivating tale concerned as much with the power and beauty of art as with the striking, intimate details of the historic sites visited by the travelers.A provocative view at Americans abroad, this long-overlooked novel is «must reading» for anyone who relishes crimes of passion set against the picturesque details of Old World landmarks.

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Winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907, Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) drew upon his experiences in Anglo-Indian Society for much of his writing. This volume presents five of Kipling's best early stories, including «The Phantom Rickshaw,» a psychological thriller; «Wee Willie Winkie,» a delightful display of love for children; «Without Benefit of Clergy,» the poignant story of an Englishmen's affair with an Islamic woman; «The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes»; and the celebrated title story.

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First published in 1888, Looking Backward was one of the most popular novels of its day. Translated into more than 20 languages, its utopian fantasy influenced such thinkers as John Dewey, Thorstein Veblen, Eugene V. Debs, and Norman Thomas. Writing from a 19th century perspective and poignantly critical of his own time, Bellamy advanced a remarkable vision of the future, including such daring predictions as the existence of radio, television, motion pictures, credit cards, and covered pedestrian malls.On the surface, the novel is the story of time-traveler Julian West, a young Bostonian who is put into a hypnotic sleep in the late 19th century, and awakens in the year 2000 in a socialist utopia. In conversations with the doctor who awakened him, he discovers a brilliantly realized vision of an ideal future, one that seemed unthinkable in his own century. Crime, war, personal animosity, and want are nonexistent. Equality of the sexes is a fact of life. In short, a messianic state of brotherly love is in effect.Entertaining, stimulating, and thought-provoking, Looking Backward, with its ingenious plot and appealing socialism, is a provocative study of human society as it is and as it might be.

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