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From its spectacular opening–the astonishing scene in which drunken Michael Henchard sells his wife and daughter to a passing sailor at a county fair–to the breathtaking series of discoveries at its conclusion, The Mayor of Casterbridge claims a unique place among Thomas Hardy’s finest and most powerful novels. Rooted in an actual case of wife-selling in early nineteenth-century England, the story build into an awesome Sophoclean drama of guilt and revenge, in which the strong, willful Henchard rises to a position of wealth and power–only to suffer a most bitter downfall. Proud, obsessed, ultimately committed to his own destruction, Henchard is, as Albert Guerard has said, “Hardy’s Lord Jim…his only tragic hero and one of the greatest tragic heroes in all fiction.

"Persuasión" es la última novela de Jane Austen, publicada póstumamente en 1818. Narra el reencuentro de Anne Elliot con su antiguo amor, Frederick Wentworth, tras un compromiso roto por presiones familiares. Austen explora el rol de la mujer en el siglo XIX con su característico estilo mordaz e irónico.

Though Aladdin's childhood had been full of beauty, comfort and happiness, without any trace of sadness or sorrow, he entirely failed to learn the lessons of hard work and responsibility.

Well's science fiction of time travel, and his protagonist's adventures in the future.

I had been given a simple but enormous task. This was the role for which I had spent my whole life preparing.

Kent, Inglaterra, finales del siglo XIX. El huérfano Pip vive una existencia humilde con su hermana y su cunado, a quien ayuda en su taller de herrería. Cuando la rica senorita Havisham requiere a Pip como acompanante de ella y de su bella hija, el joven se dará cuenta de las penurias de su clase social y deseará cada vez con más fuerza subir posiciones en el escalafón social. Pip recibirá entonces la visita de un abogado de Londres, quien le informará de que un benefactor anónimo le quiere convertir en un caballero. Sin embargo, Pip descubrirá que el valor de la amistad y de la moral no se puede comprar con dinero.

A damning indictment of Utilitarianism and the dehumanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution, this novel is set in the Northern mill-town of Coketown, dominated by Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, a headmaster who epitomizes Utilitarian ideals. He feeds his pupils and family a diet of facts, banning imagination and wonder. This rigid upbringing leads his obedient daughter Louisa to marry the loveless businessman Mr. Bounderby, while his son Tom rebels, falling into gambling and crime. Their lives intersect with Sissy Jupe, a free-spirited circus girl, and Stephen Blackpool, a victimized weaver. Gradgrind ultimately confronts the importance of compassion in a materialistic age. This edition is based on the first volume published in 1854, with an introduction by Kate Flint that highlights the often-overlooked character dynamics in Dickens's critique of Victorian industrial society. Celebrated as one of the best-loved novelists, Dickens's works, including Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, have been adapted for stage and screen, reaching millions. If you enjoyed this novel, you may also appreciate Dickens's Bleak House, available in Penguin Classics. 'A masterpiece ... a completely serious work of art' - F.R. Leavis.

Quizá la novela más irónica y divertida de Jane Austen, maestra inigualable de la comedia de costumbres. Traducción de Isabel Oyarzábal Introducción de Marilyn Butler, profesora en las universidades de Cambridge y Oxford Publicada por primera vez en 1818, La abadía de Northanger narra la historia de Catherine Morland, una joven muy aficionada a las novelas góticas. Por ello, cuando los Tilney la invitan a pasar una temporada en su casa de campo, se pone a investigar tortuosos e imaginarios secretos de familia. Pero al comprender que la vida no es una novela, la inocente Catherine pondrá los pies en la tierra y encauzará su futuro según dictan las normas morales y sociales de la época. La presente edición incluye una detallada cronología de la autora, así como una introducción a cargo de Marilyn Butler, reputada crítica literaria, y autora del ensayo Jane Austen and the War of Ideas (1975). Hace las veces de colofón una nota biográfica escrita por el hermano de Jane Austen cinco meses después de su muerte, un documento inédito que aporta fragmentos de sus últimas cartas y deja entrever el perfil más humano de una de las autoras más apreciadas de la literatura inglesa.

If there ever was an epic that touches upon every conceivable human emotion and poses the most complex of questions, it has to be the Mahabharata, the most famous of stories from India.

`It seems pretty clear to me that sooner or later we'll be at war with Germany, whether we like it or not.'

Dickens's classic tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.

Can the path to the ultimate truth about human life be found by leaving behind wealth, comfort, family and security?

Fanny Price es una niña todavía cuando sus tíos la acogen en su mansión de Mansfield Park, rescatándola de una vida de estrecheces y de necesidades. Allí, ante su mirada amedrentada, desfilará un mundo de ocio y de refinamiento en el que las inocentes diversiones alimentarán maquinaciones y estrategias de seducción. Ese mundo oculta una verdad peligrosa y sólo Fanny, desde su sumiso silencio, será capaz de atisbar sus consecuencias y amenazas. Mansfield Park recrea un orden familiar y social que se deshace y restaura engañosamente a través de los ojos ambiguos de una jovencita a quien se ha asignado la suerte y el destino de una Cenicienta. Publicada en 1814, Mansfield Park es, probablemente, la novela más densa y compleja de la autora, todo un prodígio de arquitectura narrativa y de profundidad psicológica.

La emoción de algunas escenas no solo es un dato biográfico, sino que además revela que ya no temía contarlo

Personal account of the life of the man who freed India from colonization through the Satyagraha (nonviolent protest)movement. His early boyhood life, legal studies, purification,and ultimate salvation of his homeland is carefully recounted in this inspiring and critical work of insurmountable importance.

If there ever was an epic that touches upon every conceivable human emotion and poses the most complex of questions, it has to be the Mahabharata, the most famous of stories from India.

Here is a test, a puzzle for you. It is a faithful account of two most gruesome murders. Can you work out what actually happened in the early hours of one fateful morning in the Rue Morgue?

A strange figure stood in front of him, dressed from head to foot in white clothing. The moonlight showed her pale, youthful face.

In ancient China a magical monkey appears, creating chaos everywhere he goes. The only way to put his tricks and talents to good use is to make him protector of Xuanzang, a young and handsome monk determined to travel from China to India in search of the precious scriptures.

La huella autobiográfica que Charles Dickens dejó en David Copperfield, una de sus obras más importantes, convirtió este libro en el más cercano a su corazón. David, como Dickens, vivió una infancia feliz leyendo y asistiendo a la escuela hasta que su suerte cambió. La transmutación íntima de ambos, protagonista y autor, fue compleja y sutil. Aunque ficción y realidad no siempre coinciden, las desdichas de la ninez, el trabajo en la abogacía, la condición de escritor y varios de los personajes responden a la experiencia personal de su autor. Narrada desde la distancia del adulto, la vida de David Copperfield encierra sátira y humor irónico, luto y angustia, pero también mucha alegría.Dickens es algo más que un escritor famoso, es un género en sí mismo, una forma de mirar la vida, de escribir o de jugar.

After ten long years of war and the fall of Troy, the Greek hero Odysseus sets sail for his homeland. His voyage, however, is destined to take much longer than he expects.

Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes mystery. This book also includes another Sherlock Holmes mystery, The Speckled Band.

Although Song Jiang is only a lowly local government official, he is loyal to the emperor and kind to all the citizens in his care. But Song is in trouble. A series of unfortunate incidents have led to him being arrested, and his political enemies are keen to see him sentenced to death.

The arrival of a gold bug leads the three men on an exciting adventure towards skeletons, a skull and a hunt for buried treasure.

The blackness of eternal night encompassed me. The intense darkness oppressed and stifled me so that I struggled for breath.

My darkness lifted, never to return. This man was truly the light of the world.

Makes a portrait of India. In this book, these unabridged observations of the British in India and Indian life were originally commissioned for The Civil and Military Gazette where the author worked as a journalist in the 1880s.

Catching fish. That's what I was doing on the day that changed my life for ever.

Historia de una inteligente y laboriosa joven empeąda en hacer de Celestina de todas sus amistades. Cuando su institutriz, amiga y confidente decide contraer matrimonio, Emma Woodhouse se queda sola con sus propios sentimientos y se enfrenta al vaco̕ de su vida y a la penosa tarea de intentar que los dems̀ lleven una vida tan perfecta como la suya

Penguin presents the companion book to the "Masterpiece Theatre" miniseries starring Gillian Anderson (T"he House of Mirth, The X-Files"). This stunning production features a screenplay written by Andrew Davies ("Bridget Jones's Diary"). Part romance, part melodrama, part detective story, the novel spreads out among a web of relationships in every level of society.

`Send the brat home? Oh no we won't! Her mother must have met some rich man - we can make a load of money out of this.'

Rachel opened the box and lifted out the diamond. She held it up in a ray of sunlight that poured through the window, and cried out in amazement.

If there ever was an epic that touches upon every conceivable human emotion and poses the most complex of questions, it has to be the Mahabharata, the most famous of stories from India.

A storm, a shipwreck, an enchanted island ...