“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, the novel depicts narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.A youthful romance Fitzgerald had with socialite Ginevra King, and the riotous parties he attended on Long Island's North Shore in 1922 inspired the novel. Following a move to the French Riviera, he completed a rough draft in 1924. He submitted the draft to editor Maxwell Perkins, who persuaded Fitzgerald to revise the work over the following winter. After his revisions, Fitzgerald was satisfied with the text, but remained ambivalent about the book's title and considered several alternatives. The final title he desired was Under the Red, White, and Blue. Painter Francis Cugat's final cover design impressed Fitzgerald who incorporated a visual element from the art into the novel.Gatsby continues to attract popular and scholarly attention. The novel was most recently adapted to film in 2013 by director Baz Luhrmann, while contemporary scholars emphasize the novel's treatment of social class, inherited wealth compared to those who are self-made, race, environmentalism, and its cynical attitude towards the American dream. The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary masterpiece and a contender for the title of the Great American Novel.A True Classic that Belongs on Every Bookshelf! Read more

A stunning collection of all 80 exquisite Little Black Classics from Penguin This spectacular box set of the 80 books in the Little Black Classics series showcases the many wonderful and varied writers in Penguin Black Classics. From India to Greece, Denmark to Iran, the United States to Britain, this assortment of books will transport readers back in time to the furthest corners of the globe. With a choice of fiction, poetry, essays and maxims, by the likes of Chekhov, Balzac, Ovid, Austen, Sappho and Dante, it won't be difficult to find a book to suit your mood. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of the Penguin Classics list - from drama to poetry, from fiction to history, with books taken from around the world and across numerous centuries.The Little Black Classics Box Set includes: ·         The Atheist's Mass (Honoré de Balzac)·         The Beautifull Cassandra (Jane Austen)·         The Communist Manifesto (Fredrich Engels and Karl Marx)·         Cruel Alexis (Virgil) ·         The Dhammapada (Anon)·         The Dolphins, the Whales and the Gudgeon (Aesop)·         The Eve of St Agnes (John Keats)·         The Fall of Icarus (Ovid)·         The Figure in the Carpet (Henry James)·         The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows (Rudyard Kipling)·         Gooseberries (Anton Chekhov)·         The Great Fire of London (Samuel Pepys)·         The Great Winglebury Duel (Charles Dickens) ·         How a Ghastly Story Was Brought to Light by a Common or Garden Butcher's Dog (Johann Peter Hebel) ·         How Much Land Does A Man Need? (Leo Tolstoy) ·         How To Use Your Enemies (Baltasar Gracián) ·         How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing (Michel de Montaigne) ·         I Hate and I Love (Catullus) ·         Il Duro (D. H. Lawrence) ·         It was snowing butterflies (Charles Darwin) ·         Jason and Medea (Apollonius of Rhodes) ·         Kasyan from the Beautiful Mountains (Ivan Turgenev) ·         Leonardo da Vinci (Giorgio Vasari)·         The Life of a Stupid Man (Ryunosuke Akutagawa) ·         Lips Too Chilled (Matsuo Basho) ·         Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime (Oscar Wilde)·         The Madness of Cambyses (Herodotus·         The Maldive Shark (Herman Melville)·         The Meek One (Fyodor Dostoyevsky ·         Mrs Rosie and the Priest (Giovanni Boccaccio) ·         My Dearest Father (Wolfgang Mozart)·         The Night is Darkening Round Me (Emily Brontë)·         The nightingales are drunk (Hafez)·         The Nose (Nikolay Gogol) ·         Olalla (Robert Louis Stevenson)·         The Old Man in the Moon (Shen Fu), Miss Brill (Katherine Mansfield)·         The Old Nure's Story (Elizabeth Gaskell)  ·         On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts (Thomas De Quincey) ·         On the Beach at Night Alone (Walt Whitman)·         The Reckoning (Edith Wharton) ·         Remember, Body… (C. P. Cavafy)·         The Robber Bridegroom (Brothers Grimm)·         The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue (Anon) ·         Sindbad the Sailor ·         Sketchy, Doubtful, Incomplete Jottings (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) ·         Socrates' Defence (Plato) ·         Speaking of Siva (Anon)·         The Steel Flea (Nikolai Leskov) ·         The Tell-Tale Heart (Edgar Allan Poe) ·         The Terrors of the Night (Thomas Nashe) ·         The Tinder Box (Hans Christian Andersen)·         Three Tang Dynasty Poets (Wang Wei)·         Trimalchio's Feast (Petronius)·         To-morrow (Joseph Conrad), Of Street Piemen (Henry Mayhew)·         Traffic (John Ruskin)·         Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls (Marco Polo) ·         The Voyage of Sir Francis Drake Around the Whole Globe (Richard Hakluyt) ·         The Wife of Bath (Geoffrey Chaucer) ·         The Woman Much Missed (Thomas Hardy) ·         The Yellow Wall-paper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman) ·         Wailing Ghosts (Pu Songling) ·         Well, they are gone, and here must I remain (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) Read more

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Exciting . . . hard to put down without reading one more page.”—The Florida Times-UnionThe ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes . . . until the Inquisition, when they were wiped from the face of the earth, their hidden riches lost. But now two forces vying for the treasure have learned that it is not at all what they thought it was—and its true nature could change the modern world. Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts—and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he’d left behind. It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton’s former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who’s far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune-hunters through the ages by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to have been lost forever when the order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the fourteenth century. But she’s not alone. Competing for the historic prize— and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses—is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command. Welcome or not, Cotton seeks to even the odds in the perilous race. But the more he learns about the ancient conspiracy surrounding the Knights Templar, the more he realizes that even more than lives are at stake. At the end of a lethal game of conquest, rife with intrigue, treachery, and craven lust for power, lies a shattering discovery that could rock the civilized world—and, in the wrong hands, bring it to its knees. Read more

REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A shocking story, made all the more stunning by the fact that it has its roots in true history.”—Jodi Picoult, author of By Any Other Name“A new generation of survival story . . . an extraordinary book that reads like a thriller, written with the care of the most delicate psychological and historical fiction.”—Vogue (Best of 2025 Preview)A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this “lushly painted” (People) historical epic of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. That journey takes a unexpected turn when Marguerite, accused of betrayal, is brutally punished and abandoned on a small island.Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival. Read more

"1984" by George Orwell is a dystopian novel set in a totalitarian society ruled by Big Brother and the Party, where surveillance, propaganda, and thought control dominate. The protagonist, Winston Smith, works at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history to fit the Party’s narrative. He secretly despises the regime and begins a forbidden love affair with Julia, seeking freedom and truth. However, they are eventually caught by the Thought Police, tortured, and brainwashed into absolute loyalty to Big Brother. The novel explores themes of oppression, loss of individuality, and the dangers of authoritarian rule. Read more

How can we "rejoice always" when the world often seems so broken? Andrew Klavan explores how artists' imaginative engagement with the darkness can point the way to living beautifully in the midst of a tragic world.In his USA Today bestselling The Truth and Beauty, Andrew Klavan explored how the work of great poets helps illuminate the truth of the gospels. Now, the award-winning screenwriter and crime novelist turns his attention to the dark side of human nature to discover how we might find joy and beauty in the world while still being clear-eyed about the evil found in it.The Kingdom of Cain looks at three murders in history--including the first murder, Cain's killing of his brother, Abel--and at the art created from imaginative engagement with those horrific events by artists ranging from Fyodor Dostoevsky to Alfred Hitchcock. To make beauty out of the world as it is--shot through with evil and injustice and suffering--is the task not just of the artist but, Klavan argues, of every life rightly lived. Examining how that transformation occurs in art grants us a vision for how it can happen in our lives.Klavan eloquently argues that it is possible to be clear-eyed about the evil in the world while remaining hope-filled about God's ability to redeem it all. Read more

An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young and adult learners."I love Olly's work - and you will too!" - Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for NumbersShort Stories in Spanish for Beginners has been written especially for students from beginner to intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, and most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to A2-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference, these eight captivating stories will both entertain you, and give you a feeling of progress when reading.What does this book give you?· Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller - making reading fun, while you learn a wide range of new vocabulary· Controlled language at your level, including the 1000 most frequent words, to help you progress confidently· Authentic spoken dialogues, to help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking ability· Pleasure! It's much easier to learn a new language when you're having fun, and research shows that if you're enjoying reading in a foreign language, you won't experience the usual feelings of frustration - 'It's too hard!' 'I don't understand!'· Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, in a stress-free wayCarefully curated to make learning a new language easy, these stories include key features that will support and consolidate your progress, including· A glossary for bolded words in each text· A bilingual word list· Full plot summary· Comprehension questions after each chapter. As a result, you will be able to focus on enjoying reading, delighting in your improved range of vocabulary and grasp of the language, without ever feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners will make learning Spanish easy and enjoyable. Read more

Delve into the dark and mesmerizing world of Edgar Allan Poe, where suspense and terror reign supreme. In this collection of his greatest works, experience the haunting brilliance of The Raven, as a lone narrator confronts a mysterious visitor in a chilling tale of loss and madness. Enter the macabre depths of The Tell-Tale Heart, where a murderer's guilt manifests in haunting paranoia. Discover the mesmerizing detective skills of C. Auguste Dupin in Murders in the Rue Morgue, the pioneer of the modern detective story. These timeless classics display Poe's mastery of atmosphere, psychological complexity, and the power to elicit spine-tingling thrills.   Unforgettable tales of Gothic horror and macabre suspense. Masterful exploration of the human psyche and dark obsessions. Intricate and chilling mysteries with ingenious plot twists. Evocative language that lingers, haunting your thoughts and dreams. Unmatched ability to create an atmosphere of haunting dread.   Read more

✦ NEW EDITION 2025 ✦🇲🇽 🇪🇸 Ready to Read, Write, and Speak Spanish in Just 30 Days? 🇲🇽 🇪🇸❗With over 100,000 copies sold and over 1,000 positive reviews across platforms, the NEW 2025 Edition has been enriched with 8 New Bonuses to improve your learning experience.Say “Adiós” to lengthy learning hours, as our science-based method inspired by strategies from polyglots (who speak 5+ languages fluently), integrates 15-minute lessons tailored for adults on a hectic schedule, and easy-to-digest chapters to facilitate memorization.Here's what you'll get:Book 1: Learn The Essential Grammar Rules You'll Ever Need, with:Short, well-structured lessons designed to reach a CEFR-Level A2 (pre-intermediate) of language proficiency!50+ effective yet simple exercises that will turbocharge your Spanish writing skills, helping you progress quickly.The 10% of the language you'll use 90% of the time in real-life conversations, no pointless memorization.Book 2: Elevate Your Conversation Skills for Seamless Interactions, with:600+ easy-to-memorize Spanish words and indispensable phrases tailored for your everyday life.Everyday words and phrases to become comfortable in any situations: navigating, restaurants, shopping..Understanding the nuances between European and South American Spanish, common words and slang.Book 3: Immerse in Interactive Content to Boost Your Language Skills, with:Authentic and engaging Short Stories + real-life dialogues that reflect everyday situations.Vocab lists highlighting the most crucial words in each story to enrich your vocabulary.A clear pronunciation guide to effortlessly sound like a native speaker.To summarize: You’re getting this value-packed Spanish learning bundle that includes:3 workbooks packed into 1A modern science-based method to fast-track you to Spanish fluencyTons of additional content to enhance your learning experience, scroll down to learn more.See, this isn’t just another workbook to read (and possibly dump!) – it's a 360° journey specially crafted to meet all your needs and fast-track your progress.Scroll up, Click 'Buy Now' to join our 5,000+ students and kickstart your journey to fluency today. See you inside!DISCLAIMER: This book is entirely human-made, without any involvement of artificial intelligence (AI) tools or algorithms. Read more

Pride and Prejudice is an 1813 novel of manners by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.Mr. Bennet, owner of the Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire, has five daughters, but his property is entailed and can only be passed to a male heir. His wife also lacks an inheritance, so his family faces becoming poor upon his death. Thus, it is imperative that at least one of the daughters marries well to support the others, which is a motivation that drives the plot.Pride and Prejudice has consistently appeared near the top of lists of "most-loved books" among literary scholars and the reading public. It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature, with over 20 million copies sold, and has inspired many derivatives in modern literature. For more than a century, dramatic adaptations, reprints, unofficial sequels, films, and TV versions of Pride and Prejudice have portrayed the memorable characters and themes of the novel, reaching mass audiences. Read more

“Mary Oliver would probably never admit to anything so grandiose as an effort to connect the conscious mind and the heart (that’s what she says poetry can do), but that is exactly what she accomplishes in this stunning little handbook.”—Los Angeles Times From the beloved and acclaimed poet, an ultimate guide to writing and understanding poetry. With passion and wit, Mary Oliver skillfully imparts expertise from her long, celebrated career as a disguised poet. She walks readers through exactly how a poem is built, from meter and rhyme, to form and diction, to sound and sense, drawing on poems by Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and others. This handbook is an invaluable glimpse into Oliver’s prolific mind—a must-have for all poetry-lovers. Read more

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For over a century, the Grimm brothers' fairy tales have captivated the popular imagination. Their enduring magic and wonder have led to countless adaptations in film, theatre, opera, and animation, firmly establishing them as part of our cultural heritage. Now, in this exquisite leather-bound edition, experience the timeless enchantment of two hundred fairy tales and ten children's legends. Translated from German by Margaret Hunt, these cherished stories, including Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Rapunzel, and Rumpelstiltskin, offer a treasure trove of imagination for both children and adults. Step into a world of enchantment and embrace the legacy of the Grimm brothers' extraordinary tales. Unleash your imagination with enchanting Grimm's classics. Dive into a world of whimsy and dark magic. Discover hidden treasures within the timeless fairy tales. Experience the captivating power of the Brothers Grimm. Journey through forests and realms with iconic characters. Read more

El loco de Dios en el fin del mundo es el libro de un escritor en plenitud, que logra convertir una propuesta muy peculiar en un libro magistral.«El gran novelistaespañol». Garth Risk Hallberg, The New York Times«El incontestable jefe de filas de su generación de escritores hispanohablantes[...]. Uno de los escritores más importantes de nuestro tiempo». Olivier Mony, Sud-Ouest«Soy ateo. Soy anticlerical. Soy un laicista militante, un racionalista contumaz, un impío riguroso. Pero aquí me tienen, volando en dirección a Mongolia con el anciano vicario de Cristo en la Tierra, dispuesto a interrogarle sobre la resurrección de la carne y la vida eterna. Para eso me he embarcado en este avión: para preguntarle al papa Francisco si mi madre verá a mi padre más allá de la muerte, y para llevarle a mi madre su respuesta. He aquí un loco sin Dios persiguiendo al loco de Dios hasta el fin del mundo».Este es el arranque fulgurante de este libro único, que nadie había tenido la oportunidad de escribir, entre otras razones porque el Vaticano jamás le había abierto de par en par sus puertas a un escritor. Pero, además de único, este es un libro de plenitud, donde su autor logra convertir una propuesta insólita en un relato propio y magistral: un thriller sobre el mayor misterio de la historia de la Humanidad. Con esta novela sin ficción, Javier Cercas vuelve a su línea más personal, en la que logra enlazar sus obsesiones íntimas con una de las preocupaciones fundamentales de la sociedad actual: el papel en la vida humana de lo espiritual y lo transcendente, el lugar en ella de la religión y el ansia de inmortalidad.Sobre el autor y su obra la crítica ha dicho: «El mejor escritor vivo». Aldo Cazullo, Il Corrieredella Sera«Uno de los mejores escritores de nuestra lengua». Mario Vargas Llosa, ElPaís«Ha contribuido como muy pocos escritores de cualquier lengua a transformar la literatura actual». Jordi Gracia, ElPaís «El más grande escritor contemporáneo español». Yann Perreau, LesInrockuptibles«Probablemente el más grande novelista español vivo». Duncan Wheeler, The WhiteReview«Uno de los más grandes escritores españoles del último medio siglo».El Confidencial«Cercas es el escritor más original de su generación. Y quizá no solo de la suya». Marco Cicala, LaRepubblica Read more

With half a million copies in print, How to Read a Book is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader, completely rewritten and updated with new material. A CNN Book of the Week: “Explains not just why we should read books, but how we should read them. It's masterfully done.” –Farheed ZakariaOriginally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them—from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Readers will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text. Also included is instruction in the different techniques that work best for reading particular genres, such as practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science works. Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests you can use measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension, and speed. Read more

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER BY THE AUTHOR OF TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING LUCY HALE & KUNAL NAYYAR“A fun, page-turning delight.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune“Funny, tender, and moving, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry reminds us all exactly why we read and why we love.” —Library Journal (starred review)A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. But when a mysterious package appears at the bookstore, its unexpected arrival gives Fikry the chance to make his life over—and see everything anew.    “This novel has humor, romance, a touch of suspense, but most of all love--love of books and bookish people and, really, all of humanity in its imperfect glory.” —Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child  “Marvelously optimistic about the future of books and bookstores and the people who love both.”—The Washington Post “You won’t want it to end.” —Family Circle “A natural for book groups.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch “A reader’s paradise of the first order.” —The Buffalo News “Captures the joy of connecting people and books . . . Irresistible.” —Booklist “A wonderful, moving, endearing story of redemption and transformation that will sing in your heart for a very, very long time.” —Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain “Readers who delighted in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,  The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, and Letters from Skye will be equally  captivated by this novel.” —Library Journal, starred review Read more

Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. It is the second of Dostoevsky's full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is considered the first great novel of his mature period of writing. The novel is often cited as one of the supreme achievements in world literature.Crime and Punishment follows the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in Saint Petersburg who plans to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker, an old woman who stores money and valuable objects in her flat. He theorises that with the money he could liberate himself from poverty and go on to perform great deeds, and seeks to convince himself that certain crimes are justifiable if they are committed in order to remove obstacles to the higher goals of 'extraordinary' men. Once the deed is done, however, he finds himself racked with confusion, paranoia, and disgust. His theoretical justifications lose all their power as he struggles with guilt and horror and confronts both the internal and external consequences of his deed. Read more

The Sun Also Rises is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel along the Camino de Santiago from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona and watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. An early modernist novel, it received mixed reviews upon publication. Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers writes that it is now "recognized as Hemingway's greatest work" and Hemingway scholar Linda Wagner-Martin calls it his most important novel. The novel was published in the United States in October 1926 by Scribner. A year later, Jonathan Cape published the novel in London under the title Fiesta. It remains in print. Read more

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer (now an HBO series) comes a moving and unflinchingly personal meditation on the literary forms of otherness and a bold call for expansive political solidarity.Born in war-ravaged Vietnam, Viet Nguyen arrived in the United States as a child refugee in 1975. The Nguyen family would soon move to San Jose, California, where the author grew up, attending UC Berkeley in the aftermath of the shocking murder of Vincent Chin, which shaped the political sensibilities of a new generation of Asian Americans.The essays here, delivered originally as the prestigious Norton Lectures, proffer a new answer to a classic literary question: What does the outsider mean to literary writing? Over the course of six captivating and moving chapters, Nguyen explores the idea of being an outsider through lenses that are, by turns, literary, historical, political, and familial.Each piece moves between writers who influenced Nguyen’s craft and weaves in the haunting story of his late mother’s mental illness. Nguyen unfolds the novels and nonfiction of Herman Melville, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ralph Ellison, William Carlos Williams, and Maxine Hong Kingston, until aesthetic theories give way to pressing concerns raised by war and politics. What is a writer’s responsibility in a time of violence? Should we celebrate fiction that gives voice to the voiceless―or do we confront the forces that render millions voiceless in the first place? What are the burdens and pleasures of the “minor” writer in any society? Unsatisfied with the modest inclusion accorded to “model minorities” such as Asian Americans, Nguyen sets the agenda for a more radical and disquieting solidarity with those whose lives have been devastated by imperialism and forever wars. Read more

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