Penguin English library

"Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded is perhaps the most influential novel published in Britain in the eighteenth century. On its first publication in 1740, it became an immediate bestseller. Its epistolary structure, tight plotting and didactic message were praised, imitated, but also criticised and satirised. This new critical edition of Samuel Richardson's first novel features an authoritative text based on the first edition, general and textual introductions, extensive explanatory notes and textual apparatus. Appendices provide bibliographical descriptions of all lifetime editions as well as the editions of 1801 and 1810, Richardson's introduction to the second edition (fully annotated), and the illustrations and Richardson's index from the octavo edition. The publication of this volume heralds the first full scholarly edition of Richardson's complete works, a long-awaited event in eighteenth-century studies"--

"In a satanic bargain, Melmoth has sold his soul in exchange for immortality and now preys on the helpless in their darkest moments, offering to ease their suffering if they will take his place and release him from his tortured wanderings. His story is pieced together by those who have glimpsed his eerie existence over the centuries--from a prisoner in the clutches of the Spanish Inquisition to a man incarcerated in a London lunatic asylum."--

Contains: [Bartleby].-- Cock-a-doodle-doo!-- The Encantades.-- The bell-tower.-- Benito Cereno.-- John Marr.-- [Billy Budd, sailor].-- Daniel Orme

[Adventure of the Speckled Band]( [Red-Headed League]( [Adventure of the Dancing Men]( Final Problem [Scandal in Bohemia]( [Adventure of the Empty House]( [Five Orange Pips]( [Second Stain]( Adventure of the Devil's Foot [Adventure of the Priory School]( [Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual]( Adventure of the Reigate Squire

From the book:UPON my return to the United States a few months ago, after the extraordinary series of adventure in the South Seas and elsewhere, of which an account is given in the following pages, accident threw me into the society of several gentlemen in Richmond, Va., who felt deep interest in all matters relating to the regions I had visited, and who were constantly urging it upon me, as a duty, to give my narrative to the public. I had several reasons, however, for declining to do so, some of which were of a nature altogether private, and concern no person but myself, others not so much so. One consideration which deterred me was, that, having kept no journal during a greater portion of the time in which I was absent, I feared I should not be able to write, from mere memory, a statement so minute and connected as to have the appearance of that truth it would really possess, barring only the natural and unavoidable exaggeration to which all of us are prone when detailing events which have had powerful influence in exciting the imaginative faculties. Another reason was, that the incidents to be narrated were of a nature so positively marvellous, that, unsupported as my assertions must necessarily be (except by the evidence of a single individual, and he a half–breed Indian), I could only hope for belief among my family, and those of my friends who have had reason, through life, to put faith in my veracity– the probability being that the public at large would regard what I should put forth as merely an impudent and ingenious fiction. A distrust in my own abilities as a writer was, never- theless, one of the principal causes which prevented me from complying with the suggestion of my advisers.

570 p. 19 cm

Baloon-Hoax Colloquy of Monos and Una Conversation of Eiros and Charmion [Descent into the Maelstrom]( Eureka [Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar]( Mellonta Tauta [Mesmeric Revelation]( Ms. Found in a Bottle Power of Words Some Words with a Mummy System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether Tale of the Ragged Mountains [Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade]( Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall [Von Kempelen and His Discovery](