Vintage Classics

Italo Calvino was not only a prolific master of fiction, he was also an uncanny reader of literature, a keen critic of astonishing range. Why Read the Classics? is the most comprehensive collection of Calvino's literary criticism available in English, accounting for the enduring importance to our lives of crucial writers of the Western canon. Here--spanning more than two millennia, from antiquity to postmodernism--are thirty-six immediately relevant, elegantly written, accessible ruminations on the writers, poets, and scientists who meant most to Calvino at different stages of his life.Following the title essay, which explores fourteen definitions of "the classic," Calvino offers writings that are at once critical appraisals and personal appreciations of, among others: Homer, Xenophon, Ovid, Pliny, Nezami, Ariosto, Cardano, Galileo, Defoe, Voltaire, Diderot, Ortes, Stendhal, Balzac, Dickens, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Twain, Henry James, Stevenson, Conrad, Pasternak, Gadda, Montale, Hemingway, Ponge, Borges, and Queneau.At a time when the Western canon and the very notion of "literary greatness" have come under increasing disparagement by the vanguard of so-called multiculturalism, Why Read the Classics? gives us an inspiriting corrective.From the Hardcover edition.

The Ways of White Folks is a collection of short stories by Langston Hughes, published in 1934.Hughes wrote the book during a year he spent living in Carmel, California.The collection, "marked by pessimism about race relations, as well as a sardonic realism or, contextually: humorous racism,"is among his best known works.Like Chesnutt's The Conjure Woman (1899) and Wright's Uncle Tom's Children (1938), it is an example of a short story cycle.The collection consists of 14 short stories:"Cora Unashamed" "Slave on the Block" "Home" "Passing" "A Good Job Gone" "Rejuvenation Through Joy" "The Blues I'm Playing" "Red-Headed Baby" "Poor Little Black Fellow" "Little Dog" "Berry" "Mother and Child" "One Christmas Eve" "Father and Son"

A contemporary study of the early American nation and its evolving democracy, from a French aristocrat and sociologist. In 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat and ambitious civil servant, set out from post-revolutionary France on a journey across America that would take him 9 months and cover 7,000 miles. The result was Democracy in America, a subtle and prescient analysis of the life and institutions of 19th-century America. Tocqueville looked to the flourishing democratic system in America as a possible model for post-revolutionary France, believing that the egalitarian ideals it enshrined reflected the spirit of the age and even divine will. His study of the strengths and weaknesses of an evolving democratic society has been quoted by every American president since Eisenhower, and remains a key point of reference for any discussion of the American nation or the democratic system.

Graham Greene’s first published novel tells the story of Andrews, a young man who has betrayed his fellow smugglers and fears their vengeance. Fleeing from them, with no hope of pity or salvation, he takes refuge in the house of a young woman, also alone in the world. Elizabeth persuades him to give evidence against his accomplices in court, but neither she nor Andrews is aware that to both criminals and authority, treachery is as great a crime as smuggling.

M. R. James wrote his ghost stories to entertain friends on Christmas Eve, and they went on to both transform and modernise a genre. James harnesses the power of suggestion to move from a recognisable world to one that is indefinably strange, and then unforgettably terrifying. Sheets, pictures, carvings, a dolls house, a lonely beach, a branch tapping on a window - ordinary things take on more than a tinge of dread in the hands of the original master of suspense.

A young girl recalls what life was like for her family in Vienna toward the end of World War II.

Based in Homer's Illiad and Odyssey, the epic poem describes the adventures of Aeneas from his homeland of Troy to the region of Latium in Italy. The poem is brilliantly interwoven with themes of love, human experience, perseverance, and Roman history to create Rome's own origin story.

This extraordinary new novel, by the author of the now classic Lord of the Flies, is William Golding's best novel in twelve years. In Darkness Visible he has written a story of our times, a chilling mystery which never ceases to mystify. The martyr of disturbing suggestion, William Golding stirs up the sediment of dark thoughts and half ideas within us all. Many "Septimius" Windrave/Windrove- his exact name is unknown 0 as a boy steps out of the flaming known - as a boy steps out of the flaming destruction of the London blitz miraculously alive, but orphaned and hideously scarred for life. Though Matty takes to wearing a black wide-brimmed hat to cover his disfigurement, he is set apart from others, he asks himself, " Am I only different from them in face?", his answer is "no." He becomes a prophet, a wandering soul, who has his own "voices". The journal he keeps - Is it madness or inspiration? Matty's genius is in the light of fire, " yet from those flames no light, rather darkness visible" appears. Darkness is also visible to many of the characters touched by Marty's life, all of whom drift in and out of Ruth and Sam Goodchild's bookstore near the center of town. Mr. Pedigree, a teacher in the boys' school which Matty attends, has pederasty as an obsession into his pathetic old age. Perhaps because Pedigree is at least capable of love, Marty wants (but does not get) his friendship capable of love (Matty wants but does not get) his friendship. The angelic looking twins, Sophie and Toni, admired for their charm and innocence, are loveless monsters. After a lonely childhood in which they are banished to rooms above the stables by a father who ignores them for a series of mistresses, both children grow up to be terrorists. Sophy, who begins her career by leaving a putrid duck egg in her father's night table, grows up into a full fledged gangster who masterminds a school kidnapping plot. Her sister, Toni, becomes a political terrorist. Matty's peregrinations crisscross with them all (except Toni) on what Sophy calls "weirdness" at life. Darkness Visible a brilliant exploration of the "weirdness" of life. Darkness Visible, a brilliant exploration of this weirdness, is a major and important work.

Even as little girls, Sarah and Emily are very different from each other. Emily looks up to her wiser and more stable older sister and is jealous of her relationship with their absent father, and later her seemingly golden marriage. The path she chooses for herself is less safe and conventional and her love affairs never really satisfy her. Although the bond between them endures, gradually the distance between the two women grows, until a tragic event throws their relationship into focus one last time. Richard Yates's masterful novel follows the two sisters from their childhood in the 1920s through the challenges of their adult choices, and depicts the different ways they seek to escape from their tarnished family past.

Twelve short stories which have appeared in "Saturday evening post", "Playboy", the "New statesman", and other media.

First published in 1931, 'Shadows on the Rock' is a quietly powerful historical novel set in 17th-century Quebec. The story centers on young Cécile Auclair and her father, Euclide, an apothecary serving the remote French colonial town. As the long, harsh Canadian winter descends, Cécile tends to her household with devotion, preserving the customs and faith of her French heritage in a distant and often unforgiving land.\ Through a series of intimate, reflective episodes, the novel captures the rhythms of colonial life—its hardships, joys, and enduring rituals. Cather portrays a vivid cast of characters, from missionaries and aristocrats to beggars and orphans, each contributing to the rich social fabric of the settlement.\ With her graceful prose and deep historical insight, Willa Cather explores themes of endurance, cultural identity, and spiritual continuity. 'Shadows on the Rock' is not driven by action, but by atmosphere and quiet emotional strength. It stands as a tribute to the ordinary lives that shape history and the quiet heroism found in tradition, routine, and unshakable faith.

Myra Henshawe's misadventures as her own worst enemy due to greed.

In this enthralling book van der Post establishes his role as a distinguished explorer and writer describing the rediscovery of the Bushmen, outcast survivors from Stone Age Africa.Laurens van der Post was fascinated and appalled at the fate of this remarkable people. Ostracised by all the changing face of African cultural life they retreated deep into the Kalahari desert. His fascinating attempt to capture their way of life and the secrets of their ancient heritage provide captivating reading and a unique insight into a forgotten way of life.

These translated poems were written by 2 ladies of the Heian court of Japan between the ninth and eleventh centuries A.D. The poems speak intimately of their authors' sexual longing, fulfillment and disillusionment.

A glorious collection of stories from the author of Cold Comfort Farm. The title story tells of a typical Christmas at the farm before the coming of Flora Poste. It is a parody of the worst sort of family Christmas: Adam Lambsbreath dresses up as Father Christmas in two of Judith's red shawls. There are unsuitable presents, unpleasant insertions into the pudding and Aunt Ada Doom orders Amos to carve the turkey, adding: 'Ay, would it were a vulture, 'twere more fitting!'

Fervently pursuing the life of an artist, a young music student leaves behind her small midwestern town existence and comes to know the elation and heartache of a life in the creative world.

Una clave más del universo literario de Roberto Bolaño, uno de los escritores imprescindibles de la literatura contemporánea en español. Este volumen incluye tres nouvelles inéditas -"Patria", "Sepulcros de vaqueros" y "Comedia del horror de Francia"- en las que está presente lo mejor del genio literario del autor chileno: el Mal, la violencia, la historia, la literatura, la ironía, México, Chile, el amor, el suspense, la búsqueda... a lo que se suma alguno de sus personajes más célebres, como el ubicuo detective salvaje Arturo Belano. English translation of Spanish summary: One more key to the literary universe of Roberto Bolaño, one of the essential writers of Spanish contemporary literature. This volume includes three unpublished novellas - "Patria," "Sepulcros de vaqueros," and "Comedia del horror de Francia" -- in which the best of the literary genius of the Chilean author is present: evil, violence, history, literature , irony, Mexico, Chile, love, suspense, search ... to which is added some of his most famous characters, such as the ubiquitous wild detective Arturo Belano

In a provincial Argentinean town, Charley Fortnum, a British consul with dubious authority and a weakness for drink, is kidnapped by Paraguayan revolutionaries who have mistaken him for the American ambassador. Dr. Eduardo Plarr, a local physician with his own divided loyalties, serves as the negotiator between the rebels and the authorities. These fumbling characters play out an absurd drama of failure, hope, love, and betrayal against a backdrop of political chaos. The Honorary Consul is both a gripping novel of suspense and a penetrating psychological and sociological study of personal and political corruption. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Mark Bosco.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Published in 1922, the eleven Tales of the Jazz Age feature the flappers and lost young men of the period as well as a great variety of characters and scenes. Among them, the critically acclaimed novella "May Day" contrasts drunken debutantes with a mob of war veterans battling socialists in the streets, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", filmed with Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton, is a fantasy about a man who ages in reverse, and "A Diamond as Big as the Ritz" is a surreal fable of excess.

Describes the rise and fall of the metaphysician, Marcus Vallar, and the bewildered men and women surrounding him.

Rayuela es la segunda novela del escritor argentino Julio Cortázar. Escrita en París y publicada por primera vez el 28 de junio de 1963, constituye una de las obras centrales del boom latinoamericano y de la literatura en español. Narra la historia de Horacio Oliveira, su protagonista, y su relación con «la Maga». La historia pone en juego la subjetividad del lector y tiene múltiples finales. A esta obra suele llamársela «antinovela», aunque el mismo Cortázar prefería denominarla «contranovela». Con un total de 155 capítulos, Rayuela puede leerse de varias maneras. Fuente

Écrit dans le feu de l'Histoire, Suite française dépeint presque en direct l'Exode de juin 1940, qui brassa dans un désordre tragique des familles françaises de toute sorte, des plus huppées aux plus modestes. Avec bonheur, Irène Némirovsky traque les innombrables petites lâchetés et les fragiles élans de solidarité d'une population en déroute. Cocottes larguées par leur amant, grands bourgeois dégoûtés par la populace, blessés abandonnés dans des fermes engorgent les routes de France bombardées au hasard... Peu à peu l'ennemi prend possession d'un pays inerte et apeuré. Comme tant d'autres, le village de Bussy est alors contraint d'accueillir des troupes allemandes. Exacerbées par la présence de l'occupant, les tensions sociales et frustrations des habitants se réveillent...Roman bouleversant, intimiste, implacable, dévoilant avec une extraordinaire lucidité l'âme de chaque Français pendant l'Occupation (enrichi de notes et de la correspondance d'Irène Némirovsky), Suite française ressuscite d'une plume brillante et intuitive un pan à vif de notre mémoire.

A tale of chivalry and doomed, transcendent love, 'The Romance of Tristan and Iseult' is one of the most resonant works of Western literature, as well as the basis for our enduring idea of romance. The story of the Cornish knight and the Irish princess who meet by deception, fall in love by magic, and pursue that love in defiance of heavenly and earthly law.

It lies somewhere beneath the snow, high in the Dolomites: Nazi gold, tainted with the blood of murdered men. Only a few know its secrets, and one by one they come in search of it - a hot-tempered Italian Comtessa, a racketeering pimp, a Greek criminal, a film-maker and a hapless writer.

Three novels originally published by William Heinemann Ltd. in 1956, 1958, and 1959 respectively. Originally published together by Penguin Books in 1972 at Harmondsworth.

The story of an obsessive love affair between a married woman and a young up-and-coming writer. Almost as soon as he begins the affair the writer realizes it cannot last though he still cannot stop himself from becoming jealous of the woman’s husband and cannot bring himself to end it.