Classics

Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house. There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law. But as he embarks on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience and finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck. Only Sonya, a downtrodden sex worker, can offer the chance of redemption.

The visionary author’s masterpiece pulls us—along with her Black female hero—through time to face the horrors of slavery and explore the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now. Dana, a modern Black woman, is celebrating her 26th birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

Oscar Wilde’s only novel is the dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.

«Ara que havia acabat, la bellesa del somni es va esvair, i un horror i un fàstic anguniants em van omplir el cor...» Obsedit per crear la vida mateixa, Victor Frankenstein saqueja cementiris per obtenir el material amb què donar forma a un nou ésser, al qual insufla vida amb electricitat. Però la seva criatura maldestra, rebutjada per Frankenstein i privada de companyia humana, es proposa destruir el seu creador i tot allò que aquest estima. L'esgarrifós relat gòtic de Mary Shelley va ser concebut quan només tenia divuit anys i vivia amb el seu amant, Percy Shelley, a prop de la vil·la de Byron, al llac de Ginebra. Es convertiria en l'obra de ficció de terror més famosa del món, i continua sent una exploració devastadora dels límits de la creativitat humana. Basat en la tercera edició de 1831, aquest volum conté totes les revisions que Mary Shelley va fer al seu relat, així com la seva introducció de 1831 i el prefaci de Percy Bysshe Shelley a la primera edició. Aquesta edició revisada inclou com a apèndixs una col·lació selecta dels textos de 1818 i 1831, juntament amb «Un fragment», de Lord Byron, i «El vampir: un relat», del Dr John Polidori.

Od svého okamžitého úspěchu v roce 1813 zůstává Pýcha a předsudek jedním z nejoblíbenějších románů v anglickém jazyce. Jane Austenová toto skvělé dílo nazvala „svým vlastním milovaným dítětem“ a jeho živou hrdinku Elizabeth Bennetovou „tak okouzlující bytostí, jaká se kdy objevila v tisku“. Romantický střet mezi svéhlavou Elizabeth a jejím hrdým nápadníkem, panem Darcym, je skvělou ukázkou vytříbeného slovního souboje. A zářivý vtip Jane Austenové jiskří, když její postavy tančí jemnou čtverylku flirtování a intrik, což z této knihy činí nejskvělejší komedii mravů regentské Anglie.

You can find an alternative cover edition for this ISBN here and here. When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England: an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the 'Master' and his imminent arrival. In Dracula, Bram Stoker created one of the great masterpieces of the horror genre, brilliantly evoking a nightmare world of vampires and vampire hunters and also illuminating the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire. This Norton Critical Edition includes a rich selection of background and source materials in three areas: Contexts includes probable inspirations for Dracula in the earlier works of James Malcolm Rymer and Emily Gerard. Also included are a discussion of Stoker's working notes for the novel and "Dracula's Guest," the original opening chapter to Dracula. Reviews and Reactions reprints five early reviews of the novel. "Dramatic and Film Variations" focuses on theater and film adaptations of Dracula, two indications of the novel's unwavering appeal. David J. Skal, Gregory A. Waller, and Nina Auerbach offer their varied perspectives. Checklists of both dramatic and film adaptations are included. Criticism collects seven theoretical interpretations of Dracula by Phyllis A. Roth, Carol A. Senf, Franco Moretti, Christopher Craft, Bram Dijkstra, Stephen D. Arata, and Talia Schaffer. A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography are included.