Best of
Classic-Literature

1

Iliad, Books 1–12


Homer
    The eloquent and dramatic epic poem captures the terrible anger of Achilles, "the best of the Achaeans," over a grave insult to his personal honor and relates its tragic result--a chain of consequences that proves devastating for the Greek forces besieging Troy, for noble Trojans, and for Achilles himself. The poet gives us compelling characterizations of his protagonists as well as a remarkable study of the heroic code in antiquity. The works attributed to Homer include the two oldest and greatest European epic poems, the Odyssey and the Iliad. These have been published in the Loeb Classical Library for three quarters of a century, the Greek text facing a faithful and literate prose translation by A. T. Murray. William F. Wyatt now brings the Loeb's Iliad up to date, with a rendering that retains Murray's admirable style but is written for today's readers.

The Iliad/The Odyssey/The Aeneid


Homer
    The Penguin Classic Deluxe Editions of The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid are collected here for the first time in a specially designed gift box. Each volume contains a superb introduction by renowned classicist Bernard Knox.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë


Hilda D. Spear
    

The Last Unicorn #1


Peter B. Gillis
    Lyrical. Poignant. Adapted from the acclaimed and beloved novel by Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn is a tale for any age about the wonders of magic, the power of love, and the tragedy of loss. The unicorn, alone in her enchanted wood, discovers that she may be the last of her kind. Reluctant at first, she sets out on a journey to find her fellow unicorns, even if it means facing the terrifying anger of the Red Bull and malignant evil of the king who wields his power. Adapted by Peter B. Gillis and lushly illustrated by Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon.

The Bacchae and Other Plays


Euripides
    This volume, containing Phoenician Women, Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, Orestes, and Rhesuscompletes the new editions of Euripides in Penguin Classics.

Great Dialogues of Plato


Plato
    One of the world's most respected classical scholars offers translations of the complete texts of "The Republic, Apology of Socrates, " "Crito, " "Phaedo, " "Ion, " "Meno, " and "Symposium."

Metamorphoses


Ovid
    Horace Gregory, in this modern translation, turns his poetic gifts toward a deft reconstruction of Ovid's ancient themes, using contemporary idiom to bring today's reader all the ageless drama and psychological truths vividly intact. --From the book jacket

Aesop's Fables


Aesop
    Aesop was reputedly a tongue-tied slave who miraculously received the power of speech; from his legendary storytelling came the collections of prose and verse fables scattered throughout Greek and Roman literature. First published in English by Caxton in 1484, the fables and their morals continue to charm modern readers: who does not know the story of the tortoise and the hare, or the boy who cried wolf?

The Iliad/The Odyssey


Homer
    Combining the skills of a poet and scholar, Robert Fagles brings the energy of contemporary language to this enduring heroic epic. If 'The Iliad' is the world's greatest war story, then 'The Odyssey' is literature's greatest evocation of every man's journey through life. Here again, Fagles has performed the translator's task magnificently, giving us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. Each volume contains a superb introduction with textual and critical commentary by renowned classicist Bernard Knox.

Marcus Aurelius (Meditations, Speeches, Sayings, Note of the Christians)


Marcus Aurelius
    His ethical, religious, and existential reflections have endured as an expression of Stoicism, a text for students of that philosophy, and a guide to the moral life.ContentMeditations Book I -XIISpeechesSayingsNote on Christians

Aeneid: Books I-VI


Virgil
    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

The Arabian Nights


Anonymous
    Cerf chose the most famous and representative stories from Sir Richard F. Burton's multivolume translation, and includes Burton's extensive and acclaimed explanatory notes. The tales of told by Shahrazad over a thousand and one nights to delay her execution by the vengeful King Shahriyar have become among the most popular in both Eastern and Western literature, as recounted by Sir Francis Burton. From the epic adventures of "Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp" to the farcical "Young Woman and her Five Lovers" and the social criticism of "The Tale of the Hunchback", the stories depict a fabulous world of all-powerful sorcerers, jinns imprisoned in bottles and enchanting princesses. But despite their imaginative extravagance, the Tales are anchored to everyday life by their realism, providing a full and intimate record of medieval Islam.'

The Adventure of Tom Sawyer


Subhojit Sanyal
    He runsaway to an uninhabited island, falls in love, digs up treasureand saves an innocent man. Mark Twain’s timeless story of TomSawyer will take you through a journey of evolving friendships,budding romance and thrilling adventures.

Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette & The Professor


Charlotte Brontë
    In her fiction, Charlotte Bront

The Telltale Heart and the Fall of the House of Usher


Edgar Allan Poe
    Each edition is also a great value, especially for those readers beginning to explore the work of this remarkable poet.

Bruce


Albert Payson Terhune
    Bruce was a collie, a superb specimen of his wonderful race.How he got to “The Place,” and how he developed from an “ugly duckling” into the joy and pride of his master and mistress, and how he went overseas and did his noble best in saving life and honor for his friends—all this you will read in this book.And as you read you will realize the wonder and beauty of a dog’s devotion, and also, perhaps, something of what it means to be a dog-lover.

The Arabian Nights II: Sindbad and Other Popular Stories


Anonymous
    From the critically acclaimed translator of The Arabian Nights comes a volume of the four most popular later stories: ---"Sindbad the Sailor"--- "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" --- "Ala al-Din (Aladdin) and the Magic Lamp," --- "Qamar al-Zaman." Readers will discover in each a world of high flamboyance and startling beauty, humor and magic, and lessons of loyalty and love's endurance.

The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides


Aeschylus
    Alternate cover edition can be found here, here, here, hereIn the Oresteia—the only trilogy in Greek drama which survives from antiquity—Aeschylus took as his subject the bloody chain of murder and revenge within the royal family of Argos.Moving from darkness to light, from rage to self-governance, from primitive ritual to civilized institution, their spirit of struggle and regeneration becomes an everlasting song of celebration.

Arabian Nights: The Marvels and Wonders of The Thousand and One Nights, Volume 1 of 2


Jack D. Zipes
    First introduced into the West in 1704, the stories of The Thousand and One Nights are most familiar to American readers in sanitized children's versions. This modern edition, based on Richard F. Burton's unexpurgated translation, restores the lushness of the original Arabic. Here are the famous adventures of Sinbad, "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," and "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp." Here too are less familiar stories, such as "Prince Behram and the Princess Al-Datma," a delightful early version of The Taming of the Shrew, and "The Wily Dalilah and her Daughter Zaynab," a hilarious tale about two crafty women who put an entire city of men in their place. Intricate and imaginative, these stories-within-stories told over a thousand and one nights continue to captivate readers as they have for centuries. "Arabian Nights: The Marvels and Wonders of The Thousand and One Nights, Volume 2 of 2, Adapted By Jack Zipes"

Epigrams


Marcus Valerius Martialis
    His Epigrams can be affectionate or cruel, elegiac or playful; they target every element of Roman society, from slaves to schoolmasters to, above all, the aristocratic elite. With wit and wisdom, Martial evokes not “the grandeur that was Rome,” but rather the timeless themes of urban life and society.

Hesiod: Theogony / Works and Days / Testimonia


Hesiod
    His exact dates are unknown, but he has often been considered a younger contemporary of Homer. This volume of the new Loeb Classical Library edition offers a general introduction, a fluid translation facing an improved Greek text of Hesiod's two extant poems, and a generous selection of testimonia from a wide variety of ancient sources regarding Hesiod's life, works, and reception.In "Theogony" Hesiod charts the history of the divine world, narrating the origin of the universe and the rise of the gods, from first beginnings to the triumph of Zeus, and reporting on the progeny of Zeus and of goddesses in union with mortal men. In "Works and Days" Hesiod shifts his attention to the world of men, delivering moral precepts and practical advice regarding agriculture, navigation, and many other matters; along the way he gives us the myths of Pandora and of the Golden, Silver, and other Races of Men.

Natural History: A Selection


Pliny the Elder
    Mingling acute observation with often wild speculation, it offers a fascinating view of the world as it was understood in the first century AD, whether describing the danger of diving for sponges, the first water-clock, or the use of asses’ milk to remove wrinkles. Pliny himself died while investigating the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii in AD 79, and the natural curiosity that brought about his death is also very much evident in the Natural History — a book that proved highly influential right up until the Renaissance and that his nephew, Pliny the younger, described ‘as full of variety as nature itself’. John F. Healy has made a fascinating and varied selection from the Natural History for this clear, modern translation. In his introduction, he discusses the book and its sources topic by topic. This edition also includes a full index and notes.

The Life of Alexander the Great


Plutarch
    Philip of Macedonia was assassinated and his twenty-year-old son, Alexander, inherited his kingdom. Immediately quelling rebellion, Alexander extended his father’s empire through-out the Middle East and into parts of Asia, fulfilling the soothsayer Aristander’s prediction that the new king “should perform acts so important and glorious as would make the poets and musicians of future ages labour and sweat to describe and celebrate him.” The Life of Alexander the Great is one of the first surviving attempts to memorialize the achievements of this legendary king, remembered today as the greatest military genius of all time. This exclusive Modern Library edition, excerpted from Plutarch’s Lives, is a riveting tale of honor, power, scandal, and bravery written by the most eminent biographer of the ancient world.

Iphigenia at Aulis and Iphigenia in Tauris


Euripides
    Meagher's insightful introduction and splendid translation illuminate this tale as never before, showing that the past is not past and that the darkest and brightest truths never change.

The Complete Short Stories and Other Works (Treasury of World Masterpieces)


Oscar Wilde
    

Some Everyday Thoughts


C.S. Lewis
    

Euripides IV: Helen/The Phoenician Women/Orestes (Complete Greek Tragedies)


Euripides
    

Rhetorica ad Herennium


Marcus Tullius Cicero
    But most recent editors attribute it to an unknown author.The Greek art of rhetoric was first naturalized at Rome in the time of the younger Scipio, and Latin treatises on the subject were in circulation from the time of the Gracchi. But the books by Cato, Antonius, and the other Roman writers have not come down to us, and it is from the second decade of the first century B.C. that we have, in the treatise addressed to Gaius Herennius, the oldest Latin Art preserved entire. Like Cicero's incomplete De Inventione, which belongs close to it in time, this work reflects Hellenistic rhetorical teaching. Our author, however, gives us a Greek art in Latin dress, combining a Roman spirit with Greek doctrine. It is a technical manual, systematic and formal in arrangement; its exposition is bald, but in greatest part clear and precise. Indeed the writer's specific aims are to achieve clarity and conciseness, and to complete the exposition of his subject with reasonable speed. He seeks clarity through the use of Roman terms, and of specially selected examples; he seeks conciseness by keeping practical needs always in view, by scrupulously avoiding irrelevant matter, and by presenting methods and principles, not a host of particular illustrations of a given point.

Selected Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe


Edgar Allan Poe
    Poe's singular talents remain unchallenged. Which was Poe primarily - story writer or poet? The duality of his art is well exemplified by such memorable tales as the foreboding Fall of the House of Usher, the coolly logical Purloined Letter. And who has not been moved by the somber beauty of his poem The Raven, the simplicity and purity of his paean to Helen? The stories and poems selecgted for this volume give a true picture of Poe's artistry and genius.

No Name Woman


Maxine Hong Kingston
    Ironically, the first thing we read is Kingston's mother's warning Kingston, "You must not tell anyone . . . what I am about to tell you."

Cyropaedia volume 2 of 2 books 5-8


Xenophon
    430 c. 354 BCE) is a historical romance on the education of the sixth century BCE Persian king Cyrus the Elder that reflects Xenophon s ideas about rulers and government.

Winter on the Farm/Winter Days in the Big Woods/Christmas in the Big Woods/My Book of Little Hou


Laura Ingalls Wilder
    In Christmas in the Big Woods, Laura and Mary enjoy a very memorable holiday when their cousin comes to visit and Laura receives a special gift. In Going West the Ingalls family packs up their covered wagon and begins their exciting journey westward to the prairie. In Winter on the Farm, our first picture book featuring little Almanzo Wilder, Laura's beloved farmer boy, Almanzo ends a day of barn chores with a hearty farm supper. Full-color artwork by Little House artist Renee Graef, inspired by Garth Williams's classic illustrations, brings Laura and her family lovingly to life.

The federalist; a collection of essays by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, interpreting the Constitution of the United States as agreed upon by the Federal convention, September 17, 1787


Federalist
    

The Essential Manuel Arguilla Reader


Manuel E. Arguilla
    The Essential Manuel Arguilla Reader collects twenty-four stories and an essay in a new and updated edition that reveals Arguilla's depth and breath as a writer.This compilation includes Arguilla's classic short stories "How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife," "Midsummer," and "Caps and Lower Case." Featuring pastoral, romantic, and socialist tales, this collection is both beautiful and brutal.

The Black Cat


Yukari Itō
    This is an original rendition of the traditional story. It is NOT for the faint of heart!