In The Captive, Proust’s narrator describes living in his mother’s Paris apartment with his lover, Albertine, and subsequently falling out of love with her. In The Fugitive, the narrator loses Albertine forever. Rich with irony, The Captive and The Fugitive inspire meditations on desire, sexual love, music, and the art of introspection. For this authoritative English-language edition, D. J. Enright has revised the late Terence Kilmartin’s acclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s translation to take into account the new definitive French editions of Á la recherché du temps perdu (the final volume of these new editions was published by the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade in 1989).

    The letters and drawings are humorous, insightful and imbued by a profound humanity. They convey a bemused admiration for England and the English. First published in the nineteen twenties in Lidovc Noviny, the Czechoslovak national newspaper, Capek's Letters from England quickly established themselves as masterpieces of observation, and classics of modern Czech prose. The letters described Europe's oldest democracy for the benefit of the citizens of Europe's newest, and Capek was acutely aware of the deep-down affinity between his countrymen and the English. The same understated humour, the same unflappability, the same quiet search for peace, home and comfort, the same love of nature and animals, served to unite the two people, both then and now. Shortly after Letters from England appeared, Czechoslovakia was betrayed by Britain at Munich, and handed over to Hitler.

    Jaroslav Haek planned to write six books but passed away before completing Book Four. That is why the book is considered unfinished. Yet, it can be argued the author, under pressure from his deteriorating health, indeed completed his thoughts and "closed the books" on the book that made him famous quite well.

    A woman big enough for both Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Midler, Stella Dallas was a best-seller in its time - and a terrific read today.One of the most entertaining, excellently sustained and consistently developed novels of the season. - New York TimesAll she wants is to get ahead in the world. But Stella Dallas's world is one that always brings her shame. She marries Stephen Dallas, a man of great refinement, but he cannot tolerate her crudities; when he finally loses patience with her indiscreet flirtations, it's curtains for the marriage.Stella transfers her hopes for the future to her sweet-as-pie daughter, Laurel, and the two live in shabby gentility, a shadow of their former life. While Stella imagines herself the grand lady, her coarseness and rumored exploits with unsavory men bring her public ridicule - and ostracize Laurel from polite society.Stella finally makes the ultimate sacrifice, marrying an alcohol- and drug-addicted man she loathes to force Laurel to leave her and seek the advantages of her father's home and social class.Deeply moving narrative...Mrs. Prouty's subject is conceived with that surety and understanding which in literature makes beauty. - Boston TranscriptStill shown throught the country at revival houses, the 1937 King Vidor/Sam Goldwyn production of Stella Dallas brought Osca nominations to both Barbara Stanwyck and Ann Shirley. Literary Cinema Classics now brings back the great American novels that became beloved American films. Each book is illustrated with stills form the movie, and each is completely reset in a typeface to enhance your reading pleasure.