Classics Library

Barbara Cooney's story of Alice Rumphius, who longed to travel the world, live in a house by the sea, and do something to make the world more beautiful, has a timeless quality that resonates with each new generation. The countless lupines that bloom along the coast of Maine are the legacy of the real Miss Rumphius, the Lupine Lady, who scattered lupine seeds everywhere she went. Miss Rumphius received the American Book Award in the year of publication.

E. M. Forster's first novel is a witty comedy of manners that is tinged with tragedy. It tells the story of Lilia Herriton, who proves to be an embarrassment to her late husband's family as, in the small Tuscan town of Monteriano, she begins a relationship with a much younger Italian man - classless, uncouth, and highly unsuitable. A subtle attack on Edwardian values and a humanely sympathetic portrayal of the clash of two cultures, Where Angels Fear to Tread is also a profound exploration of character and virtue.

Gertrude McFuzz wishes she had two feathers....

There were five of them, each prepared to kill, each with his own reasons for accepting what might well be a suicide mission. The pay? $20,000 a piece. The mission? Find a way into Cuba and kill Castro. This breathtaking thriller, originally published the year before the Cuban Missile Crisis (under a pen name by Lawrence Block), is the rarest of Block's books - and still a work of chilling relevance all these years later, with Castro and Cuba once again commanding headlines.

Some of us were lucky enough to have one passionate, funny, inspiring English teacher who helped us fall in love with books. Add a lifetime of teaching Dharma - authentic, traditional approaches to meditation and awakening - and you get award-winning author Dean Sluyter. With droll humor and irreverent wisdom, he unpacks the Dharma of more than twenty major writers, from William Blake to Dr. Seuss, inspiring listeners to deepen their own spiritual life and see literature in a fresh new way: as a path of awakening.

Penguin Classics presents Jane Austen’s Emma, adapted for audio and now available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by the actress Fiona Shaw. Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others....

Ten stories featuring the inimitable Winnie the Pooh, including "Pooh Goes Visiting" and "Piglet Meets a Heffalump".

After ten long years stranded on Earth, John Carter returns once again to Barsoom. But this time, he finds himself fighting for his life in the Valley Dor—the presumed Martian paradise that is in reality a violent hellscape, where legions of blood-thirsty Plant Men and four-armed great apes reward with bitter death believers who take the final pilgrimage down the sacred River Iss. Reunited with Tars Tarkas, his loyal green Martian friend, John Carter runs awry into the hands of the Holy Therns, the ancient cult that in secret rules all Barsoom.

Seventeen-year-old David Balfour's villainous uncle has him kidnapped in order to steal his inheritance. David escapes only to fall into the dangerous company of rebels who are resisting British redcoats in the Scottish highlands.

The story of a moose who was too hospitable for his own good.

Farewell, my lunchbag: Danger may be Chet Gecko's business, but dessert is his delight...Chet Gecko's hunger for mystery is matched only by his appetite for cockroach casserole, mosquito marshmallow surprise, and stinkbug pie. So when the cafeteria needs help nabbing a food thief, Chet digs into the case with a passion he usually reserves only for dessert. But this time Chet may have bitten off more than even he can chew. Someone has framed him, and now everyone at Emerson Hicky - even his trusted partner, Natalie Attired - thinks the food thief is none other than Chet!

Time and the Gods is a collection of short stories involving Lord Dunsany’s invented pantheon of deities who dwell in Pegana. Dunsany was a key figure in the development of the fantasy genre, and his influence was noted by a diverse assortment of later writers of speculative fiction, including H. P. Lovecraft, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Arthur C. Clarke. Evocative, poignant, and bitingly clever, the legends and fables in Time and the Gods draw the listener into a singular world of dreamlike imagination and unforgettable characters.

Penguin Classics presents Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, adapted for audio and available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by Joanna David. “No sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes ...”

Dolly is twenty-three and about to marry the Honourable Owen Bigham. Her wedding day is filled with hasty and chaotic preparations for the entire household. Matters are complicated further by Dolly swigging from a bottle of Jamaica rum, which she later transfers into the folds of her white dress. Will she arrive at her own wedding on time, or will the fumbling advances of Joseph, the man she really loves, get in the way?

English writer Hilary Wainwright lost all trace of his young son when Lisa, his wife, was killed by the Gestapo in Paris. Several years later, an acquaintance travels to England with news that Hilary’s son may be alive in France. Doubting whether five-year-old Jean is indeed his, and determined not to feel vulnerable to love and tenderness again, Hilary travels to France to find the boy.

The warmth, whimsy and charm of these animal stories by Beatrix Potter and T. Burgess have made them favorites with generations of children and adults.

Robert Prechter proposes a new science called socionomics. It's the study of how humans interact and how that interaction determines the course of the economy, culture, and history.

In the untamed heart of the African jungle, Edgar Rice Burroughs unfolds the riveting tale of Tarzan of the Apes. Orphaned and raised by a band of apes, a young boy emerges as the formidable Tarzan, mastering the perils of the wild with unparalleled bravery and agility. But his primal world is forever altered with the arrival of the compassionate Jane Porter, igniting a conflict between his savage upbringing and the stirrings of a civilized heart.

One beautiful day, a shy little kitten embarks on a journey filled with adventure! In the course of her wanderings, she meets an interesting and often amusing collection of fellow creatures.

So begins the funny, classic Golden story of a family of ten fat rabbits that teaches the hungry lion to eat carrot stew—so that he doesn’t eat them!