Great Classics

Ray Bradbury was one of the best-known writers and creative dreamers of our time. The many honors he received, which included an Emmy and Academy Award nomination for adaptations of his work, culminated in the 2000 National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, a 2004 National Medal of Arts, and a 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. For many years NASA and the Disney Studio felt the impact of Ray Bradbury’s creativity, and his fiction has found its way into hundreds of anthologies, textbooks, and the National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read program.

The inspiration for the BBC series of the same name. Fresh out of Glasgow Veterinary College, to the young James Herriot 1930s Yorkshire seems to offer an idyllic pocket of rural life in a rapidly changing world. But from his erratic new colleagues, brothers Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, to incomprehensible farmers, herds of semiferal cattle, a pig called Nugent and an overweight Pekingese called Tricki Woo, James find he is on a learning curve as steep as the hills around him.

The short story is considered to be one of the most challenging genres because of the need for compact plotlines and the ability to conjure up atmosphere and character in a few sentences and to engage the reader instantly. This collection presents 66 of the greatest examples of the genre - many of them well known, some hidden literary treasures, all of them exquisite examples of the short story at its finest.

Three professional narrators, Mike Vendetti, Kathy Verduin, and Stephen Jay Cohen, lend their voices to what is considered by many to be one of F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest novels, The Great Gatsby. Travel back with them to the Jazz Age, where the wealthy and entitled collide with pretenders and common citizens.

A wonderful collection of 30 of the greatest detective and mystery stories ever written. Featuring all the great classic sleuths, including Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown, Max Carrados, Dr. Thorndyke and Madame Rosika Storey. 1. 'Who killed Charlie Winpole?' By Ernest Bramah 2. 'The Blue Cross' by G. K. Chesterton 3. 'The Problem of the Five Marks' by Melville Davisson Post 4. 'The Comedy at Fountain Cottage' by Ernest Bramah 5. 'The Mysterious Card' by Cleveland Moffett 6. 'The Card Unveiled' by Cleveland Moffett

The tales of how the boy Arthur drew the Sword from the Stone, or the love of Lancelot and Guinevere, or how the knights of the Round Table rode out in search of the Holy Grail are known and loved the world over. It all began when an obscure Celtic hero named Arthur stepped on to the stage of history, sometime in the sixth century, and oral tales led to a vast body of stories from which, 900 years later, Thomas Malory wrote the famous Morte D’Arthur. The Great Book of King Arthur presents these well-loved stories for a modern listener.

While visiting his parents gravesite in the marshy mists of a village graveyard, Pip, a young orphan living with his older sister, encounters a shivering, limping convict on the run. In spite of his fear of the man, Pip befriends the convict and gives aid, an act that spells considerable consequences for Pip later in life. Fate intervenes and Pip is sent to the household of Miss Havisham, a wealthy and eccentric spinster. Pip shares the household with Miss Havisham and her beautiful, but cold, adopted daughter Estella.

A bumper collection of classic ghost stories and strange supernatural tales.

Based on a series of lectures by Leonard Peikoff and edited by Marlene Trollope, Discovering Great Plays provides the ability to understand, judge, and savor the values offered by great drama. Listeners will discover plot-theme as the key to a play; see Antigone as a great heroine and Iago as the darkest villain in literature; learn about the Cornelian hero; see how Schiller's "Grand Inquisitor" scene is the most dramatic and philosophic in all of theater; and discover Shaw's brilliance in presenting the genius against society.

Four years after the Great War, America is enjoying an economic boom. Enigmatic veteran Jay Gatsby, who's risen from being nobody from nowhere to self-made millionaire, is along for the ride. Upwardly mobile, he reaches for status among the "old money" on Long Island - and for all that it promises across the bay, namely Daisy, the lost love of his youth, who has been married for five years to Gatsby's contemptible rival, Tom Buchanan. With all his wealth and charmed aspirations to restore the past, Gatsby is certain he can win her back.

THE GREAT GATSBY, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s American masterpiece, has enthralled readers since its original publication in 1925. The powerful story of love gained, lost, and rekindled ignites against a backdrop of Roaring Twenties excess. Speeding motorcars, wild parties, and dangerous business collide as gorgeous Daisy Buchanan must choose between the husband she can’t trust and the old flame who still owns her heart. Is Jay Gatsby an honorable man who wants to risk everything to recapture long-lost desire—or a cad who cheats and steals to get what he wants?

A brilliant collection of some of the finest old sea stories ever written. 'The Overcrowded Iceberg' by Morley Roberts, 'The Substitute' by W. W. Jacobs, 'Reparation' by J. D. Beresford, 'The Paradise Coal-Boat' by Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne, 'The Registered Packet' by J. S. Fletcher, 'Treasure Trove' by Neil Munro, 'The Vengeance of La Maraye' by J. S. Fletcher, 'The Sea-Raiders' by H. G. Wells, 'No Ships Pass' by Eleanor Smith....

The young John Updike’s portrayal of a haughty seminary student working as a lifeguard is witty and poetic, as the naïve hero surveys the beachgoers in his care, and contemplates a future of saving souls as well as bodies.

El gran novelista ingles Charles Dickens en pocas obras dio rienda suelta a su imaginacion creadora, sin caer en el sentimentalismo y con mucho de satira, como lo hizo en Grandes Esperanzas, su penultima novela y considerada por la critica como una de las mejores de su pluma.

Sherlock Holmes! The very name of the world's greatest detective conjures up images of Victorian London, gaslit streets, hansom cabs, and dense fogs. But there was a time, a dark three-year period, when London had to make do without Sherlock Holmes. From 1891 to 1894, he was presumed dead, having perished during the epic struggle with that infamous Napoleon of crime, Professor Moriarty, atop the Reichenbach Falls. But unknown to most, even his friend Dr. Watson, Holmes survived.

Elevé à la mort de ses parents par le redoutable dragon domestique que le Ciel lui a donné pour sœur, Pip (Philip Pirrip) semble promis à l'existence obscure d'un jeune villageois sans fortune. C'est compter sans la bienveillance des divinités tutélaires qui veillent sur son enfance. Car Pip a le privilège de vivre au milieu de créatures singulières dont l'existence seule accrédite la croyance au miracle.

Chuckle along with the best 19th-century humorists, who provide you with tall tales, puns, and witty ripostes. No guarantees of political correctness, but they're sure to tickle your 21st-century funny bone! Beginning with the piece that made Mark Twain famous -- "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" -- and ending with his fanciful "How I Edited an Agricultural Paper," this anthology collects several of Twain's own pieces in addition to tall tales, fables, and satires by 14 of Twain's contemporaries.

This collection provides a wide selection of literary masterworks by authors of numerous nationalities. Included are: "The Father" and "Railroad and Churchyard" by Bjornstjerne Bjornson; "The Outlaws" and "A Christmas Guest" by Selma Lagerloff; "The Lover" by Maxim Gorky; "The Fountain of Youth" by Rudolf Baumbach; "The 47 Ronins" by Takashi Takamya; "Patient Griselda" by Giovanni Boccaccio; "The Distracted Preacher" by Thomas Hardy; "The Lady of Launay" by Anthony Trollope; and more.

Ever since the suspense and horror writer Chet Williamson read The Great Gatsby in his youth, it has been his favorite novel. Indeed, he considers it The Great American Novel, and, in this new collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald's work, he presents the original first edition text along with six hilarious stories that show the lighter side of the writer's work, and reveal why Fitzgerald was one of the most popular authors of the Roaring Twenties, and remains so today.

"The Last of the Mohicans" is a historical novel set during the Seven Years' War, when France and Great Britain battled for control of North America. It is striking, suspenseful and fast-paced, and has been widely considered the first Great American Novel. James Fenimore Cooper's classic follows an intrepid group of frontiersmen and Native Americans as they navigate the rugged terrain of both the landscape and their racial differences, striving together to deliver Colonel Munro's two daughters to safety.