The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky's crowning achievement, is a tale of patricide & family rivalry that embodies the moral & spiritual dissolution of an entire society (Russia in the 1870s). It created a national furor comparable only to the excitement stirred by the publication, in 1866, of Crime & Punishment. To Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov captured the quintessence of Russian character in all its exaltation, compassion, & profligacy. Significantly,...

The Man Who Laughs is a novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in April 1869 under the French title L'Homme qui rit. It takes place in England in the 1680s and 1700s, during the reigns of James II and Queen Anne, respectively, and depicts England's royalty and aristocracy of the time as cruel and power-hungry. Hugo intended parallels between the England depicted and the France of Louis-Philippe and the Régence. The novel concerns the life of...

"With dozens of stories of the macabre, fantastic, and supernatural, Classic Horror Tales is sure to keep readers on the edges of their seats. This collection of works by classic writers spans more than a century-from 19th-century trailblazers such as John William Polidori, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Washington Irving to 20th-century masters like Saki, Edith Wharton, and Franz Kafka. The fear of the unknown is a driving force in literature, and the...

'Lupin follows me everywhere. He is not my shadow. I am his shadow.' - Maurice Leblanc In his first appearance, Leblanc's charming burglar, Arsène Lupin, finds himself behind bars as the police congratulate themselves on capturing the notorious criminal. But little did they know that Lupin had them exactly where he wanted them... This book features nine astounding adventures of the gentleman thief. Sparkling with wit and filled with elaborate plots...