'There, in Russia five years ago, when Cuba had been taken out of the oven to cool and Vietnam was still coming to a simmer, Bech did find a quality of life — impoverished yet ceremonial, shabby yet ornate, sentimental, embattled, and avuncular-reminiscent of his neglected Jewish past'. Borges became famous as a writer of short stories that contained new realities: elaborately conceived, ingenious and gamesome precis of impossible worlds or imaginary books. In these five stories, there is danger on the high seas, an ungracious teacher of etiquette and an encyclopaedia of an unknown planet — and Borges' unique imagination and intellect plays throughout. This book includes Rich In Russia, Foreword, Bech in Rumania, Appendix A and Appendix B.

We the Living depicts the struggle of the individual against the state, and the impact of the Russian Revolution on three human beings who demand the right to live their own lives and pursue their own happiness. This classic novel is not a story of politics, but of the men and women who fight for existence within a totalitarian state.

«According to «Time», Paul Allen is one of the 100 Most Influential People In The World. «Idea Man» is the story of the fascinating life of a man who has made an unprecedented impact in science, technology, business, sports, music, and philanthropy. His memoir features previously untold stories that offer insight into everything from the true origins of Microsoft to a behind-the-scenes view of the dawn of private space travel. It offers reflections from someone who has led an extraordinary life, learned a lot, and helped improve the world.»

«'What we were after was lashings of ultraviolence'. In this nightmare vision of youth in revolt, fifteen-year-old Alex and his friends set out on a diabolical orgy of robbery, rape, torture and murder. Alex is jailed for his teenage delinquency and the State tries to reform him — but at what cost? Social prophecy? Black comedy? Study of freewill? «A Clockwork Orange» is all of these. It is also a dazzling experiment in language, as Burgess creates a new language — 'nadsat', the teenage slang of a not-too-distant future.»

«'Of all my novels this bright brute is the gayest', Nabokov wrote of «King, Queen, Knave». Comic, sensual and cerebral, it dramatizes an Oedipal love triangle, a tragi-comedy of husband, wife and lover, through Dreyer the rich businessman, his ripe-lipped ad mercenary wife Martha, and their bespectacled nephew Franz. 'If a resolute Freudian manages to slip in' — Nabokov darts a glance to the reader — 'he or she should be warned that a number of cruel traps have been set here and there'.»

An elegant literary mystery set during the Gilded Age. New York City, 1911. Representing the widow of a Wall Street financier, lawyer William Dysart travels to a small Long Island town with a generous offer for Miss Sybil Curtis's cottage and five acres of land. But when Sybil refuses to sell, the widow threatens to use her influence with the state to seize the property. Intrigued by Sybil's defiance and afflicted by a growing affection for her, William develops a desire to help her that becomes an obsession he cannot define, one that tears away the facade of his life, and presents him with truths he's unprepared to face.

'But it hadn't been given for nothing. It had been given, even the most wildly squandered sum, as an offering to destiny that he might not remember the things most worth remembering, the things that he would now always remember'. F. Scott Fitzgerald's stories defined the 1920s 'Jazz Age' generation, with their glittering dreams and tarnished hopes. In these three tales of a fragile recovery, a cut-glass bowl and a life lost, Fitzgerald portrays, in exquisite prose and with deep human sympathy, the idealism of youth and the ravages of success. This book includes: Babylon Revisited, The Cut-Glass Bowl, and The Lost Decade.

'There, in Russia five years ago, when Cuba had been taken out of the oven to cool and Vietnam was still coming to a simmer, Bech did find a quality of life — impoverished yet ceremonial, shabby yet ornate, sentimental, embattled, and avuncular-reminiscent of his neglected Jewish past'. Borges became famous as a writer of short stories that contained new realities: elaborately conceived, ingenious and gamesome precis of impossible worlds or imaginary books. In these five stories, there is danger on the high seas, an ungracious teacher of etiquette and an encyclopaedia of an unknown planet — and Borges' unique imagination and intellect plays throughout. This book includes Rich In Russia, Foreword, Bech in Rumania, Appendix A and Appendix B.

This is Freud's groundbreaking study of a wealthy young Russian man, subject to psychotic episodes and neuroses. Through the patient's dream of childhood wolves, Freud was able to determine his real problem — that of infantile neurosis brought about by a sexual complex and an Oedipal fixation. Great Ideas — Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves — and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives — and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

In this collection of wise, witty and fascinating essays, Borges discusses the existence (or non-existence) of Hell, the flaws in English literary detectives, the philosophy of contradictions, and the many translators of 1001 Nights. Varied and enthralling, these pieces examine the very nature of our lives, from cinema and books to history and religion. Great Ideas: throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves — and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives — and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

We were sitting on the porch, tutti-frutti melting on our plates, when suddenly, just as we were wishing that something would happen, something did; for out of the red road dust appeared Miss Bobbit.' Truman Capote's bewitching short stories, many of which were set in the Deep South of his youth, are among his finest works. Perceptive, sensitive and eloquent, filled with brooding atmosphere and gorgeous description, these three stories tell of genteel eccentrics, evocative childhood memories and a malevolent nocturnal meeting. This book includes: Children on Their Birthdays, A Christmas Memory, and A Tree of Night.

I suppose it was conceited of me. But it was fun. And I felt like getting a bit of my own back on some of the people who'd conned and flattered me into wasting all those years. This is one of 50 original and exciting books of short stories, publishing in February to celebrate half a century of Penguin Modern Classics.

Charles Darwin transformed our understanding of the world with the idea of natural selection, challenging the notion that species are fixed and unchanging. These writings from On the Origin of Species explain how different life forms appear all over the globe, evolve over millions of years, become extinct and are supplanted. Great Ideas — Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves — and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives — and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Little jets of wheezing laughter followed one another out of his convulsed body. His eyes, twinkling with cunning enjoyment, glanced at every moment towards his companion's face. When he was quite sure that the narrative had ended he laughed noiselessly for fully half a minute. Then he said: Well...! That takes the biscuit! James Joyce's naturalistic, unflinching portrayal of ordinary working people in his Dubliners stories was a literary landmark. These four stories from that collection offer glimpses of defeated lives — an unremarkable death, a theft, a desperate plan, a failed writer's dream — yet each creates a compelling and ultimately redemptive vision of a city and of human experience. This book includes: Two Gallants, The Sisters, The Boarding House, and A Little Cloud.

Anna is on her way home from work on a cold winter's day when she sees a crowd queuing at a kiosk. Though a queue is not an unusual sight in a Russian city, this appears different. There's a rumour that famous exiled composer Selinksy is returning to conduct his last symphony for one night only — and this kiosk is selling tickets. The acquisition of tickets to this concert becomes an obsession in Anna's small family. Her husband, a tuba player in a state band, sees the ticket as a way of embarking on an illicit affair. Their son thinks going to the concert will help him flee to the West on Selinksy's coattails. And Anna? She secretly hopes the ticket will make her husband love her again. The Concert Ticket is a heartbreaking novel about the secret, profound longings at the heart of a family struggling in a time of great repression.

This new edition includes: The Raid, Woodfelling, Three Deaths, Polikushka, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, After the Ball, and The Forged Coupon. Mortality was one of Tolstoy's most persistent themes, and all of the stories in this volume are connected by this preoccupation, along with the author's simultaneous attempt to help us improve our lives.

Eight years ago Moose Malloy and cute little redhead Velma were getting married — until someone framed Malloy for armed robbery. Now his stretch is up and he wants Velma back. PI Philip Marlow meets Malloy one hot day in Hollywood and, out of the generosity of his jaded heart, agrees to help him. Dragged from one smoky bar to another, Marlowe's search for Velma turns up plenty of dangerous gangsters with a nasty habit of shooting first and talking later. And soon what started as a search for a missing person becomes a matter of life and death...

When telepathic cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse sees a naked man on the side of the road, she doesn't just drive on by. Turns out the poor thing hasn't a clue who-or what-he is, but Sookie knows. It's the vampire Eric Northman-but now he's a kinder, gentler Eric. And a very frightened Eric, because it soon becomes obvious that whoever took his memory now wants his life.

A magnificent reconstruction of Napoleon's life and legend written by a distinguished Oxford scholar.