«Since his first appearance in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes has been one of the most beloved fictional characters ever created. Now, in two paperback volumes, Bantam presents all fifty-six short stories and four novels featuring Conan Doyle's classic hero — a truly complete collection of Sherlock Holmes's adventures in crime! Volume I includes the early novel A Study in Scarlet, which introduced the eccentric genius of Sherlock Holmes to the world. This baffling murder mystery, with the cryptic word Rache written in blood, first brought Holmes together with Dr. John Watson. Next, The Sign of Four presents Holmes's famous «seven percent solution» and the strange puzzle of Mary Morstan in the quintessential locked-room mystery. Also included are Holmes's feats of extraordinary detection in such famous cases as the chilling «The Adventure of the Speckled Band», the baffling riddle of «The Musgrave Ritual», and the ingeniously plotted «The Five Orange Pips» tales that bring to life a Victorian England of horse-drawn cabs, fogs, and the famous lodgings at 221B Baker Street, where Sherlock Holmes earned his undisputed reputation as the greatest fictional detective of all time.»

Here they are — some of the funniest tales and ruminations ever put into print, by one of the great comic minds of our time. From THE WHORE OF MENSA, to GOD (A Play), to NO KADDISH FOR WEINSTEIN, old and new Woody Allen fans will laugh themselves hysterical over these sparkling gems.

«Since his first appearance in «Beeton’s Christmas Annual» in 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes has been one of the most beloved fictional characters ever created. Now, in two paperback volumes, Bantam presents all fifty-six short stories and four novels featuring Conan Doyle’s classic hero — a truly complete collection of Sherlock Holmes’s adventures in crime! Volume II begins with «The Hound of the Baskervilles», a haunting novel of murder on eerie Grimpen Moor, which has rightly earned its reputation as the finest murder mystery ever written. «The Valley of Fear» matches Holmes against his archenemy, the master of imaginative crime, Professor Moriarty. In addition, the loyal Dr. Watson has faithfully recorded Holmes’s feats of extraordinary detection in such famous cases as the thrilling «The Adventure of the Red Circle» and the twelve baffling adventures from «The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes». Conan Doyle’s incomparable tales bring to life a Victorian England of horse-drawn cabs, fogs, and the famous lodgings at 221B Baker Street, where for more than forty years Sherlock Holmes earned his undisputed reputation as the greatest fictional detective of all time.»

Matt read the forbidden runes and found himself in a world where reciting verses worked magic. He got himself locked in a dungeon, created a fire-breathing dragon, and eventually discovered a beautiful princess he swore to save. Little did he guess how hard that would be...

Luke Skywalker was a twenty-year-old who lived and worked on his uncle's farm on the remote planet of Tatooine...and he was bored beyond belief. He yearned for adventures that would take him beyond the farthest galaxies. But he got much more than he bargained for...

Written between 1965 and 1967, Setting Free the Bears is 'sensual, moving, truly remarkable' (Time), and concerns a plot to release all the animals from the Vienna Zoo.

«A man trapped in a millionare's deadly game of political and sexual betrayal. Filled with shocks and chilling surprises, «The Magus» is a masterwork of contemporary literature. In it, a young Englishman, Nicholas Urfe, accepts a teaching position on a Greek island where his friendship with the owner of the islands most magnificent estate leads him into a nightmare. As reality and fantasy are deliberately confused by staged deaths, erotic encounters, and terrifying violence, Urfe becomes a desperate man fighting for his sanity and his life. A work rich with symbols, conundrums and labrinthine twists of event, «The Magus» is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining, a work that ranks with the best novels of modern times.»

It is a time of political unrest in Great Britain. And behind the Iron Curtain an insidious plot is being hatched, a plan so incendiary that even the KGB is ignorant of its existence — Aurora, the sinister brainchild of two of the world's most dangerous men: the general secretary of the Soviet Union and master spy Kim Philby. The wheels are in motion, the pawns are in place, and the countdown has begun toward an accident that could change the fact of British politics forever and trigger and collapse of the Western alliance. Only British agent John Preston stand any chance of breaching the conspiracy. Through plot and counterplot, from bloody back streets to polished halls of power both East and West, his desperate investigation is relentlessly blocked by deceit, treachery, and the most deadly enemy of all... time.

Seventy-five short masterpieces of fiction.

Although they had won a significant battle, the war between the Rebels and the Empire had really just begun. Soon, Luke, Han, the princess and their faithful companions were forced to flee, scattering in all directions--the Dark Lord's minions in fevered pursuit...

Samantha Taylor is shattered when her husband leaves her for another woman. She puts her advertising career on hold and seeks refuge at a friend's California ranch, where she loses herself in the daily labor of ranch life. Here, she discovers the healing powers of trusted friends, simple joys, and hard work. She also meets Tate Jordan, the ranch foreman, and a tumultuous relationship ensues. When Tate disappears and a fall from a horse changes Samantha's life forever, she is confined to a wheelchair and must look deep inside herself to finds the courage to begin again. Now, fighting the battles of the handicapped, she finds new challenges, new loves, and even the adopted child she's always longed for.

An outstanding collection chronicling the growth of the american short story from humorous legend to powerful contempory fiction.

«For deft plotting, riotous inventiveness, unforgettable characters, and language that brilliantly captures the lively rhythms of American speech, no American writer comes close to Mark Twain. This sparkling anthology covers the entire span of Twain's inimitable yarn-spinning, from his early broad comedy to the biting satire of his later years. Every one of his sixty stories is here: ranging from the frontier humor of «The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County», to the bitter vision of humankind in «The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg», to the delightful hilarity of «Is He Living or Is He Dead?» Surging with Twain's ebullient wit and penetrating insight into the follies of human nature, this volume is a vibrant summation of the career of — in the words of H. L. Mencken — «the father of our national literature.»

A secret group of Washington's most powerful men have J. Edgar Hoover killed in order to reach his secret files only to discover there is someone else capable of using these personal dossiers for blackmail and extortion.

Presents the major literary works of America's poet of democracy including: Song of Myself, Starting from Paumanok, and Children of Adam.

«» I am a sick man... I am a spiteful man», the irascible voice of a nameless narrator cries out. And so, from underground, emerge the passionate confessions of a suffering man; the brutal self-examination of a tormented soul; the bristling scorn and iconoclasm of alienated individual who has become one of the greatest antiheroes in all literature. «Notes From Underground», published in 1864, marks a tuming point in Dostoevsky's writing: it announces the moral political, and social ideas he will treat on a monumental scale in «Crime And Punishment», «The Idiot», and «The Brothers Karamazov». And it remains to this day one of the most searingly honest and universal testaments to human despair ever penned.»

«Lyric and sensual, D.H. Lawrence's last novel is one of the major works of fiction of the twentieth century. Filled with scenes of intimate beauty, explores the emotions of a lonely woman trapped in a sterile marriage and her growing love for the robust gamekeeper of her husband's estate. The most controversial of Lawrence's books, «Lady Chatterly's Lover» joyously affirms the author's vision of individual regeneration through sexual love. The book's power, complexity, and psychological intricacy make this a completely original work — a triumph of passion, an erotic celebration of life.»

It was a dark time for the rebel alliance... Han Solo, frozen in carbonite, had been delivered into the hands of the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt. Determined to rescue him, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Lando Calrissian launched a hazardous mission against Jabba's Tatooine stronghold. The Rebel commanders gathered all the warships of the Rebel fleet into a single giant armada. And Darth Vader and the Emperor, who had ordered construction to begin on a new and even more powerful Death Star, were making plans to crush the Rebel Alliance once and for all.

In Germany engulfed by war and hatred, the beautiful wife of an influential banker fell in love with a German author. His Jewish heritage led them both to death. The husband who survives her lives on to protect her memory, and their children. And the ring he passes on to his daughter, Ariana von Gotthard, remains a bond of love between them. Separated from her family, and unable to escape Germany, Ariana is finally arrested. A young Nazi officer offers her survival and hope for the future. Tragedy and a sudden twist of fate carries Ariana to America, to a chilling deception, and a new life of unfamiliar terrors. Her past seemingly lost forever, her future uncertain, the ring she still clings to is all she has left of her father and brother. And in time it will become the bridge from her past to her future.