Signet Classics

THE WORLD'S GREATEST WAR NOVEL Humans and gods wrestling with towering emotions. Men fighting to the death amid devastation and destruction. Perhaps the Western world's first and best storyteller, Homer draws the reader in with bated breath. His masterful tale contains some of the most famous

1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's prophetic, nightmare vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. "1984" is still the great modern classic "negative Utopia" - a startling original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing

Outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor comes alive in this classic epic of the Scottish borderlands. The narrative follows the adventures of Frank Osbaldistone, a businessman's son who falls out of favor with his father and is sent to stay in Scotland. English and Protestant, Frank has never felt more out of

With an introduction by W.H. Auden and commentary from Helen Vendler, among others, this volume presents all of Shakeseare's non-dramatic poetry in one place.

Complete and unabridged, Don Quixote is the epic tale of the man from La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza. Their picaresque adventures in the world of seventeenth-century Spain form the basis of one of the great treasures of Western literature. In a new translation that "comes closest,

Harriet Beecher Stowe's timeless and moving novel, an incendiary work that fanned the embers of the struggle between free and slave states into the fire of the Civil War. Uncle Tom's Cabin is the story of the slave Tom. Devout and loyal, he is sold and sent down south, where he endures brutal

Jules Verne's masterpiece of adventure fiction that has captured the imaginations of generations of readers and continues to enthrall us today. On October 2, 1872, an English gentleman makes a remarkable wager: He can travel around the entire world in a mere eighty days. Thus begins Jules Verne's

A bold young English sailor has despised himself ever since an impulsive moment of cowardice. Jim moves East to Patusan, where natives worship him-and he may be able to find redemption...

Set during the French and Indian Wars, The Deerslayer vividly captures the essence of both the murderous humanity and the natural beauty that distinguished America’s founding. The last of Cooper’s famous Leatherstocking Tales, it is first chronologically in the frontier adventures of the backwoods

Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs With an Introduction by Gore VidalSet amid the vibrant colors and sounds of the African jungle, this classic work has beckoned generations of readers toward a glorious journey of pure adventure. This is the story of the ape-man Tarzan, raised in the

A classic by a Russian master Prince Myshkin, the idiot, is an almost comically innocent Christ figure in a land of sinners, one whose faith in beauty contrasts sharply with that of his society's.

Louisa May Alcott shares the innocence of girlhood in this classic coming of age story about four sisters--Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo, beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy are responsible for keeping a home while their father is off

The revolutionary novel that catapulted readers into the future, from the father of science fiction, H.G. Wells. "I've had a most amazing time...." So begins the Time Traveller's astonishing firsthand account of his journey eight hundred thousand years beyond his own era--and the story that

The third novel in James Fennimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, starring the heroic Natty Bumppo. Vigorous, self-reliant, amazingly resourceful, and moral, Natty Bumppo is the prototype of the Western hero. A faultless arbiter of wilderness justice, he hates middle-class hypocrisy. But he

Volume two in a collection of tales representing distinctive genres- from fairy tales to erotica-revealing the customs and societies in the medieval Middle East, as told by the mythic Sheherazade.

Leo Tolstoy combined detailed physical description with perceptive psychological insight to sweep aside the sham of surface appearances and lay bare man's intimate gestures, acts, and thoughts. Murder and sacrifice...greed and devotion...lust and affection...vanity and love--one by one, in this

Bawdy and exotic, "Arabian Nights, " feature the wily, seductive Scheherazade, who saves her own life by telling tales of magical transformation, genies and wishes, flying carpets and fantastical journeys, terror and passion to entertain and appease the brutal King Shahryar. First introduced in the

Timeless tales of wolves, dogs, men, and the Wild, The Call of the Wild and White Fang are two of the world's greatest adventure stories. The biting cold and the aching silence of the far North become an unforgettable backdrop for Jack London's vivid, rousing, superbly realistic wilderness

The best of American short fiction Spanning over 100 years of literary history, here are 33 of the finest short stories by Washington Irving Nathaniel Hawthorne Edgar Allan Poe Herman Melville Harriet Beecher Stowe Bret Harte Bayard Taylor Rose Terry Cooke Ambrose Bierce Hamlin Garland

A collection of powerful stories by one of the masters of Russian literature, illustrating Fyodor Dostoyevsky's thoughts on political philosophy, religion and above all, humanity. From the primitive peasant who kills without understanding that he is destroying a human life, to the anxious antihero

Beloved American novelist Willa Cather's nostalgic classic about life on the Midwest prairie. Emigrating from Bohemia to Black Hawk, Nebraska, with her family, ntonia discovers no white-framed farmhouse or snug barn. Instead, the cultured Shimerda family finds itself huddled in a primitive sod

Both embodiment and victim of the self-satisfied nineteenth-century French bourgeoisie, Emma Bovary lives in pursuit of something more, like the world depicted in the romance novels that have come to define her. Emma is oblivious to the realities of life, and her romantic delusions and search for

Jane Austen turns her unerring eye on the concerns of English society at a time of great upheaval in this historical romance classic. Mansfield Park is named for the magnificent, idyllic estate that is home to the wealthy Bertram family and that serves as a powerful symbol of English tradition and

The Master of Irony Readers the world over recognize O. Henry as the best short story writer of the early twentieth century. Widely known as a master of irony, O. Henry also displays here dazzling wordplay and a wry combination of pathos and humor.

Based on the life of her brother, this unforgettable book chronicles the life and times of Jacob Flanders-and remains an important work in the development of the novel form, and a shining example of Woolf's genius and literary daring.

"The novel that foreshadowed Donald Trump's authoritarian appeal."--Salon It Can't Happen Here is the only one of Sinclair Lewis's later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith. A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at

Four of the Bard's most famous comedies--including The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest. "Comedies," as one of William Shakespeare's contemporaries wrote, "begin in trouble and end in peace." This is certainely true of the four masterworks selected for

Dostoyevsky's epic masterpiece, unabridged, with an afterword by Robin Feuer Miller One of the world's greatest novels, Crime and Punishment is the story of a murder and its consequences--an unparalleled tale of suspense set in the midst of nineteenth-century Russia's troubled transition to the

Wit and intelligence are the hallmarks of this probing portrait of the English character. And in this story of extreme contrasts--in values, social class, and cultural perspectives--an unconventional romantic relationship leads to conventional happiness in a delightful social comedy. While touring

Leo Tolstoy's evocative tale of doomed love--one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. Upon it's publication, Anna Karenina startled the world with its powerful portrayal of the human need for love and happiness weighed against the rigid demands of society. Its heroine, the sensual,