A young university student named Jurek, with no particular ambitions or talents, is adrift. After his doting aunt asks him to perform a small chore, he decides to kill her for no good reason other than, perhaps, boredom. Killing Auntie follows Jurek as he seeks to dispose of the corpse?a task more difficult than one might imagine?and then falls in love with a girl he meets on a train. Can he...

Jack London was a master storyteller and one of the world's most popular American writers. His books are filled with thrilling adventures, rugged romance, and noble sentiments that remain with his characters even through the harshest trials. This is especially true of his works set in the American North—a region where the author himself experienced perilous adventures and about which he wrote...

*Doctor Faustus* (1943) is a seminal work by Thomas Mann and one of the most significant books of the 20th century. Under Mann’s pen, the old German legend of Doctor Johann Faustus—who sold his soul to the Devil not for money or fame, but for absolute knowledge—is transformed into a mysterious parable-like novel about the talented young composer Leverkühn. Whether in reality or merely in his...

This collection includes three plays by George Bernard Shaw. Foremost among them is *Pygmalion* (1912), which has inspired numerous film adaptations and the legendary Broadway musical *My Fair Lady*. The plot is based on the ancient Greek myth of a sculptor striving to bring a beautiful statue he has created to life; in Shaw’s play, the protagonist attempts to transform a simple flower girl...

For millions of readers worldwide, the Paris of the ‘Roaring Twenties’ will forever remain ‘Hemingway’s Paris’—a city where one could live, work, and be happy without a penny to one’s name. For decades, this work was published based on the 1964 edition, which appeared three years after the author's death. However, the author's son and grandson, Patrick and Seán, undertook a massive effort to...

*The Razor’s Edge* is a true study of the mores of early 20th-century European and American society. The novel features perhaps the most vivid characters ever created by Somerset Maugham. Larry Darrell is a young American in search of life’s meaning. Isabel, his fiancée, faces a difficult choice between love and wealth, social convention and the desire to live life on her own terms. Elliott...

Montaigne’s magnum opus, *Essays*—a work that occupied him for a decade—is written in a lively, free-flowing style, devoid of any rigid structure. The philosopher examines topics such as governance, interpersonal relationships, and mastery over one’s own will—among many others—through the lens of his personal experience, enriching his reflections with witty observations and quotations from both...

What strange Bolivian virus sparked an epidemic in a Russian village? Where did the crystal pyramids found in the snow—amidst fields and forests—come from? Who are the *vitaminders*, living their own distinct lives in houses made of self-generating felt? And how will the story of the rural doctor Garin’s journey unfold—a journey that began during a blizzard at a tiny station where horses were...

A story about the time when desires are still alive but one’s strength is already waning—and about a strange, almost mystical love that overtakes a man at the end of a wasted life filled with dreary work and tawdry, casual sex.

Is there life on Mars? Yes, there is—in Kurt Vonnegut’s science fiction novel *The Sirens of Titan*, the reader can visit not only Mars but also Mercury and Titan alongside the protagonist: Malachi Constant, a wealthy American playboy. On Mars, Malachi is transformed into ‘Uncle,’ loses his memory and everything he owns, and is forced to obey the orders of those who have implanted a chip in his...

Simón Bolívar. The Liberator, the greatest hero of the War of Independence, a legendary figure. A ruler who voluntarily relinquished power. Only recently, he had commanded armies and held sway over nations, and then, suddenly—resignation. The final months of Bolívar’s life are a period about which historians know almost nothing. Yet, under the pen of the greatest master of magical realism,...