[The Modern library of the world's best books]

Author

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900

Earliest Publication Date

1968

Summary

Six works selected from Nietzsche's writings, including "The Birth of Tragedy," "Beyond Good and Evil," and "On the Genealogy of Morals" reflect the philosopher's critique of Western morality and insights into Christianity and art.

2) Emma

Author

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817

Earliest Publication Date

1948

Summary

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"The culmination of Jane Austen's genius, a sparkling comedy of love and marriage--now in a stunning 200th-anniversary Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition Beautiful, clever, rich--and single--Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to...

3) Great classical myths

Earliest Publication Date

1964

4) Invisible man

Author

Ellison, Ralph

Earliest Publication Date

1952

Summary

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In the course of his wanderings from a Southern Negro college to New York's Harlem, an American black man becomes involved in a series of adventures. Introduction explains circumstances under which the book was written. Ellison won the National Book Award for this searing record of a black man's journey through contemporary America. Unquestionably, Ellison's book is a work of extraordinary intensity -- powerfully imagined and written with a savage,...

5) Les Miserables

Author

Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885

Earliest Publication Date

1862

Summary

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After nineteen years in prison, Jean Valjean has difficulty adjusting to the outside world, which scorns and shuns him.

6) Middlemarch

Author

Eliot, George, 1819-1880

Earliest Publication Date

1956

Summary

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Set in a provincial Victorian neighborhood, the author explores the complex social relationship and the struggle to hold fast to personal tragedy in a materialistic environment.

7) Stars in their courses: the Gettysburg campaign, June-July 1863

Author

Foote, Shelby

Earliest Publication Date

1994

8) The sound and the fury

Author

Faulkner, William, 1897-1962

Earliest Publication Date

1946

Summary

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Dive into the haunting and powerful world of "The Sound and the Fury", William Faulkner's Southern Gothic masterpiece. A tale of loss, decay, and the passage of time, this novel unravels the tragic downfall of the once-proud Compson family through an innovative and deeply emotional narrative. Told from four distinct perspectives, Faulkner's stream-of-consciousness technique immerses readers in the fragmented minds of his unforgettable characters....