In celebration of our history’s rich oral tradition of storytelling, we invite you to bring your flashlight up to your chin and get ready to make your listeners want to sleep with a nightlight. Through the Flashlight’s Beam is a collection of the very best scary story classics including some of the most popular characters in the history of suspense including Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Headless Horseman as well as a cast of other ghosts, vampires, and other beasts sure to delight and terrify readers of all ages. These are the ultimate horror all-stars by the most familiar names in fear including Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft, Washington Irving and more. Whether you intend to read these stories at bedtime for a spine tingling tale before sleep, to your class each October to get everyone in the mood for Halloween, or by flashlight around the campfire, we think you’ll find chills and thrills aplenty in these tales.

Victorian author Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930) is most remembered today for her ghost stories, but she was a prolific and popular author in many genres: not only the supernatural, but mystery and suspense, romance, and especially contemporary fiction were her speciality. She produced more than two dozen volumes of published short stories and novels. For this volume, we have grouped the most famous of her supernatural stories together at the beginning, then moved on to more mainstream works. I’m certain you will find something you enjoy; her interests and subject matter were broad, and her work holds up remarkably well today.

Included in this volume:

THE WIND IN THE ROSE-BUSH
THE SHADOWS ON THE WALL
LUELLA MILLER
THE SOUTHWEST CHAMBER
THE VACANT LOT
THE LOST GHOST
A FAR-AWAY MELODY
THE LITTLE MAID AT THE DOOR
A SYMPHONY IN LAVENDER
THE HALL BEDROOM
A GENTLE GHOST
THE TWELFTH GUEST
THE JADE BRACELET
THE WITCH'S DAUGHTER
THE PRISM
THE POT OF GOLD
THE COW WITH GOLDEN HORNS
PRINCESS ROSETTA AND THE POP-CORN MAN
THE CHRISTMAS MONKS
THE PUMPKIN GIANT
THE CHRISTMAS MASQUERADE
DILL
THE SILVER HEN
TOBY
THE PATCHWORK SCHOOL
THE SQUIRE'S SIXPENCE
A PLAIN CASE
THE STRANGER IN THE VILLAGE
THE BOUND GIRL
DEACON THOMAS WALES'S WILL
THE ADOPTED DAUGHTER
TWO OLD LOVERS
THE BAR LIGHT-HOUSE
THE STORY OF LITTLE MARY WHITLOW
A MISTAKEN CHARITY
ON THE WALPOLE ROAD
A HUMBLE ROMANCE
A MODERN DRAGON
AN HONEST SOUL
A MORAL EXIGENCY
A TASTE OF HONEY
A GATHERER OF SIMPLES
BRAKES AND WHITE VI'LETS
AN OBJECT OF LOVE
A SOUVENIR
OLD LADY PINGREE
A WAYFARING COUPLE
IN BUTTERFLY TIME
AN OLD ARITHMETICIAN
ROBINS AND HAMMERS
GENTIAN
A CONFLICT ENDED
THE "HORSE HOUSE" DEED
AN UNWILLING GUEST
CINNAMON ROSES
A WANDERING SAMARITAN
A LOVER OF FLOWERS
A PATIENT WAITER
A CONQUEST OF HUMILITY

If you enjoyed this Megapack, please check out the rest of the series -- covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, mysteries, westerns, classic authors, and much, much more! Search on "Wildside Megapack" in your favorite ebook store to see the whole list.

Eight poignant tales vividly portray patient, self-reliant heroines living in small New England villages .Well-known title story plus "A New England Nun," "Old Woman Magoun," "Gentian," "One Good Time," "The Selfishness of Amelia Lamkin," "The Apple Tree," and "The Butterfly." An excellent sampling of regional work by one of America's best-known women writers.

In this sweeping novel, American author Mary E. Wilkins Freeman turns from the light subject matter of many of her early works to tackle a much more serious issue: the impact of poverty. Through the character of Jerome, Freeman skillfully illustrates how impoverishment can cast a pall over multiple generations of families.

For as long as she can remember, a young girl named Letitia has been transfixed by the mysterious green door tucked away in a nook of her family home. She longs to open it and find out what's behind it, but her aunt urges her not to. Will Letitia be able to resist the pull of the green door?

In this charming short story from American author Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Eudora Yates is an older unmarried woman who lives alone and has long eschewed convention. But when neighbors notice her pushing a baby carriage around the area, a storm of wild speculation about the child she appears to have adopted takes hold.

In this humorous novella from American writer Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, a rural New England community is thrown for a loop by the arrival of a family that has relocated from the big city. The Jamesons have the best intentions, but their attitudes and conventions stand out in the small village. What will it take for them to finally begin to fit in?

New England writer Mary E. Wilkins Freeman had a particular talent for capturing the rhythms of domestic life in her native region's small towns and villages, as well as illuminating the small domestic dramas and conflicts experienced by her characters. Those strengths are displayed prominently in the novel By the Light of the Soul, which follows young Maria Edgham as she grapples with grief and dashed expectations.

Though her best-known work is in the domain of short fiction, New England writer Mary E. Wilkins Freeman produced a number of novels over the course of her career, as well. In the intricately plotted tale The Debtor, the Carroll family, once part of the Southern aristocracy, has fallen on hard times. Driven by desperation, one member of the family goes to extremes to raise funds.

Fans of historical romance will relish this finely wrought novel from American author Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, who brings her unique skill with characterization and local color to a memorable love story that's set in the Tidewater area of Virginia during colonial times.

In this charming short story geared for younger readers, a young girl named Comfort is very proud of the gold ring that was gifted to her when she was born by her namesake Aunt Comfort. But when young Comfort takes the ring to school to show her friends, things don't turn out exactly how she had planned.

A collection that shows Freeman's many modes - romantic, gothic, and psychologically symbolic - as well as her use of pathos and sentimentality, humour, satire and irony. These stories centre on questions of women's integrity, courage and privation; explore the idea of masculinity; and dramatise the relationship between rural New England and modern culture and commerce. Also included here is 'The Jamesons', a series of sketches about village life reprinted for the first time since the turn of the 20th century.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Fans of Sinclair Lewis' Main Street will love Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's satirical novel The Butterfly House. The story is a hilarious send-up of the preposterous posturing and one-upmanship that runs amok among the members of a women's club in early-twentieth-century New Jersey.

American author Mary E. Wilkins Freeman set most of her works of fiction in small New England communities, so this dramatization of one of the chief figures involved in the Salem Witch Trials is a natural fit for her unique strengths as a writer. Freeman's first foray into drama was well received by the critics, and a stage production of the play enjoyed a successful run.

Stubborn and set in her ways, Jane Field has a somewhat antagonistic relationship with her daughter Lois, who is coming into her own and developing distinct ideas and values. When it comes to light that Lois has fallen in love, all hell breaks lose. Will Jane ever be able to salvage the mother-daughter bond?

This collection of short stories from Mary E. Wilkins Freeman brings eighteenth-century Massachusetts to life for younger readers. Four intertwined tales are linked together by the presence of spirited protagonist Ann Ginnins, a young girl who has been sold into servitude.

Many of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's novels and short stories center around an outsider who tries to fit into the strict social mores of nineteenth-century rural New England. In Madelon, the eponymous heroine is a hot-blooded young woman who finds herself accused of a horrible crime that resulted from a case of mistaken identity.

One of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's most popular short stories, "Evelina's Garden" tells the tale of two cousins -- one an elderly recluse, and one a beautiful young woman -- who are drawn together by a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind garden. Young Evelina is prepared to devote her life to caring for the extraordinary oasis, but when romance intervenes, everything begins to fall apart.

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman started her writing career when she was a teenager, penning verse and stories for children as a means of earning extra money for the family. Even as her literary ambitions evolved, Freeman continued to feature children in many of her tales. In the charming collection The Copy-Cat and Other Stories, children play prominent roles in the majority of the stories.

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

Read the cult-favorite coming of age story that takes a sometimes heartbreaking, often hysterical, and always honest look at high school in all its glory. Also a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a funny, touching, and haunting modern classic.

The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

A #1 New York Times best seller for more than a year, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults (2000) and Best Book for Reluctant Readers (2000), and with millions of copies in print, this novel for teen readers (or “wallflowers” of more-advanced age) will make you laugh, cry, and perhaps feel nostalgic for those moments when you, too, tiptoed onto the dance floor of life.

Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future.

Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future.

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.

When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

This Top Five Classics illustrated edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s Complete Tales & Poems features 157 works by Poe, including all of his short stories and poems.

69 Tales, including:
• The Tell-Tale Heart
• The Murders in the Rue Morgue
• The Fall of the House of Usher
• The Masque of the Red Death
• The Pit and the Pendulum
• The Purloined Letter
• The Black Cat
• Hop-Frog
• The Cask of Amontillado

74 Poems, including:
• The Raven
• The Conqueror Worm
• The Bells
• Tamerlane
• Al Aaraaf
• Lenore
• Eldorado
• Annabel Lee

In addition:
• Poe’s only complete novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
• His incomplete novel, The Journal of Julius Rodman
• His unfinished tragedy in verse, Politian
• 11 significant essays & sketches, including “The Balloon-Hoax,” “The Rationale of Verse,” and Eureka

Also featuring:
• More than 90 large illustrations from Gustave Doré, Harry Clarke, Edmund Dulac, and others
• Annotated translations of passages in French, Latin, Greek or other foreign languages, along with Poe’s own notes
• Alphabetical, linked title index and detailed author biography

Whether you are new to Edgar Allan Poe or a student of his work, this illustrated/annotated edition is a must-have for your ebook library.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, this novel about a resilient and courageous woman has become a Broadway show and a cultural phenomenon.
 
Celie has grown up poor in rural Georgia, despised by the society around her and abused by her own family. She strives to protect her sister, Nettie, from a similar fate, and while Nettie escapes to a new life as a missionary in Africa, Celie is left behind without her best friend and confidante, married off to an older suitor, and sentenced to a life alone with a harsh and brutal husband.
 
In an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear, Celie begins writing letters directly to God. The letters, spanning twenty years, record a journey of self-discovery and empowerment guided by the light of a few strong women. She meets Shug Avery, her husband’s mistress and a jazz singer with a zest for life, and her stepson’s wife, Sophia, who challenges her to fight for independence. And though the many letters from Celie’s sister are hidden by her husband, Nettie’s unwavering support will prove to be the most breathtaking of all.
 
The Color Purple has sold more than five million copies, inspired an Academy Award–nominated film starring Oprah Winfrey and directed by Steven Spielberg, and been adapted into a Tony-nominated Broadway musical. Lauded as a literary masterpiece, this is the groundbreaking novel that placed Walker “in the company of Faulkner” (The Nation), and remains a wrenching—yet intensely uplifting—experience for new generations of readers.

 This ebook features a new introduction written by the author on the twenty-fifth anniversary of publication, and an illustrated biography of Alice Walker including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

Now more than ever: Aldous Huxley's enduring "masterpiece ... one of the most prophetic dystopian works of the 20th century" (Wall Street Journal) must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit in the face of our "brave new world"

Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order--all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine” (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New World likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites. 

"Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English." —Chicago Tribune

The John Carter of Mars Collection (7 Novels + Bonus Audiobook Links)

"In one respect at least the Martians are a happy people, they have no lawyers." — Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars

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The John Carter of Mars Collection includes seven of Edgar Rice Burroughs works:

A Princess of Mars
The Gods of Mars
Warlord of Mars
Thuvia, Maid of Mars
The Chessmen of Mars
The Master Mind of Mars
A Fighting Man of Mars
Bonus: A Glossary of Names and Terms Used In the Martian Books

Audiobook Links: Links to download free, full-length audiobooks for The John Carter of Mars Collection by Edgar Rice Burroughs (books 1-5) can be found at the end of the book.

About this Digital Papyrus edition:
“Experience the Digital Papyrus Difference!"

We are devoted book lovers and formatting fanatics. Our team has experience producing thousands of ebooks since 2011 for discerning authors and readers alike. We know what readers expect from their ebook purchases. We avoid distracting formatting inconsistencies and annoying glitches too often found in ebooks.

We adhere to the highest standards in producing our ebooks—regardless of the sale price. (Low or value pricing should never be an excuse for second-rate work!)

We want readers of our ebooks to get lost in the story just as easily as readers of print books. Our promise is a pleasant reading experience.

10% of all Digital Papyrus profits are donated to charity every month.

Frank Herbert’s classic masterpiece—a triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction novels of all time—nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides—who would become known as Muad’Dib—and of a great family’s ambition to bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.

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 one eBook, Bantam Classics 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 deception 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.”

Volume II begins with The Hound of 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,” Holmes’s tragic and fortunately premature farewell in “The Final Problem,” 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 221 B Baker Street, where for more than forty years Sherlock Holmes earned his undisputed reputation as the greatest fictional detective of all time.

Although small and seemingly helpless, the Foundation had managed to survive against the greed of its neighboring warlords. But could it stand against the mighty power of the Empire, who had created a mutant man with the strength of a dozen battlefleets...?


From the Paperback edition.

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." ~ H.P. Lovecraft

This collection includes 160 of H.P. Lovecraft's works. The collection is grouped by Early Writings, Fiction, Collaborative Works, Poetry and Essays. The groups are organized in chronological order by the date that each work was written. 

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* Links to download full-length audiobooks included FREE! 

Early Writings:
The Little Glass Bottle (1897)
The Secret Cave (1898)
The Mystery Of The Graveyard (1898)
The Mysterious Ship (1902)
The Beast in the Cave (1905)
The Alchemist (1908)

Fiction:
The Tomb (1917)
Dagon (1917)
A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson (1917)
Sweet Ermengarde (1917)
Polaris (1918)
Beyond the Wall of Sleep (1919)
Memory (1919)
Old Bugs (1919)
The Transition of Juan Romero (1919)
The White Ship (1919)
The Doom That Came to Sarnath (1919)
The Statement of Randolph Carter (1919)
The Terrible Old Man (1920)
The Tree (1920)
The Cats of Ulthar (1920)
The Temple (1920)
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family (1920)
The Street (1920)
Celephaas (1920)
From Beyond (1920)
Nyarlathotep (1920)
The Picture in the House (1920)
Ex Oblivione (1921)
The Nameless City (1921)
The Quest of Iranon (1921)
The Moon-Bog (1921)
The Outsider (1921)
The Other Gods (1921)
The Music of Erich Zann (1921)
Herbert West--Reanimator (1922)
Hypnos (1922)
What the Moon Brings (1922)
Azathoth (1922)
The Hound (1922)
The Lurking Fear (1922)
The Rats in the Walls (1923)
The Unnamable (1923)
The Festival (1923)
The Shunned House (1924)
The Horror at Red Hook (1925)
He (1925)
In the Vault (1925)
The Descendant (1926)
Cool Air (1926)
The Call of Cthulhu (1926)
Pickman's Model (1926)
The Silver Key (1926)
The Strange High House in the Mist (1926)
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1927)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927)
The Colour Out of Space (1927)
The Very Old Folk (1927)
The Thing in the Moonlight (1927)
A History Of The Necronomicon (1927)
Ibid (1928)
The Dunwich Horror (1928)
The Whisperer in Darkness (1930)
At the Mountains of Madness (1931)
Discarded Draft of The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1931)
The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1931)
The Dreams in the Witch House (1932)
The Thing on the Doorstep (1933)
The Evil Clergyman (1933)
The Book (1933)
The Shadow Out of Time (1934-1935)
The Haunter of the Dark (1935)

Collaborative Works:
The Green Meadow (1918)
Poetry and the Gods (1920)
The Crawling Chaos (1920)
The Horror At Martin's Beach (1922)
Under the Pyramids (1924)
Two Black Bottles (1926)
The Last Test (1927)
The Curse Of Yig (1928)
The Electric Executioner (1929)
The Mound (1929)
Medusa's Coil (1930)
The Trap (1931)
The Man Of Stone (1932)
The Horror In The Museum (1932)
Through the Gates of the Silver Key (1932)
Winged Death (1933)
Out of the Aeons (1933)
The Horror In The Burying-Ground (1933)
The Hoard Of The Wizard-Beast (1933)
The Slaying of the Monster (1933)
The Tree On the Hill (1934)
The Battle That Ended the Century (1934)
Till A' the Seas... (1935)
Collapsing Cosmoses (1935)
The Challenge From Beyond (1935)
The Disinterment (1935)
The Diary Of Alonzo Typer (1935)
In the Walls of Eryx (1936)
The Night Ocean (1936)

Poetry:
Poemata Minora, Volume II (1902)
On Receiving a Picture of Swans (1915)
March (1915)
Unda; or, The Bride of the Sea (1915)
An American to Mother England (1916)
Lines on Gen. Robert Edward Lee (1916)
The Rose of England (1916)
The Poe-et's Nightmare (1916)
The Teuton's Battle-Song
Fact and Fancy (1917)
Pacifist War Song—1917 (1917)
A Garden (1917)
The Peace Advocate (1917)
Ode for July Fourth, 1917 (1917)
Nemesis (1917)
Astrophobos (1917)
Sunset (1917)
Laeta; a Lament (1918)
Psychopompos: A Tale in Rhyme (1917-1918)
The Conscript (1918)
Despair (1919)
Revelation (1919)
The House (1919)
The City (1919)
To Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, Eighteenth Baron Dunsany (1919)
The Nightmare Lake (1919)
On Reading Lord Dunsany's
Book of Wonder (1920)
Christmas (1920)
Sir Thomas Tryout (1921)
Waste Paper (1922)
Providence (1924)
The Cats (1925)
Festival (1925)
Hallowe'en in a Suburb (1925)
The Wood (1929)
The Outpost (1929)
The Ancient Track (1929)
The Messenger (1929)
Fungi from Yuggoth (1929-1930)
Little Sam Perkins (1934)
Dead Passion's Flame (1935)
Arcadia (1935)
In a Sequester'd Providence Churchyard Where Once Poe Walk'd (1936)
To Clark Ashton Smith, Esq., upon His Phantastick Tales, Verses, Pictures, and Sculptures (1936)
Life's Mystery (No date)
Nathicana (No date)
Christmas Greetings (No date)

Essays:
Metrical Regularity (1915)
The Allowable Rhyme (1915)
At the Root (1918)
The Despised Pastoral (1918)
The Literature of Rome (1918)
Americanism (1919)
Literary Composition (1920)
Winifred Virginia Jackson: A "Different" Poetess (1921)
Supernatural Horror In Literature (1925-1927)
Cats And Dogs (1926)
Notes On Writing Weird Fiction (1933)

Audiobook Links: Links to download 60 free, full-length audiobooks for H.P. Lovecraft's works can be found at the end of the book.

Great Music, it said, and Great Poetry would like quieten Modern Youth down and make Modern Youth more Civilized. Civilized my syphilised yarbles. A vicious fifteen-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic. In Anthony Burgess's nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. When the state undertakes to reform Alex to "redeem" him, the novel asks, "At what cost?" This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition and Burgess's introduction "A Clockwork Orange Resucked."

An international bestseller and the basis for the hugely successful film, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of the defining works of the 1960s.

In this classic novel, Ken Kesey’s hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, McMurphy rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched. He promotes gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women, and openly defies the rules at every turn. But this defiance, which starts as a sport, soon develops into a grim struggle, an all-out war between two relentless opponents: Nurse Ratched, backed by the full power of authority, and McMurphy, who has only his own indomitable will. What happens when Nurse Ratched uses her ultimate weapon against McMurphy provides the story’s shocking climax.

“BRILLIANT!”—Time

“A SMASHING ACHIEVEMENT...A TRULY ORIGINAL NOVEL!”—Mark Schorer

“Mr. Kesey has created a world that is convincing, alive and glowing within its own boundaries...His is a large, robust talent, and he has written a large, robust book.”—Saturday Review

The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Illustrated) from Top Five Classics is the only fully illustrated, single-volume edition of the entire Sherlock Holmes Canon available, featuring:

• All 4 Sherlock Holmes novels and 56 short stories, including the final 1927 collection, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
• More than 480 captioned illustrations, including all 357 Holmes illustrations by Sidney Paget
• Alphabetical index of titles & timeline of cases
• A helpful introduction, author bio, and bibliography

Presenting all of the stories in the order they were first published with the illustrations that accompanied the original Strand Magazine monthly editions, The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Illustrated) brings the Sherlock Holmes adventures to you the way they were meant to be read.

Watership Down is the compelling tale of a group of wild rabbits struggling to hold onto their place in the world—soon to be a BBC and Netflix animated miniseries starring James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, and Oscar and Grammy award-winning Sir Ben Kingsley.

A phenomenal worldwide bestseller for more than forty years, Richard Adams's Watership Down is a timeless classic and one of the most beloved novels of all time. Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of brothers, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society.

This edition features George Orwell's best known novels – 1984 and Animal Farm – with an introduction by Christopher Hitchens.

In 1984, London is a grim city where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind.  Winston Smith joins a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.

Animal Farm is Orwell's classic satire of the Russian Revolution -- an account of the bold struggle, initiated by the animals, that transforms Mr. Jones's Manor Farm into Animal Farm--a wholly democratic society built on the credo that All Animals Are Created Equal. But are they?

A masterpiece of Biblical scope, and the magnum opus of one of America’s most enduring authors, in a commemorative hardcover edition
 
In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden "the first book," and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

The masterpiece of Steinbeck’s later years, East of Eden is a work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. Adapted for the 1955 film directed by Elia Kazan introducing James Dean, and read by thousands as the book that brought Oprah’s Book Club back, East of Eden has remained vitally present in American culture for over half a century.

“A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly.” —Zadie Smith

One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.

Book Two in the Magnificent Dune Chronicles—the Bestselling Science Fiction Adventure of All Time

Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better known—and feared—as the man christened Muad’Dib. As Emperor of the Known Universe, he possesses more power than a single man was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious icon by the fanatical Fremens, Paul faces the enmity of the political houses he displaced when he assumed the throne—and a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence.
 
And even as House Atreides begins to crumble around him from the machinations of his enemies, the true threat to Paul comes to his lover, Chani, and the unborn heir to his family’s dynasty...

The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the enduring works of American fiction. It is the story of an old Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal: a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Using the simple, powerful language of a fable, Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of defeat and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificent twentieth-century classic.

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

This collection contains all seven books in the classic fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia without art, to appeal to older readers. This special ebook edition includes an introduction by C. S. Lewis's stepson, Douglas Gresham, and full text and art for Lewis's very first work—Boxen!

Experience C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia in its entirety—The Magician's Nephew; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; The Horse and His Boy; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair; and The Last Battle. This bundle comes with a special introduction by Douglas Gresham, C. S. Lewis's stepson, for a behind-the-scenes look at Lewis while he was writing the book.

The Chronicles of Narnia has become part of the canon of classic literature, drawing readers of all ages into magical lands with unforgettable characters for over sixty years. Epic battles between good and evil, fantastic creatures, betrayals, heroic deeds, and friendships won and lost all come together in this unforgettable world.

And then discover the world before Narnia with Boxen, a collection of stories written by C. S. Lewis and his brother when they were children, with the authors' own delightful illustrations. For every reader who has been captivated by the magic of Narnia, Boxen will open a window to another enchanted land and offer the first glimmer of C. S. Lewis's amazing creativity.

The exemplary novel of the Jazz Age, F. Scott Fitzgeralds' third book, The Great Gatsby (1925), stands as the supreme achievement of his career. T. S. Eliot read it three times and saw it as the "first step" American fiction had taken since Henry James; H. L. Mencken praised "the charm and beauty of the writing," as well as Fitzgerald's sharp social sense; and Thomas Wolfe hailed it as Fitzgerald's "best work" thus far. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when, The New York Times remarked, "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s that resonates with the power of myth. A novel of lyrical beauty yet brutal realism, of magic, romance, and mysticism, The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of twentieth-century literature.

Pearl S. Buck’s timeless masterpiece, the Pulitzer Prize–winning story of a farmer’s journey through China in the 1920s
The Good Earth is Buck’s classic story of Wang Lung, a Chinese peasant farmer, and his wife, O-lan, a former slave. With luck and hard work, the couple’s fortunes improve over the years: They are blessed with sons, and save steadily until one day they can afford to buy property in the House of Wang—the very house in which O-lan used to work. But success brings with it a new set of problems. Wang soon finds himself the target of jealousy, and as good harvests come and go, so does the social order. Will Wang’s family cherish the estate after he’s gone? And can his material success, the bedrock of his life, guarantee anything about his soul? Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the William Dean Howells Award, The Good Earth was an Oprah’s Book Club choice in 2004. A readers’ favorite for generations, this powerful and beautifully written fable resonates with universal themes of hope and family unity. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.

The classic novel of freedom and the search for authenticity that defined a generation

September 5th, 2017 marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of On the Road

Inspired by Jack Kerouac's adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends whose cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. Written with a mixture of sad-eyed naiveté and wild ambition and imbued with Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz, On the Road is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope, a book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up.  

Book Three in the Magnificent Dune Chronicles—the Bestselling Science Fiction Adventure of All Time

Nine years ago Emperor Paul Muad'Dib disappeared into the desert wastelands of Arrakis. Now, his twin children—Leto and Ghanima Atreides—are being groomed to become Messiahs. Like their father, the twins possess supernormal abilities, making them valuable to their manipulative aunt Alia, who rules the Empire in the name of House Atreides.
 
Facing treason and rebellion on two fronts, Alia’s rule is not absolute. The displaced House Corrino is plotting to regain the throne while the fanatical Fremens are being provoked into open revolt by the enigmatic figure known only as The Preacher. By obtaining the secrets of the twins’ prophetic visions, Alia believes she can maintain control over her dynasty.
 
But Leto and Ghanima have their own plans for their visions—and their destiny...

Robert Heinlein's Hugo Award-winning all-time masterpiece, the brilliant novel that grew from a cult favorite to a bestseller to a science fiction classic.

Raised by Martians on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith is a human who has never seen another member of his species. Sent to Earth, he is a stranger who must learn what it is to be a man. But his own beliefs and his powers far exceed the limits of humankind, and as he teaches them about grokking and water-sharing, he also inspires a transformation that will alter Earth’s inhabitants forever...

George Orwell’s famous satire of the Soviet Union, in which “all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”

Book Five in the Magnificent Dune Chronicles—the Bestselling Science Fiction Adventure of All Time

Leto Atreides, the God Emperor of Dune, is dead. In the fifteen hundred years since his passing, the Empire has fallen into ruin. The great Scattering saw millions abandon the crumbling civilization and spread out beyond the reaches of known space. The planet Arrakis—now called Rakis—has reverted to its desert climate, and its great sandworms are dying.
 
Now, the Lost Ones are returning home in pursuit of power. And as these factions vie for control over the remnants of the Empire, a girl named Sheeana rises to prominence in wastelands of Rakis, sending religious fervor throughout the galaxy. For she possesses the abilities of the Fremen sandriders—fulfilling a prophecy foretold by the late God Emperor...

Mario Puzo’s classic saga of an American crime family that became a global phenomenon—nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

With its brilliant and brutal portrayal of the Corleone family, The Godfather burned its way into our national consciousness. This unforgettable saga of crime and corruption, passion and loyalty continues to stand the test of time, as the definitive novel of the Mafia underworld.

A #1 New York Times bestseller in 1969, Mario Puzo’s epic was turned into the incomparable film of the same name, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is the original classic that has been often imitated, but never matched. A tale of family and society, law and order, obedience and rebellion, it reveals the dark passions of human nature played out against a backdrop of the American dream.

With an Introduction by Robert J. Thompson and Anthony Puzo
and an Afterword by Peter Bart

A controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression

Over seventy-five years since its first publication, Steinbeck’s tale of commitment, loneliness, hope, and loss remains one of America’s most widely read and taught novels. An unlikely pair, George and Lennie, two migrant workers in California during the Great Depression, grasp for their American Dream. They hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations, nor predict the consequences of Lennie's unswerving obedience to the things George taught him.

Of Mice and Men represents an experiment in form, which Steinbeck described as “a kind of playable novel, written in a novel form but so scened and set that it can be played as it stands.” A rarity in American letters, it achieved remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films. This edition features an introduction by Susan Shillinglaw, one of today’s leading Steinbeck scholars.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

The timeless spiritual classic and international bestseller by Richard Bach—a fable featuring a seagull learning about life and flight and the notion of self-perfection.

This is a story for people who follow their hearts and make their own rules...people who get special pleasure out of doing something well, even if only for themselves...people who know there's more to this living than meets the eye: they'll be right there with Jonathan, flying higher and faster than ever they dreamed.

Set against the tumultuous years of the post-Napoleonic era, The Count of Monet Cristo recounts the swashbuckling adventures of Edmond Dantes, a dashing young sailor falsely accused of treason. The story of his long imprisonment, dramatic escape, and carefully wrought revenge offers up a vision of France that has become immortal.

The three laws of Robotics:
1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
2) A robot must obey orders givein to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

With these three, simple directives, Isaac Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when he formulated the laws governing their behavior. In I, Robot, Asimov chronicles the development of the robot through a series of interlinked stories: from its primitive origins in the present to its ultimate perfection in the not-so-distant future--a future in which humanity itself may be rendered obsolete.

Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-read robots, and robots with a sense of humor. Of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world--all told with the dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction that has become Asmiov's trademark.

It is the year 12,020 G.E. and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall - those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future.

Hari Seldon has come to Trantor to deliver his paper on psychohistory, his remarkable theory of prediction. Little does the young Outworld mathematician know that he has already sealed his fate and the fate of humanity. For Hari possesses the prophetic power that makes him the most wanted man in the Empire... the man who holds the key to the future - an apocalyptic power to be know forever after as the Foundation.

This collection includes Jules Verne's greatest works. Included is: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Mysterious Island, From the Earth to the Moon, Round the Moon, A Voyage in a Balloon, Doctor Ox's Experiment, Master Zacharius, A Drama in the Air, A Winter Amid the Ice, Ascent of Mont Blanc, An Antarctic Mystery, Dick Sand; or, A Captain at Fifteen, Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon, Facing the Flag, Five Weeks in a Balloon, Godfrey Morgan, The English at the North Pole, The Field of Ice, In Search of the Castaways, Michael Strogoff, Off on a Comet, Robur the Conqueror, The Adventures of a Special Correspondent, The Blockade Runners, The Fur Country, The Master of the World, The Pearl of LIma, The Secret of the Island, The Survivors of the Chancellor, The Underground City, The Waif of the Cynthia, Ticket No. 9262, Topsy Turvy, In The Year 2889.

The American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

From the moment she entered the world, Francie needed to be made of stern stuff, for the often harsh life of Williamsburg demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior-such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce-no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans’ daily experiences are tenderly threaded with family connectedness and raw with honesty. Betty Smith has, in the pages of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, captured the joys of humble Williamsburg life-from “junk day” on Saturdays, when the children of Francie’s neighborhood traded their weekly take for pennies, to the special excitement of holidays, bringing cause for celebration and revelry. Betty Smith has artfully caught this sense of exciting life in a novel of childhood, replete with incredibly rich moments of universal experiences--a truly remarkable achievement for any writer.

Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old and lauded as the best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield—weary, demoralized men marching in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto; the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion—this gripping, semiautobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep.

Ernest Hemingway famously said that he rewrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times to get the words right. This edition collects all of the alternative endings together for the first time, along with early drafts of other essential passages, offering new insight into Hemingway’s craft and creative process and the evolution of one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. Featuring Hemingway’s own 1948 introduction to an illustrated reissue of the novel, a personal foreword by the author’s son Patrick Hemingway, and a new introduction by the author’s grandson Seán Hemingway, this edition of A Farewell to Arms is truly a celebration.

"Alas, Babylon." Those fateful words heralded the end. When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly. But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness.

The complete works of Charles Dickens in one collection:
American Notes for General Circulation
Bardell v. Pickwick
Barnaby Rudge
The Battle of Life
Bleak House
A Child's History of England
The Chimes
A Christmas Carol
The Cricket on the Hearth
David Copperfield
Doctor Marigold
Dombey and Son
George Silverman's Explanation
Going into Society
Great Expectations
Hard Times
The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargin
Holiday Romance
A House to Let
The Lamplighter
The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
Little Dorrit
Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit
Master Humphrey's Clock
A Message from the Sea
Miscellaneous Papers
Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy
Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings
Mudfog and Other Sketches
Mugby Junction
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby
No Thoroughfare
The Old Curiosity Shop
Oliver Twist
Our Mutual Friend
The Perils of Certain English Prisoners
The Pickwick Papers
Pictures from Italy
Reprinted Pieces
Sketches of Young Couples
Sketches of Young Gentlemen
Somebody's Luggage
Some Christmas Stories
Sunday Under Three Heads
A Tale of Two Cities
Three Ghost Stories
To be Read at Dusk
Tom Tiddler's Ground
The Uncommercial Traveller
The Wreck of the Golden Mary

Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American lit-erature and one of the funniest—and most celebrated—novels of all time. In recent years it has been named to “best novels” lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer. Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved. Since its publication in 1961, no novel has matched Catch-22’s intensity and brilliance in depicting the brutal insanity of war. This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; personal essays on the genesis of the novel by the author; a wealth of critical responses and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and a selection of advertisements from the original publishing campaign that helped turn Catch-22 into a cultural phenomenon. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.