Klasika

Low-life writer and alcoholic Henry Chinaski was born to survive. Now, at the age of 50, he is living the life of a rock star, running 300 hangovers a year and a sex life that would cripple Casanova. This follow-up to "Post Office" and "Factotum" is an uncompromising account of life on the edge.

Hyman Kaplan, the irrepressible student at the American Night Preparatory School for Adults, has captivated readers ever since he appeared in the pages of The New Yorker. Few immigrants have prepared themselves for the responsibilities of citizenship with such ebullience as Hyman Kaplan, and few have played such havoc with the English language. As he tackles his assignments in speech, recitation, and composition, Mr. Kaplan convulses his classmates and sorely tempts his teacher to promote him prematurely. But by final examination time it becomes clear that in the case of Hyman Kaplan, good will can triumph over grammar.

Sparkling with comic genius and narrative exuberance, "I Served the King of England" is a story of how the unbelievable came true. Its remarkable hero, Ditie, is a hotel waiter who rises to become a millionaire and then loses it all again against the backdrop of events in Prague from the German invasion to the victory of Communism. Ditie's fantastic journey intertwines the political and the personal in a narrative that both enlightens and entertains.

The story of Milos Hrma, a gauche young Candide of the occupied countries, apprentice in a small railway station in Bohemia who, before meeting his heroic death, loses his burdensome innocence, masters the social complexities of the small world he inhabits, and discovers his manhood.

The story of K and his arrival in a village where he is never accepted, and his relentless, unavailing struggle with authority in order to gain entrance to the castle that seems to rule it. K's isolation and perplexity, his begging for the approval of elusive and anonymous powers, epitomises Kafka's vision of twentieth-century alienation and anxiety.

Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, fastidious college professor. He also likes little girls. And none more so than Lolita, who he'll do anything to possess. Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster? Or is he all of these?

With a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. Kim is Rudyard Kipling's finest work. Now controversial, this novel is a memorably vivid evocation of the life and landscapes of India in the late nineteenth century. Kim himself is a resourceful lad who befriends a lama, an ageing priest; and both embark on a combined quest. Whereas Kim has an insatiable interest in the varied activities around him, the lama seeks redemption from the 'Wheel of Life'. Kim becomes involved in the 'Great Game&rsquo:, undertaking espionage for the British rulers. This engrossing and moving novel, with its diversity of memorable characters, offers many insights into political, religious and social tensions.

Thirteen classics devoted to genuine tale of ratiocination. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," Charles Dickens' "Three Detective Anecdotes," Jack London's "The Leopard Man Story," 10 others. Introduction. Notes.

Young Isabel Archer, a beautiful American, travels to Europe where her naivete — and recent inheritance — attracts many suitors. But despite her great promise, she falls victim to her own provincialism. Exposing the differences between the New and the Old Worlds, James's masterpiece examines the themes of freedom, sexuality, and betrayal.

A cruel joke at a country fair goes too far when a drunken laborer auctions off his wife and child to the highest bidder. So begins The Mayor of Casterbridge. Rich in descriptive powers and steeped in irony, this timeless tale offers a spellbinding portrayal of ambition, rivalry, revenge, and repentance.

An intrepid explorer of taboos, Chopin wrote some of America's boldest and best 19th-century fiction. Divorce and alcoholism are among the daring subjects of her first novel, set in the rural post-Reconstruction South against a backdrop of economic devastation and simmering racial tension.

A massacre at a colonial garrison, the kidnapping of 2 pioneer sisters by Iroquois tribesmen, the treachery of a renegade brave, and the ambush of innocent settlers create an unforgettable picture of American frontier life in this imaginative, innovative, and classic 18th-century adventure — the most popular of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales.