Books

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories

Stephen King • 2015

Includes the story “Premium Harmony”—set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine The masterful #1 New York Times bestselling story collection from O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King that includes twenty-one iconic stories with accompanying autobiographical comments on when, why and how he came to write (or rewrite) each one. For more than thirty-five years, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he introduces each story with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it. As Entertainment Weekly said about this collection: “Bazaar of Bad Dreams is bursting with classic King terror, but what we love most are the thoughtful introductions he gives to each tale that explain what was going on in his life as he wrote it." There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. In “Afterlife,” a man who died of colon cancer keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Others address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers—the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in “Obits;” the old judge in “The Dune” who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, people who then died in freak accidents. In “Morality,” King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil’s pact they can win. “I made these stories especially for you,” says King. “Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.” Stories include: -Mile 81 -Premium Harmony -Batman and Robin Have an Altercation -The Dune -Bad Little Kid -A Death -The Bone Church -Morality -Afterlife -Ur -Herman Wouk Is Still Alive -Under the Weather -Blockade Billy -Mister Yummy -Tommy -The Little Green God of Agony -Cookie Jar -That Bus Is Another World -Obits -Drunken Fireworks -Summer Thunder

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text (Penguin Classics)

Mary Shelley • 2018

<b>Mary Shelley’s classic novel, presented in its original 1818 text, with an introduction from National Book Critics Circle award-winner Charlotte Gordon</b><br>  <br> <b>Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s <i>The Great American Read</i></b><br>  <br>The original 1818 text of <i>Frankenstein</i> preserves the hard-hitting and politically-charged aspects of Shelley’s original writing, as well as her unflinching wit and strong female voice. This edition also emphasizes Shelley’s relationship with her mother—trailblazing feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who penned <i>A Vindication of the Rights of Woman</i>—and demonstrates her commitment to carrying forward her mother’s ideals, placing her in the context of a feminist legacy rather than the sole female in the company of male poets, including Percy Shelley and Lord Byron.<br>  <br> This edition includes a new introduction and suggestions for further reading by National Book Critics Circle award-winner and Shelley expert Charlotte Gordon, literary excerpts and reviews selected by Gordon, and a chronology and essay by preeminent Shelley scholar Charles E. Robinson. <br>  <br>Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing 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.

Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury • 2012

"Sixty years after the original publication, Ray Bradbury's internationally acclaimed novel 'Fahrenheit 451' stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before. Guy Montag is a fireman. 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 when 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, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. This sixtieth-anniversary edition commemorates Ray Bradbury's masterpiece with a new introduction by Neil Gaiman ; personal essays on the genesis of the novel by the author ; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Nelson Algren, Harold Bloom, Margaret Atwood, and others ; rare manuscript pages and sketches from Ray Bradbury's personal archive ; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature."--taken from back cover.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Gabriel García Márquez • 2003

Carrie

Stephen King • 2008

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY MARGARET ATWOOD •  Stephen King's legendary debut, the bestselling smash hit that put him on the map as one of America's favorite writers • In a world where bullies rule, one girl holds a secret power. Unpopular and tormented, Carrie White's life takes a terrifying turn when her hidden abilities become a weapon of horror. "Stephen King’s first novel changed the trajectory of horror fiction forever. Fifty years later, authors say it’s still challenging and guiding the genre."  —Esquire   “A master storyteller.” —The Los Angeles Times • “Guaranteed to chill you.” —The New York Times • "Gory and horrifying. . . . You can't put it down." —Chicago Tribune   Unpopular at school and subjected to her mother's religious fanaticism at home, Carrie White does not have it easy. But while she may be picked on by her classmates, she has a gift she's kept secret since she was a little girl: she can move things with her mind. Doors lock. Candles fall. Her ability has been both a power and a problem. And when she finds herself the recipient of a sudden act of kindness, Carrie feels like she's finally been given a chance to be normal. She hopes that the nightmare of her classmates' vicious taunts is over . . . but an unexpected and cruel prank turns her gift into a weapon of horror so destructive that the town may never recover.

El Tunel / The Tunnel (Spanish Edition)

Ernesto Sabato • 2003

A Room of One's Own

Virginia Woolf • 2017

The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel

Stephen King • 2000

The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka • 2009

"The Metamorphosis" (original German title: "Die Verwandlung") is a short novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often cited as one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into an insect.

1984

George Orwell • 2021

Edizione originale in lingua inglese, con nota introduttiva in italiano<br/><br/>”Il potere non è un mezzo, è un fine. Non si stabilisce una dittatura nell’intento di salvaguardare una rivoluzione; ma si fa una rivoluzione nell’intento di stabilire una dittatura. Il fine della persecuzione è la persecuzione. Il fine della tortura è la tortura. Il fine del potere è il potere.”<br/><br/>Il romanzo, pubblicato pochi anni dopo la conclusione del secondo conflitto mondiale, è una spietata e profetica riflessione sul potere. È considerato una delle più lucide rappresentazioni del totalitarismo e anche uno dei primi e più importanti esempi di romanzo distopico. L’azione si svolge infatti in un futuro prossimo del mondo (l’anno 1984) in cui il potere si concentra in tre immensi superstati: Oceania (con capitale Londra), Eurasia ed Estasia. Al vertice del potere politico in Oceania c’è il Grande Fratello (“Big Brother”), onnisciente e infallibile, che nessuno ha visto di persona ma di cui ovunque sono visibili grandi manifesti. Il Ministero della Verità, nel quale lavora il protagonista Smith, ha il compito di censurare libri e giornali non in linea con la politica ufficiale, di alterare la storia e di ridurre le possibilità espressive della lingua. Per quanto sia tenuto sotto controllo da telecamere, Smith comincia però a condurre un'esistenza “sovversiva”.<br/><br/>“Big Brother is watching you”: con questo slogan l’autore britannico ha mostrato la propria lungimiranza, ponendo l’accento su uno dei temi più caldi al giorno d’oggi: il controllo del potere sull’opinione pubblica perpetrato mediante i mezzi di comunicazione. Pietra miliare della letteratura inglese, 1984 è uno dei romanzi più conosciuti e forse più controversi del secolo scorso. Un romanzo in grado di smuovere le coscienze e di portare il lettore a riflettere sul passato, sul presente e soprattutto sul futuro.<br/><br/>George Orwell è lo pseudonimo di Eric Arthur Blair, nato in India da una famiglia scozzese nel 1903 e morto a Londra nel 1950. Giornalista culturale, saggista, critico letterario, Orwell è oggi considerato uno dei maggiori autori di lingua inglese del Novecento.<br/><br/>Con nota introduttiva.<br/>Collana Il Disoriente - Luoghi della lettura

The Stranger

Albert Camus • 1989

With the intrigue of a psychological thriller, The Stranger—Camus's masterpiece—gives us the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach. With an Introduction by Peter Dunwoodie; translated by Matthew Ward.<br/><br/>Behind the subterfuge, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd" and describes the condition of reckless alienation and spiritual exhaustion that characterized so much of twentieth-century life.<br/><br/>“The Stranger is a strikingly modern text and Matthew Ward’s translation will enable readers to appreciate why Camus’s stoical anti-hero and devious narrator remains one of the key expressions of a postwar Western malaise, and one of the cleverest exponents of a literature of ambiguity.” —from the Introduction by Peter Dunwoodie<br/><br/>First published in 1946; now in translation by Matthew Ward.

Steppenwolf: A Novel (Picador Modern Classics)

Hermann Hesse • 2015

Demian

Hermann Hesse • 2013

Siddartha

HESSE • 2015

Un mundo feliz

Aldous Huxley • 1989

Animal Farm

George Orwell • 1996

<b>George Orwell's timeless and timely allegorical novel—a scathing satire on a downtrodden society’s blind march towards totalitarianism.<br><br>SOON TO BE A NETFLIX FILM!<br><br></b><i>“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”</i><br><br>A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned—a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible. <br><br> When <i>Animal Farm</i> was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.

Dracula

Bram Stoker • 2017

When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries about his client and his castle. Soon afterwards, a number of disturbing incidents unfold in England: an unmanned ship is wrecked at Whitby; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the imminent arrival of his 'Master'. In the ensuing battle of wits between the sinister Count Dracula and a determined group of adversaries, Bram Stoker created a masterpiece of the horror genre, probing deeply into questions of human identity and sanity, and illuminating dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire.

Ensayo sobre la ceguera

José Saramago • 2010

2022: AÑO SARAMAGO Una novela y un autor que nos alertan sobre «la responsabilidad de tener ojos cuando otros los perdieron». «Dentro de nosotros hay algo que no tiene nombre, esa cosa es lo que somos». Un hombre parado ante un semáforo en rojo se queda ciego súbitamente. Es el primer caso de una «ceguera blanca» que se expande de manera fulminante. Internados en cuarentena o perdidos en la ciudad, los ciegos tendrán que enfrentarse con lo más primitivo en la naturaleza humana: la voluntad de sobrevivir a cualquier precio. Ensayo sobre la ceguera es la ficción de un autor que nos alerta sobre «la responsabilidad de tener ojos cuando otros los perdieron». José Saramago traza en este libro una imagen aterradora y conmovedora de los tiempos que estamos viviendo. En un mundo así, ¿cabrá alguna esperanza? El lector conocerá una experiencia imaginativa única. En un punto donde se cruzan literatura y sabiduría, José Saramago nos obliga a parar, cerrar los ojos y ver. Recuperar la lucidez y rescatar el afecto son dos propuestas fundamentales de una novela que es, también, una reflexión sobre la ética del amor y la solidaridad. La crítica ha dicho: «Una metáfora que, cuando se publicó, lo mismo podía valer para el sida que para el abandono de los mayores. En esta novela, la ceguera llega sin avisar y produce un deslumbramiento blanco permanente. De nuevo, desfilan lo mejor y lo peor de la especie. Como en las guerras». Tereixa Constenla, El País «Saramago siempre ha demostrado una imaginación audaz como novelista. Ésta es su obra más sorprendente e inquietante». Harold Bloom «No hay cinismo ni moraleja, sólo un reconocimiento lúcido y compasivo de las cosas tal como son, una cualidad que sólo puede calificarse honestamente como sabiduría». The New York Times «Hay novelas, como ésta, que después de leídas continuarán iluminando túneles en la conciencia, abriendo puertas de habitaciones a las que no nos habíamos asomado pese a estar dentro de nosotros». Juan José Millás «Saramago vuelve comprensible una realidad huidiza, con parábolas sostenidas por la imaginación, la compasión y la ironía». Comité Nobel «Un hombre con una sensibilidad y una capacidad de ver y de entender que están muy por encima de lo que en general vemos y entendemos los comunes mortales». Héctor Abad Faciolince «Saramago es un ejemplo, un estilo dignísimo de vida y literatura, que demuestra la posibilidad de navegar a contracorriente [...]. Su palabra tiene el valor de un anticongelante, de un remedio personal contra los vendavales de cinismo que nos envuelven». Luis García Montero «Yo no sé, ni quiero saberlo, de dónde ha sacado Saramago ese diabólico tono narrativo, duro y piadoso a un tiempo, [...] que le permite contar tan cerca del corazón y a la vez tan cerca de la historia». Luis Landero «Saramago escribe novelas sobre los mitos para desmitificarlos, [...] siempre para abordar la realidad que le rodea, para tratar de los problemas actuales que son de todos, y para que todo quede claro desde el principio». Rafael Conte, Babelia «Como Günter Grass o Cees Nooteboom, Saramago aspira a enlazar con un público que desborde límites nacionales». El País

Cien años de soledad / One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez • 2009

“Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo”.<br/><br/>Con estas palabras empieza una novela ya legendaria en los anales de la literatura universal, una de las aventuras literarias más fascinantes del siglo xx. Millones de ejemplares de Cien años de soledad leídos en todas las lenguas y el Premio Nobel de Literatura coronando una obra que se había abierto paso a “boca a boca” —como gusta decir el escritor— son la más palpable demostración de que la aventura fabulosa de la familia Buendía-Iguarán, con sus milagros, fantasías, obsesiones, tragedias, incestos, adulterios, rebeldías, descubrimientos y condenas, representaba al mismo tiempo el mito y la historia, la tragedia y el amor del mundo entero.<br/><br/>ENGLISH DESCRIPTION<br/><br/>"One Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race. . . . Mr. Garcia Marquez has done nothing less than to create in the reader a sense of all that is profound, meaningful, and meaningless in life." —William Kennedy, New York Times Book Review<br/><br/>One of the most influential literary works of our time, One Hundred Years of Solitude remains a dazzling and original achievement by the masterful Gabriel Garcia Marquez, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.<br/><br/>One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendiá family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad and alive with unforgettable men and women—brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul—this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.

The Life of a Stupid Man

Ryunosuke Akutagawa • 2015

'What is the life of a human being - a drop of dew, a flash of lightning? This is so sad, so sad.' Autobiographical stories from one of Japan's masters of modernist story-telling. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927). Akutagawa's Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories is also available in Penguin Classics.

No Longer Human

Osamu Dazai • 1973

<p> Mine has been a life of much shame. I can't even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being. </p><p>Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. His attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.</p><p>Still one of the ten bestselling books in Japan, No Longer Human is an important and unforgettable modern classic: "The struggle of the individual to fit into a normalizing society remains just as relevant today as it was at the time of writing." (The Japan Times)</p>

The Karamazov Brothers (Oxford World's Classics)

Fyodor Dostoevsky • 2008

Dostoevsky's last and greatest novel, The Karamazov Brothers (1880) is both a brilliantly told crime story and a passionate philosophical debate. The dissolute landowner Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is murdered; his sons--the atheist intellectual Ivan, the hot-blooded Dmitry, and the saintly novice Alyosha--are all involved at some level. Brilliantly bound up with this psychological drama is Dostoevsky's intense and disturbing exploration of many deeply felt ideas about the existence of God, freedom of will, the collective nature of guilt, and the disastrous consequences of rationalism. Filled with eloquent voices, this new translation fully realizes the power and dramatic virtuosity of Dostoevsky's most brilliant work.<br/><br/>About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

White Nights

Fyodor Dostoevsk • 2025

White Nights is a delicate exploration of human emotions, dreams, and disillusionments, set against the melancholic backdrop of Saint Petersburg. Fyodor Dostoevsky crafts an introspective narrative that reveals the yearnings of a young dreamer whose solitary life takes on new meaning upon meeting Nastenka, a young woman equally shaped by hope and sorrow. The work reflects on the transient nature of encounters and the impact of dreams when confronted with reality. Since its publication, White Nights has been recognized for its lyrical sensitivity and profound psychological insight. Through a simple storyline, Dostoevsky delves into universal themes such as idealized love, loneliness, and the desire for connection, making the novella a timeless portrait of the human condition. The first-person narrative, with its confessional tone, deepens the bond between the protagonist and the reader, lending unique authenticity to the emotions expressed. The enduring relevance of the work lies in its ability to capture the nuances of human relationships and the emotional dilemmas that arise at the threshold between dream and reality. By portraying the fleeting but transformative impact of an encounter, White Nights invites readers to reflect on the ephemerality of happiness and the resilience of hope, even in the face of life's inevitable disappointments.

Crime and Punishment (Vintage Classics)

Fyodor Dostoevsky • 1993

<b>Hailed by <i>Washington Post Book World</i> as “the best [translation] currently available" when it was first published, this second edition of <i>Crime and Punishment </i>has been updated in honor of the 200th anniversary of Dostoevsky’s birth. • <b>ONE OF <i>TIME MAGAZINE</i>'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME</b></b><br><br>With the same suppleness, energy, and range of voices that won their translation of <i>The Brothers Karamazov</i> the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky offer a brilliant translation of <i>Crime and Punishment, </i>Dostoevsky's astounding pyschological thriller, newly revised for his bicentenniel. <br><br>In <i>Crime and Punishment</i>, when Raskolnikov, an impoverished student living in the St. Petersburg of the tsars, commits an act of murder and theft, he sets into motion a story that is almost unequalled in world literature for its excruciating suspense, its atmospheric vividness, and its depth of characterization and vision. Dostoevsky’s drama of sin, guilt, and redemption transforms the sordid story of an old woman’s murder into the nineteenth century’s profoundest and most compelling philosophical novel.

Norwegian Wood. Tokyo Blues

Murakami Haruki • 2012

<p>Murakami Haruki in uniform edition Super ET, con le copertine di Noma Bar. *** Uno dei piú clamorosi successi letterari giapponesi di tutti i tempi è anche il libro piú intimo, introspettivo di Murakami, che qui si stacca dalle atmosfere oniriche e surreali che lo hanno reso famoso, per esplorare il mondo in ombra dei sentimenti e della solitudine. Norwegian Wood è anche un grande romanzo sull'adolescenza, sul conflitto tra il desiderio di essere integrati nel mondo degli «altri» per entrare vittoriosi nella vita adulta e il bisogno irrinunciabile di essere se stessi, costi quel costi. Come il giovane Holden, Toru è continuamente assalito dal dubbio di aver sbagliato o poter sbagliare nelle sue scelte di vita e di amore, ma è anche guidato da un ostinato e personale senso della morale e da un'istintiva avversione per tutto ciò che sa di finto e costruito. Diviso tra due ragazze, Naoko e Midori, che lo attirano entrambe con forza irresistibile, Toru non può fare altro che decidere. O aspettare che la vita (e la morte) decidano per lui.<br></p>