My classic bookshelves
Items in this hypelist
Finished
Frankenstein
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Metamorphosis and Other Stories
Franz Kafka · 2008
This collection of new translations brings together the small proportion of Kafka's works that he himself thought worthy of publication. It includes <i>Metamorphosis</i>, his most famous work, an exploration of horrific transformation and alienation; <i>Meditation</i>, a collection of his earlier studies; <i>The Judgement</i>, written in a single night of frenzied creativity; <i>The Stoker</i>, the first chapter of a novel set in America and a fascinating occasional piece, and <i>The Aeroplanes at Brescia</i>, Kafka's eyewitness account of an air display in 1909. Together, these stories reveal the breadth of Kafka's literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of his thought.
Blindness
José Saramago • 2013
A stunningly powerful novel of humanity's will to survive against all odds during an epidemic by a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.<br> An International Bestseller • "This is a shattering work by a literary master.”—Boston Globe<br> A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers—among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears—through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation, Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayal of our worst appetites and weaknesses—and humanity's ultimately exhilarating spirit.<br> "This is a an important book, one that is unafraid to face all of the horror of the century."—Washington Post<br><br> A New York Times Notable Book of the Year<br> A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year
Pride and Prejudice (Penguin Clothbound Classics)
Jane Austen • 2009
Jane Austen’s timeless classic that explores the intricate complexities of love, societal expectations, and the power of overcoming prejudice—now in a beautiful clothbound hardcover edition designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith.<br/><br/>When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip, and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.<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.
Macbeth (Shakespeare Classics Graphic Novels)
Gareth Hinds • 2015
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde • 2021
Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist impressed and infatuated by Dorian's beauty; he believes that Dorian's beauty is responsible for the new mood in his art as a painter. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic world view: that beauty and sensual fulfilment are the only things worth pursuing in life.<br/>Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful; all the while, his portrait ages and records every sin.
The Great Gatsby: The Original 1925 Edition (A F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic Novel)
F. Scott Fitzgerald • 2021
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby<br/>The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, the novel depicts narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan.<br/>A youthful romance Fitzgerald had with socialite Ginevra King, and the riotous parties he attended on Long Island's North Shore in 1922 inspired the novel. Following a move to the French Riviera, he completed a rough draft in 1924. He submitted the draft to editor Maxwell Perkins, who persuaded Fitzgerald to revise the work over the following winter. After his revisions, Fitzgerald was satisfied with the text, but remained ambivalent about the book's title and considered several alternatives. The final title he desired was Under the Red, White, and Blue. Painter Francis Cugat's final cover design impressed Fitzgerald who incorporated a visual element from the art into the novel.<br/>Gatsby continues to attract popular and scholarly attention. The novel was most recently adapted to film in 2013 by director Baz Luhrmann, while contemporary scholars emphasize the novel's treatment of social class, inherited wealth compared to those who are self-made, race, environmentalism, and its cynical attitude towards the American dream. The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a literary masterpiece and a contender for the title of the Great American Novel.<br/>A True Classic that Belongs on Every Bookshelf!
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare • 2020
Hamlet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. Set in Denmark, the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet's mother.<br/>Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play and is considered among the most powerful and influential works of world literature, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others". It was one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime and still ranks among his most performed, topping the performance list of the Royal Shakespeare Company and its predecessors in Stratford-upon-Avon since 1879.<br/>It has inspired many other writers—from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charles Dickens to James Joyce and Iris Murdoch—and has been described as the world's most filmed story after Cinderella. A True Classic that Belongs on Every Bookshelf!
