"The Scarlett Letter is a dark tale of love, crime, and revenge set in colonial New Enland. It revolves around a single, forbidden act of passioin that forever alters the lives of three members of a small Puritan community: Hester Prynne, an ardent and fierce woman who bears the punishment of her sin in humble silence; the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a respected public figure who is inwardly tormented by long-hidden guilt; and the malevolent Roger...

"A stirring classic of love, revenge, and resurrection, the novel's hero, Sydney Carton, a lazy alcoholic -- but honorable attorney who is in love with Lucie Manette, a beautiful woman brought up in London. When Lucie marries Charles Darney, a man condemned to death for his ties to the aristocratic Evremonde family, Carton makes the supreme sacrifice on the bloodstained streets of Paris. In this rousing historical romance, Dickens exposes his severe...

Packaged in handsome, affordable trade editions, Clydesdale Classics is a new series of essential literary works. It features literary phenomena with influence and themes so great that, after their publication, they changed literature forever. From the musings of literary geniuses like Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to the striking personal narrative of Solomon Northup in Twelve Years a Slave, this new series is a comprehensive collection...

Bleak House, by Charles Dickens, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies of contemporary...

"The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home. In this fresh, authoritative version--the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman--this stirring tale of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic comes alive in an entirely new way. Written in iambic pentameter verse...

"Today the novel is often labeled condescending, but its characters--Tom, Topsy, Little Eva, Eliza, and the evil Simon Legree-- still have the power to move our hearts. Though 'Uncle Tom' has become a synonym for a fawning yes-man, Stowe's Tom is actually American literature's first black hero, a man who suffers for refusing to obey his white oppressors. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is a living, relevant story, passionate in its vivid depiction of the cruelest...