The first complete translation of a classic Buddhist text on the journey through living and dying

Graced with opening words by His Holiness The Dalai Lama, the Penguin Deluxe Edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead is "immaculately rendered in an English both graceful and precise." Translated with the close support of leading contemporary masters and hailed as “a tremendous accomplishment,” this book faithfully presents the insights and intentions of the original work. It includes one of the most detailed and compelling descriptions of the after-death state in world literature, practices that can transform our experience of daily life, guidance on helping those who are dying, and an inspirational perspective on coping with bereavement.
 
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.  

 “Yogi Ramacharaka’s ‘Fourteen Lessons’ is remarkable. It puts into simple language many of the core concepts of yoga philosophy, and gives the reader tools to start practicing them.”—David Rogers, Yogi, International Yoga Instructor

“‘Fourteen Lessons’ is that rare book, full of wisdom and insights, not just for understanding yogi philosophy but for living a fuller life.”—Michael Gansrow, Co-Founder Massage on the Go, Wellness Expert, Author

Bamboo Leaf Press proudly presents a new edition of the classic Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy by Yogi Ramacharaka, with a Foreword by the renowned yoga teacher and writer, Richard Rosen. This unique edition includes Endnotes which offer a historical context about the mindset and language used at the turn of the 20th century and brief biographies of historical figures mentioned throughout the book, many of whom have been forgotten over time. Moreover, this high quality printed book with stitch-binding allows you to open the book flat on a desk without the pages falling out while reading.

 Written almost 120 years ago, Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy is one of the first, if not the first, book about yogi philosophy written for a Western audience. It presents the fundamental teachings in a simple, charming, and straightforward style. Although the book is an introduction to this perennial philosophy, it covers a wide range of subjects such as:

• The physical, mental, and spiritual constitution of Man
• The different Planes of Reality
• The Astral world
• Thought dynamics
• The human aura
• Occult therapeutics
• Spiritual evolution

Nine mantras for meditation are also included to help readers along their spiritual path.

"You are the most precious thing - a living soul - and if you were destroyed the whole system of universes would crumble, for you are as necessary as the greatest part of it - it cannot do without you - you cannot be lost or destroyed - you are part of it all, and are eternal."

“In ‘Advanced Course’ Yogi Ramacharaka provides the most straightforward explanation of the paths of Karma, Gnani, and Bhakti Yoga that I have encountered. And he provides a beautiful framework for understanding the concept of Dharma. This is the kind of book that one can turn to again and again as a source for both introspection and action in the world. The physical book of this new edition is very well designed and a pleasure to hold.”—David Rogers, Yogi, International Yoga Instructor

“As with its companion title ‘Fourteen Lessons’, ‘Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy’ is full of wisdom and insights for living an intentional life. Remarkably, these lessons are still relevant in the 21st century, even though they were written 120 years ago.”—Michael Gansrow, Co-Founder Massage on the Go, Wellness Expert, Author

Bamboo Leaf Press proudly presents a new edition of the classic Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy by Yogi Ramacharaka, with a Foreword by the renowned yoga teacher and writer, Richard Rosen. This unique edition includes Endnotes which offer a historical context about the mindset and language used at the turn of the 20th century and brief biographies of historical figures mentioned throughout the book, many of whom have been forgotten over time.

Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy is a continuation of the classic, Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy. It should be read after one has read the Fourteen Lessons since many concepts are introduced in the first book. Both books were written 120 years ago yet they remain the best introduction to yogi philosophy for a Western audience.

The Advanced Course delves deeper into Indian philosophy and explores some of humanity's perennial questions. The lessons of the course are written in a simple, charming, and straightforward style. Some of the subjects explored in the book:

• The three main paths of yoga: Karma, Gnani, and Bhakti
• Spiritual consciousness
• Yogi Ethics (Dharma)
• The relationship between Matter, Energy, Mind, and Spirit
• The Absolute and Man
• The Riddle of the Universe

This high quality printed book with stitch-binding allows you to open the book flat on a desk without the pages falling out while reading.

"The Universe is not a dead thing - it is alive, pulsating with life, energy and intelligence. It is a living thing, and YOU are part of it all. You are not The Absolute, but you are an atom comprising one of its rays - its life force is playing through you. You are in touch with the Centre, and the Centre is conscious of YOU and of its relation to you."

This is the extraordinary story of how one man's indomitable spirit inspired a nation to triumph over tyranny. This is the story of Mahatma Gandhi, a man who owned nothing-and gained everything.

To Hawk O'Toole, she was a pawn in a desperate gamble to help his people. To Miranda Price, he was a stranger who'd done the unthinkable: kidnapped her and her young son off a train full of sight-seeing vacationers. Now, held hostage on a distant reservation for reasons she cannot at first fathom, Miranda finds herself battling a captor who is by turns harsh and tender, mysteriously aloof and dangerously seductive.

Hawk had assumed that Miranda Price, the beautiful ex-wife of Representative Price, would be as selfish and immoral as the tabloids suggested. Instead, she seems genuinely afraid for her son's life--and willing to risk her own to keep him safe. But committed to a fight he didn't start, Hawk knows he can't afford to feel anything but contempt for his prisoner. To force the government to reopen the Lone Puma Mine, he must keep Miranda at arm's length, must remember that she is his enemy--even when she ignites his deepest desires.

Slowly, Miranda begins to learn what drives this brooding, solitary man, to discover the truth about his tragic past. But it will take a shocking revelation to finally force her to face her own past and the woman she's become, and to ask herself: Is it freedom she really wants...or the chance to stay with Hawk forever?

Sizzling entertainment from the first tantalizing scene to the last, Hawk O'Toole's Hostage is one of Sandra Brown's classic romances available in hardcover for the first time.

Collection of the following titles: Krishnadeva Raya, Ashoka, Chandragupta Maurya, Samudra Gupta, Harsha

In this Pancharatna volume, we have included Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya dynasty, and Ashoka, his grandson, who at the zenith of his conquests saw the futility of violence and had the courage to renounce it. Of Ashoka, H. G. Wells writes in his book, 'Short History of the World,' 'Such was Ashoka, the greatest of Kings. He was far in advance of his age.' The Gupta age is considered to be the golden age of India. To Samudra Gupta goes the credit of spreading the Gupta empire. The Fourth book in this volume is on the life of Emperor Harsha, who is remembered till this day as a great ruler, not only because he was a brave military leader, but also because he was a man of noble impulses. This is based on Harshacharita by Banabatta and the account given by the Chinese traveler, Hiuen-Tsang. The fifth book is on the life of Krishnadeva Raya, the greatest emperor of Vijayanagara. Domingo's Paes, the Portuguese traveler, described the capital city as 'the best provided city in the world'. Of Krishnadeva Raya, he wrote, 'He is the most perfect king that would be, cheerful of disposition and very merry.'

"How do I relate to a God who is invisible when I'm never quite sure he's there?" -- Philip Yancey

Life with God doesn't always work out like you think it should. High expectations slam against the reality of personal weaknesses and unwelcome surprises. And the God who, you've been told, wants a personal relationship with you may seem remote, emotionally unavailable. Is God playing games? What can you count on this God for? How can you know God? This relationship with a God you can’t see, hear, or touch--how does it really work?

Reaching for the Invisible God offers deep, satisfying insights to the questions you are sometimes afraid to ask. Honest and deeply personal, here is straight talk on Christian living for the reader who wants more than pat answers to life's imponderables. Ultimately, Yancey shifts the focus from your questions to the One who offers himself in answer.

"A brilliant book. It is both profound and simple, the best blend, in my view. Simple is neither shallow, nor simplistic. The sections on doubt and God's 'absence' are classics." -- Rick Warren, pastor and author, The Purpose Driven Life

One of the classics of English children's literature, and one of the earliest books written specifically for boys, this novel's steady popularity has given it an influence well beyond the upper middle-class world that it describes. It tells a story central to an understanding of Victorian life, but its freshness helps to distinguish it from the narrow schoolboy adventures that it later inspired. The book includes an introduction and notes by Andrew Sanders.

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.

The Sepher Yetzirah is the oldest and most mysterious of all kabbalistic texts.

When properly understood, Sepher Yetzirah becomes the instruction manual for a very special type of meditation meant to strengthen concentration and to aid the development of telekinetic and telepathic powers.

This enhanced edition includes a completely revised version of the original William Wynn Wescott translation and newly revised editions of two landmark Kabbalah works from 1913, Jewish Mysticism by J. Abelson and The Cabala, Its Influence on Judaism and Christianity by Bernhard Pick.

Sample topics covered in this definitive volume: THE THIRTY-TWO PATHS OF WISDOM, ESSENISM, THE MERKABAH (CHARIOT), PHILO: METATRON: WISDOM, SOME GENERAL FEATURES OF THE 'ZOHAR,' THE TEN SEFIROT, THE SOUL, NAME AND ORIGIN OF THE CABALA, THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CABALA IN THE PRE-ZOHAR PERIOD, THE CABALA IN THE POST-ZOHAR PERIOD, THE MOST IMPORTANT DOCTRINES OF THE CABALA, THE CABALA IN RELATION TO JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY.

There are notes, footnotes and detailed bibliographies to all three books.

My Ántonia evokes the Nebraska prairie life of Willa Cather's childhood, and commemorates the spirit and courage of immigrant pioneers in America. One of Cather's earliest novels, written in 1918, it is the story of Ántonia Shimerda, who arrives on the Nebraska frontier as part of a family of Bohemian emigrants. Her story is told through the eyes of Jim Burden, a neighbor who will befriend Ántonia, teach her English, and follow the remarkable story of her life.

Working in the fields of waving grass and tall corn that dot the Great Plains, Ántonia forges the durable spirit that will carry her through the challenges she faces when she moves to the city. But only when she returns to the prairie does she recover her strength and regain a sense of purpose in life. In the quiet, probing depth of Willa Cather's art, Ántonia's story becomes a mobbing elegy to those whose persistence and strength helped build the American frontier.

Boethius was an eminent public figure under the Gothic emperor Theodoric, and an exceptional Greek scholar. When he became involved in a conspiracy and was imprisoned in Pavia, it was to the Greek philosophers that he turned. THE CONSOLATION was written in the period leading up to his brutal execution. It is a dialogue of alternating prose and verse between the ailing prisoner and his 'nurse' Philosophy. Her instruction on the nature of fortune and happiness, good and evil, fate and free will, restore his health and bring him to enlightenment. THE CONSOLATION was extremely popular throughout medieval Europe and his ideas were influential on the thought of Chaucer and Dante.

The life of Antonio, the merchant of Venice, is threatened by Shylock the moneylender, when Antonio cannot repay his debt. But Antonio is brilliantly defended in a court of law by Portia, the clever young wife of his dear friend Bassanio. 

Graphic Classics titles introduce many of the world's literary masterpieces to young readers. Elementary and secondary school teachers will value these books as a way to make great novels and plays accessible to their students--especially to those students who resist reading. Presented in graphic novel format, each title tells an absorbing, fast-paced story dramatized with high-quality color illustrations. After delving into any of these stimulating titles, many boys and girls will feel encouraged to discover the joy of reading the masterworks in their original form. 

Each Graphic Classics title includes a thumbnail biography of the author, a list of his or her important works, a timeline of historic events that helped inspire the story.

One of the bestselling Little Golden Books of all time.

Once there was a tawny scrawny lion who chased monkeys on Monday—kangaroos on Tuesday—zebras on Wednesday—bears on Thursday—camels on Friday—and on Saturday, elephants!

So begins the classic story of a family of ten fat rabbits that teaches the hungry lion to eat carrot stew—so that he doesn’t eat them.

A boy named "Tommy" has written his name inside the front cover, otherwise the book is in VERY FINE condition.

About the Author

In 1942, the launch of Little Golden Books revolutionized children’s book publishing by making high-quality picture books available at affordable prices. More than 60 years later, many of the original Golden Book titles are still wildly popular, with The Poky Little Puppy topping the list of ten bestselling children’s books of all time. Golden Books’ backlist is teeming with classics such as Dorothy Kunhardt’s Pat the Bunny, and features the stories and artwork of children’s book legends Mary Blair, Margaret Wise Brown, Richard Scarry, Eloise Wilkins, Garth Williams, and many more. Today, the Golden Books imprint includes an array of storybooks, novelty books, and coloring and activity books featuring all of the most popular licenses, including Disney, Nickelodeon, Barbie, Thomas & Friends, The Cat in the Hat, Sesame Street, Marvel Super Heroes, and DC Super Friends. Golden Books continues to reissue the best of its backlist in a variety of formats, including ebooks and apps, as well as bringing out brand-new books in these evolving new formats.

Gustaf Tenggren (1896–1970) was a well-known illustrator in his native Sweden before immigrating to the United States in 1920. He illustrated many Golden Books, beginning with The Poky Little Puppy. One of the original twelve Little Golden Books published in 1942, The Poky Little Puppy went on to become the bestselling picture book of all time. Other iconic Little Golden Books illustrated by Tenggren include The Saggy Baggy Elephant and Tawny Scrawny Lion. In the late 1930s, Tenggren worked for the Disney Studio, providing concept artwork (created to inspire and guide animators) for various characters and scenes in Bambi, The Old Mill, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and Fantasia.

Originally edited by Thomas H. Greer, this series emanates from the Humanities Department at Michigan State University. Today, these books remain outstanding sources for the comprehensive study of most subject areas included under the umbrella of humanities. Most major literary forms are represented: essay, poem, short story, play, novel, memoir, epigram, scientific discourse, philosophical treatise, political manifesto, and religious proclamation. Major subject areas include art, music, education, mathematics, biology, psychiatry, religion, philosophy, politics, economics, and physics.Originally published under the General Editorship of Thomas H. Greer, the series emanated from the Humanities Department of Michigan State University. The books remain today perhaps the best sources available for the comprehensive study in one volume of every subject area which might be included in the umbrella of humanities. Most major literary forms are represented: essay, poem, short story, play, novel, memoir, epigram, scientific discourse, philosophical treatise, political manifesto, and religious proclamation. All major subject areas are explored: art, music, education, mathematics, biology, psychiatry, religion, philosophy, politics, economics, and physics. The informative apparatus, headnotes, and footnotes are all aimed at enhancing the student-reader's comprehension.

During a successful career as a portrait painter, Vera Stanley Alder began to investigate the Ancient Wisdom, and this exploration revolutionized her life.  She made it her task to simplify and summarize this knowledge in order to present it to others.  She started to lecture and write in 1938, demonstrating, as one reviewer put it, "A rare gift for condensing and synthesizing the essentials of esoteric teaching."

Vera Stanley Alder here offers us a guide to attainment through the path outlined by Ancient Wisdom.  She summaries our philosophical relationship to the past by comparing it with the discoveries of modern science, and surveys the techniques of working with breath, color, sounds, numbers, diet and exercise.  Finally, she discusses the functions of the third eye, astrology, meditation, and their ultimate aims.

In the spring of 1984, Vera Stanley Alder died in her sleep while making plans to start a new lecture series in London.  She is proof that with consciousness, we can all live fulfilling and productive lives.

Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, is the classic manual on the art of living, and one of the wonders of the world. In eighty-one brief chapters, the Tao Te Ching looks at the basic predicament of being alive and gives advice that imparts balance and perspective, a serene and generous spirit. This book is about wisdom in action. It teaches how to work for the good with the effortless skill that comes from being in accord with the Tao (the basic principle of the universe) and applies equally to good government and sexual love; to child rearing, business, and ecology.

Stephen Mitchell's bestselling version has been widely acclaimed as a gift to contemporary culture.

Brilliant short stories and a novella by the author of Moby-Dick

"Billy Budd, Sailor," a classic confrontation between good and evil, is the story of an innocent young man unable to defend himself from wrongful accusations. Other selections include "Bartleby," "The Piazza," "The Encantadas," "The Bell-Tower," "Benito Cereno," "The Paradise of Bachelors," and "The Tartarus of Maids."

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.

Junior Classics for Young Readers Edition

Dorothy and her canine pal Toto live a quiet life on a Kansas farm with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em. But one day, the little girl and her dog find themselves spirited away from the fields of Kansas, to the magical land of Oz! Dorothy and Toto meet many friends on the yellow-brick road to Emerald City, where she hopes to find a way home to Kansas-- but when she arrives, the city s mysterious ruler, the Wizard of Oz, is not what she expects! The Wizard can help Dorothy get home, but at a daunting price: she and her friends the Tin Woodsman, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion must kill the Wicked Witch of the West and free the Winkies from her rule.

Considered by many to be one of Brecht's masterpieces, Galileo explores the question of a scientist's social and ethical responsibility, as the brilliant Galileo must choose between his life and his life's work when confronted with the demands of the Inquisition. Through the dramatic characterization of the famous physicist, Brecht examines the issues of scientific morality and the difficult relationship between the intellectual and authority. This version of the play is the famous one that was brought to completion by Brecht himself, working with Charles Laughton, who played Galileo in the first two American productions (Hollywood and New York, 1947). Since then the play has become a classic in the world repertoire. 

"The play which most strongly stamped on my mind a sense of Brecht's great stature as an artist of the modern theatre was Galileo." - Harold Clurman; 

"Thoughtful and profoundly sensitive." - Newsweek.

The 100 Best Romance Novels : From Pride and Prejudice to Twilight, Books to Fall in Love—and Lust—With by Jennifer Lawler

"My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." --Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice

The taboo affair of Jane and Mr. Rochester.
The (literally) timeless love between Edward and Bella.
The improbable pairing of Grace and Josh.

Climb between the covers with The 100 Best Romance Novels, collected here for the very first time.

Avid fans of the romance genre, the ladies at Crimson Romance know a thing or two about igniting scintillating passion. They've not only collected 100 of the best romance novels of all time, but also provided delicious summaries for each of their picks.

From tempting classics like E.M. Hull's The Sheik to adrenaline-pumping contemporaries like Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me, this collection of romance novels is sure to melt your heart!

Think and Grow Rich - Over 80 Million Copies Sold

This edition of Napoleon Hill's Classic Think and Grow Rich is a reproduction of Napoleon Hill's personal copy of the first edition, the ONLY original version recommended by The Napoleon Hill Foundation, originally printed in March of 1937.

The most famous of all teachers of success spent a fortune and the better part of a lifetime of effort to produce the Law of Success philosophy that forms the basis of his books and that is so powerfully summarized and explained for the general public in this book.

In Think and Grow Rich, Hill draws on stories of Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and other millionaires of his generation to illustrate his principles. This book will teach you the secrets that could bring you a fortune. It will show you not only what to do but how to do it. Once you learn and apply the simple, basic techniques revealed here, you will have mastered the secret of true and lasting success. 

Money and material things are essential for freedom of body and mind, but there are some who will feel that the greatest of all riches can be evaluated only in terms of lasting friendships, loving family relationships, understanding between business associates, and introspective harmony which brings one true peace of mind! All who read, understand, and apply this philosophy will be better prepared to attract and enjoy these spiritual values.

BE PREPARED! When you expose yourself to the influence of this philosophy, you may experience a CHANGED LIFE which can help you negotiate your way through life with harmony and understanding and prepare you for the accumulation of abundant material riches.

Wuthering Heights • Jane Eyre • Agnes Grey

Three very different novels of love, rebellion and duty, by the world-renowned Bronte sisters.

Complete and unabridged.

Vineland, a zone of blessed anarchy in northern California, is the last refuge of hippiedom, a culture devastated by the sobriety epidemic, Reaganomics, and the Tube. Here, in an Orwellian 1984, Zoyd Wheeler and his daughter Prairie search for Prairie's long-lost mother, a Sixties radical who ran off with a narc. Vineland is vintage Pynchon, full of quasi-allegorical characters, elaborate unresolved subplots, corny songs ("Floozy with an Uzi"), movie spoofs (Pee-wee Herman in The Robert Musil Story), and illicit sex (including a macho variation on the infamous sportscar scene in V.).

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.

Three masterpieces from one of the Victorian era's most celebrated feminist novelists. Middlemarch, Eliot's most famous work, paints a rich and complex portrait of English society. In Silas Marner, an embittered man retreats from the outside world, thinking only of work and money. Then his wealth is stolen, and a young foundling comes into his life and changes everything. Also included: the short story "Amos Barton".

The provocative historical work on social economy, demography, and population control.

Malthus' life's work on human population and its dependency on food production and the environment was highly controversial on publication in 1798. He predicted what is known as the Malthusian catastrophe, in which humans would disregard the limits of natural resources and the world would be plagued by famine and disease. He significantly influenced the thinking of Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace and his theories continue to raise important questions today in the fields of social theory, economics and the environment. 

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.

Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of his spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brilliant characters - his fiancée Isabel whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions, and Elliott Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob.  Maugham himself wanders in and out of the story, to observe his characters struggling with their fates.

“The modern writer who has influenced me the most.” – George Orwell

Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, The Painted Veil is the story of the beautiful but love-starved Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic. Stripped of the British society of her youth and the small but effective society she fought so hard to attain in Hong Kong, she is compelled by her awakening conscience to reassess her life and learn how to love.

The Painted Veil is a beautifully written affirmation of the human capacity to grow, to change, and to forgive.

"[Maugham] is a master for creating the appetite for information, of withholding it until the right moment, and then providing it surprisingly."  --Evelyn Waugh

"Maugham is a catty delight." --The Boston Globe

Cakes and Ale is a delicious satire of London literary society between the Wars. Social climber Alroy Kear is flattered when he is selected by Edward Driffield's wife to pen the official biography of her lionized novelist husband, and determined to write a bestseller. But then Kear discovers the great novelist's voluptuous muse (and unlikely first wife), Rosie. The lively, loving heroine once gave Driffield enough material to last a lifetime, but now her memory casts an embarrissing shadow over his career and respectable image.  Wise, witty, deeply satisfying, Cakes and Ale is Maugham at his best.

Gene was a lonely, introverted intellectual.  Phineas was a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete.  What happened between them at school one summer  during the early years of World War II is the  subject of A Separate Peace. A  great bestseller for over thirty years--one of the  most starkly moving parables ever written of the  dark forces that brood over the tortured world of  adolescence.

"I think it is the  best-written, best-designed and most moving novel I  have read in many years. Beginning with a tiny  incident among ordinary boys, it ends by being as  deep and as big as evil itself." -- Aubrey  Menen

"A quietly vital and cleanly  written novel that moves, page by page, towards a  most interesting target." -- Truman  Capote

"Is he the successor to Salinger for  whom we have been waiting so long? --  Encounter.

"A masterpiece."  -- National Review.

Willa Cather's best known novel is an epic--almost mythic--story of a single human life lived simply in the silence of the southwestern desert. In 1851 Father Jean Marie Latour comes to serve as the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. What he finds is a vast territory of red hills and tortuous arroyos, American by law but Mexican and Indian in custom and belief. In the almost forty years that follow, Latour spreads his faith in the only way he knows--gently, all the while contending with an unforgiving landscape, derelict and sometimes openly rebellious priests, and his own loneliness. Out of these events, Cather gives us an indelible vision of life unfolding in a place where time itself seems suspended.

The curse of Matthew Maule descends on seven generations of the inhabitants of an old New England house.  Nathaniel Hawthorne's works are imbued with a mixture of the actual and the imaginary, and The House of the Seven Gables in an enduring example.  The puritanical Colonel Pyncheon is the embodiment of Hawthorne's own grandfather, a judge at the Salem witch trials; the gloomy gabled house typifies his own depressing home.  It is this masterful blending of the spiritual and the symbolic that allows Hawthorne's haunted house to stand firm where many a weaker one has fallen.

The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (commonly known as Martin Chuzzlewit) is a novel by Charles Dickens, considered the last of his picaresque novels. It was originally serialised in 1843 and 1844. Dickens thought it to be his best work, but it was one of his least popular novels.

Martin Chuzzlewit was raised by his grandfather and namesakae. Years before, Martin senior takes the precaution of raising an orphaned girl, Mary. She is to be his nursemaid, with the understanding that she would be well cared for only for as long as he lived. She would thus have great motivation to care for his well-being, in contrast to his relatives, who only want to inherit his money. However, his grandson Martin, falls in love with Mary and wishes to marry her, ruining senior Martin's plans. When Martin refuses to give up the engagement, his grandfather disinherits him.

Martin becomes an apprentice to Seth Pecksniff, a greedy architect. Instead of teaching his students, he lives off their tuition fees and has them do draughting work that he passes off as his own. He has two spoiled daughters, Merry and Cherry. Unbeknown to Martin, Pecksniff has actually taken him on to establish closer ties with the wealthy grandfather, thinking that this will gain Pecksniff a prominent place in the will.

Young Martin befriends Tom Pinch, a kind-hearted soul whose late grandmother had given Pecksniff all she had, believing Pecksniff would make an architect and gentleman of him. Pinch is incapable of believing any of the bad things others tell him of Pecksniff, and always defends him vociferously. Pinch works for exploitatively low wages, while believing he is the unworthy recipient of Pecksniff's charity.

When Martin senior hears of his grandson's new life, he demands that Pecksniff kick young Martin out. Then, Martin senior moves in and falls under Pecksniff's control. During this time, Pinch falls in love with Mary, but does not declare it, knowing of her attachment to young Martin.

One of Martin Senior's greedy relatives is his brother, Anthony Chuzzlewit, who is in business with his son, Jonas. Despite considerable wealth, they live miserly, cruel lives, with Jonas constantly berating his father, eager for the old man to die so he can inherit. Anthony dies abruptly and under suspicious circumstances, leaving his wealth to Jonas. Jonas then woos Cherry, whilst arguing constantly with Merry. He then abruptly declares to Pecksniff that he wants to marry Merry, and jilts Cherry.

Jonas, meanwhile, becomes entangled with the unscrupulous Montague Tigg and joins in his pyramid scheme-like insurance scam. At the beginning of the book he is a petty thief and hanger-on of a Chuzzlewit relative, Chevy Slyme. Tigg cheats young Martin out of a valuable pocket watch and uses the funds to transform himself into a seemingly fine man. This façade convinces investors that he must be an important businessman from whom they may greatly profit. Jonas eventually ends up murdering Tigg, who has acquired some kind of information on him.

At this time, Tom Pinch finally sees his employer's true character. Pinch goes to London to seek employment, and rescues his governess sister Ruth, whom he discovers has been mistreated by the family employing her. Pinch quickly receives an ideal job from a mysterious employer, with the help of an equally mysterious Mr. Fips….