Modern Library

(A Modern Library E-Book)Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all timeSamuel Butler was among the most wide-ranging of the accomplished crew of late Victorian writers to which be belonged -- a forceful controversialist in the debates that surrounded Darwin's theory of evolution, a painter who sometimes exhibited at...

A NovelLike most great comedy, writes Darin Strauss in his Introduction, Mr. Beluncle makes sport of the Stuffed Shirt, the Hypocritical Pious Gentleman, and the Tyrant, as well as the Big Spenderand all these descriptions fit a single character: Mr. Beluncle himself. One of V. S. Pritchetts most enduring characters, Mr. Beluncle is narcissistic,...

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the highly acclaimed translators of War and Peace, Doctor Zhivago, and Anna Karenina, which was an Oprah Book Club pick and million-copy bestseller, bring their unmatched talents to The Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov, a collection of thirty of Chekhov's best tales from the major periods of his creative...

L. Frank Baums timeless classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was the rst uniquely American fairy tale. A combination of enchanting fantasy and piercing social commentary, this remarkable story has entertained and beguiled readers of all ages since it was rst published in 1900. Ray Bradbury writes in his Introduction, Both [Baum and Shakespeare] lived...

First published in 1844, Alexandre Dumas's swashbuckling epic chronicles the adventures of D'Artagnan, a gallant young nobleman who journeys to Paris in 1625 hoping to join the ranks of musketeers guarding Louis XIII. He soon finds himself fighting alongside three heroic comradesAthos, Porthos, and Aramiswho seek to uphold the honor of the king by...

Introduction by A. Walton Litz ';Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.' So begins Jane Austen's comic masterpiece Emma. In Emma, Austen's prose...