"Great Expectations is among the most masterful of Charles Dickens's novels. Displaying extraordinary tragicomic range, Dickens blends an atmosphere of brooding violence and guilt with sharp and often disturbing humor to create a drama charged with the thrilling intensity of a detective story and the poignancy of a spiritual autobiography. Much of the novel's power comes from Dickens's unequaled skill at making even the most wildly eccentric of characters...

A masterpiece of storytelling, this epic saga pits Ahab, a brooding and fanatical sea captain, against the great white whale that crippled him. In telling the tale of Ahab's passion for revenge and the fateful voyage that ensued, Melville produced far more than the narrative of a hair-raising journey; Moby-Dick is a tale for the ages that sounds the deepest depths of the human soul. Interspersed with graphic sketches of life aboard a whaling vessel,...

"As one of the many installments in Jules Verne's Voyage Extraordinaire series, Journey to the Center of the Earth promises high stakes and thrilling adventure. When Professor Otto Lidenbrock bought an ancient runic manuscript, which chronicles the livesof Norwegian Kings, he did not expect to learn of anything but the history of Icelandic leaders. However, upon further inspection, Lidenbrock and his nephew, Axel, find that the manuscript includes...

"The Call of the Wild is a novel by Jack London published in 1903. The story is set in the Yukon during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush--a period when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The novel's central character is a dog named Buck, a domesticated dog living at a ranch in the Santa Clara valley of California as the story opens. Stolen from his home and sold into the brutal existence of an Alaskan sled dog, he reverts to atavistic traits. Buck...

This 1851 classic about an ancient New England mansion, its inhabitants, and curses reflects Hawthorne's recurring theme of ancestral guilt because of his forebears' involvement in the 17th century Salem witch trials.

"A swashbuckling epic of chivalry, honor, and derring-do, it is set in France during the 1620s and richly populated with romantic heroes, unattainable heroines, kings, queens, cavaliers, and criminals in a whirl of adventure, espionage, conspiracy, murder, vengeance, love, scandal, and suspense. Dumas transforms major and minor historical figures into larger-than-life characters: the brave d'Artagnan, an impetuous young man in pursuit of glory; the...

In their final adventure, the four Musketeers plot to replace King Louis XIV of France with the mysterious, masked prisoner in the Bastille believed to be Louis' falsely imprisoned twin brother and the true king.

Huckleberry Finn, the best friend of Tom Sawyer, is a young boy in the 1840s, who runs away from home, and floats down the Mississippi River. It is told in the first person by Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, a friend of Tom Sawyer and narrator of two other Twain novels (Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective). It is a direct sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi...

After the death of his father, the seventeen-year-old orphan David Balfour discovers the existence of an uncle, and sets off in search of him. His uncle Ebenezer is far from welcoming, however, and David, after barely escaping with his life, finds himself kidnapped and bound for America, where he is to be sold into slavery. Yet when the hot-headed Jacobite rebel Alan Breck Stewart comes on board, David soon finds himself thrust into a perilous adventure,...

The adventuresome young man, Robin of Locksley, doesn't have a worry in the world until one day when a drunken man working for the King shoots an arrow at him. Robin's aim is better, to his lasting regret, and he becomes an outlaw subject to capture and hanging. Before long, however, Robin attracts a hearty band of other outcasts to Sherwood Forest. Their only wish is to lead a free, merry existence while doing any kindness they can for the downtrodden....