Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Classics

Stephen Mitchell's marvelously clear and vivid rendering recreates the robust masculine music of the original. It both hews closely to the Old English and captures its wild energy and vitality, not just as a deep "work of literature" but also as a rousing entertainment that can still stir our feelings and rivet our attention today, after more than a thousand years. This new translation - spare, sinuous, vigorous in its narration, and translucent in its poetry - makes a masterpiece accessible to everyone.

The literary world was shocked when, in 1890, at the height of his career, Robert Louis Stevenson announced his intention to settle permanently in Samoa. His readers were equally shocked when he began to use the subject material offered by his new environment not to promote a romance of empire but to produce some of the most ironic and critical treatments of imperialism in 19th-century fiction.

In the cutthroat world of bounty hunters, Joe Noose is as honest as they come. Which isn't saying much. Just look at his less-than-honest colleagues. They framed Joe for a murder they committed. They made sure Joe's face wound up on a wanted poster. Now they're gonna hunt Joe down and collect the reward money. There's just one problem: Joe Noose thinks it's his bounty. It's his reward. And it's their funeral .

Famous for classic adventure novels such as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas is one of the most popular French authors of all time. Set in the Netherlands during the 17th century, The Black Tulip follows young bourgeoisie Cornelius van Baerle as he attempts to claim the prize set by the city of Haarlem for growing the rare black tulip. On the cusp of victory, Cornelius is instead tossed into prison, where he meets the prison guard’s daughter and begins a relationship that may eventually lead to his rescue.

During the 1990s in the Pacific Northwest, a hobo vampire gang on drugs causes horrific chaos everywhere they go—from trashing supermarket breakrooms to crashing senior center pancake breakfasts. Amidst the danger one girl, who benefits (and suffers) from drug-induced ESP, searches desperately for her foster sister.

Jack Langdon has always suppressed his talent for sorcery. But his marriage to Abigail, a skilled wizard, ignites his passion and opens doorways he never imagined.

Honore de Balzac's classic book of revenge and passion in which the title character Bette plots the destruction of various men including her cousin-in-law, Baron Hector Hulot. Bette enlists the help of Valérie, an unhappily married young woman, to seduce Hulot, destroy his life, and take his family's fortune.

Meet Mr. Samuel Pickwick, luminous presence, general chairman and member of the Pickwick Club, an organization devoted to meeting good friends, sharing good stories and spreading good cheer. Join Mr. Pickwick and his friends Mr. Snodgrass, Mr. Jingle and all the rest in Part One of their adventures, which include: the first day's journey, an old-fashioned card party, the action of Bardell against Pickwick, and Christmas.

At 21 the passionate and headstrong Ann Veronica Stanley is determined to rule her own life. When her autocratic father forbids her, via formal letter, from attending a fashionable art-school ball, and even further refuses to allow her advanced study of science, she decides she has no choice but to leave her family home and make a fresh start alone.

Emma Woodhouse has it all: She's beautiful, rich and very clever - maybe too clever - but she also has too much time on her hands. So Emma decides to dabble in the lives of others, setting about making romantic matches - but why can't she find the right suitor for herself?

This scandalous turn-of-the-century story follows 28-year-old Edna Pontellier, wife and mother, who one day awakens to the pangs of passion for the first time in her life. But societal restraints place limits on any kind of authentic expression of desire. Her final gesture is a defiant, desperate reach for freedom.

A classic work of Texas fiction from M.E.M. Davis, Under the Man-Fig was first published in1895. Part romance, part satire, and part realism, this entertaining novel takes place in the fictional town of Thornham on the Texas Gulf Coast. Under the sprawling branches of the ancient man-fig tree in the town square, all the male gossips of Thornham sit around and spin their colorful yarns - and in so doing, unwittingly weave a folk history of the Old South. This important work resounds with a reading from narrator Sally Darling.

Ancient myths link students to a powerful cultural history. Bulfinch captures these fables in one graceful, lyrical collection which has been a standard reference for over 140 years. Part One includes the tales of Prometheus, Hercules, and Ulysses. Part Two includes Aeneas, Thor, Beowulf, and other heroes.

The kings and queens of the northern continent lay siege to the Darkwater Forest, desperate to contain its evil. But rumors of gold and aurium have lured deserters and the desperate into its shadow, creating a growing army held in its sway. Desperate after the death and dissolution of their greatest ally, Willet and the Vigil seek the truth of what lies at the heart of the evil they face. They delve the mind of an old enemy and find an answer far worse than they could have imagined.

The Cure is a genre-bending thriller reminiscent of Michael Crichton or Douglas Preston, about the biological underpinnings of psychopathy. As a child, her family was taken from her by a serial killer. Erin Palmer is left orphaned and forever scarred. She dedicates her life to the study of psychopaths, conducting one-on-one interviews and tests with inmates. When Erin finally finishes years of exhaustive research, she finds herself in possession of the key to ending psychopathic behavior - in the species - forever. That' s when they try to kill her.

Professor Raphael Shargel channels his passion for teaching and expertise as a Shakespearean scholar into this illuminative study of the Immortal Bard's 10 great comedies. Shakespeare's genius is as readily apparent in these comedies as in his timeless tragedies. Often marked by internal and external conflicts, young lovers struggling for union, mistaken identities, and intertwining plots, Shakespeare's comedies to this day reveal the master's unparalleled insight into the human condition.

Sons and Lovers is widely considered by critics and readers alike as D.H. Lawrence’s masterpiece and a classic interpretation of the Oedipal complex. Surely one of the greatest autobiographical novels ever written, it tells the story of Paul Morel, a sensitive artist with a far stronger attachment to his mother than his working-class, alcoholic father. Searching for love and human connection, Paul is torn between two very different women, but neither of them measures up to his mother.

Two women isolated on a lonely Cornish farm face an evil greater than all others: A fox has begun carrying off hens and roosters, and nothing they do seems to stop him. And then one day, a mysterious young man appears at the door. Now the women have to fend off not one, but two foxes.

Frederic Moreau is a law student returning home to Normandy from Paris when he first notices Mme. Arnoux, a slender, dark woman several years older than himself. It is the beginning of an infatuation that will last a lifetime. He befriends her husband, an influential businessman, and their paths cross and re-cross over the years. Through financial upheaval, political turmoil, and countless affairs, Mme. Arnoux remains the constant, unattainable love of Moreau's life.

Orthodoxy was named as one of Publishers Weekly’s 10 indispensable spiritual classics of the past 1500 years. It is the personal journal of one man’s search for understanding culminating in his conversion to Catholicism. Written with wisdom and wit, G.K. Chesterton captures the very nature of faith.