Showing results by publisher "Alpha DVD" in Genre Fiction

The Iliad, together with The Odyssey, is one of two ancient Greek epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer. The work is commonly dated to the 8th or 7th century BC, and many scholars believe it is the oldest extant work of literature in the Greek language, making it the first work of European literature. The story concerns events during the 10th and final year in the siege of the city of Troy by the Greeks.

A Princess of Mars is the first novel in Edgar Rice Burroughs's famous "Barsoom" science fiction series. John Carter, a Confederate American Civil War veteran is mysteriously transported to Mars, called "Barsoom" by its inhabitants. Carter finds that he has great strength on this planet, due to its lesser gravity. Carter soon falls in among the Tharks, a nomadic tribe of the planet's warlike, four-armed, green inhabitants.

White Fang, written by Jack London, tells the story of a half-wolf, half-dog nearly destroyed by the vicious cruelty of men. Near death, White Fang is rescued by Weeden Scott, who takes him home to California. White Fang learns to love his new master, and repays his kindness by saving Scott's father from a criminal who tries to kill him.

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen's first novel, is an entertaining tale of flirtation and folly that revolves around two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Elinor is thoughtful, considerate, and calm; Marianne is emotional and wildly romantic. Both are looking for a husband, but neither Elinor's reason nor Marianne's passion can lead them to happiness - as Marianne falls for an unscrupulous rascal and Elinor becomes attached to a man who's already engaged.

Emma, a comic novel by Jane Austen, was published in December 1815. The main character, Emma Woodhouse, is described in the opening paragraph as "handsome, clever, and rich" but is also rather spoiled. Emma schemes to find a suitable husband for her pliant friend Harriet, only to discover that she understands the feelings of others as little as she does her own heart.

Josef K. is an ordinary man who is arrested on his 30th birthday. He is prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, yet the nature of his crime is never revealed to him. One year after his arrest he is executed. His last words describe his own death: "Like a dog!"

Written by Edwin A. Abbott, under the pseudonym "a square", Flatland offers pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. However, the novella's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions. Noted science writer Isaac Asimov has described Flatland as "The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions. " As such, Flatland is very popular amongst mathematics, physics, and computer-science students.

The Metamorphosis, a novella by Franz Kafka, is often cited as one of the seminal works of short fiction of the 20th century. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect.

Catherine Morland goes to Bath for the season as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Allen, and there she meets the eccentric General Tilney, his son Henry Tilney and his daughter Elanor Tilney. Catherine is invited to the Tilney's home, Northanger Abbey, where she imagines numerous gruesome secrets surrounding the General and his house. Henry proves that her suspicions have no substance, and while she is still recovering from the humiliation, she finds herself ordered out of the house by the General.

Gulliver's Travels is a classic satire on human nature and a parody of the "travelers' tales" literary genre. Lemuel Gulliver travels to the remote country of Lilliput where he encounters the six-inch-tall Lilliputians. On his next journey, he is captured by a 60-foot-tall native of Brobdingnag.

Professor Pierre Aronnax boards an American frigate commissioned to investigate a rash of attacks on international shipping by what is thought to be an amphibious monster. The supposed sea creature, which is actually the submarine Nautilus, sinks Aronnax's vessel and imprisons him along with his devoted servant Conseil and Ned Land, a temperamental harpooner.

Michael Henchard, a young hay trusser, overindulges in rum-laced furmity and quarrels with his wife, Susan. Spurred by alcohol, he decides to auction off his wife and baby daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, to a sailor, Mr. Newson, for five guineas. Once sober the next day, he is too late to recover his family. When he realizes that his wife and daughter are gone, probably for good, he swears not to touch liquor again for as many years as he has lived so far (21).

Published in two volumes a decade apart, Don Quixote is the most influential work of literature to emerge from the Spanish Golden Age and perhaps the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, it regularly appears at the top of lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published.

"Halfway down a by-street of one of our New England towns stands a rusty wooden house, with seven acutely peaked gables, facing towards various points of the compass, and a huge, clustered chimney in the midst. The street is Pyncheon Street; the house is the old Pyncheon House; and an elm-tree, of wide circumference, rooted before the door, is familiar to every town-born child by the title of the Pyncheon Elm."

Victor Frankenstein learns how to create life and creates a being in the likeness of man, but larger and more powerful than the average man. Frankenstein rejects the creature, and lives to regret his desire to create life, after it kills his brother William. Frankenstein is a warning against the "over-reaching" of modern man and the Industrial Revolution, alluded to in the novel's subtitle, The Modern Prometheus.

"The captain, or Wolf Larsen, as men called him, ceased pacing and gazed down at the dying man. So fierce had this final struggle become that the sailor paused in the act of flinging more water over him and stared curiously, the canvas bucket partly tilted and dripping its contents to the deck. The dying man beat a tattoo on the hatch with his heels, straightened out his legs, and stiffened in one great tense effort, and rolled his head from side to side."

Eric possessed many truly brilliant and extraordinary abilities including musical genuis. Being outcast from society for his ugliness, Eric was forced to wander from one country to another. When in France, he worked at fairs demonstrating tricks and ventriloquism. Later he became a bricklayer and was engaged in building the Paris Opera House. Upon completion of the construction, Eric decided to hide from the world in the cellars of the Opera and turned this great building into his own empire.