Akron Public Library

'Miss Dashwood had a delicate complexion, regular features, and a remarkably pretty figure. Marianne was still handsomer. Her form, though not so correct as her sister's ... was more striking' As the title of Jane Austen's first published novel suggests, the difference between two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, lies not only in their appearance but also in their temperament. Yet Sense and Sensibility not only contrasts Elinor's good sense,...

Looking for adventure and a new life, Ishmael, the story's narrator, decides to find work on a whaling boat. On arriving at the Massachusetts harbour to begin his search, the only bed available is already half occupied by a "cannibal" named Queequeg. Although Queequeg has limited English, a friendship forms and the two men sign up for work together aboard the Pequod under the infamous Captain Ahab. Consumed by an insane rage, Captain Ahab has but...

An annotated edition of Shakespeare's historical drama about the Duke of Gloucester's lust for power and obsessive pursuit of his brother's throne, with an introduction, an essay by Harold Bloom, and a note on the text used.

The author's first novel, comprising a sequence of loosely related adventures of the Pickwickians as they explore the nooks and crannies and encounter the characters of early nineteenth century England.

This updated authoritative edition of the classic Hardy novel, which was published anonymously and first attributed to George Eliot, is set from Hardy's revised, unedited final draft of 1912 and features a new Introduction and Afterword. There is in England no more real or typical district than Thomas Hardy's imaginary Wessex, the scattered fields and farms of which were first discovered in Far from the Madding Crowd. It is here that Gabriel Oak observes...

Twenty-seven-year old Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. When later Wentworth returns from sea a rich and successful captain, he finds Anne's family on...

An Englishman is shipwrecked in a land where the people are only six inches tall.

This epic novel is centred on Napoleon's war with Russia. It expresses Tolstoy's view that history is an inexorable process which man cannot influence. Three of the characters, Natasha Rostov, Prince Andrew Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov illustrate Tolstoy's philosophy.

"With an Introduction by Dr. Julian Wolfreys. This EDITION CONTAINS TWO COLLECTIONS of short stories, the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes documents the earliest cases of the greatest fictional detective of all time, while The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes brings us to what Doyle intended to be Holmes' last appearance, in The Adventure of the Final Problem, as he plunges into the depths of the Reichenbach Falls with his archenemy, Professor Moriarty. This...

A collection of the best Sherlock Holmes stories, selected by David Stuart Davies, noted member of the Crime Writers' Association.