Civil war rages between the native tribes of the Malay straits. Captain Tim Wingard sides with the Rajah Hassim. But as is the case with so much in the Far East, nothing is quite straightforward and... more »

The six stories in this volume are the result of some three or four years of occasional work. The dates of their writing are far apart, their origins are various. None of them are connected directly... more »

The master writer of introspective tales of adventure returns to his usual haunts in this collection of short stories. "The Lagoon," Conrad's first short story, is set in Malaya. "An Outpost of Prog... more »

The son of a retired sea captain, who has been waiting years for his boy to come home, finally returns, but only because he is destitute and needs money.

Introduction--Public Credit--Household Superstitions--Opera Lions--Women and Wives--The Italian Opera--Lampoons--True and False Humour--Sa Ga Yean Qua Rash Tow's Impressions of London--The Vision of... more »

O. Henry's short, simple stories are noted for their careful plotting, ironic coincidences, and surprise endings. Contents: Strictly Business, The Gold that Glittered, Babes in the Jungle, The Day R... more »

Set in the 1870s, this tale concerns the love of an English sea captain for the Spanish beauty Dona Rita. He carries Carlist munitions to Peninsular ports, she finances the project. Conrad recounts ... more »

Joseph Conrad puts his finger on what the sea, and seafaring, mean to him in this evocative short memoir.

A gripping tale of capitalist exploitation and rebellion, set amid the mist-shrouded mountains of a fictional South American republic, employs flashbacks and glimpses of the future to depict the lur... more »

On his first voyage in command, a young sea captain worries that he is somehow to blame for the fever that afflicts his crew and the windless skies which prevent the ship's progress. ... more »

Set in the islands of the Malay Archipelago, Victory tells the story of a disillusioned Swede, Axel Heyst, who rescues Lena, a young English musician, from the clutches of a brutish German hotel own... more »

A story of revolutionaries set in Swizerland and Russia. Conrad's intention was to render not so much the political but the psychological state of Russia in 1911.

Four great stories illustrate Conrad's recognition of the psychological entanglements behind the idea of fidelity. Since his experiences often formed the background for his books, one can see how hi... more »

"Youth" sprang from Joseph Conrad's own experience sailing in the Far East with the merchant navy. In it he captures a young man's exhilaration in the face of danger and the unknown. ... more »

This account of the Great Plague of London (1664-65) was first published in 1722. In it Defoe describes the horrifying daily events in London city as it was besieged by bubonic plague. ... more »

Kenneth Grahame's unjustly neglected collections of vignettes, reminiscences, and inventions capture the ingenuities of a family of children--three boys and two girls--who live magnanimous lives nou... more »

A wry, witty, wide-ranging collection of eighteen irresistible essays. Strolling, loafing, smoking, collecting books and pondering, the author muses on the human condition. What to do about relative... more »

The first of his major novels of the 1920s, Sinclair Lewis's Main Street satirizes the manners of the American Middle West. Here is the story of Carol Kennicott, who, to be accepted, must adapt to t... more »

The great work of Gibbon is indispensable to the student of history. The literature of Europe offers no substitute for The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It has obtained undisp... more »

First published in this form 1856, these stories are linked by the story of Leah, itself a substantial story and each has a prologue. Collins's preface is also included. Contains the following separ... more »

Ancient Rome, AD 408: Young Antonia had the misfortune to live in interesting times--the days when mighty Rome was brought low by the terror of the Goths.

Rumoured to have been responsible for her husband's downfall, Madame Fontaine becomes known as Jezebel, and her sweet-tempered daughter is known as Jezebel's daughter.

A drawing-room story that involves a robbery, the Jockey Club and it's society, the betting-ring, and marriage plans.

A collection of short stories published in 1859.

Generally considered the first English sensation novel, The Woman in White features the remarkable heroine Marian Halcombe and her sleuthing partner, drawing master Walter Hartright, pitted against ... more »