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Essential Reads for the Curious and Profound Mind
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items Dive into the timeless wisdom and captivating narratives of these books, chosen for their profound impact on the human spirit and intellect. Whether they explore the intricacies of our world, challenge conventional thinking, or illuminate the depths ...
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A Timeless Literary Journey: From Antiquity to Postmodernism
A Timeless Literary Journey: From Antiquity to Postmodernism
till one of the most frequently performed of classical Greek dramas
Antigone|Paperback
Homer's two epics of the ancient world, The Iliad & The Odyssey, tell stories as riveting today as when they were written between the eighth and ninth century B.C.
The Iliad & The Odyssey (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions)|Hardcover
A great masterpiece on which Aristotle based his aesthetic theory of drama in the Poetics and from which Freud derived the Oedipus complex
Oedipus the King|Paperback
In Inferno, the first of the three books in his Divine Comedy, the poet Dante, adrift spiritually and emotionally in life, journeys down to Hell.
Inferno: Illustrated Edition|Hardcover
Purgatorio, the middle section of Dante’s great poem about losing, and subsequently finding, one’s way in the middle of one’s life is, unsurprisingly, the beating heart of The Divine Comedy, as this powerful and lucid new translation by the poet D. M...
Purgatorio|Paperback
Paradiso is the most stylistically virtuosic book of the Divine Comedy—yet it is also the most underappreciated, due to readers’ fears that it is boring and about “nothing but goodness.
Paradiso|Paperback
The frightening tale of a murderer tormented by guilt over his terrible deeds is a classic.
The Black Cat|Hardcover
Ten young Florentines—seven women and three men—escape the plague-infested city and retreat to the countryside around Fiesole.
The Decameron|Paperback
Don Quixote has become so entranced reading tales of chivalry that he decides to turn knight errant himself.
Don Quixote|Hardcover
It has inspired many other writers-from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charles Dickens to James Joyce and Iris Murdoch-and has been described as the world's most filmed story after Cinderella.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare|Paperback
"Be on your guard ... and take care not to fall in love!"
The Sorrows of Young Werther|Paperback
With that undying line Edgar Allan Poe ensured his immortality in the annals of American letters.
The Raven and Other Poems (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions)|Paperback
Dorothy Sayers would describe “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” as “almost a complete manual of detective theory and practice.”
The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales|Paperback
Described by William Faulkner as the best novel ever written and by Fyodor Dostoevsky as “flawless,” Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky.
Anna Karenina (Pevear/Volokhonsky Translation)|Paperback
Old Man Goriot is Balzac's acknowledged masterpiece. A key novel in his Comédie Humaine series
Old Man Goriot|Paperback
A story of impossible and unsatisfied desire, Balzac’s The Lily in the Valley opens with a scene of desire unleashed.
The Lily in the Valley|Paperback
“The best English version by far, because its deadpan reminds us that the book is both a great realist novel and a satire of realism.” —Merve Emre, The New Yorker
Madame Bovary: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)|Paperback
If you watched You, you will love this one
A Doll's House and Other Plays|Paperback
The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information.
The Trial: A New Translation Based on the Restored Text|Paperback
It is the story of traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect.
The Metamorphosis: A New Translation by Susan Bernofsky|Paperback
A deviously clever novel from a deviously clever author, The Stranger is a masterpiece of human absurdity and it will entertain as well as perplex—just the way it was intended.
The Stranger|Paperback
In the annals of literature, few single volumes of poetry have achieved the influence and notoriety of The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du Mal) by Charles Baudelaire.
The Flowers of Evil|Paperback
The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works
The Old Man and the Sea (Pulitzer Prize Winner) (The Hemingway Library Edition)|eBook
A young Brahmin named Siddhartha searches for ultimate reality after meeting with the Buddha.
Siddhartha (Signature Classics)|Hardcover
With its blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, Hesse's best-known and most autobiographical work is one of literature's most poetic evocations of the soul's journey to liberation
Steppenwolf: A Novel|Paperback
Handsome and ambitious, Julien Sorel is determined to rise above his humble peasant origins and make something of his life.
The Red and the Black|Paperback
Faulkner created his "heart's darling," the beautiful and tragic Caddy Compson, whose story Faulkner told through separate monologues by her three brothers—the idiot Benjy, the neurotic suicidal Quentin and the monstrous Jason.
The Sound and the Fury|eBook
Harari offers insight into the constant evolution of humanity and what the future could possibly look like for our species.
Sapiens [Tenth Anniversary Edition]: A Brief History of Humankind|Paperback
"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird."
To Kill a Mockingbird: A Graphic Novel|Hardcover