Classics Library

The Story of Ferdinand has enchanted readers since it was first published in 1936. All the other bulls would run and jump and butt their heads together. But Ferdinand would rather sit and smell the flowers. And he does just that until the day a bumblebee and some men from the Madrid bullfights give gentle Ferdinand a chance to be the most ferocious star of the corrida - and the most unexpected comic hero.

This follow-up to The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories features familiar Seussian faces and places - including Horton the Elephant, Marco, Mulberry Street, and a Grinch - as well as an introduction by renowned Seuss scholar Charles D. Cohen. Seuss fans will learn more about Horton’s integrity, Marco’s amazing imagination, a narrowly avoided disaster on Mullbery Street, and a devious Grinch.

Sick and tired of feeling shackled to the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob is longing for a change. Deciding to throw in the spatula and live among the jellyfish, SpongeBob embarks on a new life of freedom - but will it be worth it? Join SpongeBob as he sets out for the open sea.

In the untamed heart of the African jungle, Edgar Rice Burroughs unfolds the riveting tale of Tarzan of the Apes. Orphaned and raised by a band of apes, a young boy emerges as the formidable Tarzan, mastering the perils of the wild with unparalleled bravery and agility. But his primal world is forever altered with the arrival of the compassionate Jane Porter, igniting a conflict between his savage upbringing and the stirrings of a civilized heart.

Annabelle Doll and Tiffany Funcraft are two dolls who have been best friends since they met in Kate Palmer's house at 26 Wetherby Lane. In this sequel to The Doll People, they hitch a ride in Kate's backpack and find themselves in the biggest adventure of their lives, a day at school!

It's the talk of the jungle when an elephant hatches an egg.

"When we are happy, we are always good," says Lord Henry, "but when we are good, we are not always happy." Lord Henry’s lazy, clever words lead the young Dorian Gray into a world where it is better to be beautiful than to be good; a world where anything can be forgiven - even murder - if it can make people laugh at a dinner party. Oxford Bookworms Library reader for learners of English, adapted from the Oscar Wilde original by Jill Nevile.

The Cat in the Hat shows Young Cat the fun he can get out of reading.

The quest to find the Nine Gates that lead to the underworlds of Shyish and an audience with Nagash continues.... Tarsus of the Hallowed Knights leads his Stormcast Eternals into the unearthly city of Helstone. Their enigmatic guide, Mannfred von Carstein, assures them that what they need to find his necromantic master lies within its halls, but there is more than darkness lurking in the ruins. Chaos has already taken root, and a reckoning against the servants of the Plague God awaits.

This inspirational audiobook encapsulates African American history and invites conversations at all levels. Carole Boston Weatherford’s riveting text is an informative reminder of yesterday, a hopeful image for today, and an aspirational dream of tomorrow. Starting from 1619 and stretching more than four hundred years, this audiobook features such pivotal moments in history as the arrival of enslaved people in Jamestown, Virginia; Nat Turner's rebellion; the integration of the US military; and more.

Classic haunted house ghost stories curated by world-renowned filmmaker and horror genre authority John Landis. This beautifully presented, highly collectible anthology features ghost stories that have enthralled, terrified and inspired readers decade after decade. Some are relatively well known; others are long-lost treasures, awaiting rediscovery.

In the exotic South American republic of Costaguana, the San Tomé silver mine provides opportunities for untold wealth and power. Yet amid the turbulence and brutality of Latin American politics, everyone associated with it - from the compromised English mine-owner Gould to the grasping businessman Holroyd, from the revolutionary Montero to the loyal and seemingly incorruptible worker Nostromo - becomes somehow irrevocably tainted. Nostromo is a grandiose epic, startlingly modern in its technique.

Penguin Classics presents the audiobook adaptation of Martin Chuzzlewit, a tale of inheritance and destiny and the story Dickens considered his best. Read by John Wells. The greed of his family has led wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit to become suspicious and misanthropic, leaving his grandson and namesake to make his own way in the world.

Henry Fielding’s riotous tale of innocents in a corrupt world was one of the earliest English novels, blending bawdy slapstick, philosophical musing, and pointed social satire to create a work of moral complexity and generous, life-affirming humanity. Published in 1742, it tells the story of the chaste servant Joseph Andrews who, after being sacked for spurning the advances of the lascivious Lady Booby, takes to the road, accompanied by his beloved Fanny Goodwill and the absent-minded, much put-upon Parson Adams.

Laurence Sterne’s great masterpiece of bawdy humour and rich satire defies any attempt to categorize it. Part novel, part digression, its gloriously disordered narrative interweaves the birth and life of the unfortunate "hero" Tristram Shandy, the eccentric philosophy of his father Walter, the amours and military obsessions of Uncle Toby, and a host of other characters, including Dr Slop, Corporal Trim and the parson Yorick. A joyful celebration of the endless possibilities of the art of fiction, Tristram Shandy is also a wry demonstration of its limitations.

Struggling manufacturer Robert Moore has introduced labour saving machinery to his Yorkshire mill, arousing a ferment of unemployment and discontent among his workers. Robert considers marriage to the wealthy and independent Shirley Keeldar to solve his financial woes, yet his heart lies with his cousin Caroline, who, bored and desperate, lives as a dependent in her uncle’s home with no prospect of a career. Shirley, meanwhile, is in love with Robert’s brother, an impoverished tutor - a match opposed by her family.

Some of us were lucky enough to have one passionate, funny, inspiring English teacher who helped us fall in love with books. Add a lifetime of teaching Dharma - authentic, traditional approaches to meditation and awakening - and you get award-winning author Dean Sluyter. With droll humor and irreverent wisdom, he unpacks the Dharma of more than twenty major writers, from William Blake to Dr. Seuss, inspiring listeners to deepen their own spiritual life and see literature in a fresh new way: as a path of awakening.

Penguin Classics presents Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, adapted for audio and available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by the actor Robert Lindsay. ‘Sir, I am concerned at the Trouble I give you; nay indeed my Nakedness may well make me ashamed to look you in the Face… Jones offered her his Coat; but, I know not for what Reason, she absolutely refused the most earnest Solicitations to accept it’.

’If life had no love in it, what else was there for Maggie?’ Tragic and moving, The Mill on the Floss is a novel of grand passions and tormented lives. As the rebellious Maggie's fiery spirit and imaginative nature bring her into bitter conflict with her narrow provincial family, most painfully with her beloved brother Tom, their fates are played out on an epic scale. George Eliot drew on her own frustrated rural upbringing to create one of the great novels of childhood, and one of literature's most unforgettable heroines.

Thomas Hardy's powerful novel of swift sexual passion and slow-burning loyalty centres on Bathsheba Everdene, a proud working woman whose life is complicated by three different men - respectable farmer Boldwood, seductive Sergeant Troy, and devoted Gabriel - making her the object of scandal and betrayal. Vividly portraying the superstitions and traditions of a small rural community, Far from the Madding Crowd shows the precarious position of a woman in a man's world.