Classics World Literature

Dans ce discours à portée réaliste, Rousseau nous livre ici ses idées...

Intended to be a defense of the Christian religion, Pensées is a penetrating collection of thoughts on faith, reason, and theology. Unfinished at the time of Pascal's death, the book consists of philosophical fragments on the "wretchedness" of man and the controversial schisms of the church at the time. It includes the philosopher's infamous wager encouraging belief over agnosticism, as well as his thoughts on numerous other topics. Endlessly quotable, Pensées overflows with pearls of wisdom, each elusive sentence pregnant with a universe of thought.

Rastignac, resté seul, fit quelques pas vers le haut du cimetière et vit Paris tortueusement couché le long des deux rives de la Seine où commençaient à briller les lumières. Ses yeux s'attachèrent presque avidement entre la colonne Vendôme et le dôme des Invalides, là où vivait ce beau monde dans lequel il avait voulu pénétrer. Il lança sur cette ruche bourdonnante un regard qui semblait par avance pomper le miel, et dit ces mots grandioses : "À nous deux maintenant !"

Comme il y a une géométrie dans l'espace, il y a une psychologie dans le temps, où les calculs d'une psychologie plane ne seraient plus exacts parce qu'on n'y tiendrait pas compte du Temps et d'une des formes qu'il revêt, l'oubli.

No collection of Japanese literature is complete without Natsume Soseki's Kokoro, his most famous novel and the last he completed before his death. Published here in the first new translation in more than 50 years, Kokoro - meaning "heart" - is the story of a subtle and poignant friendship between two unnamed characters, a young man and an enigmatic elder whom he calls "Sensei".

L'homme au masque de fer est l'un des prisonniers les plus fameux de l'histoire française. Le mystère entourant son existence, ainsi que les différents films et romans dont il a fait l'objet, n'ont cessé d'exciter les imaginations.

L'action se déroule sous la Régence, période aux mœurs débridées succédant à l'austère fin de règne de Louis XIV. Le jeune chevalier des Grieux rencontre une belle adolescente : Manon Lescaut. Une passion irraisonnée naît entre ces deux très jeunes gens. Leur inconséquence et leur candide immoralité vont projeter le couple dans des aventures qui aboutiront à leur déchéance. Eduqué pour un avenir honorable, des Grieux, par passion amoureuse, ne pourra résister aux penchants licencieux de Manon.

Amidst the whir of city life, a girl from Harlem is drawn into the glittering underworld of Manhattan, where she’s hired to use her knives to strike fear amongst its most dangerous denizens. But the ghosts from her past are always by her side - and history has appeared on her doorstep to threaten the people she loves most. Can one woman ever sacrifice enough to save an entire community? Trouble the Saints is a dazzling, daring novel - a magical love story, a compelling chronicle of interracial tension, and an altogether brilliant and deeply American saga.

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions - slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere...else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she's back. The things she's experienced...they change a person. The children under Miss West's care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

Anna Karénina, que Tolstói empezó a escribir en 1873 y fuera publicada en 1878, es una exhaustiva disquisición sobre la institución familiar y, quizá ante todo, como dice Víctor Gallego (autor de esta nueva traducción), «una fábula sobre la búsqueda de la felicidad». La idea de que la felicidad no consiste en la satisfacción de los deseos preside la detallada descripción de una galería espléndida de personajes que conocen la incertidumbre y la decepción, el vértigo y el tedio, los mayores placeres y las más tristes miserias.

Lucy Honeychurch, accompanied by her vigilant guardian, Charlotte Bartlett, makes her first foray into the world, touring Italy and discovering a country very different to the English countryside she was brought up in.

When the narrator of Swann's Way dips a petite madeleine into hot tea, the act transports him to his childhood in the French town of Combray. Out of his Pandora's box of reflections comes a memory of an old family friend, Swann - a man who was long ago undone by romantic desire and cruel reality. In this reverie lie the insights the author seeks about his own life and ageless truths about the ephemeral nature of emotions, places, and, ultimately, love.

Alpha Company is embarking on a grand mission, crossing the Dead Lands to find and conquer Gwain’s Keep. Led by Alburet, most of the guild embarks on what could be an epic and memorable journey, as they aim at being the first Two-souled guild to capture a keep. Besides safeguarding the members of the guild, Alburet also has to worry about the natives that are with them on their journey. Deidre Crowley, Stacia’s sister, is the one he worries about most, having sworn to see her safely across the lifeless desolation of the Dead Lands.

"Tout le monde me prend pour un homme de bien ; mais la vérité pure est que je ne vaux rien." Tartuffe. Quel poison s'est insinué dans le foyer d'Orgon ? En laissant Tartuffe entrer dans sa maison, Orgon ne pouvait pas imaginer qu'il allait mettre en péril sa fortune, son honneur et l'unité de sa famille. Dans cette pièce hautement provocatrice, Molière démontre toute l'étendue de son talent pour fustiger, sous couvert du rire, les impostures d'un discours religieux drapé dans les oripeaux de la dévotion.

"Je hais les voyages et les explorateurs", toute première phrase de l'ouvrage, affirme sans détour son rejet de l'exotisme comme porte vers le sensationnel. Il s'agit ici d'un voyage bien plus philosophique, retour sur les études de terrain qui ont formé son esprit d'ethnologue. Comment se positionner face à l'autre, face à des cultures aux structures si différentes ?

In honor of Madeleine L'Engle's 100th Birthday, fans are invited to enjoy this archival audiobook, originally recorded in 1996 and newly restored! Listen to the voice of the author as Madeleine L'Engle reads A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

Tadeusz Borowski’s concentration camp stories were based on his own experiences surviving Auschwitz and Dachau. In spare, brutal prose he describes a world where where the will to survive overrides compassion, and prisoners eat, work, and sleep a few yards from where others are murdered; where the difference between human beings is reduced to a second bowl of soup, an extra blanket, or the luxury of a pair of shoes with thick soles; and where the line between normality and abnormality vanishes.

A veteran of the Great War, Jake Barnes is both physically and emotionally wounded, leaving him unable to be intimate. Even so, he pines after Lady Brett Ashley, a promiscuous twice-divorced woman. As feelings are hurt and punches are thrown, their lives and the lives of their friends and lovers become tangled as they journey from Paris to Spain and struggle with the repercussions that come from surviving the First World War.

Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu wrote The Tale of Genji in the 11th century to entertain the other women in the court. It follows the romantic exploits of the title character, an emperor’s son, as he navigates life within aristocratic society and eventually outside of it. Praised for its psychological insight into the characters’ motivations, the book greatly influenced Japanese culture and is widely considered the world’s first novel. In 1882, Suematsu Kencho translated a condensed version of the text into English, allowing this classic tale to reach a wider audience.

The Best Year Ever! That's what Ramona thought the fourth grade was going to be, but things aren't turning out as she hoped. Sure, she has a new best friend named Daisy. But how can she improve her spelling as her teacher insists, or be the role model for her baby sister, Roberta, that Mrs. Quimby expects? Fourth-grade life is full of adventure and challenges, and at the end of it all - a "zeroteenth" birthday to celebrate!