Penguin classics

Presents an English translation of the nineteenth-century French novel about Jean Valjean, a peasant who is released from prison, where he spent nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving family, only to find himself threatened by people and events from his past.

Describes the foundling, Tom, who grows to be athletic, charismatic, generous, and filled with "the glorious lust of doing good" but with a tendency toward dissolution. He leaves home to seek his fortune and his real identity.

The story of Pip, an orphan in Victorian England who is informed one day that he has "great expectations" and is to be educated and reared as a gentleman.

Huck Finn, the son of the town drunk, and Jim, an escaped slave, make a break for freedom down the Mississippi River on a raft.

Collection of comedies and satires which provide insight into the author's later and better known horror and suspense fiction.

Contains the autobiographical memoirs of Charles Darwin in which he shares stories of his youth and family, and focuses on his public career and achievements in science.

A collection of twelve short stories by Honor? De Balzac.

Presents an English translation of the 1809 memoirs of Shen Fu in which he discusses his life in China as a magistrate's secretary, a loving husband, a painter, and a tradesman.

Presents Jane Austen's epistolary story "Lady Susan," in which a young woman teases several men vying for her affection, and the novel fragments "The Watsons," about the romantic mishaps of a poor, proud girl named Emma, and "Sanditon," in which a colorful group of vacationers spends a consequential summer at a seaside resort.

An anthology of essays, poetry, and fiction from the 1960s.