Modern Library classics

A group of people living in an experimental community face the limitations of human nature.

"Translated, edited, and with an Introduction by Stanley Corngold Featuring essays by Philip Roth, W. H Auden, and Walter Benjamin "When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Franz Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetlelike insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing--though absurdly comic--meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. This Modern Library edition collects Stanley Corngold's acclaimed English translation--long hailed as the gold standard by scholars and general readers alike--along with six critical essays by writers including Philip Roth, W. H. Auden, and Walter Benjamin, background and contextual material, and a new Introduction from Corngold himself"--.

Presents an English translation of the oldest existing epic poem in French, telling the tale of the massacre in 778 of Charlemagne's rear guard at Roncesvalles in northern Spain, and includes an introduction and notes.

Presents the first part of Renaissance poet Dante Alighieri's epic poem, describing a man's journey through Hell in search of paradise, and featuring side-by-side English and Italian, along with Gustav Dor?'s illustrations and notes on the text.

Presents English translations of short stories by thirty-one Latin American women authors from fourteen countries, including selections by Isabel Allende, Carmen Naranjo, and Amparo Davila.

A collection of poems spanning the career of reclusive nineteenth century poet Emily Dickinson.

In this first of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate the murder of an American and his private secretary.

Presents two New England novels by Edith Wharton, including "Ethan Frome," the story of a young farmer who falls in love with the vivacious cousin of his hypochondriac wife, and "Summer," in which a young woman of humble origins defies society by engaging in a torrid love affair with a man far above her station.

A posse captures and hangs three men believed to be guilty of cattle rustling and murder, only to learn later that the men were innocent.

Features Charles Brockden Brown's "Wieland," in which a woman searches for the cause of her brother's madness after he claims God ordered him to murder his wife and children; and includes short stories and a newspaper account of the murder that inspired Brown's tale.