Classics World Literature

A chilling novel about the nightmare of a corrupt and brutal dictatorship. The star of Roberto Bolano's hair-raising novel Distant Star is Alberto Ruiz-Tagle, an air force pilot who exploits the 1973 coup to launch his own version of the New Chilean Poetry, a multimedia enterprise involving sky-writing, poetry, torture, and photo exhibitions. For our unnamed narrator, who first encounters this "star" in a college poetry workshop, Ruiz-Tagle becomes the silent hand behind every evil act in the darkness of Pinochet's regime.

In the opening scene of Falling Man, Keith Neudecker emerges from the smoke and ash of the burning tower where he worked, and makes his way to the apartment of his ex-wife and young son uptown. Throughout this bold and haunting novel, DeLillo traces the way the events of September 11 kindled or rekindled relationships, reconfigured our emotional landscape, our memory, and our perception of the world.

This classic novel and winner of the Pulitzer Prize tells the story of an Italian-American major in World War II who wins the love and admiration of the local townspeople when he searches for a replacement for the 700-year-old town bell that had been melted down for bullets by the fascists. Although stituated during one of the most devastating experiences in human history, John Hersey's story speaks with unflinching patriotism and humanity.

In the 1880's, an American senator observes, with some perplexity, English country life and all of its social echelons. To add some spice along the way, we follow the romances and intrigues of the flirtatious Arabella Trefoil.

The fortunes of the Rostovs and the Bolkonskys, of Pierre, Natasha, and Andrei, are intimately connected with the national history that is played out in parallel with their lives. Balls and soirées alternate with councils of war and the machinations of statesmen and generals, scenes of violent battles with everyday human passions in a work whose extraordinary imaginative power has never been surpassed. The prodigious cast of characters, both great and small, seem to act and move as if connected by threads of destiny as the novel relentlessly questions ideas of free will, fate, and providence.

Europe, 1940. As war rages across the continent, America watches anxiously from the sidelines. And President Franklin Roosevelt has been keeping an even closer eye on developments in the Third Reich. At the president’s personal request, Lanny Budd gained the confidence of the Nazi high command and began transmitting valuable information back to the White House. Espionage is a dangerous game, however, and Presidential Agent 103 soon finds himself a target of the French Resistance fighters he is attempting to assist.

An early science-fiction novel by the prolific and notable writer H. G. Wells, War of the Worlds describes an invasion of England by aliens from Mars. It is one of the earliest and best-known depictions of an alien invasion of Earth and was highly influential, spawning several films, radio dramas, comic-book adaptations, and a television series based on the story.

Lens of the World is the story of a prodigious life. It recounts the coming of age of Nazhuret, an outcast and orphan who rises from his lowly estate as a ward of the Sordaling military school to become a mighty warrior, philosopher, and confidant of the King of Vestinglon. As he grows, the young man receives outlandish knowledge and is prepared for an entirely exceptional destiny far beyond the narrow confines of his kingdom.

In Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (1916), John Dewey contends that the primary facts of the birth and death of each of the members of a social group determine the necessity of education. Dewey viewed the mind and its formation as a communal process, so that the individual is a meaningful concept only when regarded as an inextricable part of their society, whilst the society has no meaning apart from its realization through the lives of individual members.

Un enregistrement exceptionnel : les cinq volumes des "Misérables", un des plus grands romans de la littérature française, enfin disponibles en livre audio. Jean Valjean, Cosette, les Thénardier, Gavroche, ou encore Javert sont autant de noms qui résonnent au-delà de l'histoire qui les a fait naître. Ces misérables sont décrits à la fois comme des archétypes du genre humain, mais aussi comme les produits d'une société génératrice de pauvreté, d'ignorance et de désespoir.

The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. This is the document which defines the rights and responsibilities of federal government of the United States of America.

Published in 1651, Leviathan is considered to be one of the most important works of political philosophy and a major contribution to the modern idea of central government. In the mid-17th century, England was going through a turbulent time of change and unrest, which likely shaped Hobbes' ideas on strong government. Thomas Hobbes established the social contract theory. He believed that self-government did not create the ideal state due to the human tendency to be self-serving, something he believed would eventually lead to chaos.

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.

The Labyrinth of the World is about a fellow named Pilgrim who treks through the world in order to find the best way to live, aided by two guides: Mr. Ubiquitous and Mr. Delusion. Pilgrim finds much to be concerned about in the world. Ultimately, he finds something he had not planned upon in his journey: The Paradise of the Heart. This original pilgrim allegory was penned 55 years before Pilgrim's Progress. Find out how an educator and theologian, with real-life experience, penned a profound story that is still contemporary today.

Phileas Fogg, a gentleman of stringent and inflexible habits, proposes that he can circumvent the globe in 80 days. He wagers half of his fortune to this effect. But when a high profile bank robbery occurs, the dogged Detective Fix is convinced that Mr. Fogg is an audacious bank robber and that his entire "gentleman's wager" is a charade. Thus begins a wild battle of cat and mouse that takes the clever combatants around the world.

Le second empire vu sous l'angle des Rougon, archétypes de la bourgeoisie ambitieuse et parvenue.

The Origin of Species sold out on the first day of its publication in 1859. It is the major book of the 19th century and one of the most readable and accessible of the great revolutionary works of the scientific imagination. Though, in fact, little read, most people know what it says—at least they think they do. The Origin of Species was the first mature and persuasive work to explain how species change through the process of natural selection. Upon its publication, the book began to transform attitudes about society and religion.

Cuando el joven abogado Santos Luzardo vuelve al llano a reclamar las tierras de su familia, se encuentra con que han sido tomadas por Doña Bárbara, una ruda e insensible terrateniente, que ha acumulado grandes extensiones de tierra y muchas manadas de ganado por medios ilícitos y utiliza a los hombres para su provecho personal. Cuando Santos Luzardo se decide a luchar por lo que es suyo, se desatan conflictos, pasiones y se devela el pasado oculto de Doña Bárbara y la aparición de su hija.

In 1851 Leo Tolstoy enlisted in the Russian army and was sent to the Caucasus to help defeat the Chechens. During this war a great Avar chieftain, Hadji Murád, broke with the Chechen leader Shamil and fled to the Russians for safety. Months later, while attempting to rescue his family from Shamil’s prison, Hadji Murád was pursued by those he had betrayed and, after fighting the most heroic battle of his life, was killed.

A collection of the finest work of one of America's best-loved poets. Despite Dickinson's prolific writing, fewer than a dozen of her poems were published during her lifetime. Critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet. Read by Julie Harris.