CLASSIC FICTION (PRE C 1945). Franz Kafka's 1915 novella of unexplained horror and nightmarish transformation became a worldwide classic and remains a century later one of the most widely read works of fiction in the world. It is the story of traveling salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. This hugely influential work inspired George Orwell, Albert Camus, Jorge Louis Borges, and Ray Bradbury,...

Great Expectations is Charles Dickens's thirteenth novel. It is his second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age novel, and it is a classic work of Victorian literature. It depicts the growth and personal development of an orphan named Pip. The novel was first published in serial form in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860...

Max Moreton is a rising culinary star, until nearly all the guests who enjoyed one of his meals at a private catered affair fall victim to severe food poisoning. At his next obligation, an exclusive luncheon for forty in the glass-fronted private boxes at the 2,000 Guineas, a bomb blast rips through the private boxes, killing some of Max's trusted staff and many of the guests. Two close calls are too close for comfort, and Max vows to protect his...

This book forms part of our 'Pook Press' imprint, celebrating the golden age of illustration in children's literature. 'The Wind in the Willows' is a true classic of Children's literature, penned by Kenneth Grahame and first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a traditional bucolic version of the English Thames valley - a novel notable for its adventure, mysticism, morality...

It was the time of the French Revolution - a time of great change and great danger. It was a time when injustice was met by a lust for vengeance, and rarely was a distinction made between the innocent and the guilty. Against this tumultuous historical backdrop, Dickens' great story of unsurpassed adventure and courage unfolds.Unjustly imprisoned for 18 years in the Bastille, Dr. Alexandre Manette is reunited with his daughter, Lucie, and safely transported...

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Charlie Trumpeter inherits his grandfather's fruit and vegetable barrow which he eventually parlays into riches and a world-famous department store. Along the way Charlie battles enemies in the trenches of World War I as well as in the streets of London.

Six years ago, investigator Sid Halley retired for good. For the sake of his wife and new daughter he gave up that life of danger, and he thought nothing would ever lure him back. He thought wrong. Sir Richard Stewart, chairman of the racing authority, begs Sid to investigate a series of dodgy races. Sid refuses, but the following day, Sir Richard is found dead. And then a man with an Irish accent contacts Sid, telling him to deliver a whitewashed...

A Boston business man whose fortune is built on shady deals meets his match when he swindles four unsuspecting investors. The men band together and steal back exactly what they lost.

"Seven years ago, Miles Pussett was a steeplechase jockey, loving the rush of the race. But after an unfortunate event, he left horseracing behind and swore he would never return. Now he gets his adrenaline rush from riding headfirst down the Cresta Run, a three-quarter-mile Swiss ice chute, reaching speeds of up to eighty miles per hour. Finding himself in St Moritz during the same weekend as White Turf, when high-class horseracing takes place on...

Robert Graves' searing autobiography and an emotional firsthand account of life in the First World War trenches. A superb and graphic storyteller, Graves begins with the petty cruelties of his public school upbringing. Then, almost in 'fly-on-the wall' documentary style, he paints devastating portraits of war: of a young man's hell, of meaningless sacrifice, of everyday heroism, and of the idiocy of the military command. Even accomplishing some moments...