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  The Collected Novels Volume Two...

  Graham Greene

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  From “the most ingenious, inventive, and exciting of our novelists”: Three brilliant novels exploring colonialism, faith, and the mysteries of desire (V. S. Pritchett).   This collection features three classic novels that explore Graham Greene’s most important themes: Catholicism, international intrigue, and the never-ending struggle to know oneself. From West Africa to Vietnam to Mexico, these stories prove that “no serious writer of [the twentieth] century has more thoroughly invaded and shaped the public imagination than Graham Greene” (Time).  The Heart of the Matter: In a British colony of West Africa, Henry Scobie is a pious man of modest means charged with securing borders. But when he’s passed over for a promotion, the humiliation hits hard—for his wife. To make it up to her, Henry accepts a loan from a black marketeer to secure Louise’s passage out of Africa. His single indiscretion quickly leads him—one moral compromise after another—into a web of blackmail, adultery, and murder.   “A powerful, deep-striking novel . . . of a spirit lost in the darkness of the flesh.” —New York Herald Tribune  The Quiet American: Vietnam, 1955. British journalist Thomas Fowler is covering the insurgency against French colonial rule and doing what he can to protect his Vietnamese lover, Phuong. Alden Pyle of the CIA believes in bringing American democracy to Vietnam by any means necessary. But when his ideas of conquest come to include Phuong, pride, passion, and blind moral conviction collide with terrible consequences.   “A heartrending romance . . . Haunting and profound.” —All Things Considered, NPR  The Power and the Glory: In 1930s Tabasco, Mexico, Catholicism is being outlawed. As churches are razed and devotees are executed, a member of the clergy known only as the “whisky priest” flees. He now travels as one of the hunted—attending, in secret, to the spiritual needs of the faithful. When a peasant begs him to return to Tabasco to hear the confessions of a dying man, the whisky priest knows it’s a trap. But it’s also his duty—and possibly his salvation.   “A thriller—but also a novel of ideas . . . A book I would have simply died to write.” —Scott Turow, New York Times–bestselling author    

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  The Fire of London

  Arnold Bennett

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  'The Fire of London' is an unusual mystery story about a case of fraud and blackmail. Bruce Bowring, a businessman of dubious integrity, has been running what amounts to a Ponzi scheme in the heart of the city of London. At the start of our story, Bowring receives a mysterious telephone call from a stranger, warning him that his house will be burgled that evening.  
  Shortly afterwards, a telegram arrives, signed by his wife, suggesting they dine out, as their cook is drunk. As Bowring sets off for the rendezvous with his wife, he has no inkling of the strange series of adventures which await him.

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  Hop-Frog

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  Hop-Frog is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1849. The title character is a dwarf taken from his homeland who becomes the jester of a king particularly fond of practical jokes. Taking revenge on the king and his cabinet for striking his friend and fellow dwarf Trippetta, he dresses them as orangutans for a masquerade. In front of the king's guests, Hop-Frog murders them all by setting their costumes on fire before escaping with Trippetta. It has been suggested that Poe wrote the story as a form of literary revenge against a woman named Elizabeth F. Ellet and several others.

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  The Alchemist

  Ben Jonson

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  An outbreak of plague in London forces a gentleman, Lovewit, to flee temporarily to the country, leaving his house under the sole charge of his butler, Jeremy. Jeremy uses the opportunity given to him to use the house as the headquarters for fraudulent acts. He transforms himself into 'Captain Face', and enlists the aid of Subtle, a fellow conman and Dol Common, a prostitute. In The Alchemist, Jonson unashamedly satirizes the follies, vanities and vices of mankind, most notably greed-induced credulity. People of all social classes are subject to Jonson's ruthless, satirical wit. He mocks human weakness and gullibility to advertising and to "miracle cures" with the character of Sir Epicure Mammon, who dreams of drinking the elixir of youth and enjoying fantastic sexual conquests. The Alchemist focuses on what happens when one human being seeks advantage over another. In a big city like London, this process of advantage-seeking is rife. The trio of con-artists - Subtle, Face and Dol - are self-deluding small-timers, ultimately undone by the same human weaknesses they exploit in their victims.Benjamin Jonson was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy.

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  Candide

  Voltaire

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  The story follows the eponymous hero and his tutor Doctor Pangloss through a series of adventures and misfortunes all the time doggedly attempting, against the odds, to adhere to the Doctor's philosophy that “all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.”Public Domain (P)2016 Spiders' House Audio/Roy Macready

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  The Portrait of a Lady

  Henry James

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  The American lady in the title of this masterpiece, Isabel Archer; beautiful, young and spirited, visits her wealthy relatives in England, rejects marriage proposals by two more or less worthy suitors, inherits a fortune and then is manipulated into marriage to one of the most cruel creatures imaginable: Gilbert Osmond...This is just scratching the surface of this colossal, monumental work; so rich in both its prose, its characters and its many, many themes. A few of the major ones being love, death, personal responsibility, personal identity, freedom, ethics or (lack thereof) and the New world versus the Old world. This work (its story takes place mostly in England and Italy) finds new admirers from generation to generation...

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