Translator Eva Martin
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Chios Classics brings literature’s greatest works back to life for new generations. All our books contain a linked table of contents. The Idiot is one of Dostoyevsky's classics.
The Devil's Pool (1846) is a novel about the life of the French peasants by George Sand. Excerpt from the book: "I knew the young man and the beautiful child; I knew their history, for they had a history. Although but a peasant and a laborer, Germain had always been aware of his duties and affections. He had related them to me clearly and ingenuously, and I had listened with interest. After some time spent in watching him plow, it occurred to me that I might write his story, though that story were as simple, as straightforward, and unadorned as the furrow he was tracing. Next year that furrow will be filled and covered by a fresh one. Thus disappear most of the footprints made by man in the field of human life. A little earth obliterates them, and the furrows we have dug succeed one another like graves in a cemetery. I mean, if possible, to save from oblivion the furrow of Germain, the skilled husbandman. He will never know nor care, but I shall take pleasure in my talk."Show book
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814 – 1873) was born in Dublin, Ireland and is acknowledged as an influential writer in the genre of gothic and supernatural fiction of the nineteenth century. Many of his short stories were originally published severally in various magazines. Here are six of them:“The White Cat of Drumgonnial”“Dickon the Devil”“The Drunkard's Dream”“The Secret of the Two Plaster Casts”“The Vision of Tom Chuff”“An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House”Show book
This dialogue brings Socrates face to face with the famous sophist Gorgias and his followers. It is a work likely completed around the time of "Republic" and illuminates many of the spiritual ideas of Plato. The spirituality, as Jowett points out in his wonderful introduction, has many ideas akin to Christianity, but is more generous as it reserves damnation only for the tyrants of the world. Some of the truths of Socrates, as presented by Plato, shine forth in this wonderful work on sophistry and other forms of persuasion or cookery. (Summary by Kevin Johnson)Show book
The classic religious allegory by the seventeenth-century English author—one of the most significant works of theological fiction ever written. Largely written while John Bunyan was imprisoned for offenses against the Conventicle Act of 1664, which prohibited the holding of religious services outside the auspices of the Church of England, The Pilgrim’s Progress is the author’s dream of the trials and temptations a man named Christian encounters on his journey to the Celestial City. Traveling along a road filled with spiritual obstacles, Christian seeks to rid himself of the burden of his sins. “In Hollywood terms, the novel has a perfect ‘arc.’ It also contains a cast of unforgettable characters, from Mr Worldly Wiseman to Lord Hategood, Mr Stand-fast and Mr Valiant-for-Truth. . . . The Pilgrim’s Progress is the ultimate English classic, a book that has been continuously in print, from its first publication to the present day, in an extraordinary number of editions. There’s no book in English, apart from the Bible, to equal Bunyan’s masterpiece for the range of its readership, or its influence on writers as diverse as William Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain, CS Lewis, John Steinbeck and even Enid Blyton.” —The Guardian, “The 100 Best Novels”Show book
A Study in Scarlet is an 1887 detective novel by Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become the most famous detective duo in popular fiction. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes, a consulting detective, to his friend and chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.Show book
Dive in to a fantastic selection of poetry from the great Edgar Allan Poe. Includes: "The Raven", "The Sleeper", "Bridal Ballad", "The City in the Sea", "Dreams", "El Dorado", and "Annabel Lee".Show book
