Barnes Noble: 2826 books

Thackeray was a regular contributor to the celebrated satirical magazine Punch—which for a while was almost a second home for him. Gathered here is an entertaining collection of Thackeray’s Punch pieces, including “Mr. Spec’s Remonstrance,” “The Georges,” “Irish Gems,” and a handful of his hilarious portraits of the many varieties of snobs.

“Shewing Who Robbed Him, Who Helped Him, and Who Passed Him By” is the subtitle of the last (1861-62) complete novel by the master English satirist. This semiautobiographical look back at the rollicking misadventures of a young heir is narrated by Thackeray’s alter-ego, the hero of his earlier coming-of-age novel Pendennis.

Published in 1922, this second collection of short fiction by Huxley contains his most famous story, "The Gioconda Smile," a murder mystery filmed in 1947 as A Woman's Vengeance, "The Tillotson Banquet," in which an artist may not be as dead as he seems, and "Green Tunnels," about a young girl's romantic disillusionment.

It is 1642 in Boston. Hester Prynne, dignified and silent, is led through prison doors to her public shaming by members of the Puritan town. Holding her illegitimate child to her breast, and bearing a bright scarlet letter “A” embroidered on her bodice, Hester must now struggle to create a new life...

Published in 1808, this volume follows in the footsteps of Lamb's 1807 Tales from Shakespeare, which adapted Shakespeare's plays for young readers.  Here Lamb turns to Homer's Odyssey, with equally delightful results.  While younger audiences will respond to Lamb's storytelling skills, adults will appreciate his graceful, lyrical prose.

The great sixteenth-century poet vividly imagines the end of the First Crusade, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, and the taking of Jerusalem. This decidedly fictional 1581 account, influenced by Homer and Virgil as well as Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, is heavily seasoned with romance, intrigue, and sorcery....

Published in 1891, more than fifty years after the death of its author, this book would have been the first of its kind, had it been available during Choyce’s lifetime. The author—whose seafaring experience encompassed stints as a whaler, a prisoner, and a pirate—lived through more adventure than...

This 1909 novel is narrated by Robert Etheridge Townsend, a young Southern writer recounting a life of wealth and leisure in the waning years of the nineteenth century.  It is a gentle but not un-barbed satire of manners that skewers snobbery and convenience marriages.

This 1904 novel, set in the strange and distant days when Colonel Roosevelt first became president, tells of a disputed inheritance that shapes and misshapes the lives of two young people:  Billy Williams, a painter, and Margaret Hugonin, who does not desire wealth but has it thrust upon her.

The Financier (1912) is the first volume in Dreiser's Trilogy of Desire, which continued in The Titan (1914) and the posthumously published The Stoic (1947).  Though based on the life of Chicago financier C. T. Yerkes, Dreiser's novel is set in Philadelphia and follows the roller-coaster career of his unscrupulous character, Frank Algernon Cowperwood.

Though famed as a novelist, Dreiser had aspirations as a playwright. His dream was realized with The Hand of the Potter, a four-act tragedy published in 1918 and produced in 1921.  Dreiser's subject—the rape and murder of a twelve-year-old girl—was highly controversial. 

This collection of twelve narratives was published in 1919, though seven had seen magazine publication previously.  They are portraits of people Dreiser came across in his life who influenced him, ranging from his brother Paul, a noted songwriter, to a tough-as-nails railroad foreman on whose crew a youthful Dreiser had labored.

In The Titan (1914), the second volume in Dreiser's Trilogy of Desire, which began with The Financier (1912) and finished with the posthumously published The Stoic (1947), the action shifts from Philadelphia to Chicago, where Frank Cowperwood plans to make himself the boss of the city's transportation system . . . by any means necessary.

Young Arthur Lisle, feeling hesitant about his future, attends a dinner party where chance opens not one, but two doors for him. Arthur falls under the spell of his cousin’s wife and embarks on a potentially successful—or disastrous—business deal. A Young Man’s Year follows Arthur as he navigates an unexpectedly eventful year.