Bill Homewood

"Set against the tumultuous years of the post Napoleonic era, Dumas's grand historical romance recounts the swashbuckling adventures of Edmond Dantès, a dashing young sailor falsely accused of treason"--Jacket.

After the tragic death of his son, Allan Quatermain's grief is inconsolable. Feeling that the only possible way to ease his pain is through an expedition, Quatermain seeks out Captain Good, Sir Henry Curtis, and the Zulu chief Umslopogaas, who all previously journeyed with him to King Solomon's Mine. After explaining his predicament, Quatermain persuades them to accompany him on one last journey-a search mission to find a lost city. Together they...

The Red and the Black, by Stendhal, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies of contemporary...

Father Goriot is a novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac. Set in Paris in 1819, it follows the interwoven lives of three characters: the senior and loving Goriot, a shadowy criminal-in-hiding called Vautrin and a gullible law student called Eugène de Rastignac. Excerpt: "The house might have been built on purpose for its present uses. Access is given by a French window to the first room on the ground floor, a sitting-room which...

She and Allan is a unique story written by Henry Rider Haggard. After all, he unites characters from three different series. Allan is looking for Ayesha in the hope of finding answers about his dead loved ones. He becomes involved in the rescue attempt of a young Portuguese-Scotch woman, and also fights with Ayesha's enemies. This is truly one of the most exciting stories of a successful author.

The Four Just Men (1905) is a political thriller by Edgar Wallace. The book that launched Wallace's career as one of England's leading popular fiction writers, The Four Just Men was released in conjunction with a newspaper competition allowing readers to guess the truth behind the unsolved mystery at the end of the novel. Like many of Wallace's stories and novels, The Four Just Men was adapted into a silent film in 1921 before being made into a popular...

Idylls of the King (1859-1885) is a cycle of narrative poems by British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written while Tennyson was serving as Poet Laureate, Idylls of the King reworks the medieval Arthurian legend in blank verse and with an elegiac tone. Based on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and the early British Mabinogion manuscripts, Tennyson's work connects an ancient tradition to the reign and ideals of Queen Victoria. "The Coming of Arthur"...

The intrepid Professor Lindenbrock embarks upon the strangest expedition of the nineteenth century: a journey down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the Earth's very core. In his quest to penetrate the planet's primordial secrets, the geologist, together with his quaking nephew Axel and their devoted guide, discovers an astonishing subterranean menagerie of prehistoric proportions.

Zorro Rides Again is the third novella featuring Zorro, the Robin Hood of Old California. Reina de los Angeles is being terrorized by a masked swordsman who marks the faces of his victims with Zorro's trademark Z. But is this the real Zorro? The Governor of California offers a reward for the capture of Don Diego Vega (who is known to have previously been Zorro) dead or alive, while an army - led by the ruthless Captain Rocha - is in hot pursuit of...

Most noble and illustrious drinkers, thus begins Gargantua and Panatgruel, a grotesque and carnivalesque collection of exuberant, fantastical stories that take us from the ancient world through to the European Renaissance. At the heart of these tall tales are the giant Gargantua and his equally seismic son Pantagruel. Magical adventures, maniacal punning, slapstick humor, erudite allusions and just about any bodily function one can think of, here...