Classics

The Parallel Lives of Plutarch are cornerstones of Western literature, and have exerted a profound influence on writers and statesmen since the Renaissance, most notably Shakespeare. This selection of ten biographies spans the period from the start of...

(Available after 3-20 days)The first new translation in over a century of the the brilliant epic novel that inspired Les MiserablesFrom July 1842 through October 1843, Parisians rushed to the newspaper each week for the latest installment of Eugene Sue's...

While Buddhism has no central text comparable to the Bible or Koran, there is a powerful body of scripture from across Asia that encompasses the dharma, or the teachings of the Buddha. In this rich anthology, eminent scholar Donald S. Lopez, Jr. brings...

Compiled by an unknown scribe in Iceland around 1270, and based on sources dating back centuries earlier, these mythological and heroic poems tell of gods and mortals from an ancient era: the giant-slaying Thor, the doomed Völsung family, the Hel-ride of...

Nine biographies that illuminate the careers, personalities and military campaigns of some of Rome's greatest statesmenThe lives of the statesmen featured in this collection span the earliest days of the Republic to the establishment of the Empire...

Discover Thomas Pynchon's brilliant writing in this postmodern literature classic.'The greatest, wildest author of his generation' -- GuardianWe could tell you the year is 1944, that the main character is called Tyrone Slothrop and that he has a problem...

As Funeral Games opens, Alexander the Great lies dying. Around his body gather the generals, the provincial satraps and the royal wives, already competing for the prizes of power and land. Only Bagoas, the Persian boy mourning in the shadows, wants...

A brilliant reconstruction of the legend of Theseus, the valiant youth who slew the Minotaur, became king, and brought prosperity to Attica. This brilliant recreation of the story of the legendary hero Theseus begins with his triumphant return from Crete...

In this ambitious, ingenious narrative, celebrated historical novelist Mary Renault take legendary hero Theseus and spins his myth into a fast-paced and exciting story.Renault starts with Theseus' early years, showing how the mystery of his father's...

The famous tale by the trailblazing subject of major new film ColetteGIGI TRANSLATED BY ROGER SENHOUSE, THE CAT TRANSLATED BY ANTONIA WHITEGigi's days are filled with cigars, lobster, lace and superstitions: the education of a future courtesan. Bored and...

An NYRB Classics OriginalWhen the pioneering Taiwanese novelist Qiu Miaojin committed suicide in 1995 at age twenty-six, she left behind her unpublished masterpiece, Last Words from Montmartre. Unfolding through a series of letters written by an unnamed...

On the banks of the River Avon, five sisters are born. The seasons come and go, the girls take their lessons under the ash tree, and always there is the sound of water swirling through the weir. Then, unexpectedly, an air of decay descends upon the...

Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the autobiographical account of T.E. Lawrence - also known as 'Lawrence of Arabia' - of his service in the Arab Revolt during the First World War, published in Penguin Modern Classics.Although 'continually and bitterly...

Xenophon's History recounts nearly fifty turbulent years of warfare in Greece between 411 and 362 BC. Continuing the story of the Peloponnesian War at the point where Thucydides finished his magisterial history, this is a fascinating chronicle of the...

Ibn Battutah—ethnographer, bigrapher, anecdotal historian and occasional botanist—was just 21 when he set out in 1325 from his native Tangier on a pilgramage to Mecca. He did not return to Morocco for another 29 years, traveling instead through more than...

The complete, uncut version of Robert A. Heinlein’s all-time masterpiece, the brilliant novel that grew from a cult favorite to a bestseller to a science fiction classic.Raised by Martians on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith is a human who has never seen...

A coming-of-age classic about two Jewish boys growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s, this “profound and universal” (The Wall Street Journal) story of faith, family, tradition, and assimilation remains deeply pertinent today.“Works of this caliber should be...

Traditionally ascribed to the early third-century BCE tragedian Lykophron, the Alexandra is a powerful Greek poem by an unknown author, probably written c. 190, when Rome had defeated Hannibal and the Carthaginians and was poised to humble the Seleukid...

Three men trek to the remote African interior in search of a lost friend - and reach, at the end of a perilous journey, an unknown land cut off from the world, where terrible dangers threaten anyone who ventures near the spectacular diamond mines of King...

An authoritative new history of the Roman conquest of BritainWhy did Julius Caesar come to Britain? His own account suggests that he invaded to quell a resistance of Gallic sympathizers in the region of modern-day Kent — but there must have been personal...