Classic General Fiction

The citizens of ancient Athens enjoyed a freedom of speech as broad as our own. This freedom, parrhesia, the right to say what one pleased, how and when one pleased, and to whom, had no more fervent champion than the brilliant fifth-century comic playwright Aristophanes. His plays, immensely popular with the Athenian public, were frequently crude, even obscene. He ridiculed...

The final edition of the late Tom Phillips's defining masterpiece of postmodernism. In 1966, the artist Tom Phillips discovered A Human Document (1892), an obscure Victorian romance by W.H. Mallock, and set himself the task of altering every page, by painting, collage or cut-up techniques, to create an entirely new version. Some of Mallock's original text remains intact, and through...

For twenty-five centuries, the animal stories that go by the name of Aesop's Fables have amused and instructed generations of children and adults alike. The tales are still as fresh and poignant today as they were to the ancient Greeks who composed them. This beautifully illustrated edition contains some of the best-loved fables, including The Boy who Cried Wolf, The...

Book Four in the Magnificent Dune Chronicles—the Bestselling Science Fiction Adventure of All Time Millennia have passed on Arrakis, and the once-desert planet is green with life. Leto Atreides, the son of the world's saviour, the Emperor Paul Muad'Dib, is still alive but far from human. To preserve humanity's future, he sacrificed his own by merging with a sandworm, granting...

TAKE HOME THE ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S BOXED SET THAT INCLUDES DELUXE HARDCOVER EDITIONS OF DUNE, DUNE MESSIAH, AND CHILDREN OF DUNE—THE FIRST THREE NOVELS IN FRANK HERBERT'S BESTSELLING DUNE SAGA. This deluxe boxed set includes a gorgeous slipcase with original art and exquisitely designed hardcover editions of each novel, featuring: Iconic new covers Stained edges Stamped and foiled cases featuring quotes...

Perfect for longtime fans and new readers alike—a beautiful trade paperback boxed set of the first six novels in Frank Herbert's Dune Saga. In the far future, on a remote planet, an epic adventure awaits. Here are the first six novels of Frank Herbert’s magnificent Dune saga—a triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction series of...

Perfect for longtime fans and new readers alike—a beautiful premium mass market boxed set of the first three novels in Frank Herbert's Dune Saga. In the far future, on a remote planet, an epic adventure awaits. Here are the first three novels of Frank Herbert’s magnificent Dune Saga—a triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction series...

Set in the rich farmland of the Salinas Valley, California, this powerful, often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations hopelessly re-enact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. Here, Steinbeck created some of his most memorable characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery...

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and becomes determined not only to escape but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men...

The victim of a miscarriage of justice, Edmund Dantes is fired by a desire for retribution and empowered by a stroke of providence. In his campaign of vengeance, he becomes an anonymous agent of fate. The Count of Monte Cristo includes an introduction and notes by Keith Wren, University of Kent at Canterbury. The story of Edmund Dantes, self-styled Count...

Written in the form of a diary, The House of the Dead recounts the story of Alexander Goryanchikov, a gentleman who is condemned to ten years’ hard labour for killing his wife in a fit of rage. Initially the target of the other inmates’ malice, he gradually settles in and becomes an avid observer of the new world around him....

The only surviving play of Aeschylus to be based on a historical event—the Greek victory at Salamis just a few years before the play was written—Persians appears in Deborah H. Roberts' brilliant new verse translation accompanied by her Introduction, Notes, Maps, and Chronology. Also included are newly translated excerpts from Herodotus' Histories that should fascinate any reader of the play....

First published in 1859, Oblomov is an indisputable classic of Russian literature, comparable in its stature to such masterpieces as Gogol’s Dead Souls, Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, and Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov. The book centres on the figure of Ilya Ilyich Oblomov, a member of the dying class of the landed gentry, who spends most of his time lying in bed gazing...

This masterful translation of one of the most popular books of world literature makes available to an English readership the animal tales known collectively as Kalila and Dimna. Named after the two jackals of Pancatantra fame, this collection of stories is based on a 12th-century Persian translation of an 8th-century original Arabic rendition by Ibn al-Muqaffa'. Set within a frame...

In Finnegans Wake, which ostensibly describes a single night through the consciousness of a Dublin publican, James Joyce took his approach to literary modernism into new territories of experimentation and stream-of-consciousness. He eschewed conventional syntax and punctuation, writing in a language of neologisms, puns, and portmanteaux. While the result is puzzling and avant-garde, it is also brimming with humour and...

A mysterious stranger named Chichikov arrives in a small provincial Russian town and proceeds to visit a succession of landowners, making each of them an unusual and somewhat macabre proposition. He offers to buy the rights to the dead serfs who are still registered on the landowner’s estate, thus reducing their liability for taxes. It is not clear what Chichikov’s...

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR 'Leïla Slimani has a knack for breaking taboos.' The Times 'Slimani is a fearless writer.' Evening Standard Q: If your house was burning down, what would you take with you? A: I'd take the fire. This is the story of two sisters, Mia and Inés. Two girls enveloped in love, trapped by the social conventions...

H. G. Wells's classic of early science fiction about a mad scientist who creates human/animal hybrids, now repackaged for Union Square and Co.'s Signature Editions series. Shipwrecked on an island, Edward Prendrick finds that he has wandered into a nightmare created by the mad scientist, Dr. Moreau. A cruel man of ego and unethical practices, Dr. Moreau experiments with the...

The star of Northanger Abbey is seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland, Jane Austen's youngest and most impressionable heroine. Away from home for the first time, on a visit to Bath with family friends, Catherine, a passionate consumer of novels (especially of the gothic variety), encounters a world in which everything beckons as a readable text: not only books, but also conversations and...

Famously described by the author as "a heroine whom no one but myself will much like," Emma Woodhouse is wealthy and charming, and she delights in interfering with the romantic relationships within her community—though she herself has no desire to marry. As her meddling begins to bear consequences, however, Emma must come to terms with her responsibility and decide on...

A novel of manners about the romantic pas de deux between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, two perfectly suited lovers who, at first, find each other insufferable. Despite Elizabeth's negative feelings about Darcy, fate seems determined to keep throwing this pair together. Darcy, almost in spite of himself, will make revelations that will end up causing Elizabeth to question everything...

Little Women Deluxe Bookmark is perfect for fans of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel. This vegan leather bookmark evokes the gilded leather tomes of old, featuring a silken tassel and classic design, making it the ideal addition to any book lover's collection. Union Square Gift's Classic Leather Bookmark series features iconic titles sure to appeal to book lovers. These bookmarks...

A lushly illustrated edition of Homer's epic tale recounting Odysseus' fraught voyage home after the Trojan War, now distinctively packaged as a deluxe edition from Union Square & Co. Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who traveled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy... So starts Homer's The Odyssey, the classic account of...

Packaged in an elegant keepsake box perfect for desktop display, this collection of timeless book covers spans the great works of literature, from Austen to Brontë to Dickens and Twain. Each of these beautifully rendered covers is pulled from Union Square & Co.'s archive of leatherbound classic editions, evoking a Victorian library of yesteryear. They make a perfect gift for...

This new translation of the best stories by Ichiyo Higuchi showcases the pioneering author's profound sensitivity and lyrical eye. The crystalline beauty of falling snow is a painful reminder of lost innocence; three children growing up on the fringes of Tokyo's red-light district enjoy a last summer of freedom before adulthood and its compromises overtake them; a discontented serving maid...

‘Gripping’ - Telegraph‘Brilliant’ - Sunday Times‘Riveting’ - Guardian The devastating rediscovered classic written from the horrors of Nazi Germany, as one Jewish man attempts to flee persecution in the wake of Kristallnacht. BERLIN, NOVEMBER 1938. With storm troopers battering against his door, Otto Silbermann must flee out the back of his own home. He emerges onto streets thrumming with violence:...

Father Sebastian Rodrigues sets sail for Japan in 1640. He is on a mission to find one of the Portuguese Jesuits that went before him, a spiritual example to the younger priests, and disprove the shocking rumours that this man has betrayed his faith. Embarking full of idealistic fire, Rodrigues soon finds that life in this strange land will challenge...

The pampered daughter of a wealthy Georgian plantation owner of Irish descent, sixteen-year-old Scarlett O’Hara soon realises that young men can’t resist her charms, despite her forthright manners and her refusal to embrace her mother’s ladylike ways. Her romantic intrigues lead her to an early marriage, but when the war between the Union and the Southern States breaks out and...

Berlin, 1920s: a beacon of culture and hedonism, but a political mess. The streets are crowded with war veterans, beggars, prostitutes, and madmen, desperately chasing any means to secure a few marks or a roof over their heads. Come nighttime, a rag-tag group descends on the Jolly Huntsman pub to dance and drown their cares in all the schnapps they...

Discover the tender, unputdownable love story of Mira and Tahliil, perfect for fans of David Nicholls, Claire Daverley and Monica Ali. ‘Poignant [and] powerful.’ GUARDIAN ‘A rare joy.’ SARAH MOSS ‘Shimmers with beauty.’ VANESSA CHAN Belgrave Road, Leicester. Mira and Tahliil, like many other lovers before, meet at work. Mira's days are filled with duty and light on freedom. In...

Over 1 Million Andrew Taylor Novels Sold! A Times Historical Crime Novel of the Year ‘An absolute delight in a series that goes from strength to strength’ S. G. McLean, prize-winning author of the Seeker series ‘This is Taylor at his unassailable best’ Financial Times London 1671 The damage caused by the Great Fire still overshadows the capital. The disfigured...

Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy) and Lemony Snicket (author of A Series Of Unfortunate Events) invent an entirely new vision of PINOCCHIO, a bizarre and riveting new adventure through a beloved tale. An oversized slipcase art book elaborately illustrated by Mignola and extensively annotated by Snicket in the form of inserted typewritten missives from the brink of madness. An old...

Gustave Flaubert's classic novel of a bored French housewife who goes to great lengths to escape the staleness of provincial life, freshly repackaged for the Union Square & Co. Signature Editions line. Beautiful and bored, housewife Emma Bovary is trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. A passionate reader of romance...

Part of the Legend Classics series The young scientist Victor Frankenstein experiments with alchemy to fulfil his greatest ambition: to create life. Once he succeeds and his creature takes its first breath, he realises he has made a monster and abandons it. The creature, shunned by the world and filled with rage, decides to follow its master. One of the...

In this new edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, David Wootton's Introduction gives the reader both a clear and gripping account of the biographical circumstances that led to the novel's writing and the most striking and original interpretations of its central themes and of the intellectual and cultural influences on them. Offering a new account of the complex history of its...

A thrilling tale that leads from ventriloquism and mania to a family murder and emotional breakdown, Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland; or The Transformation (1798) ties revolutionary-era Gothic themes to struggles over the politics of Enlightenment on both sides of the Atlantic. This edition of Wieland includes Brown's Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist and writings on Cicero, as well as his...

Third in a series of hardcover boxed sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien, featuring double-sided dustjackets. Set 3 contains The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring, and Sauron Defeated (Books 6-9 of The History of Middle-earth). The Return of the Shadow is the story of the first part of the history...

Eight years ago, Anne Elliot followed the advice of Lady Russell, her only true friend, and broke off her engagement to the dashing young naval officer Frederick Wentworth. When Anne and the newly wealthy Captain Wentworth cross paths years later, it is clear that he has neither forgotten nor forgiven their past. Can true love survive heartbreak? Who should we...

Sent to live with her rich cousins, the Bertrams, at the age of ten, Fanny Price is acutely aware of her humble rank. As she grows up, she falls in love with her cousin, Edmund Bertram, her only ally and friend. But when the Crawfords move into the neighbourhood, bringing the glamour of London, and a reckless taste for flirtation,...

Featuring witticisms from Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Jane Austen's other writings, this notebook captures the deliciously wry humour that has endeared Ms Austen to readers for generations. Finely illustrated Regency motifs are paired with a fresh design to create a collection that appeals to contemporary fans of Austen's classic works.

Arnson Svarlien's translation offers fresh insight into three of Aristophanes's greatest comedies. The verse flows smoothly, and throughout it is stressed that these plays belong on a stage, with guidance on how that might be accomplished. At the same time, the detailed Introduction and interpretative notes on every page show that both Arnson Svarlien and Storey are deeply committed to...

Encompassing a period of almost fifty years, the stories of Henry James represent the most remarkable feat of sustained literary creation in modern times. For sheer richness, variety and intensity, they have no equal in fiction, enabling us to trace the evolution of a great writer in the finest detail. This collection reprints all the major stories together with many...

It is the mid-seventeenth century 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 for herself and her child within...

Franz Kafka's bizarrely comedic meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation is expressed through the story of a man who is transformed overnight into a giant beetle, now repackaged with a beautifully designed jacket by noted illustrator Malika Favre. Only yesterday, Gregor Samsa was a meek salesman, browbeaten by his unappreciative employer and depended on fiercely by his...

The Getting of Wisdom is the coming-of-age story of a spontaneous heroine who finds herself ensconced in the rigidity of a turn-of-the-century boarding school. The clever and highly imaginative Laura has difficulty fitting in with her wealthy classmates and begins to compromise her ideals in her search for popularity and acceptance.

Here, in Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari's splendid new translations, are the complete poems of Alberto Caeiro, the imaginary "heteronym" coterie created by Fernando Pessoa, the Portuguese modernist master. Pessoa conceived Caeiro around 1914 and may have named him loosely after his friend, the poet Mário de Sá-Carneiro. What followed was a collection of some of Fernando Pessoa's greatest...

A fresh and vivid translation of Flaubert's influential bildungsroman Gustave Flaubert conceived Sentimental Education, his final complete novel, as the history of his own generation, one that failed to fulfil the promise of the Revolution of 1848. Published a few months before the start of the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, it offers both a sweeping panorama of French society over three...

Aldous Huxley's lifelong concern with the dichotomy between passion and reason finds its fullest expression both thematically and formally in his masterpiece Point Counter Point. By presenting a vision of life in which diverse aspects of experience are observed simultaneously, Huxley characterises the symptoms of "the disease of modern man" in the manner of a composer—themes and characters are repeated,...

Crime and Punishment is the 19th-century psychological thriller by esteemed Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. Now, 200 years after his birth, we celebrate this bicentennial with a new introduction by Professor Robin Miller, the perfect lead-in to the celebrated translation by Constance Garnett.

Following the death of her uncle, the orphan Jane Eyre is sent to the Lowood School, where she grows into a confident and well-educated young woman. When Jane leaves Lowood to become a governess at Thornfield Hall, she falls in love with Mr. Rochester, her pupil's guardian. But a series of eerie and terrifying events threatens to destroy her happy...

A dazzling collection of short stories, including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, The Sculptor's Funeral by Willa Cather, The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. And many more. This edition also features an introduction by Jane Smiley.

A classic wartime adventure story. In their trusty fishing boat Genevieve, armed with a flame thrower and limited ammunition, a small group of officers and men take a stand against the might of the German army after the fall of France in World War II. This is classic Shute—at once a thrilling adventure that will keep you on the edge...

'people get out of prison, and when they get out, and their name is Edmond Dantès, they take their revenge!' Falsely accused of treason, the young sailor Edmond Dantès is arrested on his wedding day and imprisoned in the island fortress of the Château d'If. Having endured years of incarceration, he stages a daring and dramatic escape and sets out...

Rodion Raskolnikov is a radical, impoverished former student, who decides to see if he can commit the perfect crime and sets out to murder an unscrupulous pawnbroker and ends up murdering her sister as well. Filled with remorse (at which he is somewhat surprised), Raskolnikov is also plagued by the appearance of the detective looking to solve the crime, Porfiry,...

Set against the backdrop of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, War and Peace follows five different Russian families over fifteen years: as courtiers, as a populace experiencing turmoil, and as human beings with their own hopes and heartbreaks. Described alternately as "the Russian Iliad," "the Bible of a national ideal," "an extraordinary poem of a novel," and "life itself in eternal...

In Walden, Thoreau explains how separating oneself from the world of men can truly awaken the sleeping self. Thoreau holds fast to the notion that you have not truly existed until you adopt such a lifestyle and only then can you re-enter society as an enlightened being. These simple but profound musings, as well as Civil Disobedience, his protest against...

When handsome young Dorian Gray sees a painter's stunning portrait of him, he is transfixed by its reflection of his own beauty. He is also troubled by the knowledge that the image in the painting will remain forever youthful and handsome while he himself will grow older and less desirable. He wishes aloud that the roles were reversed, saying that...

Discover the story of The Picture of Dorian Gray with this striking collector's edition from Union Square & Co.'s Signature Editions series! The classic texts that shaped our culture feature exclusive cover art by distinguished artist Malika Favre. Her bold, graphic style gives each classic literature book a small masterpiece for a jacket. Collect the set or prize this The...

Written in 1826, but set in 1757, The Last of the Mohicans portrays ordinary men and women caught in the crossfires of the French and Indian War, when France and Great Britain battled for control of North America. Featuring double agents, dastardly villains, kidnappings, as well as stunning descriptions of the Adirondacks, the Catskills, and the Lake George area, this...

Discover the story of The Great Gatsby with this striking collector's edition from Union Square & Co.'s Signature Editions series! The classic texts that shaped our culture feature exclusive cover art by distinguished artist Malika Favre. Her bold, graphic style gives each classic literature book a small masterpiece for a jacket. Collect the set or prize this The Great Gatsby...

When Nick Carraway moves to West Egg, Long Island, he has no idea that the lavishly outfitted mansion next to his modest house is home to Jay Gatsby. Eventually, Nick becomes aware of Gatsby's intense interest in his cousin Daisy Buchanan, and when Daisy's brutish husband, Tom, probes into Gatsby's background, he uncovers unsavoury revelations about his rival's wealth. First...

Twenty-five-year-old Anthony Patch appears to have it all: a Harvard education, an apartment in New York City, memberships at all of the best clubs, and a generous trust fund to draw from. Sure, his grandfather is not happy with Anthony's lack of initiative and feckless lifestyle, but can Anthony be blamed knowing that, as an orphan, he is destined to...

A novel of manners about the romantic pas de deux between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, two perfectly suited lovers who, at first, find each other insufferable. Despite Elizabeth's disdain for Darcy, fate seems determined to keep throwing this pair together: and Darcy, almost in spite of himself, will make revelations that will end up causing Elizabeth to question everything...

The spirited daughter of Bohemian immigrants, Antonia must adapt to a hard existence on the desolate prairies of the Midwest. Enduring childhood poverty, teenage seduction, and family tragedy, she eventually becomes a wife and mother on a Nebraska farm. A fictional record of how women helped forge the communities that formed a nation, My Ántonia is also a hauntingly eloquent...

Also published as The Beautiful Widow, Mary Shelley's penultimate novel explores the web of relationships between three women, bound together by the exacting Lord Lodore: his estranged wife Cornelia, a woman ruled by her mother and the norms of aristocratic society; his daughter Ethel, raised in the wilderness of Illinois and utterly dependent on her father; and finally, the independent...

The Life of Herod The Great – like Hurston herself – is a masterpiece, a miracle, and a marvel. In other words, treasure for the whole world Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage In the 1950s Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel reconsidering the life of one of the most well-known biblical figures, Herod the Great. That novel...

First ever standalone edition of one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s most important poetic dramas, that explores timely themes such as the nature of heroism and chivalry during war, and which features unpublished and never-before-seen texts and drafts. In 991 AD, vikings attacked an Anglo-Saxon defence-force led by their duke, Beorhtnoth, resulting in brutal fighting along the banks of the river Blackwater,...

When Mr. Earnshaw, master of Wuthering Heights, returns from a trip with an unkempt orphan in tow, he announces that the child, Heathcliff, is now a member of the family. While young Catherine Earnshaw becomes close with Heathcliff, her older brother Hindley sinks into bitter resentment. As Catherine and Heathcliff mature, and their affection blossoms into desire, Hindley's resentment boils...

F. Scott Fitzgerald's debut novel of love and greed, now repackaged with a beautifully designed jacket by noted illustrator Malika Favre. This Side of Paradise tells the story of Amory Blaine, the only child of wealthy parents, whose journey from adolescence to adulthood follows him from prep school through to Princeton University, where his literary talents flourish, in contrast to...

When a young governess arrives at a remote and dreary country estate to take care of two charming little children, she is initially thrilled. However, the longer she stays, the more she realises that things aren't quite right. The children, while beautiful, are strangely distant, and she feels as if she is being constantly watched. When she witnesses the children...

Discover the story of The Scarlet Letter with this striking collector's edition from Union Square & Co.'s Signature Editions series! This classic text, which has shaped our culture, features exclusive cover art by distinguished artist Malika Favre. Her bold, graphic style transforms each classic literature book into a small masterpiece with its jacket. Collect the set or prize The Scarlet...

Mark Twain's historical satire about two identical boys, one a poor beggar of the London slums and the other the heir to the royal throne, who trade places to experience a life they never imagined, newly repackaged for the Union Square & Co. Signature Classics line. Set in sixteenth-century England, The Prince and the Pauper is Mark Twain's timeless tale...

Handsome young Dorian Gray sees a painter’s stunning portrait of him and becomes transfixed by his own beauty. Troubled by the knowledge that the painting will remain handsome while he himself will wither, Dorian exchanges his soul for eternal youth. From that point on, Dorian lives a life of hedonistic indulgence, knowing that only the painting will show his moral...

The young and beautiful Christine Daae has been raised in the Paris Opera House since her father died years ago. It is well-known that the opera house is haunted, the mysterious ghost surfacing as a disembodied voice, or a gentleman in a mask. But for Christine, the phantom is her angel of music, teaching her to sing, and nurturing her...

One of the first dystopian novels ever written, The Last Man traces the impact of an unstoppable pandemic as it slowly overtakes the world. Beginning in the year 2073, the story follows Lionel Vesey—the titular last man—and his circle of friends as the disease creeps from continent to continent and erodes the foundations of civilisation. Published in 1826, after the...

Kenneth Harper, a Black doctor and WWI veteran, returns to his hometown in Georgia to practice medicine after graduating from medical school in the North and completing a residency in France. Having forgotten the realities of life in the Jim Crow South, Dr. Harper initially believes times have changed and racial tensions are a thing of the past. But when...

The Divine Comedy begins in a shadowed forest on Good Friday in the year 1300. It proceeds on a journey that, in its intense recreation of the depths and the heights of human experience, has become the key with which Western civilisation has sought to unlock the mystery of its own identity.

If it had not rained on a certain May morning, Valancy Stirling's whole life would have been entirely different... One day, Valancy Stirling, a quiet, shy old maid, decides to stop listening to her nosy, small-minded relatives and start doing exactly as she pleases. Over the next year, Valancy's choices will transform her life, outrage her family, confuse the entire...