National Network for Equitable Library Service

This frighteningly prophetic tale from the progenitor of modern science fiction remains as powerful today as when it was written-more than a century ago. Firebrand activist Graham falls into a drug-induced sleep in 1897 London-and is stunned to wake in the year 2100 to a world he does not know. But the world knows him. When word spreads that the "Sleeper" has awakened, it rocks the foundations of what the planet has become: a dystopian existence of unending toil ruled by the all-powerful White Council.

This classic mind-shattering tale, which "ranks high among the horror stories of the English language," plunges into the darkness of the Cthulhu mythos (Time). In the uncharted wastes of Antarctica, an exploration party from Miskatonic University encounters a gory sight when they discover their advance team's camp has been destroyed and its members slaughtered. There is no evidence of what happened except a series of burial mounds, six of which contain dead specimens of unknown species. Eight similar tombs are empty, but they haven't been broken into-they've been broken out of.

The acclaimed Russian novelist's epic morality tale of a young man's horrifying crime and his struggle for redemption. Rodion Raskolnikov, a young man living in St. Petersburg, devises a gruesome experiment in morality. Theorizing that men of exceptional intelligence have license to kill others, he decides to test his theory with the murder of an elderly pawnbroker. Though no evidence can link him to his crime, it leaves him so deeply disturbed that he fights a constant urge to confess.

The Ancient Greek tale of Odysseus, cursed to wander the perilous world on his epic voyage home. The decade-long Trojan War has come to an end and Odysseus, the King of Ithaca instrumental in securing victory for the Greeks, finally sets sail for home. But his adventures are far from over. Cursed by the god Poseidon to wander the earth for ten years, he must battle monstrous creatures-even facing the land of the dead-before returning to Ithaca, where still more dangers await him.

The novel that inspired the beloved Broadway musical: Jean Valjean's immortal adventure among the dispossessed of nineteenth-century Paris. Widely considered Victor Hugo's masterpiece, Les Miserables is both an epic story and a penetrating social criticism of nineteenth-century France.

During a dark night in December, a man sits in his room sadly thinking about his lost love, Lenore. Suddenly, he hears a tapping on the door, but no one is there. The noise moves to the window and the man opens it, only to see an ominous raven. The raven only has one thing to say and, as the night goes on, his haunting call of "Nevermore" begins to make the man more and more paranoid. This unabridged version of Edgar Allan Poe's eerie poem, first published in 1884, is accompanied by Gustave DorE's stunning woodcut illustrations.

A woman is on trial for her life, accused of murder. The twelve members of the jury each carry their own secret burden of guilt and prejudice which could affect the outcome. In this extraordinary crime novel, we follow the trial through the eyes of the jurors as they hear the evidence and try to reach a unanimous verdict. Will they find the defendant guilty, or not guilty' And will the jurors' decision be the correct one' Since its first publication in 1940, Verdict of Twelve has been widely hailed as a classic of British crime writing.

In the tradition of S'ndor M'rai, Mihail Sebastian is a captivating Central European storyteller from the first half of the twentieth century whose work is being rediscovered by new generations of readers throughout Europe, Latin America, and the United States. The 2000 publication of his Journal 1935-1944: The Fascist Years introduced his writing to an English-speaking audience for the first time, garnering universal acclaim. Philip Roth wrote that Sebastian's Journal deserves to be on the same shelf as Anne Frank's Diary and to find as huge a readership.

Written in France toward the end of his career, these stories are Anton Chekhov's only attempt at the linked collection. 'A Man in a Shell' is a grotesque Gogolian comedy; 'Gooseberries,' a narrator's impassioned response; and 'About Love,' a poignant story of failed relationships. Translated by the impeccable David Helwig and fabulously illustrated by Seth, About Love is essential for any Chekhov enthusiast.

Set in the heady Jazz Age of New York, "The beautiful and damned" chronicles the relationship between Anthony Patch, a Harvard-educated aspiring aesthete, and his beautiful trophy wife, Gloria, as they wait to inherit his grandfather's fortune. Anticipating easy millions, they embrace the glittering, hedonistic lifestyle of the pretentious nouveaux riches, but find that they are living a dream that is all too fleeting.