Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1969), the longest of Nabokov's novels, is a witty and parodic account of a man's lifelong love for his sister. All of his favorite themes and most characteristic techniques are woven into this culminating work of Nabokov's imagination. Transparent Things (1972) is a haunting novella of the anguished life of Hugh Person, a young American editor and proofreader: his marriage, the murder of his wife, and his lone journey...

Gathers previously uncollected cartoons and humorous stories

A collection of five crime novels written during the 1950s. The killer inside me / Jim Thompson, The talented Mr. Ripley / Patricia Highsmith, Pick-up / Charles Willeford, Down there / David Goodis, The real cool killers / Chester Himes.

"Stories, Essays, and Memoir" presents Welty's collected short stories, an astonishing body of work that has made her one of the most respected writers of short fiction. "A Curtain of Green and Other Stories" (1941), her first book, includes many of her most popular stories, such as "A Worn Path, " "Powerhouse, " and the farcical "Why I Live at the P.O." "The Wide Net and Other Stories" (1943), in which historical figures such as Aaron Burr ("First...

This second volume includes works written between 1932 and her death in 1946, years in which she gained a wider readership and made a triumphant return to the United States as a lecturer, but chose ultimately to remain in France during World War II. It opens with the poetic sequence Stanzas in Meditation (complete text published posthumously in 1946), perhaps Stein’s most austere and rigorous experiment in linguistic abstraction. In Lectures in...

"In a few years of extraordinary creative energy, Dashiell Hammett invented the modern American crime novel." "The five novels that Hammett published between 1929 and 1934, collected here in one volume, have become part of modern American culture, creating archetypal characters and establishing the ground rules for a whole tradition of hardboiled writing." "Each novel is distinct in mood and structure. Red Harvest (1929), a raucous and nightmarish...

"... contains 197 essays, addresses, speeches, private memoranda, and letters written between 1772 and 1836. Includes are all 29 of Madison's contributions to the Federalist ..."

Presents a selection of poems from eighty-five American poets written between the beginning of the twentieth century and the end of World War II; arranged chronologically by the birth date of the author, from 1838 to 1893.

Profiles the works of Tennessee Williams and provides information on his life and writing career.