Anton Lesser

[Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order--all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. "A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine" (The...

During the French Revolution a young English lawyer goes to the guillotine to save a French aristocrat, husband of the woman he loves. "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times ..." With these famous words, Charles Dickens plunges the reader into the French Revolution. From the storming of the Bastille to the relentless drop of the guillotine, Dickens vividly captures the terror and upheaval of that tumultuous period. At the center is the...

The centuries old epic about the wrath of Achilles is rendered into modern English verse by a renowned translator and accompanied by an introduction that reassesses the identity of Homer. In Robert Fagles' beautifully rendered text, the Iliad overwhelms us afresh. The huge themes godlike, yet utterly human of savagery and calculation, of destiny defied, of triumph and grief compel our own humanity. Time after time, one pauses and re-reads before continuing....

The amazing story of Corrie ten Boom, a heroine of the Dutch Resistance who helped Jews escape from the Nazis and became one of the most remarkable evangelists of the 20th century, is told in her classic memoir, now repackaged for a new generation.

Will Burton is a junior barrister of peerless intellect and winning charm, who specializes in spiriting people out of tight legal corners. Much to the aggravation of his courtroom rival, Maggie Gardner, Will has never lost a case. His talents acquit serial killer Liam Foyle of murder, and it is only a matter of time until Foyle kills again.

Its World War II and Charlotte has been trained to be an undercover courier for England. She straps on a parachute and falls from the sky into Vichy France. There she will assist the French Resistance in its defiance of Nazi occupation. Once behind enemy lines, she keeps secret her personal mission to find her lover, an RAF pilot downed over France.

In an effort to give their younger brother, Norman a project to keep him busy now that he has joined the family publishing house, the older Warne brothers agree to publish Miss Beatrix Potter's first children's book. They don't expect the book to sell well, but they need to keep Norman busy. As a single woman living in Edwardian London, Beatrix suspects this endeavor may provide her with a small measure of freedom. But she also has very specific ideas...

Dicken's third novel, published in 1839, is a brilliant and vivid melodrama of honest youth triumphing over vice and injustice. Bursting with energy and populated by a whole world of inimitable and memorable characters - including especially the theatrical troupe with whom Nicholas performs - the book is both a griping story and a series of magnificent scenes. It is also indignant protest against cruelty and oppression, most memorably encapsulated...

This novel is told from the point of view of Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip, who begins his tale as a young boy visiting the graves of his parents when an escaped convict happens upon him and threatens him into helping him get food. This experience will have a huge impact on Pip's life, although just how huge is left to be discovered until much later in the novel. Pip soon finds himself in the service of an eccentrically, manically wounded old woman...

One fine day in AD 70, scruffy, working-class informer Marcus Didius Falco literally runs into a beautiful sixteen-year-old girl on the steps of the Forum. Sosia Camillina is on the run from a couple of street toughs, and after rescuing her, Falco wants to find out why. It soon becomes clear that Sosia knows a dangerous secret about a stockpile of silver ingots - or 'pigs' - and there are those who will stop at nothing to prevent her telling what...