Penguin Group

Ayn Rand here sets forth the moral principles of Objectivism, the philosophy that holds man's life — the life proper to a rational being — as the standards of moral values and regards altruism as incompatible with man's nature, with the creative requirements of his survival, and with a free society.

When the Dearly's dalmatians have their first litter of puppies — fifteen in all — everyone is delighted. But their joy is shattered when the pups are kidnapped! The humans don't have a clue as to who the culprit is, but the smartest dogs in London are on the case -- and on the trail of the fur-loving Cruella de Vil, who will stop at nothing to have a Dalmatian fur coat!

In the first of the four cases in «Trouble is My Business», LA PI Philip Marlowe is offered a job that leaves a bad taste in the mouth: smearing a girl who’s ‘got her hooks into a rich man’s pup’. Before too long Marlowe’s up to his neck in corpses and cops and he’s taken pity on the girl. There’s nothing like making trouble of your business … The four novellas collected here are quintessential Raymond Chandler: slick, crystal-clear writing that pins the reader to the seat and won’t let go until the last page is turned.

If you know London primarily through novels like White Fang, these stories will provide a new perspective. Full of intriguing characters and snippets of pidgin, they also highlight London's concern with social issues.

A warm day on Central Avenue, and Philip Marlowe's hunch about the man beside him is as vague as the heat waves that dance above the sidewalk. The way business is looking, even a hunch is enough. Moose Malloy stands six five and one-half and weighs two hundred and sixty-four pounds, without his necktie. After eight years in the pen, he wants little Velma back, and no cops or mobsters are ready to stand in his way. Marlowe's tough enough for the ride, but he can't help thinking — there's never been a happy ending to the story of beauty and the beast ... Throughout the 1940s and 1950s Philip Marlowe stalked the tawdry neon wilderness of Southern California. There Raymond Chandler's creation became the most famous fictional detective since Sherlock Holmes; often imitated, never bettered. Read the complete Marlowe novels in Penguin paperback.

There's something rotten in the small town of Pickax — at least to the sensitive noses of newspaperman Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese cats Koko and Yum Yum. An accident has claimed the life of the local paper's eccentric publisher, but to Qwilleran and his feline friends it smells like murder. They soon sniff out a shocking secret, but Koko's snooping into an unusual edition of Shakespeare may prove CATastrophic...because somewhere in Pickax a lady loves not wisely but too well, a widow is scandalously merry, and a stranger has a lean and hungry look. The stage is set for Qwilleran, Koko, Yum Yum, and the second act of murder most meow...

Here at last is the complete, uncut version of Heinlein's all-time masterpiece, the brilliant novel that grew from a cult favorite to a bestseller to a classic in a few short years. It is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, the man from Mars who taught humankind grokking and water-sharing. And love.

Tolstoy's passionate and iconoclastic writings — on issues of faith, immortality, freedom, violence, and morality — reflect his intellectual search for truth and a religion firmly grounded in reality. The selection includes «A Confession», «Religion and Morality», «What Is Religion, and of What Does Its Essence Consist?» and «The Law of Love and the Law of Violence».

A novel about the court of King Arthur, which was the basis for the movie «Camelot».

In this brilliant collection of twenty-two stories, Stephen King takes readers down paths that only he could imagine...

Jim Qwilleran is not exactly overwhelmed by his new assignment for the Daily Fluxion. Interior design has never been one of his specialties and now he's supposed to turn out an entire magazine on the subject every week! But the first issue of Gracious Abodes is barely off the presses when Qwilleran finds himself back on more familiar territory — the exclusive residence featured on the cover has been burglarized and the lady of the house found dead...now Qwilleran and Koko — the brilliant Siamese — have their respective moustache and whiskers twitching, and when Koko starts pawing clues in the dictionary and sniffing designer furniture, Qwilleran finds himself doing a feature on a very clever murder.

Funny, irreverent and sometimes sad, here is the story of the early life of one of the world's best-loved authors. From the evocation of an enchanted boyhood spent in Wales and Norway to his unhappy experiences at an English public school, these sparkling memoirs are filled with wit, high spirits and more than a touch of the macabre.

One sunny Sunday, the caterpillar was hatched out of a tiny egg. He was very hungry. On Monday, he ate through one apple; on Tuesday, he ate through three plums--and still he was hungry. Strikingly bold, colorful pictures and a simple text in large, clear type tell the story of a hungry little caterpillar's progress through an amazing variety and quantity of foods. Full at last, he made a cocoon around himself and went to sleep, to wake up a few weeks later wonderfully transformed into a butterfly! Brilliantly innovative designer and artist Eric Carle has dramatized the story of one of Nature's commonest yet loveliest marvels, the metamorphosis of the butterfly, in a picture book to delight as well as instruct the very youngest reader or listener. Cleverly die-cut pages show what the caterpillar ate on successive days, graphically introducing sets of up to 10 objects and also the names of the days of the week in rotation, as well as telling the central story of the transformation of the caterpillar. The final, double-page picture of the butterfly is a joyous explosion of color, a vibrant affirmation of the wonder and beauty of Nature.

Who better to investigate the literary spirit world that the supreme connoisseur of the unexpected, Roald Dahl? His own short stories have teased and twisted imaginations in their millions, but amongst the many permutations of the macabre, Dahl has always felt a special fascination for the classic ghost story. In this book of ghost stories he has selected fourteen of his favourites for this superbly disquieting volume.

Ronia, who lives with her father and his band of robbers in a castle in the woods, causes trouble when she be friends the son of a rival robber chieftain.

»The Sunne in Splendour» is a magnificent historical novel about Richard III. Set against a vast, colourful canvas, it covers the whole period of The War of the Roses opening with Richard as a child of seven and following him through a turbulent youth and manhood to his betrayal and death at The Battle of Bosworth Field. The historical detail is brilliantly depicted and brings to life the atmosphere of the time with extraordinary immediacy and excitement.

His code name: «The Sphinx». His mission: to send Rommel's advancing army the secrets that would unlock the doors to Cairo... and the ultimate Nazi triumph in the war. And in all of Cairo, only two people could stop this brilliant and ruthless Nazi master agent. One was a down-on-his-luck English officer no one would listen to. The other was a young Jewish girl...

First written down in the eighth century AD, these early Irish stories depict a far older world — part myth, part legend and part history. Rich with magic and achingly beautiful, they speak of a land of heroic battles, intense love and warrior ideals, in which the otherworld is explored and men mingle freely with the gods.

In The Marquise of O — a virtuous widow finds herself unaccountably pregnant. And although the baffled Marquise has no idea when this happened, she must prove her innocence to her doubting family and discover whether the perpetrator is an assailant or lover. Michael Kohlhaas depicts an honourable man who feels compelled to violate the law in his search for justice, while other tales explore the singular realm of the uncanny, such as The Beggarwoman of Locarno, in which an old woman's ghost drives a heartless nobleman to madness, and St Cecilia, which portrays four brothers possessed by an uncontrollable religious mania. The stories collected in this volume reflect the preoccupations of Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) with the deceptiveness of human nature and the unpredictability of the physical world.

Published over 50 years ago, The Story of Ferdinand is one of the bestselling children's books of all time, and the bull who preferred sitting under the cork tree and smelling flowers to fighting has become a hero to generations of children.

Outrageous Pippi Longstocking of Villa Villekulla has no parents around and no rules to follow, so she lives according to her own daredevilish ways. She has been treating her friends Tommy and Annika to wild adventures, too — like buying, and eating, seventy-two pounds of candy on a shopping trip, or sailing off to an island in the middle of a lake to show them what it's like to be shipwrecked. But then Pippi's long lost father returns, and she might have to leave Villa Villekulla!

The adventures of the strongest girl in the world, who takes her two friends with her when she travels from Sweden to visit her father, king of an island in the South Seas.

Completed in 1136, The History of the Kings of Britain traces the story of the realm from its supposed foundation by Brutus to the coming of the Saxons some two thousand years later. Vividly portraying legendary and semilegendary figures such as Lear, Cymbeline, Merlin the magician and the most famous of all British heroes, King Arthur, it is as much myth as it is history and its veracity was questioned by other medieval writers. But Geoffrey of Monmouth's powerful evocation of illustrious men and deeds captured the imagination of subsequent generations, and his influence can be traced through the works of Malory, Shakespeare, Dryden and Tennyson.

Here are the most robust characters in American legend. Told by a poet with a poet's ear for the impact of words, these American mavericks walk and talk accross the pages in a free, wide way, as they walked and talked accross the free, wide America of pioneer days.