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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize Against the monumental canvas of seventeenth — and eighteenth-century Europe and Russia unfolds the magnificent story of Peter the Great, crowned co-tsar at the age of ten. Robert K. Massie delves deep into the life of this captivating historical figure, chronicling the pivotal events that shaped a boy into a legend — including his «incognito» travels in Europe, his unquenchable curiosity about Western ways, his obsession with the sea and establishment of the stupendous Russian navy, his creation of an unbeatable army, his transformation of Russia, and his relationships with those he loved most: Catherine, the robust yet gentle peasant, his loving mistress, wife, and successor; and Menshikov, the charming, bold, unscrupulous prince who rose to wealth and power through Peter's friendship. Impetuous and stubborn, generous and cruel, tender and unforgiving, a man of enormous energy and complexity, Peter the Great is brought fully to life.

It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore. Incomparable sleuth Nero Wolfe and his perennially hardy sidekick, Archie Goodwin, find themselves trying to weed out a garden-variety killer at the annual flower show.

When Rachel Bruner sends out copies of a book critical of the FBI to 10,000 influential people, the agency begins harassing her. Then she hires Nero Wolfe to make them stop, and once he's discovered the bureau's weak spot, he sets in motion a scheme guaranteed to force the FBI to leave both him and Rachel alone.

Two Nero Wolfe novellas make for one great read in this latest addition to the Rex Stout Library. Archie Godwin is in the Military Intelligence, and is framed for murder. In the second story, Archie and Nero are embroiled in another war-time mystery, this one involving a captain whose fatal fall leads to a theft of military secrets.

Bestselling author Nora Roberts dazzles once again with a powerful tale of passion, murder, and small-town scandal. In this classic novel, a woman returns to the home she left behind, to a past that is waiting to kill her... A decade ago, sculptor Clare Kimball fled Emmitsboro, Maryland, to take the art world by storm. Now she's celebrated as the artist of her generation. But no amount of success can eclipse the nightmares that haunt her — or the memories of her father's suicide. Just as her star is shining brighter than ever, Clare leaves it all behind to face her demons. Emmitsboro sheriff Cameron Rafferty loved Clare from afar all through high school. Now that she's back, they form a bond that grows stronger each day — fueled by an attraction that's been simmering for years. But Clare's past soon rises up with a vengeance, rocking the town with a sinister murder that is clearly linked to her return. As an investigation gets under way, Clare and Cameron will learn that evil can linger anywhere — even in those you love and trust the most. But it's a discovery that may come too late to save them...

»A great deal of wit and playfulness... an entire universe of disorder is distilled» Guardian.

A famous legend surrounding the creation of Anna Karenina tells us that Tolstoy began writing a cautionary tale about adultery and ended up falling in love with his magnificent heroine. It is rare to find a reader of the book who doesn’t experience the same kind of emotional upheaval. Anna Karenina is filled with major and minor characters who exist in their own right and fully embody their mid-nineteenth-century Russian milieu, but it still belongs entirely to the woman whose name it bears, whose portrait is one of the truest ever made by a writer. Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude.

A grand master of the form, Rex Stout is one of America's greatest mystery writers, and his literary creation Nero Wolfe is one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time. Together, Stout and Wolfe have entertained — and puzzled — millions of mystery fans around the world. Now, with his perambulatory man-about-town, Archie Goodwin, the arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth is back in the original seventy-three cases of crime and detection written by the inimitable master himself, Rex Stout. When Priscilla Eads, heiress to cotton-towel millions, first pleads for Nero Wolfe's assistance, the portly detective decides to wash his hands of a case that has more than its share of dirty laundry. Just hours later Miss Eads and her maid are found strangled to death under circumstances that don't quite wash. Now, to the dismay of a greedy board of directors and a fortune-hunting South American ex-husband, the astute Wolfe feels, on second thought, a certain responsibility to dip into Priscilla's case and scrub away the stain — of murder!

George Bernard Shaw was the greatest British dramatist after Shakespeare, a satirist equal to Jonathan Swift, and a playwright whose most profound gift was his ability to make audiences think by provoking them to laughter. In one of his best-loved plays, Pygmalion, which later became the basis for the musical My Fair Lady, Shaw compels the audience to see the utter absurdity and hypocrisy of class distinction when Professor Henry Higgins wagers that he can transform a common flower girl into a lady — and then pass her off as a duchess-simply by changing her speech and manners. In Major Barbara Shaw spins out the drama of an eccentric millionaire, a romantic poet, and a misguided savior of souls, Major Barbara herself, in a topsy-turvy masterpiece of sophisticated banter and urbane humor. His brilliant dialogue, combined with his use of paradox and socialist theory, never fails to tickle, entertain — and challenge.

A wickedly funny Robert Ludlum you've never met before. All the explosive paving of «The Bourne Identity», the Byzantine treachery of «The Parsifal Mosaic», the relentless action of «The Bourne Ultimatum». The Principal Cast: General Mackenzie Hawkings, legend, hero, rogue. Sam Devereaux, bright young lawyer from Harvard, now in the army, can't wait to get out. General Hawken's four ex-wives, a quartet of incredibly endowed women who've formed a club: Hawkin's Harem. The Premise: Kidnap Pope Francesco I, the most beloved pontiff since John XX III. Ransom: One American dollar for every Catholic in the world. The Problem: Pope Francesco I says: «Gentle souls, why not?»

In Sarum, Edward Rutherfurd creates a masterpiece of breathtaking scope — a brilliantly conceived and superbly written epic novel that traces the entire turbulent course of English history. From primitive beginnings almost 10,000 years ago to the medieval world of knights and ladies, from the bloody civil war to colonial preeminence in the nineteenth century, right up until the present day, this is a magnificent story that until now has never been told. This rich tapestry weaves a compelling saga of five families — the Wilsons, the Masons, the family of Porteus, the Shockleys, and the Godfreys — who preserve their own particular characteristics over successive generations and reflect the changing character of Britain. As their fates and fortunes intertwine over the course of the centuries, their greater destinies offer a fascinating glimpse into the future. A rich and absorbing historical chronicle, Sarum is a keen tale of struggle and adventure, a profound human drama, and a masterful work of sheer storytelling.

When Walter F. Starbuck, the least celebrated of the Watergate conspirators, is freed from jail after two years, his first 24 hours of freedom take shape with the unforeseen turns of fortune and moral innuendo of an urban fairytale. The author's other novels include «Slaughterhouse 5».

This fourth Jeeves volume contains «Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit», «Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves» and «Jeeves in the Offing».

Written by the author of «Libra», which won the Aer Lingus International Fiction Prize, this novel is about words and images, novelists and terrorists. It is haunted by the intermingled spirits of such diverse figures as Andy Warhol and Mao Zedong.

The devil with his retinue, a poet incarcerated in a mental institution for speaking the truth, and a recreation of the story of Pontius Pilate, constitute the elements out of which Mikhail Bulgakov wove «The Master and Margarita».

Goncharov's gentle satire on the failings of 19th-century Russian gentry and bureaucracy turns into something deeper and richer than satire, as he probes the character of a protagonist whose constitutional lethargy becomes a symbol for the malaise of the human spirit in an alienating world.

These stories of the 19th-century Russian rural landscape and the difficult life of those who inhabited it were universally popular with the reading public at large and contributed in no small measure to the emancipation of the serfs in 1861.

Emabark with Nero Wolfe on a year of murder and mystery. It begins at Christmas with a party and a poisoning, then blossoms into spring and sudden death at the Easter parade. With a killer in the crowd, the Fourth of July is no picnic, and the calendar is overbooked when death is in season. Here are four cunning cases that leave everyone guessing. And only Nero Wolfe has a clue.

The owls, hen, larks, and their nests in his beard, are among the fey fauna and peculiar persons inhabiting the uniquely inspired nonsense rhymes and drawings of Lear (20th child of a London stockbroker), whose Book of Nonsense, first published in 1846, stands alone as the ultimate and most loved expression in English of freewheeling, benign, and unconstricted merriment.

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965, Richard Feynman was one of the world's greatest theoretical physicists, but he was also a man who fell, often jumped, into adventure. An artist, safecracker, practical joker and storyteller, Feynman's life was a series of combustoble combinations made possible by his unique mixture of high intelligence, unquenchable curiosity and eternal scepticism. Over a period of years, Feynman's conversations with his friend Ralph Leighton were first taped and then set down as they appear here, little changed from their spoken form, giving a wise, funny, passionate and totally honest self-portrait of one of the greatest men of our age.

The wittiest and wackiest chronicle of British History you'll find. Packed with fascinating facts on everything you can think of. Cavemen, Kings, Disease and War.

The Jackal. A tall, blond Englishman with opaque, gray eyes. A killer at the top of his profession. A man unknown to any secret service in the world. An assassin with a contract to kill the world's most heavily guarded man. One man with a rifle who can change the course of history. One man whose mission is so secretive not even his employers know his name. And as the minutes count down to the final act of execution, it seems that there is no power on earth that can stop the Jackal.

»The hero of this hilarious tale discovers that in attempting to avoid trouble one often encounters even greater difficulties. Seuss fans will be enthralled.»

Here are eleven exuberant essays on the pleasures of writing from one of the most creative, imaginative, and prolific artists of the twentieth century — an author who truly enjoys his craft and tells you why and how. Bradbury shares his wisdom and enthusiasm for writing as he examines a lifetime of creating and composing scores of stories, novels, plays, poems, films, television programs, and musicals. Refreshingly direct, each essay shares a single compelling theme: writing is a celebration, not a chore. Unlike so many books on writing, this one does not belabor the technical or become obsessed with the how-to aspects of the craft. What Bradbury does bring to every discussion of writing is the fever, the ardor, the delight that he has discovered and which can be yours.