New Editions of Classic Literature

Jack London's two most famous and beloved tales of survival in Alaska were inspired by his experiences in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush. In The Call of the Wild, Buck is a pampered pet in California who is stolen and forced to become a sled dog in the Alaskan wilderness. There, he suffers both the brutality of nature as well as the savage treatment by a series of masters causing him to heed his long-buried instincts and turn his back on civilisation. White Fang is a reverse journey of sorts. White Fang is adopted by a group of Native Alaskans, but when the dogs of the village reject him, he is traded to a man who stages merciless fights with other dogs, wolves, and even lynxes. This life makes him violent, defensive, and dangerous, but a benevolent gold miner sets out to earn his trust and show him the meaning of love and family.

Lolita was first published by the Olympia Press, Paris on September 15, 1955. It quickly became Vladimir Nabokov's most famous and controversial novel. Humbert Humbert is feeling his age when he meets the nymphet Dolores Haze. He quickly falls into an obsessive, devouring, and, eventually, doomed passion for her. Many believe this work is a meditation on love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation. Does the story live up to its controversial past or is it tame by today's standards?

The mid twentieth century saw the rise of a counterculture icon by the name of Jack Kerouac. On the Road was a landmark work of fiction when it was published in 1957. His restless, questioning characters mimicked the changes in society at the time. The ardent relationship between writer Sal Paradise and his outrageous,vexing, and incomparable friend Dean Moriarty is one of the great friendships in American literature. Included with this classic work are four other autobiographical works about his life on the road--The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans, Tristessa, and Lonesome Traveler--as well as a selection from his journals that illustrates his unique and dazzling career.