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Books in Text Classics series

  • The Picture of Dorian Gray

    Oscar Wilde, Nancy Springer

    1st Tor Edition (Tor Classics, Sept. 15, 1999)
    Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title-offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All editions are complete and unabridged, and feature Introductions and Afterwords.This edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray includes a Foreword, Biographical Note, and Afterword by Nancy Springer. When Dorian Gray, a wealthy but naĂŻve and irresistible young man, has his portrait pointed, he rashly wishes that he could remain as beautiful, youthful, and alluring as the handsome face in the portrait. Little does he know that his wish will come true. When encouraged by the decadent Lord Henry Wotton into a life of depravity and self-indulgence, Gray is stunned to discover that while the face in the painting is aging grotesquely, he is not! In fact, he remains as beautiful as ever. Nothing ages him.But Gray's wanton lifestyle will eventually catch up with him, and the consequences of his reckless behavior will come to haunt him.
  • Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

    Robert Louis Stevenson

    Mass Market Paperback (Tom Doherty Associates, Dec. 15, 1990)
    Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title--offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All editions are complete and unabridged, and feature Introductions and Afterwords.This edition of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde includes an Introduction and Afterword by Charles L. Grant.British lawyer Mr. Utterson had proof. Hyde was a foul, twisted, shrunken creature who had brutally stomped a little girl and beaten an old man to death--for no reason. Hyde left a trail of evil across London; the mere sight of him made stranger violent with fear and disgust...But Hyde was Dr. Jekyll's sole heir.And that made no sense at all. Henry Jekyll was the kindest, most civil, most respected man in England. What power could a monster like Hyde hold over Jekyll's soul? Utterson vowed to solve the mystery, and free his friend from Hyde's clutches...until his hunt led to a horror beyond blackmail, beyond extortion; to a secret so shocking, so sickening, so personal--That the sheer terror of the truth could drive men mad...
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  • The Trail Drivers of Texas: Interesting Sketches of Early Cowboys...

    J. Marvin Hunter

    Paperback (University of Texas Press, March 1, 1993)
    These are the chronicles of the trail drivers of Texas—those rugged men and, sometimes, women who drove cattle and horses up the trails from Texas to northern markets in the late 1800s. Gleaned from members of the Old Time Trail Drivers' Association, these hundreds of real-life stories—some humorous, some chilling, some rambling, all interesting—form an invaluable cornerstone to the literature, history, and folklore of Texas and the West. First published in the 1920s and reissued by the University of Texas Press in 1985, this classic work is now available in a handsome paperback edition that contains the full text, historical illustrations, and name index of the hardcover edition.
  • The Pickwick Papers

    Charles Dickens

    Mass Market Paperback (Bantam Classics, Aug. 1, 1983)
    The high-spirited work of a young Dickens, The Pickwick Papers is the remarkable first novel that made its author famous and that has remained one of the best-known books in the world. In it the inimitable Samuel Pickwick, his well-fed body and unsinkable good spirits clad in tights and gaiters, sallies forth through the noisy streets of London and into the colorful country inns of rural England for a series of sparkling encounters with love and misadventure. From the wit of cockney bootblack Sam Weller to the unforgettable Fat Boy and rascals like the amorous Mr. Jingle and the unscrupulous lawyers Dodson and Fogg, The Pickwick Papers reels with joyous fantasy, infectious good humor, and a touch of the macabre—a classic work that G. K. Chesterton called “the great example of everything that made Dickens great…[a] supreme masterpiece.”
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  • I Own the Racecourse!

    Patricia Wrightson, Kate Constable

    Paperback (Text Classics, Jan. 7, 2014)
    A tender novel about a boy with an intellectual disability who believes he has bought a racecourse from an old tramp for $3.00. His friends are horrified, but then things take an unexpected and magical turn.A wonderful book for opening up classroom or family discussion about disability and about the importance of friendship.
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  • Billy Budd

    Herman Melville

    Mass Market Paperback (TOR Books, May 15, 1992)
    Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title--offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All editions are complete and unabridged, and feature Introductions and Afterwords.This edition of Billy Budd includes a Foreword, Biographical Note, and Afterword by James Gunn.Aboard the warship Bellipotent, the young orphan Billy Budd was called the handsome sailor. Billy was tall, athletic, nobel looking; he was friendly, innocent, helpful and ever-cheerful. He was a fierce fighter and a loyal friend. All the men and officers liked him...All but one: Master-at-Arms Claggart. Envious, petty Claggart plotted to make Billy's life miserable. But when a fear of mutinies swept through the fleet, Claggart realized he could do more than just torment the Handsome Sailor...He could frame Billy Budd for treason...
  • The Odyssey

    Rosemary Sutcliff, Alan Lee

    Hardcover (Frances Lincoln Children's Books, July 15, 2014)
    Rosemary Sutcliff's thrilling retelling of Homer’s epic tale, The Wanderings of Odysseus, is now available in an exciting new format. For this dramatic sequel to her Kate Greenaway Award–winning Black Ships Before Troy, Rosemary Sutcliff has transformed Homer's magnificent epic poem The Odyssey into an enthralling traveler's tale with a spectacular cast of men, magicians, and monsters.
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  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    Mark Twain

    Mass Market Paperback (Aerie, Aug. 15, 1989)
    Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title--offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All editions are complete and unabridged, and feature Introductions and Afterwords.This edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn includes a Preface, Biographical Note, and Afterword by Keith Neilson.Breezy, outrageous, thrilling from first page to last, Huckleberry Finn is the most widely read and universally loved work in American fiction. It is also the most imitated. "All modern American literature," according to Ernest Hemingway, "comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn."
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  • The Scarlet Letter

    Nathaniel Hawthorne

    Mass Market Paperback (Aerie, Aug. 15, 1989)
    Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title―offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All editions are complete and unabridged, and feature Introductions and Afterwords.This edition of The Scarlet Letter includes a Preface, Biographical Note, and Afterword by Keith Neilson.The Puritans thought Hester Prynne's crime was unforgivable. She was convicted, imprisoned--and then forced to wear, forever, a public reminder of her sin. The Scarlet letter. The Letter was unending punishment: it set hester apart from society, it tormented her days and haunted her soul.But the Letter haunted others, as well, its mystery turned Roger Chillingworth from a gentle healer into a man driven by revenge. Its meaning burned into Rev. Arthur Dimsdale's heart, as deadly as cancer. And its power loomed over the life of Hester's daughter, the uncontrollable child Pearl.Four people would be destroyed by a entangled web of guilt and secrets, unless one of them had the courage--and love--to reveal the truth of--The Scarlet Letter.
  • A Little Country Girl

    Susan Coolidge

    Paperback (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Jan. 15, 2016)
    This early work by Susan Coolidge was originally published in 1885 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. In 'A Little Country Girl', orphaned Candace makes the first long trip of her life alone and gets to know her three second cousins, girls of similar ages. A virtuous story about living a good and true life. Sarah Chauncey Woolsey was born on 29 January 1835, into a wealthy and influential New England Dwight family, in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Her time as a medical worker provided Woolsey with the experience and self-determination in order to embark on her writing career. She has subsequently become famous as a children's author, writing numerous books under the pseudonym of 'Susan Coolidge'. Woolsey is best known for her classic children's novel What Katy Did (published in 1872)
  • Kangaroo

    D. H. Lawrence, Nicolas Rothwell

    (Text Classics, July 9, 2019)
    After the Great War, Richard Lovat Somers, a writer, and Harriet, his wife, leave disillusioned Europe for Australia. There Somers falls into the company of charismatic fascist ‘Kangaroo’. The young writer struggles with his past and his personal ideology as he finds himself in a deadly tug-of-war between the mesmerising Kangaroo and the feisty communist Willies Struthers. With its astonishing descriptions of the bush ‘biding its time with a terrible ageless watchfulness’, and its free-form narrative, Kangaroo captivates and provokes.
  • The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

    Washington Irving, William L. Hedges

    Paperback (Penguin Classics, Dec. 6, 1988)
    In The Sketch-Book (1820-21), Irving explores the uneasy relationship of an American writer to English literary traditions. In two sketches, he experiments with tales transplanted from Europe, thereby creating the first classic American short stories, Rip Van Winkle, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Based on Irving's final revision of his most popular work, this new edition includes comprehensive explanatory notes of The Sketch-Book's sources for the modern reader.