Books in Stardust Classics series

Inspired by the “Appin Murder” of the eighteenth century Scottish Highlands, Robert Louis Stevenson has created one of the great adventure tales of his time. Upon discovery that the uncle he had never known has stolen his inheritance, young David Balfour is kidnapped and placed aboard the COVENANT OF DYSART, bound for the American slave market. At sea he meets the flamboyant Highland warrior, himself the next victim of the treacherous Captain Elias Hoseason. Together they challenge the crew and begin their perilous journey through the Highlands, each wanted for murder and sure to hang if caught.

Dickens’ enduring tale THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD could be called a “mystery for all time.” Indeed, more than a century after the author’s death, the evildoer remains unnamed. Is it the victim’s uncle? The new suitor to his betrothed? Or is it one of a number of other classic Dickens characters? THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD is the final work of Charles Dickens’ prolific career. Its ending is only fitting. Just as there is no sharp conclusion, there is no end to the fascination from its readers in regard to its author.

Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy’s pride and Elizabeth Bennet’s prejudice provide the theme and the title for this popular novel by Jane Austen. He—a son of the aristocracy—and she—a daughter of socially inept landed gentry are not a natural match in early nineteenth century society. There is an attraction, however—if pride and prejudice can be set aside. And then, there is the question of Elizabeth’s sisters, the disreputable George Wickham, the patrician Lady Catherine, and a host of other memorable characters.

The publication of Gustave Flaubert’s MADAME BOVARY in mid-nineteenth century France marked a new era in literary history. So sensational was public reaction that the author was brought to trial for obscenity. Flaubert, however, was acquitted. The novel became an immediate bestseller—one that soon gathered the praise of the notable masters of his day. Madame Bovary is a little woman, half vulgar and half hysterical, incapable of a fine passion; but her trivial desires, her futile aspirations after second-rate pleasures and second-hand ideals, give to Flaubert all that he wants: the opportunity to create beauty out of reality. What is common in the imagination of Madame Bovary becomes exquisite in Flaubert's rendering of it, and by that counterpoise of a commonness in the subject he is saved from any vague ascents of rhetoric in his rendering of it. — from FIGURES OF SEVERAL CENTURIES, by Arthur Symons