Books published by publisher King's Classics

Treasure Island follows the adventures of a cabin boy named Jim Hawkins on board the Hispaniola. Hawkins is in for the adventure of a lifetime, as he braves dangerous waters, lives through a mutiny, and searches for buried treasure.Treasure Island is traditionally considered a coming-of-age story, and is noted for its atmosphere, characters, and action. It is also noted as a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality - as seen in Long John Silver - unusual for children's literature. It is one of the most frequently dramatized of all novels. Its influence is enormous on popular perceptions of pirates, including such elements as treasure maps marked with an "X", schooners, the Black Spot, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen bearing parrots on their shoulders.

Poirot Investigates is a collection of eleven short stories involving the famed eccentric detective, Hercule Poirot. The problems Poirot unravels are skilfully tangled, and unravelled by the detective's omniscient genius. Throughout the tales, which include The Adventure of the Western Star, The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb, and The Kidnapped Prime Minister, Poirot must solve a variety of mysteries involving greed, jealousy, and revenge.Hercule Poirot is one of Agatha Christie's most famous and long-running characters. Poirot is most things that the conventional sleuth is not. He is witty, gallant, transparently vain, and the adroitness with which he solves a mystery has more of the manner of the prestidigitator than of the cold-blooded, relentless tracker-down of crime of most detective stories. He has a Gallic taste for the dramatic, and is convincing in the manner in which he lights upon a clue and follows it up.

Having spent ten years fighting in the Trojan War, Odysseus embarks on his journey back to Ithica. To get there he must deceive a giant Cyclops, face Poseidon's wrath, escape cannibalism, defeat the witch-goddess Circe, skirt the land of the Sirens, sail between a six-headed monster and a raging whirlpool, and escape captivity on the island of Calypso. But perhaps his biggest threat is his prolonged absence from home, as 108 suitors are vying for his wife's hand in marriage.Composed near the end of the eighth century BC, The Odyssey was intended to be sung by an epic poet. One of the most impressive elements of the text is that events depend equally on the choices made by women and serfs as on the actions of fighting men. The story has had a profound influence on cultures around the world, so much so, that the word odyssey has come to refer to an epic voyage in many languages.In this edition of Samuel Butler's translation, the names of the gods and characters have been restored from Latin to the original Greek.

The Origin of Species is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. It presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. Darwin included evidence that he had gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent findings from research, correspondence, and experimentation.The Origin of Species attracted widespread interest upon its publication. As Darwin was an eminent scientist, his findings were taken seriously and the evidence he presented generated scientific, philosophical, and religious discussion. Within two decades there was widespread scientific agreement that evolution, with a branching pattern of common descent, had occurred. In the 1930s and 1940s, Darwin's concept of natural selection became central to modern evolutionary theory, and it has now become the unifying concept of the life sciences.

Ulysses chronicles the peripatetic appointments and encounters of Leopold Bloom in Dublin in the course of an ordinary day, 16 June 1904. Ulysses is the Latinised name of Odysseus, the hero of Homer's epic poem Odyssey, and the novel establishes a series of parallels between the poem and the novel, with structural correspondences between the characters and experiences of Leopold Bloom and Odysseus, Molly Bloom and Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus and Telemachus, in addition to events and themes of the early twentieth century context of modernism, Dublin, and Ireland's relationship to Britain. The novel imitates registers of centuries of English literature and is highly allusive.Since publication, Ulysses has attracted controversy and scrutiny, ranging from early obscenity trials to protracted textual "Joyce Wars". Ulysses' stream-of-consciousness technique, careful structuring, and experimental prose - full of puns, parodies, and allusions - as well as its rich characterisation and broad humour, made the book a highly regarded novel in the modernist pantheon. Joyce fans worldwide now celebrate 16 June as Bloomsday. In 1998, the American publishing firm Modern Library ranked Ulysses first on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

The fate of a humble orphan in a closed boarding school for aristocrats. A disturbing process of adjustment. The cult of friendship. Contempt and hospitality. Remorse and forgiveness. Shame and honor. Misunderstandings and feuds. Dreams and superstitions. Visions and nocturnal adventures.If you like Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, or John Green, you will love the series of the most famous classicvRussian writer for young readers.

Charlotte Brontë's most beloved novel describes the passionate love between the courageous orphan Jane Eyre and the brilliant, brooding, and domineering Rochester. The loneliness and cruelty of Jane's childhood strengthens her natural independence and spirit, which prove invaluable when she takes a position as a governess at Thornfield Hall. But after she falls in love with her sardonic employer, her discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a heart-wrenching choice. Ever since its publication in 1847, Jane Eyre has enthralled every kind of reader, from the most critical and cultivated to the youngest and most unabashedly romantic. It lives as one of the great triumphs of storytelling and as a moving and unforgettable portrayal of a woman's quest for self-respect.This edition of Jane Eyre is unabridged and unedited, presented to you just as Charlotte, writing as Currer Bell, presented it.

Solomon Northup was born a free man in New York State. At the age of 33 he was kidnapped in Washington d.c. and placed in an underground slave pen. Northup was transported by ship to New Orleans where he was sold into slavery. He spent the next 12 years working as a carpenter, driver, and cotton picker. This narrative reveals how Northup survived the harsh conditions of slavery, including smallpox, lashings, and an attempted hanging.Solomon Northup was among a select few who were freed from slavery. His account describes the daily life of slaves in Louisiana, their diet and living conditions, the relationship between master and slave, and how slave catchers used to recapture runaways. Northup's first person account published in 1853, was a dramatic story in the national debate over slavery that took place in the nine years leading up to the start of the American Civil War.

A Tale of Two Cities is set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same period. It follows the lives of several characters through these events.A Tale of Two Cities was published in weekly installments from April 1859 to November 1859 in Dickens's new literary periodical titled All the Year Round. All but three of Dickens's previous novels had appeared only as monthly installments. With sales of about 200 million copies, A Tale of Two Cities is the biggest selling novel in history.