Washoe County Library System

Introduction by A. Walton Litz
 
“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.” So begins Jane Austen’s comic masterpiece Emma. In Emma, Austen’s prose brilliantly elevates, in the words of Virginia...

"Translated, edited, and with an Introduction by Stanley Corngold Featuring essays by Philip Roth, W. H Auden, and Walter Benjamin "When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first sentence, Franz Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant...

This story chronicles the lifelong friendship between the Morgans, a young couple with talent and dreams but no prospects or connections, and the Langs, a wealthy couple generous enough to share their good fortune.

Neil Kingsblood, an average middle-American banker, finds that he has African-American blood, a discovery which takes him to two Americas, one black and one white.

A candid memoir recounts London's bout with alcohol, from his first drink and first hangover at age five, and stresses the important role of the saloon in cultivating alcoholism in young men.

Middle-aged American Lambert Strether, sent to Paris by his patron Mrs. Newsome to find her son Chad and bring him home, finds Chad transformed by the influence of a remarkable woman, and soon follows suit, letting himself be swept away by the charms of the city and the mysterious Madame de Vionnet.