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O Pioneers!
by Willa CatherWidely known as Willa Cather’s first great novel and the first of the “prairie trilogy,” O Pioneers! is a work of fiction that conveys both the sharp physical realities and the mythic transformation of the American frontier and those who settled in it. Alexandra Bergson, the heroine of the novel, arrives in Nebraska with her family and grows up to make a prosperous farm despite the losses she experiences—but her love of the land comes at a cost. Filled with clear prose and a characterized landscape, this novel is about personal sacrifice, family loyalty, emotional and romantic ties, and belonging. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Of Human Bondage
by W. Somerset MaughamWhen Philip Carey’s parents pass away he is sent to live with his Aunt Louisa and Uncle William, a vicar.
Because of his club foot and his odd childhood, Philip has trouble fitting in at school, and passes up a scholarship at Oxford to try and make his own way.
He tries an apprenticeship, and pursues a career as a painter, before finally settling on a career in medicine.
But nothing is ever simple for Philip Carey, and the often banal realities of real life confound him at every turn.
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Officers and Gentlemen
by Evelyn WaughThe second part of the Sword of Honour Trilogy, inspired by the author’s experiences in World War II.
After being bounced from his regiment in the war, Guy Crouchback, the youngest member of a declining British aristocratic family, falls in with a commando-brigade-in-training led by Tommy Blackhouse, Crouchback’s ex-wife’s second husband (but not her last).
Guy is posted to Egypt and finds himself in the middle of the frantic evacuation of Crete. Can he distinguish himself in service this time, or will he once again stumble?
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Old New York
by Edith WhartonA series of four interconnected novellas, painting a vivid portrait of New York through the middle of the 19th century.
In the 1840s, Lewis Raycie is sent to Europe by his father to purchase art by famous painters. The elder Raycie, a self-made man, wants to establish a family dynasty and hopes that a respected art gallery well help entrench his family in New York's upper crust.
But when his son returns home with works by cutting edge but unknown artists, it threatens to tear this fledgling family apart.
In the 1850s, Delia Ralston's cousin Charlotte is about to be married but has a dilemma. Her husband-to-be wishes her to give up her work at an orphanage where, unbeknownst to him, Charlotte's illegitimate daughter resides.
Delia wants to help her cousin out, while also looking out for Charlotte's future husband, who is in turn her husband's cousin. And then there is the young child to worry about, an orphan in the public eye who has no prospects to speak of...
In the 1860s, a young man named Hayley joins the Civil War and is wounded. Three decades later, the narrator traces the way his life has unfolded since the war.
Finally, in the 1870s, a woman named Lizzie's apparent affair is causing a scandal throughout the city, but the relationship is not as it appears...
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Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
by T. S. EliotA lighter side of the great poet. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats will be a delightful surprise for any readers familiar with poem's like The Waste Land and Prufrock. Eliot playfully weaves his way through 13 vignettes about cats, starting with some observations on the importance of cats' names, before diving into the lives of individual felines. Cat burglars, magicians, thieves, and troublemakers populate the colourful cast of this wonderful book. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Oliver Twist
by Charles DickensOliver is an orphan living on the dangerous London streets with no one but himself to rely on. Fleeing from poverty and hardship, he falls in with a criminal street gang who will not let him go, however hard he tries to escape. In Oliver Twist, Dickens graphically conjures up the capital's underworld, full of prostitutes, thieves and lost and homeless children, and gives a voice to the disadvantaged and abused.Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
On the Beach
by Nevil ShuteA classic work of post-apocalyptic fiction, and a haunting look at the capacity of humankind for self-destruction. On the Beach is set in the wake of World War III; the world has been rendered almost completely uninhabitable due to Nuclear Fallout, with the only liveable areas, located in the southern part of the planet, on a short clock as air currents threaten to eventually spread the fallout over the entire planet. When Austrlia receives a morse code message from the Seattle area, they dispatch one of the last nuclear submarines in hopes of finding survivors. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Out of Africa
by Isak DinesenAn enthralling depiction of the waning years of British colonial power. Out of Africa recounts the experiences of Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke in what was then British East Africa, now called Kenya. Blixen and her husband build a coffee plantation and staff it with local workers. At first things seems idyllic, but as the memoir progresses it traces the descent and ultimate failure of both the marriage and the plantation. It was adapted into a film in 1985, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Parade's End
by Ford Madox FordA stark, modernist look at the realities of contemporary war. The four novels that makes up Parade's End (Some Do Not..., No More Parades, A Man Who Could Stand Up--, and Last Post) tell the story of Christopher Tietjens, a British government statistician who joins the army during the first world war. He suffers severe shell-shock, and must live through an unhappy marriage while suspicions run rampant that he has been having an affair. The novels have been referred to as classics of 20th century modernist literature, and Ford has been praised for his unwillingness to ascribe some sort of purpose or order to the violence of war. HBO, VRT, and BBC collaborated on a miniseries adaptation of the novels starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall, and written by Tom Stoppard.
Peyton Place
by Grace MetaliousPeyton Place is a sleepy little American town, like any other. But like any other, it harbours its fair share of secrets. Constance MacKenzie is a widower—or so the residents of Peyton Place believe. In reality, after leaving Peyton Place she carried on an affair that lasted until her illicit lover’s untimely death.
No one in town knows the truth—not even her daughter, Allison, a budding intellectual and aspiring author.
Allison feels lonely and isolated in Peyton Place, save for the company of her best friend, Selena Cross, a poor girl trapped under the thumb of an abusive step-father. As the ebb and flow of small-town drama cascades over Peyton Place, the three women must navigate the constraints of their pasts, the potential of their futures, and growing understandings of their own sexuality.
Peyton Place was a resoundingly successful—and deeply controversial—novel when published, bolstered by its colourful cast and frank discussions of sex and sexuality. It was adapted as a film, and then a prime time television series.
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Playback
by Raymond ChandlerThe last Philip Marlowe novel finished in Chandler’s lifetime.
Playback begins with private investigator Philip Marlowe being hired to investigate a woman, but soon discovers that she is the victim of blackmail, and that Marlowe has been suckered into being a pawn in a much bigger game.
He turns his attention to the young woman, hoping to free her from the nefarious characters hounding her. Despite being adapted from a screenplay, it is the only Marlowe novel to never be filmed. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Put Out More Flags
by Evelyn WaughWaugh brings some of his best characters back for another romp. Against the backdrop of the Phoney War, Alistair Trumpington wants only the chance to fight for a worthy cause, but instead he finds himself stuck in a never-ending series of military maneuvers, getting him nowhere closer to any front.
Meanwhile, the scoundrel Basil Seal sees the burgeoning war as an opportunity to help only himself.
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Pylon
by William FaulknerOne of the few of William Faulkner’s works to be set outside his fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Pylon, first published in 1935, takes place at an air show in a thinly disguised New Orleans named New Valois. An unnamed reporter for a local newspaper tries to understand a very modern ménage a trois of flyers on the brainstorming circuit. These characters, Faulkner said, “were a fantastic and bizarre phenomenon on the face of the contemporary scene. . . . That is, there was really no place for them in the culture, in the economy, yet they were there, at that time, and everyone knew that they wouldn’t last very long, which they didn’t. . . . That they were outside the range of God, not only of respectability, of love, but of God too.” In Pylon Faulkner set out to test their rootless modernity to see if there is any place in it for the old values of the human heart that are the central concerns of his best fiction.Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Queen Lucia
by E. F. BensonThe first volume of E.F. Benson's wildly satirical take on the Edwardian English upper class. The books were recently adapted by the BBC into a mini-series starring Sherlock's Mark Gatiss. Emmeline Lucas - Lucia, to her friends - is a determined social climber, determined to rise to the top of the town of Riseholme, a little one-street village inhabited by a strange group of the idle rich. The result is a mish-mash of petty schemes, gossip, and backstabbing the likes of which Riseholme has never seen. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Redburn
by Herman MelvilleThe life of a sailor isn’t all its cracked up to be.
Wellingborough Redburn cannot find employment in his native New York, and so signs aboard the merchantship Highlander, on its journey to Liverpool.
He discovers that he is a “boy,” the lowest rank among the crew, and has to contend with the worst, most offensive duties, and the abuse of the seaman Jackson. Redburn proves to be a quick study at both the craft of seafaring and the surprisingly intricate social dynamics among the crewmembers, but will it be enough to turn his voyage around?
Drawing equally on Melville’s experiences at sea and his talent for cleverly poking fun at human foibles, this is a wonderful treat from a spectacular writer.
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Riders of the Purple Sage
by Zane GreyThe novel that shaped the Western. Jane Withersteen is a wealthy landowner and rancher living in Utah. The Mormon church is the dominant power in the area, and at the novel's outset Jane is being courted by one of their Elders, who seeks to possess her. Jane, ever the optimist, believes in a fundamental decency in all people, but is increasingly forced to confront the darkness in the church as is threatens to consume her, her friends, and her family. Riders of the Purple Sage stands as one of the earliest, most influential Western novels, and has been filmed several times. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel DefoeRobinson Crusoe runs away from home to join the navy. After a series of adventures at sea, he is shipwrecked in a devastating storm, and finds himself alone on a remote desert island. He remains there many years, building a life for himself in solitude, until the day he discovers another man’s footprint in the sand . . .Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Rockbound
by Frank DayA dreamy, optimistic, and youthful David Jung comes to claim his small share of the harsh domain of Rockbound, an island currently governed by the righteous and rapacious Uriah Jung. As David tries to find his way in a narrow and controlled world, he struggles for survival against his many conflicts and enemies: the sea, his own behavior, his best friend Gershom Born, the secret love he has for his teacher Mary Dauphiny, and—inevitably—his Jung relatives and their greedy ambitions for money and power. Rockbound is enormously evocative in the power, terror, and dramatic beauty of the Atlantic sea; unrelenting in its portrait of back-breaking labour, cunning bitterness, and family strife; and, most prominently, an incredible story of many passions—love, pride, greed, and yearning—and the rocky landscape of the human spirit. Simultaneously a book of its time and a timeless story, Rockbound was brought out from the quiet backlist of Canadian literature and ardently championed by Donna Morrissey to win Canada Reads 2005, hitting multiple bestseller lists on its way up. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Sanctuary
by Edith WhartonAn early work by the great Edith Wharton, displaying incredible maturity and depth of insight. Kate is eagerly anticipating being married; wrapped up in fantasies of an idyllic future with her husband-to-be, Denis. These fantasies are tainted when she discovers that Denis has inherited money from his step-brother by failing to bring up his wife and child in court. She marries him anyway, but vows to protect their son, Dick, from falling into the same immorality as his father. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you high quality, classic works of literature in e-book form. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Sanctuary
by William FaulknerA powerful novel examining the nature of evil, informed by the works of T. S. Eliot and Freud, mythology, local lore, and hardboiled detective fiction, Sanctuary is the dark, at times brutal, story of the kidnapping of Mississippi debutante Temple Drake, who introduces her own form of venality into the Memphis underworld where she is being held.Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Save Me the Waltz
by Zelda FitzgeraldZelda Fitzgerald’s semi-autobiographical account of her life and her marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Save Me the Waltz is the story of Alabama Beggs and her husband, the artist David Knight. Alabama’s determination to not live in her husband’s shadow leads her to devote herself to ballet. But will success on the stage make up for the unhappiness in her marriage? When the novel was published, it was largely ignored or derided as an inferior reflection of her husband's work, but recent readers have rediscovered it as a wonderfully unique perspective on the same subjects.Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you high quality, classic works of literature in e-book form. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Scalpel
by Horace McCoyWhat do you do when everything that you could possibly want doesn’t make you happy? Colonel Tom Owen has found a comfortable place in the world. He has a distinguished career as a military surgeon, starting during World War II and extending into the lingering action in Europe. He is content, until a period of leave brings him back home to Coalville, Pennsylvania. His brother Lloyd was killed in a mining accident and has been blamed for causing it. His nephew has left school and his mother is under siege from striking miners. Almost as shocking is his encounter with Helen Curtis – the daughter of the mine’s owner - who falls for him as hard as he falls for her. She convinces him to leave the army and hang his shingle back in Pittsburgh, but treating the ailments and the rich and fashionable quickly loses its charm. Dr. Owen believes himself a hack and fraud … maybe he’s right? Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Scoop
by Evelyn WaughHow far will one man go for a scoop that he doesn’t know, or care, about? William Boot is poor, but not unhappy. He is not burdened by the hustle and bustle of the big city and can fill his time in nature. He even writes a little about nature for a national newspaper. This is all well and good until he is mistaken for his cousin, a famous novelist, and shipped to a nation caught in a war to act as a foreign correspondent. If he can get out in one piece, much less get the scoop the paper wants, it will be a miracle. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Shooting an Elephant
by George OrwellA biting critique of British imperialism, wrapped in a highly personal story about a police officer in colonial Burma. While he is most famous for his long-form fiction, including such works as Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, George Orwell was also an accomplished essayist, and Shooting an Elephant stands as one of his best, and most well known, pieces. Orwell worked as a police officer in Burma earlier in his, and there has been a great deal of debate about whether the story is autobiographical. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in eibook form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
Summer
by Edith WhartonLove, lust, dreams, and ambition clash and intermingle in this brilliant novel. Charity Royall is a bored, eighteen-year-old librarian living in the small town of North Dormer. Her life becomes considerably more exciting when Lucius Harney, an architect, moves to town to conduct research for a book. The two bond quickly, and find themselves falling for one another, but there is competition in the form of Annabel Balch, a wealthy socialite who has taken a shine to Lucius, and Charity’s guardian, Lawyer Royall, whose feelings for Charity are more than simply protective. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.