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Fathers and Sons
In Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev captures the eternal tension between generations through the story of Arkady Kirsanov, who returns from university with his radical friend Bazarov, a self-proclaimed “nihilist” who believes in nothing but science and rejects all traditional values. What begins as a clash between old aristocratic ideals and new revolutionary thinking evolves into something far more nuanced—a meditation on how love, family bonds, and human nature itself resist the neat categories we try to impose on them. Turgenev’s genius lies in his refusal to take sides, instead showing us how both the romantic idealism of the older generation and the harsh materialism of the young contain their own truths and blindnesses. Can any philosophy, no matter how logically constructed, truly account for the messy complexities of the human heart? This masterpiece of Russian literature offers no easy answers, but it provides something more valuable: a deeply compassionate understanding of why each generation believes it has discovered the key to life, and why each is both right and profoundly wrong.
- Originally Published: 1862
- Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 215
- BookType: Hardcopy (paperback)
- ISBN: 9780192833921
- Access: Members
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To The Lighthouse
In the fleeting hours of a single summer day, the Ramsay family gathers at their Scottish seaside home, where promises hang suspended like morning mist—will they finally make that longed-for journey to the lighthouse? Virginia Woolf transforms ordinary moments into profound meditations on time, memory, and the fragile threads that bind us to those we love. As consciousness flows between characters like tidal currents, each voice reveals the weight of unspoken desires and the ache of impermanence. Can we ever truly reach the destinations we set for ourselves, or do we discover that the journey itself has already changed us beyond recognition? This luminous novel captures the exquisite tension between what we hope for and what we ultimately become.
- Originally Published: 1927
- Publisher: Vintage, 2004
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 198
- BookType: Hardcopy(Paperback)
- ISBN: 9780099478294
- Access: Members
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Madame Bovary
Emma Bovary is dying of boredom in her small French town, married to a kind but dull doctor who can’t ignite the passion she craves. She loses herself in novels, dreaming of grand love affairs and glittering society balls, until fantasy begins to bleed into reality through reckless affairs and ruinous spending. As her desperate hunt for beauty and meaning spirals beyond control, Emma discovers that some hungers can never be satisfied—and that the price of living entirely for desire might be everything she holds dear. What happens when a woman refuses to accept the life she’s been given and reaches for something that may not exist at all?
- Originally Published: 1857
- Publisher: VIVI Books, 2018
- Genre: Literary Realism
- Pages: 372
- BookType: Hardcopy/Hardcover
- ISBN: 9789386869289
- Access: Members
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Atlas Shrugged
What happens when the world’s thinkers, builders, and dreamers vanish, one by one, into silence? Atlas Shrugged is a thunderous epic set in a collapsing civilization, where the engines of progress are halted by a society that punishes excellence and rewards mediocrity. Amid the smoke of industry and the ruins of broken ideals, a defiant few must decide: is it moral to serve a world that drains your soul—or to walk away and let it crumble? With sweeping prose and unflinching vision, this novel challenges the very foundations of duty, ambition, and what it means to live with purpose. It is a story of resistance, of love forged in fire, and of the relentless power of the human mind.
- Originally Published: 1957
- Publisher: Signet, 2004
- Genre: Fiction
- Pages: 1088
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 9780451191144
- Access: Members
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The Master and Margarita
A mysterious foreigner arrives in Soviet Moscow—charming, diabolical, and accompanied by a talking cat with a taste for vodka—and soon reality begins to unravel. The Master and Margarita is a fever dream of love and damnation, where satire waltzes with the supernatural and truth is as dangerous as it is elusive. As a condemned writer and a fearless woman navigate a world haunted by betrayal, bureaucracy, and a whisper of the divine, the line between good and evil blurs like ink in water. Can love survive the tyranny of both politics and the soul? This is a novel where the devil gets the last laugh—and perhaps, the last mercy.
- Originally Published: 1967
- Publisher : Vintage Classics, 2024
- Pages: 448
- Genre: Romance novel, Satire, Fantasy
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN-13: 978-0099540946
- Access: Members
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The Odyssey
Across storm-tossed seas and shadowed isles, The Odyssey charts the perilous return of Odysseus, a cunning warrior who longs for the warmth of his hearth more than the glory of conquest. As gods conspire and monsters stir, every step homeward becomes a trial of spirit, loyalty, and the fragile line between heroism and hubris. Beneath its epic sweep lies a haunting question: how much must a man lose to truly know himself—and what awaits when he does? Laced with enchantment and anchored in longing, this ancient tale pulses with the timeless ache of exile and the stubborn hope of return.
- Originally Published: 800 B.C.E
- Publisher : Everyman’s Library, 1992
- Pages: 509
- Genre: Narrative Poetry, Epic
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN-13: 978-1857150940
- Access: Prime Membership
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The Idiot
In a world driven by vanity, power, and concealed wounds, what place is there for pure goodness? The Idiot follows Prince Myshkin—a man of childlike honesty and saintly compassion—whose return to Russian society sets off a quiet storm of obsession, betrayal, and unspoken despair. As he moves through a web of wounded souls and fevered passions, his innocence becomes both a beacon and a curse, casting light on the madness that masquerades as reason. Is it folly to live with an unguarded heart—or is it the only form of sanity left? With haunting tenderness and tragic irony, this luminous novel exposes the cruel bewilderment of a society that cannot recognize grace, even as it longs for it.
- Originally Published: 1869
- Publisher : Everyman’s Library, 2002
- Pages: 632
- Genre: Novel
- Book Type: Hardcopy/Hardcover
- ISBN-13: 978-1857152548
- Access: Prime Membership
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Pride & Prejudice
In a world where marriage is both a social ladder and a battlefield, Pride & Prejudice unfolds as a sparkling duel of intellect, wit, and wounded hearts. Elizabeth Bennet, fierce in mind and spirit, meets her match in the proud and enigmatic Mr. Darcy—yet behind their verbal skirmishes lies a deeper reckoning with class, character, and the illusions we cast on others and ourselves. Can love survive first impressions, or is true intimacy only forged through humility and hard-won understanding? With its graceful prose and sharp social commentary, this is a tale where decorum masks desire, and every glance or silence carries the weight of unspoken truths. Elegant, biting, and deeply human, it is a love story that resists simplicity—just like the people at its heart.
- Originally Published: 1813
- Publisher : Wordsworth Classics, 1993
- Pages: 325
- Genre: Fiction, Romance novel, Satire, Regency romance, Novel of manners
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN-13: 978-1853260001
- Access: Members
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The Great Gatsby
A glittering mansion, a mysterious millionaire, and a love that haunts the edges of every champagne-soaked evening—The Great Gatsby is a lyrical elegy for the American Dream and the illusions we chase in its name. Through the eyes of a quiet outsider, we are drawn into the world of Jay Gatsby, a man who builds his fortune not for power or glory, but for a woman he lost long ago. Beneath the dazzle of Jazz Age opulence lies a tale of longing, betrayal, and the quiet ache of dreams deferred. Can one truly rewrite the past—or does the past rewrite us? Fitzgerald’s novel is both seduction and lament, a mirror held up to the heart’s most extravagant hopes.
- Originally Published: 1925
- Publisher : Vintage Classics, 2010
- Genre: Novel, Tragedy
- Pages: 148
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN-13: 9780099541530
- Access: Members
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Jude the Obscure
In Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy traces the aching path of a man whose dreams of learning, love, and belonging crumble beneath the grinding weight of class, convention, and fate. Jude Fawley, a stonemason with the soul of a scholar, reaches toward the promise of knowledge and connection, only to find himself punished for daring to hope beyond his station. At once tender and merciless, the novel asks: what becomes of a heart that dares to defy the world’s design, only to be shattered by it? Hardy delivers a bleak, unflinching meditation on aspiration and despair, where love is both salvation and ruin, and idealism can be the most tragic burden of all. This is not merely the story of a man—but of humanity caught between what it is and what it longs to be.
- Originally Published: 1895
- Publisher : Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1993
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 376
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN-13: 978-1853262616
- Access: Members
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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
A violin whispers in the fog as London’s shadowy corners yield secrets to the piercing gaze of Sherlock Holmes—man of reason, master of deduction, and enigma in himself. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes unfolds as a tapestry of the bizarre and the beguiling, where crimes are puzzles and truth often lies hidden beneath polite society’s polished surface. Alongside the loyal Dr. Watson, Holmes navigates mysteries that test not only intellect, but morality, honor, and justice. What drives a man to uncover the darkest motives of others—curiosity, duty, or something more elusive? These stories dare you to see the world not as it appears, but as it truly is, if only one knows how to look.
- Originally Published: 1892
- Publisher : Vintage Classics Library, 2016
- Genre: Detective fiction
- Pages: 215
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN-13: 978-1784871574
- Access: Members
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Crime and Punishment
In the stifling alleys of St. Petersburg, a young man commits a murder—not out of greed, but out of a fevered belief in his own moral exception. Crime and Punishment plunges into the shattered psyche of Raskolnikov, whose act of violence births a torment more relentless than justice itself. As guilt and redemption collide, the novel becomes a harrowing descent into the abyss of conscience, a crucible where reason and madness blur. Can one transcend morality to reshape the world—or does the soul exact its own terrible price? This is not merely a crime story, but a haunting meditation on what it means to be human in a world of suffering and consequence.
- Originally Published: 1866
- Publisher: Dover Publications, 2001
- Genre: Fiction, Psychological
- Pages: 448
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-0486415871
- Access: Members
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Anna Karenina
Beneath the glittering ballrooms and snowbound estates of imperial Russia, Anna Karenina unfolds as a sweeping tale of passion, betrayal, and the fragile architecture of human happiness. Caught between the demands of a rigid society and the call of her own heart, Anna dares to pursue love at any cost—only to find that desire can both liberate and destroy. Around her, lives intersect in a delicate ballet of hope and despair, raising a timeless question: can true fulfillment ever exist within the confines of duty, marriage, and convention? Lyrical and unflinching, Tolstoy’s masterpiece captures the full spectrum of the human soul, from ecstasy to ruin.
- Originally Published: 1873
- Publisher: Penguin Books, 2002
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 880
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-0140449174
- Access: Members
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Lolita
In Lolita, desire dresses itself in the language of poetry, seduction veils cruelty, and obsession charts a cross-country odyssey through the haunted corridors of memory and guilt. With a voice as dazzling as it is disturbing, the unreliable narrator invites readers into a dark reverie where beauty becomes a battleground and innocence is never what it seems. Is it possible to separate the elegance of expression from the moral abyss it describes? Nabokov’s masterpiece dares us to confront the disquieting allure of language and the treacherous edges of love, power, and delusion. A lyrical descent into one man’s self-deception, Lolita leaves the reader spellbound—and unsettled.
- Originally Published: 1955
- Publisher: Penguin, 2011
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 368
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-0241953242
- Access: Members
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The Catcher in the Rye
Wandering the gray streets of New York in a haze of grief and rebellion, Holden Caulfield speaks with a voice both raw and strangely tender—part confession, part cry for meaning in a world grown false. The Catcher in the Rye captures the ache of adolescence with uncanny precision: the longing to protect innocence, the fury at adult hypocrisy, the weight of a mind unraveling under truth too heavy to bear. Is Holden escaping the world, or is he the only one awake enough to see it clearly? With sardonic humor and aching vulnerability, this coming-of-age tale unfolds like a whispered secret between strangers who never quite belong. It is not just a story—it is a mirror for those who have ever walked alone, wondering where the honest people went.
- Originally Published: July 1951
- Publisher: Penguin, 1994
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 192
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-0140237504
- Access: Members
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Animal Farm
On a quiet farm, where the animals rise in revolt against their human masters, an ideal of freedom is born—only to curdle into tyranny beneath the hoofprints of power. Animal Farm is a fable sharpened into a political blade, where noble dreams decay into slogans, and those who promise equality learn to walk upright over the backs of others. How does liberation become a new form of control, and why do the oppressed so often trade one master for another? With deceptively simple prose and chilling clarity, this tale reveals that the most dangerous lies are the ones we tell ourselves. A story for every age, it asks: who truly governs when all are supposed to be free?
- Originally Published: August 1945
- Genre: Novella, Political Satire
- Pages: 101
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 9780451526342
- Access: Members
