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The narrator of this timeless adventure story is the lad, Jim Hawkins, whose mother keeps the Admiral Benbow, an inn on the west coast of England in the 18th century. An old buccaneer takes up residence at the inn. He has in his sea chest a map to the hiding place of Captain Flint's treasure. A gang of cutthroats are determined to get his treasure map, and - led by the sinister, blind pirate, Pew - descend on the inn. But Jim Hawkins outwits them, grabs the map, and delivers it to Squire Trelawney. The Squire and his friend Dr. Livessy set off for Treasure Island in the schooner Hispaniola, taking Jim with them. Some of the crew are the squire's faithful servants, but the majority are buccaneers recruited by the one-legged pirate, Long John Silver.

Mr. Phileas Fogg, master of precision, enters into the strangest wager ever made over the whist table--that he will circle the globe in 80 days. The news astounds Jean Passepartout, sometime wandering minstrel, bareback rider, funambulist, gymnast, and fireman, now turned valet to Mr. Fogg in the expectancy of a quiet and well-regulated life. For the next 80 days, their lives are anything but quiet or well regulated.

From the author of The Scarlet Letter comes a landmark of American literature, an embodiment of the greed which can compel people to treacherous actions. Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables is a study of guilt and renewal from generation to generation. At the time of the Salem witch trials, the patriarch of the Pyncheon family finds himself so covetous of his neighbor’s property that he is led to sinister deeds, turning the community against his neighbor who is ultimately hanged for witchcraft. Though his plot to acquire the land is successful, the dying man's curse on the Pyncheon family comes true generation upon generation. That is, until six generations later when the long-hidden truth is revealed…. This novel is part of Brilliance Audio's extensive Classic Collection, bringing you timeless masterpieces that you and your family are sure to love.

When the Time Traveler boldly stepped out of his machine for the first time, he found himself in the far future and in an almost unrecognizable world. In another, more utopian age, creatures seemed to live together free of strife and competition. The Time Traveler thought he could learn the secrets of these happy beings and take the lessons of life to his own time - until he discovered that his marvelous invention, his only means of escape, had been stolen.

This is the first line in this tale of a man uprooted and thrust into the unfamiliar and dangerous world of the sealing sailor. Humphrey Van Weyden, a San Francisco sophisticate and an intellectual, finds himself the captive voyager aboard The Ghost, captained by the brutal and barbaric Wolf Larsen. Van Weyden’s rights disappear as the coast of California vanishes over the horizon.

Newland Archer is a young lawyer, a member of New York's high society, and engaged to be married to May Welland. Countess Ellen Olenska is May's cousin, and wants a divorce from the Polish nobleman she married. Intelligent and beautiful, she comes back to New York where she tries to fit into the high society life she had before her marriage. Her family and former friends, however, are shocked by the idea of divorce within their social circle, and she finds herself snubbed by her own class.

Generations of readers and listeners have enjoyed the ingenuous triumphs and feckless mishaps of boyhood days on the Mississippi. This classic of American wit and storytelling introduced Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher, Aunt Polly, the Widow Douglas, and many other characters to the world, including, of course the boy who “was cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town because he was idle and lawless and vulgar and bad—and because all their children admired him so”: Huckleberry Finn.

Set in the aftermath of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, Kidnapped (1886) sustains a gripping narrative. It is told by David Balfour, a young Whig and Lowlander, who is tracked by his miserly uncle, survives attempted murder, kidnap and shipwreck and, in the company of Alan Breck, a Jacobite, escapes through the Highlands.

Dickens' two cities are London and Paris during the time of the French Revolution. Dr. Manette, a French physician, having been called in to treat a young peasant and his sister, realizes that they have been cruelly abused by the Marquis de St. Evremonde and his brother. To ensure Dr. Manette's silence, the Marquis has him confined for eighteen years in the Bastille. As the story opens, the doctor has just been released. He is brought to England where he gradually recovers his health and his sanity.

So begins The War of the Worlds, the novel that made Wells famous and has enthralled and terrified readers and listeners for almost 100 years. Ten huge and tireless creatures land in England and, using their deadly rays and crushing strength, threaten the very existence of humankind. Wells' classic is not just groundbreaking science fiction, it is a shocking social parable about man's inhumanity to man.

The Last of the Mohicans is an epic story of romance and adventure on the American frontier. It is a story of love and loyalty and of America's coming of age. While the French and Indians besiege Fort William Henry, Cora and Alice Munro, daughters of the English commander, are on their way to join him. They are accompanied by Major Duncan Heyward, Alice's fiancé, and by the treacherous Indian Magua, who secretly serves the French.

The story opens in Puritan Boston, a settlement only fifteen or twenty years old. A young woman stands on a scaffold clasping a three-month-old baby. As a married woman with a missing husband and a new baby, Hester Prynne could have been sentenced to death for the crime of adultery. Instead she is condemned to always wear the letter A as a badge of her shame. As she stands there, she sees her long-missing husband, who has been held captive by Indians.

The Call of the Wild, written in 1903, brought Jack London to the world's attention. It is the story of Buck, part St. Bernard and part Scotch shepherd dog, who shows the strengths of both breeds when he is stolen and sold off as a sled dog in the Yukon during the gold rush. It is a heartfelt story that appeals to both children and adults.

A novel of immense power, Wuthering Heights is filled with the raw beauty of the English moors and a deep compassion for the conflicting destinies of men and women. The novel begins with Lockwood, a tenant who takes up residence close to Wuthering Heights. His landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, proves to be surly, unfriendly, and rude. When Lockwood discovers a mildewed book with the names Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Heathcliff, and Catherine Linton scratched on its cover, he begins to read, sojourning on a strange tale that proves irresistible. The heart-wrenching story he discovers about stubborn Cathy and wild-as-the-wind Heathcliff has been a favorite since its original publication in 1848.

Emma takes Harriet Smith, a young woman previously unknown to good society, under her wing, scheming for her advancement through an advantageous marriage. Her efforts to find Harriet a suitor occupy all of Emma's time. However, in the midst of her often fumbled attempts, she settles on a most unlikely union with her own constant critic: Mr. Knightly.

Originally published as part of a contest between Mary Shelley, her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron, Frankenstein has since captured countless imaginations. When Dr. Victor Frankenstein learns the secret of imparting life to inanimate matter, he is eager to test his theories. The bones he collects to construct his human subject become a gruesome, frightening creature, endowed with supernatural size and strength. Lonely and miserable, the created comes to hate his creator. When the monster murders Frankenstein’s brother and his bride, the doctor embarks on a heated pursuit, only to put his own life in grave danger.

Embittered by a false accusation, disappointed in friendship and love, the weaver Silas Marner hoards a treasure that destroys his spirit until fate steals it from him and replaces it with a golden-haired child. Where she came from, who her parents were, and who really stole the gold are the secrets that fill this moving tale of guilt and innocence.

After scavenging his broken ship for useful items, he had only his skills and ingenuity to keep him alive. For twenty-four years there was to be no one else on the island. In the middle of that twenty-fourth year he rescued a native about to be eaten by cannibals who were using his island for a place of feasting. Crusoe named this man Friday, after the day of his rescue. Friday became his faithful servant and friend, even after they were able to leave the island.

Bored with farm life, and anxious for some excitement, Henry Fleming sets off to join the Union troops fighting the Civil War. An inexperienced fighter, he is anxious to get into battle to prove his patriotism and courage. He swaggers to keep up his spirits waiting for battle, but when suddenly thrust into the slaughter he is overcome with blind fear and runs from the field of battle.

Moll Flanders, Defoe's 18th century classic novel, is at once a novel of sin and redemption and a playful and beguiling social commentary set between the Puritan age and the Age of Reason. Taking center stage in this whorl of irony, humor, pathos, and religious faith is one Moll Flanders - both the most plausible sinner and the most pious repentant in English literature. Moll is as controversial today as when she first appeared in 1722.