Penguin Classics: General Fiction

Set against the backdrop of the fertile Salinas Valley in California, East of Eden is a profound and compelling novel by John Steinbeck, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. This masterful narrative charts the intertwining destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—across multiple generations. Steinbeck's intricate portrayal of human nature and enduring exploration of moral themes...

East of Eden, John Steinbeck's most ambitious and engrossing novel, unfolds in the rich and fertile farmlands of the Salinas Valley, California. This powerful narrative paints a vivid portrait of human struggle and the enduring quest for identity, love, and redemption, all framed within a family saga that transcends generations. The novel masterfully weaves together the destinies of two families,...

COMING THIS AUTUMN: A MAJOR NETFLIX SERIES STARRING FLORENCE PUGH The magnum opus of a giant of American literature, East of Eden is an epic, unforgettable family saga of blood ties and betrayal. 'There is only one book to a man,' John Steinbeck wrote of East of Eden. 'It has everything in it I have been able to learn about...

Beautiful new clothbound edition of Dumas's classic novel of wrongful imprisonment, adventure, and revenge. Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of the Château d'If. There, he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and becomes determined not only to escape but...

46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946 My God! A whole minute of bliss! Is that really so little for the whole of a man's life?

Jane Austen's classic novel with cover artwork from the major new feature film starring Daisy Edgar-Jones. The more I know of the world, the more am I convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much! Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the...

When brutal landowner Fyodor Karamazov is murdered, the lives of his sons are changed irrevocably: Mitya, the sensualist, whose bitter rivalry with his father immediately places him under suspicion for parricide; Ivan, the intellectual, whose mental tortures drive him to breakdown; the spiritual Alyosha, who tries to heal the family's rifts; and the shadowy figure of their bastard half-brother Smerdyakov....

New to Penguin Clothbound Classics, Gaston Leroux's classic tale of Gothic horror and tragic romance. Rumours that a ghost stalks the dark passages and cellars of the Paris Opera House, wreaking havoc, have long been rife among staff and performers. This Phantom also haunts the imagination of the beautiful and talented singer Christine Daae, appearing to her as the 'Angel...

Madonna in a Fur Coat, the international bestselling tale of love and loss in 1920s Berlin, is now available as a Penguin Classics paperback. "The pain of losing something precious can be forgotten over time. But our missed opportunities never leave us, and every time they come back to haunt us, we ache." A shy young man leaves his home...

Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend, Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life; indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The novel was a succes...

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot is an immaculate portrait of innocence tainted by the brutal reality of human greed. This Penguin Classics edition is translated from the Russian by David McDuff, with an introduction by William Mills Todd III. Returning to St Petersburg from a Swiss sanatorium, the gentle and naïve epileptic Prince Myshkin—the titular 'idiot'—pays a visit to his distant...

The acclaimed new translation of Dostoyevsky's masterpiece for Penguin Classics. 'Will I really - I mean, really - actually take an axe, start bashing her on the head, smash her skull to pieces? . . . Will I really slip in sticky, warm blood, force the lock, steal, tremble, hide, all soaked in blood . . . axe in hand?...

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is an unparalleled classic in the genre of horror literature, weaving an atmosphere of dread and suspense that continues to captivate readers. The story follows four distinct characters brought together by a shared curiosity about the supernatural phenomena reported at the infamous Hill House. Dr. Montague, a determined and scholarly investigator of...

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a profound exploration of guilt, redemption, and the human psyche. Set in the grimy streets of St Petersburg, the novel centres on Rodion Raskolnikov, a struggling and impoverished former student whose growing desperation leads him to commit a heinous act. Raskolnikov's journey is a labyrinth of moral dilemmas and harrowing decisions, where he...

A new translation of Dostoyevsky's great novel of suffering and sickness. Inspired by an image of Christ's suffering, Dostoyevsky set out to create a protagonist with "a truly beautiful soul" and to trace the fate of such an individual as he comes into contact with the brutal reality of contemporary society. The novel begins when the innocent epileptic Prince Myshkin...

The acclaimed new translation of Tolstoy's masterpiece, for the first time in Black Classics after the successful hardback and Red Classics editions—10,000+ hardbacks and, by the time of Black Classics, 20,000+ of Red Classics sold. At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's...

Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading romances of chivalry that he determines to become a knight errant and pursue bold adventures, accompanied by his squire, the cunning Sancho Panza. As they roam the world together, the aging Quixote's fancy leads them wildly astray. At the same time, the relationship between the two men grows in fascinating subtlety. Often...

A beautifully designed clothbound edition of Shirley Jackson's chilling tale of power and fear. Hunting for evidence of the occult, Dr Montague invites three participants to Hill House: Theodora, his lovely assistant; Luke, set to inherit the estate; and Eleanor, a fragile young woman with a troubled past. As The House takes hold, Jackson plumbs the depths of the human...

Beautifully designed, clothbound edition Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Sense and Sensibility follows the story of the Dashwood sisters, Marianne and Elinor, as they navigate the complexities of love and society. Marianne, who...

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is part of the Penguin Classics relaunch. This edition features the award-winning new translation of the great Russian novel. Exploring themes of love, betrayal, and the complexity of human relationships, Anna Karenina is a compelling narrative that delves into the intricacies of 19th-century Russian society. Tolstoy's masterful storytelling invites readers into the lives of unforgettable...

A 75th anniversary edition of Steinbeck's undisputed masterpiece, a panoramic vision of the betrayal of the American dream. 'I've done my damndest to rip a reader's nerves to rags, I don't want him satisfied.' Shocking and controversial when it was first published, The Grapes of Wrath is Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Joad family, forced to travel west from...

The 100th title in the phenomenally successful and much-loved Penguin Clothbound Classics series. This selection of Poe's stories, poetry, and other writing demonstrates the astonishing power and imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind. The Fall of the House of Usher describes the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy and the legacy of...

A stunning clothbound edition of Tolstoy's great novel, soon to be a major BBC drama. At a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's army marches on Russia, and the lives of three young people are changed forever. The stories of quixotic Pierre, cynical...

One of the greatest translations of all time: Scott Moncrieff's classic version of Proust, published in three stunning clothbound volumes designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. Proust's masterpiece is one of the seminal works of the twentieth century, recording its narrator's experiences as he grows up, falls in love and lives through the First World War. A profound reflection on art, time,...

An unforgettable portrait of a woman bravely confronting loneliness and despair in her quest for self-determination, from the author of Wide Sargasso Sea. Jean Rhys was a talent before her time, with an impressive ability to express the anguish of young, single women. In Good Morning, Midnight, Rhys created the powerfully modern portrait of Sophia Jansen, whose emancipation is far...

A major new translation of one of Dostoyevsky's four great novels. Demons presents Pyotr and Stavrogin as the leaders of a Russian revolutionary cell, with an ambitious aim to overthrow the Tsar, dismantle society, and seize power for themselves. Together, they train terrorists who are willing to go to any lengths to achieve their objectives— even if the mission means...

Fans of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House will enjoy this disquieting tale of people awaiting the end of the world in a large, isolated house. Mrs Halloran has inherited the great Halloran house on the death of her son, much to the disgust of her daughter-in-law, the delight of her wicked granddaughter, and the confusion of the rest...

Invisible Man, Ellison's blistering and impassioned first novel, won the prestigious American National Book Award. It tells the extraordinary story of a man who is invisible "simply because people refuse to see me". His powerfully depicted adventures—from a terrifying Harlem race riot to his expulsion from a Southern college—extend far beyond the story of one man. The lives of countless...

Since the original, prewar translation, there has been no completely new rendering of the French original into English. This translation brings to the fore a more sharply engaged, comic, and lucid Proust, creating one of the greatest, most entertaining reading experiences in any language. As the great story unfolds from its magical opening scenes to its devastating end, Penguin makes...

Death Comes for the Archbishop is Cather's masterpiece of life, death, and faith in New Mexico, now part of the Modern Classics collection. Two French priests, friends since childhood, are sent to the newly created diocese of New Mexico. Life there is hard and frequently dangerous. Journeys between parishes are beset by the perils of bandits and storms. The people...

Maurice by E.M. Forster is a deeply moving and intensely personal novel that traces the life and emotional journey of Maurice Hall, a young man from a privileged background. Maurice grows up with a keen sense of his societal role but finds himself increasingly drawn to relationships with other men, something that challenges the norms and expectations of early 20th-century...

Since the original prewar translation, there has been no completely new rendering of the French original into English. This translation brings to the fore a more sharply engaged, comic, and lucid Proust. In Search of Lost Time is one of the greatest, most entertaining reading experiences in any language. As the great story unfolds from its magical opening scenes to...

Beautiful clothbound edition of Victor Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism, and love, ahead of the major new film starring Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, and Russell Crowe. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful and tactile cloth. This beautiful clothbound edition of Victor Hugo's...

A chilling collection of Henry James's finest ghost stories, now in a wonderful Clothbound Classics edition. In The Turn of the Screw, one of the most famous ghost stories of all time, a governess becomes obsessed with the belief that malevolent forces are stalking the children in her care. But are the children really in danger—and if so, from whom?...

Henry James's masterpiece, now available in a delightful new clothbound edition. When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy Aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy her freedom, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. Then she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gilbert Osmond....

On Heroes and Tombs is Sabato's masterpiece of obsessive love and murder set in 1950s Buenos Aires, now available in Penguin Modern Classics. This dark, philosophical novel is centred around a violent crime committed by Alejandra, the daughter of a prominent Argentinian family. Alejandra's act entangles the lives of three men: her father, Fernanda Vidal, who believes he is hunted...

Mark Twain's great American masterpiece, in a gorgeous new clothbound edition. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is Mark Twain's tale of a boy's picaresque journey down the Mississippi on a raft, conveying the voice and experience of the American frontier as no other work had done before. When Huck escapes from his drunken father and the 'sivilizing' Widow Douglas with...

Obsessed by creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life by electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living...

Swift's brilliant and satirical classic, in a gorgeous new clothbound edition. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Shipwrecked and cast adrift, Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput, an island inhabited by little...

Beautifully designed, clothbound edition Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Cranford, Gaskell's best-known work, is set in a small rural town, inhabited largely by women. This is a community that runs on cooperation and...

Vladimir Nabokov's shocking masterpiece, now in a beautifully designed clothbound edition. Poet and pervert, Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed by twelve-year-old Lolita and seeks to possess her, first carnally and then artistically, out of love, 'to fix once for all the perilous magic of nymphets'. Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or...

Beautifully designed, clothbound edition Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth — four little women enduring hardships and enjoying adventures in Civil War New England. The charming story of the...

Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, this edition of Treasure Island is beautifully designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. These delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality, colourful, tactile cloth, with foil stamped into the design. The story of Treasure Island grew out of a map that led to imaginary treasure, devised during a holiday in Scotland...

Beautifully designed, clothbound edition Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. In a house haunted by memories, the past is everywhere ... As darkness falls, a man caught in a snowstorm is forced to shelter...

A stunning new clothbound edition of Mary Shelley's infamous work of horror fiction. Obsessed by creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life by electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear....

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin is a monumental work that delves deep into the human psyche and the complexities of love and identity. This beautiful new clothbound edition of Baldwin’s ground-breaking novel further solidifies his status as one of the great American writers of his time. Set against the evocative backdrop of 1950s Paris, the story revolves around David, a...

The Story of the Stone (c. 1760), also known by the title of The Dream of the Red Chamber, is the great novel of manners in Chinese literature. Divided into five volumes, of which The Warning Voice is the third, it charts the glory and decline of the illustrious Jia family—a story which closely accords with the fortunes of the...

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's classic tale - beloved by children and adults alike - now in a beautiful clothbound edition. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry first published The Little Prince in 1943, only a year before his plane vanished over the Mediterranean Sea during a reconnaissance mission. Nearly eighty years later, this fable of love and loneliness has lost none of its power....

Nineteen Eighty-Four is Orwell's masterwork, presented here in a stunning Clothbound Classics edition for the first time. Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet, he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him...

A guaranteed best-seller - a brilliant new edition of one of Penguin's top-ten classics - more than 35k of the Black Classic edition sold every year. Orphaned Jane Eyre grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, where she endures loneliness and cruelty, and at a charity school with a harsh regime. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence...

When Kino, an Indian pearl-diver, finds The Pearl of the World, he believes that his life will be magically transformed. He will marry Juana in church and their little boy, Coyotito, will attend school. Obsessed by his dreams, Kino is blind to the greed, fear and violence the pearl arouses in him and his neighbours. Written with lyrical simplicity The...

Robert Louis Stevenson's immortal tale of personality and evil, now in a wonderful new clothbound edition. Published as a 'shilling shocker', Robert Louis Stevenson's dark psychological fantasy gave birth to the idea of the split personality. The story of respectable Dr Jekyll's strange association with damnable young man Edward Hyde, the hunt through fog-bound London for a killer, and the...

Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before: of the intense passion between the foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and her betrayal of him. As Heathcliff's bitterness...

One of the greatest classics of Chinese literature One of China's Four Great Classical Novels, Monkey King was written anonymously during the Ming dynasty and is most commonly attributed to Wu Cheng'en, the son of a silk-shop clerk from east China. It recounts a Tang-dynasty monk's quest for Buddhist scriptures, accompanied by an omni-talented kung-fu Monkey King called Sun Wukong;...

Handsome, ambitious Julien Sorel is determined to rise above his humble provincial origins. Soon realizing that success can only be achieved by adopting the subtle code of hypocrisy by which society operates, he begins to achieve advancement through deceit and self-interest. His triumphant career takes him into the heart of glamorous Parisian society, along the way conquering the gentle, married...

The definitive version of Jane Austen's timeless novel of love's triumph over adversity. When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane,...

New edition The Longest Journey by E M Forster follows the story of Rickie Elliot, a sensitive and intelligent young man with an intense imagination and a certain amount of literary talent, who sets out from Cambridge full of hopes to become a writer. However, when his stories are not successful, he decides instead to marry the beautiful but shallow...

A Japanese masterpiece, reissued in Modern Classics. Written when Mishima was only twenty-six, Forbidden Colours is a depiction of a male homosexual relationship, in which a rich older man buys the love of a young man who is stunningly handsome but lacks the ability to love. As in Mann's Death in Venice, the older man's longing for the beauty of...

Finnegans Wake follows a man's thoughts and dreams during a single night. It is also a book that participates in the re-reading of Irish history that was part of the revival of the early 20th century. The author, James Joyce, also wrote Ulysses, Dubliners, and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

The most popular anthology of Jorge Luis Borges's short stories, Fictions is a wildly original and influential collection of fantastic tales, translated from the Spanish with an afterword by Andrew Hurley in Penguin Modern Classics. Nobody before Borges had ever attempted this strange and wonderful mixture of arcana, popular literature, national myth, the nature of time and classical themes. Now...

In his introduction, Ronald Blythe places the novel in the context of Henry James's literary career and discusses his depiction of women and themes of money and change. Making her debut in London society, Nanda Brookenham is being groomed for the marriage market. Thrust suddenly into the superficial and immoral circle that surrounds her mother, the innocent but independent-minded young...

In this newly translated classic of spiritual literature, Bernanos considers what it really means to be humble, charitable, and loving. This quiet, imaginative novel is a study of faith in an increasingly hostile world. Through intimate journal entries, the author reveals the private life and struggles of a young, withdrawn, devout, and sickly priest in northern France. Though his beliefs...

One of the great novels of the twentieth century, now with a gorgeous new cover. The marriage of Gertrude and Walter Morel has become a battleground. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes violent husband, delicate Gertrude devotes her life to her children, especially to her sons, William and Paul—determined they will not follow their father into working down the coal...

Nadja is a Surrealist romance, and has come to be known as a book which defined that movement's attitude towards life. With its blend of intimate confession and sense of the marvellous, Nadja weaves a mysterious and compelling tapestry of daily life as seen through a magical perspective. Combining autobiographical fact with memory and imagination, Breton spins one of the...

Since the original prewar translation, there has been no completely new rendering of the French original into English. This translation brings to the fore a more sharply engaged, comic, and lucid Proust, creating one of the greatest, most entertaining reading experiences in any language. As the great story unfolds from its magical opening scenes to its devastating end, it is...

By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angle of Repose A novel of the friendships and woes of two couples, which tells the story of their lives in lyrical, evocative prose by one of the finest American writers of the late 20th century. When two young couples meet for the first time during the Great Depression, they quickly find they have...

New edition of this classic novel, edited by Philip Horne and Ruth Yeazell. This story of the alliance between Italian aristocracy and American millionaires is "a work unique among all James's novels—it is his only novel in which things come out right for his characters... he had finally resolved the questions, curious and passionate, that had kept him at his...

The great underwater adventure story by the Father of Science Fiction. In this thrilling adventure tale, three men embark on an epic journey under the sea with the mysterious Captain Nemo aboard his submarine, the Nautilus. Over the course of their fantastical voyage, they encounter the lost city of Atlantis, the South Pole and the corals of the Red Sea,...

Definitive text in paperback Ivanhoe (1819) was the first of Scott's novels to adopt a purely English subject and was also his first attempt to combine history and romance, which later influenced Victorian medievalism. Set at the time of the Norman Conquest, Ivanhoe returns from the Crusades to claim his inheritance and the love of Rowena, becoming involved in the...

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics—irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Jean-Baptiste Clamence—refined, handsome, forty, a former successful lawyer—is in turmoil. Over several drunken nights, he regales a chance acquaintance with his story. He talks of parties and his debauchery, of Parisian nights and the Aegean sea, and,...

A powerful and essential tale of female freedom This internationally acclaimed masterpiece by one of Iran's most important and influential writers traces the interwoven destinies of five women - including a wealthy middle-aged housewife, a sex worker and a schoolteacher - as they arrive by different paths to live together in an abundant garden on the outskirts of Tehran. Drawing...

From the author of The Lonely Londoners, a short story collection of life in mid-century Trinidad and London, told with Selvon's unique wit and poetic sensibility. With equal humour, sorrow and joy, the master storyteller brings together two worlds and turns his pen to life in Trinidad and London. Sharing tales of gossip and rivalry between village washerwomen, toiling canecutters...

A wonderful new collection of Henry James's short stories about Americans in Europe. Daisy Miller is one of Henry James's great heroines—a young, independent American travelling in Europe, whose flouting of social conventions has the potential to lead to disaster. Her story is here accompanied by six more tales set among English castles, Swiss hotels, and French ports, all riffing...

The Europeans is part of a series of new editions of Henry James's most famous novels and short stories. It is one of a series of new editions of Henry James's most famous short stories and novels.

Parade's End, Ford's great masterpiece set in the First World War, is now available in Penguin Black Classics with an introduction by Julian Barnes. Consisting of four novels - Some Do Not..., No More Parades, A Man Could Stand Up, and The Last Post - Parade's End is the story of Christopher Tietjens and his progress from the secure world...

These stories from the middle period of Chekhov's career show him exploring complex, ambiguous, and often extreme emotions. Influenced by his own experiences as a doctor, Ward No. 6, set in a mental hospital, is a savage indictment of the medical profession. The Black Monk, portraying an academic who has strange hallucinations, explores ideas of genius and insanity. In Murder,...

Part of a series of new editions of Henry James's most famous novels and short stories. When Chadwick Newsome, a young American favoured with fortune and independence, becomes entangled in a liaison dangereux with a Parisian temptress, his overbearing mother deploys her future husband, the elderly, amiable Strether, as an ambassador to engineer his safe return. But seduced by the...

Part of a series of new editions of DH Lawrence's most famous novels, stories and poems. Constance Chatterley feels trapped in her sexless marriage to the invalid Sir Clifford. Unable to fulfil his wife emotionally or physically, Clifford encourages her to have a liaison with a man of their own class. But Connie is attracted instead to her husband's gamekeeper...

The classic dystopian novel from Sweden, written at the midpoint between Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Leo Kall is a zealous, middle-ranking scientist in the totalitarian World State who has just made a thrilling discovery—a new drug, Kallocain, that will force anyone who takes it to tell the truth. At last, criminality will be dragged out into the open,...

A sparkling new translation of Pushkin's masterpiece. Eugene Onegin is the master work of the poet whom Russians regard as the fountainhead of their literature. Set in 1820s Russia, Pushkin's verse novel follows the fates of three men and three women. Engaging, full of suspense, and varied in tone, it contains a large cast of characters and offers the reader...