Stanley Appelbaum

A young man, blessed with loving parents and a safe home in a world where want and neglect abound, leaves his family in search of himself. He joins the Samanas, a band of wandering ascetics without possessions or earthly ties. His quest unfulfilled, he descends into a life of unbounded luxury and indulgence. Where is truth? Where will his soul find true ease, in denial, in decadence, or in some truth far greater than himself, so simple, so close to...

It is one of the most memorable first lines in all of literature: "When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed into some kind of monstrous vermin." So begins Kafka's famous short story, The Metamorphosis . Kafka considered publishing it with two of the stories included here in a volume to be called Punishments. The Judgment explores an enigmatic power struggle between a father and son, while In the Penal Colony...

A collection of 39 poems by such major poets as Villon, Ronsard, Voltaire, Claudel, Valâery, Eluard, and others. The book contains biographies and critical notes on each poet and his works.