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HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'It is thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow.' Living in Ancient Greece in the 5th Century BC, Aesop was said to be a slave and story-teller. His much-loved, enduring fables are revered the world over and remain popular as moral tales for children. With infamous vignettes, such as the race between the hare and the tortoise, the vain jackdaw, and the wolf in sheep's clothing, the themes of the fables remain as fresh today as when they were first told and give an insight into the Ancient Greek world.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'I do not cling to life sufficiently to fear death.' Adventurous and spirited in tone, The Three Musketeers is considered one of the greatest historical French novels. When Athos, Porthos and Aramis befriend a young and determined country boy d'Artagnan, together they confront the scheming King's Minister, Cardinal Richelieu and the female spy Milady who threaten to undermine the King. Swashbuckling, romantic and often humourous, Dumas' novel is a timeless tale of friendship and intrigue.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Alas that mortals Should blame the gods! From us, they say, All evils come. Yet they themselves It is who through defiant deeds Bring sorrow on them-far more sorrow Than fate would have them bear.' Attributed to the blind Greek poet, Homer, The Odyssey is an epic tale about cunning and strength of mind. It takes its starting point ten years after the fall of the city of Troy and follows its Greek warrior hero Odysseus as he tries to journey to his home of Ithaca in northwest Greece after the Greek victory over the Trojans. On his travels, Odysseus comes across surreal islands and foreign lands where he is in turn challenged and supported by those that he meets on his travels as he attempts to find his way back home in order to vanquish those who threaten his estate. In turn, his son Telemachus has to grow up quickly as he attempts to find his father and protect his mother from her suitors. Dealing with the universal themes of temptation and courage, the epic journey that Odysseus undertakes is as meaningful today as it was almost 3,000 years ago when the story was composed.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.' Orphaned as a young teenager, Lowlander David Balfour's only relative is his guardian and uncle, Ebenezer. Ill-thought of and disliked by many, it's not long before Ebenezer betrays his nephew and David finds himself trapped aboard a ship. He soon strikes up a friendship with fugitive stranger and Scottish Highlander Alan Breck and becomes embroiled in the fierce Jacobite struggle against English rule. A tale of high-seas adventure, loyalty and fighting, the complex relationship between Alan and David stops Stevenson's novel from becoming 'just' a boys adventure novel.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. Featuring the last 12 stories ever written about the infamous detective, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes contains some of Conan Doyle's most villainous and unusual characters. The 1920s was a disenchanting era, and the darker mood of many of these stories reflects the environment at the time. Some even felt that the stories showed Conan Doyle exploring Spiritualism as it was an area he was interested in at the time and the mental derangement and physical disfigurements that crop up in many of the stories allude to the horrors of the First World War. The collection includes 'The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire', 'The Adventure of the Creeping Man' and 'The Adventure of the Lion's Mane'.

The Art of War has been a source of great strategical inspiration throughout the ages. Focusing on military strategy, psychology and tactics, each section concentrates on a different facet of warfare and draws out important themes such as communication, strength and positioning. Believed to have been written by Chinese strategist Sun Tzu, The Art of War is highly regarded amongst Chinese culture, but its enduring wisdom has had a far-reaching impact all over the world.

A profoundly disturbing novel that ruthlessly dissects American life in the late 1960s, from the author of The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking. One thing in my defence, not that it matters: I know what 'nothing' means, and keep on playing Somewhere out beyond Hollywood, hollowed-out actress Maria Wyeth's life plays out in a numbing routine of perpetual freeway driving. In her early thirties, divorced from her husband, dislocated from friends, anesthetized to pain and pleasure, Wheth is a woman who has run out of both desires and motives - the epitome of a generation made ill by too much freedom. More than five decades after its original publication, Play it as it Lays remains a profoundly disturbing novel that ruthlessly dissects American life in the late 1960s, from the author of The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart - one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which gives direction to the character of Man.' Including Poe's most terrifying, grotesque and haunting short stories, Tales of Mystery and Imagination is the ultimate collection of the infamous author's macabre works. Considered to be one of the earliest American writers to encapsulate the genre of detective-fiction, the collection features some of his most popular tales.'The Gold-Bug' is the only tale that was popular in his lifetime, whereas 'The Black Cat', 'The Pit and the Pendulum' and 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' became more widely read after his death. Focussing on the internal conflict of individuals, the power of the dead over the living, and psychological explorations of darker human emotion that appear to anticipate Sigmund Freud's later theories on the psyche, Poe's Gothic terror stories are considered masterpieces the world over.

An unforgettable coming of age novel for fans of 13 Reasons Why, It's Kind of a Funny Story, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Fifteen-year-old Jeff wakes up on New Year's Day to find himself in the hospital--specifically, in the psychiatric ward. Despite the bandages on his wrists, he's positive this is all some huge mistake. Jeff is perfectly fine, perfectly normal; not like the other kids in the hospital with him. But over the course of the next forty-five days, Jeff begins to understand why he ended up here--and realizes he has more in common with the other kids than he thought. "With a sprinkling of dark humor and a full measure of humanness, Suicide Notes is quirky, surprising, and a riveting read." --Ellen Hopkins, author of The You I've Never Known and Love Lies Beneath "Like the very best teen novels, Suicide Notes is both classic and edgy, timeless and provocative." --Brent Hartinger, author of Geography Club "Makes a powerful emotional impact." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Jeff's wit and self-discovery are refreshing, poignant, and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny." --School Library Journal

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.'I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.'Shipwrecked on the high seas, Lemuel Gulliver finds himself washed up on the strange island of Lilliput, a land inhabited by quarrelsome miniature people. On his travels he continues to meet others who force him to reflect on human behaviour - the giants of Brobdingnag, the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos. In this scathing satire on the politics and morals of the 18th Century, Swift's condemnation of society and its institutions still resonates today.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.'It happen'd one Day about Noon going towards my Boat, I was exceedingly surpriz'd with the Print of a Man's naked Foot on the Shore.'Shipwrecked in a storm at sea, Robinson Crusoe is washed up on a remote and desolate island. As he struggles to piece together a life for himself, Crusoe's physical, moral and spiritual values are tested to the limit. For 24 years he remains in solitude and learns to tame and master the island, until he finally comes across another human being. Considered a classic literary masterpiece, and frequently interpreted as a comment on the British Imperialist approach at the time, Defoe's fable was and still is revered as the very first English novel.

HarperCollins is proud to present its news range of best-loved, essential classics.'There is no harm in a man's cub.'Best known for the 'Mowgli' stories, Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book expertly interweaves myth, morals, adventure and powerful story-telling. Set in Central India, Mowgli is raised by a pack of wolves. Along the way he encounters memorable characters such as the foreboding tiger Shere Kahn, Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear. Including other stories such as that of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a heroic mongoose and Toomai, a young elephant handler, Kipling's fables remain as popular today as they ever were.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.'There was one place in the world that stood solid and did not melt into unreality: the place where his mother was. Everybody else could grow shadowy, almost non-existent to him, but she could not.'In his quest to find his emotional and independent self, Paul Morel is torn between the strong, Oedipal bond he has with his mother and the relationships he forges as a young adult, with chaste Miriam and the provocative Clara. As Paul matures and struggles with his own and his mother's feelings towards the other women in his life, Lawrence expertly crafts a timeless and universal story of family, love and the relationships that define us.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.‘Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”’So begins the tale of Alice, following a curious White Rabbit down a rabbit-hole and falling into Wonderland. A fantastical place, where nothing is quite as it seems: animals talk, nonsensical characters confuse, Mad Hatter's throw tea parties and the Queen plays croquet. Alice's attempts to find her way home become increasingly bizarre, infuriating and amazing in turn. A beloved classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has continued to delight readers, young and old for over a century.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.'How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young… If it was only the other way!'Wilde's first and only published novel recounts the story of handsome Dorian Gray who upon having his portrait painted desires that it will age and grow ugly while he may remain eternally beautiful. The painting, which reflects each of Gray's sins and transgressions in its hideousness, haunts him until it finally becomes unbearable. In this dark tale of duplicity and mortality, Wilde creates a world where art and reality collide.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.‘Death and honour are thought to be the same, but today I have learned that sometimes they are not.’Set in frontier America in the midst of the French-Indian war, as the French are attempting to overthrow an English fort, Cooper’s story follows Alice and Cora Munro, pioneer sisters who are trying to find their way back to their father, an English commander. Guided by an army major and Magua, an Indian from the Huron tribe, they soon meet Hawk-eye, a frontier scout and his Mohican Indian companions Chingachgook and Uncas.Magua is not all that he seems and the sisters are kidnapped. In The Last of the Mohicans, Cooper sets Indian tribe against Indian tribe and lays bare the brutality of the white man against the Mohicans.