This acclaimed fantasy classic of men, elves, and gods is at once breathtakingly exciting and heartbreakingly tragic."One of the most influential fantasies I have ever read." —World Fantasy Award–winning author Michael MoorcockPublished the same year as The Fellowship of the Ring, Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword draws on similar Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon sources.In his greed for land and power, Orm the Strong s...

From Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Michael Dirda, a delightful introduction to the creator of Sherlock HolmesA passionate lifelong fan of the Sherlock Holmes adventures, Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Michael Dirda is a member of The Baker Street Irregulars—the most famous and romantic of all Sherlockian groups. Combining memoir and appreciation, On Conan Doyle is a highly engaging personal introduction to Holmes's creator, as well as a rare insider's accoun...

"As warm and stimulating as a library to which one returns again and again," the Pulitzer Prize–winning critic discusses the rewards of reading books ( Chicago Tribune, Editor's Choice).Once out of school, most of us read for pleasure. Yet there is another equally important, though often overlooked, reason that we read: to learn how to live. Though books have always been understood as life-teachers, the exact way in which...

"So remarkable in truth is this novel that I cannot understand why it is not universally known and admired." - Hugh Walpole"I Am Jonathan Scrivener remains a tantalizing, highly diverting philosophical novel of rare elegance and wit." - Michael DirdaJames Wrexham is thirty-nine, lonely, and stuck in a dead-end job when he comes upon an advertisement for a position as secretary to Mr. Jonathan Scrivener. Much to his surprise, he is hired at a lavish salary despite never even...

It’s not easy being a genius. Just ask Daniel Skipton, the greatest—or, let us say, the most under-recognized—novelist of his generation. Skipton is only a few revisions away from finishing his masterpiece: a satire of literary London that will humiliate his enemies and make him as famous, and as rich, as he deserves. Yet, in the meantime, he is forced to scrape by in obscurity and self-imposed exile amid the deserted canals of Bruges, barely surviving on a regimen of blackmail, bullying, ...

Winner of the 2026 PIA MidAmerica GraphEx Award for Best of Category, Hardcover Book BindingFinalist for the 2026 Locus Awards in the Illustrated and Art Books category"The Korshak Collection is a portrait and biography of a man and his family, who once looked upon the dark skies and saw Immortals, gods hunting in the storm clouds. Stephen Korshak decided to dedicate his life to tell us all how the thunder sounded and preserve the o...

Hailed by critic E. F. Bleiler as a "landmark book in the history of fantasy," Mervyn Wall's classic The Unfortunate Fursey (1946) is set in 11th century Ireland, where the forces of evil have launched an assault on the monastery of Clonmacnoise. Their task is made easier by the fact that one hapless monk, the simple-minded Brother Fursey, cannot manage to pronounce the necessary words of exorcism. When the other monks discover this, the unfortunate Fursey is expelled and sets fo...

Having escaped being burnt at the stake, the reluctant sorcerer Fursey is back in this sequel, trying to make a quiet life for himself as a grocer in the realm of King Ethelwulf. But when his old enemies seize his wife, Fursey resolves to embrace evil and return to Ireland to reclaim her. Along the way, he’ll have to contend with bloodthirsty Vikings, a melancholy vampire, an alcoholic wizard, a lovesick cow, and Satan himself, who is more determined than ever to get his hands on Fursey’s ...

Ezra Pound’s classic book about the meaning of literature, with a new introduction by Michael Dirda.This important work, first published in 1934, is a concise statement of Pound’s aesthetic theory. It is a primer for the reader who wants to maintain an active, critical mind and become increasingly sensitive to the beauty and inspiration of the world’s best literature. With characteristic vigor and iconoclasm, Pound illustrates his precepts with exhibits meticulousl...

“[A] well–edited collection . . . More than friends and less than lovers, Salter and Phelps were literary soul mates.” —Publishers WeeklyIt was James Salter’s third novel, A Sport and a Pastime—together with his film Three and a script he had written for Downhill Racer—that in 1969 prompted Robert Phelps to write a letter of admiration. Though the two writers didn’t know each other, their correspondence went on to span decades.

"Amazing not only as literature but as biography." —Richard Bernstein, The New York TimesOne of the great masterpieces of Russian literature, the Red Cavalry cycle retains today the shocking freshness that made Babel's reputation when the stories were first published in the 1920s. Using his own experiences as a journalist and propagandist with the Red Army during the war against Poland, Babel brings to life an astonishing cast of characters from t...

The second book in Robertson Davies's acclaimed The Deptford Trilogy, with a new foreword by Kelly LinkHailed by the Washington Post Book World as "a modern classic," Robertson Davies’s acclaimed Deptford Trilogy is a glittering, fantastical, cunningly contrived series of novels, around which a mysterious death is woven. The Manticore—the second book in the series after Fifth Business—foll...