Secondhand Modern Classics Bargain Book Box DSH960

Secondhand Modern Classics Bargain Book Box

Embark on a remarkable literary adventure with a collection that brings together titans of the written word. This curated selection spans the high seas of epic adventure, the moral battlegrounds of modern India, the witty drawing rooms of P.G. Wodehouse, and the shadowy ruins of post-war Berlin. Featuring Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners alongside counter-cultural touchstones and psychological thrillers, this box is a complete and compelling library for any reader who cherishes powerful storytelling and unforgettable ideas.

1. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
   Join the obsessive Captain Ahab aboard the Pequod in his mad quest for vengeance against the enigmatic white whale. This monumental work of American literature is an epic saga of obsession, the sublime power of nature, and the philosophical search for meaning in a hostile universe. It is a profound and unforgettable voyage into the very heart of darkness.

2. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
   This Man Booker Prize winner is a darkly humorous and electrifying story of ambition from the servant class of modern India. Through the unforgettable voice of Balram Halwai, a chauffeur who becomes a cunning entrepreneur, the novel exposes a world of corruption, class struggle, and survival. It is a thrilling and provocative portrait of a nation in dramatic transition.

3. The Princess and Other Stories by D.H. Lawrence
   This collection showcases the passionate intensity and psychological insight of a master of literary modernism. From the bleak landscapes of English mining towns to the sun-drenched settings of Italy, D.H. Lawrence explores the complex and often fraught relationships between men and women. His characters grapple with the primal forces of instinct, class, and a rapidly changing world.

4. Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz
   Prepare for a journey into the bizarre with this surreal and hilarious Polish masterpiece. When a thirty-year-old man is magically transformed back into a teenager and forced to return to school, he is plunged into a world of absurdity. The novel is a brilliant and savage satire on society's obsession with form, maturity, and conformity.

5. The Tree of Man by Patrick White
   This foundational work of Australian literature is the epic and deeply moving story of Stan and Amy Parker, who carve a farm and a family out of the wilderness. The Nobel laureate Patrick White chronicles their lives through flood, fire, and personal hardship with profound insight. It’s a powerful meditation on the quiet dramas and grand cycles of ordinary life.

6. The Living and the Dead by Patrick White
   Set in the sterile intellectual circles of pre-war London, this complex psychological novel explores the life of Elyot Standish, a man detached from his own emotions. His world is contrasted with the vibrant, instinctual life of his sister and those around him. It is a powerful and challenging exploration of alienation and the difficulty of human connection.

7. The Penguin Henry Lawson: Short Stories by Henry Lawson
   Discover the definitive voice of the Australian bush in this collection from a literary legend. Henry Lawson captures the harsh realities, wry humour, and unwavering resilience of life in the outback with unmatched authenticity. These stories of drovers, shearers, and struggling families are foundational to Australia’s national identity.

8. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
   Meet one of literature's most outrageous and unforgettable creations, Ignatius J. Reilly, in this Pulitzer Prize-winning comic masterpiece. From his bedroom in New Orleans, this gargantuan, lazy, and deluded intellectual wages a relentless war against the failings of the modern world. The novel is a gloriously funny and profoundly moving slice of American fiction.

9. The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
   Sail around the world with the young Charles Darwin on the journey that changed science forever. This vivid and engaging journal is a classic of travel literature, filled with thrilling adventures and fascinating observations of geology, wildlife, and cultures across the globe. It offers a unique glimpse into the development of his world-altering theory of evolution.

10. The Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing
    In a near-future city that is slowly collapsing into chaos, an unnamed narrator watches society crumble from her window while taking responsibility for a mysterious young girl. This haunting, allegorical novel from a Nobel laureate is a powerful and unsettling exploration of social breakdown, memory, psychological trauma, and the resilient nature of hope.

11. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
    This is the charming and heartwarming true story of a twenty-year correspondence between a feisty, book-loving writer in New York and a reserved English bookseller in London. It is a beautiful celebration of the love of literature, a poignant testament to transatlantic friendship, and a delightful glimpse into a bygone era. A true delight for any bibliophile.

12. The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
    Enter the delightful world of the dithering aristocrat Bertie Wooster and his impeccably brilliant gentleman's gentleman, Jeeves. This collection of linked stories showcases the comedic genius of P.G. Wodehouse, as Jeeves effortlessly extracts his master from a series of hopeless social entanglements. It is pure, unadulterated literary joy and the pinnacle of British humour.

13. The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley
    This slim volume became a foundational text of the 1960s counter-culture and a classic exploration of consciousness. Aldous Huxley meticulously documents his experience taking the psychedelic drug mescaline, leading to profound and lyrical reflections on the nature of mind, art, and reality itself. A fascinating journey into the inner world.

14. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
    This landmark essay is one of the most powerful and influential works of feminist literary criticism ever written. With piercing wit and brilliant prose, Virginia Woolf argues for the vital importance of intellectual and financial freedom for female artists. She explores the silent history of women and creativity in a call to arms that resonates to this day.

15. The Good German by Joseph Kanon
    In the rubble-strewn landscape of 1945 Berlin, an American journalist arrives to cover the Potsdam Conference and finds himself ensnared in a murder investigation. His search for the truth leads him back to his former lover and a dark web of secrets from the Nazi past. This is a masterful and atmospheric thriller of moral ambiguity and suspense.

16. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
    A landmark of 20th-century literature, this novel is a devastatingly honest and powerful exploration of love and identity. Set in the bohemian world of 1950s Paris, an American man finds himself torn between his conventional life with his fiancée and his all-consuming, passionate affair with an Italian man. It is a courageous and heartbreaking masterpiece.

17. Claudius the God by Robert Graves
    The brilliant sequel to I, Claudius follows the unlikely emperor as he attempts to rule the treacherous and sprawling Roman Empire. The stammering, scholarly Claudius must navigate deadly court intrigue, foreign wars, and the machinations of his infamous wife, Messalina. It is a gripping and masterful conclusion to one of the greatest historical novels ever written.

18. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
    This wildly inventive and deeply moving novel follows a young Jewish American man's journey to Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Guided by a hilariously inept translator, his quest is interwoven with the fantastical, mythic history of his ancestral village. It's a brilliant, funny, and heartbreaking debut about memory and heritage.

19. The Collector by John Fowles
    A lonely and disturbed clerk wins a fortune and uses it to enact his ultimate fantasy: kidnapping the beautiful art student he has long obsessed over. Told in the chillingly different voices of the captor and his captive, this is a masterful and terrifying psychological thriller. It is an unforgettable exploration of class, obsession, and the nature of evil.

20. Blast from the Past by Ben Elton
    This sharp, satirical thriller explores what happens when youthful idealism collides with middle-aged reality. A happily married man and former 1960s radical finds his comfortable life thrown into chaos when an old comrade reappears, threatening to expose a dark secret from their revolutionary past. A witty and fast-paced novel from a master of social commentary.

21. The First Casualty by Ben Elton
    In the mud and chaos of the trenches of World War I, a London detective is sent to investigate the murder of a celebrated poet-officer. Inspector Kingsley soon discovers that the official story is a lie, uncovering a dark conspiracy of cowardice and class privilege. A gritty and compelling historical thriller that exposes the brutal truths of war.

22. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
    This haunting and exquisite novella is a masterpiece of modern literature. A distinguished and aging writer, Gustav von Aschenbach, travels to Venice seeking inspiration but instead descends into a dangerous obsession with a beautiful adolescent boy. It is a profound and deeply unsettling meditation on art, beauty, passion, and mortality.

23. Turtle Beach by Blanche D'Alpuget
    An Australian journalist travels to Malaysia to report on the harrowing plight of Vietnamese refugees, only to become entangled in a tense web of cultural and political conflict. The novel is a powerful and confronting look at the human cost of political turmoil and the moral responsibility of the West. A bold and insightful work of Australian fiction.