Writing in France in the nineteenth century, Jules Verne expressed the universal fascination with adventure and exploration. Collecting Five Weeks in a Balloon, Around the World in Eighty Days, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, Round the Moon, Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and The Mysterious Island, this omnibus offers a unique compilation of seven of Verne’s Voyages extraordinaires, stories in which he extrapolated developing technology and invention into marvelous fiction.

This volume offers readers a generous introduction to Jules Verne, whose books are as alive today as they were for readers new to the ideas expressed in them during his time.

One of the most widely read novels of all time, Les Misérables was the crowning literary achievement of Victor Hugo´s career. An enormous melodrama set against the background of political upheaval in France following the rule of Napoleon I, the novel tells the story of the peasant Jean Valjean—unjustly imprisoned and hounded by his nemesis, the magnificently realized police detective Javert. A monumental classic dedicated to the oppressed, Les Misérables captures the entirety of life in nineteenth-century France.