"Jonathan Swift's 1729 pamphlet is at once a denunciation of the mistreatment of Ireland's poor and a daringly inventive comic rhapsody. Still shocking in its defiance of good taste and unrivalled in its evisceration of political hypocrisy, this is one of the greatest satires ever written."--from publisher.

Candide and his tutor Pangloss travel the globe trying to follow the philosophy 'All is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds'. However, they are stung and let down at every turn, being robbed, tortured and ridiculed, amongst other trials. On hearing about their often disastrous travels, a listener feels unfortunately less than empathetic, and can't help themselves laughing out loud at this very funny account of the trail our optimistic...

In Anthony Burgess's influential nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, a teen who talks in a fantastically inventive slang that evocatively renders his and his friends' intense reaction against their society. Dazzling and transgressive, A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom. This edition includes the controversial...

Laced with cynicism and truth, "A Handful of Dust" satirizes a certain stratum of English life where all the characters have money, but lack practically every other credential. Murderously urbane, it depicts the breakup of a marriage in the London gentry, where the errant wife suffers from terminal boredom, and becomes enamored of a social parasite and professional luncheon-goer.

A lawyer schemes to gain control of a large fortune by having the present claimant declared insane.

Decimus Junius Juvenalis, known as Juvenal, is one of the greatest satirists and moralists in history. His works, of which sixteen are preserved, are scathing and unapologetic in their presentment of Rome and its citizens. Juvenal is also revered as a social historian for his vivid depictions of Latin life. He wrote his satires between 100 and 127 AD, and although his volumes of poetry were lost for several centuries, his rediscovered works introduced...

Russell Stone, a Chicago writing instructor, discovers in his Berber Algerian student,Thassadit Amzwar, a preternatural happiness that has earned her the nickname "Miss Generosity." Stone soon learns that Thassadit may possess a rare euphoric trait called hyperthymia, and that Thomas Kurton, the charismatic entrepreneur behind genetics lab,Truecyte, wants to use her alleles to deliberately "adjust" the genome to produce happier, longer-living people...

A chemist's life is transformed by the wonders of selling snake oil in this satire of early–twentieth century capitalism by the author of The Time Machine. As a young assistant chemist, George Ponderevo rode his uncle's coattails to a great fortune. His uncle Edward's meteoric rise was all thanks to a miraculous patent medicine, Tono-Bungay-which George knew to be nothing more than sugar water. Though it provided none of its promised curative...

Helen arrives in Appalachian Ohio eager to carry out her boyfriend's ideas for living off the land, but when winter comes he calls it quits. Helped by Rudy, her government-questioning, seasonal-affective-disordered boss, and the neighbor couple Karen and Lily, Helen makes it to spring. Helen, Karen and Lily split the work and the food, build a house, and make a life that sustains them, if barely, for years. Then Karen and Lily's son, Perley, decides...

From the Publisher: Cat's Cradle is Vonnegut's satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet's ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist; a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer; and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny.