Books in the 101 Pages series - Alma Classics series

Initially composed by Poe as a public lecture towards the end his career and considered by him the culmination of all his life's work, Eureka is an extended treatise about the creation, existence and the ultimate end of the world.

This volume also contains a further selection of Leonardo da Vinci's fragmentary writings, in the form of fables and aphorisms. Taken together, these pieces provide an invaluable insight into the thought processes of one of the Renaissance's most productive minds.

Part of Balzac's La Comedie humaine cycle, Colonel Chabert is a poignant tale about the pursuit of justice, as well as a portrait of France's transition from the Napoleonic Empire to the Restoration.

The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices is a charming evocation of the adventures Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins experienced on a walking tour of the north-west of England.

In this tragicomic study of deception and disappointment, Italo Svevo - who himself was an undiscovered writer until his old age - parodies elements of his own life and offers an insightful psychological portrait of a person who has lost touch with reality.