Classics Collections

If you've ever talked to Eli about anything, you'll know that the good folks here at Exodus are into good books. We're not just talking the classics—we're talking good volumes, quality copies of the classics that look good on a shelf even after years of use. So we are talking about the classics, but a particular presentational kind of the classics.

Fortunately, there are publishers who share the same love of attractive editions, and have made it their business to offer affordable copies to the helpless collector in all of us (some are more helpless than others). There are publishers who put more emphasis on the attractive aspect (Illustrated Junior Library, Everyman's Library), while others are more affordable (Puffin Classics), or strike a happy balance (Sterling Classics).

Puffin Classics, Everyman's Library, and Illustrated Junior Library offer mostly unabridged stories—few of the titles any of them publish have been edited, but a few have undergone weight reduction surgery to make novels like A Tale of Two Cities more manageable for children. Even in the abridgements, however, the author's style and language are retained, so kids aren't completely baffled when they encounter the originals later.

Kids can handle a lot more than we typically give them credit for, though, and we appreciate the fact that most of the books offered by these publishers are unchanged from their original state. Providing classic literature for your kids to read is one of the best ways to get them to love reading in general, and the old texts don't need to be souped up or modernized to have that effect.

Not that a little souping up hurts anything—Everyman's Library and Illustrated Junior Library offer handsome hardcover editions with beautiful full-color illustrations. These aren't just children's book illustrations of the "that's cute but whatever" variety, they're handsome paintings by the likes of N.C. Wyeth (if you aren't a fan, look him up: you will be). Sterling Classics also feature very attractive illustrations by Robert Ingpen (also fan-worthy).

It's important to get kids reading the very best literature from an early age. Great books have a way of forming the character, teaching virtue, offering a new view of the world, and providing wholesome entertainment in a way nothing else can. To have easy access to so many of them is a privilege not to be taken for granted....though we hope you'll take advantage of the opportunity to stock your shelves with these excellent titles.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
Did you find this review helpful?
314 Items found Print
Active Filters: Adult
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Readers #19
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
1956 printing from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$10.00 (2 in stock)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 2 (Cover 1)
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 2 (Cover 2)
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 3
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 4
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
1935 Edition from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Adam Bede
Everyman's Library
by George Eliot
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$24.00
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Mark Twain
from Reader's Digest
Realistic Fiction for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, illustrated by Richard Lebenson
from Reader's Digest
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, illustrated by Sidney Paget
100th Anniversary from SeaWolf Press
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$10.95
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Mark Twain, illustrated by Paul Geiger
from Reader's Digest
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton
from SeaWolf Press
for 10th-Adult
1921 Pulitzer Prize winner
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$9.95
Agnes Grey
by Anne Bronte, Illustrated by Edmund Dulac
from SeaWolf Press
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 10th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$7.95
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Macmillan
Fantasy for 7th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
Arabian Nights
Scribner Illustrated Classics
by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith, editors, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Eastern Fairy Tales for 9th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
Arabian Nights
Scribner Illustrated Classics
by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith, editors, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Eastern Fairy Tales for 9th-Adult
in Scribner Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SCRIB)
$29.99
Around the World in 80 Days
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Jules Verne
from Reader's Digest
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
At the Back of the North Wind
Everyman's Library Children's Classics
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Arthur Hughes
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Fairy Tale for 4th-Adult
$20.00
At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald, Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
from Dilithium Press, Ltd.
Fairy Tale for 4th-Adult
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Frank C. Pape
from Living Book Press
for 4th-Adult
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$12.99
At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald, Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
from David McKay Company
Fairy Tale for 4th-Adult
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
Barnaby Rudge
Everyman's Library
by Charles Dickens
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$25.00
Beau Geste
by Percival Christopher Wren
from Reader's Digest
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Beginnings of Modern Science
by Holmes Boynton, editor
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
for 11th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Ben-Hur
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Lew Wallace
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Betrothed
by Alessandro Manzoni
REPRINT Edition from Living Book Press
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Blackboard Drawing
by Mildred Swannell
from Yesterday's Classics
for Adult
in Art & Drawing Reference (Location: ELE-ARTREF)
$15.95
Book of Marvels: Marvels of the Occident
from Living Book Press
for 3rd-Adult
in International Landmarks & Symbols (Location: HISV-LANINT)
$27.99
Book of Marvels: Marvels of the Occident
by Richard Halliburton
from Living Book Press
for 3rd-Adult
in International Landmarks & Symbols (Location: HISV-LANINT)
$17.99
Book of Marvels: Marvels of the Orient
by Richard Halliburton
from Living Book Press
for 3rd-Adult
in International Landmarks & Symbols (Location: HISV-LANINT)
$17.99
Bridge of San Luis Rey
by Thornton Wilder
from SeaWolf Press
for 9th-Adult
1928 Pulitzer Prize Winner
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$6.95
Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Chivalry
by Thomas Bulfinch
from Living Book Press
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable
by Thomas Bulfinch
from Living Book Press
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Bulfinch's Mythology: The Legends of Charlemagne
by Thomas Bulfinch
from Living Book Press
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk, illustrated by John Thompson
from Reader's Digest
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
from SeaWolf Press
for 6th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$9.95
Catriona (David Balfour)
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Living Book Press
for 9th-Adult
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$11.95
Celebrated Jumping Frog and Other Stories
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Mark Twain
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00 (2 in stock)
Character is Destiny
by Russell Gough
2020 Living Book Press Edition from Living Book Press
for Adult
in Ethics (Location: XCL-ETH)
$14.99
Charlotte Mason Made Easy
by Stephanie Walmsley
from Living Book Press
for Adult
in Charlotte Mason Education (Location: HSR-METCM)
$14.99
Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Stories
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from Dilithium Press, Ltd.
for 5th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Christmas Carol and Other Stories
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from Reader's Digest
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Clipper of the Clouds
by Jules Verne
from SeaWolf Press
for 9th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$8.95
Common Sense
Dover Thrift Editions
by Thomas Paine
from Living Book Press
Political Philosophy for 9th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
Complete Charlotte Mason Home Education series
by Charlotte M. Mason
from Living Book Press
for Adult
in Charlotte Mason Education (Location: HSR-METCM)
$84.54
Complete Charlotte Mason Home Education series
by Charlotte Mason
from Living Book Press
for Adult
in Charlotte Mason Education (Location: HSR-METCM)
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Mark Twain
from Reader's Digest
Social Satire/Comedy for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Books of Wonder
by Mark Twain (illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman)
from HarperCollins
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
David Balfour
Scribner Illustrated Classics
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Action/Adventure for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
David Copperfield
Everyman's Library
by Charles Dickens
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$30.00
David Copperfield
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Charles Dickens
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Deerslayer
Leatherstocking Tales #1
by James Fenimore Cooper, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
from Atheneum
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Discourses of Epictetus
Walter J. Black Classics Club
by Epictetus
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Allan Mandelbaum
from Everyman's Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$35.00
Doctor Zhivago
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Boris Pasternak
from Reader's Digest
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Dombey & Son
Everyman's Library
by Charles Dickens
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$27.50
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Everyman's Library
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$24.00
Dracula
Books of Wonder
by Bram Stoker (illustrated by Barry Moser)
from HarperCollins
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Dracula
Puffin Classics
by Bram Stoker
from Puffin Books
for 10th-Adult
in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF)
$8.99
Dracula
Everyman's Library
by Bram Stoker
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Dracula
Sterling Classics
by Bram Stoker, illustrated by Scott McKowen
Unabridged from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 10th-Adult
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Dracula
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Bram Stoker
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Dracula
by Bram Stoker
from SeaWolf Press
for 10th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
Drawing, Design, and Craft-Work
by Frederick J. Glass
from Yesterday's Classics
in Art & Drawing Reference (Location: ELE-ARTREF)
$16.95
ECL: Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (abridged)
Educator Classic Library #7
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, illustrated by Don Irwin
from Classic Press
for 8th-Adult
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
ECL: Time Machine & Invisible Man
by H. G. Wells, illustrated by Dick Cole
from Classic Press
Science Fiction/Dystopian literature for 7th-Adult
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
Essays and New Atlantis
by Francis Bacon
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
Essays, Poems, Addresses
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
for 11th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights
Dent & Dutton Illustrated Series
by E. Dixon, illustrated by Joan Kiddell-Monroe
from E.P. Dutton & Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Fathers and Sons
by Ivan Turgenev
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Field and Hedgerow
by Richard Jefferies
from Living Book Press
for 6th-Adult
in Living Science (Location: SCI-CMLS)
$11.99
First Men in the Moon
by H. G. Wells
100th Anniversary Edition from SeaWolf Press
for 7th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$8.45
Five Great Dialogues of Plato
by Plato
2nd edition from Walter J. Black, Inc.
Ancient Philosophy for 9th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Food of the Gods
by H.G. Wells
from SeaWolf Press
for 10th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$8.95
Formation of Character
by Charlotte Mason
from Living Book Press
in Charlotte Mason Education (Location: HSR-METCM)
$16.99
Frankenstein
Everyman's Library
by Mary Shelley
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Horror for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$22.00
Frankenstein
Portland House Illustrated Classics
by Mary Shelley, illustrated by Lynd Ward and Aristides Ruiz
from Portland House
Horror for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
From the Earth to the Moon
by Jules Verne, Translated by Louis Mercer & Eleanor King
Illustrated 1874 from SeaWolf Press
for 9th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$11.95
Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
from Reader's Digest
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ghostly Tales and Eerie Poems
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Edgar Allan Poe
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ghostly Tales and Eerie Poems
Illustrated Junior Library Series 3
by Edgar Allan Poe
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Golden Treasury
by Francis Turner Palgrave (editor)
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
Good-bye, Mr. Chips
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by James Hilton
1st edition from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck, illustrated by James Hays
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Great Expectations
Everyman's Library
by Charles Dickens
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$28.00
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Scott McKowen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 8th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Greyfriars Bobby
by Eleanor Atkinson
from Living Book Press
for 6th-Adult
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
$9.99
Gulliver's Travels
Sterling Classics
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Scott McKowen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
Satire/Social Commentary for 9th-Adult
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Gulliver's Travels
Puffin Classics
by Jonathan Swift
from Puffin Books
Satire/Social Commentary for 9th-Adult
in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF)
$7.99
Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Series 3
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Readers #15
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
1954 Edition from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.00 (2 in stock)
Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Series 1
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Series 2
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Gulliver's Travels
Windermere Series 4
by Jonathan Swift, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Heart of the West
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by O. Henry
from Reader's Digest
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
His Last Bow
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
100th Anniversary from SeaWolf Press
for 6th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$8.95
History of Henry Esmond, Esq.
by William Makepeace Thackeray, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
for 11th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
History of King Charles II of England
by Jacob Abbott
from Living Book Press
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$10.99
1234