Join the world’s greatest detective, Nate the Great, as he solves the mystery of the lost picture! Perfect for beginning readers and the Common Core, this long-running chapter book series will encourage children to problem-solve with Nate, using logical thinking to solve mysteries!  

Pope John Paul I described Dickens’ books as "filled with love for the poor and a sense of social regeneration . . . warm with imagination and humanity". Such true charity permeates Dickens’ novels and ultimately drives the characters either to choose regeneration or risk disintegration. In Great Expectations, Pip—symbolic of the pilgrim convert—gains both improved fortunes and a growth in wisdom, but as he acquires the latter, he must relinquish the former—ending with a wealth of profound goodness, not of worldly goods.

That the Dickensian message was a Christian one is unmistakable. Reminiscent of an Augustinian model, one of reflection, conversion, and moral improvement, Pip undergoes an internal change that manifests itself in his profound contrition for his earlier deeds and his equally profound resolution to make amends. As we travel with Pip, we find that Dickens leads us to an acceptance of worldly limitations and an anticipation of final salvation.

The exciting new edition of Dickens’s classic novel includes critical essays by some of today’s leading Dickens scholars.

The Ignatius Critical Editions represent a tradition-oriented alternative to popular textbook series such as the Norton Critical Editions or Oxford World Classics, and are designed to concentrate on traditional readings of the Classics of world literature. While many modern critical editions have succumbed to the fads of modernism and post-modernism, this series will concentrate on tradition-oriented criticism of these great works.
Edited by acclaimed literary biographer, Joseph Pearce, the Ignatius Critical Editions will ensure that traditional moral readings of the works are given prominence, instead of the feminist, or deconstructionist readings that often proliferate in other series of 'critical editions'. As such, they represent a genuine extension of consumer-choice, enabling educators, students and lovers of good literature to buy editions of classic literary works without having to 'buy into' the ideologies of secular fundamentalism.

The series is ideal for anyone wishing to understand great works of western civilization, enabling the modern reader to enjoy these classics in the company of some of the finest literature professors alive today.\

Contributors to this volume:
Raimund Borgmeier
Crystal Downing
Anthony Esolen
Michael Hanke
Mitchell Kalpakgian
Jill Kriegel
Robert P. Lewis
Regis Martin  

The writer, in a dream, boards a bus on a drizzly afternoon and embarks on a incredible voyage through Heaven and Hell. He meets a host of supernatural beings far removed from his expectations and comes to significant realizations about the ultimate consequences of everyday behavior. This is the starting point for a profound meditation upon good and evil. "If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.

After learning the true meaning of the word "civilization"—a society rooted in truth—the reader is taken on a tour of twelve of the most important books ever written, from Augustine to Shakespeare to the masterpieces of nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature. Each work played a role, for better or for worse, in shaping the civilized world.

Great stories, even when flawed, are a reflection of the greatest truths ever taught, and they share in the storytelling power of God himself: Jesus Christ, who not only taught in parables, but lived out the most dramatic tale ever told. Twelve Great Books takes readers deeper into the presence of the Creator through the beauty of the fruits of his creative gifts.