Biographical fiction / autobiographical fiction
Vintage Publishing The Death Of The Heart
Book Synopsis''One of the best novels about a young woman that I've ever read'' Greta GerwigWhen sixteen-year-old Portia is orphaned, she is plunged into the sophisticated and politely treacherous world of her wealthy half-brother''s home. There she encounters the attractive cad Eddie. To him, Portia is at once child and woman, and he fears her gushing love. To her, Eddie is the only reason to be alive. But when Eddie follows Portia to a sea-side resort, the flash of a cigarette lighter in a darkened cinema illuminates a stunning romantic betrayal - and sets in motion one of the most moving and desperate flights of the heart in modern literature.''One of the last century''s greatest woman writers'' Guardian''This is a stunning portrait of the human heart, a raw account of romantic betrayal and the pains of growing up'' Sunday Times **One of the 50 best books of the past 100 years**Trade ReviewBowen is "the link that connects Virginia Woolf with Iris Murdoch and Muriel Spark." -- Victoria GlendinningIronic comedy as well as tragedy, The Death of the Heart tells a story as old as wickedness: the world's betrayal of innocence * TIME Magazine, 1939 *Bowen had a genius for conveying the reader straight into the most powerful and complex regions of the heart * New York Times *
£9.49
Union Square & Co. Frankenstein
Book Synopsis'Frankenstein' is often hailed as a masterpiece of 19th-century Gothicism. The monster's culpability for various horrific acts, his powerlessness in the face of his complete ostracism from society and Dr Frankenstein's lies, abdication of responsibility and the pain he inflicts on his creation raise chilling questions.
£18.00
Penguin Books Ltd The Town and the City
Book Synopsis''It is the sum of myself, as far as the written word can go'' Kerouac on THE TOWN AND THE CITY Kerouac''s debut novel is a great coming of age story which can be read as the essential prelude to his later classics. Inspired by grief over his father''s death and gripped by determination to write the Great American Novel, he draws largely on his own New England childhood.
£11.69
Vintage Publishing Olivia
Book SynopsisDorothy Strachey (1865-1960) was the sister of the novelist Lytton Strachey and a prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group. She was André Gide's main English translator. Olivia, originally published under a pseudonym, is her only novel.Trade ReviewPerfectly captures the breathless excitement of adolescent passion * Sarah Waters *A remarkable novel which is unique in its presentation of the female mind and emotions in teachers and pupils at a girls' school. It has a strange combination of strength and delicacy * The Times *It is the story of an overheated emotional glasshouse, of an awakening and febrile yearnings, of the anguished decoding of tiny signals of intention from the beloved, of fervid alliances and bitter jealousies between two factions of girls, and the falling out of the two teachers they adore, with a shattering conclusion * Guardian *The chapter from Dorothy Strachey's Olivia, which deals with the well-worn topic of a schoolgirl's love for her teacher, seems fresh and beautifully done -- Julie Burchill * Sunday Times *A narrative of sheer emotion... Olivia achieves the purity of classic tragedy * New York Times Book Review *
£8.54
Vintage Publishing Crime and Punishment
Book SynopsisFyodor Dostoevsky was born in Moscow on 11th November 1821. He had six siblings and his mother died in 1837 and his father in 1839. He graduated from the St Petersburg Academy of Military Engineering in 1846 but decided to change careers and become a writer. His first book, Poor Folk, did very well but on 23rd April 1849 he was arrested for subversion and sentenced to death. After a mock-execution his sentence was commuted to hard labour in Siberia where he developed epilepsy.He was released in 1854. His 1860 book, The House of the Dead was based on these experiences. In 1857 he married Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva. After his release he adopted more conservative and traditional values and rejected his previous socialist position. In the following years he spent a lot of time abroad, struggled with an addiction to gambling and fell deeply in debt. His wife died in 1864 and he married Anna Grigoryeva Snitkina. In the following years he published his most enduring and successful books, includingCrime and Punishment (1865). He died on 9th February 1881.Trade ReviewDostoevsky makes Martin Amis seem as if he was writing 130 years ago and that Dostoevsky is writing now. Read all of Dostoevsky. These books are for now and they matter, because it's up to us to call a halt to our TV producers, politicians, gutless artists, poets and writers: these "teenagers of all ages" who are propelling us towards a consumerist hell of disposability over qualityDostoevsky's finest masterpiece * John Bayley *Donne, Herbert, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Dostoevsky, Henry James - these are the great psychologists - far greater than Freud or Klein or JungThe best translation of Crime and Punishment currently available... An especially faithful re-creation...with a coiled-spring kinetic energy... Don't miss it * Washington Post *Crime and Punishment...is about a big subject - the meaning of life - yet it is gritty, gripping and it's depiction of city life gives it a modern, timeless feel
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Daisy Miller and The Turn of the Screw Henry
Book SynopsisThe Penguin English Library Edition of Daisy Miller and The Turn of the Screw by Henry JamesI''m a fearful, frightful flirt! Did you ever hear of a nice girl that was not?This edition contains two of Henry James''s most popular short works. Travelling in Europe with her family, Daisy Miller, an exquisitely beautiful young American woman, presents her fellow-countryman Winterbourne with a dilemma he cannot resolve. Is she deliberately flouting social convention in the outspoken way she talks and acts, or is she simply ignorant of those conventions? In Daisy Miller Henry James created his first great portrait of the enigmatic and dangerously independent American woman, a figure who would come to dominate his later masterpieces.Oscar Wilde called James''s chilling The Turn of the Screw ''a most wonderful, lurid poisonous little tale''. It tells of a young governess sent to a country house to take charge of two orphans,
£7.99
Penguin Books Ltd The 120 Days of Sodom
Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 2017 SCOTT MONCRIEFF PRIZE A new translation of Sade''s most notorious, shocking and influential novel.This disturbing but hugely important text has influenced countless individuals throughout history: Flaubert and Baudelaire both read Sade; the surrealists were obsessed with him; film-makers like Pasolini saw parallels with twentieth-century history in his writings; and feminists such as Andrea Dworkin and Angela Carter clashed over him. This new translation brings Sade''s provocative novel into Penguin Classics for the first time, and will reignite the debate around this most controversial of writers.Trade ReviewWithout in any way giving in to hyperbole, I would say that this translation is a 21st century monument, changing not only the way in which we view the French 18th century, but providing a guide to the present and future -- Andrew Hussey, Scott Moncrieff Prize judgeThe great merit of this edition is the thoroughly excellent translation by Will McMorran and Thomas Wynn. It has none of the phoney archaism of earlier English translations. Instead it is like a window, allowing us to have as clear of view as possible of Sade's mind and world ... In their scholarly and wise introduction, the translators are careful to emphasise the historical context ... Sade's novel feels as grimly relevant to the terrors of our age as to those of his own. * The Economist *An excellent translation * The Times Literary Supplement *A blistering new translation ... This new version of the 120 Days is well overdue [and] these two dons have done a sterling job ... This new, accessible 120 Days also forces us to confront ourselves * Erotic Review *We thought this translation was quite exceptional in its capacity to capture the true voice of this strange and difficult eighteenth-century text, the textual and editorial scholarship of the translators, their wonderful handling of the terminology and the diction of the original, along with the fluency of their translation, and the ways in which it creates for the first time for Anglophone readers a properly accurate version of Sade's text -- Ian Patterson, Scott Moncrieff Prize judge
£11.69
Oxford University Press About Love and Other Stories
Book Synopsis''the greatest short story writer who has ever lived''Raymond Carver''s unequivocal verdict on Chekhov''s genius has been echoed many times by writers as diverse as Katherine Mansfield, Somerset Maugham, John Cheever and Tobias Wolf. While his popularity as a playwright has sometimes overshadowed his achievements in prose, the importance of Chekhov''s stories is now recognized by readers as well as by fellow authors. Their themes - alienation, the absurdity and tragedy of human existence - have as much relevance today as when they were written, and these superb new translations capture their modernist spirit. Elusive and subtle, spare and unadorned, the stories in this selection are among Chekhov''s most poignant and lyrical. They include well-known pieces such as ''The Lady with the Little Dog'', as well as less familiar work like ''Gusev'', inspired by Chekhov''s travels in the Far East, and ''Rothschild''s Violin'', a haunting and darkly humorous tale about death and loss. ABOUT THETrade Review...outstanding translations of a selection of Chekhov's stories... * Robert Chandler, Literary Review *Bartlett's Chekhov is a masterpiece of texture and rhythm. Not a false word anywhere. * Caryl Emerson, Princeton University *Seventeen peerless examples of how much life you can put into a few pages of fiction if you have Chekhovs economical mind, his eyes and ears, his feel for comedy and his sense of humanity. Chekhov is better known for his plays. But these are small masterpieces of their own, in a revelatory new translation. * Economist *Table of ContentsTHE HUNTSMAN; ON THE ROAD; THE LETTER; FORTUNE; GUSEV; FISH LOVE; THE BLACK MONK; ROTHSCHILD'S VIOLIN; THE STUDENT; THE HOUSE WITH THE MEZZANINE; IN THE CART; THE MAN IN A CASE; GOOSEBERRIES; ABOUT LOVE; THE LADY WITH THE LITTLE DOG; AT CHRISTMAS TIME; THE BISHOP
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd Animal Farm. The Illustrated Edition
Book Synopsis2015 is the 70th anniversary of Animal Farm. To commemorate this important anniversary, Penguin Classics is republishing the classic illustrated Animal Farm by Joy Batchelor and John Halas. When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless elite among them, masterminded by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, starts to take control. Soon the other animals discover that they are not all as equal as they thought, and find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny is replaced with another. Orwell's chilling 'fairy story' is a timeless and devastating satire of idealism betrayed by power and corruption.
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd Chess
Book Synopsis''... a human being, an intellectual human being who constantly bends the entire force of his mind on the ridiculous task of forcing a wooden king into the corner of a wooden board, and does it without going mad!''A group of passengers on a cruise ship challenge the world chess champion to a match. At first, they crumble, until they are helped by whispered advice from a stranger in the crowd - a man who will risk everything to win. Stefan Zweig''s acclaimed novella Chess is a disturbing, intensely dramatic depiction of obsession and the price of genius.Trade ReviewA brilliant writer * New York Times *One of the joys of recent years is the translation into English of Stefan Zweig's stories -- Edmund de WaalStefan Zweig was a late and magnificent bloom from the hothouse of fin de siecle Vienna * The Wall Street Journal *Zweig is one of the masters of the short story and novella, and by 'one of the masters' I mean that he's up there with Maupassant, Chekhov, James, Poe, or indeed anyone you care to name -- Nick Lezard * Guardian *A new favourite writer of mine -- Wes AndersonPerhaps the best chess story ever written, perhaps the best about any game -- EconomistHis great achievement in short form * The Times *
£7.99
Penguin Books Ltd Dimension of Miracles Robert Scheckley Penguin
Book Synopsis''Hilarious SF satire. Douglas Adams said it was the only thing like The Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy, although written ten years earlier. It''s wonderful'' Neil GaimanThis madcap cosmic farce relates the adventures of the hapless human Carmody, as he attempts to make his way home to Earth after winning the grand prize in the Intergalactic Sweepstake, encountering parallel worlds, incompetent bureaucrats and talking dinosaurs on the way.''The greatest entertainer ever produced by science fiction ... a feast of wit and intelligence'' J. G. BallardTrade ReviewRobert Sheckley's hilarious SF satire. Douglas Adams said it was the only thing like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, written ten years earlier. It's a wonderful thing -- Neil GaimanRobert Sheckley is one of the great funny writers -- Douglas AdamsRobert Sheckley is the greatest entertainer ever produced by modern science fiction . . . what a feast of wit and intelligence he lays out -- J.G BallardA sort of intergalactic Alice in Wonderland . . . quite remarkably funny * Daily Telegraph *
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Penguin Books Ltd The Gift of the Magi O. Henry Little Clothbound
Book SynopsisIntroducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith.A Penguin Classic HardcoverO. Henry is one of the most popular American writers of the twentieth century and a true master of the short story. This selection of tales ranges from Christmas in New York to the cattle-lands of Texas, taking in con men, clerks, shop assistants, tramps and tricksters. They all highlight O. Henry's comic eye, his gift for evoking speech and setting, and his unique approach to life's quirks of fate.
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Nutcracker
Book Synopsis
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Alma Books Ltd The Blind Owl and Other Stories
Book SynopsisFollowing a disjointed, vision-like structure, The Blind Owl is the nightmarish exploration of the psyche of a madman. The narrator is an ailing, solitary misanthrope who suffers from hallucinations, and his dreamlike tale is layered, circular, driven by its own demented logic, and punctuated with macabre and surreal episodes such as the discovery of a mutilated corpse, and a bizarre competition in which two men are locked in a dungeon-like room with a cobra. Initially banned in the author's native Iran, the novel first appeared in Tehran in 1941 and became a bestseller. Full of powerful symbolism and terrifying imagery, this dark novella is Hedayat's masterpiece.Trade ReviewThe father of modern Persian short stories. * The Guardian *
£9.49
Pan Macmillan Classic Stories from the Age of Decadence
Book SynopsisProfessor Jane Desmarais is an academic specializing in Decadence Studies at Goldsmiths University of London. She is Editor-in-Chief of Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies, and Chair of the British Association of Decadence Studies.
£10.44
Pan Macmillan Arabian Nights
£10.79
Arcturus Publishing In the Penal Colony and Other Stories
Book SynopsisFranz Kafka (1883-1924) was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, born into a middle-class Jewish family in Prague. His name has become a byword for alienation and guilt and his harrowing yet humorous work features individuals in an impersonal and bureaucratic world over which they have increasingly little power.
£7.59
Union Square & Co. Dracula
Book SynopsisFirst published in 1897, Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' established the ground rules for virtually all vampire fiction written in its wake. This volume has an exquisitely designed foil-stamped binding, with distinctive coloured edging and an attractive silk-ribbon bookmark.
£18.00
Union Square & Co. Walden and Civil Disobedience
Book SynopsisIn 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved into a cabin in the woods at Walden Pond to record a philosophical experiment in living: to simplify his life, to support himself entirely by his own labor, and to draw spiritual sustenance from his surroundings. The result: Walden: Or, Life in the Woods (1854).
£8.99
Union Square & Co. Pride and Prejudice
Book SynopsisA novel of manners about the romantic pas de deux between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, two perfectly suited lovers who, at first, find each other insufferable.
£17.10
Pushkin Press Her Side of the Story
Book SynopsisA captivating feminist classic about a woman's struggle for independence in fascist Italy, from the author of Forbidden Notebook - with an afterword by Elena FerranteAlessandra has always wanted more than life offered her. Growing up in a crowded apartment block in 1930s Rome, she watches as her mother's dreams of becoming a concert pianist are stifled by marriage. When her father's traditional family try to make Alessandra marry at a young age, she rebels against the future they imagine for her. Soon she falls passionately in love with Francesco, an anti-fascist professor, and a new world seems to open up. Working for the underground resistance, she tastes the independence that she has yearned for. What will it take for her to break free from society's expectations, and live on her own terms?Drawing on Alba de Céspedes's own experiences during Italy's wartime uprising, Her Side of the Story is a feminist chronicle of fierce and unforgettable power.
£11.69
Cornerstone For Whom the Bell Tolls
Book SynopsisErnest Miller Hemingway was born in Chicago in 1899 as the son of a doctor and the second of six children. After a stint as an ambulance driver at the Italian front, Hemingway came home to America in 1919, only to return to the battlefield this time as a reporter on the Greco-Turkish war in 1922. Resigning from journalism to focus on his writing instead, he moved to Paris where he renewed his earlier friendship with fellow American expatriates such as Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. Through the years, Hemingway travelled widely and wrote avidly, becoming an internationally recognized literary master of his crat. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, following the publication of The Old Man and the Sea. He died in 1961Trade ReviewHis passionately committed, flawed masterpiece * Observer *A sparse, masculine, world-weary meditation on death, ideology and the savagery of war in general, and the Spanish civil war in particular * Sunday Telegraph *For Whom the Bell Tolls allowed us to actually see the experience of an irregular struggle, from the political and military point of view...That book became a familiar part of my life. And we always went back to it, consulted it, to find inspiration * Observer *I read as a kid, of course, but it didn't get me like that till I read For Whom the Bell Tolls. I was very taken with that book. I still reread sections, though I'm now reading it not for the thrill of the story but for the technique and craft of it. * Daily Mail *The best book Hemingway has written * New York Times *
£8.54
Canterbury Classics Wuthering Heights
Book SynopsisDiscover the tortured tales of Heathcliff, Catherine, and the other inhabitants of Wuthering Heights.Uncover a passionate tale of love lost, found, and avenged in Wuthering Heights. Lockwood, a wealthy man from England, rents a house from an eccentric gentleman named Heathcliff, who is the tortured master of Wuthering Heights. Through Lockwood and the housekeeper, Nelly, the story of Heathcliff’s adoption, upbringing, revenge, and love for Catherine is told. The unconventional relationships and complex story structure will keep you turning pages long into the night.
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Great Expectations
Book SynopsisPip doesn't expect much from life... His sister makes it clear that her orphaned little brother is nothing but a burden on her. But suddenly things begin to change. Pip's narrow existence is blown apart when he finds an escaped criminal, is summoned to visit a mysterious old woman and meets the icy beauty Estella.Trade Review"No story in the first person was ever better told."
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd The Canterbury Tales A retelling by Peter Ackroyd
Book SynopsisGeoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, courtier and diplomat. Chaucer is credited by some scholars as being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language, rather than French or Latin.Peter Ackroyd is a well known writer and historian. He has been the literary editor of The Spectator and chief book reviewer for the The Times, as well as writing several highly acclaimed books including a biography of Dickens and London: The Biography. He resides in London and his most recent highly acclaimed work is Thames: Sacred River.Trade ReviewAckroyd's 'retelling' is compulsive, bold and rare and will surely become a vital crib for generations of students to come. -- Robert McCrum * Observer *
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Oxford University Press The Mabinogion
Book SynopsisThen they took the flowers of the oak, and the flowers of the broom, and the flowers of the meadowsweet, and from those they conjured up the fairest and most beautiful maiden that anyone had ever seen.Celtic mythology, Arthurian romance, and an intriguing interpretation of British history -- these are just some of the themes embraced by the anonymous authors of the eleven tales that make up the Welsh medieval masterpiece known as the Mabinogion. They tell of Gwydion the shape-shifter, who can create a woman out of flowers; of Math the magician whose feet must lie in the lap of a virgin; of hanging a pregnant mouse and hunting a magical boar. Dragons, witches, and giants live alongside kings and heroes, and quests of honour, revenge, and love are set against the backdrop of a country struggling to retain its independence.Sioned Davies'' lively translation recreates the storytelling world of medieval Wales and re-invests the tales with the power of performance.Trade ReviewDavies's prose is stark and fierce, the laconic dialogue spine-tingling, and she makes the page sing. * Marina Warner, The Independent *An accurate and very lively version of the tales: it sounds modern and reads well. * Gwyn Thomas, Cambria Magazine *This fresh, energetic translation is a revelation and, for the first time, shows off The Mabinogion tales as what they were originally: splendid entertainment. * The Guardian Review *The Mabinogion is famously magical. Enchantment glows on every page, but it does not here violate the laws of nature: it reveals them. * Murrough O'Brien, The Independent on Sunday *An illuminating and relaxed translation...The Mabinogion are the cornerstone of medieval Welsh literature. They are gloriously inventive, highly dramatic, sometimes ferocious, sometimes lyrical, often witty, and ultimately profound in their understanding and revelation of human nature. In my estimate, Sioned Davies has done them and her modern readers proud. * Kevin Crossley-Holland, The Times (Books) *Davies's translation surpasses all its predecessors in accuracy and readability... [her] scholarly introduction is greatly superior to that of previous translators and can be recommended unreservedly. * Patrick Sims-Williams, TLS *It may be said at once that the translation will have instant success. It will bring the tales to thousands of new readers, while its commentary will be a vital tool for scholars....By fuelling debate on this and other questions, Sioned Davies's splendid volume inaugurates a new age of Mabinogion studies. * Modern Language Review *...a frsh translation which clears away archaisms and preconceptions to privilege the clear voice of story...[and] which is linguistically rigorous yet ever awake to the requirements of both text and reader. * Institute of Translation and Interpreting *Table of ContentsIntroduction Translator's Note Guide to Pronunciation Select Bibliography Map: The Wales of theMabinogion THE MABINOGION The First Branch of the Mabinogi The Second Branch of the Mabinogi The Third Branch of the Mabinogi The First Branch of the Mabinogi Peredur son of Efrog The Dream of the Emperor Maxen Lludd and Llefelys The Lady of the Well Geraint son of Erbin How Culhwch won Olwen Rhonabwy's Dream Explanatory Notes Glossary of Personal Names Glossary of Place-Names
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Little, Brown Book Group Mary Anne
Book SynopsisBased on the true story of one of du Maurier's own distant relatives, Mary Anne's love of money and the men who spend it embroil her in risks that threaten her very existence.
£9.49
Pan Macmillan The Stars Look Down
Book SynopsisFrom the author of The Green Years and The Citadel, and the creator of Dr Finlay's Casebook.
£9.49
Faktion Books Pechorin
£13.29
Random House To the Lighthouse
Book SynopsisVirginia Woolf (1882-1941) was born in London. She became a central figure in The Bloomsbury Group, an informal collective of British writers, artists and thinkers. In 1912 Virginia married Leonard Woolf, a writer and social reformer. She wrote many works of literature which are now considered masterpieces, including Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, and The Waves.
£17.00
Random House Oliver Twist
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£17.09
Random House Brave New World
Book SynopsisA beautiful hardback edition of Huxley''s inconic dystopian classic, introduced by Yuval Noah Harari''A masterpiece of speculation... As vibrant, fresh, and somehow shocking as it was when I first read it'' Margaret Atwood''If you have time for just one book, this would be my top choice'' Yuval Noah HarariWelcome to New London. Everybody is happy here.Our perfect society achieves peace and stability by dispensing with monogamy, privacy, money, family and history itself. Now everyone belongs.You can be happy too.All you need to do is take your Soma pills.This is the brave new world of Aldous Huxley''s deeply sinister and prophetic novel, a society based on maximum pleasure and complete surveillance - no matter the cost.''Provoking, stimulating, shocking and dazzling'' Observer''Such ingenious wit, derisive logic and swiftness of expression'' The TimesVintage Quarterbo
£15.29
Chartwell Books The Great Gatsby
£13.49
HarperCollins Publishers Sense and Sensibility Collins Classics
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.''Oh! Mama, how spiritless, how tame was Edward''s manner in reading to us last night! I felt for my sister most severely. Yet she bore it with so much composure, she seemed scarcely to notice it. I could hardly keep my seat.''Spirited and impulsive, Marianne Dashwood is the complete opposite to her controlled and sensible sister, Elinor. When it comes to matters of the heart, Marianne is passionate and romantic and soon falls for the charming, but unreliable Mr Willoughby. Elinor, in contrast, copes stoically with the news that her love, Edward Ferrars is promised to another.It is through their shared experiences of love that both sisters come to learn that the key to a successful match comes from finding the perfect mixture of rationality and feeling.
£5.62
Cornerstone A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway Arrow classic
Book SynopsisIn 1918 Ernest Hemingway went to war, to the ''war to end all wars''. He volunteered for ambulance service in Italy, was wounded and twice decorated. Out of his experiences came his early masterpiece, A Farewell to Arms. In an unforgettable depiction of war, Hemingway recreates the fear, the comradeship, the courage of his young American volunteers and the men and women he encounters along the way with conviction and brutal honesty. A love story of immense drama and uncompromising passion, A Farewell to Arms offers a unique and unflinching view of the world and people, by the winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.Trade ReviewFlawless... such mastery of narrative, imagery and feeling, the prerequisites for great prose * Guardian *It seems such simple and straightforward language, but it isn't. The first chapter of A Farewell to Arms is only two and a bit pages but there is almost every variety of sentence structure. It is incredibly artful writing, and part of the art is disguising that it is artful * Guardian *There is something so complete in Mr. Hemingway's achievement in A Farewell to Arms that one is left speculating as to whether another novel will follow in this manner, and whether it does not complete both a period and a phase...crisply natural and convincing * Guardian, 1929 *A novel of great power * Times Literary Supplement *Essential Hemingway...a gripping account of the life of an American volunteer in the Italian army and a poignant love story * Daily Express *
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Penguin Books Ltd Hard Times Charles Dickens Penguin Clothbound
Book SynopsisPart of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Coketown is dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, school headmaster and model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both his pupils and family with facts, he bans fancy and wonder from any young minds. As a consequence his obedient daughter Louisa marries the loveless businessman and 'bully of humanity' Mr Bounderby, and his son Tom rebels to become embroiled in gambling and robbery. And, as their fortunes cross with those of free-spirited circus girl Sissy Jupe and victimized weaver Stephen Blackpool, Gradgrind is eventually forced to recognize the value of the human heart in an age of materialism and machinery.
£15.29
Union Square & Co. Edgar Allen Poe
Book SynopsisThis anthology gathers over 20 of Poe's groundbreaking tales of the macabre and also includes his trilogy of stories featuring detective C. Auguste Dupin.
£18.00
Pan Macmillan The Hunchback of NotreDame
Book SynopsisVictor-Marie Hugo was born in Besançon, France, in 1802. A precocious writer, in 1827 he published his epic verse drama Cromwell, a political allegory whose preface might be regarded as a Romanticist manifesto. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame followed in 1831 and throughout the following decade he wrote a number of plays, stories and poetry collections. However, his literary output in the few years after 1843, when his daughter died in a drowning accident, was sparse. He began a new novel as an outlet for his grief, but would only complete it many years later as Les Misérables (1862). He died in 1885.
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Wuthering Heights
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.Is Mr. Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil?'Heathcliff, an orphan, wild and unkempt, is taken in by Mr Earnshaw and raised as his son at Wuthering Heights on the bleak Yorkshire moors. He is drawn to Earnshaw's daughter Catherine, and as the pair grow up together they become bound by an intense and passionate love. But when Catherine's father dies, Heathcliff is condemned to servitude, and social disparity drives a wedge between them that will eventually become their downfall.Poetic, grand in scope, and with complex ideas of morality, social codes, violence and illness, Wuthering Heights is one of the most unique and emotive Gothic novels, and is consideredEmily Brontë's masterpiece.
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HarperCollins Publishers Traitors Legacy
Book SynopsisTHE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER INTRODUCING AN INCREDIBLE NEW SERIES FROM THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING MASTER OF HISTORICAL CRIME, S. J. PARRIS
£18.00
Penguin Books Ltd Sword of Honour
Book SynopsisEvelyn Waugh''s masterful depiction of World War II, with an introduction by Martin StannardWaugh''s own unhappy experience of being a soldier is superbly re-enacted in this story of Guy Crouchback, a Catholic and a gentleman, commissioned into the Royal Corps of Halberdiers during the war years 1939-45. High comedy - in the company of Brigadier Ritchie-Hook or the denizens of Bellamy''s Club - is only part of the shambles of Crouchback''s war. When action comes in Crete and in Yugoslavia, he discovers not heroism, but humanity. Sword of Honour combines three volumes: Officers and Gentlemen, Men at Arms and Unconditional Surrender, which were originally published separately. Extensively revised by Waugh, they were published as the one-volume Sword of Honour in 1965, in the form in which Waugh himself wished them to be read.''Marvellous ... one of the masterpieces of the century''John Banville, Irish Times
£14.24
Penguin Books Ltd Coming Up for Air
Book SynopsisGeorge Orwell''s paean to the end of an idyllic era in British history, Coming Up for Air is a poignant account of one man''s attempt to recapture childhood innocence as war looms on the horizon.George Bowling, forty-five, mortgaged, married with children, is an insurance salesman with an expanding waistline, a new set of false teeth - and a desperate desire to escape his dreary life. He fears modern times - since, in 1939, the Second World War is imminent - foreseeing food queues, soldiers, secret police and tyranny. So he decides to escape to the world of his childhood, to the village he remembers as a rural haven of peace and tranquillity. But his return journey to Lower Binfield may bring only a more complete disillusionment ...''Very funny, as well as invigoratingly realistic ... Nineteen Eighty-Four is here in embryo. So is Animal Farm ... not many novels carry the seeds of two classics as well as being richly readable themselves''John Carey, Sunday Times
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd Villette
Book SynopsisThe Penguin English Library Edition of Villette by Charlotte Brontë''That evening more firmly than ever fastened into my soul the conviction that Fate was of stone, and Hope a false idol - blind, bloodless, and of granite core. I felt, too, that the trial God had appointed me was gaining its climax, and must now be turned by my own hands, hot, feeble, trembling as they were''With neither friends nor family, Lucy Snowe sets sail from England to find employment in a girls'' boarding school in the small town of Villette. There she struggles to retain her self-possession in the face of unruly pupils, an initially suspicious headmaster and her own complex feelings, first for the school''s English doctor and then for the dictatorial professor Paul Emmanuel. Drawing on her own deeply unhappy experiences as a governess in Brussels, Charlotte Brontë''s last and most autobiographical novel is a powerfully moving study of isolation and the pain of unrequited love, narrated by a heroine determined to preserve an independent spirit in the face of adverse circumstances.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Pride and Prejudice Penguin Classics Deluxe
Book SynopsisAn iconic novel dressed in a fierce design by acclaimed fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo. This couture-inspired collection also features Jane Eyre, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dracula, The Scarlet Letter and Wuthering Heights. Ruben Toledo’s breathtaking drawings have appeared in such high-fashion magazines as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Visionaire. Now he’s turning his talented hand to illustrating the gorgeous deluxe editions of three of the most beloved novels in literature. Here Elizabeth Bennet’s rejection of Mr. Darcy, Hester Prynne’s fateful letter “A”, and Catherine Earnshaw’s wanderings on the Yorkshire moors are transformed into witty and surreal landscapes to appeal to the novels’ aficionados and the most discerning designer’s eyes.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,70Trade Review“The wit of Jane Austen has for partner the perfection of her taste.” —Virginia Woolf“Nobody has ever been slyer with characters than Austen.” —Marlon James, “My 10 Favorite Books,” in T: The New York Times Style Magazine
£13.49
Penguin Books Ltd I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Book SynopsisThe ground-breaking cult classic about a young woman''s battle with schizophreniaWith a Foreword by Esmé Weijun Wang and an Afterword by the author''She fought them with her head and her teeth while the restraints were being tied, trying, doglike, to bite herself''Sixteen-year-old Deborah''s identity is shattering, as she retreats further and further from the ''normal'' world into her imaginary kingdom of Yr, a fantastical inner refuge both lush and horrifying. Sent to a psychiatric hospital, she must, with the help of a gifted psychiatrist, try to find a way back. Joanne Greenberg''s fictionalized autobiography became a global bestseller on publication in 1964, and remains a wrenching account of mental illness.''A rare and wonderful insight into the dark kingdom of the mind'' Chicago Tribune''Marvellous ... a courage that is sometimes breathtaking'' The New York Times Book ReviewTrade ReviewMarvelous... With a courage that is sometimes breathtaking... (Greenberg) makes a faultless series of discriminations between the justifications for living in an evil and complex reality and the justifications for retreating into the security of madness * New York Times Book Review *A rare and wonderful insight into the dark kingdom of the mind * Chicago Tribune *Intensely moving * The Spectator *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Death in Midsummer
Book Synopsis Ten tales of loss and longing, from one one Japan''s greatest writers It was the height of summer, and there was anger in the rays of the sunA summer holiday that turns to tragedy; a moonlit journey to fulfil a wish; a couple's unusual way of making a living; a young lieutenant who ends his life; a night of infidelities. This selection contains nine short stories and one modern Noh play by one of Japan's greatest writers. Selected by Mishima himself for translation, they are by turns tender and delicate, ironic and shocking, showing the strange pull between duty and desire, death and beauty.He can be funny, even hilarious, but he is also capable of plunging into the dark psychic depths achieved by Hitchcock' New York Times Book ReviewTranslated by Edward G. Seidensticker, Ivan Morris, Donald Keene and Geoffrey W. Sargent
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Tristessa
Book Synopsis90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin BooksTristessa is a strange fever-dream of morphine sickness and belly-deep sadness. Or, in the words of Allen Ginsberg: a narrative meditation studying a hen, a rooster, a dove, a cat, a chihuahua dog, family meat, and a ravishing, ravished junky lady, first in their crowded bedroom, then out to drunken streets, taco stands, and pads at dawn in Mexico City slums'.
£5.99
British Library Publishing Crimes of Cymru
Book SynopsisPresenting fourteen stories from ranging from the 1909 through to the 1980s, this new anthology celebrates a selection of beloved Welsh authors such as Cardiff’s Roald Dahl and Abergavenny’s Ethel Lina White, as well as lesser-known yet highly skilled writers such as Cledwyn Hughes and Jack Griffith.
£10.44
