Biographical fiction / autobiographical fiction
Random House The War of the Worlds
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£17.09
WORDSWORTH Alice In Wonderland
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£15.08
Penguin Books Ltd The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Book SynopsisMark Twain''s witty, satirical tale of childhood rebellion against hypocritical adult authority, the Penguin Classics edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is edited with a critical introduction by Peter Coveney.Mark Twain''s story of a boy''s journey down the Mississippi on a raft conveyed the voice and experience of the American frontier as no other work had done before. When Huck escapes from his drunken, abusive ''Pap'' and the ''sivilizing'' Widow Douglas with runaway slave Jim, he embarks on a series of adventures that draw him to feuding families and the trickery of the unscrupulous ''Duke'' and ''Dauphin''. Beneath the exploits, however, are more serious undercurrents - of slavery, adult control and, above all, of Huck''s struggle between his instinctive goodness and the corrupt values of society which threaten his deep and enduring friendship with Jim.Based on the first edition of 1884, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn includes a chro
£9.25
Union Square & Co. Emma
Book SynopsisSet in Georgian- and Regency-era England, Emma is a classic novel about a young matchmaker's misguided attempts to arrange the affairs of others.
£15.00
Cornerstone The Cicero Trilogy
Book Synopsis______________________________'One of the great triumphs of contemporary historical literature.' The Times______________________________WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR'Laws are silent in times of war.' CiceroOne of the great epics of political and historical fiction, The Cicero Trilogy charts the career of the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero from his mid-twenties as an ambitious young lawyer to his dramatic death more than thirty years later, pursued by an assassination squad on a cliff-top path.The extraordinary life that unfolds between these two episodes is recounted by Cicero's private secretary, Tiro: the law cases and the speeches that made his master's name; the elections and conspiracies he fought; the rivals who contended for power around him - Pompey, Crassus, Cato, Clodius, Catalina, and, most menacingly, Caesar; and, at the heart of it all, the complex personality of Cicero himself - brilliant, cunning, duplicitous, anxious, brave, and always intensely humane.More than ten years in the writing, and now published in a single volume for the first time, The Cicero Trilogy brings the world of the Roman republic vividly to life. Here is its grandeur, ambition and corruption; and here is its tumultuous collapse into dictatorship and anarchy - a story of the fragility of democratic institutions that holds a warning for our own time.
£28.00
Oxford University Press The Ladies Paradise
Book SynopsisThe Ladies'' Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) recounts the spectacular development of the modern department store in late nineteenth century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the bourgeois family; it is emblematic of consumer culture and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking place at the end of the century. Octave Mouret, the store''s owner-manager, masterfully exploits the desires of his female customers. In his private life as much as in business he is the great seducer. But when he falls in love with the innocent Denise Baudu, he discovers she is the only one of the salesgirls who refuses to be commodified. This new translation of the eleventh book in the Rougon-Macquart cycle captures the spirit of one of Zola''s greatest novels of the modern city. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s c
£8.99
Cornerstone The Inimitable Jeeves Jeeves Wooster
Book Synopsis''Possibly the funniest writer in the English language'' Jay McInerney''Quite simply, the master of comic writing'' Jane Moore--''I want you to meet my nephew, Bertie Wooster,'' said Aunt Agatha. ''He has just arrived. Such a surprise! I had no notion that he intended coming...''A collection of classic stories featuring some of the funniest episodes in the life of gentleman Bertie Wooster and his incomparable valet Jeeves.Meddling Aunt Agatha wants to see Bertie married, and nothing will stop her from playing matchmaker. The problem? Bertie has no plans to settle down. So it''s up to Jeeves to find Bertie a way out of marrying the terrifying Honoria Glossop, and to help Bertie''s insatiable friend Bingo Little navigate falling head-over-heels for seven different girls.Trade ReviewIt's dangerous to use the word genius to describe a writer, but I'll risk it with him -- John HumphrysFor as long as I'm immersed in a P.G. Wodehouse book, it's possible to keep the real world at bay and live in a far, far nicer, funnier one where happy endings are the order of the day -- Marian KeyesWodehouse always lifts your spirits, no matter how high they happen to be already -- Lynne TrussThe incomparable and timeless genius - perfect for readers of all ages, shapes and sizes! -- Kate MosseNot only the funniest English novelist who ever wrote but one of our finest stylists -- Susan Hill
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Travels With My Aunt
Book SynopsisGraham Greene was born in 1904. He worked as a journalist and critic, and in 1940 became literary editor of the Spectator. He was later employed by the Foreign Office. As well as his many novels, Graham Greene wrote several collections of short stories, four travel books, six plays, three books of autobiography, two of biography and four books for children. He also wrote hundreds of essays, and film and book reviews. Graham Greene was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour. He died in April 1991.Trade ReviewThe most ingenious, inventive and exciting of our novelists - V S Pritchett, The TimesThe only book I have ever written just for the fun of it -- Graham GreeneNo serious writer of [the twentith century] has more thoroughly invaded and shaped the public imagination than Graham Greene - Time Rich in exactly etched and moving portraits of real human beings...the tragic and comic ironies of love, loyalty and belief * The Times *
£8.99
HarperCollins Publishers The Picture of Dorian Gray
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.
£7.59
Faber & Faber Malone Dies
Book SynopsisThe iconic trilogy of novels by the era-defining Nobel laureate, relaunched for a new generation. Nothing is more real than nothing. Malone, a decrepit old man, lies naked in his bed, scrawling bitter observations in an exercise book.
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd What Maisie Knew Penguin Classics
Book SynopsisA new edition of the innovative, emotionally complex novel.After her parents’ bitter divorce, young Maisie Farange finds herself shuttled between her selfish mother and vain father, who value her only as a means for provoking each other. Maisie—solitary, observant, and wise beyond her years—is drawn into an increasingly entangled adult world of intrigue and sexual betrayal until she is finally compelled to choose her own future. Published in 1897 as Henry James was experimenting with narrative technique and fascinated by the idea of the child’s-eye view, What Maisie Knew is a subtle yet devastating portrayal of an innocent adrift in a corrupt society.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers Trade Review“Reading Henry James is like putting a new faculty to the test. This is the true morality.”—Anita Brookner
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers The Awakening
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.
£5.62
Penguin Books Ltd Tropic of Capricorn
Book SynopsisA cult modern classic, Tropic of Capricorn is as daring, frank and influential as Henry Miller first novel, Tropic of Cancer -- new to Penguin Modern Classics with a cover by Tracey EminA story of sexual and spiritual awakening, Tropic of Capricorn shocked readers when it was published in 1939. A mixture of fiction and autobiography, it is the story of Henry V. Miller who works for the Cosmodemonic telegraph company in New York in the 1920s and tries to write the most important work of literature that was ever published. Tropic of Capricorn paints a dazzling picture of the life of the writer and of New York City between the wars: the skyscrapers and the sewers, the lust and the dejection, the smells and the sounds of a city that is perpetually in motion, threatening to swallow everyone and everything.''Literature begins and ends with the meaning of what Miller has done'' Lawrence Durrell ''The only imaginative prose-writer oTrade ReviewAmerican Literature begins and ends with the meaning of what Miller has done -- Lawrence DurrellThe only imaginative prose-writer of the slightest value who has appeared among the English-speaking races for some years past -- George OrwellThe greatest American writer -- Bob DylanThere is nothing like Henry Miller when he gets rolling... One has to take the English language back to Marlowe and Shakespeare before encountering a wealth of imagery equal in intensity... a wildwater of prose, a cataract, a volcano, a torrent, an earthquake... a writer finally like a great athlete, a phenomenon of an avatar of literary energy -- Norman MailerHenry is like a mythical animal. His writing is flamboyant, torrential, chaotic, treacherous, and dangerous -- Anais Nin
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd North and South
Book SynopsisThe Penguin English Library edition of North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell''How am I to dress up in my finery, and go off and away to smart parties, after the sorrow I have seen today?''Elizabeth Gaskell''s compassionate, richly dramatic novel features one of the most original and fully-rounded female characters in Victorian fiction, Margaret Hale. It shows how, forced to move from the country to an industrial northern town, she develops a passionate sense of social justice, and a turbulent relationship with mill-owner John Thornton. North and South depicts a young woman discovering herself, in a nuanced portrayal of what divides people, and what brings them together.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.
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Book SynopsisF. Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in St Paul, Minnesota. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre. Their destructive relationship and her subsequent mental breakdowns became a major influence on his writing. Among his publications were five novels, This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender is the Night and The Love of the Last Tycoon (his last and unfinished work), plus six volumes of short stories. Fitzgerald died suddenly in 1940.Trade Review'His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings' - Ernest Hemingway
£7.59
Penguin Books Ltd The Idiot
£19.00
Penguin Books Ltd Eugene Onegin
Book SynopsisSet in 1820s Russia, this title follows the fates of three men and three women. It offers the reader many literary, philosophical, and autobiographical digressions, often in a highly satirical vein.Trade ReviewOne of the finest of all verse translations into English ... reproduces every facet of the original: the precise meaning, the wit, the lyricism. Not once is there a false note. -- Robert Chandler * Independent *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Oblomov Penguin Classics
Book SynopsisFor fans of Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, the classic Russian novel about an indolent aristocrat who spends most of his days in bedA Penguin ClassicWritten with sympathetic humor and compassion, this masterful portrait of upper-class decline made Ivan Goncharov famous throughout Russia on its publication in 1859. Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is a member of Russia’s dying aristocracy—a man so lazy that he has given up his job in the Civil Service, neglected his books, insulted his friends, and found himself in debt. Too apathetic to do anything about his problems, he lives in a grubby, crumbling apartment, waited on by Zakhar, his equally idle servant. Terrified by the activity necessary to participate in the real world, Oblomov manages to avoid work, postpones change, and—finally—risks losing the love of his life. This superb translation by David Magarshack captures all the subtle comedy and near-tragedy of the oriTrade Review“Oblomov is a truly great work, the likes of which one has not seen for a long, long time. I am in rapture over Oblomov and keep rereading it.” ―Leo Tolstoy“[Goncharov is] ten heads above me in talent.” ―Anton Chekhov
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd The Great Gatsby
Book SynopsisFor Jay Gatsby - young, handsome, fabulously rich - always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing for the one thing that will always be out of his reach. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd The Saga of the Volsungs
Book SynopsisPart of a new series Legends from the Ancient North, The Saga of the Volsungs is one of the classic books that influenced JRR Tolkien''s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings''They summoned their friends, readiedtheir horses, and prepared their helmets,shields, swords, coats of mail'' J.R.R. Tolkien spent much of his life studying, translating and teaching the great epic stories of northern Europe, filled with heroes, dragons, trolls, dwarves and magic. He was hugely influential for his advocacy of Beowulf as a great work of literature and, even if he had never written The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, would be recognised today as a significant figure in the rediscovery of these extraordinary tales.Legends from the Ancient North brings together from Penguin Classics five of the key works behind Tolkien''s fiction.They are startling, brutal, strange pieces of writing, with an elemental power brilliantly preserved in these translations.They plunge the reader into a world of treachery, quests, chivalry, trials of strength.They are the most ancient narratives that exist from northern Europe and bring us as near as we will ever get to the origins of the magical landscape of Middle-earth (Midgard) which Tolkien remade in the 20th century.
£9.86
Penguin Books Ltd Mansfield Park Jane Austen Penguin Classics
Book SynopsisTaken from the poverty of her parents' home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. During her uncle's absence in Antigua, the Crawford's arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation. Mansfield Park is considered Jane Austen's first mature work and, with its quiet heroine and subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, one of her most profound.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translatiTrade Review"Never did any novelist make more use of an impeccable sense of human values."—Virginia Woolf
£8.65
Penguin Books Ltd Three Men in a Boat
Book SynopsisA comic masterpiece that has never been out of print since it was first published in 1889, Jerome K. Jerome''s Three Men in a Boat includes an introduction and notes by Jeremy Lewis in Penguin Classics.Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends George and Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a ''T''. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather forecasts and tins of pineapple chunks - not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.''s small fox-terrier Montmorency. Three Men in a Boat was an instant success when it appeared in 1889, and, with its benign escapism, authorial discursions and wonderful evocation of the late-Victorian ''clerking classes'', it hilariously captured the spirit of its age.In his introduction, Jeremy Lewis examines Jerome K. Jerome''s life and times, and the changing world of Victorian England he depicts - from the rise o
£9.25
Penguin Putnam Inc Tamas
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£11.69
Oxford University Press The Sign of the Four
Book Synopsis''I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world.''Mary Morstan receives a large pearl through the post once a year without any clue as to the sender. When her intriguing correspondent requests a meeting, Holmes and Watson take on the case. Together the trio race through London to uncover the secrets of the Sholto family, who hold the key to uncovering the whereabouts of Mary''s father and the existence of a treasure stemming from a crime committed years ago in India.The Sign of the Four has been a crucial part of the Sherlock Holmes canon since its first publication in 1890. It explores theft, betrayal, and murder in the larger context of the British Empire at a time of national upheaval, and the novel''s flashbacks to India during the ''Mutiny'' and its aftermath call into question the consequences of that imperial venture. Caroline Reitz''s new introduction and notes draws attention to sTable of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography Chronology The Sign of the Four Explanatory Notes
£6.99
Penguin Books Ltd FiftyTwo Stories
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis beautifully produced edition from the veteran translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky collects, in chronological order, fifty-two of Anton Chekhov's short stories written between 1883 and 1898. It is a 'full deck', intended to reflect the diversity and inventiveness of the author's lesser-known fiction ... Their Chekhov is accurate, compelling and even graceful * The Times Literary Supplement *The indefatigable translating team of Pevear and Volokhonsky deliver a first-rate collection of Chekhov's stories ... Encounters between young and old, rich and poor, country and city people mark these stories ... A welcome gathering of work, some not often anthologized, by an unrivaled master of the short story form * Kirkus *
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd The StarChild
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£9.99
Penguin Random House Children's UK The BFG
Book SynopsisWe is in Dream Country,' the BFG said. This is where all dreams is beginning.'This beautiful edition of The BFG, part of The Roald Dahl Classic Collection, features official archive material from the Roald Dahl Museum and is perfect for Dahl fans old and new.So, enter a world where invention and mischief can be found on every page and where magic might be at the very tips of your fingers . . .The Roald Dahl Classic Collection reinstates the versions of Dahl's books that were published before the 2022 Puffin editions, aimed at newly independent young readers.
£7.99
Penguin Random House Children's UK Fantastic Mr Fox
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£7.99
Arcturus Publishing The Classic H. P. Lovecraft Collection
£999.99
Arcturus Publishing Moby Dick
Book SynopsisHerman Melville (1819-91) was the son of a merchant, and was born in New York. Melville first trained as a teacher before signing on as a sailor on a merchant ship in 1839. He drew on his experiences of working a whaling ship for the background for Moby Dick and also on his adventures in Polynesia for some of his other novels, such as Typee and Omoo. He was a friend of many other writers of the time, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, to whom he dedicated Moby Dick.
£999.99
Union Square & Co. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and
Book SynopsisSince his first literary appearance in 1886, the murderous Mr Hyde has embodied the evil that even good men including his alter ego, Henry Jekyll - are capable of when the constraints of civilized life are loosed. This chilling anthology also collects nine of Stevenson's best-known tales of horror.
£18.00
Union Square & Co. Aesops Fables
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£17.10
Wordsworth Editions Ltd Night and Day Jacobs Room Wordsworth Classics
Book SynopsisContains Woolf's second and third novels, Night and Day and Jacob's Room.
£6.23
Alma Books Ltd The Landlady and Other Stories
Book SynopsisThe Landlady, a novella written in 1847, immediately afterThe Double, is accompanied in this volume by the rest of Dostoevsky's shorter fiction, including famous stories such as Mr Prokharchin', White Nights', The Dream of a Ridiculous Man' and A Gentle Creature' all presented in sparkling new translations by Roger Cockrell.
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Mrs Dalloway
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.Clarissa Dalloway is a woman of high-society vivacious, hospitable and sociable on the surface, yet underneath troubled and dissatisfied with her life in post-war Britain. This disillusionment is an emotion that bubbles under the surface of all of Woolf's characters in Mrs Dalloway.Centred around one day in June where Clarissa is preparing for and holding a party, her interior monologue mingles with those of the other central characters in a stream of consciousness, entwining, yet never actually overriding the pervading sense of isolation that haunts each person.One of Virginia Woolf's most accomplished novels, Mrs Dalloway is widely regarded as one of the most revolutionary works of the 20th century in its style and the themes that it tackles. The sense that Clarissa has married the wrong person, her past love for another female friend and the death of an intended party guest all serve to amplify this stultifying existence.
£5.62
Wordsworth Editions Ltd The Secret Garden Heritage Collection
Book SynopsisMary Lennox was horrid. Selfish and spoilt, she was sent to stay with her uncle in Yorkshire. She hated it. But when she finds the way into a secret garden and begins to tend to it, a change comes over her and her life. She meets and befriends a local boy, the talented Dickon, and comes across her sickly cousin Colin who had been kept hidden from her. Between them, the three children work astonishing magic in themselves and those around them. The Secret Garden is one of the best-loved stories of all time.
£17.09
Penguin Books Ltd Washington Square
Book SynopsisHenry James''s classic tale of romance in urban nineteenth-century America, Washington Square is edited with an introduction and notes by Martha Banta in Penguin Classics.When timid and plain Catherine Sloper is courted by the dashing and determined Morris Townsend, her father, convinced that the young man is nothing more than a fortune-hunter, delivers an ultimatum: break off her engagement, or be stripped of her inheritance. Torn between her desire to win her father''s love and approval and her passion for the only man who has ever declared his love for her, Catherine faces an agonising dilemma, and becomes all too aware of the restrictions that others seek to place on her freedom. James''s masterly novel deftly interweaves the public and private faces of nineteenth-century New York society; it is also a deeply moving study of innocence destroyed.This edition of Washington Square includes a chronology, suggested further reading, notes and an introduction discussing the novel''s lasting influence and James''s depiction of the quiet strength of his heroine.Henry James (1843-1916) son of a prominent theologian, and brother to the philosopher William James, was one of the most celebrated novelists of the fin-de-siècle. His novella ''Daisy Miller'' (1878) established him as a literary figure on both sides of the Atlantic, and his other novels in Penguin Classics include Washington Square (1880), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Awkward Age (1899), The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904).If you enjoyed Washington Square, you might like Edith Wharton''s The House of Mirth, also available in Penguin Classics.''Washington Square is a perfectly balanced novel... a work of surpassing refinement and interest''Elizabeth Hardwick''Perhaps the only novel in which a man has successfully invaded the feminine field and produced a work comparable to Jane Austen''s''Graham Greene
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd The Blood of Others
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£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Emma Collins Classics
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.The real evils, indeed, of Emma's situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself'Beautiful, rich, self-assured and witty, Emma Woodhouse delights in matchmaking those around her, with no apparent care for her own romantic life. Taking young Harriet Smith under her wing, Emma sets her sights on finding a suitable match for her friend. Chided for her mistakes by old friend Mr Knightley, it is only when Harriet starts to pursue her own love interests that Emma realises the true hidden depths of her own heart.Delightful, engaging and entertaining, and with a dazzling gallery of characters, Emma is arguably Austen's most well-loved social comedy.
£5.94
Dover Publications Inc. Notes from the Underground
Book SynopsisDarkly fascinating short novel depicts the struggles of a doubting, supremely alienated protagonist in a world of relative values. Seminal work introduced moral, religious, political and social themes that dominated Dostoyevsky''s later masterworks. Constance Garnett''s authoritative translation is reprinted here, with a new introduction.
£5.62
Penguin Books Ltd The Magician of Lublin
Book SynopsisYasha the magician - sword swallower, fire eater, acrobat and master of escape - is famed for his extraordinary Houdini-like skills. Half Jewish, half Gentile, a free thinker who slips easily between worlds, Yasha has an observant wife, a loyal assistant who travels with him and a woman in every town. Now, though, his exploits are catching up with him, and he is tempted to make one final escape - from his marriage, his homeland and the last tendrils of his father''s religion. Set in Warsaw and the shtetls of the 1870s, Isaac Bashevis Singer''s second novel is a haunting psychological portrait of a man''s flight from love.Winner of the Nobel Prize for LiteratureTrade ReviewA spellbinder as clever as Scheherazade; he arrests the reader at once, transports him to a far place and a far, improbable time and does not let him go until the end * New Republic *Singer writes with a love and passion unequalled in contemporary fiction * Washington Post *
£10.44
Pan Macmillan The Citadel: The Classic Novel that Inspired the
Book SynopsisA book which inspired the creation of the NHS introduced by bestselling writer, Adam Kay.By former doctor A. J. Cronin, The Citadel is a moving story of tragedy, triumph and redemption. With a foreword by Adam Kay, the bestselling author of This is Going to Hurt.When newly qualified doctor Andrew Manson takes up his first post in a Welsh mining community, the young Scot brings with him a bagful of idealism and enthusiasm. Both are soon strained to the limit as Andrew discovers the reality of performing operations on a kitchen table and washing in a scullery, of unspeakable sanitation, of common infantile cholera and systemic corruption. There are no X-rays, no ambulances – nothing to combat the disease and poverty.It isn’t long before Andrew’s outspoken manner wins him both friends and enemies, but he risks losing his idealism when the fashionable, greedy world of London medicine claims him, with its private clinics, wealthy, spoilt patients and huge rewards.Trade ReviewA.J. Cronin was perhaps the most successful novelist of the 1930s … probably as significant a figure as J.B. Priestley * The English Historical Review *Immensely successful, utterly ruthless * The Spectator *Cronin was a master of melodrama * The Herald *One of the most popular authors in the English speaking world * New York Times *A grand story, well told, and better balanced than anything else he has done * Kirkus *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Evelina
Book SynopsisThe Penguin English Library Edition of Evelina by Frances Burney''O Sir, how much uneasiness must I suffer, to counterbalance one short morning of happiness!''In this comic and sharply incisive satire of excess and affectations, beautiful young Evelina falls victim to the rakish advances of Sir Clement Willoughby on her entrance to the world of fashionable London. Colliding with the manners and customs of a society she doesn''t understand, she finds herself without hope that she should ever deserve the attention of the man she loves. Frances Burney''s first novel brilliantly sends up eighteenth-century society - and its opinions of women - while enticingly depicting its delights.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.
£8.54
Vintage Publishing The Last September
Book SynopsisRead Elizabeth Bowen's accessible feminist take on the Irish aristocracyWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY VICTORIA GLENDINNINGThe Irish troubles rage, but up at the ''Big House'', tennis parties, dances and flirtations with the English officers continue, undisturbed by the ambushes, arrests and burning country beyond the gates. Faint vibrations of discord reach the young girl Lois, who is straining for her own freedom, and she will witness the troubles surge closer and reach their irrevocable, inevitable climax.Trade ReviewA book I read only some years ago, and was astonished by its modernity, its formidable intelligence and its punk sensibility, was The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen -- Sebastian Barry * Guardian *A strongly autobiographical portrait of a lost class marking out its final moments - every garden party, every house guest and every flirtation is touched by a sense of impending extinction * Guardian *When I read [The Last September] I was knocked out by the sheer magnificence of her writing, the cinematic possibilities, and her obsession with the minutiae and the detail of life... I was totally gripped by the story * Glasgow Herald *Posterity will one day return to Miss Bowen's novels as a repository of clues to the inner life of our times * Sunday Telegraph *A combination of social comedy and private tragedy...brilliant description of Anglo-Irish life at the troublesome time of 1920 * Times Literary Supplement *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Bonfire of the Vanities
Book SynopsisSherman McCoy is a WASP, bond trader and self-appointed 'Master of the Universe'. He has a fashionable wife, a Park Avenue apartment and a Southern mistress. His spectacular fall begins the moment he is involved in an accident in the Bronx. Prosecutors, newspaper hacks, politicians and clergy close in on him, determined to bring him down.Trade ReviewA noisy satire on Manhattan’s Wall Street cash-bloated plutocracy… Hugely readable. -- John Sutherland * The Times *If there is a set-book of the Eighties, it is Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities. No other novel has achieved such a precise place in the imagination of the reading classes. With his first attempt at fiction Wolfe has become the 'Dickens or Balzac of his age'; the dandy journalist has become the towering genius * The Times *Wolfe's modern morality tale displays the sardonic humour and sharp appreciation of the grotesque familiar to admirers of his non fiction... Savagely funny and compelling * Guardian *The air of New York crackles with an energy that causes the adrenalin to pump, until one has the illusion that this is where the whole of life is taking place. The feeling is perfectly reproduced in Wolfe's novel, which opens such cans of worms as racial hostility, dress codes, political labelling and the cynical opportunism that governs every action. It's, well, electric * Sunday Times *It's witty, sprawling and ambitious * Daily Telegraph *
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Tender is the Night
Book SynopsisBetween the First World War and the Wall Street Crash the French Riviera was the stylish place for wealthy Americans to visit. Among the most fashionable are psychoanalyst Dick Diver and his wife Nicole, who hold court at their villa.
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd Treasure Island and The EbbTide
Book SynopsisThe Penguin English Library Edition of Treasure Island and The Ebb-Tide by Robert Louis Stevenson''One more step, Mr Hands, said I, and I''ll blow your brains out''In Treasure Island, a weathered old sailor known as Billy Bones arrives at the inn of young Jim Hawkins''s parents - and it is the start of an adventure beyond anything he could have imagined. For when Bones dies mysteriously, Jim stumbles across a map of a mysterious island in his sea chest - where ''X'' marks the spot of a stash of buried pirate gold. Setting sail with his friends on the ship Hispaniola to recover the treasure, Jim soon realizes that he''s not the only one who knows about the hoard. Suddenly he is thrown into a world of treachery, mutiny, castaways and murder and, at the centre of it all, is the charming but sinister Long John Silver, who will stop at nothing to grab his share of the loot... The Ebb-Tide, a short novel published the year of Stevenson''s death, is also a rollicking seafaring adventure, narrating the voyage of a stolen ship whilst exploring such themes as imperialism, violence, dishonesty, Christianity and corruption.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.
£9.25
Penguin Books Ltd The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories The
Book SynopsisThe timeless collection that introduced Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, and the Headless HorsemanPerhaps the marker of a true mythos is when the stories themselves overshadow their creator. Originally published under a pseudonym as The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories gave America its own haunted mythology. This collection of larger-than-life tales contains Washington Irving’s best-known literary inventions—Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman, and Rip Van Winkle—that continue to capture our imaginations today.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by intrTrade Review"Washington Irving... makes Nathaniel Hawthorne read like Dr. Seuss!"
£10.44
