Biographical fiction / autobiographical fiction

Book SynopsisWalter Mitty is an ordinary man living an ordinary life. But he has dreams - vivid, extraordinary day dreams - in which the life he leads is one of excitement and even adventure, in which he - a weary, put upon middle-aged man - is the hero of his own story. A man can dream, can''t he?The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is just one of the brilliant humorous and witty stories written by James Thurber and collected here.

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Book SynopsisThis classic of feminist science fiction centres on the hunt for a white-haired girl, through a frozen, post-apocalyptic landscapeIce will soon cover the entire globe. As the glacial tide creeps forward, society breaks down. Hurtling through the frozen chaos is a nameless narrator, seeking the white-haired girl he once loved, desperate to rescue her - or perhaps to annihilate her. Through nightmarish, ever-shifting scenes, she flees him and his powerful enemy, the Warden. But none of them can outrun the ice. Anna Kavan's masterwork is an apocalyptic vision of environmental devastation and possessive violence, rendered in unforgettable, propulsive, hallucinatory prose.

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.The wolf thought to himself, What a tender young creature! what a nice plump mouthful she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must act craftily, so as to catch both.'Collected by the German Grimm brothers, these folk tales have captured the imaginations of children and adults alike since they were first published in 1812. The best-known stories such as The Golden Goose, Hansel and Gretel, The Frog Prince, and Snow-White and Rose-Red remain as popular today as when first told, although there is an underlying darkness and violence to the original stories that has softened over time.

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.''I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.''Shipwrecked on the high seas, Lemuel Gulliver finds himself washed up on the strange island of Lilliput, a land inhabited by quarrelsome miniature people. On his travels he continues to meet others who force him to reflect on human behaviour the giants of Brobdingnag, the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos. In this scathing satire on the politics and morals of the 18th Century, Swift''s condemnation of society and its institutions still resonates today.

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Book SynopsisIn The Dream, the sixteenth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series, Zola blends mysticism and fairy tale with naturalism as an orphan girl falls in love with a nobleman.

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Book Synopsis''A man ... is so in the way in the house!''A vivid and affectionate portrait of a provincial town in early Victorian England, Elizabeth Gaskell''s Cranford describes a community dominated by its independent and refined women. Undaunted by poverty, but dismayed by changes brought by the railway and by new commercial practices, the ladies of Cranford respond to disruption with both suspicion and courage. Miss Matty and her sister Deborah uphold standards and survive personal tragedy and everyday dramas; innovation may bring loss, but it also brings growth, and welcome freedoms. Cranford suggests that representatives of different and apparently hostile social worlds, their minds opened by sympathy and suffering, can learn from each other. Its social comedy develops into a study of generous reconciliation, of a kind that will value the past as it actively shapes the future.This edition includes two related short pieces by Gaskell, ''The Last Generation in England'' and ''The Cage at Cranford'', as well as a selection from the diverse literary and social contexts in which the Cranford tales take their place. 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 commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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Book SynopsisShipwrecked and cast adrift, Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput, an island inhabited by little people, whose height makes their quarrels over fashion and fame seem ridiculous.Trade Review[Coralie Bickford-Smith's] recent work for Penguin Classics is...nothing short of glorious * Anna Cole Co. *

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Book SynopsisIn this masterpiece Kawabata, his brush dipped in silver, renders all the excruciating anguish and beauty of post-war Japan' Edmund WhiteWith the Second World War only a few years in the past, and Japan still reeling from its effects, two sisters - born to the same father but different mothers - struggle to make sense of the new world in which they are coming of age. Asako, the younger, has become obsessed with locating a third sibling, while also experiencing love for the first time. While Momoko, their father''s first child - haunted by the loss of her kamikaze boyfriend and their final, disturbing days together - seeks comfort in a series of unhealthy romances. And both sisters find themselves unable to outrun the legacies of their late mothers. A thoughtful, probing novel about the enduring traumas of war, the unbreakable bonds of family and the inescapability of the past, The Rainbow is a searing, melancholy work from one of Japan''s greatest writers. Translated by Haydn Trowell

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Book SynopsisWonderfully sardonic and slyly humorous, the writings of landmark American feminist and socialist thinker Charlotte Perkins Gilman were penned in response to her frustrations with the gender-based double standard that prevailed in America as the twentieth century began. Perhaps best known for her chilling depiction of a woman''s mental breakdown in her unforgettable 1892 short story ''The Yellow Wall-Paper'', Gilman also wrote Herland, a wry novel that imagines a peaceful, progressive country from which men have been absent for 2,000 years. Both are included in this volume, along with a selection of Gilman''s major short stories and her poems.

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Book Synopsis''I fell out of bed laughing at Three Men in a Boat'' Guardian What could be more relaxing than a refreshing holiday on the river with your two best friends and faithful canine companion, Montmorency? However, as J. discovers, there is more to life on the waves than meets the eye - including navigational challenges, culinary disasters, and heroic battles with swans, kettles and tins of pineapple. Jerome K. Jerome''s delightful novel has kept readers smiling for years and his prose has found a perfect partner in Vic Reeves''s glorious and witty illustrations.Trade ReviewWonderfully fresh and funny, and among examples of Victorian humour I would place it high in the pantheon, right up there with The Importance of Being Earnest and The Diary of a Nobody...Jerome's writing...triumphantly stands the test of time, with its comic flights of exaggeration, its occasional archness, and its entirely innocent hint of the camp * Daily Telegraph *A charming comedy of friendship and human nature * Independent *One of the funniest books I've ever read. I laughed out loud and that doesn't happen often -- Vic Reeves * Daily Express *Brought laughter to a country in the throes of Victorian gloom * The Times *As well as being very funny, it captures the innocence of a time before adventure became synonymous with bungee jumping into ravines in faraway places * Observer *

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Book SynopsisTruman Capote was born in New Orleans in 1925. He left school at fifteen and subsequently worked for the New Yorker - which provided his first - and last - regular job. He wrote Other Voices, Other Rooms while working on a Louisiana farm in the late 1940s. Truman Capote died in 1984

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Book SynopsisA terrifying, surreal space-age odyssey, The Soft Machine initiated Burroughs'' Cut-Up Trilogy that includes Nova Express and The Ticket That Exploded. The book draws the reader into an unmappable textual space, where nothing is true and everything is permitted, to make a total assault on the colonising powers of planet earth that have turned us all into machines.Edited and introduced by renowned Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris, this new edition clarifies for the first time the extraordinary history of The Soft Machine''s writing and rewriting, demolishing the myths of Burroughs'' chance-based writing methods and demonstrating for a new generation the significance of his greatest experiment.

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Book SynopsisFrançois Mauriac was born in Bordeaux in 1885. He left his university studies to devote himself to writing, and published a collection of poems, Les Mains jointes (Clasped Hands), in 1909. He married in 1913 and the following year was mobilized to serve in the First World War with the Auxilliary Medical Squad in Thessalonica. Mauriac's major literary breakthrough came in 1922 with a novel called Le Baiser au lepreux (A Kiss for the Leper). His most famous work, Thérèse Desqueroux, appeared in 1927 and has been made into a film twice: first in 1962, with Emmanuelle Riva in the lead role, and more recently in 2012, in a version starring Audrey Tautou. In 1933 Mauriac was elected a Member of the French Academy and in 1952 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in Paris in 1970.

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Book SynopsisThree thousand years of encounters with the malevolent beings that have invaded our waking lives and our nightmaresFor millennia, societies have told tales of their fears incarnate otherworldly couriers of plague, death, temptation and moral decline. Drawing from three thousand years of religious traditions and world literature, The Penguin Book of Demons follows these supernatural creatures and the humans who have hunted and been haunted by them through accounts across cultures and continents, including: the daimones of ancient Greece and Rome; the giant, biblical half humans known as Nephilim who stalked the earth before the Great Flood; corrupted angels, condemned to eternity in Hell; the djinn of Islamic Arabia; the female, child-eating gelloudes of Byzantium; the seductive incubi and succubi of northern Europe; the animal spirits of early modern China; and the cannibalistic wendigo of Native American folklore. From demonic possession to black magic, these accounts give life to a spellbinding, skin-crawling history of the paranormal.

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Book Synopsis''Unlike any other person I had come across, Welch seemed to be speaking particularly to me'' Alan Bennett''Vivid ... surprising ... an exquisite balance of pain and beauty'' GuardianOrvil Pym does not fit in. A waifish, eccentric, sensitive fifteen-year-old, he hates school and longs to be alone. Spending his Summer holidays in a genteel Surrey hotel with his mysterious father and two brothers who don''t understand him, he explores ancient churches, spies on a man rowing in the river and collects antiques, escaping into his own singular aesthetic world. First published in 1945, this is an unforgettable portrayal of a young man''s sensuous coming-of-age.''A heightened, sensual journey ... it is Orvil''s vibrant energy that allows this book to bubble ... beautifully odd ... spectacular'' IndependentTrade ReviewBritain's Marcel Proust * The Times *Underpinning it is an exquisite balance of pain and beauty - an aspect of the sublime - as Welch brings to vivid life the existence lost to him for ever ... he is surprising us still -- John Self * Guardian *The writer who most directly influenced my work ... he makes the reader aware of the magic that is right under his eyes -- William BurroughsA heightened, sensual journey ... it is Orvil's vibrant energy that allows this book to bubble ... beautifully odd ... spectacular -- The IndependentUnlike any other person I had come across, Welch seemed to be speaking particularly to me -- Alan BennettMaybe there is no better novel in the world than Denton Welch's In Youth Is Pleasure. Just holding it in my hands, so precious, so beyond gay, so deliciously subversive, is enough to make illiteracy a worse social crime than hunger -- John Waters

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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. Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil.Twelve enchanting and fantastical stories about the evolution of the universe from the giant of Italian literature, Italo Calvino. His characters - whether human, dinosaur or mollusc - disport themselves among galaxies, experience the solidification of planets, move from aquatic to terrestrial existence, play games with hydrogen atoms - and have time for a love life.''A landmark in fiction, the work of a master'' - Ursula K Le GuinTrade ReviewIf you have never read Cosmicomics, you have before you the most joyful reading experience of your life -- Salman RushdieA landmark in fiction, the work of a master -- Ursula K Le GuinThis is classic Calvino, making you think and laugh at the same time -- John Self

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Book SynopsisLittle 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.Dorothy Parker was the most talked-about woman of the decadent 1920s, notorious as a hard-drinking bad girl with a talent for endlessly quotable one-liners. In the stories collected here, she brilliantly captures the spirit of the decadent Jazz Age in New York, exposing both the dazzle and the darkness. This selection includes among others ''The Standard of Living'', ''Mr Durant'' and her masterpiece, ''Big Blonde''.''She has fascinated generations with her wit, flair and talent'' The New York Review of Books

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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.Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil.F. Scott Fitzgerald was the most celebrated chronicler of the Jazz Age. At the time of his death, he believed he was an alcoholic failure; but he received posthumous acclaim as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. This collection brings together some of his finest stories, including ''The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button''; ''Winter Dreams'', a melancholy thwarted love story that anticipated The Great Gatsby, and ''Babylon Revisited'', set the year after the 1929 stock market crash, when the Jazz Age sounded its last.''His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly''s wings'' Ernest Hemingway

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Book Synopsis90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin BooksFollowing the death of his sister, middle-aged Dr Graesler leaves his winter home in Lanzarote for a health resort in Germany, where he practised medicine for many years. There he meets the Schleheim family, and is particularly drawn to their daughter Sabine. But a simple, stilted courtship soon unravels a web of hushed-up suicide and illicit sexual liaisons. Arthur Schnitzler's tumultuous psychodrama remains as startling now as it did on first publication.

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Book Synopsis90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books'The body was cold as ice; the heart had long ceased to beat: yet there were no other signs of death.'The phantoms and ghouls of Japanese folklore are in this book driven back into the world of the living. Mysterious brides melt into mist, paintings come alive, and man-eating goblins barter for redemption. Traditional Japanese folktales and legends, infused with memories of Lafcadio Hearn's own haunted childhood, are here masterfully retold.

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Book Synopsis90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books'What does love fear? Limitation.'Johannes stealthily pursues Cordelia through the streets of Copenhagen, and through an intricate, manipulative courtship contrives to possess her. Motivated not by love or sex but by sensation and experiment, he seeks to make the object of his desire desire him and then to retreat. At once a captivating story and philosophical exploration of existence's entanglements, The Seducer's Diary is also an excoriating reconstruction of Kierkegaard's own romantic failures.

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Book SynopsisBY THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHORWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY CLARE CHAMBERS'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' RICHARD OSMAN 'My favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy, as though I were meeting an old, dear friend' JILLY COOPER'The subtlest of her books . . . the sparkle on first acquaintance has been succeeded by the deeper brilliance of established art' PHILIP LARKINWilmet Forsyth is well dressed, well looked after, suitably husbanded, good-looking and fairly young - but very bored. Her staid husband Rodney, a civil servant, is slightly balder and fatter than he once was. Wilmet would like to think she has changed rather less. Her conventional life takes a turn when she meets the handsome brother of a close friend. Attractive, cultured and attentive, Piers Longridge is a delectable mystery Wilmet is determined to solve.Trade ReviewBarbara Pym is the rarest of treasures -- Anne TylerI'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen . . . The subtlest of her books - the sparkle on first acquaintance has been succeeded by the deeper brilliance of established art -- Philip LarkinI'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym -- Richard Osman[Pym] makes me smile, laugh out loud, consider my own foibles and fantasies, and above all, suffer real regret when I reach the final page. Of how many authors can you honestly say that? -- Mavis CheekThere is a thrill of humanity through all her work -- Shirley HazzardMy favourite writer . . . I pick up her books with joy, as though I were meeting an old, dear friend who comforts me, extends my vision and makes me roar with laughter -- Jilly CooperA modern Jane Austen -- Alexander McCall SmithAnother instalment in America's exposure to the Pyro revival, which began in England in 1976 and happily arrived here in 1978 . . . Essential reading for Pym's growing readership on this side of the Atlantic * Kirkus Reviews *

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Book SynopsisThe heartbreaking story of the love of two women – Anne Lister, the real-life inspiration behind Gentleman Jack, and her first love, Eliza Raine – from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder.'A rich and spellbinding 19th-century story of forbidden love' – The Independent'Donoghue evokes a relationship that is convincing and exquisitely touching.' – The GuardianIn 1805, at a boarding school in York, two fourteen-year-old girls first meet.Eliza Raine, the orphan daughter of an Indian mother, keeps herself apart from the other girls, tired of being picked out for being different. Anne Lister, a gifted troublemaker, is determined to conquer the world, refusing to bow to society’s expectations of what a woman can do.As they fall in love, the connection they forge will remain with them for the rest of their lives.Full of passion and heartbreak, evocatiTrade ReviewDonoghue's prose is beautiful and beautifully controlled. Simply and without a shred of sentimentality, she evokes a relationship that is convincing and exquisitely touching. * The Guardian *Offers a refreshing perspective on a celebrated figure in LGBTQ+ history * Sunday Express *A slow burning love story of first love. The girls do not so much discover love as feel they are inventing it. * The Times Literary Supplement *An exquisite coming-of-age love story * The Times, 'Historical Fiction Book of the Month' *Spellbinding . . . A moving portrait of two young women who are willing to risk everything for love' * Independent *A richly imagined novelistic account of a 19th century love affair * Vogue *A fascinating . . . love story that's both queer and multiracial * The Washington Post *A master of plot * Time *A writer of great vitality and generosity * The New Yorker *Donoghue has created a gripping story of the blistering connection between Anne and Eliza Raine . . . This is richly told and built on meticulous research. * Sainsbury's Magazine *Emma Donoghue’s writing is superb alchemy -- Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s WifeDonoghue excels in creating not just a world but a worldview that is far removed from our own * The Financial Times *Donoghue is a superb stylist – her prose is stirring and tender * The Sunday Times *She can do everything: be funny, be moving, be unflinching yet sensitive, write beautifully nuanced sentences and utterly gripping stories. She can write powerful historical fiction and be absolutely contemporary. And she’s unable to write a line you don't believe -- Joseph O’Connor, author of Star of the SeaEmma Donoghue is a genius of compassion. With her, the ethical imagination is always paramount. In our fractured world she brings a great sense of repair to us all. Her stories bind us back together -- Colum McCann, internationally bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin

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Book SynopsisKenji Miyazawa (Author) Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) was born and raised in Iwate, a rural part of Northern Japan, largely cut off from the modern world. As a boy he was fascinated by glimpses of the modern industrial world - train lines and telegraph poles running into the distance - and he hoarded scientific information. His stories often contain fantastical descriptions of landscape alongside technological details. He was also deeply connected to the folk tales of Japan and interested in both Buddhism and Christianity.After graduation from agricultural college, he moved to Tokyo to write and work as a proofreader. When his sister became ill, he returned to Iwate to care for her and remained there for the rest of his life. He devoted himself to the education and protection of the local farming community, even eating the same poor diet in solidarity with his neighbours contributing to his early death from tuberculosis at the age of 37. Only two of Miyazawa's works

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Book SynopsisSecond in Feist & Wurts' wonderful epic trilogy one of the most successful fantasy collaborations of all timeTHE EMPIRE TRILOGY: BOOK IINobody knows how to play the Game of the Council better than Mara of the Acoma. But when you're surrounded by deadly rivals intent on toppling you at every turn, you need to be the best simply to surviveTrade Review‘A gripping tale’THE TIMES

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Book SynopsisThis sumptuous gift set includes a replica of the very rare first edition of The Hobbit, the only edition where one can now read the original version of the story before Tolkien re-edited it to become the one enjoyed by readers since 1951.The Hobbit was published on 21 September 1937, with a print run of 1,500 copies. With a beautiful cover design, nearly a dozen black & white illustrations and two black & red maps by the author himself, the book proved to be popular and was reprinted shortly afterwards. History was already being made.The scarcity of the first edition has resulted in copies commanding huge prices, way beyond the reach of most Tolkien fans. In addition, subsequent changes to the text particularly those to chapter 5, when Tolkien decided in 1947 to revise the text to bring it better into accord with events as they were developing in its sequel', The Lord of the Rings mean that the opportunity to read the book in its original form and format has become quite difficult.This special commemorative gift set includes the first edition, so that readers of all ages not just children between the ages of 5 and 9', as Rayner Unwin famously declared in his report on the original submission can finally enjoy Tolkien's story as it originally appeared. It also includes an exclusive CD of archive recordings that capture Tolkien reading from The Hobbit, a special copy of Thror's map which reveals the secret moon-runes when held to the light, and an accompanying booklet that relates the history of The Hobbit, and includes connected writings by JRR Tolkien.Trade Review‘The Hobbit belongs to a very small class of books which have nothing in common save that each admits us to a world of its own. Its place is with Alice and The Wind in the Willows.’Times Literary Supplement ‘One of the best loved characters in English fiction… a marvellous fantasy adventure’Daily Mail ‘Finely written saga of dwarves and elves, fearsome goblins and trolls… an exciting epic of travel, magical adventure, working up to a devastating climax’The Observer

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Book SynopsisIn a publishing career that spanned less than a decade, Jane Austen revolutionised the literary romance, using it as a stage from which to address issues of gender politics and class-consciousness rarely expressed in her day. The novels included in this beautiful leatherbound collection - -

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Book SynopsisHELP! I am addicted to this series! Unputdownable' NetGalley reviewer ?????Chilling truths are buried in this snowWhen a body dressed in a Santa Claus suit appears in the snow just outside a small village in Cumbria, DCI James Walker is the first to appear on the scene. Almost a year has passed since something so tragic has happened in the close-knit community, and James is hopeful that it's just an accidental death.But when he uncovers the body, he discovers something that chills him to the bone. The man, a former police officer, was murdered. And it's not long before another body appears.Time is ticking as James races to uncover the killer's next victim, before they strike again. But can James find them before the snow washes away the evidence?From the master of wintery crime, comes a thriller that will chill you to the boneReaders can''t put down The Killer in the Cold:''You know winter is coming when the latest Alex Pine novel drops'' Netgalley reviewer ?????''This is my favourite book in the series'' Netgalley reviewer ?????''What a fantastic bookthe killer is a surprise!'' Netgalley reviewer ?????

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Book SynopsisA key work in the German ''Sturm und Drang'' movement, Johann Goethe''s autobiographical epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther is a defining moment in early Romanticism, which has influenced writers from Mary Shelley to Thomas Mann. This Penguin Classics edition is translated from with an introduction by Michael Hulse.Visiting an idyllic German village, Werther, a sensitive young man, meets and falls in love with sweet-natured Charlotte. Although he realises that she is to marry Albert, he is unable to subdue his passion and his infatuation torments him to the point of despair. The first great ''confessional'' novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther draws both on Goethe''s own unrequited love for Charlotte Buff and on the death of his friend Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem. The book was an immediate success, and a cult rapidly grew up around it, resulting in numerous imitations as well as violent criticism and suppression on the grounds of its apparent support of suicide. Goethe''s sensitive exploration of the mind of an artist at odds with society and ill-equipped to cope with life is now considered the first great tragic novel of European literature.This edition includes notes and an introduction by Michael Hulse, who explores the origins of the novel in the author''s life and examines its impact on European culture.Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) was born in Frankfurt, Germany. Although he directed the German State Theatre, dabbled in the occult and worked on scientific theories in evolutionary botany, Goethe is best remembered for his great works The Sorrows of Young Werther and Faust, and his part in the 18th century ''Sturm and Drang'' movement.If you enjoyed The Sorrows of Young Werther, you might like Stendhal''s Love, also published in Penguin Classics.

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.She had...

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Book SynopsisFanny Price is taken to live at Mansfield Park, the home of her wealthy uncle. She gradually falls in love with her cousin Edmund, but when the dazzling and sophisticated Crawfords arrive, and amateur theatricals unleash rivalry and sexual jealousy, Fanny has to fight to retain her independence. This new edition places Mansfield Park in its Regency context and elucidates the theatrical background that pervades the novel.

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Book SynopsisElizabeth Gaskell''s chilling Gothic tales blend the real and the supernatural to eerie, compelling effect. ''Disappearances'', inspired by local legends of mysterious vanishings, mixes gossip and fact; ''Lois the Witch'', a novella based on an account of the Salem witch hunts, shows how sexual desire and jealousy lead to hysteria; while in ''The Old Nurse''s Story'' a mysterious child roams the freezing Northumberland moors. Whether darkly surreal, such as ''The Poor Clare'', where an evil doppelgänger is formed by a woman''s bitter curse, or mischievous like ''Curious, if True'', a playful reworking of fairy tales, all the stories in this volume form a stark contrast to the social realism of Gaskell''s novels, revealing a darker and more unsettling style of writing.Table of ContentsEdited by Laura KranzlerChronologyIntroductionFurther ReadingNote on the TextsDisappearancesThe Old Nurse's StoryThe Squire's StoryThe Poor ClareThe Doom of the GriffithsLois the WitchThe Crooked BranchCurious, if TrueThe Grey WomanAppendixNotes

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Book SynopsisThrough the Looking-Glass the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, containing the famous illustrations by Sir John Tenniel. No greater books for children have ever been written. The simple language, dreamlike atmosphere, and fantastical characters are as appealing to young readers today as ever they were. Meanwhile, however, these apparently simple stories have become recognised as adult masterpieces, and extraordinary experiments, years ahead of their time, in Modernism and Surrealism. Through wordplay, parody and logical and philosophical puzzles, Lewis Carroll engenders a variety of sub-texts, teasing, ominous or melancholy. For all the surface playfulness there is meaning everywhere. The author reveals himself in glimpses.

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Book SynopsisAngered by the values of his materialistic society, Hawk-eye lives apart from the other white men, sharing the solitude and sublimity of the wilderness with his Mohican Indian friend, Chingachgook. As the savageries of war test these exiled men, they agree to guide two sisters in search of their father through hostile Indian country.Trade Review"[Cooper's] sympathy is large, and his humor is as genuine -- and as perfectly unaffected -- as his art."- Joseph Conrad

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Book SynopsisThe exploits of Tom Sawyer, a consummate prankster with a quick wit, captivate children of all ages. Yet through the novel's humorous escapades, from the episodes of the whitewashed fence and the ordeal in the cave to the trial of Injun Joe. This book explores deeper themes within the adult world Tom will one day join.Trade Review"Twain had a greater effect than any other writer on the evolution of American prose."

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Book SynopsisTHE TIE-IN EDITION FOR THE AMAZON PRIME TV SERIES STARRING SAM CLAFLIN, RILEY KEOUGH AND CAMILA MORRONEFrom the author of CARRIE SOTO IS BACK, THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO and the bestselling MALIBU RISING'I LOVE it . . . I can't remember the last time I read a book that was so fun' DOLLY ALDERTONEverybody knows Daisy Jones and the Six.Their sound defined an era. Their albums were on every turntable. They sold out arenas from coast to coast.Then, on 12 July 1979, Daisy Jones walked barefoot onto the stage at Chicago Stadium. And it all came crashing down.Everyone was there.Everyone remembers it differently.Nobody knew why they split. Until now . . .'The verdict: Daisy Jones steals the limelight' STYLIST'New obsession, incoming' TELEGRAPH'I didn't want this book to end' FEARNE COTTON'Utterly believable . . . fantastically enjoyable' THE TIMES'Pitch perfect' SUNDAY TIMES'Reads like an addictive Netflix documentary meets A Star Is Born - despite being utterly fictional. It's also a call-to-arms that when you find your niche, don't doubt, embrace it' EMERALD STREET'Well observed, sensitively told . . . a great read' BBC'A tremendously engaging, and completely believable tale of rock and roll excess... inventive, persuasive and completely satisfying' DYLAN JONES'I spent a lost weekend in this book. Daisy Jones is an instant icon' ERIN KELLY'DAISY JONES & THE SIX is a transporting novel - at once a love story, a glimpse into the combustible inner workings of a rock-and-roll band, and a pitch-perfect recreation of the music scene of the Fleetwood Mac era. You'll never want it to end' CECILIA AHERN'Once in a blue moon you get to discover a book you end up pressing upon many other people to read. Taylor Jenkins Reid has got every nuance, every detail exact and right. I loved every word' PAUL REES'So brilliantly written I thought all the characters were real . . . I couldn't put it down' EDITH BOWMAN'Explosive . . . a gorgeous novel and a ravishing read' SUNDAY EXPRESS'The characters leap off the page, seducing you with their dramas, and making you wish the band was real' HEAT'The heady haze of the 70s music scene, and a perfectly flawed Daisy, combine to create a fresh, rock n roll read. I loved it' ALI LAND, author of Good Me Bad Me

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Book Synopsis“The surprise ‘must-read’ for people facing the Covid-19 epidemic.” —The TelegraphIn 1665 the plague swept through London, claiming over 97,000 lives. Daniel Defoe was just five at the time of the plague, but he later called on his own memories, as well as his writing experience, to create this vivid chronicle of the epidemic and its victims. A Journal (1722) follows Defoe's fictional narrator as he traces the devastating progress of the plague through the streets of London. Here we see a city transformed: some of its streets suspiciously empty, some—with crosses on their doors—overwhelmingly full of the sounds and smells of human suffering. And every living citizen he meets has a horrifying story that demands to be heard.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 reprTrade Review“One of the most original and harrowing accounts of living through a virulent pandemic . . . as full of meaning about human suffering today as it was when it was written.” —The Daily Beast“A brilliant account of the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in Britain—and it can still educate readers three centuries later.” —BBC News“[A] classic of plague literature . . . Camus was inspired by this book in writing The Plague.” —The Jerusalem Post “So grimly immediate . . . you can practically smell the death and decay.” —The Guardian “A realistic account of the plague’s effects on [London]. Defoe’s novel still has the power to unsettle—like when he writes about families forced into quarantine due to an infected family member.” —Vulture"Within the texture of Defoe's prose, London becomes a living and suffering being." —Peter AckroydTable of ContentsA Journal of the Plague YearChronology Introduction Notes Further Reading A Note on the TextA Journal of the Plague Year Appendix I: The Plague Appendix II: Topographical Index Appendix III: London Maps Appendix IV: Introduction by Anthony Burgess to the 1966 Penguin English Library Edition Glossary Notes

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Book Synopsis1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) was George Orwell's final novel and was completed in difficult conditions shortly before his early death. It is one of the most influential and widely-read novels of the post-war period.Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography Chronology 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four Explanatory Notes

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Book Synopsis''He thought he could see, in a flash, the future of the Rougon-Macquart family, a pack of wild satiated appetites in the midst of a blaze of gold and blood.''Set in the fictitious Provençal town of Plassans, The Fortune of the Rougons tells the story of Silvère and Miette, two idealistic young supporters of the republican resistance to Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte''s coup d''état in December 1851. They join the woodcutters and peasants of the Var to seize control of Plassans, opposed by the Bonapartist loyalists led by Silvère''s uncle, Pierre Rougon. Meanwhile, the foundations of the Rougon family and its illegitimate Macquart branch are being laid in the brutal beginnings of the Imperial regime.The Fortune of the Rougons is the first in Zola''s famous Rougon-Macquart series of novels. In it we learn how the two branches of the family came about, and the origins of the hereditary weaknesses passed down the generations. Murder, treachery, and greed are the keynotes, and just as the EmpireTrade ReviewReading Brian Nelson's Introduction to The Fortune of the Rougons is a real treat. * Lisa Hill, ANZLitLovers *The edition I read was the Oxford World's Classics translation by Brian Nelson and it's excellent ... as an introduction [to Zola] this has been such an inspiring read. * Desperate Reader *

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Book SynopsisJack Kerouac''s classic novel about friendship, the search for meaning, and the allure of natureA witty, moving philosophical novel, Jack Kerouac''s The Dharma Bums is a journey of self-discovery through the lens of Zen Buddhist thought. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Ann Douglas.Following the explosive energy of On the Road, the book that put the Beat Genration on the literary map - and Jack Kerouac on the bestseller list - comes The Dharma Bums, in which Kerouac charts the spiritual quest of a group of friends in search of Dharma, or Truth. Ray Smith and his friend Japhy, along with Morley the yodeller, head off into the high Sierras to seek the lesson of solitude and experience the Zen way of life. But in wildly Bohemian San Francisco, with its poetry jam sessions, marathon drinking bouts and experiments in ''yabyum'', they find the ascetic route distinctly hard to follow.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review'I read this book and believed it was a hallucinogenic, interactive biography of my own life and future' -- Tilda SwintonA book that refuses all constraints: historical, fantastical, metaphysical, sociological -- Jeanette Winterson * New Statesman *A fantasy, impossible but delicious ... an exuberance of life and wit * The Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewJust now I want to tell everyone about Irmgard Keun ... A great writer -- Ali SmithKeun has few rivals - I can think of none - as a chronicler of the ambience or the consequences of the rise of Nazism -- Michael HofmannThe Artificial Silk Girl follows Doris into the underbelly of a city that had once seemed all glamour and promise ... Kathie von Ankum's English translation will bring this masterwork to the foreground once more, giving a new generation the chance to discover Keun for themselves * Elle *Damned by the Nazis, hailed by the feminists ... a truly charming window into a young woman's life in the early 1930s * Los Angeles Times *A young girl navigates interwar German society and the expectations - or lack thereof - placed upon women, in this poignant, melancholy novel ... This heartbreaking story of dashed hopes is one that still has the power to affect and inspire * Publishers Weekly *

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