Biographical fiction / autobiographical fiction
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc The Golden Ass The Transformations of Lucius FSG
Book Synopsis
£16.20
Random House USA Inc Victory Everymans Library Classics Series
Book SynopsisJoseph Conrad possessed a matchless gift for embodying life as it is lived under extreme physical and psychological pressure. Victory, his last masterpiece, tells the story of Axel Heyst, a radically isolated, philosophically minded soul living apart on a remote Pacific island, who performs two acts of instinctive kindness and thereby embroils himself in storms of greed and vengeance, and of love and mercy. When Heyst impulsively rescues a young English musician, Lena, from the predations of a lascivious hotel owner named Schomberg, he cannot know that she will be the means of releasing him from the emotional detachment with which he has long barricaded himself. Their affair does not last long, however, once the enraged Schomberg sends agents of revenge to invade Heyst’s island retreat. Out of the maelstrom of violence and tragedy that ensues, Conrad produces a profound, unflinching meditation on hu
£22.50
Random House USA Inc Collected Stories of Henry James
Book Synopsis
£32.00
Alfred A. Knopf Daniel Deronda
Book SynopsisGeorge Eliot’s last and most unconventional novel is considered by many to be her greatest. First published in 1876, Daniel Deronda is a richly imagined epic with a mysterious hero at its heart.Daniel Deronda, a high-minded young man searching for his path in life, finds himself drawn by a series of dramatic encounters into two contrasting worlds: the English country-house life of Gwendolen Harleth, a high-spirited beauty trapped in an oppressive marriage to a wealthy man, and the very different life of a poor Jewish girl, Mirah, who is searching for her family. After rescuing Mirah from an attempt to drown herself in the Thames, Deronda accompanies her on her quest into London’s Jewish community, which he finds unexpectedly appealing. Gwendolen, meanwhile, increasingly relies on his support as she suffers from the consequences of her mistakes and the terror that she has brought a curse upon herself. As Deronda uncovers the surprising secret of his own par
£28.00
Random House USA Inc Collected Shorter Fiction of Leo Tolstoy Volume I
Book SynopsisWritten over a period of more than half a century, Leo Tolstoy’s stories reflect every aspect of his art and personality. They cover his experiences as a soldier in the Caucasus, his married life, his passionate interest in the peasantry, his cult of truth and simplicity, and his growing preoccupation with religion. The stories in Volume 1 of the Collected Shorter Fiction date from the period in which the young Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina and War and Peace. Ranging from brief, masterfully sketches of military life such as “The Wood-Felling” to novellas like Family Happiness, an uneasy imagining of the idyllic possibilities of marriage by the not-yet-married writer, all feature Tolstoy’s characteristically lavish deployment of detail, shrewd observation, and imaginative power.
£28.00
Random House USA Inc Doctor Faustus The Life of the German Composer
Book SynopsisJohn E. Woods is revising our impression of Thomas Mann, masterpiece by masterpiece. —The New YorkerDoctor Faustus is Mann's deepest artistic gesture. . . . Finely translated by John E. Woods. —The New RepublicThomas Mann's last great novel, first published in 1947 and now newly rendered into English by acclaimed translator John E. Woods, is a modern reworking of the Faust legend, in which Germany sells its soul to the Devil. Mann's protagonist, the composer Adrian Leverkühn, is the flower of German culture, a brilliant, isolated, overreaching figure, his radical new music a breakneck game played by art at the very edge of impossibility. In return for twenty-four years of unparalleled musical accomplishment, he bargains away his soul—and the ability to love his fellow man. Leverkühn's life story is a brilliant allegory of the rise of the Third Reich, of Germany's renunciation of its own humanity and its embrace of ambition and nihilism. It is also Mann's most profound meditation on the German genius—both national and individual—and the terrible responsibilities of the truly great artist.
£17.85
Random House USA Inc The Betrothed
Book SynopsisItaly’s greatest novel and a masterpiece of world literature, The Betrothed chronicles the unforgettable romance of Renzo and Lucia, who endure tyranny, war, famine, and plague to be together.Published in 1827 but set two centuries earlier, against the tumultuous backdrop of seventeenth-century Lombardy during the Thirty Years’ War, The Betrothed is the story of two peasant lovers who want nothing more than to marry. Their region of northern Italy is under Spanish occupation, and when the vicious Spaniard Don Rodrigo blocks their union in an attempt to take Lucia for himself, the couple must struggle to persevere against his plots—which include false charges against Renzo and the kidnapping of Lucia by a robber baron called the Unnamed—while beset by the hazards of war, bread riots, and a terrifying outbreak of bubonic plague. First and foremost a love story, the novel also weaves issues of faith, justice, power, and truth into a sweeping e
£24.00
Random House USA Inc Maggie Modern Library
Book SynopsisThis harrowing tale of a young girl in the slums is a searing portrayal of turn-of-the-century New York, and Stephen Crane's most innovative work. Published in 1893, when the author was just twenty-one, it broke new ground with its vivid characters, its brutal naturalism, and its empathic rendering of the lives of the poor. It remains both powerful, severe, and harshly comic (in Alfred Kazin's words) and a masterpiece of modern American prose.This edition includes Maggie and George's Mother, Crane's other Bowery tales, and the most comprehensive available selection of Crane's New York journalism. All texts in this volume are presented in their definitive versions.
£9.49
Random House USA Inc Persuasion
Book Synopsis
£7.95
Random House USA Inc The Moonstone
Book Synopsis'The Moonstone is a page-turner,' writes Carolyn Heilbrun. 'It catches one up and unfolds its amazing story through the recountings of its several narrators, all of them enticing and singular.' Wilkie Collins’s spellbinding tale of romance, theft, and murder inspired a hugely popular genre-the detective mystery. Hinging on the theft of an enormous diamond originally stolen from an Indian shrine, this riveting novel features the innovative Sergeant Cuff, the hilarious house steward Gabriel Betteridge, a lovesick housemaid, and a mysterious band of Indian jugglers.This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the definitive 1871 edition.
£10.62
Random House USA Inc The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Book SynopsisEdited, abridged, and with a critical Foreword by Hans-Friedrich Mueller Introduction by Daniel J. Boorstin Illustrations by Giovanni Battista PiranesiEdward Gibbon’s masterpiece, which narrates the history of the Roman Empire from the second century A.D. to its collapse in the west in the fifth century and in the east in the fifteenth century, is widely considered the greatest work of history ever written. This abridgment retains the full scope of the original, but in a breadth comparable to a novel. Casual readers now have access to the full sweep of Gibbon’s narrative, while instructors and students have a volume that can be read in a single term. This unique edition emphasizes elements ignored in all other abridgments—in particular the role of religion in the empire and the rise of Islam.
£18.04
Random House USA Inc Villette
Book Synopsis
£11.39
Penguin Random House LLC A Christmas Carol and Other Stories
Book Synopsis
£9.99
Random House USA Inc The Woman in White
Book SynopsisWilkie Collins? classic tale of murder,intrigue, madness, and mistaken identity, featuring updated endnotes and anintroduction by Anne Perry ?[TheWomaninWhite] has lasted, to our great pleasure, because it is superb storytelling about people who engage our minds and our imaginations andinto whose passions we are drawn.??Anne PerryONE OF TIME?S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIMEGenerally consideredthefirst English sensation novel, TheWomaninWhitefeaturestheremarkable heroine Marian Halcombe and her sleuthing partner, drawing master Walter Hartright, pitted againstthediabolical team of Count Fosco and Sir Percival Glyde. After more than a century since its publication, Wilkie Collins?s psychological thriller has never been out of print.
£9.99
Random House USA Inc Mod Lib The Master Of Ballantrae A Winters Tale
Book SynopsisStevenson’s brooding historical romance demonstrates his most abiding theme—the elemental struggle between good and evil—as it unfolds against a hauntingly beautiful Scottish landscape, amid the fierce loyalties and violent enmities that characterized Scottish history. When two brothers attempt to split their loyalties between the warring factions of the 1745 Jacobite rising, one family finds itself tragically divided. Stevenson’s remarkably vivid characterizations create an acutely moving, psychologically complex work; as Andrea Barrett points out in her Introduction, “The brothers’ characters, not the historical facts, shape the drama.”This Modern Library Paperback Classic includes illustrations reproduced from the original edition.
£9.49
Random House Publishing Group The Mayor of Casterbridge
Book SynopsisOne of Hardy’s most powerful novels, The Mayor of Casterbridge opens with a shocking and haunting scene: In a drunken rage, Michael Henchard sells his wife and daughter to a visiting sailor at a local fair. When they return to Casterbridge some nineteen years later, Henchard—having gained power and success as the mayor—finds he cannot erase the past or the guilt that consumes him. The Mayor of Casterbridge is a rich, psychological novel about a man whose own flaws combine with fate to cause his ruin. This Modern Library Paperback Classic reprints the authoritative 1912 Wessex edition, as well as Hardy’s map of Wessex.
£11.28
Random House USA Inc The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Book SynopsisAfter reading an 1836 newspaper account of a shipwreck and its two survivors, Edgar Allan Poe penned his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, the story of a stowaway on a Nantucket whaleship who finds himself enmeshed in the dark side of life at sea: mutiny, cannibalism, savagery—even death. As Jeffrey Meyers writes in his Introduction: “[Poe] remains contemporary because he appeals to basic human feelings and expresses universal themes common to all men in all languages: dreams, love, loss; grief, mourning, alienation; terror, revenge, murder; insanity, disease, and death.” Within the pages of this novel, we encounter nearly all of them.This Modern Library Paperback Classic reprints the text of the original 1838 American edition.
£9.49
Random House USA Inc War and Peace
Book SynopsisIntroduction by A. N. Wilson • Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadOften called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoy’s genius is seen clearly in the multitude of characters in this massive chronicle—all of them fully realized and equally memorable. Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individual’s place in the historical process, one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed War and Peace in the same category as the Iliad: “To read him . . . is to find one’ s way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane.”
£18.73
Random House USA Inc The Deerslayer
Book SynopsisSet during the French and Indian Wars, The Deerslayer vividly captures the essence of both the murderous humanity and the natural beauty that distinguished America’s founding. The last of Cooper’s famous Leatherstocking Tales, it is first chronologically in the frontier adventures of the backwoods scout Natty Bumppo. Amid a terrain largely inspired by Cooper’s own boyhood, Natty’s initiation in the moral codes of wilderness society is examined in what is, according to D. H. Lawrence, “the loveliest and best” of the Leatherstocking series.This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the definitive text established by James Franklin Beard and James P. Elliott, which is the Approved Text of the Center for Scholarly Editions of the Modern Language Association.
£13.29
Random House USA Inc The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Master and Man
Book SynopsisThis new edition combines Tolstoy’s most famous short tale, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, with a less well known but equally brilliant gem, Master and Man, both newly translated by Ann Pasternak Slater. Both stories confront death and the process of dying: In Ivan Ilyich, a bureaucrat looks back over his life, which suddenly seems meaningless and wasteful, while in Master and Man, a landowner and servant must each confront the value of the other as they brave a devastating snowstorm. The quintessential Tolstoyan themes of mortality, spiritual redemption, and life’s meaning are nowhere more movingly and deftly explored than in these two tales. This unique edition also includes a critical Introduction and extensive notes by Ann Pasternak Slater, a Fellow at St. Anne’s College, Oxford.
£8.54
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc Just Above My Head
Book SynopsisJames Baldwin’s final novel is “the work of a born storyteller at the height of his powers” (The New York Times Book Review). “Not everything is lost. Responsibility cannot be lost, it can only be abdicated. If one refuses abdication, one begins again.” The stark grief of a brother mourning a brother opens this stunning, unforgettable novel. Here, in a monumental saga of love and rage, James Baldwin goes back to Harlem, to the church of his groundbreaking novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, to the forbidden passion of Giovanni’s Room, and to the political fire that enflames his nonfiction work. Here, too, the story of gospel singer Arthur Hall and his family becomes both a journey into another country of the soul and senses—and a living contemporary history of black struggle in this land.
£16.15
Random House Canada The Chosen Maiden
Book SynopsisThe lush, sweeping story of a remarkable dancer who charts her own course through the tumultuous years of early twentieth-century Europe. Beautifully blending fiction with fact, The Chosen Maiden plunges readers into an artistic world upended by modernity, immersing them in the experiences of the era's giants, from Anna Pavlova and Serge Diaghilev to Coco Chanel and Pablo Picasso.From their earliest days, the Nijinsky siblings appear destined for the stage. Bronia is a gifted young ballerina, but she is quickly eclipsed by her brother Vaslav. Deemed a prodigy, Vaslav Nijinsky will grow into the greatest, and most provocative, dancer of his time. To prove herself her brother's equal in the rigid world of ballet, Bronia will need to be more than extraordinary, defying society's expectations of what a female dancer can and should be. The real-life muse behind one of the most spectacular roles in dance, The Rite of Spring's<
£16.20
WW Norton & Co Miss Grief and Other Stories
Book SynopsisTo celebrate her biography of Constance Fenimore Woolson, Anne Boyd Rioux has selected the best of this classic writer’s stories.
£12.34
WW Norton & Co Heart of Darkness
Book Synopsis“[A] triumph of graphic art [and] a compelling work of literary interpretation.”—Maya Jasanoff, Coolidge Professor of History, Harvard University, from the ForewordTrade Review"Peter Kuper’s art style is a force to be reckoned with. His sense of expression sears itself into your eyes, with his characters appearing as if caught in a psychedelic nightmare. His style remains intact with his latest work—Heart of Darkness." -- Starburst
£12.34
W. W. Norton & Company The Jungle
Book Synopsis
£25.75
WW Norton & Co The Decameron
Book SynopsisAbout Wayne Rebhorn’s translation.
£15.29
WW Norton & Co Heart of Darkness
Book SynopsisA haunting critique of European colonialism in Africa, Heart of Darkness recounts Charles Marlow's perilous expedition up the Congo River in search of Mr. Kurtz, the powerful and enigmatic commander of a Belgian ivory trading post. As Marlow draws closer to and finally reaches the target of his obsession, admiration turns to horror at the colonizers' atrocities laid bare before him. Its famously cryptic narrative structure, richly layered with symbolic undertones, evokes a hazy, menacing atmosphere that has sparked countless reinterpretations and adaptations to this day.
£9.67
WW Norton & Co Adrianne Geffel
Book SynopsisThis never-before-told story of the life and work of a (fictitious) musical phenomenon is "a revealing?and at times hilarious?satire of the music business, fame, and the cult of personality" (Clea Simon, Boston Globe).Trade Review"David Hajdu knows music.... A revealing—and at times hilarious—satire of the music business, fame, and the cult of personality." -- Clea Simon - Boston Globe"Gloriously twisted.... Fans of the genre, as well as musicians, will probably enjoy Mr. Hajdu’s humor most.... That Mr. Hajdu delivers such bleak views so wittily helps make some sad truths feel satisfying." -- John Young - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"Both a love letter to cultural criticism and avant-garde art, and an intimate indictment of the same." -- Taylor Poulos - Guernica"[A] playful, poignant, and often very funny oral history parody.... sophisticated satire, underneath which lurks many sharp insights into the music world." -- Adrienne Davich - Van"Adrianne Geffel is an uncommon treat: a smart parody that even detractors of the experimental are likely to welcome." -- Michael Magras - BookPage"Adrianne Geffel will be enjoyed by anyone (with a sense of humor) interested in the interface between artistic genius and the commercial world. Or just anyone with a sense of humor." -- Chris Parker - London Jazz News"David Hajdu’s super smart, super funny novel—a book about art and art-making and cultural criticism and authenticity and projection—knocked my socks off. Anyone who thinks about how we codify art and artists will dig Adrianne Geffel." -- Amanda Petrusich, author and staff writer for The New Yorker"Like The Real Life of Sebastian Knight or This Is Spinal Tap, David Hajdu’s Adrianne Geffel will become part of our cultural lexicon. This is satire at its best: painfully accurate, and utterly enjoyable." -- Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl"I absolutely adore Adrianne Geffel. For me, it’s the book of the year and an amazing new summit for David Hajdu." -- Eric Lorberer, editor, Rain Taxi"Inventive.... Hajdu’s vigorous send-up of the late-20th-century music scene sings." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
£12.34
WW Norton & Co Pride and Prejudice The Norton Library
Book Synopsis
£9.67
WW Norton & Co The Marrow of Tradition The Norton Library
Book Synopsis
£9.67
WW Norton & Co Kafkas Selected Stories
Book SynopsisIn 1945, W. H. Auden remarked that Kafka stands in the same relation to his century as Shakespeare does to his—Kafka is the representative of the twentieth century, the poet who gives it its voice.
£999.99
WW Norton & Co The Blithedale Romance
Book SynopsisThis new Norton Critical Edition of Hawthorne’s innovative 1852 novel helps readers navigate and appreciate its elusive plot, powerful characters, and maddening narrator.
£23.95
WW Norton & Co Mary Barton
Book SynopsisElizabeth Gaskell, one of the nineteenth century’s most significant novelists, was widely held to be the social conscience of Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution.
£14.99
WW Norton & Co Tolstoys Short Fiction
Book SynopsisLeo Tolstoy’s short works, like his novels, show readers his narrative genius, keen observation, and historical acumen—albeit on a smaller scale.
£23.19
WW Norton & Co The Secret Agent
Book Synopsis“[A] masterly study of the inner workings of the disordered minds whose aim is destruction, violence, and the overturning of law and order by means of bombs.”—The Observer (1907)
£21.57
WW Norton & Co Maggie A Girl of the Streets
Book SynopsisMaggie: A Girl of the Streets was the first major naturalistic novel in America.
£14.99
Random House USA Inc Remembrance of Things Past Volume I
Book Synopsis
£24.35
Penguin Putnam Inc One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Book Synopsis
£16.15
Penguin Putnam Inc The SeaWolf and Selected Stories
Book Synopsis
£6.88
Penguin Putnam Inc Flatland
Book Synopsis
£6.95
Penguin Putnam Inc The Jungle Books
Book SynopsisRudyard Kipling’s beloved collection of short stories about a boy raised by wolves who learns the Laws of the Jungle.Mowgli, lost in the deep jungle as a child, is adopted into a family of wolves. Hunted by Shere Khan, the Bengal tiger, Mowgli is allowed to run with the wolf pack under the protection of Bagheera, the black panther, and Baloo, the brown bear who teaches wolf cubs the Laws of the Jungle. Through his many adventures, Mowgli evolves from a man-cub to a just and compassionate human being who at last returns to join—perhaps to lead—his own kind.W. Somerset Maugham calls Kipling “our greatest short story writer,” and in The Jungle Books, he says, Kipling’s “great and varied gifts find their most brilliant expression.” His most famous work effortlessly captures the imagination and has inspired beloved film adaptations, including Disney''s The Jungle Book, as well as readers the world over. With an Introduction by Alberto Mangueland an Afterword by Alev Lytle Croutier
£7.34
Not Stated It Cant Happen Here
£9.49
Penguin Putnam Inc My Antonia
Book Synopsis
£7.24
Penguin Putnam Inc The Island of Dr Moreau Signet Classics
Book Synopsis
£7.04
Penguin Random House Group Ragged Dick
Book Synopsis
£7.04
Penguin Putnam Inc The Jungle
Book Synopsis
£7.87
Penguin Putnam Inc Around the World in Eighty Days
Book Synopsis
£8.05
Penguin Publishing Group The House of Mirth
Book Synopsis
£999.99
