Classic fiction: literary and general

Book SynopsisThe third volume in the Nobel Prize–winning writer’s epic story of medieval Norway, finely capturing Undset’s fluid, natural style in the first English translation in nearly a century In the early fourteenth century, Norway is a kingdom in political turmoil, struggling with opposing forces within its own borders and drawn into strife with neighboring Sweden and Denmark. Bloody family vendettas and conflicting loyalties sparked by the irrepressible passion of a boy and his foster sister (also his betrothed) have now set in motion a series of terrible consequences—with a legacy of betrayal, murder, and disgrace that will echo down through the generations. Crossroads, the third of Olav Audunssøn’s four volumes, finds Olav heartbroken by loss and further estranged from his son. To escape his grief, Olav leaves his home estate of Hestviken and agrees to serve as captain on a small merchant ship headed to London. There, separated from everything familiar to him, Olav begins a visionary journey that will send him far into the forest and deep into his soul. Questioning past decisions and future plans, Olav must grapple with his own perceptions of love and guilt, sin and penitence, vengeance and forgiveness. Set in a time and place where royalty and religion vie for power, and bloodlines and loyalties are law, Crossroads summons a powerful picture of Northern life in medieval times, as the Swedish Academy noted in awarding Sigrid Undset the Nobel Prize in 1928. Conveying both the intimate drama and epic sweep of Olav’s story as grief and guilt drive him to ever more desperate action, Crossroads is a moving and masterly re-creation of a vanished world tainted by bloodshed and haunted by sin and retribution. As with Kristin Lavransdatter, her earlier medieval epic, Undset immersed herself in the legal, religious, and historical documents of the time while writing Olav Audunssøn to create astoundingly authentic and compelling portraits of Norwegian life in the Middle Ages. And as in her translation of Kristin Lavransdatter, Tiina Nunnally does full justice to Undset’s natural, fluid prose, in a style that delicately and lyrically conveys the natural world, the complex culture, and the fraught emotional territory against which Olav’s story inexorably unfolds.Trade Review "Engrossing... Fans of well-researched historical epics ought to check this out."—Publishers Weekly "[Undset] is also a master of evoking a vanished way of life and, above all, of nature’s vitality, of weather, of land- and seascapes, exhilarating images that freshen a story that is deeply tinctured with anguish and uncertainty. "—Star Tribune "These books are so well written and so beautifully translated that the reader is pulled into the story and brought along on the journey. We don’t feel like observers, but participants."—Looking for a Good Book "Undset describes the harsh life in the far north—its formidable sea, bone-chilling winters, and breathtaking landscape—in poetic evocative language, splendidly translated."—Historical Novel Society

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Book SynopsisThe Warden introduces us to the lives of some of the most beloved characters in all literature. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition has an introduction by Margaret Drabble and illustrations by F. C. Tilney.Scandal strikes the peaceful cathedral town of Barchester when Septimus Harding, the warden of charitable foundation Hiram’s Hospital, is accused of financial wrongdoing. A kindly and naive man, he finds himself caught between the forces of entrenched tradition and radical reform amid the burgeoning materialism of Britain in the 1850s. The deeply insightful portrayals of figures such as the booming Archdeacon Grantly and the beautiful Eleanor Harding are at the heart of this moving and deliciously comical tale. The Warden launched the enduringly popular Barsetshire Chronicles series of six novels and won Anthony Trollope a seat in the pantheon of great literary figures.Trade ReviewThe brilliance of Trollope’s storytelling lies in his ability to twist and turn your allegiances as a reader, page by page . . . It is a brilliantly spun story, and its central themes are as urgent as ever -- Michael Symmons Roberts * Guardian *A master of the mock epic . . . Trollope is that rare thing: a strong writer with a trustworthy imagination -- Adam Gopnik * New Yorker *

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Book SynopsisA classic of modern travel writing, An Area of Darkness is Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul’s profound reckoning with his ancestral homeland.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by internationally acclaimed author Paul Theroux.Traveling from the bureaucratic morass of Bombay to the ethereal beauty of Kashmir, from a sacred ice cave in the Himalayas to an abandoned temple near Madras, Naipaul encounters a dizzying cross-section of humanity: browbeaten government workers and imperious servants, a suavely self-serving holy man and a deluded American religious seeker. An Area of Darkness also abounds with Naipaul’s strikingly original responses to India’s paralyzing caste system, its acceptance of poverty and squalor, and the conflict between its desire for self-determination and its nostalgia for the British raj. This may be the most elegant and passionate book ever written about the subcontinent.Trade ReviewBrilliant . . . true autobiography arises when a man encounters something in his life which shocks him into the need for self-examination and self-exploration. It was natural that a sojourn in India should provide this shock for Naipaul. The experience was not a pleasant one, but the pain the author suffered was creative rather than numbing. An Area of Darkness is tender, lyrical, explosive and cruel * Observer *Written with the expected beauty of style . . . Instead of diminishing life, Naipaul ennobles it -- Anthony BurgessThe conclusion is both heart-breaking and bracing: the only antidote to destruction – of dreams, of reality – is remembering. As eloquently as anyone now writing, Naipaul remembers * Times *A wonderful book . . . a magical book * Independent *

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Book SynopsisA delicious anthology of classic food writing to satisfy every palate, this gorgeous book will delight food lovers everywhere.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning pocket size classics. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by food historian, lecturer and broadcaster Annie Gray.From ancient times to today’s celebrity chefs, people have always been inspired to write about food. In this delectable collection, Food for Thought, food historian Annie Gray has chosen an array of material to entertain and inspire. The variety is impressive – from lavish feasts in classical times to street food of pea soup and eels in 19th century London, and from how to find food on a desert island to meat free meals by Agnes Jekyll. Brimming with satire on Victorian etiquette, intriguing recipes through the centuries and culinary advice from cooks and hosts, there is so much here to enjoy.

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James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a powerful, trailblazing novel that exposes the intricate relationship between race and class in late nineteenth-century America.Complete & Unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by Dr Sam Halliday.After losing his mother at a very young age, the narrator is thrust from his comfortable, middle-class environment, afforded by his distant but aristocratic father, into the wider world. His passion for music begins in Georgia’s all-black church community and takes him from New York, where he plays ragtime for a rich white gentleman, to the South, where he witnesses lynchings and out of fear gives up his passion, as well as his race, to pass for white. Relevant to this day, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is an unflinching account of black experience in America.

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Book SynopsisWhat makes a home, and when do we really feel at home? Is it a physical place, or something we all carry inside us wherever we go?Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by writer and academic Professor Michèle Mendelssohn.In No Place Like Home: An anthology about the places we come back to, writers from around the world celebrate the comfort of home, capturing its emotional power and sharing nostalgia for what we leave behind. There are extracts from the likes of Louisa May Alcott, Kenneth Graham and Charlotte Brontë as well as lesser known but no less insightful poets and writers to discover.

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Book SynopsisWith the natural world increasingly under threat, Our Place in Nature explores one of the most topical issues of our day; our appreciation of nature and recognition of our place in it.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by Zachary Seager.A timely anthology of classic writing exploring our complex relationship with the natural world. Famous names such as George Orwell, Dorothy Wordsworth, John Muir and Rachel Carson are gathered here to share their wonder, concern and appreciation for our place in nature.

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Book SynopsisA sparkling anthology celebrating sport in all its variety; from elite rugby and football to rural games on the village green, from an exclusive golf club to the sheer pleasure of a bicycle ride.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by sports historian, Professor Martin Polley.A treat for sports fans, dip into this wide-ranging, entertaining collection of classic writing drawn from journalism, diaries, drama, fiction and more. On Your Marks spans from Elizabethan Shakespeare to twentieth-century George Orwell and features Daniel Defoe on horse racing, Jane Austen on baseball, Lewis Carroll on croquet and many more.

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Book SynopsisFor fans of true crime and of classic crime fiction, The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey is a gripping thriller featuring detective Alan Grant and a masterful exposé of the powerful connections between media, the establishment and what people choose to believe. Based on a true story.Complete and unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by writer David Stuart Davies.Fifteen-year-old Betty Kane has never put a foot wrong. Naturally, everyone is shocked and horrified to hear her story – that she was kidnapped, tortured and held prisoner by Marion Sharpe and her elderly mother, owners of the mysterious old house, The Franchise. But are the two women really guilty of such a horrendous crime? Every page resonates with tension as the story unfolds – did they or didn’t they take a young girl prisoner? And whose story can you trust?Trade ReviewThe Franchise Affair is an ingenious book, a crime novel without a corpse, a detective story in which the victim is justice itself. -- Sarah Waters * The Guardian *

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Book SynopsisUncle Tom's Cabin may well have excited more controversy than any other work of fiction in American history. Welcomed by many abolitionists and met with indignation by supporters of slavery, it gave crucial impetus to the antislavery movement, and its characters and dramatic scenes were quickly absorbed into the nation's consciousness; at the same time, its employment of racial stereotypes and emphasis on Christian nonresistance in the face of violence left behind a troubling legacy that was debated by black Americans in the nineteenth century and that culminated in the popular tradition of 'Tom shows' that persisted well into the twentieth century. With a brief but robust introduction, judicious selection of the most essential and frequently taught portions of the novel, and examples of contemporary responses, this abridged edition of Harriet Beecher Stowe's antislavery classic provides an overview of the novel's plot, themes, and rhetorical strategies, and is ideal for classroom use. This volume is one of a number of editions that have been drawn from the pages of the acclaimed Broadview Anthology of American Literature; like the others, it is designed to make a range of material from the anthology available in a format convenient for use in a wide variety of contexts.Trade ReviewThe expansion, diversification, and revitalization of the texts and terms of American literary history in recent years is made marvelously accessible in the … new Broadview Anthology of American Literature."—Hester Blum, Penn State University"The Broadview Anthology of American Literature is, quite simply, a breakthrough. … Meticulously researched and expertly assembled, this anthology should be the new gold standard for scholars and teachers alike."—Michael D’Alessandro, Duke University"So much thought has been put into every aspect of the Broadview Anthology of American Literature, from the selection of texts to their organization to their presentation on the page; it will be a gift to classrooms for years to come."— Lara Langer Cohen, Swarthmore College "The multiplicity of early American locations, languages, and genres is here on wondrous display."—Jordan Alexander Stein, Fordham University "Above all, this is a volume for the 21st century. … Its capaciousness and ample resource materials make for a text that is always evolving and meeting its readers in new ways."—Russ Castronovo, University of Wisconsin-Madison"a rich collection that reflects the diversity of American literatures…. [and] that never forgets its most important audience: students. There is a wealth of material here that will help them imagine and reimagine what American literature could be."— Michael C. Cohen, UCLATable of ContentsIntroductionUncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly: SelectionsIn Context American Slavery: Contemporary Accounts from Theodore Dwight Weld, Angelina Grimké Weld, and Sarah Grimké, American Slavery as It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses (1839) from The Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada (1856) Runaway Advertisements (1820–67) Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Public William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator, 26 March 1852 from William J. Wilson [Ethiop], Uncle Tom's Cabin!, Frederick Douglass' Paper, 17 June 1852 from Charles Sumner, US Senate Speech on his Motion to repeal the fugitive Slave Bill (as reprinted in the Anti-Slavery Bugle, Lisbon, Ohio), 18 September 1852 from anonymous, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The New York Observer, 21 October 1852 from Louisa S. McCord, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Southern Quarterly Review, January 1853 from George Sand, George Sand and Uncle Tom, The National Era, 27 January 1853 from George Frederick Holmes, A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, Southern Literary Messenger, June 1853 from anonymous, The North American Review, October 1853 from Mary Chesnut, Diary, 1861–62, 1981 Advertisement, New England Farmer (Boston, Massachusetts), 25 December 1852 (An Edition for the Million) Advertisement, Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut), 12 August 1852 The Anti-Tom Novel from Caroline Lee Hentz, The Planter's Northern Bride (1854) Martin Delany and Frederick Douglass Debate Harriet Beecher Stowe Visualizing Uncle Tom's Cabin

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1968, In the Heart of the Heart of the Country established William Gass as one of America’s finest and boldest writers of fiction, and nearly fifty years later, the book still stands as a landmark of contemporary fiction. The two novellas and three short stories it contains are all set in the Midwest, and together they offer  a mythical reimagining of America’s heartland, with its punishing extremes of heat and cold, its endless spaces and claustrophobic households, its hidden and baffled desires, its lurking threat of violence. Exploring and expanding the limits of the short story, Gass works magic with words, words that are as squirming, regal, and unexpected as the roaches, boys, icicles, neighbors, and neuroses that fill these pages, words that shock, dazzle, illumine, and delight.

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Book SynopsisThe most comprehensive edition ever published of Mark Twain's short writings

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Book Synopsis"Fresh, accurate, and engaging, this new translation of the Book of the City of Ladies helps us to understand what made Christine de Pizan so popular with her fifteenth-century contemporaries. The editors provide a rich historical and philosophical context that will be very useful to both students and scholars of the history of political ideas. The translations themselves gracefully navigate the fine line between accuracy and readability with considerable charm. Rounding out this portrait of the turmoil of fifteenth-century France, the volume is enriched by excerpts from other works, Christine's Vision, the Book of the Body Politic, and the Lamentation on France’s Ills." —Kate Forhan, Emeritus, Siena CollegeCONTENTS: Introduction A Note on Translating the Book of the City of Ladies Christine de Pizan: Her works, Her Times Suggestions for Further Reading From Christine's Vision (1405) The Book of the City of Ladies (1404–1405) From The Book of the Body Politic (1404–1407) From Lamentation on France's Ills (1410) Index Trade Review"Fresh, accurate, and engaging, this new translation of the Book of the City of Ladies helps us to understand what made Christine de Pizan so popular with her fifteenth-century contemporaries. The editors provide a rich historical and philosophical context that will be very useful to both students and scholars of the history of political ideas. The translations themselves gracefully navigate the fine line between accuracy and readability with considerable charm. Rounding out this portrait of the turmoil of fifteenth-century France, the volume is enriched by excerpts from other works, Christine's Vision, the Book of the Body Politic, and the Lamentation on France's Ills." -- Kate Forhan, Emeritus, Siena College

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Book SynopsisInherited through the line of the berserker Angantýr and his war-loving daughter Hervor, the ever-lethal, shining sword Tyrfing and its changes of hands frame the uncanny story of The Saga of Hervor and Heiđrek. A second heroic saga, Hrólf Kraki and His Champions, recounts the daring deeds of the members and entourage of the ancient Danish house of Skjoldung. Passed down orally in pre-Christian Norse times, transmitted in writing in medieval Iceland, and here wielded by the hand of Jackson Crawford, the tales told in this volume retain their sharp edges and flashes of glory that never fail to slay.

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of Nightwood, Djuna Barnes has written a book that is all that she was, and must still be vulgar, beautiful, defiant, witty, poetic, and a little mad.Told as through a kaleidoscope, the chronicle of the Ryder family is a bawdy tale of eccentricity and anarchy; through sparkling detours and pastiche, cult author Djuna Barnes spins an audacious, intricate story of sexuality, power, and praxis.Ryder, like its namesake, Wendell Ryder, is many things—lyric, prose, fable, illustration; protagonist, bastard, bohemian, polygamist. Born in the 1800s to infamous nonconformist Sophia Grieve Ryder, Wendell’s search for identity takes him from Connecticut to England to multifarious digressions on morality, tradition, and gender. Censored upon its first release in 1928, Ryder’s portrayal of sexuality remains revolutionary despite the passing of time and the expurgations in the text, preserved by Barnes in protest of the war “blindly raged against the written word.” The weight of Wendell’s story endures despite this censorship, as his drive to assume the masculine roles of patriarch and protector comes at the sacrifice of the women around him.A vanguard modernist, Djuna Barnes has been called the patron literary saint of Bohemia, and her second novel, Ryder, evinces her cutting wit and originality. The nonlinear structure and polyphonic narration pull the reader into Barnes’ harlequin world like a riptide, echoing the melodic cascade of James Joyce’s Ulysses and the avant-garde feminism of Dorothy Richardson. The novel is a rhapsodic saga that could have come only from Barnes’ pen—and politics—as impactful today upon at its first pressing, a document of sexual revolution and censorship.

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Book SynopsisWidely considered to be the greatest short story writer in all of French literature, Guy de Maupassant helped define the modern short story, deeply influencing the likes of Chekhov, Maugham, Babel and O. Henry. Yet despite his mastery of the form, existing English translations render his prose in an archaic style. Convinced that this protege of Flaubert deserved to be modernised in the same way that Lydia Davis had brought Madame Bovary to life, Sandra Smith selected twenty-eight classic Maupassant short stories, written between 1880 and 1890, including “Le Horla” and “Boule de Suif”. Divided thematically into tales of French life, war and the supernatural, The Necklace and Other Stories promises to reintroduce Maupassant to twenty-first-century readers.Trade Review"Smith successfully captures Maupassant's depiction of 19th-century French culture using terminology that allows these wonderful texts to reach a fresh generation of readers. A solid translation of some wonderful short stories." -- Erica Swenson Danowitz - Library Journal, Starred review "Sandra Smith has a sterling reputation for shaking the dust off previous translations while leaving the meaning and the feeling of a classic work of literature intact. She has succeeded again with this beloved collection of stories by Maupassant and delivered in English the vitality and excitement his first nineteenth-century French readers appreciated." -- Alice Kaplan, John M. Musser Professor of French, Yale University or author of Dreaming in French

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Book SynopsisA gorgeously produced, bilingual edition of Nobel Prize laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer''s canonical storyone of the most influential of the 20th centuryabout a hapless yet charmingly resilient baker named Gimpl, who resists taking revenge on the town that makes him the butt of every joke. Singer''s original Yiddish appears alongside his own partial translation, now completed and edited by writer and scholar David Stromberg, and the 1953 translation by fellow Nobel laureate Saul Bellow. With illustrations by Liana Finck and an afterword by David Stromberg.Isaac Bashevis Singer's Gimpl tam was published on March 30, 1945, in the obscure Yiddish-language journal Idisher kempfer, about a month before the Nazi surrender. A story of bullying and the potential for revenge, it tells the deathbed confession of an orphaned baker who is targeted by his own community for ridicule and practical jokes. Gimpl has come to be seen as a symbol of the Jewish people in the diaspora, and, by synecdoche, minorities in general. Should they be passive in the face of aggression? Or should they defend themselves? What role must the individual of that minority play when the pack behaves badly?When Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg opted to include Gimpl tam in their Treasury of Yiddish Tales, Howe asked Saul Bellow to help with the translation. It was finished in a single sitting and published in 1953 in The Partisan Review as Gimpel the Foolthe version that has since been canonized as one of the fundamental stories of the twentieth century. Yet, unlike every other major work of Singer's published in his lifetime, the author had no involvement in the English translation. In 2006, Joseph Landis, editor of Yiddish, published a draft play script titled Simple Gimpl, made by Singer directly from the Yiddish originalthe closest extant rendition of the story in the author's own translation. Literary scholar David Stromberg has completed Singer's translation, allowing readers to see another dimension of the original. This definitive edition, a treat for literature lovers, features Singer's story in Yiddish along with the two English versions. Having them together shows Gimpl as anything but a foolbut rather someone accepting the complexity of his life and faith.

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Book SynopsisFleeing Victorian London, a witch finds her newfound independence comes with all-new perils—both mortal and immortal. Forever untangling the branches of her strange family tree, Edwina Blackwood is at a turning point. Her parents’ disappearances still strike her as unaccountably odd. Her sister’s questionable life and untimely death have left her shaken. Spellfire has transformed her home and livelihood to ash. And now a devious stalker is on her trail. With supernatural detective Ian Cameron by her side, Edwina can’t get out of London fast enough. Gaining safe passage, she finds refuge with Sir Henry Elvanfoot, famed wizard of the north, and is promised protection from ill-aimed curses. But in this unfamiliar city of fair folk and witches, where the veil between Earth and the Otherworld is about to be lifted, something is amiss. How else to explain Edwina’s sudden prophetic visions? Or the fear that surviving whoever pursues her will require the powers of an ancient bloodline she’s only beginning to comprehend? Whatever destiny awaits, it’s Edwina’s to finally control. Where will it lead? Only time, cunning, and magic—in this world or the Other—will tell.Trade Review“The surprises about both characters and the setting throughout this story will delight readers as Smith continues to skillfully play with folklore in this charming series.” —Booklist “Readers will enjoy an imaginative, skillfully written dive into Victorian fantasy.” —Historical Novels Review

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Book SynopsisSPY-MASTERS, NAZIS AND SECRETSIt’s the Second World War, and Sexton Blake is matching minds with the very best… and the very worst.When an innocent woman is condemned as a spy and her fiancé arrested while trying to escape to France, Sexton and Tinker have to travel into enemy territory in their hunt for the mastermind... and on the home front, a man is found murdered - but the suspect doesn’t know if he did it! Who else to find the truth but Sexton Blake?Join the greatest detective as he battles with a mysterious house, a ring of traitors - and a deadly secret.Trade Review“Delighted to see Sexton Blake still going strong – and with such aplomb!” -- Agatha Christie“Makes Jack Reacher look like a bungling amateur...definitely not be missed.” — The Crime Review“The Sexton Blake Saga is the nearest approach to a national folk-lore” -- Dorothy L. Sayers

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Book SynopsisThere will be a club. Important messages have been sent already. If anybody wants to ruin it, he will be punished. Eleven-year-old Elmer inhabits a childhood of superstition, private lore and secret societies. When a new boy, pale, spindly Werther, arrives in the neighbourhood, a subtle game of fascination and persecution begins. In wartime Amsterdam, a young boy watches as Germans occupy the city. At first his parents' friends, the Boslowits family, think they have little to fear. Then, slowly, terribly, their fate is sealed. These two haunting novellas, from the acclaimed author of The Evenings, evoke the world of childhood, in all its magic and strangeness, darkness and cruelty. Here, the things seen through a child's eyes are far from innocent.Trade Review"Profoundly unsettling and haunt[s] the mind for long afterwards." — Sunday Times, Books of the Year"These two posthumously published novellas show he was capable of enormous and often unsettling power." — Observer"Enthralling... tales of the joys and pains of life that linger in the mind." — Financial Times"Reve [has the ability]... to wring menace out of things left unsaid." — Daily MailExpertly translated." — The National"In a distinctive voice that captures childish incomprehension while still conveying what is missed by the still immature mind, the two words collected in Childhood are dark and even unpleasant, but both strong and impressive." — Asymptote Journal

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Book Synopsis'Madeleine Bourdouxhe is one of the more remarkable literary discoveries of the last few years' Jonathan Coe These are stories of longing and dissatisfaction, of daily life ruptured by strange currents of feeling. A woman, wandering alone and heartbroken, is first attacked and then romantically pursued by a stranger. A maid wears her mistress's expensive coat to meet her lover, but finds herself more preoccupied by fantasies of intimacy with 'Madame'. A woman gives birth on the day foreign troops invade the city, and must flee with her newborn on the back of a truck. Written in the aftermath of the Nazi occupation of Europe, and admired by the Existentialists and the Surrealists alike, these stories are now translated with extraordinary clarity by Faith Evans. With piercing insight and candour, Madeleine Bourdouxhe illuminates the conflicted hearts of the housewife, the mother, and the maid. These unforgettable tales of ordinary women are suffused with desire and melancholy, memory and fantasy, and lit by the furnace burning just beneath the surface of everyday life.Trade Review"Often dream-like but centred on the daily life of women… magnificent." - Guardian "Her lonely, fantasising women call up Rhys and Mansfield." – Hermione Lee, Observer"The stories here reveal a poetic imagination which combines the startling imagery of the surrealists with intensely female preoccupations . . . a singular, resonant voice." – Literary Review"These are the stories of a very gifted, very honest writer, who moves quite naturally between fidelity to fact and fidelity to the furnace beneath it, of memory and fantasy and bereavement." – TLS "Madeleine Bourdouxe is one of the more remarkable literary discoveries of the last few years." - Jonathan Coe "An unforgettable, thrilling achievement... What [Marie] does, no less, is stake a claim to Bourdouxhe's rightful position alongside Proust and Virginia Woolf as an explorer of interior life." - Sunday Times "A stunning collection... [Bourdouxhe] has the observational expertise and tightness in structure of Katherine Mansfield, a touch of Angela Carter’s wildness, and the realism in her characterisation and dialogue reminded me of Daphne Du Maurier’s later work... a moving, powerful and transformative reading experience." — The Heroine Collective"Exquisite, elegant, and nonsentimental... Bourdouxhe conveys the sharp, almost physical intensity of thought." - Irish Times on Marie"the laureate of yearning… [her] greatness lies in her ability to conjure the most exquisite and heart-rending moments from the most quotidian circumstances. Everyone should read her." — Graeme Macrae Burnet, author of His Bloody Project "Powerful stories… what a treat for modern readers to have her work revived." — A Life in Books blog"The surrealist soul of these stories is played with in both tragedy and comedy, and is frightfully good at bringing colour and electricity to the flat and the ordinary." — Books and Bao blog"There are not many writers you can think of who have understood the patriarchal situation with such clarity and disregarded it all the same with the exact proportionate amount of dignity, nihilistic abandon and fatalism." — Flowerville blog"Bourdouxhe’s women have almost untold depths of feeling and trauma…But they are never bowed: they love, they mourn, they desire, they dream, they take risks. Above all, they never lose their sense of self." — Translating Women blog "I loved her writing, with its bare starkness." — Bookword blog"remarkable collection. Vivid… exquisite… stylish." — Book Jotter blog "A compact, yet challenging, piece of work… explores a variety of themes… continues to invoke debate and deliberation." — Swirl and Thread blog

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Book SynopsisIn these stories of the surreal mundanity of office life and obscure tensions at sea, Melville's darkly modern sensibility plunges us into a world of irony and mystery, where nothing is as it first appears. A lawyer hires a new copyist, only to be met with stubborn, confounding resistance. A cynical lightning rod salesman plies his trade by exploiting fears in stormy weather. After boarding a beleaguered Spanish slave ship, an American trader's cheerful outlook is repeatedly shadowed by paralyzing unease.Trade Review"Melville instinctively aspired to the grandest scale, and even in his shorter works offers vast inklings and the resonance of cosmic concerns." -- John Updike"Melville seems to promise the very stuff of existence: time, space, air. We don't so much read him as inhale him." -- Geoffrey O'Brien, Village Voice"There are very few stories that, on re-reading after re-reading, seem to become impossibly more perfect, but Herman Melville's eerie, aching story 'Bartleby, the Scrivener' is one such." -- Stuart Kelly, Guardian

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Book SynopsisIn this collection, readers will rediscover Gertrude Stein as the bearer of a joyfully radical literary vision. A bold experimenter, her writing sparks with vitality, relishing in rhythm, repetition, sound and colour in its central vision: to prise apart language and association and find thrilling new ways to express the true essence of her subject with charming joie de vivre Stein considered her shorter writings to be the truest expressions of her enrapturing style. Her fascination with people and personalities can be located in expressive portraits of close friends such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Juan Gris, whilst her decades-long relationship with Alice B. Toklas is immortalised with shimmering eroticism. There are also playful meditations on her unique writing process, conveying her serious delight in meddling with conventions of grammar and composition.Trade Review'A Stein-shaped sentence is a very bespoke thing-you need an espresso martini to recover' - Deborah Levy'We are convinced by the truth of her observations, and are still astonished by the beautiful bluntness with which they're stated' - New Yorker'Stein created the first indubitably modern literary style' - New Yorker

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Book SynopsisThe raucously witty Yiddish classic about a Jewish Paradise afflicted by very human temptations and pains, in a new translation On being expelled from Paradise, young Samuel Abba pulls a crafty trick, managing to arrive on earth with his memory intact. He quickly begins regaling the humans around him with mischievous stories of a Paradise far from their expectations: a world of drunken angels, lewd patriarchs and the same divisions and temptations that shape the human world. The Book of Paradise is a comic masterpiece, and the only novel by one of the great Yiddish writers. Written in the midst of rising anti-Semitism in 1930s Europe, its raucous blend of sacred and profane is a slyly profound reflection of the author's turbulent times.Trade Review“Electrifying…sparkles with Manger’s song and poetry, and is brilliantly layered with literary and folkloric references.” — Tablet“There is something joyous about Manger’s playful language.” — The Jewish Chronicle

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Book SynopsisAt 17, Nan wants to leave the family farm and go to study. Caught between her powerful mother and yielding, drunken father, she absorbs the tensions of their divided household and dotes on her new gelding, a gift from her father. When a sudden accident leaves the horse blind, Nan's mother insists he must be put down, initiating a power struggle that brings the family's conflicts explosively to the fore. First published in 1938, The Crazy Hunter is an electrifying short novel - sharply observed, psychologically astute and morally complex. Written in lush, entrancing prose, it is the finest work by a significant modernist writer.Trade Review'The Crazy Hunter is the story closest to perfection that I have ever read' - Katherine Anne Porter'Few writers have been more skilled at conveying an underlying emotional violence imperfectly concealed by the conventional politenesses' - Margaret Atwood

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Book Synopsis'A funny, smart read with a kick-ass heroine' Sun on Sunday. A witty, light-hearted comedy about love and fiction, and the all-important difference between the two. Think you know Charlotte, Emily & Anne? Think again. Samantha Whipple is the last remaining descendent of the illustrious Brontë family, of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre fame. After losing her father, a brilliant author in his own right, it is up to Samantha to piece together the mysterious family inheritance lurking somewhere in her past - yet the only clues she has at her disposal are the Brontë's own novels. With the aid of her handsome but inscrutable Oxford tutor, Samantha must repurpose the tools of literature to unearth an untold family legacy, and in the process, finds herself face to face with what may be literature's greatest secret.Trade ReviewA funny, smart read with a kick-ass heroine * Sun on Sunday *A perfectly paced and plotted literary mystery with a wonderful heroine at its heart -- Anna James, Literary Editor * Elle magazine *An absolutely brilliant, fun debut * Open Book, BBC Radio 4 *My pick is this fast-paced, very funny mystery about the (fictional) last-remaining descendant of the Brontes trying to unravel clues that will reveal long hidden secrets about the famous sisters * Elle Magazine, Best New Books for 2016 *It's a super premise, stylishly written and the bits about the sisters are great * Mail on Sunday *Filled with gothic twists and leading [the protagonist] - and the reader - down pathways strewn with Brontë arcana * New York Times Book Review *Blending a detective story with a Jane/Mr Rochester-style romance, it has something for everyone * Stylist *If you liked the page-turning historical mystery of The Discovery of Witches trilogy, are just a little bit obsessed by the Brontës and have a small crush on Mr Rochester, this entertaining literary romp has got your name all over it * The Pool *A witty story that brilliantly weaves together history with the present day * Red Magazine *An enjoyable academic romp that successfully combines romance and intrigue, one that benefits from never taking itself too seriously * Publisher's Weekly *

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Book SynopsisA romantic and comic gem from a precocious Victorian nine-year-old that has charmed readers for a centuryThe Young Visiters is a comic masterpiece that has delighted generations of readers since it was first published in 1919. A classic story of life and love in later Victorian England as seen from the nursery window, it was written in 1890 by nine-year-old Daisy Ashford.It all starts when Alfred Salteena, who is 'not quite the right side of the blanket', takes young Ethel Montacue to stay with his friend Bernard Clarke... Daisy Ashford has an exquisite eye for matchmaking and manners in English society, and her tale, with its hilarious observation and idiosyncratic spelling, is as irresistible today as it ever was.This edition of The Young Visiters is illustrated with drawings by Posy Simmonds which are as enchanting and witty as the story. The text has been transcribed from the original manuscript and includes J.M. Barrie's famous preface to the first edition.Trade ReviewI adore The Young Visiters, with its delightful voice and exuberant spellings... A blissful book -- Nina StibbeFunny and touching... one of my favourite comfort reads -- Ruth WareIf you haven’t read The Young Visiters before you’re in for a treat. Mr Salteena will make you laugh on even the grimmest of days -- Tracy ChevalierA total one off, a magic book that has been in the shelves almost all my life and which I go back to with a thrill every decade to so to remind myself why I love it so much -- Juliet NicolsonWonderful… A forgotten gem of a book but so influential in so many ways -- Joanne Harris

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Book SynopsisThere is a sequestered glen off the east coast of the Hudson, New York state, which has long continued under the sway of some witching power; the neighbourhood abounds with tales, haunted spots and twilight superstitions. But as hapless schoolmaster Ichabod Crane will discover, the wildest of all stories in this region of shadows relate to one particularly dreadful spectre - the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.Washington Irving's comic horror story is the best known of this collection of stories, observations and sketches written on his travels around Britain and America in the eighteenth century. Also includes 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'Little Britain'.Trade ReviewMacabre horror, fish-out-of-water humour...A heady gumbo of witchcraft, apocalyptic prophecies and occult rivalries * Guardian *Irving was befriended by Sir Walter Scott, admired by Lord Byron and widely considered the first American writer who could hold his own with England's best * Washington Post *Beautifully composed of dense texture and dark pleasures * Daily Mirror *Irving is at his best...the inventor of the modern short story... The remote valleys and mountain glens, where strange contagions seem to hang in the air and ghosts and goblins dwell, seem as real to us today as they must have done centuries ago * Daily Mail *'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' is...a classic, essential, exquisitely American tale * Washington Post *

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Book SynopsisDiscover this fresh, pacy, modern translation of an enduring literary classic.Halfway through life, you find yourself lost, unsure of the right path. Greed, deception and pride have led you away from the ideals and dreams you cherished in younger days. How do you go on?This is the starting point of one of the most extraordinary and important journeys in western literature, a stunningly ambitious flight of imagination and philosophy which has reverberated down the years since Dante Alighieri first wrote it down in the fourteenth century. The Divine Comedy is a vision of the afterlife, the three regions of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, through which the narrator must journey in order to better understand the workings of the universe, the love of God, and his place in the world. Poet and translator Steve Ellis translated the Inferno in 1994, and it was greeted with great acclaim. Now Ellis's translation of the entire poem is published here for the first time, and Dante's epic can be experienced afresh and in new glorious life and colour, the physicality and immediacy of Dante's verse rendered in English as never before.A NEW TRANSLATION BY STEVE ELLIS

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