Classic fiction: literary and general

Book SynopsisFeaturing short stories from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Anita Loos, Dorothy Parker, Zora Neale Hurston and more Edited and Introduced by David M. Earle Vivacious, charming, irreverent: a flapper is a girl who knows how to have a roaring good time. In this collection of short stories she's a partygoer, a socialite, a student, a shopgirl, and an acrobat. She bobs her hair, shortens her skirt, searches for a husband and scandalizes her husband. She's a glittering object of delight, and a woman embracing a newfound independence. Bringing together stories from widely adored writers and newly discovered gems, sourced from the magazines of the period, this collection celebrates the outrageous charm of an iconic figure of the Jazz Age.

Read more less

Book SynopsisMilo Milodragovitch is a once-successful divorce lawyer, who now prefers to spend his days drinking and staring out the window. That all changes when Helen Duffy walks into his office and asks him to find her missing brother.Though it's not his usual line of work, Milo agrees to help - he needs the money, and he wants to spend more time with this beautiful woman. But this is far from a routine case, and whispers of a long-past crime haunt Milo's every move . . .'As sweetly profane a poet as American noir could have asked for' Ian Rankin'Like James Ellroy, he is a master of American vernacular, turning tough-guy slang into something like poetry' IndependentTrade ReviewAn exceptionally good example of the private-eye novel. Crumley writes about damaged people seen through a haze of jaded romanticism * Newsweek *If you like your detective fiction tough and tenacious, you will love James Crumley... No one does it better * Houston Chronicle *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisEdwardian era love, society and politics explored in this perfect read for Downton Abbey fans.Sebastian is young, handsome and romantic, the heir to a vast and beautiful English country estate. He is a fixed feature in the eternal round of lavish parties, intrigues and traditions at the cold, decadent heart of Edwardian high society. Everyone knows the role he must play, but Sebastian isn't sure he wants the part. Position, privilege and wealth are his, if he can resist the lure of a brave new world.WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY KATE WILLIAMSTrade ReviewAs opulent and ambiguous as the author herself -- Victoria GlendinningSackville-West wrote without fuss or anxiety. Her fluency could be relied on to provide imaginative security, and she wanted readers - of The Edwardians, Family History, All Passion Spent - to feel that too * Guardian *A close-up portrait of the excessive lifestyle of the aristocracy in a country estate... living out the tension between playing your given part in society — staying true to the rules and culture you were born into — and becoming an independent person, a tension that also defines "Downton Abbey," both upstairs and down. * Boston Globe *Exposes the shallowness of the elite in society at the beginning of the twentieth century… I found this novel a real pleasure to read… Sackville-West describes some of the monstrous characters with great humour… The tone is witty and perceptive and it is obvious she has a deep insider knowledge of the life she is criticizing… The Edwardians was apparently an instant success on publication and I think today it would certainly appeal to fans of Downton Abbey or books like The Forsyte Saga. Book groups would find plenty to discuss about both the social history and the outrageous characters in the novel. -- Gwenda Major * Nudge *

Read more less

Book SynopsisEvelyn, aged thirty-nine, is an attractive widow living an irreproachable life. Then she meets Miles, fifteen years her junior, and falls passionately in love. But both lovers have strong personalities and passion does not equal happiness. Evelyn, deeply jealous and conventional is shocked at her lover's casual ways and his insistence on working all day. Miles’s love for Evelyn is real but he cannot devote himself wholly to her whims. Vita Sackville-West collides attitudes to work, sex and society in the changing world of the early 1930s.Trade ReviewI guarantee that like Harold Nicolson, who was reading Family History on the train between Staplehurst and Charing Cross, most readers will “weep copiously” -- Victoria GlendinningGlamorous aristocrat, complete with ancient name, Spanish Gypsy blood, lost inheritance and family scandals; reckless, romantic lesbian and cross-dresser; devoted wife to a noted diplomat and diarist; mother of two talented sons; bestselling writer, gardener of genius - what could be more enthralling? -- Hermione Lee * Guardian *Tears, tantrum, age gap… utterly addictive. Tissues ahoy. * Daily Mail *

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen Andrée joins her school, Sylvie is immediately fascinated. Andrée is small for her age but walks with the confidence of an adult.The girls become close. They talk for hours about equality, justice, war and religion; they lose respect for their teachers; they build a world of their own. But as the girls grow into young women, the pressures of society mount, threatening everything.This novel was never published in Simone de Beauvoir's lifetime. It tells the story of the real-life friendship that shaped one of the most important thinkers and feminists of the twentieth century.'Slim, elegant, achingly tragic and unaffectedly lovely in its evocation of the closeness between girls - and the pressures that sunder them' SpectatorVINTAGE FRENCH CLASSICS - five masterpieces of French fiction in gorgeous new gift editions.TRANSLATED BY LAUREN ELKIN - INTRODUCED BY DEBORAH LEVYTrade Review[An] exquisitely simple tale... The Inseparables invites us to cherish friendship, and how it makes and breaks us in a precarious and cruel world. * Church Times *A short novel that will bring most to tears, it's loving, it's tender, it's heart wrenching and absolutely worth reading * Left Lion *

Read more less

Book SynopsisVINTAGE CLASSICS' AMERICAN GOTHIC SERIESSpine-tingling, mind-altering and deliciously atmospheric, journey into the dark side of America with nine of its most uncanny classics.Hester Prynne is a beautiful young woman. She is also an outcast. In the eyes of her neighbours she has committed an unforgivable sin. Everyone knows that her little daughter, Pearl, is the product of an illicit affair but no one knows the identity of Pearl's father. Hester's refusal to name him brings more condemnation upon her. But she stands strong in the face of public scorn, even when she is forced to wear the sign of her shame sewn onto her clothes: the scarlet letter 'A' for 'Adulteress'Trade ReviewAn extraordinary work of the imagination that burns from page to page with the fierce simplicity of scripture and an almost cinematic clarity of vision. The Scarlet Letter is an astounding book full of intense symbolism, as strange and haunting as anything by Edgar Allan Poe—GuardianSomething might at last be sent to Europe as exquisite in quality as anything that had been received—Henry JamesNo facile answers are provided here. Hester is, after all, guilty; Pearl the "Elfin" child, has devilish traits; the Puritans are given their due. Chillingworth and Dimmesdale are villains because of their hypocrisy but remain sympathetic because they are both self-destructive...—IndependentA defiant adulteress; a community of hypocrites who force her to wear a scarlet letter A around her neck as a badge of her shame; an evil husband, secretly stoking the fires of their moral fervour until it reaches boiling point; and, finally, a stunning public confession in which the woman reveals the identity of her lover, who is then promptly sent to the gallows—Sunday TimesIn making fiction out of the excesses of his Puritan ancestors, Hawthorne anticipated the technique of a modern movie-director. He was a master of crowd scenes—Financial Times

Read more less

Book SynopsisA collection of BBC radio full-cast dramatisations of Jane Austen's six major novels Jane Austen is one of the finest writers in the English language, and this volume includes all six of her classic novels. Mansfield Park: On a quest to find a position in society, Fanny Price goes to live with her rich aunt and uncle. Northanger Abbey: Young, naïve Catherine Morland receives an invitation to stay at the isolated Gothic mansion Northanger Abbey.Sense and Sensibility: Forced to leave their family home after their father's death, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood try to forge a new life at Barton Cottage. Pride and Prejudice: Mrs Bennet is determined to get her five daughters married well, so when the wealthy Mr Bingley and his friend Mr Darcy move into the neighbourhood her hopes are raised… Emma: Emma Woodhouse declares she will never marry, but she is determined to find a match for her friend Harriet. Persuasion: Eight years ago, Anne Elliot rejected a marriage proposal from a handsome but poor naval officer. Now her former love has returned… With an all-star cast including David Tennant, Benedict Cumberbatch, Julia McKenzie, Jenny Agutter, Toby Jones, Eve Best and Juliet Stevenson, these BBC radio adaptations are full of humour, romance, love lost and love regained.

Read more less

Book SynopsisGreat Expectations tells the story of Pip, a young lad, who grows up without any expectations, but is surprised to hear from a lawyer that he has an unknown benefactor who is sending him to London to learn to become a gentleman. But the great expectations that he has change him, leading him almost to the brink of death, and in the course of events, Pip learns a number of lessons about life, loyalty and true happiness.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Arcturus Classics series brings together high-quality paperback editions of classics works, presented with contemporary graphic cover designs. Together they make a wonderful collection which is perfect for any home library.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisArturo Bandini arrives in Los Angeles with big dreams. But the reality he finds is a city gripped by poverty. When he makes a small fortune from the publication of a short story, he reinvents himself, indulging in expensive clothes, fine food and downtown strip clubs. But Bandini's delusions take a worrying turn when he is drawn into a relationship with Camilla Lopez, a beautiful but troubled young woman who will be responsible for his greatest downfall. Ask the Dust is an unforgettable novel about outsiders looking in on a town built on celluloid dreams.Trade ReviewWritten of and from the gut and the heart . . . Fante was my god -- Charles BukowskiA powerful and moving read * * Guardian * *A tough and beautifully realised tale - affecting, powerful and poignant * * Time Out * *This stunning novel, as Charles Bukowski's 1980 foreword outlines, was the reason he became a writer. Is there any better recommendation? * * Uncut * *Bandini is a magnificent creation, and his discovery is not before time * * Times Literary Supplement * *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisLittle treasures, the FLAME TREE COLLECTABLE CLASSICS are chosen to create a delightful and timeless home library. Each stunning, gift edition features deluxe cover treatments, ribbon markers, luxury endpapers and gilded edges. The unabridged text is accompanied by a Glossary of Victorian and Literary terms produced for the modern reader. Containing both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass this new edition brings together the classic tales to offer the full story of Alice, the Red Queen, the mad Hatter and the incredible cast of characters created by mathematician and king of nonsense verse Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Beloved characters whirl through a world of talking creatures, disappearing cats and madcap peculiarity told with swift economy by a writer whose influence on modern fantasy is often overlooked. Much filmed (including Tim Burton's award winning Alice in Wonderland), animated and republished Dodgson's work is a wildly entertaining ride for children, but packed with symbols and satire for the adult reader too.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisWith a new foreword. Written in the fourteenth century by Italian author, poet and scholar Giovanni Boccaccio, the Decameron contains stories told by ten young Florentines who have fled the city to escape the Plague. Presented within the sophisticated structure of a surrounding frame story, the one hundred allegorical tales are shared through the voices of these people as they spend their nights regaling the company with tales intended to guide and comfort, from the erotic, sensual, and bawdy to the intellectual, philosophical and tragic. The work’s fundamental purpose is one of ethical instruction through the means of beautiful and entertaining prose, touching on themes of morality, fortune, human will, wit, virtue, female agency, and love won and lost. This is Boccaccio's masterpiece and is generally viewed as the work that confirmed his reputation as the founder of Italian prose literature. It is also one of the world's great literary masterpieces. Flame Tree Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore, epic literature and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories, the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe dark, funny and ambitious early writings of one of Britain's best-loved writers.Jane Austen's name is synonymous with witty, cutting novels about the manners and money of Britain's high society. This collection of her youthful writings shows the author grappling with the themes that would define her later writing and showcases her trademark irony. Containing the short epistolary novels Love and Freindship and Lady Susan, as well as an eclectic mix of early writings, this collection is a must-have for any Austen fan.Part of a boldly designed series of classics, with wider margins for notes, this book is perfect for design-lovers and students alike. With bold, eye-catching graphic covers by Evi O Studio, this collection aims to introduce a selection of the most celebrated works of the last thousand years to a new audience. Featuring tales of adventure, fiction from the 19th and 20th centuries, feminist writings, and reflections on art, politics, philosophy and the origins of man, this is a small, wide-reaching and essential collection.'His heart, which was as delicate as sweet and as tender as a Whipt-syllabub, could not resist her attractions.'

Read more less

Book Synopsis''One might almost say that he had assumed its [the cathedral''s] form as the snail takes on the form of its shell.'' Victor Hugo on QuasimodoThe Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of the great love stories but it is served up with lashings of horror. An instant classic first published in 1831, it''s set in the Paris of the 15th century, featuring a cast of thousands. Three men are in love with a beautiful street dancer called Esmerelda: the handsome Captain Phoebus, the wicked Archdeacon Frollo and his adoptive son Quasimodo, the bell-ringer of the cathedral. Naturally, this situation leads to trouble. Wrongly accused of murdering Phoebus, Esmerelda is sentenced to death and rescued from the gallows by Quasimodo, who memorably carries her up to the tower. Victor Hugo claimed he wrote this book to save Paris''s amazing gothic centre-piece from the ''demolishers''. And such was the success of his book that the immense building had to be restored to cope with the influx of tourists its popularity produced.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Arcturus Classics series brings together high-quality paperback editions of classics works, presented with contemporary graphic cover designs. Together they make a wonderful collection which is perfect for any home library.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis bookis a new translation of Henry Murger’s influential Scènes de la vie de bohème, first published in French in 1851. The book recounts the lives of a bohemian group of creative young people as they fall in and out of love, endure cold and hunger, enjoy drunken parties, see their friends suffer and die of poverty, and finally emerge as mature artists. The book's publication soon inspired many (mostly young) people to seek out a bohemian life in Paris and other cities around the world. Not only did it inspire people at the time to change their lives, it also inspired Puccini’s beloved opera La Bohème(1896) and, a hundred years later, Jonathan Larson’s phenomenally successful Rent (1996). Few works of literature have had such a social impact. Bohemian cultures and subcultures have been with us ever since and Murger’s book remains an engaging and satisfying work of literature.Trade ReviewHenry Murger’s tales of bohemian life – in Robert Holton’s lively new translation – continue to fascinate and to resonate. The haphazard, hand-to-mouth existence of Murger’s bohemians, their vanities, their shifts and dodges, their amours, their self-deceptions, their wiles, their wit, their ever-fluctuating fortunes make for very agreeable and entertaining reading. The thoughtful introduction and informed annotations by Holton to Murger’s text are a most welcome added benefit. Warmly to be recommended. —Dr. Gregory Stephenson Associate professor emeritus at the University of Copenhagen. Author of the book "The Daybreak Boys: Essays on the Literature of the Beat Generation".Robert Holton provides a modern version of Henri Murger’s Scenes of Bohemian Life that captures the spirit of nineteenth-century Parisian bohemia while remaining accessible to contemporary readers. Holton’s ability to translate double-entendre and provide well-researched sociohistorical and cultural context underscores Murger’s oeuvre as a richly intertextual work of art. —Eliza Jane Smith, University of San Diego. If, like me, you thought the historical origins of Bohemia might be of modest, minor interest, then Robert Holton will make you think again. Framed by an informative and lively introduction, his new edition puts back into circulation the book that defined the subject and inspired or informed a wealth of cool cultural fashions and radical social experiments—from the garrets of Paris to the salons of the Bloomsbury Group, and from the Beat Generation to Bohemianisation as a form of urban gentrification. To evoke the trilby, an icon of cool which owes a debt to Murger’sbohemiaby way of du Maurier’s novel, a tip of my hat! — Oliver Harris, Professor of American Literature and President of the European Beat Studies NetworkThis new translation of Scenes of Bohemian Life by Robert Holton is direct, clear, lively and highly readable, and (as far as I can determine with my somewhat eroded command of French) has been rendered into English with fidelity and felicity. Holton's Introduction and his annotations are instructive and serve very much to enhance the text. The translator informs readers of the relation of the tales to actual persons and events known to the author, and assesses possible causes for the extraordinary popularity of the book in France and elsewhere during the 19th century, treating various aspects of its allure and mystique, including the book's implicit offer to readers of "a powerful new sense of possibility, an alternative way of life outside the strictures of society." — Midwest Book ReviewTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION; 1. How the Bohemian Society Was Established; 2. A Gift from the Gods; 3. Love at Lent; 4. Ali-Rodolphe, or A Turk by Necessity; 5. Charlemagne’s Coin; 6. Mademoiselle Musette; 7. The Sands of Pactolus; 8. What Five Francs Cost; 9. Polar Violets; 10. The Cape of Storms; 11. A Bohemian Café; 12. A Reception in Bohemia; 13. The Housewarming Party; 14. Mademoiselle Mimi; 15. Donec Gratus; 16. The Passage of the Red Sea; 17. The Graces Adorned; 18. Francine’s Muff; 19. Musette’s Whims; 20. Mimi’s Fine Feathers; 21. Romeo and Juliet; 22. Epilogue to Love; 23. Only Young Once; Appendix: Murger’s Preface; Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisPsmith helps acting editor Billy Windsor change the image of Cosy Moments magazine and they are stalked by gangsters when their expose of slum tenements angers an unscrupulous landlord.Trade ReviewIn these handsome volumes, with the pages that smell of real paper and those fine covers by Andrzej Klimowski, you find that the sparkle hasn't dimmed. They are a cause for regular celebration. -- James Naughtie * The Times *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe stories in this collection reflect Wodehouse’s own happy schooldays at Dulwich College but they also do a good deal more. Although among his earliest attempts at fiction they give fascinating glimpses of a time when motor cars were novelties, schoolmasters wore mortar boards and gowns, and America was a rising power in the world.The best of them display the author’s love of games and knack for neat plotting. In one, a resourceful teenaged heroine helps a truant schoolboy cricketer by marooning his credulous schoolmaster at the top of a church tower until the match is over. Another describes a boy escaping from the scene of his crime by a passing car, only to be caught out by a last-minute revelation. Several Sherlock Holmes parodies read as what they are – high-spirited experiments – but the longer stories delve deeper into character: together, they recreate a vanished world of school shops, fagging, Latin prep and hearty teas.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThese brilliantly wrought, tragic novellas explore the repressed emotions and destructive passions of working-cass people far removed from the social milieu usually inhabited by Edith Wharton's characters.Ethan Frome is one of Wharton's most famous works; it is a tightly constructed and almost unbearably heartbreaking story of forbidden love in a snowbound New England village. Summer, also set in rural New England, is often considered a companion to Ethan Frome - Wharton herself called it 'the hot Ethan' - in its portrayal of a young woman's sexual and social awakening. Bunner Sisters takes place in the narrow, dusty streets of late-nineteenth-century New York, where the constrained but peaceful lives of two spinster shopkeepers are shattered when they meet a man who becomes the unworthy focus of all their pent-up hopes.All three of these novellas feature realistic and haunting characters as vivid as any Wharton ever conjured, and together they provide a superb introduction to the shorter fiction of one of America's greatest writers.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Tenant of Wildfell Hall is Anne Bronte's second and most celebrated novel. Set in the dramatic northern landscape made familiar by the author's more famous sisters, it tells the story of Helen Graham, a mysterious single woman who rents the semi-ruinous Hall of the title. With a child but no husband, Helen divides the community between those who admire her charm and spirit and those who suspect her morals. Chief among her supporters is a local farmer, Gilbert Markham, who tells her story.Written before The Tenant, Agnes Grey, based on the author's own experience, explores the position of women in Victorian society through the story of a young woman forced to work as a governess when her father is ruined financially.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAuto Da Fé is the story of Peter Kien, a distinguished, reclusive sinologist living in Germany between the wars. With masterly precision, Canetti reveals Kien's character, displaying the flawed personal relationships which ultimately lead to his destruction.Manipulated by his illiterate and grasping housekeeper, Therese, who has tricked him into marriage, and Benedikt Pfaff, a brutish concierge, Kien is forced out of his apartment - which houses his great library and one true passion - and into the underworld of the city. In this purgatory he is guided by a chess-playing dwarf of evil propensities, until he is eventually restored to his home. But on his return he is visited by his brother, an eminent psychiatrist who, by an error of diagnosis, precipitates the final crisis...Auto Da Fé was first published in Germany in 1935 as Die Blendung (The Blinding or Bedazzlement) and later in Britain in 1947, where the publisher noted Canetti as a 'writer of strongly individual genius, which may prove influential', an observation borne out when the author was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981. Auto Da Fé still towers as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, and Canetti's incisive vision of an insular man battling agianst the outside world is as fresh and rewarding today as when first it appeared in print.Trade ReviewOne of the few undoubted masterpieces of our time -- John DavenportA mad, magnificent work * Spectator *A strange, eloquent and terrifying book -- Polly ToynbeeThe work of a remarkable talent * Observer *

Read more less

Book SynopsisUnforgettably astounding and a joy to read, Memento Mori is considered by many to be the greatest novel by the wizardly Dame Muriel Spark. In late 1950s London, something uncanny besets a group of elderly friends: an insinuating voice on the telephone informs each, "Remember you must die." Their geriatric feathers are soon thoroughly ruffled by these seemingly supernatural phone calls, and in the resulting flurry many old secrets are dusted off. Beneath the once decorous surface of their lives, unsavories like blackmail and adultery are now to be glimpsed. As spooky as it is witty, poignant and wickedly hilarious, Memento Mori may ostensibly concern death, but it is a book which leaves one relishing life all the more.Trade ReviewThere is a Waugh-like brilliance to this novel, in the easy economical narrative, the continuous invention producing a series of surprises, the well-cut dialogue, the controlled tone . . . the most remarkable of Miss Spark's achievements. Nothing is forced, least of all the humour -- V. S. NaipaulI am reading a trio of novels by Muriel Spark, a marvellously witty English writer . . . Her best, I think, is Memento Mori, which is chillingly brilliant -- Tennessee WilliamsThe greatest Scottish novelist of modern times . . . My admiration for Spark's contribution to world literature knows no bounds. She was peerless, sparkling, inventive and intelligent - the creme de la creme -- Ian RankinSpark is a writer who can take the meditative and make it mercurially funny, playful and mischievious -- Ali SmithThere is a Waugh-like brilliance to this novel, in the easy economical narrative, the continuous invention producing a series of surprises, the well-cut dialogue, the controlled tone. This last is the most remarkable of Miss Spark's achievements. Nothing is forced, least of all the humour * V. S. Naipaul, NEW STATESMAN *I am reading a trio of novels by Muriel Spark, a marvelously witty English writer, one of the few lady writers I like to read. Her best, I think, is Memento Mori, which is chillingly brilliant * Tennessee Williams *This funny and macabre book has delighted me as much as any novel that I have read since the war * Graham Greene *A brilliant and singularly gruesome achchievement * Evelyn Waugh *

Read more less

Book SynopsisQuite unlike her fair stepsisters, Lizzie is dark and secretive: 'Just like your father' says her mother. But what was her father like? Photos of him are hidden away; snatches of overheard conversation between her mother and her stepfather deepen the mystery. Only her best friend Savannah - also abandoned by her father when she was a baby - knows what it feels like to wonder, to try and piece together an earlier story. But when events propel Lizzie alone to London she stops wondering and starts searching...Beautifully evoking the ache of childhood loss, the scrappy joys of chaotic families, and the hurt and relief of understanding, OUT OF THE PICTURE reveals Polly Samson's talent for laying bare the uncomfortable truths that lie just under the skin - in every family, in every secret.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe turbulent 'Killing Times' of the Covenanters is the backdrop to a desperate struggle between lifelong rivals. John Burnet of Barns, the last of an ancient line of Border Reivers, returns home from abroad to find himself denounced as an agent of the Covenanters. Outlawed and deprived of his inheritance by his ruthless cousin, Captain Gilbert Burnet, John must now fight to survive. John Buchan's first full-length work of fiction is a tale of adventure in the tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson. With an introduction by Tam Dalyell. This edition is authorised by the John Buchan Society. Trade Review'Buchan knew that you can't buck the consequences of your actions, and that your life is what you make of it. Perhaps his peculiarly Scottish combination of Romanticism and Calvinism - daring living and high thinking - is due to return to fashion' * The Independent Magazine *

Read more less

Book SynopsisVinland follows the turbulent life of Ranald Sigmundson, a young boy born into the Dark Ages when Orkney was torn between its Viking past and its Christian future. Struggling to understand the conflicts of his home, Ranald seeks adventure and knowledge across the seas, his journeys taking him as far as Norway, Iceland and Ireland. Through Ranald’s story, many elements of early mediaeval life – of seamanship, marriage customs, beliefs and traditions – are brought vibrantly to life, and the traditional poetry interwoven through the prose adds a richness and poignancy to the tales he tells. In Vinland, Mackay Brown’s fourth novel, lore and legend, the elementary pull of the sea and the land, the sweetness of the early religion and the darker, more ancient rites, create an exquisite celebration of Orcadian history.

Read more less

Book SynopsisCharles Dickens's second novel is the tale of a young orphan who faces the gruelling conditions of a Victorian workhouse before finding himself sucked into the criminal underworld of London. Teeming with unforgettable characters such as the villainous Fagin, the virtuous Nancy and the brutal Bill Sikes, Oliver Twist combines dark humour, elements of melodrama and social polemic. At once a ferocious indictment of the author's era and a timeless story of coming of age, this classic has enthralled readers and inspired countless adaptations and imitations since it was first published in 1838.Trade ReviewThe power of [Dickens] is so amazing that the reader at once becomes his captive. -- William Makepeace Thackeray

Read more less

Book SynopsisOne of Twain’s most celebrated novellas, ‘The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg’ is a satirical retelling of the Garden of Eden story in the Bible, in which the author, mocking the supposed honesty and incorruptibility of the inhabitants of an imaginary American town, shows how man is fundamentally bad and cannot resist the temptations of gold. This collection also includes another acclaimed novella, ‘A Double-Barrelled Detective Story’, a spoof of the mystery genre featuring Sherlock Holmes in the American West, as well as lesser-known narratives such as ‘The Belated Russian Passport’ and ‘The Death Disk’. Together, these tales are a testament to Twain’s inexhaustible gift for invention and his skills as a storyteller.Trade ReviewThe father of American literature. -- William Faulkner

Read more less

Book SynopsisDocumenting the colourful escapades of the former gladiator Encolpius and his less than faithful lover Giton, the "Satyricon" plunges the reader into the lives of ordinary Roman citizens, vividly revealing the Empire's seamy underbelly. A host of unforgettable characters are satirically presented, such as Trimalchio, the pretentious parvenu host, in a memorable banquet scene, the lascivious priestess Quartilla and the narrator's unreliable, roguish friend Ascyltus. Sometimes referred to as the first novel - although surviving only in fragments - this bawdy, picaresque and surprisingly modern narrative is considered one of the founding masterpieces of Western literature.

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst published in 1797, The Italian, with its archetypal villain Schedoni, its intense romance and its sublime depiction of landscape, is the masterpiece of Gothic fiction. Enlisted by the Marchesa di Vivaldi, the perfidious monk Schedoni casts a malevolent presence throughout the book as he tries to thwart the passion of the two young lovers Vincenzo di Vivaldi and Elena di Rosalba. Against the backdrop of the Catholic Inquisition and the unforgettable scenery of the Bay of Naples and the Apennines, The Italian celebrates the heroic struggle of love in the face of malice and deceit.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA delightful variation on the long tradition of bestiary writing, Jules Renard’s short verse and prose poems have captured the imagination of readers and artists since they were originally written in 1894, with Ravel famously setting five of them to music. Presented in a new version by acclaimed translator Richard Stokes, this sumptuously produced volume will captivate and enchant new generations of readers the world over.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn late-nineteenth-century Paris, the writer Hubert is shocked to discover that Icarus, the protagonist of the new novel he’s working on, has vanished. Looking for him among the manuscripts of his rivals does not solve the mystery, so a detective is hired to find the runaway character, who is now in Montparnasse, where he learns to drink absinthe and is picked up by a friendly prostitute.Trade ReviewOne of the most prodigiously gifted and influential French writers. The Irish Times

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen the young nobleman Des Grieux lays eyes on the beautiful and charming Manon Lescaut, he immediately falls in love with her, and they elope to Paris, incurring the wrath of his family and forfeiting his inheritance. However, he struggles to satisfy her taste for luxury, frittering away the little he has left, and his domestic bliss finally disintegrates when he finds out that Manon has betrayed him for a rich lover. Although causing scandal on its initial publication in 1731 and subsequently being banned, Manon Lescaut proved very popular with eighteenth-century readers, and remains one of literature’s finest and most evocative depictions of obsessive love.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSeduced by the chimerical world of the theatre and taking upon himself the grand ambition of becoming a successful performer and dramatist, the merchant's son Wilhelm Meister embarks on a tumultuous quest of self-discovery. Along his path he finds himself having to negotiate love, desire and the need to face up to his own past and responsibilities. A landmark in the history of European literature, Goethe's novel is not only one of the key works of Weimar Classicism and the prototype for the Bildungs-roman genre, but also a timeless tale of coming into one's own and a fascinating portrayal of the late-eighteenth-century theatre world.Trade ReviewOne of the most influential literary works of the early nineteenth century. * The Independent *To read Wilhelm Meister for the first time is an enviable and almost unique sensation. -- Henry JamesAll the great European modernists are in his debt. * TLS *

Read more less

Book SynopsisYoung college graduate Carol Kennicott moves from a big city to Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, the small town from which her new husband hails. Imbued with ideals of urban improvement, she dreams of redesigning her adopted village, but her efforts are thwarted by the narrow-mindedness, pettiness and conventionality of the locals, who conspire against her and deride all her endeavours. An enormous commercial and critical success on its first publication in 1920, Main Street – regarded by many as Sinclair Lewis’s best novel – delivers a scathing satire on the American dream, and is invaluable as a document of pre-Prohibition Middle America.Trade ReviewA novel, yes, but so unusual as not to fall easily into a class. There is practically no plot, yet the book is absorbing. It is so much like life itself, so extraordinarily real ~ 1920's review of Main Street by the New York Times.

Read more less

This outstanding and greatly neglected novel of the war, revolution, civil war and early Bolshevik rule first appeared in English in 1930 under the title Quiet Street. At the story's centre is a family, Grandfather (an ornithologist), grandmother and grandchild living in a corner house in Sivtsey Vrazhek and it is through their experiences and those of their circle that we glimpse the surrounding momentous events. It was not the author's intention to fashion an abstract historical sweep but rather to focus on the experiences of individuals (and even some of those from the animal kingdom). For Osorgin, nature is a more powerful force in life than the solipsistic beliefs of humankind. At the heart of 'A Corner House in Moscow' is the portrait of the coming-of-age granddaughter, Tanyusha, and her development as an individual in spite of the surrounding chaos. Indeed, a host of memorable characters grace the novel including Stolnikov, the young university graduate who volunteers in 1914, becomes an officer and wins the St George Cross but ultimately loses both his arms and legs to an artillery shell. In the hospital he became known as 'the trunk'. 'The doctors said: "A miracle. Just look at him. There's nature for you."' Written in very short chapters, the wealth of the novel is in the vignettes of individuals and incidences. Cumulatively, they combine to affirm life over death and individuals over ideology.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPikovaia dama (The Queen of Spades) has continued to fascinate readers since its first publication in 1834, and has been successfully adapted to both operatic stage and screen. The most generally admired of Pushkin’s stories, it has earned a high place amongst his works as a whole and in many ways is the embodiment of ‘essential’ Pushkin. With its play on both psychology and the fantastic, its tersely precise language and its openness to multiple readings, it continues to mesmerise critics, teachers and students alike. This book contains the complete text in Russian of The Queen of Spades, with an introduction to Pushkin's life and work. The text is also supplemented with extensive notes in English and a complete vocabulary.Table of ContentsIntroduction Text Vocabulary

Read more less

Book SynopsisHailed as the greatest Japanese novel of the Twentieth century, THE MAKIOKA SISTERS is a subtle tale of domestic oppression worthy of Balzac or Chekhov, In this saga of the once prosperous but now declining Makioka family struggling to marry off one of their daughters, Tanizaki presents the picture of a family and a society striving to preserve their self-respect as they come to terms with disturbing new ways in a classic confrontation of innovasion and tradition. A wonderful portrait of Japanese life in the first half of the twentieth century.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWritten over a period of more than half a century, Tolstoy’s enchanting short stories and novellas reflect every aspect of his developing art and outlook. Volume 2 reveals how these spiritual intimations flowered into a series of extraordinary late masterpieces which equal anything in the earlier novels for intensity and power. Readers of The Death of Ivan Ilych, The Kreutzer Sonata, Father Sergius, Master and Man and Hadji Murad will recognize the brilliant younger novelist, now transfigured by his passionate quest for salvation and forgiveness.

Read more less