From Austen to Zola, from medieval to the modern day - all genres are catered for between the covers of these coveted classics.
Classics Books
Penguin Putnam Inc The Cheapest Nights
Book SynopsisFrom the genius of the short story, a collection illuminating the lives of the Egyptian lower class by one of the most important and innovative voices of Egyptian literatureA Penguin ClassicOne of Egypt's most acclaimed and well-known authors, Yusuf Idris is heralded as a renovator and genius of the short story whose signature stylistic device--the combination of literary and colloquial language à la Huckleberry Finn--transformed Arabic literature. The Cheapest Nights is a collection of some of his most important works, the title story of which follows a man who, unable to sleep, angrily meditates on the state of his life and the extreme poverty in which he finds himself. With compassion, astute observational skills, and biting humor, Idris explores the fraught lives of the Egyptian working class, all the while turning a critical eye on the power structures that oppress them. His collection of short stories, with a foreword by author Ezzedine C. Fis
£15.20
Penguin Putnam Inc The Haunting of Hill House Movie TieIn
Book SynopsisThe greatest haunted house story ever written and the inspiration for a 10-part Netflix series directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, and Timothy Hutton.First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson''s The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers whoarrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occultscholar looking for solid evidence of a haunting; Theodora, his lightheartedassistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted withpoltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first,
£13.60
Penguin Books Ltd The Tale of Princess Fatima Warrior Woman The
Book SynopsisPublished in English for the first time, and the only Arabic epic named for a woman, The Tale of Princess Fatima recounts the thrilling adventures of a legendary medieval warrior universally known throughout the Middle East and long overdue to join world literature's pantheon of female heroes.A Penguin ClassicA fearsome, sword-slinging heroine who defeated countless men in stealth attacks on horseback, Dhat al-Himma, or Princess Fatima, was secretly given away at birth because she wasn't male, only to triumph as the most formidable warrior of her time. Known alternately as she-wolf, woman of high resolve, and calamity of the soul, she lives on in this rousing narrative of female empowerment, in which she leads armies of more than seventy thousand men in clashes between rival tribes and between Muslims and Christians; reconciles with her father after taking him prisoner; and fends off her infatuated cousin, who challenges her to a battle for the right to maTrade ReviewA gift and a wonder, deftly capturing the nuance and flavour of these tales for a new generation. As someone who's waited untold years to read these stories: thank you, thank you, thank you -- Jason Porath, author of Rejected PrincessesThis powerful epic with its all-conquering heroine brings the world of Arab chivalry to blazing life, in a wonderful translation with a very informative introduction. -- Humphrey Davies, award-winning translator of Naguib Mahfouz, Elias Khoury, and Alaa Al-AswanyAn emotive, dynamic rendering that exquisitely captures the spirit of the original text, the variety of its characters, and the versatility of its messages. The Tale of Princess Fatima has much to tell us about what it has meant -- in different times and places -- to be a hero -- Rachel Schine, University of Colorado BoulderThis engaging and reader-friendly translation brings to life a very important moment in world history, capturing through epic proportions the timeless social issues of race, gender, and class -- Heidi Morrison, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
£11.39
Penguin Putnam Inc We Have Always Lived in the Castle Penguin Vitae
Book SynopsisShirley Jackson's beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family's dark secret, with an afterword by Jonathan Lethem.A Penguin Vitae EditionMerricat Blackwood lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her uncle Julian. Not long ago there were seven Blackwoods—until a fatal dose of arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl one terrible night. Acquitted of the murders, Constance has returned home, where Merricat protects her from the curiousity and hostility of the villagers. Their days pass in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. Only Merricat can see the danger, and she must act swiftly to keep Constance from his grasp.Penguin Classics presents Penguin Vitae, loosely translated as “Penguin of one’s life,” a deluxe hardcover series featuring a dynamic landscape of classic fiction and nonfiction that has shaped the course of our readers' lives. Penguin Vitae invites readers to find
£19.50
Penguin Putnam Inc Sanditon and Other Stories
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£11.90
Penguin Putnam Inc The Transit of Venus
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£13.42
Penguin Putnam Inc The Great Gatsby
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£17.99
Penguin Putnam Inc In the Time of the Butterflies
Book SynopsisA collectible hardcover edition of Julia Alvarez''s modern Latinx classic about four sisters known as Las Mariposas, or the Butterflies, who fought to liberate the Dominican Republic from Rafael Trujillo''s dictatorship, featuring a new foreword by Maxine Hong KingstonA Penguin Vitae EditionIt is November 25, 1960, and three sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of the dictatorship of General Rafael Leónidas Trujillo. It doesn’t have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas--the Butterflies. In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters--Minerva, Patria, María Teresa, and the survivor, Dedé--
£23.80
Penguin Putnam Inc How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Book SynopsisA collectible hardcover thirtieth-anniversary edition of Julia Alvarez''s modern Latinx classic that gives voice to four sisters as they grow up in two cultures, featuring a new foreword by New York Times bestselling, National Book Award–winning novelist Elizabeth AcevedoA Penguin Vitae EditionThe García sisters—Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofía—and their family must flee their home in the Dominican Republic after the discovery of their father''s role in an attempt to overthrow the brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo. They arrive in New York City in 1960 to a life far removed from their existence in the Caribbean. In the wondrous but not always welcoming United States, their parents try to hold on to their old ways as the girls try to find new lives: by straightening their hair and wearing American fashions, and by forgetting their Spanish. For them, it is at once liberating and excruciating to be caught between the old w
£21.00
Penguin Putnam Inc The Color Purple
Book SynopsisThe inspiration for the new film adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musicalCelebrate the 40th anniversary of Alice Walker’s iconic modern classic.Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, now in a beautiful Penguin Vitae edition with a foreword by Kiese Laymon A Penguin Classic HardcoverA powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning nearly thirty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating
£24.00
Penguin Putnam Inc Death Comes for the Archbishop
Book SynopsisFor the 150th anniversary of Willa Cather's birth, and for the first time in Penguin Classics, her quietly beautiful novel of one man's life as he encounters the harsh landscape of the New Mexico desert and the people who inhabit it, with an introduction by National Book Award finalist Kali Fajardo-AnstineA Penguin Vitae Edition • One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 YearsIn 1848, following the US's recent acquisition of the American Southwest from Mexico, the young bishop Father Jean Marie Latour receives instruction from the Vatican to oversee a newly created diocese in New Mexico. With his good friend Father Joseph Vaillant in tow, the pair travel through the unforgiving and seemingly-endless desert on mules in attempt to reclaim the region from corrupt priests who have taken mistresses, exhibited greed, and inflicted abuse and genocide on the Mexican and Indigenous residents. But as Father Latour spends mor
£15.30
Penguin Putnam Inc Death Comes for the Archbishop
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£21.00
Penguin Random House India The Puffin Treasury of Modern Indian Stories
Book SynopsisWith spectacular illustrations by a host of the most talented artists working today, this anthology will delight both children and adults.
£9.74
Penguin Random House India Padmini
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£11.63
Penguin Random House India Battles of Our Own
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£14.39
Harcourt Brace International All the Kings Men By Warren Robert Penn
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£23.44
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Keep The Aspidistra Flying
Book SynopsisA pre-cursor to his more famous works of Animal Farm and 1984, Keep the Aspidistra Flying is Orwell’s social commentary on capitalism’s constraints.
£12.80
Cengage Learning, Inc Mrs Dalloway
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£8.99
Oxford University Press The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories
Book SynopsisThe Victorians excelled at telling ghost stories. In an age of rapid scientific progress the idea of a vindictive past able to reach out and violate the present held a special potential for terror. Throughout the nineteenth century fictional ghost stories developed in parallel with the more general Victorian fascination with death and what lay beyond it. Though they were as much a part of the cultural and literary fabric of the age as imperial confidence, the best of them still retain their original power to surprise and unsettle. The editors map out the development of the ghost story from 1850 to the early years of the twentieth century and demonstrate the importance of this form of short fiction in Victorian popular culture. As well as reprinting stories by supernatural specialists such as J. S. Le Fanu and M. R. James, this selection also emphasizes the key role played by women writers - Elizabeth Gaskell, Mrs Craik, Rhoda Broughton, and Charlotte Riddell, among many others - and ofTrade ReviewReview from previous edition The Oxford editors have tried to be comprehensive, to map out the development of the Victorian ghost story from c.1850. As a result, they have given us some gems. * Daniel Easterman, Books *They have produced a thoroughly eclectic sampling of the era. * Evening Standard *splendid collection...Just the thing for long dark evenings. * Andrew Langley, Bath & West Evening Chronicle *the genuine article, not an anthology that crumbles at a touch ... This is an anthology far larger than its 500 pages, for it will have readers hastening to a decent library to follow up the authors here sampled. * Daily Telegraph *the perfect literary shop of horrors * The Observer *finely produced * Times Literary Supplement *you'll want nothing more than morning to come darned quick * SHE *Cox and Gilbert's canny rummagings into the spooky annals of a century or so ago unearth some relishable lesser-known blood-curdlers ... Victorian Ghost Stories contains a tremendous clutch of tales and, as the era nears its end, they tighten their gruesome grip. * Sunday Times *Gripping tales perfect for reading aloud. * Independent on Sunday *In the midst of life we are in death' had real meaning for the Victorians, so perhaps it's not surprising that they excelled at ghost stories. Here are 35 of the best of them. * Books *a fat collection of some 31 tales, with a knowledgeable and useful introduction ... What is most fascinating about these stories is the indirect picture of Victorian life they give ... this mammoth Oxford volume illustrates the richness of that lamented literary harvest. * Financial Times *Table of Contents[ask editor for details]
£13.49
Oxford University Press King Arthur and His Knights
Book SynopsisIncludes an extensive introduction encompassing biographical, and critical material which makes it ideal for students.Trade Review"I admire both the introduction and the selections."--David Wallace, University of Minnesota "Excellent intro - the illustrations are a nice touch as well. An update of the bibliographical essay (it goes only as late as 1971) is my only suggestion for improvement. I will definately use it again next spring for my intro. to medieval English literature class."--Robert W. Barrett, Jr., University of Pennsylvania "Invaluable selection from the greatest English Arthurian work, and indispensable foundation for the study of the contemporary legend."--Professor Thomas A. Shippey, St. Louis University "I've used this book for years."--Deborah J. Hyland, St. Louis University "The best student edition of Malory available. It cleaves Keith Baines's limp translation from the brain pan to the saddle bow."--Lan Lipscomb, Troy State University, A
£17.57
Oxford University Press The Magazine Novels of Pauline Hopkins
Book SynopsisFirst published in May 1900, the Colored American Magazine provided a pioneering forum for black literary talent previously stifled by lack of encouragement and opportunity. Not only a prolific writer for the journal, Pauline Hopkins also served as one of its powerful editorial forces. This volume of her magazine novels, which appeared serially in the journal between March 1901 and November 1903, reveals Hopkins'' commitment to fiction as a vehicle for social change. She weaves important political themes into the narrative formulas of nineteenth-century dime-store novels and story papers, which emphasize suspense, action, complex plotting, multiple and false identities, and the use of disguise. Offering both instruction and entertainment, Hopkins'' novels also expose the limitations of popular American narrative forms when telling the stories of black characters.Trade ReviewBrilliant....It is not hard to imagine that, once her fiction is given the attention it deserves, Hopkins could replace Chestnutt as the foremost black novelist of the period. * Eric J. Sundquist in The New York Times Book Review *The three novels published in the Schomburg Library for the first time since their appearance in The Colored American Magazine from 1901 to 1903 not only represent an early example of black people producing popular fiction for and about themselves, but extend the cultural and political discourse introduced in Harper's novel [Iola Leroy]. * The Women's Review of Books *
£35.14
Oxford University Press Martin Rivas
Book SynopsisWidely acknowledged as the first Chilean novel, Martin Rivas (1862) by Alberto Blest Gana (1830-1920) is at once a passionate love story and an optimistic representation of Chilean nationhood. Written shortly after a decade of civil conflict, it is an indispensable source for understanding politics and society in nineteenth-century Chile.The hero of the story is Martin Rivas, an impoverished but ambitious youngster from the northern mining region of Chile, who is entrusted by his late father to the household of a wealthy and influential member of the Santiago elite. While living there, he falls in love with his guardian''s daughter. The tale of their tortuous but ultimately successful love affair represents the author''s desire for reconciliation between Chile''s antagonistic regional and class interests. Indeed, many critics have interpreted Martin Rivas as a blueprint for national unity that emphasizes consensus over conflict. In addition to providing commentary about the mores of ChTrade Review"Blest Gana's work, well known to Chilieans, is presented for the first time in English..."--Booklist "An accomplished and entertaining allegory that waited 137 years to be translated into English."--Library Journal
£17.57
Oxford University Press Iracema
Book SynopsisJose de Alencar''s prose-poem Iracema, first published in 1865, is a classic of Brazilian literature--perhaps the most widely-known piece of fiction within Brazil, and the most widely-read of Alencar''s many works. Set in the sixteenth century, it is an extremely romantic portrayal of a doomed love between a Portuguese soldier and an Indian maiden. Iracema reflects the gingerly way that mid-nineteenth cenury Brazil dealt with race mixture and multicultural experience. Precisely because of its nineteenth-century romanticism, Iracema strongly contributed to a Brazilian sense of nationhood - contemporary Brazilian writers and literary critics still cite it as a foundation for their own work.Trade Review"Another historically and culturally significant addition to the Library of Latin America series."--Booklist
£13.49
Oxford University Press The First Men in the Moon
Book Synopsis''My next clear recollection is that we were prisoners at we knew not what depth beneath the moon''s surface ... At the village of Lympne, on the south coast of England, the ''most uneventful place in the world'' the failed playwright Mr Bedford meets the brilliant inventor Mr Cavor, and together they invade the moon. Dreaming respectively of scientific renown and of mineral wealth, they fashion a sphere from the gravity-defying substance Cavorite and go where no human has gone before. They expect a dead world, but instead they find lunar plants that grow in a single day, giant moon-calves and the ant-like Selenites, the super-adapted inhabitants of the Moon''s utopian society. The First Men in the Moon is both an inspired and imaginative fantasy of space travel and alien life, and a satire of turn-of-the-century Britain and of utopian dreams of a wholly ordered and rational society.Trade Review[An] informative and enjoyable introduction... which sets the book in its historical and literary context. * Leah Galbraith, FictionFan *Very smart-looking new editions of SF classics. * David V Barrett, Fortean Times *
£8.54
Oxford University Press Selected Essays
Book SynopsisOrwell was one of the most celebrated essayists in the English language, and there are quite a few of his essays which are probably better known than any of his other writings apart from Aminal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of George Orwell Selected Essays Shooting an elephant (1936) Inside the whale (1940) Charles Dickens (1940) Boys' weeklies (1940) The art of Donald McGill (1941) Wells, Hitler and the world state (1941) Rudyard Kipling (1942) Raffles and Miss Blandish (1944) In defence of P.G. Wodehouse (1945) Notes on nationalism (1945) The prevention of literature (1946) Decline of the English murder (1946) Politics and the English language (1946) Confessions of a book reviewer (1946) Why I write (1946) Politics vs literature: an examination of Gulliver's Travels (1946) How the poor die (1946) Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool (1947) Writers and Leviathan (1948) Explanatory Notes
£8.54
Oxford University Press Frankenstein
Book SynopsisThe most celebrated horror story ever written. The dreadful tale of Victor Frankenstein, a visionary young student of natural philosophy, who discovers the secret of life. In the grip of his obsession he constructs and animates a creature from dead body parts - with catastrophic results.Trade Reviewprobably the most brilliantly comprehensive introduction to Frankenstein that I have ever read. Even if you've read the book ... ou have to buy this finely produced OUP annotated edition to enjoy Nick Grooms distillation of Frankenstein's ideas and challenges: especially so as this is the first raw 1818 edition." * Magonia Review *wonderful * Oliver Tearle, Interesting Literature *a quality edition ... it uses the original 1818 text and ... it tells us so much about the author and her history; it is both a novel and a very useful reference book. And what is more, it both looks and feels good - well worthy of a place on your shelves. * Peter Tyers, Science Fact & Science Fiction Concatenation *
£15.29
Oxford University Press This Side of Paradise
Book SynopsisThe wise writer, I think, writes for the youth of his own generation, the critic of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.Following the education and young life of Amory Blaine, from indulged only child to disillusioned war veteran, This Side of Paradise is a thinly veiled account of Fitzgerald''s time as a Princeton undergraduate and an aspiring writer set against the turbulent background of adolescence, first loves, and the outbreak of World War I. Amory moves through a dynamic whirl of exuberant youth, university escapades and adventures home and abroad as one of a new, restless American generation.This Side of Paradise ensured immediate fame as well as notoriety for F. Scott Fitzgerald. Not only Fitzgerald''s bestselling novel during his lifetime, it was also the work against which each of his later novels was measured. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of This Side of Paradise: without it, the writing career of one of the twentieth-century''s most popular
£9.49
Oxford University Press Flappers and Philosophers
Book Synopsis''Lie to me by the moonlight. Do a fabulous story.''F. Scott Fitzgerald''s first story collection, Flappers and Philosophers, appeared in 1920 on the heels of his debut novel, This Side of Paradise, and immediately established him as a master of popular fiction. Love stories such as ''The Offshore Pirate'' and ''Head and Shoulders'' capture the spectacle and fantasy of the Jazz Age, celebrating that modern icon of feminine self-possession, the flapper, while comedies of manner like ''Bernice Bobs Her Hair'' and ''The Ice Palace'' showcase Fitzgerald''s eye for humour. In addition to these four classic tales, which first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post , this edition highlights the author''s proficiency with other crowd-pleasing story types: from Gothic fiction (''The Cut-Glass Bowl'') to didactic moral stories (''The Four Fists''), from satire (''Dalyrimple Goes Wrong'') to spiritual quests (''Benediction''), Fitzgerald tried his hand at many genres---and succeeded at all.
£8.54
Oxford University Press The Origins of Science Fiction From Mary Shelley
Book Synopsis''Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over. Rapid intercourse, from which the previous civilization had hoped so much, had ended by defeating itself. What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury?'', The Machine Stops, E. M. Forster.This anthology provides a selection of science-fiction tales from the close of the ''Romantic'' period to the end of the First World War. It gathers together classic short stories, from Edgar Allan Poe''s playful hoaxes to Gertrude Barrows Bennett''s feminist fantasy. In this way, the book shows the vitality and literary diversity of the field, and also expresses something of the potent appeal of the visionary, the fascination with science, and the allure of an imagined future that characterised this period. An excellent resource for those interested in science fiction, and also an essential volume for understanding the development of the genre. In his introduction, Michael Newton draws together literary influences from Jonathan Swift to Mary Shelley, the interest in the irrational and dreaming mind, and the relation of the tales to the fact of Empire and the discoveries made by anthropology. He also considers how the figure of the alien and non-human ''other'' complicated contemporary definitions of the human being.Trade ReviewThese are some of my initial impressions on this useful collection...It is a great mystery just what captivates readers in a story and these ghostwriters have certainly achieved the pinnacle of this craft. * Pennsylvania Literary Journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Texts Select Bibliography A Chronology of the Origins of Science Fiction Mary Shelley: The Mortal Immortal Edgar Allan Poe: The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion Nathaniel Hawthorne: Rappaccini's Daughter Edgar Allan Poe: The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar Fitz-James O'Brien: The Diamond Lens George Eliot: The Lifted Veil Grant Allen: Pausodyne: A Great Chemical Discovery Frank R. Stockton: The Water-Devil. A Marine Tale H. G. Wells: The Crystal Egg Rudyard Kipling: 'Wireless' Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: The Hall Bedroom H. G. Wells: The Country of the Blind E. M. Forster: The Machine Stops Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The Terror of Blue John Gap Jack London: The Red One Gertrude Barrows Bennett: Friend Island W. E. B. Dubois: The Comet Explanatory Notes
£15.29
Oxford University Press The Sign of the Four
Book Synopsis''I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world.''Mary Morstan receives a large pearl through the post once a year without any clue as to the sender. When her intriguing correspondent requests a meeting, Holmes and Watson take on the case. Together the trio race through London to uncover the secrets of the Sholto family, who hold the key to uncovering the whereabouts of Mary''s father and the existence of a treasure stemming from a crime committed years ago in India.The Sign of the Four has been a crucial part of the Sherlock Holmes canon since its first publication in 1890. It explores theft, betrayal, and murder in the larger context of the British Empire at a time of national upheaval, and the novel''s flashbacks to India during the ''Mutiny'' and its aftermath call into question the consequences of that imperial venture. Caroline Reitz''s new introduction and notes draws attention to sTable of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography Chronology The Sign of the Four Explanatory Notes
£6.99
Oxford University Press Uncle Silas Oxford Worlds Classics
Book SynopsisA young heiress finds herself caught in the sinister plots of her mysterious Uncle Silas. A new edition of Le Fanu's best known work and an exemplary piece of sensation fiction, with an introduction and notes by Claire Connolly.Trade ReviewI would recommend for professors of British literature to assign this work in undergraduate and graduate classes without hesitation. It will not be an easy read, but each of them will come away with unique things to write about. This also means that this book is suitable for libraries of all types and sizes, so that some of the poorer students can access some free copies. * Anna Faktorovich, Pennsylvania Literary Journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Sheridan Le Fanu UNCLE SILAS Explanatory Notes
£10.44
Oxford University Press Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Book SynopsisEnormously influential in the development of American literature, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remains a controversial novel at the centre of impassioned critical debate. This edition discusses all the current issues and the evolution of Mark Twain's penetrating genius.
£7.44
Oxford University Press Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Bummel
Book Synopsis`Other works may excel this in depth of thought and knowledge of human nature: other books may rival it in originality and size; but, for hopeless and incurable vivacity, nothing yet discovered can surpass it.'' (Jerome, Preface to Three Men in a Boat). Three Men in a Boat describes a comic expedition by middle-class Victorians up the Thames to Oxford. It provides brilliant snap-shots of London''s playground in the late 1880s, where the fashionable steam-launches of river swells encounter the hired skiffs of city clerks. The medley of social vignettes, farcical incidents, descriptions of river fashions, and reflections on the Thames''s history, is interspersed with humorous anecdotes told by a natural raconteur. Three Men on the Bummel records a similar escapade, a break from the claustrophobia of suburban life some ten years later; their cycling tour in the Black Forest, at the height of the new bicycling craze, affords Jerome the opportunity for a light-hearted scrutiny of German soc
£8.20
Oxford University Press Walden
Book Synopsis`The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation'' In 1845 Henry David Thoreau left his home town of Concord, Massachusetts to begin a new life alone, in a rough hut he built himself a mile and a half away on the north-west shore of Walden Pond. Walden is Thoreau''s classic autobiographical account of this experiment in solitary living, his refusal to play by the rules of hard work and the accumulation of wealth and above all the freedom it gave him to adapt his living to the natural world around him. This new edition of Walden traces the sources of Thoreau''s reading and thinking and considers the author in the context of his birthplace and his sense of its history - social, economic and natural. In addition, an ecological appendix provides modern identifications of the myriad plants and animals to which Thoreau gave increasingly close attention as he became acclimatized to his life in the woods by Walden Pond. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
£8.54
Oxford University Press The Odd Women
Book Synopsis`there are half a million more women than men in this unhappy country of ours . . . So many odd women - no making a pair with them.'' The idea of the superfluity of unmarried women was one the `New Woman'' novels of the 1890s sought to challenge. But in The Odd Women (1893) Gissing satirizes the prevailing literary image of the `New Woman'' and makes the point that unmarried women were generally viewed less as noble and romantic figures than as `odd'' and marginal in relation to the ideal of womanhood itself. Set in grimy, fog-ridden London, these `odd'' women range from the idealistic, financially self-sufficient Mary Barfoot and Rhoda Nunn, who run a school to train young women in office skills for work, to the Madden sisters struggling to subsist in low-paid jobs and experiencing little comfort or pleasure in their lives. Yet it is for the youngest Madden sister''s marriage that the novel reserves its most sinister critique. With superb detachment Gissing captures contemporary soci
£11.39
Oxford University Press Late Victorian Gothic Tales
Book Synopsis''He was a man of fairly firm fibre, but there was something in this sudden, uncontrollable shriek of horror which chilled his blood and pringled in his skin. Coming in such a place and at such an hour, it brought a thousand fantastic possibilities into his head...''The Victorian fin de siècle: the era of Decadence, The Yellow Book, the New Woman, the scandalous Oscar Wilde, the Empire on which the sun never set. This heady brew was caught nowhere better than in the revival of the Gothic tale in the late Victorian age, where the undead walked and evil curses, foul murder, doomed inheritance and sexual menace played on the stretched nerves of the new mass readerships. This anthology collects together some of the most famous examples of the Gothic tale in the 1890s, with stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Vernon Lee, Henry James and Arthur Machen, as well as some lesser known yet superbly chilling tales from the era. The introduction explores the many reasons for the Gothic revival, and how it spoke to the anxieties of the moment. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewThe characters in Roger Luckhurst's excellent selection are variously assailed by mummies, bewitched by revived pagan goddesses, and doomed to inexorable decline by the misdeeds of their ancestors. * Times Literary Supplement *An excellent collection, especially for a relative newcomer to the genre since it includes some of the very best, but the introduction and notes make it a great choice too for people who may already know some of the stories but would like to know more about their context. Highly recommended. * Leah Galbraith, FictionFan *Table of ContentsDIONEA; LORD ARTHUR SAVILE'S CRIME; SIR EDMUND ORME; MAGIC LANTERN; THE SPECTRAL HAND; THE MARK OF THE BEAST; THE DAK BUNGALOW AT DAKOR; LOT 249; THE CASE OF LADY SANNOX; THE PALLINGHURST BAROW; THE GREAT GOD PAN; VAILA
£9.49
Oxford University Press Indiana
Book SynopsisIndiana (1831) is an absorbing and vivid romantic novel, set partly in provincial France, partly in Paris, and partly on a tropical island. It tells the story of a beautiful and innocent young woman, married at sixteen to a much older man.
£8.54
Oxford University Press A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court
Book SynopsisThe story of Hank Morgan, a nineteenth-century American who is accidentally returned to sixth-century England, is a powerful analysis of such issues as monarchy versus democracy and free will versus determinism. Yet it is also one of Twain's finest comic novels, still fresh and funny after more than 100 years. This edition reproduces more than 40 of Dan Beard's original drawings.Trade Reviewone of Mark Twain's best comic novels and is still funny more than a century after it first appeared * Oxford Times *
£8.54
Oxford University Press The Adventures of Roderick Random
Book SynopsisRoderick Random (1748), Smollett''s first novel, is full of the dazzling vitality characteristics of all his work, as well as of his own life. Roderick is the boisterous and unprincipled hero who answers life''s many misfortunes with a sledgehammer. Left penniless, he leaves his native Scotland for London and on the way meets Strap, and old schoolfellow. Together they undergo many adventures at the hands of scoundrels and rogues. Roderick qualifies as a surgeon''s mate and is pressed as a common soldier on bord the man-of-war Thunder. In a tale of romance as well as adventure, Roderick also finds time to fall in love... Smollett drew on his own experiences as a surgeon''s mate in the navy for the memorable scenes on board ship, and the novel combines documentary realism with great humour and panache. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
£13.49
Oxford University Press Collected Ghost Stories
Book Synopsis''I was conscious of a most horrible smell of mould, and of a cold kind of face pressed against my own...''Considered by many to be the most terrifying writer in English, M. R. James was an eminent scholar who spent his entire adult life in the academic surroundings of Eton and Cambridge. His classic supernatural tales draw on the terrors of the everyday, in which documents and objects unleash terrible forces, often in closed rooms and night-time settings where imagination runs riot. Lonely country houses, remote inns, ancient churches or the manuscript collections of great libraries provide settings for unbearable menace, from creatures seeking retribution and harm. These stories have lost none of their power to unsettle and disturb.This edition presents all of James''s published ghost stories, including the unforgettable ''Oh, Whistle and I''ll Come to You, My Lad'' and ''Casting the Runes'', and an appendix of James''s writings on the ghost story. Darryl Jones''s introduction and notes provide a fascinating insight into James''s background and his mastery of the genre he made his own. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewArguably the definitive collection by a single writer, this edition collects together all of James' spine-tingling tales in a single volume. From Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad to The Mezzotint, these stories guarantee unbearable horrified suspense. * The New European *In his introduction to the 2013 Oxford World Classics edition of MR James's Collected Ghost Stories, Darryl Jones cites the story Casting The Runes, in which a Mr Dunning, lying in bed in the dark, gropes for matches under his pillow. * Teddy Jamieson, Sunday Herald (Glasgow) *They are classics of the genre. He had a brilliant skill for unsettling you and you wake up panting in the night * Reverand Richard Coles, Daily Express *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Select Bibliography ; Chronology of M. R. James ; Canon Alberic's Scrap-book ; Lost Hearts ; The Mezzotint ; The Ash-Tree ; Number 13 ; Count Magnus ; 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' ; The Treasure of Abbot Thomas ; A School Story ; The Rose Garden ; The Tractate Middoth ; Casting the Runes ; The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral ; Martin's Close ; Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance ; The Residence at Whitminster ; The Diary of Mr Poynter ; An Episode of Cathedral History ; The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance ; Two Doctors ; The Haunted Dolls' House ; The Uncommon Prayer-Book ; A Neighbour's Landmark ; A View from a Hill ; A Warning to the Curious ; An Evening's Entertainment ; There was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard ; Rats ; After Dark in the Playing Fields ; Wailing Well ; The Experiment ; The Malice of Inanimate Objects ; A Vignette ; Appendix: M. R. James on Ghost Stories ; Explanatory Notes
£8.54
The University of Chicago Press The Complete Tales
Book SynopsisThis new two-volume edition should do something for increasing Gogol's fame as the most original, imaginative, and exuberant of all Russian writers, as the greatest comedian and humorist among a rather solemn lot.--Rene Wellek, Yale UniversityTable of ContentsPreface About the Translation Table of Nineteenth-Century Russian Civil and Military Ranks Evenings on a Farm in Dikanka, I Preface The Fair at Sorochinstsy St. John's Eve A May Night, or the Drowned Maiden The Lost Letter Evenings on a Farm in Dikanka, II Preface Christmas Eve A Terrible Vengeance Ivan Fiodorovich Shponka and His Aunt A Bewitched Place Arabesques Nevsky Prospekt Diary of a Madman
£21.00
The University of Chicago Press Tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann
Book SynopsisTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction Ritter Gluck The Golden Pot The Sandman Councillor Krespel The Mines of Falun Mademoiselle de Scudéri The Doubles
£25.65
University of Chicago Press The Wallpaper Fox A Novel
Book SynopsisThis novel explores the way people - husbands, wives, parents, children, lovers - use and abuse each other. Under the maintained social conventions of the wealthy Warner family lie more primitive impulses and desires. We see how each character makes moral choices after facing various crises.
£26.24
University of Chicago Press Somebody Elses Life A Novel Phoenix Fiction
Book SynopsisStephen Cooper, a middle-aged university professor, who is suddenly acutely bored by his life, plots an intricate scheme with his lover. They arrange a forgery of a disappeared art relic, and in order to sell it, also craft new identities for themselves: together they become somebody else.
£26.48
University of Chicago Press A Man in Charge A Novel Phoenix Fiction Series PF
Book SynopsisAn old-fashioned man of charater, Conrad Taylor is executive vice-president of an eastern university who, after leading a satisfying and well-ordered life, finds himself suddenly on shaky ground, struggling to do the right thing in the face of crisis, confrontation and opportunity.
£30.07
University of Chicago Press Secret Understandings A Novel Phoenix Fiction
Book SynopsisThis is a portrait of Shelagh Jackman, a book illustrator who learns to cultivate the loving and complex relationships in her life while struggling to be true to her oen best self, even when calamity puts her to the ultimate test.
£26.38
The University of Chicago Press City of Dreadful Night A Tale of Horror the
Book SynopsisThis is a a tangle of tales that transports the reader from the medieval India of magicians, witches, and vampires, through to the chaos and political terror of contemporary India.
£28.47
The University of Chicago Press Tales of Ancient India
Book SynopsisThis admirably produced and well-translated volume of stories from the Sanskrit takes the Western reader into one of the Golden Ages of India. . . . The world in which the tales are set is one which placed a premium upon slickness and guile as aids to success. . . . Merchants, aristocrats, Brahmins, thieves and courtesans mingle with vampires, demi-gods and the hierarchy of heaven in a series of lively or passionate adventures. The sources of the individual stories are clearly indicated; the whole treatment is scholarly without being arid.The Times Literary Supplement Fourteen tales from India, newly translated with a terse and vibrant effectiveness. These tales will appeal to any reader who enjoys action, suspense, characterization, and suspension of disbelief in the supernatural.The Personalist
£25.65
