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Book SynopsisClassic hardback edition of the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, featuring Tolkien's original unused dust-jacket design. Includes special packaging and the definitive edition of the text with fold-out map and colour plate section.Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring the ring that rules them all which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins.In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.This classic hardback features Tolkien's original unused dust-jacket design, and its text has been fully restored with almost 400 corrections with the full co-operation of Christopher Tolkien making it the definitive version, and as close as possible to the version that J.R.R. Tolkien intended. Also included is the original red and black map of the Shire and for the first time a special plate section containing the pages from the Book of Mazarbul.Trade Review‘The English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and those who are going to read them.’ Sunday Times ‘A story magnificently told, with every kind of colour and movement and greatness.’ New Statesman ‘Masterpiece? Oh yes, I’ve no doubt about that.’ Evening Standard ‘Among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century.’ Sunday Telegraph ‘Here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron.’ C.S. Lewis

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Book SynopsisOriginally published in Italy in 1928, and unavailable in Britain until 1960, when it was the subject of an infamous obscenity trial, Lady Chatterley's Lover is now regarded as one of the pivotal novels of the twentieth century. Lawrence's determination to explore every aspect - sexual, social, psychological - of Lady Chatterley's adulterous liaison with the gamekeeper Oliver Mellors makes for a profound meditation on the human condition, the forces of nature and the social constraints that people struggle to overcome. Containing autobiographical elements and set in the author's native Nottinghamshire, Lawrence's final novel had a profound impact on twentieth-century culture and sexual attitudes, while confirming his standing as one of the most eminent fiction writers that England has produced.Trade ReviewHe's an intoxicator... Has there ever been anyone like him for bringing places and people so vividly to life? -- Doris Lessing

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Book SynopsisAlexander's beauty, strength and defiance were apparent from birth, but his boyhood honed those gifts into the makings of a king. His mother, Olympias, and his father, King Philip of Macedon, fought each other for their son's loyalty, teaching Alexander politics and vengeance from the cradle. His love for the youth Hephaistion taught him trust, while Aristotle's tutoring provoked his mind and Homer's Iliad fuelled his aspirations. Killing his first man in battle at the age of twelve, he became regent at sixteen and commander of Macedon's cavalry at eighteen, so that by the time his father was murdered, Alexander's skills had grown to match his fiery ambition.Trade ReviewRenault's skill is in immersing us in their world, drawing us into its strangeness, its violence and beauty ... a literary conjuring trick ... so convincing and passionately conjured The Times Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us Hilary Mantel The Alexander Trilogy contains some of Renault's finest writing. Lyrical, wise, compelling: the novels are a wonderful imaginative feat Sarah Waters All my sense of the ancient world - its values, its style, the scent of its wars and passions - comes from Mary Renault. I turned to writing historical fiction because of something I learned from Renault: that it lets you shake off the mental shackles of your own era, all the categories and labels, and write freely about what really matters to you Emma Donoghue Mary Renault's portraits of the ancient world are fierce, complex and eloquent, infused at every turn with her life-long passion for the Classics. Her characters live vividly both in their own time, and in ours Madeline Miller The Alexander Trilogy stands as one of the most important works of fiction in the 20th century ... it represents the pinnacle of [Renault's] career ... Renault's skill is in immersing us in their world, drawing us into its strangeness, its violence and beauty. It's a literary conjuring trick like all historical fiction - it can only ever be an approximation of the truth. But in Renault's hands, the trick is so convincing and passionately conjured. -- Antonia Senior The Times

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Book SynopsisWith an Introduction by David Stuart Davies. 'Doctor Watson, Mr Sherlock Holmes' - The most famous introduction in the history of crime fiction takes place in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet, bringing together Sherlock Holmes, the master of science detection, and John H. Watson, the great detective's faithful chronicler. This novel not only establishes the magic of the Holmes myth but also provides the reader with a dramatic adventure yarn which ranges from the foggy, gas-lit streets of London to the burning plains of Utah. The Sign of the Four, the second Holmes novel, presents the detective with one of his greatest challenges. The theft of the Agna treasure in India forms a catalyst for treachery, deceit and murder. With these two classic novels, A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four, you have the brilliant foundation of the Sherlock Holmes canon. Reading pleasure rarely comes any finer.

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Book SynopsisRanging from one-page fantasies to novella-length studies of everyday existence, The Walk reveals the irresistible genius of one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. Under-appreciated even in his own lifetime, Robert Walser has nonetheless been recognised by such writers as W.G. Sebald, Susan Sontag, Franz Kafka, Herman Hesse and J.M. Coetzee. Like Kafka and Sebald, Walser wrote about the solitude and unease of human existence. Honest, wry and idiosyncratic, his stories are snapshots of the lives great artists, poor young men, beautiful women and talking animals alike. Ranging from the realist to the allegorical, the short fiction collected in this volume demonstrates Walser's uncanny ability to capture both life's strangeness and its small joys.Trade ReviewA clairvoyant of the small...Walser has been my constant companion -- W. G. SebaldIf he had hundred thousand readers, the world would be a better place -- Hermann Hesse, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature"Kleist in Thun" and "Helbling's Story" show him at his dazzling best -- J.M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in LiteratureA truly wonderful, heartbreaking writer -- Susan SontagAn essential writer of our time -- Elias Canetti, winner of the Nobel Prize in LiteratureThe future will see Walser as a true literary representative of our age -- Max BrodA major twentieth-century prose artist...he sounds like nobody else -- Benjamin Kunkel * New Yorker *A writer of considerable wit, talent and originality * New York Times *His perception extended past sensory limits. He elevated the significance of the everyday * Bookslut *One of the greatest German-language writers of the twentieth century -- Juan José SaerWalser was one of those individuals who stand at a slight angle to the world: first impressions suggest words like quirky, or surreal. But, if anything, his art was a beautifully sane challenge to the systematic assault on the subjective and quotidian that was already grinding away when he entered the madhouse. In an age that found it possible to diagnose the inner life as a sticky mass of tics and neuroses, Walser became a polite but stubborn champion of an everyday life in which psyche may play a central role, but pathology is not necessarily a given. -- John BurnsideThe stories of a man in love with the world, but unable to take part in it * Economist Intelligent Life *A kind of grown-up fairy tale. His style is both direct and colloquial yet also poetic in its simplicity. -- Lesley McDowell * Sunday Herald *Walser is an original. The book's centrepiece, "Kleist in Thun" is at once a deft literary portrait, a vivid piece of nature writing, and an autobiographical insight into Robert Walser's own mental fragility. All in all, it is as beautiful and moving a story as I have ever read. * Independent on Sunday *Walser left a curiously brilliant and utterly original corpus of work, whose wry surrealism is reminiscent of Kafka, Beckett and indeed John Lennon ... a masterpiece -- Alfred Hickling * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisIn Kafka's powerful and disturbing novel, an innocent man is arrested and repeatedly interrogated for a crime that is never ever explained. 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 translated from German by Douglas Scott and Chris Waller, and features an afterword by David Stuart Davies.On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, a young bank official named Joseph K is arrested although he has done nothing wrong and is never told what he’s been charged with. The Trial is the chronicle of his fight to prove his innocence, of his struggles and encounters with the invisible Law and the untouchable Court where he must make regular visits. It is an account, ultimately, of state-induced self-destruction presenting in a nightmarish scenario the persecution of the outsider and the incomprehensible machinations of the state. Using the power of simple, straightforward language Kafka draws the reader into this bleak and frightening world so that we too experience the fears, uncertainties and tragedy of Joseph K.Trade ReviewThe Dante of the twentieth century -- W. H. AudenNo other voice has borne truer witness to the dark of our times -- George Steiner

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Book SynopsisBold and inventive in style, City of Night is the groundbreaking 1960s novel about male prostitution. Rechy is unflinching in his portrayal of one hustling 'youngman' and his search for self-knowledge among the other denizens of his neon-lit world. As the narrator moves from Texas to Times Square and then on to the French Quarter of New Orleans, Rechy delivers a portrait of the edges of America that has lost none of its power. On his travels, the nameless narrator meets a collection of unforgettable characters, from vice cops to guilt-ridden married men eaten up by desire, to Lance O'Hara, once Hollywood's biggest star. Rechy describes this world with candour and understanding in a prose that is highly personal and vividly descriptive.Trade ReviewRechy's tone rings absolutely true, is absolutely his own, and he has the kind of discipline which allows him a rare and beautiful recklessness. tells the truth, and tells it with such passion that we are forced to share in the life he conveys. This is a most humbling and liberating achievement. -- James BaldwinOne of the major books to be published since World War II. * The Washington Post *City of Night is a remarkable book . . . Mr. Rechy writes in an authentic jive-like slang: the nightmare existence is explored with a clarity not often clouded by sentimentality and self-pity. The book therefore has the unmistakable ring of candor and truth. * The New York Times Book Review *A breathless, amphetamine-fuelled dash across America ... Rechy's descriptive energy is instead reserved for city life's twilight world and a colourful parade of characters... his descriptive energy surpasses any queer literature label. * New Statesman *John Rechy's groundbreaking novel City of Night lifted the lid on gay life in `60's America ... it broke new ground with its depiction of the gay sexual subculture in America's cities ... The author is ripe for rediscovery. * Time Out *In his first novel, City of Night, John Rechy achieved what most authors strive for their entire career. A book that will last ... Although it was long after the original publication, through City of Night Rechy taught me that my feelings of isolation could be released, that my experiences could be written. It was Rechy who showed me that no subject matter is taboo. -- Charles Casillo * LA Review of Books *Probably no first novel is so complete, so well held together, and so important as City of Night. * The Houston Post *

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Book Synopsis‘Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.’ Set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Civil War, Margaret Mitchell’s magnificent historical epic is an unforgettable tale of love and loss, of a nation mortally divided and a people forever changed. Above all, it is the story of beautiful, ruthless Scarlett O’Hara and the dashing soldier of fortune Rhett Butler. Widely considered the Great American Novel, and often remembered for its epic film version starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, Gone with the Wind is a superb piece of storytelling. It vividly depicts the drama of the Civil War and Reconstruction and is a sweeping story of tangled passion and courage.Since its first publication in 1936, Gone with the Wind has endured as one of the bestselling novels of all time, in spite of its problematic subject matter. This edition of the classic love story features an introductory essay offering a context to the novel, by critically acclaimed, Sunday Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory. Trade ReviewBeyond a doubt one of the most remarkable first novels produced by an American writer. It is also one of the best * New York Times *Not just a great love story, Gone with the Wind is one of the most powerful anti-war novels ever written. Told from the standpoint of the women left behind, author Margaret Mitchell brilliantly illustrates the heartbreaking and devastating effects of war on the land and its people -- Fannie FlaggThe best novel to have ever come out of the South . . . it is unsurpassed in the whole of American writing * Washington Post *Gone with the Wind is one of those rare books that we never forget. Gone with the Wind is an epic story. Anyone who has not read it has missed one of the greatest literary experiences a reader can have -- James Lee BurkeFascinating and unforgettable! A remarkable book, a spectacular book, a book that will not be forgotten! * Chicago Tribune *

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Book Synopsis*BY THE WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE*'Laxness at his best: a reminder of the mad hilarity of the Icelandic sensibility. An endearing and unforgettable voice' Nicholas ShakespeareAbandoned as a baby, Alfgrimur is content to spend his days as a fisherman living in the turf cottage outside Reykjavik with the elderly couple he calls grandmother and grandfather. There he shares the mid-loft with a motley bunch of eccentrics and philosophers who find refuge in the simple respect for their fellow men that is the ethos at the Brekkukot. But the narrow horizons of Alfgrimur's idyllic childhood are challenged when he starts school and meets Iceland's most famous singer, the mysterious Garoar Holm. Garoar encourages him to aim for the 'one true note', but how can he attain it without leaving behind the world that he loves?'It is a novel (a world) that transmits something of the wonder of life' Murray BailTrade ReviewLaxness is a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows us a plot: he takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humour: it is not possible to be unimpressed * Daily Telegraph *This weird and wonderful novel, about the price you pay for 'the one true note', is Laxness at his best: a reminder of the mad hilarity of the Icelandic sensibility. An endearing and unforgettable voice * Nicholas Shakespeare *It is a novel (a world) that transmits something of the wonder of life, its strangeness, its goodness, ocassions for stubbornness, and the stoicism of people - people everywhere * Murray Bail *Laxness's view of a child's bounded universe has humour and a light touch * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis''She decided she would teach him to speak and he was very soon able to say, ''Pretty boy!'', ''Your servant, sir!'' and ''Hail Mary!''''With pathos and humour, Flaubert imagines the unexamined life of a servant girl.Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin''s 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880). Flaubert''s works available in Penguin Classics are Madame Bovary, Sentimental Education, Three Tales and Salammbo.

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Book SynopsisWith an Introduction and Notes by Phillip Mallett, Senior Lecturer in English, University of St Andrews. Educated beyond her station, Grace Melbury returns to the woodland village of little Hintock and cannot marry her intended, Giles Winterborne. Her alternative choice proves disastrous, and in a moving tale that has vibrant characters, many humorous moments and genuine pathos coupled with tragic irony, Hardy eschews a happy ending. With characteristic derision, he exposes the cruel indifference of the archaic legal system off his day, and shows the tragic consequences of untimely adherence to futile social and religious proprieties

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Book SynopsisOne of the most widely read books of all time, Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio is a riotous, tragicomic tale that will charm young and old with its endearing blend of mischief and magic.Now a criticially acclaimed film, awarded the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film, directed by Guillermo del Toro.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 of Pinocchio features the charming illustrations of the classic British illustrator Charles Folkard and an afterword by Anna South.Geppetto, a poor woodcarver, crafts a marionette from a strange piece of talking wood and inadvertently brings the mischievous Pinocchio – a walking, talking, wooden boy – into the world. The naughty, selfish puppet heads off into the world and encounters all manner of unusual and dangerous characters on his adventures, undergoing a series of fiendishly imaginative trials – among them being swallowed by a giant dogfish and turned into a donkey – that will lead him to self-knowledge. Along the way he will be helped by a beautiful fairy, a talking cricket and his loving father as he learns how to become what he most longs to be – a real boy.

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Book SynopsisWITH A NEW FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOROn his third birthday Oskar decides to stop growing. Haunted by the deaths of his parents and wielding his tin drum Oskar recounts the events of his extraordinary life; from the long nightmare of the Nazi era to his anarchic adventures is post-war Germany.Trade ReviewGiven Grass's close involvement with this new translation, it is fair to call this the definitive version of arguably the most important German novel of the post-war era. * Observer *Grass published his milestone of postwar literature 50 years ago, and the event is being celebrated with new translations...Mitchell's excellent translation reveals the novel as a timeless masterpiece. * The Times *At the ages of fourteen and fifteen, I had read Great Expectations twice - Dickens made me want to be a writer - but it was reading The Tin Drum at nineteen and twenty that showed me how. It was Günter Grass who demonstrated that it was possible to be a living writer who wrote with Dickens' full range of emotion and relentless outpouring of language. Grass wrote with fury, love, derision, slapstick, pathos - all with an unforgiving conscience. -- John Irving * New York Times Book Review *Funny, macabre, disgusting, blasphemous, pathetic, horrifying, erotic, it is an endless delirium, an outrageous phantasmagoria in which dust from Goethe, Hans Andersen, Swift, Rabelais, Joyce, Aristophanes and Rochester dances on the point of a needle in the flame of a candle that was not worth the game * Daily Telegraph *Encountering The Tin Drum in the early sixties was like discovering a new planet, a reinvention of literature. It brings the exhilaration of discovery, linked with an enormous gratitude for the way in which Günter Grass makes the world a worthwhile place to be in, and living a worthwhile thing to do. He has forever pushed back - and opened up - our concept and awareness of what is real, and what is possible, and what we dare to dream about. * André Brink *

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Book SynopsisThe companion novel to Mrs Bridge, this is a pitch-perfect portrayal of marriage and family life and a poignant dissection of the unexamined life.Walter Bridge, husband to India and father to three, is a successful lawyer in a Kansas suburb. The daily dramas of his life only serve to illuminate his narrow prejudices and complacent outlook, yet he is also troubled by existential doubts, dark undercurrents of desire and a yearning for something forever out of his reach. In Mr Bridge, Evan S. Connell gives us a moving, satirical and poetic portrayal of a man who cannot escape his limitations and of a couple growing old together but unable, ultimately, to connect.The companion novel, Mrs Bridge, telling the story from the other side of the marriage, is published in Penguin Modern Classics.''With a delicate and subtle irony, Mr Connell shows us, first from her, then from his point of view, the little daily dramas of this ordinary family. ITrade ReviewAn exquisite tragedy in miniature -- Lionel ShriverMr Bridge is a tour-de-force of contemporary American realism, a beautiful work of fiction * Life *With a delicate and subtle irony, Mr Connell shows us, first from her, then from his point of view, the little daily dramas of this ordinary family. It is very, very funny, often moving and sad, and written with an uncompromising realism that one rarely comes across. To me the Bridges were a revelation: I cannot recommend them too highly * Daily Telegraph *Mr. and Mrs. Bridge are forever human, forever vulnerable, forever pitiable. In spare, whimsical, ironic prose, Connell exposes each and every one of their wrinkles and then, in the end, offers them to us as human beings to be cherished -- Jonathan Yardley

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Book Synopsis''He took the spy thriller out of the gentility of the drawing room and into the back streets of Istanbul, where it all really happened'' Frederick ForsythSmall-time hustler Arthur Abdel Simpson ekes out a living in Athens by robbing gullible tourists. But when an attempted theft backfires, he finds himself out-smarted and blackmailed into driving a highly suspicious car across the border to Istanbul. Then the Turkish secret police get involved, and Simpson becomes embroiled in something far deeper, and more dangerous, than he could imagine. Featuring a heart-stopping jewel heist, this compulsive, morally complex thriller became the basis for the classic film Topkapi.Trade ReviewThe source on which we all draw -- John le CarréUnquestionably our best thriller writerMr. Ambler is phenomenal -- Alfred HitchcockAmbler is, quite simply, the best * The New Yorker *

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Book SynopsisIntroducing a beautifully designed collection of twenty-one short stories from some of the best American writers over two hundred years of history.''American literature and the short story might be said to have come of age at about the same time, and this, along with something in the bustling and energetic American temperament, might go some way towards explaining why the two go together as well as they do.'' Twenty-one short stories from some of the best American writers over the last two hundred years provide a mesmerizing, multi-faceted portrait of a country, a people and the unique literature produced by this most exuberant of nations.Featuring short stories from classic American authors including Mark Twain, Katherine Anne Porter, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and many more.

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Book SynopsisBringing together all Charles Dickens' ghost stories – twenty in all – including several longer tales. Here are chilling histories of coincidence, insanity and revenge. To paraphrase Joe in The Pickwick Papers: Charles Dickens 'wants to make your flesh creep'.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. Ghost Stories is illustrated by various artists, with an afterword by David Stuart Davies.Throughout his illustrious writing career, Dickens often turned his hand to fashioning short pieces of ghostly fiction. Even in his first successful work, The Pickwick Papers, you will find five ghost stories, all of which are included in this collection. Dickens began the tradition of 'the ghost story at Christmas', and many of his tales in this genre are presented here, including the brilliant novella 'The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain', which deserves to be as well-known as A Christmas Carol. While all his supernatural tales aim to send a shiver down the spine, they are not without the usual traits of Dickens' flamboyant style: his subtle wit, biting irony, humorous incidents and moral observations. It is a mixture that makes these stories fascinating and entertaining as well as unsettling.

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Book SynopsisThe misadventures of Lemuel Gulliver certainly are extraordinary. First he is shipwrecked in a strange land, and finds himself a prisoner of the tiny inhabitants of Lilliput. Then he washes up in Brobdingnag, where the people are giants of extraordinary proportions. Further exploits see him stranded with the scientists and philosophers of Laputa, and meeting a race of talking horses who rule over bestial humans. One of the finest satires in the English language, Gulliver’s Travels delights in the mockery of everything from government to religion and – despite the passing of nearly three centuries – remains just as funny and relevant today. This gorgeous Macmillan Collector’s Library edition of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver’s Travels features the beautiful artwork of the celebrated English illustrator Arthur Rackham, and an afterword by author and critic, Henry Hitchings. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector’s Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector’s Library are books to love and treasure.

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Book SynopsisScurry down the rabbit hole and step through the looking glass with this luxurious compilation of works from Lewis Carroll.  Don’t be late--it’s a very important date!Witty, whimsical, and often nonsensical, the fiction of Lewis Carroll has been popular with both children and adults for over 150 years. Canterbury Classics's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland takes readers on a trip down the rabbit hole in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, where height is dynamic, animals talk, and the best solutions to drying off are a dry lecture on William the Conqueror and a Caucus Race in which everyone runs in circles and there is no clear winner. Through the Looking Glass begins the adventure anew when Alice steps through a mirror into another magical world where she can instantly be made queen if she can only get to the other side of the colossal chessboard.Complete with the original drawings by John Tenniel, this luxurious leather-bound edition is a steal for new readers and Carroll fans alike.

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Book SynopsisIn 1914 Paul Bäumer and his classmates are marched to the local recruiting office by a sentimentally patriotic form-master. On a calm October day in 1918, only a few weeks before the Armistice, Paul will be the last of them to be killed. In All Quiet on the Western Front he tells their story. A few years after it was published in 1929 the Nazis would denounce and publicly burn Remarque's novel for insulting the heroic German army - in other words, for 'telling it like it was' for the common soldier on the front line where any notions of glory and national destiny were soon blasted away by the dehumanizing horror of modern warfare. Remarque has an extraordinary power of describing fear: the appalling tension of being holed up in a dugout under heavy bombardment; the animal instinct to kill or be killed which takes over during hand-to-hand combat. He also has an eye for the grimly comic: the consignment of coffins Paul and his friends pass as they make their way up the line for a new offensive; the young soldiers joyfully tucking into double rations when half their company are unexpectedly wiped out. Remarque's elegy for a sacrificed generation is all the more devastating for the laconic prose in which his teenaged veteran narrates shocking experiences which for him have become the stuff of daily life. Paul cannot imagine a life after the war and can no longer relate to his family when he returns home on leave. Only the camaraderie of his diminishing circle of friends has any meaning for him. He comes especially to depend on an older comrade, Stanislaus Katczinsky, and one of the most poignant moments in the book is when he carries the wounded Kat on his back under fire to the field dressing station, with starkly tragic outcome. The saddest and most compelling war story ever written.Trade ReviewThe world has a great writer in Erich Maria Remarque. He is a craftsman of unquestionably first rank, a man who can bend language to his will. Whether he writes of men or of inanimate nature, his touch is sensitive, firm, and sure. * The New York Times Book Review *All Quiet is that rare thing, a work of popular modernism. * Independent *

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Book SynopsisFour women, with very different backgrounds and characters - the artless Lottie Wilkins, the pious Rose Arbuthnot, the cantankerous Mrs Fisher and the haughty Lady Caroline Dester - respond to an advertisement in The Times offering a medieval castle to rent in Italy that April. As their joint holiday begins, tensions fl are up between them, but they soon bond over their past misfortunes and rediscover hope and the pleasures of life in their tranquil surroundings. A huge best-seller when it was published in 1922, The Enchanted April has inspired generations of readers since and established Portofi no and the Italian Riviera as a mainstay of the tourist circuit.Trade ReviewThe Enchanted April... is Elizabeth von Armin's most charming novel in every sense: it casts a spell. -- Natasha Tripney * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"This unique gift edition takes readers on a captivating journey through a mystical land filled with enchanting inhabitants. MinaLima's imaginative artwork, exquisite detail, and engaging design recreate this timeless romantic adventure as never before." -- Tor.com "We got a chance to take a look inside, and trust us - you won't be disappointed ... Just the chapter illustrations alone are swoon-worthy." -- MuggleNet "Lavishly retold." -- Parade.com "Now, the classic fairy tale is brought to life in this spectacular illustrated edition as originally envisioned by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740." -- Tor.com "What a glorious journey ... This collectible edition is filled with stunning illustrations of stories that continue to be cherished by readers of all ages. Forget the flowers, chuck the chocolates. The Beauty and the Beast is a scrumptious wonder." -- Entertainment Report

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Book SynopsisPride and Prejudice, which opens with one of the most famous sentences in English Literature, is an ironic novel of manners. In it the garrulous and empty-headed Mrs Bennet has only one aim - that of finding a good match for each of her five daughters. In this she is mocked by her cynical and indolent husband. With its wit, its social precision and, above all, its irresistible heroine, Pride and Prejudice has proved one of the most enduringly popular novels in the English language.

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Book SynopsisThis de luxe collector's edition features the first edition text and eight full-colour plates, with an exclusive colour frontispiece illustration. The book is quarterbound with a special gold motif stamped on the front board and is presented in a matching slipcase.There are tales of Middle-earth from times long before The Lord of the Rings, and the story told in this book is set in the great country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands where Treebeard once walked, but which were drowned in the great cataclysm that ended the First Age of the World.In that remote time Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in the vast fortress of Angband, the Hells of Iron, in the North; and the tragedy of Túrin and his sister Nienor unfolded within the shadow of the fear of Angband and the war waged by Morgoth against the lands and secret cities of the Elves.Their brief and passionate lives were dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bore them as the children of Húrin, the man who hadTrade Review"It has seemed to me for a long time that there was a good case for presenting my father's long version of the legend of the Children of Húrin as an independent work, between its own covers, with a minimum of editorial presence, and above all in continuous narrative without gaps or interruptions, if this could be done without distortion or invention, despite the unfinished state in which he left some parts of it." Christopher Tolkien “The Children of Hurin is about to thrill and intrigue millions. It is safe to say that the 'great tale' of Turin is about to become a global myth…in its own dotty but also awe-inspiring way, it works.” Sunday Times Culture “…worthy of a readership beyond Tolkien devotees…this book deserves to eclipse all his other posthumous writings, and stand as a worthy memorial to the imagination of Tolkien.' The Times “I hope that its universality and power will grant it a place in English mythology'… It isn't jolly, but then neither is Anthony and Cleopatra.” The Independent on Sunday

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Book Synopsis'Who could read the programme for the excursion without longing to make one of the party?' So Mark Twain acclaims his voyage from New York City to Europe and the Holy Land in June 1867. His adventures produced The Innocents Abroad, a book so funny and provocative it made him an international star for the rest of his life. He was making his first responses to the Old World - to Paris, Milan, Florence, Venice, Pompeii, Constantinople, Sebastopol, Balaklava, Damascus, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem. For the first time he was seeing the great paintings and sculptures of the 'Old Masters'. He responded with wonder and amazement, but also with exasperation, irritation, disbelief. Above all he displayed the great energy of his humour, more explosive for us now than for his beguiled contemporaries.

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Book SynopsisHemingway's last major novel, set in the Gulf Stream islands, captures the struggles of adult personal relationships in his consummate distinctive style.'He knew too what it was to live through a hurricane'This is the last book Hemingway wrote before he died, the story of Thomas Hudson, an artist and adventurer. Living a bachelor's life on an island in the Gulf Stream during the thirties, Hudson's existence is dictated by the waves and tides. But when his sons come to visit, Hudson must grapple with the role of father and the unfamiliar demands of family.A late work by one of America's greatest writers.'Hemingway's most deeply autobiographical piece of work' Irish TimesTrade ReviewHemingway's most deeply autobiographical piece of work * Irish Times *Hemingway’s style is a superb vehicle for revealing tenderness of feeling beneath descriptions of brutality * Guardian *Many of the episodes contain the most exciting and effective writing Hemingway has ever done * Saturday Review *This book contains some of the best of Hemingway's descriptions of nature: the waves breaking white and green on the reef off the coast of Cuba; the beauty of the morning on the deep water; the hermit crabs and land crabs and ghost crabs; a big barracuda stalking mullet; a heron flying with his white wings over the green water; the ibis and flamingoes and spoonbills, the last of these beautiful with the sharp rose of their color; the mosquitoes in clouds from the marshes; the water that curled and blew under the lash of the wind; the sculpture that the wind and sand had made of a piece of driftwood, gray and sanded and embedded in white, floury sand -- Edmund Wilson * Saturday Review *Thomas Hudson, the painter in the book Islands in the Streamis Hemingway himself, attempting to come to terms with everything he loves - the clarity of a brushstroke, his three children, his ex-wives, his lovers, his whores, his friends, his cats, his rifle, his Booth's gin * Newsweek *

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Book Synopsis''See!...The woods are alive! Already the Great Ones are there, and the dance will soon begin! The salve is here! Anoint yourself and come!''One of the greatest writers of the strange and weird, Algernon Blackwood evolved from a teller of ghost stories to a pioneering master of such emergent fictional modes as cosmic horror and nature Gothic. In tales whose settings range from the eerie North Woods of Canada to the mysterious sands of the Egyptian desert, Blackwood blurs the boundaries between human and nonhuman, living and dead, beckoning the reader into strange borderlands where alien forces lurk, waiting for the chance to break through into our world.This new selection of Blackwood''s shorter fiction constitutes the most comprehensive critical edition of his work to date. Included here are such undisputed classics as ''The Wendigo'', ''The Willows'', and ''Ancient Sorceries'', as well as two superbly unsettling novellas, ''The Man Whom the Trees Loved'' and ''A Descent into Egypt'', and ten other stories short and long, drawn from collections spanning Blackwood''s long writing career. Aaron Worth''s introduction and notes situate these tales in the context of Blackwood''s own upbringing in an evangelical Victorian household, as well as in relation to such topics as late-imperial British history and the emergence of modern ecological thought.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.Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Algernon Blackwood The Wendigo and Other Stories Explanatory Notes

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Book SynopsisWith an Introduction and Notes by Hugh Epstein, Secretary of the Joseph Conrad Society of Great Britain. 'Then the vision of an enormous town presented itself, of a monstrous town...a cruel devourer of the world's light. There was room enough there to place any story, depth enough for any passion, variety enough there for any setting, darkness enough to bury five millions of lives.' Conrad’s ‘monstrous town’ is London, and his story of espionage and counter-espionage, anarchists and embassies, is a detective story that becomes the story of Winnie Verloc’s tenacity in maintaining her devotion to her peculiar and simple-minded brother, Stevie, as they pursue their very ordinary lives above a rather dubious shop in the back streets of Soho. However, far from offering any sentimental picture, The Secret Agent is Conrad’s funniest novel. Its savagely witty picture of human absurdity and misunderstanding is written in an ironic style that provokes laughter and unease at the same time, and that continues to provide one of the most disturbing visions of aspiration and futility in twentieth century literature.

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Book SynopsisThis powerful novel, Tolstoy’s third major masterpiece, after War and Peace and Anna Karenina, begins with a courtroom drama (the finest in Russian literature) all the more stunning for being based on a real-life event. Dmitri Nekhlyudov, called to jury service, is astonished to see in the dock, charged with murder, a young woman whom he once seduced, propelling her into prostitution. She is found guilty on a technicality, and he determines to overturn the verdict. This pitches him into a hellish labyrinth of Russian courts, prisons and bureaucracy, in which the author loses no opportunity for satire and bitter criticism of a state system (not confined to that country) of cruelty and injustice. This is Dickens for grown-ups, involving a hundred characters, Crime and Punishment brought forward half a century. With unforgettable set-pieces of sexual passion, conflict and social injustice, Resurrection proceeds from brothel to court-room, stinking cells to offices of state, luxury apartments to filthy life in Siberia. The ultimate crisis of moral responsibility embroils not only the famous author and his hero, but also you and me. Can we help resolve the eternal issues of law and imprisonment?

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Book SynopsisWith an introduction by the writer and critic Viv Groskop.In this imaginative extravaganza the devil, disguised as a magician, descends upon Moscow, along with a talking cat and an expert assassin. This riotous band succeed in fooling an entire population of people who persistently deny the devil’s existence, even as they are confronted with the diabolic results of a magic act gone wrong. The devil’s project soon becomes involved with The Master, a man who has turned his back on his former life and sought sanctuary in a lunatic asylum, and his former lover, Margarita.A literary sensation from its first publication, The Master and Margarita has been translated into more than twentylanguages. Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel is now considered one of the seminal works of twentieth-century Russian literature. By turns acidly satiric, fantastic and ironically philosophical, this story constantly surprises and entertains.Trade ReviewFunny and frightening * London Review of Books *Incandescent . . . one of those novels that, even in translation, make you feel that not one word could have been written differently . . . it has too many achievements to list, but the way it keeps faith in love and art even in moments of unspeakable humiliation and cruelty must be the greatest * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisComplete and unabridged.A towering classic of Russian literature, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is a compelling story of a brutal double murder and its aftermath. An impoverished ex-student, Rodion Raskolnikov, kills a pawnbroker and her sister, apparently for financial gain. But as he encounters friends and family, strangers and adversaries, Raskolnikov is compelled to face the true forces that have led him to murder. His struggle with himself and those around him becomes a battle of the individual against society, radicalism against tradition, and ultimately the will of man against the mysteries of divine providence. A sensation in its day, Crime and Punishment has left an indelible stamp on the world of literature. This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of Crime and Punishment is translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett, with an afterword by Oliver Francis.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

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Book SynopsisHer mother's dying request obliges Mary Yellan to make a grim journey across bleak Cornish moorland to Jamaica Inn, the home of her Aunt Patience and her overbearing husband, Joss Merlyn. With the coachman's warning echoing in her mind and affected by the inn's brooding power, Mary is thwarted in her intention to help her aunt. She finds herself drawn unwillingly into the misdeeds of Joss and his accomplices, and even more disturbing are her feelings for a man she dare not trust ...Jamaica Inn is a dark and gripping gothic tale that will remind readers of two other great classics, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

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Book SynopsisThis collection is stormy, romantic, strong the Full Brontë' The TimesA collection of short stories celebrating Charlotte Brontë, published in the year of her bicentenary and stemming from the now immortal words from her great work Jane Eyre.The twenty-one stories in Reader, I Married Him one of the most celebrated lines in fiction are inspired by Jane Eyre and shaped by its perennially fascinating themes of love, compromise and self-determination.A bohemian wedding party takes an unexpected turn for the bride and her daughter; a family trip to a Texan waterpark prompts a life-changing decision; Grace Poole defends Bertha Mason and calls the general opinion of Jane Eyre into question. Mr Rochester reveals a long-kept secret in Reader, She Married Me, and The Mirror boldly imagines Jane's married life after the novel ends. A new mother encounters an old lover after her daily swim and inexplicably lies to him, and a fitness instructor teaches teenage boys how to handle a pit bull terrTrade Review‘Dazzling’ DAILY MAIL ‘The success of this book owes much to [Chevalier’s] enthusiasm … it’s quite amazing to see the quality of work on show’ EVENING STANDARD ‘These stories will enrich and complicate future readings of Jane Eyre, as the best fan fiction should … If Brontë was going to drop in on any of the celebrations for her bicentenary, I can’t help but think she would get a kick out of this collection’ GUARDIAN ‘A terrific set of stories by some of our leading novelists, each of whom engages with a chosen aspect of Jane Eyre’ THE NEW STATESMAN ‘This collection is stormy, romantic, strong – the Full Brontë’ The Times ‘A clever idea well-executed; a treat for fans of short fiction and for Brontë's many ardent fans’ KIRKUS REVIEWS ‘Exemplary…written by some of today's best female writers’ THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE ‘Absorbing and entertaining, READER, I MARRIED HIM is an inventive and a satisfying tribute to a great novel’ Book Reporter ‘These pieces create a beguiling picture of women and men and desire, in which everyone is searching, like Jane, for happiness and wondering whether marriage is really an answer. The book acts as a prism spreading all kinds of literary and historical refractions, and it’s a reminder that Charlotte Brontë, too, has many sides’ GLOBE AND MAIL

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Book SynopsisRichard Hannay has just returned to England after years in South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his life in London. But then a murder is committed in his flat, just days after a chance encounter with an American who had told him about an assassination plot which could have dire international consequences. An obvious suspect for the police and an easy target for the killers, Hannay goes on the run in his native Scotland where he will need all his courage and ingenuity to stay one step ahead of his pursuers.

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Book SynopsisA NETFLIX BOOK CLUB PICKNella Larsen's powerful, thrilling, and tragic tale about the fluidity of racial identity that continues to resonate today. A New York Times Editors’ Choice. Now a major motion picture starring Tessa Thompson and Alexander Skarsgård  One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years Clare Kendry is living on the edge. Light-skinned, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a racist white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past after deciding to “pass” as a white woman. Clare’s childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, and is simultaneously allured and repelled by Clare’s risky decision to engage in racial masquerade for personal and societal gain. After frequenting African American-centric gatherings together in Harlem, Clare&rTrade ReviewIt is a tragic story rooted in inescapable facts of American life: that whiteness conferred an almost universal unearned advantage, and that loyalty to a black racial identity was not only an act of pride but also one of courage * The New York Times *Table of ContentsIntroductionSuggestions for Further ReadingA Note on the Text Part One: Encounter Part Two: Re-Encounter Part Three: FinaleExplanatory Notes

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Book SynopsisWith an Introduction and Notes by Stuart Hutchinson, University of Kent at Canterbury. The Diamond as Big as the Ritz is an ominous fable about the pursuit of great wealth. Readers will be transported to a fabulous fantasy land of such opulence that its very existence has to remain a jealously guarded secret. Fatal consequences lie in store for 'bona fide' guests and uninvited visitors alike, while the sybaritic luxury of the place is evoked in an effortless prose style which is quintessentially F. Scott Fitzgerald. Also featured in this volume are The Cut-Glass Bowl, May Day, The Rich Boy, Crazy Sunday, An Alcoholic Case, The Lees of Happiness, The Lost Decade and Babylon Revisited.

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Book SynopsisWith a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. Kim is Rudyard Kipling’s finest work. Now controversial, this novel is a memorably vivid evocation of the life and landscapes of India in the late nineteenth century. Kim himself is a resourceful lad who befriends a lama, an ageing priest; and both embark on a combined quest. Whereas Kim has an insatiable interest in the varied activities around him, the lama seeks redemption from the ‘Wheel of Life’. Kim becomes involved in the ‘Great Game’:, undertaking espionage for the British rulers. This engrossing and moving novel, with its diversity of memorable characters, offers many insights into political, religious and social tensions.

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Book SynopsisThe epistolary novel Lady Susan is the darkly humorous tale of the amatory schemes and machinations of an ambitious and unprincipled coquette. The Watsons is the story of the refined and well-educated Emma Watson, forced by the second marriage of her aunt to return to the house of her impecunious father and face the marital plots and intrigues of her sisters. Begun by the author in the last few months of her life, Sanditon, set in a fast-growing former fi shing village, swiftly becoming a fashionable resort, pokes fun at the inhabitants of the new coastal town, with all their hypochondria, witlessness and self-obsession.Trade ReviewHere was a woman about the year 1800 writing without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching. That was how Shakespeare wrote. -- Virginia Woolf

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Book SynopsisThe FLAME TREE COLLECTABLE CLASSICS are chosen to create a delightful and timeless home library. Each stunning 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.It isn’t known when Emily Brontë began work on the imaginative and passionate story titled Wuthering Heights, which was published in 1847. The distinguished novel is set in a remote Yorkshire village in the eighteenth century, and the narrative explores the love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, an abandoned child adopted by Mr. Earnshaw. Their story unfolds alongside a background of poetic imagery, dry humour and rich imagination. Themes of violence and revenge create an intense power in this unique and ground-breaking novel.

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Book SynopsisFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA'She wrote exciting plots . . . a writer of fearless originality' GUARDIAN'This French Revolution epic is an overlooked classic' MELISSA KATSOULIS, THE TIMES 'No other popular writer has so triumphantly defied classification . . . ' MARGARET FORSTER'Perhaps we shall not see each other again. I will write to you, though, and tell you, as best I can, the story of your family. A glass-blower, remember, breathes life into a vessel, giving it shape and form and sometimes beauty; but he can with that same breath, shatter and destroy it.'Faithful to her word, Sophie Duval reveals to her long-lost nephew the tragic story of a family of master craftsmen in eighteenth-century France. The world of the glass-blowers has its own traditions, it's own language and its own rules. 'If you marry into glass' Pierre Labbe warns his daughter, 'you will say goodbye to everything familiar, and enter a closed world'. But crashing into this world comes the violence and terror of the French Revolution against which, the family struggles to survive. The Glass-Blowers is a remarkable achievement - an imaginative and exciting reworking of du Maurier's own family history.Trade ReviewNo other popular writer has so triumphantly defied classification ... She satisfied all the questionable criteria of popular fiction and yet satisfied the exacting requirements of "real literature", something very few novelists ever doShe wrote exciting plots, she was highly skilled at arousing suspense, and she was, too, a writer of fearless originality * Guardian *The Glass-Blowers by Daphne du Maurier - this French Revolution epic is an overlooked classic -- Melissa Katsoulis * The Times *

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Book SynopsisChiltern Publishing creates the most beautiful editions of the World?s finest literature. Your favorite classic titles in a way you have never seen them before; the tactile layers, fine details and beautiful colors of these remarkable covers make these titles feel extra special and will look striking on any shelf.The Prophet is a fable about the prophet Al Mustafa, who has lived in city of Orphalese for over 12 years and when finally leaving for his home country, people gather to bid him farewell, and ask for his guidance on important aspects of life.A worldwide bestseller since it''s original publication in 1923, the book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good andevil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.The Prophet has been translated into over 100 different languages, making it one of the most translated books in history, as well as one of the bestselling books of all time.

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Book SynopsisThis edition of Herman Melville's monumental novel includes a new introduction that is attentive both to the rich literary history of Moby-Dick, and to the book's sharp relevance to issues of environmentalism, disability, power, race, and sexuality today.Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the text Selected Bibliography Herman Melvolle Chronology MOBY-DICK; OR, THE WHALE Appendix: Melville's Letters to Nathaniel Hawthorne Explanatory Notes

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Book SynopsisGrimm’s Fairy Tales contains 59 of the best-loved bedtime stories for children worldwide, enjoyed for the better part of two centuries. Originally collected by the Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, these German linguists and cultural researchers gathered legendary folklore and aimed to share the stories exactly as they heard them. This volume features all of your favorite tales, including: Cinderella Rapunzel Hansel and Grethel Snow White Rumpelstiltskin Little Red Riding Hood The Golden Goose This elegantly designed jacketed hardcover edition features an introduction by fantasy literature scholar Lori Campbell, a timeline of the life and times of the Brothers Grimm, and over 100 illustrations by Arthur Rackham. Essential volumes for the shelves of every classic literature lover, the Chartwell Classics series includes beautifully pre

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