From Austen to Zola, from medieval to the modern day - all genres are catered for between the covers of these coveted classics.
Classics Books
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group This Side of Paradise Vintage Classics
Book SynopsisF. Scott Fitzgerald’s cherished debut novel announced the arrival of a brilliant young writer and anticipated his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby. Published in 1920, when the author was just twenty-three, This Side of Paradise recounts the education of young Amory Blaine—egoistic, versatile, callow, imaginative. As Amory makes his way among debutantes and Princeton undergraduates, we enter an environment heady with the promise of everything that was new in the vigorous, restless America after World War I. We experience Amory’s sailing hopes, crushing defeats, deep loves and stubborn losses. His growth from self-absorption to sexual awareness and personhood unfolds with continuous improvisatory energy and delight. Fitzgerald’s remarkable formal inventiveness couches Amory’s narrative among songs, poems, dramatic dialogue, questions and answers. The novel’s freshness and verve—praised upon publication, now renowned by history&mdash
£10.44
Vintage Espanol Lolita Spanish Edition
Book SynopsisLolita, la más famosa y controversial novela de Vladimir Nabokov, cuenta la historia de la obsesión devoradora del cuarentón Humbert Humbert por la nínfula Dolores Haze. Ternura y fascinación —además de tristeza y un humor mordaz— llenan sus páginas pero es, por encima de todo, una meditación sobre el amor—el amor como abuso y alucinación, locura y transformación.
£15.16
Random House USA Inc Dracula
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£21.25
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group The Three Musketeers
£25.60
Random House USA Inc Cat Stories
Book SynopsisTwo centuries of literary homages to the fascinating feline: stories by writers of every stripe—from P.G. Wodehouse to Doris Lessing, from Damon Runyon to Steven Millhauser.The essential unknowableness of cats has inspired many flights of fancy: Italo Calvino’s secret city of cats in “The Garden of Stubborn Cats,” the disappearing feline in Ursula K. Le Guin’s mind-twisting “Schrödinger’s Cat,” the cartoon rodent and his cartoon nemesis in Steven Millhauser’s “Cat ’n’ Mouse.” Cats flaunt their superiority in Angela Carter’s bawdy retelling of “Puss-in-Boots” and in Stephen Vincent Benét’s “The King of the Cats,” in which two impossibly suave foreigners are revealed as even more exotic than they pretend to be. In “The Islands” by Alice Adams and “I See You, Bianca” by Maeve Brennan we see how much cats can mean to their humans. And the inimitable Saki lets us hear what cats really think of us in “Tobermory,” his tale of a tactless talking animal.In these and other stories, this delightful book offers cat lovers a many- faceted tribute to the beguilingly mysterious objects of their affection.
£20.00
Random House USA Inc Ethan Frome
Book SynopsisEdith Wharton’s most widely read work is a tightly constructed and almost unbearably heartbreaking story of forbidden love in a snowbound New England village. This brilliantly wrought, tragic novella explores the repressed emotions and destructive passions of working-class people far removed from the elevated social milieu usually inhabited by Wharton’s characters. Ethan Frome is a poor farmer, trapped in a marriage to a demanding and controlling wife, Zeena. When Zeena’s young cousin Mattie enters their household she opens a window of hope in Ethan’s bleak life, but his wife’s reaction prompts a desperate attempt to escape fate that goes horribly wrong. Ethan Frome is an unforgettable story with the force of myth, featuring realistic and haunting characters as vivid as any Wharton ever conjured.
£8.34
Random House USA Inc Ficciones Fictions
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£15.26
Random House USA Inc Agnes Grey The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
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£25.60
Random House USA Inc The Hunchback of NotreDame
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£22.50
Random House USA Inc Notes from a Dead House Everymans Library
Book SynopsisA beautiful hardcover edition of the first great prison memoir, Fyodor Dostoevsky's fictionalized account of his life-changing penal servitude in Siberia. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, with an introduction by Richard Pevear. Sentenced to death for advocating socialism in 1849, Dostoevsky served a commuted sentence of four years of hard labor. The account he wrote afterward, Notes from a Dead House (sometimes translated as The House of the Dead), is filled with vivid details of brutal punishments, shocking conditions, and the psychological effects of the loss of freedom and hope, but also of the feuds and betrayals, the moments of comedy, and the acts of kindness he observed. As a nobleman and a political prisoner, Dostoevsky was despised by most of his fellow convicts, and his first-person narrator—a nobleman who has killed his wife—experiences a similar struggle to adapt. He also undergoes a transformation
£22.40
Random House USA Inc Washington Square
Book SynopsisWashington Square is one of Henry James’s most appealing and popular novels, with the most straightforward plot and style of any of his works. Set in the genteel New York of James’s early childhood, it is a tale of cruelty laced with comedy. Dr. Austin Sloper is a wealthy and domineering father who is disappointed in the unremarkable daughter he has produced; he dismisses her as both plain and simpleminded. The gentle and dutiful Catherine Sloper has always been in awe of her father, but when she falls in love with Morris Townsend, a penniless charmer whom Dr. Sloper accuses of being a fortune hunter, she dares to defy him and a battle of wills ensues that will leave her forever changed. Readers have long admired the way that the innocent Catherine, misled by her meddling aunt and mistreated by both her father and her lover, grows in strength and wisdom over the course of her ordeal.
£17.60
Random House USA Inc Journey to the Center of the Earth Twenty
Book SynopsisJules Verne’s most beloved novels are gathered here in one hardcover volume: three thrilling tales of fabulous journeys under, through, and around the earth.Verne was one of the great pioneers of science fiction. Born in France in 1828, he wrote brilliantly about space, air, and underwater travel long before airplanes and space ships had been invented, and he is still one of the most widely read internationally of all science-fiction writers. But beyond charting new territory for adventurous fiction, his creations have entered our culture and taken on the magnitude and vitality of myth. It is hard to imagine anyone who has not heard of Captain Nemo and his giant submarine exploring the ruins of Atlantis in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Phileas Fogg’s frantic race around the world by every means of transportation in Round the World in Eighty Days, and the harrowing descent through a volcanic crater to underground caverns where prehistoric creatures roam in Journey to the Center of the Earth. These stories have seized the imaginations of readers for generations and are as vivid and exciting now as when their author first imagined traveling beyond the bounds of the possible. Translated by Henry Frith
£28.50
St Martin's Press Beneath the Wheel
Book SynopsisIn Hermann Hesse''s Beneath the Wheel, Hans Giebernath lives among the dull and respectable townsfolk of a sleepy Black Forest village. When he is discovered to be an exceptionally gifted student, the entire community presses him onto a path of serious scholarship. Hans dutifully follows the regimen of study and endless examinations, his success rewarded only with more crushing assignments. When Hans befriends a rebellious young poet, he begins to imagine other possibilities outside the narrowly circumscribed world of the academy. Finally sent home after a nervous breakdown, Hans is revived by nature and romance, and vows never to return to the gray conformity of the academic system.
£14.40
Macmillan Learning Heart of Darkness
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£15.99
Redhook Wild and Wicked Things
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£22.40
Redhook Wild and Wicked Things
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£16.99
Back Bay Books Hornblower and the Hotspur
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£17.99
Orbit One Dark Window
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£16.14
Back Bay Books The Catcher in the Rye
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£17.09
Redhook The Star and the Strange Moon
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£24.00
Redhook An Education in Malice
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£23.20
Back Bay Books Rebecca
Book SynopsisThe multi‑million‑copy bestseller that has enthralled generations of readers. A haunting tale of obsessive love. A mesmerizing psychological thriller. In Monte Carlo, our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady’s maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at Manderley, her husband’s cavernous estate on the Cornish coast, that she realizes how vast a shadow his late wife, Rebecca, will cast over their lives—introducing a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their love from beyond the grave. This universally acclaimed novel has remained consistently in print since its original publication in 1938 and has frequently been adapted—for television, radio, the theater, and film—most notably in 1940 by Alfred Hitchcock, whose Rebecca received the Academy Award for Best Picture, and in the 2020 Netflix film
£16.19
Little, Brown & Company Franny and Zooey
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£13.59
Back Bay Books The Winds of War
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£19.79
Pan Macmillan The Sunset Limited A Novel in Dramatic Form
Book SynopsisDeft, spare, and full of artful tension, The Sunset Limited is a beautifully crafted play from the legendary Cormac McCarthy, author of No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridian.'The Sunset Limited grips from the very first page' – Financial TimesA startling encounter on a New York subway platform leads two strangers to a run-down tenement where a life or death decision must be made.In that small apartment the two men, known as 'Black' and 'White', begin a conversatino that leads each back through his own history.White is a professor whose seemingly enviable existence of relative ease has left him nonetheless in despair. Black, an ex-con in recovery for drug addiction, is the more hopeful of the men. He is, however, desperate to convince White of the power of faith – while White is desperate to deny it.Between them, they hope to discover the meaning of life itself.Trade ReviewThe Sunset Limited grips from the very first page. * Financial Times *The author at his best, meditating on life, suffering and religion. * Shortlist *It's remarkable that Cormac McCarthy could revive the antique genre of the philosophical dialogue as convincingly as he does here. His prose bites. * Evening Standard *
£9.49
Pan Macmillan A Bend in the River V.S. Naipaul
Book SynopsisV.S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932. He came to England on a scholarship in 1950. He spent four years at University College, Oxford, and began to write, in London, in 1954. He pursued no other profession.His novels include A House for Mr Biswas, The Mimic Men, Guerrillas, A Bend in the River, and The Enigma of Arrival. In 1971 he was awarded the Booker Prize for In a Free State. His works of nonfiction, equally acclaimed, include Among the Believers, Beyond Belief, The Masque of Africa, and a trio of books about India: An Area of Darkness, India: A Wounded Civilization and India: A Million Mutinies Now.In 1990, V.S. Naipaul received a knighthood for services to literature; in 1993, he was the first recipient of the David Cohen British Literature Prize. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He lived with his wife Nadira and cat Augustus in Wiltshire, and died in 2018Trade ReviewNaipaul has fashioned a work of intense imaginative force. It is a haunting creation, rich with incident and human bafflement, played out in an immense detail of landscape rendered with a poignant brilliance. -- Elizabeth HardwickAlways a master of fictional landscape, Naipaul here shows, in his variety of human examples and in his search for underlying social causes, a Tolstoyan spirit. -- John UpdikeBrilliant and terrifying * Observer *
£10.99
Random House USA Inc The Fellowship of the Ring
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£8.54
Random House USA Inc Planet of the Apes
Book SynopsisThe original novel that inspired the films! First published more than fifty years ago, Pierre Boulle’s chilling novel launched one of the greatest science fiction sagas in motion picture history. In the not-too-distant future, three astronauts land on what appears to be a planet just like Earth, with lush forests, a temperate climate, and breathable air. But while it appears to be a paradise, nothing is what it seems. They soon discover the terrifying truth: On this world humans are savage beasts, and apes rule as their civilized masters. In an ironic novel of nonstop action and breathless intrigue, one man struggles to unlock the secret of a terrifying civilization, all the while wondering: Will he become the savior of the human race, or the final witness to its damnation? In a shocking climax that rivals that of the original movie, Boulle delivers the answer in a masterpiece of adventure, satire, and suspense.
£8.99
Penguin Random House LLC Daughter of the Stars
Book Synopsis'Were they all lying? Misleading me for their own purposes?...'Lacey Elliot has been a woman without a past since the day her mother whisked her off to Charlottesville, refusing for thirty years to speak of her father, her family, or her history.But when Lacey intercepts a desperate letter from an aunt in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, Lacey sees her chance to confront the past that has terrified her mother and to fill in the gaps in her own life.Against the charm and colorful, turbulent history of the picturesque town, the violent history of Lacey's heritage is about to repeat itself. As she finds herself drawn to a man intrigued by the town for reasons of his own, old ghosts reappear and danger returns--as a killer walks among them once more....'Evocative, moving, suspenseful--another surefire winner from the writer who taught all of us how it should be done.'--BARBARA MICHAELSPHYLLIS A. WHITNEY IS A WINNER OF THE GRAND MASTER AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT FROM THE MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA
£7.59
Random House Publishing Group Tuf Voyaging
Book SynopsisLong before A Game of Thrones became an international phenomenon, #1 New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin had taken his loyal readers across the cosmos. Now back in print after almost ten years, Tuf Voyaging is the story of quirky and endearing Haviland Tuf, an unlikely hero just trying to do right by the galaxy, one planet at a time. Haviland Tuf is an honest space-trader who likes cats. So how is it that, in competition with the worst villains the universe has to offer, he’s become the proud owner of a seedship, the last remnant of Earth’s legendary Ecological Engineering Corps? Never mind; just be thankful that the most powerful weapon in human space is in good hands—hands which now have the godlike ability to control the genetic material of thousands of outlandish creatures. Armed with this unique equipment, Tuf is set to tackle the problems that human settlers have created in
£17.10
Random House USA Inc Giovannis Room Vintage International
Book SynopsisFrom one of the most brilliant and provocative literary figures of the past century comes a groundbreaking novel set among the bohemian bars and nightclubs of 1950s Paris, about love and the fear of love—“a book that belongs in the top rank of fiction” (The Atlantic).One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 YearsIn the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. David is a young American expatriate who has just proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Hella. While she is away on a trip, David meets a bartender named Giovanni to whom he is drawn in spite of himself. Soon the two are spending the night in Giovanni’s curtainless room, which he keeps dark to protect their privacy. But Hella’s return to Paris brings the affair to a crisis, one that rapidly spirals into tragedy.David struggles for self-knowledge during one long, dark night—“the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life.” With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin's now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a deeply moving story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.
£12.80
Random House USA Inc Longbourn
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£15.20
Little, Brown Book Group Ediths Diary A Virago Modern Classic Virago
Book SynopsisBY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, CAROL AND STRANGERS ON A TRAININTRODUCED BY DENISE MINA''Highsmith probes to the very core of her heroine with a controlled ferocity and single-mindedness that illuminates every page of her novel'' THE TIMES ''A work of extraordinary force and feeling . . . her strongest, her most imaginative'' NEW YORKER ''One of the mere twenty or so that I would say were perfect, unimprovable masterpieces'' A. N Wilson, DAILY TELEGRAPH Edith Howland''s diary is her most precious possession, and as she is moving house she is making sure it''s safe. A suburban housewife in fifties America, she is moving to Brunswick with her husband Brett and her beloved son, Cliffie, to start a new life for them all. She is optimistic, but most of all she has high hopes for her new venture with Brett, a local newspaper, the Brunswick Corner BugleTrade ReviewHighsmith probes to the very core of her heroine with a controlled ferocity and single-mindedness that illuminates every page of her novel. It is a masterly book, a haunting book, a book that lingers long in the memory and constantly disturbs and delights * The Times *Edith's Diary is certainly one of the saddest novels I ever read, but it is also one of the mere twenty or so that I would say were perfect, unimprovable masterpieces -- A. N. Wilson * Telegraph *As original, as funny, as cleverly written and as moving as any novel I have read since I started reviewing -- Auberon Waugh * Evening Standard *Edith's fall takes the form of a psychological chiller, but there is also something larger, the poignancy of her struggle not to go under. She is betrayed by such ordinary dreams -- New York TimesA work of extraordinary force and feeling . . . her strongest, her most imaginative and by far her most substantial novel * New Yorker *Moral speculations surface about the respective responsibilities of the uncaring and the unloved, tenterhooks cushioned with an enveloping intimacy of character and place * Kirkus Reviews *Highsmith's novels are peerlessly disturbing ....bad dreams that keep us thrashing for the rest of the night * The New Yorker *Edith's fall takes the form of a psychological chiller, but there is also something larger, the poignancy of her struggle not to go under. She is betrayed by such ordinary dreams * New York Times *Highsmith probes to the very core of her heroine with a controlled ferocity and single-mindedness that illumines every page of her novel. It is a masterly book, a haunting book, a book that lingers long in the memory and constantly disturbs and delights. -- The Times * The Times *A work of extraordinary force and feeling . . . her strongest, her most imaginative and by far her most substantial novel -- New Yorker * New Yorker *As original, as funny, as cleverly written and as moving as any novel I have read since I started reviewing -- Auberon Waugh * The Evening Standard *Edith's Diary is certainly one of the saddest novels I ever read, but it is also one of the mere twenty or so that I would say were perfect, unimprovable masterpieces -- A.N Wilson * Daily Telegraph *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Orchard on Fire
Book SynopsisMany regard this as Mackay's masterpiece. A touching, funny novel about childhood in the 1950s: friendship, village life and lost innocence.Trade ReviewSo touched with magic, so achingly sad and funny that my breath was taken away . . . wonderful * The Times *An extremely beautiful and funny novel . . . The Orchard on Fire is probably Mackay's most perfect book, produced with a technical adroitness and shapeliness which one can only envy * Guardian *A harvest festival of sensuous detail, intimate, rich . . . Compulsively readable * Daily Telegraph *Shena Mackay is a writer in prime: at the height of her powers . . . Her prose is flawlessly seductive and comic, confidently witty and sensual * Independent on Sunday *Wholly delightful . . . Shena Mackay is an assured artist -- A. N. Wilson * Evening Standard *A celebration of childhood as well as a mourning for the loss of innocence . . . a bitter-sweet, gentle novel, not given to grandstanding or preaching, but shot through with humour and compassion. Her writing brilliantly captures the spirit of the place, where every present sensation has ghostly overtones that make the experience all the more sad and lovely * Times Literary Supplement *An eloquent, beautifully written, unpretentious novel about a Fifties childhood . . . Mackay moved this reader to tears, not from grief but from joy. Now there's a skill * Mail on Sunday *Totally authentic, agonisingly nostalgic, this poignant everyday story of Fifties folk has the power to lay bare everyone's susceptibility to the ghosts that forever teem around the scenes of our childhood * Daily Mail *Shena Mackay has brought off something quite rare . . . the author has set out a rite of passage which will leave few readers unaffected * Spectator *
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Rebecca unlined notebook
Book SynopsisUsing the cover artwork of our much-loved Virago Modern Classics hardback range, these elegant notebooks celebrate three of our most popular titles: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier; Excellent Women by Barbara Pym and Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. They are a must-have for all Virago fans, and are surely the most stylish way of collecting notes on your favourite books. Or maybe it will inspire you to write a novel of your own . . . Each notebook features a ribbon bookmark, high-quality paper and matching endpapers. Rebecca and Excellent Women feature artwork by award-winning textile designer Neisha Crosland: www.neishacrosland.com Valley of the Dolls features artwork by textile designer and founder of Biba, Barbara Hulanicki: www.barbarahulanickidesign.comTrade ReviewFrom the opening sentence - "Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again" - to the final - "And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea" - I was hooked ... Rebecca is one of the underrated classics of the 20th century ... Rebecca is a masterpiece in which du Maurier pulls off several spectacular high-wire acts that many great writers wouldn't attempt * Guardian *Her masterpiece . . . Seldom has a dead woman exercised such power beyond the grave. Rebecca will live for ever because du Maurier touches a fearful nerve, buried deep in the unconscious * The Times *It's the perfect winter book, brooding, dangerous and engrossing -- Kit de Waal * Sainsbury's Magazine *A mesmerising novel which reveals more on each readingIt is the greatest psychological thriller of all time. I see du Maurier as a forerunner to Patricia Highsmith, Ruth Rendell, Gillian Flynn: she is the giant whose magnificent shoulders the rest of us stand uponWhat she did was build emotional landscapes that can be entered at will, in which difficult and untamable desires were given free rein. Maybe because of her relationship with gender, she was able to make worlds in which people and even houses are mysterious and mutable, not as they seem; haunted rooms in which disembodied spirits sometimes dance at absolute liberty * Guardian *I read this book more than twenty years ago, and must have read it a dozen times since. The characters are incredibly vivid, and the twists superb. It's the book every writer wishes they'd written -- Clare MackintoshThis 1930s gothic thriller is suspenseful and so well crafted. Its young, nameless heroine marries rich widower Maxim de Winter and returns with him to his mansion, Manderley, only to find the ghost of his first wife, Rebecca, still lingers * Good Housekeeping *
£14.03
Little, Brown Book Group Valley Of The Dolls
Book SynopsisBefore Jackie Collins, Candace Bushnell and Lena Dunham, Jacqueline Susann held the world rapt with her tales of the private passions of Hollywood starlets, high-powered industrialists and the jet-set.Valley of the Dolls took the world by storm when it was first published, fifty years ago. Never had a book been so frank about sex, drugs and show business. It is often sited as the bestselling novel of all time.Dolls - red or black; capsules or tablets; washed down with vodka or swallowed straight. For Anne, Neely and Jennifer, it doesn''t matter, as long as the pill bottle is within easy reach. These three beautiful women become best friends when they are young and in New York, struggling to make their names in the entertainment industry. Only when they reach the peak of their careers do they find there''s nowhere left to go but down - to the Valley of the Dolls.Trade ReviewThe kind of book most of its readers could not put down. I, for one, could not . . . For me reading Valley of the Dolls was like reading a very, very long, absolutely delicious gossip column . . . Magnetic * Nora Ephron *Valley Of The Dolls remains a brave, bold, angry and, yes, definitely a feminist book. All that, and still about the most fun you can have without a prescription -- Julie Burchill * Guardian *Jackie, it seemed, understood by instinct that her readers were ready for the raw side of love . . . for a franker sexuality and a tougher kind of story-for romance with tears and oral sex -- Michael Korda * The New Yorker *Valley of the Dolls remains a pop-culture touchstone: a gleefully salacious story of friendship, sex, backstabbing and pills . . . Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, the tawdry tale of Anne Welles, Jennifer North and Neely O'Hara hasn't lost its punch . . . One of the most talked-about books of all time * New York Times *50 years later, it's still spot on. The world's changed immensely but the climb to the top is still a tough one * Michael Kors *Much imitated, but never bettered * Daily Telegraph *Valley of the Dolls remains a pop-culture touchstone: a gleefully salacious story of friendship, sex, backstabbing and pills . . . Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, the tawdry tale of Anne Welles, Jennifer North and Neely O'Hara hasn't lost its punch . . . One of the most talked-about books of all time * New York Times *50 years later, it's still spot on. The world's changed immensely but the climb to the top is still a tough one * Michael Kors *Valley Of The Dolls remains a brave, bold, angry and, yes, definitely a feminist book. All that, and still about the most fun you can have without a prescription -- Julie Burchill * Guardian *The kind of book most of its readers could not put down. I, for one, could not . . . For me reading Valley of the Dolls was like reading a very, very long, absolutely delicious gossip column . . . Magnetic * Nora Ephron *
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group The Ghost Stories Of Edith Wharton
Book SynopsisRich and strange, these stories reveal a seductive and little-known aspect of this superb classic writer.
£14.24
Little, Brown Book Group The Collected Stories of Grace Paley Virago
Book SynopsisFROM THE PULITZER PRIZE AND NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST, GRACE PALEY''Grace Paley''s is exceptional'' KASIA BODDY, GUARDIAN ''Her unladylike gutsiness and friendliness are nonpareil'' EDMUND WHITE, OBSERVER ''They are stories full of the stories we all tell and live by, tall stories as well as short'' SALMAN RUSHDIE Here are all Grace Paley''s classic stories in one volume. From her first book The Little Disturbances of Man (1959) to Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974) and Later the Same Day (1985), Grace Paley''s quirky, boisterous characters and rich use of language have won her readers'' hearts and secured her place as one of America''s most accomplished short story writers. Her stories are united by her signature interweaving of personal and political truths, her extraordinary capacity for empathy and her pointed depiction of the small and large events that make up daily lifTrade ReviewPaley is as clever a mimic as Philip Roth, as cheerfully zany and aleatory in her vision of New York as Christina Stead, as serendipitous as Donald Bartheleme, but her unladylike gutsiness and friendliness are nonpareil -- Edmund White * Observer *This is a collection full of energy and stunning, quiet innovation . . . it spills over with contempt, raucous humour, sadness and generosity. In it, life and language are synonymous, and there is no higher praise. What a wonderful bookAn understanding of loneliness, lust, selfishness and fatigue that is splendidly comic and unladylikeGrace Paley makes me weep and laugh - and admire. She is that rare kind of writer, a natural, with a voice like no one else's: funny, sad, lean, modest, energetic, acuteThese stories, brief and extended, burn with a high-energy commitment to the great work of being alive. They are stories full of the stories we all tell and live by, tall stories as well as short . . . And they are stories in which the whole of a world, its children, its dead, its furniture, its snacks, is lovingly and unsentimentally named. Named, and not forgivenGrace Paley is one of the great writers of voice of the last century. There's an experience one has reading a stylist like her that has to do with how rich in truth the phrase-or-sentence-level bursts are and how quickly they follow upon one another . . . A writer like Paley comes along and brightens language up again, takes it aside and gives it a pep talk, sends it back renewed, so it can do its job, which is to wake us upGrace Paley's work makes the novel as a form seem virtually redundant. Each one of her stories has more abundant inner life than most other people's novels . . . Her prose presents a series of miracles of poetic compressionGrace Paley is the most intelligent, generous, incorruptible writer I ever knew. Her daughter says, 'I learned from her that precision requires a warm eye, not a cold one,' and so did we all. Keen wit and real modesty seldom occur in such happy alliance. Who she was is what she writes. She never shows off, never bullies. She asks us what do you think about this? and is interested in our answer. She takes nothing for granted and everything as worth rethinking. Her writing on social issues remains timely because it was never superficial; she held understanding more useful than judgment. Very few writers can match the offhand voice, with its unmistakable oral cadence, in which her poignant, funny short stories are toldAs long as there are human beings wondering who they are, and how they can be better - looking for a more full-hearted way of being In the world - there will be readers for the great, beloved, much-missed Grace Paley
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group Marriage Virago Modern Classics
Book SynopsisSusan Ferrier sold more copies of her novels than her contemporary, Jane Austen. Sir Walter Scott declared her his equal. Why, then has she been lost to history? On the 200th anniversary of this sharply observed, comic novel, it is time to rediscover her brilliance.''Edinburgh is reclaiming Susan Ferrier as the equal of Scottish greats in literature'' SIR WALTER SCOTT AND ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE''A forgotten literary heroine'' VANESSA THORPE, GUARDIAN ''Ferrier writes with crisp, telling details and a knack for naming characters'' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ''What have you to do with a heart? What has anybody to do with a heart when their establishment in life is at stake? Keep your heart for your romances, child, and don''t bring such nonsense into real life - heart, indeed!''Understanding that the purpose of marriage is to further her family, Lady Juliana nevertheless rejects the ageing and unattractive - though aTrade ReviewFerrier writes with crisp, telling details and a knack for naming characters (Mrs. Wiseacre, Lady Dull). This reprint should delight modern fans of stories of manners much as it did readers two hundred years ago * Publishers Weekly *On the two hundredth anniversary of the first publication of Marriage, Edinburgh is reclaiming Susan Ferrier as the equal of Scottish greats in literature -- Sir Walter Scott and Arthur Conan DoyleA forgotten literary heroine - the nineteenth-century Scottish novelist Susan Edmonstone Ferrier -- Vanessa Thorpe * Guardian *
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group Death Goes on Skis
Book Synopsis''Her detective novels are hilarious - less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase . . . Nancy Spain was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal'' Sandi ToksvigMiriam Birdseye is daring, brilliant - and a long way from The Ivy. Our dashing heroine, a famous revue artist, takes to the slopes with her coterie of admirers. Champagne flows and wherever Miriam goes she leaves a trail of gossip in her wake.Fellow ski-resort guests include the celebrated Russian ex-ballerina, Natasha Nevkorina, whose beauty is matched only by her languor, Natasha''s burly husband, nightclub owner Johnny DuVivien, and the wealthy Flahertés, a family who have made their money importing scents: handsome playboy Barney, his wife Regan, their two obnoxious children and the governess, Rosalie. Unbeknownst to Regan, Barney''s mistress, a film star, is also there with her husband.When secrets start to unravel, tensions rise, and soon amateur sleuths Miriam and Natasha have not one but two murders to solve. In the hands of Nancy Spain, for whom farce and humour are a lot more fun than a conventional detective novel, the result is a deliciously wild ride.''An either intense or sombre approach to crime is to Miss Spain foreign: in her world an inspired craziness rules . . . Her wit, her zest, her outrageousness, and the colloquial stylishness of her writing are quite her own'' Elizabeth BowenTrade ReviewHer detective novels are hilarious. They are high camp and less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase . . . Nancy Spain was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal in leading the way -- Sandi ToksvigAn either intense or sombre approach to crime is to Miss Spain foreign: in her world an inspired craziness rules . . . Her wit, her zest, her outrageousness, and the colloquial stylishness of her writing are quite her own -- Elizabeth Bowen
£8.99
Little, Brown Book Group Poison for Teacher
Book SynopsisNancy Spain, a dazzling mid-century English eccentric, is back in printTrade ReviewHer detective novels are hilarious. They are high camp and less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase . . . Nancy Spain was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal -- Sandi ToksvigAn either intense or sombre approach to crime is to Miss Spain foreign: in her world an inspired craziness rules . . . Her wit, her zest, her outrageousness, and the colloquial stylishness of the writing are quite her own -- Elizabeth Bowen
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Cinderella Goes to the Morgue
Book SynopsisA fast-moving, Christmas crime caper from Nancy Spain. With a delightful new introduction from Sandi Toksvig - 'Her detective novels are hilarious - less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase'Trade ReviewHer detective novels are hilarious. They are high camp and less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase . . . Nancy Spain was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal -- Sandi ToksvigAn either intense or sombre approach to crime is to Miss Spain foreign: in her world an inspired craziness rules . . . Her wit, her zest, her outrageousness, and the colloquial stylishness of her writing are quite her own -- Elizabeth Bowen
£8.54
Little, Brown Book Group R in the Month
Book SynopsisMurder most foul at an off-season English seaside resort. A fast-moving crime caper from Nancy Spain, with a delightful introduction from Sandi Toksvig - 'Her detective novels are hilarious - less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase'Trade ReviewAn either intense or sombre approach to crime is to Miss Spain foreign: in her world an inspired craziness rules . . . Her wit, her zest, her outrageousness, and the colloquial stylishness of her writing are quite her own -- Elizabeth BowenHer detective novels are hilarious. They are high camp and less about detecting than delighting, with absurd farce and a wonderful turn of phrase . . . Nancy Spain was bold, she was brave, she was funny, she was feisty. I owe her a great deal' -- Sandi ToksvigEver since reading R in the Month as a teenager, I've been a Nancy Spain fan. I love her juxtaposition of seedy, atmospheric settings with humour and showbiz glamour. There's still no one quite like her -- Elly Griffiths
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group The Secret Purposes
Book SynopsisBrilliantly accomplished and critically acclaimed novel of Nazi Germany and the plight of internees in wartime Britain by writer and comedian David Baddiel.Trade ReviewAn intriguing novel about history and truth . . . The intelligence and inquiry of this book will surprise many * THE TIMES *Wonderful . . . brilliantly realised * INDEPENDENT *It is a sombre, clever book, but, being Baddiel, is irradiated by flashes of dark humour * Sally Vickers, SPECTATOR *David Baddiel's excellent new novel . . . Sensitive, intelligent and deeply moving, THE SECRET PURPOSES is both a gripping read and a long overdue indictment of Britain's treatment of Jewish refugees * IMAGE *
£9.49
Mariner Books The Stranger Diaries
Book SynopsisInternational Bestseller Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel 'This lively whodunit keeps you guessing until the end.' —People Death lies between the lines when the events of a dark story start coming true in this haunting modern Gothic mystery, perfect for fans of Magpie Murders and The Lake House. Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. A high school teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R. M. Holland, she even teaches a course on him. But when one of Clare’s colleagues is found dead, with a line from Holland’s iconic story “The Stranger” left by her body, Clare is horrified to see her life collide with her favorite literature. The police suspect the killer is someone Clare knows. Unsure whom to trust, she turns to her diary, the only outlet for her suspicions and fears. Then one day she notices something odd. Writing that is
£16.14
Mariner Books Classics The Street
Book SynopsisWith a new introduction from New York Times best-selling author Tayari Jones, The Street was Ann Petry''s first novel, originally published in 1946 and hailed by critics as a masterwork.The Street tells the poignant, often heartbreaking story of Lutie Johnson, a young black woman, and her spirited struggle to raise her son amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s. Lutie is confronted by racism, sexism, and classism on a daily basis in her pursuit of the American dream for herself and her son, Bub. Lutie fully subscribes to the belief that if she follows the adages of Benjamin Franklin by working hard and saving wisely, she will be able to achieve the dream of being financially independent. The first novel by an African-American woman to sell more than a million copies, its haunting tale still resonates today. Petry is the writer we have been waiting for; hers are the stories we need to fully i
£15.99
Harper The Cherry Robbers
Book SynopsisSarai Walker has done it again. With The Cherry Robbers she upends the Gothic ghost story with a fiery feminist zeal. —Maria SempleThe highly anticipated second novel from Sarai Walker, following her “slyly subversive” (EW) cult-hit Dietland—a feminist gothic about the lone survivor of a cursed family of sisters, whose time may finally be up.IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.INSTEAD IT WAS THE LAST.Iris Chapel and her five elegant sisters, all of them heiresses to the Chapel firearms fortune, live cloistered in a lavish Victorian mansion. Neglected by both a distant, workaholic father and a mentally troubled mother—who believes their home is haunted by the victims of Chapel weapons—the sisters have grown up with only each other for company. They long to escape the eerie fai
£22.39
Harper Voyager Earth Abides
Book Synopsis
£14.39
