Classics Books

Book Synopsis"His best. Time may show it to be the best single piece of any of us, I mean his and my contemporaries." - William Faulkner.The Old Man and the Sea, an apparently simple fable, represents the mature Hemingway at his best, and it is still one of his most read books. In 1954 Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style."Hemingway''s style was famously simple. In responding to a critic, he said "Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don''t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use." Using these simpler and better words he tells the unforgettable story of Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman down on his luck, who goes out alone far from the shore in search of one last victory and catches a huge marlin longer than his boat. He is tested to the very limits of his skill and strength and returns "destroyed but not defeated." This, of course, also refers to Hemingway, who, in his last years, was in constant pain from years of adventures and accidents but still able to do his best work. A classic novella that can be read in a single sitting.Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961) was an American journalist, novelist, short-story writer, and sportsman. He loved Cuba, where he had a home, and where he placed his Nobel Prize medal in the custody of the Catholic Church for the benefit of the local people. His economical and understated style-which he termed the iceberg theory-has had a strong influence on twentieth-century fiction. Many of his books are considered classics of American literature. Writer Richard Ford calls Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Faulkner "the Three Kings who set the measure for every writer since."

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Book Synopsis"His best. Time may show it to be the best single piece of any of us, I mean his and my contemporaries." - William Faulkner.The Old Man and the Sea, an apparently simple fable, represents the mature Hemingway at his best, and it is still one of his most read books. In 1954 Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style."Hemingway''s style was famously simple. In responding to a critic, he said "Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don''t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use." Using these simpler and better words he tells the unforgettable story of Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman down on his luck, who goes out alone far from the shore in search of one last victory and catches a huge marlin longer than his boat. He is tested to the very limits of his skill and strength and returns "destroyed but not defeated." This, of course, also refers to Hemingway, who, in his last years, was in constant pain from years of adventures and accidents but still able to do his best work. A classic novella that can be read in a single sitting.Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961) was an American journalist, novelist, short-story writer, and sportsman. He loved Cuba, where he had a home, and where he placed his Nobel Prize medal in the custody of the Catholic Church for the benefit of the local people. His economical and understated style-which he termed the iceberg theory-has had a strong influence on twentieth-century fiction. Many of his books are considered classics of American literature. Writer Richard Ford calls Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Faulkner "the Three Kings who set the measure for every writer since."

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Book Synopsis"My favorite literary heroine is Jo March. It is hard to overstate what she meant to a small, plain girl called Jo, who had a hot temper and a burning ambition to be a writer." - J. K. Rowling"I read Little Women a thousand times. Ten thousand. I am no longer incognito, not even myself. I am Jo in her ''vortex''-Cynthia Ozick"Jo has given generations of readers like ... me permission to try to become who we wished. She has helped us to recognize - and to live with, knowing we''re not alone - the conflict between the writer''s need for solitude and self-absorption and the yearning for the warmth of love." - Gail MazurSimone de Beauvoir saw in Jo March "a glimpse of my future self ... I identified myself passionately with Jo, the intellectual. Brusque and bony, Jo clambered up into trees when she wanted to read; she was much more tomboyish and daring than I was, but I shared her horror of sewing and housekeeping and her love of books.""Reading this novel gave me an exalted sense of myself. It helped me to identify with that young girl and to find comfort in myself when I read it. I was able to tell myself that I too was like her, and therefore it did not matter if society was cruel, because I too would be superior and find my place."The Complete Little Women contains the four novels Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, and Jo''s Boys, as well as 43 original illustrations.Louisa May Alcott ended Little Women (1868) with the words "So the curtain falls upon Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Whether it ever rises again, depends upon the reception given the first act of the domestic drama called Little Women." It was an immediate commercial and critical success, and readers wanted to know more about the characters as they navigate a path between domestic obligations and personal growth. Alcott quickly completed a second volume, Good Wives (1869), and later Little Men (1871) and Jo''s Boys (1886). The novels follow the lives of the four March sisters-Meg, Beth, Jo and Amy, each very different:"Meg looked very like a rose herself, for all that was best and sweetest in heart and soul seemed to bloom into her face""You are the gull, Jo, strong and wild, fond of the storm and the wind, flying far out to sea, and happy all alone.""I never wanted to go away, and the hard part now is the leaving you all. I''m not afraid." - Beth"I may be mercenary, but I hate poverty, and don''t mean to bear it a minute longer than I can help. One of us must marry well." -- AmyThe four March sisters embody different aspects of the "All-American girl." The books have been beloved by generations of readers since they were first published.Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) lived in New England. Many well-known writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were her family''s friends. Her father, Bronson Alcott, was an impractical otherworldly educationalist and so the family lived in relative poverty. Jo March is a semi-autobiographical portrait, and Louisa May Alcott''s writing (most of it under the pen name of A. M. Barnard and only discovered in 1975) like Jo''s, provided the funds to keep the family afloat. Alcott was an abolitionist and an advocate for women''s rights. Numerous women writers, including J. K. Rowling, Cythia Ozick, Simone de Beauvoir, Ursula K. Le Guin, Barbara Kingsolver Margaret Atwood and Maxine Hong Kingston, have been inspired by Little Women and Jo March.

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Book SynopsisIn a Northern Italian town during the Napoleonic Wars, Julietta, a young widow and mother of impeccable reputation, finds herself unexpectedly pregnant. This follows an attack on the town's citadel, in which several Russian soldiers tried to assault her before she was rescued by Count F-, at which point she fell unconscious. Thrown out of her father's house, Julietta publishes an announcement in the local newspaper stating that she is pregnant and would like the father of her child to make himself known so that she can marry him. What follows is an ambiguously comic drama of sexuality and family respectability. One of Kleist's best-loved works, The Marquise of O- is an ingenious and timeless story of the mystery of human desire, and Nicholas Jacobs's new translation captures the full richness of its irony.Trade Review"Kleist's narrative language is completely unique." - Thomas Mann "One of the most radical writers who ever lived." - Times Literary Supplement"The Marquise of O— moves breathlessly up and down. It is a masterpiece I continue to be astonished by." - Rainer Maria Rilke "Kafka loved Kleist. He would read The Marquise of O— five or six times in succession." - Dora Diamant, Kafka's fiancée

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Book SynopsisIn Berlin, 1930, the name Käsebier is on everyone's lips. A literal combination of the German words for "cheese" and "beer," it's an unglamorous name for an unglamorous man - a small-time crooner who performs nightly on a shabby stage for labourers, secretaries, and shopkeepers. Until the press shows up. In the blink of an eye, this everyman is made a star: one who can sing songs for a troubled time. Margot Weissmann, the arts patron, hosts champagne breakfasts for Käsebier; Muschler the banker builds a theatre in his honour; Willi Frächter, a parvenu writer, makes a killing from Käsebier-themed business ventures and books. All the while, the journalists who catapulted Käsebier to fame watch the monstrous media machine churn in amazement - and are aghast at the demons they have unleashed.

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Book SynopsisTHE AUTHORATITIVE TEXT "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. "Mr Jones, the owner of Manor Farm, is a lazy drunk. The animals decide to overthrow him in a revolution that will allow them to run the farm, liberating themselves and creating a new life of equality and freedom. But they have underestimated the pigs. Napoleon and Snowball form an elite and take control for themselves, and the tyranny of the farmer is replaced with another kind of control leaving the animals again subject to a ruthless and cruel authority. Imagined only as Orwell could, this powerful fable is instilled with humour and an underlying urgency that makes this one of the most prescient warnings ever written. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

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Book SynopsisVINTAGE CLASSICS' HARLEM RENAISSANCE SERIESCelebrating the finest works of the Harlem Renaissance, one of the most important Black arts movements in modern history.'White peoples maybe mistreats you an' hates you, but when you hates 'em back, you's de one what's hurted, 'cause hate makes yo' heart ugly - that's all it does'Sandy's in the fifth grade when he's forced to sit on the back row away from his white classmates and denied entry to a new amusement park. His grandmother, who is raising him alongside his mother and aunt, tells him that love is the only thing to make room for in his heart. But it's Sandy's discovery of literature that inspires him to continue his education and make sense of the unjust world he inhabits in the debut novel from one of the foremost pioneers of the Harlem Renaissance.'[Hughes] gives his readers... a guide for careful consideration of the lives of everyday black people. Such a guide is still useful to readers and writers today. Perhaps now more than ever' Angela Flournoy, New York Times

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Book SynopsisDiscover Rosie Clarke's bestselling Blackberry Farm series! A story of life and survival during the war which is heart-rending and bitter-sweet, bringing you laughter and tears. Cambridgeshire – 1941 As the war rages on in Europe, it brings untold heartache to the Talbot family at Blackberry Farm. First Tom is missing in action and then his brother John. leaving the family distraught with worry. Faith finds herself in trouble and turns to Lizzie for support as fear and grief bring them closer together. But tragedy is never too far away and when it strikes, it may not be those who fight that suffer the most. Will Pam’s prayers be answered and will both her sons return home? And can the family at Blackberry Farm unite to overcome their heartache and find hope for the future?

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Book SynopsisDiscover Rosie Clarke's bestselling Blackberry Farm series! A story of life and survival during the war which is heart-rending and bitter-sweet, bringing you laughter and tears. Cambridgeshire – 1941 As the war rages on in Europe, it brings untold heartache to the Talbot family at Blackberry Farm. First Tom is missing in action and then his brother John. leaving the family distraught with worry. Faith finds herself in trouble and turns to Lizzie for support as fear and grief bring them closer together. But tragedy is never too far away and when it strikes, it may not be those who fight that suffer the most. Will Pam’s prayers be answered and will both her sons return home? And can the family at Blackberry Farm unite to overcome their heartache and find hope for the future?

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Book SynopsisSherlock Holmes is the most famous fictional detective ever created. The supremely rational sleuth and his dependable companion, Dr Watson, will forever be associated with the gaslit and smog-filled streets of late nineteenth and early twentieth century London. Yet Holmes and Watson were not the only ones solving mysterious crimes and foiling the plans of villainous masterminds in Victorian and Edwardian England. The years between 1890 and 1914 were a golden age for English magazines and most of them published crime and detective fiction. The startling success of the Holmes stories that appeared in The Strand magazine spawned countless imitators. This volume highlights some of those 'Rivals of Sherlock Holmes'. In the fifteen tales which Nick Rennison has brought together in this anthology, readers can meet: THE THINKING MACHINE - Jacques Futrelle's dazzlingly intellectual genius Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, aka the Thinking Machine, even more capable than Holmes himself of solving the most baffling of mysteries through brainpower alone CARNACKI THE GHOST FINDER - detective of the occult created by the legendary horror writer William Hope Hodgson, author of The House on the Borderlands EUGENE VALMONT - a sophisticated and urbane French detective, created by Robert Barr, who lives in exile in London and uses his Gallic wit and wisdom to learn the truth about the mysteries that regularly come his way NOVEMBER JOE - Hesketh Prichard's Canadian woodsman who uses his extraordinary powers of observation to track down villains and bring them to justice It may well be true that there never has been and never will be a detective quite like Sherlock Holmes but he did not stand alone. He did have his rivals and, as this collection of short stories shows, many of their adventures were as exciting and entertaining as those of the master himself.Trade Review[an] intriguing anthology * Mail on Sunday *a book which will delight fans of crime fiction * Verbal Magazine *it's good to see that Mr Rennison has also selected some rarer pieces - and rarer detectives, such as November Joe, Sebastian Zambra, Cecil Thorold and Lois Cayley -- Roger Johnson * The District Messenger (Newsletter of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London) *

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Book SynopsisWhy should blood on the floor make anyone mad against automobiles and telephones and desks. Why. This is what happened. There were dogs in the house but they were no bother. Listen carefully.'In the spring of 1933 Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas were living in their country house at Bilignin, France. With money earned from the best-selling 'Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas' they installed electricity, had a telephone put in their house and bought a large car. But with these improvements came trouble. Servants came and went. Finally a man named Jean and his Polish wife were employed. A friend came to stay, but her car was tampered with and the telephone no longer worked. The servants were dismissed. Later that summer in nearby Belley, Madame Pernollet was found sprawled on the courtyard of her husband's hotel. Five days later she was dead. Was it an accident? Suicide? Murder? As Alice B. Toklas said, 'there was no denying one could become accustomed to murdering...'.

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