Search results for ""Alma""
Alma Books Ltd Night and Day: Annotated Edition
As Katharine Hilbery, the granddaughter of a famous man of letters buried in Poets’ Corner, is helping her mother write the biography of their illustrious progenitor, she becomes engaged to William Rodney, a budding writer with an exaggerated opinion of his own poetical talent. Meanwhile, the suffragette Mary Datchet is in love with Ralph Denham, a lawyer and reviewer from a lowly background, who in turn feels more attracted to Katharine. As the stories and the romantic interests of these four young people evolve and intertwine, a picture emerges of a society still obsessed with class and hung up on the social mores of the Victorian era. By far the most accessible and traditional of all Virginia Woolf’s novels, Night and Day is a powerful evocation of a fast-changing world, and, though conventional in style, addresses many of the author’s recurring preoccupations, such as the role of women in society and the difficulties in reconciling love and marriage.
£8.42
Alma Books Ltd The Years
It is 1880: after visiting his mistress in the London suburbs, Colonel Pargiter returns home to his children and his dying wife. In a series of snapshots we meet all the Pargiter siblings: twenty-year-old Eleanor, whose concern is to help the poor; her younger sisters Milly, Delia and Rose; her brothers Morris, Martin and Edward, who is at Oxford and in love with his cousin Kitty. As the years unfold, the various threads of relation, history and personal experience are woven into the tapestries of the characters’ lives, forming a larger canvas that covers not only the story of a family, but that of two entire generations. The most ambitious of Woolf ’s novels, and the last one to be published during her lifetime, The Years is a work suff used with a haunting, melancholy sense of time and history, and a stylistic tour de force.
£8.42
Alma Books Ltd King Solomon's Mines: Annotated Edition
When the adventurer Allan Quatermain is asked by Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good to help them find Sir Henry’s missing brother, who was last seen trekking into the remote African interior in search of the fabled King Solomon’s Mines, he reluctantly agrees, yet fears that there is little hope of coming back alive. Following a map drawn in blood, the men cross vast deserts and scale snow-covered mountain peaks, facing fearful dangers and hardships, until they reach Kukuanaland, where they meet their greatest peril yet… This new edition contains extra material for young readers, including section on ‘Other Adventure Stories’, a test yourself quiz and a glossary.
£7.78
Alma Books Ltd The Call of the Wild and Other Stories: Illustrated by Ian Beck - Also included: Brown Wolf, That Spot and To Build a Fire
When Buck is smuggled from his beloved home in the Santa Clara Valley and forced to work as a sled-dog in the frozen wilderness of the Yukon, he must forget the long, lazy Californian days and face a life of constant toil and danger under the whip of cruel or inept masters, where survival itself must be fought for. But with his primal instincts stirred, how long can Buck resist the call of the wild? Set at the time of the Klondike Gold Rush, The Call of the Wild is one of the greatest evocations of the natural world, and perhaps the best example of London’s famously urgent and vivid style. This edition also includes ‘Brown Wolf’, ‘That Spot’ and ‘To Build a Fire’ – three Yukon tales that demonstrate London’s mastery of the short-story genre.
£7.78
Alma Books Ltd Mlle de Scuderi
As Paris is shaken by a spate of murderous robberies, the aristocratic Mademoiselle de Scuderi pens a poem to poke fun at the cowardly lovers who now fear to go out at night to see their mistresses. But when she receives an unexpected visit from a young man, who gives her a box of jewels with a note thanking her for supporting the robbers' cause, the elderly writer is plunged into a dangerous web of passion, intrigue and murder. First published in 1819 to great acclaim, and displaying all the author's trademark wit and ingenuity, E.T.A. Hoffmann's tale has inspired and delighted writers and readers ever since, and remains a benchmark for all modern crime novels.
£7.15
Alma Books Ltd Beowulf: Dual Language and New Verse Translation: New Verse Translation, Fully Annotated (Dual-Language Edition)
Of unknown date, and surviving in a tenth-century manuscript, Beowulf is the tale of a young Geatish hero and his struggle with three deadly foes, beginning with the dread monster Grendel, who has been devouring warriors in the hall of the Danish King in their sleep. The most important Old English poem, and the first known major poem written in a European vernacular, Beowulf is a unique and compelling mix of sixth-century historical events, Christian commentary, Germanic myth and Anglo-Saxon culture. The poem is presented here in a dual-text format with a new translation by multi-award-winning translator J.G. Nichols.
£8.42
Alma Books Ltd Apology for a Murder
Famed for having killed his cousin Alessandro, the Duke of Florence, in 1537, but also for writing accomplished literary works, including a comedy and several poems, Lorenzino de’ Medici remains one of the most enigmatic figures of Italian literature. In his masterpiece, Apology for a Murder, he reveals the inner motives behind his act, portraying himself as a hero to be numbered alongside the great tyrannicides of ancient Rome and Greece. Lorenzino himself, in 1548, was murdered by two soldiers hired either by the emperor Charles V or by Cosimo, Alessandro’s successor as Duke, and this volume includes the dramatic account of his killing by Francesco Bibboni, one of the assassins, as well as a selection of Lorenzino’s poems, giving a fully rounded image of the antihero of Alfred de Musset’s Lorenzaccio.
£7.15
Alma Books Ltd The Single Hound
When Emily Dickinson died in 1886, having published only a tiny selection of her verse anonymously in journals and newspapers, she left behind a chest containing almost 1,800 poems written on notebooks and loose sheets. Her family members, starting with her sister Lavinia, began editing and compiling them for publication, and one of the most celebrated collections, The Single Hound, was prepared by her niece Martha Dickinson Bianchi and published in 1914. This volume, containing some of Dickinson’s most original and poignant pieces, helped cement her reputation as one of America’s most important poets. Sparse and experimental, yet accessible and intimate, the compositions included in The Single Hound provide an ideal introduction to Dickinson’s genius.
£7.78
Alma Books Ltd Colonel Chabert
An old man arrives at the offices of the lawyer Derville, claiming to be Colonel Chabert, a hero of the Napoleonic Wars who was left for dead on the battlefield, but in fact managed to survive under a pile of corpses before spending years as a recovering amnesiac. Having returned to Paris and discovered that his wife has married an aristocrat who has liquidated all his assets, Chabert enlists the help of Derville to recover both his name and his fortune. Part of Balzac’s La Comédie humaine cycle, Colonel Chabert is a poignant tale about the pursuit of justice, as well as a portrait of France’s transition from the Napoleonic Empire to the Restoration. Inspired by actual events, the novella has captured the imagination of generations of readers and has been adapted for the stage and screen numerous times.
£7.15
Alma Books Ltd Uncle's Dream: New Translation: Newly Translated and Annotated
The small town of Mordasov is all abuzz at the arrival of Prince K—, a wealthy, ageing landowner, after an absence of several years. Maria Alexandrovna Moskalyova, a local gossip and fearsome schemer, decides that he would be an advantageous match for her daughter Zina. But in her endeavours to make such a union come about, she must contend with rival matchmakers and Zina’s wilfulness. Written soon after Dostoevsky was released from the prison camp that inspired The House of the Dead, Uncle’s Dream shares very little of that novel’s gloomy tone and contains many elements of a light, drawing-room farce. Beneath the surface, however, lies a sharply satirical voice which looks ahead in part to later novels such as Devils.
£8.42
Alma Books Ltd Three Years: New Translation
On a visit to a provincial town to see his sister Nina who is suffering from cancer, Alexei Laptev, who works for his father’s Moscow haberdashery business, falls in love with Yulia, the daughter of her doctor, and proposes to her. Although she does not reciprocate his feelings, she agrees to marry him and live with him in the capital, where the couple’s relationship is marred by tensions: Yulia is filled with regrets about her choice and boredom with her new existence, while Alexei is nagged by the suspicion that she married him for his money alone. However, as time passes and misfortune strikes, they both learn to reassess all of their assumptions. Chekhov’s second longest prose work after The Steppe, Three Years is, in the author’s own words, “a novel of Moscow life” and an examination of its merchant classes. A powerful story of redemption and the nuances of human relationships, the novella helped cement Chekhov’s reputation as a major figure in Russian literature.
£7.15
Alma Books Ltd The Castle of Otranto: Annotated Edition
When Conrad, son of Prince Manfred of Otranto, is killed in mysterious circumstances on his wedding day, his father, fearing his line is at an end, declares that he will divorce his wife and marry his late son’s intended bride. Soon, however, this planned union brings about a series of supernatural events, tragic misunderstandings and cold-blooded murder. Presented as the translation of a medieval Italian text from the time of the crusades, The Castle of Otranto was the first and most influential novel of the eighteenth-century Gothic revival, and introduced several of what became its most recognizable tropes.
£8.50
Alma Books Ltd The Art of War: Annotated Edition
For two and a half thousand years The Art of War has been the core text of military strategy and planning, providing leaders with enduring insights into tactics, psychology, discipline and the nature of power. Favoured by countless great generals and military tacticians throughout history, over the last century the book has found a new lease of life, inspiring business leaders, politicians and sporting figures, and offering a profound understanding of such diverse topics as managing others and outwitting competitors.
£7.15
Alma Books Ltd A Book of Nonsense: Contains the original illustrations by the author (Quirky Classics series)
“There was an Old Derry down Derry, Who loved to see little folks merry; So he made them a Book, And with laughter they shook At the fun of that Derry down Derry.” First published in 1846 under the pseudonym “Old Derry down Derry”, A Book of Nonsense is a collection adapted from the limericks and illustrations Edward Lear created to amuse the grandchildren of Lord Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby, while he was staying with the family at Knowsley Hall. Embodying Lear’s passion for nonsense, the limericks, each accompanied by one of Lear’s beguiling original illustrations, are fun, lyrical, lively and hilarious, and have enchanted children and adults since their first appearance in the middle of the nineteenth century.
£10.15
Alma Books Ltd Thoughts
Admired for the poetical heights of his Canti, the gentle wit of his prose dialogues and the soul-searching questionings of his Zibaldone (Notebooks), Leopardi was also an acute social commentator and a sharp dissector of the human mind. Thoughts - a collection of philosophical and critical observations put together for publication by Leopardi himself shortly before his death in 1837 - shows a more light-hearted side to Leopardi's personality, and offers both those who are familiar with and those who are new to his works a fresh insight into the thought processes and the worldview of Italy's last great polymath.
£8.50
Alma Books Ltd Candide: New Translation
Candide is an innocent young nobleman who leads an idyllic, sheltered life and has adopted the optimistic mindset promoted by his tutor Dr Pangloss. But after committing an indiscretion and being expelled from his family home, Candide finds himself on a journey that will take him to Portugal, Argentina, Britain and Turkey and expose him to torture, war, shipwreck and natural disasters, leading him to question whether he is really living in the "best of possible worlds". Published in 1759, when it became a best-seller and stirred up much controversy, Candide is an exhilarating picaresque romp and a biting satire by one of the Enlightenment's major figures that still resonates to this day.
£8.42
Alma Books Ltd The Silver Skates
As their father is sick, Hans Brinker and his younger sister Gretel must work to support their family. Despite this life of poverty, they long to take part in the annual ice-skating races on the frozen canal, where the victors win magnifi cent silver skates. But how can they hope to enter the races - let alone win - when their skates are wooden and home-made? After meeting the famous surgeon Dr Boekman, and hearing that he might be able to cure their father, Hans doesn't hesitate in offering to pay for the necessary operation, although he has been saving up all his money to buy two pairs of swift steel skates. As the big day looms, can the children enter their respective races and win the longed-for prize?
£8.42
Alma Books Ltd The Flight of Icarus
In late-nineteenth-century Paris, the writer Hubert is shocked to discover that Icarus, the protagonist of the new novel he’s working on, has vanished. Looking for him among the manuscripts of his rivals does not solve the mystery, so a detective is hired to find the runaway character, who is now in Montparnasse, where he learns to drink absinthe and is picked up by a friendly prostitute.
£9.04
Alma Books Ltd Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon
The 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.
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Alma Books Ltd Boris Godunov and Little Tragedies: Newly translated and Annotated - Also inclued an extract from John Wilson’s The City of the Plague.
A drama of ambition, murder, remorse and retribution, Boris Godunov charts the decline of a Russian statesman, whose dynastic aims were foiled by a guilty past and an audacious upstart. Based on history and inspired by Shakespeare, Alexander Pushkin’s daring masterwork is presented here in its rarely published uncensored version of 1825. Set in Vienna, Flanders, Madrid and London, Pushkin’s celebrated Little Tragedies – Mozart and Salieri, The Mean-Spirited Knight, The Stone Guest and A Feast during the Plague – each focus on a protagonist’s driving obsession – with status, money, sex or risk-taking – and its devastating consequences.
£10.99
Alma Books Ltd Vita Nuova: Dual Language
The Vita Nuova, with its unusual blend of prose and poetry, is universally recognized as Dante’s early masterpiece and provides an indispensable prequel to The Divine Comedy. Set in thirteenth-century Florence, part autobiography and part religious allegory, it traces Dante’s quest to find a poetic idiom worthy of Beatrice, whom he had loved since boyhood. Her premature death plunges him into an emotional turmoil that finds release only through his faith in her continuing spiritual influence and through his determination “to write of her what has never been written of any woman”. The Vita Nuova remains a central document in European culture’s examination of love and the self. It is a hundred and fifty years since Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s groundbreaking version of the Vita Nuova. Now Anthony Mortimer, already acclaimed as translator of Cavalcanti, Petrarch and Michelangelo, produces a verse translation that avoids Rossetti’s disturbing archaisms but preserves a lyric immediacy worthy of the original. This is a Vita Nuova for the twenty-first century.
£9.04
Alma Books Ltd The Benefit of Farting Explained
What is the nature, essence and definition of a fart? What are the consequences and disadvantages of suppressing one? Why is farting considered to be taboo? Swift’s The Benefit of Farting argues eloquently, in a forceful a posteriori fashion, that most of the distempers thought to affect the fairer sex are due to flatulences not adequately vented. To complete the excursus into this venerable and age-old human activity, Charles James Fox’s Essay upon Wind provides a detailed analysis, classification and history of farting, peppered with wit and curious anecdotes about particularly eminent farters of the past.
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Alma Books Ltd Bleak House
The interminable case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce has gone on for so long that it has become a subject of mirth in legal circles and a source of great profit to those professionally engaged in it. Held in its inexorable grip - along with a diverse cross section of mid-Victorian society, from baronets to crossing-sweepers - are two wards of court, Ada Clare and Richard Carstone, who, along with the selfless Esther Summerson, are taken in by the kindly philanthropist John Jarndyce, owner of the eponymous Bleak House. But as the legal machinery grinds mercilessly on, the quixotic but feckless Richard, determined to resolve the lawsuit once and for all, seems doomed to be crushed under its weight, while Esther uncovers a shocking mystery concerning her own past. Elsewhere, others are driven to ever more heinous acts, including blackmail - and even murder. Part panoramic social satire and - with the introduction of the indefatigable police investigator Mr Bucket - part prototype of the detective genre, this dark, complex and intricately plotted book is considered by many to be both Dickens's greatest work and the finest novel of the Victorian age.
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Alma Books Ltd Life of Dante
"Life of Dante" brings together the earliest accounts of Dante available, putting the celebratory essay of literary genius Giovanni Boccaccio together with the historical analysis of leading humanist Leonardo Bruni. Their writings, along with the other sources included in this volume, provide a wealth of insight and information into Dante's unique character and life, from his susceptibility to the torments of passionate love, his involvement in politics, scholastic enthusiasms and military experience, to the stories behind the greatest heights of his poetic achievements.Not only are these accounts invaluable for their subject matter, they are also seminal examples of early biographical writing. Also included in this volume is a biography of Boccaccio, perhaps as great an influence on world literature as Dante himself.
£8.42
Alma Books Ltd The House of the Dead
The House of the Dead recounts the story of Alexander Goryanchikov, a gentleman who is sent to a prison colony in Siberia for killing his wife. Largely ignored at first by his fellow inmates due to his noble blood, he gradually settles in and becomes an avid observer of the new world around him – watching his fellow prisoners being brutally and cruelly punished by the guards, listening to their past stories of blood and murder, assimilating the institution’s social codes and learning that even convicts are capable of acts of pure generosity. Based on Dostoevsky’s own autobiographical experiences of penal servitude in Siberia, this genre-defying novel is not only an unflinching exposé of the conditions faced by prisoners during the Tsarist period, but also a call to see the human side in criminals and rediscover the values of forgiveness and compassion. Based on Dostoevsky's own autobiographical experiences during a four-year internment in a prison colony in Siberia, this genre-defying novel is not only an unflinching expose of the conditions of Russian prisoners during the Tsarist period, but also a call to see the human side in criminals and rediscover the values of forgiveness and brotherly love.
£9.04
Alma Books Ltd The Island of Dr Moreau
After the Lady Vain is shipwrecked, Edward Prendick is plucked from the waves by a passing ship and deposited on a remote island. Here he is the guest of Dr Moreau, whose notorious scientific methods had caused an uproar that left him with no choice but to flee London. Disquieted and appalled by the pained cries of suffering animals, Edward soon realizes that the Doctor is continuing and developing his depraved experiments, and that he too is in great danger. Shocking and suffused with contemporary fears regarding the morality of the latest advances in science and their possible implications for religion, The Island of Dr Moreau is both a ruthless social satire and an exploration of human nature.
£7.78
Alma Books Ltd Daddy-Long-Legs: Presented with the original Illustrations
Presented with the original Illustrations. One of the classics of American children’s literature, Daddy-Long-Legs tells the tale of Judy Abbott – an ebullient orphan beginning a college degree with the aim of becoming a writer – through her letters to the anonymous patron who is paying for her education. Judy is informed that she must write him monthly letters, but that she will never know his identity or receive a letter in reply. One day, Judy catches a glimpse of the man’s shadow and sees a pair of long legs, but just who is this mysterious benefactor? “I think that the most necessary quality for any person to have is imagination. It makes people able to put themselves in other people's places. It makes them kind and sympathetic and understanding.”
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Alma Books Ltd The Lost World
When the reporter Edward Malone is sent to interview the formidable Professor Challenger about his accounts of strange prehistoric beasts on a remote plateau in South America, he expects to be given short shrift by the researcher, notorious for man handling nosy enquirers. But Challenger, impressed by the young journalist's thirst for adventure, invites Malone along on his next expedition, plunging him into a mysterious and dangerous world populated by dinosaurs and murderous ape men. Having already written seminal works of detective fiction, Arthur Conan Doyle became a pioneer of early science fiction with The Lost World. This classic novel helped establish the genre and has inspired, since its first publication in 1912, countless stories, novels and films.
£7.78
Alma Books Ltd The Thirty-Nine Steps
When Richard Hannay finds the corpse of freelance spy Franklin P. Scudder in his London flat, he goes on the run, fearing that his life is in danger. Scudder had previously revealed that he was investigating a ring of German spies, who were conspiring to sabotage Britain's war capability. Hannay becomes both hunter and hunted as he struggles to unravel the tangled threads of this plot while staying one step ahead of his pursuers, who will stop at nothing to keep their nefarious secrets. First published in 1915, John Buchan's definitive spy novel was the first in a long line of espionage thrillers to delve into the underbelly of the British establishment. Over a hundred years later, The Thirty-Nine Steps remains resonant, and the various film, television and theatre adaptations of this classic - most notably Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 version - are a testament to its capacity to thrill.
£7.78
Alma Books Ltd Utopia
In Thomas More's hugely influential Utopia, a traveller recounts his discovery of an island nation in which the inhabitants enjoy unprecedented social cohesion and justice. The book imagines a community in which laws, personal relations and professional ambition are based on reason, in contrast with the tradition-bound superstitions of Europe, which were, in More's eyes, impediments to equality and peaceful coexistence.One of the indicators of the profound cultural and political influence of More's masterpiece is today's common use of the word "Utopia" - a term he invented. This extraordinary treatise on the values of rationality and reason - here presented in a sparkling new translation by Roger Clarke and accompanied by copious notes and additional texts - questions what a philosopher can do to enact change in society, and how idealized visions can inform political practice.
£8.42
Alma Books Ltd Sonnets
Shakespeare's Sonnets are among the most lyrical and moving pieces of poetry in any language, abounding with examples of his genius for wordplay, rhythm and metaphor and dealing with the eternal themes of love, memory, beauty and the ravishes of time. First published in 1609, after Shakespeare had written many of his most famous works, the Sonnets have been the subject of literary curiosity ever since, mainly concerning the identity of the two addressees, `Mr W.H.' and the `Dark Lady', and the light they could shine on Shakespeare's life. This collection constitutes one of English literature's most profound poetic meditations on life and love, and is a vital complement to the plays, offering clues to Shakespeare's own biography. Presented here in an edition that makes them accessible to twentieth-century readers, these poems are worth returning to again and again.
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Alma Books Ltd Purgatory: Dual Language and New Verse Translation
Describing Dante's second stage in his arduous journey to redemption, Purgatory features a host of unforgettable scenes and characters, and arguably some of the best poetry to be found in the Divine Comedy. The gloom, torments and evils of Hell have been left behind, but Dante's ascent of Mount Purgatory towards Paradise remains fraught with obstacles, not least the burden of his own mortality and his human passions. Purgatory is presented here in a new verse translation by acclaimed poet and prize-winning translator J.G. Nichols. Also included are the original Italian text, extensive notes and a critical apparatus focusing on Dante's life and works.
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Alma Books Ltd Chamber Music and Other Poems: Annotated Edition
Universally known for his groundbreaking prose – especially for the monumental novel Ulysses and its depictions of Dublin at the turn of the twentieth century – James Joyce started off as a writer of lyrical poetry, a genre which he never abandoned in his lifetime and which informs and enriches the rest of his literary production. This volume, which includes Joyce’s first published book, Chamber Music, as well as his later collection Pomes Penyeach and several other uncollected poems, reveals a lesser-known facet of the great modernist’s artistic career and a glimpse into his poetical sensibility.
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Alma Books Ltd The Jungle Books
The adventures of Mowgli, the young man raised by wolves in the jungles of Central India, and his friends Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther and Kaa the python, as they face the arch villain Shere Khan the tiger, have become so popular that they have achieved an almost mythical status throughout the world. They were collected by Kipling in The Jungle Book and its sequel, The Second Jungle Book, which also contain other stories set in India which prominently feature animals, such as the well-known `Rikki-Tikki-Tavi', which describes the struggles of a mongoose against venomous cobras. Here presented with brand-new illustrations by Ian Beck, these hugely popular tales, inspired by ancient fables and Kipling's own experiences in India, form a vivid account of the relationship between humans and nature, and will continue to inspire readers young and old.
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Alma Books Ltd Lassie Come-Home
Everyone in the Yorkshire town of Greenall Bridge knows Lassie, the prize collie of miner Sam Carraclough and his son Joe. But when the family falls on hard times, Sam is forced to sell his dog to the Duke of Rudling, who takes her hundreds of miles away to his estate in Scotland. Undeterred by the distance and driven by instinctive love, Lassie escapes from her new owners and embarks on an epic journey to be reunited with her young master Joe. Will she survive the hardships of the long journey and the various dangers along the way? Based on the author's own childhood memories and filled with adventure and suspense, Lassie Come-Home - Eric Knight's best-loved novel and a huge best-seller, famously adapted into a 1943 Hollywood movie - is a timeless classic and one of the greatest dog stories ever written.
£7.78
Alma Books Ltd The Intimate Strangers and Other Stories
Sara, the American wife of a French aristocrat, has had two encounters with her compatriot Cedric Killian, one a youthful idyll in North Carolina and the other during the First World War, when he was a soldier about to go to battle. When, years later and after the death of her husband, Cedric contacts her out of the blue, Sara finds herself eager to see him again - against the wishes of her in-laws - and to find out the secret of this man she loves yet knows so little about. A poignant tale of thwarted love, 'The Intimate Strangers' explores many of Fitzgerald's favourite themes, such as the constraints of society on romance and the American fascination for Old Europe. This volume also includes other lesser-known stories he wrote from the mid-1930s until the end of his life, revealing new facets to the author of The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night.
£8.42
Alma Books Ltd Image on the Heart and Other Stories
When Tudy's first husband tragically dies, she takes up the offer of Tom, a family friend, to pay for her to go to study in France. After she and her benefactor become close, she agrees to marry him in Provence later that year. But as the wedding approaches, Tom discovers that his fiancee has become involved with Riccard, a dashing French pilot and his near-double. A tale of broken trust and infidelity based on Zelda Fitzgerald's own dalliance with a French pilot, `Image on the Heart' is here presented with other lesser-known stories written by Fitzgerald in the late 1920s and early 1930s, which develop many of the themes found in his novels and his more famous works of short fiction.
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Alma Books Ltd The Selfish Giant and Other Stories
When the Selfish Giant decides to build a wall around his garden to prevent the children from playing in it, it becomes barren and stuck in perpetual winter. It takes a wonderful event and the heart of a young boy for him to realize the error of his ways. A classic tale for children, 'The Selfish Giant' is presented here with all of Oscar Wilde's other fairy stories - 'The Happy Prince', 'The Nightingale and the Rose', 'The Devoted Friend', 'The Remarkable Rocket', 'The Young King', 'The Birthday of the Infanta', 'The Fisherman and His Soul' and 'The Star-Child' - brought to life by Philip Waechter's bright and imaginative illustrations.
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Alma Books Ltd Tess of the d'Ubervilles
After an accident, Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of impoverished peasants, decides to call on the aristocratic d'Urbervilles, as she believes that she is also descended from their ancient Norman lineage and that they can rescue her family from indigence. Unfortunately she is taken under the wing of the immoral libertine scion Alec d'Urberville, who seduces and scorns her. While she attempts to rebuild her life, she falls in love with the virtuous farmer Angel Clare and must find a way to defeat the demons of her past. Controversial when it was first published for challenging Victorian morals, Tess of the d'Urbervilles has become Thomas Hardy's most popular novel, catching the imaginations of generations of readers with its high drama, endearing heroine and powerful evocations of the southern English countryside.
£7.78
Alma Books Ltd The Queen of Spades and Other Stories: Newly Translated and Annotated - A collection of 18 most enduring pieces of Pushkin’s prose fiction.
This collection of Pushkin’s stories begins with ‘The Queen of Spades’, perhaps the most celebrated short story in Russian literature. The young Hermann, while watching some friends gambling, hears a rumour of how an officer’s grandmother is always able to predict the three winning cards in a game. He becomes obsessed with the woman and her seemingly mystical powers, and seeks to extract the secret from her at any cost. This volume, part of a new series of the complete works of Pushkin in English, also includes ‘Dubrovsky’, the story of a man’s desire to avenge himself after his land is unjustly taken from him by an aristocrat; ‘The Negro of Peter the Great’, a tale inspired by Pushkin’s maternal grandfather; and the unfinished story ‘Egyptian Nights’, a meditation on poetry and the poet. Together, they represent some of the most striking and enduring pieces of Pushkin’s prose fiction.
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Alma Books Ltd Selected Poems: Annotated Edition (Great Poets Series)
The present selection traces the development of Yeats’s verse, encompassing the poet’s interest in Irish folklore and national identity, his engagement with the political situation of his day and the rich symbolism that is the hallmark of his work and a reflection of his lifelong fascination with the occult. It contains some of his best-known pieces, including the elegiac ‘Easter 1916’, the apocalyptic ‘The Second Coming’ and the reflective and spiritual ‘Sailing to Byzantium’. Often radical in content but always traditional in form, these poems are by turns startling and affecting, and never less than inspired. Taken together, they form an ideal introduction to the poetic career of one of Ireland’s greatest literary figures.
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Alma Books Ltd Tales of Adventures and Medical Life
Tales of Adventure and Medical Life, one of the collections Arthur Conan Doyle published at the end of his career, anthologizes some of his best short fiction outside of the Sherlock Holmes canon. As well as various tales of escapades in Egypt, London and the far-flung regions of northern Scotland, he included stories which deal with a subject that, as a physician himself, he had a unique perspective on: the medical profession. London surgeons and country doctors, male and female, are described as they deal with business and sentimental issues and encounter incredible situations - both comic and tragic. Conan Doyle displays his dazzling storytelling talents while providing a fascinating glimpse into his profession and times.
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Alma Books Ltd Lady Chatterley's Lover
Originally 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.
£7.78
Alma Books Ltd Notes on a Cuff and Other Stories: New Translation
Begun in 1920 while Bulgakov was employed in a hospital in the remote Caucasian outpost of Vladikavkaz, and continued when he started working for a government literary department in Moscow, Notes on a Cuff is a series of journalistic sketches which show the young doctor trying to embark on a literary career among the chaos of war, disease, politics and bureaucracy. Stylistically brilliant and brimming with humour and literary allusion, Notes on a Cuff is presented here in a new translation, along with a collection of other short pieces by Bulgakov, many of them - such as 'The Cockroach' and 'A Dissolute Man' - published for the first time in the English language.
£9.04
Alma Books Ltd A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce's first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a Kunstlerroman which chronicles the emotional and intellectual development of Stephen Dedalus - a character partly based on the author himself - from his early childhood and his school and university days all the way to his first forays as a young artist. Dedalus's thoughts and epiphanies reveal the tensions, insecurities and feelings of guilt that are the product of living in a country and period so deeply divided along religious and political lines. Pioneering an innovative stream-of-consciousness technique characteristic of early Modernism, and often resorting to mythical, historical and literary allusion which would find fuller expression in Ulysses, Joyce's groundbreaking work shocked the readers of its day and continues to challenge analysis and interpretation.
£8.42
Alma Books Ltd Great Expectations
One of Dickens's finest novels, Great Expectations chronicles the fortunes of its young protagonist Pip as he is unexpectedly endowed by a mysterious benefactor with the life of a gentleman, enabling him to escape to London from the prospect of a humble blacksmith's career in rural Kent. In the bustling, unforgiving capital he must learn for himself the pitfalls of love and wealth, and how to sort his friends from his enemies. Through the lives of its unforgettable and iconic characters - such as Magwitch, Miss Havisham and Estella - Great Expectations charts the course of an England undergoing rapid social and economic change, and tells a tale that is among the foremost classics of the English language.
£7.78
Alma Books Ltd Notes from Underground
The unnamed narrator of the novel, a former government official, has decided to retire from the world and lead a life of inactivity and contemplation. His fiercely bitter, cynical and witty monologue ranges from general observations and philosophical musings to memorable scenes from his own life, including his obsessive plans to exact revenge on an officer who has shown him disrespect and a dramatic encounter with a prostitute. Seen by many as the first existentialist novel and showcasing the best of Dostoevsky's dry humour, Notes from Underground was a pivotal moment in the development of modern literature and has inspired countless novelists, thinkers and film-makers.
£7.78
Alma Books Ltd Black Snow
After being saved from a suicide attempt by the appearance of a literary editor, the journalist and failed novelist Sergei Maxudov has a book suddenly accepted for stage adaptation at a prestigious venue and finds himself propelled into Moscow's theatrical world. In a cut-throat environment tainted by Soviet politics, censorship and egomania - epitomized by the arrogant and tyrannical director Ivan Vasilyevich - mayhem gradually gives way to absurdity. Unpublished in Bulgakov's own lifetime, Black Snow is peppered with darkly comic set pieces and draws on its author's own bitter experience as a playwright with the Moscow Arts Theatre, showcasing his inimitable gift for shrewd observation and razor-sharp satire.
£9.04