Search results for ""MacMillan Collector's Library""

Far From the Madding Crowd was the first of Hardy’s novels to give the name of Wessex to the landscape of south-west England and is set against the backdrop of the unchanging natural cycle of the year. The story both upholds and questions rural values with a startlingly modern sensibility.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features original illustrations by Helen Allingham and an introduction by Professor Mark Ford.Gabriel Oak is only one of three suitors for the hand of the beautiful and spirited Bathsheba Everdene. He must compete with the dashing young soldier Sergeant Troy and respectable, middle-aged Farmer Boldwood. And while their fates depend upon the choice Bathsheba makes, she discovers the terrible consequences of an inconstant heart.

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Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching is the source of Zen Buddhism, and is probably the most broadly influential spiritual text in human history.Complete & Unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, cloth-bound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated and introduced by David Hinton. Fluent in ancient Chinese and an acclaimed poet, he skilfully reveals how remarkably current and even innovative this text is after 2500 years.According to legend, Lao Tzu left China at the age of eighty, saddened that men would not follow the path to natural goodness. At the border with Tibet, a guard asked him to record his teachings and the Tao Te Ching is what he wrote down before leaving. Lao Tzu's spirituality describes the Cosmos as a harmonious and generative organism, and it shows how the human is an integral part of that cosmos.

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'You only see clearly with your heart. The most important things are invisible to the eyes.'Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful hardbacks make perfect gifts for book lovers, or wonderful additions to your own collection. This edition features a specially commissioned translation by Ros and Chloe Schwarz, as well as the charming original illustrations by Saint-Exupéry himself, coloured by Barbara Frith.After crash-landing in the Sahara Desert, a pilot encounters a little prince who is visiting Earth from his own planet. Their strange and moving meeting illuminates for the aviator many of life's universal truths, as he comes to learn what it means to be human from a child who is not. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's delightful The Little Prince has been translated into over 180 languages and sold over 80 million copies.

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The stories of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece are sprawling, dramatic and wonderfully strange; their lives intertwine with mortals and their behaviours fluctuate wildly from benevolent to violent, from didactic to fickle, from loving to enraged.Greek Myths: Gods and Goddesses is part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, cloth-bound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.Classicist and author Jean Menzies captures the magic of Greek myths by drawing on a wide variety of vivid retellings from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which bring to life the stories of Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, Pandora and many more. Coupled with her own entertaining commentary, this is the perfect book for learning about the world of the Greek deities and a treat for all fans of Greek mythology.Discover even more mythology with Greek Myths: Heroes and Heroines edited by Jean Menzies.

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Hand in Hand with Love is a celebration of queer voices throughout the ages. Spanning from Sappho and the Ancient Greeks to Edna St. Vincent Millay and the modernists, this luminous anthology champions and redefines the spectrum of queer poetry.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, cloth-bound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited by Dr Simon Avery, a specialist in queer history and culture at the University of Westminster.Featuring visionary writers whose only space to express their intimate thoughts was on the page, pioneering poets who battled prejudice to be bold and forthright, and an electrifying range of famous authors such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Oscar Wilde, these dynamic voices paved the way for decades to come. Together, they offer a vivid archive of queer identity to be celebrated, discovered and treasured.

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An entertaining and wide-ranging collection of science-fiction short stories featuring space aliens, spectacular inventions, futuristic technologies and vividly imagined worlds.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, cloth-bound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Classic Science Fiction Stories is selected and introduced by academic and science-fiction writer Adam Roberts.Classic Science Fiction Stories highlights not only famous writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, H. G. Wells and H. P. Lovecraft, but also gives voice to lesser known but equally inventive writers such as Florence McLandburgh and Ambrose Bierce. Spanning the 1750s to the early twentieth century, these mesmerizing and expertly crafted stories are by turns intriguing, terrifying and, at times, downright comic. Together they show how science fiction took root to develop into the global phenomenon it is today.

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A Book Lover’s Guide to the Zodiac marries astrology and literature by connecting both writers and fictional characters to the twelve different star signs and their particular traits.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning pocket-sized classics. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.Astrology and literature have so much in common: our star signs help us to understand ourselves, our motivations and our behaviour, whilst reading enables us to make sense of the world, our own characters and those around us. Read how the passionate and overly idealistic Madame Bovary from Flaubert’s masterpiece exhibits all the traits of a Gemini, whilst the unconventional Virginia Woolf and Lewis Carroll, with his groundbreaking stories, are typical Aquarians.With a chapter devoted to each star sign, and featuring entertaining extracts and poetry by classic writers, there’s much to learn and entertain here about books, poetry and astrology, guided by Charlie Castelletti’s witty and expert commentary running through the book.

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The art of telling a ghost story is a refined one, and Montague Rhodes James was a master of the genre. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful hardbacks make perfect gifts for book lovers, or wonderful additions to your own collection. This edition features an afterword by author and playwright David Stuart Davies.M.R. James draws the reader into narratives which, seeming innocuous, become darker and darker in gentle turns – until confronting the reader with some of the most unforgettably frightening images in British literature. Complete Ghost Stories contains every timeless masterpiece from each of his four collections: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), and A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925).

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Widely accepted as Henry James' great masterpiece, The Portrait of a Lady is a poignant and intense exploration of freedom and identity. This edition is introduced by Costa Award-winning author Colm Tóibín.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Intelligent, beautiful and vivacious, Isabel Archer fascinates and intimidates the elite society of Albany, New York. Fiercely protective of her independence, she travels to England with her aunt to escape a persistent suitor but, upon inheriting a considerable fortune, falls into the sway of the devious Mrs Merle who whisks her off to Italy. There she is seduced by the narcissistic Gilbert Osmond, an art collector who will stop at nothing to possess her, and whose connection to Mrs Merle is shrouded in mystery.

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The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a magical tale of transformation that has enchanted both children and adults since its publication in 1911. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This beautiful edition of The Secret Garden features an afterword by publisher Anna South.When Mary Lennox is orphaned she is sent from her home in India to live with her uncle at Misselthwaite Manor on the Yorkshire Moors. She arrives as a sour-faced, sickly and ill-tempered little girl, bewildered by her surroundings and desperately lonely. One day she discovers a way in to a secret abandoned garden and, with the help of local lad Dickon and her poorly cousin Colin, they set about restoring the garden.

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Now a major BBC drama.One of Charles Dickens's most renowned and enjoyable novels, Great Expectations tells the story of Pip, an orphan boy who wishes to transcend his humble origins and finds himself unexpectedly given the opportunity to live a life of wealth and respectability. Over the course of the tale, in which Pip encounters such famous characters as Miss Havisham, Herbert Pocket and Joe Gargery, he comes to realise that his money is tainted and the girl he loves will not return his affections; happiness must be found in the things he gave up in pursuit of a more sophisticated life.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is illustrated by various artists and features an afterword by David Pinching.

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My Heart’s In the Highlands: Classic Scottish Poems is a glorious celebration of poetry and verse by the greatest classic Scottish poets, and introduced by the acclaimed poet John Glenday.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. The poems in this collection are selected by editor, Gaby Morgan.With poems from famous Scottish writers such as Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Mary Queen of Scots herself there is plenty here to enjoy and inspire. The collection roams across so many aspects of Scottish life and culture; its landscape and its history, its people and its celebrations. It’s a country that has always inspired poets to write about love, nature and heritage, and to reflect on the important things of life.

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The Prince and the Pauper is a classic adventure of mistaken identity set in Tudor London and told with Mark Twain’s trademark humour and concern for social justice.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition has an afterword by author and journalist Nicolette Jones.Penniless Tom Canty wonders what it would be like to be a prince. Heir to the throne Edward Tudor dreams of a life outside the royal palace walls. When the two boys meet by chance they’re amazed by how similar they look and agree to swap clothes. Dressed in rags, Edward is thrown out onto the streets whilst courtiers have no idea that their prince is a pauper. Will each boy be able to find his way home?

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Regarded as a modern fairy tale, L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz is one of America’s most cherished and enchanting children’s stories. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features original illustrations by W. W. Denslow, coloured by Barbara Frith, and an introduction by Professor Sarah Churchwell.Follow Dorothy, and her loyal dog Toto, as they are carried away from Kansas by a cyclone to the wonderful world of Oz. Wandering down the yellow brick road Dorothy meets her three famous companions – a Scarecrow longing for a brain, a Tin Woodman wishing for a heart, a cowardly Lion yearning for some courage – and together they travel to the illustrious Emerald City where they hope all their dreams will come true.

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Written at the end of the life of Elizabeth I, Henry V is an inspirational, gripping play that struck a chord in a time of uncertainty.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is illustrated throughout by Sir John Gilbert, and includes an introduction by Ned Halley.First staged in 1599, Shakespeare's history of Henry V's remarkable victory over the French at Agincourt and the subsequent peace between the two nations is also a study of war and kingship. From his wild youth, Henry comes to embody all of the kingly virtues: courage, justice, integrity and honour.

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All legends begin somewhere, and the two novels here are where one of the world's best-loved legends began. In A Study in Scarlet, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson first meet and investigate a seemingly impossible mystery that begins with a corpse in a deserted house. In The Sign of the Four the detective faces an even greater challenge: solving both the disappearance of Captain Arthur Morstan and the theft of the Agra treasure in India.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. In this edition, Sherlock scholar David Stuart Davies provides an illuminating afterword.

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Rollo Martins, a failing novelist, is invited to Vienna by his best friend, Harry Lime. The city he arrives in is unrecognizable – torn apart by the Second World War and shared between the occupying Allies. What’s more, Harry is dead, and the circumstances look suspicious . . . Determined to uncover the truth, Martins must pick through the rubble of this broken city in search of answers. Accompanied here by twelve further stories that exhibit the full range of Graham Greene’s masterly storytelling, The Third Man is an atmospheric noir that oozes with suspense. With an introduction by the biographer and editor Professor Richard Greene. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector’s Library is a series of beautifully bound gift editions of much loved classic titles.

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Initially described as a comedy, Shakespeare's explorations of prejudice, duty and the nature of justice make The Merchant of Venice a far darker, more alluring play.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is illustrated throughout by Sir John Gilbert, and includes an introduction by Ned Halley.The Merchant of Venice is most associated not with its titular hero, Antonio, but with the complex, unforgettable figure of the money-lender, Shylock. It is Shylock who finances Antonio's friend Bassanio in his pursuit of the beautiful Portia, and who demands a gruesome bond from the wealthy merchant.

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Some friendships need celebrating, some are hard to navigate, and some need a bit of tender love and care. Delve into this anthology for a tour of all aspects of friendship by your favourite classic authors.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning pocket size classics. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by writer, academic and historian, Michèle Mendelssohn.Why Friendship Matters is an inspiring collection that spans three centuries of writing and includes many favourite authors such as Michel de Montaigne, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Jane Austen. Readers will also discover lesser-known delights such as American writer Audre Lorde on her high school friendships and playwright Alice E. Ives writing about friendship between women. Contributors from across the globe celebrate and investigate all aspects of friendship; the strength of its bonds, how it can hurt and how it runs deep.

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Complete and unabridged.When A Christmas Carol was first published in 1843 it was an overnight success. A celebration of Christmas, a tale of redemption, and a critique on Victorian society, Charles Dickens' atmospheric novella follows the miserly, penny-pinching Ebenezer Scrooge who views Christmas as 'humbug'. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Featuring original illustrations by John Leech, with an afterword by Anna South.It is only through a series of eerie, life-changing visits from the ghost of his deceased business partner Marley and the spirits of Christmas past, present and future that Scrooge begins to see the error of his ways. With heart-rending characters, rich imagery and evocative language, the hopeful message of A Christmas Carol remains as significant today as when it was first published.

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Set in rural Nebraska, Willa Cather’s My Ántonia is both the intricate story of a powerful friendship and a brilliant portrayal of the lives of rural pioneers in the late-nineteenth century. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition has an afterword by Bridget Bennett and original illustrations by W. T. Benda.Ántonia and her family are from Bohemia and they must endure real hardship and loss to establish a new home in America. But Ántonia is never broken by adversity, and her strength and love of life stays with her childhood friend Jim for years to come, even as he leaves home to study and pursue his career. Told through Jim’s eyes, My Ántonia is a rich and beautiful novel about childhood and growing up, different cultures and the lu

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A literary sensation from its first publication, The Master and Margarita is considered a masterpiece of twentieth-century Russian literature. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O’Connor, and features an introduction by Orlando Figes.In Mikhail Bulgakov's imaginative extravaganza, Satan, disguised as a magician, descends upon Moscow in the 1930s with his riotous band, which includes a talking cat and an expert assassin. This visit has several aims, one of which concerns the fate of the Master, an author who has written a novel about Pontius Pilate and is now in a mental hospital. By turns satiric, fantastic and ironically philosophical, The Master and Margarita constantly surprises and entertains as the action switches back and forth between twentieth-century Moscow and first-century Jerusalem.

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Comedy and tragedy intertwine when two very different couples fall in and out of love in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features illustrations by renowned artist Sir John Gilbert and an introduction from Professor Tiffany Stern.Whilst Beatrice and Benedick both despise love, exchanging insults and mockery rather than vows, for Hero and Claudio it is love at first sight. But as their marriage preparations begin, so too do Don John’s dirty tricks. Can his scheming get in the way of true love? And can an elaborate plan to bring fiery Beatrice and cynical Benedick closer together really come off? In Much Ado About Nothing, one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, nothing is quite what it seems.

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Set in the South of France in the decade after the First World War, Tender is the Night explores the new world of moneyed leisure found by the first generation of idle-rich Americans to take refuge in the French Riviera, bracketed between the horrors of the Great War and the Great Depression to come. It is the story of a brilliant and magnetic psychiatrist named Dick Diver; the bewitching, wealthy, and dangerously unstable mental patient, Nicole, who becomes his wife; and the beautiful, harrowing ten-year pas de deux they act out along the border between sanity and madness. F. Scott Fitzgerald deliberately set out to write the most ambitious and far-reaching novel of his career, experimenting radically with narrative conventions of chronology and point of view and drawing on early breakthroughs in psychiatry to enrich his account of the makeup and breakdown of character and culture.This stunning Macmillan Collector's Library edition of Tender is the Night features an afterword by Ned Halley.

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Drawing on her own experience, Anne Brontë exposes the isolated world of a nineteenth-century governess in her debut novel, Agnes Grey. Complete & Unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by historian and biographer, Juliet Barker.Agnes Grey is the youngest daughter of a clergyman. When the family falls on hard times, she insists on finding work as a governess in order to help her family and prove to them that she’s no longer a child. But her idealistic spirit is tested in her first position with the Bloomfield family and their unruly and spoilt children. Next she works for the even wealthier Murray family, whose scheming daughter Rosalie threatens to jeopardize the only bright spot in Agnes’s life: the young curate Edward Weston.

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One of the great Victorian novels, The Moonstone has engrossed, entertained and enraptured readers since its first publication in 1868. This edition features an introduction by the renowned historian, journalist and author, Judith Flanders.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.Lady Verinder’s uncle gives her the Moonstone – a magnificent diamond as large as an egg – for her eighteenth birthday, but it is not quite the generous gift it first seems. For he obtained it through bloody and nefarious means in India, and legend says the diamond’s guardians will stop at nothing to get it back. When the Moonstone is stolen, an innocent man is accused of the crime and from this simple beginning, Wilkie Collins creates a stunning, complex narrative of dark mystery, suspense and atmosphere – and one of the very first detective stories ever written.

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William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience includes some of the visionary poet’s finest and best-loved poems such as ‘The Lamb’, ‘The Chimney-Sweeper’ and ‘The Tiger’. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition has a foreword by Peter Harness. Blake’s work is instantly recognizable by its flamboyance and inventiveness. This gorgeous edition contains stunning reproductions of the fifty-four plates of the poems and illustrations together, which Blake etched himself and coloured by hand. Each has the poem printed on the facing page. Whilst Songs of Innocence captures the innocence of childhood, Songs of Experience is its contrasting sequel.

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It's a warm summer's afternoon when young Alice first tumbles down the rabbit hole and into the adventures in Wonderland that have kept readers spellbound for more than 150 years. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is brought to life by Sir John Tenniel's legendary illustrations in black and white, and with an afterword by Anna South.Collected here are Lewis Carroll's two classics - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass - in which Alice encounters the laconic Cheshire Cat, the anxious White Rabbit and the terrifying Red Queen, as well as a host of other outlandish and charming characters.

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A sparkling anthology celebrating sport in all its variety; from elite rugby and football to rural games on the village green, from an exclusive golf club to the sheer pleasure of a bicycle ride.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by sports historian, Professor Martin Polley.A treat for sports fans, dip into this wide-ranging, entertaining collection of classic writing drawn from journalism, diaries, drama, fiction and more. On Your Marks spans from Elizabethan Shakespeare to twentieth-century George Orwell and features Daniel Defoe on horse racing, Jane Austen on baseball, Lewis Carroll on croquet and many more.

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What makes a home, and when do we really feel at home? Is it a physical place, or something we all carry inside us wherever we go?Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by writer and academic Professor Michèle Mendelssohn.In No Place Like Home: An anthology about the places we come back to, writers from around the world celebrate the comfort of home, capturing its emotional power and sharing nostalgia for what we leave behind. There are extracts from the likes of Louisa May Alcott, Kenneth Graham and Charlotte Brontë as well as lesser known but no less insightful poets and writers to discover.

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Gorgeous, strange and magical, A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the best-loved of Shakespeare's plays. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is illustrated throughout by Sir John Gilbert, and includes an introduction by Ned Halley.A young woman flees Athens with her lover, only to be pursued by her would-be husband and her best friend. Unwittingly, all four find themselves in an enchanted forest where fairies and sprites soon take an interest in human affairs, dispensing love potions and casting mischievous spells. In this dazzling comedy, confusion ends in harmony, as love is transformed, misplaced, and – ultimately – restored.

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In Sherlock Holmes: The Dark Mysteries, Sherlock Holmes expert David Stuart Davies has selected the cases of the great detective that best reflect Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's deep interest in the supernatural. The first is the terrifying novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, followed by nine Gothic adventures: 'The Sussex Vampire', 'The Creeping Man', 'Shoscombe Old Place', 'The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax', 'The Veiled Lodger', 'The Devil's Foot', 'The Blanched Soldier' and 'The Cardboard Box'. All of the stories are accompanied by their original illustrations.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. With an introduction by the collection's editor, David Stuart Davies.

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If you struggle to get out of bed in the morning, here’s a poetry collection that’s just right for you. Sunrise is an energizing and rousing collection of classic poetry all about purpose, hope and perseverance. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by Susie Gibbs.Wise, reassuring words and magical verses conjure up the promise and possibilities of each new day. With contributions from poets such as William Wordsworth, G. K. Chesterton, Ian McMillan, Christina Rossetti, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Edward Lear, the wonderful poetry in Sunrise will inspire its readers to greet each day with optimism and confidence.

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Nostalgic and melancholy in equal measure, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a razor-sharp satire of the antebellum South that, despite beginning life as a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, is now seen in its own right as one of the most important of all American novels.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn features an afterword by playwright and screenwriter Peter Harness.Rather than be 'sivilized' by the Widow Douglas, Huckleberry Finn - the grubby but good-natured son of a local drunk - sets off with Jim, an escaped slave, to find freedom on the Mississippi river. With the law on their tail, they navigate a world of robbers, slave hunters and con men, and Huck must choose between what society says is 'right' and his own burgeoning understanding of Jim's friendship and humanity.

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In The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton gives us a witty and piercingly insightful dark satire about the privileged society of early twentieth-century New York. It a world that inspired the lavish costume drama The Gilded Age, written by Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an introduction by novelist Danuta Reah.Lily Bart is twenty-nine, beautiful and charming. She has expensive tastes, loves to gamble and socializes with the wealthy upper-class families of New York. But her meagre finances are dwindling and her place in society is slipping away from her. Her only hope of security is to find a suitable husband. However, Lily has an independence of spirit that stands in the way of her committing to the suitors available to her. As her options diminish, her friends become her enemies and her situation grows increasing perilous.

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Formed in a time of great unrest in ancient China, The Analects is vital to an understanding of Chinese history and thought, and, 2,500 years on, it remains startlingly relevant to contemporary life.Complete and unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, cloth-bound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Highly regarded for the poetic fluency he brings to his award–winning work, David Hinton's translation is inviting and immensely readable.Confucius, the ‘great sage’ of China, believed that an ideal society is based on humanity, benevolence and goodness. His profoundly influential philosophy is encapsulated in The Analects, a collection of sayings which were written down by his followers. Confucius advocates an ethical social order, woven together by selfless and supportive relationships between friends, families and communities. He taught that living by a moral code based on education, ritual, respect and integrity will bring peace to human society.

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Winner of the Smarties Gold Medal. Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. A joyous Amazon adventure set in the lush nature of Brazil, Eva Ibbotson’s Journey to the River Sea is a modern classic loved by adults and children alike. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features a foreword by author Lauren St John. Maia, an orphan, can't wait to reach her distant relatives a thousand miles up the Amazon. She imagines a loving family with whom she will share great adventures. Instead she finds two spiteful cousins who see the jungle as the enemy and refuse to go outdoors. But the wonders of the rainforest more than make up for the hideous twins and their parents. And when Maia meets a mysterious boy who lives alone on the wild river shores, she begins a spectacular journey to the heart of an extraordinary and beautiful new world.

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One of BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped Our World. Frankenstein is the most famous novel by Mary Shelley: a dark parable of science misused. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful hardbacks make perfect gifts for book lovers, or wonderful additions to your own collection. The novel is produced here in its original form and with an afterword by David Pinching.Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but wayward scientist, builds a human from dead flesh. Horrified at what he has done, he abandons his creation. The hideous creature learns language and becomes civilized but society rejects him. Spurned, he seeks vengeance on his creator. So begins a cycle of destruction, with Frankenstein and his 'monster' pursuing each other to the extremes of nature until all vestiges of their humanity are lost. In 1831, Mary Shelley succumbed to conservative pressures and toned down elements of the work; this edition presents the work as originally intended.

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For fans of true crime and of classic crime fiction, The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey is a gripping thriller featuring detective Alan Grant and a masterful exposé of the powerful connections between media, the establishment and what people choose to believe. Based on a true story.Complete and unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by writer David Stuart Davies.Fifteen-year-old Betty Kane has never put a foot wrong. Naturally, everyone is shocked and horrified to hear her story – that she was kidnapped, tortured and held prisoner by Marion Sharpe and her elderly mother, owners of the mysterious old house, The Franchise. But are the two women really guilty of such a horrendous crime? Every page resonates with tension as the story unfolds – did they or didn’t they take a young girl prisoner? And whose story can you trust?

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A timely book for today's world, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations explores how to endure hardship, how to cope with change and how to find something positive out of adversity.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated by A. S. L. Farquharson and features an introduction by John Sellars.The Meditations are a set of personal reflections by Marcus Aurelius. He writes about the vicissitudes of his own life and explores how to live wisely and virtuously in an unpredictable world. He was a follower of the Stoic tradition of philosophy, and one of its finest advocates, both in the clarity of his writing and in the uprightness of his life. The aphorisms show how for him, as perhaps for us all, the answer to life lies in keeping a calm and rational mind, and in refusing to be cast down or alarmed by things over which we have no control.

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Sleepily Ever After: Bedtime Stories for Grown Ups is a gorgeous little anthology of upbeat, touching, funny and inspiring stories that will help you relax and drift off to sleep. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by Zachary Seager. It’s hard to relax, to keep still and to stop our brains from whirring. We live in a world where lack of sleep is a common problem for many adults. This collection of stories will help to banish anxiety and to soothe stressed minds as they welcome you into a world of happy endings, gentle humour and good choices. Each classic story from authors including Oscar Wilde, Kate Chopin, Guy de Maupassant and H G Wells, has been carefully chosen for the quality of its writing, for great storytelling and to gently help you into the land of nod.

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James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a powerful, trailblazing novel that exposes the intricate relationship between race and class in late nineteenth-century America.Complete & Unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by Dr Sam Halliday.After losing his mother at a very young age, the narrator is thrust from his comfortable, middle-class environment, afforded by his distant but aristocratic father, into the wider world. His passion for music begins in Georgia’s all-black church community and takes him from New York, where he plays ragtime for a rich white gentleman, to the South, where he witnesses lynchings and out of fear gives up his passion, as well as his race, to pass for white. Relevant to this day, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is an unflinching account of black experience in America.

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Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands is a wonderfully entertaining autobiography by Mary Seacole - nurse, entrepreneur and intrepid traveller. Soon to be a major motion picture starring GuGu Mbatha-Raw.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.Mary Seacole left her native Jamaica to travel through the Caribbean, The Bahamas, Central America and to England. Keen to offer her services to English troops in the Crimea War, she was at first refused official support. Undaunted she went anyway and set up her famous hotel catering for British soldiers. She supplied food, drink and welcome respite from the front line. She also tended to wounded soldiers and dispensed medicine in the teeth of battle. Despite her invaluable contribution, she returned to England penniless and in ill health. Thankfully her astonishing achievements were acknowledged and she became the toast of London society.

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The Book of Tea describes all aspects of the Japanese tea ceremony and explains how its rituals blend seamlessly with traditional Japanese life.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition has an afterword by Anna Sherman and delightful illustrations by Sayuri Romei.This short book, written in English by a Japanese scholar and artist, was first published in 1906 at a time when Japan was opening up to Western culture. In response to that, Okakura Kakuzo set out to explain the beauty and simplicity of Japanese daily life which was greatly inspired by teaism. He describes in detail the different aspects of the tea ceremony, how it was founded, the role of the tea masters, the architecture of the tea-room and the stages of making and serving the tea. He then goes on to explain the connection between Taoism and Zennism with tea and he also writes chapters on art appreciation and the art of flower arranging.

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Complete and unabridged.One of BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped Our World.Dickens exposes the corrupting power of money in his last complete novel, Our Mutual Friend, with its expansive cast of characters and interweaving plots.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition has an afterword by Lucinda Dickens Hawksley and original illustrations by Marcus Stone.John Harmon made his fortune collecting ‘dust’. On his death his estranged son is due to inherit his wealth on the condition that he marry Bella Wilfer, a young woman who he has never even met. But when his son is presumed dead, John’s riches pass to his servants Mr. and Mrs. Boffin and they in turn take Bella into their own home. They hire a secretive young man, John Rokesmith, to be Mr. Boffin’s secretary – but what is this man’s real identity and what is his interest in Bella?

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Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Age of Innocence, is both a poignant story of frustrated love and an extraordinarily vivid, delightfully satirical record of a vanished world – the Gilded Age of New York City.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful hardbacks make perfect gifts for book lovers, or wonderful additions to your own collection. This edition features an introduction by award-winning novelist Rachel Cusk, author of Outline.As the scion of one of New York’s leading families, Newland Archer has been born into a life of sumptuous privilege and strict duty. But the arrival of the Countess Olenska, a free spirit who breathes clouds of European sophistication, makes him question the path on which his upbringing has set him. As his fascination with her grows, he discovers just how hard it is to escape the bonds of the society that has shaped him. The novel was the inspiration for Martin Scorsese's film of the same name, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder.

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Uniquely inventive and vivacious in style and with deep insight into children's points of view, Hans Christian Andersen established a new genre in literature.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition of Best Fairy Tales uses the classic translation by Jean Hersholt and is illustrated by various artists, with an afterword by Ned Halley.Hans Christian Andersen was a profoundly imaginative writer and storyteller who gave us the now standard versions of some traditional fairy tales - with an anarchic twist - but many of his most famous tales sprang directly from his imagination. The thirty stories here range from exuberant early works such as 'The Tinderbox' and 'The Emperor's New Clothes' through poignant masterpieces such as 'The Little Mermaid', 'The Little Match Girl' and 'The Ugly Duckling', to more subversive later tales such as 'The Ice Maiden' and 'The Dryad'.

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From the acclaimed author of the Cazalet Chronicles, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Green Shades: An Anthology of Plants, Gardens and Gardeners brings together a diverse and fascinating selection of garden writing that spans the centuries, the seasons and the species.Elizabeth Jane Howard once said that she would certainly have been a gardener had she not become a writer first. This collection is a testament to that passion.The contents are delightfully eclectic and wide-ranging, practical as well as lyrical – she pays homage to the great English landscape artists of the eighteenth century and to the great women gardeners such as Vita Sackville-West. There’s advice from Pliny on how walnuts can be used to dye hair and Joseph Addison encourages blackbirds to gorge on his cherry trees. Linking the numerous extracts is Elizabeth Jane Howard’s perceptive and highly personal commentary, which skilfully leads the reader from one subject to the next.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.

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