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CRW Publishing
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When Emma Woodhouse sets out on a career of match-making in the little town of Highbury she manages to cause confusion at every step. Jane Austen was particularly proud of Emma, in which she takes apart the desires and foibles of small-town society with unnerving accuracy. |
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Father Brown, a small, round Catholic priest with a remarkable understanding of the criminal mind, is one of literature's most unusual and endearing detectives, able to solve the strangest crimes in a most fascinating manner. This collection draws from all five Father Brown books, and within their remarkable range these stories contain as much wisdom as they do wonder. |
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Frankenstein is the most famous novel by Mary Shelley: a dark Faustian parable of science misused that was an immediate success on its publication in 1818. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but wayward scientist, builds a human from dead flesh and then, horrified at what he has done, abandons his creation. The creature, an outcast because of his appearance, learns language and becomes civilized, but when rejected by society seeks revenge on his creator. So begins a cycle of destruction in which Frankenstein and his 'monster' lose all vestiges of their humanity in monomaniacal hatred. |
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One of 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. |
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Grimms' Fairy Tales have entertained children and adults for the past two centuries, and have become part of our common heritage. These stories about Tom Thumb, Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin and the Frog Prince stimulate the imagination and the heart and linger at the back of our minds for a lifetime. They are funny, disturbing, wise and compassionate; they speak of joy and terror, happiness and revenge, love and violence. They remind us of how it felt the first time an adult voice read them to us as we fell asleep and dreamed magical dreams. |
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Jonathan Swift's masterpiece is the finest satire in the English language. Lemuel Gulliver's adventures with the tiny inhabitants of Lilliput and the giants of Brobdingnag are familiar from modern abridged adaptations, but the scientists and philosophers of Laputa, the intelligent, horselike Houyhnhnms and the bestial Yahoos provide further opportunities for Swift to satirise society in a manner just as relevant today as it was in the eighteenth century. |
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The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of Doyle's best-known Holmes novels, frequently adapted for film and television, which is not surprising given the highly dramatic scenes of mist-wrapped moors echoing to the horrific howls of a supernatural hound. Is this a genuinely devilish apparition or is there a cunning murderer at work? Only Sherlock Holmes can solve the mystery. This volume also contains The Valley of Fear, a dark, powerful tale in which Holmes confronts the evil Professor Moriarty once more. |
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn began life as a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer but is now seen in its own right as one of the most important of all American novels. Rather than be 'sivilized' by the Widow Douglas, Huckleberry Finn and Jim, an escaped slave, set off to find freedom on the Mississippi. Their adventures teach them much about the society in which they live, and the book combines an exuberant sense of nostalgia with subtle undertones of adult melancholy. |
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The Iliad narrates the events of the siege of Troy, prompted by Greek outrage at the abduction by Paris of Helen from her Greek husband. It describes the anger of Achilles which results in the death of Patroclus, and Achilles' quest for brutal vengeance on Hector. Even though it was composed more than two thousand years ago The Iliad remains both powerful and enthralling. |
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Ivanhoe, first published in 1819, is a spellbinding tale of adventure, chivalry and romance set in twelfth-century England where the Saxons are in conflict with the occupying Normans. Young Wilfred of Ivanhoe, disinherited by his father for wanting to marry his father's ward Rowena, is wounded in a tournament and nursed back to health by the beautiful Rebeccca, who is later accused of being a witch. With the help of Richard the Lionheart and Robin Hood, Ivanhoe is able to save Rebecca, establish peace between Saxon and Norman, and gain the hand of the fair Rowena. |
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The orphaned Jane Eyre suffers under cruel guardians, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. But her plain appearance belies her indomitable spirit, sharp wit and great courage. When she goes to Thornfield Hall to work as a governess for the mysterious Mr Rochester the stage is set for one of literature's great romances. |
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Connie's unhappy marriage to Clifford Chatterley is one scarred by mutual frustration and alienation. Crippled from wartime action, Clifford is confined to a wheelchair, while Connie's solitary, sterile existence is contained within the narrow parameters of the Chatterley ancestral home, Wragby. She seizes her chance at happiness and freedom when she embarks on a passionate affair with the estate's gamekeeper, Mellors, discovering a world of sexual opportunity and pleasure she'd thought lost to her. The explosive passion of Connie and Mellors' relationship — and the searing candour with which it is described — marked a watershed in twentieth century fiction, garnering Lady Chatterley's Lover a wide and enduring readership and lasting notoriety. |
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This epic tale of American frontier life is set in the period when the French and the British fought for control of the continent and while native American tribes still had considerable power and influence. En route to their father's fort, Cora and Alice Munro are betrayed by their Iroquois guide. Their companion Duncan Heyward enlists the support of the scout Hawkeye and his friends, who attempt to rescue the party. This wonderful story of adventure has captivated successive generations of readers both in America and abroad. |
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Mansfield Park is a novel about town and country, surface dazzle and lasting values. Fanny Price, a poor relation, is brought up at the wealthy Bertrams' country house and fallls for Edmund, the younger son. Their lives are disrupted, however, by the arrival of the worldly Mary Crawford and her brother Henry. With her usual psychological insight and attention to detail, Jane Austen paints an irresistibly lifelike portrait of shifting values and split loyalties. |
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Drunk and bitter at the world, the young Michael Henchard sells his wife to a sailor at Weydon Priors fair. The next morning he vows to give up drink and mend his terrible ways. Twenty years later he is mayor of Casterbridge, a rich and important figure who little suspects the past is about to rear up and attack him. The Mayor of Casterbridge is a masterpiece of Victorian literature, bringing the classical forms of tragedy into the modern world with striking force, showing a proud and noble man overwhelmed by his past and the forces of fate. |
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On board the whaling ship Pequod a crew of wise men and fools, renegades and seeming phantoms is hurled through treacherous seas by a crazed captain hell-bent on hunting down the mythic White Whale. Melville transforms the little world of the whale-ship into a crucible where mankind's fears, faith and frailties are pitted against a relentless fate. Teeming with ideas and imagery, and with its extraordinary, compressed intensity sustained by mischievous irony and moments of exquisite beauty, Moby-Dick is both a great American epic and a most profoundly imaginative literary creation. |
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Nicholas Nickleby is one of Dickens's early novels, a popular melodrama with a rich list of characters. When his father dies penniless, Nicholas Nickleby, his mother and his sister Kate are thrown on the mercy of his corrupt uncle Ralph Nickleby. Sent away to teach at the infamous Dotheboys Hall, run by the sadistic Wackford Squeers, Nicholas eventually absconds, but not before rescuing the poor abused Smike. He returns home just in time to save his sister from the unwanted attentions of Sir Mulberry Hawk, and eventually his family's fortunes are restored. |
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Northanger Abbey tells the story of Catherine Morland, a naive young woman whose perceptions of the world around her are greatly influenced by the romantic gothic novels to which she is addicted. When she moves to Bath she sees mystery and intrigue all around her. This is one of Austen's early works, a broad comedy about learning to distinguish between fiction and reality. |
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The Odyssey can claim to be Western literature's first adventure story, and describes the ten-year wanderings of Odysseus in his quest to return home after the Trojan war. He encounters giants, sorceresses and sea-monsters before he can get home and then must remain in disguise while seeking a way to rid his home of the suitors who, believing him dead, have besieged his wife. Both an enchanting fairy tale and a gripping drama, The Odyssey is eminently readable, not least for the rich complexity and magnetism of its hero. |
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