|
|
|
Wordsworth
|
«This title includes an Introduction and Notes by John Lester, formerly Head of English at Havering College of Further and Higher Education. From the rain forests of Almayer's Folly to the Mediterranean coast of «The Rover», Conrad's first and final completed novels are played out against contrasting backgrounds. Almayer, in Borneo, is hopelessly obsessed by his deluded dreams for himself and his daughter, which take no account of her falling in love with a handsome Balinese prince. Peyrol, the rover, returns to a France at war and finds the actions of those around him still overborne by memories of revolutionary terror. For the orphaned Lieutenant Real and Arlette love offers release but their romance seems doomed by the demands of his naval duties. Conrad's acute understanding of human psychology and its application across racial and ideological divides is the life-force of both stories. Publication date: 15 July 2011.» |
|
«Jane Eyre» ranks as one of the greatest and most popular works of English fiction. Although Charlotte Bronte's heroine is outwardly plain, she possesses an indomitable spirit, and great courage. Forced to battle against the exigencies of a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order which circumscribes her life when she becomes governess to the daughter of the mysterious, sardonic Mr Rochester. «Villette» is based on Charlotte Bronte's personal experience as a teacher in Brussels. It is a moving tale of repressed feelings and cruel circumstances borne with heroic fortitude. Rising above the confinement of a rigid social order, it is also a story of a woman's right to love and be loved.»Wuthering Heights» is Emily Bronte's wild, passionate tale of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. After Mr Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine's brother Hindley and, wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, he leaves Wuthering heights. When he returns years later as a wealthy man, he proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries.» Agnes Grey», Ann Bronte's deeply personal novel, is a trenchant expose of the frequently isolated, intellectually stagnant and emotionally starved conditions under which many governesses worked in the mid-nineteenth century. «The Tenant of Wildfell Hall» shows Ann Bronte's bold, naturalistic and passionate style. It is a powerful and sometimes violent novel of expectation, love, oppression, sin and betrayal. It portrays the disintegration of the marriage of Helen Huntingdon, the mysterious 'tenant' of the title, and her dissolute, alcoholic husband.» |
|
«This title features collected works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Few American novelists of the twentieth century have stayed as modern as F. Scott Fitzgerald. He gave a name to his age, 'the Jazz Age', but his reputation has outlived it. Gathered here are the five novels he wrote in his relatively short career, together with a number of the many short stories he wrote between 1922 and his death in 1940. «This Side of Paradise» catapulted him to fame, its expose of the manners and morals of a post-war generation becoming a cause celebre. «The Beautiful and Damned», a semi-autobiographical moral parable of a doomed marriage, affirmed Fitzgerald's status as the spokesman for the generation of the 1920s. His third novel, «The Great Gatsby», remains for many readers the definitive American novel of the twentieth century, its eponymous hero a complex fictional portrayal of a romantic imagination at the mercy of a corrupt reality. «Tender is the Night» is an American Vanity Fair set on the French Riviera in the 1920s. Fitzgerald was working on «The Last Tycoon» at his death in 1940, and many critics rank his account of Hollywood at the height of the studio system, even in its unfinished state, as comparable to the achievement of «The Great Gatsby».» |
|
A close friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald (he died in a car crash the day after Fitzgerald's death), Nathanael West wrote two classic American novels; The Day of the Locust is a stark portrayal of Hollywood in the 1930s and Miss Lonelyhearts a story set in New York in the Depression. Also included is 'A Cool Million', and his first novel, The Dream Life of Balso Snell, which he conceived while in college. |
|
Selected and Introduced by David Stuart Davies. Prepare to take a step beyond reality into the fantastic realm of other worlds imagined by the pioneers of science fiction. This collection features a set of wide ranging and mind expanding tales created by the founding fathers of this most fascinating and exciting of literary genres. As well as the works of famous authors such as Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle and Jack London, there are some startlingly original gems by lesser known scribes. Thrill to the adventures of the first invisible man in Edward Page Mitchell's The Crystal Man; take part in Stanley G. Weinbaum's A Martian Odyssey; travel back in time to the prehistoric world of Atlantis in J. Leslie Mitchell's Three Go Back; be intrigued by Edwin A. Abbott's Flatland, the classic novella of the Fourth Dimension; witness the terrible disaster that besets London in Fred M. White's The Dust of Death; and be chilled by Robert Duncan Milne's cosmic disaster story Into the Sun. From the wonders of outer space, to the predictions of the future and the startling possibilities and dangers of scientific progress to the frightening potentials of human development, the writers of these pioneering scenarios provide thrilling and unique experiences for all those who love to journey beyond the familiar. |
|
It is more than a century since the ascetic, gaunt and enigmatic detective, Sherlock Holmes, made his first appearance in A Study in Scarlet. From 1891, beginning with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the now legendary and pioneering Strand Magazine began serialising Arthur Conan Doyle's matchless tales of detection, featuring the incomparable sleuth patiently assisted by his doggedly loyal and lovably pedantic friend and companion, Dr Watson. The stories are illustrated by the remarkable Sydney Paget from whom our images of Sherlock Holmes and his world derive and who first equipped Holmes with his famous deerstalker hat. The literary cult of Sherlock Holmes shows no sign of fading with time as each new generation comes to love and revere the penetrating mind and ruthless logic which were the undoing of so many Victorian master criminals. |
|
This title is selected and introduced by M.J. Elliott. 'They were removing the stones quietly, one by one, from the centuried wall. And then, as the breach became large enough, they came out into the laboratory in single file; led by a stalking thing with a beautiful head made of wax'. From the dark, mind-expanding imagination of H P Lovecraft, Wordsworth presents a third volume of tales penned by the greatest horror writer of the 20th Century. Here are some of Lovecraft's weirdest flesh-creeping masterpieces, including Pickman's Model, The Shunned House, his famous serial Herbert West — Reanimator, and several classic tales from the Cthulhu Mythos, in which mankind is subjected to the unimaginable terrors known only to those who have read from the forbidden Necronomicon. Also included in this compelling collection are the complete Randolph Carter stories, chronicling his adventures in this world and the realm of his dreams, where he faces perils beyond comprehension. |
|
This title is selected by Rosemary Gray. When you think of Irish writers of supernatural tales, then the names Sheridan Le Fanu and Bram Stoker will figure prominently, but this does no more than scratch the surface of a rich vein of chilling and macabre fiction to be found on the Emerald Isle. This rich and diverse selection showcases some of the very best. |
|
This work contains an Introduction by M.J. Elliot. The sixteenth-century Puritan Solomon Kane has a thirst for justice which surpasses common reason. Sombre of mood, clad in black and grey, he 'never sought to analyse his motives and he never wavered once his mind was made up. Though he always acted on impulse, he firmly believed that all his actions were governed by cold and logical reasonings... A hunger in his soul drove him on and on, an urge to right all wrongs, protect all weaker things, and avenge all crimes against right and justice'. Immune to the attractions of the opposite sex, he seems drawn by some psychological distress beacon to places where he knows only that he will be called upon to defend the helpless or (more often) exact retribution on their behalf. Himself a Christian, possessed of enormous strength and skill in swordplay, he yet has little hesitation in calling upon the assistance of his Voodoo-practising friend N'Longa when strength, skill and Christian belief are not enough. |
|
«This title includes an Introduction and Notes by Henry Claridge, Senior Lecturer, School of English, University of Kent at Canterbury. «Tender is the Night» is a story set in the hedonistic high society of Europe during the 'Roaring Twenties'. A wealthy schizophrenic, Nicole Warren, falls in love with Dick Diver — her psychiatrist. The resulting saga of the Divers' troubled marriage, and their circle of friends, includes a cast of aristocratic and beautiful people, unhappy love affairs, a duel, incest, and the problems inherent in the possession of great wealth. Despite cataloguing a maelstrom of interpersonal conflict, «Tender is the Night» has a poignancy and warmth that springs from the quality of Fitzgerald's writing and the tragic personal experiences on which the novel is based. Six years separate «Tender is the Night» and «The Last Tycoon», the novel Fitzgerald left unfinished at his death in December 1940. Fitzgerald lived in Hollywood more or less continuously from July 1937 until his death, and a novel about the film industry at the height of 'the studio system' centred on the working life of a top producer was begun in 1939. Even in its incomplete state «The Last Tycoon» remains the greatest American novel about Hollywood and contains some of Fitzgerald's most brilliant writing.» |
|
This title includes an Introduction and Notes by Lionel Kelly. This Side of Paradise was Fitzgerald's first novel, and its instant success made him famous. The Beautiful and the Damned was Fitzgerald's second novel, and describes the beginning of what became known as 'The Jazz Age'. This title's publication date is 15 May 2011. |
|
This title includes an introduction and notes by Professor Roger Cardinal. The author of dozens of adventure novels and fantastical tales, Robert Louis Stevenson was also an enthusiast of travel, whether wandering on foot through France in the company of a donkey, crossing the plains of North America in a train crammed with emigrants, or cruising under sail with his wife in the waters of the Pacific. A lively curiosity stimulated his observations of distant places and unknown people: and this selection from his travel writings bears the imprint of a generous and plucky spirit, always eager to embrace the unfamiliar and the exotic. 'There are no foreign lands', Stevenson once wrote, 'it is the traveller only who is foreign'. This volume includes the well-known Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), along with The Amateur Emigrant (1895), Across the Plains (1892) and The Silverado Squatters (1883), and other material from Stevenson's American journeys. Roger Cardinal is Emeritus Professor of Literary & Visual Studies at the University of Kent, Canterbury, England. He is the author of Figures of Reality (1981) and The Landscape Vision of Paul Nash (1989). He has also written extensively on German Romanticism, Expressionism, Surrealism and Outsider Art. |
|
«This title includes a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. In «The Prisoner of Zenda», Rudolf Rassendyll's close resemblance to the King of Ruritania leads him into intrigue, romance and perilous escapades. Enmeshed in a plot by the villainous Duke of Strelsau to depose the King, Rudolf is entranced by the beautiful Princess Flavia, and finds that both his life and his honour are imperilled. The sequel, «Rupert of Hentzau», tells how Rupert ('who feared neither man nor devil') seeks to ruin Flavia's reputation and wreak vengeance on Rudolf. Events accelerate to a dramatically violent climax. Both these swashbuckling novels offer the appeal of romantic adventure in a land now legendary. Numerous adaptations on screen and stage have extended the fame of Anthony Hope's 'Ruritania'. This title is complete and unabridged.» |
|
This edition contains Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass. It is illustrated throughout by Sir John Tenniel, whose drawings for the books add so much to the enjoyment of them. Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Red Queen and the White Rabbit all make their appearances, and are now familiar figures in writing, conversation and idiom. So too, are Carroll's delightful verses such as The Walrus and the Carpenter and the inspired jargon of that masterly Wordsworthian parody, The Jabberwocky. |
|
From its first publication in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has been printed in over 700 editions. It has inspired almost every conceivable kind of imitation and variation, and been the subject of plays, operas, cartoons, and computer games. The character of Crusoe has entered the consciousness of each succeeding generation as readers add their own interpretation to the adventures so thrillingly 'recorded' by Defoe. Praised by eminent figures such as Coleridge, Rousseau and Wordsworth, this perennially popular book was cited by Karl Marx in Das Kapital to illustrate economic theory. However it is readers of all ages over the last 290 years who have given Robinson Crusoe its abiding position as a classic tale of adventure. |
|
As Fyodor Karamazov awaits an amorous encounter, he is violently done to death. The three sons of the old debauchee are forced to confront their own guilt or complicity. Who will own to patricide? The reckless and passionate Dmitri? The corrosive intellectual Ivan? Surely not the chaste novice monk Alyosha? The search reveals the divisions which rack the brothers, yet paradoxically unite them. Around the writhings of this one distunctional family Dostoevsky weaves a dense network of social, psychological and philosophical relationships. At the same time he shows — from the opening 'scandal' scene in the monastery to a personal appearance by an eccentric Devil — that his dramatic skills have lost nothing of their edge. The Karamazov Brothers, completed a few months before Dostoevsky's death in 1881, remains for many the high point of his genius as novelist and chronicler of the modern malaise. It cast a long shadow over D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Albert Camus, and other giants of twentieth-century European literature. |
|
Tom Jones is widely regarded as one of the first and most influential English novels. It is certainly the funniest. Tom Jones, the hero of the book, is introduced to the reader as the ward of a liberal Somerset squire. Tom is a generous but slightly wild and feckless country boy with a weakness for young women. Misfortune, followed by many spirited adventures as he travels to London to seek his fortune, teach him a sort of wisdom to go with his essential good-heartedness. |
|
The Man in the Iron Mask is the final episode in the cycle of novels featuring Dumas' celebrated foursome of D'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, who first appeared in The Three Musketeers. Some thirty-five years on, the bonds of comradeship are under strain as they end up on different sides in a power struggle that may undermine the young Louis XIV and change the face of the French monarchy. In the fast-paced narrative style that was his trademark, Dumas pitches us straight into the action. What is the secret shared by Aramis and Madame de Chevreuse? Why does the Queen Mother fear its revelation? Who is the mysterious prisoner in the Bastille? And what is the nature of the threat he poses? Dumas, the master storyteller, keeps us reading and guessing until the climactic scene in the grotto of Locmaria, a fitting conclusion to the epic saga of the musketeers. |
|
Anna Karenina is one of the most loved and memorable heroines of literature. Her overwhelming charm dominates a novel of unparalleled richness and density. Tolstoy considered this book to be his first real attempt at a novel form, and it addresses the very nature of society at all levels, — of destiny, death, human relationships and the irreconcilable contradictions of existence. It ends tragically, and there is much that evokes despair, yet set beside this is an abounding joy in life's many ephemeral pleasures, and a profusion of comic relief. |
|
A historical romance, The Three Musketeers tells the story of the early adventures of the young Gascon gentleman, D'Artagnan and his three friends from the regiment of the King's Musketeers — Athos, Porthos and Aramis. Under the watchful eye of their patron M. de Treville, the four defend the honour of the regiment against the guards of Cardinal Richelieu, and the honour of the queen against the machinations of the Cardinal himself as the power struggles of seventeenth century France are vividly played out in the background. But their most dangerous encounter is with the Cardinal's spy, Milady, one of literature's most memorable female villains, and Dumas employs all his fast-paced narrative skills to bring this enthralling novel to a breathtakingly gripping and dramatic conclusion. |
|
