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Pollyanna
By Eleanor H. Porter. 2015
THE COMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED TEXT'Most generally there is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep…
hunting long enough to find it'When her father dies, Pollyanna is sent to live with her stern Aunt Polly. She is poor, orphaned and alone but Pollyanna just feels lucky to have an aunt at all. The truth is that her dear father, before he died, taught her a trick for life – the 'Glad Game' – the aim of which is to find the good in every bad situation. Before long, Pollyanna’s sunny outlook has brightened up the whole town. But when a horrible accident occurs can the Game save Pollyanna?Includes exclusive material: In The Backstory you can test your knowledge of the book and find out if you’re as optimistic as Pollyanna! Vintage Children’s Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives. Discover timeless favourites from The Jungle Book and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to modern classics such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.Plain Tales from the Hills
By Rudyard Kipling. 1987
Originally written for the Lahore Civil and Military Gazette, the stories were intended for a provincial readership familiar with the…
pleasures and miseries of colonial life. For the subsequent English edition, Kipling revised the tales so as to recreate as vividly as possible the sights and smells of India for those at home. Yet far from being a celebration of Empire, Kipling's stories tell of 'heat and bewilderment and wasted effort and broken faith'. He writes brilliantly and hauntingly about the barriers between the races, the classes and the sexes; and about innocence, not transformed into experience but implacably crushed.The Pit and the Pendulum: The Essential Poe
By Edgar Allan Poe. 2009
This selection of Poe's critical writings, short fiction and poetry demonstrates an intense interest in aesthetic issues and the astonishing…
power and imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind. The Fall of the House of Usher describes the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy and the legacy of the past. In The Tell Tale Heart, a murderer's insane delusions threaten to betray him, while stories such as The Pit and the Pendulum and The Cask of Amontillado explore extreme states of decadence, fear and hate.Pinocchio (Puffin Classics)
By Carlo Collodi. 1944
The old wood-carver Geppetto decides to make a wonderful puppet which can dance and turn somersaults, but by chance he…
chooses an unusual piece of wood - and the finished puppet can talk and misbehave like the liveliest child. But Pinocchio is brave and inquisitive as well as naughty, and after some hair-raising adventures, he earns his heart's desire.Heart-warming introduction by John Boyne, author of Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.The Pilgrim's Progress
By John Bunyan. 2008
'The ultimate English classic ... The story of a man in search of truth' ObserverIn John Bunyan's timeless allegory, Christian…
sets off on a journey to find salvation. His path is not easy, and he is beset by trials, including the destructive Apollyon and the Giant Despair, as he pursues his pilgrimage through the Slough of Despond, the Delectable Mountains and Vanity Fair towards the Celestial City. In the second part of the narrative his wife, Christiana, is escorted by Great-Heart through the same difficult terrain. Written with the urgency of persecuted faith and a fiery imagination while its author was in prison, The Pilgrim's Progress is a spiritual as well as a literary classic.Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Roger PooleyPierre and Jean: Father And Son, Boitelle And Other Stories
By Guy Maupassant. 1979
The fraternal love that Pierre Roland feels for his younger brother Jean has always been tinged with jealousy. But when…
a lawyer arrives at the house of their parents, to declare that an old family friend has bequeathed his entire fortune to Jean, this envy rapidly becomes an all-consuming force. Despising himself for the hate that he feels, Pierre roams the seaport of Le Havre alone, desperate to come to terms with his brother's success. As he walks through the streets, however, one thought dominates his mind. Why was he not left a share of the friend's estate? Vivid, ironical and emotionally profound, Pierre and Jean is considered Maupassant's greatest novel - an intensely personal story of suspicion, jealousy and family love.The Picture of Dorian Gray (Film Tie-in)
By Oscar Wilde. 2009
Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend…
Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The Picture of Dorian Gray was a succès de scandal. Early readers were shocked by its hints of unspeakable sins, and the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at his trial at the Old Bailey in 1895.The Picture of Dorian Gray (The Penguin English Library)
By Oscar Wilde. 2012
With an essay by Peter Ackroyd.'I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the…
portrait you have painted of me ... Why did you paint it? It will mock me some day - mock me horribly!'A story of evil, debauchery and scandal, Oscar Wilde's only novel tells of Dorian Gray, a beautiful yet corrupt man. When he wishes that a perfect portrait of himself would bear the signs of ageing in his place, the picture becomes his hideous secret, as it follows Dorian's own downward spiral into cruelty and depravity. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a masterpiece of the evil in men's hearts, and is as controversial and alluring as Wilde himself.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.The Picture of Dorian Gray
By Oscar Wilde. 2003
'A triumph of execution ... one of the best narratives of the "double life" of a Victorian gentleman' Peter AckroydOscar…
Wilde's alluring novel of decadence and sin was a succès de scandale on publication. It follows Dorian Gray who, enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his depravity. This definitive edition includes a selection of contemporary reviews condemning the novel's immorality.Edited with an Introduction and notes by ROBERT MIGHALLThe Picture of Dorian Gray
By Oscar Wilde. 2007
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY IRVINE WELSHDorian is a good-natured young man until he discovers the power of his own exceptional…
beauty. As he gradually sinks deep into a frivolous, glamorous world of selfish luxury, he apparently remains physically unchanged by the stresses of his corrupt lifestyle and untouched by age. But up in his attic, hidden behind a curtain, his portrait tells a different story...The Pickwick Papers
By Charles Dickens. 2012
'The fat boy rose, opened his eyes, swallowed the huge piece of pie he had been in the act of…
masticating when he last fell asleep, and slowly obeyed his master's orders'Few first novels have created as much popular excitement as The Pickwick Papers. Readers were immediately captivated by the adventures of the poet Snodgrass, the lover Tupman, the sportsman Winkle and, above all, by that quintessentially English Quixote, Mr Pickwick, and his cockney Sancho Panza, Sam Weller. From the hallowed turf of Dingley Dell Cricket Club to the unholy fracas of the Eatanswill election, via the Fleet debtor's prison, characters and incidents sprang to life from Dickens's pen, to form an enduringly popular work of ebullient humour and literary invention.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.The Pickwick Papers
By Charles Dickens. 1842
'One of my life's greatest tragedies is to have already read Pickwick Papers - I can't go back and read…
it for the first time' Fernando PessoaFew first novels have created as much popular excitement as The Pickwick Papers - a comic masterpiece that catapulted its twenty-four-year-old author to immediate fame. Readers were captivated by the adventures of the poet Snodgrass, the sportsman Winkle and, above all, by that quintessentially English Quixote, Mr Pickwick, and his cockney Sancho Panza, Sam Weller. From the hallowed turf of Dingley Dell Cricket Club to the unholy fracas of the Eatanswill election, characters and incidents sprang to life from Dickens's pen, to form an enduringly popular work of ebullient humour and literary invention. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Mark WormaldThe Pickwick Papers
By Charles Dickens. 2013
Read Charles Dickens’s first novel. The Pickwick Papers was Dickens' first novel and was a huge success when it was…
first published. It tells the tale of the irrepressible Mr Pickwick and his fellow Pickwick Club members who travel around the English countryside getting into all kinds of scrapes and adventures. Funny, warm-hearted and full of memorable and engaging characters, this is an enchanting novel that continues to delight readers today. ‘I was instantly swept up in Dickens' exploding world of eccentrics and grotesques, at the heart of which a is a huge affection for mankind' Simon CallowThe Phoenix and the Carpet (Puffin Classics)
By Edith Nesbit. 2012
It's startling enough to have a phoenix hatch in your house, but even more startling when it talks and reveals…
that you have a magic carpet on the floor. The vain and ancient bird accompanies the children on a series of adventures through time and space which, magic being what it is, rarely turn out as they were meant...This sequel to Five Children and It continues the magical adventures of siblings Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and their baby brother.Contains a lovely new introduction by Robin McKinley, bestselling US author of Pegasus.Phineas Redux
By Anthony Trollope. 2003
In the fourth of the 'Palliser' stories, Trollope follows Phineas Finn's return to the dangerous world of Westminster politics. When…
his political rival is murdered, Phineas is thrown under suspicion and eventually finds himself standing trial at the Old Bailey. The situation is complicated by the presence of two women in his life: his old flame Lady Laura, whose estranged husband is determined to destroy Phineas's reputation, and the wealthy and enimgatic widow, Madame Max.Phineas Finn, The Irish Member
By Anthony Trollope. 1972
The Phantom of the Opera
By Gaston Leroux. 2009
Rumours that a ghost stalks the dark passages and cellars of the Paris Opera House, wreaking havoc, have long been…
rife among staff and performers. This Phantom also haunts the imagination of the beautiful and talented singer Christine Daaé, appearing to her as the 'Angel of Music' - a disembodied voice, coaching her to sing as she never could before. When Christine is courted by a handsome young Viscount, the mysterious spectre, who resides in the murky depths of the building, is consumed by jealousy and seeks revenge. With its pervading atmosphere of menace, tinged with dark humour, The Phantom of the Opera (1910) offers a unique mix of Gothic horror and tragic romance that has inspired film, stage and literature since its publication.The Phantom of the Opera
By Gaston Leroux. 2012
Discover the classic Gothic horror novel of haunted cellars, opera, murder and unrequited love that inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running…
west end hit.Christine is a beautiful young singer at the Paris Opera. She is watched by the Opera's 'phantom' - a mysterious masked figure who terrorises the Opera's management and players. With the Phantom's help, Christine rises to become the Opera's star performer, but when the Phantom demands her heart in return, Christine is torn between gratitude and pity for her strange benefactor, and love for her childhood sweetheart, Raoul.Petersburg
By Andrei Bely. 1995
Andrei Bely's Petersburg is a colourful evocation of Russia's capital during the short, turbulent period of the first socialist revolution…
in 1905. Considered Bely's masterpiece, the story follows Nikolai Ableukhov's journey as he is caught up in the revolutionary politics of those seminal days; exploring themes of history, identity, and family, the novel sees the young Russian chased through the misty Petersburg streets, tasked with planting a bomb intended to kill a government official - his own father. History, culture and politics are blended and juxtaposed; weather reports, current news, fashions and psychology jostle together with people from Petersburg in this literary triumph.Peter Rabbit: A collection of nature stories
By Beatrix Potter. 2022
Join Peter as he discovers the changing seasons in his countryside home. This enchanting book is the perfect gift to…
share with the family and read all about Peter's adventures throughout the year.With 24 new stories and activities, this book celebrates the natural world and all Peter's friends within it. Join him harvesting apples in the autumn, stargazing on a crisp Winter night, finding a missing lamb in the spring meadows and enjoying a perfect picnic in the summer sun!Featuring 24 brand new stories, inspired by Beatrix Potter's original tales, and an activity to enjoy, this beautiful book makes the perfect gift to read throughout the year and will become an annual tradition for Peter Rabbit fans young and old.