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Showing 141 - 160 of 11085 items
By Walter Scott. 2017
When young Francis Osbaldistone discovers that his vicious and scheming cousin Rashleigh has designs both on his father's business and…
his beloved Diana Vernon, he turns in desperation to Rob Roy for help. Chieftain of the MacGregor clan, Rob Roy is a brave and fearless man, able and cunning. But he is also an outlaw with a price on his head, and as he and Francis join forces to pursue Rashleigh, he is constantly aware that he, too, is being pursued - and could be captured at any moment. Set on the eve of the 1715 Jacobite uprising, Rob Roy brilliantly evokes a Scotland on the verge of rebellion, blending historical fact and a novelist's imagination to create an incomparable portrait of intrigue, rivalry and romance.By Washington Irving. 2010
The legendary enchantment of Rip Van Winkle in the Kaatskill Mountains; the gruesome end of Ichabod Crane, who met the…
headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow; the spectre bridegroom who turned out to be happily substantial; the pride of an English village and the come-uppance of the over-zealous Mountjoy - these witty, perceptive and captivating tales range from fantasy to romance.By Washington Irving. 2016
'I'm not myself - I'm somebody else - that's me yonder - no - that's somebody else got into my…
shoes...I can't tell what's my name, or who I am!'Touching and comic short stories from the 19th century American master of the genre.One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.By Arnold Bennett. 1999
In the work that has been judged the finest of his later novels, (printed here in Bennett's corrected version) Arnold…
Bennett gives us an unfogettable portrait of a miser and his wife. Henry Earlforward is a second-hand bookseller with a passion for money. He marries Violet Arb, a widow with a fortune of her own, yet he is eaten up by fear and greed. Set against the dark forces of avarice is the Earlford's maid, Elsie, whose love of life, generosity of spirit and warm humanity give Riceyman Steps a fine balance between hopelessness and optimism. 'I closed the book at seven in the morning after the shortest sleepless night of my experience ... there I had "Bennett triumphant" without any doubt whatsoever' - Joseph ConradBy Thomas Hardy. 2012
'Do I desire unreasonably much in wanting what is called life - music, poetry, passion, war, and all the beating…
and pulsing that is going on in the great arteries of the world?'Tempestuous Eustacia Vye passes her days dreaming of passionate love and the escape it may bring from the small community of Egdon Heath. Hearing that Clym Yeobright is to return from Paris, she sets her heart on marrying him, believing that through him she can leave rural life and find fulfilment elsewhere. But she is to be disappointed, for Clym has dreams of his own, and they have little in common with Eustacia's. Their unhappy marriage causes havoc in the lives of those close to them, in particular Damon Wildeve, Eustacia's former lover, Clym's mother and his cousin Thomasin. The Retun of the Native illustrates the tragic potential of romantic illusion and how its protagonists fail to recognize their opportunities to control their own destinies.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.By Thomas Hardy. 1999
THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE was written towards the beginning of Hardy's career as a novelist and can be considered…
one of his most representative works. In this novel, Hardy's tragic vision is powerfully and narrowly focussed on Egdon Heath and the men and women who live on it. Set against the backdrop of the Heath and the impersonal and eternal forces it represents, the fates of Eustacia Vye, Diggory Venn, Clym Yeobright - the returning 'native' - and others are inexorably played out.By Thomas Hardy. 2020
'Tremendous...utterly absorbing' Independent Proud, passionate Eustacia Vye marries Clym Yeobright in the hope that he will help her escape her…
cramped rural existence. But when their relationship falters and her old lover Damon Wildeve reappears with an unexpected inheritance, Eustacia is faced with a series of decisions upon which multiple lives depend. In a world where misunderstandings can be fatal, Hardy’s atmospheric tragedy moves inevitably towards a disastrous climax on the brooding wilds of Egdon Heath. 'Hardy's novels hold a Shakespearean power of creating a unique world' John Bayley See also: Jude the ObscureBy Arthur Conan Doyle. 2011
'Holmes,' I cried.'Is it really you? Can it indeed be that you are alive? Is it possible that you succeeded…
in climbing out of that awful abyss?' Missing, presumed dead, for three years, Sherlock Holmes returns triumphantly to his dear companion Dr Watson. And not before time! London has never been in more need of his extraordinary services: a murderous individual with an air gun stalks the city. Among thirteen further brilliant tales of mystery, detection and deduction, Sherlock Holmes investigates the problem of the Norwood Builder, deciphers the message of the Dancing Men, and cracks the case of the Six Napoleons.By Leo Tolstoy. 1966
Serving on a jury at the trial of a prostitute arrested for murder, Prince Nekhlyudov is horrified to discover that…
the accused is a woman he had once loved, seduced and then abandoned when she was a young servant girl. Racked with guilt at realizing he was the cause of her ruin, he determines to appeal for her release or give up his own way of life and follow her. Conceived on an epic scale, Resurrection portrays a vast panorama of Russian life, taking us from the underworld of prison cells and warders to the palaces of countesses. It is also an angry denunciation of government, the upper classes, the judicial system and the Church, and a highly personal statement of Tolstoy's belief in human redemption.By Marcel Proust. 2016
One of the greatest translations of all time: Scott Moncrieff's classic version of Proust, published in three stunning clothbound volumes…
designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith.Proust's masterpiece is one of the seminal works of the twentieth century, recording its narrator's experiences as he grows up, falls in love and lives through the First World War. A profound reflection on art, time, memory, self and loss, it is often viewed as the definitive modern novel. C. K. Scott Moncrieff's famous translation from the 1920s is today regarded as a classic in its own right and is now available in three volumes in Penguin Classics.This first volume includes Swann's Way and Within a Budding Grove.'Scott Moncrieff's [volumes] belong to that special category of translations which are themselves literary masterpieces ... his book is one of those translations, such as the Authorized Version of the Bible itself, which can never be displaced' - A. N. Wilson 'For the reader wishing to tackle Proust your guide must be C K Scott Moncrieff ... There are some who believe his headily perfumed translation of À la recherche du temps perdu conjures Belle Époque France more vividly even than the original' - Telegraph 'I was more interested and fascinated by your rendering than by Proust's creation' - Joseph Conrad to Scott MoncrieffBy Marcel Proust. 2016
One of the greatest translations of all time: Scott Moncrieff's classic version of Proust, published in three stunning clothbound volumes…
designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith.Proust's masterpiece is one of the seminal works of the twentieth century, recording its narrator's experiences as he grows up, falls in love and lives through the First World War. A profound reflection on art, time, memory, self and loss, it is often viewed as the definitive modern novel. C. K. Scott Moncrieff's famous translation from the 1920s is today regarded as a classic in its own right and is now available in three volumes in Penguin Classics.This first volume includes Swann's Way and Within a Budding Grove.'Scott Moncrieff's [volumes] belong to that special category of translations which are themselves literary masterpieces ... his book is one of those translations, such as the Authorized Version of the Bible itself, which can never be displaced' - A. N. Wilson 'For the reader wishing to tackle Proust your guide must be C K Scott Moncrieff ... There are some who believe his headily perfumed translation of À la recherche du temps perdu conjures Belle Époque France more vividly even than the original' - Telegraph 'I was more interested and fascinated by your rendering than by Proust's creation' - Joseph Conrad to Scott MoncrieffBy Marcel Proust. 2016
One of the greatest translations of all time: Scott Moncrieff's classic version of Proust, published in three stunning clothbound volumes…
designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith.Proust's masterpiece is one of the seminal works of the twentieth century, recording its narrator's experiences as he grows up, falls in love and lives through the First World War. A profound reflection on art, time, memory, self and loss, it is often viewed as the definitive modern novel. C. K. Scott Moncrieff's famous translation from the 1920s is today regarded as a classic in its own right and is now available in three volumes in Penguin Classics.This first volume includes Swann's Way and Within a Budding Grove.'Scott Moncrieff's [volumes] belong to that special category of translations which are themselves literary masterpieces ... his book is one of those translations, such as the Authorized Version of the Bible itself, which can never be displaced' - A. N. Wilson 'For the reader wishing to tackle Proust your guide must be C K Scott Moncrieff ... There are some who believe his headily perfumed translation of À la recherche du temps perdu conjures Belle Époque France more vividly even than the original' - Telegraph 'I was more interested and fascinated by your rendering than by Proust's creation' - Joseph Conrad to Scott MoncrieffBy Saki. 2022
Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the…
award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith.With his signature flair and razor-sharp wit, Saki is an undisputed master of the short story. His tales are by turns hilarious, festive, supernatural and macabre, but all offer fabulous, bite-sized satires of a decadent upper-class Edwardian world. 'Saki, like a chivalrous highwayman, only robs the rich: behind all these stories is an exacting sense of justice . . . they dazzle and delight' Graham GreeneBy Herman Melville. 1976
Wellington Redburn is a fifteen-year-old from the state of New York, with only one dream - to run away to…
sea. However, when he does fulfil this long-held fantasy, he quickly finds that reality as a cabin boy is far harsher than he ever imagined. Mocked by the crew on board the Highlander for his weakness and bullied by the vicious and merciless sailor Jackson, Wellington must struggle to endure the long journey from New York to Liverpool. But when he does reach England, he is equally horrified by what he finds there: poverty, desperation and moral corruption. Inspired by Melville's own youthful experiences on board a cargo boat, this is a compelling tale of innocence transformed, through bitter experience, into disillusionment. A fascinating sea journal and coming-of-age tale, Redburn provides a unique insight into the mind of one of America's greatest novelists.By Elspeth Huxley. 1939
Growing up in Kenya in the early twentieth century, the brothers Matu and Muthegi are raised according to customs that,…
they are told, have existed since the beginning of the world. But when the 'red' strangers come, sunburned Europeans who seek to colonize their homeland, the lives of the two Kikuyu tribesmen begin to change in dramatic new ways. Soon, their people are overwhelmed by unknown diseases that traditional magic seems powerless to control. And as the strangers move across the land, the tribe rapidly finds itself forced to obey foreign laws that seem at best bizarre, and that at worst entirely contradict the Kikuyu's own ancient ways, rituals and beliefs.By Isaac Babel. 1994
Throughout his life Isaac Babel was torn by opposing forces, by the desire both to remain faithful to his Jewish…
roots and yet to be free of them. This duality of vision infuses his work with a powerful energy from the earliest tales including 'Old Shloyme' and 'Childhood', which affirm his Russian-Jewish childhood, to the relatively non-Jewish world of his collection of stories entitled 'Red Cavalry'. Babel's masterpiece, 'Red Cavalry' is the most dramatic expression of his dualism and in his simultaneous acceptance and rejection of his heritage heralds the great American-Jewish writers from Henry Roth to Saul Bellow and Philip Roth.By Kate Wiggin. 1994
When ten-year-old Rebecca Randall leaves Sunnybrook Farm to go and live with her aunts, Miranda and Jane, in Riverboro neither…
she nor her aunts know quite what to expect. And with Rebecca around it's usually the unexpected that happens anyway. In fact it is this gift for the unexpected that means that life is never quite the same again for anyone with whom she comes into contact. This classic story of a young girl growing up in the American state of Maine at the end of the l9th century follows Rebecca's life, education and escapades through the next seven years until the day, as the new mistress of her aunts' old brick house, she begins her adult life.Lu Xun (Lu Hsun) is arguably the greatest writer of modern China, and is considered by many to be the…
founder of modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun's stories both indict outdated Chinese traditions and embrace China's cultural richness and individuality. This volume presents brand-new translations by Julia Lovell of all of Lu Xun's stories, including 'The Real Story of Ah-Q', 'Diary of a Madman', 'A Comedy of Ducks', 'The Divorce' and 'A Public Example', among others. With an afterword by Yiyun Li.By Ryunosuke Akutagawa. 2006
Ryünosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of Japan’s foremost stylists - a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly…
original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. ‘Rashömon’ and ‘In a Bamboo Grove’ inspired Kurosawa’s magnificent film and depict a past in which morality is turned upside down, while tales such as ‘The Nose’, ‘O-Gin’ and ‘Loyalty’ paint a rich and imaginative picture of a medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants. And in later works such as ‘Death Register’, ‘The Life of a Stupid Man’ and ‘Spinning Gears’, Akutagawa drew from his own life to devastating effect, revealing his intense melancholy and terror of madness in exquisitely moving impressionistic stories.By Alexander Pope. 2007
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SOPHIE GEEA hideous crime is committed at a fashionable London society gathering. The victim is the…
beautiful, innocent Belinda, her attacker is the dastardly Baron, and his weapon of choice is a pair of scissors...Pope's mock-epic is the sharp and witty tale of the most famous bad hair day in the history of literature.