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Showing 161 - 180 of 10703 items
By Denis Diderot. 1966
One of the key figures of the French Enlightenment, Denis Diderot was a passionate critic of conventional morality, society and…
religion. Among his greatest and most well-known works, these two dialogues are dazzling examples of his radical scientific and philosophical beliefs. In Rameau's Nephew, the eccentric and foolish nephew of the great composer Jean-Philippe Rameau meets Diderot by chance, and the two embark on a hilarious consideration of society, music, literature, politics, morality and philosophy. Its companion-piece, D'Alembert's Dream, outlines a material, atheistic view of the universe, expressed through the fevered dreams of Diderot's friend D'Alembert. Unpublished during his lifetime, both of these powerfully controversial works show Diderot to be one of the most advanced thinkers of his age, and serve as fascinating testament to the philosopher's wayward genius.By M Valmiki. 2006
Warrior-prince Rama is about to be crowned Young King, when he hears the devastating news that his father, King of…
Ayodhya, has been tricked into banishing him to the forest. His devoted wife Sita insists on accompanying him in exile, but the evil ten-headed lord Ravana has fallen deeply in love with the beautiful princess and steals her away. Aided by Hanuman, mighty captain of the monkeys, Rama sets out across the world to find her and destroy Ravana in a deadly battle. Rama the Steadfast was composed in the oral tradition in about the fifth century BC and has been retold over the generations ever since. With its fantastical characters ranging from monsters to apes, a very human hero and its profound moral purpose, it is one of the greatest of all Indian tales.By D H Lawrence. 2011
A novel which chronicles the lines of three generations of the Brangwen family and the emergence of modern England.Set between…
the 1840s and the early years of the twentieth century The Rainbow tells the story of three generations of the Brangwen family, ancient occupiers of Marsh Farm, Nottinghamshire. Through courting, pregnancy, marriage and defiance Lawrence explores love and the conflicts it brings.WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY RACHEL CUSKBy Edith Nesbit. 2007
When Father mysteriously goes away, the children and their mother leave their happy life in London to go and live…
in a small cottage in the country. 'The Three Chimneys' lies beside a railway track - a constant source of enjoyment to all three. They make friends with the Station Master and Perks the Porter, as well as the jovial 'Old Gentleman' who waves to them everyday from the train. But the mystery remains: where is Father, and will he ever return?By Edith Nesbit. 2010
Includes an introduction by bestselling author Jacqueline Wilson.When Father is taken away unexpectedly, Roberta, Peter, Phyllis and their mother have…
to leave their comfortable life in London to go and live in a small cottage in the country. The children seek solace in the nearby railway station, and make friends with Perks the Porter and the Station Master himself. Each day, Roberta, Peter and Phyllis run down the field to the railway track and wave at the passing London train, sending their love to Father. Little do they know that the kindly old gentleman passenger who waves back holds the key to their father's disappearance.By E Nesbit. 2012
'"Stand firm'" said Peter, "and wave like mad!"' They were not railway children to begin with. When their Father mysteriously…
leaves home Roberta (everyone calls her Bobbie), Phyllis and Peter must move to a small cottage in the countryside with Mother. It is a bitter blow to leave their London home, but soon they discover the hills and valleys, the canal and of course, the railway. But with the thrilling rush and rattle and roar of the trains comes danger too. Will the brave trio come to the rescue? And most importantly, can they solve the disappearance of their Father?BACKSTORY: Find out all about steam trains and learn what it was really like to be a child in Edwardian times.The Queen of Spades, one of his most popular and chilling short stories, tells of an inveterate card player who…
develops a dangerous obsession with the secret of an old lady's luck, which he believes will bring him the wealth he craves. The Negro of Peter the Great, a story based on the life Pushkin's own great-grandfather, is a vivid depiction - and criticism - of both French and Russian society, while Dubrovsky is the Byronic tale of a dispossessed young officer. The Captain's Daughter tells of a young man sent to military service - based on the actual events of the rebellion against Catherine II, it demonstrates Pushkin's unparalleled skill at blending fiction and history. Together these four stories display the versatility and innovation that earned Pushkin his reputation as a master of prose and established him as the towering figure in Russian literature.By Alexander Pushkin. 1962
'Hermann waited for the appointed hour like a tiger trembling for its prey.'One of Pushkin's most popular and chilling stories,…
'The Queen of Spades' tells of a young man who develops a dangerous obsession in pursuit of the wealth he craves.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 Thomas Hardy. 1997
Hardy's two versions of a strange story set in the weird landscape of Portland. The central figure is a man…
obsessed both with the search for his ideal woman and with sculpting the perfect figure of Aphrodite.By M P Shiel. 2012
Dark, desolate and fantastical, The Purple Cloud was a pioneer in the genre of apocalyptic novels, and the first great…
science fiction work of the twentieth century. It inspired authors such as H. P. Lovecraft and Stephen King. The Purple Cloud tells the grandly bleak story of Adam Jeffson: the first man to reach the North Pole and the last man left alive on earth. A sweet-smelling, deadly cloud of poisonous gas has devastated the world, and as Jeffson travels the stricken globe in search of human life, he slowly succumbs to madness, and unleashes fire and destruction on his planet. John Sutherland's introduction discusses M. P. Shiel's dissolute life, the originality of his book and its place within the context of 'last man' novels. This edition also includes a chronology, notes and further reading.By Mark Twain. 1969
Determined that her baby son Tom shall not share her fate and remain in slavery, Roxy secretly exchanges him with…
his playmate Chambers, the son of her master. The two boys' lives in the quiet Missouri town of Dawson's Landing remain entwined even though they take very different directions. The indulged Tom (now heir to a fortune rightfully that of Chambers) goes to Yale, where he learns how to drink and gamble, while Chambers looks set to remain a subservient drudge. But then a strange sequence of events begins - one in which the much-derided lawyer, 'Pudd'nhead' Wilson, has a key part to play - and changes everything. Darkly ironic, blending farce and tragedy, Pudd'nhead Wilson is a complex and fascinating depiction of human nature under slavery.By Kahlil Gibran. 1923
A hugely influential philosophical work of prose poetry, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet is an inspirational, allegorical guide to living, and…
this Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Robin Waterfield.First published in the 1920's, The Prophet is perhaps the most famous work of religious fiction of the twentieth century, and has sold millions of copies in more than twenty languages. Gibran's Prophet speaks of many things central to daily life: love, marriage, death, beauty, passion, eating, work and play. The spiritual message he imparts, of finding divinity through love, blends eastern mysticism, religious faith and philosophy with simple advice. The Prophet became the bible of 1960s culture and was credited with founding the New Age movement, yet it still continues to inspire people around the world today. This edition is illustrated with Gibran's famous visionary paintings.Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) was a poet, philosopher and artist, who stands among the most important Arabic language authors of the early twentieth century. Born in Lebanon, he spent the last twenty years of his life in the United States, where for many years he was the leader of a Lebansese writing circle in New York. He is the author of numerous volumes, including The Garden of the Prophet, The Storm, The Beloved: Reflections on the Path of the Heart, The Vision, Reflections on the Way of the Soul, and Spirit Brides. If you enjoyed The Prophet, you might like Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'His work goes on from generation to generation'Daily Mail'To read it was to transcend ordinary levels of perception, to become aware ... of a more intense level of being'IndependentAeschylus (525–456 BC) brought a new grandeur and epic sweep to the drama of classical Athens, raising it to the…
status of high art. In Prometheus Bound the defiant Titan Prometheus is brutally punished by Zeus for daring to improve the state of wretchedness and servitude in which mankind is kept. The Suppliants tells the story of the fifty daughters of Danaus who must flee to escape enforced marriages, while Seven Against Thebes shows the inexorable downfall of the last members of the cursed family of Oedipus. And The Persians, the only Greek tragedy to deal with events from recent Athenian history, depicts the aftermath of the defeat of Persia in the battle of Salamis, with a sympathetic portrayal of its disgraced King Xerxes.Philip Vellacott’s evocative translation is accompanied by an introduction, with individual discussions of the plays, and their sources in history and mythology.By Charlotte Bronte. 1989
The hero of Charlotte Bronte's first novel escapes a dreary clerkship in industrial Yorkshire by taking a job as a…
teacher in Belgium. There, however, his entanglement with the sensuous but manipulative Zoraide Reuter, complicates his affections for a penniless girl who is both teacher and pupil in Reuter's school.With an essay by David Groves.'He was constantly harassed with the idea, that the next time he lifted his eyes,…
he would to a certainty see that face, the most repulsive to all his feelings of aught the earth contained'A nightmarish tale of religious fanaticism and darkness, this chilling classic of the macabre tells the tale of Robert Wringhim, drawn in his moral confusion into committing the most monstrous acts by an evil doppelganger. James Hogg's masterpiece is as troublingly duplicitous as Wringhim himself, and was ignored and bowdlerized before becoming a hugely influential work of Scottish literature.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.Brought up by a strict Calvinist pastor, Robert Wringham believes he is one of the elect, predestined for salvation while…
all others - including his real father and brother - are cursed. Convinced he is indestructible and above the law, Robert commits terrible crimes under the influence of Gil-Martin - his physical double - who claims they are acting in God's name to purify the world. But does this mysterious tempter actually exist? Could he be an agent of the devil? Subversive and unsettling, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) is a compelling psychological depiction of religious bigotry and the seductive effects of power on a tormented soul.'A Scottish classic, a world classic' Ian Rankin, ObserverRobert is a difficult and disturbed young man. He comes from a…
troubled family background and turns to his Calvinist faith for solace but finds it hard to get along with other people, particularly his brother and his dissolute father. After he falls in with the mysterious and charming Gil-Martin his actions become more and more extreme. He convinces himself that he is one of the lucky few who have been chosen for heaven and that therefore all his actions automatically right and good...even murder.WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LUCY HUGHES-HALLETTBy Gwen Grant. 1999
A forgotten classic brought back into print for the first time in decades - the missing literary sister to Anne…
of Green Gables and Tracy Beaker, a tough and spirited girl's adventures growing up in a northern post-war mining town.‘I told our Lucy I’m going to be a writer when I grow up and she said, ‘You should be a good one then. You tell enough lies.’Psst! We know you shouldn’t really read something labelled ‘private’ but this book is special. It’s written by young girl growing up in a mining town in 1948 who is practising to become a writer when she grows up…possibly. It’s hard work being a writer. There’s no privacy in a house with six kids and there’s no time, especially if you have to go to school and to dancing class (and wear frilly knickers) and Sunday school (and sing about being a sunbeam). You’re supposed to write about what you know, which means this book is about annoying sisters with no sense of humour and brothers who think they know everything, and bullies and chicken spots and being run over. Sometimes you can write about good things that happen, like going to the seaside or Christmas Eve, but mostly the stories end with being sent to bed early in disgrace. But when the writer is a tough, spiky and funny as this one, her adventures will always be worth reading.By Anthony Hope. 2007
Rudolph Rassendyll's life is interrupted by his unexpected and personal involvement in the affairs of Ruritania whilst travelling through the…
town of Zenda. He is shortly on the way to Streslau, the capital, where he finds himself engaged in plans to rescue the imprisoned king.By Madame Lafayette. 2004
Set towards the end of the reign of Henry II of France, The Princesse de Clèves (1678) tells of the…
unspoken, unrequited love between the fair, noble Mme de Clèves, who is married to a loyal and faithful man, and the Duc de Nemours, a handsome man most female courtiers find irresistible. Warned by her mother against admitting her passion, Mme de Clèves hides her feelings from her fellow courtiers, until she finally confesses to her husband - an act that brings tragic consequences for all. Described as France's first modern novel, The Princesse de Clèves is an exquisite and profound analysis of the human heart, and a moving depiction of the inseparability of love and anguish.