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Wonder Tales: Six Stories of Enchantment
By Marina Warner. 1994
Marina Warner has gathered together a magical collection of fairy tales by the great women storytellers of the 17th and…
18th centuries. These are passionate, extraordinary, and occasionally proto-feminist retellings of classic fairy stories by women who ingeniously used the fairy tale genre to comment on their own times and experiences. The stories are all in superb new translations by celebrated writers, including A. S. Byatt, Gilbert Adair and John Ashbery. With a brilliant intorduction by Marina Warner, recognised as one of our greatest experts on myth and fairy tale.Wrong Time, Wrong Place (Quick Reads 2013 #1)
By Simon Kernick. 2013
A gripping Quick Read from the master of the race against time thriller.Have you ever been in the wrong place…
at the wrong time?You are hiking in the Scottish highlands with three friends when you come across a girl.She is half-naked, has been badly beaten, and she can’t speak English.She is clearly running away from someone.Do you stop to help her? Even if it means putting your friends’ lives – and your own - in terrible danger?Wrapped in White
By Kevin Brooks. 2013
PI John Craine - still struggling to cope with the weight of his past - is forced to finally confront…
it in his most personal and frightening case yet.PI John Craine is hired to investigate the brutal murder of a Somali youth called Jamaal Tan. The police are treating the murder as just another gang-related crime, but Tan’s aunt believes there’s more to it than that, and she claims the police are trying to cover up her nephew’s death.While investigating the case, Craine learns of the sudden death of his friend and mentor Leon Mercer. At first it appears to be a tragic accident, but Craine soon finds himself entangled in two deeply suspicious investigations. And before long he comes face to face with a man he hoped never to see again.This engrossing and unputdownable fast-paced thriller from Sunday Times bestselling author Simon Kernick, the UK's answer to Harlan Coben, is…
perfect for fans of David Baldacci, Stuart MacBride and Peter James. Guaranteed to get your blood pumping - a real edge-of-your-seat ride!'Hang on tight!' - Harlan Coben'Full of Kernick's trademark cheerful amoral characters, it's irresistible entertainment' -- Sunday Mirror'A spectacularly fast moving and captivating read.' -- Lovereading'Wow I absolutely loved this book from start to finish' -- ***** Reader review'I couldn't put it down and read it within 24 hours of getting it!' -- ***** Reader review'Fast paced thriller with the twists and turns that keeps you enthralled from the first page to the last' -- ***** Reader review'Full of tension and excitement' -- ***** Reader review****************************************************************************************YOU'VE SEEN TOO MUCH. NOWHERE IS SAFE NOW.THE WITNESSWhen Jane Kinnear sees her lover being murdered, she suddenly finds herself in danger. Taken to an anonymous police safe-house, it soon becomes clear that her lover was an MI5 informant with important information about an imminent terrorist attack.THE DETECTIVEDI Ray Mason of Counter Terrorism Command is a man with a controversial past, but his effectiveness at getting results means that he's now been given the task of preventing the attack from taking place. But can he be trusted, and does he know more about the attack than he's letting on?THE KILLERIn the safe-house, Jane is trying to piece together a description of her lover's killer. But what she doesn't know is that the killer has already found out who she is, and where she is hiding.And now he's coming for her ...The Withered Arm and Other Stories 1874-1888
By Thomas Hardy. 1999
"See if she is dark or fair, and if you can, notice if her hands be white; if not, see…
if they look as though she had ever done housework, or are milker's hands like mine."So Rhoda Brook, the abandoned mistress of Farmer Lodge, is jealous to discover details of his new bride in 'The Withered Arm', the title story in this selection of Hardy's finest short stories. Hardy's first story, 'Destiny and a Blue Cloak' was written fresh from the success of Far From the Madding Crowd. Beautiful in their own right, these stories are also testing-grounds for the novels in their controversial sexual politics, their refusal of romance structures, and their elegiac pursuit of past, lost loves. Several of the stories in The Withered Arm were collected to form the famous volume, Wessex Tales (1888), the first time Hardy denoted 'Wessex' to describe his fictional world. The Withered Arm is the first of a new two-volume selection of Hardy's short stories, edited with an introduction and notes by Kristin Brady.The Wisdom of Father Brown (The father Brown Stories Ser. #2)
By G K Chesterton. 2014
The second volume of stories featuring the most unlikely detective in literature - now the basis for a major BBC…
TV adaptation starring Mark Williams. The ingenious amateur detective Father Brown is put to the test again in this second collection of stories, which sees him solve cases featuring bandits, traitors, voodoo and murder, wrong-footing his opponents at every turn with his characteristic blend of mischievous humour and uncanny understanding of human foibles.G. K. Chesterton was born in 1874. He attended the Slade School of Art, where he appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown, before turning his hand to journalism. A prolific writer throughout his life, his best- known books include The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1922), The Man Who Was Thursday (1908) and the Father Brown stories. Chesterton converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922 and died in 1938.Wild Places: Selected Stories
By Katherine Mansfield. 2023
A beautiful new hardback edition of Katherine Mansfield's most vivid and distinctive stories.Katherine Mansfield was the only writer Virginia Woolf…
envied. Mansfield transformed the short story genre with her work, creating stories miraculous in their intensity yet seemingly so simple. The shift of a heart, the beat of a moment, the changing of the light: in these stories emotional universes are contained within glimpses.Mansfield only lived to the age of 34 but in that time wrote stories true to her indomitable spirit. A hundred years on from her death, Mansfield's biographer, Claire Harman, has created this new selection to show us the master of the short story form in full flight.WITH A FOREWORD BY HELEN SIMPSON AND INTRODUCTION BY CLAIRE HARMAN'There is something rapturous about her work...she has the power to distil the apparently inconsequential into frozen moments laden with significance' Guardian'Would you not like to try all sorts of lives - one is so very small - but that is the satisfaction of writing - one can impersonate so many people' Katherine MansfieldWho Among Us? (Penguin Modern Classics)
By Mario Benedetti. 2019
'This novel is a jewel ... one of those books that enters the soul, which it is impossible not to…
be conquered by. It is a masterpiece like few others' Huffington PostMiguel and Alicia fall quietly in love as teenagers, walking back from school together. When Lucas - enigmatic, charismatic - arrives, everything changes, and Miguel is certain he has lost Alicia. Yet, against the odds, she marries him. Now, eleven years later, their marriage has begun to fray, and Alicia sets out to see Lucas again. As each member of this strange love triangle tells their side of what happened, an unforgettable story of desire, deception and tragic misunderstanding unfolds.The White People and Other Weird Stories (Penguin Modern Classics)
By Arthur Machen. 2011
Machen's weird tales of the creepy and fantastic finally come to Penguin Classics. With an introduction from S.T. Joshi, editor…
of American Supernatural Tales, The White People and Other Weird Stories is the perfect introduction to the father of weird fiction. The title story "The White People" is an exercise in the bizarre leaving the reader disoriented and on edge. From the first page, Machen turns even fundamental truths upside-down, as his character Ambrose explains, "there have been those who have sounded the very depths of sin, who all their lives have never done an 'ill deed'" setting the stage for a tale entirely without logic.When I Lost You: Searing police drama that will have you hooked
By Merilyn Davies. 2019
__________________________Former Crime Analyst Merilyn Davies brings to life a gritty, heart-stopping crime thriller that will have you utterly obsessed.'Assured, fresh,…
engrossing' MEL SHERRATT'Taut, authentic and sensitively told' CHRIS EWAN‘Compassionately, confidently and beautifully written’ STEVE MOSBY‘A breath-taking, page-turning read’ CLARE MACKINTOSH'Fast-paced, authentic ... you’ll be desperate to get to the bottom of the case' CRIME MONTHLY MAGAZINE__________________________When a young couple are the lead suspects for the murder of their only child, Crime Analyst Carla Brown and DS Nell Jackson are assigned to investigate. The evidence seems conclusive, but something just doesn’t feel right. The case is quickly cast into doubt when the lead forensic pathologist starts receiving threatening letters – containing details only the police should know.Who’s sending them? What do they want? And how did they get hold of the information?As Carla and Nell dig deeper, it soon becomes clear that this case isn’t the first of its kind.They must stop at nothing to find the truth – even if it hits close to home.__________________________Readers can't stop talking about When I Lost You:‘An exciting and twisty police thriller’‘A very unusual but gripping storyline’‘I read this almost in one sitting as I was so gripped’‘A first class debut, a mix of psychological thriller meets police procedural’‘All the twists and turns kept me reading into the early hours’‘I love the two main characters - I really hope we see more of them.’‘Once I started, I couldn’t put it down.’Vathek and Other Stories
By Malcolm Jack, William Beckford. 1993
Beckford's Gothic novel Vathek, an Arabian tale, was originally written in French when the author was twenty-one. Published in English…
in 1786, it was one of the most successful of the oriental tales then in fashion. This edition makes available to a new generation of scholars and general readers, the originality of Beckford's ideas, and the excellence of his prose.Ward No. 6 and Other Stories, 1892-1895
By Anton Chekhov. 2002
These stories from the middle period of Chekhov's career show him exploring complex, ambiguous and often extreme emotions. Influenced by…
his own experiences as a doctor, 'Ward No. 6', set in a mental hospital, is a savage indictment of the medical profession. 'The Black Monk', portraying an academic who has strange hallucinations, explores ideas of genius and insanity; in 'Murder', religious fervour leads to violence; while in 'The Student', Chekhov's favourite story, a young man recounts a tale from the gospels and undergoes a spiritual epiphany. In all the stories collected here, Chekhov's characters face madness, alienation and frustration before they experience brief, ephemeral moments of insight, often earned at great cost, where they confront the reality of their existence.Candide And Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics Ser.)
By Voltaire, Roger Pearson. 2008
Candide is the most famous of Voltaire's "philosophical tales," in which he combined witty improbabilities with the sanest of good…
sense. First published in 1759, it was an instant bestseller and has come to be regarded as one of the key texts of the Enlightenment. What Candide does for chivalric romance, the other tales in this selection--Micromegas, Zadig, The Ingenu, and The White Bull--do for science fiction, the Oriental tale, the sentimental novel, and the Old Testament. The most extensive one-volume selection currently available, this new edition includes a new verse translation of the story Voltaire based on Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale: What Pleases the Ladies and opens with a revised introduction that reflects recent critical debates, including a new section on Candide.The Unspoken Truth
By Angelica Garnett. 2010
Real life and fiction meet as Angelica Garnett vividly evokes what it is to grow up in the shadow of…
artists. Her family appear in different guises in the stories, but at the centre of each one is Garnett herself. She is naïve and foolish as Bettina, desperately seeking acceptance into the grown-ups circle ('When All the Leaves Were Green, My Love'); shy and cautious, but finally disloyal, as Agnes ('Aurore'); a hesitant, uncomfortable Emily ('The Birthday Party'); and a contemplative, even witty older woman, full of appetite and guilt, as Helen ('Friendship'). Spanning an entire life, each story reveals a figure trying to understand her place not only within the polished circle of her family, but in an ever-changing world. Sharply observing a colourful social milieu and the vibrant characters that populate it, these are stories about family and friendships, yet also curdled relationships and small betrayals. A fictional counterpoint to her acclaimed memoir, Deceived with Kindness, here is a portrait of a woman seeking an understanding and acceptance of her past.Unsafe Attachments
By Caroline Oulton. 2008
Unsafe Attachments explores the relationships of a loosely interlinked group of Londoners. Caught off guard at key points, they face…
moments of sudden temptation in their busy, established lives, as well as increasingly difficult choices. Dinah, harried and pregnant, is haunted by images of death on her way to Heathrow. Abi, a senior civil servant, embarks upon an affair with a Nigerian journalist as her teenage daughter 'kind of shags' her teacher. Alex, increasingly keen to settle down, numbly accompanies his ex-girlfriend to an abortion clinic. A glance at a party turns into a fumbling grope and then a guilty hangover for Roger, whose live-in girlfriend is smugly satisfied that her life is on course. Lonely café-owner Carey spots his married shrink passionately kissing another woman in a park while Tina's desperate wish for a child jeopardises everything that is important to her. Relationships are acutely observed - the delights and tensions of living together, cheating on one another and trying to make lasting connections in this vast modern city. Love - real or imaginary - causes hearts to crack and lives to crumble but there is also hope, and sometimes there are second chances.The Unfortunate Traveller and Other Works
By Thomas Nashe. 2006
Written in the late sixteenth century, at the pinnacle of the English Renaissance, the rich and ingenious works of Thomas…
Nashe uniquely reveal the ambivant nature of the Elizabethan era. Mingling the devout and the bawdy, scholarship and slang, they express throughout an irrepressible, inexhaustible wit and an astonishing command of language. This collection of Nashe's finest works includes The Unfortunate Traveller, the sharp and grotesque tale of Jack Wilton, an Englishman travelling through Europe; Pierce Penniless, a biting satire on the society of his age; Terrors of the Night; Lenten Stuff; the sensual poem The Choice of Valentines; and extracts from Christ's Tears over Jerusalem and other works. Wide-ranging in subject, all capture the unique voice and fantastic ingenuity of one of the most entertaining Elizabethan writers - a man regarded by his contemporaries as the 'English Juvenal'.Typhoon and Other Stories
By Joseph Conrad. 2007
In these four stories, written between 1900 and 1902, Joseph Conrad bid gradual farewell to his adventurous life at sea…
and began to confront the more daunting complexities of life on land in the twentieth century. In 'Typhoon' Conrad reveals, in the steadfast courage of an undemonstrative captain and the imaginative readiness of his young first mate, the differences between instinct and intelligence in a partnership vital to human survival. 'Falk', the companion sea-story, contrasts, as Conrad once put it, 'common sentimentalism with the frank standpoint of a more or less primitive man', a man with a conscience, however, about the girl he desires. In one of the 'land-stories' Conrad explores the utter isolation of an East European emigrant in England; in the other, the plight of a woman ironically trapped by the unwitting alliance of two retired widowers - each blind in his own way.*The inspiration behind Netflix's The Haunting of Bly Manor*Discover Henry James's most famous and terrifying story in an edition which…
also includes a unique selection of his best loved ghost stories. A young governess is sent to a great country house to care for two orphaned children. To begin with Flora and Miles seem to be model pupils but gradually the governess starts to suspect that something is very wrong with them. As she sets out to uncover the corrupt secrets of the house she becomes more and more convinced that something evil is watching her.'A most wonderful, lurid, poisonous little tale' Oscar WildeThe Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost Stories
By Henry James. 2017
An unsettling new collection of Henry James's best short stories exploring ghosts and the uncanny'There had been a moment when…
I believed I recognised, faint and far, the cry of a child; there had been another when I found myself just consciously starting as at the passage, before my door, of a light footstep''I see ghosts everywhere', wrote Henry James, who retained a fascination with the supernatural and sensational throughout his writing career. This new collection brings together eight of James's tales exploring the uncanny, including his infamous ghost story, 'The Turn of the Screw', a work saturated with evil, in which a fraught governess becomes convinced that malicious spirits are menacing the children in her care. The other masterly works here include 'The Jolly Corner', 'Owen Wingrave' and further tales of visitations, premonitions, madness, grief and family secrets, where the living are just as mysterious and unknowable as the dead. With an introduction and notes by Susie BoytGeneral Editor Philip Horne__________My name is Sara Eden, and this is all I can remember . . . There are government agents pursuing…
me. They think I know something they want. They will never stop. I could be a danger. I could be a weapon. I could be a victim. The only thing I know for certain is, I must . . . TRUST NO ONE.Fans of Killing Eve, I Am Pilgrim and Orphan X won't be able to put down this high-concept read that grips and entertains like a Hollywood thriller.'Will have you guessing till the very last page. Explosively exciting, an instant spy classic' Tom Marcus, former MI5 agent and bestselling author of Soldier Spy 'Furiously paced' Observer