Carti in categoria Literature & Biography

'Facts alone are wanted in life': the children at Mr Gradgrind's school are sternly ordered to stifle their imaginations and pay attention only to cold, hard reality. They live in a smoky, troubled industrial town so entertainment is hard to come by and resentments run deep. The effects of Gradgrind's teaching on his own children, Tom and Louisa, are particularly profound and leave them ill-equipped to deal with the unpredictable desires of the human heart. Luckily for them they have a friend in...

Pip's life as an ordinary country boy is destined to be unexceptional until a chain of mysterious events lead him away from his humble origins and up the social ladder. His efforts to become a London gentleman bring him into contact not just with the upper classes but also with dangerous criminals. Pip's desire to improve himself is matched only by his longing for the icy-hearted Estella, but secrets from the past impede his progress and he has many hard lessons to learn.

Lucie Manette has been separated from her father for eighteen years while he languished in Paris's most feared prison, the Bastille. Finally reunited, the Manettes' fortunes become inextricably intertwined with those of two men, the heroic aristocrat Darnay and the dissolute lawyer Carton. Their story, which encompasses violence, revenge, love and redemption, is grippingly played out against the backdrop of the terrifying brutality of the French Revolution.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HENNING MANKELLOliver is an orphan living on the dangerous London streets with no one but himself to rely on. Fleeing from poverty and hardship, he falls in with a criminal street gang who will not let him go, however hard he tries to escape.In Oliver Twist, Dickens graphically conjures up the capitals underworld, full of prostitutes, thieves, and lost and homeless children, and gives a voice to the disadvantaged and abused.ILLUSTRATED BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK...

Desperate-minded villain!Two of Dickens hilarious early stories from Sketches by Boz: The Great Winglebury Duel and Bloomsbury ChristeningIntroducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguins 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th century California and the Rus...

The Penguin English Library Edition of Oliver Twist by Charles DickensA parish child - the orphan of a workhouse - the humble, half-starved drudge - to be cuffed and buffeted through the world, despised by all, and pitied by noneDark, mysterious and mordantly funny, Oliver Twist features some of the most memorably drawn villains in all of fiction - the treacherous gangmaster Fagin, the menacing thug Bill Sikes, the Artful Dodger and their den of thieves in the grimy London backstreets. Dickens n...

The Penguin English Library Edition of Hard Times by Charles DickensNow, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything elseCoketown is dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, school owner and model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both his pupils and his family with facts, he bans fancy and wonder from young minds. As a consequence his obedient daughter Louisa marries the loveless businessma...

The Penguin English Library Edition of Great Expectations by Charles DickensWhat do you think that is? she asked me, again pointing with her stick; that, where those cobwebs are?I cant guess what it is, maam.Its a great cake. A bride-cake. Mine!Great Expectations, Dickenss funny, frightening and tender portrayal of the orphan Pips journey of self-discovery, is one of his best-loved works. Showing how a young mans life is transformed by a mysterious series of events - an encounter with an escaped...

Now a major film directed by Armando Iannucci, starring Dev Patel, Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, Peter Capaldi and Ben WhishawDickenss epic, exuberant novel is one of the greatest coming-of-age stories in literature. It chronicles David Copperfields extraordinary journey through life, as he encounters villains, saviours, eccentrics and grotesques, including the wicked Mr Murdstone, stout-hearted Peggotty, formidable Betsey Trotwood, impecunious Micawber and odious Uriah Heep.Dickenss great Bildung...

The Penguin English Library Edition of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles DickensLiberty, equality, fraternity, or death; - the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!Described by Dickens as the best story I have written, A Tale of Two Cities interweaves thrilling historical drama with heartbreaking personal tragedy. It vividly depicts a revolutionary Paris running red with blood, and a London where the poor starve. In the midst of the chaos two men - an exiled French aristocrat and a disso...

The Penguin English Library Edition of A Christmas Carol by Charles DickensEvery idiot who goes around with Merry Christmas on his lips, should be boiled with his own puddingCharles Dickenss tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, who is haunted by three spirits and learns the true meaning of Christmas has had, along with Dickenss other Christmas writings, a lasting and significant influence upon our ideas about the season as a time for celebration, charity and memory.The Penguin English Library - 100 edition...