Carti in categoria Literature & Biography

If marriage was the slow life-long acquittal of a debt contracted in ignorance, then marriage was a crime against human nature.Two moving stories of love, loss, desire and divorce, from one of the great chroniclers of nineteenth-century New York life.Introducing 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 ov...

A hugely influential philosophical work of prose poetry, Kahlil Gibrans 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 1920s, 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. Gibrans Prophet speaks of many things central to daily life: love, marriage, death, beauty, pass...

One of the BBCs 100 Novels That Shaped Our WorldA sublimely funny book ... it is a book to be read by all ... unforgettable and universal Candia McWilliamRomantic, heroic, comic and tragic, unconventional schoolmistress Jean Brodie has become an iconic figure in post-war fiction. Her glamour, unconventional ideas and manipulative charm hold dangerous sway over her girls at the Marcia Blaine Academy - the creme de la creme - who become the Brodie set, introduced to a privileged world of adult gam...

The Penguin English Library edition of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry JamesShe knew of no wrong that he had done; he was not violent, he was not cruel; she simply believed that he hated herWhen Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy her freedom, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. Then she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gilbert Osmond. Charming ...

Dorian 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...

Each of these delightful interconnected tales is devoted to a family living in a fertile valley on the outskirts of Monterey, California, and the effects that one particular family has on them all. Steinbeck tackles two important literary traditions here; American naturalism, with its focus on the conflict between natural instincts and the demand to conform to societys norms, and the short story cycle. Set in the heart of Steinbeck land, the lush Californian valleys.

Even in the stillness of that dead-cold weather, I had heard no sound of little battering hands upon the window-glass...A phantom child roams the Northumberland moors, while a host of fairytale characters gone to seed gather in the dark, dark woods in these two surprising tales of the uncanny from the great Victorian novelist.Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguins 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from ar...

Strangely enough, I mistook it for a gentleman at first. Fortunately I had my spectacles with me so I could see it was really a nose.With this pair of absurd, comic stories Gogol indulges his imagination and delights readers.Introducing 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 g...

... ever-present, phantom thing;My slave, my comrade, and my kingSome of Emily Brontes most extraordinary poemsIntroducing 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 Russian steppe. Here are stori...

The Penguin English Library Edition of The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe... an agility astounding, a strength superhuman, a ferocity brutal, a butchery without motive, a grotesquerie in horror absolutely alien from humanity...Horror, madness, violence and the dark forces hidden in humanity abound in this collection of Poes brilliant tales, including - among others - the bloody, brutal and baffling murder of a mother and daughter in Paris in The Murders in the Rue M...

The Penguin English Library Edition of The Moonstone by Wilkie CollinsHere was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish Indian Diamond - bringing after it a conspiracy of living rogues, set loose on us by the vengeance of a dead manWhen Rachel Verinders birthday present - the Moonstone, a large Indian diamond - is stolen at her party, suspicion and the diamonds mysterious curse seem set to ruin everyone and everything she loves. Only Sergeant Cuffs famous detective skills offer any...

The Penguin English Library Edition of The Mill on the Floss by George EliotIf life had no love in it, what else was there for Maggie?Tragic and moving, The Mill on the Floss is a novel of grand passions and tormented lives. As the rebellious Maggies fiery spirit and imaginative nature bring her into bitter conflict with her narrow provincial family, most painfully with her beloved brother Tom, their fates are played out on an epic scale. George Eliot drew on her own frustrated rural upbringing ...

No voice, no low, no howl is heard; the chief sound of life here is a hiss.Stories and poems by Herman Melville drawn from his years at seaIntroducing 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 Ru...

The Penguin English Library Edition of Tristram Shandy by Laurence SterneI am got, I know not how, into a cold unmetaphorical vein of infamous writing, and cannot take a plumb-lift out of it for my soul; so must be obliged to go on writing like a Dutch commentator to the end of the chapter, unless something be done ...Laurence Sternes great masterpiece of bawdy humour and rich satire defies any attempt to categorize it. Part novel, part digression, its gloriously disordered narrative interweaves...

Unfinished at the time of his death, F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Last Tycoon is a story of doomed love set against the extravagance of Americas booming film industry. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is edited with an introduction by Edmund Wilson.The studio lot looks like thirty acres of fairyland the night that a mysterious woman stands and smiles at Monroe Stahr, the last of the great Hollywood princes. Enchanted by one another, they begin a passionate but hopeless love affair, starting with...

An omnibus comprising Raymond Chandlers three Philip Marlowe novels, THE LADY IN THE LAKE, THE HIGH WINDOW and THE LITTLE SISTER.

The Penguin English Library Edition of The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. WellsThat black figure, with its eyes of fire, struck down through all my adult thoughts and feelings, and for a moment the forgotten horrors of childhood came back to my mindAdrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain, is rescued by a vessel carrying a profoundly unusual cargo - a menagerie of savage animals. Tended to recovery by their keeper Montgomery, who gives him dark medi...

The Penguin English Library Edition of The Invisible Man by H. G. WellsPeople screamed. People sprang off the pavement ... The Invisible Man is coming! The Invisible Man!With his face swaddled in bandages, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses and his hands covered even indoors, Griffin - the new guest at The Coach and Horses - is at first assumed to be a shy accident-victim. But the true reason for his disguise is far more chilling: he has developed a process that has made him invisible, and is l...

Who would have thought a comedy of manners written more than a hundred years ago would still be so apt and so funny? Oscar Wilde was a genius of play-writing, and his deftness, wit and sharp eye for social satire keep audiences in thrall to this day. Alongside Earnest, discover a biblical tragedy retold, Lady Windermere and her infamous fan and Wildes take on an ideal husband, in his selection of Wildes most important plays.

The Penguin English Library Edition of The House of Mirth by Edith WhartonIt was characteristic of her that she always roused speculation, that her simplest acts seemed the result of far-reaching intentionsA searing, shocking tale of women as consumer items in a mans world, The House of Mirth sees Lily Bart, beautiful and charming, living among the wealthy families of New York but reluctant to finally commit herself to a husband. In her search for freedom and the happiness she feels she deserves...