Wordsworth

Complete and unabridged, this title comes with a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. James Joyce's astonishing masterpiece, «Ulysses», tells of the diverse events which befall Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus in Dublin on 16 June 1904, during which Bloom's voluptuous wife, Molly, commits adultery. Initially deemed obscene in England and the USA, this richly-allusive novel, revolutionary in its Modernistic experimentalism, was hailed as a work of genius by W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot and Ernest Hemingway. Scandalously frank, wittily erudite, mercurially eloquent, resourcefully comic and generously humane, «Ulysses» offers the reader a life-changing experience.

Tells of the diverse events which befall Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus in Dublin on 16 June 1904, during which Bloom's wife, Molly, commits adultery. Initially deemed obscene in England and the USA, this novel, revolutionary in its Modernistic experimentalism, was hailed as a work of genius by W B Yeats, T S Eliot and Ernest Hemingway.

David Rothwell takes on the challenge of summarising the entire body of English Literature, from its earliest origins to the current day within the confines of a standard paperback. His whistle-stop through the best (and less favoured) of English writing is witty, opinionated and entertaining.

Chichikov is willing to relieve their owners of the tax burden by buying the titles for a song. What he does not say is that he then proposes to take out a huge mortgage against these fictitious citizens and buy himself a nice estate in Eastern Russia. Will he get away with it? Who will rumble him?

Offers a collection of stories in which: a wax museum in London boasts an exhibit, which no man has seen and remained sane; a businessman is trapped in a train carriage with a madman who claims to have created a new and efficient method of capital punishment; and, a doctor plans a horrible revenge, using an insect as his murder weapon.

Alexey Ivanovitch is a young tutor in the household of a general. He is both observer and actor in the tempest which surrounds his impoverished employer. Everyone is waiting for the death of Granny, the general's rich aunt, but so far from dying, she turns up alive and well, and makes her way to the casino...

Henry Morton Stanley's greeting to the Scottish medical missionary David Livingstone — Dr Livingstone, I presume? — is to exploration what Holmes' Elementary, my dear Watson is to detective fiction. It took place in a remote African settlement when a travelling correspondent for the «New York Herald» successfully concluded an assignment to find the renowned explorer. But the meeting, and the events surrounding it, proved to be more than just a simple news story. Stanley's accounts of his expedition not only helped transform Livingstone into one of the great Victorian heroes, but were also the springboard from which Stanley himself became the most accomplished of all African explorers. «How I Found Livingstone» was written in six weeks, published in November 1872, and had sold through three printings by Christmas. For Stanley was not only a great explorer, he was also one of the most talented writers ever to tell the tale of travel and discovery in Africa. His account of his journey through East Africa, and his time spent investigating Lake Tanganyika with Livingstone, is one of the classics of African exploration.

'Who could read the programme for the excursion without longing to make one of the party'? So Mark Twain acclaims his voyage from New York City to Europe and the Holy Land in June 1867. His adventures produced The Innocents Abroad, a book so funny and provocative it made him an international star for the rest of his life. He was making his first responses to the Old World — to Paris, Milan, Florence, Venice, Pompeii, Constantinople, Sebastopol, Balaklava, Damascus, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem. For the first time he was seeing the great paintings and sculptures of the 'Old Masters'. He responded with wonder and amazement, but also with exasperation, irritation, disbelief. Above all he displayed the great energy of his humour, more explosive for us now than for his beguiled contemporaries.

Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good persuade Allan Quatermain to help them find Sir Henry's brother George, who has gone missing in the unexplored African interior while searching for the legendary treasure trove of a lost kingdom. Quatermain agrees to lead the expedition, though he has little hope they will return alive.

Offers a series of vaguely connected stories that is linked by the presence of a monstrous and suppressed book which brings fright, madness and spectral tragedy to all those who read it. An air of futility and doom pervade these pages like a sweet insidious poison. Dare you read it?

The Little Prince is a modern parable for our time, of equal appeal to children and adults. This much loved story is joined by the following classic titles, to give a collection that has something for everyone, whatever their age: Black Beauty Little Women Alice in Wonderland The Secret Garden Robin Hood The Wind in the Willows The Railway Children The Jungle Book Peter Pan.

Who could have tried to murder Mademoiselle Stangerson, beautiful daughter of a famous radium scientist? And how could they have entered and escaped from a completely locked and watched room? With the Surete's top sleuth vying against him, Rouletabille is determined to prove only he can solve the case.

Once they had settled the eastern seaboard, the founding fathers of the great North American continent encouraged others to follow them to the land of opportunity. So the refugees, the poor and the oppressed, the adventurous and the foolhardy packed their all, they left the old-world shadows and set out with their hopes and dreams.

The exploits of Sweeney Todd, 'The Demon Barber of Fleet Street', have been recounted many times in plays, films and musicals. One great mystery that has surrounded the book is who the author was — or was it possibly the work of more than one man? The author has established finally the identity of the creator of this legendary figure.

This title is edited with an introduction by William Breeze Foreword by David Tibet. This volume brings together the uncollected short fiction of the poet, writer and religious philosopher Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). Crowley was a successful critic, editor and author of fiction from 1908 to 1922, and his short stories are long overdue for discovery. Of the forty-nine stories in the present volume, only thirty were published in his lifetime. Most of the rest appear here for the first time. Like their author, Crowley's stories are fun, smart, witty, thought-provoking and sometimes unsettling. They are set in places he had lived and knew well: Belle Epoque Paris, Edwardian London, pre-revolutionary Russia and America during the first World War. The title story The Drug stands as one of the first — if not the first-accounts of a psychedelic experience. His Black and Silver is a knowing early noir discovery that anticipates an entire genre. Atlantis is a masterpiece of occult fantasy, a dark satire that can stand with Samuel Butler's Erewhon. Frank Harris considered The Testament of Magdalen Blair the most terrifying tale ever written. Extensive editorial end-notes give full details about the stories.

This title includes an introduction by David Stuart Davies. Oliver Onions is unique in the realms of ghost story writers in that his tales are so far ranging in their background and substance that they are not easily categorised. His stories are powerfully charged explorations of psychical violence, their effects heightened by detailed character studies graced with a powerful poetic elegance. In simple terms Oliver Onions goes for the cerebral rather than the jugular. However, make no mistake, his ghost stories achieve the desired effect. They draw you in, enmeshing you in their unnerving and disturbing narratives. This collection contains such masterpieces as The Rosewood Door, The Ascending Dream, The Painted Face, and The Beckoning Fair One, a story which both Algernon Blackwood and H. P. Lovecraft regarded as one of the most effective and subtle ghost stories in all literature. Long out of print, these classic tales are a treasure trove of nightmarish gems.

This title features Introduction by David Stuart Davies. 'A grey cloud formed on the summit of the altar, diminishing, thickening and turning into a Shape, a shape of evil and fear. The silent group by the fire once more broke forth into wild gesticulations and cries, Stella prostrated herself, the Form on the altar grew clearer and with a cry of horror Mr Fowke turned away and rushed madly across the moor'. Amyas Northcote's In Ghostly Company is a rare and splendid collection of strange and disturbing tales from the golden age of ghost stories. His style is akin to that of the master of the genre M.R. James: it is measured and insidiously suggestive, producing unnerving chills rather than shocks and gasps. Northcote's tales make the reader unsettled and uneasy. This is partly due to the fact that the hauntings or strange occurrences take place in natural or mundane surroundings — surroundings familiar to the reader but never before thought of as unusual or threatening. Long out of print, this book remains an enthralling and chilling read.

Despite his insignificant appearance, Reeder is a cold and ruthless detective who credits his success to his 'criminal mind' which allows him to solve a series of complex and audacious crimes and outwit the most cunning of villainous masterminds.

The Good Soldier is a masterpiece of twentieth-century fiction, an inspiration for many later, distinguished writers, including Graham Greene. Set before the First World War, it tells the tale of two wealthy and sophisticated couples, one English, one American, as they travel, socialise, and take the waters in the spa towns of Europe. They are 'playing the game' in style. That game has begun to unravel, however, and with compelling attention to the comic, as well as the tragic, results the American narrator reveals his growing awareness of the sexual intrigues and emotional betrayals that lie behind its facade.

Major General Sir Richard Hannay is the fictional secret agent created by writer and diplomat John Buchan, who was himself an Intelligence officer during the First World War. The strong and silent type, combining the dour temperament of the Scot with the stiff upper lip of the Englishman, Hannay is pre-eminent among early spy-thriller heroes. Caught up in the first of these five gripping adventures just before the outbreak of war in 1914, he manages to thwart the enemy's evil plan and solve the mystery of the 'thirty-nine steps'. In Greenmantle, he undertakes a vital mission to prevent jihad in the Islamic Near East. Mr Standfast', set in the decisive months of 1917-18, is the novel in which Hannay, after a life lived 'wholly among men', finally falls in love; later, in The Three Hostages, he finds himself unravelling a kidnapping mystery with his wife's help. In the last adventure, The Island of Sheep, he is called upon to honour an old oath. A shrewd judge of men, he never dehumanises his enemy, and despite sharing some of the racial prejudices of his day, Richard Hannay is a worthy prototype hero of espionage fiction.

Here is a book no Christmas stocking should be without, a book that positively distils the spirit of the season. The title poem, familiar to children and adults the world over, introduces a collection of stories and verse with a Christmas theme, guaranteed to engage and amuse readers young and old. Likely to provoke laughter and sometimes to bring a sentimental tear to the driest eye, this festive treasure trove is ideal for reading aloud or curling up with in a comfy corner. Scrooge himself would have found it difficult to resist distributing copies on Christmas morning!

The Wings of the Dove is a tale of desire and possession, of love and death. It is in essence a simple story, but one that opens up the great subject of art: life itself. To tackle this, James moves between fairytale storylines and the startlingly modern techniques of his testing late style. An unspeakable subtext lies beneath the silence. Distinct points of view and different centres of consciousness betray the dislocation of the social facade from the desolation beneath. For all the familiar signs, there is a gulf between glamour and the underlying threat of loss. The eternal triangle of romance is played out here like a game on an international stage for the very highest stakes. It centres on 'the dying girl who wants to live — to live and love.' But those closest to her are in competition for what she can leave behind. Milly Theale, 'the heiress of all the ages', is imaged as a dove, a princess, a Renaissance beauty, but these symbols come at a dreadful cost. By the end of the novel we know, 'We shall never be again as we were!

Rip van Winkle is an amiable man whose home and farm suffer from his lazy neglect; a familiar figure about the village, he is loved by all except his wife. One autumn day he escapes her nagging to wander up into the mountains, and there after drinking some liquor offered to him by a band of very strange folk, he settles down under a shady tree and falls asleep. He wakes up twenty years later and returns to his village to find that not only is his wife dead but war and revolution have changed many things. He, on the other hand, although older is not appreciably wiser and soon slips back into his idle habits. Three equally compelling stories, «The Spectre Bridegroom», «The Pride of the Village» and «Mountjoy», complete this collection of classic tales from the inspired pen of Washington Irving, one of America's greatest writers.

Molly is desperately disappointed when, instead of the longed-for silver bangle, her Aunt Phoebe sends her a small, grey, pumpkin-shaped pincushion for her birthday. But at night, when the full moon shines, the pumpkin turns out to be a magical one. It leads Molly and her twin brother Jack into a strange land and an extraordinary quest which is by turns thrilling, chilling and hair-raising. This eerie tale of high adventure has an enduring appeal to all who love to have their blood deliciously curdled.