The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale, Moby Dick, a w
Widely regarded as the first English novel, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is one of the most popular and influential adventure stories of all time. This classic tale of shipwreck and survival on an u
Next to the exhortation at the beginning of Moby-Dick, "Call me Ishmael," the first sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice must be among the most quoted in literature. And certainly what Melvil
Jane Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility is a wonderfully entertaining tale of flirtation and folly that revolves around two starkly different sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood.
Dickens's Little Nell became one of his best-known heroines when The Old Curiosity Shop was first published in 1841. Virtuous and stoic, Nell takes care of her grandfather in his gloomy shop until his
Our hero confronts a large and varied cast, including Wackford Squeers, the fantastic ogre of a schoolmaster, and Vincent Crummles, the grandiloquent ham actor, on his comic and satirical adventures u
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson appear in a second series of twelve intriguing cases. They include The Adventure of Silver Blaze, with the famous 'curious incident of the dog in the night-time'; The Adv
Edith Wharton's novella Ethan Frome (1911) is a classic of American literature. A young girl, Mattie Silver is hired to keep house on the bleak New England farm belonging to Ethan Frome and his sickly
Silas Marner (1861) is Eliot's classic tale of an outsider. A weaver who comes to live and work alone in the Midlands village of Raveloe, Silas Marner's sole pleasure is to count his growing hoard of
Justice, courage, loyalty, self control: the qualities essential to the Samurai warriors of Japan are those that we all aspire to. In this classic work, originally published as Bushido: The Soul of Ja
A woman receives two severed ears in a cardboard box, a government-worker is found dead on the London Underground, and two men go insane in a Cornish cottage. In His Last Bow, the world's favourite ec
The timeless themes of the Odyssey - survival, courage, loyalty and hospitality - have resonated with readers through the ages, making it the most enduring classic in western civilization. The Odyssey
In this handsome hardback edition, Tennyson specialist Valerie Purton has set episodes from the poem alongside the exquisite illustrations of Gustave Doré, who creates in them a world of towering clif
The collection features nearly 500 poems, making this a particularly wide-ranging collection. With themed sections: e.g. nature, love, family, faith, work and death; biographies of the poets; and inde
Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) was the first of Hardy's Wessex novels and remains one of his most popular. The strong-willed and beautiful Bathsheba Everdene arrives to take charge of her late uncl
Described by Agatha Christie as 'a shining light' and by The New Yorker as 'the best of mystery writers', Margery Allingham is justly recognized as one of the greats of detective fiction writing. Alli
The Return of Sherlock Holmes consists of 13 hugely enjoyable detective stories featuring ingenious plots and Arthur Conan Doyle's elegant prose. A very welcome addition to the enduringly popular Arct
Fanny Hill, the rags-to-riches tale of a young woman in Georgian London, has been a byword in racy reading for over 250 years. A very welcome addition to the enduringly popular Arcturus Classics serie
The Art of War enjoys enduring popularity among readers. It is a classic study of strategy and how to shape your tactics to cope with an ever-evolving situation - in some cases how to fight without ac
