Drunk and bitter at the world, the young Michael Henchard sells his wife to a sailor at Weydon Priors fair. The next morning he vows to give up drink and mend his terrible ways. Twenty years later he
Each volume in the Collector's Library series has a specially commissioned Afterword, brief biography of the author and a further reading list. The Afterword is by leading UK playwright, novelist and
Set in Scotland in 1751, this novel tells of how young David Balfour, orphaned, and betrayed by his uncle Ebenezer who should have been his guardian, is kidnapped, and falls in with Alan Breck, the un
Depicts a young woman discovering herself, in a nuanced portrayal of what divides people, and what brings them together. In this book, the 'north and south' of the title are the Satanic mills of the i
Claudius, the pitiful stammerer who became Emperor despite his first passionate refusal, was the uncle and butt of the notorious Caligula, the husband, dupe and vengeful destroyer of the wicked Messal
An autobiographical trilogy of the poet Laurie Lee (1914-1997). It describes his life in the Gloucestershire village of Slad from his earliest years until he was twenty. It tells of thin winters, fat
Collects poems that are evocative of the blue hills of the poet's youth. In this half-imaginary land of lost content, the recurring theme is one of the helplessness of man against an achingly beautifu
Tom has to spend the summer at his aunt's, and it seems as if nothing good will ever happen again. Then he hears the grandfather clock strike thirteen - and everything changes. Outside the door is a g
A memoir of a Cambridge childhood. Vividly evoking a bygone era, it is a shrewd, touching and comic portrait of Gwen Raverat's (the grand-daughter of Charles Darwin) eccentric relations, and of Cambri
Set before and during the great war, Birdsong captures the drama of that era on both a national and a personal scale. It is the story of Stephen, a young Englishman, who arrives in Amiens in 1910. Ove
One of the most celebrated thrillers ever written, The Day of the Jackal created a new thriller genre. It is the electrifying story of an anonymous Englishman who in, the spring of 1963, was hired by
Emma Bovary is beautiful and bored, trapped in a marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks e
Tells the story of one man's secret battle against himself as he is tested and brought to breaking point, first at Gallipoli, then with his young wife in London, and finally in the trenches of the Wes
Tells a tale of nostalgia, the reawakening of lost memories and sexual awareness. This title features a haunting story of a young boy's awakening into the secrets of the adult world that is also an ev
Here are tales written by masters of the genre that feature ghosts, monsters, magic, and horror. This wonderfully potent brew of macabre tit-bits is guaranteed to entertain and enthrall. Included in t
An invitation for young Leo to join a school friend at Brandham Hall - a world of privilege far removed from his own - for the scorchingly hot summer of 1900 appears innocuous, but Leo soon finds hims
The Three Musketeers follows the career of an impoverished young gentleman, D’Artagnan, who sets off to Paris to seek fortune as a member of the king’s guard. Once there, he meets Porthos, Athos, and
This rare collection is a must for all Jane-ites. It represents what Richard Church regarded as Jane Austen’s literary work-basket and contains some of Austen’s earliest work—her hilarious brief Histo
