Wordsworth Classics

The Thought Police, Doublethink, Newspeak, Big Brother - 1984 itself: these terms and concepts have moved from the world of fiction into our everyday lives. They are central to our thinking about free

George Orwell is a difficult author to summarize. He was a would-be revolutionary who went to Eton, a political writer who abhorred dogma, a socialist who thrived on his image as a loner, and a member

In 1943, there was an urgent need for Animal Farm. The Soviet Union had become Britain's ally in the war against Nazi Germany, and criticism of Stalin's brutal regime was either censored or discourage

Johann Rudolf Wyss’ tale of a family’s adventures on an isolated desert island is a great children’s favourite. The plot is a simple one but has many surprises and excitements along the way, which is

Black Beauty is a perennial children’s favourite, one which has never been out of print since its publication in 1877. It is a moralistic tale of the life of the horse related in the form of an autobi

Robin Hood is perhaps the greatest of all British folk heroes. Henry Gilbert’s book assembles all the disparate elements of the legend into an elegiac and detailed version of Robin’s life and adventur

The Wonderful World of the Wizard of Oz, which the the Library of Congress named as ‘America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale’, is one of the great works of children’s literature.The stor

Little Women is one of the best-loved children's stories of all time, based on the author's own youthful experiences. It describes the family life of the four March sisters living in a small New Engla

少年 Jim Hawkins 和母親一起經營 Admiral Benbow Inn。某天，一名神祕的老水手住進旅店，還付錢請 Jim 留意其他水手的行蹤。然而，他最害怕的事情終究發生了——象徵死亡威脅的「黑券」送到手中，而 Jim 也在他的遺物裡發現一張藏寶圖。地圖標示著惡名昭彰的海盜 Captain Flint 埋藏寶藏的位置，Jim 於是與 Doctor Livesey、Squire Trelawney 啟程出海尋寶。只是受雇船員之中，還有獨腳水手 Long John Silver，而他對這批寶藏也另有打算。Robert Louis Stevenson 的 Treasure Island 以海盜、藏寶圖、背叛與海上歷險，寫下流傳至今的冒險經典。Treasure Island is the seminal pirates and buried treasure novel, which is so brilliantly concocted that it appeals to readers both young and old. The story is told in the first person by young Jim Hawkins, whose mother keeps the Admiral Benbow Inn. An old seadog, a resident at the inn, hires Jim to keep a watch out for other sailors whom he fears but, despite all precautions, the old man is served with the black spot which means death. Among the dead man's belongings Jim discovers a map showing the location of the buried treasure of the notorious pirate Captain Flint. It is not long before he, along with Doctor Livesey and Squire Trelawney, sets sail to find the

Anne Shirley is an eleven-year-old orphan who has hung on determinedly to an optimistic spirit and a wildly creative imagination through her early deprivations. She erupts into the lives of aging brot

he Little Prince is a modern fable, and for readers far and wide both the title and the work have exerted a pull far in excess of the book's brevity. Written and published first by Antoine de St-Exupé

Frances Burnett Hodgson’s novel The Secret Garden is both intriguing and uplifting. It is regarded as one of the best children’s books written in the twentieth century.Mary Lennox, a sickly ten year o

he Jungle Book introduces Mowgli, the human foundling adopted by a family of wolves. It tells of the enmity between him and the tiger Shere Khan, who killed Mowgli's parents, and of the friendship bet

A Christmas Carol is the most famous, heart-warming and chilling festive story of them all. In these pages we meet Ebenezer Scrooge, whose name is synonymous with greed and parsimony: 'Every idiot who

H. G. Wells is often referred to as 'the father of science fiction' and this compendium of his stories contains two of his most well-known works in the genre, The Time Machine (1895) and The War of th

In these 'scientific romances' H. G. Wells sees the present reflected in the future and the future in the present. His aim is to provoke rather than predict. The Sleeper falls into a trance, waking up

This volume contains a generous selection of the tales of H. G. Wells, some of them famous, some forgotten.They demonstrate his immense imaginative energy, his originality, his prophetic genius, and h

These comic novels will resonate with anyone who has ever felt trapped by circumstance. Their central characters, Artie Kipps and Alfred Polly, are prisoners of their modest social class, limited educ

When penniless businessman Mr Bedford retreats to Kent to write a play, he encounters Dr Cavor, an absent-minded scientist who has invented a material that counteracts gravity. This discovery enables

With an Introduction and Notes by Linda Dryden, Professor of English Literature at Edinburgh Napier University and the author of Joseph Conrad and H. G. Wells: The Fin-de Siecle-Literary Scene.At the

With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Emily Alder, Lecturer in Literature and Culture at Edinburgh Napier University 'Each time I dip a living creature into the bath of burning pain, I say: this time I

With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Andrew Frayn, Lecturer in Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture at Edinburgh Napier University. In these two compelling novels H.G. Wells imagines terrifying fu

Almayer's Folly was Conrad's outstanding debut novel: as well as exploring the culture of a part of the world previously unknown to English fiction, it showed immense sophistication in its handling of

With an Introduction by Joanna Trollope. Trollope's delightful novel recounts the fortunes of Doctor Thorne, an upright and principled country doctor, and his niece Mary. She falls in love with Frank

This is the first paperback edition to bring out in one volume Kate Chopin's extraordinary novel The Awakening (1899), along with the complete text of her two collections of short stories, Bayou Folk

Few works of American fiction have proved as enduringly popular as Harold Bell Wright's The Shepherd of the Hills. Wright's novel, first published in 1907, was an instant best seller; by 1918 the book

Richard III is one of the finest of Shakespeare's historical dramas. Although it has a huge cast, Richard himself, gleefully wicked, charismatically Machiavellian, always dominates the play: a role to

eng With an Introduction by Nicola Bradbury, University of Reading Une Vie (1883) and Bel-Ami (1885) seem almost diametrically opposed in tone and temper. The 'Life' of the first is poignantly restric

The Sea-Wolf belongs in the honorific tradition of American sea fiction where the voyage motif became a means of exploring the meaning of life, as in Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast (18

eng With an Introduction and Notes by David Rampton, Department of English, University of Ottowa. Notes from Underground and Other Stories is a comprehensive collection of Dostoevsky's short fiction.

Translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff (revised by Moya Longstaffe).With an Introduction and Notes by Moya Longstaffe. The Red and the Black has been hailed as the first great 'realist' novel of the nine

Translated by Constance Garnett Notes and Introductions by David Rampton, Department of English, University of Ottawa Gogol's works constitute one of Russian literature's supreme achievements, yet the

Like George Orwell, Franz Kafka has given his name to a world of nightmare, but in Kafka's world, it is never completely clear just what the nightmare is. The Trial, where the rules are hidden from ev

This powerful novel, Tolstoy’s third major masterpiece, after War and Peace and Anna Karenina, begins with a courtroom drama (the finest in Russian literature) all the more stunning for being based on

With an Introduction and Notes by James Fowler, Senior Lecturer in French, University of Kent Voltaire is one of the three greatest French writers of the eighteenth century. He fought against religiou

In this famous story of seduction, two highly intelligent but amoral French aristocrats plot the downfall of a respectable young married woman and a fifteen year old girl who has only just emerged fro