Originally told by Rudyard Kipling to his children at bedtime, this compendium of witty tales imagines how animals came to be as they are now. Discover how the massive whale got a tiny throat by swall
For two and a half thousand years The Art of War has been the core text of military strategy and planning, providing leaders with enduring insights into tactics, psychology, discipline and the nature
“In the autumn month of September, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven… two idle apprentices, exhausted by the long, hot summer, and the long, hot work it had brought with it, ran away from their employe
Having grown up in London and rural southern England, Margaret Hale moves with her father to the northern industrial city of Milton. She is shocked by the poverty she encounters and dismayed by the un
Four women, with very different backgrounds and characters – the artless Lottie Wilkins, the pious Rose Arbuthnot, the cantankerous Mrs Fisher and the haughty Lady Caroline Dester – respond to an adve
When an army of invading Martians lands in England, panic and terror seize the population. As the aliens traverse the country in huge three-legged machines, incinerating all in their path with a heat
Shakespeare's Sonnets are among the most lyrical and moving pieces of poetry in any language, abounding with examples of his genius for wordplay, rhythm and metaphor and dealing with the eternal theme
Lassie Come-Home is one of the best-loved dog stories in the world. Presented here with illustrations by Gary Blythe and an extra section for young readers.Everyone in the Yorkshire town of Greenall B
Part of Alma Classics Evergreen series at GBP4.99, this edition pictures and section on Bronte's life and works. With characters that are as unforgettable as the story they enact, and a striking use o
On a cold morning, at daybreak, the 304th New York Regiment is waiting to engage with the Confederate army by a river. Among the soldiers is eighteen-year-old volunteer Henry Fleming, who has enlisted
On a visit to a provincial town to see his sister Nina who is suffering from cancer, Alexei Laptev, who works for his father’s Moscow haberdashery business, falls in love with Yulia, the daughter of h
In ‘The Waves’, a young man falls dangerously in love with his tenant downstairs who is about to get married; in ‘The Signorina’, a woman, disillusioned with her suitor’s inability to declare his feel
With Sherlock Holmes's reputation as the scourge of the criminal underworld preceding him, the ingenious detective, with the aid of Dr Watson, is confronted in these stories by some of his most fiendi
One of the classics of American children's literature, Daddy-Long-Legs tells the tale of Judy Abbott – an ebullient orphan beginning a college degree with the aim of becoming a writer – through her le
John Dolittle is a highly respected doctor in the village of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh, yet he loves animals so much that his house is soon full of them. With all his patients scared away, and the expense
An orphan child full of mischief, Jack lives with his crotchety widow aunt in eighteenth-century England. His naughtiness knows no limits, and when one day he goes a step too far, Aunt Constance decid
The mysterious Griffin arrives at a picturesque English inn during a snowstorm, swaddled in bandages which cover his face and with his eyes hidden behind dark glasses. His odd get-up and irascible beh
Zazie has just received a beautiful new notebook, and decides to keep a diary. Brimming with imagination, she writes down herimpressions of her cat Roudoudou, her awful cousin Lucas and her new teache
"She looked so irresistibly beautiful as she said those brave words that no man alive could have steeled his heart against her."In love with the beautiful heiress Laura Fairlie, the impoverished art t
A unique collection which includes 8 stories about the dark side of adolescence. They beautifully illustrated by Quentin Blake.The local landowner Van Cheele experiences an unnerving encounter with a
A brand-new translation of one of the most popular classics of all time, presented along with rarer Kafka storiesWhen the young salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning transformed into a monstrous
New, lavishly produced paperback with a beautiful cover with foil and illustrations by Art Deco artist George Barbier. Here presented in a new fully edited and annotated version, it contains an extens
As the sensitive and delicate Gertrude begins to shrink from her drunken and violent husband, their marriage becomes a battleground. Gertrude turns increasingly towards her two eldest sons, William an
When professor of phonetics Henry Higgins wages with Colonel Pickering that he could teach even a gutter-mouthed flower seller how to speak like a duchess, little does he expect that his social experi
Deeply bored by the lack of mental stimulus and the dull routine of existence, Sherlock Holmes is about to resort to his daily dose of cocaine in order to get a thrill, when an elegantly dressed young
Having been accused of theft and hounded out of a religious community many years previously, the weaver Silas Marner now lives alone in the village of Raveloe, hoarding the precious wealth he earns. B
Ravaged by years of war and civil conflict, Britain has changed its name to Airstrip One and become part of Oceania – one of the three totalitarian blocks dominating the world – which is ruled by a se
Under the feckless husbandry of Mr Jones, Manor Farm has fallen into disrepair. Pushed into hardship, the animals decide to stage a revolt, and led by two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, they overt
The lowly, downtrodden Paris civil servant Jean Folantin seeks respite from the boredom and isolation of his life in the small joys of food and the occasional embraces of a prostitute. But whatever he
The shop owner Adolf Verloc, member of an anarchist group and secret agent for a foreign government, is summoned to meet Mr Vladimir, the country’s ambassador, and told of a plot that involves him pla
When the adventurer Allan Quartermain is asked by Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good to help them find Sir Henry’s missing brother, who was last seen trekking into the remote African interior in search
Having lived in the city of Orphalese for twelve years, the revered Prophet is about to board a ship taking him back to the isle of his birth. Before he departs, a group of people gather round and ask
Rising from humble beginnings as a foundling, Castruccio Castracani came to prominence as one of the most powerful and shrewd warlords in Italy. Indeed, Machiavelli argues, so great was his vigour and
Born in Newgate Prison to an incarcerated mother, Moll Flanders is compelled from earliest childhood to make her own way in the world and to live off her wit and beauty. Her desire to climb the rungs
At a train station on her way to meet her friends Marie and Leo to recover her pet rock, Madame Charlotte accidentally picks up the Prime Minister’s elephant-hide bag instead of her own. As it contain
After the death of his father, the seventeen-year-old orphan David Balfour discovers the existence of an uncle, and sets off in search of him. His uncle Ebenezer is far from welcoming, however, and Da
"Kimball O’Hara, the orphaned son of an Irish soldier, spends his childhood on the bustling streets of Lahore, begging and running errands in order to survive. One day he meets an old Tibetan lama, an
Presented through an ingeniously overlapping and intertwining series of letters written by six very different characters, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker is the story of Squire Matthew Bramble and h
