A postmodern novel which combines a love and a detective story with a sardonic dissection of the publishing industry in an allegory of reading. Two readers attempt to finish the same book, but are com
Offering a portrait of Japanese life in the first half of the twentieth century, this book reveals the saga Makioka family struggling to marry off one of their daughters.
Presents Hitler's rise and fall through the eyes of the dwarfish narrator whose magic powers become symbolic of the dark forces dominating the German nation in the period.
One of the Wessex tales, this tells the story of the brooding, and sometimes brutal Michael Henchard and the women with whom he searches for happiness in the harsh world of 19th-century rural England.
Written during World War II and published in 1945, this is a sharp and celebrated satire on dictatorship. Orwell conveys his bleak message of man's inhumanity to man, and beast's to beast through star
Set in the Central Europe of old, this anti-war novel features a simple soldier whose determination to survive brings into question the powerful social and political institutions he confronts. A portr
First published in 1929, this draws on Hemingway's experiences of World War I, when he was badly wounded while serving with the Italians. This is a portrait of men at war which explores their deeper r
The story of a stifled woman in a provincial town who dreams of happiness and then perishes by her own hand, provides a profound and moving study of human bondage.
The heroine of this story, Edna Pontellier, goes through the stages of a compelling but ultimately tragic search for personal freedom. On publication in 1899, this book provided a frank treatment on a
While in the service of India's Nizam of Hyderbad, Marmaduke Pickthall converted to Islam, and, with the help of Muslim theologians and linguists, produced this English interpretation of the Holy Kora
This is the prose masterpiece of the Heian era of the 10th and 11th centuries, which is recognized as a great period in Japanese literature. It is an account of the intricate, exquisite, highly ordere
Includes poetry from every period in life, dealing with all the topics closest to author's heart: love, death, old age, ambition, the poet's craft, and of the history and destiny of Ireland.
A story of passion and political intrigue in which the young and impulsive Fabrizzio finds himself caught between the love of two women and the wars of their aristocratic factions. "The Charterhouse o
This volume presents a complete text of all Milton's verse. Coleridge linked Milton and Shakespeare as the greatest of English poets, and even in our time Milton continues to exert a powerful influenc
In "Nineteen eighty-four", one of the 20th century's great myth-makers takes a cold look at the future. Orwell's study of individual struggling - or not struggling - against totalitarianism remains a
Letters by the 18th century blue-stocking grande dame, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. She was a duke's daughter, who married the English ambassador in Constantinople, and the friend of Swift and Pope, who
Lizzie Eustace can manipulate men and flatter powerful women, and she's determined to make her way in the world by whatever means she can. This comedy of a society adventuress and her necklace is one
Portraying social life in fashionable Bath and centred around Catherine Morland, this novel ridicules the popular tales of romance and terror and contrasts with these the normal realities of life.
The story of Hester Prynne, taken in adultery, arraigned by her puritan community and abandoned by her husband and her lover. Combining moral force, austere beauty and psychology, it is a narrative wh
Summoned to take up the position of a land surveyor to the mysterious lord of a castle, the character known as K. finds himself in a bitter and baffling struggle to contact his new employer and go abo
These tales bring together a band of pilgrims who represented most of the occupations and social groups of the time. The diversity of the narrators in turn made possible a varied collection of tales i
A novel, in which Charles Gould returns to South America determined to make a success of the inheritance left to him by his father, the San Tome mine. But his dreams are thwarted as the country is plu
A portrayal of genius possessed, through the biography of the composer Adrian Leverkuhn, narrated by his friend Zeitblom in the years 1943-45, as Germany faces ruin.
Born in 1469, Niccolo Machiavelli undertook diplomatic missions to various courts, before his imprisonment and exile. To quote his own words, this book discusses "what a principality is, what kinds th
This complete and unabridged edition contains a biography of the author and a new introduction and afterword. Anne falls in love with Wentworth, who had nothing but himself to recommend him, and no ho
The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (AD 121-180) embodied in his person that ideal figure of antiquity, the philosopher-king. His "Meditations" reveal a mind of exceptional clarity and origina
First published in 1516, "Utopia" depicts an imaginary society free of private property, sexual discrimination and religious intolerance. Its radical humanism has had a dramatic effect on modern histo
John Keats began writing at the age of 18, and by the time he died, seven years later in 1821, he had produced a substantial number of poems. This collection contains his work - his narratives, sonnet
The fable of the scientist who creates a man-monster is one of the best known horror stories ever. It has fascinated readers ever since it was first published in 1818.
A collection of Stevenson's short stories found in one volume. Titles include "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", "Markheim", "Lodging for the Night", "Thrawn Janet", "The Body Snatcher" and "The Misadventures o
The author was well aware that the seemingly parochial power struggles that determine the action of Barchester Towers actually went to the heart of mid-Victorian English society, and had, in other tim
Left by harrowing circumstances to fend for herself in the great capital of a foreign country, Lucy Snowe, the narrator and heroine of "Villette", achieves by degrees an authentic independence from bo
Tells the story of two sisters with opposing temperaments and romantic inclinations exemplifies the distilled spirit of classicism in English literature.
These stories of the 19th-century Russian rural landscape and the difficult life of those who inhabited it were universally popular with the reading public at large and contributed in no small measure
A mixture of reality and illusion, this is the story of the besotted Don Quixote and his down-to-earth companion, the faithful Sancho Panza, who set out to right the world's wrongs in knightly combat.
A tale of quiet lives in an early 19th-century English provincial town which engages the reader at every level, from the author's chronicle of everyday details to the most exacting philosophical and m
A classic novel which follows Stephen Dedalus as he progresses from boyhood to his coming of age in Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century, describing his sexual awakening, his intellectual deve
Set in the years before and after Waterloo, the novel tells the parallel stories of two schoolfriends - the quiet, long-suffering Amelia and her brilliant, scheming friend, Becky Sharp. The novel port
Set in the post-Great War Long Island/New York world of the rich. The narrator, Nick Carraway, sympathetically records the pathos of Gatsby's romantic dream which founders on the reality of corruption
