Since their first publication in 1821, de Maistre's dark writings have fascinated and appalled critics, with their relentless hatred of the Enlightenment and view of humans as murderous beasts who can
A history play alternating between the high drama of court life and the earthy comedy of the Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap, William Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I is a masterful drama of a prodigal s
William Shakespeare's comic encore for one of his best-loved characters - the fat and foolish rogue Falstaff from Henry IV and Henry V - The Merry Wives of Windsor is edited by G.R. Hibbard with an in
A gripping historical tragedy, set during the turbulent period just before the establishment of the Roman Republic, William Shakespeare's Coriolanus is edited by G.R. Hibbard with an introduction by P
Performed variously as escapist fantasy, celebratory fiction, and political allegory, The Tempest is one of the plays in which William Shakespeare's genius as a poetic dramatist found its fullest expr
It is the seventh year of the Trojan War. The Greek army is camped outside Troy and Achilles - their military hero - refuses to fight. Inside the city Troilus, the Trojan King's son, falls in love wit
William Shakespeare's Henry VIII is a compelling history play, recreating a crucial moment in the Tudor dynasty, and the events that marked the beginning of the English Reformation. This Penguin Shake
Henry VI Part III is the third of William Shakespeare's plays set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England, and prepares the ground for one of his best-known and most controversial plays: the t
You only find true love once. When Werther dances with the beautiful Lotte, it seems as though he is in paradise. It is a joy, however, that can only ever be short-lived. Engaged to another man, she t
The ordinary folk of New Orleans seem to think he is unhinged as well. Ignatius ignores them as he heaves his bulk through the city's fleshpots in a crusade against vice, modernity and ignorance. But
In a house haunted by memories, the past is everywhere... As darkness falls, a man caught in a snowstorm is forced to shelter at the strange, grim house Wuthering Heights. It is a place he will never
Tod Hackett is a brilliant young artist - and a man in danger of losing his heart. Brought to an LA studio as a set-designer, he is soon caught up in a fantasy world where the cult of celebrity rules.
Presents the story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her.
Purity is priceless ... Count Dracula's castle is a hellish world where night is day, pleasure is pain and the blood of the innocent prized above all. Young Jonathan Harker approaches the gloomy gates
One of the great derisive monuments to the imbecilities of the tourist experience, Mark Twain's (1835-1910) account of his tour with a group of fellow Americans around the sights of Europe is both hil
Margaret's safe existence is turned upside down when she has to move to the grim northern town of Milton. Not only does she have her eyes opened by the poverty and hardship she encounters there, but s
The story of the orphan Oliver, who runs away from the workhouse only to be taken in by a den of thieves, shocked readers when it was first published. Dickens's tale of childhood innocence beset by ev
After reading A Christmas Carol, the notoriously reculsive Thomas Carlyle was 'seized with a perfect convulsion of hospitality' and threw not one but two Christmas dinner parties.
Sigmund Freud, the founder of modern psychoanalysis, remade our view of the human mind by exploring the unconscious forces that drive us. This collection of his groundbreaking writings on the psycholo
Film star George Hannaford oozes charm. Although women fall at his feet, his marriage is the most solid in the movie business. But when he sees his wife staring into another man’s eyes and returns hom
Alone in his room in a dirty Berlin pension, Ganin reminisces about Mary, his first love. He fantasizes that a fellow lodger's wife, due to arrive the next day, is his long-lost sweetheart and plots h
Exploring issues of colonialism, faith and the limits of comprehension, E.M. Forster's A Passage to India is edited by Oliver Stallybrass, with an introduction by Pankaj Mishra. When Adela Quested and
Here, for the first time in one volume, are George Orwell's complete writings on the Spanish Civil War, an experience which had a profound effect on his life and work.Homage to Catalonia, his passiona
Wu Ch'eng-en wrote "Monkey" in the middle of the 16th century, adding to an ancient Chinese legend his own touches of delicacy and humour. The result is a jumble of the absurd and the profound, of rel
Considered by many to the greatest novel ever written, Tolstoy's masterpiece is a story of family life set against the backdrop of war. The novel begins in 1805 in the crowded and gossip-filled rooms
Drawing directly on original manuscripts, this collection comprises the major short stories published after Kafka’s death. It includes The Great Wall of China, Blumfeld, An Elderly Bachelor, Investiga
A culturally-influential and celebrated author, Kafka is generally considered to be one of the most accomplished writers of the twentieth century. The term 'Kafkaesque' takes its place in the English
A brand new series of five of Woolf's major works, in beautifully designed hardback editions. Tracing the lives of a group of friends, this novel follows their development from childhood to middle age
A brand new series of five of Woolf's major works, in beautifully designed hardback editions. A Room of One's Own, based on a lecture given at Girton College Cambridge, is one of the great feminist po
Italo Calvino was due to deliver the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard in 1985-86, but they were left unfinished at his death. The surviving drafts explore of the concepts of lightness, quickne
