"Jules Verne's pioneering classic tells the story of the distinguished but eccentric Professor Lidenbrock, who finds a scrap of parchment in an old manuscript. A cipher, written in runes, tells of an entrance to another world - a world hidden beneath our own. So with his nephew reluctantly in tow, the Professor follows this cryptic clue down into a dormant volcano, and the further they descend, the more extraordinary the discoveries and creatures...
"Asser's Life of King Alfred, written in 893, is a revealing account of one of the greatest medieval kings. Composed by a monk of St David's in Wales ... this life is among the earliest surviving royal biographies ... chronicling his battles against Viking invaders and his struggle to increase the strength and knowledge of this people, and to unite them at a time of conflict, uncertainty and war. This edition also includes other contemporary sources,...
Classic fiction. "The Collector's Colour Library" takes the favourite illustrated titles of "The Collector's Library" and presents them in full colour. Original colour illustrations are faithfully reproduced, and where illustrations and decorations were originally black and white they have been sensitively coloured by Barbara Frith, one of Britain's most accomplished colourists. When Alice tumbles down a rabbit hole one hot summer's afternoon in pursuit...
A new selection of foundational works from the influential philosopher who developed the theory of mimetic desire. Rene Girard eludes easy categories, bridging the fields of literary criticism, anthropology, sociology, history, religion and theology. Influencing such writers as J. M. Coetzee and Milan Kundera, his insight into contagious violence looks ever more prophetic and relevant seven years after his death. In many ways he is the thinker for...
This collection brings together three of Simenon's most enjoyable Christmas tales, newly translated, featuring Inspector Maigret and other characters from the Maigret novels. In 'A Maigret Christmas', the Inspector receives two unexpected visitors on Christmas Day, who lead him on the trail of a mysterious intruder dressed in red and white. In 'Seven Small Crosses in a Notebook', the sound of alarms over Paris send the police on a cat and mouse chase...
"Bulosan's semi-autobiographical novel begins with the narrator's rural childhood in the Philippines and the struggles of land-poor peasant families affected by US imperialism after the Spanish American War of the late 1890s. Carlos's experiences with other Filipino migrant laborers, who endured intense racial abuse in the fields, orchards, towns, cities and canneries of California and the Pacific Northwest in the 1930s, reexamine the ideals of the...
"Part of a new six-volume series of the best in classic horror, selected by award-winning director Guillermo del Toro Filmmaker and longtime horror literature fan Guillermo del Toro serves as the curator for the Penguin Horror series, a new collection of classic tales and poems by masters of the genre. Included here are some of del Toro's favorites, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Ray Russell's short story "Sardonicus, " considered by Stephen...
"A monumental literary event: the newly discovered final novel by seminal Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay, a rich and multilayered portrayal of life in 1930s Harlem and a historical protest for black freedom. The unexpected discovery in 2009 of a completed manuscript of Claude McKay's final novel was celebrated as one of the most significant literary events in recent years. Building on the already extraordinary legacy of McKay's life and work,...
Although best known for his scientific romances that paved the way for the modern science fiction genre, H. G. Wells (1866-1946) produced significant works on politics, society, science and history. Thanks in part to his teacher, T. H. Huxley, Wells became quite interested in the works of scientists like Charles Darwin, and admired their ability to imagine and think beyond their times. When writing his 1905 novel, "A Modern Utopia", Wells drew upon...
"The groundbreaking feminist and socialist writings of Puerto Rican author and activist Luisa Capetillo. In 1915, Puerto Rican activist Luisa Capetillo was arrested and acquitted for being the first woman to wear men's trousers publicly. While this act of gender-nonconforming rebellion elevated her to feminist icon status in modern pop culture, it also overshadowed the significant contributions she made to the women's movement and anarchist labor...
"Thomas Multhus's provocative and prescient 1798 work on the dangers of population growth attracted support and violent criticism in equal measure, and has been praised, misinterpreted and remade ever since. Malthus argued, with clarity and logic, that the rate of population growth will always outstrip food production, and that social betterment comes from population control - a perennially relevant argument amid today's concerns over global resources....
Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, playing out the contrasts of city and country life and all the variations on love and...
Tacitus' 'Annals' recounts the major historical events from the years shortly before the death of Augustus to the death of Nero in AD 68. Despite his claim that the 'Annals' were written objectively, Tacitus' account is sharply critical of the emperors' excesses and fearful for the future of imperial Rome.
When Elfride Swancourt meets Stephen Smith, she is attracted not only to his handsome face and gentle bearing but also to the sense of mystery which surrounds him.
