Penguin Group

The Eastern Front 1914-1917

Norman Stone, 1998

This groundbreaking study was the first authoritative account of the Russian Front in the First World War to be published in the West and is now reissued with a new introduction. The battles fought on the Eastern Front were decisive to the course of the war. As well as reconstructing these events, Norman Stone explores the factors that influenced their outcome and draws some unexpected conclusions. Dispelling the popular myth of an economically crippled Russia he argues that the country was, in fact, going through a period of unprecedented economic growth. Tsarist Russia's weakness lay in its outdated administration which resulted in war shortages and an inefficient Army. In a fascinating reinterpretation of the connection between the war and the revolution that followed, he shows that although military events had almost ceased by the end of 1916, Russia was still in turmoil, undergoing a period of modernization which opened the way towards revolution. Подробнее

Cruel As the Grave

Sharon K. Penman, 2006

This is the second medieval mystery from Sharon Penman, following Justin de Quincy, knight in the service of Queen Eleanor. His duty is clear: to restrain his brother Prince John in his relentless quest for the throne, and his dangerous pacts with the French king. What does the murder of an innocent pedlar's daughter in a churchyard in Cripplegate have to do with him? But little by little, Justin is ensnared in the case until he comes to feel the force of the dead girl, and thirsts to find her killer. But can he defend the Queen and solve the murder? Подробнее

Charlie

Lesley Pearse, 2007

Like every girl, Charlie is simply looking for love ... On a glorious, hot summer's day sixteen-year-old Charlie Weish's privileged childhood comes to an abrupt and terrifying end when she witnesses her mother being brutally attacked in her own garden by two strangers. Her father has disappeared and it soon becomes evident to Charlie that dark forces are at work, shattering not only her financial security but even her trust and belief in her parents. When she meets kind, funny student Andrew, his love for her helps her through the hard times and further tragedy, but before they can build a life together they must unravel the mysteries of the past and face the evil people who seek to crush them. All Charlie has to fight them with are her intelligence and determination. But will they be enough? Подробнее

Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred And Profane Memories Of Captain Charles Ryder

Evelyn Waugh, 1999

Charles Ryder, a lonely student at Oxford, is captivated by the outrageous and exquisitely beautiful Sebastian Flyte. Invited to Brideshead, Sebastian's magnificent family home, Charles welcomes the attentions of its eccentric, aristocratic inhabitants. But he also discovers a world where duty and desire, faith and earthly happiness are in conflict; a world which threatens to destroy his beloved Sebastian. Probably Waugh's best-loved work, «Brideshead Revisited» was made into a phenomenally successful television drama series, starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews. Подробнее

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Truman Capote, 1998

Meet Holly Golightly — a true original, a free-spirited, lop-sided romantic who owns a fiery red cat as wild and restless as she is. With her tousled blond hair and upturned nose, dark glasses and chic black dresses, she is top notch in the style department and a sensation wherever she goes. Her brownstone apartment vibrates with martini-soaked parties as she plays hostess to millionaires and gangsters alike. Yet Holly never loses sight of her ultimate goal — to find a real life place like Tiffany's that makes her feel at home. Подробнее

Cold Comfort Farm

Stella Gibbons, 1998

A classic of its kind, a dazzling parody of the earthy, melodramatic novels of the period. Flora Poste has been expensively educated to do everything but earn her own living. When she is orphaned at twenty, she decides her only option is to go and live with her relatives the Starkadders at «Cold Comfort Farm». What relatives, though: Judith, alone in her grief; raving old Ada Doom, who once saw something nasty in the woodshed; Amos, called by God; Seth, smouldering with sex; and Elfine, who just needs a little polish. Flora feels it incumbent upon her to bring order into the chaos. And she turns out to be remarkably good at it. Подробнее

The Outsider

Albert Camus, 1999

'Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know' Meursault will not lie. Unmoved by his mother's death, he refuses to satisfy the feelings of others by pretending grief. At the end of the funeral, he returns to his simple, batchelor existence in sun-bleached Algiers. Until he is involved in a violent murder and placed on trial. Will he now, with his life in danger, give in to society's demands and 'play the game'? Albert Camus's first novel, «The Outsider» received instant acclaim when it was published in 1942, by Gallimard in Paris, and has been translated into forty-five languages. In 1957 Camus became the youngest writer ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize. Подробнее

Goodbye to All That

Robert Graves, 1999

Robert Graves's marvellously candid self-portrait of his childhood and his experiences as a young officer in the First World War. Graves entered the war in 1914 and he describes in vivid, raw detail life in the trenches. The dehumanizing horrors he witnessed left him shell-shocked and haunted him throughout his long life. In «Goodbye to All That» he also gives a fascinating portrayal of his unhappy school days at Charterhouse, of his encounters with fellow writers and poets, and of his increasingly embittered marriage to Nancy Nicholson, before he finally went abroad in 1929, vowing 'never to make England my home again'. Подробнее

Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys, 1998

Jean Rhys's late, literary masterpiece «Wide Sargasso Sea» was inspired by Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, and is set in the lush, beguiling landscape of Jamaica in the 1830s. Born into an oppressive, colonialist society, Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent sensuality and beauty. After their marriage the rumours begin, poisoning her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is driven towards madness. Подробнее

A Passage to India

E. M. Forster, 1998

What did happen to Miss Quested in the Marabar Caves? This tantalizing question provides the intense drama at the centre of Forster's last and greatest novel, of racial tension in colonial India. After a mysterious incident during their visit to the Marabar Caves, the charming Dr Aziz is accused of assaulting Adela Quested, a naïve young Englishwoman. As he is brought to trial the fragile structure of Anglo-Indian relations collapses and the racism inherent in colonialism is exposed — a theme which still has powerful, dangerous realities today. Yet the novel is also, in Forster's words, 'about something wider than politics ... about the universe as embodied in the Indian earth and the Indian sky'. Подробнее

Age of Iron

J. M. Coetzee, 1999

In Cape Town, South Africa, an old woman is dying of cancer. A classics professor, Mrs. Curren has been opposed to the lies and brutality of apartheid all her life, but has lived insulated from its true horrors. Now she is suddenly forced to come to terms with the iron-hearted rage that the system has wrought. In an extended letter addressed to her daughter, who has long since fled to America, Mrs. Curren recounts the strange events of her dying days. She witnesses the burning of a nearby black township and discovers the bullet-riddled body of her servant's son. A teenage black activist hiding in her house is killed by security forces. And through it all, her only companion, the only person to whom she can confess her mounting anger and despair, is a homeless man, an alcoholic, who one day appears on her doorstep. Подробнее

The Art of Travel

Alain de Botton, 2003

Few activites seem to promise us as much happiness as going travelling: taking off for somewhere else, somewhere far from home, a place with more interesting weather, customs and landscapes. But although we are inundated with advice on where to travel to, we seldom ask why we go and how we might become more fulfilled by doing so. With the help of a selection of writers, artists and thinkers — including Flaubert, Edward Hopper, Wordsworth and Van Gogh — Alain de Botton's bestselling «The Art of Travel» provides invaluable insights into everything from holiday romance to hotel minibars, airports to sightseeing. The perfect antidote to those guides that tell us what to do when we get there, «The Art of Travel» tries to explain why we really went in the first place — and helpfully suggests how we might be happier on our journeys. Подробнее

Bonjour Tristesse

Francoise Sagan, 1998

The French Riviera: home to the Beautiful People. And none are more beautiful than Cécile, a precocious seventeen-year-old, and her father Raymond, a vivacious libertine. Charming, decadent and irresponsible, the golden-skinned duo are dedicated to a life of free love, fast cars and hedonistic pleasures. But then one long, hot summer Raymond decides to marry, and Cécile and her lover Cyril feel compelled to take a hand in his amours, with tragic consequences. «Bonjour Tristesse» scandalized 1950s France with its portrayal of teenager terrible Cécile, a heroine who rejects conventional notions of love, marriage and responsibility to choose her own sexual freedom. Подробнее

Tender Is the Night

F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1999

In «Tender is the Night», Fitzgerald distilled much of his tempestuous life with his wife Zelda, and the knowledge of the wrecked, fabulous Fitzgeralds adds poignancy and regret to this tender, supple and poetic portrait. To the just-fashionable French Riviera come Dick and Nicole Diver — handsome, rich, glamorous and enormous fun. Their dinners are legend, their atmosphere magnetic, their intelligence fine. But something is wrong. Nicole has a secret and Dick a weakness. Together they head towards the rocks on which their lives crash — and only one of them really survives. Подробнее

Down and Out in Paris and London

George Orwell, 1999

George Orwell's first published work, «Down and Out in Paris and London», is a vivid, sensitive account of the time he lived as one of the poor in the late twenties. In a bug-infested hotel, surviving only between the pawnbroker and a little teaching and writing, Orwell shocked the middle-class establishment with his observation of the misery, the hopelessness and the despair of the poor of a previously unexplored Paris and London. Подробнее

Steppenwolf

Hermann Hesse, 1999

This Faust-like and magical story of the humanization of a middle-aged misanthrope was described in The New York Times as a 'savage indictment of bourgeois society'. But, as the author notes in this edition, «Steppenwolf» is a book that has been consistently misinterpreted. This self-portrait of a man who felt himself to be half-human and half-wolf can also be seen as a plea for rigorous self-examination and an indictment of intellectual hypocrisy. Подробнее

Out of Africa

Karen Blixen, 1999

'I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills ... Up in this high air you breathed easily ... you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be' From the moment Karen Blixen arrived in Kenya in 1914 to manage a coffee plantation, her heart belonged to Africa. Drawn to the intense colours and ravishing landscapes, Karen Blixen spent her happiest years on the farm, and her experiences and friendships with the people around her are vividly recalled in these memoirs. «Out of Africa» is the story of a remarkable and unconventional woman, and of a way of life that has vanished for ever. «Out of Africa» was made into a highly acclaimed film, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, and won seven Oscars. Подробнее

A Room with a View

E. M. Forster, 1999

Forster's brilliant social comedy is a witty observation of the English middle classes as they holiday abroad in Florence. One of these tourists is Lucy Honeychurch, a young girl whose 'undeveloped heart' is awakened by her experiences in Italy and by her encounter with the unconventional George Emerson. Lucy finds herself torn between un-English passion and stifling Victorian propriety, personified in her pretentious fiancé Cecil Vyse and her dismal cousin Charlotte, until she learns to follow the power of her own heart. Подробнее

A Confederacy of Dunces

John Kennedy Toole, 1999

A monument to sloth, rant and contempt, a behemoth of fat, flatulence and furious suspicion of anything modern — this is Ignatius J. Reilly of New Orleans, noble crusader against a world of dunces. In magnificent revolt against the twentieth century, Ignatius propels his monstrous bulk among the flesh-pots of a fallen city, documenting life on his Big Chief tablets as he goes, until his maroon-haired mother decrees that Ignatius must work. Подробнее

The Man in the High Castle

Philip K. Dick, 1999

What if the Allies had lost the Second World War ...? The Nazis have taken over New York — the Japanese control California. In a neutral buffer zone existing between the two states an underground author offers his own vision of reality, an alternative world that offers hope to the disenchanted ... Hugo Award winner Philip K Dick is one of the most original contributors to American sci-fi, and his books were the basis for the critically acclaimed films Blade Runner and Total Recall. Подробнее

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