Penguin Group

The Penguin Guide to CDs and DVDs 2005/6

Ivan March, 2005

This new, completely revised edition of The Penguin Guide surveys the key classical recordings issued and reissued on CD over the past two decades, many of which have dominated the catalogue because of their sheer excellence, irrespective of their recording dates. Now DVDs have also been added, with their extra video dimension, as well as the sound-enhanced SACDs. If you want to be sure of acquiring the finest available version of any major classical work (including DVDs of opera and ballet) you will find it listed and assessed in these pages — often with alternatives of comparable excellence and price. For those just embarking on a classical CD collection, there is invaluable advice on which works to sample. Подробнее

Popular Classics The Age of Innocence

Whapton, 2007

The return of the beautiful Countess Olenska into the rigidly conventional society of New York sends reverberations throughout the upper reaches of society. Newland Archer, an eligible young man of the establishment is about to announce his engagement to May Welland, a pretty ingénue, when May's cousin, Countess Olenska, is introduced into their circle. The Countess brings with her an aura of European sophistication and a hint of scandal, having left her husband and claimed her independence. Her sorrowful eyes, her tragic worldliness and her air of unapproachability attract the sensitive Newland and, almost against their will, a passionate bond develops between them. But Archer's life has no place for passion and, with society on the side of May and all she stands for, he finds himself drawn into a bitter conflict between love and duty. Подробнее

Popular Classics Mansfield Park

Austen Jane, 2007

At the age of ten, shy, vulnerable Fanny Price leaves behind her impoverished family in Portsmouth to go and live with her rich relatives at Mansfield Park. Growing up with her cousins Tom, Edmund, Maria and Julia, she is aware that she is different from them and that her place in society cannot be taken for granted, although she is not treated unkindly. A dashing couple from London, Mary Crawford and her brother Henry, enter this stable, rural world. They succeed in dazzling everyone ant Mansfield Park, except for Fanny, who sees through their shallow veneer. Throughout the dramatic events that follow it is she who is able the bring back some stability to the ruptured lives of those around her. One of the great novels of the nineteenth century, Mansfield Park echoes Jane Austen's fears and awareness of the dawn of a modern age, which was to bring about a complete break from the old country traditions and way of life. Подробнее

Popular Classics The Turn of the Screw

James, 2007

The narrator is a young governess, sent off to a country house to take charge of two orphaned children. She finds a pleasant house and a comfortable housekeeper, while the children are beautiful and charming. But she soon begins to feel the presence of intense evil. Подробнее

Popular Classics Vanity Fair

Thackeray William Makepeace, 2007

Vanity Fair, Thackeray's panoramic, satirical saga of corruption at all levels of English society, was published in 1847 but set during the Napoleonic Wars. It chronicles the lives of two women who could not be more different: Becky Sharp, an orphan whose only resources are her vast ambitions, her native wit, and her loose morals; and her schoolmate Amelia Sedley, a typically naive Victorian heroine, the pampered daughter of a wealthy family. Becky's fluctuating fortunes eventually bring her to an affair with Amelia's dissolute husband; when he is killed at Waterloo, Amelia and her child are left penniless, while Becky and her husband Rawdon Crawley rise in the world, managing to lead a high life in London solely on the basis of their shrewdness. (The chapter entitled «How to Live on Nothing» is a classic.) Thackeray's subtitle, «A Novel Without a Hero», is understating the case; his view of humanity in this novel is distinctly bleak and deliberately antiheroic. Critics of the time misunderstood the book, decrying it as (among other things) vicious, vile, and odious. But VANITY FAIR has endured as one of the great comic novels of all time, and a landmark in the history of realism in fiction. Подробнее

The Woman in White

Collins Wilkie, 2007

The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter is drawn into the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with psychological realism. Подробнее

1984

Orwell George, 1950

Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, Orwell’s narrative is timelier than ever. 1984 presents a startling and haunting vision of the world, so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the power of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of multiple generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions — a legacy that seems only to grow with the passage of time. Подробнее

Animal Farm

George Orwell, 1996

As ferociously fresh as it was more than a half century ago, this remarkable allegory of a downtrodden society of overworked, mistreated animals and their quest to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality is one of the most scathing satires ever published. As readers witness the rise and bloody fall of the revolutionary animals, they begin to recognize the seeds of totalitarianism in the most idealistic organization—and in the most charismatic leaders, the souls of the cruelest oppressors. Подробнее

Appointment With Death

Christie Agatha, 1997

During his first night in Jerusalem, Hercule Poirot overhears a series of ominous words, and when a holiday tour ends abruptly in the murder of a much hated tourist , the words come back to haunt him, but he soon discovers that many of his fellow travelers have a motive for murder. Подробнее

Bear and Dragon

Clancy Tom, 2001

President Jack Ryan faces a world crisis unlike any he has ever known. A high-level assassination attempt in Russia has the newly elected Ryan sending his most trusted eyes and ears-including antiterrorism specialist John Clark-to Moscow, for he fears the worst is yet to come. And he's right. Подробнее

Cat Who Walks Through Wall

Heinlein Robert A., 1996

Framed for murder, married to the exquisite Gwen Novak, fleeing for his life in the Wild West free enterprise zones of the moon, Colonel Colin Campbell (23rd century writer, traveller and bon viveur) is pursued by mysterious forces. Heinlein is also the author of «Stranger in a Strange Land». Подробнее

Chapterhouse: Dune

Herbert Frank, 1991

The desert planet Arrakis, called Dune, has been destroyed. Now, the Bene Gesserit, heirs to Dune's power, have colonized a green world—and are turning it into a desert, mile by scorched mile Here is the last book Frank Herbert wrote before his death: A stunning climax to the epic Dune legend that will live on forever... Подробнее

Clear and Present Danger

Clancy Tom, 2008

The controversial bestseller from Tom Clancy, the all-time master of the techno-thriller. CIA Deputy Director Jack Ryan joins the war on drugs. And when three American officials are assassinated in Colombia, the U.S. response is swift-and shocking. Подробнее

Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Twain Mark, 2004

In this acclaimed tour de force, Twain moves from broad comedy to biting social satire, from the pure joy of wild high jinks to deeply probing insights into the nature of man. Features a new Introduction by Leland Krauth. Подробнее

Dark Half

King Stephen, 1995

Evidence indicates that Thad Beaumont whose novels seem to be the product of a twisted imagination, may just be quilty of a series of monstrous murders. Подробнее

Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger

King Stephen, 2003

Roland, the world’s last gunslinger, tracks an enigmatic Man in Black toward a forbidding dark tower, fighting forces both mortal and other-worldly on his quest. Подробнее

Dark Tower III: Waste Lands

King Stephen, 2003

Roland, The Last Gunslinger, moves ever closer to The Dark Tower of his dreams-and nightmares-as he crosses a desert of damnation in a macabre world that is a twisted image of our own... Подробнее

Desperation

King Stephen, 2000

Now repackaged with stunning new cover art, this #1 bestseller is a chilling story set in a lonely Nevada town where the evil embedded in the landscape is awesome — but so are the forces summoned to combat it. Reissue. Подробнее

Different Seasons

King Stephen, 2002

»Buy Different Seasons. I promise you'll enjoy it... He creates people who are so alive, yоu can almost sense them.» Minneapolis Star Tribune «The wondrous readability of his work, as well as the instant sense of communication with his characters, is what makes King the consummate storyteller that he is.» Подробнее

Doctor Faustus

Marlowe Christopher, 2008

Based on the legend of an early sixteenth-century astrologer and necromancer. Doctor Faustus is an enduring tale of the brilliant mind of a mortal man — and the soul he sold to the devil... This new edition includes a revised introduction, a history of the play on stage, and an updated bibliography by the editor, Sylvan Barnet of Tufts University. Подробнее

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