Wordsworth

Herman Melville, 1998

Melville's short stories are masterpieces. The best are to be appreciated on more than one level and those presented here are rich with symbolism and spiritual depth. Set in 1797, Billy Budd, Foretopman exploits the tension of this period during the war between England and France to create a tale of satanic treachery, tragedy and great pathos that explores human relationships and the inherently ambiguous nature of man-made justice. Tales such as Bartleby, Benito Cereno, The Lightning Rod Man, The Tartarus of Maids or I and My Chimney, show the timeless poetic power of Melville's writing as he consciously uses the disguise of allegory in various ways and to various ends. Подробнее

Black Beauty

Anna Sewell, 1993

Black Beauty had a fine, soft black coat, one white foot and a silver star on his forehead. This tale tells of the horse's adventures and the disappointments and joys that surround him. Подробнее

The Black Veil and Other Tales of Supernatural Sleuths

Mark Valentine, 2008

The Gateway of the Monster… The Red Hand… The Ghost Hunter To Sherlock Holmes the supernatural was a closed book: but other great detectives have always been ready to do battle with the dark instead. This volume brings together sixteen chilling cases of these supernatural sleuths, pitting themselves against the peril of ultimate evil. Here are encounters from the casebooks of the Victorian haunted house investigators John Bell and Flaxman Low, from Carnacki, the Edwardian battler against the abyss, and from horror master Arthur Machen’s Mr Dyson, a man-about-town and meddler in strange things. Connoisseurs will find rare cases such as those of Allen Upward’s The Ghost Hunter, Robert Barr’s Eugene Valmont (who may have inspired Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot) and Donald Campbell’s young explorer Leslie Vane, the James Bond of the jazz age, who battles against occult enemies of the British Empire. And the collection is completed by some of the best tales from the pens of modern psychic sleuth authors. Подробнее

Bleak House

Charles Dickens, 1993

Bleak House is one of Dickens' finest achievements, establishing his reputation as a serious and mature novelist, as well as a brilliant comic writer. It is at once a complex mystery story that fully engages the reader in the work of detection, and an unforgettable indictment of an indifferent society. Its representations of a great city's underworld, and of the law's corruption and delay, draw upon the author's personal knowledge and experience. But it is his symbolic art that projects these things in a vision that embraces black comedy, cosmic farce, and tragic ruin. In a unique creative experiment, Dickens divides the narrative between his heroine, Esther Summerson, who is psychologically interesting in her own right, and an unnamed narrator whose perspective both complements and challenges hers. Подробнее

The Wordsworth Book of First World War Poetry

Marcus Clapham, 1995

The First World War was one of seemingly endless and unremitting waste and sacrifice. Who will remember, passing through this Gate, The unheroic Dead who fed the guns? was Siegfried Sassoon's anguished cry for those whose sacrifice seemed futile. Yet eighty years later it is because of Sassoon and his fellow poets — Owen, Rosenberg, Sorley and many others — that we do remember. This new anthology will serve as an introduction to the poetry of that great conflict, and the inclusion of a number of rarely anthologised poets, many from the ranks, as well as anonymous poems and songs, serves to bring a quality of freshness to the selection. Подробнее

Book of Humorous Quotations

Connie Robertson, 2004

From Oscar Wilde's witty observation in Lady Windermere's Fan that 'I can resist everything except temptation', to Zsa Zsa Gabor's admission that 'I know nothing about sex, because I was always married', and by way of Woody Allen's numerous bon mots to the anonymous definition of psychiatry as being 'the care of the id by the odd', Connie Robertson has woven together a hilarious, stimulating and thought-provoking collection of the best humorous quotations which will provide the reader with much to ponder over long after the book has been put aside. The Wordsworth Book of Humorous Quotations will delight the browser and the simply curious while also providing the student, journalist and after-dinner speaker with a wealth of valuable material. Подробнее

The Book of Hymns

Martin Manser, 2008

The Wordsworth Book of Hymns is a fresh anthology of favourite hymns. This inspiring selection has such time-honoured favourites as the harvest 'We plough the fields and scatter', the Christmas 'O come all ye faithful', as well as hymns suitable for weddings 'Love divine, all loves excelling' and even funerals 'The Lord's my Shepherd'. Hymns have always played a significant role in our cultural heritage and this new selection is ideal for use both in planning services and also personal devotion. Подробнее

Book of Limericks

Linda Marsh, 1997

While no collection of limericks can claim to be ‘complete', The Wordsworth Book of Limericks contains an astonishing collection of over 1,800 verses — all of them comical, and a great number so far from cleanliness as to verge on the obscene. This is not a book for the prurient, but it will give enormous pleasure to all who relish the unique art-form of the limerick. Whether this book is kept by the bed or by the loo, perhaps buyers should ask themselves the question that Mervyn Griffith-Jones QC put to the Lady Chatterly jury in 1960: 'Is this a book you would even wish your wife or your servants to read?' Подробнее

The Book of the Kings and Queens of Britain

G.S.P Freeman-Grenville, 1997

Dr G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville was the consultant for Burke's Royal Families of the World, and his major work was the Chronology of World History. This specially commissioned Book of the Kings & Queens of Britain, a magisterial and entertainingly written overview of British monarchs from Cerdic, First King of Wessex, to George VI, is an invaluable guide to the regal chronology of Britain, and contains many insights into the foibles of one of the world's most interesting and resilient constitutional monarchies — through the vagaries of war, pestilence, regicide, civil wars and marriage. Подробнее

Call of the Wild and White Fang

Jack London, 1992

The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906) are world famous animal stories. Set in Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s, The Call of the Wild is about Buck, the magnificent cross-bred offspring of a St Bernard and a Scottish Collie. Stolen from his pampered life on a Californian estate and shipped to the Klondike to work as a sledge dog, he triumphs over his circumstances and becomes the leader of a wolf pack. The story records the ‘decivilisation’ of Buck as he answers ‘the call of the wild’, an inherent memory of primeval origins to which he instinctively responds. In contrast, White Fang relates the tale of a wolf born and bred in the wild which is civilised by the master he comes to trust and love. The brutal world of the Klondike miners and their dogs is brilliantly evoked and Jack London’s rendering of the sentient life of Buck and White Fang as they confront their destiny is enthralling and convincing. The deeper resonance of these stories derives from the author’s use of the myth of the hero who survives by strength and courage, a powerful myth that still appeals to our collective unconscious. Подробнее

The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer, 2002

The Canterbury Tales tells the story of 30 pilgrims who meet by chance at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, London, and journey together to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury cathedral. To pass the time along the way, they tell stories to one another. This new transcription and edition is taken from British Library MS Harley 7334, a beautifully-decorated, volume produced within ten years of Chaucer’s death. The aim of the present edition, with its ‘on-page’ notes and glosses, is to enable readers with little or no previous experience of Medieval English to read and enjoy this landmark in English Literature. Подробнее

The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1993

This volume completes the canon of the illustrated Sherlock Holmes stories, reprinted from The Strand Magazine. It contains the short story series “Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes, The Valley of Fear” — a sinister novella which appeared in 1914-15 – “His Last Bow: The War Service of Sherlock Holmes” and the last 12 stories “The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes”. Подробнее

The Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost Finder

W.H. Hodgson, 2006

Thomas Carnacki is a ghost finder, an Edwardian psychic detective, investigating a wide range of terrifying hauntings presented in the nine stories in this complete collection of his adventures. Encountering such spine-chilling phenomena as 'The Whistling Room', the life-threatening dangers of the phantom steed in 'The Horse of the Invisible' and the demons from the outside world in 'The Hog', Carnacki is constantly challenged by spiritual forces beyond our knowledge. To complicate matters, he encounters human skullduggery also. Armed with a camera, his Electric Pentacle and various ancient tomes on magic, Carnacki faces the various dangers his supernatural investigations present with great courage. These exciting and frightening stories have long been out of print. Now readers can thrill to them again in this new Wordsworth series. Подробнее

A Child's Garden of Verses

Robert Louis Stevenson, 1994

The 64 poems in “A Child's Garden of Verses” are a masterly evocation of childhood from the author of “Treasure Island” and “Kidnapped”. They are full of delightful irony, wit and the fantasy worlds of childhood imagination, and introduce for the first time the Land of Nod. But they are also touched with a genuine and gentle pathos at times as they recall a world which seems so far away from us now. This edition, which includes Charles Robinson's charming illustrations and vignettes, is described as the definitive edition by “The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature”. Подробнее

Children of the Night: Classic Vampire Stories

D.S. Davies, 2007

Vampires, those dark children of the night, who rise from their coffins to suck the blood of the living, continue to hold a strange fascination and dread. In this unique collection of vampire stories you will find some of the earliest depictions of these fearful creatures as in John Polidori’s «The Vampyre» and James Malcolm Rymer’s «Varney the Vampyre», a tale which held readers in thrall when it was first published in the mid-nineteenth century. As well as these rare stories and those featuring the more well known bloodsuckers such as Le Fanu’s «Carmilla» and Stoker’s «Dracula», there is a clutch of lesser known but equally frightening tales written by expert practitioners in the art of raising goose pimples. «Children of the Night» is a volume filled with the rich blood of chilling vampire fiction. Подробнее

The Children of the New Forest

Captain Marryatt, 1993

Cavalier and Roundhead battle it out in the turbulent setting of the English Civil war and provide the background for this classic tale of four orphans as they face adversity, survival in the forest, reconciliation and eventual forgiveness. This is the first enduring historical novel for children, which conjures up as much magic today as it did on first publication. The freedom from adult constraint allied with the necessary disciplines to survive in a hostile world make for a gripping read. Подробнее

Children's Classic Tales »Tales from Shakespeare», written by Charles and Mary Lamb as an 'introduction to the study of Shakespeare', are much more entertaining than that. All of Shakespeare's best-loved plays, comic and tragic, are retold in a clear and robust style. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. «Tales from King Arthur», edited by Andrew Lang, takes the reader into the romantic world of the gallant Knights of the Round Table. It tells of their brave and chivalrous deeds, fair maidens, the quest for the Holy Grail, and the tragic love of King Arthur for Guinevere. The most potent of the mist-enshrouded tales of adventure passed down from pre-recorded history, the Arthurian legends have as much appeal today as they did in the days of the troubadors. «Tales from the Arabian Nights», also edited by Andrew Lang, tells of the beautiful Scheherazade. Her husband has threatened to kill her, so each night she diverts him with tales of fantastic adventure, leaving each story unfinished so that he spares her life to hear the ending on the morrow. Illustrated by H.J Ford, the tales include Aladdin, The Enchanted Horse, Sinbad the Sailor and the great Caliph of Bagdad, Haroun-al-Raschid. «Tales of Troy and Greece» allow Andrew Lang to draw on his classical knowledge to retell the Homeric legend of the wars between the Greeks and the Trojans. Paris, the lovely Helen of Troy, Achilles, Hector, Ulysses, the Amazons and the famous Wooden Horse all feature in this magical introduction to one of the greatest legends ever told. Подробнее

Christmas Books

Charles Dickens, 1995

Each of these short stories was written specifically for Christmas. They combine concern for social ills with the myths and memories of childhood and traditional Christmas spirit-lore. The stories include «A Christmas Carol», «The Chimes», «The Battle of Life» and «The Cricket on the Hearth». Подробнее

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens, 1993

Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly old skinflint. He hates everyone, especially children. But at Christmas three ghosts come to visit him, scare him into mending his ways, and he finds, as he celebrates with Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and their family, that geniality brings its own reward. Подробнее

Classic Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories

Rex Collings, 2008

This is a book to be read by a blazing fire on a winter's night, with the curtains drawn close and the doors securely locked. The unquiet souls of the dead, both as fictional creations and as 'real' apparitions, roam the pages of this haunting new selection of ghost stories by Rex Collings. Some of these stories are classics while others are lesser-known gems unearthed from this vintage era of tales of the supernatural. There are stories from distant lands — Fisher's Ghost by John Lang is set in Australia and A Ghostly Manifestation by 'A Clergyman' is set in Calcutta. In this selection, Sir Walter Scott (a Victorian in spirit if not in fact), keeps company with Edgar Allen Poe, Sheridan Le Fanu and other illustrious masters of the genre. Подробнее

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