Wordsworth

Utopia

Thomas More, 1997

More's 'Utopia' is a complex, innovative and penetrating contribution to political thought, culminating in the famous 'description' of the Utopians, who live according to the principles of natural law, but are receptive to Christian teachings, who hold all possessions in common, and view gold as worthless. Подробнее

Vintage Mystery and Detective Stories

David Stuart Davies, 2006

A richly entertaining and exciting collection of mystery and detective stories from the golden age of crime fiction. This was a period when crimes were solved by the wit and ingenuity of the sleuth who only had his own intelligence to rely on rather than a battery of scientific devices and procedures employed by the modern crime solver. Within these pages you will meet such fascinating sleuths as G.K. Chesterton's Mr Pond, Ernest Bramah's remarkable blind detective, Max Carrados, who can read newspapers by allowing his sensitive fingers to run over the print, Craig Kennedy, 'the American Sherlock Holmes' created by Arthur B. Reeve, and Jacques Futrelle's Professor S.F.X. Van Dusen, 'The Thinking Machine' amongst others. Tales by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Arnold Bennett, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle will thrill and puzzle you. Подробнее

The Virgin and the Gipsy and Other Stories

D.H. Lawrence, 2004

These stories of myth and resurrection, of uncanny events and violent impulse, were with one exception written and published in the latter half of the 1920s, coinciding with the composition of Lawrence's controversial masterpiece «Lady Chatterley's Lover». At this time Lawrence declared himself to be 'really awful sick of writing'; yet here we find some of his most beautiful, hauntingly melancholy fictions. In struggling to escape from their thwarted lives and to achieve human 'tenderness', the characters embody and continue the major preoccupations of Lawrence's work as a whole. «Love Among the Haystacks» provides an early illustration of the intensity and innovation which made Lawrence one of the most distinctive and important of twentieth-century writers. Подробнее

The Voyages of Captain Cook

James Cook, 1999

Cook's three voyages of discovery, which took place between 1768 and 1779, are among the most remarkable achievements in the history of exploration. Cook charted vast areas of the globe with astonishing accuracy, and the voyages also made a significant contribution towards solving some of the great problems of cartography and navigation. With crews containing gifted sailors and navigators, as well as botanists, painters and scientists, Cook provides the link between the speculative, profit-hungry voyages of the Elizabethan seafarers and the scientific expeditions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Подробнее

Wagner the Werewolf

George Reynolds, 2006

In the midst of a wood of evergreens on the banks of the Arno, a man — young, handsome, and splendidly attired — has thrown himself upon the ground, where he writhes like a stricken serpent. He is the prey of a demoniac excitement: an appalling consternation is upon him — madness is in his brain — his mind is on fire. Lightnings appear to gleam from his eyes — as if his soul were dismayed, and withering within his breast. 'Oh! no-no!' he cries with a piercing shriek, as if wrestling madly — furiously — but vainly, against some unseen fiend that holds him in his grasp. Aged and deserted, Fernand Wagner agrees to serve John Faust for the last year of his life. In return he is given youth, wealth and beauty — but at the terrible price of becoming a werewolf. He loves the glacial, beautiful, sensual Nisida, whose family history conceals a dreadful secret. Together, they flee from Florence to a desert island: but dogged by the Inquisition, and by the might of the Ottoman Empire, they are finally forced to face the horror that lurks in the closet... First published in 1847, «Wagner the Werewolf» is one of the very earliest treatments of the Werewolf theme in English literature, and has lost none of its power to shock, it is one of the greatest works of George W. M. Reynolds, once the most popular author in England, and the «Master of the Penny Dreadful». Подробнее

Washington Square

Henry James, 2001

»Washington Square» marks the culmination of James’s apprentice period as a novelist. With sharply focused attention upon just four principal characters, James provides an acute analysis of middle-class manners and behaviour in the New York of the 1870’s, a period of great change in the life of the city. This change is explored through the device of setting the novel's action during the 1840s, similarly a period of considerable turbulence as the United States experienced the onset of rapid commercial and industrial expansion. Through the relationships between Austin Sloper, a celebrated physician, and his sister Lavinia Penniman, his daughter Catherine, and Catherine's suitor, Morris Townsend, James observes the contemporary scene as a site of competing styles and performances where authentic expression cannot be articulated or is subject to suppression. Подробнее

The Water Babies

Charles Kingsley, 1994

Tom, a poor orphan, is employed by the villainous chimney-sweep, Grimes, to climb up inside flues to clear away the soot. While engaged in this dreadful task, he loses his way and emerges in the bedroom of Ellie, the young daughter of the house who mistakes him for a thief. He runs away, and, hot and bothered, he slips into a cooling stream, falls asleep, and becomes a Water Baby. In his new life, he meets all sorts of aquatic creatures, including an engaging old lobster, other water babies, and at last reaches St Branden's Isle where he encounters the fierce Mrs Bedonebyeasyoudid and the motherly Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby. After a long and arduous quest to the Other-end-of-Nowhere young Tom achieves his heart's desire. Подробнее

The Waves

Virginia Woolf, 2000

'I am writing to a rhythm and not to a plot', Virginia Woolf stated of her eighth novel, «The Waves». Widely regarded as one of her greatest and most original works, it conveys the rhythms of life in synchrony with the cycle of nature and the passage of time. Six children — Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny and Louis — meet in a garden close to the sea, their voices sounding over the constant echo of the waves that roll back and forth from the shore. The subsequent continuity of these six main characters, as they develop from childhood to maturity and follow different passions and ambitions, is interspersed with interludes from the timeless and unifying chorus of nature.In pure stream-of-consciousness style, Woolf presents a cross-section of multiple yet parallel lives, each marked by the disintegrating force of a mutual tragedy. «The Waves» is her searching exploration of individual and collective identity, and the observations and emotions of life, from the simplicity and surging optimism of youth to the vacancy and despair of middle-age. Подробнее

The Way We Live Now

Anthony Trollope, 1995

The tough-mindedness of the social satire in and its air of palpable integrity give this novel a special place in Anthony Trollope's Literary career. Trollope paints a picture as panoramic as his title promises, of the life of 1870s London, the loves of those drawn to and through the city, and the career of Augustus Melmotte. Melmotte is one of the Victorian novel’s greatest and strangest creations, and is an achievement undimmed by the passage of time. Trollope's 'Now' might, in the twenty-first century, look like some distant disenchanted 'Then', but this is still the yesterday which we must understand in order to make proper sense of our today. Подробнее

The Well of Loneliness

Radclyffe Hall, 2006

'As a man loved a woman, that was how I loved...It was good, good, good...' Stephen is an ideal child of aristocratic parents — a fencer, a horse rider and a keen scholar. Stephen grows to be a war hero, a bestselling writer and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. As her ambitions drive her, and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions. «The Well of Loneliness» was banned for obscenity when published in 1928. It became an international bestseller, and for decades was the single most famous lesbian novel. It has influenced how love between women is understood, for the twentieth century and beyond. Подробнее

The Well-Beloved

Thomas Hardy, 2000

»The Well-Beloved» completes the cycle of Hardy's great novels, reiterating his favourite themes of man's eternal quest for perfection in both love and art, and the suffering that ensues. Jocelyn Pierston, celebrated sculptor, tries to create an image of his ideal woman — his imaginary «Well-Beloved» — in stone, just as he tries to find her in the flesh. Powerful symbolism marks this romantic fantasy that Hardy has grounded firmly in reality with a characteristically authentic rendering of location, the Isle of Slingers, or Portland as we know it. Overt exploration of the relationship between erotic fascination and creativity makes this novel a nineteenth-century landmark in the persistent debate about art, aesthetics and gender. Подробнее

The Werewolf Pack

Mark Valentine, 2008

The wolf has always been a creature of legend and romance, while kings, sorcerers and outlaws have been proud to be called by the name of the wolf, it’s no wonder, then, that tales of transformation between man and wolf are so powerful and persistent. This original collection offers some of the greatest, rarest and most unusual werewolf stories ever. From the forests of Transylvania to the ordered lawns of an English country estate, here are all the classic aspects of the tale. You will encounter shadows that lope under the moon, chilling howls, family curses, crimson feasts, the desperate chase and the deathly duel. But you will also find the werewolf in less expected guises – as an adversary for Sherlock Holmes, as a myth of the Wild West, and as a figure restored to its origins in folk and fairy tales. With an informative introduction by Mark Valentine that follows the traces of the werewolf in literature, and its links to «Dracula», «Jekyll & Hyde», and «The Hound of the Baskervilles», this superb collection will make you fear the full moon. Подробнее

Wessex Tales

Thomas Hardy, 1995

»Wessex Tales» was the first collection of Hardy's short stories, and they reflect the experience of a novelist at the height of his powers. These seven tales, in which characters and scenes are imbued with a haunting realism, show considerable diversity of content, form and style, and range from fantasy to realism and from tragedy to comedy. Подробнее

What Maisie Knew

Henry James, 2002

The child of parents who divorce, remarry and then embark on adulterous affairs, Maisie Farange survives by her intelligence and spirit. For all its sombre theme of childhood innocence exposed to a corrupted adult world, this novel is one of James’s comic masterpieces. The outrageous behaviour of the characters on the seedy fringes of the English upper class is conveyed with wit and relish. The dual perspective of a sophisticated narrator richly appreciative of the absurdities of the adult sexual merry-go-round and the candid vision of Maisie, 'rebounding' from one parent to another like a 'shuttlecock', together create an 'associational magic'. Strangely, unexpectedly, from so much that is tawdry, comes a tale of moral energy and subtlety. James’s foresight was in understanding the modernity of his subject, which is even more relevant today in the twenty-first century. Подробнее

The Whisperer in Darkness: Collected Stories Vol: 1

H.P. Lovecraft, 2007

Millenia ago, the Old Ones ruled our planet. Since that time, they have but slumbered. But when a massive sea tremor brings the ancient stone city of R'lyeh to the surface once more, the Old Ones awaken at last. «The Whisperer in Darkness» brings together the original Cthulhu Mythos stories of the legendary horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. Included in this volume are several early tales, along with the classics «The Call of Cthulhu», «The Dunwich Horror» and «At the Mountains of Madness». Arm yourself with a copy of Abdul Alhazred's fabled Necronomican and prepare to face terrors beyond the wildest imaginings of all save H.P. Lovecraft. Подробнее

The Winter's Tale

William Shakespeare, 1995

»The Winter's Tale», one of Shakespeare's later romantic comedies, offers a striking and challenging mixture of tragic and violent events, lyrical love-speeches, farcical comedy, pastoral song and dance, and, eventually, dramatic revelations and reunions. Thematically, there is a rich orchestration of the contrasts between age and youth, corruption and innocence, decline and regeneration. Both Leontes' murderous jealousy and Perdita's love-relationship with Florizel are eloquently intense. In the theatre, «The Winter's Tale» often proves to be diversely entertaining and deeply moving. Подробнее

Wives and Daughters

Elizabeth Gaskell, 1999

Focusing on two families, the Gibsons and the Hamleys, this novel describes the habits, loyalties, prejudices, petty snobberies, rumours and adjustments of a whole countryside hierarchy. Подробнее

The Wizard of Oz

L. Frank Baum, 1995

When a huge cyclone transports the orphan Dorothy and her little dog Toto from Kansas to the Land of Oz, she fears that she will never see Aunt Em and Uncle Henry ever again. But she meets the Munchkins, and they tell her to follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City where the Wonderful Wizard of Oz will grant any wish. On the way, she meets the brainless Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion. The four friends set off to seek their heart's desires, and in a series of action-packed adventures they encounter a deadly poppy field, fierce animals, flying monkeys, a wicked witch, a good witch, and the Mighty Oz himself. Подробнее

The Woman in White

Wilkie Collins, 2008

Wilkie Collins is a master of mystery, and «The Woman in White» is his first excursion into the genre. When the hero, Walter Hartright, on a moonlit night in north London, encounters a solitary, terrified and beautiful woman dressed in white, he feels impelled to solve the mystery of her distress. The intricate plot is peopled with a finely characterised cast, from the peevish invalid Mr Fairlie to the corpulent villain Count Fosco and the enigmatic woman herself. Подробнее

The Woodlanders

Thomas Hardy, 1996

Educated beyond her station, Grace Melbury returns to the woodland village of little Hintock and cannot marry her intended, Giles Winterborne. Her alternative choice proves disastrous, and in a moving tale that has vibrant characters, many humorous moments and genuine pathos coupled with tragic irony, Hardy eschews a happy ending. With characteristic derision, he exposes the cruel indifference of the archaic legal system off his day, and shows the tragic consequences of untimely adherence to futile social and religious proprieties. Подробнее

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