Classics

An orphaned girl, a grim moorland manor with hundreds of empty rooms, strange cries in the night, and a walled garden, with its door locked and the key buried. These are the ingredients of one of the most famous and well-loved of children's classics, an...

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Last House Guest—a Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection—comes a riveting, “suspenseful” (BookPage, starred review) novel about a mysterious murder in an idyllic and close-knit neighborhood.Welcome to...

First published in 1894, Arthur Machen’s harrowing tale woven around a terrible mistake made by a doctor encompasses sinister rites, death and devastation and remains one of the most revered and influential classic horror stories. I will not read it;...

Something pushed out from the body there on the floor, and stretched forth a slimy, wavering tentacle...Perhaps no figure better embodies the transition from the Gothic tradition to modern horror than Arthur Machen. In the final decade of the nineteenth...

"Of creators of cosmic fear raised to its most artistic pitch, few can hope to equal Arthur Machen." -- H. P. LovecraftArthur Machen (1863-1947), Welsh novelist and essayist, is considered one of the most important and influential writers of his time...

In these impressions of the Italian countryside, Lawrence transforms ordinary incidents into passages of intense beauty.Twilight in Italy is a vibrant account of Lawrence's stay among the people of Lake Garda, whose decaying lemon gardens bear witness to...

With an Introduction and Notes by Lionel Kelly, University of Reading. In 1915, Lawrence's frank representation of sexuality in The Rainbow caused a furore and the novel was seized by the police and banned almost as soon as it was published. Today it is...

With its frank portrayal of human passion and sexual desire, D.H. Lawrence's The Rainbow was banned as 'obscene' in Britain shortly after first publication.Set in the rural Midlands, The Rainbow chronicles the lives of three generations of the Brangwen...

'A fruity, foxy masterpiece, defender of our wilting faith in mankind' -- Sunday TimesHorace Rumpole is in a strange state that could only be described as a kind of air-conditioned purgatory: he has retired to Florida with his wife, Hilda (She Who Must...

'A superb novel ... you will be hooked from the first chapter and enjoy every line' -- Sunday ExpressDeep in the South American jungle the MAMista Marxist revolutionaries are fighting a hopeless, protracted war against a dictator - while the CIA see an...

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is the second part in Douglas Adams' smash hit sci-fi comedy and cult classic series. This stunning edition is illustrated by Costa Award winning Chris Riddell.'One of the greatest achievements in comedy. A work...

A masquerade ball in a secluded abbey; a vendetta settled in the wine cellars of an Italian palazzo; a gloomy castle in a desolated landscape; the beating of a heart beneath the floorboards: the plots and settings of Poe's dark, mysterious tales continue...

"Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was a groan of mortal terror ... the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul."Stories about murder, mystery and madness, portraying the author's feverish imagination at its creative...

An 'Upanisad' is a teaching session with a guru, and these thirteen texts, the 'Principal Upanisads', form a series of philosophical discourses between teacher and student that question the inner meaning of the world. Composed from around the eighth...

The writings of a major Christian thinkerOne of the key figures in Christian history, St. Ignatius of Loyola (c. 1491-1556) was a passionate and unique spiritual thinker and visionary. The works gathered here provide a first-hand, personal introduction...

The University of St John and the Holy Ghost (known affectionately as Spook) has a problem - and an opportunity. Strange, eccentric art patron and collector Francis Cornish has died and faculty members have been made executors of his complicated will...

Introduction and Notes by Janet Beer, Manchester Metropolitan University. The House of Mirth tells the story of Lily Bart, aged 29, beautiful, impoverished and in need of a rich husband to safeguard her place in the social elite, and to support her...

The Penguin English Library Edition of The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton'It was characteristic of her that she always roused speculation, that her simplest acts seemed the result of far-reaching intentions'A searing, shocking tale of women as consumer...

While Buddhism has no central text comparable to the Bible or Koran, there is a powerful body of scripture from across Asia that encompasses the dharma, or the teachings of the Buddha. In this rich anthology, eminent scholar Donald S. Lopez, Jr. brings...

A brilliant reconstruction of the legend of Theseus, the valiant youth who slew the Minotaur, became king, and brought prosperity to Attica. This brilliant recreation of the story of the legendary hero Theseus begins with his triumphant return from Crete...