In 1960, John Steinbeck set out to rediscover and document his native land; accompanied only by his dog, he travelled all across the United States in a pick-up truck. This "Penguin Classics" edition of "Travels with Charley" includes an introduction by Jay Parini. When he was almost sixty years old, ...
How did George Eliot''s love life affect her prose? Why did Kafka write at three in the morning? In what ways is Barack Obama like Eliza Doolittle? Can you be over-dressed for the Oscars? What is Italian Feminism? If Roland Barthes killed the Author, can Nabokov revive him? What does ''soulful'' mean? ...
''And low, stole o''er the stillness the heartbeats of sleep'' In Chapelizod, a suburb of Dublin, an innkeeper and his family are sleeping. Around them and their dreams there swirls a vortex of world history, of ambition and failure, desire and transgression, pride and shame, rivalry and conflict, gossip ...
Described by William Faulkner as the best novel ever written and by Fyodor Dostoevsky as "flawless,” Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and thereby exposes ...
''''Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo '''' So begins one of the most significant literary works of the twentieth century, and one of the most innovative. ...
Vzrušujúce dobrodružstvá najznámejšieho stroskotanca na svete! ". ocitol som sa v nezávideniahodnej situácii: bol som celý mokrý, nemal som šaty na prezlečenie, nemal som nič na jedenie ani na pitie, čo by mi prinieslo aspoň akú-takú útechu. Nevedel som si predstaviť iný koniec, len ten, že zahyniem ...
Meet Oswald Hendryks Cornelius, Roald Dahl''''s most disgraceful and extraordinary character.Aside from being thoroughly debauched, strikingly attractive and astonishingly wealthy, Uncle Oswald was the greatest bounder, bon vivant and fornicator of all time. In this instalment of his scorchingly frank ...
Nobel Laureate and two-time Booker prize-winning author of "Disgrace" and "The Life and Times of Michael K", J. M. Coetzee reimagines Daniel DeFoe''''s classic novel "Robinson Crusoe in Foe". In an act of breathtaking imagination, J.M Coetzee radically reinvents the story of Robinson Crusoe. In the early ...
The book that shone new light on our times: Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2009, The Glass Room is being reissued with a new cover alongside other classic titles from the Abacus list in our 40th Anniversary year. Cool. Balanced. Modern. The precisions of science, the wild variance of lust, the ...
The bad-tempered ladybird picks fights with every animal he meets, but soon learns the importance of friends and turns into a far nicer, happier bug. The beautifully illustrated pages of this entertaining book demonstrate the sizes of the different animals and the sun''s path across the sky as time passes.
What could go wrong when a wife pawns the mink coat that her lover gave her as a parting gift? What happens when a priceless piece of furniture is the subject of a deceitful bargain? Can a wronged woman take revenge on her dead husband? In these dark, disturbing stories Roald Dahl explores the sinister ...
Libya, 1979. Nine-year-old Suleiman''s days are circumscribed by the narrow rituals of childhood: outings to the ruins surrounding Tripoli, games with friends played under the burning sun, exotic gifts from his father''s constant business trips abroad. But his nights have come to revolve around his mother''s ...
Imagine an empire that has shut out the world for a century and a half. No one can leave, foreigners are excluded, their religions banned and their ideas deeply mistrusted. Yet a narrow window onto this nation-fortress still exists: an artificial walled island connected to a mainland port, and manned ...
"Slam" is a hilarious coming-of-age novel by bestselling author Nick Hornby. ''There was this time when everything seemed to have come together. And so obviously it was time to go and screw it all up.'' Sam is sixteen and a skater. Just so there are no terrible misunderstandings: skating = skateboarding. ...
From the private papers of Jane Austen and Mozart to those of Anne Boleyn and Nelson, Love Letters of Great Men and Women collects together some of the most romantic letters in history.For some of these great men, love is a ‘delicious poison’ (William Congreve), for others, ‘a nice soft wife on a sofa ...
September 1919: Twenty-years-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a clutch of letters to Marian Bancroft. Tristan fought alongside Marian''''s brother Will during the Great War. They trained together. They fought together. But in 1917, Will laid down his guns on the battlefield ...
Russia, 1915: Sixteen year old farmer''''s son Georgy Jachmenev steps in front of an assassin''''s bullet intended for a senior member of the Russian Imperial Family and is instantly proclaimed a hero. Rewarded with the position of bodyguard to Alexei Romanov, the only son of Tsar Nicholas II, the course ...
June 1924. On the brutal North East Ridge of Mount Everest, famous adventurers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine vanish into the snow-whipped night.Daredevil explorer Richard Deacon devises a plan to follow in the men''s footsteps, accompanied only by two friends. Off piste and with no support team, the ...
