One of the best-loved adventure stories ever written, Treasure Islands timeless tale of pirates, lost treasure maps, mutiny and derring-do has appealed to generations of readers ever since Robert Louis Stevenson penned it in 1881 with the claim: If this dont fetch the kids, why, they have gone rotten since my day.
But more than just a childrens classic, the novel is considered to be one of the greatest feats of storytelling in the English language, with characters such as the unforgettable Long John Silver becoming part of the cultural consciousness. Treasure Island is a coming-of-age story that will captivate both adults and children for as long as stories are told.
This edition contains: note on the text, notes, appendix, extra material for young readers including Famous Pirates in History, test yourself and glossary.
Four sailors discover a copper cylinder containing a manuscript written by the adventurer Adam More, who was shipwrecked in the southern hemisphere. They read its contents out to one another, and the incredible story unfolds of his journey to a lost world which survives at the foot of a volcano. This strange utopian society, in which humans coexist with prehistoric animals, is the antithesis of Victorian England, as poverty is preferred to wealth and darkness to light.
At once a timeless satire and a pioneering work of science fiction, A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder will enthral readers of today and revive James De Milles reputation as a writer ahead of his time.
When the young and sensitive Auguste Saint-Clair notices an Etruscan vase on the mantelpiece of his beloved Mathilde, he becomes gradually consumed by jealousy at the thought that it could be the gift of another man, and the situation escalates dramatically as he demands proof from her that she loves only him.
A classic piece of French short fiction, The Etruscan Vase is here presented alongside three other stories: The Vision of Charles XI, a dark tale of premonition set in the Swedish royal palace, Tamango, an account of a slave-ship revolt, and The Blue Room, a supernatural farce and one of Merimees final works; as well as two non-fiction pieces: A Hanging, a description of a real-life public execution, and H.B., a tribute to Stendhal.
A Village Romeo and Juliet is a bitter-sweet tragedy telling the tale of two young lovers kept apart by a family feud. Inspired by the story of two real-life sweethearts and set in rural Switzerland, it evokes the overwhelming beauty of young love and nature, but is ultimately pessimistic about the possibility of such beauty surviving in the real world.
Although it attracted controversy when it was first published in 1856, Kellers timeless novella has now rightfully entered the canon of world literature and is widely considered as one of the finest examples of nineteenth-century poetic realism.
While on a journey with his wife to Prague for the opening night of Don Giovanni, Mozart is caught picking an orange on the grounds of a stately home. But when the resident family find out who they are dealing with, they are delighted to be in the presence of the celebrated composer and invite him to their daughters wedding.
Morikes vivid and imaginative depiction of a day in the life of Mozart captures both the humorous and the more fragile and pensive side of the Austrian genius.
Dual-Language Edition.
Foscolo ranks among the most famous and enduringly popular poets in Italian literature, and in this collection, the only available in the English language, his most significant poems are collected in J.G. Nicholss lucid verse translation.
Expressing the authors political, civic and sentimental concerns, these poems will surprise the English reader with their immediacy and intimacy. Sepulchres, Foscolos masterpiece, as well as being one of the pinnacles of European neoclassical literature, is still one of the most widely studied poems in Italy. Foscolos poetry reveals the inner recesses of a passionate, restless and surprisingly modern mind.
This edition includes notes on the text, extra material on Ugo Foscolos Life and Works and a select bibliography.
Contents: Sonnets, Fugitive Pieces and Odes, Sepulchres.
Eichendorffs prose masterpiece — a picaresque account of the wanderings of a young man who leaves home after a row with his father, and who eventually finds love with the girl of his dreams — is one of the best-known classics of German literature.
Deeply imbued with the style and sentiment of German Romanticism, and philosophical and poetic in its approach to nature and existence, Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing is at once an exhilarating romp and a lively portrayal of nineteenth-century ideals.
After one of their own people repeatedly fails to live up to a pact with the Devil, a petty and morally bankrupt village community is plagued by a swarm of deadly black spiders. Using a complex narrative structure, Gotthelfs cautionary novella shrewdly dissects the iniquitous social dynamics of rural life.
First published in 1842, The Black Spider displays its authors talent for dark satire and realism, as well as the visionary powers of his imagination.
Paul Scarrons masterpiece, The Comic Romance, recounts the adventures of a troupe of provincial itinerant actors, skilfully weaving multiple narrative strands — such as the personal histories and love stories of the central couples Destiny and Star and Leandre and Angelique, the farcical misadventures of the buffoonish Ragotin and various tales inspired by Spanish novelas — into a rich tapestry depicting side by side the realities of rural France and the realms of the imagination. A milestone of picaresque literature that would influence Henry Fielding, The Comic Romance spawned countless imitations when it was published and was championed in the nineteenth century by eminent literary figures such as Theophile Gautier and Gerard de Nerval.
Published soon after Fitzgeralds debut novel This Side of Paradise, Flappers and Philosophers was the authors first collection of short fiction, a form through which he had gained notoriety in newspapers and magazines. The familiar themes of aspiration and social satire already permeate his writing: in Bernice Bobs Her Hair the fashionable Marjorie attempts to turn her dowdy cousin into a debutante, before betraying her out of jealousy, while The Ice Palace features a Southern belle whose engagement to a Northerner finds her confronted with a cultural clash between tradition and modernity.
Also containing The Offshore Pirate, Head and Shoulders, The Cut-Glass Bowl, Benediction, Dalyrimple Goes Wrong and The Four Fists, this volume of stories illustrates the early stages of Fitzgeralds development as a writer and provides an entertaining chronicle of America in the 1910s.
Published posthumously, The Red Notebook is an account of the youth of the author of the seminal Romantic novel Adolphe, relating Constants eccentric and peripatetic education, his introduction to European high society and the kindling of his literary ambitions — as well as his often comic and calamitous early experiences with the opposite sex and the development of his ruinous gambling habit.
Part picaresque romp and part Bildungsroman, this is a spirited look at life and Romantic sensibilities on the eve of the nineteenth century and a fine example of early autobiographical writing.
Trapped in an unhappy marriage with a boorish, inattentive and socially ambitious husband, Julie de Chaverny enjoys a flirtatious dalliance with the elegant Major de Chвteaufort. However, the sudden reappearance of an old admirer, M. Darcy, who has returned from Turkey with a tale of breathtaking derring-do and chivalry to add to his charms, reawakens in Julie a forgotten passion, and convinces her to pursue a rash and dangerous course, one that will have tragic consequences.
Though less well-known than other works by Mйrimйe, A Slight Misunderstanding is a masterpiece of psychological insight and a minutely observed social satire.
In the title piece of this collection a party of guests wonder at the great comet which has appeared in the sky, and give their predictions of what this ill omen portends for the Earth. Mixing elements of the Gothic with fantasy, this piece marks the dawn of Russian science fiction, and constitutes a prime example of the creativity and imagination of Odoevskys story-telling.
Including the much-loved childrens story The Little Town in the Snuffbox, the mysteries Imbroglio and The Black Glove, and the artistic portrait Beethovens Last Quartet, this volume of Odoevskys short stories represents some of the finest of early-nineteenth-century Russian short fiction.
Contains: Two Days in the Life of the Terrestrial Globe, Beethovens Last Quartet, Opere del Cavaliere Giambattista Piranesi, The Little Town in the Snuffbox, The Black Glove, The Apparition, The Witness, Imbroglio