Wordsworth Classics

A Pair of Blue Eyes is celebrated for its central scene which shocked and stimulated Victorian readers. Forever after it caused Hardy to be embroiled in arguments concerning the sexual morality of his novels in which he strove to show the stifling effects of social conventions on the human spirit. Rich with biographical echoes, this novel reveals the full emergence of the schematic ironies which characterize Hardy`s later great works, and gives a suggestion of the tragic philosophy that came to dominate all he wrote. The loving nature of the heroine, Elfride Swancourt, pervades this novel, which has a singular unpolished charm.

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: октябрь 2011

`A Tale of Two Cities` (1859), Dickens` greatest historical novel, traces the private lives of a group of people caught up in the cataclysm of the French Revolution and the Terror. Dickens based his historical detail on Carlyle`s great work - `The FrenchRevolution` - and also on his own observations and investigations during numerous visits to Paris. `The best story I have written` was Dickens` own verdict on `A Tale of Two Cities`, and the reader is unlikely to disagree with this judgement of a story which combines historical fact with the author`s unsurpassed genius for poignant tales of human suffering, self-sacrifice, and redemption.

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: январь 1999

This selection of Carroll`s works includes `Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland` and its sequel, `Through the Looking Class`, both containing the famous illustrations by Sir John Tenniel. No greater books for children have ever been written. The simple language, dreamlike atmosphere, and fantastical characters are as appealing to young readers today as ever they were. Meanwhile, however, these apparently simple stories have become recognized as adult masterpieces, and extraordinary experiments, years ahead of their time, in Modernism and Surrealism. Through wordplay, parody and logical and philosophical puzzles, Carrol engenders a variety of sub-texts, teasing, ominous or melancholy. For all the surface playfulness there is meaning...

Издательство: Wordsworth
Дата выхода: май 2005

Jules Verne (1828-1905) possessed that rare storyteller`s gift of being able to present the far-fetched and the downright unbelievable in such a way as effortlessly to inspire his reader`s allegiance and trust. This volume contains two of his best-loved yarns, chosen from among the sixty-four titles of `Les Voyages extraordinaires`, Verne`s pioneering contribution to the canon of modern Science Fiction. `Around the World in Eighty Days` (1873) relates the hair-raising journey made as a wager bythe Victorian gentleman Phileas Fogg, who succeeds - but only just! - in circling the globe within eighty days. The dour Fogg`s obsession with his timetable is complemented by the dynamism and versatility of his French manservant, Passepartout,...

Издательство: Wordsworth
Дата выхода: май 2005

Mr Dombey is a man obsessed with his firm. His son is groomed from birth to take his place within it, despite his visionary eccentricity and declining health. But Dombey also has a daughter, whose unfailing love for her father goes unreturned. `Girls,` said Mr Dombey, `have nothing to do with Dombey and Son.` When Walter Gay, a young clerk in her father`s office, rescues her from a bewildering experience in the streets of London, his unforgettable friends believe he is well on his way to receiving her hand in marriage and inheriting the company. It is to be a very different type of story. Dombey and Son moved grown men to tears (Thackeray despaired of `writing against such power as this`), but its rich, comic characters and their...

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: январь 1997

Jules Verne`s third great `science fiction` novel describes the discovery and exploration of a secret tunnel which leads through a volcano to the centre of the Earth. The leader of the expedition is an archetypal comic and eccentric boffin, and together with his ward, his nephew Axel (who is in love with the ward), and an estimable Icelandic guide, the journey is made. `Journey to the Centre of the Earth` achieved instant and enduring popularity on publication in 1874. Together with `Around the World in Eighty Days`, `Five Weeks in a Balloon` and `Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea`, (all available as Wordsworth Classics), it established Verne as an author of high adventure who filled his stories with a wealth of technical detail,...

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: сентябрь 2005

Jude Fawley is a rural stonemason with intellectual aspirations. Frustrated by poverty and the indifference of the academic institutions at the University of Christminster, his only chance of fulfilment seems to lie in his relationship with his unconventional, free-thinking cousin, Sue Bridehead. But life as social outcasts proves undermining, and when tragedy occurs, Sue has no resilience and Jude is left in despair. Hardy`s portrait of Jude, the idealist and dreamer who is a prisoner of his own physical nature, is one of the most haunting and desperate of his creations. Jude the Obscure is a dark yet compassionate account of the insurmountable frustrations of human existence which reflect Hardy`s yearning for the spiritual values of...

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: октябрь 2011

`Moby-Dick` is the story of Captain Ahab`s quest to avenge the whale that `reaped` his leg. The quest is an obsession and the novel is a diabolical study of how a man becomes a fanatic. But it is also a hymn to democracy. Bent as the crew is on Ahab`s appalling crusade, it is equally the image of a co-operative community at work: all hands dependent on all hands, each individual responsible for the security of each. Among the crew is Ishmael, the novel`s narrator, ordinary sailor, and extraordinary reader. Digressive, allusive, vulgar, transcendent, the story Ishmael tells is above all an education: in the practice of whaling, in the art of writing. Expanding to equal his `mighty theme` - not only the whale but all things sublime -...

Издательство: Wordsworth
Дата выхода: май 2005

"Our Mutual Friend", Dickens` last novel, gives one of his most comprehensive and penetrating accounts of Victorian society. Its vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values emerges not just through its central narratives, but through its apparently incidental characters and scenes. The chief of its several plots centres on John Harmon who returns to England as his father`s heir. He is believed drowned under suspicious circumstances - a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity until he can evaluate Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. The story is filled with colourful characters and incidents - the faded aristocrats and parvenus gathered at the Veneering`s dinner table, Betty Higden and her terror of...

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: февраль 2007

Robin Hood is the best-loved outlaw of all time. In this beautifully illustrated edition, Henry Gilbert tells of the adventures of the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest - Robin himself, Little John, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet and Alan-a-Dale, as well as Maid Marian, good King Richard, and Robin`s deadly enemies Guy of Gisborne and the evil Sheriff of Nottingham.

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: январь 2002

Chekhov is truly the grand-master of the short story. With supreme delicacy he constructs stories where the action and drama are often Implied rather than described, and which rely on the intelligence and imagination of his readers. This collection contains some of his earliest and briefest comic sketches, and some of his more elaborate yet equally subtle pieces. All are written with an extraordinary compassion and with a view of life that, though tragic, is tempered by his delight in the farcical situation and the incongruities of human behaviour. Chekhov presents life as he sees it, with no apology, and certainly without moral judgement.

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: декабрь 1999

This specially commissioned selection of Conrad`s matchless short stories includes such favourites as `Youth`, a modern epic of the sea; `The Secret Sharer`, a thrilling psychological drama; `An Outpost of Progress`, a blackly comic prelude to `Heart of Darkness`; `Amy Foster`, a moving story of a shipwrecked, alienated Pole; and `The Lagoon` and `Karain`, two exotic, exciting Malay tales. `Il Conde` and `The Tale` are subtle portrayals of bewildered outrage; `An Anarchist` and `The Informer` are sardonic depictions of revolutionaries; and `Prince Roman` is a tale of magnificent, doomed heroism set in Conrad`s native Poland during the Uprising of 1831. Both those new to Conrad`s work and those familiar with his novels will delight in...

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: декабрь 1999

This novel is Lawrence`s semi-autobiographical masterpiece in which he explores emotional conflicts through the protagonist, Paul Morel, and his suffocating relationships with a demanding mother and two very different lovers. Lawrence`s novelsare perhaps the most powerful exploration in the genre in English of family, class, sexuality and relationships in youth and early adulthood.

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: январь 2001

The `Tales from Shakespeare` by Charles and Mary Lamb were written to be an `introduction to the study of Shakespeare` but are much more entertaining than that. All of Shakespeare`s best loved plays, comic and tragic, are retold in a clear and robust style, and their literary quality has made them popular and sought-after ever since their first publication in 1807. This edition contains the delightful pen-and-ink drawings of that master of illustration, Arthur Rackham.

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: январь 2002

The beautiful Scheherazade`s royal husband threatens to kill her, so each night she diverts him by weaving wonderful tales of fantastic adventure, leaving each story unfinished so that he spares her life to hear the ending on the morrow. This is the background to the `Arabian Nights`. In this selection made by that master of folklore and fairy-tale Andrew Lang, the reader meets Aladdin with his wonderful lamp, the Enchanted Horse, the Princess Badoura, Sindbad the Sailor, and the great Caliph of Bagdad, Haroun-al-Raschid. The stories are beautifully illustrated by H.J.Ford.

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: январь 2002

The master storyteller Andrew Lang draws on his classical learning to recount 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 Wooden Horse all figure in this magical introduction to one of the greatest legends ever told. Also included in this book are the adventures of Theseus and his dramatic battle with the Minotaur with the help of Ariadne, and the quest of Jason for the Golden Fleece with the help of the Princess Medea.

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: декабрь 1999

This collection of Poe`s best stories contains all the terrifying and bewildering tales that characterize his work. As well as the Gothic horror of such famous stories as `The Pit and the Pendulum`, `The Fall of the House of Usher`, `The Premature Burial` and `The Tell-Tale Heart`, all of Poe`s Auguste Dupin stories are included. These are the first modern detective stories, and include `The Murders in the Rue Morgue`, `The Mystery of Marie Roget` and `The Purloined Letter`.

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: декабрь 1999

`Tender is the Night` is a story set in the hedonistic high society of Europe during the `Roaring Twenties`. A wealthy schizophrenic, Nicole Warren, falls in love with Dick Diver - her psychiatrist. The resulting saga of the Divers` troubled marriage andtheir circle of friends, includes a cast of aristocratic and beautiful people, unhappy love affairs, a duel, incest, and the problems inherent in the possession of great wealth. Despite cataloguing a maelstrom of interpersonal conflict, `Tender is the Night` has a poignancy and warmth which springs from the quality of F.Scott Fitzgerald`s writing and the tragic personal experiences on which the book is based.

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: декабрь 1999

Set in Hardy`s Wessex, Tess is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards. Its challenging sub-title. `A Pure Woman`, infuriated critics when the book was first published in 1891, and it was condemned as immoral and pessimistic. It tells of less Durbeyfield, the daughter of a poor and dissipated villager, who learns that she may be descended from the ancient family of d`Urberville. In her search for respectability her fortunes fluctuate wildly, and the story assumes the proportions of a Greek tragedy. It explores Toss`s relationships with two very different men, her struggles against the social mores of the rural Victorian world which she inhabits and the hypocrisy of the age. In addressing the double standards of the time,...

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: июль 2002

"The Best of Sherlock Holmes" is a collection of twenty of the very best tales from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle`s fifty-six short stories featuring the arch-sleuth. Basing his selection around the author`s own twelve personal favourites, David Stuart Davies has added a further eight sparkling stories to Conan Doyle`s `Baker Street Dozen` creating a unique volume which distils the pure essence of the world`s most famous detective. Within these pages the reader will encounter the greatest collection of villains and the weirdest and most puzzling mysteries ever seen in print. And there at the centre, in a London swathed in eddies of fog and illuminated by gaslight, is to be found the remarkable character of Sherlock Holmes and his staunch...

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: январь 1998

This edition presents the classic free translation by Edward Fitzgerald of the great Persian poem by the 12th century astronomer and poet - Omar Khayyám. Fitzgerald`s masterful translation was first published as an anonymous pamphlet in 1859. Its colourful, exotic and remote imagery greatly appealed to the Victorian age`s fascination with the Orient, while its luxurious sensual warmth acted as a striking counterpoint to the growth of scientific determinism, industrialisation and the soulless Darwinian doctrine of the survival of the fittest. Greatly praised by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Swinburne, Ruskin and William Morris, the romantic melancholy of the poem anticipates the poetry of Matthew Arnold and Thomas Hardy, while its...

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: январь 2020

This is a troubling story of crime, sin, guilt, punishment and expiation, set in the rigid moral climate of 17th century New England. The young mother of an illegitimate child confronts her Puritan judges. However, it is not so much her harshsentence, but the cruelties of slowly exposed guilt as her lover is revealed, that hold the reader enthralled all the way to the book`s poignant climax.

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: январь 1998

`Then vision of an enormous town presented itself, of a monstrous town... a cruel devourer of the world`s light. There was room enough there to place any story, depth enough for tiny passion, variety enough there for any setting, darkness enough to bury five millions of lives.` Conrad`s `monstrous town` is London, and his story of espionage and counter-espionage, anarchists and embassies, is a detective story that becomes the story of Winnie Verloc`s tenacity in maintaining her devotion to her peculiar and simple-minded brother, Stevie, as they pursue their very ordinary lives above a rather dubious shop in the back streets of Soho. However, far from offering any sentimental picture, `The Secret Agent` is Conrad`s funniest novel. Its...

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: январь 1995

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a powerful and sometimes violent novel of expectation, love, oppression, sin, religion and betrayal. It portrays the disintegration of the marriage of Helen Huntingdon, the mysterious `tenant` of the title, and her dissolute, alcoholic husband. Defying convention, Helen leaves her husband to protect their young son from his father`s influence, and earns her own living as an artist. Whilst in hiding at Wildfell Hall, she encounters Gilbert Markham, who falls in love with her. On its first publication in 1848, Anne Bronte`s second novel was criticized for being `coarse` and `brutal`. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall challenges the social conventions of the early nineteenth | century in a strong defence of women`s...

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: декабрь 1999

When Richard Hannay returns from a long stay in Africa, he becomes caught up in a sensational plot to precipitate a pan-European war. After the discovery of a corpse in his flat, Hannay flees the attentions of both the conspirators and the forces of the law, and the pursuit turns into a thrilling manhunt. Set against the hot summer which precedes the outbreak of the First World War, `The Thirty-nine Steps` is one of the finest and most highly admired thrillers ever written.

Издательство: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Дата выхода: декабрь 1999