Mike Gayle has carved a whole new literary niche out of the male confessional novel. He's a publishing phenomenon'EVENING STANDARD 'Delightfully observant nostalgia.., will strike a chord with both sexes' SHE 'A warm, funny romantic comedy' DAILY MAIL 'Gayle's chatty style sustains a cracking pace' THE TIMES "Thirty means only going to the pub if there,s somewhere to sit down, Thiity means owning at least one classical CD, even if it's New That's What I Call Classical Vol 6. Thirty means calling off the search for the perfect partner because now, after al! thee years in the wilderness, you've finally found what you've been looking for." Unlike most people Matt Beckford is actually looking forward to turning thirty. After struggling through most of his twenties he thinks his career, finances and love life are finally sorted. But when he splits up with his girlfriend, he realises that life has different plans for him.and Matt temporarily moves back home to his parents. Within hours,his mum and dad

Shakespeare became famous as a dazzling poet before most peopleeven knew that he wrote plays. His sonnets are the Englishlanguage's most extraordinary anatomy of love in all itsdimensions-desire and despair, longing and loss, adoration anddisgust. To read them is to confront morality and eternity in thesame breath. Produced under the editorial supervision of JonathanBate and Eric Rasmussen, two of today's most accomplishedShakespearean scholars, The Sonnets and Other Poems includes all ofShakespeare's sonnets, the long narrative poems "Venus and Adonis"and "The Rape of Lucrece," and several other shorter works.Incorporating definitive texts and authoritative notes from WilliamShakespeare: Complete Works, this unique volume also includes anexpanded Introduction by Jonathan Bate that places the poems inliterary and historical context and illuminates their relationshipto Shakespeare's dramatic writing. Also featured are key factsabout the individual selections; an index of the first lines of thesonnets; a chron

One of the last plays Shakespeare penned on his own, TheWinter’s Tale is a transcendent work of death and rebirth,exploring irrational sexual jealousy, the redemptive world ofnature, and the magical power of art. Under the editorial supervision of Jonathan Bate and EricRasmussen, two of today’s most accomplished Shakespearean scholars,this Modern Library series incorporates definitive texts andauthoritative notes from William Shakespeare: Complete Works. Eachplay includes an Introduction as well as an overview ofShakespeare’s theatrical career; commentary on past and currentproductions based on interviews with leading directors, actors, anddesigners; scene-by-scene analysis; key facts about the work; achronology of Shakespeare’s life and times; and black-and-whiteillustrations. Ideal for students, theater professionals, and general readers,these modern and accessible editions from the Royal ShakespeareCompany set a new standard in Shakespearean literature for thetwenty-first century

An exciting new edition of the complete works of Shakespearewith these features: Illustrated with photographs from NewYork Shakespeare Festival productions, vivid readable readableintroductions for each play by noted scholar David Bevington, alively personal foreword by Joseph Papp, an insightful essay on theplay in performance, modern spelling and pronunciation, up-to-dateannotated bibliographies, and convenient listing of keypassages.

Sharks, the deadliest killers inthe seas of our planet, have been roaming the oceans for more than 400 million years. They have easily outlived the dinosaurs and now dominate the watery blue wilderness as the apex predators of the marine world. This amazing book introduces readers to these fascinating and much misunderstood creatures. It explains how sharks evolved, describes the way in which their anatomy and physiology is supremely adapted for the task of hunting and killing prey, and profiles the most beautiful and most deadly species of shark alive today. It also boasts breathtaking action pictures of amazing sharks from the ruthless great whites of Jaws fame and 'fighter-jet-style' great hammerheads to feisty Caribbean reef sharks and the biggest fish in the world, the mighty whale shark. It also looks at the human side of the story, and we meet some of the people who have survived terrifying ordeals including the 13-year-old American surfer Bethany Hamilton whose arm was bitten off by a tiger sh

When Sir Francis Drake returned to England in 1580, manyquestions concerning his momentous voyage were left unanswered—hisjournals were impounded and his men were forbidden, on pain ofdeath, to divulge where they had been. Drawing on newly uncoveredevidence, geographer and maritime historian Samuel Bawlfmasterfully reconstructs Francis Drake’s historic round-the-worldexpedition, exploring the drama surrounding the voyage and offeringintriguing insights into life at sea in the sixteenth century. Butit is Bawlf’s assertion of Drake’s whereabouts in the summer of1579 that gives the book even greater originality: from anintensive study of maps of the period, Bawlf shows with certaintythat Drake sailed all the way to Alaska—much farther than anyonehas heretofore imagined—thereby rewriting the history ofexploration in North America.

EXCITEMENT AND SUSPENSE FROM THE HEART OF THE JUNGLE Archaeologist Leo Mallory is on a dig. But this is no ordinary assignment. He’s deep in the heart of the Mexican jungle uncovering another centuries-old Mayan city. Like a surgeon performing a most-intricate operation, Leo and his team skilfully remove each crumb of earth with the utmost precision. THE JAGUAR MASK In France, Declan Carberry is busy trying to solve a string of ritual serial murders. Horrific in the extreme, the questions are who and why? Declan needs to move fast, for time is running out. Delving into the history of the Conquistadors and the Maya of South America, this vertiginous tale of snaring and netting, old rituals and modern codes, blood-letting and immortality is Easterman at his dizzying best. “A master of spooky suspense and of the chapter cliffhanger”THE SCOTSMAN 'The Jaguar Mask' will satisfy anyone who appreciates an old-fashioned well plotted adventure thriller which has been given a hard moder

Vintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of thegreatest modern writers presented in attractive, accessiblepaperback editions. “It was Nabokov’s gift to bring paradise wherever he alighted.”—John Updike, The New York Review of Books Novelist, poet, critic, translator, and, above all, a peerlessimaginer, Vladimir Nabokov was arguably the most dazzling prosestylist of the twentieth century. In novels like Lolita, Pale Fire,and Ada, or Ardor, he turned language into an instrument ofecstasy. Vintage Nabokov includes sections 1-10 of his most famous andcontroversial novel, Lolita; the stories “The Return of Chorb,”“The Aurelian,” “A Forgotten Poet,” “Time and Ebb,” “Signs andSymbols,” “The Vane Sisters,” and “Lance”; and chapter 12 from hismemoir Speak, Memory.

After traveling the world to exotic lands, Alexandra, Jane,and Sukie–now widowed but still witches–return to the Rhode Islandseaside t own of Eastwick, “the scene of their primes,” site oftheir enchanted mischief more than three decades ago. DiabolicalDarryl Van Horne is gone, and what was once a center of license andliberation is now a “haven of wholesomeness” populated by hockeymoms and househusbands acting out against the old ways of their ownabsent, experimenting parents. With spirits still willing but fleshweaker, the three women must confront a powerful new counterspellof conformity. In this wicked and wonderful novel, John Updike isat his very best–a legendary master of literary magic up to his olddelightful tricks.

Fashioned from the same experiences that would inspire themasterpiece Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi isMark Twain’s most brilliant and most personal nonfiction work. Itis at once an affectionate evocation of the vital river life in thesteamboat era and a melancholy reminiscence of its passing afterthe Civil War, a priceless collection of humorous anecdotes andfolktales, and a unique glimpse into Twain’s life before he beganto write. Written in a prose style that has been hailed as among thegreatest in English literature, Life on the Mississippi established Twain as not only the most popular humorist of his timebut also America’s most profound chronicler of the humancomedy.

aNo other popular writer of his time did any better writingthan you will find in The Call of the Wild.a--H. L. Mencken One ofthe greatest American storytellers, Jack London enjoyed phenomenalpopularity in his own time and remains widely read throughout theworld. His work is characterized by thrilling action, an intuitivefeeling for animal life, and a sense of justice that oftenmanifests itself through violence. "The Call of the Wild," perhapsthe best novel ever written about animals, traces a dogas suddenentry into the wild and his education in survival among the wolves.Library of America Paperback Classics feature authoritative textsdrawn from the acclaimed Library of America series and introducedby todayas most distinguished scholars and writers. Each bookfeatures a detailed chronology of the authoras life and career, andessay on the choice of the text, and notes. The contents of thisPaperback Classic are drawn from "Jack London: Novels and Stories,"volume number 6 in The Library of America series. I

"The Moonstone is a page-turner, " writes Carolyn Heilbrun. "Itcatches one up and unfolds its amazing story through therecountings of its several narrators, all of them enticing andsingular." Wilkie Collins's spellbinding tale of romance, theft,and murder inspired a hugely popular genre-the detective mystery.Hinging on the theft of an enormous diamond originally stolen froman Indian shrine, this riveting novel features the innovativeSergeant Cuff, the hilarious house steward Gabriel Betteridge, alovesick housemaid, and a mysterious band of Indian jugglers. ThisModern Library Paperback Classic is set from the definitive 1871edition.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER In 1951, the second year of the KoreanWar, a studious, law-abiding, and intense youngster from Newark,New Jersey, Marcus Messner, begins his sophomore year on thepastoral, conservative campus of Ohio's Winesburg College. And whyis he there and not at a local college in Newark where heoriginally enrolled? Because his father, the sturdy, hardworkingneighborhood butcher, seems to have gone mad-mad with fear andapprehension of the dangers of adult life, the dangers of theworld, the dangers he sees in every corner for his beloved boy. Farfrom Newark, Marcus has to find his way amid the customs andconstrictions of another American world. Indignation, Philip Roth'stwenty-ninth book, is a startling departure from the hauntednarratives of old age and experience in Roth's recent books and apowerful exploration of a remarkable moment in Americanhistory.

Set in sixteenth-century England, Mark Twain’s classic “talefor young people of all ages” features two identical-looking boys—aprince and a pauper—who trade clothes and step into each other’slives. While the urchin, Tom Canty, discovers luxury and power,Prince Edward, dressed in rags, roams his kingdom and experiencesthe cruelties inflicted on the poor by the Tudor monarchy. AsChristopher Paul Curtis observes in his Introduction, The Princeand the Pauper is “funny, adventurous, and exciting, yet alsochock-full of . . . exquisitely reasoned harangues againstsociety’s ills.” This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the Mark TwainProject edition, which is the approved text of the Center forScholarly Editions of the Modern Language Association.

Perhaps Willa Cather's most autobiographical work, The Song ofthe Lark charts the story of a young woman's awakening as an artistagainst the backdrop of the western landscape. Thea Kronborg, anaspiring singer, struggles to escape from the confines her smallColorado town to the world of possibility in the Metropolitan OperaHouse. In classic Cather style, The Song of the Lark is thebeautiful, unforgettable story of American determination and itsinextricable connection to the land. "The time will come whenshe'll be ranked above Hemingway." -- Leon Edel

Once again, Carlos Ruiz Zafón takes us into a dark, gothicBarcelona and creates a breathtaking tale of intrigue, romance, andtragedy. At the beginning of this powerful, labyrinthian thriller,David Martin, a pulp fiction writer struggling to stay afloat, isholed up in an abandoned mansion in the heart of Barcelona,furiously tapping out story after story, becoming increasinglydesperate and frustrated. When he is approached by a mysteriouspublisher offering a book deal that seems almost too good to bereal, David leaps at the chance. But as he begins the work, andafter a visit to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, he realizes thatthere is a connection between his book and the shadows thatsurround his dilapidated home and that the publisher may be hidinga few troubling secrets of his own.

On the 150th anniversary of its publication, a new edition ofthe nature classic First published in 1854, Henry David Thoreau'sgroundbreaking book has influenced generations of readers andcontinues to inspire and inform anyone with an open mind and a loveof nature. With Bill McKibben providing a newly revisedIntroduction and helpful annotations that place Thoreau firmly inhis role as cultural and spiritual seer, this beautiful edition ofWalden for the new millennium is more accessible and relevant thanever. " Thoreau] says so many pithy and brilliant things, andoffers so many piquant, and, we may add, so many just, comments onsociety as it is, that this book is well worth the reading, bothfor its actual contents and its suggestive capacity." --A. P.Peabody, North American Review, 1854 " Walden] still seems to methe best youth's companion yet written by an American, for itcarries a solemn warning against the loss of one's valuables, itadvances a good argument for traveling light and trying newadventures,

The Transposed Heads A Legend of India by Thomas Mann"The story of The TransposedHeads is at once the quintessence and the reductio ad absurdum ofall love triangles." Lionel Trilling "The transposed Heads is altogether delightfnl, worthyof rank with Tonio Kr6ger or Death in Venice. It iscertainly the most charming of Mann's works. His irony hasnever been more biting; it has never been more tender. Mannhas never shown greater insight into love, nor greater kindnesstoward humanity. The sustained lightness of tone leaves asingleness of impression perhaps impossible to attain inlonger works of tiction The Transposed Heads is, inshort, a restatement in parable form of Mann's intransigentfaith in the human intellect. It is also a rich and subtleanalysis of the psychology of friendship and love." Curtis Bradord in The Sewanee Review A Vintage Book Coverdesign by Paul Rand

Philip Roth’s instant New York Times hardcover bestseller nowavailable in mass market paperback!