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

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.

Three Early Comedies Love's Labor's Lost Farce and fun follow when ayoung king and his three friends vow to give up women for ayear—just as a pretty princess and her three ladies-in-waitingarrive—in a delightful play that ends with one of Shakespeare’sloveliest songs. The Two Gentlemen of Verona In this lyricalcomedy, two friends are infatuated with the same woman, while ajilted girl disguised as a boy and a clownish servant with araffish mutt set the scene for laughter and a timeless story oflove. The Merry Wives of Windsor Shakespeare’s famousrogue, Falstaff, woos two married women with identical loveletters—and becomes the focus of a hilarious comedy when the womenconspire to teach him a lesson.

Dickens's widely read satirical account of the IndustrialRevolution. Dickens creates the Victorian industrial city of Coketown, innorthern England, and its unforgettable citizens, such as theunwavering utilitarian Thomas Gradgrind and the factory ownerJosiah Bounderby, and the result is his famous critique ofcapitalist philosophy, the exploitative force he believed wasdestroying human creativity and joy. This edition includes newnotes to the text.

In The Tragedy of King Richard III, Shakespeare chronicles the rise and fall of one of history’s most repellent, and the theater’s most mesmerizing, figures. This Norton Critical Edition of Richard III is based on the First Quarto (1597) edition of the play with interpolations from the First Folio (1623). The play is accompanied by a preface, explanatory annotations, A Note on the Text, a list of Textual Variants, and eighteen illustrations of seminal scenes from major dramatic productions and film versions of the play. “Contexts” provides readers with the sources and analogues that informed Shakespeare’s composition of Richard III. These include excerpts from Robert Fabyan’s New Chronicles of England and France, Thomas More’s The History of King Richard III, Edward Hall’s The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancaster and York, A Mirror for Magistrates, and The True Tragedy of Richard III. A selection from Colley Cibber’s eighteenth-century adaptation records the compr

New chronology and further reading; Tony Tanner's originalintroduction reinstated Edited with an introduction by Kathryn Sutherland.

Upon its publication in 1857, "Little Dorrit" immediatelyoutsold any of Dickens's previous books. The story of WilliamDorrit, imprisoned for debt in Marshalsea Prison, and his daughterand helpmate, Amy, or Little Dorrit, the novel charts the progressof the Dorrit family from poverty to riches. In his Introduction,David Gates argues that "intensity of imagination is the gift fromwhich Dickens's other great attributes derive: his eye and ear, hisnear-universal empathy, his ability to entertain both a sense ofthe ridiculous and a sense of ultimate significance." This ModernLibrary Paperback Classic is set from the text of the 1857edition.

在线阅读本书 This moving and eloquent historical drama depicts the conflictbetween a willful and arrogant poet of a king, Richard II, and hispolitically pragmatic cousin, Bolingbroke. Rich with memorablescenes and speeches, this lyrical history moves from a splendidmedieval tournament to the poignant surrender of a crown; from thequeen’s heart-shattering farewell to her king to Richard’s murder—adeed “chronicled in hell” that lives forever as one of the greatmoments in theater.

Robert Louis Stevenson's cherished, unforgettable adventuremagically captures the thrill of a sea voyage and a treasure huntthrough the eyes of its teenage protagonist, Jim Hawkins. Crossingthe Atlantic in search of the buried cache, Jim and the ship's crewmust brave the elements and a mutinous charge led by thequintessentially ruthless pirate Long John Silver. Brilliantlyconceived and splendidly executed, it is a novel that has seizedthe imagination of generations of adults and children alike. And asDavid Cordingly points out in his Introduction, Treasure Island isalso the best and most influential of all the stories aboutpirates.

An exciting new edition of the complete works of Shakespearewith these features: Illustrated with photographs from New YorkShakespeare 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.

Good. Light shelving wear with minimal damage to cover andbindings. Pages show minor use. Help save a tree. Buy all your usedbooks from Green Earth Books. Read. Recycle and Reuse!

"A GOLD MINE FOR SCHOLARS." *Deidre Carmody The New York TimesNow, in this extraordinary literary uncovering, the original firsthalf of Mark Twain's American masterpiece is available for thefirst time ever to a general readership. Lost for more than acentury, the passages reinstated in this edition reveal a noveleven more controversial than the version Twain published in 1885and provide an invaluable insight into his creative process. Abreakthrough of unparalleled impact, this comprehensive edition ofan American classic is the final rebuttal in the tireless debate of"what Twain really meant." " A] MASTERLY RESTORATION . . . I wishthis new version of Huckleberry Finn would be distributed to allthe nation's classrooms as the basic text and lead to a badlyneeded reconsideration of the questions it raises." *James A.McPherson Chicago Tribune "THOUGHTFULLY RESPECTS TWAIN'SINTENTIONS." *Gary Lee Stonum The Cleveland Plain Dealer With aForeword and Addendum by Victor Doyno "From the Paperbackedition."

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.

Book De*ion `I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name isDAVID COPPERFIELD,' wrote Dickens of what is the most personal,certainly one of the most popular, of all his novels. This new edition features an enlarged text, revised notes, and anew introduction. It uses the accurate Clarendon text, and alsoincludes Dickens's trial titles and working notes, and eight of theoriginal illustrations by `Phiz'. Reviews Dickens's heavily autobiographical novel describing a young man'srise in the world is a classic coming-of-age story. DavidCopperfield, the narrator, is orphaned at a tender age and raisedfirst by his brutal stepfather (who halts his schooling and sendshim to work in a factory--as did Dickens's own father), then by akindly aunt. He trains for a career in law, but eventually becomesa writer. An ill-advised marriage brings him considerableunhappiness, but not long after his wife's death he is reunitedwith his childhood sweetheart. A sprawling portrait of life i

Llewlyn Moss, hunting antelope near the Rio Grande, stumblesupon a transaction gone horribly wrong. Finding bullet-riddenbodies, several kilos of heroin, and a caseload of cash, he faces achoice – leave the scene as he found it, or cut the money and run.Choosing the latter, he knows, will change everything. And sobegins a terrifying chain of events, in which each participantseems determined to answer the question that one asks another: howdoes a man decide in what order to abandon his life? ‘No Country for Old Men is a compelling,harrowing, disturbing, sad, endlessly surprising and resonantnovel’ Robert Edric, Spectator ‘No Country for Old Men is a severed head andshoulders over anything else written in America this year’Independent on Sunday ‘A Western thriller with a racy plot and punchydialogue, perfect for a lazy Sunday’ Sarah Emily Miano, TheTimes ‘[An] utterly absorbing, chilling tale . . . Oneof the most sinister characters in modern American fiction’Herald ‘A f

A magnificent drama of vengeance, infidelity, and retribution,Anna Karenina portrays the moving story of people whose emotionsconflict with the dominant social mores of their time. Sensual,rebellious Anna falls deeply and passionately in love with thehandsome Count Vronsky. When she refuses to conduct the discreetaffair that her cold, ambitious husband (and Russian high society)would condone, she is doomed. Set against the tragic love of Annaand Vronsky, the plight of the melancholy nobleman KonstantineLevin unfolds. In doubt about the meaning of life, haunted bythoughts of suicide, Levin's struggles echo Tolstoy's own spiritualcrisis. But Anna's inner turmoil mirrors the own emotionalimprisonment and mental disintegration of a woman who dares totransgress the strictures of a patriarchal world. In Anna KareninaLeo Tolstoy brought to perfection the novel of social realism andcreated a masterpiece that bared the Russian soul. A magnificent drama of vengeance, infidelity, and retribution,Anna Kareni

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.

Published to coincide with the centenary of Tolstoy's death,here is an exciting new edition of one of the great literary worksof world literature. Tolstoy's epic masterpiece captures withunprecedented immediacy the broad sweep of life during theNapoleonic wars and the brutal invasion of Russia. Balls andsoirées, the burning of Moscow, the intrigues of statesmen andgenerals, scenes of violent battles, the quiet moments of everydaylife--all in a work whose extraordinary imaginative power has neverbeen surpassed. The Maudes' translation of Tolstoy's epicmasterpiece has long been considered the best English version, andnow for the first time it has been revised to bring it fully intoline with modern approaches to the text. French passages arerestored, Anglicization of Russian names removed, and outmodedexpressions updated. A new introduction by Amy Mandelker considersthe novel's literary and historical context, the nature of thework, and Tolstoy's artistic and philosophical aims. New, expandednotes provid

Hank Morgan awakens one morning to find he has beentransported from nineteenth-century New England to sixth-centuryEngland and the reign of King Arthur and the Knights of the RoundTable. Morgan brings to King Arthur's utopian court the ingenuityof the future, resulting in a culture clash that is at oncesatiric, anarchic, and darkly comic. Critically deemed one ofTwain's finest and most caustic works, A Connecticut Yankee in KingArthur's Court is both a delightfully entertaining story and adisturbing analysis of the efficacy of government, the benefits ofprogress, and the dissolution of social mores. It remains aspowerful a work of fiction today as it was upon its firstpublication in 1889.

Slaughterhous-Five is one of the world's great anti-warbooks. Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, BillyPilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of ourown fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraidto know.

Discover what realty gives you satisfaction and fulfillment——then toss out the other junk and learn to live!. Bogged down With the "stuff of life"? Want to enjoy your life, not just be consumed by the details? Family expert Karen Levine helps you to,identify What brings you contentment and pleasure and shows you how to rejec the tasks, the mindsets, and the possessions that drag you down. ...

On the Road swings to the rhythms of 1950s undergroundAmerica, jazz, sex, generosity, chill dawns and drugs, with SalParadise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveller and mystic, theliving epitome of Beat. Now recognized as a modern classic, itsAmerican Dream is nearer that of Walt Whitman than ScottFitzgerald, and it goes racing towards the sunset withunforgettable exuberance, poignancy and autobiographicalpassion.

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