The text of this edition is based on the Wessex Edition of 1912, which was revised and corrected by the author. It has been collated with the Mellstock Edition of 1920, for which Hardy submitted final corrections. "Backgrounds and Contexts" provides new and invaluable source material on Victorian Dorset and, in particular, Dorchester, Hardy’s native home and the town upon which Casterbridge is based. Included are six of Hardy’s nonfiction writings, notably excerpts from his essay "The Dorsetshire Laboure" (1883), in which he frankly comments on the social changes he has witnessed in the county. Hardy’s Wessex is further examined in an essay by Michael Millgate, by maps of Casterbridge and Wessex, and by a key to local place names. Christine Winfield discusses the novel’s manu* and its complicated history. "Criticism" collects seventeen wide-ranging assessments of the novel-six new to the Second Edition-from both contemporary and modern critics, including Virginia Woolf, Albert J. Guerard,

- Un livre de plus sur l'école, alors ? - Non, pas surl'école ! Sur le cancre. Sur la douleur de ne pas comprendre et seseffets collatéraux sur les parents et les professeurs.

#1 Worldwide Bestseller—More Than 80 Million Copies Sold As millions of readers around the globe have already discovered, The Da Vinci Code is a reading experience unlike any other. Simultaneously lightning-paced, intelligent, and intricately layered with remarkable research and detail, Dan Brown's novel is a thrilling masterpiece—from its opening pages to its stunning conclusion.

Le métier de Brodeck n'est pas de raconter des histoires. Sonactivité consiste à établir de brèves notices sur l'état de laflore, des arbres, des saisons et du gibier, de la neige et despluies, un travail sans importance pour son administration. Brodeckne sait même pas si ses rapports parviennent à destination. Depuisla guerre, les courriers fonctionnent mal, il faudra beaucoup detemps pour que la situation s'améliore. ?On ne te demande pas unroman, c'est Rudi Gott, le maréchal-ferrant du village qui a parlé,tu diras les choses, c'est tout, comme pour un de tesrapports.? Brodeck accepte. Au moins d'essayer. Comme dans ses rapports,donc, puisqu'il ne sait pas s'exprimer autrement. Mais pour cela,prévient-il, il faut que tout le monde soit d'accord, tout levillage, tous les hameaux alentour. Brodeck est consciencieux àl'extrême, il ne veut rien cacher de ce qu'il a vu, il veutretrouver la vérité qu'il ne connait pas encore. Même si elle n'estpas bonne à entendre. "? quoi cela te s

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author of The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes comes one of the most celebrated short-story collections of our time. Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in these breathtaking tales of loneliness, quick violence, and the wrong kinds of love. Each of the stunning portraits in Close Range reveals characters fiercely wrought with precision and grace. These are stories of desperation and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both stark and magnificent -- by an author writing at the peak of her craft.

This is a fabulous opportunity to own all seven Harry Potter titles - "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" - in a fantastic boxed set.

After having lost her family and the luxurious life she livedin beautiful Napa, California, Ava Winters finds herself on RebunIsland, Japan, the site of Satoshi Takeda's Revenge School. There,Ava meets Reena, Jon, Cruz, and Jane. At Revenge School, Ava alsomeets Emily Thorne who has recently returned to her training withTakeda. Emily shares her wisdom about Revenge and the importance oflooking for justice in a world where their enemies have thrived.Jon finds a file in Takeda's office detailing the connective tissuelinking the group currently at Revenge School. He presents Ava andthe others with the information, highlighting the looming May 1stdate of an annual gala in Napa where they will all have theopportunity to address their respective "revengendas." Althoughtheir training is not finished, the group feels the time is rightto set out on their mission. Assuming the delicious melodramatictone of the show, the book will reveal twists, turns, murder,collusion and deception. SCHOOLED IN REVENGE will also

Jane Austen is without question, one of England's most enduring and skilled novelists. With her wit, social precision, and unerring ability to create some of literature's most charismatic and believable heroines, she mesmerises her readers as much today as when her novels were first published. Whether it is her sharp, ironic gaze at the Gothic genre invoked by the adventures of Catherine Morland in "Northanger Abbey"; the diffident and much put-upon Fanny Price struggling to cope with her emotions in "Mansfield Park"; her delightfully paced comedy of manners and the machinations of the sisters Elinor and Marianne in "Sense and Sensibility"; the quiet strength of Anne Elliot in "Persuasion" succeeding in a world designed to subjugate her very existence; and Emma - 'a heroine whom no one but myself will like' teased Austen - yet another irresistible character on fire with imagination and foresight.Indeed not unlike her renowned creator, Jane Austen is as sure-footed in her steps through society's whirlpools of

This selection covers the full range of Kipling's shortstories throughout his career, with the subject matter ranging fromthe Indian to the occult and from animals to domestic comedy.

Book De*ion The past fills me with deep emotion. I recall the evening Miao Yan and I first talked. The details return with such vividness that it seems as if I am watching a video of it – the low-hanging moon, the whitish cement ground, Miao Yan’s glittering eyes, her fluttering blouse, the way she lit her cigarette and exhaled the smoke. It is all imprinted on my memory and can never be removed. Seventeen-year-old Ming and twenty-four-year-old Yan have very little in common other than studying in the same college. Ming, innocent and preoccupied, lives in her own world of books, music and imagination. Yan is, by contrast, sexy but cynical, beautiful but wild. She uses her looks to get what she wants from the many men in her life. When the two girls meet, and become best friends, Ming’s world is changed forever. She is attracted to Yan’s free-spirit, while Yan yearns for the kind of stability Ming’s seriousness can bring. But their differences in upbringing and ideologies ultimately driven them apa

To mark the centenary of its foundation, the British Security Service, MI5, has opened its archives to an independent historian. "The Defence of the Realm", the book which results, is an unprecedented publication. It reveals the precise role of the Service in twentieth-century British history, from its foundation by Captain Kell of the British Army in October 1909 to root out 'the spies of the Kaiser' up to its present role in countering Islamic terrorism. It describes the distinctive ethos of MI5, how the organization has been managed, its relationship with the government, where it has triumphed and where it has failed. In all of this, no restriction has been placed on the judgements made by the author. The book also casts new light on many events and periods in British history, showing for example that though well-placed sources MI5 was probably the pre-war department with the best understanding of Hitler's objectives, and had a remarkable willingness to speak truth to power; how it was so astonishingly suc

The House of Night is a thrilling, New York Times bestselling book series that follows 16-year-old Zoey Redbird as she is “Marked” by a vampyre tracker and begins to undergo the “Change” into an actual vampyre. She has to leave her family in Broken Arrow, OK, and move into the House of Night, a boarding school for other fledgling vampyres like her. It’s tough to begin a new life, away from her parents and friends, and on top of that, Zoey finds she is no average fledgling. She has been Marked as special by the vampyre Goddess, Nyx. Although Zoey has awesome new powers, it’s hard to fit in when everyone knows you’re “special.” As Zoey tries to make new friends and maybe find a hot boyfriend (or two), she comes up against all kinds of evil, from the perfect-looking, super-popular girl with not-so-faultless plans, to the mysterious deaths happening at the House of Night and all over Tulsa. Things at the House of Night are not always what they seem. Can Zoey find the courage deep withi

Here for the first time, the original, complete Star Warstrilogy in a special 25th anniversary collector's editionhardcover.Twenty-five years after the phenomenon was born, StarWars remains one of the greatest fantasy epics ever told. Here inone collector's edition are the original stories from the firstthree classic films -- Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The EmpireStrikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi -- each a New YorkTimes bestseller with over one million copies in print. Read thesethrilling novels to see where it all began with Luke Skywalker, afarm boy looking for adventure in a galaxy far, far away....

From the acclaimed author of Conquistador comes this thrillingaccount of one of history’s greatest adventures of discovery. Withcinematic immediacy and meticulous attention to historical detail,here is the true story of a legendary sixteenth-century explorerand his death-defying navigation of the Amazon—river of darkness,pathway to gold. In 1541, the brutal conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro and hiswell-born lieutenant Francisco Orellana set off from Quito insearch of La Canela, South America’s rumored Land of Cinnamon, andthe fabled El Dorado, “the golden man.” Driving an enormous retinueof mercenaries, enslaved natives, horses, hunting dogs, and otheranimals across the Andes, they watched their proud expedition beginto disintegrate even before they descended into the nightmarishjungle, following the course of a powerful river. Soon hopelesslylost in the swampy labyrinth, their numbers diminishing dailythrough disease, starvation, and Indian attacks, Pizarro andOrellana made a fateful decisi

Et si pour une fois, la tribu Malaussène s'agrandissait par lefils, et non par la mère ? Et si Malaussène, rescapé, recousu,réanimé d'un précédent épisode (La Petite Marchande de prose)décidait de sauter le pas avec sa Julie d'amour, revenue elle aussid'encore plus loin (La Fée carabine) ? C'est vrai que d'habitude,dans la tribu, on fête une naissance à chaque fois que la mère estamoureuse : elle part vivre son amour loin des yeux mais jamaisloin du coeur, et puis elle "réappara?t", enceinte, pour repartirsit?t le petit nouveau bien arrivé. Mais cette fois, elle estrevenue toute seule, désemparée et muette. Alors, c'est au tour deBen de prendre la relève. Sauf qu'évidemment, à Belleville, ?a nepeut pas se passer aussi simplement : sinon on ne serait pas chezles Malaussène... Pour la quatrième fois, Pennac nous fait la gr?ce de redonner vie àson héros, et comme les enfants quand Ben leur raconte deshistoires, on se surprend presque à crier "la suite, la suite !". --Karla Manuele