HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. Clarissa Dalloway is a woman of high-society - vivacious, hospitable and sociable on the surface, yet underneath troubled and dissatisfied with her life in post-war Britain. This disillusionment is an emotion that bubbles under the surface of all of Woolf's characters in Mrs Dalloway. Centred around one day in June where Clarissa is preparing for and holding a party, her interior monologue mingles with those of the other central characters in a stream of consciousness, entwining, yet never actually overriding the pervading sense of isolation that haunts each person. One of Virginia Woolf's most accomplished novels, Mrs Dalloway is widely regarded as one of the most revolutionary works of the 20th century in its style and the themes that it tackles. The sense that Clarissa has married the wrong person, her past love for another female friend and the death of an intended party guest all serve to amplify this stultifying existence.

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 - Melville breathes in the world's great literature. Moby Dick is the greatest novel ever written by an American.

‘Our God is a big man: a tall man much higher than the highest chapel in Wales and broader than the broadest chapel. For the promised day that He comes to deliver us a sermon we shall have made a hole in the roof and taken down a wall. Our God has a long, white beard, and he is not unlike the Father Christmas of picture-books. Often he lies on his stomach on Heaven’s floor, an eye at one of his myriads of peepholes, watching that we keep his laws. Our God wears a frock coat, a starched linen collar and black necktie, and a silk hat, and on the Sabbath he preaches to the congregation of Heaven.’

Set in west Wales and among the Welsh of London, and written in the Biblical cadence which had made its author famous, Caradoc Evans’s third collection castigates the ignorance, greed and hypocrisy of his people.

This cornucopia of thrills and chills features 25 of the finest English-language tales of the uncanny and macabre. In addition to works by such stellar authors as Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and Henry S. Whitehead, the book features three complete short novels: A Phantom Lover by Vernon Lee, Serapion by Francis Stevens, and The Ghost Pirates by William Hope Hodgson.

A scholarly edition of a work by Jane Austen, presenting an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

"A super cozy mystery... The perfect pick up for a weekend read by the fire. It has everything... Hijinks, who-dun-its, loveable characters, and a wonderful setting. And a main character who is FIERCE" NetGalley review She can write the perfect murder mystery... But can she solve one in real life? Meet Jen Dawson, mystery writer, coffee lover, and amateur detective? Crime writer Jen returns to her small hometown with a bestselling book behind her and a bad case of writer's block. Finding sanctuary in the local bookstore, with an endless supply of coffee, Jen waits impatiently for inspiration to strike. But when the owner of the bookstore dies suddenly in mysterious circumstances, Jen has a real-life murder to solve. The stakes are suddenly higher when evidence places Jen at the scene of the crime and the reading of the will names her as the new owner of the bookstore ... Can she crack the case and clear her name, before the killer strikes again? Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Lauren Elliott and Ellery Adams, this is an absolutely gripping new bookish cozy crime series that will have you hooked from the very first page. Readers adore Murder at the Bookstore: "Warm, amusing, and relatable... A very entertaining cozy mystery... A relaxing night-time read, and it was perfect for that... I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys cozy mysteries" NetGalley review "I loved trying to figure out the murder before I got to the end. This was a cozy, page-turning read" NetGalley review "This ingenious author has written a cannot put down novel" NetGalley review

Dickens had already achieved renown with The Pickwick Papers. With Oliver Twist his reputation was enhanced and strengthened. The novel contains many classic Dickensian themes - grinding poverty, desperation, fear, temptation and the eventual triumph of good in the face of great adversity. Oliver Twist features some of the author's most enduring characters, such as Oliver himself (who dares to ask for more), the tyrannical Bumble, the diabolical Fagin, the menacing Bill Sikes, Nancy and 'the Artful Dodger'. For any reader wishing to delve into the works of the great Victorian literary colossus, Oliver Twist is, without doubt, an essential title.

One of the first dystopian novels ever written, The Last Man traces the impact of an unstoppable pandemic as it slowly overtakes the world. Beginning in the year 2073, the story follows Lionel Vesey—the titular last man—and his circle of friends as the disease creeps from continent to continent and erodes the foundations of civilization. Published in 1826, after the death of Shelley’s husband, her stepsister, and her two children, The Last Man is both an eerily accurate story about humanity wrestling with disaster and a moving fable about surviving personal grief.

A ruthless and unflinching examination of American life in the late 1960s, from the author of The Year of Magical Thinking.

One thing in my defence, not that it matters: I know what ‘nothing’ means, and keep on playing

Somewhere out beyond Hollywood, hollowed-out actress Maria Wyeth’s life plays out in a numbing routine of perpetual freeway driving. In her early thirties, divorced from her husband, dislocated from friends, anesthetized to pain and pleasure, Wheth is a woman who has run out of both desires and motives – the epitome of a generation made ill by too much freedom.

More than five decades after its original publication, Play it as it Lays remains a profoundly disturbing novel that ruthlessly dissects American life in the late 1960s, from the author of The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking.

Six friends. One remote hotel. A long-overdue reunion. Welcome to The Hitchcock Hotel...

Alfred Smettle adores Hitchcock.

And who better to become founder, owner and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, a remote, sprawling Victorian house sitting atop a hill in the beautiful White Mountains, New England. There, guests can find movie props and memorabilia in every room, round-the-clock film screenings, and an aviary with fifty crows.

For the hotel's first anniversary, Alfred invites the five college friends he studied film with. He hasn't spoken to any of them in sixteen years. Not after what happened. But who better to appreciate Alfred's creation?

His guests arrive, and everything seems to go according to plan. Until one glimpses someone standing outside her shower curtain.

Another is violently ill every time she eats the hotel food. Then their mobile phones go missing.

You should always make the audience suffer as much as possible, right?

The guests are stuck in the middle of nowhere, and things are about to get even worse. After all, no Hitchcock set is complete without a dead body.

Jane Austen, one of the nation's most beloved authors, whose face adorns our currency, surely needs no introduction, but while many are familiar with her groundbreaking novels, few have come across her short burlesque work The History of England. Billed a history 'from the reign of Henry IV to Charles I by a partial, prejudiced and ignorant historian', The History of England pokes fun at the overly verbose and grand histories of Austen's day. Written when she was just fifteen, this is a comic tour de force that shows Austen's wit developing into the satirical prowess she is remembered for.

HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.

Is Mr. Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil?

Set on the bleak moors of Yorkshire, Lockwood is forced to seek shelter at Wuthering Heights, the home of his new landlord, Heathcliff. The intense and wildly passionate Heathcliff tells the story of his life, his all-consuming love for Catherine Earnshaw and the doomed outcome of that relationship, leading to his revenge.

Poetic, complex and grand in its scope, Emily Bronte's masterpiece is considered one of the most unique gothic novels of its time."

HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.

'I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.'

Bronte's infamous Gothic novel tells the story of orphan Jane, a child of unfortunate circumstances. Raised and treated badly by her aunt and cousins and eventually sent away to a cruel boarding school, it is not until Jane becomes a governess at Thornfield that she finds happiness. Meek, measured, but determined, Jane soon falls in love with her brooding and stormy master, Mr Rochester, but it is not long before strange and unnerving events occur in the house and Jane is forced to leave Thornfield to pursue her future.

The Arabian Nights is your magic carpet ride to exotic lands full of wonders and marvels. First collected nearly a thousand years ago, these folktales are presented as stories that crafty Scheherazade tells her husband, King Shahryar, over a thousand-and-one consecutive nights, to pique his interest for the next evening's entertainment and thereby save her life. Among them are some of the best-known legends of eastern storytelling, including the "Sinbad the Sailor," "Aladdin and His Magic Lamp," and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves." This collection features more than twenty stories, in the classic translation of Sir Richard Burton, published between 1884 and 1886, and full-colour illustrations by Renata Fucikova and Jindra Capek. The Arabian Nights is one of Barnes & Noble's Leatherbound classics. Each volume features authoritative texts by the world's greatest authors in an exquisitely designed bonded-leather binding, with distinctive gilt edging and a silk-ribbon bookmark. Decorative, durable, and collectible, these books offer hours of pleasure to readers young and old and are an indispensable cornerstone for every home library.

Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald's finest novel, The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the "roaring twenties", and a devastating expose of the 'Jazz Age'. Through the narration of Nick Carraway, the reader is taken into the superficially glittering world of the mansions which lined the Long Island shore in the 1920s, to encounter Nick's cousin Daisy, her brash but wealthy husband Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby and the mystery that surrounds him. The Great Gatsby is an undisputed classic of American literature from the period following the First World War and is one of the great novels of the twentieth century.

Revel in the magic of a Christmas tradition. The Nutcracker features the full text of Alexandre Dumas's "The History of a Nutcracker", the story that inspired the classic ballet. Lavishly illustrated with more than 100 vintage drawings from the nineteenth century, this beautifully designed book kindles the spirit of the holidays through its tale of an enchanted nutcracker made human one Christmas through the love of a young girl.