‘Now that I had finished, the beauty of my dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart …’

Obsessed by creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life by electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley’s chilling gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron’s villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world’s most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.

Based on the third edition of 1831, this contains all the revisions Mary Shelley made to her story, as well as her 1831 introduction and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s preface to the first edition. It also includes as appendices a select collation of the texts of 1818 and 1831 together with ‘’A Fragment’ by Lord Byron and Dr John Polidori’s ‘The Vampyre: A Tale’.

'The Funniest writer ever to put words on paper' Hugh Laurie 'I mean, if you're asking a fellow to come out of a room so that you can dismember him with a carving knife, it's absurd to tack a 'sir' on to every sentence. The two things don't go together.' The odds are stacked against Chuffy when he falls head over heels for American heiress Pauline Stoker. Who better to help him win her over but Jeeves, the perfect gentleman's gentleman. But when Bertie, Pauline's ex-fiance finds himself caught up in the fray, much to his consternation, even Jeeves struggles to get Chuffy his fairy-tale ending. 'The ultimate in comfort reading. For as long as I'm immersed in a P.G. Wodehouse book, it's possible to keep the real world at bay and live in a far, far nicer, funnier one where happy endings are the order of the day' Marian Keyes

By the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window-shutters, I beheld the wretch-the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened... Frankenstein is the most celebrated horror story ever written. It tells the dreadful tale of Victor Frankenstein, a visionary young student of natural philosophy, who discovers the secret of life. In the grip of his obsession he constructs a being from dead body parts, and animates this creature. The results, for Victor and for his family, are catastrophic. Written when Mary Shelley was just eighteen, Frankenstein was inspired by the ghost stories and vogue for Gothic literature that fascinated the Romantic writers of her time. She transformed these supernatural elements an epic parable that warned against the threats to humanity posed by accelerating technological progress. Published for the 200th anniversary, this edition, based on the original 1818 text, explains in detail the turbulent intellectual context in which Shelley was writing, and also investigates how her novel has since become a byword for controversial practices in science and medicine, from manipulating ecosystems to vivisection and genetic modification. As an iconic study of power, creativity, and, ultimately, what it is to be human, Frankenstein continues to shape our thinking in profound ways to this day.

The authoritative edition Love's Labor's Lost from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers. At first glance, Shakespeare's early comedy Love's Labor's Lost simply entertains and amuses. Four young men (one of them a king) withdraw from the world for three years, taking an oath that they will have nothing to do with women. The King of Navarre soon learns, however, that the Princess of France and her ladies are about to arrive. Although he lodges them outside of his court, all four men fall in love with the ladies, abandoning their oaths and setting out to win their hands. The laughter triggered by this story is augmented by subplots involving a braggart soldier, a clever page, illiterate servants, a parson, a schoolmaster, and a constable so dull that he is named Dull. Letters and poems are misdelivered, confessions are overheard, entertainments are presented, and language is played with, and misused, by the ignorant and learned alike. At a deeper level, Love's Labor's Lost also teases the mind. The men begin with the premise that women either are seductresses or goddesses. The play soon makes it clear, however, that the reality of male-female relations is different. That women are not identical to men's images of them is a common theme in Shakespeare's plays. In Love's Labor's Lost it receives one of its most pressing examinations. This edition includes: -Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play -Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play -Scene-by-scene plot summaries -A key to the play's famous lines and phrases -An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play -Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books -An annotated guide to further reading Essay by William C. Carroll The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.

"A collection that might have been called CSI: 1912."-Kirkus Reviews The seventh book in the esteemed Library of Congress Crime Classics, an exciting new classic mystery series created in exclusive partnership with the Library of Congress. This short story collection features twelve tales of intrigue and suspense, starring Craig Kennedy, the "American Sherlock Holmes." New York City, early 1900s. Craig Kennedy, a university professor who uses science to help catch criminals, investigates crimes in and around NYC boroughs featuring deaths by apparent-but-inexplicable means. These highly imaginative crimes include spontaneous combustion and vengeful spirits, along with less fatal crimes involving kidnapping, safe-cracking, and a missing fortune in diamonds. With his impressive knowledge, friend Walter Jameson (his own Watson!), and use of cutting-edge technology of the day, Kennedy cracks each case using unorthodox yet entertaining means. Arthur B. Reeve's Craig Kennedy stories were so popular in his time that he went on to publish twenty-six books featuring the professor, who also appeared in comic strips and a number of films. Readers of classic crime fiction will delight in this collection of twelve short stories. Fans of Sherlock Holmes will especially appreciate Kennedy's insistence on logic and science over brawn.

'Instantly the spirit of hell awoke in me and raged...I was suddenly struck through the heart by a cold thrill of terror.' Stevenson's short novel, published in 1886, became an instant classic. It was a Gothic horror that originated in a feverish nightmare, whose hallucinatory setting in the murky back streets of London gripped a nation mesmerized by crime and violence. The respectable doctor's mysterious relationship with his disreputable associate is finally revealed in one of the most original and thrilling endings in English literature. In addition to Jekyll and Hyde, this edition also includes a number of short stories and essays written by Stevenson in the 1880s, minor masterpieces of fiction and comment: 'The Body Snatcher', 'Markheim', and 'Olalla' feature grave-robbing, a sinister double, and degeneracy, while 'A Chapter on Dreams' and 'A Gossip on Romance' discuss artistic creation and the 'romance' form. Appendixes provide extracts from contemporary writings on personality disorder, which set Stevenson's tale in its full historical context. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Momo has been one of the ever-changing ragbag of whores' children at Madame Rosa's boarding house in Paris ever since he can remember. But when the check that pays for his keep no longer arrives and as Madame Rosa becomes too ill to climb the stairs to their apartment, he determines to support her any way he can. This sensitive, slightly macabre love story between Momo and Madame Rosa has a supporting cast of transvestites, pimps, and witch doctors from Paris's immigrant slum, Belleville. Profoundly moving, The Life Before Us won France's premier literary prize, the Prix Goncourt.

I entered the church...It struck me suddenly that all this crowd of men and women standing all round, these priests chanting and moving about the altar, were dead... Vernon Lee was a polymath whose copious writings include deeply learned studies of art, music, literature, and history, but also a small but exquisitely crafted group of Gothic tales, most of which first appeared in fin de siecle periodicals including the iconic Yellow Book. In these stories of obsession and possession, transgressive desire reaches out from the past - through a haunting portrait, a murdered poet's lock of hair, the uncanny voice of a diabolical castrato - dragging Lee's protagonists to their doom. Among those haunted by Lee's 'spurious ghosts' was Henry James, who praised her 'gruesome, graceful...ingenious tales, full of imagination'. This new edition includes Lee's landmark 1890 collection Hauntings complete, along with six additional tales and the 1880 essay 'Faustus and Helena', in which Lee probes the elusive nature of the supernatural as a 'vital...fluctuating...potent' force that resists definite representation. Aaron Worth's contextual introduction, drawing upon Lee's newly published letters, reassesses her place in the pantheon of the fantastic. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

With an Introduction and Notes by Joe Andrew, Professor of Russian Literature, Keele University. Anton Chekhov is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of short stories. He constructs stories where action and drama are implied rather than described openly, and which leave much to the reader's imagination. This collection contains some of the most important of his earliest and shortest comic sketches, as well as examples of his great, mature works. Throughout, the doctor-turned-writer displays compassion for human suffering and misfortune, but is always able to see the comical, even farcical aspects of the human condition. Chekhov sees and depicts life with unwavering honesty and truthfulness, although a clear moral sense can be detected beneath his apparent objectivity.

Read F Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel of love, money, revenge and betrayal set in Jazz Age America. Jay Gatsby is a self-made man, famed for his decadent champagne-drenched parties. Despite being surrounded by Long Island's bright and beautiful, he longs only for Daisy Buchanan. In shimmering prose, Fitzgerald shows Gatsby pursue his dream to its tragic conclusion in one of the 20th century's true contenders for the title of 'Great American Novel'.

One of Woolf's most experimental novels, The Waves presents six characters in monologue - from morning until night, from childhood into old age - against a background of the sea. The result is a glorious chorus of voices that exists not to remark on the passing of events but to celebrate the connection between its various individual parts.

Little treasures, the FLAME TREE COLLECTABLE CLASSICS are chosen to create a delightful and timeless home library. Each stunning, gift edition features deluxe cover treatments, ribbon markers, luxury endpapers and gilded edges. The unabridged text is accompanied by a Glossary of Victorian and Literary terms produced for the modern reader. One of the finest examples of literature, written by an author at the height her powers, Pride and Prejudice is sharply observed, witty and acute. It is studied and enjoyed in still increasing numbers throughout the world today. Elizabeth Bennet and her four sisters are unmarried, much to their parents' great anxiety. In a rollercoaster of social etiquette, wilful misunderstanding and romantic intrigue Mr Charles Bingley and his friend Mr Darcy vie with Mr Collins and Mr Wickham for the attentions of the Bennet daughters. Rejection, scandal and distress eventually lead to marriage and true love in a series of classic happy endings resolving the conflicts between pride and prejudice in the sisters and their beaus.

The gripping new thriller in the brilliant Constance Fairchild series, from one of Scotland's foremost crime writers. On compassionate leave following the death of her mother, Detective Constable Constance Fairchild thought renting a cottage near Aberystwyth, Wales would get her far enough from London to finally relax. But trouble always seems to find Con, and it's not long before she is cooling off in a police station cell after defending herself from two would-be rapists. In custody she meets a young Ukrainian woman, Lila, who confides in Con that she's been forced by her manipulative boyfriend into prostitution and running drugs. Fearing for her life, she has run away from him, only to end up in the cells. Con offers to help, but when her cottage is ransacked, and Lila subsequently disappears, she realises she's stumbled into very dangerous company. International drug smugglers and ruthless people traffickers - those who will stop at nothing to protect their secrets. Out here at the end of the line, will Con find that there's nowhere left to run? Praise for James Oswald: 'The new Ian Rankin' Daily Record 'Creepy, gritty and gruesome' Sunday Mirror 'Crime fiction's next big thing' Sunday Telegraph

The first book in Marsali Taylor's thrilling Shetland Sailing Mysteries series. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Val McDermid, Faith Martin, J.R. Ellis, LJ Ross and Ann Cleeves! '... a well written, enjoyable story with a proper murder-mystery plot... Highly recommended.' Puzzle Doctor, Classic Mysteries Cass Lynch's big break has finally arrived - she feels like she has struck gold after being asked to skipper a Viking longship for a film. However this means returning to the Shetland Islands, the place she fled as a teen. When a corpse unexpectedly appears onboard the longship, she can run from the past no longer: Cass and her family come under intense scrutiny by the disturbingly shrewd Detective Inspector Macrae. Even if Cass's local knowledge and sailing wisdom help to clear the Lynch family of suspicion, they may not be enough to stay ahead of the murderer's game. . . and avoid becoming the next victim. Previously published as Death on a Longship. _____________________________ Praise for the chillingly addictive, nail-biting series: 'A fascinating book and a fascinating series so far. And there are more in the series! Yaaay!!' 5* Reader review 'Excellent first volume of detective stories set in Shetland... Good story line with notable twists to the conclusion. Would recommend' 5* Reader review 'Very believable characters and delightful descriptions of Shetland that really make you feel you are there' 5* Reader review 'Lovely series of crime books set in beautiful Shetland... Complex and fascinating' 5* Reader review

Introduction and Notes by Elaine Jordan, Reader in Literature, University of Essex. What does persuasion mean - a firm belief, or the action of persuading someone to think something else? Anne Elliot is one of Austen's quietest heroines, but also one of the strongest and the most open to change. She lives at the time of the Napoleonic wars, a time of accident, adventure, the making of new fortunes and alliances. A woman of no importance, she manoeuvres in her restricted circumstances as her long-time love Captain Wentworth did in the wars. Even though she is nearly thirty, well past the sell-by bloom of youth, Austen makes her win out for herself and for others like herself, in a regenerated society.

The classic novel brought to life in full colour. A respectable household is shocked when a strange man visits them shortly after dinner and proceeds to unravel their prejudices and lies.

OUT NOW IN CINEMAS AND NOMINATED FOR FOUR OSCARS A cool, cruel, rediscovered classic of American noir adapted for cinemas by Guillermo del Toro, starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara 'Read and shudder. And relish' Guardian 'A creepy, all-too-harrowing masterpiece' Washington Post Stanton Carlisle, employed as a carny at a travelling circus watches their freak-show geek - an abject alcoholic, the object of the voyeuristic crowd's gleeful disgust and derision - and wonders how a man could fall so low. There's no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him. Unlike the tragic figure he sees before him, Stan is young, clever and ambitious and quick to learn from the other carnival acts. Initially teaming up with a beautiful but vulnerable woman as part of a double act in which he mesmerises her, Stan soon leaves his circus days behind him, becoming a successful spiritualist who exploits the weak and the wealthy. But even the very best con-men can meet their match.... With a new introduction from James Smythe, Nightmare Alley is a forgotten classic of Depression-era America: a brilliant, horrifying, compulsive journey into the true darkness of the human mind.

Sense and Sensibility is the story of the two Dashwood sisters, who embody the conflict between the oppressive nature of "civilized" society and the human desire for romantic passion. Elinor is cautious and unassuming about sentimental matters, while Marianne is wild and passionate, falling hopelessly in love with Mr Willoughby. But the lessons in life and romance see the two characters develop and change, with sense and sensibility needing to be compromised as a matter of survival. Austen's first published work, the novel has been read as an autobiographical reflection of her relationship with her own sister Cassandra. Against the backdrop of a fragile social context, Jane Austen creates a romantic masterpiece of raw and intense quality.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. How did the leopard get its spots? Why do the tides ebb and flow? How did the elephant get its trunk? And how was the alphabet made? Rudyard Kipling's classic collection of fables answers the great questions of animal- and humankind in a fun, eloquent and magical way - for children and adults alike. Kipling's beautifully imaginative answers echo the animal fables he heard during his childhood in India, paired with the folk tales he collected throughout his life. Kipling's enjoyment in playing with language, as well as his own delight in fatherhood, makes these stories a joy to read aloud, and children will request these tales as bedtime stories again and again. However, adults will also revel in Kipling's fanciful storytelling and gift for language, as every reading uncovers a new joke, subtext or fascinating embellishment. From the author of 'The Jungle Book' and 'Kim', 'Just So Stories' is the newest addition to the available canon of Kipling's work available in the handy format of Collins Classics!

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth ... but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are hungry for Neville's blood. By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead through the ruins of civilisation. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn. How long can one man survive like this? Winner of the Bram Stoker Prize for Vampire Novel of the Century, I Am Legend is a stunning blend of science fiction and horror. 'The most clever and riveting vampire novel since Dracula' - Dean Koontz 'Books like I Am Legend were an inspiration to me' - Stephen King 'It is, by turns, scary, thrilling, tragic, witty and - ultimately - uplifting' - James Lovegrove Welcome to The Best Of The Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fiction

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Our consciousness rarely registers the beginning of a growth within us any more than without us: there have been many circulations of the sap before we detect the smallest sign of the bud.' Set in the agricultural town of Raveloe in the English countryside, Silas Marner is a tragic figure. Exiled from a religious community because of a wrongful accusation of theft, he works from day to day as a weaver, saving his money and living a lonely life as a recluse. It is only when his money is stolen and a small orphan girl, Eppie appears in his life that Silas's fortunes begin to change and he truly begins to learn what it means to regain his faith in life.

The authoritative edition of The Winter's Tale from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers. The Winter's Tale, one of Shakespeare's very late plays, is filled with improbabilities. Before the conclusion, one character comments that what we are about to see, "Were it but told you, should be hooted at / Like an old tale." It includes murderous passions, man-eating bears, princes and princesses in disguise, death by drowning and by grief, oracles, betrayal, and unexpected joy. Yet the play, which draws much of its power from Greek myth, is grounded in the everyday. A "winter's tale" is one told or read on a long winter's night. Paradoxically, this winter's tale is ideally seen rather than read--though the imagination can transform words into vivid action. Its shift from tragedy to comedy, disguises, and startling exits and transformations seem addressed to theater audiences. This edition includes: -Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play -Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play -Scene-by-scene plot summaries -A key to the play's famous lines and phrases -An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play -Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books -An annotated guide to further reading Essay by Stephen Orgel The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.

Selected by the preeminent Kafka biographer and scholar Reiner Stach and newly translated by the peerless Michael Hofmann, the seventy-four pieces gathered here have been lost to sight for decades and two of them have never been translated into English before. Some stories are several pages long; some run about a page; a handful are only a few lines long: all are marvels. Even the most fragmentary texts are revelations. These pieces were drawn from two large volumes of the S. Fischer Verlag edition Nachgelassene Schriften und Fragmente (totaling some 1100 pages). "Franz Kafka is the master of the literary fragment," as Stach comments in his afterword: "In no other European author does the proportion of completed and published works loom quite so...small in the overall mass of his papers, which consist largely of broken-off beginnings." In fact, as Hofmann recently added: "'Finished' seems to me, in the context of Kafka, a dubious or ironic condition, anyway. The more finished, the less finished. The less finished, the more finished. Gregor Samsa's sister Grete getting up to stretch in the streetcar. What kind of an ending is that?! There's perhaps some distinction to be made between 'finished' and 'ended.' Everything continues to vibrate or unsettle, anyway. Reiner Stach points out that none of the three novels were 'completed.' Some pieces break off, or are concluded, or stop-it doesn't matter!-after two hundred pages, some after two lines. The gusto, the friendliness, the wit with which Kafka launches himself into these things is astonishing."