![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Fiction > Special features > Classic fiction
'There he lay looking as if youth had been half-renewed, for the white
hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey, the cheeks were
fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was
redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which
trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran over the chin and neck.
Even the deep, burning eyes seemed set amongst the swollen flesh, for
the lids and pouches underneath were bloated. It seemed as if the whole
awful creature were simply gorged with blood; he lay like a filthy
leech, exhausted with his repletion.'
The Little Prince describes his journey from planet to planet, each tiny world populated by a single adult. It's a wonderfully inventive sequence, which evokes not only the great fairy tales but also such monuments of postmodern whimsy. The author pokes similar fun at a businessman, a geographer, and a lamplighter, all of whom signify some futile aspect of adult existence.
Mary Lennox was horrid. Selfish and spoilt, she was sent to stay with her uncle in Yorkshire. She hated it. But when she finds the way into a secret garden and begins to tend to it, a change comes over her and her life. She meets and befriends a local boy, the talented Dickon, and comes across her sickly cousin Colin who had been kept hidden from her. Between them, the three children work astonishing magic in themselves and those around them. The Secret Garden is one of the best-loved stories of all time.
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.
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.
Frankenstein is the classic gothic horror novel which has thrilled and engrossed readers for two centuries. Written by Mary Shelley, it is a story which she intended would 'curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart.' The tale is a superb blend of science fiction, mystery and thriller. Victor Frankenstein driven by the mad dream of creating his own creature, experiments with alchemy and science to build a monster stitched together from dead remains. Once the creature becomes a living breathing articulate entity, it turns on its maker and the novel darkens into tragedy. The reader is very quickly swept along by the force of the elegant prose, the grotesque, surreal imagery, and the multi-layered themes in the novel. Although first published in 1818, Shelley's masterpiece still maintains a strong grip on the imagination and has been the inspiration for numerous horror movies, television and stage adaptations.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS' CRIME FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR _________________________________ *** A Top Ten Kindle Bestseller *** 'Pure nerve-shredding suspense from the first page to the last' Erin Kelly 'Blair Witch meets Fleabag ... pure mastery' Janice Hallett 'Dazzling' Riley Sager _________________________________ Movie-making can be murder. The project Final Draft, a psychological horror, being filmed at a house deep in a forest, miles from anywhere in the wintry wilds of West Cork. The lead Former soap-star Adele Rafferty has stepped in to replace the original actress at the very last minute. She can't help but hope that this opportunity will be her big break - and she knows she was lucky to get it, after what happened the last time she was on a set. The problem Something isn't quite right about Final Draft. When the strange goings-on in the script start to happen on set too, Adele begins to fear that the real horror lies off the page... _________________________________ 'A roller-coaster ride and fun in every sense, I loved it!' Andrea Mara 'Will have you glued to your sunbed ... insists on being read in one sitting' Gloss
'It is only a bruise' A carefree Russian official has what seems to be a trivial accident... One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.
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.
It's time for Tate and Gia's story. The third book in the Forbidden Love series - also suitable as a standalone - following Book #1, Truly Madly Deeply and #2, Wildest Dreams. Details coming soon . . . READERS ARE OBSESSED WITH L.J. SHEN:
With an Introduction and Notes by David Herd, Lecturer in English and American Literature at the University of Kent at Canterbury and co-editor of 'Poetry Review'. 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.’
Also published as The Beautiful Widow, Mary Shelley's penultimate novel explores the web of relationships between three women, bound together by the exacting Lord Lodore: his estranged wife Cornelia, a woman ruled by her mother and the norms of aristocratic society; his daughter Ethel, raised in the wilderness of Illinois and utterly dependent on her father; and finally, the independent and highly educated Fanny Derham, the daughter of Lodore's childhood friend. At first glance, Lodore appears to be a "silver fork" novel--a popular romance genre from the Regency era about life in fashionable society--yet Shelley's take imbues the story with subversive critiques of domesticity and masculinity. Long considered the most Jane Austen-like of Mary Shelley's novels, Lodore is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand this brilliant feminist writer.
Down the rabbit-hole and through the looking-glass! Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories features all of the best-known works of Lewis Carroll, including the novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, with the classic illustrations of John Tenniel. This compilation also features Carroll's novels Sylvie and Bruno and Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, his masterpiece of nonsense verse "The Hunting of the Snark," and miscellaneous poems, short stories, puzzles, and acrostics.
Finnegans Wake is the book of Here Comes Everybody and Anna Livia Plurabelle and their family - their book, but in a curious way the book of us all as well as all our books. Joyce's last great work, it is not comprised of many borrowed styles, like Ulysses, but, rather, formulated as one dense, tongue-twisting soundscape. This 'language' is based on English vocabulary and syntax but, at the same time, self-consciously designed to function as a pun machine with an astonishing capacity for resisting singularity of meaning. Announcing a 'revolution of the word', this astonishing book amounts to a powerfully resonant cultural critique - a unique kind of miscommunication which, far from stabilizing the world in meaning, constructs a universe radically unfixed by a wild diversity of possibilities and potentials. It also remains the most hilarious, 'obscene', book of innuendos ever to be imagined.
For the first time ever, a beautiful deluxe stamped clothbound
hardcover edition of the forerunner to The Lord of the Rings housed in
a custom-built clothbound slipcase, and illustrated throughout in color
by J.R.R. Tolkien himself, with the complete text printed in two colors
and with many bonus features unique to this edition.
|
You may like...
The EFTA Court - Ten Years On
Carl Baudenbacher, Per Tresselt, …
Hardcover
R3,342
Discovery Miles 33 420
Sulfur Metabolism in Higher Plants…
Luit J.De Kok, Malcolm J. Hawkesford, …
Hardcover
Careers - An Organisational Perspective
Melinde Coetzee, Dries Schreuder
Paperback
|