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Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > General
Oscar Wilde's children's stories explore timeless themes of good
and evil, freedom and responsibility, love and death, beauty and
self-sacrifice. Featuring princesses, ogres and talking animals,
the questions they pose are as pertinent now as they were at the
turn of the century. What is love? asks 'The Happy Prince'. How do
you get what you need? asks 'The Nightingale and the Rose'. How do
you win friends (and avoid alienating people)? asks 'The Selfish
Giant'. Can you have too much compassion? asks 'The Devoted
Friend'. How can you set the world on fire? asks 'The Remarkable
Rocket'. Wilde's stories have given pleasure to generations of
readers. By turns moving and funny, they gently teach free thinking
rather than giving prescriptive lessons. This beautiful collectors'
edition with original watercolour illustrations and decorative
motifs from the 1913 edition by Charles Robinson and an
introduction by Wilde expert Michele Mendelssohn is certain to
surprise and delight adults and children alike.
What happens when a woman is pushed too far? Is she able to express
her thoughts and feelings, or is she forced towards the expectation
of behaving 'normally' again soon? A woman travels with her husband
to an old colonial mansion after a nervous breakdown triggered by
the birth of their child. Confined to the nursery and allowed only
to breathe fresh air, eat well and rest in line with a regimented
'cure', she slowly begins to unravel at the seams. Her only
distraction is writing in secret - that, and the woman she begins
to see trapped inside the yellow wallpaper of the room itself.
Isolated and breaking apart, she sets herself a task: to free the
woman, and to become one with her temporary confinement. Charlotte
Perkins-Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper' presents a harrowing,
disturbing account of mental stress, confinement and female turmoil
- within which the only available solace can be found inside four
peeling, sickly yellow walls...
Northanger Abbey tells the story of a young girl, Catherine Morland
who leaves her sheltered, rural home to enter the busy,
sophisticated world of Bath in the late 1790s. Austen observes with
insight and humour the interaction between Catherine and the
various characters whom she meets there, and tracks her growing
understanding of the world about her.
"The Blackout Book Club is a fabulous novel that will warm the
hearts of readers everywhere. Amy Lynn Green gives us a poignant
look at life on the home front during WWII and how comfort and
camaraderie can be found in the shared love of books. This will be
a wonderful book club read!"--MADELINE MARTIN, New York Times
bestselling author of The Last Bookshop in London In 1942, an
impulsive promise to her brother before he goes off to the European
front puts Avis Montgomery in the unlikely position of head
librarian in small-town Maine. Though she has never been much of a
reader, when wartime needs threaten to close the library, she
invents a book club to keep its doors open. The women she convinces
to attend the first meeting couldn't be more different--a wealthy
spinster determined to aid the war effort, an exhausted mother
looking for a fresh start, and a determined young war worker. At
first, the struggles of the home front are all the club members
have in common, but over time, the books they choose become more
than an escape from the hardships of life and the fear of the
U-boat battles that rage just past their shores. As the women face
personal challenges and band together in the face of danger, they
find they have more in common than they think. But when their
growing friendships are tested by secrets of the past and present,
they must decide whether depending on each other is worth the cost.
Includes a book club discussion guide and The Blackout Book Club
book list "A salute to the power of books and of
friendship!"--SARAH SUNDIN, bestselling and award-winning author of
Until Leaves Fall in Paris "The Blackout Book Club is an engaging
story that illustrates the power of books to unite and encourage us
in trying times. . . . A wonderful read."--LYNN AUSTIN, author of
Long Way Home
Her daring bid for freedom could be her greatest undoing. Amid the
Great War in 1918 England, munitions worker Rosalind Graham is
desperate to escape the arranged marriage being forced on her by
her ruthless guardian and instead follow her own course. When the
Chilwell factory explodes, killing hundreds of unidentified
workers, Rose realizes the world believes she perished in the
disaster. Seizing the chance to escape, she risks all and assumes a
new identity, taking a supervisory position in Gretna, Scotland, as
Miss Tilly Lockhart. RAF Captain Alex Baird is returning home to
Gretna on a secret mission to uncover the saboteur suspected in the
Chilwell explosion, as Gretna's factory is likely next. Fearing for
his family's safety, he's also haunted by guilt after failing to
protect his brother. Alex is surprised to discover a young woman,
Miss Lockhart, renting his boyhood room, but the two eventually
bond over their mutual affection for his family--until Alex
receives orders to surveil her. Rose squirms beneath Alex's
scrutiny while she struggles to gain her workers' respect. But when
her deception turns to danger, she and Alex must find a way to put
their painful pasts behind them and together try to safeguard the
future. "With her trademark attention to historical detail, Kate
Breslin sweeps readers to a Great War home front full of intrigue,
suspense, danger, and courage."--JOCELYN GREEN, Christy
Award-winning author of Shadows of the White City "Readers will be
captivated by this exquisite blend of historical intrigue and
heartfelt romance from one of the finest voices in inspirational
fiction."--AMANDA BARRATT, author of My Dearest Dietrich and The
White Rose Resists "Breslin uses an exhilarating plotline and
tender romance amid the tension of espionage to craft a gripping
tale rife with double agents, corrupt foreign arms dealers, and
secret missions. Ultimately, this is a story of forgiveness and
family, and readers will revel once again in Breslin's superb
chronicling of women's vital contributions to the war
effort."--Booklist "Breslin keeps the tension up. . . . The stakes
could not be higher--in both love and war--in this espionage tale
drenched in intrigue."--Publishers Weekly
Christian Isobel Johnstone's Clan-Albin: A National Tale was
published in 1815, less than a year after Walter Scott's Waverley;
or 'tis Sixty Years Since enthralled readers and initiated a craze
for Scottish novels. Both as a novelist and as editor of Tait's
Edinburgh Magazine from 1834 to 1846, Johnstone was a powerful
figure in Romantic Edinburgh's literary scene. But her works and
her reputation have long been overshadowed by Scott's. In
Clan-Albin, Johnstone engages with themes on British imperial
expansion, metropolitan England's economic and political
relationships with the Celtic peripheries, and the role of women in
public life. This rare novel, alongside extensive editorial
commentary, will be of much interest to students of British
Literature.
"It's rare when a book carries me so deep inside its world that I
forget I'm reading. Buy this book. Now. You'll absolutely love
it."--JAMES L. RUBART, Christy Hall of Fame author The voices of
the past cannot stay silent forever. In 1910 Michigan, Perliett Van
Hilton is a self-proclaimed rural healer, leaving the local doctor
convinced she practices quackery. It doesn't help that her mother
is a spiritualist who regularly offers her services to connect the
living with their dearly departed. But when Perliett is targeted by
a superstitious killer, she must rely on both the local doctor and
an intriguing newcomer for assistance. In the present day, Molly
Wasziak's life has not gone the way she dreamed. Facing depression
after several miscarriages, Molly is adapting to her husband's
purchase of a peculiar old farm. A search for a family tree pulls
Molly deep into a century-old murder case and a web of deception,
all made more mysterious by the disturbing shadows and sounds
inside the farmhouse. Perliett fights for her life, and Molly seeks
renewed purpose for hers as she uncovers the records of the dead.
Will their voices be heard, or will time forever silence their
truths? "A tale of intoxicating menace, eerie elegance, and
satisfying suspense."--BOOKLIST starred review of The Souls of Lost
Lake
A haunting critique of European colonialism in Africa, Heart of
Darkness recounts Charles Marlow's perilous expedition up the Congo
River in search of Mr. Kurtz, the powerful and enigmatic commander
of a Belgian ivory trading post. As Marlow draws closer to and
finally reaches the target of his obsession, admiration turns to
horror at the colonizers' atrocities laid bare before him. Its
famously cryptic narrative structure, richly layered with symbolic
undertones, evokes a hazy, menacing atmosphere that has sparked
countless reinterpretations and adaptations to this day.
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Unsteady Earth
(Paperback)
Marie-Jeanne Urech; Translated by Andrea Reece
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R169
Discovery Miles 1 690
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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This charming and gentle Christmas love story in the "swoon-worthy"
(Woman's World) Berlin Bookmobile series follows a librarian
determined to help an Amish bachelor woo his neighbor. A solitary
sort, forty-two-year-old Atle Petersheim spends his time hard at
work in his wood shop. But as the days get longer, he realizes just
how lonely he's become. When his longtime crush, Sadie Mast, a
widow and mother of three, asks him to help her build a room in
their barn for her son, Atle can't say no. Eager to pursue Sadie at
last, he turns to bookmobile librarian Sarah Anne Miller for
courting advice. More than happy to help, Sarah Anne decides the
best way to learn about love is through books--romance novels to be
precise. Between completing holiday orders for her flourishing food
business, helping Cale navigate a dramatic new relationship with
his boss's daughter, and coming to terms with the trauma her late
husband had inflicted upon her and her children--not to mention
Atle showing up at her door with flowers--Sadie is in over her
head. Though Atle's efforts are initially clumsy and his
declarations a bit awkward, Sadie can't help but be charmed by her
patient and kind neighbor. But is she ready for love? Another
delightful romance about the "transformative powers of love, hope,
and faith" (Publishers Weekly), A Christmas Courtship is the
perfect holiday read.
Includes pictures, notes and an extensive section on Oscar Wilde's life and works. Dorian Gray is having his picture painted by Basil Hallward, who is charmed by his looks. But when Sir Henry Wotton visits, and seduces Dorian into the worship of youthful beauty with an intoxicating speech, Dorian makes a wish he will live to regret: that all the marks of age will now be reflected in the portrait, rather than on Dorian's own face. The stage is now set for a masterful tale about appearance, reality, art, life, truth, fiction and the ultimate burden of conscience.
Adultery is not a typical Jane Austen theme, but when it disturbs
the relatively peaceful household at Mansfield Park, it has quite
unexpected results. The diffident and much put-upon heroine Fanny
Price has to struggle to cope with the results, re-examining her
own feelings while enduring the cheerful amorality, old-fashioned
indifference and priggish disapproval of those around her.
The Other End of the Line is the twenty-fourth Inspector Montalbano
mystery from the international bestselling author Andrea Camilleri,
and this time migrants and murder are on the Inspector's mind. In
Inspector Montalbano's coastal town of Vigata, a surge of migrants
have been coming in by boat, and all the town's hands are on deck
to help the arrivals. At the heart of the scene are the police - on
the lookout for the people smugglers responsible - and long
night-shifts are rendering Inspector Montalbano and his officers
exhausted. Then one night, while Montalbano is enduring yet another
gruelling stint at the port, a separate crime is committed -
unexplained, unexpected, and unpleasant. Elena, the dressmaker at
the town's famous tailors, has been found dead - slaughtered by her
own scissors . . . As a swell of desperate people arrive in search
of a better life, Inspector Montalbano finds himself trying to
unravel the mystery of who murdered the dressmaker. But as he makes
his enquiries, the Inspector can't help but wonder: what will
happen if he keeps tugging on this thread? And what will he find at
the end of the line? The Other End of the Line is followed by the
twenty-fifth gripping mystery, The Safety Net.
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The Chase
(Paperback)
Lisa Harris
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R366
R298
Discovery Miles 2 980
Save R68 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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US Marshal Madison James may not be sure who shot her three months
ago, but she does know one thing--it's time to get back out into
the field. When her partner, Jonas Quinn, receives a message that a
federal warrant just came in on a man connected to a string of bank
robberies, Madison jumps at the chance to get back to work. What
she and Jonas find is a bank robbery in progress that's gone
wrong--and things are about to get worse. For these bank robbers,
it's never been just about the money. It's about taking risks and
adrenaline rushes, and getting caught is not part of the game. When
the suspects escape, Madison and Jonas must hunt them down and
bring them to justice before someone else--someone close to
them--gets hurt . . . or worse. From Seattle to the San Juan
Islands, bestselling author Lisa Harris takes you on a nonstop
chase where feelings are complicated and failure isn't an option.
HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of
best-loved, essential classics. 'Let there be spaces in your
togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.'
A prophet waits to board a ship after 12 years away from his
homeland. His journey is interrupted by a group of people who ask
him to impart his wisdom before he leaves forever. What follows are
26 short chapters on everything from love, marriage and children,
to freedom, reason, talking, time and death. A guide to life and
the human condition, this lyrical work of prose poetry has
entranced readers for nearly 100 years. Described by many as the
first self-help book, The Prophet was an instant bestseller when it
was published in 1923, and is one of the most translated works in
history.
Agatha Christie's most daring crime mystery, now presented as a
sumptuous hardback Special Edition. Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He
knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband.
He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Now,
tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with a
drug overdose. But the evening post brought Roger one last fatal
scrap of information. Unfortunately, before he could finish the
letter, he was stabbed to death...
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.
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