In Henry IV, Part 1, the King is in a doubly ironic position. His rebellion against Richard II was successful, but now he himself is beset by rebels, led by the charismatic Harry Hotspur. The King&...
The Diary of a Nobody is so unassuming a work that even its author, George Grossmith, seemed unaware that he had produced a masterpiece. For more than a century this wonderfully comic portrayal of ...
Candide (1759) is a bright, colourful literary firework display of a novella. With sparkling wit and biting humour, Voltaire hits several targets with fierce and comic satire: organised religion, t...
These three wonderful comic novels drolly record the battle between Lucia and Elisabeth Mapp for social and cultural supremacy in the village of Tilling (based on Rye). Their constant skirmishes en...
Richard II is one of Shakespeare’s finest works: lucid, eloquent, and boldly structured. It can be seen as a tragedy, or a historical play, or a political drama, or as one part of a vast dram...
This powerful novel, Tolstoy’s third major masterpiece, after War and Peace and Anna Karenina, begins with a courtroom drama (the finest in Russian literature) all the more stunning for being...
In 1915, Lawrence's frank representation of sexuality in The Rainbow caused a furore and the novel was seized by the police and banned almost as soon as it was published. Today it is recognised as ...
Far From the Maddening Crowd, by Thomas Hardy, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including...
Henry James was arguably the greatest practitioner of what has been called the psychological ghost story. His stories explore the region which lies between the supernatural or straightforwardly mar...
Translated, with an Introduction and Notes by John R. Williams. Goethe's Faust is a classic of European literature. Based on the fable of the man who traded his soul for superhuman powers and knowl...
Anna Sewell's Black Beauty was an immediate success on its publication in 1877, and has gone on to sell an estimated 50 million copies. Black Beauty is a horse with a fine black coat, a white foot ...
Il y a le Paris de l'opulence et des raffinements délicats. Il ya celui des petits matins blemes et des couples éreintés. Prosper Donge, employé d'un palace situé...
Si j'étais tout a fait sincere, je dirais que je n'ai pas de sympathie pour M. Renard : il m'humilie ; je sens en lui des perfections qui m'offensent.» (Léon Blum) &...
Les comédiens resterent silencieux et dans l’attente… "Je plie mon titre de baron et le mets au fond de mon portemanteau, comme un vetement qui n’est plus de mi...
Fintan, Maou, Geoffroy : trois reves, trois révoltes. Et une meme soif.Fintan Allen a douze ans lorsque, le 14 mars 1948, il embarque pour l'Afrique avec sa mere, Maou. Geoffroy Allen,...
Short Stories from the Nineteenth Century is a wonderful collection of classic stories specially selected and introduced by David Stuart Davies. These are tales from the golden age of the great sto...
Jean... Qu est-ce que tu dirais si j avais fait quelque chose de grave ? » J avoue que cette question ne m avait pas alarmé. Peut-etre a cause du ton détaché qu elle avai...
Parry n'a pas tué. Mais les apparences sont contre lui, et le juge le condamne a la détention perpétuelle. Mal nourri, sans femme, sans gin, sans foyer, loin des lumieres &eacu...
Je me suis redressée brusquement et une goutte de sueur s'est échappée derriere mon oreille. Elle a suivi un moment la ligne de ma mâchoire, a glissé le long de mo...
As Fyodor Karamazov awaits an amorous encounter, he is violently done to death. The three sons of the old debauchee are forced to confront their own guilt or complicity. Who will own to parricide? ...