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Zibaldone: The Notebooks Of Leopardi
by Giacomo LeopardiGiacomo Leopardi was the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and was recognized by readers from Nietzsche to Beckett as one of the towering literary figures in Italian history. To many, he is the finest Italian poet after Dante.Leopardi was also a prodigious scholar of classical literature and philosophy, and a voracious reader in numerous ancient and modern languages. For most of his writing career, he kept an immense notebook, known as the Zibaldone, or "hodgepodge," as Harold Bloom has called it, in which he put down his original, wide-ranging, radically modern responses to his reading. His comments about religion, philosophy, language, history, anthropology, astronomy, literature, poetry, and love are unprecedented in their brilliance and suggestiveness, and the Zibaldone, which was only published at the turn of the twentieth century, has been recognized as one of the foundational books of modern culture. Its 4,500-plus pages have never been fully translated into English until now, when a team led by of Michael Caesar and Franco D'Intino of the Leopardi Centre in Birmingham have spent years producing a lively, accurate version. This essential book will change our understanding of nineteenth-century culture.Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), Italy's first and greatest modern poet, was also a critic, philosopher and philologist. His enormous Zibaldone, or philosophical and critical notebook, which many consider one of the great books of the 19th century, was published in Penguin Classics in 2013.
The String of Pearls: A Romance - The Original Sweeney Todd
by Thomas Preskett PrestBeware the blood-soaked razor of Sweeney Todd, demon barber of Fleet Street!Johanna Oakley's lover, Mark, has gone missing in suspicious circumstances. And the man who was meant to deliver Mark's last gift to her, a string of pearls, has gone missing too - last seen entering the barber-shop of Sweeney Todd. In desperation, Johanna decides to dress up as a boy in order to gain access to Todd's premises. There, in a fetid underground crypt, she will discover the grisly truth about what has really happened to Sweeney Todd's unsuspecting customers - and what they have to do with Mrs Lovett, famed maker of the most delicious pies in London ...
From London with Love
by Jemma ForteCan you run from James Bond?Jessica Granger is desperate to know: her father is one of the most famous actors to tackle the part and, as Heavenly Melons, her mother was voted sexiest Bond girl. But for Jessica it's an embarrassment too far . . . she simply wants to be a person in her own right.So she flees Hollywood for London, seeking independence in a city where nobody knows her name. But when she finds a job as a celebrity booker on a chat show she realizes the more friends she makes, the harder it becomes to keep up the lies about who she is. And when Jessica falls for Paul, a writer on the show, her life as a double agent puts him in double trouble.When the truth explodes like a thunderball, can she convince Paul to live and let live rather than live and let die? Perhaps a sprinkling of the 007 magic might spice up her love life after all . . .
Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Roald DahlIn Over to You, ten terrifying tales of life as a wartime fighter pilot are told by the master of the short story, Roald Dahl.During the Second World War Roald Dahl served in the RAF and even suffered horrific injuries in an air crash in the Libyan desert. Drawing on his own experiences as a fighter pilot, Dahl crafted these ten spine-tingling stories: of air battles in the sky; of the nightmare of being shot down; the infectious madness of conflict; and the nervy jollity of the Mess and Ops room.Dahl brilliantly conveys the bizarre reality of a wartime pilot's daily existence, where death is a constant companion and life is lived from one heartbeat to the next.'One of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation' The Times'The great magician' SpectatorRoald Dahl, the brilliant and worldwide acclaimed author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many more classics for children, also wrote scores of short stories for adults. These delightfully disturbing tales have often been filmed and were most recently the inspiration for the West End play, Roald Dahl's Twisted Tales by Jeremy Dyson. Roald Dahl's stories continue to make readers shiver today.
Someone Like You (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Roald DahlIn Someone Like You are fifteen classic tales told by the grand master of the short story, Roald Dahl.Here, in Roald Dahl's first collection of his world famous dark and sinister adult stories, a wife serves a dish that baffles the police; a harmless bet suddenly becomes anything but; a curious machine reveals a horrifying truth about plants; and a man lies awake waiting to be bitten by the venomous snake asleep on his stomach.Through vendettas and desperate quests, bitter memories and sordid fantasies, Roald Dahl's stories portray the strange and unexpected, sending a shiver down the spine.'One of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation' The TimesRoald Dahl, the brilliant and worldwide acclaimed author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many more classics for children, also wrote scores of short stories for adults. These delightfully disturbing tales have often been filmed and were most recently the inspiration for the West End play, Roald Dahl's Twisted Tales by Jeremy Dyson. Roald Dahl's stories continue to make readers shiver today.
Tales of the Greek Heroes: Retold From The Ancient Authors (The Psammead Ser.)
by Roger Lancelyn GreenExplore the real Greek myths behind Percy Jackson's story - he's not the first Perseus to have run into trouble with the gods . . .These are the mysterious and exciting legends of the gods and heroes in Ancient Greece, from the adventures of Perseus, the labours of Heracles, the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts, to Odysseus and the Trojan wars.Introduced with wit and humour by Rick Riordan, creator of the highly successful Percy Jackson series.
Magic Bunny: Chocolate Wishes (Magic Bunny #1)
by Sue BentleyThe magic continues in a brand new series from the author of the bestselling Magic Kitten!Fluffy white bunny Arrow is the keeper of the magic key that keeps the meadow lush and beautiful so that many bunnies can live there happily. But the key is under threat and so Arrow must flee the meadow to keep it safe and hide in our world. Can Arrow find a little girl to look after him and be a special friend?
Henry VI Part Two: King Richard Ii. First Part Of King Henry Iv. Second Part Of King Henry Iv. King Henry V. First Part Of King Henry Vi. Second Part Of King Henr
by William Shakespeare Stanley Wells Michael TaylorHenry VI is tricked into marrying Margaret - lover of the Earl of Suffolk, who hopes to rule the kingdom through her influence. There is one great obstacle in Suffolk's path, however - the noble Lord Protector, who he slyly orders to be murdered. Discovering this betrayal, Henry banishes Suffolk, but with his Lord Protector gone the unworldly young King must face his greatest challenge: impending Civil War and the rising threat of the House of York.
Magic Bunny: Holiday Dreams (Magic Bunny #3)
by Sue BentleyThe magic continues in a new series from the author of the bestselling Magic Kitten!Fluffy coffee-coloured bunny Arrow is the keeper of the magic key that keeps Moonglow Meadow lush and beautiful so that many bunnies can live there happily. But the key is under threat and so Arrow must flee the meadow to keep it safe and hide in our world. Can Arrow find a little girl to look after him and be a special friend?
Magic Bunny: Dancing Days (Magic Bunny #5)
by Sue BentleyThe magic continues in a new series from the author of the bestselling Magic Kitten!Adorable black and white spotted bunny Arrow is the keeper of the magic key that keeps Moonglow Meadow lush and beautiful so that many bunnies can live there happily. But the key is under threat and so Arrow must flee the meadow to keep it safe and hide in our world. Can Arrow find a little girl to look after him and be a special friend?
Henry VI Part One: Webster's Italian Thesaurus Edition
by William Shakespeare Jane Kingsley-SmithAfter the death of Henry V, the French revolt and threaten to reclaim their country from English rule. Guided by his Lord Protector, the young King Henry VI journeys to Paris to reaffirm his rule over France. But while Joan of Arc battles the British abroad, discontent is also breeding at home, between the two ancient Houses of York and Lancaster.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona: With The Story Of The Shepherdess Felismena (The\arden Shakespeare Third Ser.)
by William Shakespeare Russell JacksonLeaving behind both home and beloved, a young man travels to Milan to meet his closest friend. Once there, however, he falls in love with his friend's new sweetheart and resolves to seduce her. Love-crazed and desperate, he is soon moved to commit cynical acts of betrayal. And comic scenes involving a servant and his dog enhance the play's exploration how passion can prove more powerful than even the strongest loyalty owed to a friend.
Selected Poems and Fragments
by Friedrich HölderlinFriedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) is now recognized as one of Europe’s supreme poets. He first found his true voice in the epigrams and odes he wrote when transfigured by his love for the wife of a rich banker. He later embarked on an extraordinarily ambitious sequence of hymns exploring cosmology and history, from mythological times to the discovery of America and his own era. The ’Canticles of Night’, by contrast, include enigmatic fragments in an unprecedented style, which anticipates the Symbolists and Surrealists. Together the works collected here show Hölderlin’s use of Classical and Christian imagery and his exploration of cosmology and history in an attempt to find meaning in an uncertain world.
Magic Bunny: A Splash of Magic (Magic Bunny #2)
by Sue BentleyFluffy white and brown bunny Arrow is the keeper of the magic key that keeps Moonglow Meadow lush and beautiful so that many bunnies can live there happily. But the key is under threat and so Arrow must flee the meadow to keep it safe and hide in our world. Can Arrow find a little girl to look after him and be a special friend?
Selected Short Stories: Selected Short Stories (Collins Classics Ser.)
by Rabindranath Tagore William RadicePoet, novelist, painter and musician, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is the grand master of Bengali culture. Written during the 1890s, the stories in this selection brilliantly recreate vivid images of Bengali life and landscapes in their depiction of peasantry and gentry, casteism, corrupt officialdom and dehumanizing poverty. Yet Tagore is first and foremost India's supreme Romantic poet, and in these stories he can be seen reaching beyond mere documentary realism towards his own profoundly original vision.
Mr Chartwell: A Novel
by Rebecca HuntJuly, 1964. In bed at home in Kent, Winston Churchill is waking up. There's a visitor in the room, someone he hasn't seen for a while, a dark, mute bulk, watching him with tortured concentration. It's Mr Chartwell.In her terraced house in Battersea, Esther Hammerhans, young, vulnerable and alone, goes to answer the door to her new lodger. Through the glass she sees a vast silhouette the size of a mattress. It's Mr Chartwell.He is charismatic and dangerously seductive, and Esther and Winston Churchill are drawn together by his dark influence. But can they withstand Mr Chartwell's strange, powerful charms and strong hold? Can they even explain to anyone who or what he is? Or why he has come to visit? For Mr Chartwell is a huge, black dog. In this utterly original, moving, funny and exuberant novel, Rebecca Hunt explores how two unlikely lives collide as Mr Chartwell's motives are revealed to be far darker and deeper than they seem.
Everland
by Rebecca Hunt'Nothing short of stunning . . . something very powerful and unusual indeed' Guardian'Part-thriller, part adventure story, part social drama and utterly absorbing' Daily Mail'Hunt is a talented writer. On my watch this novel would win the Booker' The Times1913: Dinners, Millet-Bass, and Napps - three men bound not by friendship, but by an intense dependence founded on survival - will be immortalised by their decision to volunteer to scout out a series of uncharted and unknown islands in the Antarctic, a big, indifferent kingdom. 2013: Brix, Jess, and Decker - three researchers with their own reasons for being far from home - set out on a field trip to the same ancient lumps of rock and snow, home to nothing but colonies of penguins and seals. Under the harsh ultraviolet light, as all colours bleach out, and the world of simple everyday pleasures recedes, they unknowingly begin to mirror the expedition of 100 years ago.'The richness of Hunt's language make this first novel a vivid, moving delight' Helen Dunmore, Guardian Books of the Year, on Mr Chartwell'[A] marvellously original, tender and funny debut novel. Rebecca Hunt proves herself to be a gifted writer who has no need of fictional realism to deliver profound truths' Daily Mail on Mr ChartwellRebecca Hunt graduated from Central Saint Martins College with a first class honours degree in fine art. She lives and works in London. Her first novel, Mr Chartwell, was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and shortlisted for the Galaxy National Book Awards New Writer of the Year.
The Smelliest Day at the Zoo
by Alan RusbridgerSlap bang in the middle of the hottest day of the year, the zoo’s drains have blocked up and there’s nowhere for the animals' poo to go! Mr Pickles the zoo keeper (who is looking distinctly green) must decide what to do with it all . . . Before the naughty chimps beat him to it!
Selected Plays: Yeats (Penguin Modern Classics)
by William Yeats Richard CaveThe 18 plays are: The Shadowy Waters; Cathleen in Houlihan; The Hour Glass; On Baile's Strabd; The Green Helmet; Deirdre; At the Hawk's Well; The Dreaming of the Bones; The Cat and the Moon; The Only Jealousy of Emer; Calvary; Sophocles' King Oedipus; The Resurrection; The Words Upon the Windwo-FPane; The King of the Great Clock Tower; The herne's Egg; Purgatory; The Death of Cuchulain.
Secrets of Tamarind (Tamarind #2)
by Nadia AguiarSimon, Maya and Penny never thought they'd return to Tamarind, the mystical island of adventure . . .But when a long-lost friend tells them Tamarind is in danger, they know they must go back. On their arrival Tamarind is more mysterious than ever before. There's the vanishing village of the water where people - and their secrets - hide, miraculous creatures are everywhere and where does the little blue door in the middle of nowhere lead to?As they venture deeper into Tamarind, the peril mounts - can the children save the island before it's lost forever?
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (Adrian Mole #2)
by Sue Townsend'If I turn out to be mentally deranged in adult life, it will be all my mother's fault.'Adrian Mole continues to struggle valiantly against the slings and arrows of growing up and his own family's attempts to scar him for life in this second volume of his secret diary.
Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years (The\adrian Mole Ser. #4)
by Sue Townsend'A classic. The Adrian Mole diaries are thoroughly subversive. A true hero for our time' Richard IngramsCelebrate Adrian Mole's 50th Birthday with this new edition of the FOURTH BOOK in his diaries, where we catch up with a hapless Adrian and his desperate attempts to win back the love of his life.--------------------------- Thursday January 3rd I have the most terrible problems with my sex life. It all boils down to the fact that I have no sex life. At least not with another person. Finally given the heave-ho by Pandora, Adrian Mole finds himself in the unenviable situation of living with the love-of-his-life as she goes about shacking up with other men. Worse, as he slides down the employment ladder, from deskbound civil servant in Oxford to part-time washer-upper in Soho, he finds that critical reception for his epic novel, Lo! The Flat Hills of My Homeland, is not quite as he might have hoped. But Adrian is about to discover that extraordinary and wonderful things may blossom even in the wilderness . . . 'A very, very funny book' Sunday Times 'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran
Ghost Children
by Sue TownsendGhost Children is a compassionate and gritty examination of love and loss from one of Britain's most-loved writers, Sue TownsendHow can she leave the past behind when he won't let her? Seventeen years ago Angela Carr aborted an unwanted child. The child's father, Christopher Moore, was devastated by the loss and he retreated from the world. Unable to accept what had happened between them both went their separate ways. However, when Christopher makes a horrifying discovery whilst out walking his dog on the heath he finds that he is compelled to confront Angela about the past. As they start seeing each another again can they avoid the mistakes of the past? And will their future together be eclipsed by those mistakes of yesterday? 'Gripping and disturbing. Utterly absorbing' Independent 'Bleak, tender and deeply affecting. Seldom have I rooted so hard for a set of fictional individuals' Mail on Sunday 'Leaves one gasping for more' Daily Telegraph 'Engrossing, memorable and moving' Guardian 'Startling and raw' Observer
The Lusiads
by Luis Vaz de Camões William AtkinsonFirst published in 1572, The Lusiads is one of the greatest epic poems of the Renaissance, immortalizing Portugal's voyages of discovery with an unrivalled freshness of observation. At the centre of The Lusiads is Vasco da Gama's pioneer voyage via southern Africa to India in 1497-98. The first European artist to cross the equator, Camoes's narrative reflects the novelty and fascination of that original encounter with Africa, India and the Far East. The poem's twin symbols are the Cross and the Astrolabe, and its celebration of a turning point in mankind's knowledge of the world unites the old map of the heavens with the newly discovered terrain on earth. Yet it speaks powerfully, too, of the precariousness of power, and of the rise and decline of nationhood, threatened not only from without by enemies, but from within by loss of integrity and vision.
Another Part of the Wood: A Novel (Soundings Ser.)
by Beryl BainbridgePenguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling.Joseph decides to take his mistress and son, together with a few friends, to stay in a cabin in deepest Wales for the weekend - with absolutely disastrous results. Beryl Bainbridge's gift for deadpan dialogue and spare narrative, and her darkly comic vision of the world, are all in evidence in this early novel.