CLASSICS

He that is to govern a whole nation, must read in himself, not this, or that particular man; but mankind. Leviathan is both a magnificent literary achievement and the greatest...

'Tell me, Muse, of the man of many turns, who was driven far and wide after he had sacked the sacred city of Troy'Twenty years after setting out to fight...

'What exactly is knowledge?'The Theaetetus is a seminal text in the philosophy of knowledge, and is acknowledged as one of Plato's finest works. Cast as a conversation between Socrates and...

'Pain and pleasure are simple ideas, incapable of definition.'In 1757 the 27-year-old Edmund Burke argued that our aesthetic responses are experienced as pure emotional arousal, unencumbered by intellectual considerations. In...

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PAUL THEROUXThree men meet on a ship bound for Haiti, a world in the grip of the corrupt 'Papa Doc' and the Tontons Macoute, his sinister...

Composed throughout Cervantes's writing life and mentioned in Don Quixote, his Exemplary Stories are among the first and finest Spanish short stories: ranging from traditional tales of love to incisive...

There is a beautiful diamond - with a terrible curse. When Rachel Verinder is given the Moonstone - a large Indian diamond - on her eighteenth birthday, she is delighted...

AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4'S 'A GOOD READ'Such a wonderful book. Utterly unique, exquisitely crafted and quietly powerful. I loved it and want everyone to read this lost literary...

Jody Tiflin has the urge for rebellion, but he also wants to be loved. In THE RED PONY, Jody begins to learn about adulthood - its pain, its responsibilities and...

While fulfilling his dead father's dream of creating a prosperous farm in California, Joseph Wayne comes to believe that a magnificent tree on the farm embodies his father's spirit. His...

In this collection of mysteries, the greatest detectives of the Golden Age investigate the most puzzling crimes of the era.The investigators in these stories are from all walks of life...

Originally published in 1929, a Golden Age classic murder mystery set on a cruise ship - the perfect holiday read!Everyone is a suspect. When a beautiful countess is found strangled...

Gulliver's Travels is one of the landmarks of world literature. Gulliver's adventures with the tiny but spirited Lilliputians, the giant inhabitants of Brobdingnag, the flying island of Laputa, and the...

Virginia Woolf's dazzling, time-defying novel of love, identity and transformation, brought to life with breathtaking interior art by Varvara Alay.Different though the sexes are, they intermix. In every human being...

When Black Beauty was born one sweet spring day, he could not have imagined the life ahead of him. Following his mother's advice to always try his best, he enjoys...

A tale of adventure and romance, it is written with great humour and panache. The memorable scenes on board ship, which provide an invaluable picture of the British sailor of...

Joseph Andrews, Fielding's first novel, and Shamela, a splendidly bawdy parody of Richardson's Pamela, tellingly reveal Fielding's great comic gifts. The great success of Tom Jones owed much to the...

This is a new edition of Ted Hughes' selection of Shakespeare's verse, which includes an essay by the Poet Laureate. In it he describes the religious and philosophical tensions of...

Scottish orphan Francis Chisholm never intended to be a priest. Nevertheless, brimming with youthful vigour, he does his best to make life easier for the working poor. His superiors however...

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about', said Oscar Wilde more than a hundred years ago. But...

In this, his final adventure, Buchan's hero Richard Hannay becomes embroiled in one of the most hazardous escapades of his life. Two men are honour bound to help the tormented...

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World''Brilliant ... very probably the funniest book ever written' Sunday TimesWhen sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides...

'It's the masters as has wrought this woe; it's the masters as should pay for it.' Set in Manchester in the 1840s - a period of industrial unrest and extreme...

As the the bicentennary of the French Revolution draws near, Dickens' historical novel serves as a timely reminder of nineteenth-century reactions to that great upheaval. Set between 1757 and 1793,...