Other books that might interest you

• 

  At the End of the Passage

  Rudyard Kipling

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Rudyard Kipling was one of the most popular writers of prose and poetry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1907. 
   
  Born in Bombay on 30th December 1865 both he and his sister were sent back to England when he was five, as was the custom of the British ruling elite in India. The ill-treatment and cruelty by the couple they boarded with in Portsmouth had one useful effect that Kipling himself suggested; it gave him an early impetus for a literary life. 
   
  This was further enhanced by his return to India at the age of sixteen to work on a local paper. Not only did this result in him writing constantly but also gave him the opportunity to explore issues of identity and national allegiance which pervade much of his work. 
   
  Whilst he is best remembered for his many classic children’s stories and a host of popular poems including ‘If….’ he is also regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story.

  Show book

• 

  Gesturing - A Selection from the...

  John Updike

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful and painful. The texts are taken from his recent omnibus, The Early Stories, 1953-1975. 
  In describing how he wrote these stories in a small, rented, smoke-filled office in Ipswitch, Massachusetts, he says, ""I felt that I was packaging something as delicately pervasive as smoke, one box after another, in that room, where my only duty was to describe reality as it had come to me -- to give the mundane its beautiful due.""

  Show book

• 

  At a Moment's Notice

  F. Anstey

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Thomas Anstey Guthrie (1856-1934) was an English novelist and journalist who wrote his comic novels and humorous short stories under the pseudonym F. Anstey. 
  
  
  "At a Moment's Notice" is the amusing tale of a young man who is involved in a cab accident on Pall Mall. When he comes to after the crash, he has mysteriously been transformed into an organ grinder's monkey. His adventures in his new state are extraordinary and hilarious.

  Show book

• 

  Fortunes Adrift

  Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne (1866-1944) was a British writer of popular adventure fiction and fantastic literature.'Fortunes Adrift' is the story of a small trading steamer than comes across a broken down passenger liner off the coast of Africa just as a hurricane is bearing down on the two vessels. Never one to miss a commercial opportunity, the captain of the steamer strikes a deal. For £100,000, to be paid by the wealthy cruise passengers, he will attempt to tow the liner to safety. But will their groaning engines hold? And if not...will they even survive the storm?

  Show book

• 

  The F Scott Fitzgerald...

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Four unforgettable works by the author of The Great Gatsby—one of the greatest writers of America’s Lost Generation.  This Side of Paradise: Amory Blain experiences a childhood of worldly sophistication before a medical condition forces him to face reality. From prep school and Princeton University to the horrors of World War I, Blaine searches for his place in the world—a quest that personifies the struggles of his generation.  The Beautiful and the Damned: The presumptive heir to an enormous fortune, Anthony Patch is a bon vivant of New York society. He and his wife, Gloria, live a life of extravagant pleasure until Anthony’s inheritance disappears and the Great War breaks out, sending their glittering marriage on a disastrous downward spiral.  Flappers and Philosophers: This collection of short stories includes the Jazz Age classic “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” in which an awkward young woman is transformed into a popular beauty by her jealous cousin. Other gems include “The Ice Palace,” “The Cut-Glass Bowl,” and “The Offshore Pirate.”  Tales of the Jazz Age: This short story collection includes “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” the classic tale of a man who ages backwards, as well as “May Day,” “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz,” and many others.

  Show book

• 

  The Picture of Dorian Gray

  Oscar Wilde

  • 0
  • 1
  • 0

  Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the authors most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray's moral disintegration caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novels corrupting influence, he responded that there is, in fact, a terrible moral in Dorian Gray.Just a few years later, the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde's homosexual liaisons, which resulted in his imprisonment. Of Dorian Gray's relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be in other ages, perhaps.

  Show book