Publisher: Charles River Editors
Oscar Wilde was a prominent Irish playwright and novelist in the late 19th century. With classics such as The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde remains one of the most widely read authors today. This edition of The Duchess of Padua includes a table of contents.
When an American family move into an old house in England they don't expect to have to share it with a stranger. But then again – the stranger – a very old ghost who has lived at Canterville Chase for hundreds of years, doesn’t expect to have to share his home with them either! Unfortunately for the very grumpy Canterville Ghost, his plan to scare away the unwanted house guests doesn’t quite go to plan.Show book
Stories are one of mankind’s greatest artistic achievements. Whether written down or spoken they have an ability to capture our imagination and thoughts, and take us on incredible journeys in the space of a phrase and the turn of a page. Within a few words of text or speech, new worlds and characters form, propelling a narrative to a conclusion with intricate ease. Finely crafted, perfectly formed these Miniature Masterpieces, at first thought, seem remarkably easy to conjure up. But ask any writer and they will tell you that distilling the essence of narrative and characters into a short story is one of the hardest acts of their literary craft. Many attempt, but few achieve.Show book
These charming Japanese Fairy Tales were translated by Yei Theodora Ozaki in 1908. Although taken from actual Japanese folk stories, these Westernized versions are not literal translations. These stories combine fictitious creatures and magical animals with the lives of normal humans and provide an insight into a piece of ancient Japan.The stories in this volume include: My Lord Bag of Rice, The Tongue-Cut Sparrow, The Story of Urashima Taro, the Fisher LadShow book
Shakespeare's comedy is performed by a cast including Derek Godfrey, Patrick Garland, Prunella Scales and Peter Pears.Show book
A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr. Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighboring squire though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. When Tom is banished to make his own fortune and Sophia follows him to London to escape an arranged marriage, the adventure begins. A vivid Hogarthian panorama of eighteenth-century life, spiced with danger and intrigue, bawdy exuberance and good-natured authorial interjections, Tom Jones is one of the greatest and most ambitious comic novels in English literature.BOOK 16: I have heard of a dramatic writer who used to say, he would rather write a play than a prologue; in like manner, I think, I can with less pains write one of the books of this history than the prefatory chapter to each of them.Show book
A satiric masterpiece about the allure and peril of money, Our Mutual Friend revolves around the inheritance of a dust-heap where the rich throw their trash. When the body of John Harmon, the dust-heap's expected heir, is found in the Thames, fortunes change hands surprisingly, raising to new heights "Noddy" Boffin, a low-born but kindly clerk who becomes "the Golden Dustman." Charles Dickens's last complete novel, Our Mutual Friend encompasses the great themes of his earlier works: the pretensions of the nouveaux riches, the ingenuousness of the aspiring poor, and the unfailing power of wealth to corrupt all who crave it. With its flavorful cast of characters and numerous subplots, Our Mutual Friend is one of Dickens's most complex—and satisfying—novelsShow book
