Other books that might interest you

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  American Notes

  Rudyard Kipling

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  In American Notes, Rudyard Kipling, the Nobel Prize-winning author of the Jungle Book, visits the USA. As the travel-diary of an Anglo-Indian Imperialist visiting the USA, these American Notes offer an interesting view of America in the 1880s.Kipling affects a wide-eyed innocence, and expresses astonishment at features of American life that differ from his own, not least the freedom (and attraction) of American women. However, he scorns the political machines that made a mockery of American democracy, and while exhibiting the racist attitudes that made him controversial in the 20th century concludes "It is not good to be a negro in the land of the free and the home of the brave."G. A. England of Harvard University (letter to The New York Times 10/11/1902) wrote: "To the American temperament, the gentleman who throws stones while himself living in a glass house cannot fail to be amusing; the more so if, as in Mr Kipling's case, he appears to be in a state of maiden innocence regarding the structure of his own domicile."

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  The Marvelous Land of Oz

  L. Frank Baum

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  Few fantasy lands have captured our hearts and imaginations as has the marvelous land of Oz. For over four generations, children and adults alike have reveled in the magical adventures of its beloved folk. Now, for the first time in over seventy years, the second book about Oz is presented here in the same deluxe format as the rare first edition, complete with all 16 of the original John R. Neill color plates, its colorful pictorial binding, and the many black-and-white illustrations that bring it to joyous life.First issued in 1904, L. Frank Baum's The Marvelous Land of Oz is the story of the wonderful adventures of the young boy named Tip as he travels throughout the many lands of Oz. Here he meets with our old friends the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, as well as some new friends like Jack Pumpkinhead, the Wooden Sawhorse, the Highly Magnified Woggle-Bug, and the amazing Gump. How they thwart the wicked plans of the evil witch Mombi and overcome the rebellion of General Jinjur and her army of young women is a tale as exciting and endearing today as it was when first published over eighty years ago.

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  Strychinne for Dogs - Gask was...

  Arthur Gask

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  Arthur Cecil Gask was born on 10th July 1869 in Marylebone, London. 
   
  He began his career as an author late in life.  It was only in 1920 when he and his second wife and family emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia to set up a dental practice that writing took its hold. 
   
  Gask paid for the publication of his first work, ‘The Secret of the Sandhills’, which was an immediate success, both commercially and critically.  
   
  Over the next 3 decades Gask wrote over thirty books, usually featuring his detective invention Gilbert Larose, as well as short stories.  Many of his works were translated, serialised and even broadcast on the radio.  HG Wells and Bertrand Russell were avid fans. 
   
  In the last years of his life he was still writing, usually two novels a year. 
   
  Arthur Gask died on 25th June 1951, in Adelaide, Australia.  He was 81 
   
  In this story we meet his most popular character, Detective Gilbert Larose, who, whilst on holiday, is drawn into a case of dogs being poisoned.  But why would anyone do that?

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  The Haunted Hotel

  Wilkie Collins

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  When Lord Montbarry dies suddenly in his Venice palace, and his courier goes missing, suspicion is instantly thrown on his new wife, the beautiful Countess Narona, who has collected his life insurance and fled to America. Montbarry’s former fiance? Agnes, still harbouring feelings for him, and Henry Westwick, Montbarry’s younger brother, decide to investigate this tragedy and head for the palace, now a hotel. Not long after their arrival they experience strange and unsettling occurrences, and the circumstances of Montbarry’s death begin to unravel...

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  Billy Budd

  Herman Melville

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  On one level Melville’s tale is an historical adventure story telling of life aboard ship shortly after the mutiny at Spithead in 1797. Billy is taken from a homeward bound merchantman to serve on the ‘Seventy Four’ HMS Indomitable. He falls foul of Claggart, the ‘Master at Arms’, and the final confrontation results in death. Billy becomes an unwilling martyr - what passes for justice must be implemented because of the rebellious climate of the time. However, below the surface lie some of Melville’s thematic obsessions: the aristocratic savage placed against an inhumanity born of service in time of war, innocence overtaken by fate and the worthy encompassed by the inevitable. The natures of evil and conscience are explored and ‘Billy Budd’ is the author’s “last word upon the strange mystery of himself and human destiny”. Melville is regarded by many as the finest author America has produced.

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  The Plattner Story

  H. G. Wells

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  Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels and often credited as being the father of science fiction"The Plattner Story" is the strange tale of Gottfried Plattner, the modern languages teacher at a private school in England, who while conducting a chemistry experiment, accidently causes a explosion. The results of the explosion are mysterious. First, Plattner disappears completely. Not a trace of him remains, despite the damage to the school being fairly minimal. For nine days, nothing is seen or heard of him, although many people locally have strange and very similar dreams about him. Second, after nine days, Plattner reappears in a very unusual and equally explosive manner. Third, when he reappears, he has been oddly transformed. His internal organs are all reversed. He is now left, instead of right-handed, and writes from right to left. Moreover, the tale of what happened to him during the nine days of his absence is quite extraordinary.

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