'[A] triumph of mature observation and art.' - Daily Telegraph'A winter's tale of light and laughter.' - Sunday Times'What is especially enjoyable is the rough-edged tenderness and kindness of Mr Wain's concern ... probably his most substantial achievement to date.' - Robert Nye, Saturday Times Review'[S]ubstantial and serious ... sustains a vigorous narrative line - he has always been an excellent storyteller.' - Times Literary Supplement'[A] love affair be...

"A great fund of comic invention." - Times Literary Supplement"Written with great spirit . . . very funny . . . fresh, unhackneyed and excellently observed." - Listener"[A] bustling kaleidoscope of a book, by an author fertile in expedient, keenly observant and occasionally probing the heart of darkness." - Sunday TimesCharles Lumley feels that he has been born in captivity - the captivity of his smugly conventional bourgeois upbringing. Now he has just graduated fr...

These plays cover one thousand years of the ancient world from the golden age of Athens to 5th century Alexandria. The protagonists are Anaxagoras, Archimedes and Hypatia, scientists, mathematicians, philosophers. All three of them came into conflict with the prevalent views of the time. Anaxagoras maintained that the sun was a big burning rock of the size of the Peleponnesus. He was condemned to death on the charge of impiety. Archimedes, the first example of the efficacy of technology co...

Salmonella remains a major cause of economic loss in domestic livestock and human food poisoning worldwide. In the last 10 years there have been major advances in understanding the salmonella organism, meaning a compiled source of the new research is urgently needed. With fully updated chapters and new coverage of genome structure, virulence, vaccine development, molecular methods for epidemiology and exotics, this second edition is an invaluable resource for researchers of animal and huma...

First published in 1908, The Old Wives' Tale affirms the integrity of ordinary lives as it tells the story of the Baines sisters--shy, retiring Constance and defiant, romantic Sophia--over the course of nearly half a century. Bennett traces the sisters' lives from childhood in their father's drapery shop in provincial Bursley, England, during the mid-Victorian era, through their married lives, to the modern industrial age, when they are reunited as old women. The setting moves fro...

Denry the Audacious follows the life and adventures of Edward Henry Machin, commonly known as Denry, a resourceful and ambitious young man from the industrial town of Bursley. Denry is characterized by his audacity, cleverness, and knack for turning situations to his advantage. The novel traces his rise from humble beginnings to a position of wealth and influence, highlighting his entrepreneurial spirit and unorthodox methods.

Riceyman Steps is a novel by British novelist Arnold Bennett, first published in 1923 and winner of that year's James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. It follows a year in the life of Henry Earlforward, a miserly second-hand bookshop owner in the Clerkenwell area of London. (from wikipedia.org)

Winesburg, Ohio , is set in a fictional town in early 1900s America based on Anderson's boyhood memories of his hometown of Clyde, Ohio. The novel is actually a series of interconnected short stories, with each one focusing on the life of a different resident of the sleepy, pre-industrial town. Though each story peers into the personal life of a different character, the common threads running through all of them are George Willard, the young reporter for the Winesburg Eagle —and a pervasiv...

Michel de Montaigne was one of the most influential figures of the Renaissance, singlehandedly responsible for popularising the essay as a literary form. In 1572, Montaigne retired to his estates in order to devote himself to leisure, reading and reflection. There he wrote his constantly expanding 'essays', inspired by the ideas he found in books from his library and his own experience. He discusses subjects as diverse as war-horses and cannibals, poetry and politics, sex and religion, lov...

When orphan David Balfour is betrayed by his Uncle Ebenezer, he finds himself imprisoned on the Covenant and bound for the Carolinas. But the ship hits some rocks and is wrecked. David is thrown overboard and washed up on the shore of a Scottish island. Together with fellow survivor, the wanted rebel, Alan Breck, David sets off across the treacherous highlands on a quest for justice--and revenge!

"The Plague" by Albert Camus is a thought-provoking novel that unfolds in the fictional town of Oran, Algeria, gripped by an inexplicable epidemic. As the citizens grapple with the escalating crisis, the narrative explores profound themes of existentialism, human suffering, and the struggle for meaning in an indifferent world. Dr. Bernard Rieux, the protagonist, emerges as a symbol of resilience as he confronts the plague's relentless spread. Camus weaves a tale of isolation, despair, and ...

A special fiftieth anniversary edition of Kurt Vonnegut’s masterpiece, “a desperate, painfully honest attempt to confront the monstrous crimes of the twentieth century” (Time), featuring a new introduction by Kevin Powers, author of the National Book Award finalist The Yellow BirdsSelected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all timeSlaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s...