Modern Classics

Elizabeth Bowen’s first novel brilliantly captures the inflammatory mixture of passion and repression among well-heeled British tourists on the Italian Riviera. Their luxurious seaside hotel seems a closed and comfortable world, m…

A stunning full-colour illustrated adaptation of H.G. Wells' sci-fi classic, from the illustrator of THE IRON MAN and ANIMAL FARM. 'Those who have never seen Martian life can scarcely imagine the horror.' 1894. Across space, this…

This illustrated edition of a bold novel is one of defiance and bravery. As beautifully crafted as it is heartwrenching, this love story transcends time and generations. People were all around them, but with eyes that had gone int…

One morning, Gregor Samsa wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect. His family is understandably perturbed and he finds himself an outsider in his own home. In 'Metamorphosis' and the other famous stories included…

An updated edition of a classic African American autobiography, with new supplementary materialsThe preeminent American slave narrative first published in 1845, Frederick Douglass’s Narrative powerfully details the life of the abo…

Death in Venice is a story of obsession. Gustave von Aschenbach is a successful but ageing writer who travels to Venice for a holiday. One day, at dinner, Aschenbach notices an exceptionally beautiful young boy who is staying with…

As Seen on BBC Between the CoversThis European masterpiece from the Nobel prizewinner explores the lure and degeneration of ideas in an introverted community on the eve of the First World War. Hans Castorp is 'a perfectly ordinary…

Discover our collectable Puffin Clothbound Classic edition of The Little Prince A beautiful clothbound hardback gift edition of one of the world's most beloved stories. Look at my planet. It is directly above us. But how far away…

Sandy's in the fifth grade when he's forced to sit on the back row away from his white classmates and denied entry to a new amusement park. His grandmother, who is raising him alongside his mother and aunt, tells him that love is …

Siddhartha is a novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha. The book, Hesse's ninth novel, was written in German, in a simple, lyr…

This collection comprises of Joyce's three novels, plus the short story collection Dubliners. Dubliners, about Joyce's native city, is faithful to his country, seeing it unflinchingly and challenging every precedent and piety in …

'Extravagantly beautiful... Enormously, achingly alive... A howl of love and rage, playful and funny as well as hard and bitter’ New York TimesAs young girls, Nel and Sula shared each other's secrets and dreams in the poor black m…

Marlon James Macon 'Milkman' Dead was born shortly after a neighbourhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. In 1930s America Macon learns ab…

Virginia Woolf's singular technique in Mrs Dalloway heralds a break with the traditional novel form and reflects a genuine humanity and a concern with the experiences that both enrich and stultify existence. Society hostess, Clari…

Cherish nostalgic childhood memories with this edition of L. Frank Baum's classic novel. Featuring a suede-like custom cover, beautiful metallic foiling, and a ribbon marker. This book was made for gifting.  The Wonderful Wizard o…

Discover Joseph Heller's hilarious and tragic satire on military madness, and the tale of one man's efforts to survive it.It's the closing months of World War II and Yossarian has never been closer to death. Stationed in an Americ…

Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald's finest novel, The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the "roaring twenties", and a devastating expose of the Jazz Age. Through the narration of Nick Carraway, the reader is tak…

Jody Tiflin is a ten-year-old boy, living on his father's ranch. One day his father brings home a small pony. He's Jody's, if the boy will learn to feed, clean, stable and care for him. But Jody learns, through the colt, and throu…

One of the BBC's '100 Novels that Shaped the World' Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Meet the gamblers, whores, drunks, bums and …

Discover the most famous anti-war novel ever written One by one the boys begin to fall... In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the 'glorious war'.…

Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald's finest novel, The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the "roaring twenties", and a devastating expose of the 'Jazz Age'. Through the narration of Nick Carraway, the reader is t…

With an Introduction and Notes by Lionel Kelly, University of Reading. In 1915, Lawrence's frank representation of sexuality in The Rainbow caused a furore and the novel was seized by the police and banned almost as soon as it was…

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a classic representation of the impoverished and politically powerless underclass of British society in Edwardian England, ruthlessly exploited by the institutionalized corruption of their e…

When Mrs Ramsay tells her guests at her summer house on the Isle of Skye that they will be able to visit the nearby lighthouse the following day, little does she know that this trip will only be completed ten years later by her hu…

Harry Morgan is a tough guy making his living during the Depression from his motor boat in Key West, Florida. Although he normally takes out fishing parties, sometimes his boat can be put to other uses. If the money offered is wor…

In these early Hemingway stories, which are partly autobiographical, men and women of passion live, fight, love and die in scenes of dramatic intensity. They range from haunting tragedy on the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro, to b…

Russia's literary world is shaken to its foundations when a mysterious gentleman - a professor of black magic - arrives in Moscow, accompanied by a bizarre retinue of servants. It soon becomes clear that he is the Devil himself, c…

Introduction and Notes by Laurence Davies, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. Living overseas but writing, always, about his native city, Joyce made Dublin unforgettable. The stories in Dubliners show us truants, seducers, gossips,…

With an Introduction and Notes by Dr. Jacqueline Belanger, University of Cardiff. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man represents the transitional stage between the realism of Joyce's Dubliners and the symbolism of Ulysses, and…

'The thing came abruptly and unannounced; a demon, rat-like, scurrying from pits remote and unimaginable, a hellish panting and stifled grunting, and then from that opening beneath the chimney a burst of multitudinous and leprous …