After losing his mother at a very young age, the narrator is thrust from his comfortable, middle-class environment, afforded by his distant but aristocratic father, into the wider world. His passion for music begins in Georgia's all-black church community and takes him from New York, where he plays ragtime for a rich white gentleman, to the South, where he witnesses lynchings and out of fear gives up his passion, as well as his race, to pass for white. Relevant to this day, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is an unflinching account of black experience in America. James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an ... |
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Mr Biswas has been told since the day of his birth that misfortune will follow him - and so it has. Meaning only to avoid punishment, he causes the death of his father and the dissolution of his family. Wanting simply to flirt with a beautiful woman, he ends up marrying her. But in spite of endless setbacks, Mr Biswas is determined to achieve independence, and so he begins the gruelling struggle to buy a home of his own. Heart-rending and darkly comic, V. S. Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas has been hailed as one of the twentieth century's finest novels, a classic that evokes a man's quest for autonomy ... |
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Traveling from the bureaucratic morass of Bombay to the ethereal beauty of Kashmir, from a sacred ice cave in the Himalayas to an abandoned temple near Madras, Naipaul encounters a dizzying cross-section of humanity: browbeaten government workers and imperious servants, a suavely self-serving holy man and a deluded American religious seeker. An Area of Darkness also abounds with Naipaul's strikingly original responses to India's paralyzing caste system, its acceptance of poverty and squalor, and the conflict between its desire for self-determination and its nostalgia for the British raj. This may be the most ... |
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A Book Lover's Guide to the Zodiac marries astrology and literature by connecting both writers and fictional characters to the twelve different star signs and their particular traits. Astrology and literature have so much in common: our star signs help us to understand ourselves, our motivations and our behaviour, whilst reading enables us to make sense of the world, our own characters and those around us. Read how the passionate and overly idealistic Madame Bovary from Flaubert's masterpiece exhibits all the traits of a Gemini, whilst the unconventional Virginia Woolf and Lewis Carroll, with his groundbreaking ... |
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Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching is the source of Zen Buddhism, and is probably the most broadly influential spiritual text in human history. Complete & Unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, cloth-bound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated and introduced by David Hinton. Fluent in ancient Chinese and an acclaimed poet, he skilfully reveals how remarkably current and even innovative this text is after 2500 years. According to legend, Lao Tzu left China at ... |
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The year is 1984. The country is impoverished and permanently at war, people are watched day and night by Big Brother and their every action and thought is controlled by the Thought Police. Winston Smith works in the department of propaganda, where his job is to rewrite the past. Spurred by his longing to escape, Winston rebels. He breaks the law by falling in love with Julia and, as part of the clandestine organization the Brotherhood, they attempt the unimaginable - to bring down the Party. George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of the most famous and influential novels of the 20th century. This terrifying ... |
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A special edition featuring beautiful heritage wallpaper patterns from her own home in Hampshire, these collectable paperbacks are a must for all Jane Austen fans. From Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning classics that make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Jane Austen's best-loved novel is an unforgettable story about the inaccuracy of first impressions, the power of reason and, above all, the strange dynamics of human relationships and emotions. A tour de force of wit and sparkling dialogue, Pride and Prejudice shows how the headstrong Elizabeth Bennet and the aristocratic Mr. Darcy ... |
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Edited by Ursula Doyle. Complete and unabridged. A pocket sized book - 10 x 15.5 cm. ... From the private papers of Mark Twain and Mozart to those of Robert Browning and Nelson, "Love Letters of Great Men" collects together some of the most romantic letters in history. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by publisher Ursula Doyle. For some of these great men, love is a "delicious poison& ... |
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"Animal Farm" is George Orwell 's brilliant political satire and allegorical fable about the corrupting effects of power. Published in 1945 it is, to this day, one of the most famous and influential works of fiction ever written. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an introduction by journalist and writer Jason Cowley. When the old Major, a highly respected white boar, gathers his fellow farm animals to ... |
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This gorgeous boxed set of all of her classic romantic novels includes "Pride and Prejudice", "Emma", "Sense and Sensibility", "Mansfield Park", "Persuasion" and "Northanger Abbey", and each individual volume is beautifully designed and features a bespoke jacket, introduction or afterword, and Hugh Thomson's timeless, evocative illustrations. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Whether in the electrically charged chemistry of Elizabeth Bennett and ... |
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Selected Poems. Complete and unabridged. A pocket sized book - 10 x 15.5 cm. ... "Leaves of Grass" is Walt Whitman's glorious poetry collection, first published in 1855, which he revised and expanded throughout his lifetime. It was ground-breaking in its subject matter and in its direct, unembellished style. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by Professor Bridget Bennett. Whitman ... |
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Complete and unabridged. A pocket sized book - 10 x 15.5 cm. ... Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Librar y is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure. Chosen and introduced by the playwright J. B. Priestley, these twelve marvellous sketches are accompanied by George Cruikshank's evocative illustrations. Charles Dickens was one of the great chroniclers of London life. From the colourful chaos of dances and gin-shops to the sparse destitution of the pawnshop and the penitentiary, he captured ... |