"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." Blind, broken by the death of his wife and bitterly disappointed by the Restoration, Milton dictated his sweeping biblical epic Paradise Lost to a series of helpers. While the struggle between God and Satan rages across the cosmos, the human tragedy of Adam and Eve - the temptation and fall - is movingly depicted in language unsurpassed in its musicality and beauty. A staggering and audacious undertaking - seeking, in Milton's words, to justify the ways of God to men - Paradise Lost has been revered since its initial publication, inspiring writers from Mary ... |
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The boy who wouldn't grow up, Peter Pan has the power of flight and lives on a magical island. But he is fascinated by Mary Darling's bedtime stories for her children and makes covert night-time visits to their Bloomsbury home. One evening he loses his shadow, and after Mary's daughter Wendy helps him reattach it, he invites her to fly away with him on an extraordinary adventure. In addition to the famous 1911 novel Peter and Wendy, which tells the familiar adventures of Peter Pan in Neverland and popularized the characters of Tinkerbell and Captain Hook, this volume contains the celebrated stage version on ... |
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Invited to an extravagantly lavish party in a Long Island mansion, Nick Carraway, a young bachelor who has just settled in the neighbouring cottage, is intrigued by the mysterious host, Jay Gatsby, a flamboyant but reserved self-made man with murky business interests and a shadowy past. As the two men strike up an unlikely friendship, details of Gatsby's impossible love for a married woman emerge, until events spiral into tragedy. Regarded as Fitzgerald's masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of American literature, The Great Gatsby is a vivid chronicle of the excesses and decadence of the Jazz Age, as ... |
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Dorian Gray is having his picture painted by Basil Hallward, who is charmed by his looks. But when Sir Henry Wotton visits and seduces Dorian into the worship of youthful beauty with an intoxicating speech, Dorian makes a wish he will live to regret: that all the marks of age will now be reflected in the portrait rather than on Dorian's own face. The stage is now set for a masterful tale about appearance, reality, art, life, truth, fiction and the burden of conscience. Oscar Wilde's only full-length novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a lasting gem of sophisticated wit and playfulness, which brings together ... |
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mma is considered by many readers to be Jane Austen's crowning achievement, a timeless comedy of manners that lays bare the limits on women's autonomy in Regency England. The disparity between Emma Woodhouse's self-confidence and self-knowledge, and her determination to arrange marriages for her friends while avoiding one for herself, leads to a painful series of misunderstandings for everyone who suffers from her well-meaning altruism - and with Mr Knightley being the only person of her acquaintance who has the good sense to challenge her, Emma must eventually recognize her match in every sense. Long praised ... |
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When the corpse of Sir Charles Baskerville is found on the grounds of his Dartmoor estate next to a mysterious animal footprint, thoughts turn to a fabled family curse: that of a hellhound set out to avenge a crime committed by one of Sir Charles’s ancestors. As the only surviving heir of the Baskervilles is terrified for his safety, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are called in to investigate. The most famous novel in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes cycle, The Hound of the Baskervilles is a masterpiece of terror, suspense and mystery which has enthralled readers young and old since it was first published in 1902. ... |
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Based on lectures given at Cambridge colleges and first published by the Hogarth Press in 1929, A Room of One's Own is an extended essay about the predicament of female writers and a stirring call for autonomy and recognition. As well as settling scores with reactionary critics and laying the foundations of a history of women's literature, the text is also a triumph of imagination, with a celebrated passage envisaging the fate of a fictional sister of Shakespeare's. A seminal, widely studied feminist polemic that touches on both literature and politics, A Room of One's Own is essential reading for those ... |
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This thesis is the result of research on the 13th-century dream journal of the Buddhist monk Myōe (1173 - 1232), founder and principal of Kōzan-ji temple (⾼⼭寺) in Kyoto. Why are the dream records of this Buddhist monk so important? Myōe was an influential priest in his time. However, his dream records, known under the title Yumeki 夢記, had not been accorded much attention in the past. Yet in recent years, a thorough study of the Kōzan-ji Temple's art collection has revealed evidence concerning their value in understanding the metaphysical world of this monk, as ... |
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For the first time, fans of Sara J. Maas's sweeping New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass saga can experience the vivid imagery of her expansive world. Celaena battling the ridderak in the catacombs, Chaol in the gardens of the glass castle, Manon riding her wyvern through the Crossing, and many other favourite moments, characters and objects come to life as readers explore the vibrantly detailed realm of Throne of Glass. Stunning original black and white drawings will bring fans deeper into the series than ever before - making this a must-have companion to Sarah J. Maas's beloved books. Illustrators: ... |
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Feyre is a huntress. And when she sees a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she kills the predator and takes its prey to feed herself and her family. But the wolf was not what it seemed, and Feyre cannot predict the high price she will have to pay for its death... Dragged away from her family for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding even more than his piercing green eyes suggest. As Feyre's feelings for Tamlin turn from hostility to passion, she learns that the faerie lands are a far more dangerous place than she realized. And Feyre must ... |
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The second book of The Powerless Trilogy. Adena and Paedyn have always been inseparable. Fate brought them together when they were young, but friendship ensured they'd always protect each other and the home they built in the slums of Loot. But now Paedyn - an Ordinary - has been selected for The Purging Trials, which means almost certain death. Now alone in Loot, Adena must fend for herself. After attempting to steal, it's a mysterious man from the market who comes to her rescue. Mak's shadowy past and secretive power set him apart from the other low-level Elites of Loot. And as the pair team up to see ... |
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This book is the result of several journeys from Sofia to Prague in the 1990s. It's based on the notes I kept during my travels. The borders had just opened, people were emigrating en masse, I stayed behind. That was my first time leaving the prison of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and I traveled by bus. A journey out into the world and into myself. I discovered Prague, though the search for myself continues. Sometimes Prague is here, sometimes it is there, and the same is true for Sofia."Where would you like to go? Out into the world. It's not a question of the direction, but of the journey itself, ... |
