The Bulgarian oil-bearing rose may be this country's unofficial symbol, yet it grows in just a narrow patch of land squeezed between two mountain ranges. Known as the Valley of Roses, this region deserves to be explored and visited for more than its aromatic flowers. With its rich ancient heritage, stunning summits and peaks, traditional towns and villages, historical sites of national importance, remnants of Communist-era megalomaniacal projects in various stages of dilapidation, and a vibrant community preserving the traditions of yesteryear, the Valley of Roses is Bulgaria in a nutshell. With breathtaking ... |
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Abridged, introduced and annotated by Tim Mackintosh-Smith. A pocket sized book - 10 x 15.5 cm. ... Ibn Battutah - ethnographer, biographer, anecdotal historian and occasional botanist - was just twenty-one when he set out in 1325 from his native Tangier on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He did not return to Morocco for another twenty-nine years, travelling instead through more than forty countries on the modern map, covering seventy-five thousand miles and getting as far north as the Volga, as far east as China and as far south as Tanzania. He wrote of his travels, and comes across as a superb ethnographer, biographer, ... |
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An abridged edition with an afterword by Marcus Clapham. A pocket sized book - 10 x 15.5 cm. ... "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas is the ultimate novel of retribution. Based on a true story, it recounts the story of Edouard Dantes, his betrayal and imprisonment in the sinister Chateau d'If. Years later, Paris is intrigued by the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, who bursts onto the Paris social scene with his millions. He encounters the three principal betrayers of Dantes who have prospered in the post-Napoleonic boom and, one by one, their lives fall apart. The book was a huge, popular ... |
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Complete and unabridged. A pocket sized book - 10 x 15.5 cm. ... "On the Origin of Species" outlines Charles Darwin's world-changing theory that life on Earth had not been brought into being by a creator, but had arisen from a single common ancestor and had evolved over time through the process of natural selection. Received with both enthusiasm and hostility on its publication, it triggered a seismic shift in our understanding of humanity's place in the natural world. It is not only a brilliant work of science but also a clear, vivid, sometimes moving piece of popular writing that reflects both Darwin ... |
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Complete and unabridged with an afterword by John Grant. A pocket sized book - 10 x 15.5 cm. ... Rejected by fifteenth-century Parisian society, the hideously deformed bell-ringer Quasimodo believes he is safe under the watchful eye of his master, the Archdeacon Claude Frollo. But after Quasimodo saves the beautiful Romani girl Esmeralda from the gallows and brings her to sanctuary in the cathedral, he and Frollo's mutual desire for her puts them increasingly at odds, before compassion and cruelty clash with tragic results. An emotionally stirring story, Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" is ... |
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Complete and unabridged. A pocket sized book - 10 x 15.5 cm. ... Rather than be "sivilized" by the Widow Douglas, Huckleberry Finn - the grubby but good-natured son of a local drunk - sets off with Jim, an escaped slave, to find freedom on the Mississippi river. With the law on their tail, they navigate a world of robbers, slave hunters and con men, and Huck must choose between what society says is "right" and his own burgeoning understanding of Jim's friendship and humanity. Nostalgic and melancholy in equal measure, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain is a razor-sharp ... |
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Complete and unabridged. A pocket sized book - 10 x 15.5 cm. ... One of the most irrepressible and exuberant characters in the history of literature, Tom Sawyer explodes onto the page in a whirl of bad behaviour and incredible adventures. Whether he is heaving clods of earth at his brother, faking a gangrenous toe, or trying to convince the world that he is dead, Tom's infectious energy and good humour shine through. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is Mark Twain's joyful and nostalgic recollection of tall tales from his own boyhood by the Mississippi. It was an instant success on first publication in ... |
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Complete and unabridged. A pocket sized book - 10 x 15.5 cm. ... The Diary of a Nobody is a comic masterpiece that has been hugely influential since its first publication in 1892. 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 Weedon Grossmith's original illustrations and an afterword by novelist Paul Bailey. Proud to be ensconced with his wife Carrie at The Laurels in the desirable London suburb of Holloway, bank clerk ... |
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"The Ministry of Utmost Happiness" takes us on a journey of many years-the story spooling outwards from the cramped neighbourhoods of Old Delhi into the burgeoning new metropolis and beyond, to the Valley of Kashmir and the forests of Central India, where war is peace and peace is war, and where, from time to time, 'normalcy' is declared. Anjum, who used to be Aftab, unrolls a threadbare carpet in a city graveyard that she calls home. A baby appears quite suddenly on a pavement, a little after midnight, in a crib of litter. The enigmatic S. Tilottama is as much of a presence as she is an absence in the ... |
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Complete and unabridged. A pocket sized book - 10 x 15.5 cm. ... Now a major motion picture with a hugely star studded cast, featuring the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Tom Holland, Emma Thompson, Antonio Banderas and Selena Gomez. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure. Doctor Dolittle is one of the most delightful and fascinating characters in children's literature. This Macmillan Collector's Library edition of The Story of Doctor Dolittle is ... |
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Complete and unabridged. A pocket sized book - 10 x 15.5 cm. ... Dorian Gray is young, arrogant, and devastatingly handsome. Confronted by his beauty in the form of a portrait, and struck by the terrible realization that he will age, Dorian wishes to retain his charms forever and finds his desire granted. He abandons himself to a life of hedonism, vice and murder, yet his face remains unmarked by his evil. But, hidden in his attic, the painting ages and corrupts, and one day Dorian must stand face to face with the man he has become. A perfect depiction of fin-de-siècle decadence, Oscar Wilde's only novel ... |
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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 Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure. Widely accepted as Henry James great masterpiece, "The Portrait of a Lady" is a poignant and intense exploration of freedom and identity. This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition features an introduction by Costa Award-winning author Colm Toibin. Intelligent, beautiful and vivacious, Isabel Archer fascinates and ... |