Vanity Fair

Unusually for Dickens, Hard Times is set, not in London, but in the imaginary mid-Victorian Northern industrial town of Coketown with its blackened factories, downtrodden workers and polluted environment. This is the soulless domain of the strict utilitarian Thomas Gradgrind and the heartless factory owner Josiah Bounderby. However human joy is not excluded thanks to 'Mr Sleary's Horse-Riding' circus, a gin-soaked and hilarious troupe of open-hearted and affectionate people who act as an antidote to all the drudgery and misery endured by the ordinary citizens of Coketown.

Have you ever heard of the fascination of terror?' This is a unique collection of strang stories from the cunning pen of Wilkie Collins, author of The Woman in White and The Moonstone. The Star attraction is the novella The Haunted Hotel, a clever combination of detective and ghost story set in Venice, a city of grim waterways, dark shadows and death. The action takes place in an ancient palazzo coverted into a modern hote that houses a grisly secret. The supernatural horror, relentless pace, tight narrative, and a doomed countess characterise and distinguish this powerful tale. The other stories present equally disturbing scenarios, which include ghosts, corpses that move, family curses and perhaps the most unusual of all, the Devil's spectacles which bring a clarity of vision that can l...

Our Mutual Friend, Dickens' last complete novel, gives one of his most comprehensive and penetrating accounts of Victorian society. Its vision of a culture stifled by materialistic values emerges not just through its central narratives, but through its apparently incidental characters and scenes. The chief of its several plots centres on John Harmon who returns to England as his father's heir. He is believed drowned under suspicious circumstances - a situation convenient to his wish for anonymity until he can evaluate Bella Wilfer whom he must marry to secure his inheritance. The story is filled with colourful characters and incidents - the faded aristocrats and parvenus gathered at the Veneering's dinner table, Betty Higden and her terror of the workhouse and the greedy plottings of Silas...

Following the success of Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby was hailed as a comic triumph and firmly established Dickens as a 'literary gentleman'. It has a full supporting cast of delectable characters that range from the iniquitous Wackford Squeers and his family, to the delightful Mrs Nickleby, taking in the eccentric Crummles and his travelling players, the Mantalinis, the Kenwigs and many more. Combining these with typically Dickensian elements of burlesque and farce, the novel is eminently suited to dramatic adaptation. So great was the impact as it left Dickens' pen that many pirated versions appeared in print before the original was even finished. Often neglected by critics, Nicholas Nickleby has never ceased to delight readers and is widely regarded as one of the...

Dickens had already achieved renown with The Pickwick Papers. With Oliver Twist his reputation was enhanced and strengthened. The novel contains many classic Dickensian themes - grinding poverty, desperation, fear, temptation and the eventual triumph of good in the face of great adversity. Oliver Twist features some of the author's most enduring characters, such as Oliver himself (who dares to ask for more), the tyrannical Bumble, the diabolical Fagin, the menacing Bill Sikes, Nancy and 'the Artful Dodger'. For any reader wishing to delve into the works of the great Victorian literary colossus, Oliver Twist is, without doubt, an essential title.

Prepare to be shocked. This novel, written in 1796, is a Gothic festival of sex, magic and ghastly, ghostly violence rarely seen in literature. The Monk is remarkably modern in style and tells a breathless tale of temptation, imprisonment and betrayal. Matthew Lewis recounts the downfall of Ambrosio, the holier-than-thou monk seduced within the walls of a Madrid abbey until he heads for the utter corruption of the soul. Meanwhile, two sets of young lovers are thwarted and the reader thrills to pursuits through the woods by bandits and is chilled by the spectre of nuns imprisoned in vermin-ridden and skeleton-crowded vaults. Late Eighteenth Century audiences were polarised in opinion as to the novel's merits. Lord Byron and the Marquis de Sade were impressed by Lewis's daring, while Colerid...

With an Introduction and Notes by Peter Preston, University of Nottingham. Illustrations by Hablot K. Browne (Phiz) and George Cruickshank. The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41), with its combination of the sentimental, the grotesque and the socially concerned, and its story of pursuit and courage, which sets the downtrodden and the plucky against the malevolent and the villainous, was an immediate popular success. Little Nell quickly became one of Dickens' most celebrated characters, who so captured the imagination of his readers that while the novel was being serialised, many of them wrote to him about her fate. Dickens was conscious of the ?many friends? the novel had won for him, and ?the many hearts it turned to me when they were full of private sorrow?, and it remains one of the most fami...

With an Introduction and Notes by David Ellis, University of Kent at Canterbury. With Illustrations by R.Seymour, R.W. Buss and Hablot K. Browne (Phiz). The Pickwick Papers is Dickens' first novel and widely regarded as one of the major classics of comic writing in English. Originally serialised in monthly instalments, it quickly became a huge popular success with sales reaching 40,000 by the final part. In the century and a half since its first appearance, the characters of Mr Pickwick, Sam Weller and the whole of the Pickwickian crew have entered the consciousness of all who love English literature in general, and the works of Dickens in particular.

Bleak House is one of Dickens' finest achievements, establishing his reputation as a serious and mature novelist, as well as a brilliant comic writer. It is at once a complex mystery story that fully engages the reader in the work of detection, and an unforgettable indictment of an indifferent society. Its representations of a great city's underworld, and of the law's corruption and delay, draw upon the author's personal knowledge and experience. But it is his symbolic art that projects these things in a vision that embraces black comedy, cosmic farce, and tragic ruin. In a unique creative experiment, Dickens divides the narrative between his heroine, Esther Summerson, who is psychologically interesting in her own right, and an unnamed narrator whose perspective both complements and challe...

In this vivid portrait of one day in a woman's life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party she is to give that evening. As she readies her house she is flooded with memories and re-examines the choices she has made over the course of her life.

Introduction and Notes by David Blair, University of Kent at Canterbury. Set in the reign of Richard I, Coeur de Lion, Ivanhoe is packed with memorable incidents - sieges, ambushes and combats - and equally memorable characters: Cedric of Rotherwood, the die-hard Saxon; his ward Rowena; the fierce Templar knight, Sir Brian de Bois-Gilbert; the Jew, Isaac of York, and his beautiful, spirited daughter Rebecca; Wamba and Gurth, jester and swineherd respectively. Scott explores the conflicts between the Crown and the powerful Barons, between the Norman overlords and the conquered Saxons, and between Richard and his scheming brother, Prince John. At the same time he brings into the novel the legendary Robin Hood and his band, and creates a brilliant, colourful account of the age of chivalry wit...

His body was pressed against the wall at the head of the bed, and the face was a mask of agonised horror and fruitless entreaty. But the eyes were already glazed in death, and before Francis could reach the bed the body had toppled over and lay inert and lifeless. Even as he looked, he heard a limping step go down the passage outside.

W miłości i na wojnie wszystkie chwyty są dozwolone Losy dwóch młodych dziewcząt: Rebeki Sharp - sprytnej, ambitnej, pozbawionej skrupułów córki francuskiej tancerki i podrzędnego malarza, oraz Amelii Sedley - ujmującej, naiwnej panienki z dobrego domu, ukazują dowcipny i przenikliwy obraz społeczeństwa angielskiego u schyłku czasów napoleońskich. W przewrotny sposób kapryśne uwodzicielki, bezwzględne intrygantki i rozwiązłe ladacznice budzą większe zainteresowanie niż urocze, cnotliwe i szlachetne dziewczątka. Być może dlatego, że złożoność ludzkiej natury jest zawsze bardziej intrygująca niż przewidywalna prostota.

Becky Sharp, sierota wywodząca się z biednej brytyjskiej rodziny, za wszelką cenę pragnie zdobyć pieniądze i pozycję społeczną. Jej pierwszym krokiem staje się uwiedzenie syna swego pracodawcy, Rawdona Crawleya. Jak daleko posunie się sprytna Becky, aby osiągnąć swój życiowy cel?Książka nie zawiera płyty CD.

Angielski z ćwiczeniami. The Rose and the Ring to niekonwencjonalny sposób nauki języka, który łączy lekturę wciągającej historii z rozwiązywaniem pomocniczych ćwiczeń. Podczas czytania opowieści w naturalny sposób przyswoisz słownictwo i konstrukcje leksykalno-gramatyczne oraz utrwalisz umiejętność czytania ze zrozumieniem. Na końcu książki znajdziesz klucz odpowiedzi i praktyczny słowniczek angielsko-polski. Historia rozgrywająca się w baśniowych królestwach, pełna ukrytych przesłań o znaczeniu pozorów i fałszywych wizerunków. William Makepeace Thackeray opublikował opowieść o miłości księcia Giglio i pięknej Rosalby w święta Bożego Narodzenia w 1854 roku jako baśń dla dzieci. Ironiczny humor i liczne podteksty sprawiły, że po tę niezwykłą...

A major TV series starring Olivia Cooke, Simon Russell Beale and Micheal Palin. Brilliant anti-heroine Becky Sharp will do anything to climb to society's loftiest heights and couldn't be more different from her rich, sweet-natured schoolmate, Amelia Sedley. Their parallel lives are marked by love, lust, marriage, fortune and loss, in all their different guises, as they navigate the corrupt circus of upper-class Regency England. Hailed as a literary masterpiece upon first publication, William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair has never waned in popularity and remains a highly entertaining satire of early nineteenth-century high society. This gorgeous edition includes an afterword by the prizewinning author and critic, Henry Hitchings. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Colle...

William Makepeace Thackeray – brytyjski pisarz, dziennikarz i satyryk. Urodził się 18 lipca 1811 r. w Kalkucie, gdzie jego ojciec pracował dla Brytyjskiej Kompanii Wschodnioindyjskiej. W 1817 r. rodzina przyszłego pisarza wróciła do Anglii, wówczas młody William podjął edukację. Jako dziennikarz pisywał m.in. do „The Times” i „Punch”, a w 1860 r. założył własne czasopismo „Cornhill Magazine”. Podczas licznych podróży po Europie poznał wiele osobistości ze świata literackiego, m.in. Goethego i Charlotte Brontë. Za jego najważniejszą powieść uznawana jest książka pt. Targowisko próżności, a także baśń dla dzieci pt. Pierścień i róża. Pisarz zmarł 24 grudnia 1863 r. w Londynie. Pierścień i róża to opowieść, której akcja toczy się w...

Pierścień i róża jest powieścią fantastyczną dla dzieci angielskiego pisarza Williama Makepeace’a Thackeraya. Jej akcja rozgrywa się w dwóch fikcyjnych państwach, Paflagonii i Krymatatarii, w których rządzą uzurpatorzy – król Walorozo w pierwszym z nich i król Padella w drugim. Bohaterami powieści są młodzi reprezentanci rodzin królewskich obu państw, zarówno panujących uzurpatorów, jak obalonych przez nich prawowitych władców. W fascunujące losy bohaterów wplecione są motywy fantastyczne, jak magiczny pierścień Angeliki, córki króla Waloroza, dzięki któremu zakochują się w niej mężczyźni, czy magiczna róża Bulby, syna króla Padella, sprawiająca, że zakochują się w nim kobiety. Perypetie miłosne komplikują się, kiedy magiczny pierścień...

Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design In William Thackeray's Vanity Fair, no one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder. Her sentimental companion Amelia, however, longs only for caddish soldier George. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of Regency society, battles - military and domestic - are fought, fortunes made and lost. The one steadfast and honourable figure in this corrupt world is Dobbin with his devotion to Ame...

Wydanie Pierścienia i róży kompletne bez skrótów i cięć w treści. W tym wydaniu znajdziesz odpowiedzi na pytania z podręcznika - „pewniak na teście”, czyli wskazanie zagadnień, które zwykle pojawiają się w pytaniach z danej lektury we wszelkich testach sprawdzających wiedzę, a także w podręcznikach i na klasówkach. Zawiera bardzo szczegółowe streszczenie oraz drugie skrócone, ułatwiające szybkie przygotowanie się przed lekcją. Opracowanie zawiera plan wydarzeń, wnikliwie wyjaśnioną problematykę oraz szerokie charakterystyki bohaterów.