ARCTURUS PUBLISHING

(P/B) DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE
"...losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse." Victorian London is the setting for The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), Stevenson's famous story of conflict between dual personalities: one good, and one ruthlessly evil. Other eerie tales in this volume are: The Body Snatcher (1881) inspired by the case of Burke and Hare; Markheim (1885) where a murderer meets a sinister smiling stranger; and The Bottle Imp (1893) in which an imp has the dubious power to grant the...
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(P/B) HEART OF DARKNESS
Seaman Charlie Marlowe takes a decaying steamboat on a perilous voyage to the heart of Africa. His mission is to relieve an ivory agent named Kurtz, taken sick at his remote trading station on the Congo River. The cruelty that Marlowe witnesses on his journey, and his eventual meeting with the legendary Kurtz, force him to question not only his own human nature and values, but the very basis of European civilization. Informed by Conrad's personal experience of Africa, and reflecting the savagery of life in the Belgian Congo, Heart of Darkn...
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(P/B) THE ART OF WAR
"Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt." First written during the sixth century BC, The Art of War is one of the oldest works on military strategy. It teaches you how, when battle commences, to think on your feet and catch your enemy off guard. Since its translation from the Chinese, its readers have included prominent statesmen and generals, from Napoleon to MacArthur to Mao Zedong. The lessons it offers still apply today to fields as varied as business, sport and politics. It is idea...
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(P/B) METAMORPHOSIS
Metamorphosis tells the tale of Gregor Samsa, a young salesman, who wakes up one day to find he has turned into a kind of giant bug'. Samsa has been a model of virtue for years, single-handedly supporting his parents and sister, but suddenly he finds himself an outcast in his own home, facing a world in which he no longer has a place. Both harrowing and humorous, Metamorphosis is a strange, subtle and moving story which everyone should read. (From the publisher) "A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul." (Franz ...
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(P/B) THE PRINCE
"It is much safer to be feared than loved" The most famous line of Machiavelli's The Prince reveals both his extraordinary insight and his willingness to disregard convention. Written as an instructional manual for the Florentine ruler Piero de' Medici, the insights of The Prince range across a variety of subjects from politics to military strategy to the history of early sixteenth-century Italy. Subsequent political leaders across the globe, including Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon Bonaparte and Joseph Stalin, scrutinized The Prince and used i...
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(P/B) THE TIME MACHINE
H. G. Wells' first novel, The Time Machine, is rightly held to be one of the classic works of science fiction. In this fascinating collection, it is accompanied by a selection of Wells' most entertaining short stories. Including 'The Stolen Bacillus', a timely warning of the dangers of science, and 'The Country of the Blind', which brilliantly captures life in a strange world, this fine assortment showcases the enigmatic mind of one of Britain's most talented writers. Wells' tales are as powerful and meaningful today as when they were firs...
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(P/B) THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
At eighteen, the handsome Dorian Gray has his portrait painted, which prompts an admirer, Lord Henry Wotton, to declare that Life is nothing without beauty and sensuous gratification. Suddenly scared of growing old and ugly, Dorian makes the fateful wish that the painted image should age rather than himself. Then - fearless of the consequences - he launches on a life of excess and depravity. Wilde's cautionary tale, published in 1891, describes how every sin that Dorian commits is reflected in the portrait. The painting is banished to his ...
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(P/B) THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson appear in a second series of twelve intriguing cases. They include The Adventure of Silver Blaze, with the famous 'curious incident of the dog in the night-time'; The Adventure of the Gloria Scott, where guilt apparently points to a man with a smoking pistol in his hand; and The Adventure of the Crooked Man, the only story in which Holmes ever utters the word 'elementary'. The Memoirs close with Holmes's deadly encounter with the arch-criminal Moriarty in The Final Problem. The stories in this volume were firs...
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(P/B) WUTHERING HEIGHTS
Like the house itself, Wuthering Heights is set on the bleak Pennine moors, a fitting backdrop to this story of love, torment and revenge, and a landscape familiar to Emily Bronte. Heathcliff is a foundling, adopted and raised as one of the Earnshaw children. With this act of charity, the seeds of ardent love and jealousy are planted. Catherine Earnshaw becomes devoted to Heathcliff, while her brother Hindley always views him as a rival for Wuthering Heights. Their passions grow to involve their friends - the Lintons - spilling over to aff...
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(P/B) A HISTORY OF THE WORLD
This clearly written, comprehensive reference guide tells, in double-page spreads, the story of man's journey from the time of the first hominids to the present. Moving from the ancient world, through every major historical period, right up to the first decade of the 21st century, it tells the story of how we got to where we are today - through conflict and intrigue, power won and lost, and great empires built and destroyed. (From the publisher)...
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(P/B) A HISTORY OF THE CLASSICAL WORLD
Aims to present the general reader with a view of the Graeco-Roman world, its history and achievements. (From the publisher)...
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(P/B) TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES
Thomas Hardy's beautiful and spirited heroine is driven to her tragic end by three men who betray her trust: John Durbeyfield, her drunken, feckless father; the seducer Alec d'Urberville, who leaves Tess pregnant at 16 with a son that dies in infancy; and Angel Clare, the unforgiving husband who rejects her. Abandoned in so many ways, Tess suffers all the hypocrisy and injustice of Victorian morality that Hardy himself despised. When Angel returns from abroad, humbled and hoping for reconciliation, Tess makes a fateful bid to be reunited w...
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(P/B) SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
The Dashwood sisters - 19-year-old Elinor and Marianne, aged 17 - are left poor and homeless by their father's death. Although kind relatives provide a roof over their heads, one way out of this misfortune is for both girls to marry well. However, impetuous Marianne and cautious Elinor find themselves having to choose between passionate romance and observing the rules of polite society. Through risky liaisons, misunderstandings and illness, two very different individuals discover, in their own ways, that a mixture of sense and sensibility ...
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(P/B) POEMS OF LIFE AND DEATH
This collection contains poetic reflections on life and death from some of the world's bestloved poets, including Wordsworth, Tennyson, Dickinson, Rossetti, Keats, Bronte, and many more. Ranging from wisdoms on youth and age to heart-wrenching elegies of bereavement and profound meditations on the nature of human mortality, these are poems that explore our precious time on earth and perhaps offer some comfort for those seeking consolation. (From the publisher)...
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(P/B) JANE EYRE
Jane Eyre rightly remains high on the list of the most popular English novels, and brought fame to its author, Charlotte Bronte, on its publication in 1847. The story's heroine, Jane, is a plain and plain-speaking orphan whose determination, good nature and spirit see her through a series of personal ordeals from an early age. When she takes up a position as governess at Thornfield Hall, to teach eight-year-old Adele, she is resigned to an uneventful career. But then the moody, charismatic owner of Thornfield, Edward Rochester, makes a rar...
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(P/B) JUDE THE OBSCURE
Self-taught young stonemason Jude Fawley yearns to attend the university of Christminster, but his dreams are thwarted when he is forced into an unhappy marriage. As the marriage collapses and Jude and his wife separate, he meets his free-spirited cousin Sue Bridehead with whom he immediately falls in love. Breaking with the conventions of the time, Jude and Sue choose to live together in poverty, shunned by friends and neighbours. Often considered to be a novel ahead of its time, Jude the Obscure (1895) was Thomas Hardy's last completed f...
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(P/B) THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS
Published in 1826, The Last of the Mohicans is an adventure story, at the heart of which is the kinship between white frontiersman, Natty Bumppo - or "Hawkeye" - and two Mohican Indians, Chingachgook and his son Uncas. The action takes place during the French and Indian War. Alice and Cora, daughters of a British fort commander, are on a perilous journey through the dark forests of western New York. Their Huron guide, Magua, turns out to be a traitorous French sympathizer who holds the sisters captive until Hawkeye and the Mohicans come to...
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(P/B) THE SCARLET LETTER
The elderly husband of Hester Prynne returns unexpectedly to their New England village to find his wife nursing an illegitimate baby and wearing a scarlet letter 'Α' - for Adulteress - embroidered on her dress. While her husband embarks on a vengeful hunt for the child's father, Hester refuses to name him because he holds a respected position in the Puritan community. In desperation, the lovers make a secret plan to flee to Europe with their young daughter. Hawthorne's story caused a stir when it l appeared in 1850 and remains a milestone ...
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(P/B) LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER
"I always labour at the same thing, to make the sex relation valid and precious instead of shameful. And this novel is the furthest I've gone. To me it is beautiful and tender as the naked self." (D. H. Lawrence) Lady Chatterley's Lover explores the intense affair between the sexually frustrated Connie - whose husband, Clifford, is paralysed from the waist down - and Oliver Mellors, the family gamekeeper. First published in 1928, the novel challenged the social and sexual taboos of its time and was immediately banned as obscene. Lawrence'...
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(P/B) THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
Tom Sawyer is a playful and mischievous boy who lives with his half-brother, Sid, and his Aunt Polly, in Missouri. Join him on his exciting adventures around the town and beyond, as he tries his best to enjoy himself without getting into trouble. Featuring a cast of amusing characters, including the famous Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain's dynamic tale is perfect for readers of all ages. (From the publisher)...
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