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Containing drafts of stories later rewritten for other collections (including Carry On, Jeeves), My Man Jeeves offers a fascinating insight into the genesis of comic literature's most celebrated double-act.
When Bill Bannister meets Dr Sally Smith, love blossoms immediately. Unfortunately there is just the small problem of Lottie Higginbotham, former actress, serial bride and human fireball, with whom Bill is already involved.
H.' The game's afoot for the most famous amateur detective of all time in this collection of eight of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic tales. 'The Speckled Band', a Victorian melodrama in a country house, comes complete with murderous villain, murdered heroine, and a very unpleasant snake;
In these three sea stories, based on his own experience, Conrad invests his portraits of mundane steamers and their crews with epic qualities of fortitude and courage in the face of overwhelming natural odds.
The modern Italian classic discovered and championed by James Joyce, ZENO'S CONSCIENCE is a marvel of psychological insight, published here in a fine new translation by William Weaver - the first in more than seventy years. Italo Svevo's masterpiece tells the story of a hapless, doubting, guilt-ridden man paralyzed by fits of ecstasy and despair and tickled by his own cleverness. His doctor advises him, as a form of therapy, to write his memoirs; in doing so, Zeno reconstructs and ultimately reshapes the events of his life into a palatable reality for himself - a reality, however, founded on compromise, delusion, and rationalization. With cigarette in hand, Zeno sets out in search of health and happiness, hoping along the way to free himself from countless vices, not least of which is his accursed "last cigarette!" (Zeno's famously ineffectual refrain is inevitably followed by a lapse in resolve.) His amorous wanderings win him the shrill affections of an aspiring coloratura, and his confidence in his financial savoir-faire involves him in a hopeless speculative enterprise. Meanwhile, his trusting wife reliably awaits his return at appointed mealtimes. Zeno's adventures rise to antic heights in this pioneering psychoanalytic novel, as his restlessly self-preserving commentary inevitably embroiders the truth. Absorbing and devilishly entertaining, ZENO'S CONSCIENCE is at once a comedy of errors, a sly testimonial to he joys of procrastination, and a surpassingly lucid vision of human nature by one of the most important Italian literary figures of the twentieth century.
Pongo Twistleton is in a state of financial embarrassment, again. Uncle Fred, meanwhile, has been asked by Lord Emsworth to foil a plot to steal the Empress, his prize pig. Along with Polly Pott (daughter of old Mustard), they form a deputation to Blandings Castle, bent on doing a "bit of good".
While staying with his Aunt Dahlia to help out in the election at Market Snodsbury, Bertie Wooster comes up against the familiar horrors of Florence Craye, his former fiancee, and Roderick Spode, head of the Black Shorts, in a plot tangle from which, as usual, only the ingenuity of Jeeves can save him.
In Quick Service a complicated chain of events is set into motion after Mrs. Chavender takes a bite of breakfast ham.
''A sonnet is a moment's monument,'' said Dante Gabriel Rossetti in a sonnet about sonnets. The sonnets in this collection - whether they capture moments of perception, recognition, despair or celebration - reveal how great an amount of feeling, insight and experience can be concentrated into a mere fourteen lines.
Do Butlers Burgle Banks? (1968) features Mike Bond, the hitherto fortunate owner of Bond's Bank, who finds himself in a spot of trouble so serious that he wants someone to burgle the bank before the trustees inspect it.
The Little Nugget (1913) is one of the novels in which Wodehouse found his feet, a light comic thriller set in an English prep school for the children of the nobility and gentry. The comedy arises from Wodehouse's favourite topics of Anglo-American misunderstanding and the absurdities of school life.
The Coming of Bill (1920) is the nearest Wodehouse ever came to a serious novel, although the influence of the musical comedies he was writing at the time is never far away.
3et in the Malay Archipelago, where Conrad spent much of his youth as an officer in the British Merchant Navy, VICTORY is a sombre yet brilliant study of good and evil in Conrad's mature manner.
A collection of poems which capture the experience of solitude- by day or night, in the city or in the country, in waking or in dreams. And for readers who either seek or escape from solitude,all of the poets in this anthology - from Sappho and Callimachus to Mark Strand and Richard Wilbur - offer words to console and inspire.
From the author of THE POWER AND THE GLORY. A story of gang war in the underworld of Brighton. Pinkie, only seventeen, has already brutally killed a man. Now believing he has escaped retribution, he is unprepared for Ida Arnold, who is determined to avenge the death.
Newly married to novelist Rosie M. Banks, Bingo bucks the current trend by being extremely happy, although he does tend to lose his shirt on various horses. This collection of wonderfully funny stories features a cast of outrageous characters.
Gussie Fink-Nottle simply must marry Madeline Bassett or Bertrand Wooster will be obliged to proffer the ring in his stead. In a daring attempt at securing the engagement, Jeeves and Bertie visit a rural leper colony.
Henry Fielding's 18th century classic regales the story of Tom Jones and his longing for Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighbouring squire.
Throughout history, poets have felt the ancient pull of the sea, exploring the full range of mankind's nautical fears, dreams, and longings.
Marcel continues his voyage of discovery through the homosexual world, where affairs of the ageing Baron de Charlus lead to unexpected and hilarious adventures.
When Jill Mariner is arrested for fighting over a parrot and then loses all her money on the same day, she is abandoned by her pompous fiance and goes to stay with her rich relations on Long Island. Heading for New York, she ends up in the chorus of a musical comedy on Broadway where she eventually finds the man of her dreams.
More stories about the incredible Mulliner clan, following on from Meet Mr Mulliner. This volume includes such classic Wodehouse tales as 'The Man Who Gave Up Smoking', 'The Awful Gladness of the Mater', 'Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court' and 'The Passing of Ambrose'.
When George, Viscount Uffenham turns the entire family fortune into diamonds and squirrels them away, naturally he forgets where he has hidden the loot and finds himself compelled to let the family seat to stay afloat. So it is that Mrs Cork's health colony comes into being, providing the perfect setting for crime and young love to flower.
This novel renews the Victorian family saga in a modern setting, tracing the history of the Brangwens through several generations. The book was banned when it first appeared in 1915 for its sensuous immediacy and the frankness with which it explores emotional and sexual life.
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