Category Archives: Travel Guides
Nostromo
Nostromo, published in 1904, is one of Conrad`s finest works. Nostromo – though one hundred years old – says as much about today`s Latin America as any of the finest recent accounts of that region`s turbulent political life. Insistently dramatic in its storytelling, spectacular in its recreation of the subtropical landscape, this picture of an
The Garden Party and Other Stories
Innovative, startlingly perceptive and aglow with colour, these fifteen stories were written towards the end of Katherine Mansfield`s tragically short life. Many are set in the author`s native New Zealand, others in England and the French Riviera. All are revelations of the unspoken, half-understood emotions that make up everyday experience – from the blackly comic
The Lost Estate
When Meaulnes first arrives at the local school in Sologne, everyone is captivated by his good looks, daring and charisma. But when Meaulnes disappears for several days, and returns with tales of a strange party at a mysterious house and a beautiful girl hidden within it, he has been changed forever. In his restless search
Under Western Eyes
“It was I who removed de P- this morning.” With these chilling words Victor Haldin shatters the solitary, industrious existence of Razumov, his fellow student at St Petersburg University. Razumov aims to overcome the denial of his noble birth by a brilliant career in the tsarist bureaucracy created by Peter the Great. But in pre-revolutionary
Arabian Sands
Arabian Sands chronicles Wilfred Thesiger’s five years of exploration in the waterless desert ‘Empty Quarter’ of Arabia, amongst the Bedu people. Thesiger’s 1945 visit was the first by a European to the region, and just before he left the process that would change it forever was beginning – the discovery of oil.Travelling amongst the Bedu
The Marsh Arabs
The Marsh Arabs by Wilfred Thesiger. Between 1951and 1958 Wilfred Thesiger spent several months of each year living among the tribal Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq. He gradually won acceptance, as he travelled from village to village by canoe, dispensing medicine and advice. He came to understand and share a way of life that had
Ten Days That Shook The World
Ten Days That Shook the World is John Reed`s eyewitness account of the Russian Revolution. A contemporary journalist writing in the first flush of revolutionary enthusiasm, he gives a gripping record of the events in Petrograd in November 1917, when Lenin and the Bolsheviks finally seized power. Containing verbatim reports both of speeches by leaders
The Penguin Book of First World War Stories
The Penguin Book of First World War Stories is a superb anthology of Great War short stories by British writers- both famous and lesser known authors, men and women, all written during the war and after its end. These stories are able to illustrate the impact of the Great War on British society and culture
Species of Spaces and Other Pieces
Georges Perec produced some of the most entertaining and spirited essays of his age. His literary output was amazingly varied in form and style and this generous selection of Perec`s non-fictional work also demonstrates his characteristic lightness of touch, wry humour and accessibility.
Granite Island – A Portrait of Corsica
“Get away from here before you`re completely bewitched and enslaved…”Dorothy Carrington was told, while sitting in a fisherman`s cafe at the magically quiet midday hour. But enslaved she was. `Granite Island`, much more than a travel book, grew out of years spent in Corsica and is an incomparably vivid and delightful portrait. For the first
The Road To Oxiana
A real-life adventure that inspired countless travellers in fact and fiction, the “Penguin Classics” edition of Robert Byron`s “The Road to Oxiana” includes an introduction by Colin Thubron. In 1933 Robert Byron began a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad, and Teheran to Oxiana – the country of the Oxus, the ancient
Where Angels Fear to Tread
Where Angels Fear to Tread is E M Forster`s classic novel about the seductive power of Italy and the clash between Italian and Edwardian English values. It is amongst the greatest 20th-century literary explorations of vice, virtue and the nature of prejudice. When attractive, impulsive English widow Lilia takes a holiday in Italy, she causes
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens` “A Tale of Two Cities” portrays a world on fire, split between Paris and London during the brutal and bloody events of the French Revolution. This “Penguin Classics” edition of is edited with an introduction and notes by Richard Maxwell. `It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…` After
Tess of the d`Urbervilles
A heartaching portrayal of a woman faced by an impossible choice in the pursuit of happiness, Thomas Hardy`s “Tess of the D`Urbervilles” is edited with notes by Tim Dolin and an introduction by Margaret R. Higonnet in “Penguin Classics”. When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D`Urbervilles and
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain`s witty, satirical tale of childhood rebellion against hypocritical adult authority, the “Penguin Classics” edition of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is edited with a critical introduction by Peter Coveney. Mark Twain`s story of a boy`s journey down the Mississippi on a raft conveyed the voice and experience of the American frontier as no
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror
His innovative thriller, as shocking now as when it was first published, the “Penguin Classics” edition of Robert Louis Stevenson`s “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror” is edited with an introduction by Robert Mighall. Published as a `shilling shocker`, Robert Louis Stevenson`s dark psychological fantasy gave birth
A Passage to India
Although younger generations may know David Lean’s 1984 film, E M Forster’s A Passage to India remains a masterly, at times compelling snapshot of an era which still has echoes of prejudice with today’s society.Set during the 1920s, the novel begins when Adela Quested and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town
Portrait of a Lady
When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy her freedom, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. Then she finds herself irresistibly drawn to Gilbert Osmond. Charming and cultivated, Osmond sees Isabel
Washington Square
When timid and plain Catherine Sloper acquires a dashing and determined suitor, her father, convinced that the young man is nothing more than a fortune-hunter, decides to put a stop to their romance. Torn between her desire to win her father`s love and approval and her passion for the first man who has ever declared
What Maisie Knew
“What Maisie Knew” is Henry James` damning portrait of adultery, jealousy and possession on the decadent fringe of English upper-class society. This “Penguin Classics” edition is edited with an introduction and notes by Christopher Ricks. After her parents` bitter divorce, young Maisie Farange finds herself turned into a `little feathered shuttlecock` to be swatted back
