Synopses & Reviews
Mark Twain's great American masterpiece, in a gorgeous new clothbound edition designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith
The tale of a boy's picaresque journey down the Mississippi on a raft, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn conveyed the voice and experience of the American frontier as no other work had done before. When Huck escapes from his drunken father and the 'sivilizing' Widow Douglas with the runaway slave Jim, he embarks on a series of adventures that draw him to feuding families and the trickery of the unscrupulous 'Duke' and 'Dauphin'. Beneath the exploits, however, are more serious undercurrents - of slavery, adult control and, above all, of Huck's struggle between his instinctive goodness and the corrupt values of society, which threaten his deep and enduring friendship with Jim.
Review
"This is an elegant volume, likely to delight enthusiasts, while introducing Lewis Carrol's poetry to a younger readership. The poems are set out chronologically following a generous, thoughtful introduction from the esteemed Cambridge critic Gillian Beer. . . . The meticulous notes at the end of the book . . . are worth the price of the book on their own."
—Times Literary Supplement
Synopsis
Mark Twain's great American masterpiece, in a gorgeous new clothbound edition designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. These delectable and collectible Penguin editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design
Mark Twain's tale of a boy's picaresque journey down the Mississippi on a raft conveyed the voice and experience of the American frontier as no other work had done before. When Huck escapes from his drunken father and the 'sivilizing' Widow Douglas with the runaway slave Jim, he embarks on a series of adventures that draw him to feuding families and the trickery of the unscrupulous 'Duke' and 'Dauphin'. Beneath the exploits, however, are more serious undercurrents - of slavery, adult control and, above all, of Huck's struggle between his instinctive goodness and the corrupt values of society, which threaten his deep and enduring friendship with Jim.
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on 30th November 1835, in Florida, Missouri. In 1853 he left home, earning a living as an itinerant type-setter, and four years later became an apprentice pilot on the Mississippi, a career cut short by the outbreak of the Civil War. For five years, as a prospector and a journalist, Clemens lived in Nevada and California. In February 1863 he first used the pseudonym 'Mark Twain' as the signature to a humorous travel letter. A trip to Europe and the Holy Land in 1867 became the basis of his first major book, The Innocents Abroad (1869). His numerous subsequent books include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), A Tramp Aborad (1880), The Prince and the Pauper (1882), and his masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin (1885). Twain died on 21st April 1910.
'The best book we've had' - Ernest Hemingway
Synopsis
The collected poems of Lewis Carroll, newly edited and published in a beautiful clothbound edition designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith “Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe” wrote Lewis Carroll in his wonderfully playful poem of nonsense verse, “Jabberwocky.” This new edition collects together the marvelous range of Carroll’s poetry, including nonsense verse, parodies, burlesques, and more. This beautifully designed clothbound edition is edited with a new introduction by Gillian Beer and includes, alongside the title piece, such enduringly wonderful pieces as “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” “The Mock Turtle’s Song,” “Father William” and many more.
Synopsis
Be they shocking, ambitious, or simply brilliant, these novels continue to enthrall today as they did at the time they were written. Now, Penguin Classics is proud to present them in gorgeous clothbound editions-vibrant volumes sure to become as treasured to readers as the magnificent tales they tell.
Synopsis
Dante's epic-in a stunning new clothbound edition. Describing Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide, the Inferno depicts a cruel underworld in which desperate figures are condemned to eternal damnation for committing one or more of seven deadly sins. As he descends through nine concentric circles of increasing torture, Dante encounters doomed souls including the pagan Aeneas, the liar Odysseus, the suicide Cleopatra, and his own political enemies, damned for their deceit. Led by leering demons, the poet must journey with Virgil to the heart of Hell-for it is only by encountering Satan that he can truly understand the tragedy of sin.
Synopsis
When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her 'cousin' Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future. With its sensitive depiction of the wronged Tess and powerful criticism of social convention, Tess of the D'Urbervilles is one of the most moving and poetic of Hardy's novels.
About the Author
Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840. In his writing, he immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school. At sixteen, Hardy was apprenticed to an architect, and for many years, architecture was his profession; in his spare time, he pursued his first and last literary love, poetry. Finally convinced that he could earn his living as an author, he retired from architecture, married, and devoted himself to writing. An extremely productive novelist, Hardy published an important book every year or two. In 1896, disturbed by the public outcry over the unconventional subjects of his two greatest novels—
Tess of the DUrbervilles and
Jude the Obscure—he announced that he was giving up fiction and afterward produced only poetry. In later years, he received many honors. He died on January 11, 1928, and was buried in Poets Corner, in Westminster Abbey. It was as a poet that he wished to be remembered, but today critics regard his novels as his most memorable contribution to English literature for their psychological insight, decisive delineation of character, and profound presentation of tragedy.
Margaret Randolph Higonnet received her doctorate from Yale University in 1971. She is Professor of English at the University of Connecticut and an Affiliate of Harvard's Center for European Studies. She is the author of prize-winning literary criticism on topics in nineteenth century and children's literature, and the author of several books including British Women Poets Of The Nineteenth Century (Meridian).