‘Surely no man would take up my profession if it were not that danger attracts him.’In The Casebook, you can read the final twelve stories that Sir Arthur Gonan Doyle wrote about his brilliant detective. They are perhaps the most unusual and the darkest that he penned. Treachery, mutilation and the terrible consequences of infidelity are just some of the themes explored in these stories, along with atmospheric touches of the gothic, involving a bloodsucking vampire, crypts at midnight and strange bones in a furnace.The collection His Last Bow features some of Sherlock Holmes’ most dramatic cases, including the vicious revenge intrigue connected with ‘The Red Circle’ and the insidious murders in ‘The Devil’s Foot’. The title story recounts how Sherlock Holmes is brought out of retirement to help the government foil a German plot on the eve of the First World War.These two fascinating sets of stories make a glorious farewell to the greatest detective of them all and his erstwhile companion, Dr Watson.

Книга «The Gods Themselves». Издательство: Gollancz. Год выпуска: 2013. Переплет: Мягкий переплет. Количество страниц: 270. Автор: Asimov Isaac.

It is 1757. Across north-eastern America the armies of Britain and Prance struggle for ascendancy. Their conflict, however, overlays older struggles between nations of native Americans for possession of the same lands and between the native peoples and white colonisers. Through these layers of conflict Cooper threads a thrilling narrative, in which Cora and Alice Munro, daughters of a British commander on the front line of the colonial war, attempt to join their father. Thwarted by Magua, the sinister ‘Indian runner’, they find help in the persons of Hawk-eye, the white woodsman, and his companions, the Mohican Chingachgook and Uncas, his son, the last of his tribe.Cooper’s novel is full of vivid incident — pursuits through wild terrain, skirmishes, treachery and brutality — but reflects also on the interaction between the colonisers and the native peoples. Hawk-eye’s moral code is dictated neither by white nor by native notions of honour and self-interest, and through him Cooper raises lasting questions about the practises of the American frontier and the eclipse of the indigenous cultures.Издание на английском языке.

One of the most celebrated and popular historical romances ever written, The Three Musketeers tells the story of the early adventures of the young Gascon gentleman D’Artagnan and his three friends from the regiment of the King’s Musketeers -Athos, Forthos and Aramis.Under the watchful eye of their patron M. de Treville, the four defend the honour of the regiment against the guards of Cardinal Richelieu, and the honour of the Queen against the machinations of the Cardinal himself as the power struggles of seventeenth-century France are vividly played out in the background.But their most dangerous encounter is with the Cardinal’s spy, Milady, one of literature’s most memorable female villains, and Alexandre Dumas employs all his fast-paced narrative skills to bring this enthralling novel to a breathtakingly gripping and dramatic conclusion.

Lawrence’s finest, most mature novel initially met with disgust and incomprehension. In the love affairs of two sisters, Ursula with Rupert, and Gudrun with Gerald, crities could only see a sorry tale of sexual depravity and philosophical obscurity.Women in Love is, however, a profound response to a whole cultural crisis. The ‘progress’ of the modern industrialised world had led to the carnage of the First World War. What, then, did it mean to call ourselves ‘human’? On what grounds could we place ourselves above and beyond the animal world? What are the definitive forms of our relationships — love, marriage, family, friendship — really worth? And how might they be otherwise?Without directly referring to the war, Women in Love explores these questions with restless energy. As a sequel to The Rainbow, the novel develops experimental techniques which made Lawrence one of the most important writers of the Modernist movement.

Gaskell’s last novel, widely considered her masterpiece, follows the fortunes of two families in nineteenth century rural England. At its core are family relationships — father, daughter and step-mother, father and sons, father and step-daughter — all tested and strained by the romantic entanglements that ensue.Despite its underlying seriousness, the prevailing tone is one of comedy. Gaskell vividly portrays the world of the late 1820s and the forces of change within it, and her vision is always humane and progressive.The story is full of acute observation and sympathetic character-study: the feudal squire clinging to old values, his naturalist son welcoming the new world of science, the local doctor and his scheming second wife, the two girls brought together by their parents’ marriage.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is one of the most important and innovative figures of the European Middle Ages. Writing his Comedy (the epithet ‘Divine’ was added by later admirers) in exile from his native Florence, he aimed to address a world gone astray both morally and politically. At the same time, he sought to push back the restrictive rules which traditionally governed writing in the Italian vernacular, to produce a radically new and all-encompassing work.The Comedy tells the story of the journey of a character who is at one and the same time both Dante himself and Everyman. In The Inferno, Dante’s protagonist — and his reader — is presented with a graphic vision of the dreadful consequences of sin, and encounters an all-too-human array of noble, grotesque, beguiling, ridiculous and horrific characters.

The Jungle Book introduces Mowgli, the human foundling adopted by a family of wolves. It tells of the enmity between him and the tiger Shere Khan, who killed Mowgli’s parents, and of the friendship between the man-cub and Bagheera, the black panther, and Baloo, the sleepy brown bear, who instructs Mowgli in the Laws of the Jungle. The Second Jungle Book contains some of the most thrilling of the Mowgli stories. It includes Red Dog, in which Mowgli forms an unlikely alliance with the python Kaa, How Fear Came and Letting in the Jungle as well as The Spring Running, which brings Mowgli to manhood and the realisation that he must leave Bagheera, Baloo and his other friends for the world of man.

The incredible and heartwarming sequel to the bestselling A Street Cat Named Bob’Close proximity to animals does wonders for your mental health. Close proximity to this book will do wonders for it, too.’ (Daily Mail)’Since Bob has appeared, I’ve made huge strides in my life. For more than a decade I was a homeless drug addict. I was lost to the world and had forgotten what was important in life. Now I’ve got myself back on my two feet, but as I put the past behind me, I’m still stepping unsteadily into the future. I still need help in the right direction. Bob is always there to offer guidance and friendship.’ (James, on Bob)James and his street cat Bob have been on a remarkable journey together. In the years since their story ended in the bestselling A Street Cat Named Bob, James, with Bob’s help, has begun to find his way back to the real world.Almost every day, Bob provides moments of intelligence, bravery and humour, at the same time opening his human friend’s eyes to important truths about friendship, loyalty, trust — and the meaning of happiness. In The World According to Bob, the continuing tale of their life together, James shows the many ways in which Bob has been his protector and guardian angel through times of illness, hardship, even life-threatening danger.As they high five together for their crowds of admirers, James knows that the tricks he’s taught Bob are nothing compared to the lessons he’s learnt from his street-wise cat.For more stories from James and Bob’s adventures, don’t miss The Little Book of Bob, a pocket-friendly compilation of wisdom from the world’s favourite street-wise cat.

At the end of the nineteenth century a stranger arrives in the Sussex countryside and mayhem ensues; in the sleepy county of Kent a miracle food brings biological chaos that engulfs and threatens the entire planet. 11. G. Wells’s fertile and mercurial imagination never brought us more bizarre and unsettling stories than those revealed in The Invisible Man 11897) and The Food of the Gods, and How It Came to Earth (1904). These are stories of extraordinary physi­cal transformations and are at once extremely funny and richly imaginative. At the same time. Wells poses some very probing questions about the ethical dimensions to science and the human capacity for both pity and cruelty. Brought together for the first time in this new Wordsworth edition. The Invisible Man and The Food of the Gods are two of Wells’s most entertaining and thought-provoking works.

In these ‘scientific romances’ H. G. Wells sees the present reflected in the future and the future in the present. His aim is to provoke rather than predict. The Sleeper falls into a trance, waking up two centuries later as the richest man in a world of new technologies, power-greedy leaders, sensual elites, and brutalised industrial slaves. Arriving in the year 802,701, the Time-Traveller finds that humanity has evolved into two drastically different species; going farther still, he witnesses the ultimate fate of the solar system. The Chronic Argonauts, the original version of The Time Machine, pits a scientist with daring views of time and space against superstitious villagers. In all three works Wells laces vivid adventure stories with the latest ideas in biology and physics.

With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Andrew Frayn, Lecturer in Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture at Edinburgh Napier University.In these two compelling novels H.G. Wells imagines terrifying futures in which civilisation itself is threatened.The narrator of The War of the Worlds is quick to discover that what appeared to be a falling star was, in fact, a metallic cylinder landing from Mars. Six million people begin to flee London in panic as tentacled invaders emerge and overpower the city. With their heat-ray, killing machines, black gas, and a taste for fresh human blood, is there anything that can be done to stop the Martians?In The War in the Air, naive but resourceful Bert Smallways is thrilled by speed and fascinated by the new flying machines. His curiosity sweeps him away by accident into a German plan to conquer America, beginning with the destruction of New York. The ease of movement in aerial warfare means that nothing and nobody is safe as Total War erupts, civilisation crumbles, and Bert’s hopes of getting back to London to marry his love seem impossibly distant.

The moon and back before bathtime? Whatever Next! Join Baby Bear as he finds a rocket, makes friends with an owl and has a picnic on the moon! A beautiful story of innocence and imagination, full of Jill Murphy’s characteristic warmth and humour, this is the second Bear family adventure following the bestselling «Peace at Last».

A brilliant flap book that delves deep into the mysteries of the geography of the Earth.Each page is covered with flaps that reveal and explain the Earth’s structure, climate and environments, from desert to arctic tundra.Includes pages revealing the problems of climate change and ways to reduce global warming. With over 80 sturdy flaps, and internet links to websites to find out more.Printed on paper made from trees from sustainable forests, and 20p from every copy sold will be donated to Friends of the Earth.

This book is bursting with puzzles, games, quizzes and drawings to keep you entertained on any journey.

‘…once again Mr Sherlock Holmes is free to devote his life to examining those interesting little problems which the complex life of London so plentifully presents.’.Evil masterminds beware! Sherlock Holmes is back! Ten years after his supposed death in the swirling torrent of the Reichenbach Falls locked in the arms of his arch enemy Professor Moriarty, Arthur Conan Doyle agreed to pen further adventures featuring his brilliant detective. In the first story, ‘The Empty House’, Holmes returns to Baker Street and his good friend Watson, explaining how he escaped from his watery grave. In creating this collection of tales, Doyle had lost none of cunning or panache, providing Holmes with a sparkling set of mysteries to solve and a challenging set of mysteries to solve and a challenging set of adversaries to defeat. The potent mixture includes murder, abduction, baffling cryptograms and robbery. We are also introduced to the one of the cruellest villains in the Holmes canon, the despicable Charles Augustus Milverton. As before, Watson is the superb narrator and the magic remains unchanged and undimmed.

By the time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had completed the twelve stories for The Strand magazine that are gathered together in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, he was already growing tired of his most famous creation, but the financial incentive to continue was too great.So began the second series of stories, known as The Memoirs; these introduced such notable characters as Holmes’ indolent brother, Mycroft, and Holmes’ most dangerous adversary, Professor James Moriarty, the ‘Napoleon of Crime’. The collection included such stories as ‘The Adventure of the Resident Patient’ and ‘The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter’, which Doyle would list later as amongst his favourites.It was to Moriarty that was delegated the task of ending the career of the world’s finest consulting detective in a final, fatal encounter at The Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland in the concluding tale, ‘The Final Problem’.

Black Beauty is a perennial children’s favourite, one which has never been out of print since its publication in 1877. It is a moralistic tale of the life of the horse related in the form of an autobiography, describing the world through the eyes of the creature. In taking this anthropomorphic approach, the author Anna Sewell broke new literary ground and her effective storytelling ability makes it very easy for the reader to accept the premise that a horse is recounting the exploits in the narrative.The gentle thoroughbred, Black Beauty, is raised with care and is treated well until a vicious groom injures him. The damaged horse is then sold to various masters at whose hands he experiences cruelty and neglect. After many unpleasant episodes, including one where he becomes a painfully overworked cab horse in London, Black Beauty finally canters towards a happy ending. Although Anna Sewell’s classic is set firmly in the Victorian period, its message is universal and timeless: animals will serve humans well if they are treated with consideration and kindness.There have been many film and television adaptations of the story, but it is only the novel that captures the authentic voice of the central character.

Black Beauty is a perennial children’s favourite, one which has never been out of print since its publication in 1877. It is a moralistic tale of the life of the horse related in the form of an autobiography, describing the world through the eyes of the creature. In taking this anthropomorphic approach, the author Anna Sewell broke new literary ground and her effective storytelling ability makes it very easy for the reader to accept the premise that a horse is recounting the exploits in the narrative.The gentle thoroughbred, Black Beauty, is raised with care and is treated well until a vicious groom injures him. The damaged horse is then sold to various masters at whose hands he experiences cruelty and neglect. After many unpleasant episodes, including one where he becomes a painfully overworked cab horse in London, Black Beauty finally canters towards a happy ending. Although Anna Sewell’s classic is set firmly in the Victorian period, its message is universal and timeless: animals will serve humans well if they are treated with consideration and kindness.There have been many film and television adaptations of the story, but it is only the novel that captures the authentic voice of the central character.

Книга «Peep Inside a Fairy Tale: The Elves and the Shoem.». Издательство: Usborne Publishing. Год выпуска: 2020. Серия: Usborne Peep Inside. Переплет: Твердый переплет. Количество страниц: 14. Автор: Milbourne Anna. Стандарт: 10. Возрастная категория: отсутствует. Страна производитель: Китай. Иллюстраторы: Knight Jessica.

– «Повесть о жизни. Книги 4–6» — это продолжение и завершение большого пути, начатого в первых томах цикла: теперь перед читателем не школьник и санитар, а взрослый человек, который живет в южных городах, много путешествует, работает журналистом и постепенно становится писателем.– В книге «Время больших ожиданий» Паустовский показывает Одессу начала двадцатых годов — город, где соседствуют блокада, нищета, юмор, вера в будущее и особая одесская свобода. В «Броске на юг» юг становится пространством риска, красоты и новых знакомств, а «Книга скитаний» собирает впечатления от странствий по стране и встреч с людьми.– Через эти три книги виден уже другой, послевоенный и послереволюционный мир: не фронт и первые дни новой власти, а построение новой жизни, поиски работы, дальние поездки и постоянное движение в поиске себя.– Этот том можно читать как историю зрелости и творческого становления: от «времени ожиданий» до уверенности в своем писательском пути, от случайных работ до осознанного выбора стать писателем.

– Книга «Сказки Волшебной Страны» подойдeт тем, кто любит повесть «Хоббит» и роман «Властелин колец» и хочет увидеть, как устроен мир Толкина за пределами большого эпоса: здесь и истории о Томе Бомбадиле, и отдельные сказки о драконах, деревнях, художниках и странствующих псах.– Сборник сочетает несколько жанров: веселую деревенскую пародию в «Фермере Джайлсе из Хэма», философскую притчу о художнике и его картине в «Листе Ниггла», камерную космическую сказку «Роверандом» и поэтический цикл «Стихи из Алой книги» с хоббитами, эльфами и морскими чудовищами.– Благодаря этому книга хороша и как первая встреча с Толкином, и как дополнение к уже знакомому Средиземью: главы можно читать по отдельности, возвращаться к любимым сказкам, перечитывать стихи вслух детям или искать в них отсылки к «большим» романам.– Для читателя это не просто дополнение к легендариуму, а цельная книга о волшебстве, смехе, страхе, верности и фантазии, написанная рукой автора, которого называют одним из родоначальников современного фэнтези.

Romeo and Juliet is the world’s most famous drama of tragic young love. Defying the feud which divides their families, Romeo and Juliet enjoy the fleeting rapture of courtship, marriage and sexual fulfilment; but a combination of old animosities and new coincidences brings them to suicidal deaths.This play offers a rich mixture of romantic lyricism, bawdy comedy, intimate harmony and sudden violence. Long successful in the theatre, it has also generated numerous operas, ballets and films; and these have helped to make Romeo and Juliet perennially topical.

Книга «Little Hatred, a (The Age of Madness 1)». Издательство: Gollancz. Год выпуска: 2020. Серия: The Age of Madness. Переплет: Мягкий переплет. Количество страниц: 504. Автор: Abercrombie Joe. Стандарт: 10. Возрастная категория: отсутствует. Страна производитель: Соединенное королевство.

Книга «The Currents of Space». Издательство: Harper Voyager. Год выпуска: 2023. Серия: Galactic Empire Trilogy. Переплет: Мягкий переплет. Количество страниц: 120. Автор: Isaac Asimov. Стандарт: 10. Возрастная категория: отсутствует. Страна производитель: Соединенное королевство.

Книга «The Heist». Издательство: Headline Publ. Год выпуска: 2016. Переплет: Мягкий переплет. Количество страниц: 392. Автор: Janet Evanovich end Lee Goldberg.