Classics Library

"Out on the islands that poke their rocky shores above the waters of Penobscot Bay, you can watch the time of the world go by, from minute to minute, hour to hour, from day to day..." So begins this classic story of one summer on a Maine island from the author of One Morning in Maine and Blueberries for Sal. The spell of rain, the gulls and a foggy morning, the excitement of sailing, the quiet of the night, the sudden terror of a hurricane, and, in the end, the peace of the island as the family packs up to leave are shown in McClosky's poetic language brought to life.

Penguin Classics presents William Makepeace Thackeray adapted for audio and available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by Robert Hardy’s Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? Or, having it, is satisfied? No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder.

When you, pray God sends angels. What would you do if you saw Jesus? Have you heard there are going to be prizes handed out in heaven?

An American classic with a refrain that millions of kids love to chant: Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats. Wanda Gág's enchanting tale of the very old man who went off in search of the prettiest cat in the world for his wife and returned instead with millions to choose from has become an American classic, widely recognized as the first modern picture book. First published in 1928, it was a recipient of the 1929 Newbery Honor Award and has gone on to sell over a million copies.

Classic Cat Stories is an anthology that includes fairy tales and fables from the likes of Rudyard Kipling and Charles Perrault as well as comic tales from Saki and E. F. Benson. Cats, of course, have always had a dark and mysterious side, which is explored to chilling effect by the likes of Edgar Allan Poe in 'The Black Cat'. But above all, we love them, and you’ll find here stories about all kinds of cats that tug at the heartstrings like 'The Man of the House' by Ethel Colburn Mayne and other stories that celebrate their curious ways.

You are walking through the streets of London. It is getting dark and you want to get home quickly. You enter a narrow side-street. Everything is quiet, but as you pass the door of a large, windowless building, you hear a key turning in the lock. A man comes out and looks at you. You have never seen him before, but you realize immediately that he hates you. You are shocked to discover, also, that you hate him. Who is this man that everybody hates?

When a handsome young man begins to court Catherine Sloper, she feels she is very lucky. She is a quiet, gentle girl, but neither beautiful nor clever; no one had ever admired her before, or come to the front parlour of her home in Washington Square to whisper soft words of love to her. But in New York in the 1840s young ladies are not free to marry where they please. Catherine must have her father’s permission, and Dr Sloper is a rich man.

Alcazar AudioWorks Presents A Children's Listening Library. This compilation includes nursery rhymes, fairy tales, animal stories, poetry and legends, something to enchant every young listener.

Josef Vadassy, a Hungarian refugee and language teacher living in France, is enjoying his first break for years in a small hotel on the Riviera. But when he takes his holiday photographs to be developed at a local chemists, he suddenly finds himself mistaken for a Gestapo agent, and a charge of espionage is levelled at him. To prove himself innocent to the French police, he must discover which one of his fellow guests at his pension is the real spy. As he desperately tries to uncover the true culprit's identity, Vadassy must risk his job, his safety and everything he holds dear.

Ever since Herbie Jones had to be Annabelle's partner in the class dance contest, he's been acting weird, even going to the library instead of going fishing with his best friend, Raymond. Lucky for Herbie, Raymond is determined to get to the bottom of this mess.

This Raging Bull Publishing Box Set contains four Western books by Charles Alden Seltzer, including: The Boss of the Lazy Y (1915) - Calumet Marston returns to his father's ranch to find it's being run by a young woman who remains in charge until he accepts sundry conditions. Coming of the Law (1912) - A young eastern newspaper man goes West to a small town and takes charge of a run-down newspaper, fights against an association of cattle rustlers for the benefit of the small ranchers, and wins. ’Drag’ Harlan and ’Firebrand’ Trevison are also included.

The room was on the fourth floor, and the door was locked - with the key on the inside. The windows were closed and fastened - on the inside. The chimney was too narrow for a cat to get through. So how did the murderer escape? And whose were the two angry voices heard by the neighbours as they ran up the stairs? Nobody in Paris could find any answers to this mystery.Except Auguste Dupin, who could see further and think more clearly than other people.

Laurence Sterne’s great masterpiece of bawdy humour and rich satire defies any attempt to categorize it. Part novel, part digression, its gloriously disordered narrative interweaves the birth and life of the unfortunate "hero" Tristram Shandy, the eccentric philosophy of his father Walter, the amours and military obsessions of Uncle Toby, and a host of other characters, including Dr Slop, Corporal Trim and the parson Yorick. A joyful celebration of the endless possibilities of the art of fiction, Tristram Shandy is also a wry demonstration of its limitations.

Georgia Douglas Johnson was a key contributor to the Harlem Renaissance - hosting an influential salon, breaking new ground as a Black playwright, and playing an important role as an anti-lynching activist. Her poetry, however, is what first brought her to national attention, and in the early works collected here, her wide-ranging talents are already quite evident. In The Heart of a Woman, Johnson’s exquisite verse captures the full emotional terrain of womanhood. These are poems about love and disillusionment, empowerment and fulfillment, loneliness and joy.

"There is a disease that can twist men’s hearts and make them mad, and the name of that disease is jealousy." So begins this engaging retelling of one of William Shakespeare’s last plays - a fascinating and unique combination of intensity and whimsy. When King Leontes unfairly accuses his wife of infidelity, he sets off a terrible chain of events. But this is not one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. It’s a romance, and one with a healthy dose of fancy and surprise.

Have you heard of the Star Maiden, Old Sally Cato, or Sweet Betsey from Pike? Everyone knows about Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and Davy Crockett, But have you heard of these larger-than-life women? From Bess Call, who wrestles any and all challengers, to Molly Cottontail, who can outwit any critter in the woods, to Hekeke, who slays a giant singlehandedly, here are 15 funny, stormy, and always entertaining tall tales of legendary American women. They're as difference as can be, but still cut from the same cloth.

The quest to find the Nine Gates that lead to the underworlds of Shyish and an audience with Nagash continues.... Tarsus of the Hallowed Knights leads his Stormcast Eternals into the unearthly city of Helstone. Their enigmatic guide, Mannfred von Carstein, assures them that what they need to find his necromantic master lies within its halls, but there is more than darkness lurking in the ruins. Chaos has already taken root, and a reckoning against the servants of the Plague God awaits.

Confessions of a Book Lover was first published in 1922, and even though it is nearly a century old, it is a delightful rummage through a lifetime of reading. We have abbreviated the original with those sections we found most engaging.

I often walked along the shore, and one day I saw something in the sand. I went over to look at it more carefully . . . It was a footprint – the footprint of a man!’In 1659 Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked on a small island off the coast of South America. After fifteen years alone, he suddenly learns that there is another person on the island. But will this man be a friend – or an enemy?

When men find gold in the frozen north of Canada, they need dogs – big, strong dogs to pull the sledges on the long journeys to and from the gold mines. Buck is stolen from his home in the south and sold as a sledge-dog. He has to learn a new way of life – how to work in harness, how to stay alive in the ice and the snow... and how to fight. Because when a dog falls down in a fight, he never gets up again.