At Waterloo Station, hopeful new arrivals from the West Indies step off the boat train, ready to start afresh in 1950s London. There, homesick Moses Aloetta, who has already lived in the city for years, meets Henry 'Sir Galahad' Oliver and shows him the ropes.

Catherine Sloper is heiress to a fortune and is easily overwhelmed by the attentions of a handsome but penniless suitor. Her clever father is implacably opposed to the match, and the scene for a classic confrontation is set. This new edition of James's most enduringly popular work offers more information than any previous edition.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.

A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two "letters," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both blac...

25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION - WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR'A true diamond of a novel, glinting with comedy and tragedy' Daily MailIt is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces.

Considered by many to be Dickens' finest novel, Great Expectations traces the growth of the book's narrator, Philip Pirrip (Pip), from a boy of shallow dreams to a man with depth of character. From its famous dramatic opening on the bleak Kentish marshes, the story abounds with some of Dickens' most memorable characters. Among them are the kindly blacksmith Joe Gargery, the mysterious convict Abel Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Haversham and her beautiful ward Estella, Pip's good-hearted room-m...

"On s'ennuie de tout, mon ange, c'est une loi de la nature ; ce n'est pas ma faute. Si donc, je m'ennuie aujourd'hui d'une aventure qui m'a occupé entièrement depuis quatre mortels mois, ce n'est pas ma faute. Si, par exemple, j'ai eu juste autant d'amour que toi de vertu, et c'est sûrement beaucoup dire, il n'est pas étonnant que l'un ait fini en même temps que l'autre. Ce n'est pas ma faute. [...] Aujourd'hui, une femme que j'aime éperdument exige que je te sacrifie. Ce n'est pas ma f...

" J'ai trouvé une idée merveilleuse. je serai un homme de génie ", s'exclame Balzac au moment où il écrit Le Père Goriot. Il venait d'imaginer La Comédie humaine, ce cycle romanesque dans lequel les mêmes personnages réapparaissent d'un roman à l'autre. Il venait de créer un monde, le monde balzacien. Les plus beaux romans, dit André Maurois, sont des romans d'apprentissage. Les illusions de la jeunesse s'y heurtent au monde féroce et pourtant plein de délices.

L'amour devient c...

An entertaining and captivating collection of myths, tales and traditions surrounding the seas, skies and woodlands that make up our natural world.

Includes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. Through wordplay, parody and logical and philosophical puzzles, Carroll engenders a variety of sub-texts, teasing, ominous or melancholy. For all the surface playfulness, there is meaning everywhere.