Classic Fiction

In the third installment of the Belle Morte series, follow vampire Ludovic and human Roux who are on the hunt to bring renegade vampires to justice while denying the complicated feelings for one another. With the help of Renie and Edmond, the battle for Belle Morte has been fought and won. However, the bigger fight is not over, as enemy...

A groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed debut novel of friendship and freedom that crosses continents and centuries, in a timeslip story exploring the legacy of slavery, selected as The Times Children's Book of the Week. Sometime, me love to dream that me is a human, a proper one, like them white folks is. Enslaved on a plantation in Barbados, Obah dreams of...

Nasrin Mahdavi is an Iranian-American college freshman who's a triple threat on Broadway—but she's living a double life. It's her first semester majoring in musical theatre at NYU's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, and Nasrin spends her days prepping for auditions, sweating through dance classes, and belting her heart out for the viral streaming show she's been cast in....

The second installment of The Mafia Academy Series—a forbidden romance set at a boarding school for the sons and daughters of the most powerful mafia lords... now with exclusive bonus content! Sofia Moretti For years, I’ve harboured a secret love for my best friend’s older brother. Yet, he’s never shown any sign of sharing my feelings. My fantasies will remain...

Recently returned from South Africa, adventurer Richard Hannay is bored with life. After a chance encounter with an American who informs him of an assassination plot and is then promptly murdered in Hannay's London flat, he becomes the obvious suspect and is forced to go on the run. He heads north to his native Scotland, fleeing the police and his...

One of the Guardian's novels everyone must read. This new edition of Stevenson's renowned gothic masterpiece has a specially written introduction by Denise Mina. In The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London lawyer Gabriel John Utterson investigates a series of sinister events involving his seemingly respectable friend Dr Henry Jekyll and the dangerous and violent criminal known...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. Originally published in 1903–1904, The Return of Sherlock Holmes is the thirteen-story collection featuring one of the greatest-ever fictional detectives. Three years after the supposed death of Sherlock Holmes and his archenemy Professor Moriarty in the torrent of Reichenbach Falls, Holmes makes a disguised reappearance to Baker Street...

Having travelled from her native New York to London to meet her relatives, Isabel Archer, a young, independently minded woman, rejects the marriage proposals of two suitors in her determination to stay in control of her destiny. When she suddenly comes into a large legacy, Isabel believes that this windfall will finally ensure the freedom that she yearns for and...

Renault's masterpiece. One of the greatest historical novels ever written - SARAH WATERS In the second novel of her stunning trilogy, Mary Renault vividly imagines the life of Alexander the Great, the charismatic leader whose drive and ambition created a legend. The Persian Boy traces the last years of Alexander's life through the eyes of his lover, Bagoas. Abducted and...

John Kennedy Toole wrote The Neon Bible for a literary contest at the age of sixteen. The manuscript was finally published twenty years after Toole's death. The Neon Bible opens with the narrator, a young man named David, on a train, leaving the small Southern town he's grown up in for the first time. What unspools is the tender and...

Machado de Assis is one of the most enigmatic and fascinating story writers who ever lived. What appear at first to be stately social satires reveal unanticipated depths through flashes of darkness and winking surrealism. This new selection of his finest work, translated by the prize-winning Daniel Hahn, showcases the many facets of his mercurial genius. A brilliant scientist opens...

Monroe Stahr is a film producer at the height of his career, revered by the industry and in control of every aspect of his business empire. In his ruthless rise to the top, the young widower has had little time for sentiment, until he meets the beguiling Kathleen Moore and the two embark on an intense but ill-fated relationship. Told...

Inspired by a grisly discovery in the nineteenth century, The King's General was the first of du Maurier's novels to be written at Menabilly, the model for Manderley in Rebecca. Set in the seventeenth century, it tells the story of a country and a family riven by war, and features one of fiction's most original heroines. Honor Harris is only...

A gorgeous picture book to delight all little readers, featuring pixies, elves, fairies, and other magical friends. Collect the whole series for a year-round library of beautiful books. In this beautiful collection of stories by the world's best-loved storyteller, Enid Blyton, a pixie searches for confetti for his friends' wedding, a poppy meets a magical pal, and two children discover...

With all-new illustrations, experience this classic pioneering tale of science fiction by H.G. Wells. West Sussex. A mysterious man in a long-sleeved trench coat, gloves, and a wide-brimmed hat arrives at Mr. and Mrs. Hall's inn. His face is almost entirely concealed (much like most of his personality and identity), except for a fake pink nose. He keeps to himself,...

‘I loved this sweeping family drama. Moving and unforgettable’Sarah Morgan, Sunday Times bestselling author ‘A moving, atmospheric and engrossing family saga. Its characters will stay with you long after you have finished the book’ Deepa Anappara, author of Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line ‘This novel is an absolute beauty, and already one of my favourites . . . In...

'Juicy, shocking, witty, and almost continually brilliant' COSMOPOLITAN 'A brilliant novel: honest, engaging and sharp as a tack' SARAH WATERS 'Lively, vivid and exceedingly entertaining' SUNDAY TIMES This groundbreaking novel celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2023. One of the first novels to frankly depict friendship, sex and women's lives, it was a revelation and continues to inspire today. WITH A...

The Group follows eight graduates from exclusive Vassar College as they find love and heartbreak, forge careers, gossip and party in 1930s Manhattan. The Group can be seen as the original Sex and the City. It is the first novel to frankly portray women's real lives, exploring subjects such as sex, contraception, motherhood, and marriage.

Set during the Roaring Twenties, this masterful story by F. Scott Fitzgerald is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway, a young man who moves to Long Island and attempts to learn the bond business in New York City after the war. There, he co-mingles on Long Island with his affluent and wealthy socialite cousin Daisy Buchanan, her brute of...

When Anthony Lammas, Kirk minister and Professor of Logic at St Andrews University, sets off for business in London, little does he realise that he will soon be entangled in a web of conspiracy. But Anthony is no ordinary professor. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, The Free Fishers is classic Buchan—a fast-paced tale of treason and espionage. With an introduction...

Tense, touching, human, dire, and funny, The Feast is a feast indeed. - Elizabeth Bowen Cornwall, Midsummer 1947. Reverend Seddon is on his annual seaside holiday with Father Bott; but to his disgruntlement, his host is busy writing a funeral sermon after a local disaster. Pendizack Manor Hotel—a coastal boarding house perched in a sleepy cove—has just been buried in...

Join an awe-inspiring journey through a world where death has stopped in the finale of James Smythe’s acclaimed Anomaly Quartet. Decades ago, a vast object called the Anomaly was discovered moving through space. Missions sent to explore it found that anyone entering the Anomaly was unable to die. It kept moving, across our solar system, until finally the Anomaly enveloped...

In this stark, haunting collection, Miklós Bánffy narrates with wry wisdom stories of cunning, betrayal, and myth ranging from classical antiquity to the Transylvania of his own day. These are communities of sharp rivalries and religious superstition: young Borbalka, about to marry an unsuitable man, receives strange counsel from a suspicious figure in her village; four men seek to exploit...

The darkly passionate short stories of Thomas Hardy are compelling explorations of love, social class, superstition, and legend. This collection contains many of his finest and most representative works. Included are The Withered Arm, an eerie depiction of arcane witchcraft in nineteenth-century England; Barbara of the House of Grebe, in which a beautiful man's tragic disfigurement by fire is savagely...

At 17, Nan wants to leave the family farm and go to study. Caught between her powerful mother and yielding, drunken father, she absorbs the tensions of their divided household and dotes on her new gelding, a gift from her father. When a sudden accident leaves the horse blind, Nan's mother insists he must be put down, initiating a power...

The Complete Short Stories Of Mark Twain is the only edition in hardcover of Mark Twain's complete shorter fiction. Twain is a superb yarn-spinner, and his inimitable wit, nimble plotting, and unerring insight into human nature are on full display throughout this thoroughly entertaining volume. Mark Twain's famous novels, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (available in Everyman editions), have long...

Set during the Pugachov rebellion against Catherine the Great, The Captain’s Daughter was Pushkin’s only completed novel and remains one of his most popular works. The inexperienced and impetuous young nobleman Pyotr Grinyev is sent on military service to a remote fortress, where he falls in love with Masha, Captain Mironov’s daughter. However, the ruthless Cossack Pugachov lays siege to...

The Bronte family was a literary phenomenon unequalled before or since. Both Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights have won lofty places in the pantheon of literature and stirred the romantic sensibilities of generations of readers. This beautifully presented leatherbound edition unites these two enduring favourites with the lesser-known, but no less powerful, work by their youngest sister, Anne...

The heir to his grandfather’s considerable fortune, Anthony Patch is led astray from the path to gainful employment by the temptations of the 1920s Jazz Age. His descent into dissolution and profligacy is accelerated by his marriage to the attractive but turbulent Gloria, and the couple soon discover the dangerous flip side of a life of glamour and debauchery. Containing...

WATERSTONES WELSH BOOK OF THE MONTH Paris, 1891 Laura is living on the streets, far from the American Prairies where she was born. When rescued by the entrancing aerialists, Ena and Auguste Gaudron, she soon finds herself ensconced in the family hot air balloon business, and offered the chance to learn how to fly. Cardiff, 1896 The Gaudrons accept an...

“All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It's the best book we've had.” – Ernest Hemingway To escape from his abusive father, 13-year-old Huckleberry Finn fakes his own death and floats away on a raft down the Mississippi with Jim, a runaway slave. In a series of unforgettable adventures narrated...

From forthright mothers and very modern daughters to the quiet dreamers on either side of the generational divide, this anthology sketches a joyous, fraught, and ultimately tender portrait of mother-daughter relationships throughout the twentieth century. These are the stories of a mother who helps dispatch her daughter's unwanted suitor, a daughter who enters a sanatorium and starts to question if...

Two linked novels about flying planes and falling in love. Includes the novel Pilotage Stephen Morris has just called off his engagement to the girl of his dreams because he is a penniless graduate with no prospects. He finds a job working as an aircraft mechanic, hoping to make his fortune. In Pilotage, Stephen's navigator, Peter Dennison, is struggling with...

A man travels to the central Asian desert in order to bring his nomadic people into the Communist fold. This edition contains seven additional stories by Platonov. Translated and with an introduction by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler 'For the mind, everything is in the future,' Platonov once wrote; 'for the heart, everything is in the past.' The protagonist of Soul...

INTRODUCED BY MAVIS CHEEK I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym - Richard Osman She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life - Anne Tyler Together yet alone, the Misses Bede occupy the central crossroads of parish life. Harriet, plump, elegant and jolly, likes nothing better than to make a fuss of...

Turn down Slade Alley—narrow, dank, and easy to miss, even when you're looking for it. Find the small black iron door set into the right-hand wall. No handle, no keyhole, but at your touch, it swings open. Enter the sunlit garden of an old house that doesn't quite make sense; too grand for the shabby neighbourhood, too large for the...

"Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand." Silas Marner is a simple weaver from Lantern Yard, an impoverished area of Northern England. He is the main protagonist who is wrongly accused of being a robber. Silas loses his sweetheart, reputation, and as a result, has to move out of the town. He dedicates the next fifteen years of his...

One man's love of the sea leaves him stranded on a desert island with nothing but a few goats, a bible, and a parrot for company. Will he ever escape? Will his new pal Friday learn to efficiently press a goatskin jerkin? Or will solitude send him totally barmy?

An expansive novel reminiscent of the literary breadth, humanity, and historical depth found in Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate — Christophe Boltanski, winner of the 2015 Prix Femina for The Safe House A captivating sweep of a novel about love, resilience and impossible choices... I loved it! — Christina Lamb, chief foreign correspondent, Sunday Times Seventeen-year-old Debora Rosenbaum, ambitious and...

Now you can live a day in the life of a young woman in 1920s London. Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway follows one day of upper-class housewife Clarissa Dalloway's life as she plans and hosts a dinner party at her house. Along the way, she meets with people from both her past—a former suitor whose proposal she rejected and whom she...

Mr Blettsworthy on Rampole Island tells the story of a gentleman of culture and refinement who suffered shipwreck and saw no human beings other than cruel and savage cannibals for several years. It details how he beheld megatheria alive and made some notes of their habits. How he became a sacred lunatic is also an intriguing part of his journey....

Alongside his monumental Notebooks and the poems collected in Canti, which make him one of Italy’s greatest and best-loved poets, Giacomo Leopardi penned a number of fictional pieces, mostly in the form of gently humorous dialogues, in which he dealt with philosophical ideas and many of the metaphysical questions that preoccupied his restless spirit. First published in 1827 and here...

Originally hand-printed at her Hogarth Press in Richmond, Monday or Tuesday is the only collection of short stories that Virginia Woolf published during her lifetime. It provides a fascinating insight into the early stages of development of themes that would blossom in her later masterpieces. From the impressionist description of four groups of people walking by a flowerbed in the...

Journey to the heart of the sea with this larger-than-life classic. Regarded as the Great American Novel, Moby Dick is the ultimate tale of seeking vengeance. Narrated by the crew member Ishmael, this epic whaling adventure follows the crew of the Pequod, as its captain, Ahab, descends deeper and deeper into madness on his quest to find and kill the...

The Jacobite army marches into England, and Alistair Maclean, a close confidant of Charles Edward Stewart, embarks on a secret mission to raise support for the cause in the west. He soon begins to suspect that someone close to the Prince is passing information to the Government. Just as he closes in on the traitor, his own life is put...

Subtitled A Study of Provincial Life, George Eliot's novel Middlemarch is a chronicle of the titular nineteenth-century Midlands town in the midst of political and social change. Eliot explores the upheaval and transformation brought about by these changes through their impact on the lives of a richly varied cast of characters that includes the pious young Dorothea Brooke, her suitor...

In Regency London, the only way for a woman to succeed is to beat men at their own game. So, when Mary Anne Clarke seeks an escape from her squalid surroundings in Bowling Inn Alley, she ventures first into the scurrilous world of the pamphleteers. Her personal charms are such, however, that before long she comes to the notice of...

An icon of Russian literature, Turgenev was able to contain the narrative sweep of a novel in a single short story. His protagonists experience the joy and painful turbulence of first love, the thrilling adventures of youth, and the layered reflections of maturity. His great skill is to make his readers feel alongside these characters, rendering their complex interiorities, whether...

After the success of her beloved masterpiece Little Women, Louisa May Alcott brought her genius for characterisation and eye for detail to a series of revolutionary novels and stories that are remarkable in their forthright assertion of women's rights. This second volume of The Library of America’s Alcott edition gathers these works for the first time, revealing a fascinating and...

Little Tales of Misogyny is Highsmith's legendary, cultish short-story collection. With an eerie simplicity of style, Highsmith turns our next-door neighbours into sadistic psychopaths, lying in wait among white picket fences and manicured lawns. In these darkly satirical, often hilarious, sketches you'll meet seemingly familiar women with the power to destroy both themselves and the men around them. 'The No.1...

INTRODUCED BY SALLEY VICKERS 'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' — RICHARD OSMAN 'She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heart-breaking silliness of everyday life' — ANNE TYLER Less Than Angels introduces us to Catherine Oliphant, a writer who lives with the handsome anthropologist Tom Mallow. Their relationship encounters trouble when Tom begins a romance...

On a bitter November evening, young Mary Yellan journeys across the rainswept moors to Jamaica Inn in honour of her mother's dying request. When she arrives, the warning of the coachman begins to echo in her memory, for her aunt Patience cowers before hulking Uncle Joss Merlyn. Terrified of the inn's brooding power, Mary gradually finds herself ensnared in the...

A lawyer hires a new copyist, only to be met with stubborn, confounding resistance. A cynical lightning rod salesman plies his trade by exploiting fears in stormy weather. After boarding a beleaguered Spanish slave ship, an American trader's cheerful outlook is repeatedly shadowed by paralyzing unease.

No writer portrayed America's 'Roaring Twenties' as vividly as F. Scott Fitzgerald, and his stories seem as fresh today as they did nearly a century ago. F. Scott Fitzgerald: Classic Works features two novels - This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned - and 19 short stories, including the classics "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", "The Diamond as Big...

Written after Woolf had finished her emotionally draining work on The Waves, Flush purports to be an autobiography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s eponymous cocker spaniel, charting the dog’s early days in the countryside, his adoption by the famous poet, his subsequent life in London and his travels with his owners to Italy. While the resulting narrative is light-hearted and playful...

Family History is the sequel to The Edwardians — a novel of high society in a changing world. Evelyn, aged thirty-nine, is an attractive widow living an irreproachable life. Then she meets Miles, fifteen years her junior, and falls passionately in love. But both lovers have strong personalities, and passion does not equal happiness. Evelyn, deeply jealous and conventional, is...

A masterpiece — Anita Brookner A very beautiful novel — Nick Hornby Includes some of the most perfect sentences in English – Guardian At the turn of the twentieth century, two children play on an English beach. Eustace, a gentle, dreamy boy with a weak heart, relies on his older sister Hilda. As young adults, Eustace and Hilda are unexpectedly...

When the world-weary dandy Eugene Onegin moves from St Petersburg to take up residence in the country estate he has inherited, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with his neighbour, the poet Vladimir Lensky. Coldly rejecting the amorous advances of Tatyana and cynically courting her sister Olga—Lensky’s fiancée—Onegin finds himself dragged into a tragedy of his own making. Eugene Onegin—presented...

Echo's Bones was intended by Samuel Beckett to form the 'recessional' or end-piece of his early collection of interrelated stories, More Pricks Than Kicks, published in 1934. The story was written at the request of the publisher, but was held back from inclusion in the published volume. Echo's Bones has remained unpublished to this day, and the present edition will...

City of Night is bold and inventive in style, a groundbreaking 1960s novel about male prostitution. Rechy is unflinching in his portrayal of one hustling 'youngman' and his search for self-knowledge among the other denizens of his neon-lit world. As the narrator moves from Texas to Times Square and then on to the French Quarter of New Orleans, Rechy delivers...

"They say (said Reginald) that there's nothing sadder than victory except defeat. If you've ever stayed with dull people during what is alleged to be the festive season, you can probably revise that saying." These Christmas stories present Saki at his inimitable, satirical best as he addresses the most perilous aspects of the holiday period: visiting dull relatives, tolerating Christmas...

Bleak House by Charles Dickens is a classic novel filled with intricate storytelling and unforgettable characters. After impressing Francis Drake with a feat of daring and bravery, young Ned Hearne is offered a reward of his own choosing. His decision? To sail the seas on Drake’s ship. Little does he know, however, what adventures, dangers and close shaves lie in...

'I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.' Mark Twain In these extraordinary stories, Mark Twain takes us from the sleepy banks of the Mississippi, through frontier towns, and across the deserted gold plains of California. We encounter his countryfolk in all their bizarre variety: a cannibalistic ex-senator, a...

Originally conceived by its author as an entertaining story for Alice Liddell, the daughter of an Oxford dean, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the fantastic tale of the young Alice’s encounters with the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts, has captured the imaginations of young and old throughout the world since it was first...

By the New York Times Bestselling Author With a New Introduction by Clare Chambers 'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' - Richard Osman 'My favourite writer... I pick up her books with joy, as though I were meeting an old, dear friend' - Jilly Cooper 'The subtlest of her books... the sparkle on first acquaintance has been succeeded by...

This cat was a drag... Till a midnight wakeup call A Christmas Carol?! What a load of Humbug. Mistletoe and Wine just don't do it for Scrooge; he's a workaholic miser with an attitude problem. If he doesn't change his ways, he'll end up with no friends and Tiny Tim won't last the year. Let's hope some spooky night-time visitors...

ENTER THE ADMINISTRATION Peretz spends his days navigating the bureaucracy of the Administration, the institute tasked with governing the Forest below. Except no one ever seems to go there, and his attempts only trap him further within the workings of this strange organisation. ENTER THE FOREST Candide cannot remember how he got to the Forest, and he is certain he...

In a world drowning in data and information and choking on novelty and innovation, Nickie Haflinger—a most dangerous fugitive who doesn't even appear to exist—provides a window onto a global society falling apart in all directions, with madness run amok and personal freedom surrendered to computers and bureaucrats. Caught and about to be re-programmed, can he escape once again, defy...

'For three minutes you will turn your eyes inward into the darkness of the mind which I have taught you to make. Then I will give the sign you will look at the paper. There you will see words written, but only for one second. Bend all your powers to remember them.' What begins as a welcome, if slightly dull,...

The New York Times-bestselling author concludes the desperate and action-packed saga of the refugee from the future, and the one naval space officer who believes her, trying to avert the apocalypse as all forces turn against them. Earth was destroyed on June 12, 2180. Lieutenant Selene Genji watched it happen. And only she can prevent it. Thrown forty years into...

Spirits Abroad is the expanded debut collection of a very popular, award-winning author, Zen Cho, featuring nine new stories. Zen Cho, who grew up in Malaysia and currently resides in England, is well-loved across a broad spectrum of genres. Her unique perspective is further enriched by her travels to the US. The collection is a part of the #ownvoices and...

Set in the twenty-second century after the repeal of the Nineteenth Amendment, the novel reveals a world where women are once again property, denied civil rights, and banned from public life. In this world, Earth's wealth relies on interplanetary commerce, for which the population depends on linguists, a small, clannish group of families whose women breed and become perfect translators...

The must-have super funny series from the creators of the bestselling Naughtiest Unicorn! Ahoy there! Join the Super Cutes for a super-fun seaside rescue! When a summer storm leaves a trail of destruction at the beach, it’s time for the Super Cutes to work together to get things ship-shape again. But it’s not just tidying up – Sol the Sailor...

The exceptionordinary, effervescent Clarice Bean is back with her trademark heart and humour in this beautifully illustrated story by former Children’s Laureate Lauren Child – a delightful summer read for the entire family! Nothing ever happens except for sometimes. And only on rare-ish occasions, which is hardly ever. There are times when even I can’t turn the nothing into more...

The Girl Who Became A Fish by Polly Ho-Yen tells the story of Ita, a young girl who is afraid of many things. She's afraid of talking to her classmates at her new school, afraid of walking through her new town, and most of all, she is afraid of water. When she discovers that the river in her new town...

The Elves and the Shoemaker is a Little Golden Book retelling of a favourite Grimm's fairy tale, beloved by generations! This classic fairy tale about two selfless shoemaking elves shows the joy that comes from giving—and receiving—generosity and kindness. Preschoolers will be captivated by the story of the poor shoemaker and his wife, who are surprised to find beautifully made...

Learn about opposites like light and dark in this engaging interactive board book inspired by Jim Henson’s classic film The Dark Crystal! In the age of wonder, Jen, Kira, and their adorable companion Fizzgig must heal the Dark Crystal to bring balance to the world of Thra. This colourfully illustrated board book will guide children to help Jen and his...

Puffin Classics: the definitive collection of timeless stories for every child. Rediscover the Puffin Classics collection and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation, including this legendary edition of Tales of the Greek Heroes. The mysterious and exciting legends of the gods and heroes in Ancient Greece, from the adventures of Perseus, the labours of Heracles, the voyage of...

A hilarious classroom story about an octopus and his boy, from the author of Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? When it comes to show-and-tell, Sam is in it to win it. But no matter how hard he tries, one of his classmates is always showing him up with a slightly better costume or a slightly cooler object to share....