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Willa Cather weaves a poignant and evocative tale of pioneer life on the Nebraska plains. In My Antonia we follow Jim Burden, a young boy who moves to Nebraska to live with his grandparents, and his close bond with Ántonia Shimerda, the spirited and resilient daughter of Bohemian immigrants. As they grow up, Jim and Ántonia experience the challenges and triumphs of life on the frontier, marked by hardship, love, loss, and the indomitable strength of the human spirit.

When Candide is cast out of his sheltered life, he embarks on a journey filled with war, natural disasters, betrayal, and heartbreak—all while clinging to the optimistic philosophy of his mentor, Pangloss. As he travels across Europe and the Americas, encountering a bizarre array of characters and suffering the harsh realities of life, Candide’s faith in idealism is repeatedly tested. In this classic satire, Voltaire skewers the pretensions of philosophy, religion, and social systems, offering a compelling critique of human nature.

A well-to-do professor working in Moscow strikes up an unlikely friendship with a stray dog and attempts a scientific first by transplanting the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man into the dog. With a wild, but alarmingly human animal on the loose, the professor's previously respectable life becomes a nightmare beyond his imagination. A superb satirical novel, it is also a sharp and pointed criticism of Soviet society, especially the new rich that arose after the Bolshevik revolution.

Set in the fictional cathedral town of Barchester, the novel revolves around the power struggles following the sudden death of the archdeacon, which creates a vacancy for the prestigious position of bishop. A brilliant mix of humor, drama, and keen social insight, Barchester Towers is a timeless exploration of human nature.

An adventurous geology professor chances upon a manuscript in which a 16th-century explorer claims to have found a route to the earth's core. Professor Lidenbrock can't resist the opportunity to investigate, and with his nephew Axel, he sets off across Iceland in the company of Hans Bjelke, a native guide. The expedition descends into an extinct volcano toward a sunless sea, where they encounter a subterranean world of luminous rocks, antediluvian forests, and fantastic marine life — a living past that holds the secrets to the origins of human existence.

One of Robert Louis Stevenson’s bestselling works of his time, ‘The Lantern Bearers’ is a charming essay on the joys underlying realist literature. Sometimes mistakenly taken as a fictional narrative, the essay begins with three boys – of which Stevenson is one – who reside in a seaside town during the summer. Stevenson describes the various splendours of existence in the town, such as fishing, tide pools and the open sea air.

Beautiful, unflinching, and recently widowed, Lady Susan Vernon seeks an advantageous second marriage for herself, while attempting to engineer her daughter into a ill-advised match. A perfectly crafted piece of Austen's ouvere, Lady Susan is a satire of Regency manners that will delight Austen fans and those new to her work.

Henry Fleming, a young soldier in the American Civil War, grapples with fear, courage, and the realities of battle. He joins the Union army with grandiose ideas of heroism, but when he faces the brutal truth of war, he is overcome by fear and runs from the battlefield in his first encounter with the enemy. After fleeing, Henry is consumed with shame and guilt. He struggles internally, questioning his own courage and trying to come to terms with his actions.

Appian's Civil Wars offers a comprehensive account of the unstable epoch from the time of Tiberius Gracchus (133 BC) to the great conflicts which followed the murder of Julius Caesar. For the events between 133 and 70 BC Appian is the only constant surviving narrative source, making his diaries an invaluable source to understand this brutal and formative moment in history.

The Chimes is Charles Dickens 1844 novella that concerns the disillusionment of Toby "Trotty" Veck, a poor working-class man. When Trotty has lost his faith in Humanity and believes that his poverty is the result of his unworthiness he is visited on New Year's Eve by spirits who collectively help restore his faith and show him that nobody is born evil, but rather that crime and poverty are man-made creations.

Crumbling castles shrouded in secrets, ghostly skeletons cloaked in black veils, and innocent maidens held in the gravest of danger: the clich‚d tropes of gothic romance fill the mind of Catherine Morland, the young, naive, but warm-hearted heroine of Jane Austen's parody of the popular fiction of her time.

In betting fellow members of the famous Reform Club half his fortune that he can circumnavigate the globe in just 80 days, Phileas Fogg embarks on the most famous race in literature. Accompanied by his hot-blooded valet Passepartout, Fogg must face snowbound passes, sweltering jungles, opium dens, Sioux attacks and an alluring Indian princess to win the wager. But can our intrepid adventurers complete this thrilling race and make it back in time?

Mr Pooter is a man of modest ambitions, content with his ordinary life. Yet he always seems to be troubled by disagreeable tradesmen, impertinent young office clerks and wayward friends, not to mention his devil-may-care son Lupin with his unsuitable choice of bride. In the bumbling, absurd, yet endearing figure of Pooter, the Grossmiths created an immortal comic character and a superb satire on the snobberies of middle-class suburbia.

The horror of the male experience during World War One was well documented in poetry, memoir, and fiction throughout the 20th century. Women's voices of despair, endurance and anger, however, have often been forgotten. These poems of political fury, widowed brides, industry undertaken, and sons and friends loved and lost, give a heartbreaking insight into the experience of women throughout World War One.

Dickens wrote into life some of the most beloved and well-known characters in the history of English literature, introducing us to Pip, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Little Nell, Scrooge, Nicholas Nickleby, Miss Haversham, and many more who have lived in the imagination of generations. In this definitive and beautifully curated collection, you'll discover some of Dickens's most beloved classics and walk the streets of London, Paris...

Renowned for his profound connection with the English countryside, and his introspective exploration of nature, morality and the human condition, this beautifully curated collection showcases Edward Thomas’s poetry at its very best. Steeped in a quiet beauty and touching melancholy, Thomas’s verse takes its readers through fields, along hedgerows and down lonely lanes, pausing to meditate on time, loss and the fragility of life.

Witty, charismatic and popular in society, Rupert Brooke made fast friends with the Bloomsbury group of writers in his youth, having tried his hand at poetry from an early age. But it was the First World War, where Brooke was commissioned into the Royal Navy, that inspired his most enduring works. In this beautifully crafted collection, we are offered Brooke’s most notable and cherished poems.

First published in 1792, Wollstonecraft’s groundbreaking essay, written against the tumultuous backdrop of the French revolution, was an immediate success. Challenging the idea that women are inferior to men, Wollstonecraft argued that women deserved the same access to education, and the chance to develop as independent individuals. Blending Enlightenment ideals with sharp social critique, this pioneering work laid the foundation for modern feminist thought, provocatively – and successfully – defying gender norms in the eighteenth century.

An extended essay initially written in response to a letter pondering how to end war, Three Guineas eloquently relates women’s equal opportunity to the end of the power structures which contribute to conflict. Using the metaphor of three guineas, Woolf highlights three worthy causes to donate to in order to end violence: rebuilding education for women, supporting professional opportunities for women and the promotion of pacifism.

Set in post- World War I America, Fitzgerald’s dazzling debut novel follows the life of Amory Blaine, a charming but self-absorbed Princeton student. As Amory drifts in and out of love affairs, experiences intellectual awakenings and navigates heartbreak, he becomes increasingly desperate to uncover a sense of identity and meaning. Fitzgerald captivatingly reproduces the restless spirit of the Jazz Age with lyrical prose and a profound existential yearning.