Here, in this compelling assembly of writings, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard explores the world of natural facts and human meanings.

Sylvia Plath is one of the defining voices in twentieth-century poetry. This classic selection of her work, made by her former husband Ted Hughes, provides the perfect introduction to this most influential of poets. The poems are taken from Sylvia Plath's four collections Ariel, The Colossus, Crossing the Water and Winter Trees, and includes many of her most-celebrated works, such as 'Daddy', 'Lady Lazarus' and 'Wuthering Heights'.

From the author of The Blazing World, "a work of dizzying intensity...eloquent and vivid" (Don DeLillo), about a young Midwestern woman who finds herself entangled in intense circumstances—physical, cerebral, and existential—when she moves to New York City.Iris Vegan, a young, impoverished graduate student from the Midwest, finds herself entangled with four powerful but threatening characters as she tries to adjust to life in New York City. Mr. Morning, an inscrutable urban recluse, employs Iris to tape-record verbal descriptions of objects that belonged to a murder victim. George, a photographer, takes an eerie portrait of Iris, which then acquires a strong life of its own, appearing and disappearing without warning around the city. After a series of blinding migraines, Iris ends up in a hospital room with Mrs. O., a woman who has lost her mind and memory to a stroke, but who nevertheless retains both the strength and energy to torment her fellow patient....

A richly entertaining and informative collection of Hans Christian Andersen's stories, annotated by one of America's leading folklore scholars.In her most ambitious annotated work to date, Maria Tatar celebrates the stories told by Denmark's "perfect wizard" and re-envisions Hans Christian Andersen as a writer who casts his spell on both children and adults. Andersen's most beloved tales, such as "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Ugly Duckling," and "The Little Mermaid," are now joined by "The Shadow" and "Story of a Mother," mature stories that reveal his literary range and depth. Tatar captures the tales' unrivaled dramatic and visual power, showing exactly how Andersen became one of the world's ten most translated authors, along with Shakespeare, Dickens, and Marx. Lushly illustrated with more than one hundred fifty rare images, many in full color, by artists such as Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen will captivate readers with...

Inspired by the true story of Walter Tull, the first black officer in the British army. A new novel about identity and loss by bestselling award-winning author of WAR HORSE. Michael doesn’t remember his father, an RAF pilot lost in the war. And his French mother, heartbroken and passionate, doesn’t like to talk about her husband. But then Auntie Snowdrop gives Michael a medal, followed by a photograph, which begin to reveal a hidden history. A story of love and loss. A story that will change everything – and reveal to Michael who he really is…

First published to sensational scandal amidst accusations that the novel was hedonist, unclean, and depicted distorted views of morality, The Picture of Dorian Gray was a hit back in the day. In 1890, the Daily Chronicle wrote that Wilde's novel "will taint every young mind that comes in contact with it." Well, Victorian critics, gird your loins and prepare to meet Audrey Ember's Fifty Shades of Dorian Gray: hotter, lewder, sexier, steamier, and more morally corrupt than Oscar Wilde's original story! Rediscover this celebrated novel as it traces the moral degeneration of a beautiful young Londoner seduced by art and beauty into a cruel and reckless pursuer of pleasure.Meet artist Rosemary Hall and follow her inevitable downfall brought by her lust for the famous Dorian Gray—a tale both familiar and new in this brilliant erotic mash up of one of the world's most beloved novels. With a mix of old-fashioned Victorian debauchery and erotic 21st century lust this cleverly...

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) is often regarded as the unofficial Laureate of the British Empire. Yet his writing reveals a ferociously independent figure at times violently opposed to the dominant political and literary tendencies of his age. Arranged in chronological order, this diverse selection of his poetry shows the development of Kipling's talent, his deepening maturity and the growing sombreness of his poetic vision. Ranging from early, exhilarating celebrations of British expansion overseas, including "Mandalay" and "Gunga Din", to the dignified and inspirational "If -" and the later, deeply moving "Epitaphs of the War" - inspired by the death of Kipling's only son - it clearly illustrates the scope and originality of his work. It also offers a compelling insight into the Empire both at its peak and during its decline in the early years of the twentieth century.

Acclaimed biographer Peter Ackroyd vibrantly resurrects the legendary epic of Camelot in this modern adaptation.The names of Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, Guinevere, Galahad, the sword of Excalibur, and the court of Camelot are as recognizable as any from the world of myth. Although many versions exist of the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory endures as the most moving and richly inventive. In this abridged retelling the inimitable Peter Ackroyd transforms Malory's fifteenth-century work into a dramatic modern story, vividly bringing to life a world of courage and chivalry, magic, and majesty. The golden age of Camelot, the perilous search for the Holy Grail, the love of Guinevere and Lancelot, and the treachery of Arthur's son Mordred are all rendered into contemporary prose with Ackroyd's characteristic charm and panache. Just as he did with his fresh new version of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, Ackroyd...

Nevermore: A Book of Hours is a modern bestiary and a book of remembrance, a distillation of thirty years of research and meditation by author and poet David Day, an acknowledged authority on the extinction of species. In its conception and approach, Nevermore is unlike any other natural history. It is laden with a combined sense of wonder and savagery in its vivid descriptions of first encounters with, and last glimpses of, long forgotten species. It is beautifully illustrated by four distinguished wildlife artists, and unfolds as a requiem to vanished species.

Cecile, a beautiful young window, falls in love with a notorious womanizer, and for that reason must endure intense suffering and pain in the midst of polite society. Ecstasy’s tranquil setting in late 19th-century Holland belies the stormy waters in which Cecile finds herself, as she abandons herself to love – to thwarted and unspoken passion.