William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) is best known as the innovator of the English detective novel, whose sensational novels, plays, and short stories were hugely popular in the Victorian Era. Today, readers enjoy Collins' intricate and suspenseful plots, and his penetrating social commentary on the plight of women and domestic issues of the time. «No Name», one of Collins' best-known works, takes place at Combe-Raven in West Somersetshire in 1846. Sisters Norah and Magdalen Vanstone...
The special charm of 'No Name' is the uncertainty in which the reader is kept. The most experienced of novel-readers is unable to predict whether Magdalen succeeds in her scheme, or marries Capt. Kirke, or retires from the scene to die, baffled and broken-hearted. Each crisis in the progress of the story takes the public by surprise. The death of the elder Vanstone, the marriage of Magdalen with his son, the trust by which Noel Vanstone prolongs the contest, even after his decease —to...
Золотые руки переплавлены, сердце, подаренное девушке, пульсирует в стеклянной банке, по улице шатается одинокая гармонь. Первый роман Владимира Сорокина стал озорным танцем на костях соцреализма: писатель овеществил прежние метафоры и добавил к ним новую – норму. С нормальной точки зрения только преступник или безумец может отказаться от этого пропуска в мир добропорядочных граждан – символа круговой поруки и соучастия в мерзости. “Норма” была написана в разгар застоя и издана уже после...
В книге представлены избранные произведения известного российского писателя Владимира Сорокина. «Свеклушин выбрался из переполненного автобуса, поправил шарф и быстро зашагал по тротуару. Мокрый асфальт был облеплен опавшими листьями, ветер дул в спину, шевелил оголившиеся ветки тополей. Свеклушин поднял воротник куртки, перешёл в аллею. Она быстро кончилась, упёрлась в дом. Свеклушин пересек улицу, направляясь к газетному киоску, но вдруг его шлёпнули по плечу: – Здорово, чувак!»
HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.‘But the cloud never comes in that quarter of the horizon from which we watch for it.’When Margaret Hale is uprooted from Hampshire and moves to the industrial town of Milton in the North of England, her whole world changes. As her sympathy for the town’s mill workers grows, her sense of social injustice piques and she passionately fights their corner. However, just as she disputes the mill owner, John Thornton’s...
"North and South" is Elizabeth Gaskell's 1854 novel that contrasts the different ways of life in the two respective regions of England. In the North the emerging industrialized society is sharply contrasted with the aging gentry of the agrarian based South. The plot of «North and South» centers around the main character Margaret Hale, the daughter of a non-conformist minister who moves his family to an industrial town in the North after a split from the Church of England. With...
HarperCollins is proud to present a range of best-loved, essential classics.‘Northanger Abbey! These were thrilling words, and wound up Catherine's feelings to the highest point of ecstasy.’Considered the most light-hearted and satirical of Austen’s novels, Northanger Abbey tells the story of an unlikely young heroine Catherine Morland. While staying in Bath, Catherine meets Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor who invite her to their family estate, Northanger Abbey. A fan of Gothic Romance...
"Northanger Abbey" was one of the first novels that Jane Austen wrote, however it was not published until 1818, after her death. It is the story of Catherine Morland who travels to Bath to stay with a family friend for several weeks. While there she meets the Tilney siblings who live at the estate from which the book takes its title, Northanger Abbey. Catherine's naiveté gets her into all sorts of trouble when she goes to stay with the Tilney's at their estate. «Northanger Abbey»...
The story's heroine, seventeen year old Catherine Morland, is invited by her neighbours, the Allens, to accompany them to visit Bath for a number of weeks. While, initially, the excitement of experiencing such a place was dampened by her lack of other acquaintances, she is soon introduced to an intriguing young gentleman named Henry Tilney, though her attention was quickly taken upon meeting a young lady named Isabella Thorpe. Isabella tries to make a match between Catherine and her brother...