Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, fastidious college professor. He also likes little girls. And none more so than Lolita, who he'll do anything to possess. Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster?! Or is he all of these?
In early nineteenth-century England, an orphaned young woman accepts employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall, a country estate owned by the mysteriously remote Mr. Rochester.
Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. With neither friends nor family, Lucy Snowe sets sail from England to find employment in a girls' boarding school in the small town of Villette. There, she struggles to retain her self-possession in the face of unruly pupils, the hostility of headmistress Madame Beck, and her own complex feelings - first for the school's English doctor and then for the dictatorial professor Paul Emanuel. Drawing on her own deeply unhappy experiences as a governess in Brussels, Charlotte Bronte'sautobiographical novel, the last published during her lifetime, is a powerfully moving study of loneliness and isolation, and the pain of unrequited love, narrated by a heroine determined to preserve an independent spirit in the face of adverse circumstances. Helen M. Cooper's new introduction places the novel in the context of Bronte's life and career and argues for the importance of the novel as an exploration of imperialism. 'I am only just returned to a sense of real wonder about me, for I have been reading Villette ' George Eliot 'Her finest novel' Virginia Woolf
'Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?' No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring
Tracing the lives of a group of friends, this novel follows their development from childhood to middle age. Social events, individual achievements and disappointments form the outer structure of the book, but the focus is the inner life of the characters which is conveyed in rich poetic language.
Maxwell Sim seems to have hit rock bottom. Estranged from his father, newly divorced, unable to communicate with his only daughter, he realizes that while he may have seventy-four friends on Facebook, there is nobody in the world with whom he can actually share his problems.
Then a business proposition comes his way - a strange exercise in corporate PR that will require him to spend a week driving from London to a remote retail outlet on the Shetland Isles. Setting out with an open mind, good intentions and a friendly voice on his SatNav for company, Maxwell finds that this journey soon takes a more serious turn, and carries him not only to the furthest point of the United Kingdom, but into some of the deepest and darkest corners of his own past.
In his sparkling and hugely enjoyable new book Jonathan Coe reinvents the picaresque novel for our time.
The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle are the complete adventures of the original and best detective, containing four novels and fifty-six short stories about the most engaging detective of all time, with a foreword by crime writer Ruth Rendell. The detective Sherlock Holmes - who continues to enthral millions in film and TV adaptations starring actors like Robert Downey Jr and Benedict Cumberbatch - was the creation of Arthur Conan Doyle, whose crime stories have thrilled readers for well over a century. Sherlock Holmes is not only the most famous character in crime fiction, but arguably the most famous character in all fiction. In sixty adventures that pit his extraordinary wits and courage against foreign spies, blackmailers, cultists, petty thieves, murderers, swindlers, policemen (both stupid and clever), and his arch-nemesis Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes, together with his faithful sidekick Doctor John H. Watson, proves himself to be not only the quintessential detective but also the most engaging and entertaining company any reader could ask for. The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes allows readers to experience the entire case-history of Holmes and Dr. Watson from start to finish - the stories that have spawned such infamous characters as the devilish Moriarty, the devious Irene Adler and, of course, the legendary hound of the Baskervilles . . . This edition includes a foreword written by crime writer Ruth Rendell. Penguin also publishes, in individual volumes, A Study in Scarlet , The Sign of Four , The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes , The Hound of the Baskervilles , The Valley of Fear , His Last Bow and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes . 'The immense talent, passion and literary brilliance that Conan Doyle brought to his work give him a unique place in English letters. Personally, I'd walk a million miles in tight boots just to read his letters to the milkman' Stephen Fry 'Holmes has a timeless intelligence that puts him head, shoulders and deer-stalker above all other detectives' Alexander McCall Smith 'Now, as in his lifetime, cab drivers, statesmen, academics, and raggedy-assed children sit spellbound at his feet. No wonder, then, if the pairing of Holmes and Watson has triggered more imitators than any other duo in literature' John Le Carre Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where he became the clerk to a surgeon whose diagnostic methods provided the model for the science of deduction perfected by Sherlock Holmes. He set up as a doctor and it was while waiting for patients that he began to write. Sherlock Holmes first appeared in A Study in Scarlet (1887). The Holmes stories soon attracted such a following that Conan Doyle felt the character overshadowed his other work. In The Final Problem (1893) Conan Doyle killed him off, but was obliged by public demand to restore the detective to life.
In 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism the award-winning Ha-Joon Chang dispels the myths and prejudices that have come to dominate our understanding of how the world works. He succeeds in both setting the historical record straight ('the washing machine has changed the world more than the internet'; 'the US does not have the highest living standard in the world'; 'people in poor countries are more entrepreneurial than people in rich countries') and persuading us of the consequences of his analysis ('making rich people richer doesn't make the rest of us richer'; 'companies should not be run in the interest of their owners'; 'financial markets need to become less, not more, efficient').
As Chang shows above all else, all economic choices are political ones, and it is time we started to be honest about them.
A young orphan boy grows up in Naples, playing football, roaming the city's streets and hidden places. The older boy call him "monkey" because he can climb anywhere. He is alone, apart from Don Gaetano, the apartment caretaker, who feeds him, teaches him to play "scopa", and tells him stories about women, history and the dark secrets of Naples' past. Then one day the boy sees a young girl standing at a window. It is an encounter that will haunt his life for years and, eventually, shape his destiny.
Told with the sumplicity of a fairy tale and the intensity of a memory, The Day Before Happiness is the story of, friendship, a city and what makes us who we are.
John le Carré's latest novel, Our Kind of Traitor, is set in contemporary, recession gripped Britain. A left-leaning young Oxford academic and his barrister girlfriend take an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By seeming chance they bump into a Russian millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch. He also has a tattoo on his right thumb, and wants a game of tennis.
What else he wants propels the young lovers on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps, to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain's Intelligence Establishment.
Decoded tells the story of Rong Jinzhwen, one of the great code-breakers in the world.
A semi-autistic mathematical genius, Jinzhen is recruited to the cryptography department of China's secret services, Unit 701, where he is assigned the task of breaking the elusive 'Code Purple'. Jinzhen rises through the ranks to eventually become China's greatest and most celebrated code-breaker; until he makes a mistake. Then begins his descent through the unfathomable darkness of the world of cryptology into madness.
Decoded was an immediate success when it was published in 2002 in China and has become an international bestseller. With the pacing of a literary crime thriller, Mai Jia's masterpiece also combines elements of historical fiction and state espionage. Taking place in the shadowy world of Chinese secret security, where Mai Jia worked for decades, it introduces us to a place that is unfamiliar, intriguing and authentic. And with Rong Jinzhen, it introduces us to a character who is deeply flawed and fragile, yet possessing exceptional intelligence. Decoded is an unforgettable and gripping story of genius, brilliance, insanity and human frailty.
Mai Jia (the pseudonym of Jiang Benhu) is arguably the most successful writer in China today. His books are constant bestsellers, with total sales over three million copies. He became the highest paid author in China last year with his new book, Wind Talk. He has achieved unprecedented success with film adaptation: all of his novels are made - or are being made - into major films or TV series, the screenplays of which are often written by Mai Jia himself. He is hailed as the forerunner of Chinese espionage fiction, and has created a unique genre that combines spycraft, code-breaking, crime, human drama, historical fiction, and metafiction. He has won almost every major award in China, including the highest literary honor - the Mao Dun Award.
Former rock singer Hollis Henry has lost a lot of money in the crash, which means she can't turn down the offer of a job from Hubertus Bigend, sinister Belgian proprietor of mysterious ad agency Blue Ant. Milgrim is working for Bigend too. Bigend admires the ex-addict's linguistic skills and street knowledge so much that he's even paid for his costly rehab. So together Hollis and Milgrim are at the front line of Bigend's attempts to get a slice of the military budget, and they gradually realize he has some very dangerous competitors. Which is not a great thought when you don't much trust your boss either.
Gibson's new novel, set largely in London, spookily captures the paranoia and fear of our post-Crash times.
