| Search | About | Preferences | Interact | Help | |
| 150 million books. 1 search engine. | ||

› Find signed collectible books: 'Adrian Mole, the Lost Years'
More editions of Adrian Mole, the Lost Years:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village'
This colourful, perceptive portrayal of English country life reverberates with the voices of the village inhabitants, from the reminiscences of survivors of the Great War evoking days gone by, to the concerns of a younger generation of farm-workers and the fascinating and personal recollections of, among others, the local schoolteacher, doctor, blacksmith, saddler, district nurse and magistrate. Providing insights into farming, education, welfare, class, religion and death, Akenfield forms a unique document of a way of life that has, in many ways, disappeared. [via]
More editions of Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Anglo-saxon Attitudes'
More editions of Anglo-saxon Attitudes:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Battle of Cowpens: A Documented Narrative and Troop Movement Maps'
More editions of Battle of Cowpens: A Documented Narrative and Troop Movement Maps:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Beric the Briton'
More editions of Beric the Briton:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Black Robe'
More editions of The Black Robe:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Bloodhounds'
Peter Lovesey tosses off a real brain-banger in Bloodhounds, the fourth book in a challenging series. . . . I am mad for these pyrotechnic teasers, and this one had my head spinning.Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
A perfect blend of psychology and technique.Boston Review
In a witty takeoff on the always titillating locked room mystery, Loveseys wise but beleaguered hero Peter Diamond confronts a homicide case as perplexing as any hes faced.Booklist
Lovesey gives us his laconic Bath policeman Peter Diamond in full dazzle. . . . With this especially effective conclusion, Lovesey demonstrates that his embrace of crime fiction reaches from John Dickson Carr to Andrew Vachss as he skillfully pays homage to the old style whodunit in this thoroughly modern mystery.Publishers Weekly
Lovesey, always something of a Golden Age writer out of his time, provides some ingenius variations on the old locked room mystery formula, while gleefully lecturing the reader on genre lore.Kirkus Reviews
A rare stamp and a corpse are discovered in Bath within hours of each other. As he investigates, Inspector Peter Diamond discovers that both the person who found the stamp and the victim belong to the Bloodhounds, an elite group of mystery lovers, who now urge Diamond to bring the murderer to justice. But theres a hitch: the body lies inside a padlocked houseboat and the only key is in the pocket of a man with an airtight alibi.
Peter Lovesey is the author of 24 highly praised mysteries and has been awarded the CWA Gold and Silver Dagger, as well as the Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement. He has also been the recipient of an Anthony Award and numerous other US honors. He lives in West Sussex, England. [via]
More editions of Bloodhounds:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Bomber War'
More editions of The Bomber War:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Bomber War: Arthur Harris and the Allied Bomber Offensive, 1939-1945'
More editions of The Bomber War: Arthur Harris and the Allied Bomber Offensive, 1939-1945:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Can You Keep a Secret?'
Meet Emma Corrigan, a young woman with a huge heart, an irrepressible spirit, and a few little secrets: Secrets from her boyfriend: Ive always thought Connor looks a bit like Ken. As in Barbie and Ken. Secrets from her mother: I lost my virginity in the spare bedroom with Danny Nussbaum while Mum and Dad were downstairs watching Ben-Hur. Secrets she wouldnt share with anyone in the world: I have no idea what NATO stands for. Or even what it is. Until she spills them all to a handsome stranger on a plane. At least, she thought he was a stranger.&Until Emma comes face-to-face with Jack Harper, the companys elusive CEO, a man who knows every single humiliating detail about her... [via]
More editions of Can You Keep a Secret?:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Canterbury Tales'
Visually engages readers by placing the original dialogue on the left-hand side of the page, and a modern prose interpretations on the right.
Includes the following selection:
"The General Prologue
"The Wife of Bath's Tale
"The Wife of Bath's Prologue
"The Knight's Tale
"The Pardoner's Tale
"The Nun's Priest's Tale [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne'
More editions of The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne:
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Coffin for King Charles: The Trial and Execution of King Charles I'
A classic history, by ³the best narrative historian writing in the English language.² Lawrence Stone, THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS [via]
More editions of A Coffin for King Charles: The Trial and Execution of King Charles I:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Confessions of a Pagan Nun'
This moving and subtle tale both embodies and confirms the enduring power of language. Gwynneve (Gwi-NEEV) is raised in a village of fishermen and pigkeepers at the height of Ireland's transition from Paganism to Christianity. All around her the new doctrines of Patrick and the "tonsured men" are inexorably driving out the old Druid ways. When Gwynneve loses the two figures she loved the mosther mother succumbing to disease, her outspoken Druid teacher abducted by his enemiesshe leaves her village and finally takes refuge in the convent of Saint Brigit. Of her past life and loves she retains only intangibles: her mother's love of nature and independent mind, her teacher's gift of literacy and addiction to truth. Clinging to the one constant and comforting force in her lifethe power of words, and their offer of immortality to those who set them downshe records her memories surreptitiously, interrupting her assigned tasks of transcribing Patrick and Augustine. But disturbing events from the present keep intervening. Finally, her headstrong ways and growing criticism of the monastery's new abbot lead to the accusation that she consorts with demons. The story's tragic conclusion confirms both Gwynneve's fears and her powers: centuries after she and her tormentors sink back into the Irish earth, her words remain to haunt and inspire us. [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'
More editions of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Conundrum'
The great travel writer Jan Morris was born James Morris. James Morris distinguished himself in the British military, became a successful and physically daring reporter, climbed mountains, crossed deserts, and established a reputation as a historian of the British empire. He was happily married, with several children. To all appearances, he was not only a man, but a mans man.
Except that appearances, as James Morris had known from early childhood, can be deeply misleading. James Morris had known all his conscious life that at heart he was a woman.
Conundrum, one of the earliest books to discuss transsexuality with honesty and without prurience, tells the story of James Morriss hidden life and how he decided to bring it into the open, as he resolved first on a hormone treatment and, second, on risky experimental surgery that would turn him into the woman that he truly was. [via]
More editions of Conundrum:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Diamond Dust'

› Find signed collectible books: 'Diamond Solitaire'
More editions of Diamond Solitaire:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'
More editions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Dracula'
More editions of Dracula:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Dragon and the Raven'
More editions of The Dragon and the Raven:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Dust of Empire: The Race for Mastery in The Asian Hearthland'
More editions of The Dust of Empire: The Race for Mastery in the Asian Heartland:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain's Queen'
More editions of Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain's Queen:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The English: A Portrait of a People'
What is it about the English? Not the British overall, not the Scots, not the Irish or the Welsh, but the English. Why do they seem so unsure of who they are? As Jeremy Paxman remarks in his preface to The English, being English "used to be so easy". Now, with the Empire gone, with Wales and Scotland moving into more independent postures, with the troubling specter of a united Europe (and despite the raucous hype of "Cool Britannia"), the English seem to have entered a collective crisis of national identity.
Jeremy Paxman has set himself the task of finding just what exactly is going on. Why, he wonders, "do the English seem to enjoy feeling so persecuted? What is behind the English obsession with games? How did they acquire their odd attitudes to sex and food? Where did they get their extraordinary capacity for hypocrisy?" He ranges widely in pursuit of answers, sifting through literature, cinema, and history. It is an intriguing investigation, encompassing many aspects of national life and character (such as it is), including the obligatory visit to that baffling phenomenon, the funeral of Princess Diana. Yet Paxman finds something fresh and interesting to say about even that now rather threadbare topic. In the end, he seems to find further questions to ask instead of answers. But why not? To him it is a sign that the English are acquiring a new sense of self. And some indication of this might lie in the obvious response to his remark that the English, being top of the British Imperial tree, had nicknames for their fellow nationalities--Jock, Taffy, Paddy, and Mick--but there was no corresponding name for an Englishman. Of course, there is one now, and it comes from one of the bits of empire to which so many undesirables were exported: Whinging Pom. --Robin Davidson, Amazon.co.uk [via]
More editions of The English: A Portrait of a People:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fox Boy: The Story of an Abducted Child'
More editions of The Fox Boy: The Story of an Abducted Child:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fringes of Power: The Incredible Inside Story of Winston Churchill During World War II'
More editions of The Fringes of Power: The Incredible Inside Story of Winston Churchill During World War II:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Gulliver's Travels'
The voyages of an eighteenth-century Englishman carry him to such strange places as Lilliput, where people are six inches tall, and Brobdingnag, a land peopled by giants. [via]
More editions of Gulliver's Travels:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hamlet'
No Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of Hamlet on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right.
Each No Fear Shakespeare contains
More editions of Hamlet:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hard Times'
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Haunted Hotel'
Is there no explanation of the mystery of The Haunted Hotel? Is The Haunted Hotel the tale of a haunting -- or the tale of a crime? The ghost of Lord Montberry haunts the Palace Hotel in Venice --- or does it? Montberry's beautiful-yet-terrifying wife, the Countess Narona, and her erstwhile brother are the center of the terror that fills the Palace Hotel. Are their malefactions at the root of the haunting -- or is there something darker, something much more unknowable at work? (Jacketless library hardcover.) [via]
More editions of The Haunted Hotel:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Heart of Darkness'
Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness was first published in 1899 in serial form in Londons Blackwoods Magazine.
Loosely based on Conrads firsthand experience of rescuing a company agent from a remote station in the heart of the Congo, the novel is considered a literary bridge between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. With its modern literary approach to questions such as the ambiguous nature of good and evil, the novel foreshadows many of the themes and techniques that define modern literature.
This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary and readers notes to help the modern reader contend with Conrads complex approach to the human condition. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Heretic's Apprentice'
Edgar Award-winner from the Mystery Writers of America and Silver Dagger Award-winer from the British Crime Writers Association, Ellis Peters presents the 16th chronicle of the bestselling medieval mystery series featuring Brother Cadfael. Ellis Peters' books are #1 bestsellers in England, and the Brother Cadfael mysteries have sold over a million copies there. [via]
More editions of Heretic's Apprentice:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The House of Arden'
The famous Arden family treasure has been missing for generations, and the last members of the Arden line, Edred, Elfrida, and their Aunt Edith, have nothing to their names but the crumbling castle they live in. Just before his tenth birthday, Edred inherits the title of Lord Arden; he also learns that the missing fortune will be his ifand only ifhe can find it before the turns ten. With no time to lose, Edred and Elfrida secure the help of a magical talking creature, the temperamental Mouldiwarp, who leads them on a treasure hunt through the ages. Together, brother and sister visit some of the most thrilling periods of history and test their wits against real witches, highwaymen, and renegades. They find plenty of adventure, but will they find the treasure before Edreds birthday? [via]
More editions of The House of Arden:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The House Sitter'
"Peter Lovesey loves strong women, cerebral killers and diabolical puzzlesthe very ingredients that make The House Sitter one of the most cunning mysteries in his Inspector Diamond series."Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
"True wit is the hallmark of the classic British mystery, and Peter Lovesey delivers it, and a lot more in The House Sitter. . . . A literate and delightful mystery."The Baltimore Sun
A woman is found strangled on a beach in Sussex. It takes police 12 days to discover she was a top profiler for the National Crime Faculty. Why was she killed? And why is the NCF thwarting Detective Peter Diamonds efforts to unmask her murderer?
From the Trade Paperback edition. [via]
More editions of The House Sitter:
An adaptation of Shakespeare's classic plays based on the original stories of Charles and Mary Lamb offers prose editions of the Bard's great comedies, tragedies, and history plays, all lavishly illustrated in full color. [via]
More editions of Illustrated Tales from Shakespeare:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Inimitable Jeeves'
The 11 stories prepared in this collection are the original stories which were all first published between 1918 and 1922 in the magazines Strand and Cosmopolitan, now in the public domain. They were then revised and re-published together as 18 stories in 1923 but these are the original magazine versions. The Inimitable Jeeves was the second collection of Jeeves stories, after My Man Jeeves (1919); the next collection would be Carry on, Jeeves in 1925. All of the stories in The Inimitable Jeeves are connected and most of them involve Bertie's friend Bingo Little, who is always falling in love. It's Wodehouse at his best. [via]
More editions of Inimitable Jeeves:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Intrepid's Last Case : The Super Spy Who Helped Take down the Nazis Tackles the KGB'
More editions of Intrepid's Last Case : The Super Spy Who Helped Take down the Nazis Tackles the KGB:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Julius Caesar: Side by Sides'
More editions of Julius Caesar: Side by Sides:
› Find signed collectible books: 'King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table'
A retelling of the adventures and exploits of King Arthur and his knights at the court of Camelot and elsewhere in the land of the Britons. [via]
More editions of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table:
› Find signed collectible books: 'King Lear'
Shakespeare has been called the greatest writer in the English languagebut his language and settings can seem remote and forbidding. Welcome to Black Dogs Graphic Shakespeare Library, where each play comes to life in a new way, panel after illustrated panel.
King Lear is a story of kingship, honor, and bloody revenge. Graphic Shakespeare brings all of the action to vivid life while retaining every word of the original play. King Lear is illustrated in full color by Ian Pollack and includes a synopsis of the play, and an illustrated character list. Its a marvelous way to experience Shakespeare for the first timeor the tenthand is sure to be attractive to students and theatre fans alike. [via]
More editions of King Lear:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Lady of the Forest'
In twelfth-century England, Robin Hood, the nobleman turned outlaw, and Lady Marian of Ravenskeep, a knight's daughter who joins a band of outlaws, share a passionate and heroic love. Reprint. AB. PW. [via]
More editions of Lady of the Forest:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Last Days of the Titanic: Photographs and Mementos of the Tragic Maiden Voyage'
On the cover of The Last Days of the Titanic, Captain Smith peers at a lifeboat far below with a portentously worry-furrowed expression (there's a blow-up of the photo inside). The photo, which captures the man's soul, was taken at the start of the Titanic's trip by Francis Browne, a priest who got a ticket for the first couple days' voyage--before the Atlantic crossing--as a present from his uncle. Browne was no dumb shutterbug; he beat his classmate James Joyce on his honours exams (and Joyce put him in Finnegans Wake as "Mr. Browne, the Jesuit"). Browne studied the great masters in Florence, and his educated eye is evident in his compositions. He published Father Browne's Ireland and many other books, and the head of Kodak Great Britain took one look at Browne's work and gave him free film for life.
This book boasts several photos of unique interest, including the only known clear shot of the part of the ship that remains almost intact today, the forecastle, which hit bottom first. It's also got some human interest: Browne, who died in 1960, almost missed the chance to win the Croix de Guerre for war heroism, save souls, and make art all his life, because of the kindness of an American millionaire couple he met at dinner on the Titanic. They liked Browne so much they offered to pay his way to New York. He wired his Jesuit superior, who wired back, "GET OFF THAT SHIP."
It was, Browne noted, "the only time holy obedience saved a man's life!" And his pictures give a genuine sense of life aboard the doomed boat. --Tim Appelo [via]
More editions of The Last Days of the Titanic: Photographs and Mementos of the Tragic Maiden Voyage:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Last Detective'
More editions of The Last Detective:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Law and the Lady'
More editions of The Law and the Lady:

› Find signed collectible books: 'A Man Called Intrepid: The Secret War'
More editions of A Man Called Intrepid: The Secret War:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Mansfield Park'
More editions of Mansfield Park:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Merchant of Venice'
No Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of The Merchant of Venice on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right.
Each No Fear Shakespeare contains
More editions of The Merchant of Venice:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood'
Recounts the legend of Robin Hood, who plundered the king's purse and poached his deer and whose generosity endeared him to the poor. [via]
More editions of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood:
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
When love and magic collide, the result is Shakespeare's lyrical fantasy of youth, love, and misunderstandings. These brilliantly recolored study guides for high school and college students feature essays on the author, background, theme, characters, and significance of the work. [via]
More editions of A Midsummer Night's Dream:
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Workbook for Students'
Conceived and written by two classically trained American stage actors, these workbooks are a student's gateway to Shakespeare. The side-by-side presentation of the original language and a "translation" into the vernacular allows the student grades 7 and up to quickly understand and appreciate the play.
Includes extensive instruction about Shakespearean English and character analyses, stage directions and other performance information that will make these books indispensable to the teacher and beginning student of Shakespeare for either English or theater curricula. [via]
More editions of A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Workbook for Students:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Moab Is My Washpot: An Autobiography'
More editions of Moab Is My Washpot: An Autobiography:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Moving Finger: A Miss Marple Mystery'
More editions of The Moving Finger: A Miss Marple Mystery:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Much Obliged, Jeeves'
While staying with his Aunt Dahlia to help out in the election at Market Snodsbury, Bertie Wooster comes up against the familiar horrors of Florence Craye, his former fiancee, and Roderick Spode, head of the Black Shorts, in a plot tangle from which, as usual, only the ingenuity of Jeeves can save him. [via]
More editions of Much Obliged, Jeeves:
› Find signed collectible books: 'On the Origin of Species: Appendix Dawrin's Original Manuscript Pages'
A facsimile of the 1859 first edition of Charles Darwin's classic work, On the Origin of Species. [via]
More editions of On the Origin of Species: Appendix Dawrin's Original Manuscript Pages:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The One That Got Away'
More editions of The One That Got Away:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Pattern Dates for British Ordnance Small Arms'
More editions of Pattern Dates for British Ordnance Small Arms:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Puritans'
More editions of The Puritans:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Queen Emma And The Vikings: A History of Power, Love, And Greed In Eleventh-Century England'
More editions of Queen Emma And The Vikings: A History of Power, Love, And Greed In Eleventh-Century England:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Reaper'
A dark, delicious tale of a popular village cleric who has no conscience. [via]
More editions of The Reaper:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Richard III'
Get your "A" in gear!
They're today's most popular study guides-with everything you need to succeed in school. Written by Harvard students for students, since its inception SparkNotes" has developed a loyal community of dedicated users and become a major education brand. Consumer demand has been so strong that the guides have expanded to over 150 titles. SparkNotes'" motto is Smarter, Better, Faster because:
· They feature the most current ideas and themes, written by experts.
· They're easier to understand, because the same people who use them have also written them.
· The clear writing style and edited content enables students to read through the material quickly, saving valuable time.
And with everything covered--context; plot overview; character lists; themes, motifs, and symbols; summary and analysis, key facts; study questions and essay topics; and reviews and resources--you don't have to go anywhere else!
[via]
More editions of Richard III:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Right Ho Jeeves'
On the 25th anniversary of Wodehouse's death, booksellers and readers will be cheered to find the finest editions available of his classic novels--the first in a series of his best known works--by one of the greatest English comic writers of our time.
Fans devoted to the master of comic fiction P. G. Wodehouse are legion. He represents an antic high point in the world of farce and social satire. Best known for the creation of two fictional worlds based on Blandings Castle and the Wooster-Jeeves gentleman-valet duo, Wodehouse is appreciated the world over for his exceedingly clever and comically savvy send-ups of the idle rich in Edwardian England.
In Right Ho, Jeeves Bertie's old friend Gussie Fink-Nottle has fallen in love and, as usual, makes a hash of the affair until Jeeves comes to his rescue.
With each volume edited and reset and printed on Scottish cream-wove, acid-free paper, sewn and bound in cloth, these novels are elegant additions to any Wodehouse fan's library. [via]
More editions of Right Ho Jeeves:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Scott's Last Expedition: A Record of the Only Equestrian Journey Across Antarctica'
A world of words has been written about this book, and none of them got it completely right! For while this is certainly the true story of how Captain Scott and his team of British explorers died trying to reach the South Pole, it is also the hitherto overlooked story of amazing equine courage in the face of certain death. When Captain Perry of America reached the North Pole in 1909, all eyes, especially English eyes, turned to the South Pole. The British Empire was at its zenith and national expectations were high that an Englishman should be the one to claim the other ice-bound crown. Captain Robert Scott was elected to carry British honor to that forbidden spot known as the South Pole. Yet not only did Scott enlist men, in an unlikely move, he also recruited nineteen Yakut ponies raised by Siberian tribesmen in Russias frozen forests. These little equine heroes had no idea where they were heading when Scotts brother-in-law loaded them on a ship and sailed them away from Russia to the far off shores of Antarctica. What followed is an under-reported and over-looked example of supreme equestrian sacrifice. First the ponies survived howling gales on the sea. Upon arrival, they donned special snow shoes and pulled their guts out to get Scotts sleds through. Some of them were lost on a break-away ice berg and eaten by killer whales. The others starved. They suffered. In short, these 19 little heroes gave their all, and all for naught, for as we know Scott and his men died as well in their attempt to claim the Southern Crown. Thus Scotts Last Expedition is not only a story of men. It is but another example of that link between mankind and equine-kind that has stretched back 30,000 years. It is a remarkable and heart-moving story of men and horses who paid the ultimate sacrifice. [via]
More editions of Scott's Last Expedition: A Record of the Only Equestrian Journey Across Antarctica:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Send in the Idiots: Stories From The Other Side of Autism'
More editions of Send in the Idiots: Stories From The Other Side of Autism:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books'
More editions of Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Sonnets'
Together with A Lover's Complaint' and little-known alternative versions of four of the sonnets. Edited with an introduction by Stanley Wells. ...the most beautifully printed text available.' The Times . [via]
More editions of The Sonnets:
› Find signed collectible books: 'South: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-17'
More editions of South: The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-17:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Sparknotes a Midsummer Night's Dream'
Get your "A" in gear!
They're today's most popular study guides-with everything you need to succeed in school. Written by Harvard students for students, since its inception SparkNotes" has developed a loyal community of dedicated users and become a major education brand. Consumer demand has been so strong that the guides have expanded to over 150 titles. SparkNotes'" motto is Smarter, Better, Faster because:
· They feature the most current ideas and themes, written by experts.
· They're easier to understand, because the same people who use them have also written them.
· The clear writing style and edited content enables students to read through the material quickly, saving valuable time.
And with everything covered--context; plot overview; character lists; themes, motifs, and symbols; summary and analysis, key facts; study questions and essay topics; and reviews and resources--you don't have to go anywhere else!
[via]
More editions of Sparknotes a Midsummer Night's Dream:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'
The young Robert Louis Stevenson suffered from repeated nightmares of living a double life, in which by day he worked as a respectable doctor and by night he roamed the back alleys of old-town Edinburgh. In three days of furious writing, he produced a story about his dream existence. His wife found it too gruesome, so he promptly burned the manuscript. In another three days, he wrote it again. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published as a "shilling shocker" in 1886, and became an instant classic. In the first six months, 40,000 copies were sold. Queen Victoria read it. Sermons and editorials were written about it. When Stevenson and his family visited America a year later, they were mobbed by reporters at the dock in New York City. Compulsively readable from its opening pages, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is still one of the best tales ever written about the divided self.
This University of Nebraska Press edition is a small, exquisitely produced paperback. The book design, based on the original first edition of 1886, includes wide margins, decorative capitals on the title page and first page of each chapter, and a clean, readable font that is 19th-century in style. Joyce Carol Oates contributes a foreword in which she calls Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a "mythopoetic figure" like Frankenstein, Dracula, and Alice in Wonderland, and compares Stevenson's creation to doubled selves in the works of Plato, Poe, Wilde, and Dickens.
This edition also features 12 full-page wood engravings by renowned illustrator Barry Moser. Moser is a skillful reader and interpreter as well as artist, and his afterword to the book, in which he explains the process by which he chose a self-portrait motif for the suite of engravings, is fascinating. For the image of Edward Hyde, he writes, "I went so far as to have my dentist fit me out with a carefully sculpted prosthetic of evil-looking teeth. But in the final moments I had to abandon the idea as being inappropriate. It was more important to stay in keeping with the text and, like Stevenson, not show Hyde's face." (Also recommended: the edition of Frankenstein illustrated by Barry Moser) --Fiona Webster [via]
More editions of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'
A kind and well-respected doctor is transformed into a murderous madman by taking a secret drug of his own creation. [via]
More editions of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Summons'
"Good stuff . . . Breezy, British, and as comfy as a Cotswold cottage."The New York Times Book Review
"Written with energy and style, a masterly performance."Rocky Mountain News
John Mountjoy has escaped from prison and taken a hostage, and the only person hell talk to is Detective Peter Diamond, who arrested him four years earlier for the murder of a young journalist. Diamond must follow a cold trail to find another killer and clear Mountjoys name before someone else dies.
Peter Lovesey is the author of 23 highly-praised mysteries and has been awarded the CWAs Gold, Silver, and Diamond Daggers, as well as many U.S. honors. He lives in West Sussex, England. [via]
More editions of The Summons:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Titus Groan'
Mervyn Peake's gothic masterpiece, the Gormenghast trilogy, begins with the superlative Titus Groan, a darkly humorous, stunningly complex tale of the first two years in the life of the heir to an ancient, rambling castle. The Gormenghast royal family, the castle's decidedly eccentric staff, and the peasant artisans living around the dreary, crumbling structure make up the cast of characters in this engrossing story. Peake's command of language and unique style set the tone and shape of an intricate, slow-moving world of ritual and stasis:
The walls of the vast room which were streaming with calid moisture, were built with gray slabs of stone and were the personal concern of a company of eighteen men known as the 'Grey Scrubbers'.... On every day of the year from three hours before daybreak until about eleven o'clock, when the scaffolding and ladders became a hindrance to the cooks, the Grey Scrubbers fulfilled their hereditary calling.Peake has been compared to Dickens, Tolkien, and Peacock, but Titus Groan is truly unique. Unforgettable characters with names like Steerpike and Prunesquallor make their way through an architecturally stifling world, with lots of dark corners around to dampen any whimsy that might arise. This true classic is a feast of words unlike anything else in the world of fantasy. Those who explore Gormenghast castle will be richly rewarded. --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of Titus Groan:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia'
Throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th, the Russian and British Empires played out a chess game of diplomacy, espionage, and military thrusts into Central Asia to protect their expanding interests. When play began, the frontiers of their empires lay 2,000 miles apart, across vast deserts and almost impassable mountain ranges; by the end, they were separated by only 20 miles. Karl E. Meyer of The New York Times and Shareen Blair Brysac, documentary filmmaker for CBS, update and significantly expand earlier studies of the imperial rivalry, notably Peter Hopkirk's pioneering The Great Game. Tournament of Shadows reads like a racy adventure story, yet there is no need for the authors to embellish their well-researched facts. The region attracted a host of bizarre characters, each with his own idiosyncratic goals. The authors begin with the journey to Bokhara of an ambitious horse doctor, hired by the East India Company in 1806 to improve its breeding stock, and end with the CIA's assistance to anti-Chinese guerrillas in Tibet during the cold war. American participants in the opening of Central Asia have not previously received much attention, but Tournament of Shadows introduces adventurers such as William Rockhill, commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution in the 1880s to explore Tibet, and William McGovern, who, to the chagrin of the British, reached Lhasa in 1923. The wealth and instability of Central Asia continue to keep the region in the headlines, motivating the Soviet Union's disastrous 10-year intervention in Afghanistan and fueling an international race for resources--especially oil--today. --John Stevenson [via]
More editions of Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Tragedy of Julius Caesar'
One of Shakespeare's most political plays, Julius Caesar continued Shakespeare's interest in Roman history, first developed in Titus Andronicus. Drawing on Plutarch, the great historian of Rome, Shakespeare dramatises one of the most crucial moments in Roman history--the assassination of Julius Caesar. Loved by the Roman crowd but increasingly feared by the Senators, Caesar increasingly shows signs of his desire to abolish the Republic and crown himself emperor. A conspiracy is hatched, led by Cassius and Brutus, who murder Caesar on the steps of the Capitol. Mourning over his dead friend's body, Mark Antony gives one of the famous rhetorical speeches in literature, asking "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" to lament Caesar's death, privately vowing to "let slip the dogs of war" against those who have shed Caesar's blood. Antony joins forces with Caesar's son Octavius to defeat Cassius and Brutus in battle, and establish an uneasy alliance whose collapse is dramatised in Shakespeare's later play Antony and Cleopatra. Written at the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, Julius Caesar has been seen by many as a radically pro-Republican play which sailed close to the political wind of the time. --Jerry Brotton [via]
More editions of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar:

› Find signed collectible books: 'True Brits: A Tour of the 21st Century in All It's Bog-Snorkeling, Gurning, and Cheese-Rolling Glory'
More editions of True Brits: A Tour of the 21st Century in All It's Bog-Snorkeling, Gurning, and Cheese-Rolling Glory:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Upon A Dark Night'
The threads of Peter Loveseys new Peter Diamond mystery, Upon a Dark Night, twist up so neatly they make a perfect hangmans nooseanother triumph of plotting from this master of the classic puzzle form.Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
Lovesey is . . . master of the traditional crime novel. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
The characters are complex and well-drawn, the plot intricate but credible, the story well-told and the puzzles neatly tied up by the end.Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
An extraordinary combination of classic puzzle with a contemporary police procedural; an immensely satisfying work by one of Britains foremost mystery novelists.Houston Chronicle
Loveseys latest Peter Diamond novel offers everything a fan of classic detective fiction could want.Booklist
A young woman is dumped, injured and unconscious, in a private hospitals parking lot. She is an amnesiac with no memory prior to her discovery by hospital personnel. Detective Inspector Peter Diamond of the Bath homicide squad is unwilling to become involved. He has other, more important cases to solve: A woman has plunged to her death from the roof of a local landmark while half the young people of Bath partied below, and an elderly farmer has shot himself. Are these apparent suicides really so, or are there sinister forces at work? And then he finds a connection to the amnesiac woman named, temporarily, Rose.
Peter Lovesey is the author of 24 highly praised mysteries and has been awarded The Crime Writers Associations Gold, Silver and Diamond Daggers, as well as many US honors. He lives in West Sussex, England. [via]
More editions of Upon A Dark Night:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Vault'
Curmudgeonly Chief Superintendent Peter Diamond (The Last Detective, Bloodhounds, The Summons) is once again suffering fools (to which category he currently consigns Americans, antiques enthusiasts, and his immediate superiors) none too gladly. When a skeletal hand is found in the cellar of the abbey churchyard in Bath, Diamond is inclined to write the apparent crime off as the dusty wages of a long-forgotten sin. But then a skull turns up. And then Joe Dougan, mild-mannered American professor and avid literary tourist, unearths the startling fact that in the early 19th century that cellar belonged to the home Mary Shelley lived in as she was writing Frankenstein. Glorious fodder for the sensationally minded press and a monstrous headache for Diamond, who would prefer to cogitate upon the mystery in peace and quiet.
But it seems that the literary connection is as crucial as it is sensational. When Dougan's wife disappears and Peg Redbird, proprietress of the Noble and Nude antiques store, turns up dead after a heated conversation with the professor (in hot pursuit of Shelley's writing desk and sketchbook), Diamond has to wonder whether a thirst for knowledge also implies a thirst for blood. As Diamond immerses himself in Bath's cultural history, however, more and more suspects pop up, linking the long-dead bones in the cellar to Peg's very recent corpse. Author Peter Lovesey, with a nod and wink toward the conventions of traditional British mystery fiction, paints his characters with broad strokes: like the characters in a game of Clue, the suspects are easily labeled. Is it the spoiled heir who dunnit? What about the up-and-coming reporter? Or the cryptic puppeteer? Or (and this is really giving Diamond ulcers) the suave city councilor, who happens to be good friends with Diamond's boss? Lovesey tiptoes agilely just this side of caricature--and has a great deal of fun doing so.
Diamond himself is an enjoyable enough character, though his grouchiness seems to be missing some of the verve it had in earlier books. One might take issue with the novel's sense of pacing (at times funereal), and with Lovesey's narrative gimmick of switching occasionally to the murderer's perspective (too Gothic a trick for a relatively unexciting plot). These complaints, however, don't detract from an otherwise solid entry in the Superintendent Diamond series. --Kelly Flynn [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Warriors of Alavna'

› Find signed collectible books: 'What Not to Wear'
More editions of What Not to Wear:
› Find signed collectible books: 'El Origen De Las Especies/the Origin Of Species'
Las teorías y pruebas que Darwin expuso en 'El origen de las especies' son definitivas en la comprensión de la naturaleza y en el sustento de los estudios biológicos. Desde su publicación, los conceptos de evolución, adaptación y selección natural se han incorporado a todos los estudios científicos. La resonancia de la obra de Darwin ha impregnado todos los campos del saber, incluidos los de filosofía y religión. [via]
More editions of El Origen De Las Especies/the Origin Of Species:
