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COLONEL CHABERT
₨ 1,182Balzac’s radiant story recounts the history of Colonel Chabert, a disenfranchised hero of the Napoleonic wars. Left for dead on the battlefield of Eylau, Chabert has spent years as an amnesiac in an asylum. The novel begins with his return to the life he left behind: only to discover that in his absence, his entire life – family, society, identity – has changed. With Napoleon deposed, France’s aristocracy has returned to power ‘as if the Revolution never occurred’. With Chabert supposedly dead, his wife is now married to a Count. Sickened by his wife’s pretence not to recognise him, and the titled society which spurns his former meritorious deeds, Chabert vows to recover his money, his reputation and his name.
ISBN: 1843910373
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: HONORE DE BALZAC -
Daughters of The Vicar
₨ 1,182Rather than confront the hostility his new parishioners show him, the Reverend Ernest Lindley becomes ever more isolated along with his family. It seems inevitable that his daughters should enter suitable loveless marriages but the youngest is the one who will divide his already broken family.
ISBN: 1843910837
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: D. H. LAWRENCE -
THE DIALOGUE OF THE DOGS
₨ 1,182The Dialogue of the Dogs is an inspired work of psychological observation by the master of the picaresque novel. In it, Cervantes displays all the clarity and warmth that marks the rich prose of Don Quixote. Given the gift of speech for a day, two dogs set about satirising humans, their supposed superiors. In an exchange reminiscent of the ancient Greek Dialogues, they recount their experiences under their various masters – but whether butcher, constable, merchant or gypsy, each is decried as corrupt to the core. Through the scathing Berganza and the critical Scipio, Cervantes delivers an ingenious critique of the morality of sixteenth-century Spain, and a timeless and telling portrayal of the heart of man.
ISBN: 1843910659
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: BEN OKRI -
CARMEN
₨ 1,182When Jose meets a gypsy woman, he is intrigued by her exoticism, but he has no idea that his chance encounter with ‘the pretty witch’ will have disastrous consequences. With her magic and her malevolent spirit, Carmen exerts a powerful charm on the submissive and unwitting Jose, who is drawn into a seedy underworld of bandits and smugglers until he is driven to the ultimate revenge. In Carmen, Merimee introduced a classic literary type: the femme fatale who exploits her sexuality and mysterious air to ensnare and ultimately destroy the weak and unsuspecting man who is unfortunate enough to cross her path.
ISBN: 1843910969
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: PROSPER MERIMEE -
JONATHAN WILD THE GREAT
₨ 1,182A hilarious black comedy of manners and morals, based on the career and crimes of a real-life eighteenth-century gangland criminal, Jonathan Wild the Great is one of the finest satires in the English language.
Jonathan Wild is truly ‘great’: spurning the callow and spiritless ways of ‘lower’ men, he treads his own path to fame and glory – by way of theft, fraud and betrayal. Against a backdrop of such colourful characters as Miss Molly Straddle, the cardsharp Count La Ruse, and the ‘base’ and ‘weak’ Mr Thomas Heartfree, Wild’s passage from cradle to gallows is told with a humour that belies the subtlety of the novel’s ironic themes, and the vigour and sparkle characteristic of Fielding’s best works.
ISBN: 1843910896
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: HENRY FIELDING -
SIMONETTA PERKINS
₨ 1,182Considered by Hartley to be his finest work, ‘Simonetta Perkins’ is a brilliantly observed tale of desire and guilt. Set against a glorious Venetian backdrop, it explores the very nature of physical temptation, to create a complex, psychological work, deeply reminiscent of Henry James.
ISBN: 1843910918
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: L. P. HARTLEY -
JOHN THE VALIANT
₨ 1,182Arguably the greatest and most popular poem in the Hungarian language, Petofi’s spirited folk epic, recounting the adventures of Johnny Grain-o’-corn, a young and ‘valiant’ shepherd boy, is an engaging and highly readable story with all the charm and romance of an immortal fairy tale. After a reluctant goodbye to the beautiful Nelly, Johnny embarks on a series of incredible adventures that take him through forests, lands and seas, and in the company of bandits, giants and wicked witches. As he reunites a French princess with her father, he must choose whether to accept the king’s gracious offer to ascend to the throne of France, or to return to his beloved Nelly.
ISBN: 1843910845
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: SANDOR PETOFI -
THE RAPE OF THE LOCK AND A KEY TO THE LOCK
₨ 1,182An ingenious satire of the battle of the sexes and the follies of a self-centred young lady, The Rape of the Lock, together with its mock-interpretation A Key to the Lock, is, in fact, a subtle commentary on the contemporary social world and high-society preoccupations, and a cleverly veiled proposal for reform. When Belinda awakes from a strange dream and sets about her favourite occupation, the toilette, little does she suspect that a tragedy of Homeric proportions is about to unfold around her. As she walks through the beau monde, admired as a goddess and protected by an entire host of sylphs, she is unaware that evil powers are at work to rob her of a precious lock of hair. Belinda must command all her female guile to protect this lock for, once surrendered, her life will never be the same again.
ISBN: 1843910926
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: ALEXANDER POPE -
THE THREE-CORNERED HAT
₨ 1,182One of the best-loved Spanish novels of all time, The Three-Cornered Hat is a hilarious tale of lust, intrigue and corrupt authorities set in eighteenth-century Andalusia. When the hideous and lascivious corregidor Don Eugenio takes a fancy to the formidable – and formidably desirable – Senora Frasquita, the wife of a local miller, the couple set about foiling his plans for a seduction. There ensues a fast-paced comedy of moonlight flits, clothes swapping, mistaken identity, and slapstick accidents as the characters struggle in vain to maintain both dignity and marital harmony. Calm is eventually restored in a scene of unmasking and mutual forgiveness of truly operatic proportions.
ISBN: 1843910802
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: Pedro Antonio de Alarcón -
THE LOVER’S WATCH
₨ 1,182A charming and witty volume of instruction for the aspiring lover, detailing hour by hour the correct way to spend a day apart. Iris is well aware of the hours of reflection and sighing due to her as a beautiful and sought-after woman, as well as the dangers and temptations that await a man whose lover is absent. Thus the hour between eight and nine, before Damon is enjoined to rise, may be spent in ‘Agreeable Reverie’, of which the principle subject is, of course, Iris, whilst five o’clock is the hour of ‘Dangerous Visits’ when Damon will be a prey to the wiles and machinations of his female acquaintances. Interspersed with beautiful – and instructive – verses, The Lover’s Watch is a sharp-witted and ironic observation of the universal manners of love, and an indispensable manual for all eager suitors.
ISBN: 1843910748
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle: OR THE ART OF MAKING LOVE
Author: APHRA BEHN -
THE DUEL
₨ 381One of the few works written in Casanova’s native Italian, The Duel is an important example of the infamous Lothario’s vivid prose and inimitable style. Having escaped from the infamous Piombi Prison in Venice, Casanova became an exile, travelling through Western Europe and being given shelter on account of his fame. The story recounts the duel he fought with a Polish nobleman, Count Branicky, who had insulted Casanova over a ballerina. Describing the deadly encounter and the surprising events it precipitated with sardonic and even blase wit, Casanova proves his literary prowess.
ISBN: 1843910322
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: GIACOMO CASANOVA -
LOIS THE WITCH
₨ 381Recently orphaned, Lois is forced to leave the English parsonage that had been her home, and sail to America. A Godfearing and honest girl, she has little to fear in this new life. Yet as she joins her distant family, she finds jealousy and dissention are rife, and her cousins quick to point the finger at the ‘impostor’. With the whole of Salem gripped by a fear of the supernatural, it seems her home is where she is in most danger. Lonely and afraid, the words of an old curse return to haunt her.
ISBN: 1843910497
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: ELIZABETH GASKELL -
THE FATAL EGGS
₨ 910An inspired work of science fiction and a biting political allegory, Bulgakov’s The Fatal Eggs tells of a brilliant scientist whose experiments with life spiral terribly – and fatefully – out of control. Quite by chance, Professor Persikov discovers a new form of light ray whose effect, when directed at living cells, is to accelerate growth in primitive organisms. But when this ray is shone on the wrong batch of eggs, the Professor finds himself both the unwilling creator of giant hybrids, and the focus of a merciless press campaign. For it seems the propaganda machine has turned its gaze on him, distorting his nature in the very way his ‘innocent’ tampering created the monster snakes and crocodiles that now terrorise the neighbourhood.
ISBN: 1843910632
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: MIKHAIL BULGAKOV₨ 2,157 -
DIRECTIONS TO SERVANTS
₨ 1,182Taking the form of a handbook of manners, and addressed to each servant individually, Directions to Servants is the ultimate upstairs/downstairs battle. With scathing wit, Swift pits master against servant in an endless struggle for order, frugality and the best bits of the roast. His servants are lazy, profligate, and acquisitive: always on the lookout for a shilling to be made on the sale of leftovers, or a half-bottle of wine to share with the cook. Written in Swift’s final years of sanity, Directions to Servants is a last hilarious outpouring of cynicism at a lifetime’s accumulation of poor service.
ISBN: 1843910624
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: JONATHAN SWIFT -
THE GREEN DWARF
₨ 1,182A witty and engrossing early work, The Green Dwarf displays the precocious intelligence, lively imagination and flair for storytelling which Charlotte Brontë brought to perfection in her later fiction. Lady Emily Charlesworth is in love with Leslie, a struggling artist. Lord Percy – a fierce, arrogant aristocrat – will do anything to lay his hands on Leslie’s chosen bride. As war breaks out between Verdopolis, Brontë’s imaginary political state, and Senegal, the lovers do battle for control of beautiful Emily’s heart. With its exotic mélange of political intrigue, amorous subterfuge and Gothic scenery, The Green Dwarf demonstrates the dynamic and experimental nature of Charlotte Brontë’s ‘long apprenticeship in writing’.
ISBN: 1843910489
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: CHARLOTTE BRONTE -
INCOGNITA
₨ 381This is the only available edition of a brilliant novel by the leading Restoration dramatist and author of The Way of the World. Masked balls, mistaken identity, and fanciful deceits run riot in this hilarious tale of love and intrigue by the master of the Restoration comedy. Returning to Florence on the occasion of his eighteenth birthday, Aurelian – together with his sworn companion Hippolito – dons his disguise in anticipation of the famous Florentine ball. Once there, the two are soon separated, and each finds himself paired off with a beautiful – and masked – woman. Whilst Aurelian yearns to learn the true identity of his ‘love’, Hippolito is mistaken for another and brazenly plays along with the conceit. Chaos abounds as masks are dropped, truth revealed, and, somehow, all ends happily.
ISBN: 1843910691
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: WILLIAM CONGREVE -
RAPPACCINI’S DAUGHTER
₨ 1,182Taking up his place at the University of Padua, the youthful Giovanni Guasconti is enchanted to discover a nearby garden of the most exquisite beauty. In it abides a young woman, perhaps the most beautiful Giovanni has ever seen. Yet as he looks out from an upstairs window, he soon learns that, far from stemming from the gentle hand of Mother Nature, the garden – and the matchless Beatrice – are in fact the result of a monstrous abomination of creativity.
ISBN: 1843910357
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE -
IN A GERMAN PENSION
₨ 1,182Katherine Mansfield’s In a German Pension is a remarkable collection of short stories, displaying all Mansfield’s skill in the genre.
Written shortly after Mansfield visited Germany as a young woman, these short stories form a series of satirical sketches of German characters. From a young wife’s preoccupation with her husband’s stomach, to a society lady’s inability to see beyond the latest fashion, Mansfield depicts everyday events and the minute changes of human behaviour in the most exquisite detail. In a German Pension reveals her as a true disciple of Chekhov.
ISBN: 1843910411
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: KATHERINE MANSFIELD -
THE LAKE OF THE BEES
₨ 1,182Described by Storm himself as a ‘pearl of German poetry’, The Lake of the Bees is one of his earliest novellas. In it, he explores the bitter-sweet sorrow of memory. An old man looks back on his life and remembers Elizabeth – the only woman he ever loved. The two of them had shared their childhood, shared their summer holidays, hunts for strawberries in the forest, family picnics. Yet somehow all had been lost, and the joy, excitement and hope slowly replaced by the melancholy resignation and inertia that comes from broken dreams. Now at the end of his life, all he is left with is the knowledge of what might have been.
ISBN: 1843910446
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: THEODOR STORM -
AMOS BARTON
₨ 1,182This volume is a single-volume edition of George Eliot’s fictional debut.
ISBN: 1843910519
Publisher: HESPERUS
Subtitle:
Author: GEORGE ELIOT
