Wilfred Owen was twenty-two when he enlisted in the Artists' Rifle Corps during World War I. By the time Owen was killed at the age of 25 at the Battle of Sambre, he had written what are considered the most important British poems of WWI.
This definitive edition is based on manuscripts of Owen's papers in the British Museum and other archives.
In 1926, the world was introduced to a portly little bear named Winnie-the-Pooh. Along with his young friend, Christopher Robin, Pooh delighted readers from the very beginning. His often befuddled perceptions and adorable insights won the hearts of everyone around him, including his close group of friends.
From the energetic Tigger to the dismal Eeyore, A. A. Milne created a charming bunch, both entertaining and inspirational. These simple creatures often reflected a small piece of all of us: humble, silly, wise, cautious, creative, and full of life. Remember when Piglet did a very grand thing, or Eeyore's almost-forgotten birthday?
Gorgeous watercolor illustrations from Ernest H. Shepard appear in all their glory. With beautiful colors and simple lines, these images hold their own as classics. The tales, filled with superb story lines and lessons, will continue to capture the hearts of new generations.
The Professor was the first novel by Charlotte Brontë. It was originally written before Jane Eyre and rejected by many publishing houses, but was eventually published posthumously in 1857.
The book is the story of a young man, William Crimsworth. It describes his maturation, his loves, and his eventual career as a professor at an all-girls' school. The story is based upon Charlotte Brontë's experiences in Brussels, where she studied as a language student in 1842.
An Inspector Calls unfolds in an English industrial city, where a young girl has tragically committed suicide. A respectable British family finds themselves under scrutiny as an inspector arrives to interrogate them about their connections to the deceased.
As the questioning progresses, each family member is revealed to have played a role, whether lightly or deeply, in the girl's demise. Initially portrayed as a closely-knit and amiable group, the family's true nature is exposed, revealing selfishness, cowardice, and self-centeredness. Their good humor and camaraderie deteriorate into acidic disdain and dislike as the evening unfolds.
The play takes a surprising turn with a revelation about the inspector, making it a gripping narrative that delves deep into themes of morality and social responsibility.
Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine” (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history's keenest observers of human nature and civilization.
Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New World also speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.
“Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English.” —Chicago Tribune
Un mundo feliz es un clásico de la literatura del siglo XX, una sombrĂa metáfora sobre el futuro. La novela describe un mundo en el que finalmente se han cumplido los peores vaticinios: triunfan los dioses del consumo y la comodidad y el orbe se organiza en diez zonas en apariencia seguras y estables. Sin embargo, este mundo ha sacrificado valores humanos esenciales, y sus habitantes son procreados in vitro a imagen y semejanza de una cadena de montaje.
En 1928 a Virginia Woolf le propusieron dar una serie de charlas sobre el tema de la mujer y la novela. Lejos de cualquier dogmatismo o presunciĂłn, planteĂł la cuestiĂłn desde un punto de vista realista, valiente y muy particular. Una pregunta: ÂżquĂ© necesitan las mujeres para escribir buenas novelas? Una sola respuesta: independencia econĂłmica y personal, es decir, Una habitaciĂłn propia. SĂłlo hacĂa nueve años que se le habĂa concedido el voto a la mujer y aĂşn quedaba mucho camino por recorrer.
Son muchos los repliegues psicológicos y sociales implicados en este ensayo de tan inteligente exposición; fascinantes los matices históricos que hacen que el tema de la condición femenina y la enajenación de la mujer en la sociedad no haya perdido ni un ápice de actualidad.
Partiendo de un tratamiento directo y empleando un lenguaje afilado, irónico e incisivo, Virginia Woolf narra una parábola cautivadora para ilustrar sus opiniones. Un relato de lectura apasionante, la contribución de una exquisita narradora al siempre polémico asunto del feminismo desde una perspectiva inevitablemente literaria.
'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.' Thus memorably begins Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, one of the world's most popular novels.
Pride and Prejudice is an 1813 novel of manners written by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
Mr. Bennet, owner of the Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire, has five daughters, but his property is entailed and can only be passed to a male heir. His wife also lacks an inheritance, so his family faces becoming very poor upon his death. Thus, it is imperative that at least one of the girls marry well to support the others, which is a motivation that drives the plot.
Twelfth Night, named for the twelfth night after Christmas, marks the end of the festive season and sets the stage for a romantic comedy of love and power. The play introduces us to the Countess Olivia, an independent woman in charge of her own household, who captures the attention of Duke Orsino. Her other suitors include her pompous steward, Malvolio, and the foppish Sir Andrew Aguecheek.
Amidst this tangled web of unrequited love arrives the shipwrecked twins, Viola and Sebastian, each believing the other to be dead. Viola, disguised as a boy, enters the service of the Duke, becoming his emissary to Olivia—and unexpectedly becoming the object of Olivia's affection. As the story unfolds, the play delves into the complexity of love and the joyful resolution of mistaken identities and romantic entanglements.
Boys Don't Cry is the explosively page-turning new novel for teenagers from the author of the award-winning Noughts and Crosses sequence. You're about to receive your A-level results and then a future of university and journalism awaits. But the day they're due to arrive, your old girlfriend Melanie turns up unexpectedly with a baby. You assume Melanie's helping a friend, until she nips out to buy some essentials, leaving you literally holding the baby.
Malorie's dramatic new novel will keep you on the edge of your seat right to the final page.
Jacqueline M. Pane is an ordinary woman in her 30s who believes her life would be perfect if only she had a small bum, sticky-up bosoms, and a Prada handbag. She has fine-tuned paranoia and applies it to every area of her life, from her earrings, cellulite, and job, to the men in her life.
This book is a hilarious diary of her journey as she perfects the art of feeling shitty about every little, and not so little, bit of herself. The potential for self-doubt lies in everything - and it's all her fault.
My goal, my life’s ambition if you like, is to give direction to comedy, purpose to satire. And this is probably why I write the way I do, in order to use self-deprecating, piss-taking humour to bring to the fore situations that just don’t stack up. To demonstrate that serious issues can be approached with humour.
Hardly any subject is taboo to the Englishman when he’s laughing, and this often seems insensitive to other cultures, but the bedrock of the British sense of humour is a strong sense of sarcasm and self-deprecation. The British can be very passionate – and if you doubt that try going to a football match - but that passion is often hidden deep in our humour so that other nationals fail to not only recognise the deadpan delivery and are never too sure if they’ve been involved in a serious conversation or just a little bit of friendly banter.
Having said that, my style of writing is now appealing more and more to the American market. This book is not a novel, and if you’re looking for a book that is all sweetness and light, please give this one a miss. It’s not for you. I won’t be offended and I honestly wish you a great life. If everyone likes me, then I’m not being controversial enough.
If you’re looking for Humorous books about Life, Comedy Writing or even Humorous Books for Adults then take a chance on this book. If a chapter doesn’t suit, just move on.
Regeneration is a historical fiction novel set during World War I. It documents characters based on real people and their experiences with shell shock and recovery at the Craiglockhart Hospital.
This novel explores the psychological effects of war on soldiers and the attempts at recovery in a medical setting. It provides a deep insight into the human mind during times of extreme stress and trauma.
Slough House is Jackson Lamb's kingdom; a dumping ground for members of the intelligence service who've screwed up: left a secret file on a train, blown a surveillance, or become drunkenly unreliable. They're the service's poor relations - the slow horses - and bitterest among them is River Cartwright, whose days are spent transcribing mobile phone conversations.
But when a young man is abducted, and it's threatened that he'll be beheaded live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself. Is the victim who he first appears to be? And what's the kidnappers' connection with a disgraced journalist?
As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone involved has their own agenda...
In the near future, a desperate and ever-more controlling UK government attempts to restore a sense of national pride with a New Festival of Britain. But construction work on the site of an old church in South London releases a centuries-old plague that turns its victims into flesh-hungry ghouls.
This supernatural virus has the power to revive the dead, and its contagion spreads through bites or scratches. 'The Death' soon sweeps across London, plunging the whole country into chaos. When a drastic attempt to eradicate the outbreak fails, the plague spreads quickly to mainland Europe and then across the rest of the world.
Told through a series of interconnected eyewitness narratives — text messages, e-mails, blogs, letters, diaries, and transcripts — this is an epic story of a world plunged into chaos as the dead battle the living for total domination.