Through surreal, often grotesque humour, Bulgakov gives an ingenious new twist to the Frankenstein parable, in a new translation of one of the most popular satires on the Russian Revolution and on Soviet society

Having been scalded by boiling water earlier that day, and with little chance to survive the severe winter night, a stray dog is left for dead on the streets. Lamenting his fate, he is ill-prepared for the chance arrival of a wealthy professor who befriends him and takes him home. However, it seems the professor's motives are not entirely altruistic--an expert in medical experimentation, he sees his new charge as the potential subject for a bizarre operation, and implants glands from a dead criminal in the dog. The resulting half-man, half-beast is, as to be expected, a monstrosity, yet one that fits in remarkably well with Soviet society.

Florence Hartley's insightful etiquette guide was first published in 1860, and yet her witty and useful advice on behaving like a lady often still rings true down the ages

What should you do if you notice a stranger's dress is tucked up at the back? What are you meant to say if you are offered food you don't like at a dinner party? And what ought you to wear if you're invited to a ball? If these questions baffle you, fear not, for help is at hand with this beautiful, nostalgic guide. You don't need to live in the 19th century to agree that it is rude to finish someone else's jokes. Whatever the situation, you'd would like to know how to be as ladylike as possible when seasick or the best color schemes for bridesmaids' dresses, this thorough and wide-ranging book will provide sensible and succinct guidance, as well as shed light into life in the 19th century. Did you know that you could spot a lady who had laced her corset too tightly from the lack of circulation making her nose go red? This beautiful guide also contains sections on how to behave at a hotel, conduct in the street, letter writing, and table etiquette.

Predating Bram Stoker' Dracula, Carmilla is the ultimate gothic vampire tale--stylish, menacing, sensual, and spellbinding

You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever.

When a mysterious carriage crashes outside their castle home in Styria, Austria, Laura and her father agree to take in its injured passenger, a young woman named Carmilla. Delighted to have some company of her own age, Laura is instantly drawn to Carmilla. But as their friendship grows, Carmilla's countenance changes and she becomes increasingly secretive and volatile. As Carmilla's moods shift and change, Laura starts to become ill, experiencing fiendish nightmares, her health deteriorating night after night. It is not until she and her father, increasingly concerned for Laura's well-being, set out on a trip to discover more about the mysterious Carmilla that the terrifying truth reveals itself.

A key text in the history of gay literature, Wings was published in 1906 to the scandalized reaction of contemporary society and the generations which followed. Its central theme of aestheticized sensuality has drawn comparisons with the work of contemporaries Oscar Wilde and André Gide. The young Vanya Smurov is deeply attached to his mentor, Dr. Larion Stroop, and to the world of Renaissance art which the latter reveals to him. Initially appalled by the sudden discovery of Stroop's homosexual leanings, Vanya abandons him to pursue a normal heterosexual existence. In turn disgusted by ensuing encounters, he returns to Dr. Stroop and accompanies him to Italy where he begins his real education--both in the world of art, and that of hedonism.

Oscar Wilde's spooky tale of a genteel English ghost clashing with a brash American family is endearing, hilarious, and perfect reading for all ages

Canterville Chase possesses all of the trappings of a standard haunted country house--including large suits of armor and Gothic paneled library walls. However, it soon becomes difficult to ignore the spooky signs that Sir Simon is haunting the house--the usual Halloween fare of rattling chains and bloodstains. Surprisingly, and hilariously, the Otises, a modern American family, refuse to be scared; despite all of Sir Simon's best flamboyant efforts and costume changes: stain remover is deployed to clean bloodstains and oil is applied to clanking chains. Instead, the poor revenant is faced with practical jokes from the two young twins in the family--and seeks solace by befriending 15-year-old Virginia instead. Told from the unusual point of view of the ghost rather than the haunted party, it bears the trademark Wildean moral message but the message is carried lightly in this entertaining, amusing, and heart-warming Christmas story. Two other Wilde short stories are included: The Sphinx Without a Secret and Lord Arthur Saville's Crime.

Written in diary form, The Diary of Adam and Eve is an ingenious, witty, and ultimately delightful retelling of the dawn of human creation with many a grain of truth for today's gender disputes. Master storyteller Mark Twain hilariously recreates the very first days, portraying Adam as something of a recluse, and a man who is ill prepared for the arrival of Eve, a talkative, emotional, and highly charged female. Yet in time, and after many moments of conflict, they begin to learn to live together and come to realize that men and women can, in fact, exist in harmony.

In this sequel to the children's classic Pollyanna, our beloved heroine continues to cheer up everyone around her with her sunny personality and relentless good humor

When we left Pollyanna at the end of the first book, she was trying very hard to stay positive after a car accident injured her spine and paralyzed her. Now old fans and new will be intrigued to read about Pollyanna's miraculous recovery: she can walk--something she was assured she would never be able to do again! Now that Pollyanna's aunt has married kind old Dr. Chilton, the newlyweds whisk Pollyanna off to Europe every winter and all three start to enjoy their newfound family. Pollyanna also has the chance to travel to Boston, and makes plenty of new friends as well as reuniting with her oldest pals. As Pollyanna grows up, she matures into a thoughtful young lady but never loses her characteristic spark of good cheer. Her goal in life is still to be glad under all circumstances, but with her aunt experiencing a tragedy and Pollyanna herself getting embroiled in a complicated love triangle, it will take a special type of person to come through it all with a smile on her face. Luckily Pollyanna is a very special young lady indeed.

The astonishing memoir of a free man who was sold into slavery in Louisiana where he was kept for 12 years--a powerful, riveting condemnation of slavery, and a story soon to be introduced to a new audience through a major film

Tricked by two men offering him a job as a musician in New York state in 1841, Solomon Northup was instead drugged and kidnapped. Threatened with death, Northup was forced to assume a new name and fake past. Taken to Louisiana on a disease-ridden plague ship, he was initially sold to a cotton planter. In the 12 years that followed he was sold to many different owners who treated him with varying levels of savagery, including forced labor, scant food, and numerous beatings. Eventually Northup succeeded in contacting Samuel Bass, a white carpenter whom he knew to be sympathetic to the cause of black people. Bass contacted Northup's family and together they gained the necessary paperwork to travel to Louisiana to retrieve him. Northup pressed charges against his captors but in a triumph of irony the case was heard in Washington--meaning that as a black man he could not testify against the accused (in the end they were able to countersue him.) A true-life testament to tremendous courage and tenacity in the face of unfathomable injustice, Northup's account is also of extreme interest due to the meticulous recordings of slave life. Unique in its firsthand nature, the book became a runaway bestseller.

Extracts from two of Bell's most compelling works of travel writing, Persian Pictures and Syria: The Desert and the Sown, as well as some of her most fascinating letters

A woman far ahead of her time, Gertrude gained a first from Oxford at a time when very few subjects were even open to women. She went on to take an active interest in politics before embarking on her one-woman travels across the Middle East. She chronicled her journeys through Iraq, Persia, Syria, and beyond and her important diplomatic work, with characteristic wit and incisiveness. Despite the many achievements of her working life, sadly her personal life was marred by losing the great love of her life, Major Charles Doughty-Wylie, from which she never recovered. She died in 1926 of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills. This is a unique collection of her work.

Stendhal wrote in Life of Rossini It is necessary to have loved as implacably as the Portuguese Nun, and with all the unquenchable ardour of which she has left us so vivid an echo in her immortal Letters First published in 1668 by then small Parisian bookseller Claude Barbin, the Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun (known in French as Portuguese Letters translated into French or Portuguese Letters ) witnessed immediate success. It is one of the first fictional epistolary novels that inspired many to come in French literature, such as Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos and Julie by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The Love Letters comprise of five love letters written by a Portuguese nun cloistered in the Franciscan convent of Beja to the French officer who went to Portugal to support the Portuguese in their war of independence against the Spanish and had loved her and left her. The letters showcase a remarkable depth of psychological insight into the inner workings of a woman in love, bearing witness to a gradual yet pivotal development of self-awareness and an elegantly controlled depiction of passion.

At once a dystopian fantasy and a critique of sexual norms, Mine-Haha describes a unique boarding institution for girls--part idyllic refuge, part prison--where pupils are trained only in the physical arts of movement, dance, and music, before issuing them into an adult world for which they have (unwittingly) been prepared. The narrator is an old woman recalling her strange childhood and the story is focused through the eyes of her earlier self. Praised by Leon Trotsky in 1908 for its progressive outlook, this symbolist novella is here presented alongside two rare, complementary short-fiction pieces: The Burning of Egliswyl and The Sacrificial Lamb.

The sequel to Little Women sees the March sisters grow up and experience great love and tragedy in their lives

It is three years since we last met the inimitable March sisters and much has changed since we left them as little women. Meg, the eldest and most sensible of the sisters, is preparing to marry Mr. Brooke. She no longer works as a governess, instead happily looking after her young twins, Demi and Daisy. Jo, as ever the life of any gathering, goes to live in New York as a governess. She is concerned that Laurie, the March girls' friend, may be planning to propose to her and she will have to refuse him because she doesn't love him. Beth, the sweet and kind third daughter, has never recovered from the scarlet fever and is becoming more ill by the day. And Amy, the darling baby, seems finally to be catching up with her sisters. She goes on a tour to Europe, developing her considerable artistic skills and will end up surprising them all by marrying someone the family knows very well indeed. This intriguing sequel is a more mature book that is ultimately just as uplifting as its better known prequel with a strikingly modern message of female empowerment. Includes an extended character profile of Beth.

A classic tale of historical adventure to be enjoyed by children and adults alike, set against the turbulent background of the English Civil War, as well as a charming coming-of-age story

It was in the month of November in this year that King Charles, accompanied by Sir John Berkely, Ashburnham, and Legg, made his escape from Hampton Court, and rode as fast as the horses could carry them toward that part of Hampshire which led to the New Forest . . .

It is 1647. Charles I has been defeated in the civil war, but has escaped captivity and is making for France. Parliamentary soldiers searching the New Forest decide to burn the house of Colonel Beverly, a royalist officer killed at the Battle of Naseby. His four children are rescued by their father's gamekeeper, Jacob, who takes them in. The children gradually shed their aristocratic sensibilities and adapt to the simple ways of the forest, working Jacob's farmstead and befriending other inhabitants of the woodland. But when Charles II raises an army and the specter of war returns to haunt the Beverly children, they realize they cannot hide from their true identity.

First published in 1980, The Jordanians presents historical and statistical data as well as an entertaining and witty narrative that treats the reader to a peek into the Middle Eastern cultural heritage, its diversity and humanity. It shows why even after drastically changing their lifestyles to keep up with the world around them, the Arabs still cling to their traditions of humanity, compassion and hospitality.

This second edition, republished on the occasion of the 100th year of establishment of Jordan, includes a new foreword by economist and former Minister Dr. Yusuf Mansur, a new introduction, and never before seen restored pictures of Jordan during its early years as well as updated statistics.

A companion piece to the popular Directions to Servants, Polite Conversation is a witty, brilliantly conceived treatise on manners and small talk from the master of English satire. Beginning with an expert introduction to the perils of ill-educated discourse, Swift seeks to offer a remedy for conversational disasters. His aim: to ensure one is always equipped with the correct response, no matter the situation, and the means with which to stoke up conversation when it lapses into awkward silence. To prove his theses, he then proffers three mock dialogues, citing the drawing room as the most suitable place to display the art of elegant and polite conversation. The result is a hilarious and deeply ironic analysis that is as relevant today as when it was first conceived. Irish clergyman and satirist Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is best remembered for his philosophical parody Gulliver's Travels.

Maggie Browne, the daughter of a deceased clergyman, is encouraged to give up her own life and passions and devote herself to her brother Edward. Through the example and guidance of her mother--who dotes on Edward constantly--and her mentor, Mrs. Buxton, Maggie learns that self-sacrifice is the key to living a fulfilled life. The precursor to and arguably the template for George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss, this feminist masterpiece begs the question How much personal happiness can one forgo in the name of duty and devotion to another? Maggie's love story, Edward's perfidy, and the dramatic conclusion at sea all blend together seamlessly to make this story a timeless tale.

Documents from the classified papers leaked to Al-Jazeera in January give the clearest account yet of what really goes on in Middle East peace talks, including revealing off-the-record remarks made by Condoleezza Rice, Tony Blair, Mahmoud Abbas, and other key players In January 2011, Al-Jazeera television published 1,600 pages of confidential papers and memoranda from the last five years of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. This book presents complete texts of a number of the most important papers, along with an analysis that reveals a complex, tortuous, and so far unproductive Palestine-Israeli peace process, in a rare, unfiltered look at a current topic as it unfolds. Issues discussed include the Israeli illegal settlements, the Hamas rockets, the Israeli Wall, the invasion of Gaza, the rights of Palestinian refugees, and the move to define Israel as an exclusively Jewish state. For the first time it is possible to compare public utterances, such as the settlements must go from Palestine and we want the Palestinians to have a viable state from Israel and the U.S., with the very different views expressed in confidential meetings and memoranda.