With an Introduction & Notes by Peter Preston University of Nottingham Illustrations by Hablot K Browne (Phiz) & George Cruickshank The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41) with its combination of the sentimental the grotesque & the socially concerned & its story of pursuit & courage which sets the downtrodden & the plucky against the malevolent & the villainous was an immediate popular success Little Nell quickly became one of Dickens' most celebrated characters who so captured the imagination of his readers that while the novel was being serialised many of them wrote to him about her fate Dickens was conscious of the many friends' the novel had won for him & the many hearts it turned to me when they were full of private sorrow' & it remains one of the most familiar & well-loved of his works ...

An adaptation of the Charles Dickens' classic story which centres around Nell & the Old Curiosity Shop As the shop slides into debt Nell & her grandfather must flee from a moneylender ...

These are the Faroe Islands as they were some fifty years ago sea-washed & remote with one generation still tied to the ocean for sustenance & a younger generation turning towards commerce & clerical work in the towns Following the blood foam & fury of a whale kill the normally cautious Ketil finds himself caught up in the frenzy of post celebrations enthusiastically bidding for more meat than he can afford Thus in his seventieth year Ketil & his wife along with their youngest son struggle to repay their debt Forced to accept the brutal reality of their precarious existence they scavenge for driftwood & stranded seals ...

Set in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Havana Hemingway's magnificent fable is the story of an old man a young boy & a giant fish It was The Old Man & the Sea that won for Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature Here in a perfectly crafted story is a unique & timeless vision of the beauty & grief of man's challenge to the elements in which he lives Not a single word is superflous in this widely admired masterpiece which once & for all established his place as one of the giants of modern literature ...

Set in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Havana Hemingway's magnificent fable is the tale of an old man a young boy & a giant fish This story of heroic endeavour won Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature It stands as a unique & timeless vision of the beauty & grief of man's challenge to the elements ...

' Our passion was so great Will the Old Man understand & help us once again?' The Old Man of the Moon is Shen Fu's intimate & moving account of his marriage
- from early passion to the trials of poverty & separation
- & his great enduring love for his wife in eighteenth-century China Introducing Little Black Classics 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range & diversity of Penguin Classics with books from around the world & across many centuries They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California & the Russian steppe Here are stories lyrical & savage; poems epic & intimate; essays satirical & inspirational; & ideas that have shaped the lives of millions Shen Fu (born c 1763) Shen Fu's work is available in Penguin Classics in Six Records of a Floating Life

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First published in the mid-eighteenth century The Old Man's Guide to Health & Longer Life is a lifestyle guide to longevity & good health for old men Written in an age when the majority of the population didn't live to see their 40th birthday it provides practical advice on diet exercise & lifestyle including sleep & emotional health Written by experienced physician John Hill it provides an illuminating insight into the thinking on health & longevity in the mid-eighteenth century & reveals surprising similarities with modern-day health advice Some of the more prescriptive advice has the hysterical tone expected from eighteenth-century guides & manuals '
- tho' vegetables may be thought innocent there are many cases in which they prove hurtful' ' Carrots are to be avoided for no old stomach can digest them' ' The pine-apple the most pleasant of all fruit is the most dangerous' ' Cold air chills the blood
- this is the air at the tops of hills & such situations all old men should avoid' But more surprising is how full of genuinely good advice the book is & how much of it reads like modern-day health literature 'A warm bath & a glass of wine if you are having difficulty getting to sleep' ' Use medicines only as a last resort
- address diet & lifestyle first to resolve illness' ' Quiet good humour & complacency of temper will prevent half the diseases of old people; & cure many of the others'


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This superb collection of 500 of the best jokes one-liners & puns is filled with nothing but classic rib-ticklers & great gags ...

A dark twisted fast-paced & literate page-turner that is ultimately redemptive The Old Religion is a contemporary British rural crime thriller that combines the deft plotting evocative landscapes & imagery of Peter May with the richness of character & psychological acuity of Belinda Bauer's rural novels 400 pages Waites Martyn ...

A dark twisted fast-paced & literate page-turner that is ultimately redemptive The Old Religion is a contemporary British rural crime thriller that combines the deft plotting evocative landscapes & imagery of Peter May with the richness of character & psychological acuity of Belinda Bauer's rural novels 400 pages Waites Martyn ...