Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 or region free DVD player in order to play A young chancer (Robert Downey Jnr) picks up more than he bargained for when he meets a girl (Molly Ringwald) whose father is a compulsive gambler & has borrowed money from the Mafia ...

With an Introduction & Notes by David Ellis University of Kent at Canterbury With Illustrations by RSeymour RW Buss & Hablot K Browne (Phiz) The Pickwick Papers is Dickens' first novel & widely regarded as one of the major classics of comic writing in English Originally serialised in monthly instalments it quickly became a huge popular success with sales reaching 40000 by the final part In the century & a half since its first appearance the characters of Mr Pickwick Sam Weller & the whole of the Pickwickian crew have entered the consciousness of all who love English literature in general & the works of Dickens in particular ...

The Picts were an ancient nation who ruled most of northern & eastern Scotland during the Dark Ages Despite their historicalimportance they remain shrouded in myth & misconception Absorbed by the kingdom of the Scots in the ninth century they lost their unique identity their language & their vibrant artistic culture Amongst their few surviving traces are standing stones decorated with incredible skill & covered with enigmatic symbols
- vivid memorials of a powerful & gifted people who bequeathed no chronicles to tell their story no sagas to describe the deed of their kings & heroes In this book Tim Clarkson pieces together the evidence to tell the story of this mysterious people from their emergence in Roman times to their eventual disappearance
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Explore the world by looking not only at borders mountains rivers seas & oceans but by discovering the natural wonders of the world historical artefacts amazing animals fascinating cultures & much much more With stunning illustrations from the incredible Jill Calder The Picture Atlas is quite unlike anything you've seen before From the freezing Arctic Circle with its powerful orca whales to the amazing Sydney Opera House & the Great Barrier Reef learn explore & be amazed by the wonders of the world Bursting full of beautiful artwork informative maps & astounding facts take a trip around the world like you've never seen it before ...

Harper Collins is proud to present its new range of best-loved essential classics' How sad it is! I shall grow old & horrid & dreadful But this picture will remain always young If it was only the other way!' Wilde's first & only published novel recounts the story of handsome Dorian Gray who upon having his portrait painted desires that it will age & grow ugly while he may remain eternally beautiful The painting which reflects each of Gray's sins & transgressions in its hideousness haunts him until it finally becomes unbearable In this dark tale of duplicity & mortality Wilde creates a world where art & reality collide ...

Dorian Gray is having his picture painted by Basil Hallward who is charmed by his looks But when Sir Henry Wotton visits & seduces Dorian into the worship of youthful beauty with an intoxicating speech Dorian makes a wish he will live to regret that all the marks of age will now be reflected in the portrait rather than on Dorian's own face The stage is now set for a masterful tale about appearance reality art life truth fiction & the ultimate burden of conscience ...

Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith these delectable & collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth & beauty Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton he is drawn into a corrupt double life; indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence The novel was a succes de scandale & the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at the Old Bailey in 1895 It has lost none of its power to fascinate & disturb ...

With an Introduction & Notes by John ML Drew University of Buckingham Wilde's only novel first published in 1890 is a brilliantly designed puzzle intended to tease conventional minds with its exploration of the myriad interrelationships between art life & consequence From its provocative Preface challenging the reader to believe in 'art for art's sake' to its sensational conclusion the story self-consciously experiments with the notion of sin as an element of design Yet Wilde himself underestimated the consequences of his experiment & its capacity to outrage the Victorian establishment Its words returned to haunt him in his court appearances in 1895 & he later recalled the 'note of doom' which runs like 'a violet thread' through its carefully crafted prose ...

Oscar Wilde's tale of a Faustian pact in Victorian England The Picture of Dorian Gray is a both a slow-burning Gothic horror & a brilliant philosophical investigation of youth beauty & desire This Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction & notes by Robert Mighall Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth & beauty Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton he is drawn into a corrupt double life; indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence The Picture of Dorian Gray was a succes de scandale Early readers were shocked by its hints at unspeakable sins & the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at the Old Bailey in 1895 It has lost none of its power to fascinate & disturb This definitive edition

Includes:: a selection of contemporary reviews condemning the novels immorality & the introduction to the first Penguin Classics edition by Peter Ackroyd Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) son of an eminent eye-surgeon & a nationalist poet was educated in Dublin & Oxford & became the leading exponent of the new Aesthetic Movement His work including short fiction such The Happy Price (1888) his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) gradually won him a reputation which was cemented by his phenomenally successful plays including A Woman of No Importance (1893) An Ideal Husband (1895) & The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) Imprisoned for homosexual acts he died after his release in exile in Paris If you enjoyed The Picture of Dorian Gray you might like Joris-Karl Huysmans' Against Nature (A Rebours) Wilde's real-life inspiration for the novel that slowly corrupts Dorian Gray also available in Penguin Classics

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WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY IRVINE WELSHDorian is a good-natured young man until he discovers the power of his own exceptional beauty As he gradually sinks deep into a frivolous glamorous world of selfish luxury he apparently remains physically unchanged by the stresses of his corrupt lifestyle & untouched by age But up in his attic hidden behind a curtain his portrait tells a different story ...