The dreaded Great Aunt has invited herself to stay with Nancy & Peggy just as their friends Dick & Dorothea arrive for the Summer holiday. Nancy & Peggy have to become Martyrs wearing dresses & reading poetry (but breaking out at night) while Dick & Dorothea become Picts secret inhabitants of the country who must never let themselves be seen. Its a desperate gamble to keep everyone out of trouble
- but can it possibly work against the eagle eyes of the fearsome Great Aunt?
...

She began to scrape at the mortar. A few minutes later she was able to prise the edge of the brick loose. The resulting rush of foetid air made her gag but she focussed her torch beam on the enlarged hole & peered inside. Her eyes widened in horror. When art student Jude Evans vanishes on a photographic visit to a derelict Glasgow cinema her friend Liam enlists the help of his birth mother
- forensic scientist Dr Rhona Mac Leod
- in his search for her. Visiting other cinemas on her list they find clues to her disappearance & to the horrifying secret she may have discovered behind those walls. Throughout the investigation Rhona must deal with the news that a face from her past is literally back from the dead
- but for how long?


...

The history of Britain from its early days until the 1950s is described here largely in pictures. Clarke Hutton has traced with humour & inspiration the significant events throughout the ages. His glorious illustration follows the varying fashions in architecture dress & transport & brings them to life for anyone who reads this book. It is a child's dream book of history
- & no doubt many adults will also enjoy his evocation of bygone times.
...

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. ...

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY IRVINE WELSH. Dorian 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... ...

Oscar Wildes 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") Wildes real-life inspiration for the novel that slowly corrupts " Dorian Gray" also available in " Penguin Classics"."

...

' The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.' When Dorian Gray has his portrait painted he is captivated by his own beauty. Tempted by his world-weary decadent friend Lord Henry Wotton he wishes to stay forever young & pledges his very soul to keep his good looks. Set in fin-de-siecle London the novel traces a path from the studio of painter Basil Hallward to the opium dens of the East End. As Dorian's slide into crime & cruelty progresses he stays magically youthful while his beautiful portrait changes revealing the hideous corruption of moral decay. Ever since its first publication in 1890 Wilde's only novel has remained the subject of critical controversy. Acclaimed by some as an instructive moral tale it has been denounced by others for its implicit immorality. Combining elements of the supernatural aestheticism & the Gothic The Picture of Dorian Gray is an unclassifiable & uniquely unsettling work of fiction. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more. ...

This is the Penguin English Library Edition" of " The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me.. . Why did you paint it? It will mock me some day
- mock me horribly!. A story of evil debauchery & scandal Oscar Wildes only novel tells of Dorian Gray a beautiful yet corrupt man. When he wishes that a perfect portrait of himself would bear the signs of ageing in his place the picture becomes his hideous secret as it follows Dorians own downward spiral into cruelty & depravity. " The Picture of Dorian Gray" is a masterpiece of the evil in mens hearts & is as controversial & alluring as Wilde himself. " The Penguin English Library" 100 editions of the best fiction in English from the eighteenth century & the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War."
...

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. ...

Published just before he reached the height of his fame Wildes only novel has endured as surely as the great plays for which he is celebrated. By exploring the actions of a young man who contracts to retain his outward beauty at the expense of inward corruption
- symbolized in a portrait that ages as he stays the same
- Wilde achieved a seminal novel that is part fable part comedy of manners & part treatise on the nature of art & beauty. As the figure in Dorians portrait changes to reflect Dorians inner decay the stage is set for a masterful tale about appearance reality & the ultimate burden of conscience. A lasting classic of sophisticated wit & playfulness The Picture of Dorian Gray" assembles all the elements of Oscar Wildes wide-ranging talents in a compelling reinterpretation of the Faustian myth."

...