The Great Gatsby lives in a luxurious Long Island mansion, playing lavish host to hundreds of people, and yet no-one seems to know him or how he became so rich. He is rumoured to be everything from a German spy to a war hero. Jay Gatsby doesn't heed them. He cares for one person alone - Daisy Buchanan, the woman he has waited for all his life. Little does he know how his infatuation will end...

Following his adventures foiling the plans of the Black Stone gang in The Thirty-Nine Steps, Richard Hannay is called in to investigate rumours of an uprising in the Muslim world, and undertakes a perilous journey through enemy territory to meet up with his friend Sandy Arbuthnot in Constantinople. Once there, he and his friends must thwart the Germans' plans to use religion to help them win the war, climaxing at the battle of Erzurum. As well as being a gripping adventure story, Greenmantle is surprisingly modern in the concept of using a Jihad to mobilise Muslim forces, and is disturbingly relevant to the modern world.With an Afterword by Ned Halley.

Grimms' Fairy Tales have entertained children and adults for the past two centuries, and have become part of our common heritage. These stories about Tom Thumb, Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin and the Frog Prince stimulate the imagination and the heart and linger at the back of our minds for a lifetime. They are funny, disturbing, wise and compassionate; they speak of joy and terror, happiness and revenge, loveand violence. They remind us of how it felt the first time an adult voice read them to us as we fell asleep and dreamed magical dreams.Illustrated by Arthur Rackham, with an Afterword by Peter Harness.

Grimms' Fairy Tales are the most famous and enchanting collection of fairy tales ever written down and published. For the past two centuries,these delightful stories, gathered together by brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, have entertained and frightened children and adults alike. The lives of Tom Thumb, Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin and the Frog Prince form part of our common heritage: they stimulate the imagination and the heart, and linger at the back of our minds for a lifetime. They are funny, disturbing, wise and compassionate. They speak of joy and terror, happiness and revenge, love and violence.Arthur Rackham's masterly illustrations have all been hand-coloured by Barbara Frith, one of Britain's leading colourists.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound hardback gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

Jonathan Swift's masterpiece is the finest satire in the English language. Lemuel Gulliver's adventures with the tiny inhabitants of Lilliput and the giants of Brobdingnag are familiar from modern abridged adaptations, but the scientists and philosophers of Laputa, the intelligent, horselike Houyhnhnms and the bestial Yahoos provide further opportunities for Swift to satirise society in a manner just as relevant today as it was in the eighteenth century.lllustrated by Arthur Rackham, with an afterword by Henry Hitchings.

A young prince meets with his father's ghost, who alleges that his own brother, now married to his widow, murdered him. The prince devises a scheme to test the truth of the ghost's accusation, feigning wild madness while plotting a brutal revenge. But his apparent insanity soon begins to wreak havoc on innocent and guilty alike. Hamlet's combination of violence and introspection is unusual among Shakespeare's tragedies.

The richness of Oscar Wilde's way with words and ideas are given full range in this sparkling collection of short stories written between 1887and 1891. There are ghost stories, moral tales, detective fiction and, above all, fairy stories here to delight and entertain. From the comically unsuccessful and unhappy spook in 'The Canterville Ghost' to the incompetent would-be murderer in 'Lord Arthur Saville's Crime' we are treated to the extravagance and dexterity of Wilde's wit. However it is particularly in the fairy stories that we see the brilliance of Wilde's vision of society and human action, with each tale having both beauty and simplicity while at the same time exploring complex moral issues.

Hard Times is perhaps the archetypal Dickens novel, full as it is with family difficulties, estrangement, rotten values and unhappiness. It was published in 1854 and it is the story of the family of Thomas Gradgrind, and occurs in the imaginary Coketown, an industrial city inspired by Preston. Gradgrind is a man obsessed with misguided 'Utilitarian' values that make him trust facts, statistics and practicality more than emotion and is based upon James Mill (the Utilitarian leader). He directs his own children, Louisa and Tom, in this same way: enforcing an artless existence upon them.

Shakespeare's history of Henry V's remarkable victory over the French atAgincourt and the subsequent peace between the two nations is also a study of war and kingship. From his wild youth, Henry comes to embody all of the kingly virtues: courage, justice, integrity and honour. Ironically these qualities are brought to the fore by the realities of war. Written at the end of the life of Elizabeth I, Henry V told the British people that with strong leadership, they had little to fear at a time of uncertainty.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of Doyle's best-known Holmes novels, frequently adapted for film and television, which is not surprising given the highly dramatic scenes of mist-wrapped moors echoing to the horrific howls of a supernatural hound. Is this a genuinely devilish apparition or is there a cunning murderer at work? Only Sherlock Holmes can solve the mystery. This volume also contains The Valley of Fear, a dark, powerful tale in which Holmes confronts the evil Professor Moriarty once more. With an Afterword by David Stuart Davies, a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, and an authority on Sherlock Holmes. He has written the Afterwords for all the Collector's Library Holmes volumes.

A tremendous, emotionally stirring tragedy, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame features one of literature's most striking creations Quasimodo, the hideously deformed bellringer of Notre-Dame de Paris during the turbulent final years of the fifteenth century. Rejected by all but the priest Claude Frollo, Quasimodo rescues the beautiful gypsy Esmeralda, condemned for a crime she did not commit, and brings her to the sanctuary of the cathedral. But Frollo has been corrupted by his lust for the girl. Only Quasimodo can hope to save her.With an Afterword by John Grant.

Over the centuries Ireland has preserved a magical, mystical aura that lends itself to tales of the supernatural - from leprechauns and fairiesto ghosts and hauntings. Stories and storytelling have always been central to Irish folk culture, and this anthology of the best ghost stories from Ireland and Irish writers includes contributions from Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, Patrick Kennedy, George Moore and W. B. Yeats. The result is a collection of tingling tales of poltergeists, supernatural experiences, haunted houses, death warnings and banshees that will chill the blood of readers and listeners alike.

Ivanhoe, first published in 1819, is a spellbinding tale of adventure, chivalry and romance set in twelfth-century England where the Saxons are in conflict with the occupying Normans. Young Wilfred of Ivanhoe, disinherited by his father for wanting to marry his father's ward Rowena, is wounded in a tournament and nursed back to health by the beautiful Rebeccca, who is later accused of being a witch. With the helpof Richard the Lionheart and Robin Hood, Ivanhoe is able to save Rebecca, establish peace between Saxon and Norman, and gain the hand of the fair Rowena.With an Afterword by John Grant.

The orphaned Jane Eyre suffers under cruel guardians, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. But her plain appearance belies her indomitable spirit, sharp wit and great courage. When she goes to Thornfield Hall to work as a governess for the mysterious Mr Rochester the stage is set for one of literature's great romances.With an Afterword by Sam Gilpin

In Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare exploits the most notorious murder in classical history to tell a tragic tale of friendship, ambition and betrayal. As the greatest figures of the Roman Republic are swept along on the tide of a terrifying conspiracy, a touchingly human story is revealed in some of the most beautiful poetry ever written.Illustrated throughout by Sir John Gilbert (1817-1897), famous for his depictions of historical scenes. As well as Shakespeare, he illustrated works of Sir Walter Scott, Cervantes, Wilkie Collins and Wordsworth.With an Afterwordby Ned Halley.

The Jungle Book shows Kipling's writing for children at its best. It is acollection of short stories and poems revolving round the boy Mowgli, who was raised by a pack of wolves in India. We meet the tiger Shere Khan who attacked and drove off Mowgli's parent, Bagheera, the black panher, Baloo, 'the sleepy brown bear', and the evil python, Kaa. Other stories include Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, The White Seal and Toomai of the Elephants, and the book contains the original illustrations of J. Lockwood Kipling (Rudyard's father) and W. H. Drake.With an Afterword by David Stuart Davies.

These twelve magical tales tell, among other things, how the camel got his hump, the leopard his spots, the elephant his trunk, how the alphabet was made and how a butterfly caused mayhem at the court of King Solomon when he stamped. The Just So Stories are one of the enduring classics of children's literature, not only for their wit, enchantment and language but also for Kipling's own illustrations.With an Afterword by Marcus Clapham

Set in Scotland in 1751, Kidnapped tells of how young David Balfour, orphaned, and betrayed by his uncle Ebenezer who should have been his guardian, is kidnapped, and falls in with Alan Breck, the unscrupulous but heroic champion of the Jacobite cause. The novel revolves around their friendship and their differences, suggesting a metaphor for Scotland itself. Modern critics see the novel as more than a boy's adventure yarn; at the heart of it lies what Henry James described as the 'really excellent' chapters of the flight in the heather that raise the novel to greatness. The illustrations by William Hole are from the first edition, with an Afterword by Ned Halley.

Kim (1901) is one of Kipling's masterpieces. Through the story of the young orphan Kimball O'Hara, and his vocation in the Secret Service, Kipling presents a vivid picture of India, its teeming populations, religions, and superstitions, and the life of the bazaars and the road. Two men - Kim, a boy growing into early manhood and the lama, an old ascetic priest - are fired by a quest. While Kim plays the Great Game, the Intelligence-led rivalry with Russia's expansionist ambitions in the north, he is also spiritually bound to the lama and he tries to reconcile these opposing strands, while the lama searches for redemption from the Wheel of Life.With an Afterword by David Stuart Davies.

An ageing king makes a capricious decision to divide his realm among his three daughters according to the love they express for him. When the youngest daughter refuses to take part in this charade, she is banished,leaving the king dependent on her manipulative and untrustworthy sisters. In the scheming and recriminations that follow, not only does the king's own sanity crumble, but the stability of the realm itself is also threatened. Illustrated throughout by Sir John Gilbert (1817-1897),famous for his depictions of historical scenes; as well as Shakespeare,he illustrated works of Sir Walter Scott, Cervantes, Wilkie Collins and Wordsworth.With an Introduction by Dr Robert Mighall.

Lady Audley's Secret is, perhaps, the most famous of the Victorian 'sensation' novels. When beautiful young Lucy Graham accepts the hand ofSir Michael Audley, her fortune and her future look secure. But Lady Audley's past is shrouded in mystery, and to Sir Michael's nephew Robert, she is not all that she seems. When his good friend George Talboys suddenly disappears, Robert is determined to find him, and to unearth the truth. His quest reveals a tangled story of lies and deception, crime and intrigue, whose sensational twists turn the conventional picture of Victorian womanhood on its head. Can Robert's darkest suspicions really be true?With an Afterword by Ned Halley.

Connie's unhappy marriage to Clifford Chatterley is one scarred by mutual frustration and alienation. Crippled from wartime action, Clifford is confined to a wheelchair, while Connie's solitary, sterile existence is contained within the narrow parameters of the Chatterley ancestral home, Wragby. She seizes her chance at happiness and freedom when she embarks on a passionate affair with the estate's gamekeeper, Mellors, discovering a world of sexual opportunity and pleasure she'd thought lost to her. The explosive passion of Connie and Mellors' relationship - and the searing candour with which it is described - marked a watershed in twentieth century fiction, garnering Lady Chatterley's Lover a wide and enduring readership and lasting notoriety.

The Limericks packs laughs an atomicalIn to space that is quite economical,But the good ones I've seen So seldom are clean And the clean ones so rarely are comical This scintillating anthology has over 1,000 limericks - clean, dirty, filthy and obscene. It contains limericks historical, geographical, wistful, whimsical, clerical and medical - and almost all of them fantastical. Compiled by two of Britain's most knowing limericists, this book will delight and entertain all but the most strait laced. Illustrated by various artists, with an Afterword by Marcus Clapham.

When young Sara Crewe is brought from India to London by her doting father to join Miss Minchin's school, she can have little idea of the change in circumstances that lie ahead. While at first her life of privilege continues, the tragic death of her father and failure of his business change everything. In a dramatic reversal of the tradition fictional 'rags to riches' formula, Sara plunges from privilege to penury in the space of one day. Now she is no longer a princess but a beggar, and must depend on the power of her imagination and optimism and the kindness of strangers to lift her above the misery of her circumstances.

Timeless in its evocation of idealised family life and robustly enduring, Little Women is recognised as one of the best-loved classic children's stories of all time. Originally written as a 'girls' story', its appeal transcends the boundaries of time and age, making it as popular with adults as it is with young readers.With an Afterword by Anna South.

Love is one of the most enduring themes of literature, and now the Collector's Library brings you a classic collection of firm favourites, poems half-remembered from our schooldays, and other notable and beautiful verses that have stood the test of time. Love poems speak to every one of us, and this is the perfect anthology to consult as the mood dictates, taking us through centuries of poets experiencing - and articulating - love in a whole host of different ways: from Sappho and Horace through Shakespeare, Donne, Barrett-Browning and Dickinson to Kipling and Yeats. Here is a book to lead us deep into the heart of this most universal - and yet deeply personal - emotion, and a book to dip into time and time again.

Dark and violent, Macbeth is also the most theatrically spectacular of Shakespeare's tragedies. Promised a golden future as ruler of Scotland by three sinister witches, Macbeth murders the king to ensure his ambitions come true. But he soon learns the meaning of terror - killing once, he must kill again and again, and the dead return to haunt him. A story of war, witchcraft and bloodshed, Macbeth also depicts the relationship between husbands and wives, and the risks they are prepared to take to achieve their desires.

Madame Bovary is the story of a beautiful young woman who marries a luckless country doctor. She tries to escape the narrow confines of her life through a series of passionate affairs, hoping to find in other men the romantic ideal she always dreamed about. Flaubert's daring description of adultery and sinfulness caused a national scandal when it was first published, and this masterpiece of realist literature has lost none of its impact today. Translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling.

The Maltese Falcon is the archetypal 'hardboiled' detective story, rich in exotic characters, dark exciting action and featuring of the greatest of all cool tough private eyes, Sam Spade. Written in 1930, the novel has a timeless quality that makes it fresh and exciting for each new generation of readers. Sam Spade is hired by the fragrant Miss Wonderleyto track down her sister, who has eloped with ne-er do well Floyd Thursby. But when Spade's partner Miles Archer is murdered while on Thursby's trail, Spade finds himself both hunter and hunted: can he track down the mythical jewel-encrusted Falcon, a treasure worth killing for, before the Fat Man and how far can he trust the sexy Miss Wonderley?

Mansfield Park is a novel about town and country, surface dazzle and lasting values. Fanny Price, a poor relation, is brought up at the wealthy Bertrams' country house and falls for Edmund, the younger son. Their lives are disrupted, however, by the arrival of the worldly Mary Crawford and her brother Henry. With her usual psychological insight and attention to detail, Jane Austen paints an irresistibly lifelike portrait of shifting values and split loyalties.Illustrated by Hugh Thomson, with an Afterword by Nigel Cliff.

Somerset Maugham is one of the world's great story tellers. You turn the pages and enter a magical world of fabulous characters. You feel as if you are curled up listening to the delicious, risque, tales of an old, dear and rather wicked friend. You are transported to the very place, the villa, the street, the bar, the smells and tastes are almost tangible. The ten stories in this collection are 'The Letter', 'The Verger', 'The Vessel of Wrath', 'The Book-Bag', 'The Facts of Life', 'Lord Mountdrago', 'The Colonel's Lady', 'The Treasure', 'Rain' and 'P&O'.With an Afterword by Ned Halley.

Drunk and bitter at the world, the young Michael Henchard sells his wife to a sailor at Weydon Priors fair. The next morning he vows to give up drink and mend his terrible ways. Twenty years later he is mayor of Casterbridge, a rich and important figure who little suspects the past is about to rear up and attack him. The Mayor of Casterbridge is a masterpiece of Victorian literature, bringing the classical forms of tragedy into the modern world with striking force, showing a proud and noble man overwhelmed by his past and the forces of fate.With an Afterword by Peter Harness.

Sherlock Holmes is back on the case in this collection of sparkling short stories. Not only does Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant detective investigate a fascinating series of crimes and misdemeanours in The Memoirs, but we also learn about Holmes' early days as a sleuth hound and encounter the detective's brilliant brother, Mycroft, who is a member of the Diogenes Club, one of the strangest establishments in London. And, of course, in The Final Problem Holmes come face to face with his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime.

The Merchant of Venice is perhaps most associated not with its titular hero, Antonio, but with the complex figure of the money-lender, Shylock.The play was described as a comedy in the First Folio but its modern audiences find it more problematic to categorize. The vilification of Shylock 'the Jew' can be very uncomfortable for a post-holocaust audience, and debates continue as to whether Shakespeare's portrayal of this complex man is sympathetic or anti-semitic.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the best loved of Shakespeare's plays. It brings together aristocrats, workers, and fairies in a wood outside Athens, and from there the magic begins. A young woman flees Athens with her lover, only to be pursued by her would-be husband and by her best friend. Unwittingly, all four find themselves in an enchanted forest where fairies and sprites soon take an interest in human affairs,dispensing magical love potions and casting mischievous spells. In this dazzling comedy, confusion ends in harmony, as love is transformed, misplaced, and - ultimately - restored.

It is 1941 and bombs have turned London into the front line of a world war - it is a city of nightmares. Hitler's agents are running a blackmail operation to obtain documents that could bring the nation to instant defeat. Arthur Rowe, a man once convicted of a notorious mercy killing, stumbles onto a German spy operation in Bloomsbury and must be silenced. Even with his memory taken from him, he is still a very dangerous witness. In the hands of Graham Greene, this tale unfolds both as a taut thriller and as a haunting exploration of pity, love, and guilt.

On board the whaling ship Pequod a crew of wise men and fools, renegades and seeming phantoms is hurled through treacherous seas by a crazed captain hell-bent on hunting down the mythic White Whale. Melville transforms the little world of the whale-ship into a crucible where mankind's fears, faith and frailties are pitted against a relentless fate. Teeming with ideas and imagery, and with its extraordinary, compressed intensity sustained by mischievous irony and moments of exquisite beauty, Moby-Dick is both a great American epic and a most profoundly imaginative literary creation.

The Moonstone is a magnificent yellow diamond, 'large as a plover's egg', with a bloody history, which has been stolen from the home of Lady Verinder. An innocent man is accused of the crime. From this simple beginning Wilkie Collins creates a stunning, complex narrative of dark mystery, suspense and atmosphere. It is one of the cornerstones in the development of crime fiction. The poet and critic T. S. Eliot declared that it was 'the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels'.

On a perfect June morning, Clarissa Dalloway fashionable, worldly, wealthy, an accomplished hostess sets off to buy flowers for the party she is to give that evening. She is preoccupied with thoughts of the present and memories of the past, and from her interior monologue emerge the people who have touched her life. On the same day Septimus Warren Smith, a shell shocked survivor of the Great War, commits suicide, and casual mention of his death at the party provokes in Clarissa thoughts of her own isolation and loneliness. Bold and experimental, Mrs Dallowayis a landmark in twentieth-century fiction and a book that gets better with each reading.With an Afterword by Anna South.

This book is an autobiographical account of five years in the childhood of naturalist Gerald Durrell when he lived with his family lived on the island of Corfu. Apart from Gerald (the youngest) and Larry (Lawrence Durrell, the novelist), the family comprised their widowed mother, the gun-mad Leslie, and diet-obsessed sister Margo together with Roger the dog. The procession of animals includes toads, and tortoises, bats and butterflies scorpions and geckos, ladybirds, glow-worms, octopuses and rose-beetles, Ulysses, the Scops owl, Quasimodo the pigeon, the puppies Widdle and Puke, and of course the magpies.

Nicholas Nickleby is one of Dickens's early novels, a popular melodrama with a rich list of characters. When his father dies penniless, Nicholas Nickleby, his mother and his sister Kate are thrown on the mercy of his corrupt uncle Ralph Nickleby. Sent away to teach at the infamous Dotheboys Hall, run by the sadistic Wackford Squeers, Nicholas eventually absconds, but not before rescuing the poor abused Smike. He returns home just in time to save his sister from the unwanted attentions of Sir Mulberry Hawk, and eventually his family's fortunes are restored.

North and South is a wonderful blend of social comment on the dramatic changes in society brought about by the industrial revolution in the early Victorian age and a compelling love story. Written from the author's first-hand experience, the novel follows the story of Margaret Hope, the young heroine, in her move from the tranquil setting in rural southern England to the raw and turbulent northern town of Milton. Margaret takes an instant dislike to new home and its people. She hates the dirt, noise and lack of civilisation. Her distaste extends to handsome and charismatic cotton mill owner John Thornton whom she believes epitomises everything unpleasant about the North. However, as Margaret gradually begins to settle in Milton she learns about the poverty and workplace struggles.

Northanger Abbey tells the story of Catherine Morland, a naive young woman whose perceptions of the world around her are greatly influenced by the romantic gothic novels to which she is addicted. When she moves to Bath she sees mystery and intrigue all around her. This is one of Austen's early works, a broad comedy about learning to distinguish between fiction and reality. Illustrated by Hugh Thomson, with an Afterword by David Pinching.

The Odyssey can claim to be Western literature's first adventure story, and describes the ten-year wanderings of Odysseus in his quest to return home after the Trojan war. He encounters giants, sorceresses and sea-monsters before he can get home and then must remain in disguise while seeking a way to rid his home of the suitors who, believing him dead, have besieged his wife. Both an enchanting fairy tale and a gripping drama, The Odyssey is eminently readable, not least for the rich complexity and magnetism of its hero. This translation is by T. E. Lawrence, with an Afterword by Ben Shaw.

Oliver Twist is one of Dickens's most popular novels, with many famous film, television and musical adaptations. It is a classic story of good against evil, packed with humour and pathos, drama and suspense, in which the orphaned Oliver is brought up in a harsh workhouse, and then taken in and exploited by the criminal Fagin, before being eventually rescued and taken in by a loving family. Illustrated by Gerge Cruikshank, with an Afterword by Sam Gilpin.

For Socrates, as for Jesus Christ, we have few biographical details, andof those we do have nearly all come from Plato, his greatest admirer. But it is clear that Socrates contributed three new ideas to the development of philosophy: that goodness consists not in helping friends and harming enemies, but in not harming anyone at all; that goodness and knowledge are one and the same thing; and that for progress to be made in argument, there must be step-by-step agreement between those arguing. Like Jesus, Socrates too was put to death for defying the conventions of his day, and by the manner of his life and death he, too, sets an example which is at the same time an inspiration and an impossible ideal.

In The Origin of Species Darwin outlined his theory of evolution, which proposed that species had been evolving and differentiating over time under the influence of natural selection. On its publication it became hugely influential, bringing about a seismic shift in the scientific view of humanity's place in the world that is still controversial today.It is both a brilliant work of science and also a clear, vivid and at times even moving, piece of writing that reflects both Darwin's genius and his boundless enthusiasm for the natural world.With an Afterword by Oliver Francis

This is an intense drama of love, deception, jealousy and destruction. Desdemona's love for Othello, the Moor, transcends racial prejudice; butthe envious Iago conspires to devastate their lives. In its vivid rendering of racism, sexism, contested identities, and the savagery lurking within civilisation, Othello is arguably the most topical and accessible tragedy from Shakespeare's major phase as a dramatist. The play raises uncomfortable questions about ongoing questions of not only racial identity but also sexuality, as Othello and Desdemona's sexual relationship becomes the voyeuristic site of Iago's attempt to destroy them.

A drawing of the world when I was young.' So Gwen Raverat, the grand-daughter of Charles Darwin, described Period Piece, her classic memoir of a Cambridge childhood, which since its initial publication in 1952 has never been out of print. Vividly evoking a bygone era, it is a shrewd, touching and comic portrait of her eccentric relations, and of Cambridge society in a time when it was restricted enough to be treated as an extension of the family. As a child she thought it impossible that she would ever succeed as an artist, and yet the observations of the small incidents in her life, recorded here both in word and drawing, reveal an artist's careful eye.

Jane Austen's final novel, her most mature and wickedly satirical, is the story of Anne Elliott, a woman who gets a second chance at love. To achieve happiness she must learn to trust her own feelings and resist the social pressures of family and friends.Illustrated by Hugh Thomson, with an Afterword by Henry Hitchings.