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Find out moreClassics are books that are as relevant and popular now as in their own era. Have a glance through history when you scroll through our selection of time-tested Classics. You might re-discover a forgotten gem!
Brimming with action, atmosphere and edge-of-your-seat adventure, Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic swashbuckler about "buccaneers and buried gold” is every bit as thrilling today as it was to its first readers back in 1883. The language is richly descriptive, yet still eminently readable to modern readers, thanks to its lively dialogue and perfectly-paced account of a high-stakes quest on the high seas and mysterious island. This new Wordsworth Collector’s Edition will make the perfect piratical present for burgeoning buccaneers who’ve yet to plunder the story’s exhilarating booty. It has a hardy hardback format, appropriately gleaming with the gold associated with buried treasure. Beautiful Books - Wordsworth Collector's Editions - The latest series for people that love beautiful books.
This new Wordsworth Collector’s Edition of Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 classic will make an attractive addition to any child’s library, or any grown-up’s for that matter. With a stylish cover illustration, compact hardback format, and gleaming gold foil, it makes the perfect present. As for the story, readers of seven and upwards who love nature, animals and adventures of a gentler kind will be entertained by the cast of anthropomorphised characters and enthralled by the pastoral setting. In many ways, the animals aren’t animals at all - they’re essentially human, a gaggle of wealthy gentlemen with plenty of leisure time for “messing about on the river”. Amusingly and fittingly, the author’s original title was Mr Mole and His Mates, for this classic has friendship at its heart. Beautiful Books - Wordsworth Collector's Editions - The latest series for people that love beautiful books.
How I loved The Secret Garden as a child - the slow-building, spellbinding sense of magic, the enchantment of nature, the gradual, glowing, transformative friendship between (initially moody, miserable) Mary and Dickon. While the period The Secret Garden evokes is very different from our own, the magical elements at its heart radiate through the particulars of its age. And what better way to introduce today’s young readers to the magic than with this Wordsworth Collector’s Edition? With a stylishly illustrated cover - replete with gold foil - and lovely hardback format, this will add plenty of panache to home and school libraries. Beautiful Books - Wordsworth Collector's Editions - The latest series for people that love beautiful books.
“All grown-ups were children once, although few of them remember it”. So writes author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in the dedication of this remarkable novella; a poignant line that epitomises The Little Prince’s cross-generational power and continued resonance. If you’re looking for a literary-gift-of-a-lifetime for any little and not-so-little ones in your life, look no further than this Wordsworth Collector’s Edition of an undisputed twentieth-century classic. Published in 1943, The Little Prince tells the unforgettable tale of a young boy with golden hair and a habit of repeating questions until they are answered. Known as the “little prince”, the boy recounts his life story while the narrator - a pilot, like the author - repairs his plane, racing against his eight-day supply of water. The little prince’s tales of other planets are enthralling and hauntingly allegorical. Once read, this is a story to return to through a lifetime, and here beautifully packaged as a hardback that will certainly survive multiple re-readings. Beautiful Books - Wordsworth Collector's Editions - The latest series for people that love beautiful books.
J.M. Barrie’s timeless tale of Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up never gets old itself. While this dazzlingly imaginative story may have been written in another age, the story itself is ageless, and can be enjoyed by all ages too. Children and adults alike will get caught up in the adventure, the magic, and its big themes, among them the value of imagination, the value of courage versus cowardice, and the eternal, universal conflict between wanting to be a child, but having to grow up. What’s more, this Wordsworth Collector’s Edition - an elegant hardback, with gold foiled frontage, gorgeous cover artwork, and soft-focus line drawings peppered throughout - will make the ideal gift for readers who’ve yet to discover its unique delights. Beautiful Books - Wordsworth Collector's Editions - The latest series for people that love beautiful books.
This new Wordsworth Collector’s Edition of Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty will make a glorious gift for young horse-lovers. It’s a true thoroughbred that really does stand the test of time. First published in 1877, its themes of kindness, empathy and animal welfare were ahead of its day and still resonate today. Moreover, the tale tugs at the heartstrings as the plot gallops along at gripping pace. With its durable hardback format, striking cover and gold foil trimmings, this edition will certainly add beauty to any home or school bookshelf, and will be treasured for years to come. Beautiful Books - Wordsworth Collector's Editions - The latest series for people that love beautiful books.
July 2010 Good Housekeeping selection. On My Bookshelf by Lynda La Plante... Little Women by Louisa May Alcott inspired me when I was very young. Years later I watched the film starring Katherine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor, and was taken aback at how the characters were transported to the screen.
The story is timeless and can be read at so many different levels. It’s a book that can be read by people of all ages; for children it’s a wonderful underworld fantasy that will develop a passion for reading imaginative writing and for everyone else there’s innuendo, puzzling situations that require deciphering, political machinations and bucket loads of surrealism. Plenty of food for thought and a real antidote to the modern world.
Originally published well over 150 years ago this classic from Charles Dickens remains as important in the world of literature as ever. It has captured the hearts and minds of children everywhere over generations. Ebenezer Scrooge is famous for hating Christmas. He hates the celebration and the feasting, regarding it all as humbug! But then he is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, as well as the ghost of Jacob Marley. Scrooge changes his tune and a glorious Christmas celebration follows.
Oh my, what an absolute treasure this is. Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book was first published in 1894 and now, over 120 years later, it’s still capturing imaginations. This collectable, clothbound edition is not only complete and unabridged but has the addition of stunning interactive illustrations by London design studio MinaLima. The attention to detail is breath-taking and as you wander through Kipling’s wonderful prose and verse, you’ll discover page after page of treasures including detailed maps, pull out figures and a spinning dial of the elephant dance. This is a truly wonderful edition that will be a delight for friends of the stories old and new. It is a book to read, to explore and to simply hold and admire the beautiful illustrations inspired by this timeless story that continues to bring generations together.
This seasonal compendium collects together poems, short stories, and prose extracts by some of the greatest poets and writers in the English language. Like Charles Dickens's ghosts of Christmas Past and Present, they are representative of times old and new--from John Donne's Elizabethan hymn over the baby Jesus to Benjamin Zephaniah's Talking Turkeys, from Thomas Tusser counting the cost of a Tudor feast to P. G. Wodehouse's wry story about Christmas on a diet. Enjoy a Christmas Day as described by Samuel Pepys, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, or Nancy Mitford. Venture out into the snow in the company of Jane Austen, Henry James, and Dickens's Mr. Pickwick. Entertain the children with the seasonal tales of Dylan Thomas, Kenneth Grahame, and Oscar Wilde.
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Lud-in-the-Mist - a prosperous country town situated where two rivers meet: the Dawl and the Dapple. The latter, which has its source in the land of Faerie, is a great trial to Lud, which had long rejected anything 'other', preferring to believe only in what is known, what is solid. Nathaniel Chanticleer is a somewhat dreamy, slightly melancholy man, not one for making waves, who is deliberately ignoring a vital part of his own past; a secret he refuses even to acknowledge. But with the disappearance of his own daughter, and a long-overdue desire to protect his young son, he realises that something is changing in Lud - and something must be done. Lud-in-the-Mist is a true classic, an adult fairy tale exploring the need to embrace what we fear and to come to terms with 'the shadows' - those sweet and dark impulses that our public selves ignore or repress.
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From Aristotle to Aphra Benn to Jane Austen, and Socrates to Stendhal to Upton Sinclair our classics genre will point you in the direction of all the great classics from the beginnings of literature right up to the essential 20th-century classics such as Animal Farm.
The privileged classes (Henry James) and life on the poverty line (Zola)... History (Robert Graves) and prophesy (George Orwell)... Romance (Emily Bronte) and ribaldry (Henry Fielding)... Generations lost (Ernest Hemingway) and encapsulated (F. Scott Fitzgerald)... Writers ahead of their time (James Joyce) and right on the pulse of it (Jack Kerouac)...
There’s so much out there to discover, but it can be daunting without guidance.