Society hostess, Clarissa Dalloway is giving a party. Her thoughts and sensations on that one day, and the interior monologues of others whose lives are interwoven with hers gradually reveal the characters of the central protagonists. Clarissa's life is touched by tragedy as the events in her day run parallel to those of Septimus Warren Smith, whose madness escalates as his life draws toward inevitable suicide. 176pp. Paperback.

With an Introduction and Notes by David Blair, University of Kent at Canterbury. In the early years of the 18th century, Scotland is torn by religious and political strife. Hogg's sinner, justified by his Calvinist conviction that his own salvation is pre-ordained, is suspected of involvement in a series of bizarre and hideous crimes. A century later his memoirs reveal the extraordinary, macabre truth. The tale is chilling for its astute psychological accuracy as it illustrates, with power and economy, the dire effect of self-righteous bigotry on a fanatical character. 224 pages, paperback.

Complete and unabridged Wordsworth American classic of one of the greatest war novels of all time. The book reports on the American Civil War through the eyes of Henry Fleming, an ordinary farm boy turned soldier. It evokes the chaos and the dull clatter of war, the acrid smoke, the incessant rumours of coming battles, the filth and cold, numbing monotony and the unworldly wail of the dying. Crane also captures some strange beauty: brilliant red flags against a blue sky, steel bayonets flashing in the morning sun... 192pp in paperback.

Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) is the philosopher who has had most influence on the development of western culture - natural sciences, philosophical topics of logic, metaphysics and ethics. To the poet Dante he was simply the master of those who know. The Ethics contains his views on what makes a good human life. The Ancient Greek thinker outlines his own understanding of morality and virtue in the practical contexts of humanity and society. And yet, he also poses questions, analyzing potential counterviews and disagreements to his own treatise. For anyone seeking to get to the root of one of philosophy's age-old questions. Paperback. 320pp.

A tinker, sailor, Baptist minister, prisoner and writer of outstanding narrative genius, this must be John Bunyan's greatest work. It is an allegory of the Christian life of true brilliance and is presented as a dream which describes the pilgrimage of the hero, Christian, from the City of Destruction via the Slough of Despond, the Hill of Difficulty, the Valley of the Shadow of Death and Vanity Fair over the River of the Water of Life and into the Celestial City. 272pp. Paperback.

Inspired by the insatiable Victorian appetite for party games, tricks and conundrums, Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) wrote many works of humorous, witty, whimsical and nonsensical verse. The Hunting of the Snark as well as dozens of other verses, stories, acrostics and puzzles are all included in this omnibus volume. Oxford scholar, Church of England Deacon, university lecturer, academic author, gifted pioneer of portrait photography and yet a shy and pedantic man, Lewis Carroll stands pre-eminent in the pantheon of inventive literary geniuses. With an introduction by Alexander Woollcott, this is a facsimile reprint by Wordsworth. 1232 pages with index of first lines. Paperback.

This is a troubling story of crime, sin, guilt, punishment and expiation, set in the rigid moral climate of 17th-century New England. The young mother of an illegitimate child confronts her Puritan judges. However, it is not so much her harsh sentence, but the cruelties of slowly exposed guilt as her lover is revealed, that hold the reader enthralled all the way to the book's poignant climax. Introduction and Notes by Henry Claridge, Senior Lecturer, School of English, University of Kent at Canterbury. 224pp in paperback.

Hailed as the finest book ever written on the nature of democracy, it continues to be an influential text on both sides of the Atlantic, above all in the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. De Tocqueville examines the structures, institutions and operation of democracy, and shows how Europe can learn from American successes and failures. His central theme is the advancement of the rule of the people, but he also predicts that slavery will bring about the most horrible of civil wars, foresees that the USA and Russia will be the superpowers of the 20th century, and is 150 years ahead of his time in his views on the position and importance of women. Paperback reprint.

On a poor farm near Starkfield in western Massachusetts, Ethan Frome struggles to wrest a living from the land, unassisted by his whining and hypochondriacal wife Zeena. When Zeena's young cousin Mattie Silver is left destitute, the only place she can go is Ethan's farm. The novel has remained enduringly popular since its first publication in 1911 and is considered Wharton's greatest tragic story. 128pp. Paperback.

If Shakespeare had died at the age Marlowe died, there would have been no question that Marlowe would have been the leading figure in English Renaissance drama. This edition of all his plays shows why. The plays give us a clear picture of Marlowe as a radical theatrical poet of great linguistic and dramatic daring, whose characters constantly strive to break out of the social, religious, and rhetorical bonds within which they are confined. Accused during his lifetime of blasphemy and homosexuality, Marlowe still has the power to challenge our assumptions about conventional morality through his innovative theatricality. By placing less known plays such as The Massacre at Paris and Dido Queen of Carthage alongside the acknowledged masterpieces Edward II and Dr Faustus, this edition gives a full picture of Marlowe's distinctive and provocative talent. 546pp. Paperback.