Literary Collections

Vivid, powerful and absorbing, this is a first-person account of one of the most startling military episodes in history: the overthrow of Montezuma's doomed Aztec Empire by the ruthless Hernan Cortes and his band of adventurers. Bernal Diaz del Castillo,...

A Sufi scholar's philosophical interpretation of the names of God The Divine Names is a philosophically sophisticated commentary on the names of God. Penned by the seventh-/thirteenth-century North African scholar and Sufi poet 'Afif al-Din...

Fully updated with new preface and five new speeches for paperback edition.A Guardian Book of the Year.Looking at lists of the greatest speeches of all time, you might think that powerful oratory is the preserve of men. But the truth is very different -...

'It has been said by its opponents that science divorces itself from literature; but the statement, like so many others, arises from lack of knowledge.' John Tyndall, 1874 Although we are used to thinking of science and the humanities as separate...

The story both of the real world of the Brontes at Haworth Parsonage, their home on the edge of the lonely Yorkshire moors, and of the imaginary worlds they spun for themselves in their novels and poetry. Wherever possible, their story is told using...

Animal lovers will laugh out loud at the quirkiness of their feline friends with these insightful and curious poems from the singular minds of funny cats. In this hilarious book of tongue-in-cheek poetry, the author of the internationally syndicated...

Discover the inspiring voices that have changed our world, and started a new conversation, with speeches from Olly Alexander, Sir Elton John, Alison Bechdel, and more. A sister title to Great Women's Speeches (2021), and the pocket edition of Loud and...

'It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met...'Moonlight, sake, spring blossom, idle moments, a woman's hair - these exquisite reflections on life's...

'If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book.' William Godwin, the author's future husband, was not alone in admiring Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and...

Long a master of the crafts of Homeric translation and of rhapsodic performance, Stanley Lombardo now turns to the quintessential epic of Roman antiquity, a work with deep roots in the Homeric tradition. With characteristic virtuosity, he delivers a...

Words have power. Yet that power must be rooted in truth and justice. Words must never stand apart from those principles.'You end this collection...vowing to never let life, or writing, get so complicated again' GuardianReaders who have long wondered...

John Milton was celebrated and denounced in his own time both as a poet and as a polemicist. Today he is remembered first and foremost for his poetry, but his great epic Paradise Lost was published very late in his life, in 1667, and in his own time most...

A brilliantly varied new selection of D. H. Lawrence's essays, chosen and introduced by Geoff DyerFor D. H. Lawrence the novel was the pinnacle, 'the one bright book of life', yet his non-fiction shows him at his most freewheeling and playful. This is a...

Asser's Life of King Alfred, written in 893, is a revealing account of one of the greatest of medieval kings. Composed by a monk of St David's in Wales who became Bishop of Sherborne in Alfred's service and worked with him in his efforts to revive...

Lyric essayists draw on memoir, poetry, and prose to push against the arbitrary genre restrictions in creative nonfiction, opening up space not only for new forms of writing, but also new voices and a new literary canon. This anthology features some of...

This authoritative edition was formerly published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Johnson's poetry and prose - all the major poems, complemented by essays,...

A.E. Housman was one of the best-loved poets of his day, and A Shropshire Lad and Other Poems is a collection of poems whose elegant simplicity of form belies their hidden complexities. This Penguin Classics edition is introduced by Nick Laird with...

THE SUNDAY TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'The ultimate Holocaust testimony.' HEATHER MORRIS, author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka's JourneyAfterword by JOHN BOYNE, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas_______________Eddy de Wind, a...

Collecting the most incisive and influential writings of one of Rome's finest orators, Cicero's Selected Works is translated with an introduction by Michael Grant in Penguin Classics.Lawyer, philosopher, statesman and defender of Rome's Republic, Cicero...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780679783220Author Ralph Waldo EmersonFormat PaperbackPage Count 880Imprint Modern Library IncPublisher Random House USA IncWeight(grams) 612gDimensions(mm)...

'They are memorials to times and countries whose best is probably past and gone . . . I was lucky to have known them when I did, before darkness began to fall from the air.'When Laurie Lee first left his country village aged nineteen, he discovered a...

A new translation of a great historical epic, recounting the turbulent life and times of Chinggis Khan'Bear the sword andHew asunder high and haughty necksSlash apart all strong and self-willed shoulders'Born poor into a world of dangers and hardships,...

Learn about Japanese culture while improving your language skills!Japanese Folktales for Language Learners presents 22 traditional stories in parallel Japanese and English versions on facing pages, with detailed notes and exercises aimed at beginning to...

A great story can lead a reader on a journey of discovery#8212;especially if it's presented in two languages! Beautifully illustrated in a traditional style, Japanese Stories for Language Learners offers five compelling stories with English and Japanese...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780358424178Author Alison BechdelFormat PaperbackPage Count 416Imprint Mariner BooksPublisher Mariner BooksWeight(grams) 930gDimensions(mm) 231mm * 201mm *...

As the Amazon burns, Fabio Zuker shares stories of resistance, self-determination, and kinship with the land. In 2007, a seven-ton minke whale was found stranded on the banks of the Tapajos River, hundreds of miles into the Amazon rainforest. For...

As with his previous bestseller, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, in An Anthropologist on Mars Oliver Sacks uses case studies to illustrate the myriad ways in which neurological conditions can affect our sense of self, our experience of the world,...

Get to grips with set texts and be fully prepared for the AS/A Level exam with the Modern Languages Oxford Literature Companions. The Companions are written by experienced lecturers, teachers and examiners and provide comprehensive coverage of...

'I will write to avenge my people.' It was as a young woman that Annie Ernaux first wrote these words in her diary, giving a name to her purpose in life as a writer. She returns to them in her stirring defence of literature and of political writing in...

In another surreal and unprecedented year in which even the most seasoned commentators have struggled to keep pace with the news cycle, letter writers to The Daily Telegraph have once again provided their refreshing and witty take on events. Now in its...

Written towards the end of the second century AD, The Golden Ass tells the story of the many adventures of a young man whose fascination with witchcraft leads him to be transformed into a donkey. The bewitched Lucius passes from owner to owner -...

Featuring the Chinese text on the left and the English translation on the right, this beautifully bound edition of Sun Tzu's classic text makes a unique gift or collector's item. Written in the sixth century BCE, Sun Tzu's The Art of War is still widely...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780954440909Author Cecil CollinsFormat PaperbackPage Count 51Imprint Fools' PressPublisher Fools' Press

This authoritative edition was originally published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Milton's poetry and prose - all the English verse together with a...

In this richly diverse collection of essays, Joseph Brodsky casts a reflective eye on his experiences of early life in Russia and exile in America. With dazzling erudition, he explores subjects as varied as the dynamic of poetry, the nature of history...

EDITED BY JOANNE TRAUTMANN BANKS, WITH A PREFACE BY HERMIONE LEEThe finest and most enjoyable of Virginia Woolf's letters are brought together in a single volume. It is a marvellous collection - spontaneous, witty, often flirtatious and powerfully moving...

"Farnsworth beautifully integrates his own observations with scores of quotations from Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Montaigne and others. This isn't just a book to read-it's a book to return to, a book that will provide perspective and consolation...

Short, quick-fire jokes have been popular for centuries. Indeed the world's oldest surviving joke book, the Philogelos, which was written in Ancient Greek, contains this classic doctor joke: Patient: "Doctor! When I wake up I'm all dizzy. Then after...

A revised and refreshed edition of Culpeper's classic book on herbal remedies. "[An] updated and beautifully designed guide . . . " -Booklist For more than 360 years, Nicholas Culpeper's historic guide to herbal remedies has been THE definitive book on...

A TRUE STORY THAT HAS TOUCHED THE HEARTS OF THOUSANDS'Unmitigated delight from cover to cover' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A real-life love story . . . A timeless period piece. Do read it' WALL STREET JOURNAL 'Beguile an hour of your time and put you in tune with...