Edward Lear (1812-1888) is one of the best-loved of English poets. His comic invention and unconstrained sense of the absurd have been enjoyed by generations of children, and treasured by adults conscious of the subtle melancholy that underlies the fun. This collection includes all the favourite nonsense poems. Peter Swaab sets them alongside a generous selection from Lear's six travel books (including his three Journals of a Landscape Painter), first published between 1841 and 1870, and l...

Comic invention and an unrestrained sense of the absurd are explored in this collection of one of England's best-loved poets. Adored by generations of nonsense-loving children and treasured by adults conscious of the subtle melancholy that underlies the fun, these writings whisk readers away not only to the fabled lands of the Jumblies and the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo but also to 19th-century Albania, Greece, Calabria, and Corsica, where the poet's encounters with the people and customs are record...

The memoirs in this collection are written by those who had personal knowledge of Shelley, Byron and Wordsworth, or who claimed to be recording the accounts of those who had such knowledge. Each volume in this set contains facsimilies of the original memoirs.

Bringing Up Baby, directed by Howard Hawks in 1938, is one of the greatest screwball comedies and a treasure from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Cary Grant plays a naive and repressed palaeosaurologist who becomes entangled with (and ensnared by) a wilful heiress (Katharine Hepburn). Chaos ensues as romance blossoms and not one but two leopards are set loose in verdant Connecticut. All of Hawks's signature skills are to the fore: there is the wonderful ensemble cast, the characteristically r...

The memoirs in this collection are written by those who had personal knowledge of Shelley, Byron and Wordsworth, or who claimed to be recording the accounts of those who had such knowledge. Each volume in this set contains facsimilies of the original memoirs.

Considered by Thomas de Quincey to be 'perhaps the most superb work in the language', The Two Noble Kinsmen is set in Athens and was co-written by Shakespeare with John Fletcher. This Penguin Shakespeare edition is edited by N. W. Bawcutt with an introduction by Peter Swaab.'Once, he kissed me.I loved my lips the better ten days after'When Theseus, Duke of Athens, learns that the ruler of Thebes has killed three noble kings he swears to take revenge. But aft...

In The Innocents Abroad, acclaimed American novelist and humorist Mark Twain documents his impressions of Europe, the Holy Land, and his fellow travellers during his “Great Pleasure Excursion” aboard the ship Quaker City in 1867.Although Mark Twain is best-known in modern times for his literary classics The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, during his lifetime Twain was better known for his travel-writing, of which ...

Candide is a French satire by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply Optimism) by his mentor, Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not rejecting opt...

The Story of San Michele is the famous memoir by Swedish physician Axel Munthe (1857-1949). Written in English, it has been a best-seller in numerous languages. The author associated with a number of celebrities of his times, all of whom figure in the book. He also knew the very poorest, including immigrants and plague victims. He was an unabashed animal lover, and animals figure prominently, especially his alcoholic pet baboon, Billy. Several discussions with animals and various supernatu...

The Pictures from Italy are excellent in themselves and excellent as a foil to the American Notes. Here we have none of that air of giving a decision like a judge or sending in a report like an inspector; here we have only glimpses, light and even fantastic glimpses, of a world that is really alien to Dickens. It is so alien that he can almost entirely enjoy it. For no man can entirely enjoy that which he loves; contentment is always unpatriotic. The difference can indeed be put with appro...

Italian Hours is a book of travel writing by Henry James published in 1909. The book collected essays that James had written over nearly forty years about a country he knew and loved well. James extensively revised and sometimes expanded the essays to create a more consistent whole. He also added two new essays and an introduction.