Alma Books A Slight Misunderstanding Merimee Prosper

Alma Classics edition of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer contains 3,000 notes and 30 pages extra material • "And specially from every shires ende • Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende, • The hooly blisful martir for to seke, • That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke." • Assembling at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, a group of pilgrims begin their journey to Canterbury Cathedral. To entertain themselves on the long road, their host suggests that they regale each other with stories, with the teller of the best tale set to earn a free supper • The pilgrims correspond to all sections of medieval society, from the crusading knight to the drunken cook, and their tales span a range of genres, including the comic ribaldry and deception of 'The Miller's Tale' and the story of chivalry and courtly romance told by the Franklin

When the young and sensitive Auguste Saint-Clair notices an Etruscan vase on the mantelpiece of his beloved Mathilde, he becomes gradually consumed by jealousy at the thought that it could be the gift of another man, and the situation escalates dramatically as he demands proof from her that she loves only him • A classic piece of French short fiction, ‘The Etruscan Vase’ is here presented alongside three other stories: ‘The Vision of Charles XI’, a dark tale of premonition set in the Swedish royal palace, ‘Tamango’, an account of a slave-ship revolt, and ‘The Blue Room’, a supernatural farce and one of Merimee’s final works; as well as two non-fiction pieces: ‘A Hanging’, a description of a real-life public execution, and ‘H.B.’, a tribute to Stendhal

In the Twilight, the third collection of short stories compiled by Anton Chekhov himself, was his first major success and won him the prestigious Pushkin Prize when it was published in 1887. This volume represents a clear milestone in the writer's passage from the youthful Antosha Chekhonte, author of slight comic sketches, to the mature master of the short-story genre

Inspired by Boileau's Lutrin and illustrating the debate within European intellectual circles between the "Ancients", who argued that all essential knowledge was to be found in classical texts, and the "Moderns", who claimed that contemporary learning superseded the old sources, The Battle of the Books shows Swift at his wittiest and most trenchant. In this early satire, various books in St James's Library take on a life of their own and come into conflict with one another, in a pastiche of the heroic epic genre • As well as providing humorous reflections on the nature of scholarship and education, Swift seizes the opportunity to take swipes at several authors and critics. The result is a timeless and entertaining parody by one of the most enduringly popular writers in the English language

Roberta, Phyllis and Peter have their comfortable lives in London thrown into disarray by the unexpected disappearance of their father. They are forced to move to a small cottage in the countryside with their mother, who struggles to make ends meet by writing books. The children find solace in a stretch of railway track and the station nearby, and befriend the railway porter, who teaches them about running the station, and an old gentleman who takes the 9.15 train every day. Through this love of the trains they are led on many exciting adventures, including a quest to discover the secret of their father's disappearance • One of the most popular children's books ever written, E. Nesbit's tale has enchanted generations of readers since it was first released in 1906

Meet Miss Charlotte… a modern Mary Poppins who wears a large hat and a crumpled dress that maker her look like a scarecrow, and she talks to a rock! • When the mysterious and eccentric Miss Charlotte arrives in the village of Saint-Anatole to take over the tiny library, the locals are surprised to find out that she does things differently. Wearing a long blue dress and a giant hat, she takes her books out for a walk in a wheelbarrow and shows the children that reading can be fun and useful. Sometimes she is so caught up in the magic of the stories she shares with her audience that she forgets all sense of reality – so much so that one day she loses consciousness and the children must find a way to bring her back • The second in Dominique Demers’s popular Adventures of Miss Charlotte series, The Mysterious Librarian, brilliantly illustrated by Tony Ross, is a wonderful story about the magical and inspiring power of books

The founding father of modern Russian literature, Alexander Pushkin has exerted - through his novel in verse Eugene Onegin, his plays, his short stories and his narrative poetry - a long-lasting influence well beyond the borders of his motherland. A slightly lesser-known, but by no mean less important aspect of his writing is his vast production of shorter verse, a genre at which he excelled and arguably still remains unsurpassed • This volume, part of Alma's series of the complete poetic works of Alexander Pushkin, collects the poems Pushkin wrote during his time in St Petersburg as a young intellectual and his subsequent stay in the Caucasus and the Crimea, and includes many signifi cant poems of his early maturity, such as "My Homeland", "Something or Nothing?" and "A Storm", each presented in a verse translation opposite the original Russian text

Миссис Рэмзи обещает своим гостям, что на следующий день они вместе отправятся к маяку, вид на который открывается из окон их летнего домика. Однако этот визит состоится лишь спустя десять лет, за которые семье Рэмзи придется пережить войну и горе утраты. Это путешествие позволит героям познать себя • Данное издание является частью серии Alma Classics и Virginia Woolf Collection и содержит критический аппарат и материалы для дополнительного чтения, в том числе фотографии и примечания • По мотивам произведения был снят фильм «На маяке» • Книга на английском языке • When Mrs Ramsay tells her guests at her summer house on the Isle of Skye that they will be able to visit the nearby lighthouse the following day, little does she know that this trip will only be completed ten years later by her husband, and that a gulf of war, grief and loss will have opened in the meantime

The adventures of Mowgli, the young man raised by wolves in the jungles of Central India, and his friends Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther and Kaa the python, as they face the arch villain Shere Khan the tiger, have become so popular that they have achieved an almost mythical status throughout the world. They were collected by Kipling in The Jungle Book and its sequel, The Second Jungle Book, which also contain other stories set in India which prominently feature animals, such as the well-known "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", which describes the struggles of a mongoose against venomous cobras • Here presented with brand-new illustrations by Ian Beck, these hugely popular tales, inspired by ancient fables and Kipling's own experiences in India, form a vivid account of the relationship between humans and nature, and will continue to inspire readers young and old

This collection of lesser-known early short fiction - ranging from absurd humorous sketches to psychological dramas and tragic tales - demonstrates Anton Chekhov's mastery of the genre, with stories about marital infidelity, betrayal, deception and love in its various forms. Although varying m tone and purpose, what these tales have in common is a profound and subtle understanding of the human condition, in its farcical and melancholy aspects, couched in Chekhov's trademark minimalist style

In this poignant memoir, Naina Yeltsina, the wife of the first president of Russia, recounts the compelling story of her life, from her earliest childhood memories and the time when she met and became engaged to Boris Yeltsin, her companion of over fifty years, to the birth of her daughters and her experiences as First Lady of Russia • Always shy of the limelight, and rarely giving interviews when her husband was in office, Naina Yeltsina provides the reader with a glimpse into her personal life, whilst offering at the same time a behind the scenes look at the epochal events that unfolded around her, including the first Russian presidential elections, the August 1991 coup and the fall of the USSR. Rich with intimate details and full of anecdotes, My Life with Boris is the chronicle of a life lived at the very heart of twentieth century history

In June 1862, Dostoevsky left Petersburg on his first excursion to Western Europe. Ostensibly making the trip to consult Western specialists about his epilepsy, he also wished to see firsthand the source of the Western ideas he believed were corrupting Russia. Over the course of his journey he visited a number of major cities, including Berlin, Paris, London, Florence, Milan, and Vienna. His impressions on what he saw, "Winter Notes on Summer Impressions", were first published in the February 1863 issue of Vremya (Time), the periodical he edited