Alma Books A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder De Mille James

One of Stevenson’s most famous and enduringly popular works, the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde describes the mysterious relationship between a respectable and affable doctor and his brutal associate. Set in the grimy streets of Victorian London, this tale of murder, split personality and obscure science, with its chilling final revelation, became an instant horror classic when it was first published in 1886, and has enthralled and terrified generations of readers ever since • This volume also contains seven other Gothic stories by Stevenson – such as ‘The Body Snatchers’, ‘Markheim’ and ‘Olalla’ – showcasing the author’s mastery of the horror genre and his interest in both the otherworldly and the strange ways the human brain can distort reality

Alphonse, a young Walloon officer, is travelling to join his regiment in Madrid in 1739. But he soon finds himself mysteriously detained at a highway inn in the strange and varied company of thieves, brigands, cabbalists, noblemen, coquettes and gypsies, whose stories he records over sixty-six days. The resulting manuscript is discovered some forty years later in a sealed casket, from which tales of characters transformed through disguise, magic and illusion, of honour and cowardice, of hauntings and seductions, leap forth to create a vibrant polyphony of human voices. Jan Potocki (1761-1812) used a range of literary styles - gothic, picaresque, adventure, pastoral, erotica - in his novel of stories-within-stories, which, like the Decameron and Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, provides entertainment on an epic scale

The incredible new novel from internationally bestselling author of The Alchemist. After lying undiscovered for over 700 years, a manuscript holding the answers to a city's final questions is unearthed from a cave in Cairo. Centuries before, on the eve of the invasion of Accra, the citizens gathered. A man stood before them and invited the people share their fears that he might offer hope and comfort. His extraordinary insights on courage, solitude, loyalty and loss were transcribed and passed on. A timeless and powerful exploration of personal growth, everyday wisdom and joy

Another incredible novel from the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Alchemist • Centuries before, on the eve of the invasion of Accra, the citizens gathered. A man stood before them and invited the people share their fears that he might offer hope and comfort • His extraordinary insights on courage, solitude, loyalty and loss were transcribed and passed on • A timeless and powerful exploration of personal growth, everyday wisdom and joy

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

When Tudy’s first husband tragically dies, she takes up the offer of Tom, a family friend, to pay for her to go to study in France. After she and her benefactor become close, she agrees to marry him in Provence later that year. But as the wedding approaches, Tom discovers that his fiancee has become involved with Riccard, a dashing French pilot and his near-double • A tale of broken trust and infidelity based on Zelda Fitzgerald’s own dalliance with a French pilot, ‘Image on the Heart’ is here presented with other lesser-known stories written by Fitzgerald in the late 1920s and early 1930s, which develop many of the themes found in his novels and his more famous works of short fiction • Contains: ‘Zone of Accident’, ‘Fate in Her Hands’, ‘Image on the Heart’, ‘Too Cute for Words’, ‘Inside the House’, ‘Three Acts of Music’, ‘An Author’s Mother’, ‘“Trouble”’, ‘The Guest in Room Nineteen’, ‘In the Holidays’, ‘The End of Hate’, ‘On an Ocean Wave’, ‘The Woman from Twenty-One’ and ‘Discard (Director’s Special)’

Zazie has just received a beautiful new notebook, and decides to keep a diary. Brimming with imagination, she writes down her impressions of her cat Roudoudou, her awful cousin Lucas and her new teacher Mr Fleder – who, with his pale skin and blood-red lips, must surely be a vampire! In order to save her life and those of her classmates, Zazie must find a way to get rid of Mr Fleder – and what better way than by following the advice found in Bram Stoker’s Dracula… • Sparkling, funny and a bit wacky, How to Get Rid of a Vampire (Using Ketchup, Garlic Cloves and a Bit of Imagination) is as entertaining and original as its brave and loveable heroine

As a first-time visitor to London, De Amicis was awestruck by the bustle and magnificence of the Victorian metropolis and wrote a number of sketches in his trademark witty, observational style, which made him one of the best-selling travel writers of his age • Originally conceived as a series of newspaper articles and later published in volume form, De Amicis’s Memories of London brings back to life all the bygone charm of the capital of the British Empire. De Amicis’s impressions are paired here with a piece written by one of his contemporaries, the French writer Louis Laurent Simonin, which leaves the city’s opulence and grandeur behind and offers an uncompromising look at the poverty and squalor of its most deprived areas

In this dispassionate analysis of the act of murder, De Quincey's innovative, idio­syncratic artistic vision found space for gruesome reportage, satire, aesthetic and literary criticism, in a work strewn with examples ranging from antiquity to his own time, including the urban serial-killer John Williams • De Quincey's seminal 1827 work was greatly influential on such writers as Poe, Baudelaire and Borges, and the trace of its impact can still be found today in modern satire, black humour and crime and detective fiction

In the somnolent Flemish town of Quiquendone disagreements are unheard of, courtships might last a decade and not a ripple of activity can be seen at all. But when the mysterious Dr Ox is tasked with providing lighting for the town, strange things begin to happen: animals become aggressive, fruits grow huge in size, plants climb more vigorously and tempers flare up, leading the once phlegmatic townsfolk to bitter confrontations and pushing them to the brink of all-out violence • Verne, the acclaimed author of immortal tales of adventure and early science fiction, can be seen here in a different light, regaling readers of all ages with a light-hearted satire that, in its warnings about the dangers of scientific experimentation, has a clear and troubling resonance with our times

In A Voyage to the Moon, the narrator, after an attempt to reach the moon using vials of dewdrops, finally finds himself in what appears to be the Garden of Eden, surrounded by Biblical patriarchs. After falling foul of the prophet Elijah, he soon meets a race who walk on all fours and whose nourishment comes in the form of vapour • Published posthumously and intended mainly as a satire of its age, this imaginative and entertaining tale – here presented in a lively translation by Andrew Brown – is now considered one of the pioneering works of science fiction

In Thomas More’s hugely influential Utopia, a traveller recounts his discovery of an island nation in which the inhabitants enjoy unprecedented social cohesion and justice. The book imagines a community in which laws, personal relations and professional ambition are based on reason, in contrast with the tradition-bound superstitions of Europe, which were, in More’s eyes, impediments to equality and peaceful coexistence • One of the indicators of the profound cultural and political influence of More’s masterpiece is today’s common use of the word “Utopia” – a term he invented. This extraordinary treatise on the values of rationality and reason – here presented in a sparkling new translation by Roger Clarke and accompanied by copious notes and additional texts – questions what a philosopher can do to enact change in society, and how idealized visions can inform political practice