Alma Books The Frozen Deep Коллинз Уильям Уилки

When Francis Raven is roused from his sleep on the eve of his birthday and confronted by the sight of a woman trying to stab him, he is unsure whether she is real or an apparition. Years later, against the wishes of his mother, he marries Alicia, a woman with a strange resemblance to the mysterious visitor, who ends up attacking him on his birthday, before vanishing from his life. Is Francis’s wife a ghost, a demon or a living human being? And will the prophecy of the night-time visitation be fulfilled one day? • Originally published in Household Words in 1855 as ‘The Ostler’, but recast and expanded two decades later, The Dream Woman is a powerfully dark and suspenseful multi-narrative novella from the master of the mystery genre and the author of some of the most enduringly popular novels of the Victorian era

An English aristocrat, Lord Montbarry, abandons his fiancee for an enigmatic countess with a dark past, before moving with her and her brother, Baron Rivar - who is rumoured to be her lover, and is fond of gambling and alchemy - into a decayed Venetian palazzo. An Italian servant disappears, and his wife receives a note containing one thousand pounds • As the palazzo is transformed into a luxury hotel, all these strands begin to come together, yet strange and macabre events are occurring, and the dead seem unable to rest • Contains notes on the text, Wilkie Collins's life and works and a select bibliography

An enjoyable 19th century read following doomed happenings and grisly, secret premonitions • An eminent doctor is visited by a desperate woman with a question: am I evil, or insane? • When the letters from Italian servant to his wife in London suddenly cease, she is convinced he has been murdered • In the darkened bedroom of a mouldering palazzo by the Grand Canal, an English lord sickens and suddenly dies • How are these little mysteries connected? Spend the night in Room 14 of Venice’s finest hotel, and find out the truth – if you dare…

When Buck is smuggled from his beloved home in the Santa Clara Valley and forced to work as a sled-dog in the frozen wilderness of the Yukon, he must forget the long, lazy Californian days and face a life of constant toil and danger under the whip of cruel or inept masters, where survival itself must be fought for. But with his primal instincts stirred, how long can Buck resist the call of the wild? • Set at the time of the Klondike Gold Rush, "The Call of the Wild" is one of the greatest evocations of the natural world, and perhaps the best example of London's famously urgent and vivid style. This edition also includes "Brown Wolf", "That Spot" and "To Build a Fire" - three Yukon tales that demonstrate London's mastery of the short-story genre

As their father is sick, Hans Brinker and his younger sister Gretel must work to support their family. Despite this life of poverty, they long to take part in the annual ice-skating races on the frozen canal, where the victors win magnificent silver skates. But how can they hope to enter the races – let alone win – when their skates are wooden and home-made? • After meeting the famous surgeon Dr Boekman, and hearing that he might be able to cure their father, Hans doesn’t hesitate in offering to pay for the necessary operation, although he has been saving up all his money to buy two pairs of swift steel skates. As the big day looms, can the children enter their respective races and win the longed-for prize? • “They are going to give a splendid prize to the best skater

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

Уилки Коллинза любят поколения читателей - за прекрасные детективы, такие как "Лунный камень" и "Женщина в белом". Однако как всякому большому писателю, Коллинзу было тесно в узких рамках жанра - "Без права на наследство" не только увлекательная детективная история с неожиданной развязкой, но и широкая панорама общественной жизни викторианской Англии, нравов ее жителей, социальных проблем и борьбы поколений. Если бы Толстой писал детективы, он написал бы "Без права на наследство"!

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

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

The Mudfog Papers, a collection of sketches by Dickens published in Bentley’s Miscellany between 1837 and 1838, describes the local politics of the fictional town of Mudfog – such as the delusions of grandeur of its mayor Nicholas Tulrumble and his disastrous attempts at putting on a public show – and the meetings of its Society for the Advancement of Everything, during which the town is overrun by illustrious scientists and professors conducting ostensibly pointless research • Written at the same time as Oliver Twist – indeed the serialized version of the novel referred to Mudfog as the protagonist’s home town – The Mudfog Papers lampoons all manner of journalistic and scientific writing of the time and showcases the young Dickens at his satirical best

The intelligent and charming Newland Archer – a member of one of New York’s most prominent families – is living the life that has always been expected of him: he is engaged to the beautiful and well-connected May Welland and understands the rarefied world of Fifth Avenue society inside out. However, with the arrival of May’s cousin, the free-spirited and unconventional Countess Ellen Olenska, Newland begins to doubt all that once seemed so natural to him • An extraordinarily well-observed dissection of New York high society in the 1870s – the world in which Edith Wharton grew up – The Age of Innocence shines a critical light on the social mores and values of the old order

The heir to his grandfather’s considerable fortune, Anthony Patch is led astray from the path to gainful employment by the temptations of the 1920s Jazz Age. His descent into dissolution and profligacy is accelerated by his marriage to the attractive but turbulent Gloria, and the couple soon discover the dangerous flip side of a life of glamour and debauchery • Containing obvious parallels with F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s own lives, The Beautiful and Damned is a tragic examination of the pitfalls of greed and materialism and the transience of youth and beauty