Showing results by publisher "The Copyright Group" in Literature & Fiction

Tropic of Cancer is regarded as a masterpiece, with Time magazine rating it as one of the 100 most important novels of the 20th century. It is an unforgettable, confessional, warts and all novel of the author and his friends riotous adventures in Paris during the Depression. It changed censorship laws in the US where it was published decades after it was written, and reading it today amplifies the debt that modern writers owe Miller.

Introduction and Notes by Dr Ian Littlewood, University of Sussex. Pride and Prejudice, which opens with one of the most famous sentences in English Literature, is an ironic novel of manners. In it the garrulous and empty-headed Mrs Bennet has only one aim - that of finding a good match for each of her five daughters. In this she is mocked by her cynical and indolent husband.

Anais Nin is undoubtedly a great writer. In Delta of Venus she welcomes us into a world of new experiences where she demands that 'sex be mixed with tears, laughter, promises....new faces, dancing and wine.' This ground breaking collection of stories explores aspects of female sexuality long unexposed until Anais opened what she herself was to call 'that Pandora's box.' It is brave, fearless and compelling.

Tropic of Capricorn is the sequel to Tropic of Cancer but stands alone as a fascinating account of Miller's early life in 1920's New York. As with the other Tropic it is a landmark masterpiece that was also banned on grounds of obscenity in the US. Henry Miller is undoubtedly one of America's greatest writers of the twentieth century whose contribution to literature and free speech still remain relevant and fascinating.

Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends George and Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a ‘T’. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable weather-forecasts and tins of pineapple chunks – not to mention the devastation left in the wake of J.’s small fox-terrier Montmorency.

Based in a mining village in Wales at the turn of the 19th century, How Green Was My Valley catches the impossible dilemmas that were created in society's irreversible shift from pastoral to industrial through Huw, the youngest son of seven. Loyalty, education, economics and manhood are examined in this pre union tightly knit mining community. Sentimentalised with lots of atmosphere this is a moving account of an important chapter in British history that affects every corner of the world.

Anais Nin wrote her diary at the end of 1931, at the close of a sexually tumultuous and emotional year as part of a ménage a trois with fellow writer Henry Miller and his beautiful wife June Mansfield. 'I really believe that if I were not a writer, not a creator, not an experimenter, I might have been a very faithful wife.' Nin's passionate and consuming relationship with Henry & June transformed a previously monogamous wife into an uninhibited and sexually liberated woman.

Jules Verne’s career as a novelist began in 1863, when he struck a new vein in fiction—stories that combined popular science and exploration. In Around the World in Eighty Days, Phileas Fogg rashly bets his companions £20,000 that he can travel around the entire globe in just eighty days—and he is determined not to lose. Breaking the well-established routine of his daily life, the reserved Englishman immediately sets off for Dover, accompanied by his hot-blooded French manservant, Passepartout.

Rumi, claimed as the national poet of Iran, Turkey & Afghanistan had an early life dedicated to scholarly studies. He only started to write poetry after encountering a holy man called Shams whose subsequent death instilled a profound grief in Rumi and an outpouring of many thousands of verses in Persian. He also intrinsically linked with Sufism.

Scottish poetry is a powerful, beautiful expression of Country and Culture. It’s proud history includes such figures as Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson and many other illustrious figures. This volume of poetry is a perfect compendium of the words and works of Scotland.

As private as she was eccentric, Emily Dickinson published only a handful of poems in her lifetime. Most of her work, much of which dealt with themes of death and immortality, was published posthumously, to mixed reviews. But it would be her unconventional poetic style, which was most criticized early on, that would ultimately gain her recognition as one of the greatest American poets of all time. Here, a lovely sampling of the poems of Emily Dickinson is presented for your listening pleasure.

Edmond Dantès, an innocent young sailor, falls into despair when he is arrested on a false charge of treason and thrown into prison without a trial. He learns of his friends' betrayal from the Abbé Faria, an equally innocent prisoner, and plots his revenge following a daring, if nightmarish escape from the Chateau d'If. After becoming a wealthy man, he assumes the guise of the urbane Count of Monte-Cristo and begins to entrap his enemies one by one.

Richard Hannay finds a corpse in his flat, and becomes involved in a plot by spies to precipitate war and subvert British naval power. The resourceful victim of a manhunt, he is pursued by both the police and the ruthless conspirators. The Thirty-Nine Steps is a seminal chase thriller, rapid and vivid. It has been widely influential and frequently dramatised: the film directed by Alfred Hitchcock became a screen classic.

Settled in Germany in a Stalag-like hut on a desolate building site, a very long way from home, the three 'likely lads' from Newcastle ricochet from one disaster to another, with their four very unlikely companions - a gentle giant from Somerset, an over-sexed Cockney, a bike-riding Brummie and a dodgy Scouser.... An exceptionally talented actor, Christopher Fairbanks brings The Magnificent Seven to life with great warmth and humour.

A local hero, Dr Wayne Phillips, dies because the equipment that could save him is being used to help Bob Merrick, a spoiled rich man who has wrecked his speed boat. Dr Phillips gave selflessly and in secret to many people and causes, which Merrick now takes up too. However his efforts end in failure and also alienate Dr Phillips' widow, Helen, with whom he is besotted.

Henry Miller is undisputedly one of the most important American writers and Sexus like his other works was banned in English speaking countries for obscenity. It explores work, love and friendship and as with all his work is based on autobiographical experiences- in this book his passionate affair with a dance hall hostess in NY that is recounted in intimately graphic and vivid detail.

WB Yeats. The name alone is synonymous with Ireland and its rich traditions of words used well. As well as being considered one of the greatest of the 20th Century English language poets he was elected to the Irish Senate and won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Edgar Allan Poe is considered the greatest of all writers of macabre stories, was born in Boston, Massachesetts, in 1809. His father, an Irish-American actor, died the following year, and his mother, an English actress, the year after, in Richmond, Virginia. John Allan, a wealthy Richmond merchant, adopted him. When he was 7, the Allans moved to England, sending him to school at Stoke Newington, at age 12 they moved back to Richmond.

Thanks to the mindless actions of Teddy Deakin, a group of mismatched rail passengers find themselves stranded in a dark and isolated station, having missed the last connection of the night. Tales of superstition prevail as the local station master - unable to persuade them to leave - reveals that very night, 20 years ago, a train crashed leaving a number of passengers dead. Legend has it, that the station is still haunted as the train relives its final moments as it roars through the station to its demise.

These five chilling tales make perfect night time listening - and, for the fearful, can be heard in a group, rather than experienced as solo bedtime reading. Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, W. L. George, A. M. Burrage, and Guy de Maupassant provide the terrifying text; Ian Holm and Julie Peasgood provide the spoken spooks.