Fiction - Classics

A penetrating study of ordinary people resisting the Nazi occupation - and, true to its title, a dark comedy of wartime manners - Comedy in a Minor Key tells the story of Wim and Marie, a Dutch couple who first hide a Jew they know as Nico, and whose body they must then dispose of when he dies of pneumonia. This novella, first published in 1947 and now translated into English for the first time, shows Hans Keilson at his best: deeply ironic, penetrating, sympathetic, and brilliantly modern. In 2008, when Keilson received Germany's... read more

 'For busy, harried or distractible readers who have the time and energy only to skim the opening paragraph of a review, I'll say this as quickly and clearly as possible: The Death of the Adversary and Comedy in a Minor Key are masterpieces, and Hans Keilson is a genius . . . Although the novels are quite different, both are set in Nazi-occupied Europe and display their author's eye for perfectly illustrative yet wholly unexpected incident and detail, as well as his talent for storytelling and his extraordinarily subtle and penetrating understanding of human na..read more

Ebenezer Scrooge is a mean, miserable, bitter old man with no friends. One cold Christmas Eve, three ghosts take him on a scary journey to show him the error of his nasty ways. By visiting his past, present and future, Scrooge learns to love Christmas and the people all around him. This book comes with a light-hearted introduction by bestselling author Anthony Horowitz, creator of the highly successful "Alex Rider" novels, most recently "Snakehead".

Left impoverished upon the death of her aunt, Emma Watson has no option but to be reunited with her estranged father and siblings. Initially delighted with her new life - including the fashionable society balls she now has access to - Emma soon realises that her family harbour many ill feelings, not least those springing from the sisters' hopes - and disappointments - in snaring a husband. So when the eligible and suitably rich Tom Musgrove begins to transfer his affections from her sister Margaret to her, the result can only be fu... read more

In 1960 Penguin Books were prosecuted when they tried to publish Lady Chatterley's "Lover" unexpurgated for the first time. What followed was the most talked-about obscenity trial of the twentieth century, which resulted in a 'not guilty' verdict. Penguin's successful defence of the book's literary merit was a victory of free speech, and made Lawrence's story of the affair between a married woman and her gamekeeper an instant bestseller. This special edition celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first UK publication of D.H. Lawren... read more

It was a bomb, not a book Guardian A significant turning point in history Observer No one ever wrote better about the power struggles of sex and love -- Doris Lessing

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.

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Explosive, subversive, wild and funny, 50 years on the novel's strength is undiminished. Reading Joseph Heller's classic satire is nothing less than a rite of passage. Set in the closing months of World War II in an American bomber squadron off the coast of Italy, "Catch-22" is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he has never even met keep trying to kill him. Joseph Heller's bestselling novel is a hilarious and tragic satire on military madness, and the tale of one man's ... read more

Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) is famed for his magical stories, "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass", here illustrated throughout the inner pages by Sir John Tenniel's much loved drawings. However, inspired by the insatiable Victorian appetite for party games, tricks and conundrums, this eccentric and polymathical Englishman also wrote many other works of a humorous, witty, whimsical and nonsensical nature such as the mock-heroic nonsense verse "The Hunting of the Snark", as well as dozens of other verse... read more

This title is a beautifully written and illustrated collection of Greek myths containing seventeen famous tales full of love, loss, greed, envy and bravery. Beautifully written by Ann Turnbull and illustrated by Sarah Young, this collection of seventeen Greek myths is truly something to treasure. The timeless stories of Theseus and the Minotaur, Persephone, King Midas, Ariadne, Orpheus and Eurydice, and Echo and Narcissus are told with great freshness and there is a good balance between the gentler myths and the ones packed with ... read more

A murder-mystery set in Venice, from the author of "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone".

"The Tangled Skein" is a work of fiction.

A young Italian scholar was captured by pirates and put up for auction at the Istanbul slave market. Acquired by a brilliant Turkish inventor, he is set to work on projects to entertain the jaded Sultan.

The Shawl is considered a modern classic - a masterpiece in two acts. The horror and desolation evoked through piercing imagery - first through the abomination of a Holocaust concentration camp murder, second through the eyes of the murdered child's mother, thirty years later, now 'a madwoman and a scavenger' - offers the reader a chilling insight into the empty suffering of a 'survivor'. In 'The Shawl', a woman named Rosa Lublin watches a concentration camp guard murder her child, a child barely old enough to walk. The shawl that... read more

Twelve tantalising cases for the retired private investigator Parker Pyne, who solves the personal cases that Scotland Yard won't handle!

A tale of bumbling Lord Emsworth, whose quiet life reading "The Care Of The Pig" and pottering among the flowers at Blandings Castle is shattered by an outbreak of lawlessness involving his niece Jane (the third prettiest girl in Shropshire), an airgun - and the trouser seat of the abominable Baxter.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times!' Set before and during the French Revolution in the cities of Paris and London, A Tale of Two Cities tells the story of Dr Manette's release from imprisonment in the Bastille and his reunion with daughter, Lucie. A French aristocrat Darnay and English lawyer Carton compete in their love for Lucie and the ensuing tale plays out against the menacing backdrop of the French Revolution and the shadow... read more

Published for the first time as Ernest Hemingway intended, one of the great writer's most enduring works: his classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s. Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works. Since Hemingway's personal papers were released in 1979, scholars have examined and debated the changes made to the text before publication. Now this new special restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author prepared it to be published. Featuring a personal forewor... read more

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart - one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which gives direction to the character of Man.' Including Poe's most terrifying, grotesque and haunting short stories, Tales of Mystery and Imagination is the ultimate collection of the infamous author's macabre works. Considered to be one of the earliest American wri... read more

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Clanless, lawless, homeless is he who is in love with civil war, that brutal ferocious thing.' The epic poem The Iliad begins nine years after the beginning of the Trojan War and describes the great warrior Achilles and the battles and events that take place as he quarrels with the King Agamemnon. Attributed to Homer, The Iliad, along with The Odyssey, is still revered today as the oldest and finest example of Western Literature.

In the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to appease the needs of the Party. Inwardly, he rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the watchful eye of Big Brother. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with Julia. Awakening to new possibilities, Winston begins to question the party. But what is price of freedom?