Kidnapped

In a story that stirs the imagination, a young chimney sweep accidentally enters a magicial water world where he meets creatures that teach him the difference between right and wrong.

Paperback. Pub Date :2012-09-13 240 English HarperCollins UK HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved. essential classics.How did the leopard get its spots Why do the tides ebb and flow How did the elephant get its trunk And how was the alphabet madeRudyard Kiplings classic collection of fables answers the great questions of animal-and humankind in a fun. eloquent and magical way -. for children and adults alike Kiplings beautifully imaginative answers echo the animal fables he heard during his childhood in India. paired with the folk tales he collected throughout his life.Kiplings enjoyment in playing with language. as well as his own delight in fatherhood. makes these stories a joy to read aloud. and children will request these tales as bedtime stories again and again. However. adults will also revel in Kiplings fanci...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.
“Vaguely she began to wonder … which of these worldly men round her was the mysterious ‘Scarlet Pimpernel,’ who held the threads of such daring plots, and the fate of valuable lives in his hands.”
In the early days of the bloody French Revolution, fleeing aristocrats are being captured and sent to the guillotine. But the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel – along with his band of English gentlemen – is outwitting the revolutionaries. Known only by his calling card, he arrives in disguise and smuggles the nobles out of danger to the safety of England. But can he guard his true identity forever, or will he give his life for his cause?

"I’m an outsider to the end of my days!"

Jude Fawley’s hopes of a university education are lost when he is trapped into marrying the earthy Arabella, who later abandons him. Moving to the town of Christminster where he finds work as a stonemason, Jude meets and falls in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead, a sensitive, freethinking "New Woman." Refusing to marry merely for the sake of religious convention, Jude and Sue decide instead to live together, but they are shunned by society and poverty soon threatens to ruin them. Jude the Obscure, Hardy’s last novel, caused a public furor when it was first published, with its fearless and challenging exploration of class and sexual relationships.

This edition uses the unbowdlerized text of the first volume edition of 1895, and also includes a list for further reading, appendices and a glossary. In his introduction, Dennis Taylor examines biblical allusions and the critique of religion in Jude the Obscure, and its critical reception that led Hardy to abandon novel writing.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.