Des Esseintes is a decadent, ailing aristocrat who retreats to an isolated villa where her indulges his taste for luxury and excess. Veering between nervous excitability and debilitating ennui, he gluts his aesthetic appetites with classical literature and art, exotic jewels (with which he fatally encrusts the shell of his tortoise).

The cult novel of fin de siecle decadence that inspired Oscar Wilde

The definitive companion to the POIROT novels, short stories, films and TV appearances, now revised and updated.

'Wharton's dazzling skills as a stylist, creator of character, ironical observer and unveiler of passionate, thwarted emotions have earned her a devoted following' Sunday TimesNewland Archer and May Welland are the perfect couple.

Mathieu Delarue, a philosophy teacher, has so far managed to contain sex and personal freedom in separate compartments. But now he is in trouble, trying to raise 4,000 francs to procure a safe abortion for his mistress, Marcelle. Beyond all this, filtering an uneasy light on his predicament, rises the threat of the coming of the Second World War.

When her family becomes impoverished after a disastrous financial speculation, Agnes Grey determines to find work as a governess in order to contribute to their meagre income and assert her independence. But Agnes' enthusiasm is swiftly extinguished as she struggles first with the unmanageable Bloomfield children.

In Agnes Grey Anne Bronte drew on her own experiences as a governess, trying to cope with unmanageable children with little respect from her employer. It combines a wonderful study of Victorian responses to children with a story of romantic love, and this new edition does full justice to its fictional as well as its autobiographical qualities.

Set in the dramatic northern landscape made familiar by the author's more famous sisters, this title tells the story of Helen Graham, a mysterious single woman who rents the semi-ruinous Hall of the title.

Newly discovered letters by Lewis Carroll, an expanded selection of diary excerpts, and a wealth of new biographical materials are some of the features of this revised Norton Critical Edition.