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Books in Collins Classics series

  • The Hound of the Baskervilles: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure

    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    Paperback (William Collins, July 8, 2010)
    HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.‘They all agreed that it was a huge creature, luminous, ghastly and spectral.’Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine, Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles follows the infamous Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson as they investigate the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville, whose dead body is found on the misty and desolate Devon moors.The locals blame his death on the legend of the fearsome phantom hound that they claim has haunted the Baskerville family for generations. When the heir to the Baskerville fortune, Sir Henry, also comes under threat Holmes’ detective skills are put to the test as he battles to discover the truth behind the legend and to solve one of the most macabre mysteries of his career.
  • Walden and Civil Disobedience

    Henry David Thoreau

    Paperback (William Collins, July 23, 2019)
    HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. ”― Henry David Thoreau, Walden
  • Tom Brown's School Days

    Thomas Hughes

    Paperback (William Collins, Jan. 3, 2013)
    A classic of Victorian literature, 'Tom Brown's Schooldays' has long had an influence well beyond the middle-class, public school world that it describes. An active social reformer, Hughes wrote with a freshness, a lack of cant, and a kind, relaxed tolerance which keeps this novel distinct from other schoolboy adventures.
  • 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

    Jules Verne

    Paperback (William Collins, June 11, 2019)
    HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.‘The creature’s teeth were buried in the gunwale, and it lifted the whole thing out of the water like a lion can a roebuck…’Scientist Pierre Aronnax, together with his faithful servant Conseil and the whaler Ned Land, is invited to join a hazardous voyage to the Pacific Ocean to hunt down a terrifying sea monster. But on attacking it, they discover that it is in fact an enormous submarine in disguise, commanded by the mysterious Captain Nemo. Nemo takes them on board to join his crew, and their ensuing quests, explorations and misfortunes are among the greatest adventure stories ever told.First published in 1871 to critical acclaim, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is regarded as one of Jules Verne’s finest works and a classic of the science fiction genre. It has been adaptedinto numerous films, television series, comic books and graphic novels.
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  • Heart of Darkness

    Joseph Conrad

    Paperback (William Collins, July 8, 2010)
    HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.‘The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.’At the peak of European Imperialism, steamboat captain Charles Marlow travels deep into the African Congo on his way to relieve the elusive Mr Kurtz, an ivory trader renowned for his fearsome reputation. On his journey into the unknown Marlow takes a terrifying trip into his own subconscious, overwhelmed by his menacing, perilous and horrifying surroundings.The landscape and the people he meets force him to reflect on human nature and society, and in turn Conrad writes revealingly about the dangers of imperialism.
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

    Jules Verne

    Paperback (HarperCollins Publishers, April 1, 2010)
    HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.
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  • Far from the Madding Crowd

    Thomas Hardy

    Paperback (Collins Classics, July 8, 2010)
    Bathsheba Everdene arrives in the small village of Weatherbury and captures the heart of three very different men; Gabriel Oak, a quiet shepherd, the proud, obdurate Farmer Boldwood and dashing, unscrupulous Sergeant Troy. The battle for her affections will have dramatic, tragic and surprising consequences.
  • The Bagthorpe Saga: Ordinary Jack

    Helen Cresswell

    Paperback (HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks, March 13, 2018)
    First in the super-funny classic series starring the TOTALLY unforgettable Bagthorpe family – from best-loved author Helen Cresswell.Jack’s fed up of living in the shadow of his brilliant siblings. He and his trusty dog Zero are completely ordinary while the rest of them are annoyingly gifted. So when Uncle Parker comes up with a plan to make Jack stand out, he’s more than a little excited. Can he really get away with claiming to predict the future? And will the hare-brained scheme help Jack shine, or get him noticed for all the wrong reasons?
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  • The Time Machine

    H G Wells

    Paperback (HarperCollins Publishers, Jan. 26, 2017)
    HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.
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  • The Merchant of Venice

    William Shakespeare

    Paperback (HarperCollins Publishers, Sept. 12, 2013)
    HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.
  • Through The Looking Glass

    Lewis Carroll

    Paperback (William Collins, April 1, 2010)
    HarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.'It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward.'In Carroll's sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice once again finds herself in a bizarre and nonsensical place when she passes through a mirror and enters a looking-glass world where nothing is quite as it seems. From her guest appearance as a pawn in a chess match to her meeting with Humpty Dumpty, Through the Looking Glass follows Alice on her curious adventure and shows Carroll's great skill at creating an imaginary world full of the fantastical and extraordinary.
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  • The Prince and the Pauper

    Mark Twain

    Paperback (HarperCollins Publishers, Jan. 1, 2011)
    HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.
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