Books in Essential Classics series

A new edition of Hodgson's seminal genre-breaking novel, The House on the Borderland is the story of two English Gentlemen vacationing in the loneliest recesses of the Irish countryside, who stumble upon a strange, frantic journal in the scattered ruins of an ancient house clinging desperately to the edge of a forbidding, endless pit that has remained taboo to the suspicious local villagers for generations. It contains the memoires of the former resident, struggling to maintain his sanity as he is besieged by vicious demons, transported forward in time to the end of the universe, and even forced to watch his own death. Bringing readers far beyond the outer reaches of human perception and back with its unique, fluid style of impressionistic, pathological Weird Fiction, it is no small wonder that this is the novel that most strongly influenced H.P. Lovecraft's direction and style.

Retold for younger readers, Charles Dickens' classic tale looks at London and Paris leading up to, and during, the dramatic upheavals of the French RevolutionAfter being released from Bastille prison, Doctor Manette is reunited with his daughter, Lucie, in London. When Lucie falls in love with and marries a French émigré, terrors return to haunt the family as France suffers the convulsions of revolution. From the tranquil lanes of London, they are all drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine. This retelling has been shortened and illustrated for younger readers.

Little Women, by Louisa M Alcott, was published in 1868 and was the first children's book in America to become a classic. It tells the story of March girls - Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, describing the ups and downs of one eventful year in their family life. Essential Classics is a wonderful new series that offers a quick way into a range of exciting stories. Fast-moving and accessible, each story is a shortened, dramatically illustrated version of the classic novel, which loses none of the strength and flavour of the original. Includes glossary and a reading quiz.

Robert Lewis Stevenson's classic story of a young orphan's adventures involving kidnapping, shipwreck, murder, and pursuit, retold for younger readersKidnapped is set in Scotland in 1751. It tells the story of David Balfour, a newly-orphaned young boy who is cheated out of his inheritance by his uncle and kidnapped. Amid the conflict between the Jacobites and supporters of King George II, David is falsely accused of murder and must flee for his life. Stevenson's classic adventure story is as compelling now as when it was first published in 1886. This retelling has been shortened and illustrated for younger readers.

Charlotte Brontë's classic story of a young girl's passage into adulthood, retold for younger readersJane Eyre, written in 1847, is an extraordinary coming-of-age narratives of the orphan Jane Eyre, her terrible schooling, and her time as a governess at brooding Thornfield Hall. Here she falls in love with its owner, Mr. Rochester, and discovers his terrible secret. This retelling has been shortened and illustrated for younger readers.