Books published by publisher Hesperus Classics

Florence Hartley's insightful etiquette guide was first published in 1860, and yet her witty and useful advice on behaving like a lady often still rings true down the agesWhat should you do if you notice a stranger's dress is tucked up at the back? What are you meant to say if you are offered food you don't like at a dinner party? And what ought you to wear if you're invited to a ball? If these questions baffle you, fear not, for help is at hand with this beautiful, nostalgic guide. You don't need to live in the 19th century to agree that it is rude to finish someone else's jokes. Whatever the situation, you'd would like to know how to be as ladylike as possible when seasick or the best color schemes for bridesmaids' dresses, this thorough and wide-ranging book will provide sensible and succinct guidance, as well as shed light into life in the 19th century. Did you know that you could spot a lady who had laced her corset too tightly from the lack of circulation making her nose go red? This beautiful guide also contains sections on how to behave at a hotel, conduct in the street, letter writing, and table etiquette.

Florence Hartley's insightful etiquette guide was first published in 1860, and yet her witty and useful advice on behaving like a lady often still rings true down the agesWhat should you do if you notice a stranger's dress is tucked up at the back? What are you meant to say if you are offered food you don't like at a dinner party? And what ought you to wear if you're invited to a ball? If these questions baffle you, fear not, for help is at hand with this beautiful, nostalgic guide. You don't need to live in the 19th century to agree that it is rude to finish someone else's jokes. Whatever the situation, you'd would like to know how to be as ladylike as possible when seasick or the best color schemes for bridesmaids' dresses, this thorough and wide-ranging book will provide sensible and succinct guidance, as well as shed light into life in the 19th century. Did you know that you could spot a lady who had laced her corset too tightly from the lack of circulation making her nose go red? This beautiful guide also contains sections on how to behave at a hotel, conduct in the street, letter writing, and table etiquette.

The gripping memoir of the leader of the British suffragette movement who was named by Time as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th CenturyWith insight and great wit, Emmeline's autobiography chronicles the beginnings of her interest in feminism through to her militant and controversial fight for women's right to vote. While Emmeline received a good education, attending an all-girls school and being expected to conform to social norms, she rebelled against conventional women's roles. At the age of 14 a meeting of women's rights activists sparked a lifelong passion in her to fight for women's freedom and she would later claim that it was on that day she became a suffragist. As one after another of the proposed feminist bills were defeated in parliament, Pankhurst was inspired to turn to extreme actions. While she was the figurehead of the suffragette movement, it advocated some controversial tactics such as arson, violent protest, and hunger strikes. Even today there is still debate about the effectiveness of her extreme strategies, but her work is recognized as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in Britain. Her mantle was taken up by her daughters and granddaughter with her legacy still very much alive today.

The sequel to Little Women sees the March sisters grow up and experience great love and tragedy in their livesIt is three years since we last met the inimitable March sisters and much has changed since we left them as little women. Meg, the eldest and most sensible of the sisters, is preparing to marry Mr. Brooke. She no longer works as a governess, instead happily looking after her young twins, Demi and Daisy. Jo, as ever the life of any gathering, goes to live in New York as a governess. She is concerned that Laurie, the March girls' friend, may be planning to propose to her and she will have to refuse him because she doesn't love him. Beth, the sweet and kind third daughter, has never recovered from the scarlet fever and is becoming more ill by the day. And Amy, the darling baby, seems finally to be catching up with her sisters. She goes on a tour to Europe, developing her considerable artistic skills and will end up surprising them all by marrying someone the family knows very well indeed. This intriguing sequel is a more mature book that is ultimately just as uplifting as its better known prequel with a strikingly modern message of female empowerment. Includes an extended character profile of Beth.

The sequel to Little Women sees the March sisters grow up and experience great love and tragedy in their livesIt is three years since we last met the inimitable March sisters and much has changed since we left them as little women. Meg, the eldest and most sensible of the sisters, is preparing to marry Mr. Brooke. She no longer works as a governess, instead happily looking after her young twins, Demi and Daisy. Jo, as ever the life of any gathering, goes to live in New York as a governess. She is concerned that Laurie, the March girls' friend, may be planning to propose to her and she will have to refuse him because she doesn't love him. Beth, the sweet and kind third daughter, has never recovered from the scarlet fever and is becoming more ill by the day. And Amy, the darling baby, seems finally to be catching up with her sisters. She goes on a tour to Europe, developing her considerable artistic skills and will end up surprising them all by marrying someone the family knows very well indeed. This intriguing sequel is a more mature book that is ultimately just as uplifting as its better known prequel with a strikingly modern message of female empowerment. Includes an extended character profile of Beth.

A masterpiece of farcical comedy by the author of Treasure Island sees two brothers about to inherit a fortune, if only one pesky relative would adhere to the rulesMorris and John Finsbury stand to gain a lot of money if their Uncle Masterman dies, but none if Uncle Joseph dies first. So when Joseph seems to have come to an untimely end in a railway accident, a farcical sequence is set in motion. Determined to conceal the death, Morris hides the body in a barrel which he then ships to London. How will the situation resolve itself and for how long can the deception continue? First published in 1889 and adapted several time for film and musical, The Wrong Box is Stevenson at his funniest. The farce moves at a tremendous pace with Stevenson rapidly piling up train crashes, missing uncles, cases of mistaken identity, and surplus dead bodies.

A falsely accused nobleman survives years of slavery to take vengeance on his best friend who betrayed him in this classic epic novel, soon to be a new major motion pictureWhen Jewish nobleman Judah Ben-Hur comes face to face with his childhood friend Messala, it becomes apparent that they have both changed in the last few years. Messala has returned home to Jerusalem as commanding officer of a Roman legion and, when a roof tile accidentally knocks the Roman governor from his horse during a parade, Messala accuses his childhood friend of attempted assassination. In a land where summary justice prevails, Ben-Hur is sent to work on the galley ships for life, his property is seized and his family imprisoned (and destined to catch leprosy). Dodging death by chance on the slave ship, Ben-Hur survives against the odds. From then on, trained as warrior and a charioteer, he resolves to seek redemption and revenge for his family, whatever the price might be. But as prefaced by the first chapter of the book, Jesus and Ben-Hur’s lives are unfolding in parallel. How far will Ben Hur be able to take his lust for revenge? Will the Roman authorities’ reprisals or Jesus’ influence interfere before he achieves his goal? In the end, Ben Hur proves to be the ultimate tale of plotted revenge, compassion, and forgiveness.

Follow the tangled web of relationships and emotions of the Dark and Penhallow families in this endearing classic, from the author of Anne of Green GablesAunt Becky's will is proving problematic. She has left the most precious of her possessions, an antique jug, to one of her beneficiaries—but has stipulated that the person may only be identified after a year has elapsed, once all of the family members have striven to live up to Aunt Becky's ideals. But the Dark and the Penhallow families are complex and numerous indeed—over three generations, 60 members of the Penhallow family have married 60 members of the Dark family, creating a tangled web of relationships and emotions. What lengths will family members go to to win the heirloom, and can anyone live up to what Aunt Becky would have wanted? The tumultuous and intertwined personal and love lives of the Penhallows and Darks makes makes for entertaining reading in this cleverly crafted novel, characterized by Montgomery's piercing evaluations of character and skill of description.

Discover three unlikely heroines in a collection from the master of the Jazz Age. Featuring "The Ice Palace," "The Jelly Bean," and"Bernice Bobs Her Hair," these selections were chosen to illustrate Fitzgerald's complex female characters.Sally Carrol Happer is bored with her life in small-town Georgia. Pledging to marry a man from the north, and unswayed by her friends’ dismay, Sally Carrol decides to spend the winter up north in order to get to know the family of her intended. But Sally Carroll will soon realize that her dreams of reinventing her life in the chilly northern latitudes might end in a nightmare instead. Bernice from Wisconsin is staying with her trendy cousin Marjorie. Desperate to fit in, Bernice agrees to let her cousin turn her into a society girl, and learns how dance and flirt with boys. But her party piece proves to be her promise to follow the latest fashion and bob her hair—a promise she will live to regret as events take a radical turn for the worse and the girls show their true destructive colors. The beautiful Nancy Lamar wonders if she will be enough to persuade woman-hating Jim Powell to mend his ways. Publicly and drunkenly declaring her love for him towards the end of the evening, she causes Jim to reflect seriously on his life—but will long-lasting change be possible in a Fitzgerald’s fickle world?

Spanning the childhood and burgeoning adulthood of three young people, this stunning evocation of 19th-century South Africa is a coming-of-age classic and an early feminist and modernist novelLyndall is a feisty young girl with an independent spirit who is frustrated by the limited options open to her as a girl in South African society. She is the polar opposite of her cheerful, chubby cousin Em, who aspires to get married and settle down. The third child in the trio is Lyndall’s best friend, Waldo, a thoughtful little boy who questions everything about the world around him except his affection for Lyndall. The children’s bucolic lives on the veld are disrupted by the arrival of Bonaparte Blenkins to the farm, a confidence trickster who is keen to seduce Em’s stepmother in order to take over the farm. Only Lyndall has the self-confidence to stand up to Bonaparte’s cruelty, but ultimately his actions will echo throughout their lives forever. As the children grow up, they fall in love, move away, move back, and ultimately find meaning in their lives, despite the tragedies they endure. An instant bestseller on its publication in 1883, this book was far ahead of its time in its portrayal of women in society, and it retains its power more than a century later. Tackling themes of religion, philosophy, unrequited love, and fate, it helped transform the shape and course of the late Victorian novel and is a classic of South African literature.

Journey to Oz with new heroes Cap'n Bill and Trot, who, with the help of the Scarecrow, overthrow the cruel King Krewl of JinxlandCap'n Bill, a sailor with a wooden peg-leg, and his friend, a little girl named Trot, set out on a calm day in California for a short trip in their rowing boat. Rapidly, however, the weather takes a turn for the worse and an enormous storm develops, washing them overboard. Rescued by mermaids, they are taken to a nearby cave. Thereafter Cap'n Bill and Trot encounter a variety of characters: the strangely shaped, ostrich-like Ork; the Bumpy Man, who deals in sugar and molasses; and Button Bright, a young boy in a sailor's outfit who constantly gets lost. With the aid of some friendly birds and magical berries, the group is eventually carried safely across the deadly desert to Oz. However, things rapidly take a turn for the worse as the motley group finds themselves in Jinxland, a country riven by political intrigue and instability, and currently ruled by the infamous Krewl. Will Glinda be able to help depose the despot Krewl and save the lives of Cap'n Bill and the Princess?