Books published by publisher Vectura

The Rainbow is a 1915 novel by British author D. H. Lawrence. It follows three generations of the Brangwen family living in Nottinghamshire, particularly focusing on the individual's struggle to growth and fulfilment within the confining strictures of English social life.The Rainbow tells the story of three generations of the Brangwen family, a dynasty of farmers and craftsmen who live in the east Midlands of England, on the borders of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The book spans a period of roughly 65 years from the 1840s to 1905, and shows how the love relationships of the Brangwens change against the backdrop of the increasing industrialisation of Britain. The first central character, Tom Brangwen, is a farmer whose experience of the world does not stretch beyond these two counties; while the last, Ursula, his granddaughter, studies at University and becomes a teacher in the progressively urbanised, capitalist and industrial world that would become our modern experience.Lawrence's frank treatment of sexual desire and the part it plays within relationships as a natural and even spiritual force of life, though perhaps tame by modern standards, caused The Rainbow to be prosecuted in an obscenity trial at Bow Street magistrates’ court on 13 November 1915, as a result of which 1,011 copies were seized and burnt. After this ban it was unavailable in Britain for 11 years, although editions were available in the USA.The Rainbow was followed by a sequel in 1920, Women in Love.

Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia libri III) is Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's study of occult philosophy, acknowledged as a significant contribution to the Renaissance philosophical discussion concerning the powers of ritual magic and its relationship with religion.The three books deal with Elemental, Celestial and Intellectual magic. The books outline the four elements, astrology, kabbalah, numbers, angels, God's names, the virtues and relationships with each other as well as methods of utilizing these relationships and laws in medicine, scrying, alchemy, ceremonies, origins of what are from the Hebrew, Greek, and Chaldean context.These arguments were common amongst other hermetic philosophers at the time and before. In fact, Agrippa's interpretation of magic is similar to the authors Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola and Johann Reuchlin's synthesis of magic and religion and emphasize an exploration of nature. Unlike many grimoires of the time, before and past, these books are more scholarly and intellectual than mysterious and foreboding. These books are often read as authoritative by those interested in the occult even today.Three Books of Occult Philosophy helped perpetuate the belief in modern popular culture that the Knights Templar practiced witchcraft. It was one of the first literary works to transform the accusation of idolatry against the Order, to magic use.

Poirot Investigates is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in March 1924. In the eleven stories, famed eccentric detective Hercule Poirot solves a variety of mysteries involving greed, jealousy, and revenge. The American version of this book, published by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1925, featured a further three stories. The UK first edition featured an illustration of Poirot on the dust jacket by W. Smithson Broadhead, reprinted from the 21 March 1923 issue of The Sketch magazine.Plot summaries:The Adventure of the Western StarThe Tragedy at Marsdon ManorThe Adventure of the Cheap FlatThe Mystery of Hunter's LodgeThe Million Dollar Bond RobberyThe Adventure of the Egyptian TombThe Jewel Robbery at the Grand MetropolitanThe Kidnapped Prime MinisterThe Disappearance of Mr DavenheimThe Adventure of the Italian NoblemanThe Case of the Missing Will

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. Its narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre. Alice is feeling bored and drowsy while sitting on the riverbank with her older sister, who is reading a book with no pictures or conversations. She then notices a White Rabbit wearing a waistcoat and pocket watch, talking to itself as it runs past. She follows it down a rabbit hole, but suddenly falls a long way to a curious hall with many locked doors of all sizes. She finds a small key to a door too small for her to fit through, but through it she sees an attractive garden. She then discovers a bottle on a table labelled "DRINK ME", the contents of which cause her to shrink too small to reach the key, which she has left on the table. She eats a cake with "EAT ME" written on it in currants as the chapter closes...

Sherlock Holmes is the greatest fictional detective in the world. The hero of 56 short stories and four novels, he is so convincing that letters still arrive at 221b Baker Street seeking his help, and when it was thought that he had died in his clash with the evil Professor Moriarty (‘the Napoleon of Crime’) young men in London wore black armbands. This handsome edition, bound in real cloth, with head and tail bands, a ribbon marker, top edge gilt and a gold-blocked jacket, presents all of the short stories, many illustrated by Sidney Paget, who prepared these drawings for the original publication in The Strand Magazine. It also contains the four novels: A Study in Scarlet in which Holmes and Dr Watson first meet, The Sign of the Four, The Valley of Fear and the chilling masterpiece The Hound of the Baskervilles. Written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle between the years 1867 and 1927, the legendary Sherlock Holmes employed his mastery of deductive reasoning and expert sleuthing to solve an arraying of complex and harrowing cases.

Parker Fillmore, author of The Laughing Prince, was a collector and editor of fairy tales from Czechoslovak tales and Slavic folklore. The Laughing Prince is classified as Slavic fairy tales, but the collection is also compromised of fairy tales and folklore for Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Russia, the Ukraine, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Poland and others. His other work, Czechoslovak Fairy Tales, is another collection of fairy tales. Fillmore enjoyed the fairy tales he heard, and received a scholarship from patrons to spend time collecting these iconic tales that were part of the heritage of many he encountered in Czechoslovak and elsewhere. He referred to the tales as “charming little tales of sentiment” and called a few “full of stark simplicity and grim humor.” He also calls the tales his “own renderings” and not exactly translations, an important distinction to make. He does say, however, that he didn't invent new details, but instead made the stories his own.

Parker Fillmore, author of The Laughing Prince, was a collector and editor of fairy tales from Czechoslovak tales and Slavic folklore. The Laughing Prince is classified as Slavic fairy tales, but the collection is also compromised of fairy tales and folklore for Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Russia, the Ukraine, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Poland and others. His other work, Czechoslovak Fairy Tales, is another collection of fairy tales. Fillmore enjoyed the fairy tales he heard, and received a scholarship from patrons to spend time collecting these iconic tales that were part of the heritage of many he encountered in Czechoslovak and elsewhere. He referred to the tales as “charming little tales of sentiment” and called a few “full of stark simplicity and grim humor.” He also calls the tales his “own renderings” and not exactly translations, an important distinction to make. He does say, however, that he didn't invent new details, but instead made the stories his own.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (or, in more recent editions, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) is a novel by Mark Twain, first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. Commonly named among the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literature to be written throughout in vernacular English, characterized by local color regionalism. It is told in the first person by Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, a friend of Tom Sawyer and narrator of two other Twain novels (Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective). It is a direct sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River. Set in a Southern antebellum society that had ceased to exist about twenty years before the work was published, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing satire on entrenched attitudes, particularly racism.Perennially popular with readers, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has also been the continued object of study by literary critics since its publication. It was criticized upon release because of its coarse language and became even more controversial in the 20th century because of its perceived use of racial stereotypes and because of its frequent use of the racial slur "nigger", despite strong arguments that the protagonist and the tenor of the book are anti-racist.

She — subtitled A History of Adventure — is a novel by H. Rider Haggard (1856–1925), first serialised in The Graphic magazine from October 1886 to January 1887. She is one of the classics of imaginative literature, and one of the best-selling books of all time, with over 100 million copies sold in 44 different languages as of 2013. She was extraordinarily popular upon its release and has never been out of print. According to literary historian Andrew M. Stauffer, "She has always been Rider Haggard's most popular and influential novel, challenged only by King Solomon's Mines in this regard".The story is a first-person narrative that follows the journey of Horace Holly and his ward Leo Vincey to a lost kingdom in the African interior. There they encounter a primitive race of natives and a mysterious white queen named Ayesha who reigns as the all-powerful "She", or "She-who-must-be-obeyed". In this work, Rider Haggard developed the conventions of the Lost World subgenre, which many later authors emulated.She is placed firmly in the imperialist literature of nineteenth-century England, and inspired by Rider Haggard's experiences of South Africa and British colonialism. The story expresses numerous racial and evolutionary conceptions of the late Victorians, especially notions of degeneration and racial decline prominent during the fin de siècle. In the figure of She, the novel notably explored themes of female authority and feminine behaviour. It has received praise and criticism alike for its representation of womanhood.

Gulliver's Travels, whose full title is Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, (1726, amended 1735), is a prose satire by Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, that is both a satire on human nature and the "travellers' tales" literary subgenre. It is Swift's best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature. He himself claimed that he wrote Gulliver's Travels "to vex the world rather than divert it". The book became popular as soon as it was published. John Gay wrote in a 1726 letter to Swift that "It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery." The travel begins with a short preamble in which Lemuel Gulliver gives a brief outline of his life and history before his voyages. During his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and finds himself a prisoner of a race of tiny people, less than 6 inches tall, who are inhabitants of the island country of Lilliput. After giving assurances of his good behaviour, he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favourite of the Lilliput Court...