Witty and buoyant comedy of manners is brilliantly plotted from its effervescent first act to its hilarious denouement, and filled with some of literature's most famous epigrams. Widely considered Wilde's most perfect work, the play is reprinted here from an authoritative early British edition. Note to the Dover Edition.
F. H. Cornish Books






"This revised Norton Critical Edition, like its predecessor, is the only edition available that includes both the 1890 Lippincott's and the 1891 book version of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Under the editorial guidance of Wilde scholar Michael Patrick Gillespie, students have the opportunity to read comparatively both published versions of this controversial novel." ""Backgrounds" and "Reviews and Reactions" allow readers to gauge The Picture of Dorian Gray's sensational reception when the 1890 version appeared and to consider the heated public debate over art and morality that followed its publication. Joris-Karl Huysmans, Walter Pater, and Oscar Wilde offer a sense of the diverse opinions on these topics. Eight contemporary reviews and comments on the novel are reprinted, among them four opinions from the St. James's Gazette immediately after publication in 1890, each followed by Oscar Wilde's vehement reply." ""Criticism" includes seven new essays on the novel that reflect key changes in interpretive theory in recent years and reveal the broad range of perspectives associated with Wilde and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Simon Joyce, Donald L. Lawler, Sheldon W. Liebman, Maureen O'Connor, Ellie Ragland-Sullivan, John Paul Riquelme, and Michael Patrick Gillespie provide their varied assessments. A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography are also included."--BOOK JACKET.
The Christmas books
- 240 pages
- 9 hours of reading
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
A Kiss Before Dying
- 288 pages
- 11 hours of reading
Ira Levin's award-winning first novel reissued with a new introduction by Chelsea Cain.
Jurassic Park
- 464 pages
- 17 hours of reading
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Timeline, Sphere, and Congo, this is the classic thriller of science run amok that took the world by storm. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read “[Michael] Crichton’s dinosaurs are genuinely frightening.”—Chicago Sun-Times An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price. Until something goes wrong. . . . In Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton taps all his mesmerizing talent and scientific brilliance to create his most electrifying technothriller. Praise for Jurassic Park “Wonderful . . . powerful.”—The Washington Post Book World “Frighteningly real . . . compelling . . . It’ll keep you riveted.”—The Detroit News “Full of suspense.”—The New York Times Book Review
Handsome, ambitious Julien Sorel is determined to rise above his humble provincial origins. Soon realizing that success can only be achieved by adopting the subtle code of hypocrisy by which society operates, he begins to achieve advancement through deceit and self-interest.
One day
- 110 pages
- 4 hours of reading
The Macmillan Readers series are carefully graded from Starter to Upper Intermediate (A1-B2) to help students choose the right reading material for their ability. Our list of titles includes great stories from both contemporary and classic authors.
Doctor No
- 320 pages
- 12 hours of reading
Dr No, a sinister recluse with mechanical pincers for hands and a sadistic fascination with pain, holds James Bond firmly in his steely grasp. Bond and Honey Rider, his beautiful girl Friday, have been captured trespassing on Dr No's secluded Caribbean island. Soon, they are fighting for their lives in a murderous game of Dr No's choosing.
Why does an old builder leave all his money to a young lawyer? Who gives a government document to enemy spies? How is a young man tricked into taking a new job? What can a foreign king do when a beautiful woman from his past appears? Who can answer all these questions?
An easy-reading version of Tom Sawyer, appropriate for young readers or ELL students. Twenty-six pages of text and color illustrations.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- 394 pages
- 14 hours of reading
'All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn... There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since. Hemingway's comment is scarcely an exaggeration. While critics have argued over the symbolic significance of Huck's and Jim's voyage down the Mississippi, none has disputed the greatness of the book itself. What began modestly as 'a kind of companion to Tom Sawyer' grew under Mark Twain's hand into a work of immeasurable richness. In its distrust of too much civilisation and its concern with the way language turns dreamy and corrupt when divorced from life, it is a thoroughly modern novel. And more than modern in its hero, who is, according to T.S. Eliot, 'one of the permanent symbolic figures of fiction, not unworthy to take a place with Ulysses, Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Hamlet and other discoveries which man has made about itself.
The Signalman and the Ghost at the Trial - Beginner
- 63 pages
- 3 hours of reading
Stories in the Travelman Short Stories series take the reader to places of mystery, fantasy, horror, romance, and corners of the universe yet unexplored. In turn, readers take them on the bus or subway, slip them into briefcases and lunchboxes, and send them from Jersey to Juneau. Each classic or original short story is printed on one sheet of paper and folded like a map. This makes it simple to read while commuting, convenient to carry when not, and easy to give or send to a friend. A paper envelope is provided for mailing or gift-giving, and both are packaged in a clear plastic envelope for display. The cost is not much more than a greeting card.
The Beginning Of Everything Else
- 62 pages
- 3 hours of reading
It's the end of something simple. And the beginning of everything else. Sometimes life happens even when you're not sure you're ready for it. In Capeside, the sleepy New England coastal town where teenagers Joey, Dawson, Pacey, and Jen live, this year the river is running fast. Choices will be made, and chances will be taken. Promises will be broken, and desires revealed. https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24201...
Speedy the Flying Camel
- 24 pages
- 1 hour of reading
A Beginner Level story in a series of ELT readers comprising a wide range of titles and divided into five levels: Starter Level, with about 300 basic words; Beginner (600); Elementary (1100); Intermediate (1600); and Upper (2200). Some of the titles are also available on cassette.
Shifting into overdrive
- 61 pages
- 3 hours of reading
"Joey, Dawson, Pacey and Jen - four teenagers living in the small town of Capeside. The friends attend the same high school. And they have the same problems - life, love, school work and parents. Jen and Joey are going to a party - in New York. Dawson and Pacey want to go too. They decide to drive to the city and suprise the girls. And that is when the fun starts!" - back cover.
A Kiss Before Dying (Intermediate Level)
- 95 pages
- 4 hours of reading
A Kiss Before Dying not only debuted the talent of best-selling novelist Ira Levin to rave reviews, it also set a new standard in the art of mystery and suspense. Now a modern classic, as gripping in its tautly plotted action as it is penetrating in its exploration of a criminal mind, it tells the shocking tale of a young man who will stop at nothing--not even murder--to get where he wants to go. For he has dreams; plans. He also has charm, good looks, sex appeal, intelligence. And he has a problem. Her name is Dorothy; she loves him, and she's pregnant. The solution may demand desperate measures. But, then, he looks like the kind of guy who could get away with murder. Compellingly, step by determined step, the novel follows this young man in his execution of one plan he had neither dreamed nor foreseen. Nor does he foresee how inexorably he will be enmeshed in the consequences of his own extreme deed.
Dawson's Creek: Shifting Into Overdrive
- 64 pages
- 3 hours of reading
Joey, Dawson, Pacey and Jen - four teenagers living in the small town of Capeside. The friends attend the same high school. And they have the same problems - life, love, school work and parents. Jen and Joey are going to a party - in New York. Dawson and Pacey want to go too. They decide to drive to the city and surprise the girls. And that is when the fun starts!










