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For book lovers, not a day goes by without thoughts of their favourite quotes from books that are special to them. The Macmillan Collector’s Library planner is a true ode to the classics, bringing the magic of reading to your weekly routine.This dateless, customisable, and pocket-sized week-to-view planner offers ample space for notes and can be started at any time of year. Each two-page spread features a carefully chosen quote from a classic work of literature, alongside gorgeous illustrations – placed every fourth week – from celebrated illustrators on our list.Expect wonderful quotes throughout the year from our most beloved authors, including witty and iconic Jane Austen lines, inspirational messages from texts like the Tao Te Ching and Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, as well as a whole array of dramatic, emotional and humorous moments from beloved authors like Arthur Conan Doyle, Louisa May Alcott, Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton.

Twenty-eight entertaining tales from Japanese folklore are featured here, and everything comes with a magical twist. Monkeys, badgers and other meddlesome creatures abound, as well as fortune tellers, malevolent spirits and mysterious paintings.A man who ardently desires eternal life is taught a lesson. A couple fall in love and find each other across the centuries. More unexpected time-slips happen in ‘Urashima Taro’, where a young fisherman ends up married to a princess and lives undersea for centuries. Spirits are all around us: in ‘The Laughing Dumpling’, an elderly woman outwits a demon with a taste for her cooking. Ghostly hauntings are visited on those who have done wrong, and famous tales like ‘The Marvellous Tea Kettle’ and ‘The Bamboo Cutter and the Moon Child’ (which inspired Studio Ghibli’s Princess Kaguya) remind us that the boundary between the magical and the everyday is only too fragile.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning pocket-sized classics. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.

Ten of the world’s most famous and cherished fairy stories published in a beautiful, cloth-bound gift edition together with gorgeous, classic illustrations in colour and black and white throughout.We’ve all grown up with fairy tales, whether it be through children’s books, on screen or in modern retellings. Enchanted Tales & Happily Ever Afters is a very carefully and lovingly curated book that features ten of the most popular fairy stories in the world. Each story goes back to the source from which so much has sprung, from picture books and stage shows, to animated films and their live action interpretations.Amongst this treasure trove, you’ll find The Little Mermaid and The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm and Cinderella by Charles Perrault. Each story is accompanied by beautiful drawings and paintings from the golden age of illustration.For the child in us all, Enchanted Tales & Happily Ever Afters is a book to cherish for ever.

The touching story of The Velveteen Rabbit is a magical tale about the bond between a little boy and his favourite toy animal. It’s a story about the transforming power of love that has been enjoyed by generations since it was first published in 1922.The theme of kindness runs through this lovely collection of stories. There’s Kenneth Grahame’s Reluctant Dragon, more interested in writing poetry than being fierce; in ‘The Land of the Blue Flower’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett, a young king encourages his citizens to plant flowers; and frosty Aunt Kapp succumbs to the warmth and charm of her family. Many stories in the book are accompanied by delightful illustrations.This Macmillan Collector’s Library edition is a beautiful, cloth-bound hardback with gorgeous, classic illustrations throughout. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This anthology is edited by author and critic Nicolette Jones.

Parties and Passions is a literary celebration. Love, betrayal, sadness, humour and more are explored in this collection of party stories by classic authors.Featuring tales from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Parties and Passions shows making merry doesn’t always go to plan. Joy and disappointment, murder and mix-ups: there’s a party for everyone here. Find stories of glamorous masked balls from Edgar Allan Poe and Alexandre Dumas, ghostly wedding celebrations dreamed up by Edith Nesbit and Washington Irving, and more occasions for dancing and music in James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’ and Kate Chopin’s ‘Wiser Than a God’. Nothing happens as expected in Nella Larsen’s ‘The Wrong Man’ and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Bridal Party’, and calm gatherings descend into chaos in witty and ironic writing from Saki and Nathaniel Hawthorne.With an international range of much-loved writers from Akutagawa to Tolstoy, here is an eclectic collection of literary parties to suit every mood.The Great Gatsby, Mrs Dalloway and The Picture of Dorian Gray are also available in this Macmillan Collector’s Library series of gorgeous paperbacks featuring the greatest parties and the wildest passions in literature.

Now, for the first time, three landmark books on the world of locks and keys are available together in one handsome collection. From ancient mechanisms to master-crafted European designs and the intricate ingenuity of Persian locks, this set offers an extraordinary journey through the evolution of security and metalwork. Antique Locks and Keys – This is the most beautiful, complete, and largest book on antique locks and keys ever published. Not only are there 1,000 stunning high-resolution photos of European locks and keys from Roman times through the Industrial Revolution, with dates, dimensions, and provenance, but the detailed photos and the author’s notes allow us to examine and understand the workings of the locks’ internal mechanisms. This is a book that every lock and key collector, locksmith, and architectural restorer will want to own. Locks and Keys Throughout the Ages – Widely considered the best book ever written on the history of locks. Illustrated throughout with photos from the Lips’ Collection, it was written in 1957 by the director of one of the most important lock manufacturing companies in the world at that time (now part of the Assa Abloy Group). The author was not only a master locksmith but also a collector and was passionate about the history and development of locking mechanisms. His extensive knowledge of the field comes across on every page. Persian Locks – In this beautiful and informative book, the author shares, in over 500 photos and drawings, the most interesting examples of locks from his famous collection, first introduced to the American public by the Smithsonian. Detailed drawings clearly illustrate the workings of various locking mechanisms (e.g., barbed-spring, helical-spring, notched-shackle, hook and revolving catch, etc.). All locks are dated and the place of manufacture is given. A smaller version of this updated and expanded book was published by The Smithsonian Institution in 1976 with the title, Locks from Pre-Islamic to Twentieth Century.

Describing his collection of Essays as ‘a book consubstantial with its author’, Montaigne identified both the power and the charm of a work which introduces us to one of the most attractive figures in European literature. A humanist, a sceptic, an acute observer of himself and others, he reflects the great themes of existence through the prism of his own self-consciousness. Apparent in every line he wrote, his virtues of tolerance, moderation and disinterested inquiry amount to an undeclared manifesto for the Enlightenment, whose prophet he is. This complete edition of his works supplements the Essays with travel diaries and letters, thereby completing the portrait of a true Renaissance man.

Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching is the source of Zen Buddhism, and is probably the most broadly influential spiritual text in human history.Complete & Unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, cloth-bound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated and introduced by David Hinton. Fluent in ancient Chinese and an acclaimed poet, he skilfully reveals how remarkably current and even innovative this text is after 2500 years.According to legend, Lao Tzu left China at the age of eighty, saddened that men would not follow the path to natural goodness. At the border with Tibet, a guard asked him to record his teachings and the Tao Te Ching is what he wrote down before leaving. Lao Tzu's spirituality describes the Cosmos as a harmonious and generative organism, and it shows how the human is an integral part of that cosmos.

'An endless moral maze, introducing literature's first Romantic, Satan' John CareyIn his epic poem Paradise Lost Milton conjured up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos ranging across huge tracts of space and time. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked Adam and Eve at the centre of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his fifties - blind, bitter and briefly in danger of execution - Paradise Lost's apparent ambivalence has led to intense debate about whether it manages to 'justify the ways of God to men' or exposes the cruelty of authority.Edited with an introduction and notes by JOHN LEONARD

Told in a simple mythical style, the story of Siddhartha is an inspirational classic by Hermann Hesse, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated from German by Hilda Rosner with an introduction by John Peacock.Siddhartha, the son of a wealthy Brahmin, is unable to find peace within his own religion and community so sets off on his travels through India in search of enlightenment. First he spends time with a group of ascetics called Samanas. For a while he embraces their doctrine and rejects all worldly goods. When he hears about a man called Gotama the Buddha he leaves the Samanas. However Buddhist teaching disappoints him and he realizes that self-discovery must come from his own experiences. He rejects the spiritual life, takes a lover and becomes a rich merchant. But after some years, dissatisfied with materialism, he takes off again in search of the spiritual peace he longs for.

Candide, or the Optimist is Voltaire’s hilarious and deeply scathing satire on the Age of Enlightenment. This classic of French literature has been a bestseller for over two hundred years.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This classic of French literature features an introduction by Dr Marine Ganofsky.Young nobleman Candide lives a sheltered and comfortable life under the tutorship of the ridiculous Dr Pangloss who espouses the prevailing 18th-century philosophy of Optimism. Following an indiscretion, Candide is cast out into the world which according to Pangloss is ‘the best of all possible worlds’. But this is not so, Candide and his companions encounter nothing but ludicrous calamities in their madcap travels around the world – war crimes, earthquakes, inquisitions and chain gangs – all based with horrible closeness on real events of the 18th century.

'The Mona Lisa of literature' T. S. EliotIn Shakespeare's verbally dazzling and eternally enigmatic exploration of conscience, madness and the nature of humanity, a young prince meets his father's ghost in the middle of the night, who accuses his own brother - now married to his widow - of murdering him. The prince devises a scheme to test the truth of the ghost's accusation, feigning wild insanity while plotting revenge. But his actions soon begin to wreak havoc on innocent and guilty alike.Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by T. J. B. SpencerIntroduction by Alan Sinfield

Frederic Henry is an American Lieutenant serving in the ambulance corps of the Italian army during the First World War. While stationed in northern Italy, he falls in love with Catherine Barkley, an English nurse. Theirs is an intense, tender and passionate love affair overshadowed by the war. Ernest Hemingway spares nothing in his denunciation of the horrors of combat, yet vividly depicts the courage shown by so many. In writing A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway was inspired by his own wartime experience as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. First published in 1929, the novel made his name and remains one of his finest works. This stunning edition features an afterword by Ned Halley.Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

As well as being one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century and the recipient of the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is the greatest lyric poet that Ireland has produced.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an illuminating introduction by author and academic Dr Robert Mighall.Yeats’ early work includes the beguiling 'When You are Old', 'The Cloths of Heaven' and 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' but, unusually for a poet, Yeats's later works, including 'Parnell's Funeral', surpass even those of his youth. All are present in this volume, which reproduces the 1933 edition of W. B. Yeats's Collected Poems.

Complete and unabridged.Teeming with ideas and imagery, and with its extraordinary intensity sustained by mischievous irony and moments of exquisite beauty, Moby-Dick is both a great American epic and a profoundly imaginative literary creation.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an afterword by Nigel Cliff.On board the whaling ship Pequod a crew of wise men and fools, renegades and seeming phantoms is hurled through treacherous seas by crazed Captain Ahab, a man hell-bent on hunting down the mythic White Whale. Herman Melville transforms the little world of the whale ship into a crucible where mankind's fears, faith and frailties are pitted against a relentless fate.

In Kafka's powerful and disturbing novel, an innocent man is arrested and repeatedly interrogated for a crime that is never ever explained. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated from German by Douglas Scott and Chris Waller, and features an afterword by David Stuart Davies.On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, a young bank official named Joseph K is arrested although he has done nothing wrong and is never told what he’s been charged with. The Trial is the chronicle of his fight to prove his innocence, of his struggles and encounters with the invisible Law and the untouchable Court where he must make regular visits. It is an account, ultimately, of state-induced self-destruction presenting in a nightmarish scenario the persecution of the outsider and the incomprehensible machinations of the state. Using the power of simple, straightforward language Kafka draws the reader into this bleak and frightening world so that we too experience the fears, uncertainties and tragedy of Joseph K.

In The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald captures the flamboyance, the carelessness and the cruelty of the wealthy during America's Jazz Age.The Great Gatsby lives mysteriously in a luxurious Long Island mansion, playing lavish host to hundreds of people. And yet no one seems to know him or how he became so rich. He is rumoured to be everything from a German spy to a war hero. People clamour for invitations to his wild parties. But Jay Gatsby doesn't heed them. He cares for one person alone - Daisy Buchanan, the woman he has waited for all his life. Little does he know that his infatuation will lead to tragedy and end in murder.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition features an afterword by David Stuart Davies.

In the early 1500s five men and five women find themselves trapped by floods and compelled to take refuge in an abbey high in the Pyrenees. When told they must wait days for a bridge to be repaired, they are inspired - by recalling Boccaccio's Decameron - to pass the time in a cultured manner by each telling a story every day. The stories, however, soon degenerate into a verbal battle between the sexes, as the characters weave tales of corrupt friars, adulterous noblemen and deceitful wives. From the cynical Saffredent to the young idealist Dagoucin or the moderate Parlamente - believed to express De Navarre's own views - The Heptameron provides a fascinating insight into the minds and passions of the nobility of sixteenth century France.

Beautiful Emma Bovary dreams of love and riches but her marriage to Charles, a dull country doctor, is far from satisfying. In an attempt to escape the narrow confines of her life, she embarks on a series of passionate affairs, hoping to find the romantic ideal she always dreamed about in the arms of other men, but it soon becomes clear that she is hurtling towards tragedy . . .Gustave Flaubert’s daring portrait of adultery caused a national scandal when Madame Bovary was first published, and this masterpiece of realist literature has lost none of its impact today.This beautiful Macmillan Collector’s Library edition of Madame Bovary is translated by Eleanor Marx Aveling and features an afterword by the playwright, screenwriter and actor, Peter Harness.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector’s Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much-loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector’s Library are books to love and treasure.

Inspired by his experiences as a reporter during the Spanish Civil War, Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls tells the story of Robert Jordan, an American volunteer in the International Brigades fighting to defend the Spanish Republic against Franco. After being ordered to work with guerrilla fighters to destroy a bridge, Jordan finds himself falling in love with a young Spanish woman and clashing with the guerrilla leader over the risks of their mission.One of the great novels of the twentieth century, For Whom the Bell Tolls was first published in 1940. It powerfully explores the brutality of war, the loss of innocence and the value of human life.This stunning edition features an afterword by Ned Halley.Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

Marlowe's seven plays dramatise the fatal lure of potent forces, whether religious, occult or erotic. In the victories of Tamburlaine, Faustus's encounters with the demonic, the irreverence of Barabas in THE JEW OF MALTA, and the humiliation of Edward II in his fall from power and influence, Marlowe explores the shifting balance between power and helplessness, the sacred and its desecration.

This new volume of eight short stories offers students of German at all levels the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of contemporary literature in the original, with the aid of parallel translations.The majority of these stories have been written in the past decade, and reflect a rich diversity of styles and themes. Complete with notes, the stories make excellent reading in either language.

Not just any fantasy, horror, and science fiction author could impress H. P. Lovecraft into calling him 'unexcelled by any other writer, dead or living'. Clark Ashton Smith - autodidact, prolific poet, amateur philosopher, bizarre sculptor, and unmatched storyteller - simply wrote like no one else, before or since. This new collection of his very best tales and poems is selected and introduced by supernatural literature scholar S. T. Joshi and allows readers to encounter Smith's visionary brand of fantastical, phantasmagorical worlds, each one filled with invention, terror and a superlative sense of metaphysical wonder.

Emma Bovary is beautiful and bored, trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious spending and, eventually, in adultery. But even her affairs bring her disappointment and the consequences are devastating. Flaubert's erotically charged and psychologically acute portrayal of Emma Bovary caused a moral outcry on its publication in 1857. It was deemed so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model for his heroine; but Flaubert insisted: 'Madame Bovary, c'est moi'.

No children's library is complete without this beautiful Everyman's Library hardcover edition of the Brothers Grimm's original fairy tales.Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Tom Thumb, and Snow White (Snowdrop) are among the jewels we owe to the German Brothers Grimm, who began in the first decade of the 19th century to seek out and listen to village storytellers. The best-loved of the tales they discovered have inspired generations and are now brought together with the marvellous pictures that in 1900 first established the reputation of one of the greatest children's illustrators of all time, Arthur Rackham.Beautiful illustrations in monochrome by Arthur Rackham make this collection of famous fairy stories a wonderful and timeless gift for children's and adults alike.