Literature

Radclyffe Hall was born in 1880 in Bournemouth in a house inappropriately named 'Sunny Lawn'. Her mother drank gin in an attempt to terminate the pregnancy, and her father fled the family home. At the mercy of a violent mother and sexually abusive stepfather, her life changed when at the age of eighteen she inherited her father's estate of GBP100,000.

She was free to travel, pursue women and write - most notably The Well of Loneliness, her famous novel about 'congenital inverts', which was declared 'inherently obscene' by the Home Secretary and banned. In this brilliantly written, witty and satirical biography Diana Souhami brings a fresh and irreverent eye to the life of this intriguing and troubled woman.

Two young women, a student named Dora and the liberated Lisa, meet each other in Athens in the late twenties and fall in love. Dora, the more introverted and thoughtful of the two, chronicles their doubly tormented love in diary form; primarily because of the social and temperamental differences between the two girls and secondly because theirs was a homosexual love in a rigidly heterosexual society. Dora Rosetti, both author and main character of the book, uses an uninhibited style and throughout her diary continuously makes reference to sexual promiscuity and drug use. The novel, published in 1929, was praised for its originality by the famous critic Grigorios Xenopoulos but soon fell into oblivion probably to avoid a scandal. In the early twenty-fist century the literary historian Christina Dunia discovered two copies of The Two Lovers, the fist in Lesbos in the personal library of the painter Takis Eleftheriadis and the second in the personal library of Constantine P. Cavafy.

'A cult figure.' Guardian'A dark and brilliant achievement.' Ian McEwan'Shamelessly clever ... Exhilaratingly subversive and funny.' Independent'A modern classic ... As relevant now as when it was first published. ' John BanvilleA young woman is in love with a successful surgeon; a man torn between his love for her and his womanising. His mistress, a free-spirited artist, lives her life as a series of betrayals; while her other lover stands to lose everything because of his noble qualities. In a world where lives are shaped by choices and events, and everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance and weight - and we feel 'the unbearable lightness of being'. The Unbearable Lightness of Being encompasses passion and philosophy, infidelity and ideas, the Prague Spring and modern America, political acts and private desires, comedy and tragedy - in fact, all of human existence. What readers are saying:'Some books change your mind, some change your heart, the very best change your whole world ... A mighty piece of work, that will shape your life forever.''One of the best books I've ever read ... A book about love and life, full of surprises. Beautiful.''This book is going to change your life ... It definitely leaves you with a hangover after you're done reading.''A must read - loved it, such beautiful observations on life, love and sexuality.''Kundera writes about love as if in a trance so the beauty of it is enchanting and dreamy ... Will stay with you forever.''A beautiful novel that helps you understand life better ... Loved it.''One of those rare novels full of depth and insight into the human condition ... Got me reading Camus and Sartre.''One of the best books I have ever read ... An intellectual love story if ever there was one.'

These forty-five stories include not only some of Faulkner's best, but also what proved to be the testing ground for what latter became such major novels as THE UNVANQUISHED, THE HAMLET and GO DOWN MOSES.

"The Upper Side of the World" is a novel. A biography of a person and a place, a life full of storms and calms in Santorini and Piraeus, yesterday and today. A life indissolubly bound up with the sea, shipping and seamanship: from the sails of the schooner, to the Liberty Ships as indemnity for the War: from neighbourhood gatherings on the Island, to travels into Europe.

Rich with wisdom and gentle irony, Goldsmith's only novel tells of an unworldly and generous vicar who lives contentedly with his large family until disaster strikes. But bankruptcy, his daughter's abduction, and the vicar's imprisonment fail to dampen his spirit. Considered the author's finest work, this book is a delightful lampoon of 18th-century literary conventions.

The second book in The Dandelion Dynasty, the epic fantasy trilogy by Ken Liu. Dara is united under the Emperor Ragin, once known as Kuni Garu, the bandit king. There has been peace for six years, but the Dandelion Throne rests on bloody foundations - Kuni's betrayal of his friend, Mata Zyndu, the Hegemon. The Hegemon's rule was brutal and unbending - but he died well, creating a legend that haunts the new emperor, no matter what good he strives to do. Where war once forged unbreakable bonds between Kuni's inner circle, peace now gnaws at their loyalties. Where ancient wisdoms once held sway, a brilliant scholar promises a philosophical revolution. And from the far north, over the horizon, comes a terrible new threat... The scent of blood is in the water.

From the acclaimed author of the dystopian classic A Clockwork Orange, The Wanting Seed is an inventive, thought-provoking and darkly absurd novel set in a work rampant with overpopulation. The Wanting Seed is part of our Penguin Essentials series which spotlights the very best of our modern classics. As governments struggle to maintain order in the face of overpopulation and food shortages and homosexuality is glorified in an attempt to further limit family sizes, Tristram Foxe and his wife Beatrice-Joanna find themselves facing dire choices. Their world transforms into a chaos of cannibalistic dining-clubs, fantastic fertility rituals, and wars without anger.

H. G. Wells' classic science fiction work, first serialized in 1897, is one of many invasion narratives prevalent in British literature towards the end of the 19th century. However, The War of the Worlds not only introduces the extraterrestrial element of brutal Martian forces on the rampage but also explores many other contemporary issues and themes.

Here then is a powerful first-person narrative that grapples with Martians, tripods, heat rays, the behaviour of crowds, love, human resilience and Woking.