The Importance of Being Earnest is one of Wilde's most famous plays. A farcical comedy set in Victorian London, rich in satire and witty dialogue, the play marked the climax of Wilde's career but also heralded his downfall. Wilde reveals the moral hypocrisy at the heart of the Victorian establishment through the literary techniques of dramatic irony parody and reversals.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson receive a letter from an informant known by the pseudonym Fred Porlock. Porlock is part of Professor Moriarty's criminal organization. The letter is written in a numeric code, and Holmes decodes the letter, which warns that John Douglas of Birlstone House is about to be murdered.

In the Emerald City of Oz we continue following adventures of Dorothy Gale and her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em who are now coming to live in Oz permanently. While they are toured through the Quadling Country, the Nome King is assembling allies for an invasion of Oz.

The story begins when Rose returns home from a long trip to Europe. Everyone has changed. As a joke, Rose lines up her seven cousins to take a long look at them, just as they did with her when they first met. The youngest accidentally mentions that the aunts want Rose to marry one of her cousins to keep her fortune in the family. Rose is very indignant, for she has decided ideas about what her future holds. From the beginning, she declares that she can manage her property well on her own and that she will focus on philanthropic work. Charlie has already decided she is marked out for him, with the approval of his mother.

Space and Time are pleased to bring you The Seagull by Anton Checkov. This classic is presented as a wonderfully presented edition with a fully interactive table of contents.

Die Waise Diona lebt gezwungenerma?en bei ihrem Onkel, Sir Hereward Grantley, und dessen Sohn Simon. Als Erinnerung an ihren Vater ist ihr nur der Dalmatiner Sirius geblieben, den sie innig liebt. Als er get?tet werden soll, l?uft Diona weg und findet bei dem Marquis von Irchester eine Anstellung. Doch durch eine seltsame Wette droht sie ihre neue Heimat zu verlieren. Wird es ihr gelingen, ihren Hund zu beschützen?

Still in mourning after the death of her father, Colonel Wallace, in a battle in India, the beautiful young Vina Wallace is astonished to receive news that not only had her heroic father saved the Maharajah of Kulhapur’s life, but also that the Maharajah has died and left jewels worth a small fortune to her dead father. And now, as her father’s only child, the jewels are hers. Vina is being looked after by her uncle and aunt and her aunt has grand ideas of shining in higher Society and being invited to parties at ancestral homes and by Queen Victoria to Windsor Castle. Unknown to Vina the news of her newly acquired fortune reaches the ears of the Duke of Quarington and his penniless brother Lord Edgar, who is desperate to find a way to repay his vast debts as the Duke is refusing to bail him out yet again. Fearing Vina will fall victim to fortune-hunters, her aunt and uncle plan to offer her hand in marriage to the dissolute Lord Edgar – an admirable solution to both families’ problems. The trouble is that Vina has vowed never to marry unless for love. Worse still she overhears the cynical Lord Edgar planning to marry Vina for her money and then to resume his life of debauchery and womanising! Is there no escape for Vina from a life without love?

Bébé Bulles aime les arcs-en-ciel. Elle en voit de partout. Et toi, est-ce que toi aussi tu les vois ? Il était une fois une petite fille prénommée Sue, qui aimait jouer avec les mots et raconter des histoires, et qui rêvait de devenir écrivain. Elle grandit et sa vie prit un tout autre chemin, mais elle continua à inventer des histoires pour ses enfants. L’une de ces histoires fut abandonnée dans un tiroir pendant 25 ans. Pendant ce temps, dans une autre partie du monde et plusieurs années plus tard, une autre petite fille du nom de Camille se passionna pour le matériel d’art et de papèterie, le dessin, et les travaux manuels. Quand cette petite fille devint adulte elle décida qu’elle voulait continuer à imaginer et créer, et faire sourire les gens ; elle devint donc illustratrice. Un jour, un peu par hasard les chemins de la conteuse d’histoires et de l’illustratrice se croisèrent, et Bébé Bulles vit le jour. Explorez son univers gai et coloré avec vos tout-petits, et aidez-les à apprendre les couleurs et à trouver des arcs-en-ciel dans toutes sortes de lieux inattendus.

Το ?χουμε ξεπερ?σει, πλ?ον, το προπατορικ? αμ?ρτημα... δεν πα?ρνουμε το ρ?λο ο?τε τη? Ε?α?, ο?τε του Αδ?μ... αλλ? του φιδιο?! ?να βιβλ?ο γεμ?το απ? σκ?ψει? και σχ?δια τη? Φρ?νσι? Γι?φκα!

The Cherry Orchard is one of the best known plays by the prolific Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. It has been translated into practically all languages and is part of the classic repertoire of all world stages. Chekhov is known for his art of subtlety, humour, stream of consciousness technique, and fine balance which is often difficult to get right. Chekhov described the play as a comedy, with some elements of farce, though Stanislavski treated it as a tragedy. Since its first production, directors have contended with its dual nature. The play concerns an aristocratic Russian landowner who returns to her family estate just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage. Unresponsive to offers to save the estate, she allows its sale to the son of a former serf. The story presents themes of cultural futility – both the futile attempts of the aristocracy to maintain its status and of the bourgeoisie to find meaning in its newfound materialism. It dramatises the rise of the middle class after the abolition of serfdom in the mid-19th century and the decline of the power of the aristocracy.

Uncle Vanya is different from Chekhov's other major plays as it is essentially an extensive reworking of his own other play published a decade earlier, The Wood Demon. By elucidating the specific changes Chekhov made during the revision process—these include reducing the cast-list from almost two dozen down to nine, changing the climactic suicide of The Wood Demon into the famous failed homicide of Uncle Vanya, and altering the original happy ending into a more problematic.

When Oedipus, King of Thebes, realized he had married his own mother and had two sons and two daughters with her, he blinded himself and cursed his sons to divide their kingdom by the sword. The two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, in order to avoid bloodshed, agreed to rule Thebes in alternate years. After the first year, Eteocles refused to step down, leading Polynices to raise an army of Argives captained by the eponymous Seven to take Thebes by force. This is where Aeschylus' tragedy starts.

Strepsiades complains to the audience that he is too worried about household debts to get any sleep – his aristocratic wife has encouraged their son's expensive interest in horses. Strepsiades, having thought up a plan to get out of debt, wakes the youth gently and pleads with him to do something for him. Pheidippides at first agrees to do as he's asked then changes his mind when he learns that his father wants to enroll him in The Thinkery, a school for wastrels and bums that no self-respecting, athletic young man dares to be associated with.

The protagonist, Dikaiopolis, miraculously obtains a private peace treaty with The Spartans and he enjoys the benefits of peace in spite of opposition from some of his fellow Athenians.

Trygaeus, a middle-aged Athenian, miraculously brings about a peaceful end to the Peloponnesian War, thereby earning the gratitude of farmers while bankrupting various tradesmen who had profited from the hostilities. He celebrates his triumph by marrying Harvest, a companion of Festival and Peace, all of whom he has liberated from a celestial prison.

The play begins with a strange scene—a large net has been spread over a house, the entry is barricaded and two slaves are sleeping in the street outside. A third man is positioned at the top of an exterior wall with a view into the inner courtyard but he too is asleep. The two slaves wake and we learn from their banter that they are keeping guard over a 'monster'. The man asleep above them is their master and the monster is his father—he has an unusual disease.

Inspired by the real life experiences of Rwandan refugees in the UK, the play tells the story of two people from entirely different worlds who meet at a Refugee Centre in London: Juliette is a young Rwandan asylum seeker, detemined to write a book on the genocide that killed her famiily; Simon is a middle-aged failing novelist, whose job is to help people write. The play follows their funny and touching relationship and tackles issues that face many refugees who live in the UK today. Nominated as Time Out Critics’ Choice, the play has been broadcast by the BBC World Service and was toured nationally by iceandfire in Autumn 2004 with the support of the Arts Council England.

As young children, Rudyard and his sister ‘Trix’ flourished in the brilliant warmth and colour of India. Their happiness ended abruptly when they were sent back to England to live with a strict and god-fearing foster family. Both became writers, although one lived in the shadow of the other’s extraordinary success. The name Rudyard Kipling is known to millions, but what became of his talented younger sister? She was careful to hide her secret life even from those closest to her. Mary Hamer’s fascinating novel brings both Kipling and Trix vividly to life. In this fictionalised account of their lives, she goes to the heart of the relationship between a difficult brother and his troubled sister. Hamer peels back the historical record to reveal the obsessions which fuelled Kipling and his sister. Was he really better equipped to deal with conflict, heartbreak and loss than his beloved Trix?

London 1970: Experimental psychiatrist R.D. Laing is facing eviction from his pioneering asylum in the East End’s Kingsley Hall. Local residents are up in arms – and to make matters worse, Ronnie’s revolutionary colleague David Cooper is flipping out on the roof… With his personal life going down the pan and his mental state heading the same way, Ronnie takes an acid trip to the future. His mission is to save his therapeutic collective The Philadelphia Association and secure his professional legacy. Will it be a one-way ticket to madness – or can breakdown sometimes mean breakthrough?

A kaleidoscope of stories about war, displacement, revolution and liberation taking us on an emotional journey across three continents. Based on the actors’ personal and family experiences, the stories interweave and overlap, exploring moments of joy, sadness and laughter set against key historical events over the last hundred years. Poignant, moving, funny, inspiring, this is the first piece of work created by the Visible Ensemble, dedicated to putting older performers and their rich lives centre stage.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, Joseph Conrad is celebrated as a forerunner of modernist fiction, whose innovative narrative style and anti-heroes had a significant influence on the course of English literature. This comprehensive eBook presents the only complete works of Joseph Conrad in digital format, with numerous illustrations, rare texts appearing for the first time, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Conrad's life and works * Concise introductions to the novels and other texts * ALL 19 novels, with individual contents tables * Images of how the books were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the texts * All of the collaborative works with Ford Madox Ford * Includes the rare unfinished novel SUSPENSE, available in no other collection * Special chronological ordering of the short stories * Easily locate the short stories you want to read * Includes Conrad's essays - spend hours exploring the author’s critical works * The complete memoirs - explore the author’s life in detail * Special criticism section, with 11 essays by critics such as Virginia Woolf, Henry James and John Galsworthy evaluating Conrad’s contribution to literature * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres * UPDATED with new introductions, new formatting of ALL the texts and corrections Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles CONTENTS: The Novels and Novellas ALMAYER’S FOLLY AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS THE NIGGER OF THE NARCISSUS LORD JIM THE INHERITORS TYPHOON HEART OF DARKNESS ROMANCE NOSTROMO THE SECRET AGENT UNDER WESTERN EYES CHANCE VICTORY THE SHADOW-LINE THE ARROW OF GOLD THE RESCUE THE NATURE OF A CRIME THE ROVER SUSPENSE The Short Stories THE BLACK MATE THE IDIOTS THE LAGOON AN OUTPOST OF PROGRESS THE RETURN KARAIN: A MEMORY YOUTH FALK AMY FOSTER TO-MORROW THE END OF THE TETHER GASPAR RUIZ THE INFORMER THE BRUTE AN ANARCHIST THE DUEL IL CONDE A SMILE OF FORTUNE THE SECRET SHARER FREYA OF THE SEVEN ISLES PRINCE ROMAN THE PLANTER OF MALATA THE PARTNER THE INN OF THE TWO WITCHES BECAUSE OF THE DOLLARS THE WARRIOR’S SOUL THE TALE The Essays NOTES ON LIFE AND LETTERS LAST ESSAYS The Memoirs THE MIRROR OF THE SEA A PERSONAL RECORD The Criticism JOSEPH CONRAD by Virginia Woolf MR. CONRAD: A CONVERSATION by Virginia Woolf Extract from ‘ENGLISH PROSE’ by Virginia Woolf Extract from ‘THE NEW NOVEL: 1914’ by Henry James TRIBUTES TO CONRAD by John Galsworthy REMINISCENCES OF CONRAD by John Galsworthy EXTRACT OF A LETTER by George Gissing JOSEPH CONRAD by John Cowper Powys TWO ARTICLES by Arnold Bennett JOSEPH CONRAD by Robert Lynd JOSEPH CONRAD. A PERSONAL REMEMBRANCE by Ford Madox Ford Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles