Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. The Wordsworth Classics’ Shakespeare Series presents a newly-edited sequence of William Shakespeare’s works. The textual editing takes account of recent scholarship while giving the material a careful reappraisal.

This play has been widely acclaimed as Shakespeare’s most powerful tragedy. Elemental and passionate, it encompasses the horrific and the heart-rending. Love and hate, loyalty and treachery, cruelty and self-sacrifice: all these contend in a tempestuous drama which has become an enduring classic of the world’s literature.

In the theatre and on screen King Lear continues to challenge and enthral.

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With an Introduction by Paul Wright. ‘What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth’ So wrote the Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) in 1817. This collection contains all of his poetry: the early work, which is often undervalued even today, the poems on which his reputation rests including the ‘Odes’ and the two versions of the uncompleted epic ‘Hyperion’, and work which only came to light after his death including his attempts at drama and comic verse.

It all demonstrates the extent to which he tested his own dictum throughout his short creative life. That life spanned one of the most remarkable periods in English history in the aftermath of the French Revolution and this collection, with its detailed introductions and notes, aims to place the poems very much in their context. The collection is ample proof that Keats deservedly achieved his wish to ‘be among the English Poets after my death’

The Complete Poems of John Keats – 9781853264047

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Introduction, Notes and Bibliography by Dr Bruce Woodcock, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Hull. William Blake was an engraver, painter and visionary mystic as well as one of the most revolutionary of the Romantic poets. His writing attracted the astonished admiration of authors as diverse as Wordsworth, Ruskin, W.B.Yeats, and more recently beat poet Allen Ginsberg and the ‘flower power’ generation.

He is one of England’s most original artists whose works aim to liberate imaginative energies and subvert ‘the mind-forged manacles’ of restriction. This volume contains many of his writings, including: ‘Songs of Innocence’, ‘Songs of Experience’, ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’, and a generous selection from the Prophetic Books including ‘Milton’ and ‘Jerusalem’.

The Selected Poems of William Blake – 9781853264528

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When members of a local hunting club are found murdered, Duszejko becomes involved in the investigation. By no means a conventional crime story, this existential thriller by ‘one of Europe’s major humanist writers’ (Guardian) offers thought-provoking ideas on our perceptions of madness, injustice against marginalized people, animal rights, the hypocrisy of traditional religion, belief in predestination – and caused a genuine political uproar in Tokarczuk’s native Poland.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczuk – 9781913097257

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The Awakening is a strikingly modern, evocative story of self-discovery and female emancipation, set in the sensuous environment of Southern Louisiana, where the young Edna Pontellier reclaims her own individuality, refusing to be defined by her roles of wife and mother. Chopin’s stories are brilliantly observed, compassionate and often humorous, alert to the foibles, weaknesses and small triumphs of her characters.

Overshadowed by the relatively recent fame of The Awakening, they contain some of the best work of this remarkably original author.

The Awakening and Selected Stories – Kate Chopin – 9781840225846

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Bathroom salesman Matt is at a crossroads. He has lost his job, he is about to be made homeless and his girlfriend has left him.

He wants his luck to change and he wants things to go back to how they were. Out of the blue he is offered a job that comes with a free luxury apartment. He hopes this might be enough to tempt her back.

But, as events unfold, it starts to dawn on him that perhaps she didn’t leave of her own accord after all…?

The Long Shoe – Bob Mortimer – 9781398548084

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Exiled daughter, abandoned wife, vengeful mother. But is that where the truth lies?

Jason and his Argonauts set sail to find the Golden Fleece.

The journey is filled with danger, and if Jason ever reaches the distant land he seeks, he faces almost certain death. Medea – priestess, witch, and daughter of the brutal king who jealously guards the fleece – has the power to save Jason’s life. Will she betray her family and her home?Burning with desire for this stranger, as the gods intend, Medea chooses Jason over her kin.

But their love is steeped in vengeance from the beginning, and no one – not even those closest to them – will be safe when their passion is spent . . .

Based on the classic tragedy by Euripides, this is Medea as you’ve never seen her before . . .

No Friend to This House – Natalie Haynes – 9781529061567

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How is it possible for one woman to hold it together when she’s:

• Confronted with a racing biological clock when she doesn’t even know if she wants kids.
• Trying to act normal when her heart is smashed into a million pieces.
• Ten times smarter than the people she’s working for.
• Priced out of the housing market in the place she grew up.
• Stuck in a situationship when all she wants is the love of her life back . . .

Award-winning author Candice Carty-Williams returns with a scalpel-sharp, poignant and hilarious new book that shines a dazzling light on the realities of modern womanhood.

Queenie is Working on It – Candice Carty-Williams – 9781409198987 (trade paperback)

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On an abandoned Yorkshire farm, a group of hippie-anarchists have taken up residence to build a new society. When their leader is brutally bludgeoned with a solid gold bar, an ambitious young journalist sets out to uncover the truth behind the attack. The longread exposé she writes goes viral – but is there more to the story than meets the eye?Universality unravels the messy aftermath of that exposé through the perspective of each of the mystery’s key players: a self-pitying banker, a columnist with secrets, a cult leader with dreams, and a fugitive with nothing left to lose.

Universality by Natasha Brown – 9780571389032

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To the outside world, Teddy seems to have things sorted. A senior editor at a music magazine before turning 30, he’s smart, practical and dependable. He’s the one his friends turn to for support when things become complicated. His old school friends Kain and Nathan have their fair share of issues.

Kain is trying to get his music career back on track, while struggling to come to terms with his sexuality. And Nathan is still living with his parents, while working three jobs to help bring up his son. For none of them, however, are things more complicated than they are for Birch. Wayward, unpredictable and impossible not to love, Birch veers impulsively from one calamity to the next but, whenever things get really bad, one person is always there to help him pick up the pieces. But what if things were to get so bad that even Teddy couldn’t fix them? And who would be there to fix Teddy if they did?

Set in the London of 2012 with a supporting cast of normal and extraordinary characters, White Spaces tells, with Mensah’s inimitable warmth and humour, the story of four young Black men coming of age in a city on the cusp of change.

It poses challenging questions about the way we were and the world we were creating, while always holding on to a powerful belief in the strength of love and friendship to overcome the worst that life can throw at us.

White Spaces is an unforgettable novel that cements Mensah’s reputation as one of the most exciting young British novelists working today. Hilarious, heartbreaking and hopeful

White Spaces – Elvin James Mensah – 9781398514928

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