Showing results by publisher "Real Reads" in Literature & Fiction

Young, rich and handsome, Dorian Gray seems to have it all. So why do people who were once his friends leave the room when he enters? Can there really be any truth in the dark tales that are told about him? And why does he keep his portrait locked away in an attic room? Two men hold the answer to Dorian's secret. One is the artist Basil Hallward, who paints Dorian's portrait. The other is Lord Henry Wotton, who convinces the impressionable Dorian that youth and pleasure are the only things worth living for.

William Legrand has found a new type of bug, a golden bug, unusually heavy. His servant, Jupiter, is worried. Why is Legrand behaving so oddly? Has the bug's bite made him mad? When Legrand shows his friend a drawing of the gold-bug, it looks more like a skull. What can this mean? The arrival of the gold-bug leads the three men on an exciting adventure towards skeletons, a skull and a hunt for buried treasure.

The blackness of eternal night encompassed me. The intense darkness oppressed and stifled me so that I struggled for breath. Having been condemned to death by the Spanish Inquisition, the narrator descends into a kind of hell. Dizzy with weakness and fainting with fear, he experiences such torments that death itself would be welcome. What troubles him most is the eternal question: how will he die? Toledo Prison is notorious for the torture of the condemned. What minds have dreamed up the terror of the pit in the centre of the cell?

What price will Edna Pontellier pay to be free? She seems to have everything she needs - her loving husband, Léonce, two beautiful children and a wonderful home in turn-of-the-century New Orleans. But deep inside her burns a creative fire that longs to be unleashed. One summer changes everything. When Edna meets Robert, she starts to question all that she was taught to believe. Is her comfortable marriage nothing more than a cage?

Buck recognised the wild brother. He was whining softly, and they touched noses. A second wolf, old and battle-scarred, came forward and sniffed noses with him; he sat down, pointed his nose at the moon and broke out in a long wolf howl. Buck, too, sat down and howled. Buck, a big, powerful dog, is kidnapped from his California home and sold as a sled dog in the Arctic.

Hester Prynne stands defiantly on a scaffold before hostile Puritans in 17th century Boston, Massachusetts. The baby in her arms and the bright scarlet letter A on her gown are evidence and punishment for the shame she has brought on her religious neighbours. Will Hester continue to conceal the name of the husband who sent her away from Europe years before as well as that of the father of her baby? Will the husband get his revenge on the man who has shamed him? Will that man admit his past and join Hester and her daughter, Pearl?

Nick Carraway's mysterious neighbour Gatsby gazes across the dark bay at a distant green light. As the summer unfolds, Nick is drawn into Gatsby's world of luxury cars, speedboats and extravagant parties. But the more he hears about Gatsby - even from what Gatsby himself tells him - the less he is sure of the truth. Did Gatsby really go to Oxford University? Was he a hero in the war? Did he once kill a man? Nick recalls how he came to know Gatsby.

Frank hates working in his father's office. He swaps places with his cousin Rashleigh. But what is Rashleigh up to? Who are his mysterious friends? Frank has to find some missing papers to save his father's business. The search takes him to Scotland, where he finds that his life is in danger. But who is it that wants to kill him? Frank meets the outlaw Rob Roy and heads for the Highlands, where he's seized by soldiers looking for Jacobite rebels. Whose side is Rob Roy really on? And how can Frank recover the papers which will save his father?

Young, attractive and impetuous, Bathsheba has inherited a farm and is determined to be as independent as possible. Her natural beauty is a magnet for men; how will she choose between them? Gabriel Oak is a young farmer, just set up in business with his own flock of sheep. He meets Bathsheba and falls in love with her, but she turns him down. He has to stand by and watch while the woman he loves is courted by others, first by William Boldwood, much older than Bathsheba; then by Sergeant Troy, young, handsome and reckless.

The world's greatest classics retold for children. If there ever was an epic that touches upon every conceivable human emotion and poses the most complex of questions, it has to be the Mahabharata, the most famous of stories from India. The deadly rivalry between the royal cousins, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, can only end one way - in the mightiest of battles imaginable. The gods watch in dismay as the opponents draw up their forces. Will the mighty warriors Bhishma and Drona survive to see the end? And what of Karna?

If there ever was an epic that touches upon every conceivable human emotion and poses the most complex of questions, it has to be the Mahabharata, the most famous of stories from India. In the second book of this exciting three-part series a single roll of the dice reverses the fortunes of the Pandavas. The peaceful years following the division of the kingdom of Bharata are soon to end because of Duryodhana's jealousy.

If there ever was an epic that touches upon every conceivable human emotion and poses the most complex of questions, it has to be the Mahabharata, the most famous of stories from India. The rivalry between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, royal cousins fighting for the throne at Hastinapura, will end in a mighty battle, but what is it that makes such a conflict inevitable? Is it the eldest Kaurava brother's envy of his cousins' exceptional military skills?

Rama is the embodiment of righteousness, honour and valour - the perfect man and the ideal king of Kosala. Rama's stepmother, Kaikeyi, longs to see her son, Bharata, crowned king and persuades King Dasaratha that Rama, the rightful heir, should be sent into exile for 14 years. Rama's beautiful and devoted wife, Sita, and Lakshmana, his inseparable half-brother, both choose to accompany him.

It is the ninth year of the Greeks' siege of Troy. Will the fighting go on forever? Achilles, the greatest of Greek heroes, is angered by Agamemnon and decides to withdraw from the battle. What is the reason for his wrath? Is there anything that will make him change his mind and return to the battlefield? Both armies have suffered tremendous losses, and the long war seems to be heading towards a stalemate.