Showing results by publisher "RNIB" in All Categories

First published in 1883, Treasure Island remains one of Robert Louis Stevenson's best-known and best-loved works.

A classic coming of age adventure, featuring buried treasure, treacherous pirates, and the eponymous Long John Silver, Treasure Island tells the enthralling story of Jim Hawkins, a young cabin boy, who sets sail on an 18th century voyage in search of a pirate's buried gold.

Robinson Crusoe is Daniel Defoe's classic novel of shipwreck and survival, now nearly 300 years old.

The story is a fictional autobiography of the title character, an English castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island, encountering Native Americans, captives, and mutineers. This is the tale of an ordinary man struggling to survive in extraordinary circumstances. Robinson Crusoe wrestles with fate and the nature of God.

The plot involves the uncovering of secret German preparations for an invasion of the United Kingdom and is sited by Winston Churchill as one of the major reasons the Admiralty decided to establish naval bases at Invergordon, the Firth of Forth and Scapa Flow.

A Group of Noble Dames is an 1891 collection of short stories by great English novelist Thomas Hardy. The ten stories focus on "store of ladies, whose bright eyes rain influence". Hardy delves into the hidden depths of country families to reveal what went on behind the scenes.

Originally serialized between 1843-1844 the story tells of Martin, the grandson of old Martin Chuzzlewit who is rich but has become bittter due to the greed of his kin. Young Martin is initially selfish but through hard labour and the positive and cheerful influence of his servant, Tapley, becomes decent. The novel is broken up into segments by young Martin's voyage to seek his fortune in America.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, originally published in 1894, by Arthur Conan Doyle. The 11 stories of the Memoirs are: Silver Blaze, The Adventure of the Yellow Face, The Stockbroker's Clerk, The Gloria Scott, The Musgrave Ritual, The Adventure of the Reigate Squire, The Adventure of the Crooked Man, The Resident Patient, The Greek Interpreter, The Naval Treaty, The Final Problem.

Published in 1874, it tells the tale of Gabriel Oak, one of three suitors for the hand of the beautiful and spirited Bathsheba Everdene. He must compete with the dashing young soldier Sergeant Troy and the respectable, middle-aged Farmer Boldwood. And while their fates depend upon the choice Bathsheba makes, she discovers the terrible consequences of an inconstant heart.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented was Thomas Hardy's penultimate novel.

First published in 1891 and now considered a great classic of English literature, the book received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual mores of Hardy's day.

Romola is the fourth novel from the great Victorian novelist George Eliot and her first historical novel. Published in 1862 - 63, it is set in Florence at the end of the fifteenth century and events during the Italian Renaissance, and includes in its plot several notable figures from Florentine history. The story is of a girl's devotion to her blind father, her marriage to and betrayal by a young Greek and ultimate life of self-sacrifice.

First Serialised under the title The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club between April 1836 and November 1837 when Dickens was in his mid-twenties. Mr Samuel Pickwick is the founder and chairman of the absurd Pickwick Club which consists Tupman, Snodgrass and Winkle who go through various highly amusing and often quite ridiculous adventures. Charles Dickens (1812 - 9 June 1870) is arguably the greatest novelist England ever produced.

Here is Henry James' dark comedic masterpiece, written in the final period of his life. Lambert Strether goes to Paris to bring back Chad, son of the wealthy New England widow he plans to marry. But he gradually comes to feel that life in Paris may hold more for him than in Woollett, Massachusetts.

The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard is a series of comic short sorties by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle telling of the exploits of an uncomprehending French soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. Originally published in The Strand magazine between December 1894 and September 1903 the stories satirise both the stereotypical English view of the French, and - by presenting them from Gerard's baffled point of view - English manners and attitudes.

Published in 1878, portrays the courtship of the beautiful American girl Daisy Miller by Frederick Winterbourne. Winterbourne's pursuit of her is hampered by her own flirtatiousness, which is frowned upon by the other expatriates they meet in Switzerland and Italy. The the novel coments on the contrast between American and European society that is common to James's work.

Published in twenty monthly installments between March 1852 and September 1853. It is held to be one of Dickens's finest novels. A complex plot, it challenges the reader to make connections--between the fashionable and the outcast, the beautiful and the ugly, the powerful and the victims.

A comic novel, first published in December 1815, Emma tells of the perils of misconstrued romance. The main character Emma Woodhouse is a well-to-do young woman in a small English town who is a self-appointed matchmaker. The story explores the nature of these orchestrated matches coming to life through the hilarious characters including arguably Austen's two greatest comic creations - the eccentric Mr. Woodhouse and the quintessential bore, Miss Bates.

Madame Bovary is the first novel by French novelist Gustave Flaubert. The story focuses on a doctor's wife, Emma Bovary, a bored provincial housewife, who abandons her husband to pursue the libertine Rodolphe in a desperate love affair.

First published in 1861 it tells the tale of the lonely weaver Silas Marner who, after suffering betrayal and rejection, leaves his community to become a recluse obsessed only with accumulating money. One day Silas's money is stolen by Dunstan Cass, a dissolute son of Squire Cass, the town's leading landowner. The loss of his gold drives Silas into a deep gloom, until one day a little golden-haired orphan girl wanders into his home to change his life forever.

Published 1883, the classic tale of the marionette Pinocchio and his poor father, the woodcarver Geppetto takes you to a world of wonder with fairytale adventures of talking crickets, boys who turn into mules and much more.

One of the great literary classics of Western literature and the only published novel written by Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray created great controversy on publication because of its homosexual undertones, and was later used as evidence against him at his trial at the Old Bailey in 1895. "If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old...I would give my soul for that!" The wish uttered by Dorian Gray as he gazes on his portrait forms the basis of this story.

Published in 1854, the story describes class conflict in Victorian England and serves as a powerful critique of the social injustices that plagued the Industrial Revolution. Charles Dickens (1812 - 9 June 1870) is arguably the greatest novelist England ever produced. His innate comic genius and shrewd depictions of Victorian life - along with his memorable characters - have made him beloved by readers the world over.