This is Scott Fitzgerald's debut novel, written when he was twenty-four, appeared in 1920 and immediately established him as a leading literary figure in the brilliant and dangerous world of 1920s America. Its instant appeal could be compared to the success of The Catcher in the Rye thirty years later. The novel tells the story of a spoilt child in search of happiness. Pampered, wealthy, brilliant at school, Amory Blaine looks for the love of others but only finds himself. A short, sharp masterpiece with an intriguing religious undertow, this is also a touchingly autobiographical novel which reflects ominously on Fitzgerald's own future.

A classic of Victorian literature, and one of the earliest books written specifically for boys, Tom Brown's Schooldays has long had an influence well beyond the middle-class, public school world that it describes. The book describes Tom's time at Rugby School from his first football match, through his troubled adolescence when he is savagely bullied by the unspeakable Flashman, to his departure for a wider world as a confident young man. This classic tale of a boy's schooldays under the benevolent eye of the renowned Dr Arnold still retains the appeal for which it was acclaimed on its first publication.

The Collector's Library volumes of short stories — Best Ghost Stories, Best Fairy Stories, Celtic Fairy Tales and Tales of the Macabre have proved popular throughout the world. This new collection of detective stories of the golden age includes intriguing tales by Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar Wallace, G.K. Chesterton, 'Sapper', E.W. Hornung, and Arnold Bennett. These masters of the genre are joined by less well-known but equally skilled writers such as Arthur B. Reeve, Maurice LeBlanc, Ernest Bramah, Mrs Henry Wood, Stacy Aumonier and Herbert Jenkins among others.

This collection of Poe's work contains some of the most exciting and haunting tales ever written. They range from the poetic to the mysterious and the darkly comic, yet all possess the genius of the grotesque that defines Poe's writing. The stories are so alive with compelling mysteries, vibrant images and unforgettably tormented characters, that it is easy to associate Edgar Allan Poe solely with entertainment and forget that he was also one of the greatest innovators in modern literature. This volume contains all of Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination and Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, and a selection of his poetry.

The Great Gatsby lives in a luxurious Long Island mansion, playing lavish host to hundreds of people, and yet no-one seems to know him or how he became so rich. He is rumoured to be everything from a German spy to a war hero. Jay Gatsby doesn't heed them. He cares for one person alone — Daisy Buchanan, the woman he has waited for all his life. Little does he know how his infatuation will end...

To celebrate the bicentenary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice, the Collector's Library will publish its lavishly illustrated edition in colour in January. Jane Austen's best-loved novel is a memorable story about the inaccuracy of first impressions, about the power of reason, and above all about the strange dynamics of human relationships and emotions. Here, where Hugh Thomson's delightful period illustrations were originally black-and-white, they have been sensitively coloured by Barbara Frith, one of Britain's most accomplished colourists. Hugh Thomson (1860-1920) was the finest exponent of period illustration in what is sometimes known as the 'powder and patch' school.

Published in 1922, the eleven Tales of the Jazz Age feature the flappers and lost young men of the period as well as a great variety of characters and scenes. Among them, the critically acclaimed novella May Day contrasts drunken debutantes with a mob of war veterans battling socialists in the streets, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, filmed with Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton, is a fantasy about a man who ages in reverse, and A Diamond as Big as the Ritz is a surreal fable of excess.

Cider with Rosie is the first part of the poet Laurie Lee's (1914-1997) autobiographical trilogy. It describes his life in the Gloucestershire village of Slad from his earliest years until he was twenty. He tells of thin winters, fat summers, local legends and ghosts, of neighbours and relations, and of growing up against a half-pagan landscape in which violence and madness, country follies and feasts were all part of one pastoral mess-pot.

Robinson Crusoe is among the first novels written in English. Thanks to its extraordinary realism and drama, it is easily the longest-enduring work of popular fiction in the language. The story, probably based on the Pacific-island ordeal of castaway Alexander Selkirk, was presented by Daniel Defoe as a true account, and is utterly convincing in its topography, action and character, even 300 years after its first publication. Robinson Crusoe is a true page-turner: Dr Samuel Johnson said it was one of only three books he had read that would have been better for being longer. This new edition includes over thirty illustrations by George Cruikshank specially engraved for the 1831 edition.

Joseph Jacobs (1854-1916) was a noted literary and folklorist. He edited a number of books of fairy tales, including this work and its sequel, More Celtic Fairy Tales. It includes the famous stories Conal Hammerclaw, The Story of Deirdre, Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree, The Wooing of Olwen, Jack and His Comrades, The Sea Maiden, Fairm Brown and Trembling, The Battle of the Birds, Brewery of Eggshells and many others. It is illustrated throughout with black and white Art Nouveau style plates and vignettes by John D. Batten.

Shakespeare's history of Henry V's remarkable victory over the French at Agincourt and the subsequent peace between the two nations is also a study of war and kingship. From his wild youth, Henry comes to embody all of the kingly virtues: courage, justice, integrity and honour. Ironically these qualities are brought to the fore by the realities of war. Written at the end of the life of Elizabeth I, Henry V told the British people that with strong leadership, they had little to fear at a time of uncertainty.

The Merchant of Venice is perhaps most associated not with its titular hero, Antonio, but with the complex figure of the money-lender, Shylock. The play was described as a comedy in the First Folio but its modern audiences find it more problematic to categorize. The vilification of Shylock 'the Jew' can be very uncomfortable for a post-holocaust audience, and debates continue as to whether Shakespeare's portrayal of this complex man is sympathetic or anti-semitic. A exacting and controversial comedy, The Merchant of Venice explores prejudice and the true nature of justice.

Playwright, novelist, essayist, poet and epigrammatist, Oscar Wilde was Ireland's greatest and most inspired wit. Today he is remembered for the brilliance of his writing, and this complete edition of his works contains all his plays, his only novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, as well as his essays, poems and stories for children, The Happy Prince and Other Tales, and his more worldly stories for adults, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories. Illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley, illustrator, caricaturist, poster-designer and novelist, and Charles Robinson, one of the most popular black-and-white artists of the Edwardian era.

This is an intense drama of love, deception, jealousy and destruction. Desdemona's love for Othello, the Moor, transcends racial prejudice; but the envious lago conspires to devastate their lives. In its vivid rendering of racism, sexism, contested identities, and the savagery lurking within civilisation, Othello is arguably the most topical and accessible tragedy from Shakespeare's major phase as a dramatist. The play raises uncomfortable questions about ongoing questions of not only racial identity but also sexuality, as Othello and Desdemona's sexual relationship becomes the voyeuristic site of lago's attempt to destroy them.

This rare collection is a must for all Jane-ites. It represents what Richard Church regarded as Jane Austen's literary work-basket, and contains some Austen's earliest work — her hilarious brief History of England, illustrated by her favourite sister, which is a worthy forerunner of 1066 & All That, to the unfinished Sanditon, the novel of her maturity on which she was working at her death aged 42. Also included are the two epistolary novels, Lady Susan and Love and Friendship (sic), The Watsons, Catharine, Lesley Castle, Evelyn, Frederic and Elfrida, Jack and Alice, Edgar and Emma, Henry and Eliza and The Three Sisters.

Separated from her twin brother Sebastian after a shipwreck, Viola disguises herself as a boy to serve the Duke of Illyria. Wooing a countess on his behalf, she is stunned to find herself the object of his beloved's affections. With the arrival of Viola's brother, and a trick played upon Malvolio, the countess' steward, confusion reigns in this romantic comedy of mistaken identity. The gentle melancholy and lyrical atmosphere of Twelfth Night, enlivened by a comic sub-plot of considerable accomplishment, have long made the play a favourite with Shakespearian audiences.

«A young, inexperienced governess is charged with the care of Miles and Flora, two small children given into her charge by their uncle at his grand country house. «The Turn of the Screw» is probably the most famous, certainly the most eerily equivocal, of all ghostly tales. Is it a subtle, self-conscious exploration of the haunted house of Victorian culture, filled with echoes of sexual and social unease? Or is it simply 'the most hopelessly evil story of the son of a long line of military heroes who refuses to follow tradition, yet proves his bravery in a haunted room.»

«The Pickwick Papers» is Charles Dickens' first novel, and his comic masterpiece. We are introduced not just to one of the greatest writers in the English language but to some of fiction's most endearing and memorable characters, starting with the 'illustrious, immortal and colossal-minded' Samuel Pickwick himself. It is a rollicking tour de force through an England on the brink of the Victorian era. Reform of government, justice and commercial life are imminent, as are rail travel, social convulsion and the death of deference, but Pickwick sails through on a tide of delirious adventure, fortifying us for the future — whatever it throws at us.»

«The Collector's Colour Library» takes the favourite illustrated titles of «The Collector's Library» and presents them in full colour. Original colour illustrations are faithfully reproduced, and where illustrations and decorations were originally black and white they have been sensitively coloured by Barbara Frith, one of Britain's most accomplished colourists. «The Little Prince» is a wonderful and remarkable book which will enchant both children and adults alike. It is a strange and wonderful parable for all ages, championing the beauty and wisdom of childhood which fades when one becomes 'a grown up'. This is a specially commissioned new translation by Ros and Chloe Schwarz. St Exupery's original illustrations have had their colours carefully enhanced by Barbara Frith.»

This edition of Shakespeare's Complete Works contains all the plays and poems. The plays are arranged in the chronological order of their composition rather than gathered into comedies, histories and tragedies, the traditional method dating from the first folio; the volume also contains a sketch of Shakespeare's life, a biography of Sir John Gilbert, and an extensive glossary. The book is bound in real cloth, with head and tail bands, a ribbon marker, top edge gilt with a gold-blocked jacket, and has been completely reset. It is illustrated throughout with Sir John Gilbert's superb woodcuts. As the Magazine of Art wrote when the edition was first published, 'It is a virtue of Gilbert's achievements in black and white that he takes his place among the few masters, not only of his own age and country, but of all time'.