Classic fiction – Globolibri.it

Peter Pan

Arnaldo Ageno — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 09:19:42 +0000

‘Second to the right … and then straight on till morning!’ Desperate to hear bedtime stories, Peter Pan waits outside the nursery window of Wendy, John and Michael Darling. When Peter asks Wendy to fly with him to Neverland, the Darling children are whisked away to a world of adventure – of daring fairies, wondrous mermaids and The Lost Boys.But there is danger in Neverland too: the villainous Captain Hook is out for revenge and will stop at nothing to take it.

Poignant and unforgettable, J. M. Barrie’s classic tale is one of the greatest works of children’s literature of the last century.

Its imaginative scope, tender humour and vivid characters will enchant adults and children alike. Published in association with Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Arnaldo Ageno — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 09:13:45 +0000

‘Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”’ So begins the tale of Alice, who follows a curious White Rabbit down a hole and falls into Wonderland, a fantastical place where nothing is quite as it seems: animals talk, nonsensical characters confuse, Mad Hatters throw tea parties and the Queen plays croquet. Alice’s attempts to find her way home become increasingly bizarre, infuriating and amazing in turn.

A beloved classic, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has continued to delight readers, young and old, for over 150 years.

The Time Machine

Arnaldo Ageno — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 09:04:47 +0000

An English scientist regales his dinner guests with the tale of his travels to the year 802,701, where he discovers that the human race has evolved into two distinct societies. The Eloi, elegant and peaceful, yet lacking spirit, are terrorised by the sinister, light-fearing Morlocks, who live underground, surrounded by industry.

And when his time machine mysteriously vanishes, the scientist must descend to the realm of the Morlocks in order to find his only hope of escape . . .

H. G. Wells is considered a founding father of modern science fiction, coining the term ‘time machine’ and popularising the idea of time travel in literature.

Ulysses

Arnaldo Ageno — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:45:35 +0000

With a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. James Joyce’s astonishing masterpiece, Ulysses, tells of the diverse events which befall Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus in Dublin on 16 June 1904, during which Bloom’s voluptuous wife, Molly, commits adultery. Initially deemed obscene in England and the USA, this richly-allusive novel, revolutionary in its Modernistic experimentalism, was hailed as a work of genius by W.B. Yeats, T. S.Eliot and Ernest Hemingway. Scandalously frank, wittily erudite, mercurially eloquent, resourcefully comic and generously humane, Ulysses offers the reader a life-changing experience.

The Three Musketeers

Arnaldo Ageno — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 13:41:13 +0000

With an Introduction and Notes by Keith Wren. University of Kent at Canterbury. One of the most celebrated and popular historical romances ever written, The Three Musketeers tells the story of the early adventures of the young Gascon gentleman, D’Artagnan and his three friends from the regiment of the King’s Musketeers – Athos, Porthos and Aramis.

Under the watchful eye of their patron M. de Treville, the four defend the honour of the regiment against the guards of Cardinal Richelieu, and the honour of the queen against the machinations of the Cardinal himself as the power struggles of seventeenth century France are vividly played out in the background. But their most dangerous encounter is with the Cardinal’s spy, Milady, one of literature’s most memorable female villains, and Alexandre Dumas employs all his fast-paced narrative skills to bring this enthralling novel to a breathtakingly gripping and dramatic conclusion.

Our edition uses the William Barrow translation first published by Bruce and Wylde (London,1846)

The Complete Fairy Tales

Arnaldo Ageno — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 14:45:17 +0000

A complete collection of enchanting fairy tales from the acclaimed poet and playwright Oscar Wilde
Celebrated as the writer of The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde is equally beloved for his fairy tales, written ‘partly for children and partly for those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy’. With warmth, tenderness and quiet wit, these fables have moved and delighted for generations. In far-off kingdoms and ocean realms, in the company of giants and nightingales, Wilde speaks of heartbreak and redemption, of cruelty and compassion, of love lost, of love gained, of love everlasting.

Rediscover here the complete stories from The Happy Prince and The House of Pomegranates, Wilde’s two fairy tale collections.

The Canterbury Tales: Fully Annotated Edition

Arnaldo Ageno — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 14:36:34 +0000

Assembling at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, twenty-nine pilgrims begin their journey to Canterbury Cathedral. To entertain themselves on their long road, their host suggests that they regale each other with stories, with the teller of the best tale set to earn a free supper. The pilgrims correspond to all sections of medieval society, from the crusading knight to the drunken cook, and their tales span a range of genres, including the comic ribaldry and deception of `The Miller’s Tale’ and the story of chivalry and courtly romance told by the Franklin.

Unfinished at the time of his death, The Canterbury Tales are here presented in their original Middle-English. This edition contains a wealth of material and over 3,000 notes which will help all students of Chaucer’s masterpiece.

Night and Day / Jacob’s Room

Arnaldo Ageno — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 08:21:08 +0000

Virginia Woolf’s second novel, Night and Day (1919), portrays the gradual changes in a society,the patterns and conventions of which are slowly disintegrating; where therepresentatives of the younger generation struggle to forge their own way, for ‘… life has to be faced: to be rejected; then accepted on new terms with rapture’. Woolf begins to experiment with the novelform while demonstrating her affection for the literature of the past.
Jacob’s Room (1922), Woolf’s third novel, marks the bold affirmationof her own voice and search for a new form to express her view that ‘the humansoul … orientates itself afresh everynow & then. It is doing so now. No one can see it whole therefore.’ Jacob’s life is presented in subtle, delicateand tantalising glimpses, the novel’s gaps and silences are as replete withmeaning as the wicker armchair creaking in the empty room.

Il secondo romanzo di Virginia Woolf, Notte e giorno (1919), descrive i graduali cambiamenti in una società i cui schemi e convenzioni si stanno lentamente disintegrando; dove i rappresentanti della generazione più giovane lottano per forgiare la propria strada, perché “… la vita deve essere affrontata: essere rifiutata; poi accettata a nuovi termini con entusiasmo”. Woolf inizia a sperimentare con la forma del romanzo, dimostrando al contempo il suo legame con la letteratura del passato.
La stanza di Jacob (1922), terzo romanzo di Woolf, segna l’audace affermazione della propria voce e la ricerca di una nuova forma per esprimere la sua visione secondo cui “l’anima umana… si orienta di nuovo ogni tanto. Lo sta facendo ora. Nessuno può quindi vederla nella sua interezza”. La vita di Jacob è presentata in scorci sottili, delicati e stuzzicanti; le lacune e i silenzi del romanzo sono densi di significato come la poltrona di vimini che scricchiola nella stanza vuota.

A Room with a View

Arnaldo Ageno — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 15:02:44 +0000

“But you do,” he went on, not waiting for contradiction.

“You love the boy body and soul, plainly, directly, as he loves you, and no other word expresses it …”Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Her eyes are opened by the unconventional characters she meets at the Pension Bertolini: flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the Cockney Signora, curious Mr Emerson and, most of all, his passionate son George. Lucy finds herself torn between the intensity of life in Italy and the repressed morals of Edwardian England, personified in her terminally dull fiancé Cecil Vyse.

Will she ever learn to follow her own heart?

Little Women & Good Wives

Arnaldo Ageno — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 12:10:05 +0000

Little Women is one of the best-loved children’s stories of all time, based on the author’s own youthful experiences. It describes the family life of the four March sisters living in a small New England community, Meg, the eldest, is pretty and wishes to be a lady; Jo, at fifteen is ungainly and unconventional with an ambition to be an author; Beth is a delicate child of thirteen with a taste for music and Amy is a blonde beauty of twelve. The story of their domestic adventures, their attempts to increase the family income, their friendship with the neighbouring Lawrence family, and their later love affairs remains as fresh and beguiling as ever.

Good Wives takes up the story of the March sisters, some three years later, when, as young adults, they must face up to the inevitable trials and traumas of everyday life in their search for individual happiness.