Nearly 70 years before men first walked on the Moon, Herbert George Wells (born 1866) was exploring what might be awaiting them here in this novel published in 1900. In one of the earliest works of science fiction, he brings to life the joys of space travel and humanity's boundless curiosity when penniless businessman Bedford moves to Kent to write a play and meets the mad scientist who is developing an antigravity metal. The businessman Mr Bedford and the scientist Mr Cavor make their way to the Moon and discover a race of intelligent insect-like creatures called 'Selenites'. Explaining his ideas through flight of pure fancy such as 'antigravity' rather than strict scientific reasoning, the book was criticised by contemporaries like Jules Verne, yet the joy of adventure and the unbridled curiosity of the human spirit he presents have entertained readers for more than a century. 272pp in new full price paperback.

Rattle of Bones, The Horror from the Mound, Skull-Face, Graveyard Rats, Wolfshead, The Thing on the Roof, Sea Curse, The Cairn of the Headland, The Fearsome Touch of Death and Dig Me No Grave are among the 17 Gothic short stories in this collection. Ranging from horror to supernatural terrors and chilling tales of insanity and death, these stories reveal the extraordinary talent and range of one of short fiction's most accomplished writers. Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) was one of the founders of the sword and sorcery genre and an influential figure in fantasy fiction. He created a range of iconic characters including Conan the Barbarian, the sombre Solomon Kane and the loveable sailor Steve Costigan, yet he was an accomplished horror writer and close confidante of H. P. Lovecraft and his stories have enthralled and chilled readers for generations. Much of his childhood was spent travelling through the small towns of Texas and absorbing the culture of a growing society. Here is a disconcerting werewolf tale, the Wild West to Medieval France and to the fantastical setting of Hyperborea and other fantasy landscapes. 382pp in new full price paperback.

While serving as a volunteer nurse for the Union Army in the American Civil War, Louisa May Alcott recorded her experiences in the letters she sent home, later published under this title. They provide a raw and honest account of the reality of battlefield medicine in a conflict that tore her country apart. Her compassionate narrative also highlights the under-appreciated role of women in medicine. This short book marked the beginning of her astonishingly successful career which culminated in the publication of Little Women. Born in November 1832, on her 30th birthday she spent six transformative weeks at the Union Hotel Hospital in Georgetown, Washington DC, 500 miles from home and surrounded by dead, dying and diseased soldiers where twice as many died of disease as from fighting the enemy. Alcott nearly suffered the same fate, contracting typhoid pneumonia and was only saved when her father arrived at the hospital to take her home. He was an abolitionist and her mother a suffragist and their involvement in a number of radical movements meant Louisa and her siblings were surrounded by some of the periods best known writers and thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and she received tuition from Henry David Thoreau. 112 page new full price paperback.

'It is little else than an abridgement of Sir Thomas Malory's version of them as printed by Caxton - with a few additions from Geoffrey of Monmouth and other sources - and an endeavour to arrange the many tales into a more or less consecutive story.' - James Knowles in his preface to the eighth edition, published 35 years after the original in the 1890s. The Prophecies of Merlin, and the Birth of Arthur, Uther attacking the Saxons followed by his death, Merlin's advice to the Archbishop, the Miracle of the Sword and Stone, the Coronation of King Arthur, the Sword Excalibur, the Siege of York, the King Rescues Merlin, King Arthur Conquers Ireland and Norway and slays the Giant of St Michael's Mount and conquers Gaul, the Lady of the Lake, the Sullen Knight, the Marriage of King Arthur and Guinevere, the Founding of the Round Table, Enchantment of Queen Morgan le Fay, the Lombards are Defeated, the Adventures of Sir Tristram, Merlin is Bewitched by a Damsel of the Lady of the Lake, Galahad is Knighted by Sir Lancelot, the Queen is Accused of Murder, she is condemned to be burnt, and retires to a nunnery, Sir Lancelot Goes on a Pilgrimage and the collection ends with the Death of King Arthur. Romance, mystery, this masterful retelling recounts the discovery of the mysterious Merlin and his prophecies surrounding the birth of Arthur and while Arthur and his knights fight the dark magic of Queen Morgan le Fay, rescue damsels in distress and defend the kingdom against its enemies, it is the virtuous Sir Galahad who must attempt the greatest quest of all - the search for the Holy Grail, before Arthur's destiny is fulfilled. 301pp in glamourous large new full price softback.

Born in April 1840, Emile Zola was a political journalist and outspoken critic of Emperor Napoleon III. A prolific author of famous works of history, Nana (1880) was the ninth novel in a series which follows a girl from the streets of Paris as she begins her meteoric rise to stardom. Using her sexuality as a weapon, she brings ruin to many of the men who pursue her in a stunning portrait of the decadence and corruption of late 19th century France. Extremely controversial at the time, Nana was nonetheless a great commercial success. Zola died in September 1902 from carbon monoxide poisoning. 428pp in new full price paperback.

Two brilliant existential novels from one of the titans of Russian literature. Notes from Underground is the dystopian tale of the Underground Man, a retired civil servant living in St Petersburg, who criticises Western philosophy and contemporary society. Published in 1864, it is a short novel expressing philosophical arguments about individual freedom. The first part takes the form of a diary monologue attacking Western philosophical ideals, and the second part relates episodes from the narrator's earlier life. Dostoevsky raises complex questions about freewill, society and happiness and the prevailing philosophy of nihilism. The Double was published in 1846. It is a tale of two men who are a mirror image of each other in everything apart from their personal circumstances. After their first meeting, the protagonist Golyadkin Sr, finds his life gradually being stolen by his doppelgänger Golyadkin Jr. After their bitter snowy night encounter, they become friends, but Golyadkin gradually realises that, unlike himself, his double is socially successful, and he finds himself caught up in a psychological battle that can only end in tragedy. At the heart of both novels are ruminations on the need to establish one's true identity, and how society can distort the perception of who one truly is. 252pp, new full price paperback.

Beautiful gilt-embossed and golden page-edged purple hardback new gift edition of the classic text. Jane Austen's novels concern the gentle, rural English middle class existence and the conventions of the early 18th century. The book became a family favourite but when her father attempted to place the work with a London publisher, it was rejected. The novel first appeared in print in 1813 and is perhaps the most comic of her novels concerning the considerable efforts of a couple, Mr and Mrs Bennet, to achieve suitable marriages for their five daughters. The focal point is the relationship between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, a man whom she has readily dismissed as an unfeeling aristocrat. It opens with the famous line: 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.' A classic of opposites attract. 352pp, fairly small print. New full price edition.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton joined the Illustrated London News in 1905 under instruction to write a weekly column of interest about anything except politics and religion. Of course he ignored the advice and was an immediate hit and continued to write his weekly essay for the next 31 years. 'He writes beautifully, in fully formed sentences that are funny, companionable, empathetic and inclusive. His wit is as sharp as Oscar Wilde's.' His first published novel was The Napoleon of Notting Hill 1904 and success continued and a further 12 stories were published as The Wisdom of Father Brown in 1914. This second collection is reproduced here and contains all of the intrigue to be expected as Chesterton's beloved amateur sleuth continues to use his innate understanding of human nature to solve mystery after mystery. The character of Father Brown was loosely based on John O'Conner, a Catholic curate whom Chesterton met on a walking holiday in Yorkshire in 1903. Chesterton was struck by his apparent innocence in worldly matters, though he possessed a deep knowledge of the human condition through the confessional, the antithesis of Sherlock Holmes, another famous detective of that era. For Father Brown, criminals were not evil, they were simply good men gone wrong. This collection of classics features The Absence of Mr Glass, The Duel of Mr Hirsch, The Mistake of the Machine, The Head of Caesar, The Purple Wig, The Perishing of the Pendragons, The God of the Gongs and The Fairy Tale of Father Brown among the 12 short stories. New full price paperback, 220pp.

33 short stories by Lafcadio Hearn, born 1850 in Levkás, Greece, who moved to Ireland when he was only two years old. In 1869, he emigrated to the US and his stories found appeal in national magazines like Harper's Weekly. Accepting a commission to visit Japan as a correspondent, he married a Japanese woman and became an ardent supporter of traditional Japanese practices, learning the language and adopting traditional dress and preserving the legends and stories of ancient Japan from the onslaught of modernisation and economic progress. He recorded the folklore of the local population in the form of short stories written in English and these are some of his most powerful works, bringing to life the magic and mystery of the East. This anthology includes a selection of his Japanese ghost stories including such favourites as Ingwa-Banashi, The Corpse-Rider, The Mirror Maiden, A Passional Karma, The Goblin-Spider, Of a Promise Broken, and Jikininki among them. The ghoulish beings range from spectral brides to vengeful phantoms and unruly goblins as Hearn creates a series of unforgettable tales and forgotten worlds. 191pp in new full price paperback.

The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Babar, Ludwig Bemelmens' Madeline and Hansi who is packed onto a train by his mother and travels up the mountains, Edward Ardizzone's Lucy Brown and Mr Grimes and Little Tim books, Peter Rabbit, Tomi Ungerer's Moon Man, Edward Bawden, William Steig, Astrid Lindgren, Hans Christian Andersen, Ted Hughes, Maurice Sendak, David Gentleman's Fenella in the South of France, Felix Hoffman's The Sleeping Beauty. This unashamed visual feast of old and new, classic and not so famous but equally collectible imagery celebrates the best designed and illustrated picture books from around the world over the past 100 years. Each book is a creation of genius and inventiveness, and their design and illustration represent such diverse trends as the Russian Constructivists, Italian Futurists and Postwar Neo-romantics. They are also mirrors of their times reflecting social concerns from a child's and family's perspectives throughout the 20th and into the 21st century. Fearlessly confronting the frontiers between a child's picture book and art, this is a collectors of children's literature. Hundreds of gorgeous original colour images and book jackets reproduced. 22.86 x 2.54 x 29.21cm. Rare and collectible, 216 pages.