Reference

This course is aimed at beginners and those wishing to brush up their existing knowledge of German. To develop listening and speaking skills, the four CDs offer 240 minutes of lively, authentic dialogue, exercises, plays and interviews. The accompanying books contain English translations of the exercises and advice on correct language usage.

Taking abridged versions of 'The Raven' and six of Poe's stories as their starting point, this is a collection of 89 ingenious enigmas, riddles, ciphers and logic problems. Some are from the mind of the master himself – such as the cryptic question ‘What must you do to a tea table to make it fit to consume?’ – while others are inspired by situations found in his stories of detection and Gothic horror. Solutions are provided in case human ingenuity fails.

With 29 volumes containing 40,000 entries, the vast eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was a high point of Edwardian optimism and is considered to mark the last stand of the Enlightenment. Boyles draws on letters and newspaper articles to trace the history of its production and to reveal the contribution of two American entrepreneurs in the spectacular revival of an ailing British publication. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge and American-cut pages.

This BBC box set explores Charles Dickens’s colourful life and work in three films: a drama-documentary presented by Dickens’s biographer, Peter Ackroyd; a dramatized narration of A Christmas Carol and a 1999 adaptation of David Copperfield, the most autobiographical of the novels, starring Bob Hoskins and Daniel Radcliffe. 3 DVDs total duration 8 hrs 30 mins.

Starring the theatrical Chance twins Dora and Nora, 75, with a past full of jaw-dropping secrets and surprises, Carter's last novel is packed with weird and wonderful characters, mysteries and literary allusions. Read by Eileen Atkins. Abridged. 4 CDs (5 hours)

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) felt that his vocation was poetry, despite the enduring popularity of stories such as The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Murders in the Rue Morgue. In addition to those tales, this collection features five more stories, poems such as The Raven and a biography of Poe. Unabridged, read by Kerry Shale, William Roberts and John Chancer.