Alone On The Beach

'All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages...' A selection taken from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Walt Whitman (1819-1892). Whitman's works available in Penguin Classics are Leaves of Grass and The Complete Poems.

The old woman says the abandoned ship is haunted … … and the ghost is coming for Corrine. Until now, Corrine has loved her new home by the ocean. Her life has seemed perfect because she's also falling in love. But Mary, the old woman who walks on the beach every day, continues to warn that the abandoned concrete ship at the end of the pier is haunted. Corrine dismisses the story as the rambling of a blind, frail woman. Mary won’t stop telling Corrine how the ghost has haunted her since childhood. She knows it’s determined to weave itself into Corrine's mind, taking over her thoughts. When Corrine encounters the ghost for herself, the confrontation leaves her questioning the man she loves. Is he lying about who he is? Is her life in danger? Is it possible Corrine's mistrust began when she saw the ghostly figure on the ship? Now, she must battle a spirit that's begun to make a home inside her mind, driving her to question her sanity. If you like contemporary stories with whispers from the past, you’ll love Alone On the Beach. Start turning the pages today for a gripping, haunting read, but don’t turn out the lights. Book One: The Haunted Ship Trilogy

"On the Beach" is a 1957 post-apocalyptic novel written by British-Australian author Nevil Shute after he emigrated to Australia. The novel details the experiences of a mixed group of people in Melbourne as they await the arrival of deadly radiation spreading towards them from the northern hemisphere following a nuclear war a year previously. As the radiation approaches each person deals with their impending death in different ways.

Alone is the extraordinary account of Terry Jo Duperrault, who, at age eleven, survived four days on a raft in the middle of the ocean after her family was brutally murdered aboard a chartered sailboat.

A 20th anniversary edition of this million copy bestseller, with a new introduction by John Niven: a classic story of paradise found - and lost. Richard lands in East Asia in search of an earthly utopia. In Thailand, he is given a map promising an unknown island, a secluded beach - and a new way of life. What Richard finds when he gets there is breathtaking: more extraordinary, more frightening than his wildest dreams. But how long can paradise survive here on Earth? And what lengths will Richard go to in order to save it?

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE The #1 bestselling author of Saturday and Atonement brilliantly illuminates the collision of sexual longing, deep-seated fears and romantic fantasy in his unforgettable, emotionally engaging novel. The year is 1962. Florence, the daughter of a successful businessman and an aloof Oxford academic, is a talented violinist. She dreams of a career on the concert stage and of the perfect life she will create with Edward, the earnest young history student she met by chance and who unexpectedly wooed her and won her heart. Edward grew up in the country on the outskirts of Oxford where his father, the headmaster of the local school, struggled to keep the household together and his mother, brain-damaged from an accident, drifted in a world of her own. Edward’s native intelligence, coupled with a longing to experience the excitement and intellectual fervour of the city, had taken him to University College in London. Falling in love with the accomplished, shy and sensitive Florence—and having his affections returned with equal intensity—has utterly changed his life. Their marriage, they believe, will bring them happiness, the confidence and the freedom to fulfill their true destinies. The glowing promise of the future, however, cannot totally mask their worries about the wedding night. Edward, who has had little experience with women, frets about his sexual prowess. Florence’s anxieties run deeper: she is overcome by conflicting emotions and a fear of the moment she will surrender herself. From the precise and intimate depiction of two young lovers eager to rise above the hurts and confusion of the past, to the touching story of how their unexpressed misunderstandings and fears shape the rest of their lives, On Chesil Beach is an extraordinary novel that brilliantly, movingly shows us how the entire course of a life can be changed—by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.