With all the new titles coming out each year, it’s easy to forget about books from the past. Of course, we all know about Austen and Dickens but Hesperus Press are re-issuing some less well known classics. These are books I didn’t know about but actually sound fabulous.




First up are four re-issues of Jack London’s work. Best known for White Fang and Call of the Wild, his body of work sounds really quite varied! In The Scarlet Plague, the Red Death struck in 2013 (hope it’s not ominous) and 60 years later, the few survivors have established their own civilisation. Before Adam is a tale of a man whose consciousness has become entwined with that of his Mid-Pleistocene ancestor; a book that questions eugenics. The People of the Abyss is a non-fiction work looking at the poor in London in 1902. Jack London rented out a flat in the East End and lived amongst them to discover how they live which resulted in this piece of investigative journalism. I think this has special relevance when you look at how so many are living in poverty once more. The Sea Wolf is an adventure at sea, with mutiny, shipwrecks and love.



I’m usually quick to point out Dracula came along way before Twilight when people start comparing vampire novels, but did you know there was a book before Dracula? Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu is a Gothic tale which pre-dates Stoker’s work by 25 years! H.G. Wells is pretty well known but I hadn’t heard of The Food of the Gods before; a cautionary tale of science meddling with the food chain. When researchers happen upon a growth substance, they unwittingly unlease giant chickens and wasps on the world…and the growth spreads.
Twelve Years a Slave is a memoir written by Solomon Northup, a man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. First-hand accounts of the horrors of slavery are rare and this sounds like a unique book. I’m obviously not up-to-date with film news as this is being adapted into a film starring Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Fassbender so I’m sure the book will be everywhere next year.
Have you read any of these? Or are there any neglected classics you would like to see given a second lease of life?
Related posts
4 Comments
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Read Next
Subscribe via Email
Recent Posts
Today's #bookpost , my pre-order of A History of What Comes Next and a review copy of For the Wolf from @orbitbooks https://t.co/CW9NjJZTbT
Follow[gifted] Surprise #bookpost from @orbitbooks_uk - thanks @gambit589! 🐺🐺🐺 #bookpost #bookpost #bookpost … https://t.co/eUUi813dxG
FollowCurrently Reading
Black Sun
Today he would become a god. His mother had told him so. The opening line may seem like something any mother would tell her son, but in the case of Serapio, his mother truly believes he will become the Crow God reborn. She blinds him,…
Legendborn
The day Bree gets accepted into an early college placement at UNC, is the day her mother dies. The last words they spoke were of anger. Unable to deal with her dad’s grief on top of her own, Bree goes ahead with the placement. Once…
Ninth House
Alex Stern does not belong at Yale. When she awakes as the sole survivor of a multiple homicide, presumed a drug deal gone wrong, she is given an unlikely offer. Come to Yale, join the House of Lethe and oversee the rituals of the other…
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor
Just let me dust off this blog thing, I have a review for you! One of my anticipated reads released during lockdown was the follow-up to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. If you read that, of course will will be dying to know what happened to…
I've read Carmilla, but apart from White Fang and Call of The Wild I had no idea about Jack London's work..or the HG Wells book. Trouble is the mental TBR list I carry in my head is already keeping me awake at night..lol..
I haven't read any of these or actually heard of them :/ I have ony read one classic and that was Moby dick and I have to say I hated it. Would try one of these though
Lainy http://www.alwaysreading.net
Loving the new Jack London covers! 🙂
I'd forgotten to check out what's new with Hesperus this year…I highly recommend Before Adam, though I haven't read the others you mentioned. FYI, Jack London has several other speculative fiction works, including The Iron Heel (dystopian) and The Star Rover.