Vintage Minis

‘To myself alone could I look’

Jane Eyre and Lucy Snowe are heroines who depend upon no one but themselves. In the face of hardship, from small sacrifices to great heartache, they cling resolutely to their principles of self-reliance. Lucy's energy and enterprise take her to Belgium and a career in teaching, whilst Jane’s honest, intelligent mind draws declarations of love. Both are the unforgettable creations of the deeply independent and brilliant Charlotte Brontë.

Selected from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and Villette.

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

Also in the Vintage Minis series:
Sisters by Louisa May Alcott
Freedom by Margaret Atwood
Marriage by Jane Austen
Liberty by Virginia Woolf

‘The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility.’

Is lying simply an uncomfortable truth about life or something to be celebrated? In these dazzlingly witty pages we find deceptions of all kinds. From false names to imaginary friends to fictitious engagements, Wilde proves himself to be a connoisseur of creativity and argues that lying may be an art form in itself.

Selected from The Importance of Being Earnest, The Decay of Lying and The Picture of Dorian Gray

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

Also in the Vintage Minis series:
Murder by Arthur Conan Doyle
Power by William Shakespeare
Jealousy by Marcel Proust
Ghosts by M. R. James

‘Wealth and beggary, virtue and vice, repletion and the direst hunger, all treading on each other and crowding together’

Could any writer portray London better than Charles Dickens? Dickens knew the city inside out, walking the streets day and night, in all weathers, and drawing inspiration from everything he saw. The fog, the mud, the churning river, the clamour of church bells, and at every corner schemes of business or pleasure – this is Dickens’s London in the company of some of his most memorable characters.

Selected from the work of Charles Dickens

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

Also in the Vintage Minis series:
Murder by Arthur Conan Doyle
Power by William Shakespeare
Independence by Charlotte Bronte

‘Well, Watson, we seem to have fallen upon evil days’

Sherlock Holmes: the quintessential British hero and the world's most popular detective. Through his powers of deduction, and with the help of his faithful companion Dr Watson, Holmes takes on all manner of devious criminals and dangerous villains – and wins. But the cases involving murder are the most dastardly of them all…

Selected from The Complete Sherlock Holmes

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

Also in the Vintage Minis series:
Power by William Shakespeare
Independence by Charlotte Bronte
London by Charles Dickens

‘I want to give a really bad party. I mean it. I want to give a party where there’s a brawl and seductions and people going home with their feelings hurt and women passed out in the cabinet de toilette. You wait and see.’

The crackle of gin on ice, the first chords of the band, the low hum of gossip– whether you love or loathe parties, Fitzgerald writes them like no one else. From glittering occasions complete with an orchestra and dancing girls to a fist-fight at the end of a toddler’s birthday, this is a dazzling collection of party pieces from the master of celebration.

Selected from The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night and Flappers and Philosophers

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

‘Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust?
And, live we how we can, yet die we must’

What is the true meaning of power? Are some simply born to it or can it be acquired like a skill? Does it always breed corruption and greed or can it be a force for good? From kings to prisoners and from battle-fields to courts, Shakespeare’s peerless understanding of power and its repercussions remains as pertinent today as it has ever been.

Selected from Macbeth, Julius Caesar, A Winter’s Tale, Measure for Measure, Henry V, Richard II

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

Also in the Vintage Minis series:
Independence by Charlotte Bronte
Injustice by Richard Wright
Money by Yuval Noah Harari
Love by Jeanette Winterson

‘Great art has dreadful manners…

…The hushed reverence of the gallery can fool you into believing masterpieces are visions that soothe, charm and beguile, but actually they are thugs. Merciless and wily, the greatest paintings grab you in a headlock and proceed in short order to re-arrange your sense of reality.’ In inimitable style, our greatest historian and master storyteller Simon Schama makes an irresistible case for the power of art and its necessary place in our lives, examining art through the prism of the troubling life and works of Italian master painter, and murderer, Caravaggio.

Selected from The Power of Art

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

Also in the Vintage Minis 'Great Ideas' series:
Religion by Karen Armstrong
Science by Ian McEwan

‘Because "God" is infinite, nobody can have the last word’

What is this thing, religion, supposedly the cause of bloodshed and warring for centuries? What is ‘God’ and do we need ‘Him’ in our modern world? Karen Armstrong looks again at these questions in a refreshing and startling way. God is not to be ‘believed in’ as a child believes in Santa Claus; religion is not a story to be proven true or false, but a discipline akin to music or art that answers a deeply human need, and can teach us to discover new capacities of mind and heart.

Selected from A Case for God, Fields of Blood and The Lost Art of Scripture

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

Also in the Vintage Minis 'Great Ideas' series:
Art by Simon Schama
Science by Ian McEwan

‘This is a history of intellectual courage, hard work, occasional inspiration and every conceivable form of human failing. It is also an extended invitation to wonder, to pleasure’

How far have we come in our understanding of the world around us? In this eye-opening collection, Ian McEwan looks back at the history of scientific discovery from Darwin to Dawkins as well as exploring, with brilliant originality, what a future with AI and climate change could hold for us.

Selected from Solar, Enduring Love, Machines Like Me

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

Also in the Vintage Minis 'Great Ideas' series:
Religion by Karen Armstrong
Art by Simon Schama

‘Family, that slippery word, a star to every wandering bark and everyone sailing under a different sky’

Where do you go if you can’t feel at home in your own family? When the people who made you can’t fathom who you become? In these three tales of quarrelling clans and fraught reunions, Mark Haddon shows family in its frank, unsparing yet frequently absurd light, and, in doing so charts a stormy course into the crucible of the self.

Selected from The Pier Falls, The Red House and A Spot of Bother.

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

Discover the in the Vintage Minis ‘Head Space’ series:

Recovery by Helen Macdonald
Therapy by Stephen Grosz

The hawk was everything I wanted to be: solitary, self-possessed, free from grief, and numb to the hurts of human life.

How do we carry on when someone close to us dies? Is it simply a case of putting one foot in front of the other in a bleak new world or do we need something more? Reeling with grief after the sudden death of her father, Helen Macdonald found herself turning to the wild for comfort. With breathtaking honesty and insight, she recounts her months spent taming a goshawk and how, finally, this strange kinship led her to the first tentative steps to recovery.

Selected from H is for Hawk

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human.

Discover the Vintage Minis ‘Head Space’ series:

Therapy by Stephen Grosz
Family by Mark Haddon

‘I want to change, but not if it means changing,' a patient once said to me in complete innocence

What do we do when we find ourselves trapped by our own thoughts or behaviour? Drawing on his twenty-five years’ experience as a psychoanalyst, Stephen Grosz ushers the reader through the door of his consulting room and into the minds of his patients. In these beautifully told cases we find compulsive liars, deceived spouses, violent children and delusional adults but we also find ourselves and in doing so, understand a little more about what it is to be human.

Selected from The Examined Life.

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human

Discover the Vintage Minis ‘Head Space’ series:

Recovery by Helen Macdonald
Family by Mark Haddon

Immerse yourself in a literary wonderland with this collection of timeless Christmas tales.

'There seems a magic in the very name of Christmas’ said Charles Dickens. From yuletide carols to scrumptious food to presents under the tree, from cold winter nights in Victorian London to countryside festivities by the fire, from the melancholies of the season to the injustices, our best writers have seen it all and written it down. A Vintage Christmas captures the very essence of what Christmas means to us and what real magic can be found, written by some of the world’s finest authors, including Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Anthony Trollope, Laurie Lee, E. Nesbit and Alice Munro.


Stories in A Vintage Christmas:
‘Carol-Barking’ from Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee
‘Obadiah Oak, Mrs Griffiths and the Carol Singers’ by Louis de Bernières
‘The Turkey Season’ by Alice Munro
‘Christmas at Thompson Hall’ by Anthony Trollope
‘Christmas Shopping’ from The Green Road by Anne Enright
‘A Conscience Pudding’ from The New Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit
‘Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm’ by Stella Gibbons
‘There Never Was Such a Goose’ from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
‘Let Nothing You Dismay’ by Helen Simpson
‘Christmas Is a Sad Season for the Poor’ by John Cheever
‘A Serious Talk’ by Raymond Carver
‘The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle’ by Arthur Conan Doyle

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

Vintage Minis bring you the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human – from birth to death and everything in between.

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

How do we choose between what is fair and just, and what our debtors demand of us? Yanis Varoufakis was put in such a dilemma in 2015 when he became the finance minister of Greece. In this rousing book, he charts the absurdities that underpin calls for austerity, as well as his own battles with a bureaucracy bent on ignoring the human cost of its every action. Passionately outspoken and tuned to the voices of the oppressed, Varoufakis presents a guide to modern economics, and its threat to democracy, like no other.

Selected from the books And the Weak Suffer What They Must? and Adults in the Room

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

Have you ever dreamt you were naked on stage, or woken having failed an exam? In these fascinating, pioneering essays, Sigmund Freud plunges into the recesses of our minds, and awakens the hidden meanings behind our most typical and surprising night-time fantasies. From dreams of violence and death, to the more prosaic moments in our dream-life, Freud shines a light on the darkness we are often happy left consigned to night.

Selected from the books The Essentials of Psycho-Analysis and The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of the Sigmund Freud, Volume IV: The Interpretation of Dreams (First Part) by Sigmund Freud

Can we ever be wholly free?

In this book of breathtaking imaginary leaps that conjure dystopias and magical islands, Margaret Atwood holds a mirror up to our own world. The reflection we are faced with, of men and women in prisons literal and metaphorical, is frightening, but it is also a call to arms to speak and to act to preserve our freedom while we still can. And in that, there is hope.

Selected from The Handmaid’s Tale and Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood.

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human