Biographical fiction / autobiographical fiction

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Book SynopsisGavin Stevens, the wise student of crime and folkways of Mississippi's Yoknapatawpha county, plays the major role in these six stories of violence.

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Book SynopsisKen Kesey's bracing, inslightful novel about the meaning of madness and the value of self-reliance, and the inspiration for the new Netflix original series Ratched One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 YearsBoisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. Turning conventional notions of sanity and insanity on their heads, the novel tells the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the story through the eyes of Chief Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the powers that keep them all imprisoned. Hailed upon its publication as a glittering parable of good and evil (The New York Times Book Review) and a roar of protest against middlebrow society's Rules and the invisible Rulers who enforce them (Time), Kesey's powerful book went on to sell millions of copies and remains as bracing and insightful today as when it was first released. This new deluxe hardcover edition commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the original publication of the novel on February 1, 1962, and will be a must have for any literature lover.

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Book SynopsisHawthorne’s greatest romance is often simplistically seen as a timeless tale of desire, sin, and redemption. In his Introduction, Michael J. Colacurcio argues that it is also a serious historical novel. This edition reproduces the authoritative text of The Scarlet Letter in the Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne.Table of Contents* Introduction to The Scarlet Letter * A Preface to the Text * Textual Introduction: The Scarlet Letter * Preface to the Second Edition * The Custom-House-Introductory * The Prison-Door * The Market-Place * The Recognition * The Interview * Hester at Her Needle * Pearl * The Governor's Hall * The Elf-Child and the Minister * The Leech * The Leech and His Patient * The Interior of a Heart * The Minister's Vigil * Another View of Hester * Hester and the Physician * Hester and Pearl * A Forest Walk * The Pastor and His Parishioner * A Flood of Sunshine * The Child at the Brook-Side * The Minister in a Maze * The New England Holiday * The Procession * The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter * Conclusion * Variants in the First Edition * Variants in the Second Edition * Editorial Emendations in the Copy-Text * Textual Notes * Historical Collation * Word-Division * Special Collation List: Variants between the First and Second Editions * Appendix to the Third Printing

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Book SynopsisPublished in 1818, Frankenstein has spellbound readers for generations and has inspired numerous retellings and sequels in every medium, making the myth familiar even to those who have never read a word of Mary Shelley’s novel. This freshly annotated, illustrated edition illuminates the novel and its electrifying afterlife.Trade ReviewThe Annotated Frankenstein…should appeal to scholars familiar with the novel as well as those exploring it for the first time. The editors, Susan J. Wolfson and Ronald Levao, situate the novel in its philosophical, literary, biographical and historical contexts, and provide apt illustrations and useful appendices (including examinations of the revised edition of 1831 and a timeline which juxtaposes the novel’s episodes with concurrent historical events). Its expansive, cream-coloured pages and generous margins render the volume a world unto itself, while emphasizing the worldly issues Shelley addressed in her uncanny tale. -- Michael Saler * Times Literary Supplement *First published in 1818, very possibly the most famous debut novel in English, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Or, The New Prometheus has never been out of print. Far fewer people have read this somewhat difficult and didactic novel than know, or think that they know, who ‘Frankenstein’ was; long ago, the grotesque figure of Dr. Frankenstein’s Monster became detached from its literary context, as from its creator. Highly recommended is The Annotated Frankenstein, edited by Susan J. Wolfson and Ronald Levao, who seem to know, between them, all that there is to know about Frankenstein, including his myriad cinematic metamorphoses over the decades. -- Joyce Carol Oates * Globe and Mail *The Annotated Frankenstein, edited by Susan J. Wolfson and Ronald L. Levao, brings scholarship to life for the lay reader. This latest volume in the irresistible ‘annotated’ series from Harvard University Press presents the 1818 edition on oversize, creamy-white pages divided into two columns. While the story runs down the inside columns, helpful commentary runs alongside. Every geographical, biographical and literary allusion is explained; themes are highlighted; and obscure words are defined. A hundred color illustrations sprinkled throughout reproduce manuscript pages, works of art, medical etchings, portraits of Shelley and her friends, and scenes from movie treatments of this deathless tale. -- Ron Charles * Washington Post *The Annotated Frankenstein is a well-chosen collection of parts animated by a knowledgeable introduction; beyond that, it is a comprehensive work of breadth, depth, and interest enriched by over one hundred high-quality images. It is a beautiful, amiable companion… The Annotated Frankenstein achieves the editors’ ambitious goals… It offers the pleasures of a gift book while also providing readers with the fruits of decades of scholarship. Images, texts, and annotations together form an edition that is reputable, accurate, and insightful but also something more. Readers can luxuriate in the rich contexts the editors present… In beginning his story, Victor Frankenstein has insisted that intellectual pursuit provides ‘continual food for discovery and wonder.’ The success of The Annotated Frankenstein is that it allows Mary Shelley’s novel to do the same. -- Meoghan Cronin * Essays in Criticism *Mary Shelley’s classic tale of the doctor who awakened a monster gets an expanded treatment in the edition edited by Wolfson and Levao. This new treatment includes notes on Shelley’s life and highlights literary allusions within the book. -- Molly Driscoll * Christian Science Monitor *First published in 1818, Frankenstein, Or, the Modern Prometheus, has fascinated, horrified, alarmed and even enchanted us ever since. In fact, as the editors of this usefully and delightfully annotated and illustrated edition make clear, almost as soon as the book was published, the word ‘Frankenstein’ (so often wrongfully ascribed to the monster and not his creator) became synonymous with anything new, especially disturbing developments in science and technology. This edition will improve greatly one’s understanding of the book’s provenance and its era. * Globe and Mail *This is a serious work of interpretation. Wolfson and Levao offer the most extensively annotated edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in print, a book that serves the educated but nonspecialist reader. -- J. T. Lynch * Choice *This new edition of Shelley’s nearly 200-year-old novel is replete with supplements—explanatory notes, scholarly introductions, and other special features—that enhance the text itself. Wolfson and Levao provide useful information on the author’s milieu, including details about her parents, friends, and husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, focusing on the latter’s contributions to the novel’s birth and development. -- Morris Hounion * Library Journal *An impressive addition to the study of Frankenstein. While ideal for students of English, this book is accessible enough for anyone desiring a deeper reading of the novel, and does just what a well-annotated work should do, shedding a bright light not only on the text in question, but also on its historical moment and literary forebears. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Wolfson and Levao revivify the original 1818 version of Shelley’s classic in this illuminating annotated text. Beginning with a thoroughly researched introduction to the author’s life and the ‘life’ of Frankenstein, Wolfson and Levao draw parallels between the novel’s themes and the losses and turmoil that plagued Shelley. Moving along, their commentary draws from an abundance of criticism, focusing primarily on the novel’s allusions to Paradise Lost, Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,’ and the myth of Prometheus. At a more local level, the duo dutifully notate Shelley’s ingenious use of language and her husband’s edits. This book is accessible enough for anyone desiring a deeper reading of the novel, and does just what a well-annotated work should do, shedding a bright light not only on the text in question, but also on its historical moment and literary forebears. -- Gabe Habash * Publishers Weekly *This is a superb edition. The annotations provide extensive guidance to the basic themes of the novel, the significance of the names of the characters, the geography of the text, historical dates and allusions, and textual revisions. -- Anne K. Mellor, University of California, Los AngelesThis is a splendid production, a happy convergence of topic and talent. Frankenstein could easily have been prey to a more sentimental and gossipy treatment; instead what emerges is thorough, spirited, and searching. The net effect is a downright moving portrait of author and novel both. -- Garrett Stewart, University of Iowa

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Book SynopsisThis Faustian tale of the spiritual disintegration of a young minister, written in the 1890s, deals subtly and powerfully with the impact of science on innocence and the collective despair that marked the transition into the modern age.Trade ReviewThe Damnation of Theron Ware seems likely to survive...The combination of delicate mannerliness and merciless savagery with which Frederic sets about abasing Theron is not easy to describe; but, if one could make the admittedly prodigious effort of imagining an Emma written from the point of view of Mr. Elton by an ebullient exile from Utica, New York (and ending with the full power of an Irish-American Emma's scorn turned upon the luckless person), some idea of its shocking comprehensivity might be grasped. * Times Literary Supplement *Containing the realism of Howells, the moral complexity of James, and the comic manner of Mark Twain, the novel--a finer book, incidentally, than Lewis's Elmer Gantry--warrants reading. * St. Louis Post-Dispatch *Of great interest both as a novel and as a double-barrelled social document. * Manchester Guardian *

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Book SynopsisIn Blemished Kings, Andrea Kouklanakis looks to Irish satire as she interprets the language of the suitors in the Odyssey—their fighting words—as Homeric expressions of reproach and critique against unsuitable kings, and provides evidence for the concept that blame poetry can physically blemish, hence disqualify, rulers.

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Book SynopsisAt the center of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park is Fanny Price, the classic “poor cousin” who has been brought to live with the rich Sir Thomas Bertram and his wife as an act of charity. Over time, Fanny comes to demonstrate forcibly those virtues Austen most admired: modesty, firm principles, and a loving heart. As Fanny watches her cousins Maria and Julia cast aside their scruples in dangerous flirtations (and worse), and as she herself resolutely resists the advantages of marriage to the fascinating but morally unsteady Henry Crawford, her seeming austerity grows in appeal and makes clear why she was Austen’s own favorite among her heroines.Mansfield Park encompasses not only Austen’s great comedic gifts and her genius as a historian of the human animal, but her personal credo as well—her faith in a social order that combats chaos through civil grace, decency, and wit. With an introduction by Peter Co

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Book SynopsisKate Chopin's riveting, daring story of one woman's search for personal freedom was so far ahead of its time that its publication in 1899 aroused a storm of controversy violent enough to end its author's career.  With an effortless, sure-handed artistry, Chopin tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young mother and model wife, whose romantic involvement with a young man during a vacation at a seaside resort allows her for the first time to imagine a new, freer life.  Upon her return to New Orleans, Edna leaves her husband's home for her own cottage and begins an affair, only to discover that the constraints of social custom may be more powerful than she thought.  Contemporary readers and reviewers were shocked by the frank, unapologetic treatment of adultery in The Awakening.  The fact that we have the book at all is the most convincing tribute to its enduring, irrepressible power. Introduction by Elaine Showalter

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Book SynopsisWhen John Harmon—who has been left a fortune if he will marry the girl his miserly father chose for him—is found floating dead in the Thames, he sets in motion a story overflowing with cases of deception and mistaken identity, of murder and attempted murder, of sin and redemption. The influence of the notorious Harmon inheritance ripples through a large cast of vividly drawn characters from every level of society, including Noddy Boffin, known as “the Golden Dustman”; the one-legged villain Silas Wegg; willful Bella Wilfer; saintly Lizzie Hexam; the sharp-witted doll’s dressmaker Jenny Wren; the social-climbing Veneerings; the ruthless speculator Fascination Fledgeby; and the river-scavenging corpse robbers Gaffer Hexam and Rogue Riderhood. Out of this flurry of invention Dickens creates in Our Mutual Friend a portrait of a city and a civilization that is at once indignant, compassionate, and utterly unforgettable.Charles Dickens’s last completed novel features one of his most surreal and haunting visions of  London, shadowed by towering dust heaps that supply the corrupting riches at the heart of the plot and washed by the dark river that winds its way insistently through the story.This edition reprints the original Everyman’s preface by G. K. Chesterton and features forty illustrations by Marcus Stone.

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Book SynopsisCharles Dickens had an understanding of mid-Victorian society second to none, and genius and energy massive enough to make the absurdities and terrors of that society come alive on the page. Nicholas Nickleby, with its episodes of chicanery in finance and education, and the dramatic intensity with which it tells the story of its openhearted young protagonist and its frightening villain, the magnificently rendered Ralph Nickleby, represents Dickens at his clear-eyed, indignant, and mesmerizing best.             When Nicholas Nickleby is left penniless by the death of his father, he appeals to his Uncle Ralph to help him and his mother and sister. But Ralph conceives a violent hatred of the young man, and his schemes of persecution haunt Nicholas through a series of picaresque adventures, including a job as a tutor at a horrific school for unwanted boys run by the cruel Wackford Squeers and a stint as a member of the eccentric Crummles family theater troupe. Without shying away from the grimmer aspects of the world Nicholas encounters on his path to eventual happiness, the story remains one of Dickens’s most high-spirited and exuberant. This edition reprints the original Everyman preface by G. K. Chesterton and includes thirty-nine illustrations by Phiz.

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Book SynopsisAt the center of Martin Chuzzlewit--the novel Angus Wilson called one of the most sheerly exciting of all Dickens stories--is Martin himself, very old, very rich, very much on his guard. What he suspects (with good reason) is that every one of Iris close and distant relations, now converging in droves on the country inn where they believe he is dying, will stop at nothing to become the inheritor of his great fortune.The distinctive combination of manic comedy, bitter satire and fierce melodrama separates this novel from its author's other works. Published in 1844 after Dickens returned from America, the action moves between Britain and United States in ways which highlight the failing of both societies.

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Book SynopsisReaders of Jane Austen’s six great novels are left hungering for more, and more there is: the marvelous unpublished manuscripts she left behind, collected here.Sanditon might have been Austen’s greatest novel had she lived to finish it. Its subject matter astonishes: here is Austen observing the birth pangs of the culture of commerce, as her country-bred heroine, a foolish baronet, a family of hypochondriacs, and a mysterious West Indian heiress collide against the background hum of real-estate development at a seaside resort.The Watsons, begun in 1804 but never completed, tells the story of a young woman who was raised by a rich aunt and who finds herself shipped back to the comparative poverty and social clumsiness of her own family.The novella Lady Susan is a miniature masterpiece, featuring Austen’s only villainous protagonist. Lady Susan’s subtle, single-minded, and ruthless pursuit of power makes the reader r

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Book SynopsisOf the three late masterpieces that crown the extraordinary literary achievement of Henry James, The Wings of the Dove (1902) is at once the most personal and the most elemental. James drew on the memory of a beloved cousin who died young to create one of the three central characters, Milly Theale, an heiress with a short time to live and a passion for experiencing life to its fullest. To the creation of the other two, Merton Densher and the magnificent, predatory Kate Croy, who conspire in an act of deceit and betrayal, he brought a lifetime's distilled wisdom about the frailty of the human soul when it is trapped in the depths of need and desire. And he brought to the drama that unites these three characters, in the drawing rooms of London and on the storm-lit piazzas of Venice, a starkness and classical purity almost unprecedented in his work.Under its brilliant, coruscating surfaces, beyond the scrim of its marvelous rhetorical and psychological devices, <

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Book SynopsisWe read The Three Musketeers to experience a sense of romance and for the sheer excitement of the story, reflected Clifton Fadiman. In these violent pages all is action, intrigue, suspense, surprise--an almost endless chain of duels, murders, love affairs, unmaskings, ambushes, hairbreadth escapes, wild rides. It is all impossible and it is all magnificent.First published in 1844, Alexandre Dumas''s swashbuckling epic chronicles the adventures of D''Artagnan, a gallant young nobleman who journeys to Paris in 1625 hoping to join the ranks of musketeers guarding Louis XIII. He soon finds himself fighting alongside three heroic comrades--Athos, Porthos, and Aramis--who seek to uphold the honor of the king by foiling the wicked plots of Cardinal Richelieu and the beautiful spy Milady.Dumas will be read a hundred, nay, three hundred years on, wrote John Galsworthy. His greatest creation is undoubtedly D''Artagnan, type at once of the fighting adventurer and of the trusty servant, whose wily blade is ever at the back of those whose hearts have neither his magnanimity nor his courage. Few, if any, characters in fiction inspire one with such belief in their individual existences. . . . To one who made D''Artagnan all shall be forgiven. Clifton Fadiman agreed: Dumas enjoyed writing his stories. . . . The pleasure he must have felt in creating D''Artagnan''s troubles and triumphs flashes out of these pages. . . . Dumas rampaged through the history of France, inventing, changing, distorting--doing whatever was needed to produce a tale to hold the reader breathless.

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Book SynopsisEdited and with an Introduction by Matthew Pearl Includes “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt,” and “The Purloined Letter”   Between 1841 and 1844, Edgar Allan Poe invented the genre of detective fiction with three mesmerizing stories of a young French eccentric named C. Auguste Dupin. Introducing to literature the concept of applying reason to solving crime, these tales brought Poe fame and fortune. Years later, Dorothy Sayers would describe “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” as “almost a complete manual of detective theory and practice.” Indeed, Poe’s short mysteries inspired the creation of countless literary sleuths, among them Sherlock Holmes. Today, the unique Dupin stories still stand out as utterly engrossing page-turners.   Includes a Modern Library Reading Group Guide

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Book SynopsisThis Vintage Classics edition of James Joyce’s groundbreaking story collection has been authoritatively edited by scholars Hans Walter Gabler and Walter Hettche and includes a chronology, bibliography, and afterword by John S. Kelly. Also included in a special appendix are the original versions of three of the stories as well as Joyce''s long-suppressed preface to Dubliners. With the fifteen stories in Dubliners Joyce reinvented the art of fiction, using a scrupulous, deadpan realism to convey truths that were at once blasphemous and sacramental. Whether writing about the death of a fallen priest (The Sisters), the petty sexual and fiscal machinations of Two Gallants, or of the Christmas party at which an uprooted intellectual discovers just how little he really knows about his wife (The Dead), Joyce takes narrative art to places it had never been before.

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Book Synopsis'Musil belongs in the company of Joyce, Proust, Kafka, and Svevo. . . . (This translation) is a literay and intellectual event of singular importance.'--New Republic.

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Book SynopsisConsidered by some to be the greatest novel ever written, Anna Karenina is Tolstoy''s classic tale of love and adultery set against the backdrop of high society in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A rich and complex masterpiece, the novel charts the disastrous course of a love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer. Tolstoy seamlessly weaves together the lives of dozens of characters, and in doing so captures a breathtaking tapestry of late-nineteenth-century Russian society. As Matthew Arnold wrote in his celebrated essay on Tolstoy, ''We are not to take Anna Karenina as a work of art; we are to take it as a piece of life.''

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Book SynopsisOne of the most accomplished and prominent novels of the Victorian era, Middlemarch is an unsurpassed portrait of nineteenth-century English provincial life. Dorothea Brooke is a young woman of fervent ideals who yearns to effect social change yet faces resistance from the society she inhabits. In this epic in a small landscape, Eliot's large cast of precisely delineated characters and the rich tapestry of their stories result in a wise, compassionate, and astute vision of human nature. As Virginia Woolf declared, George Eliot 'was one of the first English novelists to discover that men and women think as well as feel, and the discovery was of great artistic moment.'

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Book SynopsisIntroduction by Diane Johnson Commentary by G. K. Chesterton, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Rigby, George Saintsbury, and Anthony TrollopeNominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Initially published under the pseudonym Currer Bell in 1847, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre erupted onto the English literary scene, immediately winning the devotion of many of the world’s most renowned writers, including William Makepeace Thackeray, who declared it a work “of great genius.” Widely regarded as a revolutionary novel, Brontë’s masterpiece introduced the world to a radical new type of heroine, one whose defiant virtue and moral courage departed sharply from the more acquiescent and malleable female characters of the day. Passionate, dramatic, and surprisingly modern, Jane Eyre endures as one of the world’s most beloved novels.  

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Book SynopsisJack becomes a trickster who must deliver England from the hands of three ogres after a failed government inquiry. In this book, the tales expose social anxieties, political corruption, predatory economic behavior, and destructive appetites even as they express hope for a better world.Trade Review"[M]odern answers to Grimm, variously satirical, queered and jaunty, by a diverse, intriguing group of writers."--Marina Warner, Times Literary Supplement "In the wake of the Great War, in the deep bowl of economic depression, on the doorstep of World War II, these stories are the cultural tradition of a disillusioned generation... They are skillfully and delightfully executed renderings, a treasure-collection of the talents of the time, and plain good literature. I recommend them without hesitation."--Christie Ricardo, Spinning Straw into Gold blog "This beautifully produced reissue, published by Princeton University Press and part of the 'Oddly Modern Fairy Tales' series, features an illustration on its front cover which dates back to 1939. It is an extremely well laid out volume, and its introduction and author biographies make lovely additions to the book... This is a collection of tales which certainly deserved a reprint, and will delight lovers of fairytales, nostalgia, British history and short stories alike."--Kirsty Hewitt, BookGeeks (UK) "It's intriguing to see how past authors used fairy tales in their modern fiction."--Sur La Lune blog "The uniqueness of the collection will make you want to savor it, just as I did... You will feel drawn to inspect each story closely, not only because of the tales' fanciful nature, but also because of their fascinating historical placement and significance."--Beanstalk blog "True to the spirit of the folk tale, they keep their stories provincial even as they modernise the settings. Aladdin is a Scottish undertaker in the town of Drumlochie. Cinderella lives in a secluded valley somewhere in Wales. She lives alone, having learnt a hard lesson in love: her story, typically for this collection, brings disenchantment, not happiness."--Ken Gelder, The Age "[D]elightful."--Choice "[A] delightfully different fairy-tale experience for the contemporary reader. Even those well versed in literary fairy-tales will find something new and enchanting in this volume... This collection is an essential addition to the libraries of those who study fairy-tale retellings and will be an enjoyable read for many others as well. Clever, revealing, and often oddly poignant, these stories deserve recognition."--Brittany Warman, Marvels & TalesTable of ContentsIntroduction Maria Tatar 1 Jack the Giant Killer A. E. Coppard 39 Godfather Death Clemence Dane 65 The Fisherman and His Wife E. M. Delafield 95 Little Snow-White Lord Dunsany 121 Aladdin Anna Gordon Keown 137 Sindbad the Sailor Eric Linklater 163 Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves A. G. Macdonell 186 Puss in Boots Helen Simpson 208 The Little Mermaid Lady Eleanor Smith 228 Little Red Riding-Hood E. oe. Somerville 249 Cinderella Robert Speaight 271 'O, If I Could but Shiver!' Christina Stead 302 The Sleeping Beauty G. B. Stern 325 Big Claus and Little Claus R. J. Yeatman and W. C. Sellar 354 Author Biographies 365

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Book SynopsisReprint. Originally published: 6th ed. New York: Dover Publications, 1953.Trade Review"One of the most imaginative, delightful and, yes, touching works of mathematics, this slender 1884 book purports to be the memoir of A. Square, a citizen of an entirely two-dimensional world."--The Washington Post Book World "Flatland has remained of interest for over a century precisely because of its ability to engage its readers on so many different planes in so many different dimensions."--Victorian Studies "This reprint of Abbott's Flatland adventures contains an Introduction by Thomas Banchoff which is worth reading on its own. So if you don't have yet this book at home, go ahead and buy this edition."--Zentralblatt MATHTable of ContentsPreface to the Second and Revised Edition ix Introduction xiii Part I This World Section 1 Of the Nature of Flatland 3 2 Of the Climate and Houses in Flatland 4 3 Concerning the Inhabitants of Flatland 6 4 Concerning the Women 8 5 Of our Methods of Recognizing one another 12 6 Of Recognition by Sight 16 7 Concerning Irregular Figures 20 8 Of the Ancient Practice of Painting 22 9 Of the Universal Colour Bill 24 10 Of the Suppression of the Chromatic Sedition 27 11 Concerning our Priests 30 12 Of the Doctrine of our Priests 32 Part II Other Worlds 13 How I had a Vision of Lineland 39 14 How in my Vision I endeavoured to explain the nature of Flatland, but could not 42 15 Concerning a Stranger from Spaceland 46 16 How the Stranger vainly endeavoured to reveal to me in words the mysteries of Spaceland 49 17 How the Sphere, having in vain tried words, resorted to deeds 55 18 How I came to Spaceland and what I saw there 57 19 How, though the Sphere showed me other mysteries of Spaceland, I still desired more; and what came of it 61 20 How the Sphere encouraged me in a Vision 66 21 How I tried to teach the Theory of Three Dimensions to my Grandson, and with what success 68 22 How I then tried to diff use the Theory of Three Dimensions by other means, and the result 70

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Book SynopsisBuster was the first, and arguably the most traditional, work of fiction by Alan Burns dating from before his aleatoric style developed into cutting up, but displaying early examples of the trademark disjointed, brisk and biting style which earned him a cult following. Imbued with autobiographical sentiment, the novel shows a young man's upbringing during World War II and his disillusioned vision of the post-war world.Never before published in standalone volume form since its original publication in the inaugural New Writers anthology in 1961, Buster is characteristically succinct and of huge literary merit, but in its autobiographical and pre-aleatoric style it provides, perhaps more importantly, a key to understanding the rest of Burns's works.Trade ReviewAlan Burns's novels deserve the attention of serious readers. -- David W. MaddenOne of the two or three most interesting new novelists working in England. -- Angus Wilson

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Book SynopsisNOW A PENGUIN MODERN CLASSIC: In this celebrated novel, Margaret Laurence writes with grace, power, and deep compassion about Rachel Cameron, a woman struggling to come to terms with love, with death, with herself and her world.      Living alone with only her aging mother for company, thirty-something retiring schoolteacher Rachel Cameron feels trapped in a milieu of deceit and pettiness--her own and that of others. She longs for love and contact with another human being who shares her rebellious spirit, and when she has a summer affair with former schoolmate Nick Kazlik, she learns at last to reach out to another person and to make herself vulnerable. Poignant and singular, A Jest of God is an enduring work by one of the world's most distinguished authors.

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Book SynopsisThe culmination and completion of Margaret Laurence's celebrated Manawaka cycle, The Diviners is an epic novel, now available as a Penguin Modern Classic.This is the powerful story of an independent woman who refuses to abandon her search for love. For Morag Gunn, growing up in a small Canadian prairie town is a toughening process—putting distance between herself and a world that wanted no part of her. But in time, the aloneness that had once been forced upon her becomes a precious right—relinquished only in her overwhelming need for love. Again and again, Morag is forced to test her strength against the world—and finally achieves the life she had determined would be hers. The Diviners has been acclaimed by many critics as the outstanding achievement of Margaret Laurence's writing career. In Morag Gunn, Laurence has created a figure whose experience emerges as that of all dispossessed people in search of their birthright, and one who survives as an inspirational symbol of courage and endurance.  

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Book SynopsisThe Fire-Dwellers is an extraordinary novel about a woman who has four children, a hard-working but uncommunicative husband, a spinster sister, and an abiding conviction that life has more to offer her than the tedious routine of her days.Stacey MacAindra burns--to burst through the shadows of her existence to a richer life, to recover some of the passion she can only dimly remember from her past.     Margaret Laurence has given us another unforgettable heroine--human, compelling, full of poetry, irony, and humour. In the telling of her life, Stacey rediscovers for us all the richness of the commonplace, the pain and beauty in being alive, and the secret music that dances in everyone's soul.  

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Book SynopsisVivid, evocative, moving, The Stone Angel celebrates the triumph of the spirit, and reveals Margaret Laurence at the height of her powers as a writer of extraordinary craft and profound insight into the workings of the human heart. Margaret Laurence's most celebrated novel introduced readers to one of the most memorable characters in Canadian fiction. Hagar Shipley is stubborn, querulous, self-reliant, and, at ninety, with her life nearly behind her, she makes a bold last step towards freedom and independence.      As her story unfolds, we are drawn into her past. We meet Hagar as a young girl growing up in a black prairie town; as the wife of a virile but unsuccessful farmer with whom her marriage was stormy; as a mother who dominates her younger son; and, finally, as an old woman isolated by an uncompromising pride and by the stern virtues she has inherited from her pioneer ancestors.

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