ELT & Literary Studies Books

Book SynopsisIn letters to his friend Atticus, Cicero (106–43 BC) reveals himself as to no other of his correspondents except perhaps his brother, and vividly depicts a momentous period in Roman history, marked by the rise of Julius Caesar and the downfall of the Republic.

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Book SynopsisThe Greek poetry of the seventh to the fifth century BC that we call elegy was composed primarily for banquets and convivial gatherings. Its subject matter consists of almost any topic, excluding only the scurrilous and obscene.Trade ReviewThese two additions to the Loeb Classical Library [Greek Iambic Poetry and Greek Elegiac Poetry] will be welcomed by readers at all levels. Archolicus, Hipponax, Solon, the Theognidea, and many others are now accessible as never before...The translations, into prose, are wonderfully clear and readable. All traces of translationese have been removed, or more likely were never there. While the revisions are plain, they are always instructive and can be elegant. It will repay students to read these versions not just as a crib, but to compare them carefully with the Greek. There are surprises and delights for the attentive...Gerber has a gift for finding English that shows how the Greek works...The notes are marvels of condensed information...Gerber throughout the notes writes in a clear, concise, and scrupulous style. In effect he had summarized for his readers a great deal of information about current interpretations and problems of dozens and dozens of fragments...Gerber has distilled an impressive amount of scholarship. That feat, together with the excellence of his translations, makes these volumes among the most distinguished of those recently issued. -- H.G. Edinger * Phoenix *Gerber's texts and general scholarship, including helpful notes, are fully up-to-date, his presentation is lucid...and his translations are neat and accurate, as well as faithful to, for example, the obscenity of iambos (the era of euphemistic Loebs is over). These volumes form a fine complement to Campbell's Greek Lyric set; they deserve to be widely used. -- Stephen Halliwell * Greece and Rome *

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Book SynopsisIn Bodies That Matter, renowned theorist and philosopher Judith Butler argues that theories of gender need to return to the most material dimension of sex and sexuality: the body. Butler offers a brilliant reworking of the body, examining how the power of heterosexual hegemony forms the matter of bodies, sex, and gender. Butler argues that power operates to constrain sex from the start, delimiting what counts as a viable sex. She clarifies the notion of performativity introduced in Gender Trouble and via bold readings of Plato, Irigaray, Lacan, and Freud explores the meaning of a citational politics. She also draws on documentary and literature with compelling interpretations of the film Paris is Burning, Nella Larsen's Passing, and short stories by Willa Cather.Trade Review"As a philosopher of gender [Judith Butler] is unparalleled." – Village Voice"Butler gives us a new way to think about the materiality of the body in the discursive performity operative in the materialization of sex. Following a common move in postmodern feminism, Butler sets out to demolish the sex/gender distinction that has formed the mainstay of the de Beauvorian and radical feminism's notion that gender, as a cultural construction, could be critiqued and politicized against the givenness of the body's biological sex. . . .What is new in Bodies That Matter is Butler's attempt to write more directly about race." – Signs"Extending the brilliant style of interrogation that made her 1990 book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity a landmark of gender theory/queer theory, Butler here continues to refine our understandings of the complexly performative character of sexuality and gender and to trouble our assumptions about the inherent subversiveness of dissident sexualities. . . . indispensable reading across the wide range of concerns that queer theory is currently addressing." – Artforum"What the implications/limitations of 'sexing' are and how the process works comprise the content of this strikingly perceptive book. . . . Butler has written a most significant and provocative work that addresses issues of immediate social concern." – The Boston Book Review "A brilliant and original analysis." – Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University, USA"...a classic." – Elizabeth GroszTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Part 1: 1. Bodies that Matter 2. The Lesbian Phallus and the Morphological Imaginary 3. Phantasmatic Identification and the Assumption of Sex 4. Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion Part 2: 5. 'Dangerous Crossing': Willa Cather's Masculine Names 6. Queering, Passing: Nella Larsen Rewrites Psychoanalysis 7. Arguing with the Real 8. Critically Queer. Notes. Index

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Book SynopsisContains eighteen original essays by leading Joyce scholars on the eighteen separate chapters of "Ulysses". This book attempts to explore the richness of Joyce's extraordinary novel. It covers Joyce's habit of using, when writing each chapter in "Ulysses", a particular style, tone, point of view, and narrative structure.Trade Review"A landmark in interpretation. . . . Never have Joyce's polytropic techniques been explicated with such thoroughness, sensitivity, and sympathy. The result is an achievement of new perspectives. . . . These writers have achieved the seemingly impossible feat of reading Ulysses afresh. * James Joyce Quarterly *"Some of the best scholars in the field take a fresh look at Joyce's novel. . . . The collection offers much to evoke the interest of even the most jaded Joyce devotee. It should not be overlooked by any serious scholar of Ulysses." * Virginia Quarterly Review *"The essays are remarkably uniform in quality, and consistently reflect a determined effort to move beyond mere explication and develop general notions about the art and meaning of Ulysses through close examination of specific passages within individual chapters. A well planned, effectively executed 'appreciation' in the best sense of the term, this important volume should prove a very valuable addition to any collection serving serious readers of Joyce." * Library Journal *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Abbreviations and Conventions Telemachus by Bernard Benstock Nestor by E. L. Epstein Proteus by J. Mitchell Morse Calypso by Adaline Glasheen Lotus Eaters by Phillip F. Herring Hades by R. M. Adams Aeolus by M. J. C. Hodgart Lestrygonians by Melvin J. Friedman Scylla and Charybdis by Robert Kellogg Wandering Rocks by Clive Hart Sirens by Jackson I. Cope Cyclops by David Hayman Nausicaa by Fritz Senn The Oxen of the Sun by J. S. Atherton Circe by Hugh Kenner Eumaeus by Gerald L. Bruns Ithaca by A. Walton Litz Penelope by Fr. Robert Boyle, S. J.

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Book Synopsis''I relished every page This is the best book on Jane Austen I have ever read'Spectator''Compelling a delightful and engrossing book Byrne's passion is nothing if not persuasive'Sunday TimesWas Jane Austen a woman of prim manners and genteel calm? Or someone who behaved outrageously, filled with sharp wit and wild comedy?Looking afresh at adaptations of Austen's work from the BBC's Pride and Prejudice to Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility and the wildly successful Clueless bestselling biographer Paula Byrne presents a bold new portrait of Austen as you've never seen her before.A definitive and pioneering study of a wholly neglected aspect of Austen's art'' Michael Caines, TLSEntertaining and engaging'Literary Review..[Previously published as The Genius of Jane Austen]Trade Review‘I relished every page … Byrne’s knowledge of everything Austen wrote has an enviable thoroughness and perception which is rare among Austen scholars and which illuminates the whole of her text. I am tempted to say this is the best book on Jane Austen I have ever read.’ Paul Johnson, The Spectator ‘A definitive and pioneering study of a wholly neglected aspect of Austen’s art’ Michael Caines, Times Literary Supplement ‘A fascinating analysis that marries meticulous historical research with critical imagination and flair’ The Historical Journal

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Book SynopsisMore comprehensive and up-to-date than ever before.

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Book SynopsisImmensely popular with contemporary readers, Smith’s major poetic works are foundational poetic texts of the Romantic period. Smith’s innovations in poetic form have also placed her at the forefront of twenty-first century scholarship on the period. This edition presents her three major poetic works — Elegiac Sonnets (1784-1800), The Emigrants (1793), and Beachy Head (1807). They also remain major texts for thinking through such questions as the relationship between public and private; the ethical treatment of refugees and other persecuted people; the position of women in a patriarchal society; and the usefulness of science as a way of making sense of a complex and ever-changing world.This Broadview edition includes a new critical introduction which takes into account the developments in scholarship on Smith’s work and women’s writing over the past three decades, and it provides readers with a wealth of contextual material for understanding the writer and the social and literary environment within which she wrote, including key works by her precursors and contemporaries, selections from her letters, and reviews of her poetry.Trade Review“This welcome edition of Smith’s poetry renders her verse readily comprehensible to those new to it while simultaneously fostering ongoing scholarship. It provides all of the major poems and deftly situates them within multiple illuminating contexts, including a vital appendix that details how Elegiac Sonnets grew across successive editions. The editors’ lucid introduction to Smith’s life, career, and verse offers an innovative account of the poetic persona that won her popular attention. A scrupulous editorial framework consisting of informative footnotes, the illustrations to Elegiac Sonnets, and valuable appendices will facilitate study of her work at every level. This edition will contribute to flourishing attention to Smith’s poetry among those pursuing feminist, historicist, ecocritical, and formalist approaches to the period.” —Sarah Zimmerman, Fordham University“In their introduction to this invaluable edition, Claire Knowles and Ingrid Horrocks make a strong case for the vital importance of Charlotte Smith’s poetry to both the literary and the socio-political history of the Romantic era. They also show her to be a cosmopolitan poet whose internationalist perspectives and sympathies resonate today. Smith scholars will welcome the comprehensive bibliography as well as the breakdown of the nine Elegiac Sonnets editions that clarifies the publication history of this evolving work. The judiciously chosen appendices reveal Smith as a lodestone of late-eighteenth-century British culture—a writer who revived the English sonnet, mastered blank verse, earned the respect of reviewers, and inspired countless fellow poets to honor her in verse.” —Kari Lokke, University of California, Davis“Together Claire Knowles and Ingrid Horrocks are ideal editors for a new, much-needed, paperback edition of Charlotte Smith’s major poetic works … Romanticists will welcome Knowles and Horrocks’s equally affordable and expertly edited volume.” — Elizabeth A. Dolan, European Romantic Review “Charlotte Smith: The Major Poetic Works is a well-contoured new Broadview volume edited by Claire Knowles and Ingrid Horrocks. The ‘major poetic works’—Elegiac Sonnets, The Emigrants and the posthumous Beachy Head—set one another off to advantage, showcasing Smith’s formal and perspectival versatility, not to mention the dramatic flair and sense of irony that enliven her fiction and plays. Knowles and Horrocks capably survey the Smith criticism that has accumulated in the three decades since her initiation into the Romantic canon. … The poems themselves are thoughtfully edited, while the appendices lay out a rich context for Smith’s work, fulfilling the editors’ expressed ‘hope’ that their own readers will ‘gain a sense of the writer herself and a better understanding of the powerful reaction she evoked from the late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century reading public’ (p. 42). Appendix B is especially nourishing: well-chosen selections from John Thelwall, Mary Robinson, and Coleridge place Smith in the context of contemporary debate about the ‘legitimate sonnet.’” — Jayne Lewis, Recent Studies in the Restoration and Eighteenth CenturyTable of Contents Appendix A: Key precursors and contemporaries Thomas Gray, “Sonnet on the Death of Mr Benjamin West” (1775) From William Cowper, The Task (1785) William Bowles, “Sonnet VIII. To the River Itchin, near Winton,” from Fourteen Sonnets, Elegiac and Descriptive (1789) Jane West, “On the Sonnets of Mrs. Charlotte Smith,” from Miscellaneous Poems, and a Tragedy (1791) From Frances Burney, Brief Reflections Relative to the Emigrant French Clergy (1793) Mary Robinson, “Sonnet XLIII,” Sappho and Phaon (1796) From William Wordsworth, The Prelude, Book One (1798-99) Anne Bannerman, “Sonnet VII,” from Poems of Anne Bannerman (1800) From Erasmus Darwin, The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society: A Poem, with Philosophical notes (1803) John Keats, “Sonnet VII: When I have fears that I may cease to be,” from Life, Letters and Literary Remains of John Keats (1848) Appendix B: Contemporaries on Smith and the sonnet John Thelwell, “An Essay on the ENGLISH SONNET; illustrated by a comparison between the Sonnets of MILTON and those of CHARLOTTE SMITH,” European Magazine (1792) Mary Robinson, from “Preface” to Sappho and Phaon (1796) Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from “Introduction to the Sonnets,” Poems (1797) Appendix C: Selections from Smith’s letters related to her poetry To William Davies, 25 April 1797 To Joel Barlow, 3 November 1792 To Joseph Johnson, 12 July 1806 Appendix D: Selected reviews of Smith’s major poems Review of Elegiac Sonnets (1784) in the Monthly Review Review of Elegiac Sonnets (1786) in the Gentleman’s Magazine Review of The Emigrants (1793) in the European Magazine Review of The Emigrants (1793) in the Monthly Review Review of Beachy Head (1807) in British Critic Appendix E: Poetry about Smith appearing in newspapers and magazines Anonymous, “Sonnet to Mrs. Smith” D, “Sonnet to Mrs. SMITH, on reading her Sonnets lately published” “Pastor Fido,” “On passing the retreat of Charlotte Smith near Chichester, in Sussex” “Ticklepitcher,” “Ode to Charlotte Smith” “Oberon” (Mary Robinson), “Sonnet to Mrs Charlotte Smith on Hearing That Her Son Was Wounded at the Siege of Dunkirk.” Appendix F: Tables of Contents for the volumes of Elegiac Sonnets published during Smith’s lifetime

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Book SynopsisIn Poetics of Relation, Glissant turns the concrete particulars of Caribbean reality into a complex, energetic vision of a world in transformation. This translation of Glissant's work preserves the resonating quality of his prose and makes the richness and ambiguities of his voice accessible to readers in English.Trade ReviewThe most important theoretician from the Caribbean writing today. . . . He is central not only to the burgeoning field of Caribbean studies, but also to the newly flourishing literary scene in the French West Indies." — Judith Graves Miller, University of Wisconsin, Madison

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Book SynopsisKyla Schuller unearths the forgotten, multiethnic sciences of impressibility—the capacity to be affected—to expose the powerful workings of sentimental biopower in the nineteenth-century United States, uncovering a vast apparatus of sensory regulation that aimed to shape the evolution of the national population.Trade Review"[Schuller's] terminology here may act as a springboard for additional theorizations of race. . . . An ambitious, conscientious history." -- Joshua Falek * Cultural Studies *"The importance of this book to nineteenth-century studies cannot be understated: it fundamentally rewrites the history of sentimentalism, an affective and cultural formation that dominated norms of comportment and embodiment across the period. . . . " -- Kyla Tompkins * American Quarterly *"The Biopolitics of Feeling takes a refreshingly head-on approach to the historical entanglement of race and sex in the United States. . . Stunningly convincing . . . Readers will find an abundant resource of theoretically informed readings of postbellum and Progressive Era science and literature throughout the study, but they will be also unable to ignore Schuller’s urgent warning about feminism’s embeddedness in the machinations of biopower." -- Britt Rusert * Catalyst *"Impressibility and sentimentalism combine in this book to form a rubric assessing a broad and fascinating archive. . . . Schuller offers a broad view of how nineteenth-century Americans were given repeated exposure to the logic of impressibility and affective fitness, to the point where both became unconscious components of civic life." -- Sheila Liming * Legacy *"An impressive synthesis of historical and theoretical work. . . . A well-documented critique of society and valuable contribution to scholarship on biopolitics that addresses persistent issues that can spark intellectual discussions. The book would be useful for scholars across disciplines such as Philosophy, Health Studies, Critical Race Studies, Ethnic Studies and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies." -- Rosemary Onyango * Journal of International Women's Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Sentimental Biopower 1 1. Taxonomies of Feeling: Sensation and Sentiment in Evolutionary Race Science 35 2. Body as Text, Race as Palimpsest: Frances E. W. Harper and Black Feminist Biopolitics 68 3. Vaginal Impressions: Gyno-neurology and the Racial Origins of Sexual Difference 100 4. Incremental Life: Biophilanthropy and the Child Migrants of the Lower East Side 134 5. From Impressibility to Interactionism: W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Eugenics, and the Struggle against Genetic Determinisms 172 Epilogue. The Afterlives of Impressibility 205 Notes 215 Bibliography 247 Index 271

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Stach often does quietly brilliant work connecting known details of Kafka's youth to the older Kafka, so the reader can see how events appear (or don't) in the specific subjectivity of Kafka's recollection."--Rivka Galchen, London Review of Books "Stach's book crowns a definitive biographical trilogy 18 years in the making... Kafka: The Early Years, along with its two siblings--all three volumes impeccably translated from the German by Shelley Frisch--often feels like biography plotted as a novel. Stach's relish for detail is marshaled to the sensibility--if not the omniscience or imaginative license--of the novelist... [T]he heft of Stach's research is balanced by interpretive tact and a discerning eye."--Benjamin Balint, Wall Street Journal Praise for the previous volumes: "This is one of the great literary biographies, to be set up there with, or perhaps placed on an even higher shelf than, Richard Ellmann's James Joyce, George Painter's Marcel Proust, and Leon Edel's Henry James... [A]n eerily immediate portrait of one of literature's most enduring and enigmatic masters."--John Banville, New York Review of Books Praise for the previous volumes: "Resplendent."--Gary Giddins, Wall Street Journal Praise for Reiner Stach's biography of Kafka, winner of the 2015 Bavarian Book Prize: "One discovers a new, a different Dr. Franz Kafka of Prague in Reiner Stach's monumental, three-volume biography, which concludes triumphantly with Kafka: The Early Years: Kafka--a techie, a lady-killer, friend, the inventor of 3-D movies, and the prospective author of a series of low-priced travel guides for Europe. Reiner Stach proves that biography can be a literary art form and gives definitive shape to our contemporary image of Kafka."--Bavarian Book Prize jury statement Praise for the previous volumes: "[This] will surely be the definitive biography of one of the 20th century's most mysterious artists. Stach's declared aim is to find out what it felt like to be Kafka, and he succeeds."--John Banville, Irish Times Praise for the previous volumes: "The very best of which the genre is capable. This book is itself a novel."--Imre Kertesz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Praise for the previous volumes: "Superbly tempered... Shelley Frisch, Stach's heroic American translator, movingly reproduces his intended breadth and pace and tone."--Cynthia Ozick, New Republic Praise for the previous volumes: "A definitive biography of a rare writer... [M]asterful."--The Economist Praise for the previous volumes: "Stach aims to tell us all that can be known about [Kafka], avoiding the fancies and extrapolations of earlier biographers. The result is an enthralling synthesis, one that reads beautifully... I can't say enough about the liveliness and richness of Stach's book... Every page of this book feels excited, dynamic, utterly alive."--Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World Praise for the previous volumes: "Stach's is a splendid effort and will be hard to surpass."--William H. Gass, Harper's Magazine Praise for the previous volumes: "[Stach] has a deep understanding of the world that Kafka came from and this is matched by an intelligence and tact about the impulse behind the work itself."--Colm Toibin, Irish Independent Praise for the previous volumes: "Stach's book succeeds brilliantly at clearing a path through the thick metaphysical fog that has hung about Kafka's work almost since his death... [I]lluminating... Between them, [Frisch] and Stach have produced a superbly fresh imaginative guide to the strange, clear, metaphor-free world of Kafka's prose."--Tim Martin, Telegraph Praise for the previous volumes: "Magnificent."--John Carey, Sunday Times Praise for the previous volumes: "Flawlessly translated... [A] wonderfully intelligent and perceptive portrait of a uniquely powerful writer."--P. D. Smith, Guardian "Magisterial... [Reiner Stach's] portrait of the artist is intimately knowing... [Kafka: The Early Years] completes an indispensable work about a key figure in 20th-century modernism."--Kirkus Reviews "Kafka's eerie short stories and novels have electrified readers for generations, but Stach's portrait of the young Kafka contradicts the legend of their source in an alienated, detached enigma. Readers meet instead a likable, brilliant young insurance lawyer with, as Stach puts it, abundant perfectionism and self-doubt... [A]ll Kafka devotees will find this biography's insights deeply fulfilling."--Publishers Weekly "What Mr. Stach uncovers in this volume--written last because of a long struggle over access to documents--are the formative experiences of a Kafka who becomes new and surprisingly relevant... Even those immersed in the specialist work benefit from the illumination that Mr. Stach's detailed digging brings... In today's age of backlash against globalisation, the arc that Mr. Stach draws between 'The Early Years' and Kafka's later life takes on a new significance."--The Economist "Reiner Stach presents exhaustive details about the young author's life, which, rather than demystifying Kafka, actually have the effect of augmenting his complexity."--Mene Ukueberuwa, New Criterion "Reiner Stach's monumental three-volume Kafka ... looks set to be the definitive biography for the foreseeable future. Here we have something new: a credible and sympathetic human Kafka... The narrative sections of the book are masterly: Stach has a novelist's feel for atmosphere and psychology. He fixes important characters (not just Kafka, but his parents and his teachers, Brod, and several others) to the page in a few deft strokes. And he is truly excellent on Kafka's work, which is the most important thing of all. The central question of any serious literary biography should be: how did this person come to write these books? Stach answers it more fully and persuasively than any previous biographer of Kafka, by revealing in meticulous detail his feelings of personal insignificance and his dread of authority."--Edmund Gordon, Sunday Times "The best thing a biographer of Franz Kafka can do is bring the famed author back to earth. Not as regards his reputation, which is justifiably lofty. But to humanize Kafka and save him from our collective idea of him as some otherworldly creature who spent a mere 40 years on this earth, suffering much and publishing little. Reiner Stach accomplishes just this with the third and final volume of his magnificent biography... [He] strips away the myths and tells the story of how Kafka helped drag literature into the modern era."--John Winters, WBUR's ARTery blog "Stach's account of Kafka becoming Kafka is dotted with unlikely epigraphs (Laurie Anderson, Devo, the Human League) and written with pace and dry wit... Stach is an alert reader of the work, continuously on the prowl for aspects of Kafka's life that may shed light on his preoccupations... Stach's book succeeds because it concentrates less on reducing Kafka to psycho-biographical truisms than on ushering us into his company."--Tim Martin, Prospect "Belongs in the company of the masterpieces of literary biography... [C]omprehensive but raised above mere competency through astonishing architectural beauty. Thanks to the superb work of Stach's translator, Shelley Frisch, the trilogy also stands out in English at the sentence level, for the unbroken clarity, verbal ingenuity, and unflagging momentum of its prose."--Open Letters Monthly "One of the most engaging and persuasive features of [Kafka: The Early Years] ... is the way in which Stach goes far beyond the all-too-familiar neurotic, angst-ridden [Kafka] by presenting us with a variety of lesser-known 'Kafkas.'"--Mark Harman, Los Angeles Review of Books "Superbly translated from German by Shelley Frisch... Illuminating facts and intelligent commentary... The three volumes are so carefully composed and densely woven--blending history, literary analysis, psychological insights, quotes and commentary from others--that it would be practically impossible to produce an abridged version in a single volume."--Alexander Adams, Spiked Review "Stach's whole project is a wonder to behold."--Gregory Day, Sydney Morning Herald "If you are a Kafka fan (or just a fan of great literary biographies), the translation of Reiner Stach's enormous, three-part biography is something not to miss. Now that it has been translated into English by Shelley Frisch, the book offered English-language readers unparalleled insight into Kafka's life, his world, his colleagues, his lovers, his family, and of course his writing. As a longtime Kafka devotee, I found this biography exceptional, not just a great book about Kafka but simply a great book to read."--Scott Esposito, Conversational Reading "[Stach's] mastery of complex material, scrupulous examination of evidence, illuminating portrayal of the historical and intellectual background ranks with Joseph Frank's superb five-volume life of Dostoyevsky."--Jeffrey Meyers, Commonweal "We can trace, through Stach's measured narrative, the full course of Kafka's brief life... The result is not merely a biography of painstaking thoroughness but a piece of psychological investigation and literary detective work without clear parallel. It gives its readers a new Kafka. It explains much that has long seemed obscure; yet, by paradox, the more its author-hero is grounded in his context, and the more we grasp of the initial sources of his imagination, the more unfathomable his gifts become. The haze clears; he stands alone."--Nicolas Rothwell, AustralianTable of ContentsTranslator's Preface ix 1 Nothing Happening in Prague 1 2 The Curtain Rises 7 3 Giants: The Kafkas from Wosek 26 4 Julie Lowy 38 5 Losing Propositions 46 6 Thoughts about Freud 58 7 Kafka, Franz: Model Student 77 8 A City Energized 90 9 Elli, Valli, Ottla 113 10 Latin, Bohemian, Mathematics, and Other Matters of the Heart 122 11 Jewish Lessons 150 12 Innocence and Impudence 171 13 The Path to Freedom 184 14 To Hell with German Studies 204 15 Friend Max 222 16 Enticements 236 17 Informed Circles: Utitz, Weltsch, Fanta, Bergmann 248 18 Autonomy and Recovery 268 19 The Interior Landscape: "Description of a Struggle" 284 2 Doctor of Law Seeking Employment 302 21 Off to the Prostitutes 325 22 Cafes, Geishas, Art, and Cinema 335 23 The Formidable Assistant Offi ial 350 24 The Secret Writing School 370 25 Landing in Brescia 391 26 In the Heart of the West 407 27 Ideas and Spirits: Buber, Steiner, Einstein 420 28 Literature and Tourism 437 Acknowledgments 463 Key to Abbreviations 465 Notes 467 Bibliography 531 Photo Credits 549 Index 551

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Book SynopsisWhen Stevie Smith died in 1971 she was one of the twentieth-century''s most popular poets; many of her poems have been widely anthologised, and ''Not Waving but Drowning'' remains one of the nation''s favourite poems to this day.Satirical, mischievous, teasing, disarming, her characteristically lightning-fast changes in tone take readers from comedy to tragedy and back again, while her line drawings are by turns unsettling and beguiling. In this edition of her work, Smith scholar Will May collects together the illustrations and poems from her original published volumes for the first time, recording fascinating details about their provenance, and describing the various versions Smith presented both on stage and page. Including over 500 works from Smith''s 35-year career, The Collected Poems and Drawings of Stevie Smith is the essential edition of modern poetry''s most distinctive voice.Nobody heard him, the dead man,But still he lay moaning:I was muc

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Book SynopsisRaymond Carver, who became a master-storyteller of his generation and was hailed in Europe as 'the American Chekhov', wrote of himself: "I began as a poet. My first publication was a poem. So I suppose on my tombstone I'd be very pleased if they put 'Poet and short-story writer - and occasional essayist', in that order." This complete edition allows readers to experience the range and overwhelming power of Carver's poetry for the first time. It brings together in the order of their American publication the poems of Fires (1985), Where Water Comes Together with Other Water (1986), Ultramarine (1988), A New Path to the Waterfall (1989) and No Heroics, Please (1991). For readers who know Carver's middle period only through his selected poems, In a Marine Light (1988), it includes the windfall of 51 poems not previously published in Britain. All of Us is edited by Professor William L. Stull of the University of Hartford, and introduced with an essay on Raymond Carver's methods of composition by his widow, the poet Tess Gallagher.Trade ReviewBetter known for his short stories, Raymond Carver was also an accomplished poet, as this superbly presented collection attests -- Anthony Quinn * Harpers & Queen *The cumulative effect is exhilarating: happiness, yes, but about as far as you can get from the bland, cosmic gruntlement currently being peddled by so many American poets * Times Literary Supplement *A year after the American writer's abrupt death, Salman Rushdie concluded a review of A New Path to the Waterfall, a final verse collection, by urging: 'Read everything Raymond Carver ever wrote.' It's very good advice * Irish Times *What is never lost - or lost sight of- is the primacy of experience and the most direct way of finding its expression... The urgency of the artist not to trivialise, but to find the essence; plain language in which to lay bare the terror and beauty of plain lives -- John Harvey

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Book SynopsisThomas Paine was the impassioned democratic voice of the Age of Revolution, and this volume brings together his best-known works: Common Sense, The American Crisis, Rights of Man, The Age of Reason, along with a selection of letters, articles and pamphlets that emphasizes Paine''s American years. “I know not whether any man in the world,” wrote John Adams in 1805, “has had more influence on its inhabitants or affairs for the last thirty years than Tom Paine.” The impassioned democratic voice of the Age of Revolution, Paine wrote for his mass audience with vigor, clarity, and “common sense.” This Library of America volume is the first major new edition of his work in 50 years, and the most comprehensive single-volume collection of his writings available. Paine came to America in 1774 at age 37 after a life of obscurity and failure in England. Within fourteen months he published Common Sense, the most influential pamphlet for the American Revolution, and began a career that would see him prosecuted in England, imprisoned and nearly executed in France, and hailed and reviled in the American nation he helped create. In Common Sense, Paine set forth an inspiring vision of an independent America as an asylum for freedom and an example of popular self-government in a world oppressed by despotism and hereditary privilege. The American Crisis, begun during “the times that try men’s souls” in 1776, is a masterpiece of popular pamphleteering in which Paine vividly reports current developments, taunts and ridicules British adversaries, and enjoins his readers to remember the immense stakes of their struggle. Among the many other items included in the volume are the combative “Forester” letters, written in a reply to a Tory critic of Common Sense, and several pieces concerning the French Revolution, including an incisive argument against executing Louis XVI. Rights of Man (1791–1792), written in response to Edmund Burke’s attacks on the French Revolution, is a bold vision of an egalitarian society founded on natural rights and unbound by tradition. Paine’s detailed proposal for government assistance to the poor inspired generations of subsequent radicals and reformers. The Age of Reason (1794–1795), Paine’s most controversial work, is an unrestrained assault on the authority of the Bible and a fervent defense of the benevolent God of deism. Included in this volume are a detailed chronology of Paine’s life, informative notes, an essay on the complex printing history of Paine’s work, and an index.LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of black superheroes as a fascinating racial phenomenon and a powerful source of racial meaning, narrative, and imagination in American society.Trade ReviewThis well-conceptualized, well-written book is enriched by Nama's witty turns of expression, occasional corrections of earlier errors and omissions, and fascinating background material. * Choice *Throughout, Nama takes a refreshingly nuanced approach to his subject. Nama complicates the black superhero by also seeing the ways that they put issues of post-colonialism, race, poverty, and identity struggles front and center. * Rain Taxi *Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Color Them Black Chapter 2. Birth of the Cool Chapter 3. Friends and Lovers Chapter 4. Attack of the Clones Chapter 5. For Reel?: Black Superheroes Come to Life Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAgainst Theory, the title essay in this volume, challenges the notion that literary theory has any real work to do, or any results to show. This challengeissued by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels in Critical Inquiry (8:4)strikes some critics as scandalous, others as provocative and productive. The argument is directed against both sides of the current debates in literary theory, criticizing theoretical objectivists like E. D. Hirsch, Jr., on the one hand, and proponents of indeterminacy like Paul de Man on the other. The attack is not just on a particular way of doing theory but on the entire project of literary theory. The challenge is not only to a way of thinking and writing but to a way of making a living. The resulting controversy has drawn so much attention among literary critics that it has been collected in a single volume so that the debate can be followed from start to finish. This collection includes the essay Against Theory, seven responses to it, and a rejoinder by K

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Book SynopsisThe beloved Shannara series by New York Times bestselling author Terry Brooks has been acclaimed as a towering achievement, an unquestioned masterpiece in fantasy literature. Now all the wonders of Shannara have been gathered into one indispensable volume in which Brooks shares candid views on his creation. This completely updated edition includes new entries on the High Druid of Shannara and Genesis of Shannara series, as well as the thrilling connection between Shannara and the Word and the Void trilogy. Illustrated throughout with full-color paintings and black-and-white drawings by award-winning artists David Cherry and Rob Alexander, this comprehensive guide ventures behind the scenes to explore the history, the people, the places, the major events, and, of course, the magic of one of the world’s greatest fantasy epics.What sets Terry Brooks apart? Is it a knack for creating unforgettable characters like Allanon the Druid, Shea Ohmsford, Tom Logan, and Angel P

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Book SynopsisHarold Bloom, the doyen of American literary critics and author of The Western Canon, has spent a professional lifetime reading, writing about and teaching Shakespeare. In this magisterial interpretation, Bloom explains Shakespeare's genius in a radical and provocative re-reading of the plays.How to understand Shakespeare, whose ability so far exceeds his predecessors and successors, whose genius has defied generations of critics' explanations, whose work is of greater influence in the modern age even than the Bible? This book is a visionary summation of Harold Bloom's reading of Shakespeare and in it he expounds a brilliant and far-reaching critical theory: that Shakespeare was, through his dramatic characters, the inventor of human personality as we have come to understand it. In short, Shakespeare invented our understanding of ourselves. He knows us better than we do: The plays remain the outward limit of human achievement: aesthetically, cognitively, in certain ways morally, even spiritually. They abide beyond the end of the mind's reach; we cannot catch up to them. Shakespeare will go on explaining us in part because he invented us ' In a chronological survey of each of the plays, Bloom explores the supra-human personalities of Shakespeare's great protagonists: Hamlet, Lear, Falstaff, Rosalind, Juliet. They represent the apogee of Shakespeare's art, that art which is Britain's most powerful and dominant cultural contribution to the world, here vividly recovered by an inspired and wise scholar at the height of his powers.Trade Review‘Brilliant… a Shakespearean reading of Shakespeare which is rich in asides and incidentals.’Robert Nye, Sunday Telegraph ‘Harold Bloom is the leading literary critic of our time… a superb advocate for the reality and influence of Shakespeare… Bloom, a great critic, also lives his literary criticism, enacts it in his soul.’James Wood, Guardian

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Book SynopsisLonglisted for the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction (now the Bailie Gifford)A thrilling and complex book, enlarges our view of Homer There's something that hits the mark on every page' Claire Tomalin, Books of the Year, New StatesmanWhere does Homer come from? And why does Homer matter? His epic poems of war and suffering can still speak to us of the role of destiny in life, of cruelty, of humanity and its frailty, but why they do is a mystery. How can we be so intimate with something so distant?The Mighty Dead' is a magical journey of discovery across wide stretches of the past, sewn together by some of the oldest stories we have the great ancient poems of Homer and their metaphors of life and trouble. In this provocative and enthralling book, Adam Nicolson explains why Homer still matters and how these vital, epic verses with their focus on the eternal questions about the individual versus the community, honour and service, love and war tell us how we became who we are.Trade Review‘A thrilling and complex book, enlarges our view of Homer… there's something that hits the mark on every page’ Claire Tomalin, Books of the Year, New Statesman ‘Bursting with enthusiasm, erudition and eccentricity: a travelogue, a memoir, a work of literary criticism and, at bottom, an archaeology of the western imagination. Completely thrilling’ Susan Hill, Books of the Year, Spectator ‘Only the hardiest immune systems will be able to resist his unselfconscious adoration of the poet. Anyone who feels they never 'got' Homer should read this book’ Books of the Year, Sunday Times ‘Astounding. Scholarly, but so up-close and personal that you feel it in the guts… it transcends genre…you come away exhilarated’ Sofka Zinovieff, Books of the Year, Spectator ‘A brilliant, passionate, world-wandering love letter to Homer … far more inspirational than any dry academic exegesis. If the only real test of any book about Homer is that it should make you want to go back to Homer, then ‘The Mighty Dead’ passes in a blaze of glory’ Sunday Times ‘A hosanna to Homeric wandering and wanderlust … breathes new life into an ancient adventure’ Observer ‘A thrillingly energised book that travels to the real-life locations of the action … it transmits a whole worldview at once decipherable and dramatically strange … To read Homer is to be struck by what Nicolson calls ‘time-vertigo’ – and this book is one that holds your hand and encourages you to peer over the edge’ Spectator ‘As gripping as a thriller and as delicately constructed as a sonnet … an astonishing tour de force that reveals Homer to be at once as ancient as papyrus and as modern as MTV … in dealing with the body-thudding side of epic Nicolson proves to be in his element’ Telegraph ‘Erudite, far-ranging in time and space, and provocative… [his] enthusiasm is enriching and his examination of the character of the two epics acute and fascinating. Homer matters because he can stimulate books such as this’ Literary Review

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.

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Book SynopsisAn exciting approach to learning French with the easy, relaxed appeal of an audio-only product. Over 12 hours of bestselling easy-listening.No books. No rote memorisation. No chance of failure.The accompanying booklet is also available here: collinsdictionary.com/resources.For all those who have struggled to learn French in the past.For all those who think they're just not a linguist.For all those who don't have the time or the inclination to sit and study a textbook.This is your chance to have a one-to-one lesson from Paul and his native-speaking French experts, and all in your own time. Importantly, you will also know how to make your new vocabulary work for you. No set phrases, no lists of vocabulary. Just real French at your fingertips.A more in-depth course for those looking to improve their language skills, with over 12 hours of audio and a handy written revision guide to reinforce your learning.Which Paul Noble product is right for me?I need a basic audio course for use on holTrade ReviewReview of Paul Noble Method by The City Magazine:“Relaxing and listening to the CDs, I found that I seemed to absorb the phrases taught, without even consciously trying, and quickly felt confident enough to play around with the different components and make my own sentences.” Reviews by Amazon customers:“This is the most remarkable language course imaginable. I've tried several courses but this is on another planet. It is amazing!!!”“Paul Noble has a very relaxing and informal style to his teaching… I can already tell that my spoken French has improved permanently.”“At last, an easy way to learn a language! Easy to understand plus an easy one to pop into the car CD player and use on the move, so no more 'I haven't the time…’”“The language is explained in a simple way and the teacher doesn't use complex grammar terms… For me, though, the absolute best thing about it is that it has allowed me to speak in full, proper sentences in French… A fantastic course and a well deserved 5 stars!”“I am pleased to report that this is really good fun to use because as you listen you are encouraged to CREATE VOCABULARY AND PHRASES FOR YOURSELF out of the bits of structure that you are picking up. Not only is it a completely non-threatening process but it is also entertaining in itself.”“For those who love languages but struggle to learn them this is a wonderful resource.“

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Book SynopsisSlowly Down the Ganges' is seen as a vintage Newby masterpiece, alongside A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush' and Love and War in the Apennines'. Told with Newby''s self-deprecating humour and wry attention to detail, this is a classic of the genre and a window into an enchanting piece of history.On his forty-forth birthday, Eric Newby sets out on an incredible journey: to travel the 1,200-mile length of India''s holy river. In a misguided attempt to keep him out of trouble, Wanda, his life-long travel companion and wife, is to be his fellow boatwoman. Their plan is to begin in the great plain of Hardwar and finish in the Bay of Bengal, but the journey almost immediately becomes markedly slower and more treacherous than either had imagined - running aground sixty-three times in the first six days.Travelling in a variety of unstable boats, as well as by rail, bus and bullock cart, and resting at sandbanks and remote villages, the Newbys encounter engaging characters and glorious mishaps, inTrade Review'All the dusty enchantment and the recurrent dottiness of India - its exasperating charm - are in these pages' Eric Linklater 'Any book by Eric Newby is an event' Len Deighton 'Impossible to describe adequately the flavour of this delicious story … vintage Newby delicately salted with “The Wind in the Willows” and “Three Men in a Boat”' Guardian 'No journey into an unmapped interior to carry the word or find a lost explorer was more obstinately seen through to its end than this do-it-yourself pleasure trip … Mr Newby has fine descriptive gifts and a deft touch in casual portraiture' Times Literary Supplement 'One of the finest and certainly the funniest of British travel writers' Sunday Times

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Book SynopsisLevel: KS1Subject: EnglishCovering everything children need to know for KS1When it comes to getting the best results, practice really does make perfect! Matched to the National Curriculum, this Collins KS1 English Study Book contains clear and accessible explanations of every topic with lots of practice opportunities throughout. Using five spaced practice opportunities and a repeated practice method that is proven to work, this book helps to improve English performance. Practice questions are organised into three levels of increasing difficulty to start, then they're mixed at the end of the book for varied revision. Quick tests throughout allow children to test their understanding along the way, while review questions later in the guide allow children to refresh their knowledge. Also included are free downloadable flash cards which are brilliant to use in the classroom or at home. For extra KS1 English practice, try our Practice Workbook (9780008112738).

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.Second to the right and then straight on till morning!'Desperate to hear bedtime stories, Peter Pan waits outside the nursery window of Wendy, John and Michael Darling. When Peter asks Wendy to fly with him to Neverland, the Darling children are whisked away to a world of adventure of daring fairies, wondrous mermaids and The Lost Boys.But there is danger in Neverland too: the villainous Captain Hook is out for revenge and will stop at nothing to take it.Poignant and unforgettable, J. M. Barrie's classic tale is one of the greatest works of children's literature of the last century. Its imaginative scope, tender humour and vivid characters will enchant adults and children alike.Published in association with Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.Trade Review‘Intensely moving as well as enchanting in its evocation of childhood, the heartlessness of youth and parental grief as children grow older’ Daily Telegraph

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Book SynopsisA charming new pocket edition of one of Tolkien's major pieces of short fiction, and his only finished work dating from after publication of The Lord of the Rings.What began as a preface to The Golden Key by George MacDonald eventually grew into this charming short story, so named by Tolkien to suggest an early work by P.G. Wodehouse. Composed almost a decade after The Lord of the Rings, and when his lifelong occupation with the Silmarillion' was winding down, Smith of Wootton Major was the product of ripened experience and reflection. It was published in 1967 as a small hardback, complete with charming black and white illustrations by Pauline Baynes, and would be the last work of fiction to be published in Tolkien's own lifetime.Now, almost 50 years on, this enchanting tale of a wanderer who finds his way into the perilous realm of Faery is being published in paperback. Contained here are many intriguing links to the world of Middle-earth, as well as to Tolkien's other tales, and this new edition is enhanced with a facsimile of the illustrated first edition, a manuscript of Tolkien's early draft of the story, notes and an alternate ending, and a lengthy essay on the nature of Faery.Trade Review“The book has a haunting quality, characteristic of the best of the ‘deeper’ folktales. It is a beautiful, memorable story.” Times Educational Supplement “It may be compared to the most delicate miniature but it is one of a rare kind: the more closely it is examined the more it reveals the grandeur of its conception. Whoever reads it at eight will still be going back to it at eighty.” New Statesman “A tremendously valuable volume with important new insights into Tolkien’s way of working. It’s also a beautiful hardcover edition of the story.” Mythprint

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.''Wouldn''t it be fun if all the castles in the air which we make could come true, and we could live in them?''An endearing tale of hardship, love and sisterhood during the American Civil War, Little Women tells the story of the March family. Newly impoverished, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy undertake their journey through life together, bound to each other and their beloved mother Marmee by fierce loyalty. Good and bad timescome and go as they struggle with the trials of growing up, getting along, and exploring life outside the comforting walls of home, each discovering her own distinct personality along the way.Full of charm and heart, Little Women is the first novel in a series cherished by children and adults alike.

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Book SynopsisFive comedies from Ancient Greece that freely blend satire and slapstickOffering a window into the world of ordinary Athenians, Aristophanes' The Birds and Other Plays is a timeless set of comedies, combining witty satire and raucous slapstick to wonderful effect. The plays in this volume all contain Aristophanes' trademark bawdy comedy and dazzling verbal agility. In The Birds, two cunning Athenians persuade the birds to build the utopian city of 'Much Cuckoo in the Clouds' in the sky, blockading the Olympian gods and installing themselves as new deities. The Knights is a venomous satire on Cleon, a prominent Athenian demagogue, who vies with a humble sausage-seller for the approval of the people; while The Assembly-Women deals with the battle of the sexes as the women of Athens infiltrate the all-male Assembly in disguise. The lengthy conflict with Sparta is the subject of Peace, inspired by the hope of a settlement in 421 BC, and Table of ContentsThe Birds and Other PlaysAbout the Author7Aristophanes in Antiquity9Aristophanes, Comedian and Poet21The Knights29Peace91The Birds147The Assemblywoman215Wealth265Notes313Select Bibliography336

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Book Synopsis'Many people are not in the least disturbed at the harm that befalls them, provided they can see their enemies’ downfall first’ In a series of pithy, amusing vignettes, Aesop created a vivid cast of characters to demonstrate different aspects of human nature. Here we see a wily fox outwitted by a quick-thinking cicada, a tortoise triumphing over a self-confident hare and a fable-teller named Aesop silencing those who mock him. Each jewel-like fable provides a warning about the consequences of wrong-doing, as well as offering a glimpse into the everyday lives of Ancient Greeks.This definitive edition is the first translation into English of the entire corpus of 358 unbowdlerized fables. It is fully annotated, with an introduction that rescues the fables from a tradition of moralistic interpretation.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700&Table of ContentsIntroductionA Note on the TextTHE COMPLETE FABLES

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Book SynopsisPhaedrus is widely recognized as one of Plato''s most profound and beautiful works. It takes the form of a dialogue between Socrates and Phaedrus and its ostensible subject is love, especially homoerotic love. This new translation is accompanied by an introduction, further reading, and full notes on the text and translation that discuss the structure of the dialogue and elucidate issues that might puzzle the modern reader.

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Book SynopsisA classical historian confronts our crises of time, radically calling into question our relations to the past, present, and future.Trade ReviewSince his classic Mirror of Herodotus, Francois Hartog has emerged as the most significant theorist of history and chronicler of our changing relationship to our own past that France has produced. In this series of meditative chapters, he takes us from the Greeks to the present once more, emphasizing how the theory of history must move from diagnosing the modern gap between expectation and experience to confronting the exigency of historical crisis today. Hartog's reflections are valuable for all humanists. -- Samuel Moyn, Columbia University In a book that should be required reading for anyone interested in history's role in contemporary society, Francois Hartog shows how unexamined assumptions about the past shape our understandings of ourselves and our place in history. -- Lynn Hunt, University of California, Los Angeles Francois Hartog's pioneering work on the concept of 'regimes of historicity' makes this book a must for scholars in both the social sciences and the humanities. A distinguished classical historian, Hartog uses specific, well-chosen examples to explain how understanding regimes of historicity will allow us to better understand the conditions of possibility for producing histories and, more generally, our own relationship to time. -- Robert Morrissey, University of Chicago Francois Hartog is perhaps the most important historian of historiography today... Regimes of Historicity should be required reading for anyone interested in the past, present, and future writing of history. American Historical Review Regimes of Historicity should be required reading for anyone interested in the past, present, and future writing of history. Time's BooksTable of ContentsPresentism: Stopgap or New State? Introduction: Orders of Time and Regimes of Historicity Orders of Time 1 1. Making History: Sahlins's Islands 2. From Odysseus's Tears to Augustine's Meditations 3. Chateaubriand, Between Old and New Regimes of Historicity Orders of Time 2 4. Memory, History, and the Present 5. Heritage and the Present Our Doubly Indebted Present: The Reign of Presentism Notes Index

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Book SynopsisRaman Mundair's second collection of poems sees her expanding her territory to create a new poetic geography. Her voice dances with her love for the language and life of the Shetland Islands through the anguish of war to the movement of people and the crossing of boundaries. She brings to all a combination of passion and compassion, sensitivity and sensuality.The collection encompasses poems written in the Shetland dialect, narratives of thwarted desire and a sequence of poems which explore the dynamics and historical by-ways of the waltz.Raman Mundair is a writer and artist. She was born in Ludhiana, India and came to live in the UK at the age of five. She is the author of two volumes of poetry, A Choreographer's Cartography and Lovers, Liars, Conjurers and Thieves.Trade Review"Mundair conveys a vivid and memorable sense of self, and a truly poetic intimation of a dimension beyond the sharply focused moment. This voice deserves to be widely heard." Michael Mitchell, University of Warwick"

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Book SynopsisRediscover this deep, practical anatomy of the novel from 'the strongest ... literary critic we have' (New York Review of Books) in this new revised 10th anniversary edition.What do we mean when we say we 'know' a fictional character? What constitutes a 'telling' detail? When is a metaphor successful? Is realism realistic? Why do most endings of novels disappoint?In the tradition of E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel and Milan Kundera's The Art of the Novel, How Fiction Works is a study of the main elements of fiction, such as narrative, detail, characterization, dialogue, realism, and style. In his first full-length book of criticism, one of the most prominent critics of our time takes the machinery of story-telling apart to ask a series of fundamental questions. Wood ranges widely, from Homer to Beatrix Potter, from the Bible to John Le Carré, and his book is both a study of the techniques of fiction-making and an alternative history of the novel. Playful and profound, it incisively sums up two decades of bold, often controversial, and now classic critical work, and will be enlightening to writers, readers, and anyone interested in what happens on the page.'Should find a place on every novel-lover's shelf. It has the quality all useful works of criticism should have: refined taste, keen observation, and the ability to make the reader argue, passionately, with it' Financial TimesTrade ReviewThis compelling essay shows just how deeply, sensitively, imaginatively and joyfully he reads * Scotland on Sunday *There aren't many book reviewers whose leaving one magazine to go to work for another would make the headlines. But then there aren't many book reviewers like James Wood * Sunday Telegraph *Luminous... full of top-notch observations from the coal-face -- D.J. Taylor * Independent on Sunday *Enchanting... Witty, concise, and composed with a lovely lightness of touch * Economist *Exceptionally illuminating... brilliantly acute and enticingly widely read work. It should be compulsory reading for anyone in the reviewing trade and committed to memory before aspiring writers put pen to paper. For those who intend to pursue the underrated calling of reading fiction without wishing to add to its ranks, it will not only make reading more pleasurable, but articulate what you may have felt but never been able to express -- Rosemary Goring * Herald *

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of The Handmaid's Tale and Dearly I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary.Eating Fire brings together three of Margaret's Atwood's key poetry collections: Poems 1965-1975, Poems 1976-1986 and Morning in the Burned House. The landscape of Atwood's poetry is one of bus trips and postcards, wilderness, glass, and fires both savage and tender. Atwood's signature themes resound throughout all of them: the politics of sex, the darkness at the heart of every fairytale, and the pain - and triumph - of existing as a woman. * * * 'Atwood is the quiet Mata Hari, the mysterious, violent figure . . . who pits herself against the ordered too-clean world like an arsonist' - Michael Ondaatje'Detached, ironic, loving by turns . . . poems that sing off the page and sting' - Michèle RobertsTrade ReviewAtwood is the quiet Mata Hari, the mysterious, violent figure ... who pits herself against the ordered too-clean world like an arsonist * Michael Ondaatje *An acute and poetic observer of the eternal, universal rum relations between women and men * THE TIMES *Detached, ironic... poems that sing off the page and sting * Michele Roberts *Lean, symbolic, thoroughly Atwoodesque prose honed into elegant columns... * SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY *

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Book SynopsisFrom the critically acclaimed poet and classicist Anne Carson: a brilliant new translation of the work of Sappho, together with the original Greek. During her life on the island of Lesbos, Sappho is said to have composed nine books of lyrics. Only one poem has survived complete. In IF NOT, WINTER, Carson presents all the extant fragments of Sappho's verse, employing brackets and white space to denote missing text - allowing the reader to imagine the poems as they were written. Carson says of her method of translation: 'I like to think that, the more I stand out of the way, the more Sappho shows through.' And certainly her translation illuminates Sappho's reflections on love and desire, her companions and rivals, the goddess Aphrodite, her own daughter, Kleis. IF NOT, WINTER gives us an extraordinary ancient poet brought alive by a brilliantly empathetic contemporary poet. Complete with Carson's introduction and notes, it will become the standard translation of Sappho for our time.Trade Reviewa superb version...these new poems, made by Carson out of Sappho, are subtle, beautiful, precise, moving. * Margaret Reynolds, THE TIMES *This collection of her [Sappho's] fragments gives you everything, for the first time... * INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *The beautiful blur of Sappho's work, the rhythms, the ornate grammar, the singing sounds she teases out of rare words...are impossible to match. * DAILY TELEGRAPH *Imaginatively presented and superbly prefaced, this collection is both heartrending and uplifiting. * INDEPENDENT *

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Book SynopsisDavid Galef provides a guide to writing flash fiction, from tips on technique to samples by canonical and contemporary authors to provocative prompts that inspire powerful stories in a little space. Brevity is an indispensable resource for anyone working in this increasingly popular form.Trade ReviewIf I had to choose just one book for my class in writing flash fiction, it would be this one. Practical, direct, wonderful examples, fun to read-if this book doesn't energize your writing, nothing will. -- Robert Shapard, coeditor of Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories Brevity represents a useful addition to the range of current creative writing texts, combining an anthology of flash fiction with an analysis of the subcategories within the form and writing exercises that will inspire students. Galef's witty, welcoming tone will appeal to beginning and intermediate writers. Often, I felt so inspired by the prompts that I wanted to sit down at my computer and try the exercises myself. -- Eileen Pollack, author of A Perfect Life: A Novel Brevity is a thorough introduction to the form, offering a variety of strategies for composition, as well as a wide-ranging, international anthology linked to each chapter's focus. A relentlessly generative, eclectic, instructive, entertaining, and motivational text. -- Michael Martone, author of The Flatness and Other Landscapes Galef is an excellent writer, and the book throughout is a delight-he makes the reader want to immediately start writing... He provides deft insights and suggestions on editing... and he suggests techniques that work well when applied to a small text. Best of all, each chapter provides examples of great flash fiction-from authors as different as Saki and Steve Martin-as well as ideas for readers to explore. Publishers WeeklyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments A Short Introduction Vignettes. Readings: Colette: "The Other Wife"; Isaac Babel: "An Incident on the Nevsky Prospekt" Character Sketches. Readings: L. E. Leone: "The Argument for a Shotgun"; Josefina Estrada: "The Extravagant Behavior of the Naked Woman" Letters. Readings: Yasunari Kawabata: "Canaries"; Phil Karasik: "Mickey the Dog Phones Home" Diary Entries. Readings: Will Stanton: "Barney"; Mark Budman: "The Diary of a Salaryman" Lists. Readings: Sei Shonagon: "Annoying Things"; Steve Martin: "Disgruntled Former Lexicographer" Fables. Readings: Anonymous: Untitled; Raphael Dagold: "The Two Rats and the BB Gun" Anecdotes. Reading: The peasant and the genie Prose Poems. Readings: Yusef Komunyakaa: "Nude Interrogation"; Len Kuntz: "Story Problems" Soliloquies, Rants, Riffs, and Themes. Readings: Christine Byl: "Hey, Jess McCafferty"; John Edgar Wideman: "Witness" Perfect Miniatures. Readings: John Collier: "The Chaser"; Jeffrey Whitmore: "Bedtime Story" Intermission: Cutting Down. Bruce Taylor: "Exercise" Surrealism. Readings: Richard Brautigan: "A Need for Gardens"; Donald Barthelme: "The Baby" What If? Readings: Wayland Hilton-Young: "The Choice"; Dicky Murphy: "The Magician's Umbrella" Genre. Readings: Roxane Gay: "The Mistress of Baby Breath"; Tara Orchard: "My Love" Setting. Readings: Bharati Mukherjee: "Courtly Vision"; Alice Walker: "The Flowers" Twists. Readings: Luisa Valenzuela: "Vision Out of the Corner of One Eye"; Saki: "The Open Window" Two Viewpoints. Readings: Robert Schipits: "Dialogue Between Two Teenagers, One Interested in Cars and One Not"; Ryan Ridge: "Shaky Hands & All" Mass Compression. Readings: Bruce Holland Rogers: "Dinosaur"; Susan O'Neill: "Memento Mori" Metafiction. Readings: Ptim Callan: "Story"; Jorge Luis Borges: "Borges and I" Vanishing Point. Readings: Merilee Faber: "We came around the corner"; Dean Clayton Edwards: "It was pretending"; Davian Aw: "She raised the glass"; Augusto Monterroso: "The Dinosaur" The Future Conclusion Bibliography Permissions Index

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Book Synopsis''Even if everyone else succumbs to slavery, we must still fight for our freedom.''Admired by many in the ancient world as the greatest of the classic Athenian orators, Demosthenes was intimately involved in the political events of his day. As well as showing a master orator at work, his speeches are a prime source for the history of the period, when Athens was engaged in a doomed struggle against the rising power of Macedon under the brilliant father and son, Philip and Alexander. Demosthenes wrote for the courts, both for political trials in which he was involved and for other cases in which he acted as ghost-writer for plaintiff or defendant, and his lawcourt speeches give an unrivalled glimpse of the daily life of ancient Athens. He also played a central role in education in Greece and Rome from the Hellenistic period onward, and was imitated by the greatest of Roman orators, Cicero.This selection includes the fullest range of Demosthenes'' speeches, for trials both public and privTrade Review[Demosthenes' speeches] impress with their emotional intensity, brilliance and variety of argument (dishonest or not), irony, forceful imagery, wit and general sense of mastery of the spoken word, in Robin Waterfields fine new translations. * Peter Jones, Classics for All *Table of ContentsDELIBERATIVE SPEECHES; TRIALS IN PUBLIC CASES; PRIVATE AND GHOST-WRITTEN SPEECHES

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Book SynopsisThe Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition is part of the landmark New Oxford Shakespeare--an entirely new consideration of all of Shakespeare''s works, edited afresh from all the surviving original versions of his work, and drawing on the latest literary, textual, and theatrical scholarship. In one attractive volume, the Modern Critical Edition gives today''s students and playgoers the very best resources they need to understand and enjoy all Shakespeare''s works. The authoritative text is accompanied by extensive explanatory and performance notes, and innovative introductory materials which lead the reader into exploring questions about interpretation, textual variants, literary criticism, and performance, for themselves.The Modern Critical Edition presents the plays and poetry in the order in which Shakespeare wrote them, so that readers can follow the development of his imagination, his engagement with a rapidly evolving culture and theatre, and his relationship to his literary contemporaries.The New Oxford Shakespeare consists of four interconnected publications: the Modern Critical Edition (with modern spelling), the Critical Reference Edition (with original spelling), a companion volume on Authorship, and an online version integrating all of this material on OUP''s high-powered scholarly editions platform. Together, they provide the perfect resource for the future of Shakespeare studies.Table of ContentsTHE COMPLETE WORKS

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Book Synopsis''Who possesses me will possess all things,But his life will belong to me...''Raphael de Valentin, a young aristocrat, has lost all his money in the gaming parlours of the Palais Royal in Paris, and contemplates ending his life by throwing himself into the Seine. He is distracted by the bizarre array of objects in a chaotic antique shop, among them a strange animal skin, a piece of shagreen with magical properties. It will grant its possessor his every wish, but each time a wish is bestowed the skin shrinks, hastening its owner''s death. Around this fantastic premise Balzac weaves a compelling psychological portrait of his hero, a prisoner of his own Promethean imagination, and explores profound ideas about the human will, vice and virtue, love and death. Helen Constantine''s new translation captures the energy and exuberance of Balzac''s novel, one of the most engaging of his ''Études philosophiques'' from the Comédie humaine. The accompanying introduction and notes offer fresh insights into this remarkable work. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewThe novel has been elegantly translated by Helen Constantine, who is both faithful and creative * Nicholas White, Times Literary Supplement *A model of its kind * Nineteenth-Century French Studies *

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Book SynopsisIn The Sketch-Book Washington Irving explores the uneasy relationship of an American writer to English literary traditions. He sketches a series of encounters with the cultural shrines of the parent nation, and in two brilliant experiments with tales transplanted from Europe creates the first classic American short stories, `Rip Van Winkle' and `The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow'.

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Book Synopsis''I will do as the Senate decrees.''These words from one of Rome''s opponents encapsulate the authority Rome achieved by its subjugation of the Mediterranean. The Third Macedonian War, recounted in this volume, ended the kingdom created by Philip II and Alexander the Great and was a crucial step in Rome''s eventual dominance. For Livy, the story is also a fascinating moral study of the vices and virtues that hampered and promoted Rome''s efforts in the conflict. He presents the war not so much as a battle against Perseus, Alexander''s last and unworthy successor, than as a struggle within the Roman national character. Only traditional moral strength, embodied in Lucius Aemilius Paullus, the general who ultimately defeats Perseus, ensures the Roman victory.This edition also includes the Periochae, later summaries of Livy''s entire original 142-book history of Rome from its founding to the age of Augustus (of which only 35 books survive).The complete Livy in English, available in five volumes from Oxford World''s Classics. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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Book Synopsis`It will be the biggest fiasco of the year - but I don''t care a damn! It will be something nobody has ever done before, and I shall have said what I had to say.'' As Joris -Karl Huysmans announced in 1884, Against Nature was fated to be a novel like no other. Resisting the models of classic nineteenth-century fiction, it focuses on the attempts of its anti-hero, the hypersensitive neurotic and aesthete, Des Esseintes, to escape Paris and the vulgarity of modern life. Holed up in his private museum of high taste, he offers Huysmans''s readers a treasure trove of cultural delights which anticipates many of the strains of modernism in its appreciation of Baudelaire, Moreau, Redon, Mallarmé and Poe. This new translation is supplemented by indispensable notes which enhance the understanding of a highly allusive work. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''

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Book SynopsisFirst published in the turbulent decade following the French Revolution, Memoirs of Emma Courtney is based on Mary Hays'' own passionate struggle with romance and Enlightenment philosophy. A feminist and ardent disciple of Mary Wollstonecraft, Hays reveals the lamentable gap between `what women are'' and `what woment ought to be''. The novel is one of the most articulate and detailed expressions of the yearnings and frustrations of a woman living in late eighteenth-century English society. It questions marital arrangements and courtship rituals by depicting a woman who actively pursues the man she loves. The novel explores the links between sexuality, desire, and economic and social freedom, suggesting the need for improvement in the laws of society which `have enslaved, enervated, and degraded woman''. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitTrade Reviewthe editions deserve great credit for the enthusiasm of their approach ... The introductions by eminent scholars put the thoughts of the author and the history of the time into clear perspective. Oxford should be given credit for making the classics accessible for all rather than just crib notes for students. * Jonathan Copeland, Lincolnshire Echo *

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Book SynopsisThis excellent and accessible work includes many major texts in translation: Aristotle's Poetics, Longinus' On Sublimity, Horace's Art of Poetry, Tacitus' Dialogues, and extracts from Plato and Plutarch.Trade Review'A very useful selection.' Dr M. S. Silk, King's College, London'A very useful collection.' Anne Sheppard, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College'An excellent collection.' M. J. Blumenthal, University of Liverpool'A fine selection at an attractive price. It is good to see some less well known texts of ancient criticism included.' Dr Alison Sharrock, University of Keele'I welcome this book particularly for the less familiar authors not easily accessible to students.' Dr M. A. Bromley, St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill'extremely useful to students' P. E. Easterling, University College, London'An excellent anthology' Dr A. P. Baldwin, Cambridge UniversityTable of ContentsPlato: Ion: Republic 2-3; Republic 10; Aristotle: Poetics; Horace: A Letter to Augustus; The Art of Poetry; Tacitus: Dialogue on Orators; `Longinus': On Sublimity; Dio of Prusa: Philoctetes in the Tragedians; Plutarch: On the Study of Poetry

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