ELT & Literary Studies Books
Yale University Press Thinking in Circles
Book SynopsisFound in the Bible and in writings from as far afield as Egypt, China, Indonesia, Greece, and Russia, ring composition is too widespread to have come from a single source. Does it perhaps derive from the way the brain works? This title examines ring composition, its principles and functions, in a cross-cultural way.Trade Review"Over the course of her career Ms. Douglas has become a master at discerning order in unexpected forms and surprising places. In an unassuming way, without pretense or revolutionary claims, she reveals the logic behind the varied customs of a society."—Edward Rothstein, New York Times -- Edward Rothstein * New York Times *"The scope of Mary Douglas's syntheticising thought is admirable. Her relaxed observations across the centuries and cultural boundaries are stimulating reading for anyone interested in the patterns of narrative, a field which is often characterised by narrow tunnel vision rather than intercultural and interdisciplinary desire."—Päivi Mehtonen, Bryn Mawr Classical Review -- Päivi Mehtonen * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *"Succinct, unpretentious, wise and, best of all, reconstructive. . . . [A] valuable contribution to cultural studies in the widest sense of the term, making one wish the term were more often stretched this finely. . . . a sagacious field guide, pleasing and teasing our tastes for turnings."—Jennifer Formichelli, Essays in Criticism -- Jennifer Formichelli * Essays in Criticism *
£21.00
HarperCollins Publishers Realms of the Round Table
Book SynopsisFully illustrated collection of rare and previously unpublished tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, retold for a new generation by leading Arthurian expert, John Matthews, introduced by Sir John Boorman, director of the classic film, Excalibur, and illustrated with paintings and drawings by Tolkien artist, John Howe.
£30.08
Princeton University Press Libraries of the Mind
Book Synopsis
£18.00
University of California Press Moby Dick
Book SynopsisIncludes illustrations, of places, creatures, objects or tools, and processes connected with nineteenth-century whaling, that are original boxwood engravings by Massachusetts artist Barry Moser.Trade Review"Andrew Hoyem’s Arion Press edition of Moby Dick, published in San Francisco in 1979, in an edition of 265 total copies, is considered one of the two or three greatest American fine press books ever. . . .a trade edition published by University of California Press retains the look of the type and the illustrations, done in woodcut by Barry Moser." * The New Antiquarian *"A great American edition with features more diverse than those in any previous edition of Melville's classic." -- Stuart C. Sherman, * Fine Print *Table of ContentsETYMOLOGY EXTRACTS CHAPTER I Loomings 2 The Carpet Bag 3 The Spouter-Inn 4 The Counterpane 5 Breakfast 6 The Street 7 The Chapel 8 The Pulpit 9 The Sermon 1O A Bosom Friend II Nightgown I2 Biographical I3 Wheelbarrow I4 Nantucket IS Chowder I6 The Ship I7 The Ramadan I8 His Mark I9 The Prophet 20 All Astir 2I Going Aboard 22 Merry Christmas 23 The Lee Shore 24 The Advocate 25 Postscript 26 Knights and Squires 27 Knights and Squires 28 Ahab 29 Enter Ahab; to him, Stubb 30 The Pipe 3I Queen Mab 32 Cetology 33 The Specksynder 34 The Cabin Table 35 The Mast-Head 36 The Quarter-Deck · Ahab and all 37 Sunset 38 Dusk 39 First Night-Watch 40 Forecastle-Midnight 41 Moby Dick 42 The Whiteness of the Whale 43 Hark! 44 The Chart 45 The Affidavit 46 Surmises 47 The Mat-Maker 48 The First Lowering 49 The Hyena 50 Ahab's Boat and Crew-Fedallah 51 The Spirit-Spout 52 The Pequod meets the Albatross 53 The Gam 54 The Town Ho's Story 55 Monstrous Pictures of Whales 56 Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales 57 Of Whales in Paint, in Teeth, &c. 58 Brit 59 Squid 6o The Line 61 Stubb kills a Whale 62 The Dart 63 The Crotch 64 Stubb's Supper 65 The Whale as a Dish 66 The Shark Massacre 67 Cutting In 68 The Blanket 69 The Funeral 70 The Sphynx 71 The Pequod meets the Jeroboam ·Her Story 72 The Monkey-rope 73 Stubb and Flask kill a Right Whale 74 The Sperm Whale's Head 75 The Right Whale's Head 76 The Battering Ram 77 The great Heidelburgh Tun 78 Cistern and Buckets 79 The Prairie 8o The Nut 8I The Pequod meets the Virgin 82 The Honor and glory of Whaling 83 Jonah Historically Regarded 84 Pitch poling 85 The Fountain 86 The Tail 87 The Grand Armada 88 Schools & Schoolmasters 89 Fast Fish and Loose Fish 90 Heads or Tails 91 The Pequod meets the Rose Bud 92 Ambergris 93 The Castaway 94 A Squeeze of the Hand 95 The Cassock 96 The Try-Works 97 The Lamp 98 Stowing Down & Clearing Up 99 The Doubloon IOO The Pequod meets the Samuel Enderby of London IOI The Decanter I02 A Bower in the Arsacides I03 Measurement of the Whale's Skeleton I04 The Fossil Whale I05 Does the Whale Diminish? I06 Ahab's Leg I07 The Carpenter I08 The Deck · Ahab and the Carpenter 109 The Cabin · Ahab and Starbuck IIO Queequeg in his Coffin III The Pacific II2 The Blacksmith Il3 The Forge 114 The Gilder II5 The Pequod meets the Bachelor II6 The Dying Whale II7 The Whale-Watch II8 The Quadrant II9 The Candles I20 The Deck 121 Midnight, on the Forecastle I22 Midnight, Aloft I23 The Musket I24 The Needle I25 The Log and Line I26 The Life, Buoy 127 Ahab and the Carpenter I28 The Pequod meets the Rachel 129 The Cabin· Ahab and Pip 130 The Hat I31 The Pequod meets the Delight I32 The Symphony I33 The Chase · First Day I34 The Chase · Second Day I35 The Chase · Third Day EPILOGUE
£35.70
Oxford University Press Shirley
Book Synopsis''You expected bread, and you have got a stone; break your teeth on it, and don''t shriek...you will have learned the great lesson how to endure without a sob.''Shirley is Charlotte Brontë''s only historical novel and her most topical one. Written at a time of social unrest, it is set during the period of the Napoleonic Wars, when economic hardship led to riots in the woollen district of Yorkshire. A mill-owner, Robert Moore, is determined to introduce new machinery despite fierce opposition from his workers; he ignores their suffering, and puts his own life at risk. Robert sees marriage to the wealthy Shirley Keeldar as the solution to his difficulties, but he loves his cousin Caroline. She suffers misery and frustration, and Shirley has her own ideas about the man she will choose to marry. The friendship between the two women, and the contrast between their situations, is at the heart of this compelling novel, which is suffused with Brontë''s deep yearning for an earlier time. ABOUT
£8.99
Oxford University Press North and South
Book SynopsisThrough the story of Margaret Hale, the middle-class southerner who moves to the northern industrial town of Milton, Gaskell skilfully explores issues of class and gender in the conflict between Margaret's ready sympathy with the workers and her growing attraction to the charismatic mill owner, John Thornton. This new revised and expanded edition sets the novel in the context of Victorian social and medical debate.
£8.20
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Writing to Learn
Book Synopsis
£13.29
Vintage Publishing Darkness Visible
Book SynopsisBorn at Newport News, Virginia, in 1925, William Styron was educated at Duke University. He served in the Marine Corps during the last war, and was recalled to service during the Korean War. After 1952, he lived mainly in Europe, before settling in a rural part of Connecticut. He died in 2006.Trade ReviewHair-raising in the manner of A Tale of Horror by Edgar Allan Poe * Daily Telegraph *As short as a hangman's rope and nearly as arresting - an essay of great gravity and resonance. Never has Styron used so few words so effectively * Newsweek *
£9.49
The University of Chicago Press The Wounded Storyteller
Book SynopsisDrawing on the work of authors such as Oliver Sacks, Anatole Broyard, Norman Cousins, and Audre Lorde, as well as the people he met during the years he spent among different illness groups, the author recounts a collection of illness stories.
£18.05
Oxford University Press The Complete Sonnets and Poems The Oxford
Book SynopsisThe Oxford ShakespeareGeneral Editor Stanley WellsThe Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative texts from leading scholars in editions designed to interpret and illuminate the works for modern readers- a new, modern-spelling text, collated and edited from all existing printings- on-page and facing-page commentary and notes explain language and allusions- detailed introductions consider the sonnets'' biographical and literary background, how the poems relate to the plays, dating and textual matters, and the mysteries of ''Mr W. H.'' and the ''Dark Lady''- includes poems attributed to Shakespeare in the seventeenth century- full index to introductions and commentary- durable sewn binding for lasting use''not simply a better text but a new conception of Shakespeare. This is a major achievement of twentieth-century scholarship.'' Times Literary Supplement 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 ReviewA long and detailed critique, which ends with excellent praise 'This Complete Sonnets and Poems is a distinguished addition to a distinguished series. It will repay comtinuing study, and act as a valuable point of reference for readers concerned more generally with Shakespeare's art and language. Colin Burrow's good sense, tact and balance as an editor are deeply impressive.' * H.R.Woudhuysen, TLS *
£8.54
Yale University Press Grand Strategies
Book SynopsisThrough the discussions of literary works from Homer to Rushdie, this title represents a merger of literature and international relations, inspired by the conviction that 'a grand strategist... needs to be immersed in classic texts from Sun Tzu to Thucydides to George Kennan, to gain real-world experience.Trade Review"A remarkable book. . . . Hill is the exemplification of the Clausewitzian coup d’oeil—the ability to see how everything connects to everything else."—John Gaddis, Yale University"Charles Hill's Grand Strategies is a gem that combines long and valuable practical experience with the wisdom that comes from a broad and deep knowledge of history, literature and philosophy to produce a wisdom badly needed by statesmen and diplomats."—Donald Kagan, Yale University“A triumph of intellectual unification. Ranging globally through history and literature, Hill brilliantly demonstrates how certain key issues have driven grand strategy and statecraft from ancient to post-modern times.”—Arthur Waldron, author of The Great Wall of China: From History to Myth"In an age of short attention spans and disaggregated facts, Charles Hill does much to revive two venerable traditions—the classical ideal of statesmanship, and the close engagement with great texts.”—Henry A. Kissinger“Charles Hill's clear-headed and erudite exploration of the world's literary heritage on the subject of statecraft and the state system opens wide vistas for understanding the past and future of international affairs. This is a convincing and much-needed statement of the essential importance of the humanities in preparing the leaders of the future.”—Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University
£19.99
Oxford University Press Culture and Anarchy
Book Synopsis''The men of culture are the true apostles of equality.''Matthew Arnold''s famous series of essays, which were first published in book form under the title Culture and Anarchy in 1869, debate important questions about the nature of culture and society that are as relevant now as they have ever been. Arnold seeks to find out ''what culture really is, what good it can do, what is our own special need of it'' in an age of rapid social change and increasing mechanization. He contrasts culture, ''the study of perfection'', with anarchy, the mood of unrest and uncertainty that pervaded mid-Victorian England. How can individuals be educated, not indoctrinated, and what is the role of the state in disseminating ''sweetness and light''? This edition reproduces the original book version and enables readers to appreciate its immediate historical context as well as the reasons for its continued importance today, in the face of the challenges of multi-culturalism and post-modernism. ABOUT THE SERIE
£8.99
Oxford University Press Anna Karenina
Book SynopsisMany believe Anna Karenina to be the greatest novel ever written. The impossible and destructive triangle of Anna, her husband Karenin, and her lover Vronsky, is set against the marriage of Levin and Kitty, illuminating the most important questions which beset humanity. This edition uses Louise and Aylmer Maude's classic translation - still unsurpassed - and is printed here with a new introduction and detailed annotation.
£9.49
Yale University Press The Invention of News
Book SynopsisTrade Review“A fascinating book—beautifully written, admirably organized, with a mass of information about even the most recondite means of collecting and transmitting news before 1800.”—Alastair Hamilton, TLS -- Alastair Hamilton * TLS *
£16.14
Oxford University Press Finnegans Wake
Book SynopsisOne of the greatest artistic works of the twentieth century, Finnegans Wake is both an outrageous epic and a wildly inventive comedy that rewards its readers with never-ending layers of meaning. This edition helps readers get past its reputation for difficulty in order to enjoy its astonishing originality and imaginative achievement.Trade Reviewenhances the reader's textual awareness...The captivating, accessible and rich introduction by Finn Fordham enthuses first-time readers * James Joyce Broadsheet, Dirk Van Hulle *The editors have provided a lucid introduction and a chapter-by-chapter outline which gives one at last a vague hold on what's going on, but it's not overburdened with notes, which frees one to stop worrying and just enjoy the surrealism and exuberance of Joyce's language. * Independent on Sunday *
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd The Erotic Poems
Book SynopsisThis collection of Ovid's poems deals with the whole spectrum of sexual desire, ranging from deeply emotional declarations of eternal devotion to flippant arguments for promiscuity. In the Amores, Ovid addresses himself in a series of elegies to Corinna, his beautiful, elusive mistress. The intimate and vulnerable nature of the poet revealed in these early poems vanishes in the notorious Art of Love, in which he provides a knowing and witty guide to sexual conquest - a work whose alleged obscenity led to Ovid's banishment from Rome in AD 8. This volume also includes the Cures for Love, with instructions on how to terminate a love affair, and On Facial Treatment for Ladies, an incomplete poem on the art of cosmetics.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and discipTable of ContentsThe Erotic PoemsList of AbbreviationsPreface and AcknowledgmentsIntroductionThe AmoresThe Art of LoveCures for LoveOn Facial Treatment for LadiesNotes and ReferencesSelect Reading List
£11.69
Oxford University Press Aeneid Oxford Worlds Classics
Book Synopsis''Arms and the man I sing of Troy...'' So begins one of the greatest works of literature in any language. Written by the Roman poet Virgil more than two thousand years ago, the story of Aeneas'' seven-year journey from the ruins of Troy to Italy, where he becomes the founding ancestor of Rome, is a narrative on an epic scale: Aeneas and his companions contend not only with human enemies but with the whim of the gods. His destiny preordained by Jupiter, Aeneas is nevertheless assailed by dangers invoked by the goddess Juno, and by the torments of love, loyalty, and despair. Virgil''s supreme achievement is not only to reveal Rome''s imperial future for his patron Augustus, but to invest it with both passion and suffering for all those caught up in the fates of others. Frederick Ahl''s new translation echoes the Virgilian hexameter in a thrillingly accurate and engaging style. An Introduction by Elaine Fantham, and Ahl''s comprehensive notes and invaluable indexed glossary complement the translation. 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 ReviewReview from previous edition 'Frederick Ahl captures the pathos..to splendid effect. His version reproduces the fierce, hurtling momentum of the original...he is acutely sensitive to the intricate texture of Virgil's Latin. No pun or anagram or play on words escapes his attention; the subtlety as well as the stateliness of the original shines through in every line. In maintaining this difficult balance, Mr Ahl has produced the finest translation of the 'Aeneid' in recent memory. * New York Sun, 9 January 2008 *
£9.49
Oxford University Press Medieval Writers and their Work
Book SynopsisIn an updated edition of his hugely successful student introduction to English literature from 1100 to 1500, J. A. Burrow takes account of scholarly developments in the the field, most notably devoting a final chapter to the impact of historicism on medieval studies. Full of information and stimulating ideas, and a pleasure to read, Burrow''s book deals with circumstances of composition and reception, the main genres, ''modes of meaning'' (allegory etc.), and medieval literature''s afterlife in modern times. It shows that the literature of authors such as Chaucer, Gower, and Langland is more readily accessible than usually imagined, and well worth reading too. By placing medieval writers in their historical context - the four centuries between the Norman Conquest and the Renaissance - Professor Burrow explains not only how they wrote, but why.Trade ReviewThis book is the most effective introduction to Middle English literature that I know. It is everywhere alert to the ways that modern literary sensibilities need to be adjusted in order to appreciate the medieval norm, and Burrow combines astonishing learning with a pedagogical shrewdness that always picks out just the telling passage or focusing cultural fact. This second edition adds a great deal of new and equally important material to a work that had already become a classic in its own right. * Christopher Cannon, Girton College, Cambridge *Table of Contents1. The period and the literature ; 2. Writers, audiences, and readers ; 3. Major genres ; 4. Modes of meaning ; 5. The afterlife of Middle English literature ; Notes ; Bibliography
£30.87
Oxford University Press Collected Maxims and Other Reflections
Book Synopsis''Our virtues are, most often, only vices in disguise.''Deceptively brief and insidiously easy to read, La Rochefoucauld''s shrewd, unflattering analyses of human behaviour have influenced writers, thinkers, and public figures as various as Voltaire, Proust, de Gaulle, Nietzsche, and Conan Doyle. The author gave himself the following advice: ''The reader''s best policy is to assume that none of these maxims is directed at him, and that he is the sole exception...After that, I guarantee that he will be the first to subscribe to them.''This is the fullest collection of La Rochefoucauld''s writings ever published in English, and includes the first complete translation of the Réflexions diverses (Miscellaneous Reflections). A table of alternative maxim numbers and an index of topics help the reader to locate any maxim quickly and to appreciate the full range of La Rochefoucauld''s thought on any of his favourite themes, such as self-love, vice and virtue, love and jealousy, friendship and self-interest, passion and pride. 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 ReviewThis superb publication of La Rouchefoucauld's seminal 'Maxims' combines the erudition and comprehensiveness of a scholarly edition with the welcoming accessibility of a first-class textbook. * Kevin De Ornellas, University of Ulster *
£10.44
Oxford University Press Villette ne Oxford Worlds Classics
Book SynopsisA new edition of this classic from one of the greatest writers of the nineteenth century. Features the definitive Clarendon edition of Villette which is sourced from the earliest printings of Brontë's great work. The text is supplemented with a newly commissioned introduction, which gives a thorough and in depth analysis of the context of this fine example of the nineteenth century novel.
£8.54
Oxford University Press Richard II The Oxford Shakespeare
Book SynopsisThis new edition of Richard II in the acclaimed Oxford Shakespeare series features a freshly edited version of the text, extensive commentary, lively illustrations, and a wide-ranging introduction covering the play's historical contexts, political significance, language, and stage history.Trade Reviewinvigorating and essential new edition * Times Literary Supplement *
£10.45
Oxford University Press Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the
Book SynopsisThe two 'Alice' books are masterpieces of carefree nonsense for children and also embody layers of satire and allusion and mathematical, linguistic, and philosophical jokes. This new edition explores their complex status and the many interpretations of them, taking account of the most recent research and critical opinion.Trade ReviewOUP's edition makes a decent fist of contextualising and explaining a book that appeals to adults and children. * Colin Waters, Sunday Herald *
£6.99
Penguin Books Ltd Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary
Book Synopsis
£17.00
HarperCollins Publishers The Valley of Fear Collins Classics
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations that''s the man!'Summoned to a mysterious manor house by one of the henchmen of his arch nemesis, Professor Moriarty, Holmes and Watson find themselves confronted by the scene of a brutal murder. But the brilliant Holmes soon reveals that there is much more to this case than first meets the eyeFirst published as a serialisation in The Strand Magazine between 1914 and 1915, this fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel will delight fans of Conan Doyle's legendary detective and his faithful sidekick Watson.Trade Review‘Holmes is a mesmerising creation and Conan Doyle a master storyteller’ The Times ‘The immense talent, passion and literary brilliance that Conan Doyle brought to his work gives him a unique place in English letters’ Stephen Fry
£5.68
HarperCollins Publishers The Great Gatsby
Book SynopsisThe Great American Novel of love and betrayal in the Jazz Age is now a major film.I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. Peoplewere not invited they went there.'Jay Gatsby's opulent Long Island mansion throngs with the bright young things of the Roaring Twenties. But Gatsby himself, young, handsome and mysteriously rich, never appearsto his guests. He stands apart from the crowd, yearning for something just out of reach Daisy Buchanan, lost years before to another man. One fateful summer, when the pair finally reunite, their actions set in motion a series of events that will unravel their lives, bringing tragedy to all who surround them.Widely considered F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, The Great Gatsby is a tale of excess and obsession, and a work of classictwentieth-century American literature.
£7.59
HarperCollins Publishers Twelfth Night
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.If music be the food of love, play on;Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,The appetite may sicken, and so die.'A comedic romance of mistaken identity, Twelfth Night begins with a shipwreck, splitting up Viola and her twin brother, Sebastian. Alone in a strange land, Viola disguises herself as a male servant, Cesario, in order to work for the Duke Orsino. Orsino is in love with Lady Olivia, but it is Cesario that Olivia falls for. A farcical tale of misplaced love, confusion, gender-swapping and aspiration, Twelfth Night remains one of Shakespeare's best-loved and inventive comedies.
£5.02
HarperCollins Publishers The Prince and the Pauper
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.When I am king, they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books; for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved, and the heart.'Set in 16th-Century England and following the lives of two young boys, The Prince and the Pauper is a classic and timeless tale. Tom Canty, the lowly pauper is almost identical in appearance to Edward Tudor, a prince. Unbeknownst to those around them, the boys strike up an unlikely friendship and soon realise that with their similar looks they could easily pass for one another.When the Prince's father dies, some of the more underhand court officials persuade the pauper to act as the Prince in order to reap the benefits of the mistake' and there follows a tale of friendship and growing up in one of Mark Twain's most infamous works.
£5.68
HarperCollins Publishers Hard Times Collins Classics
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood, it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage.'Set in fictitious Coketown, England during the Industrial Revolution of the 1850s, Dickens wished to expose the enormous gulf between the rich and poor through his writing. In Hard Times, the social and moral purpose of his work is at its most evident. Openly ironic and satirical in its tone, Dickens suggests a mechanization of society, where the wealthy are ruthless and uncharitable towards those less fortunate than themselves.Siblings Louisa and Tom Gradgrind are raised by their father, a harsh and pragmatic educator and his influence means that they go on to lead lives that are lacking in all areas. Louisa marries the arrogant and greedy Josiah Bounderby, ending in an unhappy pairing and the unfee
£5.62
Columbia University Press Beasts Head for Home
Book SynopsisIn the aftermath of World War II, a Japanese youth raised in the puppet state of Manchuria struggles to return home to Japan. What follows is a wild journey involving drugs, smuggling, chases, and capture. Beasts Head for Home is an acute novel of identity, belonging, and the vagaries of human behavior from an exceptional modern Japanese author.Trade ReviewAbe Kobo is one of the most respected postwar Japanese fiction writers and internationally recognized for the unique style, philosophical depth, and experimental quality of his fiction. Although Beasts Head for Home is not one of Abe's most well-known works, readers will be eager to see how he wrote about an important historical moment from an essentially realist perspective. An excellent translation of a novel in need of an English-language version. -- Travis Workman, author of Imperial Genus: The Formation and Limits of the Human in Modern Korea and Japan The earliest work by one of Japan's foremost writers to appear in English, Beasts Head for Home tells the story of a young Japanese man who undertakes a harrowing journey in an attempt to reach Japan after the collapse of the Japanese Empire. The story is particularly affecting to read in this historical moment with so much forced migration all over the world. Calichman's translation is flawless. -- J. Keith Vincent, translator of Devils in Daylight by Junichiro Tanizaki Calichman's superb translation of Abe's semiautobiographical novel brings us a Kafkaesque world of displacement where settlers of Manchuria undergo the loss of home, identity, and belonging after the collapse of the Japanese empire. Beasts Head for Home is a haunting and gripping story and an indispensable read for anyone interested in postcolonial studies, settler colonial studies, and the history of empire. -- Katsuya Hirano, author of The Politics of Dialogic Imagination: Power and Popular Culture in Early Modern Japan With subtle echoes of a samurai classic, Abe's autobiographical novel is a memorable portrait of statelessness, exile, and wandering. Kirkus Reviews This novel is an excellent entry point into Abe's writing, with much of his signature tone and style. He is a master of controlling the reader's emotional investment while crafting an increasingly suffocating atmosphere of dread, resulting in a devastating reading experience. Publishers Weekly (starred review)Table of ContentsIntroduction Beasts Head for Home
£19.80
Penguin Books Ltd Njals Saga
Book SynopsisWritten in the thirteenth century, Njal''s Saga is a story that explores perennial human problems-from failed marriages to divided loyalties, from the law''s inability to curb human passions to the terrible consequences when decent men and women are swept up in a tide of violence beyond their control. It is populated by memorable and complex characters like Gunnar of Hlidarendi, a powerful warrior with an aversion to killing, and the not-so-villainous Mord Valgardsson. Full of dreams, strange prophecies, violent power struggles, and fragile peace agreements, Njal''s Saga tells the compelling story of a fifty-year blood feud that, despite its distance from us in time and place, is driven by passions familiar to us all. This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction, chronology, index of characters, plot summary, explanatory notes, maps, and suggestions for further reading.
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Frogs and Other Plays
Book SynopsisThree plays from Aristophanes, the master of Ancient Greek comedyMarrying deft social commentary to a rich, earthy comedy, the three comedies collected in Aristophanes' The Frogs and Other Plays offers a unique insight into one of the most turbulent periods in Ancient Greek history. The master of ancient Greek comic drama, Aristophanes combined slapstick, humour and cheerful vulgarity with acute political observations. In The Frogs, written during the Peloponnesian War, Dionysus descends to the Underworld to bring back a poet who can help Athens in its darkest hour, and stages a great debate to help him decide between the traditional wisdom of Aeschylus and the brilliant modernity of Euripides. The clash of generations and values is also the object of Aristophanes' satire in Wasps, in which an old-fashioned father and his loose-living son come to blows and end up in court. And in Women at the Thesmophoria, the famous Greek tragedian Euripides,
£10.44
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press Ficciones
Book SynopsisThe seventeen pieces in Ficciones demonstrate the gargantuan powers of imagination, intelligence, and style of one of the greatest writers of this or any other century. Borges sends us on a journey into a compelling, bizarre, and profoundly resonant realm; we enter the fearful sphere of Pascal’s abyss, the surreal and literal labyrinth of books, and the iconography of eternal return. More playful and approachable than the fictions themselves are Borges’s Prologues, brief elucidations that offer the uninitiated a passageway into the whirlwind of Borges’s genius and mirror the precision and potency of his intellect and inventiveness, his piercing irony, his skepticism, and his obsession with fantasy. To enter the worlds in Ficciones is to enter the mind of Jorge Luis Borges, wherein lies Heaven, Hell, and everything in between.Trade ReviewPraise for Ficciones: “Without Borges the modern Latin American novel simply would not exist.” —Carlos Fuentes“In resounding the note of the marvelous last struck in English by Wells and Chesterson, in permitting infinity to enter and distort his imagination, [Borges] has lifted fiction away from the flat earth where most of our novels and short stories still take place.” —John Updike“These brief Ficciones have to be read one at a time, and slowly; then they throb with uncanny and haunting power.” —The Atlantic Monthly“Borges is the most important Spanish-language writer since Cervantes.” —Mario Vargas Llosa“[Borges] engages the heart as well as the intelligence; his genius strikes, undismayed as Theseus, through the labyrinths of our life and time to the accomplishment of new, inspiring and stunningly beautiful work.” —John Barth“One of the finest, subtlest, and least appreciated of comedians…[Borges is] a central fact of Western culture.” —The Washington Post Book World“Borges’s composed, carefully wrought, gnarled style is at once the means of his art and its object—his way of ordering and giving meaning to the bizarre and terrifying world he creates: it is a brilliant, burnished instrument, and it is quite adequate to the extreme demands his baroque imagination makes of it . . . . Absolutely and most vividly original.” —Saturday Review
£12.34
Johns Hopkins University Press The Scapegoat
Book SynopsisThe scapegoat becomes the Lamb of God; "the foolish genesis of blood-stained idols and the false gods of superstition, politics, and ideologiesare revealed.Trade Review[Girard's] methods of extrapolating to find cultural history behind myths, and of reading hidden verification through silence, are worthy enrichments of the critic's arsenal. -- John Yoder Religion and Literature [Girard's] methods of extrapolating to find cultural history behind myths, and of reading hidden verification through silence, are worthy enrichments of the critic's arsenal. -- John Yoder Religion and LiteratureTable of ContentsChapter 1. Guillaume de Machaut and the JewsChapter 2. Stereotypes of PersecutionChapter 3. What is a Myth?Chapter 4. Violence and MagicChapter 5. TeotihuacanChapter 6. Ases, Curets, and TitansChapter 7. The Crime of the GodsChapter 8. The Science of MythsChapter 9. The Key Words of the Gospel PassionChapter 10. That Only One Man Should DieChapter 11. The Beheading of Saint John the BaptistChapter 12. Peter's DenialChapter 13. The Demons of GerasaChapter 14. Satan Divided Against HimselfChapter 15. History and the ParacleteIndex
£30.46
Princeton University Press Paradise Lost
Book Synopsis
£18.00
Princeton University Press Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old
Book SynopsisBrings together the important historical, legal, mythological, liturgical, and secular texts of the ancient Near East, to provide a contextual base for understanding the people, cultures, and literature of the Old Testament. This book aims to understand the likenesses and differences which existed between Israel and the surrounding cultures.Trade Review"[A] very useful book, soundly conceived, competently edited, and beautifully printed. It offers in translation texts of the most important documents which throw light on the Near East background of the Old Testament. As a source book it will be welcomed not merely by Biblical students, but by all ancient historians who concern themselves with the cultures anterior to those of Greece and Rome."--ArchaeologyTable of Contents*Frontmatter, pg. i*Contents, pg. v*Introduction, pg. xix*Introduction. To the Third Edition, pg. xxv*Egyptian Myths, Tales, and Mortuary Texts, pg. 3*Sumerian Myths and Epic Tales, pg. 37*Akkadian Myths and Epics, pg. 60*Hittite Myths, Epics, and Legends, pg. 120*Ugaritic Myths, Epics, and Legends, pg. 129*Collections of Laws from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, pg. 159*Egyptian and Hittite Treaties, pg. 199*Hittite Instructions, pg. 207*Documents from the Practice of Law, pg. 212*Egyptian Historical Texts, pg. 227*Babylonian and Assyrian Historical Texts, pg. 265*Hittite Historical Texts, pg. 318*Palestinian Inscriptions, pg. 320*Egyptian Rituals and Incantations, pg. 325*Akkadian Rituals, pg. 331*Hittite Rituals, Incantations, and Description of Festivals, pg. 346*Egyptian Hymns and Prayers, pg. 365*Sumerian Petition, pg. 382*Sumero-Akkadian Hymns and Prayers, pg. 383*Hittite Prayers, pg. 393*Fables and Didactic Tales, pg. 405*Proverbs and Precepts, pg. 412*Observations on Life and the World Order, pg. 431*Oracles and Prophecies, pg. 441*A Sumerian Lamentation, pg. 455*Egyptian Secular Songs and Poems, pg. 467*An Egyptian Letter, pg. 475*A Sumerian Letter, pg. 480*Akkadian Letters, pg. 482*Aramaic Letters, pg. 491*Egyptian Texts, pg. 495*Hittite Omen, pg. 497*Akkadian Myths and Epics, pg. 501*Hittite Myths, Epics, and Legends, pg. 519*Collections of Laws from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, pg. 523*Egyptian and Hittite Treaties, pg. 529*Akkadian Treaties from Syria and Assyria, pg. 531*Documents from the Practice of Law, pg. 542*Aramaic Papyri from Elephantine, pg. 548*Egyptian Historical Texts, pg. 553*Babylonian and Assyrian Historical Texts, pg. 556*Palestinian Inscriptions, pg. 568*Sumerian Hymns, pg. 573*Sumerian Wisdom Text, pg. 589*Akkadian Didactic and Wisdom Literature, pg. 592*Sumerian Lamentation, pg. 611*Akkadian Letters, pg. 623*Aramaic Letters, pg. 633*Sumerian Sacred Marriage Texts, pg. 637*Sumerian Miscellaneous Texts, pg. 646*Canaanite and Aramaic Inscriptions, pg. 653*South-Arabian Inscriptions, pg. 663*Addenda, pg. 671*Abbreviations, pg. 677*Index of Biblical References, pg. 683*Index of Names, pg. 687*Addenda, pg. 711*Translators and Annotators, pg. 713*Contents of the Supplement, pg. 714
£140.00
Random House USA Inc The Woman in White Introduction by Nicholas Rance
Book SynopsisWilkie Collins''s classic thriller took the world by storm on its first appearance in 1859, with everything from dances to perfumes to dresses named in honor of the woman in white. The novel''s continuing fascination stems in part from a distinctive blend of melodrama, comedy, and realism; and in part from the power of its story. The catalyst for the mystery is Walter Hartright''s encounter on a moonlit road with a mysterious woman dressed head to toe in white. She is in a state of confusion and distress, and when Hartright helps her find her way back to London she warns him against an unnamed man of rank and title. Hartright soon learns that she may have escaped from an asylum and finds to his amazement that her story may be connected to that of the woman he secretly loves. Collins brilliantly uses the device of multiple narrators to weave a story in which no one can be trusted, and he also famously creates, in the figure
£20.80
Princeton University Press The Plum in the Golden Vase or Chin Ping Mei
Book SynopsisProvides an annotated translation of the famous "Chin P'ing Mei", an anonymous sixteenth-century Chinese novel that focuses on the domestic life of His-men Ch'ing, a corrupt, upwardly mobile merchant who maintains a harem of six wives and concubines.Trade Review"[A] book of manners for the debauched. Its readers in the late Ming period likely hid it under their bedcovers."--Amy Tan, New York Times Book Review Praise for the previous volumes: "[I]t is time to remind ourselves that The Plum in the Golden Vase is not just about sex, whether the numerous descriptions of sexual acts throughout the novel be viewed as titillating, harshly realistic, or, in Mr. Roy's words, intended 'to express in the most powerful metaphor available to him the author's contempt for the sort of persons who indulge in them.' The novel is a sprawling panorama of life and times in urban China, allegedly set safely in the Sung dynasty, but transparently contemporary to the author's late sixteenth-century world, as scores of internal references demonstrate. The eight hundred or so men, women, and children who appear in the book cover a breath-taking variety of human types, and encompass pretty much every imaginable mood and genre--from sadism to tenderness, from light humor to philosophical musings, from acute social commentary to outrageous satire."--Jonathan Spence, New York Review of Books "Clearly David Roy is the greatest scholar-translator in the field of premodern vernacular Chinese fiction... The puns and various other kinds of word plays that abound in the Chin P'ing Mei are so difficult to translate that I can't help 'slapping the table in amazement' each time I see evidence of Roy's masterful rendition of them... I recommend this book, in the strongest possible terms, to anyone interested in the novel form in general, in Chinese literature in particular, or in the translation of Chinese literature."--Shuhui Yang, Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, and Reviews "Racy, colloquial, and robustly scatalogical, [this translation] could only have been done now, when our literary language has finally shed its Victorian values. David Tod Roy enters with zest into the spirit and the letter of the original, quite surpassing ... earlier versions."--Paul St. John Mackintosh, Literary Review "Reading Roy's translation is a remarkable experience."--Robert Chatain, Chicago Tribune Review of Books "[B]y virtue of both Roy's decision to translate the cihua version of the novel, and his manner of doing so, we have here an invaluable insight into the material and popular literary world of the late-Ming that will serve as a wonderful resource for students of the various aspects of this fascinating and rapidly changing period of late imperial Chinese history for many years to come."--Duncan Campbell, New Zealand Journal of Asian StudiesTable of ContentsLIST OF I LLUSTRATIONS ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi CAST OF CHARACTERS xiii CHAPTER 41: Hsi-men Ch'ing Forms a Marriage Alliance with Ch'iao Hung; P'an Chin-lien Engages in a Quarrel with Li P'ing-erh 1 CHAPTER 42: APowerful Family Blocks Its Gate in Order to Enjoy Fireworks; Distinguished Guests in a High Chamber Appreciate the Lanterns 19 CHAPTER 43: Because of the Missing Gold Hsi-men Ch'ing Curses Chin-lien; As a Result of the Betrothal Yueh-niang Meets Madame Ch'iao 40 CHAPTER 44: Wu Yueh-niang Detains Li Kuei-chieh Overnight; Hsi-men Ch'ing Drunkenly Interrogates Hsia-hua 65 CHAPTER 45: Li Kuei-chieh Requests the Retention of Hsia-hua; Wu Yueh-niang in a Fit of Anger Curses at Tai-an 81 CHAPTER 46: Rain and Snow Interrupt a Walk during the Lantern Festival; Wife and Concubines Laughingly Consult the Tortoise Oracle 97 CHAPTER 47: Wang Liu-erh Peddles Influence in Pursuit of Profit; Hsi-men Ch'ing Accepts a Bribe and Subverts the Law 129 CHAPTER 48: Investigating Censor Tseng Impeaches the Judicial Commissioners; Grand Preceptor Ts'ai Submits a Memorial Regarding Seven Matters 147 CHAPTER 49: Hsi-men Ch'ing Welcomes Investigating Censor Sung Ch'iao-nien; In the Temple of Eternal Felicity He Encounters an Indian Monk 171 CHAPTER 50: Ch'in-t'ung Eavesdrops on the Joys of Lovemaking; Tai-an Enjoys a Pleasing Ramble in Butterfly Lane 203 CHAPTER 51: Yueh-niang Listens to the Exposition Of The Diamond Sutra; Li Kuei-chieh Seeks Refuge in the Hsi-men Ch'ing Household 221 CHAPTER 52: Ying Po-chueh Intrudes on a Spring Beauty in the Grotto; P'an Chin-lien Inspects a Mushroom in the Flower Garden 255 CHAPTER 53: Wu Yueh-niang Engages in Coition in Quest of Male Progeny; Li P'ing-erh Fulfills a Vow in Order to Safeguard Her Son 289 CHAPTER 54: Ying Po-chueh Convenes His Friends in a Suburban Garden; Jen Hou-ch'i Diagnoses an Illness for a Powerful Family 320 CHAPTER 55: Hsi-men Ch'ing Observes a Birthday in the Eastern Capital; Squire Miao from Yang-chou Sends a Present of Singing Boys 346 CHAPTER 56: Hsi-men Ch'ing Assists Ch'ang Shih-chieh; Ying Po-chueh Recommends Licentiate Shui 374 CHAPTER 57: Abbot Tao Solicits Funds to Repair the Temple of Eternal Felicity; Nun Hsueh Enjoins Paying for the Distribution of the Dharan Sutra 394 CHAPTER 58: Inspired by a Fit of Jealousy Chin-lien Beats Ch'iu-chu; Begging Cured Pork the Mirror Polisher Tells a Sob Story 420 CHAPTER 59: Hsi-men Ch'ing Dashes "Snow Lion" to Death; Li P'ing-erh Cries Out in Pain for Kuan-ko 453 CHAPTER 60: Li P'ing-erh Becomes Ill Because of Suppressed Anger; Hsi-men Ch'ing's Silk Goods Store Opens for Business 489 NOTES 507 BIBLIOGRAPHY 639 INDEX 673
£31.50
Faber & Faber The Last Days of Troy
Book SynopsisSimon Armitage is rightly celebrated as one of the country''s most original and engaging poets; but he is also an adaptor and translator of some of our most important epics, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Death of King Arthur and Homer''s Odyssey. The latter, originally a commission for BBC Radio, rendered the classical tale with all the flare, wit and engagement that we have come to expect from this most distinctive of contemporary authors, and in so doing brought Odysseus''s return from the Trojan War memorably to life.
£10.44
Faber & Faber Philip Larkin Poems Selected by Martin Amis Faber
Book SynopsisFor the first time, Faber publish a selection from the poetry of Philip Larkin. Drawing on Larkin''s four collections and on his uncollected poems. Chosen by Martin Amis.''Many poets make us smile; how many poets make us laugh - or, in that curious phrase, laugh out loud (as if there''s another way of doing it)? Who else uses an essentially conversational idiom to achieve such a variety of emotional effects? Who else takes us, and takes us so often, from sunlit levity to mellifluous gloom?... Larkin, often, is more than memorable: he is instantly unforgettable.'' - Martin Amis
£11.69
Faber & Faber A Students Guide to the Selected Poems of T. S.
Book SynopsisThis is a revised and enlarged edition. It is designed to help the reader of Eliot's Selected Poems by identifying and explaining the wide and often baffling range of quotations, allusions and references, literary, factual and historical.
£11.69
Harvard University Press The Histories Volume I Books 12
Book SynopsisIn his history, Polybius (ca. 200–118 BC) is centrally concerned with how and why Roman power spread. The main part of the work, a vital achievement despite the incomplete state in which all but the first five books of an original forty survive, describes the rise of Rome, its destruction of Carthage, and its eventual domination of the Greek world.Trade ReviewPolybius found a brilliant subject for his history in the Roman drive to supremacy in the Mediterranean. As an experienced Greek politician who lived as a hostage among the elite in Rome from 167 to 159 BC, he was ideally positioned to write it. He had formidable organizational powers, and he really did know what he was talking about. Without him, our understanding of the whole period and of the dynamics of Roman imperialism would be inconceivably impoverished. -- Denis Feeney * Times Literary Supplement *These are the first two volumes of a revised text and translation of the Histories of Polybius. Polybius was the Greek historian who wrote of the rise of Rome to Mediterranean power, and who is usually ranked as one of the ancient world’s great historians. This edition is based on that of W. R. Paton (1922), which has long served scholars but has been in sore need of updating and correction. This new version comes thanks to Frank W. Walbank (1909–2008), the great Polybius scholar of the modern world, whose monumental three-volume A Historical Commentary on Polybius (1957–79) is the starting point for all modern studies of the historian and the era he chronicled. While writing his commentary, Walbank systematically corrected Paton’s edition in hundreds of places, and these changes have now been incorporated by Christian Habicht, himself one of the great historians of the Hellenistic age. Habicht has provided a new introduction, bibliography, and notes, and the result is a splendid, reliable, and up-to-date edition of Polybius that will be accessible to students and scholars alike. One looks forward eagerly to the remaining volumes that are to appear over the next year. -- J. M. Marincola * Choice *
£23.70
Harvard University Press Letters to Atticus Volume IV
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.
£23.70
Chiltern Publishing Jane Eyre: Chiltern Edition
Book Synopsis
£18.00
Viking Society for Northern Research Edda Prologue Gylfaginni
Book Synopsis
£11.40
University of Minnesota Press Aesthetic Ideology
Book SynopsisA culmination of de Man's thoughts on philosophy, politics and history. The book presents an inquiry into the relation of rhetoric, epistemology and aesthetics, that offers radical notions of materiality. These texts were written or delivered as lectures during the last years of Man's life.Table of ContentsIntroduction: allegories of reference; the epistemolgy of metaphor; Pascal's allegory of persuasion; phenomenality and materiality in Kant; sign and symbol in Hegel's "Aesthetics"; Hegel on the sublime; Kant's materialism; Kant and Schiller; the concept of irony; reply to Raymond Geuss.
£17.99
Vintage Publishing Hope Against Hope
Book Synopsis'Suddently, at about one o'clock in the morning, there was a sharp, unbearably explicit knock on the door. 'They've come for Osip', I said'.In 1933 the poet Osip Mandelstam- friend to Boris Pasternak and Anna Akhmatova- wrote a spirited satire denouncing Josef Stalin. It proved to be a sixteen-line death sentence. For his one act of defiance he was arrested by the Cheka, the secret police, interrogated, exiled and eventually re-arrested. He died en route to one of Stalin's labour camps. His wife, Nadezhda (1899-1980) was with him on both occasions when he was arrested, and she loyally accompanied him into exile in the Urals, where he wrote his last great poems. Although his mind had been unbalanced by his ordeal in prison, his spirit remained unbroken. Eager to solve 'the Mandelstam problem', the Soviet authorities invited the couple to stay in a rest home near Moscow. Nadezhda saw it as an opportunity for her husband to mend his shattered life, but it was a trap and he was arrested for the last time.'My case will never be closed', Osip once said, and it is mostly through the courageous efforts of Nadezhda that his memory has been preserved. Hope against Hope, her first volume of memoirs, is a vivid and disturbing account of her last four years with her husband, the efforts she made to secure his release, to rescue his manuscripts from oblivion, and later, tragically, to discover the truth about his mysterious death. It is also a harrowing, first-hand account of how Stalin and his henchmen persecuted Russia's literary intelligentsia in the 1930s and beyond.Nadezhda Mandelstam spent most of the Second World War in Tashkent, living with her friend Akhmatova. Only in 1964 was she at last granted permission to return to Moscow. Here she began Hope against Hope, and later Hope Abandoned, the two memoirs of her life.Trade ReviewNo other work conveys as well the atmosphere of the 1930s terror, nor how Russian people survived it by listening to their great poets -- Orlando Figes * The Week *A superb memoir... A reminder that it is only a genuine work of art which is capable of communicating a reality so appalling as the Stalinist terror * Philip Toynbee *Not only a vivid account of persecution during Stalin's terror, it is also one of the few convincing descriptions of how a genius writes poetry -- A. AlvarezA Day of Judgement on earth for her age and its literature -- Joseph BrodskySurely the most luminous account we have- or are likely to get- of life in the Soviet Union during the purges of the 1930's * New York Review of Books *
£15.29
Spark Henry IV Parts One and Two
Book SynopsisNo Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of Henry IV Part One and Two on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right.
£7.59
WW Norton & Co Paradise Lost
Book Synopsis
£12.99
