ELT & Literary Studies Books

4574 products


  • American Sage: The Spiritual Teachings of Ralph

    University of Massachusetts Press American Sage: The Spiritual Teachings of Ralph

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisEven during his lifetime, Ralph Waldo Emerson was called the Sage of Concord, a fitting title for this leader of the American Transcendentalist movement. Everything that Emerson said and wrote directly addressed the conduct of life, and in his view, spiritual truth and understanding were the essence of religion. Unsurprisingly, he sought to rescue spirituality from decay, eschewing dry preaching and rote rituals.Unitarian minister Barry Andrews has spent years studying Emerson, finding wisdom and guidance in his teachings and practices, and witnessing how the spiritual lives of others are enriched when they grasp the many meanings in his work. In American Sage, Andrews explores Emerson's writings, including his journals and letters, and makes them accessible to today's spiritual seekers. Written in everyday language and based on scholarship grounded in historical detail, this enlightening book considers the nineteenth-century religious and intellectual crosscurrents that shaped Emerson's worldview to reveal how his spiritual teachings remain timeless and modern, universal and uniquely American.

    2 in stock

    £21.80

  • Carrying All before Her: Celebrity Pregnancy and

    University of Delaware Press Carrying All before Her: Celebrity Pregnancy and

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe rise of celebrity stage actresses in the long eighteenth century created a class of women who worked in the public sphere while facing considerable scrutiny about their offstage lives. Such powerful celebrity women used the cultural and affective significance of their reproductive bodies to leverage audience support and interest to advance their careers, and eighteenth-century London patent theatres even capitalized on their pregnancies. Carrying All Before Her uses the reproductive histories of six celebrity women (Susanna Mountfort Verbruggen, Anne Oldfield, Susannah Cibber, George Anne Bellamy, Sarah Siddons, and Dorothy Jordan) to demonstrate that pregnancy affected celebrity identity, impacted audience reception and interpretation of performance, changed company repertory and altered company hierarchy, influenced the development and performance of new plays, and had substantial economic consequences for both women and the companies for which they worked. Deepening the fields of celebrity, theatre, and women's studies, as well as social and medical histories, Phillips reveals an untapped history whose relevance and impact persists today.Trade Review"Phillips's most significant contribution is her move to focus on the gravid body and its realities as well as significance(s), something both earlier histories of actresses and cultural histories of maternity have shied away from. The book's dialogues and echoes across and between different case studies – and with our own time – are significant for eighteenth-century, celebrity, and theatre studies."— Elaine McGirr, editor of Stage Mothers: Women, Work, and the Theater, 1660-1830Table of ContentsFigures Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Inheriting Greatness: Susanna Mountfort Verbruggen and Anne Oldfield 2 Pregnant Sensibility: Susannah Cibber and George Anne Bellamy 3 Conceiving Genius: Sarah Siddons 4 Prolific Muse: Dorothy Jordan Conclusion: Celebrity Pregnancy, Then and Now Appendix: Birth and Christening Dates Notes Bibliography Index

    15 in stock

    £32.30

  • Richard III

    Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies,US Richard III

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisPlaywright Migdalia Cruz breathes new life intoRichard III. Nuyorican playwright Migdalia Cruz unpacks and repositions Shakespeare'sRichard IIIfor a twenty-first-century audience. She presents a contemporary English verse translation, faithfully keeping the poetry, the puns, and the politics of the play intact, with a rigorous and in-depth examination ofRichard IIIthe man, the king, the outsiderwho is still the only English king to have died in battle. In the Wars of the Roses, his Catholic belief in his country led to his slaughter at Bosworth's Field by his Protestant rivals. In reimagining this text, Cruz emphasizes Richard III's outsider statusexacerbatedby his severe scoliosis, which twisted his spineby punctuating the text with punk music from 1970s London. Cruz's Richard is no one's fool or lackey. He is a new kind of monarch, whose dark sense of humor and deep sense of purpose leads his charge against the society which never fully accepted him because he looked different.

    3 in stock

    £7.60

  • Dockside Reading

    Duke University Press Dockside Reading

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisIsabel Hofmeyr traces the relationship between print culture, colonialism, and the ocean through the institution of the late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British colonial custom houses, which acted as censors and pronounced on copyright and checked imported printed matter for piracy, sedition, or obscenity.Trade Review“As we have come to expect from Isabel Hofmeyr, Dockside Reading is dazzlingly creative, intellectually playful, and immaculately crafted. This is a brilliant history of the ideas and textual forms that emerged from the damp crates that customs officials scoured at the water’s edge for signs of contamination. Setting sail from South Africa, ranging across the world’s oceans, this is a quietly revolutionary, fully aquatic literary history for our times.” -- Sunil Amrith, Dhawan Professor of History, Yale University“What happens to books when they cross borders? Isabel Hofmeyr sets her radically new history of literature not in the library but at the dock. In pages where authors and scholars are upstaged by censors, customs officers, and even dockhands, she challenges literary critics to think beyond the text as a static entity tied to a single nation or a single landmass. This is that rare book that will make it impossible to continue doing business as usual—for literary critics, for legal scholars, and for book historians.” -- Leah Price, author of * What We Talk about When We Talk About Books: The History and Future of Reading *“Hofmeyr addresses themes that acknowledge but transcend the particularities of place, revealing instead the connecting threads that bind disparate parts of the world together.” -- Dane Kennedy * International Journal of African Historical Studies *“Hofmeyr’s scholarship is exemplary in its marriage of evocative detail with magisterial overview. She gives a compelling account of how customs procedure developed and changed over the course of almost a century. . . . She teaches us a new way to read.” -- Matthew P.M. Kerr * Modern Language Review *"[Hofmeyr's] work sheds important light on the interdependency between reading practices and the book as object. . . . Hofmeyr deftly interweaves her research into customs documents with environmental and postcolonial theory, animating what is usually perceived as a dull or colorless archive through semantic resignification." -- Neelam Srivastava * Journal of Postcolonial Inquiry *"In her stimulating investigation, Dockside Reading, Isabel Hofmeyr offers a fresh perspective on book history in the British Empire." -- Katharine Anderson * Journal of British Studies *"Hofmeyr has produced a remarkable volume combining elements of both historical and 'literary' scholarship. It is a must read for those who study English Literature, the British Empire, the history of material culture, and international trade transactions of both human and non-human 'cargo.'” -- Paul Chiudiza Banda * African Studies Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Hydrocolonialism: The View from the Dockside 1 1. The Custom House and Hydrocolonial Governance 27 2. Customs and Objects on a Hydrocolonial Frontier 39 3. Copyright on a Hydrocolonial Frontier 49 4. Censorship on a Hydrocolonial Frontier 63 Conclusion. Dockside Genres and Postcolonial Literature 77 Notes 85 Bibliography 103 Index 117

    15 in stock

    £17.09

  • Hamnet

    Random House USA Inc Hamnet

    Out of stock

    Book Synopsis

    Out of stock

    £14.41

  • Unbinding The Pillow Book

    Columbia University Press Unbinding The Pillow Book

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisGergana Ivanova explores how The Pillow Book and its author have been read from the seventeenth century to the present. She shows how various ideologies have influenced the text and shaped interactions among its different versions, in the first book-length study in English of the reception history of Sei Shōnagon.Trade Review[A] significant work. . . The only full account in English of The Pillow Book’s changing reception. . . . Ivanova’s Unbinding “The Pillow Book” is more a corrective to the misinformation widespread in the West. -- Claire Kohda Hazelton * Times Literary Supplement *Unbinding The Pillow Book is undoubtedly fascinating and well-constructed. -- Tony Malone * Tony's Reading List *An intelligent and informative study. -- Rivka Galchen * London Review of Books *This is a learned, provocative, and rewarding book. -- Peter Kornicki, Robinson College, Cambridge * Journal of Japanese Studies *The scope of the research underpinning this work is breathtaking, but even more impressive is the lucidity, concision, and accessibility of Ivanova's writing style. The story she tells is fascinating. * Choice *The fresh perspectives brought by Unbinding “The Pillow Book” will certainly keep Sei’s narrative alive by leaving an invigorating mark on future scholarship on The Pillow Book. -- Joannah Peterson, University of Kentucky * Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature *Gergana Ivanova’s Unbinding The Pillow Book: The Many Lives of a Japanese Classic is a welcome addition to a small but growing body of scholarship focusing on the Benjaminian “afterlives” of Japanese literary classics . . . The book, which is extensively noted and comprises a comprehensive bibliography—constituting a quarter of the book—will surely be of immense help to both graduate students and scholars interested in literary reception across disciplines. -- Gouranga Charan PRADHAN * Japan Review: Journal of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies *Meticulously researched and persuasively argued, Unbinding The Pillow Book offers a dynamic portrait of one of the most important works of world literature and of the woman who wrote it more than a millennium ago. The Pillow Book has long been one of my favorite books; now, having read this engaging, wide-ranging exploration of the different meanings it has come to embody in everything from seventeenth-century commentaries to twenty-first-century popular culture, I see it as I have never seen it before. -- Michael Emmerich, University of California, Los AngelesIvanova’s work is a fascinating exploration of the reception, reproduction, and reimagination of Sei Shōnagon’s The Pillow Book over time, focusing in particular on book history and publishing cultures of the seventeenth through early twentieth centuries. -- Keller Kimbrough, University of Colorado, BoulderIn this exceptionally clear and clear-headed work, Ivanova tells us exactly how and why we are able to read The Pillow Book today. Tracing the ways in which the ‘three commentaries’ of the Edo period elevate the work to a genre (while also relegating that genre to the sidelines), she makes a firm case for a much overdue new reading. -- Linda H. Chance, University of PennsylvaniaUnbinding The Pillow Book is an erudite and often entertaining guide to the persona of Sei Shōnagon and her peripatetic text, The Pillow Book. Ivanova elucidates the complex reception of the text as an ongoing dialogue between the irretrievable past and the dynamic present. I cannot think of a better match between a scholar and her subject. It is a dazzling accomplishment. -- Paul Schalow, Rutgers UniversityThanks to [Ivanova], we now understand how we got the text and author that have seduced so many of us. * East Asian Publishing and Society *Ivanova takes us on a fascinating journey through the various incarnations of Sei Shonagon and her book; as she does a reader comes to see the book in so many different ways. * Asian Review of Books *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments1. What Is The Pillow Book?2. (Re)constructing the Text and Early Modern Scholarship3. From a Guide to Court Life to a Guide to the Pleasure Quarters4. The Pillow Book for Early Modern Female Readers5. Shaping the Woman Writer6. New Markets for Japanese ClassicsNotesBibliographyIndex

    2 in stock

    £19.80

  • Comics and the Origins of Manga: A Revisionist

    Rutgers University Press Comics and the Origins of Manga: A Revisionist

    15 in stock

    Book Synopsis2022 Eisner Award Winner for Best Academic/Scholarly Work Japanese comics, commonly known as manga, are a global sensation. Critics, scholars, and everyday readers have often viewed this artform through an Orientalist framework, treating manga as the exotic antithesis to American and European comics. In reality, the history of manga is deeply intertwined with Japan’s avid importation of Western technology and popular culture in the early twentieth century. Comics and the Origins of Manga reveals how popular U.S. comics characters like Jiggs and Maggie, the Katzenjammer Kids, Felix the Cat, and Popeye achieved immense fame in Japan during the 1920s and 1930s. Modern comics had earlier developed in the United States in response to new technologies like motion pictures and sound recording, which revolutionized visual storytelling by prompting the invention of devices like speed lines and speech balloons. As audiovisual entertainment like movies and record players spread through Japan, comics followed suit. Their immediate popularity quickly encouraged Japanese editors and cartoonists to enthusiastically embrace the foreign medium and make it their own, paving the way for manga as we know it today. By challenging the conventional wisdom that manga evolved from centuries of prior Japanese art and explaining why manga and other comics around the world share the same origin story, Comics and the Origins of Manga offers a new understanding of this increasingly influential artform.Trade ReviewNew Books Network: New Books in Japanese Studies interview with Eike Exner— New Books Network: New Books in Japanese Studies "Its innovative perspective lies above all in the precision of the documentation and the scrupulous study of the phenomena of translation and borrowing as well as in the history of the narrative and auditory device of the comic strip. For all these reasons, it is a book that stands out for its effects of transmission of both knowledge and sound effects!"— Neuvieme Art “I have been waiting many years to see something like Eike Exner’s Comics and the Origins of Manga. Modern Japanese comics, or 'manga,' have enjoyed huge success around the world in the last three decades. So much so that today some fans occasionally seem to think manga—perhaps even all comics—are really a purely Japanese invention. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. In his book, using primary sources from inside and outside Japan, Eike Exner does a wonderful job of cutting through both mist and myths and showing us another reality."— Frederik L. Schodt, author of Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga "Exner’s work is stunningly rigorous and detailed, surfacing a wealth of examples and specific moments of exchange."— Shawn Gilmore, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics “...a compelling investigation of an historical 'audio-visual' dialogue between the 'sound images' of comics and manga...this text becomes a meaningful revelation of the unique and multifarious histories of world print and comic cultures.”— Frenchy Lunning, editor of Mechademia "'Comics and The Origins of Manga charts the vital influence of US comic strips in Japan (as early as 1908) and to manga creators' incorporating balloons, sound effects and other audiovisual elements inside their panels."— Derf Backderf, author of Kent State "This is an excellent book that I enjoyed reading immensely. The topic is timely and important and the scholarship is meticulous and comprehensive."— Gennifer Weisenfeld, author of Imaging Disaster: Tokyo and the Visual Culture of Japan’s Great Earthquake of 1923 “Eike Exner has meticulously researched voluminous archival materials transnationally, analyzed them critically and carefully, and, in the process, challenged, contradicted, and corrected the history of manga’s origins. Without any reservation, a history-altering masterpiece!”— John A. Lent, founder/publisher/editor-in-chief, International Journal of Comic Art "Comics and the Origins of Manga is a fascinating, materialist account of the history shared between the Japanese and Euro-American comics traditions. With the rise of manga as a globally dominant idiom, the prewar development of the form has been of increasing interest to artists and researchers alike. Eike Exner’s thorough, elucidating scholarship tracks this history in an engaging manner in what will undoubtedly be an important English-language reference work on the subject for years to come. Highly recommended."— Adam Buttrick, cartoonist "Terrific book by Eike Exner - Comics and the Origins of Manga. A brisk-reading but deeply-researched study of the impact American comic strips had on the development of manga in the early decades of the 20th century. New from Rutgers University Press. 'I recommend it.' -me"— Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal editor "Through subtle formal analysis and groundbreaking archival research, Comics and the Origins of Manga makes a compelling argument for the strong influence of translated American comics on the development of modern Japanese manga.”— Henry Jenkins, author of Comics and Stuff "Really enjoyed this book. Fascinating examination of how early American comic strips influenced the develop of manga than is generally acknowledged. Highly recommended."— Chris Mautner, The Comics Journal writerTable of ContentsAcknowledgments A Note on Images Foreword Introduction Prologue: The Historical Origins and Changing Meaning of “Manga” up to 1923 Chapter One: “Popular in Society at Large:” the First Talking Manga Chapter Two: “Listen Vunce!” The Audiovisual Revolution in Graphic Narrative Chapter Three: When Krazy Kat Spoke Japanese: Japan’s Massive Importation of Foreign Audiovisual Comics Chapter Four: From Asō Yutaka to Tezuka Osamu: How Manga Made in Japan Adopted the Form of Audiovisual Comics Epilogue: The Myth of Manga as a “Traditional Mode of Expression” Brief Chronology List of Foreign Comics in Japan 1908-1945 List of Illustrations Bibliography Index

    15 in stock

    £22.94

  • The History of the Church

    University of California Press The History of the Church

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review"Students of ancient Christianity and general readers will find here a lucid translation and a helpful guide to the study of an important source for early Christian history." * Church History and Religious Culture *"This outstanding version will soon become standard in courses, for it is in every way superior to its competition." * Review of Biblical Literature *"Schott's translation was a bold undertaking; it has generated a monumental achievement. It certainly deserves to become the next generation's standard English version of Eusebius' History." * Studies in Late Antiquity *"A singular achievement in Eusebian studies. . . . This volume will become the standard translation." * Journal of Classics Teaching *"This new translation offers contemporary readers an accessible text with insights into the cultural and social influences that shaped Eusebius’ story of Christianity." * Reading Religion *"A remarkable work of scholarship. . . . Schott’s translation has certainly become the first I turn to." * Ancient Jew Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations General Introduction the ecclesiastical history Book 1 Book 2 Book 3 Book 4 Book 5 Book 6 Book 7 Book 8 Book 9 Book 10Appendix A. Maps Appendix B. Eusebius’s Bishop Lists and Chronology Glossary Selected Bibliography Index Nominum (Index of Names) Index Locorum (Eusebius’s Sources)

    10 in stock

    £13.49

  • Encounters

    Yayasan Lontar Encounters

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisThe subject of Toeti Heraty’s poetry ranges from human encounters in an age of conceit to the confessions of an ever-restless soul. Many of Heraty’s poems give voice to the emotional struggles and disappointments of women. They show a clear feminist influence; yet their method of confronting the patriarchy is not always direct. Instead, Heraty quietly questions the complicity of a world that represses women. A whole spectrum of emotions reveal themselves in Heraty’s poetry; but if there is a unifying theme, it is the constant need in life for discovery and encounters. In turn, her poetry is about the strong human need to analyze and speak of one’s state of mind.

    Out of stock

    £15.26

  • Figures of Possibility: Aesthetic Experience,

    Stanford University Press Figures of Possibility: Aesthetic Experience,

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisFrom medieval contemplation to the early modern cosmopoetic imagination, to the invention of aesthetic experience, to nineteenth-century decadent literature, and to early-twentieth century essayistic forms of writing and film, Niklaus Largier shows that mystical practices have been reinvented across the centuries, generating a notion of possibility with unexpected critical potential. Arguing for a new understanding of mystical experience, Largier foregrounds the ways in which devotion builds on experimental practices of figuration in order to shape perception, emotions, and thoughts anew. Largier illuminates how devotional practices are invested in the creation of possibilities, and this investment has been a key element in a wide range of experimental engagements in literature and art from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, and most recently in forms of "new materialism." Read as a history of the senses and emotions, the book argues that mystical and devotional practices have long been invested in the modulating and reconfiguring of sensation, affects, and thoughts. Read as a book about practices of figuration, it questions ordinary protocols of interpretation in the humanities, and the priority given to a hermeneutic understanding of texts and cultural artifacts.Trade Review"This is a truly original work, grounded in wonderfully wide and deep learning. It is also a profound reflection on the ethical life and the role figuration might play within it. There is nothing like it that I know of, nor could anyone without Largier's range of learning and depth of thought have written it."—Amy Hollywood, author of Acute Melancholia and Other Essays"Figures of Possibility is a singular achievement, both as a work of breathtaking scholarship and as a new and exciting theory of aesthetic experience. The writing is exceptionally clear; the prose is passionate, beautiful, and compelling. Largier turns rigorous scholarship on medieval and early modern mysticism into a new approach to reading literature and aesthetic experience."—Eric Santner, author of Untying Things Together"Figures of Possibility is an ambitious, original, and thought-provoking book."—Lieke Smits, Material Religion

    15 in stock

    £23.39

  • Literature of the 1990s

    Edinburgh University Press Literature of the 1990s

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisPlacing literary creativity within a changing cultural and political context that saw the end of Margaret Thatcher and rise of New Labour, this book offers fresh interpretations of mainstream and marginal works from all parts of Britain.

    1 in stock

    £20.89

  • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker

    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER PICKED BY THE SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT, IRISH TIMES, SPECTATOR, TLS, NEW STATESMAN, MAIL ON SUNDAY, I PAPER, PROSPECT, REVEW31 AND EVENING STANDARD AS A BOOK OF 2021 'A masterclass from a warm and engagingly enthusiastic companion' Guardian Summer Reading Picks 2021 ‘This book is a delight, and it’s about delight too. How necessary, at our particular moment’ Tessa Hadley ________________ From the New York Times-bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December comes a literary master class on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves - and our world today. For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We’re going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn’t fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?” He approaches the stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster. The process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is a technical craft, but also a way of training oneself to see the world with new openness and curiosity. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.Trade ReviewA wonderful book … This book is a delight … I love the warmth with which he writes about this teaching, and agree wholeheartedly … All this makes Saunders’s book very different from just another “how to” creative writing manual, or just another critical essay … One of the pleasures of this book is feeling his own thinking move backwards and forwards, between the writer dissecting practice and the reader entering in through the spell of the words, to dwell inside the story -- Tessa Hadley * Guardian *Saunders is such a wise and amiable teacher ... A page-turner -- Robert WebbLuminously perceptive * Guardian *A masterclass in how to be human ... unfailingly, often thrillingly illuminating … Published any time, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain would be a joyous reminder that fiction is “the most effective mode of mind-to-mind communication ever devised”. Published now, it feels like vital and civilising corrective to the pretend certainties of public life – and, increasingly, of our personal lives too * Telegraph *It will stay with you and transform how you read story by story, sentence by sentence * The Times, Best Paperbacks of 2022 *One of the most accurate and beautiful depictions of what it is like to be inside the mind of a writer that I’ve ever read * New York Times *The Russian greats truly shine in this account; but Saunders is the real star. His way of expressing himself is simultaneously supremely intellectual and jovially down-to-earth. It’s rare to read a book and love it so much that you think it’s simply perfect. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is that book -- Viv Groskop * Spectator *Joins a long tradition of using Russian literature as a guide to life … Practical and playful … it also probes exactly how narrative techniques make us more alert, attentive and sympathetic in reading books and the world around us * i news *By the end Saunders is wondering if there is indeed any point in writing at all. I won’t spoil his conclusion. Suffice to say, the hairs on the back of my neck were alert * The Times *Suffused with wry humour … Not an academic interpretation, but a reader’s companion. I was pleasurably absorbed from start to finish * Evening Standard *The Booker-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo considers the art of fiction through seven classic Russian short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Gogol * Guardian, 2021 in Books *The combination of Saunders’s piercing mind and the Russian subjects being Anton Chekhov, Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Gogol promises to be a highbrow treat for fans of literature, and a book offering deep insights into storytelling and how narrative functions * Independent, The books to look out for in 2021 *A literary masterclass * Evening Standard, A look ahead to the best new books in 2021 *But the real star of A Swim isn't Chekhov or Turgenev or Tolstoy or Gogol - it's Saunders himself ... This book will quite simply make you a better, more observant and more understanding reader * Big Issue *Part intro to Russian literature, part musings on craft, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is all pleasure * Financial Times *A worship song to writers and readers * O, The Oprah Magazine *His warmth, enthusiasm and homespun metaphors – all part of that “writerly charm” – banish any sense of the chilly, mechanistic Fiction Lab ... Gleefully overshoots its brief as a technical manual or how-to guide … A Swim in a Pond in the Rain generates more fun, more wit, more sympathetic sense, than we have any right to hope for from a 400-page critical study * Arts Desk *There should be more books like this -- Sameer Rahim * Prospect Podcast *A masterclass from a warm and engagingly enthusiastic companion * Guardian, 50 hottest new books everyone should read *A masterclass in short fiction by one of the finest teachers alive… It is a joyously civilised primer on how to write – and live – better * Daily Telegraph *Warm, playful and acutely perceptive -- Ian Leslie * New Statesman, Books of the Year *Not just astute, humane lit crit but an inspirational manifesto for the art of fiction -- Boyd Tonkin * Spectator, Books of the Year *A masterclass in writing … a real treat -- Naomi Alderman * Spectator, Books of the Year *[I] loved George Saunders’s A Swim in a Pond in the Rain … Genial, generous and illuminating ... He is a great teacher as well as a great practitioner, and makes you see more * Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year 2021 *A tin of caviar sort of a book … Saunders guides, prods, nudges, urges you to disagree … It will stay with you and transform how you read story by story, sentence by sentence * Sunday Times, 24 best fiction books 2021 *Delightful as well as an engaging work-out for the brain. Just the thing for a New Year’s read * i paper *In clear, fresh, often humorous language, Saunders reveals the various sleights of hand involved in their construction, while never trying to flatten their essential genius. A gem -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *Joyful and playful, a book full of wisdom, one to drink in slowly * Independent (Online), The 20 Best Books of 2021 *An eagle-eyed breakdown of short stories by four great Russian writers * Prospect, Best books of 2021 *Saunders is warm and vivacious company, funny and even-handed and increasingly wise … This book is an enthralling delve into life and its narration – for people interested in how fiction works, it’s like breathing oxygen * Revew31, Books of the Year 2021 *

    15 in stock

    £10.44

  • Elegies of Chu

    Oxford University Press Elegies of Chu

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisElegies of Chu (in Chinese, Chuci), one of the two surviving collections of ancient Chinese poetry, is a key source for the whole tradition of Chinese poetry. Because the elegies contain passionate expressions of political protest as well as shamanistic themes of magic spells and wandering spirits, they present an alternative face of early Chinese culture; one that does not align with orthodox Confucianism. This translation employs literary English devices in order to emphasise the original structure of these Chinese poems. It also examines the extraordinarily vivid diction of the source texts, including of onomatopoeia, ornate descriptions, exotic flowers, dramatic landscapes, metaphors and startling similes. This translation will be based on the original anthology compiled in the Han dynasty by Wang Yi (2nd century CE), and contains a selection of poems that were collected from the 3rd century BCE through the Han dynasty. The anthology provides readers with an understanding of Chinese literature and its evolution from free-spirited, mythico-religious songs to the more formal, polished style of the Han court.Trade ReviewThe harmony of erudition and elegance of Williams' renditions will allow his translation to become the standard English version of the Chuci text for years to come. * William H. Nienhauser, Jr., Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews *Table of ContentsIntroduction A Note on the Translation Select Bibliography Timeline 1: Sublimating Sorrow (Li sao) 2: Nine Phases 3: Nine Songs 4: Heavenly Questions 5: Nine Avowals 6: Far Roaming 7: Divination 8: Fisherman 9: Summons to the Recluse 10: Summons to the Soul 11: Nine Longings 12: Seven Remonstrances 13: Nine Threnodies 14: Lamenting Time's Fate 15: Rueful Oath 16: Greater Summons 17: Nine Yearnings Explanatory Notes Index

    2 in stock

    £11.69

  • Essential Essays Volume 1

    Duke University Press Essential Essays Volume 1

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisFrom his arrival in Britain in the 1950s and involvement in the New Left, to founding the field of cultural studies and examining race and identity in the 1990s and early 2000s, Stuart Hall has been central to shaping many of the cultural and political debates of our time. Essential Essays—a landmark two-volume set—brings together Stuart Hall''s most influential and foundational works. Spanning the whole of his career, these volumes reflect the breadth and depth of his intellectual and political projects while demonstrating their continued vitality and importance.Volume 1: Foundations of Cultural Studies focuses on the first half of Hall''s career, when he wrestled with questions of culture, class, representation, and politics. This volume''s stand-out essays include his field-defining “Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies';the prescient “The Great Moving Right Show,” which first identified the emergent mode of authoTrade Review"Anyone whose work is informed, 'in the last instance,' by Cultural Studies will find much that is helpfully familiar in it as well as new connections, new applications, new ways of '[penetrating] the disorderly surface of things to another level of understanding,' as Hall says, invoking Marx, in the epilogue. This seems especially urgent as the ascendancy of the far Right coincides with the wholesale neoliberalization of the humanities, as Hall predicted in his 'Theoretical Legacies' lecture. It is obviously not a question of 'going back' to Hall for a truer or more 'authentic' form of Cultural Studies than that in practice today. But there is much in his legacy that illuminates the dynamics of the present, and much to put into dialogue with contemporary scholarship and practice. Morley's collection reminds us how important it is for genuine intellectual work to articulate competing and contradictory paradigms together, to work, as Hall did, from the points of contestation and conflict rather than seek solace in abstractions. This, finally, is the 'essential' in the essays assembled here." -- Liane Tanguay * American Book Review *“Along with the other volumes that Duke University Press has published, these two books of collected essays are to be welcomed. They allow us to see a fertile mind in action, engaged in and with the real world. It is a model well worth emulating.” -- Michael W. Apple * Educational Policy *“As one of the foremost intellectuals of his generation, [Hall] has made an enormous contribution to cultural and political thought, and his work has had a lasting impact in both social sciences and the humanities…. This collection is a treasure trove of Hall’s intellectual and political offerings; I recommend it highly.” -- Avtar Brah * New West Indian Guide *"I have also narrated the effort it took for me to access his work to illustrate the importance of the Selected Writings now being released by Duke University Press. It is an event of profound historical significance that a new generation will be able to begin its political and theoretical education with systematic access to Hall’s writing. . . . The two-volume Essential Essays shows the broad scope of his work." -- Asad Haider * The Point *"It was one of Hall’s unique gifts to offer analysis of the moment as it unfolded before our eyes. I am sure I am not alone in having found his talks exhilarating in ways I could never quite understand, given that the news he relayed with such energy was almost unremittingly dire. Hall offered his readings as interpretation and self-commentary, tracing his own intellectual path." -- Jacqueline Hall * New York Review of Books *Table of ContentsA Note on the Text vii Acknowledgments ix General Introduction: A Life in Essays 1 Part I. Cultural Studies: Culture, Class, and Theory Introduction 27 1. Richard Hoggart, The Uses of Literacy, and the Cultural Turn [2007] 35 2. Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms [1980] 47 3. Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies [1992] 71 Part II. Theoretical and Methodological Principles: Class, Race and Articulation 4. The Hinterland of Science: Ideology and the Sociology of Knowledge [1977] 111 5. Rethinking the "Base and Superstructure" Metaphor [1977] 143 6. Race, Articulation, and Societies Structured in Dominance [1980] 172 7. On Postmodernism and Articulation: An Interview with Stuart Hall by Larry Grossberg and Others [1986] 222 Part III. Media, Communications, Ideology, and Representation 8. Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse [originally 1973; republished 2007] 257 9. External Influences on Broadcasting: The External/Internal Dialectic in Broadcasting—Television's Double-Blind [1972] 277 10. Culture, the Media, and the "Ideological Effect" [1977] 298 Part IV. Political Formations: Power as Process 11. Notes on Deconstructing "the Popular" [1981] 347 12. Policing the Crisis: Preface to the 35th Anniversary Edition [2013] (with Chas Critcher, Tony Jefferson, John Clarke, and Brian Roberts) 362 13. The Great Moving Right Show [1979] 374 Index 393 Place of First Publication 411

    15 in stock

    £22.49

  • The Experience of Poetry From Homers Listeners to

    Oxford University Press The Experience of Poetry From Homers Listeners to

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisWas the experience of poetry--or a cultural practice we now call poetry--continuously available across the two-and-a-half millennia from the composition of the Homeric epics to the publication of Ben Jonson''s Works and the death of Shakespeare in 1616? How did the pleasure afforded by the crafting of language into memorable and moving rhythmic forms play a part in the lives of hearers and readers in Ancient Greece and Rome, Europe during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and Britain during the Renaissance? In tackling these questions, this book first examines the evidence for the performance of the Iliad and the Odyssey and of Ancient Greek lyric poetry, the impact of the invention of writing on Alexandrian verse, the performances of poetry that characterized Ancient Rome, and the private and public venues for poetic experience in Late Antiquity. It moves on to deal with medieval verse, exploring the oral traditions that spread across Europe in the vernacular languages, the place of manuscript transmission, the shift from roll to codex and from papyrus to parchment, and the changing audiences for poetry. A final part investigates the experience of poetry in the English Renaissance, from the manuscript verse of Henry VIII''s court to the anthologies and collections of the late Elizabethan era. Among the topics considered in this part are the importance of the printed page, the continuing significance of manuscript circulation, the performance of poetry in pageants and progresses, and the appearance of poets on the Elizabethan stage. In tracking both continuity and change across these many centuries, the book throws fresh light on the role and importance of poetry in western culture.Trade ReviewIt is bracing to follow a prominent senior scholar in his exploration of so many centuries—millennia encountered not with any ex cathedra jadedness but with open enthusiasm that should immediately engage readers at every academic level. * Stephen Hinds, University of Washington, Modern Language Quarterly *There are many ways to write a history (or a "pre-history") of poetry; despite the gravitational pull of the English Renaissance, this one turns into an inventory of impressive and meticulously curated literary-historical epiphanies, each encountered in its own present ... It is bracing to follow a prominent senior scholar in his exploration of somany centuries—millennia—encountered not with any ex cathedra jadedness but with open enthusiasm that should immediately engage readers at every academic level. * Stephen Hinds, University of Washington, Modern Language Quarterly *Attridge's exploration is detailed and extensive as he considers how the demands of social norms and the changes in production technologies influenced the ways in which poetry might be experienced by readers and listeners. In turn, the volume will be of interest to those studying any of the time frames that it discusses as well as those interested in questions regarding the reception and transmission of literature. * John S. Garrison, Renaissance Studies *...[the volume] is of significant value to classical scholarship, encouraging as it does a contextualising of ancient engagements with this literary form, and our own study of such engagements, within a much broader cultural history of poetry...this book offers an invaluable opportunity to consider the material with which we are most familiar as set within the wider evolution of poetry as a cultural phenomenon. But perhaps more significantly, we can become aware of how our perceptions of poetry by the ancient Greeks and Romans have likely been shaped by the different forms that poetry took in subsequent centuries... it should also encourage us to approach any poetry belonging to antiquity as part of a broader cultural activity than is often acknowledged. * Emily Patterson, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *A spectacularly rich and vast storehouse of poetic history, both convincingly homogeneous as a longue durée and absorbing in its smaller diverse details. * Esther Osorio Whewell, Cambridge Quarterly 49.2 (June, 2020) *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction PART ONE: Ancient Greece 1: Homeric Greece: Courts and Singers 2: Archaic to Classical Greece: Festivals and Rhapsodes 3: Classical Greece to Ptolemaic Alexandria: Writers and Readers PART TWO: Ancient Rome and Late Antiquity 4: Ancient Rome: The Republic and the Augustan Age 5: Ancient Rome: The Empire after Augustus 6: Late Antiquity: Latin and Greek, Private, Public, Popular PART THREE: The Middle Ages 7: Early Medieval Poetry: Vernacular Versifying 8: The Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries: Performing Genres 9: Lyric, Romance, and Alliterative Verse in Fourteenth-Century England 10: Chaucer, Gower, and Fifteenth-Century Poetry in English PART FOUR: The English Renaissance 11: Early Tudor Poetry: Courtliness and Print 12: Late Elizabethan and Early Jacobean Poetry: The Circulation of Verse 13: Late Elizabethan and Early Jacobean Poetry: The Idea of the Poet Bibliography

    Out of stock

    £29.92

  • Book M  A London Widows Life Writings

    University of Toronto Press Book M A London Widows Life Writings

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis excellent piece of work brings a new and fascinating seventeenth-century voice to twenty-first-century readers interested in women's studies, literature, and history. Book M by the London widow Katherine Austen lends itself well to modernization, which Professor Hammons has handled in a light and tactful manner. This book will be an excellent choice for classes on life writing in general and on early modern women's writing in particular, and it will be a great contextual reading for courses on British Restoration culture and literature. Margaret J. M. EzellDistinguished Professor of English and John and Sara Lindsay Chair of Liberal Arts Texas A&M UniversityTrade Review"This excellent piece of work brings a new and fascinating seventeenth-century voice to twenty-first-century readers interested in women’s studies, literature, and history. Book M by the London widow Katherine Austen lends itself well to modernization, which Professor Hammons has handled in a light and tactful manner. This book will be an excellent choice for classes on life writing in general and on early modern women’s writing in particular, and it will be a great contextual reading for courses on British Restoration culture and literature." * -Margaret J. M. Ezell, Texas A&M University *Table of ContentsIllustrations ixAcknowledgments xiINTRODUCTION 1BOOK M 38Bibliography 199Index 205

    10 in stock

    £28.33

  • The Italian Invert

    Columbia University Press The Italian Invert

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn the late nineteenth century, a young Italian aristocrat made an astonishing confession: In a series of revealing letters, he frankly described his sexual experiences with other men. This is the first complete, unexpurgated version in English of this remarkable queer autobiography.Trade ReviewA brilliant archival discovery, a triumph of careful scholarship, an unsuspected episode in modern literature, a moving testimony about sex and love, and a fascinating, previously censored chapter in the history of sexuality. Rosenfeld masterfully restores the context in which conscious writing about homosexuality emerged in Europe during the last decades of the nineteenth century. -- David Halperin, W. H. Auden Distinguished University Professor, University of MichiganThe contributors to this brilliantly edited and translated text make the queer past come alive. Readers will not only recognize a young man’s struggle with his gender and sexual identities, but also the difficulty he had in telling his own story in a homophobic society. -- Andrew Israel Ross, author of Public City/Public Sex: Homosexuality, Prostitution, and Urban Culture in Nineteenth-Century ParisWhether you persist in reading it as a proto-naturalist novel (despite the opinions of the editors of this volume) or treat it as a sociological document, The Italian Invert is a classic text of nineteenth-century sexology the interest of which is by no means limited to French (or Italian) studies. Richly enhanced here with critical notes, this volume makes a revised and expanded version of the primary documents available in English and also adds important essays that situate and enlarge their scope. The text reflects the latest archival discoveries, which include manuscripts and illustrations, as well as new information about the mysterious "Dr. Laupts." Whether one is interested in the history of (homo)sexuality or in literary questions (such as the "queerness" of Zola), this is an indispensable tool that belongs on every researcher's shelf. -- Melanie Hawthorne, Texas A&M UniversityThe 'Italian invert’s confessions' have long been known to historians of sexuality, yet this new edition lends them an authenticity never before enjoyed....The editors have included everything scholars might want to know: abundant annotations, prefaces, commentaries on each recension, and a full index. * European Legacy *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsPrologue, by Cyrille Zola-PlaceForeword to the French Edition, by Alain PagèsForeword to the American Edition, by Vernon A. RosarioIntroduction: The Ménage-à-Trois of Zola, Saint-Paul, and the Italian “Invert,” by Michael Rosenfeld with Nancy ErberPart I: The Confessions of a Homosexual to Émile ZolaPreface by Émile ZolaThe Novel of an InvertThe Sequel to the Novel of an InvertOther ParticularitiesThe Italian Man’s Family Tree, by Michael RosenfeldPart II: Selected Works by Dr. Georges Saint-PaulDr. Georges Saint-Paul, Man of Science, by Clive ThomsonFirst Edition (1896)In Memoriam: Émile ZolaSecond Edition (1910)Third Edition (1930)AcknowledgmentsBibliographyList of ContributorsIndex

    15 in stock

    £21.25

  • Transmedia Creatures: Frankenstein’s Afterlives

    Bucknell University Press,U.S. Transmedia Creatures: Frankenstein’s Afterlives

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisOn the 200th anniversary of the first edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Transmedia Creatures presents studies of Frankenstein by international scholars from converging disciplines such as humanities, musicology, film studies, television studies, English and digital humanities. These innovative contributions investigate the afterlives of a novel taught in a disparate array of courses - Frankenstein disturbs and transcends boundaries, be they political, ethical, theological, aesthetic, and not least of media, ensuring its vibrant presence in contemporary popular culture. Transmedia Creatures highlights how cultural content is redistributed through multiple media, forms and modes of production (including user-generated ones from “below”) that often appear synchronously and dismantle and renew established readings of the text, while at the same time incorporating and revitalizing aspects that have always been central to it. The authors engage with concepts, value systems and aesthetic-moral categories—among them the family, horror, monstrosity, diversity, education, risk, technology, the body—from a variety of contemporary approaches and highly original perspectives, which yields new connections. Ultimately, Frankenstein, as evidenced by this collection, is paradoxically enriched by the heteroglossia of preconceptions, misreadings, and overreadings that attend it, and that reveal the complex interweaving of perceptions and responses it generates. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.Trade Review"Mary Shelley’s novel has had so many afterlives: the text lives and is constantly reincarnated as an unparalleled text of revision, rewriting, misreading, and overreading in science fiction, film, young adult literature, feminism, biomedical ethics, drama, and many other arenas. On the occasion of the anniversary of the 1818 edition of Frankenstein, editors Francesca Saggini and Anna Enrichetta Soccio have gathered an admirably wide range of approaches to that vast afterlife. The productive analyses here of these transmedia incarnations demonstrate the power of Shelley’s ur-text and offer delightful opportunities to enliven our teaching and understanding of Frankenstein and his afterlives." -- Audrey Fisch * New Jersey City University *"One rarely encounters scholarly territory upon which Mary Shelley's peripatetic creature has not already left its mark, but this exceptional collection has managed to uncover new and exciting ground in Frankenstein studies. In Transmedia Creatures: Frankenstein's Afterlives, Saggini and Soccio present original interdisciplinary essays by international scholars that explore Shelley's novel as it is incarnated through the lens of multiple media and differing modes of production. Erudite and entertaining, this work gives us a fresh and often-startling view of that famous 'hideous progeny' as it is reborn in everything from fanfiction and steampunk adaptations to musical compositions and video games." -- Ghislaine McDayter * Bucknell University *"Chronicle of Higher Education new scholarly books weekly book list," by Nina C. Ayoub * Chronicle of Higher Education *"The scholarship is sound. . .Transmedia Creatures offers some exciting new avenues to explore in the wake of the bicentenary of Shelley’s novel. Recommended." * Choice *"Saggini and Soccio’s [book] defies expectations and has a great deal to say about the pedagogical uses to which Frankenstein’s textual afterlives might be put. [...] many of the essays in this volume, although they don’t define themselves that way, might be characterized by what we now call presentist in that they trace how cultural forebodings about the dangers of difference that preoccupy the novel get re-mediated in contemporary culture to address those same concerns. [...] All of these essays are never less than illuminating, in their varied ways, on some understudied or overlooked aspect of the novel’s afterlives, as should be obvious from the book’s title but is never a given." * European Romantic Review *"In Transmedia Creatures, Saggini and Soccio collect a truly international group of thirteen contributors who investigate the ways how Frankenstein adaptations traverse media, genre, and national boundaries....[T]his volume particularly appealing to instructors looking for innovation in teaching the novel." * Science Fiction Studies *"Mary Shelley’s novel has had so many afterlives: the text lives and is constantly reincarnated as an unparalleled text of revision, rewriting, misreading, and overreading in science fiction, film, young adult literature, feminism, biomedical ethics, drama, and many other arenas. On the occasion of the anniversary of the 1818 edition of Frankenstein, editors Francesca Saggini and Anna Enrichetta Soccio have gathered an admirably wide range of approaches to that vast afterlife. The productive analyses here of these transmedia incarnations demonstrate the power of Shelley’s ur-text and offer delightful opportunities to enliven our teaching and understanding of Frankenstein and his afterlives." -- Audrey Fisch * New Jersey City University *"One rarely encounters scholarly territory upon which Mary Shelley's peripatetic creature has not already left its mark, but this exceptional collection has managed to uncover new and exciting ground in Frankenstein studies. In Transmedia Creatures: Frankenstein's Afterlives, Saggini and Soccio present original interdisciplinary essays by international scholars that explore Shelley's novel as it is incarnated through the lens of multiple media and differing modes of production. Erudite and entertaining, this work gives us a fresh and often-startling view of that famous 'hideous progeny' as it is reborn in everything from fanfiction and steampunk adaptations to musical compositions and video games." -- Ghislaine McDayter * Bucknell University *"Chronicle of Higher Education new scholarly books weekly book list," by Nina C. Ayoub * Chronicle of Higher Education *"The scholarship is sound. . .Transmedia Creatures offers some exciting new avenues to explore in the wake of the bicentenary of Shelley’s novel. Recommended." * Choice *"Saggini and Soccio’s [book] defies expectations and has a great deal to say about the pedagogical uses to which Frankenstein’s textual afterlives might be put. [...] many of the essays in this volume, although they don’t define themselves that way, might be characterized by what we now call presentist in that they trace how cultural forebodings about the dangers of difference that preoccupy the novel get re-mediated in contemporary culture to address those same concerns. [...] All of these essays are never less than illuminating, in their varied ways, on some understudied or overlooked aspect of the novel’s afterlives, as should be obvious from the book’s title but is never a given." * European Romantic Review *"In Transmedia Creatures, Saggini and Soccio collect a truly international group of thirteen contributors who investigate the ways how Frankenstein adaptations traverse media, genre, and national boundaries....[T]his volume particularly appealing to instructors looking for innovation in teaching the novel." * Science Fiction Studies *Table of ContentsAbbreviations ix Introduction: Frankenstein: Presence, Process, Progress Francesca SagginiPA R T I Labs, Bots, and Punks: Transmediating Technology and Science 1 Frankenstein and Science Fiction Gino Roncaglia 2 Monstrous Algorithms and the Web of Fear: Risk, Crisis, and Spectral Finance in Robert Harris’s The Fear Index Lidia De Michelis 3 Frankensteinian Gods, Fembots, and the New Technological Frontier in Alex Garland’s Ex_Machina Eleanor BealPA R T I I Becoming Monsters: The Limits of the Human 4 Staging Steampunk Aesthetics in Frankenstein Adaptations: Mechanization, Disability, and the Body Claire Nally 5 Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus in the Postcolony Claudia Gualtieri 6 Four- Color Myth: Frankenstein in the Comics Federico MeschiniPA RT I I I The Evolution Games of Sight and Sound 7 “Uncouth and inarticulate sounds”: Musico- Literary Traces in Frankenstein, and Frankenstein in Art Music Enrico Reggiani 8 Enter Monsieur le Monstre: Cultural Border- Crossing and Frankenstein in London and Paris in 1826 Diego Saglia 9 The Theme of the Doppelgänger in James Searle Dawley’s Frankenstein Daniele Pio Buenza 10 Perverting the Family: Re- Working Victor Frankenstein’s Gothic Blood- Ties in Penny Dreadful Ruth HeholtPA R T I V Monster Reflections 11 The Masked Performer and “the Mane Electric”: The Lives and Multimedia Afterlives of Margaret Atwood’s Doctor Frankenstein Janet Larson 12 Young Adult Frankenstein Andrew McInnes 13 Revivifying Frankenstein’s Myth: Historical Encounters and Dialogism in Back from the Dead: The True Sequel to Frankenstein Anna Enrichetta Soccio Acknowledgments Bibliography Index About the Contributors

    10 in stock

    £26.99

  • Beka Lamb

    Hodder Education Beka Lamb

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThere have been many great and enduring works of literature by Caribbean authors over the last century. The Caribbean Contemporary Classics collection celebrates these deep and vibrant stories, overflowing with life and acute observations about society.Set in Belize City in the early 1950s, Beka Lamb is the record of a few months in the life of Beka and her family. Beka and her friend Toycie Qualo are on the threshold of change from childhood to adulthood. Their personal struggles and tragedies play out against a backdrop of political upheaval and regeneration as the British colony of Belize gears up for universal suffrage, and progression towards independence. The politics of the colony, the influence of the mixing of races in society, and the dominating presence of the Catholic Church are woven into the fabric of the story to provide a compelling portrait, ''a loving evocation of Belizean life and landscape''. Beka''s vibrant character guides us through a tumultuou

    15 in stock

    £15.14

  • Murder for Pleasure the Life and Times of the

    Dover Publications Inc. Murder for Pleasure the Life and Times of the

    Out of stock

    Book Synopsis

    Out of stock

    £15.29

  • Red

    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Red

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisSmart and scintillating. Red deftly conjures what most plays about artists don''t: The exhilaration of the act. The New YorkerUnder the watchful gaze of his young assistant and the threatening presence of a new generation of artists, Mark Rothko takes on his greatest challenge yet: to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting.A moving and compelling account of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century whose struggle to accept his growing riches and praise became his ultimate undoing.Nominated for 7 Olivier Awards (2009) and winner of 6 Tony Awards (2010) including Best New Play, Red is published in Methuen Drama''s Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Michael Grandage.Trade ReviewA fresh, exciting portrait of a brilliant mind. * Ben Brantley, The New York Times *Smart and scintillating. Red deftly conjures what most plays about artists don't: The exhilaration of the act. * The New Yorker *Plays about painters are fraught with difficulty. Either the hero preaches about art without practicing it, or the Bohemian lifestyle supersedes the work. But John Logan's play about Mark Rothko overcomes these obstacles with finesse... It's a measure of the play's success that it makes you want to rush out and renew acquaintance with Rothko's work.' * Michael Billington, The Guardian *

    15 in stock

    £10.44

  • The Semblable: Is a World Without Violence

    Ugly Duckling Presse The Semblable: Is a World Without Violence

    7 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    7 in stock

    £9.50

  • Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

    CONNELL PUBLISHING LTD Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisRomeo and Juliet is routinely called “the world’s greatest love story”, as though it is all about romance. The play features some of the most lyrical passages in all of drama, and the lovers are young, beautiful, and ardent. But when we look at the play, the lyricism and the romance are not really what drive things along. It is true that Romeo, especially early on in the play, acts like a young man determined to take his place in an immortal tale of love. Everything he says is romantic – but rather like an anniversary card is romantic. His words propel nothing, or nothing but sarcastic admonitions from his friends to forget about love and to treat women as they should be treated, with careless physical appetite. The world we have entered is rapacious more than romantic. Everyone knows something of this, from the film versions of the story if nothing else. Romeo and Juliet must fight for their love inside a culture of stupid hatreds. But it is not a simple case of love versus war, or the city against the couple. If it were, it would nicely reinforce clichés about true love, fighting against the odds. In this book Simon Palfrey suggests that the play Shakespeare actually wrote is more troubling than this. Juliet’s passion – for all her youth, for all its truth – is at the very cusp of murderousness. Juliet is the world’s scourge, in the sense that she will whip and punish and haunt it; she is also its triumph, in the sense of its best and truest thing. The deaths her love leads to are in no way avoidable, and in no way accidental. They are her inheritance, the thing she was born to. Of course she takes Romeo with her. But it is at heart her play.

    3 in stock

    £8.54

  • Siruela Visión en azul

    Out of stock

    Book Synopsis

    Out of stock

    £12.05

  • Who Is to Blame  A Novel in Two Parts

    Cornell University Press Who Is to Blame A Novel in Two Parts

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis"Herzen's novel played a significant part in the intellectual ferment of the 1840s. It is an important book in social and moral terms, and wonderfully expressive of Herzen's personality."—Isaiah Berlin Alexander Herzen was one of the major figures in...Trade Review"Herzen's only novel is as much a social document as a fiction, since the many characters personify the major issues and types of the time. . . . Herzen's humorous and ironic development of plot and character suggests an answer to the title question: all are to blame for the injustice and aimlessness of Russian life."—Library Journal"This edition of Who Is to Blame? demonstrates genuine involvement in the translator's craft by duplicating Herzen's barbed style and preserving the natural strengths of his prose."—Slavic Review"The translation is excellent. . . . Katz catches the epigrammatic wit of the original—quite an accomplishment."—The New Republic"Herzen was one of the most lucid, realistic, and gifted thinkers of his age and a founder of Russian socialism. . . . Who Is to Blame? remains of value for its acute social insights and Michael Katz has rendered it fluently into English."—Times Higher Education Supplement

    1 in stock

    £23.74

  • Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary

    Shambhala Publications Inc Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA fresh translation--and new envisioning--of the most accessible and beloved of all classic Chinese poetry.Welcome to the magical, windswept world of Cold Mountain. These poems from the literary riches of China have long been celebrated by cultures of both East and West—and continue to be revered as among the most inspiring and enduring works of poetry worldwide. This groundbreaking new translation presents the full corpus of poetry traditionally associated with Hanshan (“Cold Mountain”) and sheds light on its origins and authorship like never before. Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt honor the contemplative Buddhist elements of this classic collection of poems while revealing Hanshan’s famously jubilant humor, deep love of solitude in nature, and overwhelming warmth of heart. In addition, this translation features the full Chinese text of the original poems and a wealth of fascinating supplements, including traditional historical records, an in-depth study of the Cold Mountain poets (here presented as three distinct authors), and more.

    1 in stock

    £18.90

  • Edge of Irony

    The University of Chicago Press Edge of Irony

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisMarjorie Perloff identifies and explores the aesthetic world that emerged from the rubble of Vienna and other former Habsburg territories--an "Austro-Modernism" that produced a major body of drama, fiction, poetry, and autobiography.Trade Review"Always on the cutting edge of whatever she investigates, Perloff throws light on the subtleties and contradictions--inner and outer--of the literary universe of Celan and Canetti, Kraus and Freud, Musil and Roth. She interweaves, as no one else could, the examination of Celan's poetry with his personal life. The majestic coda to her study, dealing with Wittgenstein's fascination with the Christian Gospels and his complicated involvement with his own traces of anti-Semitism, forms a particularly convincing refusal of closure, the enemy of the historical modernism she so brilliantly studies and espouses."--Mary Ann Caws, author of Surprised in Translation "This book takes us into the undiscovered country of Austro-Modernism in all of its historical complexity, and in the process requires us to address in new ways the questions of literary innovation, the sources of authorial identity, and how to read texts whose distinctive language and formal ingenuity confront us with the inadequacies of our received critical concepts and practices. Edge of Irony is without doubt the most impressive achievement of Perloff's distinguished career."--Gerald Bruns, University of Notre Dame "Edge of Irony is a beautifully written account of Austrian modernism. In this important contribution to European literary history, Perloff reveals the rich contexts and surprising contemporaneity of mid-twentieth-century Austrian literature."--Patrick Greaney, University of Colorado Boulder "Most critics have dealt with Austrian modernism--and modernism in general--from a prewar perspective. Perloff rightly sees the aftermath of the war, the breakup of empire, as informing the Austro-Modernists' boldest works. Edge of Irony presents a model for attuning literary study to the political complexities with which writings like these are eternally embroiled."--Thomas Harrison, University of California, Los Angeles

    1 in stock

    £21.85

  • Lord of the Flies AQA GCSE 91 English Literature

    HarperCollins Publishers Lord of the Flies AQA GCSE 91 English Literature

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisExam Board: AQALevel: GCSE Grade 9-1Subject: English LiteratureSuitable for the 2024 examsEverything you need to revise for your GCSE 9-1 set text in a snap guideEverything you need to score top marks on your GCSE Grade 9-1 English Literature exam is right at your fingertips! Revise Lord of the Flies by William Golding in a snap with this new GCSE Grade 9-1 Snap Revision Text Guide from Collins. Refresh your knowledge of the plot, context, characters and themes and pick up top tips along the way to ace your AQA exam. Each topic is explained in an easy-to-read format so you can get straight to the point. Then, put your skills to the test with plenty of practice questions included in every section. The Snap Text Guides are packed with every quote and extract you need. We've even included examples of how to plan and write your essay responses! This Collins English Literature revision guide contains all the key information you need to practise and pass.

    15 in stock

    £7.49

  • The Art of War

    Everyman The Art of War

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisWritten over two thousand years ago, The Art of War contains penetrating insights into the nature of power, inter-state rivalry, realpolitik and military success, relevant to any age. It was first translated into English in the early 20th century. Sun Tzu's short lines of argument and pithy aphorisms are highly accessible to modern readers, and his text has almost achieved cult status. He is quoted everywhere 'from divorce courts to Facebook', and has something to offer anyone interested in honing leadership skills and achieving in any competitive environment 'from the boardroom to the bedroom'. Sun Tzu's advice is shrewd and pragmatic - he does not glory in slaughter and prefers to win battles off the battlefield if possible; he is a strong supporter of the use of deception, of varying your shots and above all, of doing your research: knowing your enemy is key; but of little use if you do not also 'know yourself'.Features a brilliant new translation by Peter Harris. The iconic text in its original 13 short chapters printed unencumbered by notesThe text repeated, this time interspersed with selected extracts from the canon of traditional Chinese commentators who have explained Sun Tzu's wisdom over the centuries; each chapter ending with an explanatory note from Peter HarrisTrade Review... this book has become a must-read for modern military strategists (even though Sun Tzu wrote about chariots rather than drones), the KGB and also for business thinkers who have applied his martial philosophy to the war that is modern capitalism. * Guardian *..this book is a guide to winning wars, avidly studied by America's armed forces as it was by Mao. . ..American strategists often read the “Art of War” to understand China not as an alluring and persuasive wielder of soft power, but as a potential enemy. * Economist *

    3 in stock

    £13.49

  • The Origin of Others

    Harvard University Press The Origin of Others

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisWhat is race and why does it matter? Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid? America’s foremost novelist reflects on themes that preoccupy her work and dominate politics: race, fear, borders, mass movement of peoples, desire for belonging. Ta-Nehisi Coates provides a foreword to Toni Morrison’s most personal work of nonfiction to date.Trade ReviewMorrison’s new book of essays, The Origin of Others, shows that the sick, sad world in which her novels are set is an old one—one that she yearns to lean out of, one we’re falling right back into instead. The Origin of Others is, at once, a critique, memoir, and writer’s notebook; the Nobel Prize–winning author explicates the observations and inspirations behind some of her most prized novels. The book draws from her Norton Lectures, in which she discusses race, borders, history, and other literary heavyweights such as Flannery O’Connor and Ernest Hemingway. Readers could consider this book a companion to her Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, if they want a pellucid look at the racial minefield throughout American literature. -- Kaila Philo * The Millions *It is hard not to want more than an afternoon with her incisive mind…Her essays are richly embellished with anecdote and memory, but grounded in literary analysis. Morrison looks to literature as a potent site of prejudicial tuition…Drafted in the months before Brexit and Donald Trump, it is hard not to see The Origin of Others as politically prescient. -- Beejay Silcox * The Australian *For those who want to understand better the process of inventing others, its literary past, and the tendency in us all to dismiss others clamoring for a sense of belonging, The Origin of Others is a must-read. Morrison’s fans will appreciate her hauntingly clear reading of the times, even while she remains true to her literary aesthetic. New readers can look to this text as a foray into the mind of one of the greatest thinkers of our time. With the same revolutionary simplicity as Martin Buber’s I and Thou, Morrison reminds us once again that whatever can be said of the self is always determined by how one stands in relation to the other. -- Audrey Thompson * Christian Century *If you’ve ever wanted to take a peek into the brilliant mind of Toni Morrison, look no further than her latest book. In The Origin of Others, Morrison dissects all the thematic elements that frequent her work, and sheds light on what inspires her and what keeps her up at night. Based on her Norton Lectures, the renowned novelist delves deep into how literature has shaped society’s perceptions of race over the years, as well as how some of her most beloved books came to be. Plus, it has a brilliant introduction from Ta-Nehisi Coates! -- Gina Mei * Shondaland *Pulitzer– and Nobel Prize–winning novelist Morrison analyzes the language of race and racism and the classification of people into dehumanizing racial categories in American culture… Lyrically written and intelligently argued, this book is on par with Morrison’s Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination and The Black Book. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *This is an intriguing and timely series of reflections on race, fear, belonging and otherness. -- Louise Kennedy * The ARTery *This volume collects the great novelist’s Norton lectures at Harvard University, giving those of us who didn’t get to attend a glimpse at Morrison’s thoughts on race and otherness, and how these things affect literature and lives around the world. * The Millions *[A] slender but profound volume. -- Tom Beer * Newsday *The Origin of Others is a must read. -- Tara Block * PopSugar *From legendary writer and thinker Toni Morrison comes a book that deals with one of the thorniest topics of our time: race…What is race? What motivates us to construct otherness? What makes us so afraid of one another? Probing, brilliant, and beautifully rendered, The Origin of Others is destined to become one of the major sociological texts of our time. -- Elizabeth Kiefer * Refinery29 *Every literature lover who dreams of studying with Toni Morrison will devour The Origin of Others, a new collection of her Harvard lectures on race, literature, and otherness. -- Angela Carone * San Diego Magazine *What is sure to be her most personal and self-reflecting work in nonfiction yet, Morrison delves further into the themes that have always been crucial to her canon: race, politics, history, identity, et al. -- Maura M. Lynch and Jinnie Lee * W Magazine *Morrison explores how cultures, societies, and individuals develop the notion of the Other, the reasons for it, the perceived benefits of distinguishing based on what many insist are racial traits despite the slipperiness of concepts of race…In this slim volume, Morrison shares again her enormous talent for examining the complexity of race and racial identity, the inhumanity that results from ‘othering’ a fellow human being, the justifications for cruelty that has resulted in romanticized images of slavery and oppression, and how the perversity of racism reverberates through centuries. -- Vanessa Bush * Booklist *Melding memoir, history, and trenchant literary analysis, Nobel Prize laureate Morrison offers perceptive reflections on the configuration of Otherness…As sharp and insightful as one would expect from this acclaimed author. * Kirkus Reviews *May be [Morrison’s] most comprehensive look at race in America to date. * Pacific Standard *[Morrison] traces through American literature patterns of thought and behavior that subtly code who belongs and who doesn’t, who is accepted in and who is cast out as ‘Other.’ …The Origin of Others combines Toni Morrison’s accustomed eloquence with meaning for our times as citizens of the world. -- Nell Irvin Painter * New Republic *The Origin of Others gives readers around the world a chance to take a peek inside the insightful mind of one of America’s most celebrated novelists… Equal parts challenging and engaging, reading The Origin of Others is like learning from the literary legend herself. -- Sadie Trombetta * Bustle *It is hard not to read Toni Morrison’s The Origin of Others in the light of recent disturbing political developments in the U.S… Morrison considers the fetishization of skin color and the questions posed by our era of mass migration, and offers elegant reminders of some well-known but still unpalatable facts… She shows how a single word choice in a Hemingway novel can exploit and fortify any number of racialized fetishes and revulsions, and she also explains, with a dispassionate attention to technique, why and how Hemingway made such choices as a writer, the useful short cuts they allowed him to take for the purposes of narrative and character and mood. -- Lidija Haas * The Guardian *Morrison trains her well-aimed pen at the themes that only a titan such as herself can so gracefully take on like race, fear, borders and the mass movement of people, for example. -- Lesley-Ann Brown * NBC News *Toni Morrison is the one of the great contemporary analysts of race and identity…Here she develops in a more concerted way than we find in her earlier work the means by which racist ideologies obliterate the possibility of knowing others, and stifle the chance we are afforded to gain knowledge of ourselves…Morrison draws on a series of episodes from [America’s] literature and history, and examines them in relation to salient moments from her own life. The resulting work is transformative, exhilarating, distressing. And acutely and urgently necessary…The Origin of Others is full of insights. They are made all the more persuasive by Morrison’s elegant, plangent prose, and by her refusal to exclude herself from those mythologies of otherness of which we are all the unhappy legatees. To read this wise, probing and inspiring book is to acquaint yourself with a writer who is a foe of that inheritance and a vital friend of the human project. -- Matthew Adams * The National *In a series of essays that provides equally unique insights into American literary history and Morrison’s own mind, The Origin of Others explores how otherness, particularly racial difference, is socially constructed, and the ways Morrison has always worked to explore and confound that construct through her writing. -- Emily Lever * The Literary Show Project *The Nobel Prize–winning novelist employs literary criticism, history, and memoir to illustrate how power imagines difference in order to legitimize oppression… As Barack Obama completed a two-term presidency, and his attorneys general launched investigations into police brutality across the country, it seemed reasonable to assume that the United States was finally preparing to acknowledge and address the structural racism that underpins its society. The intervening year has exposed that as a dangerous assumption, and made required reading of a book that, in any sane version of the present, should have marked how much progress had recently been made and how far was yet to go. -- Ben Eastham * Art Review *[Morrison] is doing what she does best, using historical, personal and current events to explore how racism continues to divide society. Drawing on issues of globalization and the mass movement of people, she explores how the presence of others contributes to belonging. The book is as good as I had expected. Morrison’s narrative is both powerful and chilling as she takes us on a journey that shocks and enlightens but forever reminds us that, ‘The definition of Americanness (sadly) remains color for many people.’ -- Kalwant Bhopal * Times Higher Education *A slim volume that contains multitudes. It can be read in one sitting, yet it’s a book that readers will likely return to frequently for its conceptual richness, catholic knowledge, and political imagination…Literature, Morrison argues throughout The Origin of Others, is central to shaping social imaginations of hate, and conversely, literature has the potential to help us envision better worlds and better futures…Morrison deftly moves between literary analysis, personal memoir, historical research, critical theory, and politics. And moreover, she does so with incredible clarity and grace. Her intended audience is not specialists in narrow fields, but wide and broad publics…We live in a regime in which nation-states can blind us from seeing the tragedies and genocides unfolding beyond our artificial borders. Toni Morrison's latest book challenges us in subtle and profound ways to see beyond such artifices. We need literary fictions to see the many violences of our political fictions. -- Ryan Poll * PopMatters *In this era of stark division, distrust and state-sponsored xenophobia, it is hard to imagine a more timely and laudable message than the plea for understanding, with its separation of the fact of culture from notions of racial essentialism, and its implicit faith in the importance, and transformative power, of literature. -- Clifford Thompson * Times Literary Supplement *The autobiographical moments in The Origin of Others are the most interesting paragraphs within this book. Peeking into the life of this Pulitzer Prize–winning author’s personal life to understand her concerns for black America, provides a logical solution in shaping black identity—control our narrative… The Origin of Others moved me to be more conscious of what type of language and behavior I, a hip-hop journalist and aspiring historian, put into the world. -- Darryl Robertson * VIBE *A painful and powerful study of race as it affected [Morrison’s] writing and her reading. The book is clear and challenging. Attitudes are eloquently investigated. -- Eavan Boland * Irish Times *There is another aspect to otherness: how we cope, survive, rationalize and discriminate by creating, in our minds and habits, others. No book addresses this more profoundly than Toni Morrison’s small book of essays, The Origin of Others…It’s Trumpism that makes her insights essential now…Morrison addresses the ‘romancing of slavery’ in our literature and history. She looks carefully at what ‘being or becoming a stranger’ means in American life. She analyzes our fetishes with darkness, our preoccupations with blackness and the tropes we perpetuate regarding Africa: menace, depravity, incomprehensibility. This is not easy, comforting reading for a Christmas morning, but it is a book we need to be talking about. -- Jon M. Sweeney * America *Morrison expertly dissects the nuanced conversations around race and why they matter. -- Shalayne Pulia * InStyle *Morrison has much to say about events that are not only on the American mind, but the global one, as she ranges over nostalgic returns to slavery, the pervasive use of racial epithets by white writers, and the forced migration of an unprecedented number of displaced people…In The Origin of Others, Morrison revisits ways of reading American literature, but also expands her scope to ponder the meaning of race itself, and how it lodges itself in both individual and collective imaginaries. -- Yogita Goyal * Los Angeles Review of Books *

    15 in stock

    £17.95

  • James Joyce

    Oxford University Press James Joyce

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisJames Joyce was one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. This book explores his novels and short stories, and analyses the literary traditions and social factors influencing his distinctive complex style. Interweaving Joyce's life and history with his books, it also shows how Joyce celebrated his own experiences in Dublin.Table of Contents1: Story and sound 2: Dubliners 3: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 4: Ulysses 5: Finnegans Wake 6: Conclusion: Elite past or democratic future? Further Reading Index

    2 in stock

    £9.49

  • History of Rome Volume X

    Harvard University Press History of Rome Volume X

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisLivy (Titus Livius, 64 or 59 BC–AD 12 or 17), the Roman historian, presents a vivid narrative of Rome’s rise from the traditional foundation of the city in 753 or 751 BC to 9 BC and illustrates the virtues necessary to achieve such greatness. The books of the fourth decad (31–40) focus on Rome’s growing hegemony in the East in the years 200–180.Trade ReviewThese new Loebs are superior to the old ones in almost every way…The true superiority of Yardley’s work lies, first of all, in the translation: he is an outstanding translator of Livy. -- Joseph B. Solodow * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

    15 in stock

    £23.70

  • Shakespeare Without a Life Oxford Wells

    Oxford University Press Shakespeare Without a Life Oxford Wells

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisFor almost two centuries, Shakespeare had no biography. Neither did his life have a timeline, and historians and archivists did not have the materials to make one. Does this mean that Shakespeare was not valued or understood until after 1800? This book focuses on a critical absence in the unfolding of Shakespeare's story.Trade Review[A] significant new contribution ...that push[es] the parameters of how we engage with the most revered writer in the English language...timely and erudite. * Lubaaba Al-Azami, History Today *As de Grazia's study demonstrates so compellingly, when life writing shifted from the anecdotal to the documentary, we lost something of our appreciation of Shakespeare as critics tried to force square pegs into round holes. * David McInnis, Australian Book Review *De Grazia's Shakespeare without a Life is unafraid of taking a bold stance .... Her subtle analyses highlight the differences between modern readers' obsession with biography and the lenses through which Shakespeare's contemporaries and immediate successors viewed him. * Willard Spiegelman, Wall Street Journal *Elegant ... what de Grazia does with familiar material is striking. * Emma Smith, Times Literary Supplement *This beautifully written book weaves together a set of absorbing stories which together produce a sharp-edged argument ... The final chapter on the Sonnets ...urges new ways of thinking about Shakespeare and his work... A pleasure to read and a book to rethink often. * Raphael Lyne, Review in English Studies *Table of Contents1: Shakespeare Without a Life 2: Shakespeare's Timeline 3: The Archive and its Discontents 4: Shakespeare's Dateless Sonnets

    1 in stock

    £23.75

  • On Cats: An Anthology

    Notting Hill Editions On Cats: An Anthology

    4 in stock

    Book SynopsisFor centuries, cats have been worshipped, adored and mistrusted in equal measure. This beautiful gift book contains a selection of essays, stories, and poems on cats by writers from across the ages. In these pages, writers reflect on the curious feline qualities that inspire such devotion in their owners, even when it seems one-sided. Cats' affections are hard-won and often fickle. Freud considered his cat an embodiment of true egoism; Hilaire Belloc found peace in his feline companion's complacency; and Hemingway-a famous cat-lover-wrote of drinking with his eleven cats and the pleasant distraction they gave him. Edward Gorey can't turn down a stray despite the trouble they cause him, and admits he has no idea what they're thinking about; Muriel Spark gives practical advice on how to teach a cat to play ping-pong; Nikola Tesla, who helped design the modern electricity supply system, describes a seminal experience with a cat that first sparked his fascination with electricity; and Caitlin Moran considers the unexpected feelings of loss after the death of her family cat. These writers, and many others (including Mary Gaitskill, Alice Walker, Ursula K. Le Guin, John Keats, James Bowen, Lynne Truss, and more), paint a joyful portrait of cats and their mysterious and loveable ways. As Hemingway wrote, "one cat leads to another." The book features six black-and-white cat portraits by photographer Elliot Ross.

    4 in stock

    £14.24

  • Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s

    Quirk Books Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisSEE the amazing vintage book covers featuring well-dressed skeletons, evil dolls, knife-wielding killer crabs! READ the shocking plots involving devil worship, satanic children, and haunted real estate! LEARN the stories of long-forgotten creators as well as familiar names like V.C. Andrews and Anne Rice. Horror author and vintage paperback book collector Grady Hendrix offers killer commentary and witty insight on these trashy thrillers that tried so hard to be the next Exorcist or Rosemary s Baby. It s an affectionate, nostalgic, and unflinching tour through the horror fiction boom of the seventies and eighties, complete with story summaries and artist and author profiles. Plus recommendations for which of these forgotten treasures are well worth your reading time and which should stay buried.Trade ReviewOne of SFFWorld's Best of the Decade“Pure, demented delight.”—The New York Times Book Review“Paperbacks from Hell is as funny as it is engaging.”—The Washington Post“The book is a true appreciation of the genre.”—Los Angeles Times“Just thumbing through these pages will bring back your youth—and terrify you all over again.”—Newsday“A loving examination of lurid pulp book covers from the 1970s and ’80s.”—Atlas Obscura“Paperbacks from Hell is as wild as its source material.”—The A.V. Club“[Paperbacks from Hell] will delight anyone with an interest in horror, design illustration, or the macabre.”—Print Magazine “A nostalgic treat.”—Playboy Online“You may find yourself trying to stock up on old titles so you can get your fill of gloriously trashy scares.”—Bustle“[Hendrix's] love of the genre shines through as he pokes gentle fun at some of the era's more entertaining reads, and speaks with genuine appreciation of other titles whose horrors stand the test of time.”—BookRiotMore praise for Grady Hendrix:“National treasure Grady Hendrix follows his classic account of a haunted IKEA-like furniture showroom, Horrorstor (2014), with a nostalgia-soaked ghost story, My Best Friend’s Exorcism.”—The Wall Street Journal, on My Best Friend’s Exorcism“Horrorstör delivers a crisp terror-tale...[and] Hendrix strikes a nice balance between comedy and horror.”—The Washington Post, on Horrorstör“Terrific... Sharply written... [My Best Friend’s Exorcism] makes a convincing case for [Hendrix’s] powers as a sharp observer of human behavior.”—The A.V. Club, on My Best Friend’s Exorcism“Hendrix’s darkest novel yet will leave readers begging for an encore.”—Booklist, starred review, on We Sold Our Souls“Campy. Heartfelt. Horrifying.”—Minnesota Public Radio, on My Best Friend’s Exorcism“An inventive, hilarious haunted house tale.”—Bustle, on Horrorstör “Clever, heartfelt, and get-under-your-skin unnerving.”—Fangoria, on My Best Friend’s Exorcism“A good, creepy, music-tinged thriller.”—CNET, on We Sold Our Souls

    10 in stock

    £22.50

  • Narrative Art and the Politics of Health

    Anthem Press Narrative Art and the Politics of Health

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisAs countless alterations have taken place in medicine in the twenty-first century so too have literary artists addressed new understandings of disease and pathology. Dis/ability studies, fat studies, mad studies, end-of-life studies, and critical race studies among other fields have sought to better understand what social factors lead to pathologizing certain conditions while other variations remain “normalized.” While recognizing that these scholarly approaches often speak to identities with radically different experiences of pathologization, this collection of essays is open to all critical engagements with narratives of health in order to facilitate the messiness of cross-disciplinary collaboration and interdisciplinarity. As scientific advances provide insight into a wide range of well-being issues and help extend life, it is vital that we come to question the very categories of “healthy” and “unhealthy.” This collection brings together analyses of cultural productions which probe those categorizations and suggest new psychological and philosophical understandings which will help better apply and guide the knowledge being rapidly developed within the life sciences. “Right of health” is a widely accepted human right, but in applying a right to healthcare what care and what sort of health are less universally agreed upon. The contributors share an interest in addressing who controls answers to the questions of “how do we define a healthy body and a healthy life?” and “what are the political forces that influence our definitions of health?”Trade Review“This timely book collects a diverse set of essays that examine the stories we tell about our own and others’ health. The collection sparkles with intellectual curiosity and critique, illuminating myriad ways we have been shaped by cultural narratives about health and well-being.” — Joel Rodgers, Lecturer, Department of English, University of Toronto ScarboroughIn their edited volume, Narrative Art and the Politics of Health(Anthem, 2021), Neil Brooks and Sarah Blanchette aptly argued, “as scientific advances provide insight into a wide range of well-being issues and help extend life, it is vital that we come to question the very categories of healthy and unhealthy.” I want to address this topic considering one aspect of women’s lives and that is the athletic domain. - Dr. Maryam Farahani, Research Associate at the University of Liverpool, Anthem Blog Post, July 2022.Table of ContentsList of Figures; Acknowledgments; Notes on Contributors; Introduction, Neil Brooks and Sarah Blanchette; PART I. INSTITUTIONAL NARRATIVES; Chapter 1. The Laboring Body and the Slave Trade: An Enduring Narrative of Health and Illness, Mitchell Gauvin; Chapter 2. Projecting Eugenics and Performing Knowledges, Evadne Kelly, Seika Boye and Carla Rice; Chapter 3. Grief Supremacy: On Grievability, Whiteness and Not Being #allinthistogether, Jennifer Poole and Carmen Galvan; Chapter 4. Creating Categories, Eli Clare; PART II. SOCIOCULTURAL NARRATIVES; Chapter 5. Mothers Who Know Best: Narratives of Motherhood and Epistemological Anxieties in Vaccine Hesitancy Discourse, Jessica Polzer and Pamela Wakewich; Chapter 6. The Cultural Production of Commodifying Under Resourced Bodies, Aaron Martin, Clarisa Barrera Garza, Mubashar Khan and Lauren McKenzie; Chapter 7. When Progressivism Goes Mad: Spiritualism and the Euthanization of the Spiritually Unfit, Dan Graham; Chapter 8. American and Taiwanese Conceptions of Suicide in Emily X. R. Pan’s The Astonishing Color of After, Gracie Marsden; PART III. FICTIONAL NARRATIVES; Chapter 9. Sadness, Madness and Vigor in Jessie Redmon Fauset’s The Chinaberry Tree, Patricia A. Milanes; Chapter 10. Death, Cruelty and Magical Humanism in the Fiction of Terry Pratchett, Christopher Lockett; Chapter 11. Mental Illness and Radical Caregiving in Sepia Leaves and Em and the Big Hoom, Amala Poli; Chapter 12. Cast-off Casts: The Orthopedic Imagination in Dear Evan Hansen and Lady Bird, Matthew Tomkinson; Index.

    Out of stock

    £72.00

  • Native Americans in Comic Books

    McFarland & Co Inc Native Americans in Comic Books

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis This work takes an in-depth look at the world of comic books through the eyes of a Native American reader and offers frank commentary on the medium''s cultural representation of the Native American people. It addresses a range of portrayals, from the bloodthirsty barbarians and noble savages of dime novels, to formulaic secondary characters and sidekicks, and, occasionally, protagonists sans paternal white hero, examining how and why Native Americans have been consistently marginalized and misrepresented in comics. Chapters cover early representations of Native Americans in popular culture and newspaper comic strips, the Fenimore Cooper legacy, the white Indian, the shaman, revisionist portrayals, and Native American comics from small publishers, among other topics.Trade Reviewimportant...recommended"" - Choice""a groundbreaking work...should be celebrated as an introduction to this much-neglected area of study"" - World Literature Today

    1 in stock

    £29.41

  • A Face Drawn in Sand Humanistic Inquiry and

    Columbia University Press A Face Drawn in Sand Humanistic Inquiry and

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisRey Chow rearticulates the plight of the humanities in the age of global finance and neoliberal mores through a focus on Foucault's concept outside. She foregrounds a nonutilitarian approach, stressing anew the intellectual and pedagogical objectives fundamental to humanistic inquiry.Trade ReviewIn this lucid, concise, and passionate book, Rey Chow theorizes the dire effects of entrepreneurial capitalism in our digital age while showing how a humanistic intellectual should confront the essential problems created and obscured by that capitalism. This recovery of Foucault is brilliant, timely, and liberating. -- Paul A. Bové, author of Love's ShadowIn A Face Drawn in Sand, Rey Chow not only offers a provocative and original reading of Foucault but also mobilizes this reading to analyze some of the most important oppositions in literary studies today: close reading versus distant reading, surface reading with its re-aestheticization of the text versus STEM-inspired social science approaches, identity versus racialization, among others. Rather than attempt simply to adjudicate these conflicts in the interests of compromise, Chow reconstructs their theoretical and historical conditions of possibility to determine how these oppositions came to be posed in their current form. In doing so, she allows us to rethink them and perhaps better articulate the problems they seek to address. This is a much-needed book. -- Warren Montag, coauthor of The Other Adam SmithIf, as Foucault said, we have yet to cut off the head of the king, Chow offers the sharpest blade yet: critique forged in immanence. With the equanimity of a saint and the tenacity of a battle-scarred scholar, she puts a point on Foucault’s productive hypothesis: to denounce power is not to say no to it. The result is a compelling series of interventions into the fields of study that matter most for humanistic inquiry today: critical race studies, sound studies, media studies, transnational and global studies. Chow’s gift is a vision of what these fields might be, beheaded. -- Thomas Lamarre, author of The Anime Ecology: A Genealogy of Television, Animation, and Game MediaA Face Drawn in Sand cuts into the present with breathtaking clarity. Redeploying Foucault’s work in startling new ways, Chow engages everything from humanistic study in the neoliberal university to racism, sound theory, the digitized smart self, and sand painting. As brilliant as it is courageous, this book not only changes how we read Foucault. It teaches us how to think: how to press against the limits of our contemporary order. A tour de force! -- Lynne Huffer, author of Foucault's Strange ErosChow’s text accomplishes something rare these days: an original reading of Foucault that crackles with insight. * Critical Inquiry *Table of ContentsPart I. Humanistic Inquiry in the Era of the Moralist-EntrepreneurIntroduction: Rearticulating “Outside”Part II. Exercises in the Unthought1. Literary Study’s Biopolitics2. “There Is a ‘There Is’ of Light”; or, Foucault’s (In)visibilities3. Thinking “Race” with Foucault4. “Fragments at Once Random and Necessary”: The Énoncé Revisited, Alongside Acousmatic Listening5. From the Confessing Animal to the SmartselfCoda: Intimations from a Series of Faces Drawn in SandAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

    15 in stock

    £19.80

  • The Fire and the Tale

    Stanford University Press The Fire and the Tale

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisWhat is at stake in literature? Can we identify the fire that our stories have lost, but that they strive, at all costs, to rediscover? And what is the philosopher's stone that writers, with the passion of alchemists, struggle to forge in their word furnaces? For Giorgio Agamben, who suggests that the parable is the secret model of all narrative, every act of creation tenaciously resists creation, thereby giving each work its strength and grace. The ten essays brought together here cover works by figures ranging from Aristotle to Paul Klee and illustrate what urgently drives Agamben's current research. As is often the case with his writings, their especial focus is the mystery of literature, of reading and writing, and of language as a laboratory for conceiving an ethico-political perspective that places us beyond sovereign power.

    15 in stock

    £15.29

  • Pietismus Handbuch

    JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck) Pietismus Handbuch

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisDas Pietismus Handbuch bietet in einem Band einen umfassenden Überblick über die den nachreformatorischen Protestantismus in den westlichen Gesellschaften bis in die Gegenwart prägende Reformbewegung des späten 17. und des 18. Jahrhunderts. Der Diversifizierung und Internationalisierung der Pietismusforschung in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten entsprechend haben sich 59 internationale Autorinnen und Autoren aus Theologie, Geschichtswissenschaften, Germanistik und anderen historischen Fächern für die insgesamt 79 Beiträge des Bands zusammengefunden.Dem Konzept der Handbücher Theologie folgend stehen am Anfang des Bands Beiträge zu Archiven, Bibliotheken, Editionen, Digital Humanities und zur Forschungsgeschichte. Ein größerer Abschnitt lotet das Verhältnis des Pietismus zu ihn prägenden kirchen- und theologiegeschichtlichen Formationen und Figuren (z.B. Nadere Reformatie, Lutherische Orthodoxie, Jakob Böhme) aus. Zwei Hauptkapitel stellen zentrale Personen und Gruppen der Reformbewegung vor und untersuchen ihre Geschichte in unterschiedlichen politischen Kontexten (Städte, Territorien, Regionen und Länder). Einen Schwerpunkt bilden Beiträge zu zentralen theologischen Begriffen wie Rechtfertigung und Heiligung, Bekehrung, Geschichtsverständnis und Zukunftserwartung, zu wichtigen Aspekten der pietistischen Frömmigkeit wie Gemeinschafts- und Sozialformen, Bibel, Erbauungsliteratur, Lieder und Gesangbücher und Gefühle, sowie zu gesellschaftlichen und kulturellen Themen wie Geschlechterrollen, Pädagogik, soziales Handeln, Wirtschaft, Politik, Medizin und Architektur. Der Schlussabschnitt widmet sich den Beziehungen zu parallelen historischen Phänomenen wie Quietismus, Kabbala und Aufklärung und zur Nachwirkung u.a. in Erweckungsbewegung und Gemeinschaftsbewegung.

    1 in stock

    £71.48

  • Not Me

    MIT Press Not Me

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisThis brilliant, incisive volume captures the high points of Myles' work in New York City during the 1980s.Listen, I have been educated. I have learned about Western Civilization. Do you know What the message of Western Civilization is? I am alone. This breakthrough volume, published in 1991 by the author of Cool For You and Chelsea Girls captures the high points of Myles' work in New York City during the 1980s. Poet, novelist, lesbian culture hero and one-time presidential candidate, Myles has influenced a whole generation of young queer girl writers and activists. She is one of the most brilliant, incisive, immediate writers living today.

    Out of stock

    £12.59

  • The Flowers of Evil

    New Directions Publishing Corporation The Flowers of Evil

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn the annals of literature, few single volumes of poetry have achieved the influence and notoriety of The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du Mal) by Charles Baudelaire.

    10 in stock

    £16.14

  • Liverpool University Press On Stoic Good and Evil De Finibus 3 and Paradoxa

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis edition of Cicero’s texts on Stoic ethics, De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum Liber III and Parodoxa Stoicorum, presents the arguments to the modern reader in a clear and accessible form, and in a way that allows those with only a little Latin to follow the original text. Text with facing translation, introduction and commentary.Table of Contents Introduction I. Background II. Goodness, Knowledge and Happiness Socrates Plato Aristotle Cyrenaics and Cynics III. Epicurus IV. The Stoics V. Philosophy at Rome VI. De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum VII. Paradoxa Stoicorum VIII. The TextNotes to the IntroductionTexts and Translations De Finibus III Paradoxa StoicorumAppendix: Pro Murena 61–63Commentary on De Finibus IIISummary of De Finibus IIICommentary on Paradoxa StoicorumGlossary of Stoic TermsBibliographyIndex of PassagesIndex of Names

    15 in stock

    £25.29

  • Blacks in Black and White

    Rlpg/Galleys Blacks in Black and White

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisSince its publication in 1977 to acclaim as a pioneering work, this has remained the first and only book to detail all aspects of a unique era in the history of motion picturesthe only time in the U.S. when films featuring an all-Black cast, produced and directed by Blacks, were shown primarily to Black audiences, in theatres many of which were owned and managed by Blacks. Sampson traces the history of the Black film industry from its beginnings around 1910 to its demise in 1950, chronicling the activities of pioneer Black filmmakers and performers who have been virtually ignored by film historians. Significantly more information on Oscar Micheaux and other Black producers of the period and descriptions of many more Black films are included in the second edition. A new chapter discusses the first black images in American film as portrayed by Whites in blackface. The list of film titles from both the sound and the silent periods, including members of the cast, has been greatly expandedTrade ReviewThe first edition of this book received laudatory reviews. This (more than) doubly expanded version deserves additional accolades. Sampson has scoured the literature...and added substantial new information. * American Reference Books Annual *...immensely valuable... * Focus On Film *...an invaluable historical reference. * Films In Review *This is an important book on an important subject. * B'nai B'rith Magazine *This revised and expanded second edition is received with approbation. Highly recommended. * Classic Images *Many full-page and half-page photographs complement the text, while a thorough index eases access. * Popular Culture in Libraries *...an absolute treasure trove of information on early Black films, filmmakers, and performers. All in all this is a standard setter for Black film reference books and an essential item for any university or large public library which supports research in African American performance, cultural history, or film studies. * Screening Noir *Anyone even remotely interested in the history of African Americans in film must have access to this book. Every conscientious library will want to own this invaluable sourcebook. * CHOICE *

    Out of stock

    £71.10

  • The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War

    Cornell University Press The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisA new evaluation of the origins and causes of the Peloponnesian War, based on evidence produced by modern scholarship and on a careful reconsideration of the ancient texts.Trade ReviewA profound analysis of the relation of strategy to politics, a sympathetic but searching critique of Thucydides' masterpiece, and a trenchant assessment of the voluminous modern literature on the war. -- Bernard Knox * The Atlantic Monthly *Kagan's book is a contribution of considerable distinction, scrupulously fair, carefully argued, and lucidly written. And, what is more, it is persuasive.... Kagan sets out the story in detail and with acumen. The case has been adumbrated before—but never presented with such thoroughness. * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *Kagan's book is based on complete control of both the ancient evidence and modern scholarship. * Choice *The temptation to acclaim Kagan's four volumes as the foremost work of history produced in North America in the twentieth century is vivid.... Here is an achievement that not only honors the criteria of dispassion and of unstinting scruple which mark the best of modern historicism but honors its readers. To read Kagan's 'History of the Peloponnesian War' at the present hour is to be almost unbearably tested. -- George Steiner * The New Yorker *Table of ContentsIntroductionPart One: The Alliance System and the Division of the Greek World 1. The Spartan Alliance 2. The Origins of the Athenian Empire 3. Sparta after the Persian War 4. Athens after the Persian WarPart Two: The First Peloponnesian War 5. The War in Greece 6. The Crisis in the Aegean 7. The End of the WarPart Three: The Years of Peace 8. Athenian Politics: The Victory of Pericles 9. Athens and the West: The Foundation of Thurii 10. The Samian Rebellion 11. The Consolidation of the Empire 12. Athenian Politics on the Eve of the WarPart Four: The Final Crisis 13. Epidamnus 14. Corcyra 15. Megara 16. Potidaea 17. Sparta 18. AthensPart Five: Conclusions 19. The Causes of the War 20. Thucydides and the Inevitability of the WarAppendixes A. The Willingness of the Members of the Delian League to Accept Athenian Leadership B. The Historicity of Diodoms' Account of the Spartan Assembly in 475 C. Chronology of Events between ca. 470–453 D. Reconstruction of the Athenian Tribute Lists E. The Papyrus Decree F. The Foundation of Thurii G. Athenian Actions in the West between the Wars H. Athenian Treatment of Byzantium I. The Date of Pericles' Pontic Expedition J. The Site and Date of Brea K. The Date of the Battle of PotidaeaBibliography General Index Index of Ancient Authors and Inscriptions Index of Modern Authors

    Out of stock

    £44.10

  • Herodotus Histories Book I

    Cambridge University Press Herodotus Histories Book I

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn the Histories, which could loosely be translated as ''Investigations'' or ''Researches,'' Herodotus tells how the Persian Empire began, grew, and then met defeat in Greece in his parents'' generation. Book 1 begins that story. It introduces both the world in which the Persian imperial war machine began to operate and then expanded, and Herodotus'' own procedures in undertaking the ambitious task he has set himself. This edition helps intermediate and advanced students to read the book in the original Greek and will also be of interest to advanced scholars. The Commentary provides information about dialect, grammatical forms, syntax, and other properties of his language. In addition, the Introduction and the Commentary engage in literary interpretation and explore Herodotus'' value as a historian, his immense curiosity, and the attention he devotes to the customs, beliefs, concrete realities, and myths of other cultures.Table of ContentsIntroduction: 1. Life of Herodotus; 2. Form and thought in Herodotus' Histories; 3. Ethnographies; 4. Herodotean Greek; 5. Text and critical apparatus; Herodotus: Histories; Outline of Book 1; Commentary; Bibliography; General index; Index of Greek words.

    7 in stock

    £32.99

  • The Poetry of Thought

    New Directions Publishing Corporation The Poetry of Thought

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisA profound vision of the inseparability of Western philosophy and its living languageTrade Review"No one now writing on literature can match Steiner as polymath and polyglot, and few can equal the verve and eloquence of his writing." -- Robvert Alter - The Washington Post "Illumination and attractively undogmatic" -- The New Yorker

    15 in stock

    £12.34

  • Etel Adnam Critical Essays on the ArabAmerican

    McFarland & Company Etel Adnam Critical Essays on the ArabAmerican

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisThis collection of essays concentrates on Arab-American writer and artist Etel Adnan. It seeks to provide a comprehensive look at Adnan's literary and artistic accomplishments through analysis and close readings.

    Out of stock

    £27.54

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