ELT & Literary Studies Books

Book SynopsisSally Rooney set the books world buzzing in 2017 with her debut Conversations With Friends; Normal People is a girl-meets-boy story with a difference, interrogating the difficulties of sincere communication in a complicated, post-ironic world. 'THE LITERARY PHENOMENON OF THE DECADE' - Guardian NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES WHICH WILL PREMIERE IN AUSTRALIA ON STAN ON APRIL 27 Winner of the 2019 Novel of the Year and Book of the Year at the British Book Awards Winner of the 2018 Costa Novel Award Winner of Specsavers National Book Awards International Author of the Year Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018 Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019 'Effortlessly brilliant ... tender and devastating.' - Guardian Books of the Year Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in the west of Ireland, but the similarities end there. In school, Connell is popular and well-liked, while Marianne

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

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Book Synopsis''Drawn on by his eagerness for the open sky, he left his guide and soared upwards...''Ovid tells the tales of Theseus and the Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus, the Calydonian Boar-Hunt, and many other famous myths.Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin''s 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.Ovid (c.43 BCE-17 CE). Ovid''s other works available in Penguin Classics are The Erotic Poems, Fasti, Heroides and Metamorphoses.

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Book SynopsisTwentieth Anniversary Edition with Contributions from Joe Hill and Owen King - with a new foreword, ON JOY, by Stephen King. Part memoir, part masterclass by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer''s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King''s advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999 - and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, this special edition of Stephen King''s critically lauded, million-copy bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him and his work.Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it - faTrade ReviewPart biography, part collection of tips for the aspiring writer . . . one of the great storytellers of our time * Guardian *Absolutely fascinating . . . basic instructions . . . sensible advice * The Sunday Times *The childhood memoir is a triumphant display of wit, story-telling and guts. His advice to writers is hard-nosed, practical and level-headed in the classic journalistic Orwell-Hemingway tradition * Evening Standard *This is the written equivalent of Delia Smith's How To Cook. And, like British home cooking, the world of popular fiction will be better off for it * The Times *Stephen King is a genius . . . In this book he tells us what first made him a horror writer . . . I find King fascinating because he writes in the least florid way possible, yet his very direct approach to getting his awesome imagination onto a blank page works. * Jeremy Vine in We Love This Book *

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Book Synopsis Joan Didion’s savage masterpiece, which, since first publication in 1968, has been acknowledged as an unparalleled report on the state of America during the upheaval of the Sixties Revolution. Trade Review"Didion's essays of a world featuring barricades and bombings, mass murders and kidnapped heiresses make recent history as filtered through her seem a savage and passionate drama, something you can put a hand on and feel it beating, something you can put your ear to and hear its story."VILLAGE VOICE "Brilliant, troubling, indelible tales and reflections."SAN DIEGO TRIBUNE "Reveals a wholly original analytic mind, a sensibility as expansive and idiosyncratic as a 19th-century novelist's."MONA SIMPSON "Our quintessential essayist."JERRY KOSINSKI, 'LA Times'

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Book SynopsisDesigned to meet the requirements for students at GCSE and A level, this accessible educational edition offers the complete text of Never Let Me Go with a comprehensive study guide. Intended for individual study as well as class use, Geoff Barton''s guide: clearly introduces the context of the novel and its author; examines in detail its themes, characters and structure; looks at the novel in the author's own words, and at different critical receptions; provides glossaries and test questions to prompt deeper thinking.In one of the most memorable novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewed version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now thirty-one, Never Let Me Go hauntingly dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at a seemingly idyllic school, Hailsham, and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship and memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life.

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Book SynopsisRead Shakespeare’s plays in all their brilliance—and understand what every word means! Don’t be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bard’s plays accessible and enjoyable.Each No Fear guide contains: The complete text of the original play A line-by-line translation that puts the words into everyday language A complete list of characters, with descriptions Plenty of helpful commentary

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Book SynopsisArthur Miller''s play A View from the Bridge is a tragic masterpiece of the inexorable unravelling of a man, set in a close-knit Italian-American community in 1950s New York. Eddie Carbone is a longshoreman and a straightforward man, with a strong sense of decency and of honour. For Eddie, it''s a privilege to take in his wife''s cousins, Marco and Rodolpho, straight off the boat from Italy. But, as his niece Catherine begins to fall for one of them, it''s clear that it''s not just, as Eddie claims, that he''s too strange, too sissy, too careless for her, but that something bigger, deeper is wrong - and wrong inside Eddie, in a way he can''t face. Something which threatens the happiness of their whole family.This Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction by the author and a new foreword by actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.For a time I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence, and that I stood there alone, the last man left alive.When a strange, meteor-like object lands in the heart of England, the inhabitants of Earth find themselves victims of a terrible attack. A ruthless race of Martians, armed with heat rays and poisonous smoke, is intent on destroying everything that stands in its way. As the unnamed hero struggles to find his way across decimated wastelands, the fate of the planet hangs in the balance . . .H. G. Wells was a pioneer of modern science fiction. First serialised in the UK in 1897, The War of the Worlds is one of the earliest stories to depict conflict with an extraterrestrial race, and has influenced countless adaptations and sequels.Trade Review‘groundbreaking … a true classic that has pointed the way not just for science-fiction writers, but for how we as a civilisation might think of ourselves’ Guardian ‘[Wells’ work is] astonishingly rich in human and historical interest … he foresaw the invention of, among other things, television, tanks, aerial warfare and the atom bomb’ David Lodge ‘I personally consider the greatest of English living writers [to be] H. G. Wells’ Upton Sinclair

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Book SynopsisThe next raid overseen by the Hunters Association brings together the survivors of thedouble dungeon incident for the first time since the tragedy. Fortunately, this next raidshould be fairly cut-and-dry—but sometimes, the most terrifying beasts aren’t the onesfound in dungeons...

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Book SynopsisFind your way through every part of J.R.R. Tolkien's great creation, from the Middle-earth of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to the undying lands of the WestThe Atlas of Tolkien's Middle-earth is an essential guide to the geography of Middle-earth, from its founding in the Elder Days as recounted in The Silmarillion to the Third Age of The Lord of the Rings, including the journeys of Bilbo, Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring.Hundreds of maps and diagrams survey the journeys of the principal characters day by day including all the battles and key locations of the First, Second and Third Ages. Plans and descriptions of castles, buildings and distinctive landforms accompany thematic maps describing climate, vegetation, languages and population throughout the history of Middle-earth.Trade Review‘Absolutely indispensable… in its scope and coverage it is a masterful work, a fitting monument to the talents and imagination of the cartographer and of the man who invented these lands’– Mythprint

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Book SynopsisThis book is a light-hearted look at life in the city of Bath in Roman times, almost two thousand years ago. Back then, the city was called Aquae Sulis (the Waters of Sul). Sul being a local goddess sacred to the tribe who lived in this region.Although the Tales and most of the characters are fictitious, the general facts about the Romans are true. Details about how they lived, what they believed, their rituals, the medicines they used (prepare to be revolted!), what they ate and what they wore have been gleaned from many reliable sources.The stories are mostly irreverent because, despite the Romans achieving many great things, the people themselves could be quite obnoxious! They kept slaves, slaughtered people and animals in the arena just for fun, and subjugated other nations in order to expand their Empire.Hence, these Tales generally poke fun at the Romans, many of whom were illiterate or semi-literate which often had dire consequences, as the Tales reveal.I hope you enjoy reading about life in Aquae Sulis and perhaps learn some little-known facts and even a bit of Latin!

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Book SynopsisA translation that describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide. It depicts a cruel underworld in which desperate figures are condemned to eternal damnation for committing one or more of seven deadly sins. It also includes explanatory notes and illustrations showing the different layers of hell.Trade ReviewThe perfect balance of tightness and colloquialism...likely to be the best modern version of Dante -- Bernard O'Donoghue

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

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.'Austen''s best-loved tale of love, marriage and society in class-conscious Georgian England still delights modern readers today with its comedy and characters. It follows the feisty, quick-witted Elizabeth Bennet as her parents seek to ensure good marriages for her and her sisters in order to secure their future. The protagonists Darcy and Elizabeth learn much about themselves and those around them and Austen''s expertly crafted comedy characters of Mrs Bennet and Mr Collins demonstrate her great artistry as a writer.

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Book SynopsisA tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan war forms one of the earliest and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats - from the witch Circe who turns his men into pigs, to the twin terrors of Scylla and Charybdis.Trade Review“[Robert Fitzgerald’s translation is] a masterpiece . . . An Odyssey worthy of the original.” –The Nation “[Fitzgerald’s Odyssey and Iliad] open up once more the unique greatness of Homer’s art at the level above the formula; yet at the same time they do not neglect the brilliant texture of Homeric verse at the level of the line and the phrase.” –The Yale Review “[In] Robert Fitzgerald’s translation . . . there is no anxious straining after mighty effects, but rather a constant readiness for what the occasion demands, a kind of Odyssean adequacy to the task in hand, and this line-by-line vigilance builds up into a completely credible imagined world.” –from the Introduction by Seamus Heaney

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Book SynopsisTable of Contents Part 1: Introducing Of Mice and Men Part 2: Plot and Action Part 3: Characters Part 4: Key Context and Themes Part 5: Language and Structure Part 6: Grade Booster Literacy Terms

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Book SynopsisThe new incredible legal thriller from John Grisham.She needs a lawyer. He needs a payday. Simon Latch is a small-town lawyer struggling with debt, gambling issues and an impending divorce. But when Eleanor Barnett, an 85-year-old widow, visits his office to secure a new will, it seems his luck has finally changed: she claims she''s sitting on a $20 million fortune and no one else knows about it. She could be the ticket to his fortune. Once he''s hooked the richest client of his career, Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar, even from his own assistant. But there are complications: other lawyers are circling his client like vultures. But when she is hospitalised after a car accident, Eleanor''s story begins to crack. Simon realises that nothing is as it seems. And as events spiral out of control, he finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn''t commit: murder. The Widow is classic Grisham courtroom drama combined with a confounding murder mystery that will enthral his legion of fans.

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Book SynopsisRead Shakespeare’s plays in all their brilliance—and understand what every word means! Don’t be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bard’s plays accessible and enjoyable.Each No Fear guide contains: The complete text of the original play A line-by-line translation that puts the words into everyday language A complete list of characters, with descriptions Plenty of helpful commentary

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Book SynopsisConfronted by natural and supernatural threats - shipwrecks, battles, monsters and the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon - Odysseus must use his wit and native cunning if he is to reach his homeland safely and overcome the obstacles that, even there, await him.Trade Review“[Robert Fitzgerald’s translation is] a masterpiece . . . An Odyssey worthy of the original.” –The Nation “[Fitzgerald’s Odyssey and Iliad] open up once more the unique greatness of Homer’s art at the level above the formula; yet at the same time they do not neglect the brilliant texture of Homeric verse at the level of the line and the phrase.” –The Yale Review “[In] Robert Fitzgerald’s translation . . . there is no anxious straining after mighty effects, but rather a constant readiness for what the occasion demands, a kind of Odyssean adequacy to the task in hand, and this line-by-line vigilance builds up into a completely credible imagined world.” –from the Introduction by Seamus Heaney

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.Alas that mortalsShould blame the gods! From us, they say,All evils come. Yet they themselvesIt is who through defiant deedsBring sorrow on them-far more sorrowThan fate would have them bear.'Attributed to the blind Greek poet, Homer, The Odyssey is an epic tale about cunning and strength of mind. It takes its starting point ten years after the fall of the city of Troy and follows its Greek warrior hero Odysseus as he tries to journey to his home of Ithaca in northwest Greece after the Greek victory over the Trojans.On his travels, Odysseus comes across surreal islands and foreign lands where he is in turn challenged and supported by those that he meets on his travels as he attempts to find his way back home in order to vanquish those who threaten his estate. In turn, his son Telemachus has to grow up quickly as he attempts to find his father and protect his mother from her suitors.Dealing with the univer

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Book SynopsisJoe Sacco, one of the world's foremost cartoonists, is widely hailed as the creator of war-reportage comics. He is the author of Palestine, Safe Area Gorazde, The Fixer, Notes from a Defeatist and Footnotes in Gaza, all published by Jonathan Cape.Trade ReviewA political and aesthetic work of extraordinary originality, quite unlike any other in the long, often turgid and hopelessly twisted debates that have occupied Palestinians, Israelis, and their respective supporters... With the exception of one or two novelists and poets, no one has ever rendered this terrible state of affairs better than Joe Sacco -- Edward SaidThe bar is set extremely high when it comes to graphic books and the Middle East: one thinks of Joe Sacco's Palestine * Observer *Palestine is a unique take on the Isreali/Palestinian conflict… The illustrator/reporter provides a unique perspective: there is an intimacy to Sacco’s interviews that cannot be translated into photography and text. His drawings make his subjects relatable to in a way that I think is difficult to achieve with a photograph. * Bleeding Cool *Palestine is utterly compelling, and as affecting as the work of any war photographer or poet. -- Annie Forbes * Varsity *

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Book SynopsisChiltern Publishing creates the most beautiful editions of the World's finest literature. Your favourite classic titles in a way you have never seen them before; the tactile embossed layers, fine details and beautiful colours of these remarkable covers make these titles feel extra special and will look striking on any shelf.

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Book SynopsisSUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERIf you want to write a novel or a script, read this book' Sunday TimesThe best book on the craft of storytelling I've ever read' Matt HaigRarely has a book engrossed me more, and forced me to question everything I've ever read, seen or written. A masterpiece' Adam RutherfordWhy stories make us human and how to tell them better.There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story but few have used a scientific approach.In this incisive, thought-provoking book, award-winning writer Will Storr demonstrates how master storytellers manipulate and compel us.Applying dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to the foundations of our myths and archetypes, he shows how we can use these tools to tell better stories and make sense of our chaotic modern world.INCLUDES NEW MATERIAL.Trade Review‘Rarely has a book engrossed me more, and forced me to question everything I’ve ever read, seen or written. It’s a masterpiece. I am in awe’ Adam Rutherford, author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived ‘The best book on the craft of storytelling I’ve ever read’ Matt Haig ‘Easily the best book I've read this year’ Hannah Fry ‘Reading this book feels like cheating. It gives you an unfair advantage over other writers. A fascinating new way of looking at writing and how to exploit the fact that storytelling is hardwired into our brains’ Charlie Higson ‘A brilliant, accessible and very human book not just for writers but for anyone interested in how the mind works – not least their own. Will manages to be both detached and compassionate on every page, sometimes within the same sentence. That such a complicated book is so easy to read is testament to his clarity of thought and skill as writer. A stupendous achievement’ Robert Webb ‘A hugely compelling reading experience. Storr’s superb exploration of the enduring appeal of the novel offers a smart, fascinating exploration of the science and psychology behind our most sophisticated art form that also works as an effective how-to guide’ Alex Preston, Observer ‘If you want to write a novel or a script, read this book. It is clear, compelling and tightly shaped around one fascinating and productive idea … Storr wants to free writers from programmatic, plot-based writing guides, and his approach feels liberating’ Sunday Times 'If you’ve ever read a book, watched a movie, binged a television series, or tried to write one, this book is mandatory reading. A truly revolutionary look at the how and why of storytelling’ Craig Pearce, screenwriter of Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby ‘So much more than a book about how to write stories. It’s a book about what it means to be alive’ Tim Lott

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Book SynopsisThose Flat Share Girls is a collection of light verse, written in easy to read rhyming couplets, containing an old man’s recollections of his young life in London in the 1960s. It begins in January 1960, when he bids his school goodbye with the thought that: I knew I’d never use again A logarithm or a sine But the trappings of a cultured mind I knew exactly where to find. And, not long after this, while strolling to a local coffee bar, he and a friend sense that: There was a fire about to burn And of that flame we had both caught a spark. That warm summer’s evening in Grovelands Park. And so, life moves forward through the years with the usual parties and musical delights of the superb jazz bands to be found performing in the back rooms of pubs for twopence ha’penny and the emerging electric bands who would sell black rhythm and blues back to the USA. Unfortunately, he misses most of this scene’s excitement because: Far from the fuss and ballyhoo I was on my way to Kathmandu On what became known as the Hippie Trail. Then onwards to a couple of years in Australia as a roustabout ‘swagman’. A few further adventures follow, an attempt to walk the Pennine Way amongst them; and there are several unconsummated romances along the way until he eventually finds himself ‘complete’ in the comforting arms of a loving wife. And finally, back in a local park, an old man minding a friend’s dog. He sits observing the changed world of 2022, sixty odd years after he sensed a fire about to burn and ponders contentedly: There really is no better place To see first-hand the changing face Of our noble, ancient ‘Island Race’ Than in a local park on a Sunday morn …

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Book Synopsis"The seven 'essays' by J.R.R. Tolkien assembled in this paperback were with one exception delivered as general lectures on particular occasions; and while they mostly arose out of Tolkien's work in medieval literature, they are accessible to all. Two of them are concerned with Beowulf, including the well-known lecture whose title is taken for this book, and one with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, given to the University of Glasgow in 1953. Also included in this volume is the lecture English and Welsh; the Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford in 1959; and a paper on invented languages delivered in 1931, with exemplification from poems in the Elvish tongues. Most famous of all is On Fairy-stories, a discussion of the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy, which gives insight into Tolkien's approach to the whole genre. The pieces in this collection cover a period of nearly thirty years, beginning six years before the publication of The Hobbit, with a unique 'academic' lecture on

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Book SynopsisThe Great American Novel of love and betrayal in the Jazz Age.I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited they went there'.Considered one of the all-time great American works of fiction, Fitzgerald's glorious yet ultimately tragic social satire on the Jazz Age encapsulates the exuberance, energy and decadence of an era.After the war, the mysterious Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire pursues wealth, riches and the lady he lost to another man with stoic determination. He buys a mansion across from her house and throws lavish parties to try and entice her. When Gatsby finally does reunite with Daisy Buchanan, tragic events are set in motion.Told through the eyes of his detached and omnipresent neighbour and friend, Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald's succinct and powerful prose hints at the destruction and tragedy that awaits.

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Book SynopsisTom Stoppard''s masterpiece, with a beautiful new cover. Comparing what we're looking for misses the point. It's wanting to know that makes us matter. Otherwise we're going out the way we came in.Arcadia premiered at the National Theatre, London, 1993, winning the Olivier Award for Best New Play and the Evening Standard Award for Best Play.It is a laugh-filled tragedy about what happens if you take the intoxicants of poetry and science seriously. It is a play where Stoppard turns himself into a clown whose juggling balls are Romanticism, Classicism, and the meaning of life . . . The stale cliché about Stoppard is that he is a brilliant manipulator of ideas, but with no heart. Yet here at the core of his best play is the greatest love story on the British stage for decades. Yes, the characters bond over ideas but some of the most interesting people in life do just that. That would be enough to make Arcadia a masterpiece but it is even more than that. The play stirs the most basic and profound questions humans can ask. How should we live with the knowledge that extinction is certain not just of ourselves, but of our species?' INDEPENDENTI have never left a new play more convinced that I'd witnessed a masterpiece.' DAILY TELEGRAPHA brilliant, brilliant play. A play of ideas, of consummate theatricality, of sophisticated entertainment and of heartache for time never to be regained.' SUNDAY TIMES

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Book Synopsis''The most truthful translation ever, conveying as many nuances and whispers as are possible from the original'' The TimesAfter a century of civil strife in Rome and Italy, Virgil wrote the Aeneid to honour the emperor Augustus by praising his legendary ancestor Aeneas. As a patriotic epic imitating Homer, the Aeneid also set out to provide Rome with a literature equal to that of Greece. It tells of Aeneas, survivor of the sack of Troy, and of his seven-year journey: to Carthage, where he falls tragically in love with Queen Dido; then to the underworld,; and finally to Italy, where he founds Rome. It is a story of defeat and exile, of love and war, hailed by Tennyson as ''the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man''.Translated with an Introduction by DAVID WESTTrade Review"Fitzgerald's is so decisively the best modern Aeneid that it is unthinkable that anyone will want to use any other version for a long time to come." —New York Review of Books"From the beginning to the end of this English poem ... the reader will find the same sure control of English rhythms, the same deft phrasing, and an energy which urges the eye onward." —The New Republic"A rendering that is both marvelously readable and scrupulously faithful.... Fitzgerald has managed, by a sensitive use of faintly archaic vocabulary and a keen ear for sound and rhythm, to suggest the solemnity and the movement of Virgil's poetry as no previous translator has done (including Dryden).... This is a sustained achievement of beauty and power." —Boston Globe

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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 *

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Book SynopsisThis Arden edition of Hamlet, arguably Shakespeare''s greatest tragedy, presents an authoritative, modernized text based on the Second Quarto text with a new introductory essay covering key productions and criticism in the decade since its first publication. A timely up-date in the 400th anniversary year of Shakespeare''s death which will ensure the Arden edition continues to offer students a comprehensive and current critical account of the play, alongside the most reliable and fully-annotated text available.Trade Review[Thompson and Taylor] give us a text quite different from the edited versions that shaped debate for much of the past 400 years ... There is intellectual consistency to [their] position. * Times Literary Supplement *The editors’ 168 pages of introduction and 103 pages worth of appendices provide an unprecedented level of contextualization on matters cultural, textual, and theatrical. * Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *The scholarship … remains at the high standard expected from the Arden Series … Probably one of the most ambitious scholarly editions of the play to be published in the past century or so, if only for its attempt to present the textual complexities of the relationships between quartos and folio by printing all three early authoritative versions. * Sixteenth Century Journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction to the Revised Edition Introduction Hamlet Appendices Index

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!For I ne''er saw true beauty till this night.'Arguably the greatest love story ever told, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet continues to touch modern audiences with its passionate depiction of the tragic romance between two young lovers. With a bitter feud between their respective families, Romeo and Juliet's love is troubled from the start, and through their relationship, Shakespeare shows the fine line between love, hatred, comedy and tragedy.

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Book SynopsisDelve into a legendary literary love affair'I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone. I just miss you...'At a dinner party in 1922, Virginia Woolf met the renowned author, aristocrat - and sapphist - Vita Sackville-West. Virginia wrote in her diary that she didn't think much of Vita's conversation, but she did think very highly of her legs. It was to be the start of almost twenty years of flirtation, friendship, and literary collaboration. Their correspondence ended only with Virginia's death in 1941.Intimate and playful, these selected letters and diary entries allow us to hear these women's constantly changing feelings for each other in their own words. Eavesdrop on the affair that inspired Virginia to write her most fantastical novel, Orlando, and discover a relationship that - even a hundred years later - feels radical and relatable.WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION FROM ALISON BECHDEL, AUTHOR OF FUN HOME AND CREATOR OF THE BECHDEL TEST.Trade Review"A deliciously tactile volume of love letters; I've been carrying them around the house, dipping in and out, and finding new things each time. As Vita said of Mrs Dalloway, they bewilder, illuminate and reveal" - Nino Strachey, author of Rooms of Their Own -- Nino Strachey, author of Rooms of Their Own

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Book SynopsisWith half a million copies in print, How to Read a Book is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader, completely rewritten and updated with new material.     Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them—from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Readers will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text.     Also included is instruction in the different techniques that work best for reading particular genres, such as practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science works.     Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests you can use measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension, and speed.Trade Review"These four hundred pages are packed full of high matters which no one solicitous of the future of American culture can afford to overlook." -- Jacques Barzun"It shows concretely how the serious work of proper reading may be accomplished and how much it may yield in the way of instruction and delight." * The New Yorker *"'There is the book; and here is your mind.' Adler and Van Doren's suggestions on how to connect the two will make you nostalgic for a slower, more earnest, less trivial time." -- Anne FadimanTable of ContentsCONTENTSPrefacePART ONETHE DIMENSIONS OF READING1. The Activity and Art of ReadingActive ReadingThe Goals of Reading: Reading for Information and Reading for UnderstandingReading as Learning: The Difference Between Learning by Instruction and Learning by DiscoveryPresent and Absent Teachers2. The Levels of Reading3. The First Level of Reading: Elementary ReadingStages of Learning to ReadStages and LevelsHigher Levels of Reading and Higher EducationReading and the Democratic Ideal of Education4. The Second Level of Reading: Inspectional ReadingInspectional Reading I Systematic Skimming or PrereadingInspectional Reading II: Superficial ReadingOn Reading SpeedsFixations and RegressionsThe Problem of ComprehensionSummary of Inspectional Reading5. How to Be a Demanding ReaderThe Essence of Active Reading: The Four Basic Questions a Reader AsksHow to Make a Book Your OwnThe Three Kinds of Note-makingForming the Habit of ReadingFrom Many Rules to One HabitPART TWOTHE THIRD LEVEL OF READING: ANALYTICAL READING6. Pigeonholing a BookThe Importance of Classifying BooksWhat You Can Learn from the Title of a BookPractical vs. Theoretical BooksKinds of Theoretical Books7. X-raying a BookOf Plots and Plans: Stating the Unity of a BookMastering the Multiplicity: The Art of Outlining a BookThe Reciprocal Arts of Reading and WritingDiscovering the Author's IntentionsThe First Stage of Analytical Reading8. Coming to Terms with an AuthorWords vs. TermsFinding the Key WordsTechnical Words and Special VocabulariesFinding the Meanings9. Determining an Author's MessageSentences vs. PropositionsFinding the Key SentencesFinding the PropositionsFinding the ArgumentsFinding the SolutionsThe Second Stage of Analytical Reading10. Criticizing a Book FairlyTeachability as a VirtueThe Role of RhetoricThe Importance of Suspending JudgmentThe Importance of Avoiding ContentiousnessOn the Resolution of Disagreements11. Agreeing or Disagreeing with an AuthorPrejudice and JudgmentJudging the Author's SoundnessJudging the Author's CompletenessThe Third Stage of Analytical Reading12. Aids to ReadingThe Role of Relevant ExperienceOther Books as Extrinsic Aids to ReadingHow to Use Commentaries and AbstractsHow to Use Reference BooksHow to Use a DictionaryHow to Use an EncyclopediaPART THREEAPPROACHES TO DIFFERENT KINDS OF READING MATTER13. How to Read Practical BooksThe Two Kinds of Practical BooksThe Role of PersuasionWhat Does Agreement Entail in the Case of a Practical Book?14. How to Read Imaginative LiteratureHow Not to Read Imaginative LiteratureGeneral Rules for Reading Imaginative Literature15. Suggestions for Reading Stories, Plays, and PoemsHow to Read StoriesA Note About EpicsHow to Read PlaysA Note About TragedyHow to Read Lyric Poetry16. How to Read HistoryThe Elusiveness of Historical FactsTheories of HistoryThe Universal in HistoryQuestions to Ask of a Historical BookHow to Read Biography and AutobiographyHow to Read About Current EventsA Note on Digests17. How to Read Science and MathematicsUnderstanding the Scientific EnterpriseSuggestions for Reading Classical Scientific BooksFacing the Problem of MathematicsHandling the Mathematics in Scientific BooksA Note on Popular Science18. How to Read PhilosophyThe Questions Philosophers AskModern Philosophy and the Great TraditionOn Philosophical MethodOn Philosophical StylesHints for Reading PhilosophyOn Making Up Your Own MindA Note on TheologyHow to Read "Canonical" Books19. How to Read Social ScienceWhat Is Social Science?The Apparent Ease of Reading Social ScienceDifficulties of Reading Social ScienceReading Social Science LiteraturePART FOURTHE ULTIMATE GOALS OF READING20. The Fourth Level of Reading: Syntopical ReadingThe Role of Inspection in Syntopical ReadingThe Five Steps in Syntopical ReadingThe Need for ObjectivityAn Example of an Exercise in Syntopical Reading: The Idea of ProgressThe Syntopicon and How to Use ItOn the Principles That Underlie Syntopical ReadingSummary of Syntopical Reading21. Reading and the Growth of the MindWhat Good Books Can Do for UsThe Pyramid of BooksThe Life and Growth of the MindAppendix A. A Recommended Reading ListAppendix B. Exercises and Tests at the Four Levels of ReadingIndex0

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Book SynopsisCrime and Punishment is one of the most important novels of the nineteenth century. It is the story of a murder committed on principle, of a killer who wishes to set himself outside and above society. It is marked by Dostoevsky's own harrowing experience in penal servitude, and yet contains moments of wild humour.Trade ReviewSuperb... the Oxford University Press edition is beautifully produced and competitively priced. * Donald Rayfield, Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisRead Shakespeare’s plays in all their brilliance—and understand what every word means! Don’t be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bard’s plays accessible and enjoyable.Each No Fear guide contains: The complete text of the original play A line-by-line translation that puts the words into everyday language A complete list of characters, with descriptions Plenty of helpful commentary

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Book SynopsisA SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, January 2022A TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARSHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEARA BBC HISTORY MAG BOOK OF THE YEARA DAILY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR'Expressive, bold and quite beautiful' The Lady'[a] delight of a book' Antonia Senior, The Times'ravishingly lovely' The Times Ireland'[a] lively retelling of British myths' Apollo MagazineSoaked in mist and old magic, Storyland is a new illustrated mythology of Britain, set in its wildest landscapes.It begins between the Creation and Noah's Flood, follows the footsteps of the earliest generation of giants from an age when the children of Cain and the progeny of fallen angels walked the earth, to the founding of Britain, England, Wales and Scotland, the birth of Christ, the wars between Britons, Saxons and Vikings, and closes with the arrival of the Normans.These are retellings of medieval tales of legend, landscape and the yearning to belong, inhabited with characters now half-remembered: Brutus, Albina, Scota, Arthur and Bladud among them. Told with narrative flair, embellished in stunning artworks and glossed with a rich and erudite commentary. We visit beautiful, sacred places that include prehistoric monuments like Stonehenge and Wayland's Smithy, spanning the length of Britain from the archipelago of Orkney to as far south as Cornwall; mountains and lakes such as Snowdon and Loch Etive and rivers including the Ness, the Soar and the story-silted Thames in a vivid, beautiful tale of our land steeped in myth. It Illuminates a collective memory that still informs the identity and political ambition of these places.In Storyland, Jeffs reimagines these myths of homeland, exile and migration, kinship, loyalty, betrayal, love and loss in a landscape brimming with wonder.Trade ReviewStoryland is a joyous read celebrating the power of collective myths and the landscapes which inspired them * All About History *Jeffs writes beautifully, erring just on the right side of florid, and her linocut prints make for attractive illustrations. The stories come with explanations of sources and legacies, and she has a lovely knack of rooting each one in the landscape that birthed it. This gorgeous book should live on the bookshelves in every house that cares about "the idea of Britain, what is was and where it came from." * The Times *An elegant book * Sunday Express *[A] spellbinding illustrated mythology of Britain. * Scottish Field Magazine *Rich in myth and legend . . . Beautifully illustrated . . . this is an engaging book, meticulously researched and filled with drama, emotion, action and experience. * The Simple Things *I have fallen so completely in love with this book; Storyland, by Amy Jeffs, just one of the finest, most covetable things around. It's a mythology of Britain; Brutus, Arthur, Scotus, Bladud, a mix of new telling and ancient, with original woodcuts by the author which are so beautiful you want to eat them. The stories are about strangeness and wonder and brutality, a story of Britain from the top of Orkney to the bottom of Cornwall. It's hugely original, and starkly lovely: I've never come across anything quite like it. -- Katherine RundellA beautiful retelling of British myths and exquisitely illustrated too. -- James Holland * Daily Express (BOOK OF THE YEAR) *Storyland is a spellbinding illustrated mythology of Britain . . . With Jeffs at the helm we travel through a powerful medieval mythscape and in doing so, the entirety of Britain. * Scottish Field Magazine *Art historian and printmaker Amy Jeffs brings a fresh perspective to the mythology that flows through Britain for an enlightening, transporting survey of the stories that suffuse our landscape and have shaped its people. * Waterstones *[R]avishingly lovely * The Times Ireland *[A] lively retelling of British myths * Apollo Magazine *Steeped in magic and mystery and grounded in meticulous research in manuscripts and our ancient landscape, Amy's mythical world is movingly articulated. * Bristol Magazine *Elegant retellings of Britain's origin legends sit alongside Jeffs' captivating artworks, which I like so much that I have two hanging in my office. -- Dan Jones for Good Web Guide

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Book SynopsisTimeless advice on the art of living well, from the celebrated Penguin Great Ideas seriesThe writings of the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca offer powerful insights into stoicism, morality and the importance of reason, and continue to provide profound guidance to many through their eloquence, lucidity and wisdom.Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. The Penguin Great Ideas series brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.

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