Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 Books
HarperCollins Publishers Complete Works of Oscar Wilde Wilde Oscar Collins
Book SynopsisThe Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde is the only truly complete and authoritative single-volume edition of Oscar Wilde's works, and is available in both hardback and this paperback edition.Continuously in print since 1948, the Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde has long been recognised as the most comprehensive and authoritative single-volume collection of Wilde's texts available, containing his only novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, as well as his plays, stories, poems, essays and letters, all in their most authoritative texts.Illustrated with many fascinating photographs, the book includes introductions to each section by Merlin Holland (Oscar's grandson), Owen Dudley Edwards, Declan Kiberd and Terence Brown.Also included is a comprehensive bibliography of works by and about Oscar Wilde, and a chronological table of his life and work.
£13.49
HarperCollins Publishers North and South
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.But the cloud never comes in that quarter of the horizon from which we watch for it.'When Margaret Hale is uprooted from Hampshire and moves to the industrial town of Milton in the North of England, her whole world changes. As her sympathy for the town's mill workers grows, her sense of social injustice piques and she passionately fights their corner. However, just as she disputes the mill owner, John Thornton's treatment of his workers, she cannot deny her growing attraction to him. Highlighting the changing landscape of nineteenth-century Britain and championing the role of women in Victorian society, Gaskell brilliantly captures the lives of ordinary people through one of her strongest female characters in literature.
£5.94
Oxford University Press The Scarlet Letter
Book SynopsisAfter a two-year absence a husband returns to find his wife wearing the scarlet 'A' for Adulteress on her breast. Determined to find her lover, he embarks on a destructive path of revenge. This edition uses the most authoritative text, with a wide-ranging critical introduction.
£6.64
Oxford University Press Devils
Book SynopsisDevils, also known in English as The Possessed and The Demons, was first published in 1871-2. The third of Dostoevsky''s five major novels, it is at once a powerful political tract and a profound study of atheism, depicting the disarray which follows the appearance of a band of modish radicals in a small provincial town. Dostoevsky compares infectious radicalism to the devils that drove the Gadarene swine over the precipice in his vision of a society possessed by demonic creatures that produce devastating delusions of rationality.Dostoevsky is at his most imaginatively humorous in Devils: the novel is full of buffoonery and grotesque comedy. The plot is loosely based on the details of a notorious case of political murder, but Dostoevsky weaves suicide, rape, and a multiplicity of scandals into a compelling story of political evil. _ This new translation also includes the chapter `Stavrogin''s Confession'', which was initially considered to be too shocking to print. In this edition it appears where the author originally intended it. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. _ _
£9.89
Vintage Publishing The Story of Alice Lewis Carroll and The Secret
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARDThis is the secret history of Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland.Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage. But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject. Charles Dodgson was a quiet academic but his second self, Lewis Carroll, was a storyteller, innovator and avid collector of child-friends'. Carroll's imagination was to give Alice Liddell, his ''dream-child'', a fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up. This is a biography that beautifully unravels the magic of Alice. It is a history of love and loss, innocence and ambiguity. It is the story of one man's need to make a Wonderland in a changing world.Trade ReviewIt is the ultimate book about Alice - comprehensive and scholarly, but so delightfully and elegantly written that it's a true work of literature -- Jacqueline WilsonThe Story of Alice is the best book on the myriad enigmas of Carroll’s heart-breaking wonderland I have ever read -- Robert McCrum * Observer *Superb…toweringly the best of the dozens of books on Carroll which I have read -- AN Wilson * Financial Times *Douglas-Fairhurst is a startling and exciting writer -- A.S. Byatt * Spectator *This is biography at its best -- Lyndall Gordon * New Statesman *
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd The Annotated Alice
Book Synopsis''A landmark, bringing together a lifetime''s work on Lewis Carroll by writer and mathematician Martin Gardner. He dazzles on Carroll''s puzzles and games of logic and entertains on everything from Alice''s influence on the Beat poet Jack Kerouac to howmercury in hat linings turned hatters mad...it is unsurpassed'' - Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times ''The indispensable guide to a classic of English literature...no one who has ever wondered about the meaning of ''Jabberwocky'' should fail to include on their Christmas list'' - Robert McCrum, ObserverTrade Review'A landmark, bringing together a lifetime's work on Lewis Carroll by writer and mathematician Martin Gardner. He dazzles on Carroll's puzzles and games of logic and entertains on everything from Alice's influence on the Beat poet Jack Kerouac to how mercury in hat linings turned hatters mad...it is unsurpassed' - Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times 'The indispensable guide to a classic of English literature...no one who has ever wondered about the meaning of 'Jabberwocky' should fail to include on their Christmas list' - Robert McCrum, Observer
£10.44
Oxford University Press Inc Herman Melville A Very Short Introduction
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£8.54
Oxford University Press A Tale of Two Cities
Book SynopsisAs the the bicentennary of the French Revolution draws near, Dickens'' historical novel serves as a timely reminder of nineteenth-century reactions to that great upheaval. Set between 1757 and 1793, A Tale of Two Cities views the causes and effects of the Revolution from an essentially private point of view, showing how private experience relates to public history. Dickens'' characters are fictional, and their political activity is minimal, yet all are drawn towards the Paris of the Terror, and all become caught up in its web of human suffering and human sacrifice. This edition includes extensive explanatory notes giving crucial background information about the Revolution and Dickens'' sources. `the best story I have written'' Charles Dickens ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wTrade Review'I shall treasure the richly detailed explanatory notes. It's an edition which will surely sell to the general reader; yet many truer Dickens specialists than I will be excited by the scope and subtlety of the introduction.' Dr P. Merchant, Christ Church College, Canterbury'The large clear print, very full notes, and inclusion of Dickens's number plans make it the best paperback available for student use.' Professor Norman Page, University of NottinghamI read it every other year. It is the best story of the best hero. It does not pale. * You (Mail on Sunday Magazine) *
£5.99
Oxford University Press Little Women
Book SynopsisTrade Review'this children's novel for all ages is vivid from the very first sentence. ... a children's classic ... lovers of the book will find Valerie Alderson's informed and enthusiastic introduction a valuable bonus, especially about the closely autobiographical nature of the book.' The Observer Review
£7.59
Orion Publishing Co The Jane Austen Game
Book SynopsisStep into the elegant Regency era of Jane Austen, as you dance from ball to ball collecting ardent admirers!
£24.00
Penguin Books Ltd An Image of Africa
Book SynopsisBeautifully written yet highly controversial, An Image of Africa asserts Achebe''s belief in Joseph Conrad as a ''bloody racist'' and his conviction that Conrad''s novel Heart of Darkness only serves to perpetuate damaging stereotypes of black people. Also included is The Trouble with Nigeria, Achebe''s searing outpouring of his frustrations with his country. GREAT IDEAS. 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. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
£7.59
Oxford University Press Walden
Book Synopsis`The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation'' In 1845 Henry David Thoreau left his home town of Concord, Massachusetts to begin a new life alone, in a rough hut he built himself a mile and a half away on the north-west shore of Walden Pond. Walden is Thoreau''s classic autobiographical account of this experiment in solitary living, his refusal to play by the rules of hard work and the accumulation of wealth and above all the freedom it gave him to adapt his living to the natural world around him. This new edition of Walden traces the sources of Thoreau''s reading and thinking and considers the author in the context of his birthplace and his sense of its history - social, economic and natural. In addition, an ecological appendix provides modern identifications of the myriad plants and animals to which Thoreau gave increasingly close attention as he became acclimatized to his life in the woods by Walden Pond. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
£8.54
Oxford University Press The Professor
Book SynopsisThe Professor (1845-6), written before Jane Eyre, challenged contemporary expectations of the novel by its brevity, realism, and insistence on a working career both before and after marriage for its hero and heroine. Strikingly up to date for its period, the action begins against a background of the fight for better factory conditions in the 1830s, and finishes in the early 1840s with the spread of liberal ideas which led to the continental revolutions of 1848.This edition is based directly on the author''s fair copy manuscript, and also includes `Emma'', Charlotte Brontë''s last, unfinished attempt to write a novel after Villette. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify t
£8.99
Oxford University Press The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob
Book SynopsisThe Lifted Veil (1859) is now one of the most widely read and critically discussed of Eliot's works.
£7.59
Manchester University Press Hartly House, Calcutta: Phebe Gibbes
Book SynopsisThis novel is a designedly political document. Written at the time of the Hastings impeachment and set in the period of Hastings’s Orientalist government, Hartly House, Calcutta (1789) represents a dramatic delineation of the Anglo-Indian encounter. The novel constitutes a significant intervention in the contemporary debate concerning the nature of Hastings’s rule of India by demonstrating that it was characterised by an atmosphere of intellectual sympathy and racial tolerance. Within a few decades the Evangelical and Anglicising lobbies frequently condemned Brahmans as devious beneficiaries of a parasitic priestcraft, but Phebe Gibbes’s portrayal of Sophia’s Brahman and the religion he espouses represent a perception of India dignified by a sympathetic and tolerant attempt to dispel prejudice.Trade Review‘An entertaining account of Calcutta … These letters indeed are written with a degree of vivacity which renders them very amusing’ Mary Wollstonecraft‘one of the earliest British novels of India of a transcultural love affair between the heroine Sophia Goldborne and a young Brahman. Although positively reviewed by Mary Wollstonecraft, as “an animated picture of Eastern manners”, it soon vanished from literary history; only recently has it begun to arouse the interest of students of 18th-century colonial literature … Michael Franklin has done a splendid job editing the novel, with a full introductory essay and explanatory notes, thereby making it available to researchers, students, and the general reader. The republication of Hartly House, Calcutta will add a new dimension to our understanding of 18th-century literature and early British India.’ Nigel Leask, Regius Professor of English, University of Glasgow'The explanatory notes and introduction are both valuable for contextualizing the novel for casual readers, as well as providing pedagogical resources for classroom use.’The Early Modern Women Journal -- .Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsNote on the TextIntroductionHARTLY HOUSE, CALCUTTAVolume IVolume IIVolume IIIExplanatory NotesSelect Bibliography
£25.00
Manchester University Press Sinister Histories: Gothic Novels and
Book SynopsisSinister histories is the first book to offer a detailed exploration of the Gothic's response to Enlightenment historiography. It uncovers hitherto-neglected relationships between fiction and prominent works of eighteenth-century history, locating the Gothic novel in a range of new interdisciplinary contexts. Drawing on ideas from literary studies, history, politics and philosophy, the book demonstrates the extent to which historical works influenced and shaped Gothic fiction from the 1760s to the early nineteenth century. Through a series of detailed readings of texts from The Castle of Otranto (1764) to Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman (1798), this book offers an alternative account of the Gothic's development and a sustained revaluation of the creative legacies of the French Revolution.Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsIntroduction: history and the Gothic in the eighteenth century1. Contested pasts: David Hume, Horace Walpole and the emergence of Gothic fiction2. '[B]ringing this deed of darkness to light': representations of the past in Clara Reeve's The Old English Baron (1778)3. 'Entombed alive': Sophia Lee's The Recess (1783-85), the Gothic and history4. '[E]very nerve thrilled with horror': the French Revolution, the past and Ann Radcliffe's The Romance of the Forest (1791)5. 'Things as they are': William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft and the perils of the present ReferencesIndex
£17.85
Everyman Flashman, Flash for Freedom!, Flashman in the
Book SynopsisFor George MacDonald Fraser the bully Flashman was easily the most interesting character in Tom Brown's Schooldays, and imaginative speculation as to what might have happened to him after his expulsion from Rugby School for drunkenness ended in 12 volumes of memoirs in which Sir Harry Paget Flashman - self-confessed scoundrel, liar, cheat, thief, coward -'and, oh yes, a toady' - romps his way through decades of nineteenth-century history in a swashbuckling and often hilarious series of military and amorous adventures. In Flashman the youthful hero, armed with a commission in the 11th Dragoons, is shipped to India, woos and wins the beautiful Elspeth, and reluctantly takes part in the first Anglo-Afghan War, honing a remarkable talent for self-preservation.Flash for Freedom! finds him crewing on an African slave ship, hiding in a New Orleans whorehouse and fortuitously running into rising young American politician Abraham Lincoln...
£999.99
CONNELL PUBLISHING LTD The Connell Guide To Emily Bronte's Wuthering
Book Synopsis
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers Shelley
Book SynopsisA fantastic reissue of Richard Holmes' epic biography of this most enigmatic and intriguing of the Romantic poets. This is simply one of the greatest biographical achievements of recent years.Shelley, the most neglected of all the great Romantic poets, was born in Sussex in 1792 and died in Tuscany in 1822, a brief life packed with love affairs, alarums and excursions. Holmes's book offers a serious and critical reappraisal of Shelley as a man and a writer; all his prose and poetry is carefully re-examined, his sense of spiritual and geographical isolation brilliantly described and a detailed portrait of his macabre imaginative life slowly assembled.Shelley's intense friendships with some of the most remarkable figures of his age fill Holmes's pages with a vivid parorama of revolutionary idealism and recklessness. To this is added the private story of Shelley's tortuous romantic liaisons, complications which affected both the peculiar tenor of his daily life and the remotest conceptionTrade Review‘If the art of biography was ever damned, “Shelley: The Pursuit” redeemed it.’ New York Times ‘The best biography of Shelley ever written. The great emphasis that Mr. Holmes lays on Shelley’s politics, philosophy and social activities corrects the usual view of an extraordinarily idealised, ethereal, spiritualized kind of poetry combined with an extraordinarily incoherent life. He has taken the Shelley story out of the realm of myth and made it far more convincing and significant.’ Sir Stephen Spender ‘An unquestionably great biography which banished forever the image of the poet as an ineffectual angel.’ Independent on Sunday
£999.99
Oxford University Press Teenage Writings
Book SynopsisThe young Jane Austen was a precocious reader, devouring pulp fiction and classic literature, both of which she soon began to imitate and parody. Three volumes of her vivacious teenage writing survive. Devices and themes which appear subtly in her later fiction run riot here: drunkenness, brawling, sexual misdemeanour, theft, and even murder.Trade Review...a brilliantly readable [edition]...What is often most engaging and amusing about this bravura writing is Austen's un-restrained comic mayhem. * Francis O'Gorman, Reviews31.co.uk *Professor Kathryn Sutherland and University Lecturer Freya Johnston skilfully edit this fascinating collection of Austen's early teenage writings ... This new edition provides fresh readings of individual texts, and the explanatory notes accompanying them offer to expand our sense of what the young Austen might have been reading and responding to at the time. * Reader's Digest *Table of ContentsVOLUME THE FIRST; VOLUME THE SECOND; VOLUME THE THIRD; FAMILY CONTINUATIONS TO VOLUME THE THIRD; APPENDIX
£999.99
Oxford University Press Cousin Phillis and Other Stories
Book SynopsisThis representative selection includes five tales of very different kinds written in the 1850s and the longer Cousin Phillis. Immensely readable and sophisticated works of art, they show Gaskell's mastery of the genre, in an edition that celebrates her achievements in shorter fiction and the context in which they first appeared.Table of ContentsLizzie Leigh ; Morton Hall ; My French Master ; Half a Life-Time Ago ; The Manchester Marriage ; Cousin Phillis
£8.54
Oxford University Press Hard Times Oxford Worlds Classics
Book Synopsis
£6.64
Oxford University Press The French Revolution
Book SynopsisThomas Carlyle's history of the French Revolution, originally published in 1837, opens with the death of Louis XV in 1774 and ends in 1795 when Bonaparte quelled the insurrection of the Vendemiaire. It is a work of great narrative and descriptive power that was itself meant to be revolutionary.Trade ReviewThis edition makes the work decipherable in ways it otherwise isn't. * Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal *Excellent edition * Years Work in English Studies, 2021 *Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text A Chronology of Thomas Carlyle Contents, iThe French Revolutionr THE FRENCH REVOLUTION Explanatory Notes Annotated Index
£12.59
Oxford University Press The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Book Synopsis
£999.99
Oxford University Press Bleak House
Book SynopsisTrade Review... the novel is undeniably significant in the history of crime fiction. * Lucy Worsley, Huffington Post Books *
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd Lady Audleys Secret
Book SynopsisWeathering critical scorn, Lady Audley''s Secret quickly established Mary Elizabeth Braddon as the leading light of Victorian ''sensation'' fiction, sharing the honour only with Wilkie Collins. Addictive, cunningly plotted and certainly sensational, Lady Audley''s Secret draws on contemporary theories of insanity to probe mid-Victorian anxieties about the rapid rise of consumer culture. What is the mystery surrounding the charming heroine? Lady Audley''s secret is investigated by Robert Audley, aristocrat turned detective, in a novel that has lost none of its power to disturb and entertain.
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Moonstone The
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.The horrid mystery hanging over us in this house gets into my head like liquor, and makes me wild.'Centred around a glorious yellow diamond that carries with it a menacing history, The Moonstone tells the story of Rachel Verinder, who inherits the stone on her eighteenth birthday. That very evening, the diamond is stolen and there begins an epic enquiry into hunting down the thief. At the same time, three Indian men, Brahmin guardians of the diamond are attempting to reclaim the stone in order to return it to their sacred Hindu Idol.Told from the perspective of 11different characters, Wilkie Collins' tale of mystery and suspicion was considered the first modern English detective novel at its time of publication.
£5.94
Penguin Books Ltd The Prelude The Four Texts 1798 1799 1805 1850
Book SynopsisFirst published in July 1850, shortly after Wordsworth''s death, The Prelude was the culmination of over fifty years of creative work. The great Romantic poem of human consciousness, it takes as its theme ''the growth of a poet''s mind'': leading the reader back to Wordsworth''s formative moments of childhood and youth, and detailing his experiences as a radical undergraduate in France at the time of the Revolution. Initially inspired by Coleridge''s exhortation that Wordsworth write a work upon the French Revolution, The Prelude has ultimately become one of the finest examples of poetic autobiography ever written; a fascinating examination of the self that also presents a comprehensive view of the poet''s own creative vision.
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd The Portable Edgar Allan Poe
Book SynopsisThe Portable Edgar Allan Poe compiles Poe''s greatest writings: tales of fantasy, terror, death, revenge, murder, and mystery, including The Pit and the Pendulum, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Cask of Amontillado, The Masque of the Red Death, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue, the world''s first detective story. In addition, this volume offers letters, articles, criticism, visionary poetry, and a selection of random opinions on fancy and the imagination, music and poetry, intuition and sundry other topics.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning traTable of ContentsThe Portable Edgar Allan PoeIntroduction by J. Gerald KennedyChronologyA Note on TextsTalesPredicamentsMS. Found in a Bottle (1832)A Descent into the Maelstrom (1841)The Masque of the Red Death (1842)The Pit and the Pendulum (1842)The Premature Burial (1844)The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar (1845)BereavementsThe Assignation (1834)Berenice (1835)Morella (1835)Ligeia (1838)The Fall of the House of Usher (1839)Eleonora (1841)The Oval Portrait (1842)AntagonismsMetzengerstein (1832)William Wilson (1839)The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)The Black Cat (1843)The Imp of the Perverse (1845)The Cask of Amontillado (1846)Hop-Frog (1849)MysteriesThe Man of the Crowd (1840)The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841)The Gold-Bug (1843)The Oblong Box (1844)A Tale of the Ragged Mountains (1844)The Purloined Letter (1844)GrotesqueriesThe Man That Was Used Up (1839)The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether (1845)Some Words with a Mummy (1845)PoemsThe LakeTo(1827)SonnetTo Science (1829)Fairy-Land (1829)Introduction (1831)"Alone" (1875)To Helen (1831)The Sleeper (1831)Israfel (1831)The Valley of Unrest (1831)The City in the Sea (1831)Lenore (1843)SonnetSilence (1840)Dream-Land (1844)The Raven (1845)UlalumeA Ballad (1847)The Bells (1849)A Dream within a Dream (1849)For Annie (1849)Eldorado (1849)To My Mother (1849)Annabel Lee (1849)LettersTo John Allan, March 19, 1827To John Allan, December 22, 1828To John Allan, January 3, 1831To John Allan, April 12, 1833To Thomas W. White, April 30, 1835To Maria and Virginia Clemm, August 29, 1835To Philip P. Cooke, September 21, 1839To William E. Burton, June 1, 1840To Joseph Evans Snodgrass, April 1, 1841To Frederick W. Thomas, June 26, 1841To Frederick W. Thomas, February 3, 1842To T. H. Chivers, September 27, 1842To Frederick W. Thomas and Jesse E. Dow, March 16, 1843To James Russell Lowell, March 30, 1844To Maria Clemm, April 7, 1844To James Russell Lowell, July 2, 1844To Evert A. Duyckinck, November 13, 1845To Virginia Poe, June 12, 1846To Philip P. Cooke, August 9, 1846To N. P. Willis, December 30, 1846To Marie L. Shew, January 29, 1847To George W. Eveleth, January 4, 1848To George W. Eveleth, February 29, 1848To Sarah Helen Whitman, October 1, 1848To Annie L. Richmond, November 16, 1848To Frederick W. Thomas, February 14, 1849To Maria Clemm, July 7, 1849To Maria Clemm, September 18, 1849Critical PrinciplesOn Unity of EffectOn Plot in NarrativeOn the Prose TaleOn the Design of FictionThe Object of Poetry (from "Letter to B")"The Philosophy of Composition"The Effect of Rhyme"The Poetic Principle" (excerpts)American CriticismObservationsLiterary Nationalism"Some Secrets of the Magazine Prison-House"American Literary IndependenceThe Soul and the SelfImagination and InsightPoetical IrritabilityGenius and Proportionate IntellectReason and GovernmentAdaptation and the Plots of GodWorks of GeniusNational Literature and ImitationLanguage and ThoughtMagazine Literature in AmericaThe Name of the NationThe Unwritable BookImaginationArt and the SoulSuperiority and SufferingMatter, Spirit, and Divine WillNotesSelected Bibliography
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd Under the Greenwood Tree
Book SynopsisThe arrival of two newcomers in the quiet village of Mellstock arouses a bitter feud and leaves a convoluted love affair in its wake. While the Reverend Maybold creates a furore among the village''s musicians with his decision to abolish the church''s traditional ''string choir'' and replace it with a modern mechanical organ, the new schoolteacher, Fancy Day, causes an upheaval of a more romantic nature, winning the hearts of three very different men - a local farmer, a church musician and Maybold himself. Under the Greenwood Tree follows the ensuing maze of intrigue and passion with gentle humour and sympathy, deftly evoking the richness of village life, yet tinged with melancholy for a rural world that Hardy saw fast disappearing.
£8.54
Oxford University Press Lady Susan The Watsons and Sanditon
Book SynopsisThe unfinished fictions collected here are the novels and other writing that Jane Austen did not publish, including works such as Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Sanditon.Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Jane Austen Lady Susan The Watsons Sanditon Opinions of Mansfield Park Opinions of Emma Plan of A Novel Verses Appendix Abbreviations Textual Notes Explanatory Notes
£6.99
Oxford University Press The Wild Asss Skin
Book Synopsis''Who possesses me will possess all things,But his life will belong to me...''Raphael de Valentin, a young aristocrat, has lost all his money in the gaming parlours of the Palais Royal in Paris, and contemplates ending his life by throwing himself into the Seine. He is distracted by the bizarre array of objects in a chaotic antique shop, among them a strange animal skin, a piece of shagreen with magical properties. It will grant its possessor his every wish, but each time a wish is bestowed the skin shrinks, hastening its owner''s death. Around this fantastic premise Balzac weaves a compelling psychological portrait of his hero, a prisoner of his own Promethean imagination, and explores profound ideas about the human will, vice and virtue, love and death. Helen Constantine''s new translation captures the energy and exuberance of Balzac''s novel, one of the most engaging of his ''Études philosophiques'' from the Comédie humaine. The accompanying introduction and notes offer fresh insights into this remarkable work. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewThe novel has been elegantly translated by Helen Constantine, who is both faithful and creative * Nicholas White, Times Literary Supplement *A model of its kind * Nineteenth-Century French Studies *
£11.69
Oxford University Press Jane Austens Letters
Book SynopsisJane Austen''s letters afford a unique insight into the daily life of the novelist: intimate and gossipy, observant and informative, they bring alive her family and friends, her surroundings and contemporary events with a freshness unparalleled in biography. Above all we recognize the unmistakable voice of the author of Pride and Prejudice, witty and amusing as she describes the social life of town and country, thoughtful and constructive when writing about the business of literary composition. R. W. Chapman''s ground-breaking edition of the collected Letters first appeared in 1932, and a second edition followed twenty years later. A third edition, edited by Deidre Le Faye in 1997, added new material, re-ordered the letters into their correct chronological sequence, and provided discreet and full annotation to each letter, including its provenance, and information on the watermarks, postmarks, and other physical details of the manuscripts. This fourth edition incorporates the findings of new scholarship to enrich our understanding of Austen and give us the fullest and most revealing view yet of her life and family. There is a new preface, the biographical and topographical indexes have been amended and updated, a new subject index has been created, and the contents of the notes added to the general index.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition Review from previous edition Deidre Le Faye's new edition is necessary and very welcome; no one was better qualified, no one could have done it so well. * Independent on Sunday *We waited a long time for the new edition. It was well worth the wait. * Jane Austen Society of North America *for those who are starting to get the novels confused with the films, here is a chance to enjoy their beloved Jane at her most direct ... a generous and comprehensive book * Max Davidson, The Daily Telegraph *Most will enjoy reading Austen unbuttoned, in an unfussy and intelligently edited volume. * Sam Leith, The Observer *Le Faye re-orders the letters chronologically and provides useful background information. She also includes previously unpublished material. * The Express *Wiht little else to fill that ordinary life, Jane had plenty of time to write letters. They were witty, intimate and gossipy and brought alive her contemporaries and their surroundings. More than 160 are collected here, annotated and placed in chronological order. * Oxford Times *it is possible to appreciate Le Faye's edition for what it offers to readers both casual and academic. Most importantly, this is a highly readable text. ... Carefully detailed notes, biographical and topographical indexes, and bibliographical information about primary and secondary sources all contribute to the reader's sense that Le Faye's professional thoroughness has indeed made accessible 'the daily business' of Austen's world. * RES New Series, vol.XLVIII, No.190, 1997 *These are the letters of our greatest novelist ... they give glances and hints at her life from the age of 20 to her death at 41, the years in which she wrote her six imperishable books * Claire Tomalin, Independent on Sunday *[a] landmark collection ... Le Faye's work combines a meticulous compilation of data about the physical attributes and indexes that allow us to read over Austen's shoulder as she shares everyday news and frank opinions with family and friends. * Newsletter of the Jane Austen Society of North America, Volume 28: Issue Number 2 *For someone fairly new to Austen studies, who knows the novels and even the minor works but who is yet to immerse themselves in these tender, touching, entertaining products of their author's mind, there could be no better gift. * The Newsletter of the Jane Austen Society, no. 38 *Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION; LIST OF LETTERS; JANE AUSTEN'S LETTERS; ABBREVIATIONS AND CITATIONS; NOTES; GENERAL NOTES ON THE LETTERS; BIBLIOGRAPHY; BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX; TOPOGRAPHICAL INDEX; SUBJECT INDEX; GENERAL INDEX
£22.49
Faber & Faber The Intellectuals and the Masses Pride and
Book SynopsisProfessor John Carey shows how early twentieth-century intellectuals imagined the ''masses'' as semi-human swarms, drugged by popular newspapers and cinema, and ripe for extermination. Exposing the revulsion from common humanity in George Bernard Shaw, Ezra Pound, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, H. G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, W. B. Yeats and other canonized writers, he relates this to the cult of the Nietzschean Superman, which found its ultimate exponent in Hitler.Carey''s assault on the founders of modern culture caused consternation throughout the artistic and academic establishments when it was first published in 1992.
£10.44
Oxford University Press A Memoir of Jane Austen
Book SynopsisThis unique edition brings together for the first time Austen-Leigh's memoir of his aunt Jane Austen, together with shorter recollections by James Edward's two sisters. It also includes Jane's brother Henry's two biographical accounts.Trade Reviewa must for lovers of Austen's work * Choice Magazine *A very good introduction by Kathryn Sutherland * Derwent May, the Times, *
£8.54
Oxford University Press David Copperfield
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewIntroduction and notes by Andrew Sanders facilitated a proper understanding of period details and plot structure. I will continue to use this edition in future classes on Dickens's novels. * Helge Nowak, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universtitaet *
£8.54
Oxford University Press Our Mutual Friend
Book SynopsisFollowing his father''s death John Harmon returns to London to claim his inheritance, but he finds he is eligible only if he marries Bella Wilfur. To observe her character he assumes another identity and secures work with his father''s foreman, Mr Boffin, who is also Bella''s guardian.Disguise and concealment play an important role in the novel and individual identity is examined within the wider setting of London life: in the 1860s the city was aflame with spiralling financial speculation while thousands of homeless scratched a living from the detritus of the more fortunate-indeed John Harmon''s father has amassed his wealth by recycling waste.This edition includes extensive explanatory notes and significant manuscript variants. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
£8.54
Oxford University Press Belinda Oxford Worlds Classics
Book SynopsisBelinda (1801) tackles issues of gender and race in a manner at once comic and thought-provoking. Braving the perils of the marriage market, Belinda learns to think for herself as the examples of her friends prove singularly unreliable.Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Maria Edgeworth Belinda Appendix Explanatory notes
£12.59
HarperCollins Publishers Hardy Women
Book SynopsisA TOP BOOK FOR 2024 IN: THE OBSERVER, INDEPENDENT, SUNDAY TIMES AND BOOKSELLER''He understands only the women he invents the others not at all''Thomas Hardy is one of the most beloved and most-read British authors. His influence on literature and the minds of his readers is singular. But how is it that the novelist who created some of the most memorable and modern female characters in literature had such troubled relationships with real women?In this highly innovative book, acclaimed biographer Paula Byrne re-examines Hardy's life through the eyes of the women who made him mother, sisters, girlfriends, wives, muses. The story veers from shocking scenes such as his obsession with the sight of a woman hanged, to poignant vignettes of unfulfilled passion, to fascinating details of working women's lives in the nineteenth century.Hardy Women is the story of how the magnificent fictional women he invented would not have been possible without the hardship and hardiness of the real ones who Trade Review EARLY PRAISE FOR HARDY WOMEN ‘Absorbing… a treat for Hardy fans and unhappy wives’ The Times ‘Novelist and poet Thomas Hardy created some of literature’s most enduring female characters . . . but it is the real women who shaped the life of the tortured genius that a book vividly reanimates’ Independent 'By turns infuriating and inspiring, but always fascinating, this page-turner of a book offers a genuinely fresh perspective on one of Victorian Britain’s most famous writers' Gareth Russell, author of The Palace ‘A fascinating re-examination of the life of Thomas Hardy through the eyes of the women who profoundly influenced him-his mother, his sisters, girlfriends, wives and muses. Drawing on access to some neverbefore-seen passages in Hardy's journals, she shows that it is through these hardy women that we can truly appreciate his much-loved works’ The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice
£21.25
Oxford University Press Orley Farm
Book SynopsisThere was a power of endurance about her, and a courage that was almost awful.Did Lady Mason forge a codicil to her husband''s will, allowing Orley Farm to pass to her son or not? Orley Farm centres on this case of forgery, and the anguish and guilt of Lady Mason. Surrounding this enigmatic woman and her apparent crime are her elderly lover, Sir Peregrine Orme; her principled but thoughtless son, Lucius; and, not least, a group of determined lawyers. Orley Farm contains the plot with which Trollope was most pleased. Drawing on family experience of the loss of an inheritance, the novel tackles the tremendous question of property fraud. The result, as George Orwell observed, is one of the most brilliant novels about a law suit in English fiction. Orley Farm dates from a confident period of its authorâs life. It breathes an air of writerly assurance, with Trollope at the height of his competitiveness with Dickens. In this work Trollope claims the Victorian legal novel as his own.Table of ContentsBiographical Preface Introduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Anthony Trollope ORLEY FARM Appendix 1: Dates in the Novel Appendix 2: Anthony Trollope Cross-Examined in the Kerry Summer Assizes Explanatory Notes
£12.34
Oxford University Press The SketchBook of Geoffrey Crayon Gent.
Book SynopsisIn The Sketch-Book Washington Irving explores the uneasy relationship of an American writer to English literary traditions. He sketches a series of encounters with the cultural shrines of the parent nation, and in two brilliant experiments with tales transplanted from Europe creates the first classic American short stories, `Rip Van Winkle' and `The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow'.
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Little Men Life at Plumfield with Jos Boys
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.Help one another, was a favourite Plumfield motto, and Nat learned how much sweetness is added to life by trying to live up to it.Spirited Jo March, now Mrs Bhaer, has settled into living and teaching at Plumfield boarding school, also home to a lively band of orphan boys. Jo's many pupils include Nat, a shy but talented musician, Dan, an ill-mannered troublemaker and Tommy Bangs, the school's mischievous class clown. Despite the troubles and scrapes that come with adolescent life, the lessons of kindness and gratitude taught at Plumfield prove to have a profound impact on each child.Published in 1871, Little Men was received with delight by the many who cherished the coming-of-age tale Little Women, and proved a worthy sequel. Wisdom, courage and love is at the heart of Louisa May Alcott's writing, which continues to inspire and give solace to readers around the world today.
£7.59
Oxford University Press Sanditon
Book SynopsisOne of Jane Austen's final uncompleted novels, started in the January the year she died. Perhaps Austen's most original work, stepping away from the mystique of the country estates. This edition includes an introduction, notes and bibliographyTrade ReviewA terrific introduction by Kathryn Sutherland, Professor of English Literature at St Anne's College, goes further in explaining the rage of the seaside during Austen's life time, but also how it allows Austen here to conjure up a cast of colourful, uncertain characters as tangy as vinegary fish and chips. * Richard Lofthouse, Quad *Light and funny, it's Austen's most experimental and poignant work. * Angela Wintle, Sussex Life *Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Jane Austen Sanditon Explanatory Notes
£5.96
Oxford University Press A Dolls House Men of Honour When We Dead Awaken
Book SynopsisVery few readers and audiences know that Ibsen''s iconic feminist drama A Doll''s House was built upon the real-life story of a woman called Laura Kieler, who was his friend and fellow writer. Her life fell apart when A Doll''s House came out and the world saw her deeply private life splashed across its stages. With tremendous determination and perseverance, she managed to recover from the trauma that Ibsen''s play caused her, and channelled her pain into a successful play of her own called (pointedly) Men of Honour. The play, performed in Copenhagen in 1890, caused great debate and fierce controversy. Ibsen eventually responded to her play by likewise writing a drama: When We Dead Awaken, his final work. This new edition traces the conversation between Ibsen and Kieler through these plays, across almost two decades and brings Kieler centre stage, and deepens our understanding of Ibsen''s A Doll''s House and When We Dead Awaken. These three plays create a fascinating whole: a fusion of vantage points, contexts, and visions still reverberating on and off stage today. Furthermore, the two Ibsen plays speak to each other in startling and fresh ways. This volume also explores 21st century concerns about consent and the many ways in which women in particular are still not heard. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
£8.54
Oxford University Press Joseph Andrews and Shamela
Book Synopsis''I beg as soon as you get Fielding''s Joseph Andrews, I fear in Ridicule of your Pamela and of Virtue in the Notion of Don Quixote''s Manner, you would send it to me by the very first Coach.'' (George Cheyne in a letter to Samuel Richardson, February 1742) Both Joseph Andrews (1742) and Shamela (1741) were prompted by the success of Richardson''s Pamela (1740), of which Shamela is a splendidly bawdy parody. But in Shamela Fielding also demonstrates his concern for the corruption of contemporary society, politics, religion, morality, and taste. The same themes - together with a presentation of love as charity, as friendship, and in its sexual taste - are present in Joseph Andrews, Fielding''s first novel. It is a work of considerable literary sophistication and satirical verve, but its appeal lies also in its spirit of comic affirmation, epitomized in the celebrated character of Parson Adams. This revised and expanded edition follows the text of Joseph Andrews established by Martin C.
£8.54
Oxford University Press The House of the Seven Gables
Book Synopsis
£8.99
Oxford University Press The Life of Charlotte Brontë
Book Synopsis''It is in every way worthy of what one great woman should have written of another.'' Patrick BrontëElizabeth Gaskell''s The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) is a pioneering biography of one great Victorian woman novelist by another.Gaskell was a friend of Charlotte Brontë, and, having been invited to write the offical life, determined both to tell the truth and to honour her friend. She contacted those who had known Charlotte and travelled extensively in England and Belgium to gather material. She wrote from a vivid accumulation of letters, interviews, and observation, establishing the details of Charlotte''s life and recreating her background. Through an often difficult and demanding process, Gaskell created a vital sense of a life hidden from the world.This edition is based on the Third Edition of 1857, revised by Gaskell. It has been collated with the manuscript, and the previous two editions, as well as with Charlotte Bront''e''s letters, and thus offers fuller information about the process of composition than any previous edition.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
£11.39
Penguin Books Ltd La Folie Baudelaire
Book SynopsisRoberto Calasso is one of the most original and acclaimed of writers on literature, art, culture and mythology. In Baudelaire''s Folly, Calasso turns his attention to the poets and writers of Paris in the nineteenth century who created what was later called ''the Modern.'' His protagonist is Charles Baudelaire: poet of nerves, art lover, pioneering critic, man about Paris, whose groundbreaking works on modern culture described the ephemeral, fleeting nature of life in the metropolis - and the artist''s role in capturing this - as no other writer had done. With Baudelaire''s critical intelligence as his inspiration, Calasso ranges through his life and work, focusing on two painters - Ingres and Delacroix - about whom Baudelaire wrote acutely, and then turns to Degas and Manet, who followed in the tracks Baudelaire laid down in his great essay The Painter of Modern Life. In a mosaic of stories, insights, dreams, close readings of poems and commentaries on painTrade ReviewRoberto Calasso [is] the most inquisitively suggestive literary critic in the world today . . . -- Thomas McGonigle * Los Angeles Times *What a rare and special book this is, from its opening paragraph . . . But then what a rare writer is the prolific, post-Calvino Italian master Roberto Calasso-72-year-old scholar, translator, author of film scripts, radio and television adaptations, operatic librettos and seemingly most other viable prose forms in the late 20th and early 21st centuries . . . [La Folie Baudelaire is] an ideal introduction in English to one of the most urbane and readable of living masters. * Jeff Simon, Buffalo News *Arresting observations on painters and paintings alike, aided and abetted by some discriminatingly chosen illustrations, beautifully reproduced . . . La Folie Baudelaire is bedazzling. * Alex Danchev, The Guardian *It is a gorgeous, willful, and convincing re-staging of Baudelaire's style . . . * Adam Thirlwell, The New Republic *Smoothing the way is the curiously conversational tone in which even the most arcane information is conveyed, as well as the underlying sense that, as the author piles detail upon detail, he's having a huge amount of fun. Calasso may identify with his hero, but there is no Baudelairean melancholy in his work. There's no show-off either-only a sincere delight, an innocent reveling in his own encyclopedic mind at play. This mood is catching, and if one adopts the right dreamy pace, one can commune with Calasso through a kind of imaginative osmosis. * Andrea Lee, New Yorker *[Roberto Calasso is] an ambitious artist-critic, pushing the subject as far as he can, bent on penetrating the mind of both Baudelaire and his time. In the process, he delivers plenty of insight. . . Tough but rewarding, written with bold intelligence and panache. * Kirkus *[Roberto Calasso is] a writer about the foundational myths and tales of human society who has no equal in the sparkle of his storytelling and the depth of his learning . . . His writing . . . these lost voices speak again, in magical, uncanny and something even sinister ways . . . * Boyd Tonkin, The Independent *
£11.69
