Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 Books
Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) Victorian Literature and Culture by Moran Maureen
Book SynopsisPart of "Introductions to British Literature and Culture" series, this volume features an introduction to Victorian literature and its contexts from 1837-1901. It also offers an overview of the historical, cultural and intellectual background including politics and economics, popular culture, philosophy and religion.Trade Review"'[this] series offers both the student reader and teacher exciting and invaluable interventions in and reorientations around questions of history, culture, and period... With brio, verve, and an admirable brevity, the series grounds our understanding of literature and culture in thought-provoking and highly original ways.... an indispensable series that will set the benchmark for all such surveys and overviews.' Julian Wolfreys, Professor of Victorian Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Florida."Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Historical, Cultural and Intellectual Context; 2.1 Arts and Culture; 2.2 Philosophy and Religion; 2.3. Politics and Economics; 2.4. Developments in Science and Technology; 3. Literature in the Victorian Period; 3.1 Poetry; 3.2 Fiction; 3.3 Drama; 3.4 Non-Fictional Prose; 3.5 Literary Movements; 4. Critical Approaches; 4.1 Historical Overview; 4.2 Current Issues and Debates; 5. Resources for Independent Study; 5.1 Chronology of Key Historical and Cultural Events; 5.2 Glossary of Key Literary Terms and Concepts; 5.3 Further Reading and Resources; Index.
£20.89
Orion Publishing Co William Blake Now
Book Synopsis''If a thing loves, it is infinite'' William BlakeA short, impassioned argument for why the visionary artist William Blake is important in the twenty-first centuryThe visionary poet and painter William Blake is a constant presence throughout contemporary culture - from videogames to novels, from sporting events to political rallies and from horror films to designer fashion. Although he died nearly 200 years ago, something about his work continues to haunt the twenty-first century. What is it about Blake that has so endured? In this illuminating essay, John Higgs takes us on a whirlwind tour to prove that far from being the mere New Age counterculture figure that many assume him to be, Blake is now more relevant than ever.
£7.99
Springer International Publishing AG Women's Health in Britain and America: Texts and
Book SynopsisWomen’s Health in Britain and America: Texts and Contexts offers an unparalleled record of women’s health in the United Kingdom and the United States since 1750. Through chapters on pregnancy and childbirth, contraception and abortion, and breast and gynecological cancers, today’s readers can better understand historical precedents for contemporary issues. Introductory overviews present context about the history of medical care for women, such as diagnosis and treatment of specific conditions, medical advances, social and political contexts, and the effects of these on their lived experiences. The book presents a collection of primary texts including archival memoirs, letters, and diaries as well as published fiction, poetry, and medical advice. Women’s Health in Britain and America provides the necessary background for those new to the subject while also offering unique texts that will engage those already immersed in the field. As the political and social discussions around women’s bodies become more contentious and consequential, the history and the multiplicity of voices presented on these pages are more important than ever.Table of Contents 1. History of Women’s Health and Writing About It.- 2. Pregnancy & Childbirth.- 3. Contraception & Abortion.- 4. Breast & Gynecological Cancers.
£33.24
Oxford University Press Ivanhoe
Book SynopsisMore than a century after the Norman Conquest, England remains a colony of foreign warlords. The dissolute Prince John plots to seize his brother''s crown, his barons terrorize the country, and the mysterious outlaw Robin Hood haunts the ancient greenwood. The secret return of King Richard and the disinherited Saxon knight, Ivanhoe, heralds the start of a splendid and tumultuous romance, featuring the tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouche, the siege of Torquilstone, and the clash of wills between the wicked Templar Bois-Guilbert and the sublime Jewess Rebecca. In Ivanhoe Scott fashioned an imperial myth of national cultural identity that has shaped the popular imagination ever since its first appearance at the end of 1819. The most famous of Scottish novelists drew on the conventions of Gothic fiction, including its risky sexual and racial themes, to explore the violent origins and limits of English nationality. This edition uses the 1830 Magnum Opus text, corrected against the Interlea
£8.99
Oxford University Press Twenty Years After
Book SynopsisTwenty Years After (1845), the sequel to The Three Musketeers, is a supreme creation of suspense and heroic adventure.Two decades have passed since the musketeers triumphed over Cardinal Richelieu and Milady. Time has weakened their resolve, and dispersed their loyalties. But treasons and strategems still cry out for justice: civil war endangers the throne of France, while in England Cromwell threatens to send Charles I to the scaffold. Dumas brings his immortal quartet out of retirement to cross swords with time, the malevolence of men, and the forces of history. But their greatest test is a titanic struggle with the son of Milady, who wears the face of Evil.In his Introduction to this edition David Coward sets both the author and his exciting tale in their historical and cultural contexts. 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 Review'All good fun.' Sunday Telegraph
£10.44
CONNELL PUBLISHING LTD The Connell Guide To Jane Austen's Pride and
Book Synopsis
£8.54
Oxford University Press The Golden Bough
Book SynopsisA classic study of the beliefs and institutions of mankind, and the progress through magic and religion to scientific thought, The Golden Bough has a unique status in modern anthropology and literature. First published in 1890, The Golden Bough was eventually issued in a twelve-volume edition (1906-15) which was abridged in 1922 by the author and his wife. That abridgement has never been reconsidered for a modern audience. In it some of the more controversial passages were dropped, including Frazer''s daring speculations on the Crucifixion of Christ. For the first time this one-volume edition restores Frazer''s bolder theories and sets them within the framework of a valuable introduction and notes. A seminal work of modern anthropolgy, The Golden Bough also influenced many twentieth-century writers, including D H Lawrence, T S Eliot, and Wyndham Lewis. Its discussion of magical types, the sacrificial killing of kings, the dying god, and the scapegoat is given fresh pertinence in this new 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.
£14.24
Pearson Education Hard Times York Notes Advanced everything you
Book SynopsisYork Notes Advanced offer a fresh and accessible approach to English Literature. This market-leading series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, York Notes Advanced intorduce students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.Table of Contents Study methods Introduction to the text Summaries with critical notes Themes and techniques Textual analysis of key passages Author biography Historical and literary background Modern and historical critical approaches Chronology Glossary of literary terms
£7.99
Oxford University Press The Call of the Wild White Fang and Other Stories
Book SynopsisOf all Jack London's fictions none have been so popular as his dog stories. In addition to The Call of the Wild, the epic tale of a Californian dog's adventures during the Klondike gold rush, this edition includes White Fang, and five famous short stories - 'Bâtard', 'Moon-Face', 'Brown Wolf', 'That Spot', and 'To Build a Fire'.Trade Review`guaranteed to warm the heart of any child' Press and Journal, Aberdeen'utterly convincing ... wonderful forays into danger and excitement' Beat SceneTable of ContentsThe Call of the Wild; White Fang; Bâtard; Moon-Face; Brown Wolf; That Spot; To Build a Fire
£8.71
Oxford University Press Raffles The Amateur Cracksman
Book SynopsisArt for art''s sake is a vile catchword, but I confess it appeals to me''Gentleman by day and thief by night, A. J. Raffles lives a double life. Taking ''Art for art''s sake'' as his motto, Raffles supports his debonair lifestyle by performing lucrative, artistic, and ingenious burglaries of the wealthy elite of Victorian London. Dedicated to his brother-in-law Arthur Conan Doyle, Hornung''s first collection of Raffles stories, The Amateur Cracksman (1899), can be seen as an inverted spin-off of the former''s celebrated detective stories. But it is Raffles'' outlaw status that has drawn generations of readers to these swift-paced tales of a charismatic and cool-headed thief and his less worldly partner, Bunny. Hornung had Oscar Wilde in mind as much as Sherlock Holmes when he created Raffles, and the account of their double life offers one of the turn of the century''s most touching accounts of a same-sex couple. Frequently adapted for stage and screen, Hornung''s original stories have never lost their power to captivate readers. Admired by writers like George Orwell, Graham Greene, and Anthony Powell, Hornung''s crisp prose evokes a late Victorian London of clubland bachelors, hansom cabs, champagne suppers, Australian heiresses, and South African diamond moguls. 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.
£7.59
Oxford University Press Confessions of an English OpiumEater and Other
Book Synopsis''I took it: - and in an hour, oh! Heavens! what a revulsion! what an upheaving, from its lowest depths, of the inner spirit! what an apocalypse of the world within me!''Thomas De Quincey''s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) launched a fascination with drug use and abuse that has continued from his day to ours. In the Confessions De Quincey invents recreational drug taking, but he also details both the lurid nightmares that beset him in the depths of his addiction as well as his humiliatingly futile attempts to renounce the drug. Suspiria de Profundis centres on the deep afflictions of De Quincey''s childhood, and examines the powerful and often paradoxical relationship between drugs and human creativity. In ''The English Mail-Coach'', the tragedies of De Quincey''s past are played out with horrifying repetitiveness against a backdrop of Britain as a Protestant and an imperial power.This edition presents De Quincey''s finest essays in impassioned autobiography, together with three appendices that are highlighted by a wealth of manuscript material related to the three main texts. 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.Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Note on the Text ; Select Bibliography ; A Chronology of Thomas De Quincey ; Confessions of an English Opium-Eater ; Suspiria de Profundis ; The English Mail-Coach ; Appendix A. Manuscript and Other Material relating to Confessions of an English Opium-Eater ; Appendix B. Manuscript Material relating to Suspiria de Profundis ; Appendix C: Manuscript and Other Material relating to 'The English Mail-Coach' ; Explanatory Notes
£7.99
HarperCollins Publishers The Portrait of a Lady
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.Money''s a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet.'Isabel Archer is a beautiful, intelligent and independent young woman. Brought from America to England by her wealthy Aunt who seeks to further her education and find her niece a husband, Isabel is determined to shape her own future one that does not necessarily entail becoming a wife. Isabel inherits a fortune when her rich uncle dies and feels even more inclined to turn down two eligible suitors on the basis that she is a woman of her own means. However, a trip to Italy heralds her downfall when she meets the charming Gilbert Osmond, a worthless, yet ambitious and scheming dilettante.
£5.94
HarperCollins Publishers The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.
£6.99
HarperCollins Publishers The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.'A London lawyer is drawn into a series of strange occurrences concerning his old friend Henry Jekyll and the despicable stranger Edward Hyde, a man who seems to epitomise the very meaning of evil. What is Hyde's mysterious hold over Jekyll, and what is the reason behind Jekyll's increasingly odd behaviour? The investigations will lead into the dark heart of Victorian London, and of human nature itself, as the shocking truth about Hyde's true identity is finally revealed.Published in 1886 to critical acclaim, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a thrilling exploration of the interplay of good and evil and the terrifying duality that lies within us all. These themes held a constant fascination for Stevenson and are further explored in his short
£8.65
HarperCollins Publishers Bright Star Green Light The Beautiful and Damned
Book SynopsisA dazzling biography of two interwoven, tragic lives: John Keats and F. Scott Fitzgerald.Highly engaging Go now, read this book' THE TIMESFor awhile after you quit Keats,' Fitzgerald once wrote, All other poetry seems to be only whistling or humming.'John Keats died two hundred years ago, in February 1821. F. Scott Fitzgerald defined a decade that began one hundred years ago, the Jazz Age.In this biography, prizewinning author Jonathan Bate recreates these two shining, tragic lives in parallel. Not only was Fitzgerald profoundly influenced by Keats, titling Tender is the Night and other works from the poet's lines, but the two lived with echoing fates: both died young, loved to drink, were plagued by tuberculosis, were haunted by their first love, and wrote into a new decade of release, experimentation and decadence.Luminous and vital, this biography goes through the looking glass to meet afresh two of the greatest and best-known Romantic writers in their twinned centuries.Trade Review‘Keats is unmissably present throughout Fitzgerald’s work … [Bate] borrows a classic form to pay tribute to the broadest, extratemporal similarities between Keats and … Fitzgerald’Sunday Times ‘Keats was Fitzgerald’s guiding star … An energetic and highly engaging game of literary ping-pong across the ages. Life, writing and inspiration are served and returned in a rapid rally of ideas … What an immensely charismatic pair they are … Powerful … Go now, read this book’Laura Freeman, The Times ‘A daring, dizzying attempt to connect Keats and F Scott Fitzgerald has plenty to take pleasure in … Bate, whose recent biography of Wordsworth I admired, is at his best when he zeroes in on the work: his feeling for it, by being so exacting, is infectious, especially in the case of Keats … But in the end, the principal achievement of this pairing is to remind us of the way that literature connects us’Rachel Cooke, Observer ‘Admirable … lively and well researched … Bate’s book is certainly an excellent introduction to each writer … satisfying, engaging and accessible … well designed to make us return tothe work of both Keats and his ‘Keatzian’ devotee’New Statesman ‘Bate tells the tales of these accursed creatures frightfully well’Daily Mail ‘With a fine-tuned ear for poetic language, a master-biographer’s eye for the revealing detail, and an astonishing mental filing system that recognizes countless meaningful matches among the works and lives of these two great, doomed writers, Jonathan Bate has written a wonderfully illuminating and moving book’Robert Watson, Distinguished Professor of English, UCLA
£10.44
Cornerstone The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde
Book SynopsisDeals with Oscar's astonishing erotic odyssey through Victorian London's sexual underworld. Oscar Wilde emerges as a man driven personally and creatively by his powerful desires for sex with men, in this book, the author argues that Oscar's Wilde's life and work can only be fully understood and appreciated in terms of his sexuality.Trade ReviewIntriguing and entertaining...McKenna makes an impassioned case for re-gaying Wilde * The Times *A groundbreaking new biography of our greatest queer martyr * Observer *It cannot be recommended too highly. Extraordinary, intensely passionate and quite beautiful * Manchester Evening News *This is by far and away the best biography of Oscar Wilde to date * John McRae, Professor of Literature *A bold book * The Guardian *
£13.49
Penguin Books Ltd A Pair of Blue Eyes
Book SynopsisWhen Elfrise Swanston meets Stephen Smith she is attracted to his handsome face, gentle bearing and the sense of mystery which surrounds him. Although distressed to find that the mystery consists only in the humbleness of his origins, she remains true to their youthful vows. But societal pressures, and the advent of the superior Henry Knight, eventually displace her affections. Knight, however, proves to be an uncompromising moralist who, obsessed with fears about Elfride''s sexual past, destroys her happiness.Writing of the struggle between classes and sexes, Hardy drew heavily on his own relationships, and in the introduction, Pamela Dalziel discovers fascinating parallels between Hardy''s life and his art.
£10.44
Oxford University Press The Awakening
Book SynopsisKate Chopin was one of the most individual and adventurous of nineteenth-century American writers, whose fiction explored new and often starting territory. When her most famous story, The Awakening, was first published in 1899, it stunned readers with its frank portrayal of the inner word of Edna Pontellier, and its daring criticisms of the limits of marriage and motherhood. From her first stories, Chopin was interested in independent characters whochallenged convention. This selection, freshly edited from the first printing of each text, enables readers to follow her unfolding career as she experimented with a broad range of writing, from tales for children to decadent fin-de siecle sketches. The Awakening is set alongside thirty-two short stories,illustrating the spectrum of the fiction from her first published stories to her 1898 secret masterpiece, 'The Storm'.
£8.54
Oxford University Press The Black Tulip
Book SynopsisAlexandre Dumas''s novels are notable for their suspense and excitement, their foul deeds, hairsbreadth escapes, and glorious victories. In The Black Tulip (1850), the shortest of Dumas''s most famous tales, the real hero is no Musketeer, but a flower. The novel - a deceptively simple story - is set in Holland in 1672, and weaves the historical events surrounding the brutal murder of John de Witte and his brother Cornelius into a tale of romantic love. The novel is also a timeless political allegory in which Dumas, drawing on the violence and crimes of history, makes his case against tyranny and puts all his energies into creating a symbol of justice and tolerance: the fateful tulipa negra.This new edition reprints the first, classic English translation. David Coward sets the novel in the context of its author''s life, the turbulent history of the Dutch Republic, and the amazing `tulipmania'' of the seventeenth century which brought wealth to some and ruin to many. 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
The University of Chicago Press Gods Scrivener
Book SynopsisA biography of a long-forgotten but vital American Transcendentalist poet. In September of 1838, a few months after Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his controversial Divinity School address, a twenty-five-year-old tutor and divinity student at Harvard named Jones Very stood before his beginning Greek class and proclaimed himself the second coming. Over the next twenty months, despite a brief confinement in a mental hospital, he would write more than three hundred sonnets, many of them in the voice of a prophet such as John the Baptist or even of Christ himselfall, he was quick to claim, dictated to him by the Holy Spirit. Befriended by the major figures of the Transcendentalist movement, Very strove to convert, among others, Elizabeth and Sophia Peabody, Bronson Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and most significantly, Emerson himself. Though shocking to some, his message was simple: by renouncing the individual will, anyone can become a son of God and thereby usher in a millennialistTrade Review“In God’s Scrivener: The Madness and Meaning of Jones Very, Clark Davis doesn’t spend much time on his subject’s spectacular breakdown. Instead, relying on new research, he painstakingly reconstructs everything that came before and after. . . . Mr. Davis wonders, at the end of his fine biography, if the world really needs ‘the strange purity’ of Very’s voice. But if you like your poems plain and unfussy, written as if every word mattered and were meant for you and no one else, give Very’s poetry a try. You will even get the occasional piece of useful life advice. Feeling too wrapped up in your own concerns? ‘Open thy window, gaze abroad / Go forth and walk an hour.’” * Wall Street Journal *“Davis . . . enthusiastically argues for a ‘reevaluation of the existing biographical evidence’ in his sympathetic God’s Scrivener. . . . To Davis, Very in the end is a kind of hero devoted to his vision and voice, a maverick committed to something like the beatitudes. He emerges as a kind of protomodern figure, resolute and true, who casts ‘a strong light on the compromises and half-truths of others.’” * New York Review of Books *“God’s Scrivener is a thoughtful, moving, and deeply researched portrait of the otherworldly mystic and poet Jones Very. Clark Davis reveals that, far from being the punchline of an old joke, the unjustly forgotten Very was nothing less than the stillness at the heart of Transcendentalism, joining Thoreau and Whitman as one of the era’s great poet-prophets who articulated a powerful and innovative response to the pressures of modernity. Davis’s biography radically deepens our understanding of the movement’s potential and its limits, a message with surprising resonance today. This is essential reading for anyone who cares about Transcendentalism, the poetry of faith and doubt, or the place of Christian mysticism at the heart of America’s longing for a better world.” * Laura Dassow Walls, author of "Henry David Thoreau: A Life" *“Massively well researched and well argued, God’s Scrivener benefits from Clark Davis’s informed attention to a trove of documents not available fifty-six years ago when the last biography of Jones Very was published. By showing how the life, times, and works illuminate each other, Davis restores to us an author once considered one of the best sonnet writers in the language. Even as he establishes Very’s historical importance, Davis clearly explores both the strengths and dangers of his example.” * Robert Daly, author of "God’s Altar: The World and the Flesh in Puritan Poetry" *“Jones Very has been the lost Transcendentalist for decades, but Clark Davis has recovered him as a superb poet and penetrating spiritual mind in his remarkable God’s Scrivener. This is the story of a moving and enlightening life, artfully told.” * David M. Robinson, author of "Natural Life: Thoreau’s Worldly Transcendentalism" *“God’s Scrivener, the first biography of the enigmatic and fascinating Transcendentalist poet Jones Very in more than half a century, is a masterful revaluation of both Very’s life and work. Davis’s careful analysis of Very’s sometimes ecstatic poetry and surviving accounts of his unconventional behavior help to make sense of Very’s state of mind during the period when he came to public attention in the intellectual, religious, and literary circles of Salem and the greater Boston area. Mining the poet’s neglected ‘commonplace books’ to great effect, Davis builds the most complete picture yet of the poet’s intellectual and spiritual development in his formative years.” * Helen R. Deese, editor, "Jones Very: The Complete Poems" *Table of ContentsList of Figures Introduction Prologue: 1823 I. “There is something very strange in it all” 1. Cousins 2. Federal Street 3. Eldest Son 4. Biography (I) 5. Cornelia Africana 6. Biography (II) 7. A Student’s Notes, 1833–34 8. A Poet’s Notes, 1834 9. Early Poems, 1833–35 10. The Uses of Faith, 1835 11. “Change of heart” 12. Scrapbook, 1835–36 13. Lamartine 14. Poems, 1835–36 15. “The Torn Flower” 16. Spiritual Freedom II. “Flee to the mountains!” 17. “Part or particle of God,” 1836 18. The Messianic Moment 19. Mr. Tutor Very 20. Temptation and Peace 21. “My heart in life’s winter” 22. The White Mountains, 1837 23. Arrival 24. “Beauty” 25. Concord 26. Miracles 27. “Newborn bard of the Holy Ghost” 28. “The end of all things” 29. Madness III. God’s Scrivener 30. Prince Hamlet 31. Asylum 32. “In obedience to the Spirit” 33. “Pierced through with many spears” 34. “Insane with God” 35. “Epistles to the Unborn” 36. “Between Very & the Americans” 37. Essays and Poems by Jones Very 38. Madness and Meaning 39. “True relations . . . in a false age” IV. Man of Peace 40. Nonresistance 41. “Heaven is a state and not a place” 42. War, Slavery, and Intemperance 43. “I war not, nor wrestle with the earthly man” 44. “But still the poet midst the tumult sings” 45. Knowledge and Truth 46. “The presence of things invisible” 47. “The Book of Life” Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Notes A Note on Sources Bibliography Index
£28.50
WW Norton & Co The Awakening
Book SynopsisThis perennial favourite Norton Critical Edition of Kate Chopin’s modernist novel of marital infidelity is now available in a new edition.
£16.40
Faber & Faber Mr Lear A Life of Art and Nonsense
Book SynopsisA Daily Telegraph, Times, Evening Standard, TLS and Spectator Book of the Year.Winner of the Hawthornden Prize.Edward Lear is well-loved for his nonsenses', from joyous limericks to great love songs, and for his wonderful natural history paintings, landscapes and travel writing. But although Lear belongs to the age of Darwin and Dickens, his genius for the absurd and his dazzling word-play make him a very modern spirit. He was also a man of great simplicity and charm children loved him yet his humour masked epilepsy, depression and loneliness. Jenny Uglow's beautifully illustrated biography brings us his swooping moods, passionate friendships and restless travels. Above all it shows how this uniquely gifted man lived all his life on the boundaries of disciplines and desires an exile of the heart.
£11.69
Cambridge University Press Collaborative Writing in the Long Nineteenth
Book SynopsisBringing the collaborative process to life through an array of examples, Heather Witcher shows that sympathetic co-creation is far more than the mere act of writing together. While foregrounding the material aspects of collaboration ? hands uniting on the page, blank space left for fellow contributors, the writing and exchanging of drafts ? this study also illuminates its social aspects and its reliance on Victorian liberalism: dialogue, the circulation of correspondence, the lived experience of collaboration, and, on a less material plane, transhistorical collaborations with figures of the past. Witcher takes a broad approach to these partnerships and, in doing so, challenges traditional expectations surrounding the nature of authorship itself, not least its typical classification as a solitary activity. Within this new framework, collaboration enables the titles of ''coauthor,'' ''influencer,'' ''editor,'' ''critic,'' and ''inspiration'' to coexist. This book celebrates the plurality of collaboration and underscores the truly social nature of nineteenth-century writing.
£21.84
Manchester University Press Byron and Italy
Book SynopsisWinner of the Elma Dangerfield Prize 2018Byron in Italy – Venetian debauchery, Roman sight-seeing, revolution, horse-riding and swimming, sword-brandishing and pistol-shooting, the poet’s ‘last attachment’ – forms part of the fabric of Romantic mythology. Yet Byron’s time in Italy was crucial to his development as a writer, to Italy’s sense of itself as a nation, to Europe’s perceptions of national identity and to the evolution of Romanticism across Europe. In this volume, Byron scholars from Britain, Europe and beyond re-assess the topic of ‘Byron and Italy’ in all its richness and complexity. They consider Byron’s relationship to Italian literature, people, geography, art, religion and politics, and discuss his navigations between British and Italian identities.Trade Review‘Byron and Italy is a most welcome contribution in the field which offers fresh approaches on current debates and opens new investigative paths by posing searching, original, and timely questions.’ Maria Schoina , Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, The BARS Review, no. 51, Spring 2018 -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction – Alan Rawes and Diego Saglia1 The literature of Italy in Byron’s poems of 1817–20 – Nicholas Halmi2 Byron’s ethnographic eye: the poet among the Italians – Gioia Angeletti3 From Lord Nelvil to Dugald Dalgetty: Byron’s Scottish identity in Italy – Jonathan Gross4 The garden of the world: Byron and the geography of Italy – Mauro Pala5 ‘Something I have seen or think it possible to see’: Byron and Italian art in Ravenna – Jane Stabler6 ‘Something sensible to grasp at’: Byron and Italian Catholicism – Bernard Beatty7 The politics of the unities: tragedy and the Risorgimento in Byron and Manzoni – Arnold Anthony Schmidt8 Parisina, Mazeppa and Anglo-Italian displacement – Peter W. Graham9 This ‘still exhaustless mine’: De Staël, Goethe and Byron’s Roman lyricism – Alan Rawes10 Playing with history: Byron’s Italian dramas – Mirka Horová11 ‘Where shall I turn me?’ Italy and irony in Beppo and Don Juan – Diego SagliaIndex
£21.00
Granta Books Reading Chekhov: A Critical Journey
Book SynopsisIn Reading Chekhov Janet Malcolm takes on three roles: literary critic, biographer and journalist. Her close readings of Chekhov's stories and plays are interwoven with episodes from his life and framed by an account of a recent journey she made to St Petersburg. Malcolm demonstrates how the shadow of death that hovered over most of Chekhov's literary career - he became consumptive in his twenties and died in his forties - is almost everywhere reflected in the work. She writes of his childhood, his relationship with his family, his marriage, his travels, his early success, his exile to Yalta - always with an eye to connecting them to his themes and characters.Trade ReviewShe is like no other critic I have ever read: limpid, revelatory and startlingly attentive to every nuance * Financial Times *Malcolm writes wonderfully well. Her character sketches are superb. Malcolm's own talents are such that even on an off day she can't write a boring sentence -- John Lancaster * Daily Telegraph *Affectionate and insightful... Her writing is exuberant... Malcolm can be captivating whatever her subject -- Simon Hammond * Observer *Quite simply the best book about his methods as a storyteller I have read -- Paul Bailey * Sunday Times *She has the shy writer's gift for coming up with highly provocative statements in the quiet of her study - that the biographer is like "the professional burglar", that the work of the journalist is "morally indefensible" - and then claiming to be surprised when people are provoked. She is not about to get caught out in careless self-revelation * Independent *Malcolm gets to the heart of Chekhov, or at least comprehensibly, and comprehensively, maps out his mysteries for us, not only telling us what makes him tick but why we should regard him as one of the greatest writers to have lived * Guardian *
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers The Woman in White Collins Classics
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.The woman who first gives life, light, and form to our shadowy conceptions of beauty, fills a void in our spiritual nature that has remained unknown to us till she appeared.'One of the earliest works of detective' fiction with a narrative woven together from multiple characters, Wilkie Collins partly based his infamous novel on a real-life eighteenth century case of abduction and wrongful imprisonment. In 1859, the story caused a sensation with its readers, hooking their attention with the ghostly first scene where the mysterious Woman in White' Anne Catherick comes across Walter Hartright. Chilling, suspenseful and tense in mood, the novel remains as emotive for its readers today as when it was first published.
£7.59
HarperCollins Publishers Silas Marner Collins Classics
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.Our consciousness rarely registers the beginning of a growth within us any more than without us: there have been many circulations of the sap before we detect the smallest sign of the bud.'Set in the agricultural town of Raveloe in the English countryside, Silas Marner is a tragic figure. Exiled from a religious community because of a wrongful accusation of theft, he works from day to day as a weaver, saving his money and living a lonely life as a recluse.It is only when his money is stolen and a small orphan girl, Eppie appears in his life that Silas's fortunes begin to change and he truly begins to learn what it means to regain his faith in life.
£5.62
Verso Books The Communist Manifesto: A Modern Edition
Book SynopsisIn the two decades following the fall of the Berlin Wall, global capitalism became entrenched in its modern, neoliberal form. Its triumph was so complete that the word "capitalism" itself fell out of use in the absence of credible political alternatives. But with the outbreak of financial crisis and global recession in the twenty-first century, capitalism is once again up for discussion. The status quo can no longer be taken for granted.As Eric Hobsbawm argues in his acute and elegant introduction to this modern edition, in such times The Communist Manifesto emerges as a work of great prescience and power despite being written over a century and a half ago. He highlights Marx and Engels's enduring insights into the capitalist system: its devastating impact on all aspects of human existence; its susceptibility to enormous convulsions and crises; and its fundamental weakness.Trade ReviewAs a force for change, its influence has been surpassed only by the Bible. As a piece of writing, it is a masterpiece. * Guardian *[T]he best possible explanation of what the world was about that I had ever read. It pointed out that the real conflicts in the world were not between black and white, men and women, Muslims, Christians and Jews, Americans, Russians and Chinese; it was about the conflict of economic interest between 95 per cent of the population of the world, who create the world's wealth, and the 5 per cent who own it. I think of Marx as a prophet: the last of the Old Testament prophets. And we should think of him as a teacher ... Karl Marx discovered it all long before I did, and I am very grateful to him. -- Tony Benn * The New Statesman *
£8.21
Penguin Books Ltd Selected Poems Tennyson
Book SynopsisContains poems which epitomize the Victorian age.Trade Review"[Tennyson] had the finest ear of any English poet since Milton." -T. S. Eliot
£9.99
Oxford University Press The Pickwick Papers
Book SynopsisIn 1836 the 23-year-old Dickens was invited by his publishers to write `a monthly something'' illustrated by sporting plates. Thus the Pickwick Club was born: its supposed `papers'' soom outgrew their origins and became a brilliantly comic novel, still among Dicken''s most popular works. 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 Review'The publication of this edition of ___The Pickwick Papers___ adds to the series of cheap but reliable coipes of Dicken's novels which are based on the formidable Clarendon editions ... authoritative introductions.' Margaret Reynolds, King's College, University of London'Extremely useful edition with excellent introduction, notes ete. and very reasonably priced' Norman Vance, Sussex University.
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers Uncle Toms Cabin
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.One thing is certain, - that there is a mustering among the masses, the world over; and there is a dis irae coming on, sooner or later.'Viewed by many as fuelling the abolitionist movement of the 1850s and laying the groundwork for the Civil War, Harriet Beecher Stowe's sentimental and moral tale of slaves attempting to secure their freedom was one of the most popular books of the nineteenth century. Centred round the long-suffering Uncle Tom, a devout Christian slave who endures cruelty and abuse from his owners, Tom is often celebrated as the first black hero in American fiction who refuses to obey his white masters. With other strong protagonists such as Eliza, a courageous slave who flees to the North with her son when she learns that he is to be sold, Beecher Stowe highlighted the plight of southern slaves and the breaking up of black families. Not without its controversy, more recent criticism has sugge
£5.94
Yale University Press Dress in the Age of Jane Austen
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Combining meticulous scholarship and intellectual heft with an engaging, approachable style is one of the most difficult writing tasks there is, but Davidson makes it seem effortless, using the life, the letters and the novels of Austen as an entry point into her exploration of clothing, its modes of production, its aesthetics, and its social meaning.”—Kerryn Goldsworthy, Sydney Morning Herald“Dress in the Age of Jane Austen is an exemplary model of how to read historical dress—the objects themselves and their presentation in text and images—that was well worth the wait.”—Michele Majer, Costume“[The author] gives fascinating insights into Austen’s appearance and also her attitudes to fashion.”—Matthew Westwood, The Australian“What Davidson generously presents her reader with . . . is a systemic primer of Regency fashion, using Austen’s works and her context as a starting-off point and as the object that the analysis explicates.”—Denise Baxter, Journal of Modern History“Davidson treats historical garments as material objects open to interpretation, helping scholars and fans alike add to the traditional Austen archive by turning textile to text.”—Elyse Martin, Perspectives on History“In a remarkable new book, the textile historian Hilary Davidson uses Austen’s writing as a lens through which to explore the evolving fashions of the Regency period at every level of society. Glorious full-colour illustrations of costumes ranging from linen bodices to silk pantaloons are stitched together with contextual observations to create a comprehensive portrait of late-18th-century life.”—Town & Country UK“Dress in the Age of Jane Austen gives us a detailed and comprehensive analysis of Regency fashion and is to be much welcomed as a single volume survey. . . . The book is beautifully illustrated with thoughtfully chosen, and often unusual or unfamiliar images. . . . For dress historians this book sets a scholarly and inspiring example, which is bound to remain a standard work of reference for this period.”—Penelope Byrd, Journal of Dress HistoryCHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, 2020
£28.50
HarperCollins Publishers Agnes Grey Collins Classics
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.
£5.62
Penguin Books Ltd Dr Wortles School Penguin Classics
Book SynopsisMr Peacocke, a Classical scholar, has come to Broughtonshire with his beautiful American wife to live as a schoolmaster. But when the blackmailing brother of her American first husband appears at the school gates, their dreadful secret is revealed, and the county is scandalized. In the character of Dr Wortle, the combative but warm-hearted headmaster, who takes the couple's part in the face of general ostracism, there is an element of self-portrait. There are echoes, too, in Wortle's gallantry to Mrs Peacocke, of Trollope's own attachment to the vivacious Bostonian, Kate Field.With its scathing depiction of American manhood, its jousting with convention and its amiable, egotistical protagonist, Dr Wortle's School(1879) is one of the sharpest and most engaging of Trollope's later novels.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
£10.44
Oxford University Press Oxford Student Texts Songs of Innocence and
Book SynopsisOne of a series designed to provide a new, accessible approach to the works of great poets and playwrights. Each text includes general notes on the text; discussion of themes, issues and context; and suggestions for further reading.
£15.74
Oxford University Press What Maisie Knew
Book SynopsisWhat Maisie Knew (1897) represents one of James''s finest reflections on the rites of passage from wonder to knowledge, and the question of their finality. The child of violently divorced parents, Maisie Farange opens her eyes on a distinctly modern world. Mothers and fathers keep changing their partners and names, while she herself becomes the pretext for all sorts of adult sexual intrigue. In this classic tale of the death of childhood, there is a savage comedy that owes much to Dickens. But for his portrayal of the child''s capacity for intelligent `wonder'', James summons all the subtlety he devotes elsewhere to his most celebrated adult protagonists. Neglected and exploited by everyone around her, Maisie inspires James to dwell with extraordinary acuteness on the things that may pass between adult and child. In addition to a new introduction, this edition of the novel offers particularly detailed notes, bibliography, and a list of variant readings. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100
£6.99
Oxford University Press So You Think You Know Jane Austen
Book SynopsisHow well do you really know your favourite author? Ace literary detective turned quizmaster John Sutherland and Austen buff Deirdre Le Faye challenge the reader to find out. Starting with easy, factual questions that test how well you remember a novel and its characters, the quiz progresses to a level of greater difficulty, demanding close reading and interpretative deduction. What really motivates the characters, and what is going on beneath the surface of the story? Designed to amuse and divert, the questions and answers take the reader on an imaginative journey into the world of Jane Austen, where hypothesis and speculation produce fascinating and unexpected insights. Whether you are an expert or enthusiast, So You Think You Know Jane Austen? guarantees you will know her much better after reading 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 commitmeTrade Reviewyou should get a kick out of answering any of the questions in this book correctly. * Irish Times *For those reading Austen for academic puposes the clear answers and insights could prove a valuable learning tool. * Irish Times *
£6.99
Oxford University Press Selected Poetry
Book SynopsisGerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) is now recognized as a major poet of striking originality. He is widely admired for his particularly vivid expression of feeling, from the religious ecstasy of `he Blessed Virgin'' to the torments of his loneliness and despair in `No Worst'', and for conveying with wonderful freshness his sense of natural beauty in such poems as `The Windhover'' and `Pied Beauty''. This selection, chosen from the award-winning Oxford Authors critical edition, includes all his major English poems and most of the larger fragments. The poems are supported with extensive notes and a useful introduction to Hopkins''s life and poetry. 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.
£7.59
Oxford University Press Dead Souls
Book Synopsis''Rus! Russ!...Everything within you is open, desolate, and flat; your squat towns barely protrude above the level of your wide plains, marking them like little dots, like specks; here is nothing to entice and fascinate the onlooker''s gaze. Yet whence this unfathomable, uncanny force that draws me to you?'' Although Dead Souls (1842) was largely composed by Gogol during self-imposed exile in Italy in the late 1830s, his last work remains to this day the most essentially Russian of all the great novels in Russian literature. As we follow its hero Chichikov, a dismissed civil servant turned unscrupulous confidence man, about the Russian countryside in pursuit of his shady enterprise, there unfolds before us a gallery of characters worthy in comic range of Chaucer, Rabelais, Fielding and Sterne. With its rich and ebullient language, ironic twists and startling juxtapositions, Dead Souls stands as one of the most dazzling and poetic masterpieces of the nineteenth century. This brilliant new translation by Christopher English is complemented by a superb introductory essay by the pre-eminent Gogol scholar, Robert Maguire. 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.
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr
Book SynopsisTomcat Murr is a loveable, self-taught animal who has written his own autobiography. But a printer''s error causes his story to be accidentally mixed and spliced with a book about the composer Johannes Kreisler. As the two versions break off and alternate at dramatic moments, two wildly different characters emerge from the confusion - Murr, the confident scholar, lover, carouser and brawler, and the moody, hypochondriac genius Kreisler. In his exuberant and bizarre novel, Hoffmann brilliantly evokes the fantastic, the ridiculous and the sublime within the humdrum bustle of daily life, making The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (1820-22) one of the funniest and strangest novels of the nineteenth century.
£11.69
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC London Uncanny
Book SynopsisClive Bloom is Professor in Residence at the Larkin Centre for Poetry and Creative Writing at Hull University, UK; Emeritus Professor at Middlesex University, UK; Research Fellow at New York University, USA and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Western Timisoara, Romania. A feature writer for The Financial Times, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Irish Times and the London Evening Standard, Bloom is the author of many books on topics from literature to politics, including the political histories of London Violent City and Riot City. He has won a Bram Stoker Award, been shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award twice and is editor of series on crime and the Gothic for multiple publishing house. An international key note speaker he has given addresses to the Association of Forensic Psychiatrists and Gresham College, jointly curated two exhibitions, on Jack the Ripper and the Siege of Sidney Street at the Museum of London and has advised the British Cabinet Office on publish disorder issues.
£18.00
Oxford University Press East Lynne
Book SynopsisWhen the aristocratic Lady Isabel abandons her husband and children for her wicked seducer, more is at stake than moral retribution. This edition returns for the first time to the racy, slang-ridden narrative of the first edition, rather than the subsequent stylistically 'improved' versions hitherto reproduced by modern editors.Trade ReviewExcellent introduction, nicely presented.
£9.89
HarperCollins Publishers HEART OF DARKNESS Joseph Conrad Collins Classics
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.'When Charles Marlow agrees to captain a steamer up the Congo in search of the elusive ivory trader Mr Kurtz, it becomes a terrifying journey into both the unknown and his own subconscious. As he travels deeper and deeper into the dense jungle, he begins to sense the presence of this extraordinary and terrible man, and to question the horrifying realities of European imperialism and of human nature itself.Originally published as a three-part story in 1899, Conrad's masterpiece has inspired many further works, including Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, and remains a thought-provoking text to this day.
£7.59
HarperCollins Publishers Heart of Darkness
Book SynopsisExam board: Edexcel Level & Subject: AS and A Level English Literature First teaching: September 2015 Next exams: 2025Trade Review“The new Collins Classroom Classic editions are perfect for schools – clear text, bright covers, a good size for pockets and bags, and a great price that makes buying new class or cohort sets very attractive in these budget-conscious times.” de Stafford School
£6.02
Penguin Books Ltd Flatland
Book SynopsisA ''romance of many dimensions'' that has fascinated generations of readers with its clever blend of social satire and mathematical theory, the Penguin Classics edition of Edwin A. Abbott''s Flatland introduction by Alan Lightman.A work that continues to pose provocative questions about perception and reality, Flatland is a brilliant parody of Victorian society where all existence is limited to length and breadth - its inhabitants unable even to imagine a third dimension. The amiable narrator, A Square, provides an overview of this fantastic world - its physics and metaphysics, its history, customs and religious beliefs. But when a strange visitor mysteriously appears and transports the incredulous Flatlander to the Land of Three Dimensions, his world view is forever shattered.Written more than a century ago, Flatland conceals within its brilliant parody of Victorian society speculations about the universe that resonate in Einstein''s theory of relativity as well as the current ''string-theory'' of nature.Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926) was a leading scholar and theologian of the Victorian era.If you enjoyed Flatland you may like H.G. Wells''s The Sleeper Awakes, also available in Penguin Classics.Trade Review“At once a classic of science fiction, a playful brainteaser about geometry, a pointed satire of Victorian manners—and, finally, a strangely compelling argument about reason, faith, and the greatest mysteries of the universe.” —The Wall Street Journal
£7.59
Oxford University Press Anthony Trollope
Book SynopsisVery Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, InspiringAnthony Trollope is among the best-loved novelists in the English language. His strongly drawn characters and skilful plots are compelling, while his moral judgements are often subtly challenging. He is an entertainer, but his power to make his readers think, and to feel, is unrivalled.This Very Short Introduction will place Trollope''s work in the context of his life and times, drawing on recent scholarship to illuminate his central interests and literary strategies. Readers will find a focussed critical guide to his writing, that will direct and inform their reading. The major series of novels (the six novels located in the fictional Barsetshire, and the six Palliser novels) are explored alongside the novels set in Ireland, his travel writing, and examples of his less well-known fiction. Trollope''s work is energised by the complexities of the Victorian Britain, with its political tensions, its troubled views of the relation between men and women, its expanding place in the wider world, and its growing discomfort with the contradictions created by a corrosive preoccupation with wealth and display. But Trollope''s writing is of more than historical interest. His insight into the motives of human behaviour (emotion, money, sex, and power), and of the conflict between the need for reform and the wish to defend what might be destroyed by the relentless pressure for change, feels surprisingly modern. Birch shows how his writing has retained its vivid appeal to new generations of readers. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
£8.54
Oxford University Press Marcel Proust My Reading
Book SynopsisA witty, refreshing, and fun book on the experience of reading Marcel Proust that allows author and reader to meet and perhaps quarrel, perhaps agree, to go wherever their collaboration leads them, with language itself acting as a conduit.Table of ContentsPreface 1: Impossible Music 2: That Evening 3: Dreyfus Time 4: The Scenery of the Event 5: Profound Albertine 6: Proust's Law School 7: After the Ball
£18.99
Oxford University Press Charles Dickens But for you dear stranger My
Book SynopsisDickens's first concern in all his fiction is with people's feelings and their imaginations. This book takes a personal approach to Dickens's art, paying attention to what magnetizes Federico or strikes her as newly relevant to our own world, and to her life, as she explores what Dickens' works are emotionally about.Trade Review... an illuminating perspective on the selected texts-a perspective that incidentally sheds light on how Dickens achieves his intimate and powerful impact. * John Edmondson, Independent Researcher, British Association for Victorian Studies *... I absolutely loved this book; I think very highly of Dickens anyway, and to see his work explored like this was fascinating... If "But for you…" is any indication, the My Reading series is going to be a winner... If you want a personal, thought-provoking and fascinating look at Dickens and the effect he can have on the reader, this is definitely a book for you! * Shiny New Books *Table of ContentsPreface 1: Where is Love? 2: Blessed Little Room 33: The Shadow Fell Like Light 4: But For You, Dear Stranger Works Cited
£18.04
