Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 Books

Book SynopsisA tale of murder, loss and romance in the mist of Niagara Falls: it is the crowning achievement of Joyce Carol Oates's career to date.A man climbs over the railings and plunges into Niagara Falls. He''s a newly-wed, and his bride has been left behind in the honeymoon suite the morning after their wedding. For two weeks, Ariah, the deserted bride, waits by the side of the roaring waterfall for news of her husband''s recovered body. During her vigil, an unlikely new love story begins to unfold when she meets a wealthy lawyer who is transfixed by her strange, otherworldly gaze. So it all begins, in the 1950s, with the dark foreboding of the Falls as the sinister background to the tragedy.From this cataclysmic event unfurls a drama of parents and their children; of secrets and sins; of lawsuits, murder and, eventually redemption. As Ariah's children learn that their past is enmeshed with a hushed-up scandal involving radioactive waste materials, they must confront not only their personal history but America's murky past: the despoiling of the American landscape and the corruption and greed of the massive industrial expansion of the 1950s and 1960s.This novel of tremendous sweep and pace is about the American family in crisis but also about America itself in the mid-20th century. This book alone places Joyce Carol Oates definitively in the company of the Great American Novelists.Trade Review'Eminently readable and though full of heart is utterly heartbreaking.' Vogue 'Oates offers a shrewd, often chilling analysis of an unhappy marriage…[she] deftly widens her focus to…Niagara, corrupt and dangerously polluted.' Sunday Times 'If you only read one new novel this autumn, make it this… you'll be hooked within pages' Mail on Sunday '…engaging…compelling…a flair for the minutiae of character…' Guardian 'The Falls is a swirling cataract of invention, and a mesmerising read.' Daily Telegraph

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Book SynopsisCrime fiction has been one of the most popular genres since the 19th century, but has roots in works as varied as Sophocles, Herodotus, and Shakespeare. In this Very Short Introduction Richard Bradford explores the history of the genre, by considering the various definitions of ''crime fiction'' and looking at how it has developed over time. Discussing the popularity of crime fiction worldwide and its various styles; the role that gender plays within the genre; spy fiction, and legal dramas and thrillers; he explores how the crime novel was shaped by the work of British and American authors in the 18th and 19th centuries. Highlighting the works of notorious authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Raymond Chandler -- to name but a few -- he considers the role of the crime novel in modern popular culture and asks whether we can, and whether we should, consider crime fiction serious ''literature''. 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.Trade Reviewthe "fine dining" of literature * Ruth Ginarlis, Newbooks Magazine *This is a fine introduction to a genre that embraces humanity in its flaws and glories, and it should find its way onto the bookshelves of anyone who likes crime fiction, or fiction in general. * Ben Macnair, Nudge.com *... this tidy little read-in-an-evening item will explain and enhance your affection for murder, open your eyes to new authors and have you reaching for the bookshelves for another fix, assured that you're right in the read afterall. * Sunday Sport, Jon Wise *Table of Contents1. Origins ; 2. The two ages: Golden and Hard Boiled ; 3. Transitions ; 4. International crime fiction ; 5. Gender ; 6. Cousins of crime: spy ficiton, the thriller, and legal drama ; 7. Epilogue: Can crime fiction be taken seriously? ; Further reading ; Index

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Book SynopsisYork Notes Advanced offers 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 introduces students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.

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Book Synopsis''I have heard no end of tales of his strength, his audacity, his fidelity...incorruptible! It is indeed a name of honour for the Capataz of the Cargadores of Sulaco.''One of the greatest political novels in any language, Nostromo enacts the establishment of modern capitalism in a remote South American province locked between the Andes and the Pacific. In the harbourtown of Sulaco, a vivid cast of characters is caught up in a civil war to decide whether its fabulously wealthy silver mine, funded by American money but owned by a third-generation English immigrant, can be preserved from the hands of venal politicians. Greed and corruption seep into the lives of everyone, and Nostromo, the principled Capataz, is tested to the limit.Conrad''s evocation of the great Latin-American landscapes, the ferocity of its politics, and individuals swept up in imperial ambitions has never been bettered. This edition offers new insights into Conrad''s masterpiece. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years O

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Book Synopsis''A beautifully structured narrative: tough, very moving, a political testimony of considerable force'' - Harold Pinter''As wise and witty and funny and brave as any of his plays'' - Louis Auchincloss''Wholly admirable'' - Anthony Burgess______________Arthur Miller''s plays have held the world''s stages for almost half a century. Among them are Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and All My Sons, which have been read and performed countless times across the world. His memoir, Timebends, shows that the life of the man is as compelling as his plays. With passion, wit and candour, Miller recalls his childhood in Harlem and Brooklyn in the 1920s and the Depression; his successes and failures in the theatre and in Hollywood; the formation of his political beliefs that, two decades later, brought him into confrontations with the House Committee of Un-American Activities; and his later work on behalf of human rights as the pTrade ReviewA book and a half. Arthur Miller is that very rare bird; a truly independent man. His autobiography is a beautifully structured narrative: tough, very moving, a political testimony of considerable force * Harold Pinter *The personality revealed by this fine autobiography is wholly admirable. Miller did more than fracture the American dream and interpret the American nightmare: he dared to enter the fire that surrounded the most potent sexual myth of the century * Anthony Burgess *As wise and witty and funny and brave as any of his plays ... Surely one of the great stories of our time * Louis Auchincloss *Arthur Miller's achievement in this book is to fuse the rhetorical power of his drama with the steely integrity of his life. The result is something pretty close to a masterpiece * Sean French *

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Book SynopsisThe inspiration for the annual Pleasure of Reading PrizeA charming and revealing collection of essays from some of our best-loved writers about the pleasures of reading, with royalties donated to the Give a Book charityIn this delightful collection forty-three acclaimed writers explain what first made them interested in literature, what inspired them to read and what makes them continue to do so. Original contributors include Margaret Atwood, J. G. Ballard, Melvyn Bragg, A. S. Byatt, Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Gray, Germaine Greer, Alan Hollinghurst, Doris Lessing, Candia McWilliam, Edna O'Brien, Ruth Rendell, Tom Stoppard, Sue Townsend and Jeanette Winterson, while this new edition includes essays from five new writers, Emily Berry, Kamila Shamsie, Rory Stewart, Katie Waldegrave and Tom Wells.Royalties generated from this project will go to Give a Book, www.giveabook.org.uk, a charity set up in 2011 that seeks to get books to places where they will be ofTrade ReviewA wonderful book for those of us that are addicted to print. A compendium of mostly British authors which lead you through their lives of reading. Sue Townsend mentions that she didn't learn to read before the age of eight and that her teacher was a nasty drunk with a face like a dyspeptic badger! * Jack Coleman, ***** on Good Reads *Really enjoyed this book :) And it brought back so many memories of my early years of reading ... reading a book in bed under the covers at night by torch light ... ALWAYS having a book to hand and being told to “Put that book down!” ... getting annoyed if ever a Birthday or Christmas Day passed WITHOUT A NEW BOOK arriving!!! * Alayne, **** on Good Reads *

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Book SynopsisCollins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners.Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners.Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins hasadapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These readers have beencarefully adapted using the Collins COBUILD grading scheme to ensure that the language is at thecorrect level for an intermediate learner. This book is Level 4 in the Collins ELT Readers series. Level4 is equivalent to CEF level B2 with a word count of 20,000 26,000 words.Each book includes: Full reading of the adapted version available for free online Helpful notes on characters Cultural and historical notes relevant to the plot A glossary of the more difficult wordsAn advertisement in the local newspaper announces that there is going to be a murder this evening at Little Paddocks but this is news even to the people who live at Little Paddocks! Interested villagers and friends appear that evening perhaps it's a game, they thinkThe lights go out, there is silence, and then a gun is firedIt seems this was no game. Someone really has been murdered!

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Book SynopsisElizabeth Bishop is one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. When she died in 1979, she had only published four collections, yet had won virtually every major American literary award, including the Pulitzer Prize. She maintained close friendships with poets such as Marianne Moore and Robert Lowell, and her work has always been highly regarded by other writers. In surveys of British poets carried out in 1984 and 1994 she emerged as a surprising major choice or influence for many, from Andrew Motion and Craig Raine to Kathleen Jamie and Lavinia Greenlaw. A virtual orphan from an early age, Elizabeth Bishop was brought up by relatives in New England and Nova Scotia. The tragic circumstances of her life - from alcoholism to repeated experiences of loss in her relationships with women - nourished an outsider's poetry notable both for its reticence and tentativeness. She once described a feeling that 'everything is interstitial' and reminds us in her poetry - in a way that is both radical and subdued - that understanding is at best provisional and that most vision is peripheral. Since her death, a definitive edition of Elizabeth Bishop's "Complete Poems" (1983) has been published, along with "The Collected Prose" (1984), her letters in "One Art" (1994), her paintings in "Exchanging Hats" (1996) and Brett C. Millier's important biography (1993). In America, there have been numerous critical studies and books of academic essays, but in Britain only studies by Victoria Harrison (1995) and Anne Stevenson (1998) have done anything to raise Bishop's critical profile. "Elizabeth Bishop: Poet of the Periphery" was the first collection of essays on Bishop to be published in Britain, and draws on work presented at the first UK Elizabeth Bishop conference, held at Newcastle University. It brings together papers by both academic critics and leading poets, including Michael Donaghy, Vicki Feaver, Jamie McKendrick, Deryn Rees-Jones and Anne Stevenson. Academic contributors include Professor Barbara Page of Vassar College, home of the Elizabeth Bishop Papers.

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Book SynopsisThis momentous study of Benjamin’s critical practice marks a sea change in Eagleton’s thought. Its goal is not merely to contemplate Benjamin’s approach to language, history, and art but to chart a dynamic new course for contemporary socialist criticism. To do this, Eagleton brushes Benjamin’s Trauerspiel against seventeenth-century British literature, tests his concept of the ‘aura’ against Freud and Lacan, and undertakes his most sustained engagement with Derrida and the political crossroads of deconstruction.

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Book SynopsisThe Possibility of Literature is an essential collection from one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in contemporary literary studies. Bringing together key compositions from the last twenty-five years, as well as several new pieces, the book demonstrates the changing fate of literary thinking over the first decades of the twenty-first century. Peter Boxall traces here the profound shifts in the global conditions that make literature possible as these have occurred in the historical passage from 9/11 to Covid 19. Exploring questions such as ''The Idea of Beauty'', the nature of ''Mere Being'', or the possibilities of Rereading, the author anatomises the myriad forces that shape the literary imagination. At the same time, he gives vivid critical expression to the imaginative possibilities of literature itself ? those unique forms of communal life that literature makes possible in a dramatically changing world, and that lead us towards a new shared future.

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER was banned on its publication in 1928, creating a storm of controversy. Lawrence tells the story of Constance Chatterley's marriage to Sir Clifford, an aristocratic and an intellectual who is paralyzed from the waist down after the First World War. Desperate for an heir and embarrassed by his inability to satisfy his wife, Clifford suggests that she have an affair. Constance, troubled by her husband's words, finds herself involved in a passionate relationship with their gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. Lawrence's vitriolic denunciations of industrialism and class division come together in his vivid depiction of the profound emotional and physical connection between a couple otherwise divided by station and society.

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Book SynopsisAs an internationally bestselling phenomenon and queen of the Regency Romance, Georgette Heyer is one of the most beloved historical novelists of our time. She''s written more than fifty novels - romances, detective stories and contemporary works of fiction - yet her private life was practically inaccessible to any but her closest friends and relatives. With this classic biography we catch a glimpse into Georgette Heyer''s world and that of her most memorable characters. With access to private papers and archives, Jane Aiken Hodge reveals a formidable, energetic woman, with an impeccable sense of style and, beyond everything, a love for all things Regency. Lavishly illustrated from Georgette Heyer''s own research files, her family archives and other Regency sources, complete with extracts from her correspondence and references to her work, The Private World is a delight and a must-read for every Georgette Heyer fan.Trade ReviewOne of the most beautiful books I know * Washington Post Book World *A fascinating biography of Georgette Heyer, one that deserves reading just as much as Heyer'snovels * Courier Mail *

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Book Synopsis''Wodehouse said letters make a wonderful oblique form for an autobiography, and Sophie Ratcliffe''s expertly edited collection amply proves the point.''SpectatorOne of the funniest and most admired writers of the twentieth century, P. G. Wodehouse always shied away from the idea of a biography. A quiet, retiring man, he expressed himself through the written word. His letters - collected here - provide an illuminating biographical accompaniment to legendary comic creations such as Jeeves, Wooster, Psmith and the Empress of Blandings. This is a book every lover of Wodehouse will want to possess.''The letters, gossipy in the kindliest, amused/bemused manner, bear true witness to the wide-ranging influences on Wodehouse''s'' best-known novels and best-loved characters.''The TimesTrade ReviewWodehouse said letters make "a wonderful oblique form for an autobiography," and Sophie Ratcliffe's expertly edited collection amply proves the point. * Spectator *Anybody requiring evidence of how much work PG Wodehouse put into his comic prose should read his letters. In her introduction to this definitive compendium of Wodehouse's correspondence, Sophie Ratcliffe warns that [the letters] display only on occasions the extraordinary stylistic elan that one finds in fiction. Indeed they do, although when the extraordinary elan bubbles briefly to the surface, it is worth waiting for. But Wodehouse was a dedicated craftsman. He wanted his published words to make people laugh, and he devoted hour after hour to making them fit that purpose. One suspects his personal epistles were often a happy relief from that discipline. * Scotland on Sunday *The great catastrophe of his life was of course, his broadcasting from Berlin in 1941, a slur on his reputation that never quite went goes away however often it is expunged. The whole saga is unravelled again here in Sophie Ratcliffe's excellent linking narrative. * Daily Mail *Filtered by some excellent editing, [these letters] are full of interest * Mail on Sunday *Sophie Ratcliffe has done an exemplary job in editing these letters * Sunday Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisBeginning in the late 1940's, American literature discovered a four-letter word, and the word was beat. This book collects the significant writings of the fellow members of the Beat Generation. In poetry, fiction, essays, and memoirs, it captures the triumphant rudeness, energy, and exhilaration of a movement that swept through American letters.Trade Review"A deft and definitive collection. It catches the flavor of playful, serious defiance of the whole generation." —Gary SnyderTable of ContentsThe Portable Beat ReaderIntroduction"Variations On A Generation"Part I"The Best Minds Of A Generation"East Coast BeatsEditor's Note1. Jack KerouacOn the Road (excerpt)The Subterraneans (excerpt)Mexico City Blues (excerpt)211th Chorus239th Chorus240th Chorus241st Chorus242nd Chorus"Essentials of Spontaneous Prose""Belief & Technique for Modern Prose2. Allen Ginsberg"Howl""Footnote to Howl""A Supermarket in California""Sunflower Sutra""America""Kaddish""Song""On Burroughs' Work"3. William BurroughsJunky (excerpt)The Yage Letters (excerpt)Naked Lunch (excerpt)"Deposition: Testimony Concerning a Sickness"4. Herbert Huncke"Elsie John""Joey Martinez"5. John Clellon HolmesGo (excerpt)6. Carl SolomonMishaps, Perhaps (excerpt)7. Gregory Corso"I Am 25""The Mad Yak""Vision of Rotterdam""Bomb""Marriage""Variations on a Generation" (excerpt)Part 2"Heart Beat"Enter Neal CassadyEditor's Note1. Neal CassadyLetters to Jack Kerouac, 1947-19502. Jack KerouacLetter to Neal Cassady, early 19513. Neal CassadyThe First Third (excerpt)4. Jack KerouacVisions of Cody (excerpt)Part 3"Constantly Risking Absurdity"Some San Francisco Renaissance PoetsEditor's Note1. Kenneth Rexroth"Thou Shalt Not Kill""Poems from the Japanese""Rexroth: Shaker and Maker" by WilliamEverson2. Lawrence Ferlinghetti"Dog""Constantly Risking Absurdity""In Goya's greatest scenes . . .""One Thousand Fearful Words for Fidel Castro""Horn on Howl3. Michael McClure"Peyote Poem"Scratching the Beat Surface (excerpt)Includes Snyder's poem, "A Berry Feast," Whalen's poem, "Plus Ca Change..."McClure's poems, "Point Lobos: Animism" and "For the Death of 100 Whales"4. Gary Snyder"Mid-August at Sourdough Montain Lookout"Milton by Firelight""Riprap""Praise for Sick Women""Night Highway Ninety-nine""Toji""Higashi Hongwanji""Notes on the Religious Tendencies"5. Philip Whalen"Sourdough Mountain Lookout""A Dim View of Berkeley in the Spring""Prose Take-Out, Portland 13:ix:58"6. Philip Lamantia"High""The night is a space of white marble""I have given fair warning""There is this distance between me and what I see""Fud at Foster's"7. Lew Welch"Chicago Poem""The Basic Con""Taxi Suite—After Anacreon""Not Yet 40, My Beard Is Already White""The Image, as in a Hexagram""I Saw Myself"8. Bob Kaufman"Round About Midnight""Jazz Chick""On""O-Jazz-O"Part 4"A Few Blue Words To The Wise"Other Fellow TravelersEditor's Note1. Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)"In Memory of Radio""Way Out West""The Screamers"Letter About Kerouac's Prose2. Ray Bremser"Funny Lotus Blues..."3. Diane DiPrima"Three Laments""Song for Baby-O, Unborn""The Practice of Magical Evocation""Poetics""Brass Furnace Going Out"4. Bob Dylan"Blowin' in the Wind""The Times They Are A-Cahngin'""A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"Tarantula (excerpt)5. Brenda Frazer (Bonni Bremser)"Poem to Lee Forest"6. Tuli Kupferberg"Greenwich Village of My Dreams"1001 Ways to Beat the Draft (excerpt)7. Jack Micheline"Poet of the Streets"8. Frank O'Hara"Les Luths""Post the Lake Poets Ballad""Personal Poem""The Day Lady Died"9. Peter Orlovsky"Lepers Cry"10. Ed Sanders"Poem from Jail" (excerpt)"The Cutting Prow"11. Anne Waldman"Our Past"12. John Wieners"A poem for record players""A poem for tea heads""A poem for museum goers""A poem for the insane""Feminine Soliloquy""Children of the Working Class"Part 5"Tales of Beatnik Glory"Memoirs and Posthumous TributesEditor's Note1. Charles BukowskiNotes of a Dirty Old Man (excerpt)2. William Burroughs, Jr.Kentucky Ham (excerpt)3. Carolyn CassadyOff the Road (excerpt)4. Diane DiPrimaDinners and Nightmares (excerpt)5. Brenda Frazer (Bonnie Bremser)Troia: Mexican Memoirs (excerpt)6. Brion Gysin"The Beat Hotel, Paris" (excerpt)7. Joyce JohnsonMinor Characters (excerpt)8. Hettie JonesHow I Became Hettie Jones (excerpt)9. Jan KerouacBaby Driver (excerpt)10. Ken Kesey"The Day After Superman Died" (excerpt)11. Michael McClureThe Mad Cub (excerpt)12. Ed SandersTales of Beatnik Glory (excerpt)Part 6"The Unspeakable Visions Of The Individual"Later WorkEditor's Note1. William BurroughsNova Express (excerpt)2. Gregory Corso"Columbia U Poesy Reading—1975""The Whole Mess . . . Almost"3. Diane Di Prima"April Fool Birthday Poem for Grandpa"Loba: Parts I-VIII (excerpt)4. Lawrence Ferlinghetti"The Canticle of Jack Kerouac""Uses of Poetry""Short Story on a Painting of Gustav Klimt"5. Allen Ginsberg"First Party at Ken Kesey's""Wichita Vortex Sutra""Anti-Vietnam War Peace Mobilization""Mugging""Ode to Failure""White Shroud""Fourth Floor, Dawn, Up All Night"Writing Letters6. Michael McClure"Song (I Work with the Shape)""It's Nation Time""Watching the Stolen Rose""The Death of Kin Chuen Louie"7. Ed Saunders"Hymn to Archilochus""What Would Tom Paine Do?" (Song)8. Gary Snyder"Smokey the Bear Sutra""I Went into the Maverick Bar""Mother Earth: Her Whales""The Bath""Axe Handles""Pine Tree Tops"Appendix—Three Commentators1. Norman Mailer"The White Negro"2. Alan Watts"Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen"3. John Clellon Holmes"The Game of the Name" (excerpt)Books For Further ReadingIndex Of Authors And TitlesAcknowledgments

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“A groundbreaking example of comics representation in literature.”—Publishers Weekly“Penguin provides introductory essays; superb analyses by the series editor, Ben Saunders; and extensive bibliographies.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post“Stories become classics when generations of readers sort through them, talk about them, imitate them, and recommend them. In this case, baby boomers read them when they débuted, Gen X-ers grew up with their sequels, and millennials encountered them through Marvel movies. Each generation of fans—initially fanboys, increasingly fangirls, and these days nonbinary fans, too—found new ways not just to read the comics but to use them. That’s how canons form. Amateurs and professionals, over decades, come to something like consensus about which books matter and why—or else they love to argue about it, and we get to follow the arguments. Canons rise and fall, gain works and lose others, when one generation of people with the power to publish, teach, and edit diverges from the one before ... A top-flight comic by Kirby—or his successor on “Captain America,” Jim Steranko—barely needed words. You could follow the story just by watching the characters act and react. Thankfully, Penguin volumes do justice to these images. They reproduce sixties comics in bright, flat, colorful inks on thick white paper—unlike the dot-based process used on old newsprint, but perhaps truer to their bold, thrill-chasing spirit.”—Stephanie Burt, The New Yorker“As before, all three of these volumes re-present Professor Ben Saunders’ learned general series intro which does an excellent job of succinctly explaining the rise of Marvel Comics and the Marvel Method.”—Forces of Geek

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“A groundbreaking example of comics representation in literature.”—Publishers Weekly“Penguin provides introductory essays; superb analyses by the series editor, Ben Saunders; and extensive bibliographies.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post“Stories become classics when generations of readers sort through them, talk about them, imitate them, and recommend them. In this case, baby boomers read them when they débuted, Gen X-ers grew up with their sequels, and millennials encountered them through Marvel movies. Each generation of fans—initially fanboys, increasingly fangirls, and these days nonbinary fans, too—found new ways not just to read the comics but to use them. That’s how canons form. Amateurs and professionals, over decades, come to something like consensus about which books matter and why—or else they love to argue about it, and we get to follow the arguments. Canons rise and fall, gain works and lose others, when one generation of people with the power to publish, teach, and edit diverges from the one before ... A top-flight comic by Kirby—or his successor on “Captain America,” Jim Steranko—barely needed words. You could follow the story just by watching the characters act and react. Thankfully, Penguin volumes do justice to these images. They reproduce sixties comics in bright, flat, colorful inks on thick white paper—unlike the dot-based process used on old newsprint, but perhaps truer to their bold, thrill-chasing spirit.”—Stephanie Burt, The New Yorker“As before, all three of these volumes re-present Professor Ben Saunders’ learned general series intro which does an excellent job of succinctly explaining the rise of Marvel Comics and the Marvel Method.”—Forces of Geek

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Book SynopsisIona Heath relates the importance that John Berger's work and friendship had on her working

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Book SynopsisThis selection of four relatively neglected stories by Conrad -- 'The End of the Tether', ' The Duel', ' The Return', and 'Amy Foster' --remind readers that he is not just the teller of sea stories and tales of imperialist action, but a writer for an age of global terror and individual trauma.Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Joseph Conrad THE END OF THE TETHER THE DUEL THE RETURN AMY FOSTER Explanatory Notes

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Book SynopsisWritten by a leading academic and broadcaster and drawing on interviews with readers, writers, reading groups, bookshop owners, librarians, and figures from literary publishing, reviewing, and festivals, this accessible volume offers an overview of the contemporary scene of women's novel-reading.Trade ReviewSelected as a book to watch out for in 2020 by The Sunday TimesA fascinating study of why the novel became central for women... * The Sunday Times, Best books of the year 2020 so far *... an illuminating and very readable study of the many reasons why women are such passionate readers of fiction and how they provide the glue for an informed and literate society. * PD Smith, The Guardian *Fascinating ... I just hope that women continue to find the pleasure in reading that is gloriously displayed in this book... * Daisy Goodwin, The Sunday Times *... an ambitious undertaking ... [Helen Taylor] has asked more than 500 female readers and writers about their reading habits. Anecdotes from famous authors and figures including Hilary Mantel and Judy Finnigan, as co-founder of the Richard and Judy Book Club, are interwoven with observations from readers. Taylor does this without ego, letting the words stand alone and turning what could easily be a dry, worthy report into more of an impassioned conversation... if youre thinking about why you choose the books you do, this is a thought-provoking place to start. * Susannah Butler, Evening Standard, Book of the Week *If publishing wants to get closer to its readers, it will do well to listen to Helen Taylor. In her new book [...] Helen Taylor [...] offers a timely and lively exploration of why women keep the book trade ticking over. * Julie Vuong, Book Brunch *The great joy of Taylor's book is the light it shines on communities of women readers, something that helped me recognise my own ... Reading Taylor's book has also made me join a book club. I did not like the January book; I did enjoy drinking gin while saying why. I would like to be in a book club with Taylor's correspondents, having so much enjoyed the warmth, intelligence, and insight of their conversations with her throughout the book... * Sophie Duncan, Literary Review *Though long overdue this satisfying offering comes at a time when women are working harder than ever to secure their rightful place in the literary canon. Recommended enthusiasts of lit crit, feminist studies, and publishing. * Erica Swensen, Library Journal *An inherently fascinating, thoughtful and thought-provoking work of insightful and seminal scholarship ... an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to community, college, and university library Contemporary Literary Studies collections... * Mary Cowper, The Midwest Book Review *... there is a wealth of fantastic contributions which Helen has pulled together into a brilliant analysis of women and reading. I'm nodding in agreement with every sentence. * DoveyGreyReader *Ms. Taylor was for many years professor of English Literature at Exeter University. This is not her first book but it is her best. * peterwatsonauthor.com, Universities Press Review *Taylor captures the complex delights of reading, while taking a clear-eyed look at the politics of how books are marketed, shared and enjoyed. Astute, engaging, inspiring, Why Women Read Fiction will speak volumes to anyone who's ever experienced, at first hand, the power of novels and short stories to enrich and transform lives. * Sarah Waters *This spirited cultural history and savvy analysis as to why, how and what women read is - well, a really good story! * Sarah Dunant *In her generous and accessible book, Helen Taylor shows how the enterprise of reading draws us into an unseen collective, where the resources of the imagination are pooled; but she is not afraid to show the creative power of division and dissent. Though authoritative and well-researched, Why Women Read Fiction is far more than a study meant for academics and publishers - it is lively and absorbing, like a conversation with other women you wish you knew. * Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies *Table of ContentsPreface: 'A Friend, a Bible, a Perfume' Part One: How, Where, and Why Women Read Fiction Introduction 1: 'Cheap Sweet Vacations': Reading as a Woman Rosie Jackson: 'What Their Books Yield or, Why I am Not Buying a Kindle' Part Two: What Women Read 2: Reading as a Girl U A Fanthorpe: The Poet on her childhood reading 3: Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, the Novels Women Love Best 4: Romance and Erotica: Fiction by Women for Women 5: Women, Crime, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy dovegreyreader: The Literary Blogger Part Three: Writers and Readers 6: Women Writers on their Reading and Readers 7: Book Clubs in Women's Life Stories 8: Festivals, Literary Tourism, and Pilgrimage Fiction in Lives, Lives in Fiction 9: The Stories of Our Lives Appendix: Questionnaire about women's fiction reading

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Book SynopsisBeloved by children and adults worldwide, the writings of C.S. Lewis have a broad and enduring appeal. Although he is best known for the iconic Chronicles of Narnia series, C. S. Lewis was actually a man of many literary parts. Already well-known as a scholar in the thirties, he became a famous broadcaster during World War Two and wrote in many genres, including satire (The Screwtape Letters), science fiction ( Perelandra), a novel (Till We Have Faces), and many other books on Christian belief, such as Mere Christianity and Miracles. His few sermons remain touchstones of their type. In addition to these, Lewis wrote hundreds of poems and articles on social and cultural issues, many books and articles in his field of literary criticism and history, and thousands of letters. At Oxford University he became a charismatic lecturer and conversationalist. Taken together his writings have engaged and influenced, often very deeply, millions of readers. Now Lewis societies, television documentaries, movies, radio plays, and theatrical treatments of his work and life have become common, and he is frequently quoted by journalists, critics, and public thinkers. This Very Short Introduciton delves into the vast corpus of C. S. Lewis'' work, discussing its core themes and lasting appeal. As James Como shows, C. S. Lewis'' life is just as interesting as his work. A complex man, he came to his knowledge, beliefs, and wisdom only after much tortuous soul-searching and many painful events. Moving chronologically through Lewis'' life, Como provides throughout a picture of the whole man, his work, and his enduring legacy.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.Trade ReviewJames Como, founder of the New York CS Lewis society and a world authority on Lewis, has produced a brilliant, short introduction ... that manages to say a great deal in very few words. * Church of England Newspaper *This is the single finest biographical survey yet written on C. S. Lewis ... Dr. Como's Very Short Introduction employs the best sources possible, fully understanding the evolution of Lewis's own thought and writings while also incorporating the finest reminiscences of the man. * Bradley J Birzer, The Imaginative Conservative *Como's C.S. Lewis: A Very Short Introduction is a useful text to recommend to new scholars and fans of Lewis and his work and is a refreshing reminder of how the various Lewises make up the one man. * Zachary Rhone, Mythlore Journal *Como on Lewis is like Lewis on Christianity: He says so much in so few words. It is succinctness raised to an art form. Thoroughly recommended. * Joseph Pearce, Author, Further Up & Further In: Understanding Narnia *Table of ContentsPreface 1: Lewis along the way 2: Roots 3: Lewis ascendant 4: Fame 5: Darkness and light 6: A new day 7: End game 8: The weight of glory A readers' list of C. S. Lewis's works by type Books of particular importance to C. S. Lewis A selected secondary bibliography Further reading

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Book SynopsisHistorical Fiction Now brings together prominent authors, scholars, and critics of historical fiction to explore the genre''s character, fortunes, and potential in the twenty-first century. Gathering together the voices of novelists, critics, academics, and several authors writing across these categories, the volume explores the nature of reading, writing, and writing about historical fiction in the present moment while meditating on some of the myriad contexts of the genre. What inspires writers to choose particular moments, events, and personalities as the subjects of their fictional imaginings, and with what implications for their readers'' understanding of the present? How do contemporary scholars approach the making and reception of historical fiction, and how do these approaches resonate with writers'' own preoccupations in the process of invention? What might scholars of a genre with a long and complex history learn from its contemporary practitioners? Conversely, how do novelisTable of ContentsBruce Holsinger: Introduction: Historical Fiction Now I. Inventions 1: George Saunders: Ghosts in a Graveyard 2: Sophie Coulombeau: Naming Names: Reflections on Referentiality in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall Trilogy 3: David Ebershoff: Looking for the Danish Girl 4: Michael Lackey: Using Versus Doing History in the Contemporary Biographical Novel II. Archives 5: Katherine Howe: Real Witches, Real Life 6: Tiya Miles: Gardens of Memory: Ghosts, Grounds, and the Archives 7: Geraldine Brooks: Pilgrim's Progress: Researching The Secret Chord 8: Namwali Serpell: The Afronaut Archives: Reports from a Future Zambia 9: Bruce Holsinger: Historical Fiction and the Fine Art of Error III. Genres 10: Gavin Jones: Historical Fiction, World-building, and the Short Story 11: Maaza Mengiste: War in a Woman's Voice 12: Mark Eaton: Alternate-history Novels and Other Counterfactual Fictions 13: Téa Obreht: Last Camp 14: Jessie Burton: Historical Impressionism and Signs of Life: The Blessing and Burden of Writing the Past 15: Jane Kamensky: Novelties: A Historian's Field Notes from Fiction 16: Naomi J. Williams: Sorting Fact from Fiction: A Novelist Researches the Lapérouse Expedition 17: Kirstin Chen: Am I Chinese Enough to Tell this Story? The late Hilary Mantel: Afterword: I Met a Man Who Wasn't There

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Book SynopsisMore than any other academic discipline, literary studies is the creation of print culture. How then can it thrive in the digital era? Early 1990s predictions of the book''s imminent demise presented a simplistic either/or choice between the legacy of moribund print and triumphalist digital technology. Yet we have grown to experience the two media as complexly interdependent and even complementary. Clearly, digital does not kill print. But literary studies in the digital era cannot simply resume business as usual. It is urgently necessary to reconsider the discipline''s founding assumptions in light of digital technology.The digital era prompts a rethinking of literary studies'' object of study, as well as its methods, theories, audiences and pedagogical practices. What counts as literature necessarily shifts in an age of proliferating born-digital texts and do-it-yourself (DIY) online publication. Where should literary studies sit institutionally, and how might it graft contextually-oriented social sciences methods onto its traditionally humanistic mode of textual analysis? Why should literary study continue to marginalize emotional responses to texts when online communities bond via readerly affect? Who is the audience for literary criticism in an age where expertise is routinely challenged yet communication with global book-loving publics has never been technologically easier? Finally, how can we utilize digital tools to rejuvenate literary studies pedagogy and help English staff better connect with millennial-age students?Literary studies has been convulsed for decades by debates over electronic literature and, more recently, digitally-aided ''distant reading''. But these discussions still mostly confine themselves to demarcating our proper object of study. We need to think more expansively about digital technology''s impact on the underpinning tenets of the discipline. Literary Media Studies is pitched at fellow literary scholars, book historians, media theorists, cultural sociologists, digital humanists and those working at the interface of these converging disciplines. It models constructive engagement with contemporary digital culture. Most importantly, it brings a burst of sorely needed optimism to the question of literary studies'' digital future.

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Book SynopsisSpanish literature has given the world the figures of Don Quixote and Don Juan, and is responsible for the ''invention'' of the novel in the 16th century. The medieval period produced literature in Castilian, Catalan, Galician, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew, and today there is a flourishing literature in Catalan, Galician, and Basque as well as in Castilian-the language that has became known as ''Spanish''. A multilayered history of exile has produced a transnational literary production, while writers in Spain have engaged with European cultural trends. This Very Short Introduction explores this rich literary history, which resonates with contemporary debates on transnationalism and cultural diversity. The book introduces a general readership to the ways in which Spanish literature has been read, in and outside Spain, explaining misconceptions, outlining the insights of recent scholarship and suggesting new readings. It highlights the precocious modernity of much early modern Spanish literature, and shows how the gap between modern ideas and social reality stimulated creative literary responses in subsequent periods; as well as how contemporary writers have adjusted to Spain''s recent accelerated modernization.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.Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Multilingualism and porous boundaries ; 2. Spanish literature and modernity ; 3. Gender and sexuality ; 4. Cultural patrimony ; Further reading

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Book SynopsisClaire Tomalin has been literary editor of the New Statesman and the Sunday Times. She has written seven highly acclaimed literary biographies including Samuel Pepys, which won the Whitbread Book of the Year award, and the international bestseller Charles Dickens. She is married to the playwright and novelist Michael Frayn.

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Book Synopsis''Adds enormously to our understanding of the man'' Evening StandardGeorge Orwell was one of the greatest writers England produced in the last century. He left an enduring mark on our language and culture, with concepts such as ''Big Brother'' and ''Room 101.'' His reputation rests not only on his political shrewdness and his sharp satires (Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four) but also on his marvellously clear style and superb essays, which rank with the best ever written. Gordon Bowker''s new biography includes fascinating new material which brings Orwell''slife into unfamiliar focus. He writes revealingly about Orwell''s family background; the lasting influence of Eton on his work and character; his superstitious streak and youthful flirtation with black magic; and his chaotic and reckless sex life, which included at least one homoerotic relationship. It highlights the strange circumstances of his first marriage and provides rTrade ReviewInvaluable... superb and fascinating biography adds enormously to our understanding of the man * Evening Standard *The strength of his approach lying in his careful and judicious sifting of the evidence, and in the writing, which possesses an admirable clarity that Orwell himself would have appreciated * Independent *[Orwell is].a voice that speaks as urgently to our times as it did to his * Economist *Bowker's biography is that of a scholar... he has the ability to select the right detail and let it speak for itself * Sunday Telegraph *Magisterial * Daily Mail *In all his complex contradictions, Orwell comes to energetic life * Publishers Weekly *An exhilaratingly crowded book * INDEPENDENT *Invaluable... superb and fascinating biography adds enormously to our understanding of the man * EVENING STANDARD *Bowker's biography is that of a scholar... he has the ability to select the right detail and let it speak for itself * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *Magisterial * DAILY MAIL *

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Book SynopsisAn Introduction to the Blue Humanities is the first textbook to explore the many ways humans engage with water, utilizing literary, cultural, historical, and theoretical connections and ecologies to introduce students to the history and theory of water-centric thinking. Comprised of multinational texts and materials, each chapter will provide readers with a range of primary and secondary sources, offering a fresh look at the major oceanic regions, saltwater and freshwater geographies, and the physical properties of water that characterize the Blue Humanities. Each chapter engages with carefully chosen primary texts, including frequently taught works such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Homer's Odyssey, and Luis Vaz de Camões's Lusíads, to provide the perfect pedagogy for students to develop an understanding of the Blue Humanities chapter by chapter. Readers will gain insight into new trends in intTable of ContentsPreface Bodies of Water1 A Poetics of Planetary Water2 Blue Humanities Thinking3 The Vast Pacific4 The Roaring South5 The Connected Ocean6 Surrounded by Land7 In the Caribbean8 Northern Lights 9 The Tornadoed Atlantic10 Conclusion: Touching Moisture11 Works Cited12 Essential Reading in the Blue Humanities

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Book Synopsis“This fine version, with David Cronenberg’s inspired introduction and the new translator’s beguiling afterword, is, I suspect, the most disturbing though the most comforting of all so far; others will follow, but don’t hesitate: this is the transforming tTrade Review"Bernofsky’s vibrant new translation preserves the comedy as well as the tragedy of Kafka’s text; it convinces both on its own and when read with the original in mind." -- The Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisTracing the developing modernist aesthetic in the thought and writings of James Joyce, Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf, Deborah Parsons considers the cultural, social and personal influences upon the three writers. Exploring the connections between their theories, Parsons pays particular attention to their work on: forms of realism characters and consciousness gender and the novel time and history. An understanding of these three thinkers is fundamental to a grasp on modernism, making this an indispensable guide for students of modernist thought. It is also essential reading for those who wish to understand debates about the genre of the novel or the nature of literary expression, which were given a new impetus by the pioneering figures of Joyce, Richardson and Woolf.Trade ReviewA Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2007"A clear, concise introduction to modernist views of the novel"J. W. Moffett, Kentucky Wesleyan College, for CHOICE magazine, Sep 2007, vol 45, no. 01, p. 374. "This one does an amazing job precisely because it manages to prepare readers without taking the sense of discovery away. Parsons is the kind of guide you want for an introduction of this sort: clear, focused, balanced, learned, and attuned to her audience's needs."--James Joyce QuarterlyTable of ContentsWhy Joyce, Woolf and Richardson? Key Ideas 1. A New Realism. Realism and Reality. Romanticism, Realism and Impressionism. 2. Character and Consciousness 3. Gender and the Novel 4. Time and History After Joyce Further Reading. Works Cited

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Book SynopsisRichard Wrightâs Native Son (1940) is one of the most violent and revolutionary works in the American canon. Controversial and compelling, its account of crime and racism remain the source of profound disagreement both within African-American culture and throughout the world. This guide to Wright's provocative novel offers: an accessible introduction to the text and contexts of Native Son a critical history, surveying the many interpretations of the text from publication to the present a selection of reprinted critical essays on Native Son, by James Baldwin, Hazel Rowley, Antony Dawahare, Claire Eby and James Smethurst, providing a range of perspectives on the novel and extending the coverage of key critical approaches identified in the survey section a chronology to help place the novel in its historical context suggestions for further reading. Part of the Routledge GuidTrade Review'What emerges clearly... is the extent to which the Routledge guides demonstrate the value of historicised readings, without burdening the first-time reader with too great an emphasis on the material reality with which the featured authors engage.'- Rod Mengham, The Times Higher Educational Supplement Table of ContentsIntroduction Part 1: Texts and Contexts Richard Wright: A Brief Biography. The Voices of Native Son. The Dostoevskian Voice. The Transplantation of the Blues. Bigger’s Vernacular Voice. Social Determinism: An Anti-American Accent? Bigger: Silenced by Whiteness? Chronology Part 2: Critical History First Responses: James Baldwin. First Responses: Ralph Ellison and Irving Howe. Feminist Readings. The Black Atlantic and Beyond Part 3: Critical Readings Many Thousands Gone James Baldwin (1951) The Shadow of the White Woman: Richard Wright and the Book-of-the-Month Club Hazel Rowley(1999) From No Man's Land to Mother-Land: Emasculation and Nationalism in Richard Wright's Depression Era Urban Novels Anthony Dawahare (1999) Slouching toward Beastliness: Richard Wright's Anatomy of Thomas Dixon Clare Eby (2001) Invented by Horror: The Gothic and African American Literary Ideology in Native Son James Smethurst (2001) Part 4: Web Resources and Further Reading

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Book SynopsisMarking the 50th anniversary of Lewis death, The Intellectual World of C.S. Lewis sees leading Christian thinker Alister McGrath offering a fresh approach to understanding the key themes at the centre of Lewis theological work and intellectual development.Trade Review“I have read many of Lewis's works repeatedly over the years and have read much of the secondary literature on him. The Intellectual World of C. S. Lewisdoes a good job in placing him in the intellectual context of his time.” (Modern-day Pilgrim, 8 April 2014) “McGrath’s volume is useful to both Lewis scholars and lay readers interested in Lewis or the themes with which he engaged.” (The Way, 1 April 2014) “There are acute and stimulating observations on Surprised by Joy as autobiography cast in a Christian mould, and its reliability as a source for historians. There are two particularly fine chapters showing the long-range influence on Lewis of the tradition of classical, medieval and early modern literature.” (Peter Webster's Blog, 22 January 2014) “Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty.” (Choice, 1 December 2013) “Many will also be grateful for these two books by Alister McGrath. Both reflect his thorough research, careful weighing of evidence, wide reading, and clarity of expression. . . The book contains useful studies on different aspects of Lewis as a Christian thinker; and I particularly enjoyed the slightly mischievous chapter in which McGrath argues that Lewis should be seen as a “real” theologian, not just the amateur one that he himself claimed to be.” (Church Times, 22 November 2013) “There is more to be said about Lewis as apologist and theologian but McGrath has written what will long be regarded as the essential guide.” (The Church of England Newspaper, 23 June 2013) “McGrath is ingenious and persuasive in searching Lewis’s writings for clues to his private life … [A] devoted and meticulous biography.” (The Times Literary Supplement, 21 June 2013) “Alister McGrath's biography of C.S. Lewis was an incredible exploration of one of the greatest minds in the history of Christian thought. I've always enjoyed reading Lewis because of the way he explains concepts in a way that is refreshing and inspiring. I found McGrath to have that kind of way with words in his exploration of Lewis' life. He takes the exploration a step further in a new companion book to the Lewis biography, THE INTELLECTUAL WORLD OF C.S. LEWIS.” (Tom Farr Reviews, 1 June 2013)Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii A Brief Biography of C. S. Lewis ix Introduction 1 1. The Enigma of Autobiography: Critical Reflections on Surprised by Joy 7 2. The "New Look": Lewis's Philosophical Context at Oxford in the 1920s 31 3. A Gleam of Divine Truth: The Concept of Myth in Lewis's Thought 55 4. The Privileging of Vision: Lewis's Metaphors of Light, Sun, and Sight 83 5. Arrows of Joy: Lewis's Argument from Desire 105 6. Reason, Experience, and Imagination: Lewis's Apologetic Method 129 7. A "Mere Christian": Anglicanism and Lewis's Religious Identity 147 8. Outside the "Inner Ring": Lewis as a Theologian 163 Works by Lewis Cited 185 Index 187

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Book SynopsisDo you want to know why Beckett has become a figure of such continuing influence and importance in the theatre? Are you studying his plays and looking for help with interpretation? Do you teach Beckett and need a reliable guide to his plays? A Faber Critical Guide to Samuel Beckett''s major work gives all this and more:An introduction to the distinctive features of the playwright''s workThe significance of the playwright in the context of modern theatreA detailed analysis of each of the classic plays: language, structure and characterfeatures of performanceselect bibliographyCompiled by experts in their field, for use in classroom, college or at home, Faber Critical Guides are the essential companions to the work of all leading dramatists.Also in this series: Faber Critical Guides to the major works of Sean O''Casey, Brian Friel, Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard.

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Book SynopsisIn About Kane, Graham Saunders offers an important study of one of the most controversial and talented playwrights of recent times. His survey includes a concise biography, in-depth analysis of Sarah Kane''s work, and interviews with Kane and those who helped to put her work on stage. With Kane''s reputation still growing, this book is an essential guide for the student and theatregoer.

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Book SynopsisAllen Ginsberg (1926-97) was born in Newark, New Jersey, to a poet-teacher father and Russian emigre mother. When Howl and Other Poems was impounded by San Francisco customs in 1956, the subsequent trial for obscenity catapulted Ginsberg and his publisher City Lights to national fame and helped to define the Beat Generation.Trade Review"'Faber has a poetry list worth bragging about. What other publisher could conjure up a series like this?' The Times"

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Book SynopsisBeckett's first literary landmark' (St Petersburg Times) is a wonderfully savoury introduction to the Nobel Prize-winning author. Written in 1932, when the twenty-six-year-old Beckett was struggling to make ends meet, the novel offers a rare and revealing portrait of the artist as a young man. When submitted to several publishers, all of them found it too literary, too scandalous or too risky; it was only published posthumously in 1992. As the story begins, Belacqua a young version of Molloy, whose love is divided between two women, Smeraldina-Rima and the little Alba wrestles with his lusts and learning across vocabularies and continents, before a final relapse into Dublin' (New Yorker). Youthfully exuberant and Joycean in tone, Dream is a work of extraordinary virtuosity.

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Book SynopsisHana Sambrook was educated at the Charles University in Prague and at the University of Edinburgh. She has worked for some years as an editor in Scottish educational publishing, and was later on the staff of the Edinburgh University Library. Now a freelance editor in London, she is the author of several York Notes.Table of Contents Part 1: Induction Part 2: Plot and Action Part 3: Characters Part 4: Key Contexts and Themes Part 5: Language and Structure Part 6: Grade Booster Literacy Terms

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Book SynopsisPlaces Flannery O'Connor's work in constructive and collaborative dialogue with Spanish literature and literary aesthetics. Contributors explore the ways in which O'Connor's literary and religious vision continues to work in the imaginations of both American and European - mostly Spanish - authors.

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Book SynopsisWe the Barbarians embarks on a careful and exhaustive reading of three of the most prominent authors in the latest wave of Mexican fiction: Yuri Herrera, Fernanda Melchor, and Valeria Luiselli. Originally published in Mexico in December of 2021, the work is divided into three parts that correspond to the analysis of each author's narrative production. The book analyzes all the literary works published by Herrera, Melchor, and Luiselli from the beginning of their writing careers until 2021, allowing for a diachronic interpretation of their respective narrative projects as well as for comparative approaches to their aesthetic and ideological contours. Characterized by the fragmentation of civil society and the decomposition of the myths that accompanied the consolidation of the modern nation, Mexican visual and literary arts have been exploring a myriad of representational avenues to approach the phenomena of violence, institutional decay, and political instability. We the Barbarians

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Book SynopsisWhile famous for his celebrated novel, Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry always considered himself a poet. First published in 1962 and long out of print, Selected Poems of Malcolm Lowry is the only comprehensive selection of his poetry to be published, and it remains the perfect introduction to his extensive poetic canon. Edited by Lowry''s good friend, renowned Canadian poet Earle Birney, with the assistance of his widow, Margerie Lowry, the selection includes extraordinary poems written during Lowry''s stay in Mexico, many of which are closely related to his novel. This new edition includes a "Publisher''s Note" from Lawrence Ferlinghetti."These poems would be worth keeping in print, if for no other reason, for their illuminations of Under the Volcano: ''See mind''s petal / torn from a good tree, but where shall it settle / But in the last darkness and at the end?'' Sometimes, as the images of "For Under the Volcano," they become ''paTrade Review"These poems would be worth keeping in print, if for no other reason, for their illuminations of Under the Volcano: 'See mind's petal / torn from a good tree, but where shall it settle / But in the last darkness and at the end?' Sometimes, as the images of "For Under the Volcano," they become 'palm-of-the-hand' versions of that masterpiece. Lowry is a poet of struggle—with life, and with the creative process. Here are his struggle’s fruits: guilt, alcoholism, hopeless, self-deriding quest for salvation, which seems to be love, and, above all, self-destruction—but always accomplished with self-knowledge, enriched (in order to further torment itself) with compassion for all the beings that the poet, and us with him, are failing. His words are always sad and often beautiful."—William T. VollmannTable of ContentsContents Introduction 7 THE ROAR OF THE SEA AND THE DARKNESS No Kraken shall be found till sought by name 11 Look out! The bloody bosun! 12 Byzantium 13Old freighter in an old port 14 Iron cities 15 The flowering past 16 The ship is turning homeward 17 The lighthouse invites the storm 18 Tashtego believed Red 19 Vigil Forget 20 The days like smitten cymbals of brass 21 THUNDER BEYOND POPOCATEPETL Thunder beyond Popocatepetl 22For Under the Volcano 23 Xochitepec 25The Volcano is Dark 26Grim vinegarroon 27In the Oaxaca Jail 28For the love of dying 29Death of a Oaxaqueñan 30In a Mexican church 31Delirium in Vera Cruz 32Sunrise 33THE CANTINAS Prayer for drunks 34Thirty-five mescals in Cuautla 35 Eye-opener 36 No company but fear 37 No time to stop and think 38Comfort 38 Without the nighted wyvern 39The drunkards 40At the bar 40Sestina in a Cantina 41VENUS Venus 45 Fragment 46 A New Ship 47 A poem of God's mercy 47 A quarrel 49 No still path 50 Nocturne 51 Saint Malcolm among the birds 52Happiness 53Be patient for the wolf 54 THE COMEDIAN The Comedian 56Men with coats thrashing 57Thoughts while drowning 58 Queer poem 59Poem 59Midtown pyromaniac 60 Injured stones 61Epitaph 62SONGS FROM THE BEACH : ERIDANUSKingfishers in British Columbia 63 Christ walks in this infernal district too 64 Whirlpool 65Hostage 65 The glaucous-winged gull 66 The ship sails on: for Nordahl Grieg 67The wounded bat 68The past 69The pilgrim 70The wild cherry 71THE LANGUAGE OF MAN'S WOERilke and Yeats 72Thoughts to be erased from my destiny 73Joseph Conrad 74Trinity 74The doomed in their sinking 75Eels 76The plagiarist 76He liked the dead 77After publication of Under the Volcano78The search 78Strange type 79

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Book SynopsisWilliam McIlvanney''s fiction is drawn from the lives and circumstances of the people of the West of Scotland, and is characterised by detailed observation, an accurate ear for language, wit and thoughtful reflection on living and working conditions. Laidlaw is a crime novel: its eponymous detective is both thoughtful and fallible, and the book can be seen as a precursor to the ''Tartan Noir'' works of writers such as Ian Rankin. Beth Dickson''s SCOTNOTE study guide provides a thoughtful analysis of the novel Laidlaw by William McIlvanney, its characters and its settings, for senior school pupils and students at all levels.

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Book SynopsisIain Banks is one of the most inventive writers in the UK today, producing an extraordinary range of work, from family sagas set in present-day Scotland to science fiction spanning vast gulfs of space and time. He enjoys breaking the arbitrary boundaries of genre, and often creates narratives blending realistic storylines with fantastical elements. Alan MacGillivray''s Scotnote provides an overview of Iain Banks''s fiction, and focuses on three novels in particular: The Wasp Factory, a darkly comic piece of Scottish Gothic fiction; The Crow Road, a cross-generational family saga with elements of a detective story; and Whit, following the adventures of an innocent thrust into modern society. Suitable for senior school pupils and students at all levels.

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Book SynopsisThe Loss of Self considers distinctions and connections between the writing of survival and survival as a mode of being and thinking encountered in analytic work with borderline patients.Jean-FranÃois Chiantaretto draws a parallel between Freudâs use of writing in constructing the psychoanalytic edifice and the way each analyst may turn to writing when reflecting on a patientâs analysis. With close reference to the writings of Imre KertÃsz, the book brings a unique perspective to the literary and historical concept of survival.The Loss of Self will be of interest to psychoanalysts in practice and in training.

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