Literary studies: fiction Books

Book SynopsisJackie Wullschlager is Deputy Literary Editor of the FT, and one of their principal reviewers. Her last book was INVENTING WONDERLAND: THE LIVES AND FANTASIES OF LEWIS CARROLL, EDWARD LEAR, JM BARRIE.Table of ContentsIntroduction: life stories. The country, 1805-12; master comedy-player, 1812-19; the city, 1819-22; Aladdin at school, 1822-7; fantasies, 1827-31; my time belongs to the heart, 1831-3; Italy, 1833-5; first fairy tale, 1835; walking on knives, 1836-7; le Poete, c'est moi! 1837-40; I belong to the world, 1840-43; Jenny, 1843-4; Winter's Tales, 1844-6; the princess'poet, 1845-6; the shadow, 1846-7; lion of London, 1847; between the wars, 1848-51; Weimar revisited, 1851-6; Dickens, 1856-7; experiments, 1858-9; kiss of the muse, 1860-65; Aladdin's palace of the present, 1865-9; so great a love of life, 1869-75.

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Book SynopsisThe extraordinary letters of Italo Calvino, one of the great writers of the twentieth century, translated into English for the first time by Martin McLaughlin, with an introduction by Michael Wood.Italo Calvino, novelist, literary critic and editor, was also a masterful letter writer whose correspondents included Umberto Eco, Primo Levi, Gore Vidal and Pier Paolo Pasolini. This collection of his extraordinary letters, the first in English, gives an illuminating insight into his work and life. They include correspondence with fellow authors, generous encouragement to young writers, responses to critics, thoughts on literary criticism and literature in general, as well as giving glimpses of Calvino''s role in the antifascist Resistance, his disenchantment with Communism and his travels to America and Cuba. Together they reveal the searching intellect, clarity and passionate commitment of a great writer at work.''This literally marvelous collection of letters

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 2020 PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHYSelected as a Book of the Year 2019 by the SPECTATOR, TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN and FINANCIAL TIMES ''Definitive and delightful'' Stephen Fry ''There can be no doubting the brilliance - the sheer explanatory vigour - of Moser''s biography... a triumph of the virtues of seriousness and truth-telling that Susan Sontag espoused'' New Stateman The definitive portrait of one of the twentieth century''s most towering figures: her writing and her radical thought, her public activism and her private face Susan Sontag was our last great literary star. Her brilliant mind, political activism and striking image made her an emblem of the seductions - and the dangers - of the twentieth-century world.Her writing on art and politics, feminism and homosexuality, celebrity and style, medicine and drugs, Fascism and Freudianism, Communism and Americanism, reflected the conflicted meanings of a most conflicted word: modernity. She was there when the Cuban Revolution began and the Berlin Wall came down, in Vietnam under American bombardment, in wartime Israel. Sontag tells these stories and examines the work upon which her reputation was based, exploring the private woman hidden behind the formidable public face.Drawing on hundreds of interviews conducted from Maui to Stockholm and from Manhattan to Sarajevo - and featuring nearly one hundred images, many never seen before - Sontag is the first book based on the writer''s restricted archives, and on access to many people who have never before spoken about her, including Annie Leibovitz. It is an indelible portrait of one of the twentieth century''s greatest thinkers, who lived one of that century''s most romantic - and most anguished - lives.Trade ReviewMoser intelligently brings together both public and private, onstage and off-. His scrutiny of her essays, fiction, films, and political activism is clear-eyed, his analysis of her tumultuous affective life sympathetic... Sontag offers a thoroughly researched chronicle of an unparalleled American figure and the institutions tied to her... deft and sometimes dishy * Bookforum *Moser does rather a brilliant job...we have Sontag as daughter, friend, lover, wife and mother, but Moser's writing is appropriately bold and anecdotal, so there is less the feeling of years accrued than of selves tried out. He's an essayist, taking on an essayist, and his best passages are biographical readings of her writing. His assessment of her novels is punchy and insightful...this biography keeps her defiantly alive: argumentative, wilful, often right, always interesting, encouraging us to up our game as we watch her at the top of hers * The Guardian *Moser is good at elucidating Sontag's ideas and putting into context the fecundity of her thought. He discusses her "Olympian" sex life with sympathy and insight - her galaxy of lovers included Bobby Kennedy, Jasper Johns, Warren Beatty and Annie Leibovitz - and is unbiased when it comes to evaluating her writing * The Sunday Times *Moser's socially panoramic, psychologically incisive biography does a superb job of charting Sontag's self-invention * The Guardian *There can be no doubting the brilliance - the sheer explanatory vigour - of Moser's biography... a triumph of the virtues of seriousness and truth-telling that Susan Sontag espoused again and again but was conspicuously and often quite consciously unable to force herself to live by. * The New Statesman *Moser has had the confidence and erudition to bring all of [Sontag's] contradictory aspects together in a biography fully commensurate with the scale of his subject. He is...a gifted, compassionate writer. * The TLS *A portrait of the intellectual conscience of the babyboomer generation - faults and all * The Financial Times *Sensational...provides an indelible portrait of a personality, a career and various milieu -- Leo Robson * Books of the Year, New Statesman *Evocative and entertaining...Moser renders Sontag's ascent to intellectual stardom as a rich and often rollicking affair * The Best Books of 2019, Oprah Magazine *An exhausting biography about an exhausting woman that will keep you up nights greedily reading all 800 pages until you pass out exhausted yourself - exhilarated and amazed at this difficult, brilliant but clueless writer's life. -- John Waters * The Amazon Book Review *a monumental work that reveals the flawed private person behind the ferocious intellectual public persona -- Carl Wilkinson * FT Essential Reads of 2019 *Benjamin Moser's accomplishment here is breathtaking: it includes an extraordinary knowledge of the subject, her milieu, her writings, her ideas, and her friends and family, beautiful prose, extraordinary insights, a capacity to understand her driven emotional life and her stellar intellectual life. It will be called unsparing, because some of its truths about this complex figure are harsh, but it is generous to the subject as well as to readers who want to understand this woman who stood so tall and cast such a long shadow across twentieth-century intellectual life. -- Rebecca SolnitI always found Susan Sontag in turns brilliant, vain, wise, foolish, high, low, dazzlingly insightful, pretentious, pure ... but always fiercely and frighteningly intelligent, learned, alert and aware. Benjamin Moser's monumental biography reveals the surprisingly tender, insecure, simple and intellectually dedicated story of one the most remarkable literary figures to emerge in twentieth century America. Her influence on aesthetics, writing and the wider culture is almost impossible to overstate and Moser's own fierce intelligence weaves between the life and the work quite magnificently. She stands reclaimed for our century, a much more lovable and variegated character than I ever guessed. Definitive and delightful -- Stephen FrySusan Sontag made and broke the mold of American 20th century public intellectual. Fifteen years after her death, her ethos of 'high seriousness' seems quaint and dated. In this long-awaited, brilliant biography, Benjamin Moser show us how to read Sontag - and, by extension, her times - in the present, and reveals the extents and limits of her genius. His psychologically nuanced critical study is written with sang-froid and compassion. -- Chris KrausBenjamin Moser brings his iconic subject to life in this gripping, insightful and supremely stylish biography. He makes a modern epic out of Sontag's remarkable story, from her tortured relationship with her alcoholic mother to her unflinching visits to besieged Sarajevo, revealing at every turn the vital, complicated, imperfect human being behind the formidable public intellectual. -- Edmund GordonAn astonishing page-turner, like a brilliant suspense novel (even for one who knew what happened next). The Sue/Susan/Sontag/"Susan Sontag" character emerges here in all her wonderfulness and terribleness and staggering complexity. This is it: the last word on Susan Sontag. I can't imagine the necessity of another book about her life -- Sigrid NunezIf it's already difficult to imagine American culture without Susan Sontag's contributions to it, it may soon become difficult to imagine her life without Benjamin Moser's account of it. A significant life like Sontag's demands a significant biography. That demand has now been incisively, extravagantly met -- Michael CunninghamDon't be fooled by the length. This book, at more than 800 pages, is compulsive reading: moving, maddening, ridiculous and beautiful scenes from the life of Susan Sontag, and the epochs she traversed. Moser has a true and deep love for his subject, a love unafraid to be truthful, and it shows. -- Rachel Kushner

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe author's writing style is conversational and engaging, and Kurt Shaffer's illustrations are quite amusing,...Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. * Choice *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Chapter 1: The Category of Comics Chapter 2: Formal Definitions of Comics Chapter 3: The Media of Comics Chapter 4: Narrative, Time, and Space Chapter 5: Adaptation Chapter 6: Evaluating Comics Chapter 7: Social and Moral Problems Afterword References

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Book SynopsisA book on the experience of reading Honoré de Balzac's La Comédie humaine which recounts the process of Peter Brooks's own discovery of Balzac.Trade ReviewBrooks never ceases to intrigue readers by his deeply probing work of literary and critical scholarship. * Dana Vuckovic, French Studies *Table of Contents1: Balzac: Reading for More 2: Fangs and Kisses 3: Making Books, Devouring Presses 4: The Shape of Time 5: To Say Everything

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Book SynopsisBibliophobia is a book about material books, how they are cared for, and how they are damaged, throughout the 5000-year history of writing from Sumeria to the smartphone. Its starting point is the contemporary idea of ''the death of the book'' implied by the replacement of physical books by digital media, with accompanying twenty-first-century experiences of paranoia and literary apocalypse. It traces a twin fear of omniscience and oblivion back to the origins of writing in ancient Babylon and Egypt, then forwards to the age of Google. It uncovers bibliophobia from the first Chinese emperor to Nazi Germany, alongside parallel stories of bibliomania and bibliolatry in world religions and literatures. Books imply cognitive content embodied in physical form, in which the body cooperates with the brain. At its heart this relationship of body and mind, or letter and spirit, always retains a mystery. Religions are founded on holy books, which are also sites of transgression, so that writing Trade ReviewAs a book historian, I felt dazzled...It is full of treasures and sparkling insights...be prepared to be led through a rich gallery of intriguing scenarios at a cracking pace. I advise taking a deep breath before diving in. * Martyn Lyons, Modern Philology *Richly illustrated with textual forms, material objects and art works, this book's inspiration remains staunchly within the power that books always (and continue to) have amid the emotional, spiritual, bodily and imaginative lives of readers. * David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews *It is full of treasures and sparkling insights...Be prepared to be led through a rich gallery of intriguing scenarios at a cracking pace. * Martyn Lyons, University of New South Wales, Modern Philology *Table of ContentsPreface Note on Texts I. DEATH OF THE BOOK 1: Is there a future for the book? 2: The library as computer 3: The message of Ashurbanipal from antiquity 4: Living in the Tower of Babel II. BOOKS AND VIOLENCE 5: The book-fires of 1933 6: The making and unmaking of libraries 7: Incombustible heresy in the age of Luther 8: The bondage of the book III. SACRED TEXT 9: The mystery of Arabic script 10: The unnameable Hebrew God 11: How the alphabet came to Greece from Africa 12: The characters of Chinese IV. THE CULT OF THE BOOK 13: Words and images 14: Kissing the book 15: Books under the razor 16: Shakespeare and bibliofetishism V. THE BODY AND THE BOOK 17: The book incarnate 18: The hand in the history of the book 19: Written on the flesh 20: Book burial VI. GHOST IN THE BOOK 21: The book after the French Revolution 22: The smartphone inside our heads 23: Heresy and modernity 24: Glyph Notes Bibliography

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Book SynopsisIn this study, Michael Ullyot makes two new arguments about the rhetoric of exemplarity in late Elizabethan and Jacobean culture: first, that exemplarity is a recursive cycle driven by rhetoricians'' words and readers'' actions; and second, that positive moral examples are not replicable, but rather aspirational models of readers'' posthumous biographies. For example, Alexander the Great envied Achilles less for his exemplary life than for Homer''s account of it. Ullyot defines the three types of decorum on which exemplary rhetoric and imitation rely, and charts their operations through Philip Sidney''s poetics, Edmund Spenser''s poetry, and the dedications, sermons, elegies, biographies, and other occasional texts about Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, and Henry, Prince of Wales. Ullyot expands the definition of occasional texts to include those that criticize their circumstances to demand better ones, and historicizes moral exemplarity in the contexts of sixteenth-century Prote

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Book SynopsisAn exciting and accessible study of the genre of fantasy.One of the dominant modes of storytelling in the twenty-first century, fantasy can mirror contemporary experiences and convey our anxieties and longings better than any representation of the merely real. It is the lie that speaks truth. This book addresses two central questions about fantastic storytelling: first, how can it be meaningful if it doesn''t claim to represent things as they are, and second, what kind of change can it make in the world? How can a form of storytelling that alters physical laws and denies facts about the past be at the same time a source of insight into human nature and the workings of the world? What kind of social, political, cultural, intellectual work does fantasy perform in the world--the world of the reader, that is, not that of the characters? Focusing on various aspects of fantastic world-building and story creation in classic and contemporary fantasy, from the use of symbolic structures to the way new stories incorporate bits of significance from earlier texts, this book shows how fantasy allows writers such as Michael Cunningham, Hans Christian Anderson, Helene Wecker, C. S. Lewis, Ursula K. Le Guin, Nnedi Okorafor, Nalo Hopkinson, George MacDonald, Aliette deBodard, and Patricia Wrightson to test new modes of understanding and interaction and thus to rethink political institutions, social practices, and models of reality.Trade ReviewReadable and authoritative, rich in example without losing us in abstract theory... For many-academics and general readers alike-the value of this volume will be in the way it places the fantasy we have grown up with in the context of a range of other voices. * Andy Sawyer, Strange Horizons *[Fantasy] proceeds from the deep, sincere, unselfconscious heart of fandom. It follows the zigzagging logic of love... can I recommend this book? The answer is yes. * Sandra Newman, Times Literary Supplement *Attebery writes personably and with grace... Fantasy: How it Works is the beginning of lots of good discussions. * Gary K. Wolfe , Locus *Internationally, fans, students, established and new, and academics will all find a great deal of accessibly written and thoroughly researched, useful, entertaining work in this lovely book. * Gina Wisker, Dissections *a short and friendly book that eschews jargon and is very firmly based on Attebery's phenomenonally wide reading within the genre... If you haven't read much fantasy fiction, this book is a wonderful introduction. If you have, you will still come away with a to-read list as long as your arm, a new appreciation of the novels you love, and plenty of food for thought. * Helen Parry, Shiny New Books *[a] lively and informative tour of a wonderful genre. * George Kelley *Fantasy literature is often defined as "literature of the impossible" and dismissed as escapism and sometimes even as irrelevant. In this brief but powerful book, Attebery (Idaho State Univ.) argues against these views. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers. * Choice *The great strength of Fantasy: How It Works lies in the way it draws on and showcases a lifetime of careful reading of and thinking about the fantastic, marking another invaluable addition to fantasy studies... There is no book quite like it, and it is best approached as just what Attebery intended, a conversation starter about how fantasy means and what it does, the important work it performs in the world. * Timothy S. Miller, Los Angeles Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Speaking of Fantasy 1: How Fantasy Means: The Shape of Truth 2: Realism and the Structures of Fantasy: The Family Story 3: Neighbors, Myths, and Fantasy 4: If not Conflict, then What? Metaphors for Narrative Interest 5: A Mitochondrial Theory of Literature: Fantasy and Intertextuality 6: Young Adult Dystopias and Yin Adult Utopias 7: Gender and Fantasy: Employing Fairy Tales 8: The Politics of Fantasy 9: Timor mortis conturbat me: Fear and Fantasy Conclusion: How Fantasy Means and What It Does: Some Propositions Works Cited

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Book SynopsisThis is a study of the politics, the commerce, and the aesthetics of heritage culture in the shape of authors'' manuscripts. Draft or working manuscripts survive in quantity from the eighteenth century when, with the rise of print, readers learnt to value ''the hand'' as an index of individuality and the blotted page, criss-crossed by deletion and revision, as a sign of genius. Since then, collectors have fought over manuscripts, libraries have curated them, the rich have stashed them away in investment portfolios, students have squeezed meaning from them, and we have all stared at them behind exhibition glass. Why do we trade them, conserve them, and covet them? Most, after all, are just the stuff left over after the novel or book of poetry goes into print. Poised on the boundary where precious treasure becomes abject waste, litter, and mess, modern literary manuscripts hover between riches and rubbish.In a series of case studies, this book explores manuscript''s expressive agency andTrade ReviewSutherland...amply shows the variety of ways in which manuscripts acquired new significance in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. * Rachael Scarborough King, Modern Philosophy *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Dealing with the Leftovers 2: Samuel Johnson and the Origins of Writing 3: 'this warm scribe my hand': The Autograph Craze 4: Nothing Wasted: Frances Burney's Fiction Manuscripts 5: Whose Property? Walter Scott's Manuscripts 6: Jane Austen Fragment Artist Afterword

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Book Synopsis''What do we seek through millions of pages? Still hopefully turning the pages -- oh, here is Jacob''s room.''Who is Jacob Flanders? Virginia Woolf''s third novel, published in 1922 alongside James Joyce''s Ulysses and T.S. Eliot''s The Waste Land, follows this elusive title character from a sunlit childhood on the Cornwall coast to adventures in Cambridge, London, and Athens. Women fall in love with Jacob; young men desire his company and conversation. But Woolf keeps her scornful, charming protagonist at a distance, enveloping Jacob in mystery as he enters adulthood and the Great War thunders across Europe. A daring work that reimagines every element of the traditional novel, Jacob''s Room tells a new story for a new century.In 1922, Lytton Strachey pronounced Jacob''s Room ''a most wonderful achievementmore like poetry, it seems to me, than anything else, and as such I prophesy immortal.'' One hundred years after its publication, Woolf''s first full-length work of experimental fiction pulls us into the inexhaustible mysteries of intimacy and mortality.Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Virginia Woolf Maps Jacob's Room Explanatory Notes

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Book SynopsisConsiders three centuries of writers and creatives of mostly Scots-Irish and post-Famine Irish descent whose work examines moments of entwined racial, social, and political transformation for those of that identity in America.Trade Reviewthis is an innovative, thought-provoking book that employs rich historical framings for its literary analysis. The book's uncovering of what might be called a "disguised Irish experience" in the work of a number of well-known American writers not generally thought of as "Irish" is intellectually stimulating and will, we predict, be a building block for further work. * James Donnelly, Chair of McGowan Prize (IACI) *Burke confronts the racial dynamics ever-present—but acknowledged to varying degrees—in works by authors whose ancestors may have been considered "off white" or ethnic others themselves. Burke presents her readers with ew ways of considering the Irishness of canonical American authors such as Henry James, William Faulkner, and Edgar Allan Poe, while also introducing a wider audience to less studied authors such as Frank Yerby, who was of mixed African and Irish descent. In so doing she establishes a new sub-genre, the Scots-Irish gothic. This book will be of value to scholars of Irish Studies and American literature, as it makes important new claims in these overlapping fields. * Matthew Reznicek, Lawrence J. McCaffrey Prize (ACIS) *Race, Politics, and Irish America is of value because it refuses and exposes the homogeneous treatment of the Irish (as all descended from Famine refugees) in Irish American literary criticism. The book acts as a corrective for three prominent areas of scholarship...It provides a narrative in its own right that complements whiteness studies by bringing in a literary approach and an impressively nuanced view of the history of various groups in Ireland and America. * Beth O'Leary Anish, Community College of Rhode Island, Irish University Review *Burke's book is an exciting, necessary contribution to both Irish Studies and American literary studies. She impressively distills complicated histories on both sides of the Atlantic into comprehensible chunks, and then deftly applies that history to a range of texts, most with previously ignored Irish elements at the base of their protagonists' race and class anxieties. * Beth O'Leary Anish, Community College of Rhode Island, Irish University Review *Race, Politics, and Irish America makes a compelling argument for seeing ethnic identity as every bit as key to understanding Fitzgerald as his self-doubts over his class status and literary standing. * Kirk Curnutt, F. Scott Fitzgerald Review *For those of us who struggle with the contradiction of being Irish-American - how our ancestors, who were near the bottom of every racial hierarchy, came to side with their oppressors - Mary Burke's book is essential reading. Viewed through a Gothic lens with a focus on political, literary and artistic figures, Professor Burke's book connects the dots across five centuries of Irish history in the Americas. * Tim Quinn, BiblioCommons *Mary M. Burke has written a book that the field of Irish Studies in the United States will find hard to ignore or dismiss. * Peter McDermott, Irish Echo *A "luminous new study...[that] explores centuries of competing narratives about the Irish in America." * Cahir O'Doherty, Irish Central *This generic breadth helps Burke create a rich, nuanced, and complex picture of what it means to be Irish...Compellingly, Burke includes performers, "public women," and queer and multiracial authors in her analyses and thus rejects the traditional focus on straight, white, male authors. She promises, and delivers, a rich, rewarding, and challenging read...this powerful and timely examination of race and politics in Irish America challenges many stereotypes and frames well-known authors, celebrities, and politicians in a way that brings new understanding to them and their Irish identities. Burke is to be congratulated for producing such a fine, wide-ranging, and broadly appealing study. * Christine Kinealy, Eugene O'Neill Review *Burke's deeply researched and wide-ranging book provides a roadmap for future scholars to examine with far greater nuance than was previously the case the complexity of Irish identities in the United States. * Sinéad Moynihan, Irish Studies Review *The text is most enlightening when read as a linear whole, to understand the messy evolution of 'white' Irishness in a racially divided America. * Ciara Smart, Australasian Journal of Irish studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Past is a Foreign Country 1: Towards Scots-Irish Gothic 2: Closeted Irish: Henry James 3: How the Irish Became Red: O'Neill and Fitzgerald 4: Complicit Irishness: Plantation novels by Yerby, Mitchell, and Faulkner 5: White Wedding: Grace Kelly, spectacle, and Irish assimilation Epilogue: Kennedy Gothic

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Book SynopsisConsiders George Orwell's writing about the East, and the presence of the East in his writing and argues that in thinking of Orwell as an 'Anglo-Indian writer', not just in upbringing and experience, but in many of his views, perceptions, and reactions, a different Orwell emerges.Trade ReviewKerr's insights on Orwell and Rudyard Kipling are particularly perceptive. No other writer was more important to Orwell: his whole life "was a conversation, or quarrel, with Kipling", quoting him frequently throughout his writings. While it is tempting to see the two writers as opposites, Kerr is keen to identify their similarities: "Both of them were patriots though highly critical of their fellow-countrymen and frequently of their government. Both were public intellectuals who used their writing to raise political consciousness. Both loved animals and wrote books about them and both had a strong feeling for the English countryside". * Richard Lance Keeble, English Studies *eminently readable, and a fascinating new look at Orwell's work * , Shiny New Books *Thoughtful and methodical, Orwell and Empire is a good guide to [Orwell's] complex and not always consistent imperial attitudes. * Professor Krishan Kumar, The Times Literary Supplement *[T]his is among the most enjoyable books on the subject of Orwell that I have discovered in a long time, and without doubt the finest work on Orwell's connection to empire and the east that it has been my privilege to read. * Ron Bateman, The Orwell Society *Table of Contents1: Introduction: Anglo-India 2: Animals 3: Environment: Burmese Days 4: Class 5: Empire 6: Geography 7: Women 8: Race 9: Police 10: The Law 11: Literature Notes Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis volume in the 21st-Century Oxford Authors series offers students an authoritative, comprehensive selection of the work of Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859). The edition presents De Quincey's work in all of its rich variety, and offers the most thorough and accurate annotation of De Quincey's major works ever compiled.Trade ReviewOne of the themes that emerges in Robert Morrison's impressive edition of De Quincey's selected works, in Oxford University Press's '21st Century Oxford Authors' series, is the extent to which the author was awed by the sheer quantity of print, the mass of books and magazines, circulating among readers in Britain and abroad, on a scale never before known...Although these are not the themes that Robert Morrison chooses to highlight in this elegant and beautifully produced volume, they are nonetheless evident throughout the selection of works that he presents. With his surefooted editorial stance, Morrison leads us through a rich selection of De Quincey's greatest hits. * Josephine McDonagh, Romanticism *Robert Morrison's new edition is a good place to start exploring De Quincey. * Jane Darcy, King's College London, Time Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction Note on the Text Chronology Part I 1: Confessions of an English Opium-Eater 2: Manuscript and Other Material related to Confessions of an English Opium-Eater 3: From Letters to a Young Man Whose Education has been Neglected [The Literature of Knowledge and The Literature of Power] 4: On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth 5: On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts 6: From Elements of Rhetoric 7: From Samuel Taylor Coleridge 8: From Lake Reminiscences, from 1807 to 1830 9: Second Paper On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts 10: From Style 11: Suspiria de Profundis Part II 12: Manuscript Material related to Suspiria de Profundis 13: From The Works of Alexander Pope 14: The English Mail-Coach 15: Manuscript Material related to The English Mail-Coach 16: From the Preface to Selections Grave and Gay 17: Explanatory Notices of The English Mail-Coach 18: Postscript to On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts 19: Letter to Emily De Quincey 20: From Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, 1856 Notes Index

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Book SynopsisSensationalism and the Jew in Antebellum American Literature examines the charged but mostly overlooked presence of the sensational Jew in Antebellum literature. It demonstrates how the "Sensational Jew" is a revealing figure in antebellum culture, as well as an important antecedent to contemporary Antisemitism in the US.Trade ReviewAntisemitism has appeared in many times and places-and, as David Anthony shows in his informative, unsettling Sensationalism and the Jew in Antebellum American Literature, in many genres.... In exploring this seamy side of antebellum America, Anthony follows many critics who have examined nineteenth - century sensational culture over the past several decades. But he is the first to highlight Jewish characters. * David S. Reynolds, The New York Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Money Laundering and the Sensational Jew 1: Region, Capitalism, and the Jew in the Post-Tom Plantation Novel 2: La Belle Juive, or "Jew"?: From Rachel Félix to The Marble Faun 3: Desire by Proxy: The Cosmopolitan Jew in Theodore Winthrop's Cecil Dreeme 4: Fagin in America Conclusion: Race, Money, and the Jew Coda: Charlottesville, "Molineux," and the Phantom Jew

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Book SynopsisGet to grips with set texts and be fully prepared for the AS/A Level exam with the Modern Languages Oxford Literature Companions. The Companions are written by experienced lecturers, teachers and examiners and provide comprehensive coverage of characters, themes, plot, language and context with activities in French to consolidate your knowledge of the text. There are also extensive sections on exam preparation and response planning, with a bank of annotated sample answers and practice questions. This guide covers No et moi by Delphine de Vigan. Modern Languages Oxford Literature Companions are also available for selected Spanish and German set texts.

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Book SynopsisEasy to use in the classroom or as a tool for revision, Oxford Literature Companions provide student-friendly analysis of a range of popular A Level set texts. Each book offers a lively, engaging approach to the text, covering characterisation and role, genre, context, language, themes, structure and critical views, whilst also providing a range of varied and in-depth activities to deepen understanding and encourage close work with the text. Each book also includes a comprehensive Skills and Practice section, which provides detailed advice on assessment and a bank of exam-style questions and annotated sample student answers. This guide covers The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and is suitable for the most recent AS/A level specifications.

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Book SynopsisThis work is addressed to students of Virgil and of literature in general, including those who may be approaching the Aeneid for the first time. It attempts through discussion of particular topics to convey a balanced impression of the nature of the poem as a whole.Trade Review'The work deserves to be edited, and Cauchi has done the task impeccably... An edition which -deservedly- will never be superseded'. Colin Burrow, Journal of Roman Studies.Table of ContentsPRELIMINARY; STORY AND ITS SUBJECT: ROME; HERO: AENEAS; SECONDARY HEROES: DIDO AND TURNUS; HIGHER POWERS: FATE AND THE GODS; PRINCIPLES OF STRUCTURE: CONTINUITY AND SYMMETRY; POETIC EXPRESSION: LANGUAGE AND SENSIBILITY; MAKING THE STORY: FUSION OF THE LEGEND OF AENEAS' COMING TO ITALY WITH MATTER FROM ILIAD AND ODYSSEY; MAKING AN EPISODE: FUSION OF INHERITED MATERIALS EXEMPLIFIED IN THE 6TH BOOK; ECHOES OF HISTORY; RELEVANT AND IRRELEVANT ASSOCIATIONS. CONCLUSION; APPENDICES

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Book SynopsisNow adapted for ITV by Julian Fellowes, Doctor Thorne is the compelling story in which rank, wealth, and personal feeling are pitted against one another. The squire of Greshamsbury has fallen on hard times, and it is incumbent on his son Frank to make a good marriage. But Frank loves the doctor''s niece, Mary Thorne, a girl with no money and mysterious parentage. He faces a terrible dilemma: should he save the estate, or marry the girl he loves? Mary, too, has to battle her feelings, knowing that marrying Frank would ruin his family and fly in the face of his mother''s opposition. Her pride is matched by that of her uncle, Dr Thorne, who has to decide whether to reveal a secret that would resolve Frank''s difficulty, or to uphold the innate merits of his own family heritage.The character of Dr Thorne reflects Trollope''s own contradictory feelings about the value of tradition and the need for change. His subtle portrayal, and the comic skill and gentle satire with which the story is developed, are among the many pleasures of this delightful novel.Trade ReviewReading it made me laugh out loud and admire Trollope's wit, literary wizardry and hilarious digs at the debt-riden gentry's snobbish obsession with pedigree, money and the marriage market. * Val Hennessy, Daily Mail *I read it over Easter & was glued to my chair for hours at a time. * Lyn Baines, I Prefer Reading *Within this descriptive and compelling tale we encounter envy, avarice, brutality and arrogance, but essentially, Doctor Thorne is a beautifully written, nineteenth century tale of loyal, unfailing love. Excellent stuff; I just loved it! * Carrie King, The Writer's Drawer *There is wonderful comedy in Doctor Thorne...The book is a testament to Trollope's belief in decency as a guide to living, and I think we are made all the better for it. * Julian Fellowes, from his Foreword to the Oxford World's Classics edition. *

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Book Synopsis''Thus she was decapitated, and this was the end to which she was brought by her unbridled lusts.''For over two centuries after Boccaccio''s groundbreaking Decameron, the Italian novella exercised a crucial influence over European prose fiction. With thirty-nine stories by nineteen authors, many translated for the first time, this anthology presents tales from the whole genre and period. Here we meet a rich cast of humble peasants and shrewd craftsmen, frustrated wives, libidinous friars, ill-fated lovers, and vengeful nobles. These works had a considerable impact in English, and the selection includes tales that have provided sources for Chaucer, Shakespeare, Webster, Marston, Dryden, Byron and Keats.The typical novella is situated in a precise time and place and features people who either existed historically or are presumed to have done so. The subject-matter, whether ribald or sentimental, comic or tragic, often reflects the social and economic conditions of its age and thus the noTable of ContentsIntroduction A Note on the Text and Acknowledgements Select Bibliography Giovanni Boccaccio Proem The Conversion of Abraham Alibech and Rustico Tancredi and Ghismonda The Pot of Basil Madonna Filippa's Defence Peronella and the Jar Patient Griselda Ser Giovanni Fiorentino Giannetto and the Lady of Belmont Franco Sacchetti Piero Brandani's Son A Sermon on Usury Giovanni Gherardi da Prato The Tale of Catellina Gentile Sermini Anselmo Salimbeni and Angelica Montanini Antonio Manetti The Fat Woodworker Masuccio Salernitano Saint Griffin's Drawers The Castilian Student Sabbadino degli Arienti The Priest and the Friar Niccolò Machiavelli A Fable Giovan Francesco Straparola Fortunio Margherita Spolatina Luigi da Porto The Story of Two Noble Lovers Giovanni Brevio Madonna Lisabetta Matteo Bandello The Countess of Challant Giulia of Gazzuolo Timbreo and Fenicia The Duchess of Amalfi Niccolò d'Este Anton Francesco Grazzini Introduction Fazio the Goldsmith Lazzero and Gabriello Pietro Fortini Antonio Angelini Cristoforo Armeno The Metamorphoses of an Emperor Giovambattista Giraldi Cinzio The Moorish Captain Nigella and the Doctor Iuriste and Epitia Giambattista Basile Cinderella Sun, Moon, and Talia Francesco Pona Armilla Lindori Explanatory Notes Notes on the Authors

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Book Synopsis''Lie to me by the moonlight. Do a fabulous story.''F. Scott Fitzgerald''s first story collection, Flappers and Philosophers, appeared in 1920 on the heels of his debut novel, This Side of Paradise, and immediately established him as a master of popular fiction. Love stories such as ''The Offshore Pirate'' and ''Head and Shoulders'' capture the spectacle and fantasy of the Jazz Age, celebrating that modern icon of feminine self-possession, the flapper, while comedies of manner like ''Bernice Bobs Her Hair'' and ''The Ice Palace'' showcase Fitzgerald''s eye for humour. In addition to these four classic tales, which first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post , this edition highlights the author''s proficiency with other crowd-pleasing story types: from Gothic fiction (''The Cut-Glass Bowl'') to didactic moral stories (''The Four Fists''), from satire (''Dalyrimple Goes Wrong'') to spiritual quests (''Benediction''), Fitzgerald tried his hand at many genres---and succeeded at all.

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Book Synopsis''You have given a faithful portrait of a Thug''s life, his ceremonies, and his acts''Often overshadowed by Kipling''s Kim or Forster''s A Passage to India, Philip Meadows Taylor''s forgotten classic, Confessions of a Thug (1839), is nevertheless the most influential novel of early nineteenth-century British India. This was the first dramatic account to expose a European readership to the fantastic world of the murderous Thugs, or highway robbers, who strangled their victims and who have ever since been a stable of Western popular culture. Writing in the voice of a captured Thug, Taylor presents an Orientalist fantasy that is part picaresque adventure and part colonial exposé. Confessions of a Thug offers a unique glimpse of the colonial world in the making, revealing how the British imagined themselves to be omniscient and in complete control of their Indian subjects. This unique critical edition makes available a fascinating and significant work of Empire writing, in addition to exce

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Book Synopsis''The victor belongs to the spoils.''F. Scott Fitzgerald''s second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), is a devastating portrait of a generation of wealthy young Americans who struggle to find meaning and happiness in their lives. The sophisticated but emotionally fragile Anthony Patch enjoys an initially idyllic marriage to the beautiful Gloria Gilbert. But their intense romance turns sour as they waste their time and energy in decadent leisure and luxury. Their happiness comes to depend on gaining a vast inheritance from Anthony''s grandfather, but they are stifled by their inner fears and are ill-prepared for the inevitable loss of youth and prosperity. Set amid the vibrant social and commercial world of New York in the early twentieth century, the novel expresses the promise and disillusionment of America at the start of the Jazz Age.This is the novel that confirmed Fitzgerald''s status as the most celebrated young American writer of the Twenties. The author''s exuberant and enchanting style is on full display, three years before the critical triumph of The Great Gatsby.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 F. Scott Fitzgerald THE BEAUTIFUL AND DAMNED Explanatory Notes

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Book SynopsisThe Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Women''s Writing in English, 1540-1700 brings together new work by scholars across the globe, from some of the founding figures in early modern women''s writing to those early in their careers and defining the field now. It investigates how and where women gained access to education, how they developed their literary voice through varied genres including poetry, drama, and letters, and how women cultivated domestic and technical forms of knowledge from recipes and needlework to medicines and secret codes. Chapters investigate the ways in which women''s writing was an integral part of the intellectual culture of the period, engaging with male writers and traditions, while also revealing the ways in which women''s lives and writings were often distinctly different, from women prophetesses to queens, widows, and servants. It explores the intersections of women writing in English with those writing in French, Spanish, Latin, and Greek, in Europe and in New England, and argues for an archipelagic understanding of women''s writing in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and England. Finally, it reflects on--and challenges--the methodologies which have developed in, and with, the field: book and manuscript history, editing, digital analysis, premodern critical race studies, network theory, queer theory, and feminist theory. The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Women''s Writing in English, 1540-1700 captures the most innovative work on early modern women''s writing in English at present.Trade ReviewThis handbook offers a thorough overview of scholarly work on women's writing from 1540 to 1700. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice *

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Book SynopsisIt is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. So runs one of the most famous opening lines in English literature. Setting the scene in Pride and Prejudice, it deftly introduces the novel''s core themes of marriage, money, and social convention, themes that continue to resonate with readers over 200 years later.Jane Austen wrote six of the best-loved novels in the English language, as well as a smaller corpus of unpublished works. Her books pioneered new techniques for representing voices, minds, and hearts in narrative prose, and, despite some accusations of a blinkered domestic and romantic focus, they represent the world of their characters with unsparing clarity. Here, Tom Keymer explores the major themes throughout Austen''s novels, setting them in the literary, social, and political backgrounds from which they emerge, and showing how they engage with social tensions in an era dominated by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. The Jane Austen who emerges is a writer shaped by the literary experiments and socio-political debates of her time, increasingly drawn to a fundamentally conservative vision of social harmony, yet forever complicating this vision through her disruptive ironies and satirical energy.Trade ReviewThe book offers some valuable lessons for those first meeting Austen. It clarifies well how her free indirect discourse grew from her recognizing the limits of epistolary style; how sentimental histrionics can function as indirect social critique; how her overlooked biting wit hearkens back to Fielding and ahead to Waugh... * John Morillo, NC State University, Eighteenth-Century Fiction *The work is an engaging and timely introduction to the ingenious, inexhaustible Jane Austen. * Janet Todd, Times Literary Supplement *To wish this book longer is not to cast any kind of shadow on what it does achieve. Writing with an economy and lucidity of style befitting his subject, Keymer packs in the thought-provoking insights, not just about Austen's writing and the social and political world in which it moved, but also about the way in which has subsequently been received. * Joe Bray, Cercles *A light, sure-footed guide [...] Keymer has insightful things to say about all Austen's fiction, from the pitilessness of the hilarious early sketches to the intensity and passion of Persuasion. It is great fun to follow him as he nails Austen's effects in delightful phrases. * Jane Spencer, The Review of English Studies *Janeites of all stripes should take note of this critically robust account. * Everett Jones, Publishers Weekly *Highly recommended. * Emily Bowles, Library Journal *Tom Keymer reminds us, in timely fashion, of the delights and the unexpected rewards in reading Jane Austen with close attention. He presents a writer whose output is unified and varied, who offers us puzzles and problems and who prefers exploration to polemic and eloquent silences to explanations. She questions all she sees: the novel, society, and politics. Nothing escapes her teasing, critical gaze. This is an assured and witty introduction to a subtle and complex genius and a welcome invitation to look and think again. * Kathryn Sutherland, editor of Jane Austen: Teenage Writings *To illuminate literary greatness in a short book is a tall order. Tom Keymer's Jane Austen: Writing, Society, and Politics delivers precisely that, with admirable clarity and characteristic brilliance, in a captivating style that's worthy of the author herself. * Devoney Looser, author of The Making of Jane Austen *Keymer's introduction to Jane Austen is a delight to read, and every chapter offers something I hadn't known or considered before ... One might even claim that, though deep, its clear; though informed, yet not dull; strong but not kneejerk; without o're-flowing, full. * Cynthia Wall, University of Virginia *Table of ContentsNote on editions Introduction 1: Jane Austen practising 2: The terrors of Northanger Abbey 3: Sense, sensibility, society 4: The voices of Pride and Prejudice 5: The silence at Mansfield Park 6: Emma and Englishness 7: Passion and Persuasion Afterword Timeline References Further reading Index

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Book SynopsisRhetoric is an engine of social discourse and the art charged with generating and swaying emotion. The history of rhetoric provides a continuous structure by which we can measure how emotions were understood, articulated, and mobilized under various historical circumstances and social contracts. This book is about how rhetoric in the West, from Late Antiquity to the later Middle Ages, represented the role of emotion in shaping persuasions. It is the first book-length study of medieval rhetoric and the emotions, coloring that rhetorical history between about 600 CE and the cusp of early modernity. Rhetoric in the Middle Ages, as in other periods, constituted the gateway training for anyone engaged in emotionally persuasive writing. Medieval rhetorical thought on emotion has multiple strands of influence and sedimentations of practice. The earliest and most persistent tradition treated emotional persuasion as a property of surface stylistic effect, which can be seen in the medieval rhetoTrade ReviewAs with Copeland's other major studies, Emotion and the History of Rhetoric in the Middle Ages synthesizes multiple research fields to serve multiple audiences ... indispensable.' * Jonathan Newman, Studies in the Age of Chaucer *Copeland has given us a convincing and conceptually rich account of Western medieval rhetoric that will also serve as an invaluable resource more broadly for historians of literature, culture, and thought. * Jonathan Morton, Medium Aevum *Professor Copeland's text is a surprisingly readable history that builds upon itself logically, engaging the reader even as it carries them through dense lines of arguments and swaths of narrative ... Emotion and the History of Rhetoric in the Middle Ages is truly a life's work, and it is sure to become an essential text for scholars of the Middle Ages across the disciplines of literature, history, philosophy, and theology, as well as all kinds of scholars interested in a more broadly conceived history of emotions. * Shea Mccollough, English, Washington University in St. Louis, Comitatus *Copeland is generous with citations from primary sources and is always ready to explore the byways as well as the highways of her terrain ... Readers will thus find much to learn from this book. * Ad Putter, Review of English Studies *In this rich and wide-ranging study,...Emotion and the History of Rhetoric in the Middle Ages synthesizes multiple research fields to serve multiple audiences. * Studies in the Age of Chaucer *In this rich and wide-ranging study, Rita Copeland pursues two concepts of the relationship between rhetoric and emotion from Antiquity to the end of the medieval period...The volume can serve as a history of medieval rhetoric. * Jonathan Newman, Studies in the Age of Chaucer *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Before the Middle Ages: Emotion from Invention to Style 2: Christian and Literary Rhetorics of the Early Middle Ages: Emotion as the Property of Style 3: Emotion in the Rhetorical Arts and Literary Culture c. 1070-c.1400 4: Aristotle's Rhetoric in the Latin West: The Fortunes of the Path? 5: De regimine principum: Emotion, Persuasion, and Political Thought 6: Political Poetics and the Aristotelian Turn: Dante, Chaucer, and Hoccleve 7: Preaching, Emotion, and the Aristotelian Turn Epilogue: Mixed Rhetorics

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Book SynopsisOne of the earliest American novels, Wieland (1798) is a thrilling tale of suspense and intrigue set in rural Pennyslvania in the 1760s. Based on an actual case of a New York farmer who murdered his family, the novel employs Gothic devices and sensational elements such as spontaneous combustion, ventriloquism, and religious fanaticism. The plot turns on the charming but diabolical intruder Carwin, who exercises his power over the narrator, Clara Wieland, and her family, destroying the order and authority of the small community in which they live. Underlying the mystery and horror, however, is a profound examination of the human mind''s capacity for rational judgement. The text also explores some of the most important issues vital to the survival of democracy in the new American republic. Brown further considers power and manipulation in his unfinished sequel, Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist, which traces Carwin''s career as a disciple of the utopist Ludloe. 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.

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Book SynopsisCharlotte Perkins Gilman was America''s leading feminist intellectual of the early twentieth century. The Yellow Wall-Paper and Other Stories makes available the fullest selection of her short fiction ever printed. In addition to her pioneering masterpiece, `The Yellow Wall-Paper'' (1890), which draws on her own experience of depression and insanity, this edition features her Impress `story studies'', works in the manner of writers such as James, Twain, and Kipling. These stories, together with other fiction from her neglected California period (1890-5), throw new light on Gilman as a practitioner of the art of fiction. In her Forerunner stories she repeatedly explores the situation of `the woman of fifty'' and inspires reform by imagining workable solutions to a range of personal and social problems. 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 ContentsThe Yellow Wall Paper That Rare Jewel The Unexpected Circumstances Alter Cases The Gisnt Wistaria An Extinct Angel The Rocking Chair Deserted An Elopement Through This This Misleading of Pendleton Oaks A Day's Berryin' Five Girls One Way Out An Unpatentated Process An Unnatural Mother Three Thanksgivings According to Solomon The Cottagette The Widow's Might The Jumping of Place In Two Houses Turned Making a Change Mrs Elder's Idea Their House Her Beauty Mrs Hines's Money Bee Wise A Council of War Fulfilment A Partnership If I Were a Man Mr Peebles's Heart Mrs Merrill's Duties Girls and Land Dr Clair's Place A Surplus Woman Joan's Defender

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA fine translation. * Duncan Wu, The Independent *

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Book SynopsisAutobiography is one of the most popular of written forms. From Casanova to Benjamin Franklin to the Kardashians, individuals throughout history have recorded their own lives and experiences. These personal writings are central to the work of literary critics, philosophers, historians and psychologists, who have found in autobiographies from across the centuries not only an understanding of the ways in which lives have been lived, but the most fundamental accounts of what it means to be a self in the world. In this Very Short Introduction Laura Marcus defines what we mean by ''autobiography'', and considers its relationship with similar literary forms such as memoirs, journals, letters, diaries, and essays. Analysing the core themes in autobiographical writing, such as confession, conversion and testimony; romanticism and the journeying self; Marcus discusses the autobiographical consciousness (and the roles played by time, memory and identity), and considers the relationship between psychoanalysis and autobiography. Exploring the themes of self-portraiture and performance, Marcus also discusses the ways in which fiction and autobiography have shaped each other.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 ReviewMarcus's book is an excellent overview of autobiographical writing from diverse literatures and genres, paying particular attention to women writers and philosophical questions. * Philipp Reisner, Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies *excellent VSI * ANZ LitLovers LiBlog *A useful and entertaining introduction to autobiography by its foremost theorist. Clear, comprehensive, and very clever. For students and scholars alike. * Zachary Leader, University of Roehampton *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Confession, Conversion, Testimony 2: The Journeying Self 3: Autobiographical Consciousness 4: Autobiography and psychoanalysis 5: Family Histories and the Autobiography of Childhood 6: Public Selves 7: Self-portraiture, photography and performance References Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisA journey through the life and thought of George Orwell, from public school satirist and imperial policeman to Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four.Trade Reviewan honest and at times brilliant essay in biography and intellectual history-writing...the book really does offer a nuanced and fresh view * The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies *Robert Colls's fine study of Orwell... is sympathetic yet sceptical in tone, crammed with persuasive insights, bracing in its judgments and written in a pleasingly informal and occasionally idiosyncratic style * Dublin Review of Books, Enda O'Doherty *Scholarly and intriguing, it is a lovely semi-biography and a fascinating treatment of an English writer. * Les Gofton, Book of the Year 2014, Times Higher Education *In [Colls'] book, the reader catches echoes of the kind of spirited English conversation in which Orwell fervently believed. * Christopher Hilliard, History Today *No book about Orwell can be perfect; the man was too contradictory and too bloody minded to be an easy study. But Colls really gets it ... puts his finger on it... * Spiked *An eloquent reminder that George Orwell loved his country rebelliously ... both timely and necessary. * Calum Mechie, TLS *Full of learning and insight ... Colls is a lovely writer, who is fearless in a way that academics too often are not. He is happy to subvert clichés, make little speeches and is willing to permit useful generalisations ... There are several ways in which - quite apart from the success or otherwise of Colls' thesis - this book is a kind of Orwellian triumph. * David Aaronovitch, New Statesman *This is an excellent, provocative addition to Orwell ... an exceptionally interesting book ... Colls is now entitled to consider himself a prime ornament ... of Orwell studies. * D J Taylor, The Guardian *Colls is an honest and intelligent writer, interrogating a mind that he very much admires, about issues that he deeply cares about. * Roger Scruton, The Times *Illuminating insights ... [a] thought-provoking study. * Yvonne Sherratt, Times Higher Education Supplement *This is the most sensible and systematic interpretation of George Orwell's books that I have ever read ... This biography's achievement is to give us back Orwell the writer - neither a saint, nor an infallible sage, but a perverse, intelligent commentator on his time, and also, on occasion, a superb critic. * A. N. Wilson, The Spectator *a stunning piece of work, well researched, tautly written and often funny ... It is the best book on Orwell to appear for several years, erudite and original. It catches the extent to which Orwell lived on his wits better than any other account of his life. It's up there with Crick, Gordon Bowker and DJ Taylor. * Paul Anderson, Tribune *A compact intellectual biography with much political and social content ... There are useful critiques of Orwell's early "angry" novels, his gradual appreciation of the working class, and the political contradictions that he never fully resolved ... General readers will benefit from Colls's deft analysis of Orwell's writings and his attempt to pin down the author's politics. * Library Journal *[A] lucid work of intellectual biography Colls's engaging style and frequent bursts of astringent wit make for lively reading suitable for any Orwell enthusiast. * Publishers Weekly *Subtle, probing and refreshingly original study the closest and most intimate portrait of Orwell to date * John Gray, Literary Review *Short, witty and intelligent performing a valuable service by situating Orwell in the context of interwar history. * Robin McGhee, Prospect *There have been many books written about George Orwell but this is surely among the best. Rob Colls has taken on the man's Englishness, his personality, warts and all, and the elusive notion that he was a rebel in his own land. It's full of zesty prose, fine insights and a freshness of interpretation which made it a pleasure to read. It's a major achievement and a major work on George Orwell. * Melvyn Bragg *a lovely semi-biography and a fascinating treatment of an English writer. * Les Gofton, Times Higher Education *Colls's book is innovative and rewarding, despite covering a well-trodden field. * Gal Gerson, The European Legacy *Colls identifies and analyses a strand of Orwell's authorship the importance of which has been consistently underestimated: Orwell's highly problematic relations with his English inheritance By showing how this concern changed its shape over time Colls has changed our view of Orwell's life and work, and offered a fresh perspective on a pivotal period in English intellectual and political history. * John Gray, author of Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals *This book should interest both informed general readers and serious students of Orwell's work, for it represents a judicious and all-too-rare example of being an absorbing intellectual biography undergirded by scrupulous literary scholarship. * John Rodden, editor of The Cambridge Companion to George Orwell *Colls has written a highly entertaining book in the good plain jargon-free prose style so valued by its subject it has much for the general reader and student, and will ruffle a few ideological feathers which, as Orwell well knew, is always a good thing. * Spokesman *Thought-provoking and illuminating. * London Magazine *Refreshingly vibrant and all round excellent book ... George Orwell: English Rebel is as much a stimulating read as it is inspiring. Although more importantly, it's acutely informative. * David Marx Book Reviews *Superb. * Spiked *In his book the reader catches echoes of the kind of spirited English conversation in which Orwell fervently believed. * Christopher Hilliard, History Today *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgements ; Introduction ; 1. Angry Old Etonian ; 2. North Road ; 3. Eye Witness in Barcelona, 1937 ; 4. Mr Bowling Sees it Through ; 5. England the Whale ; 6. Not Quite Tory ; 7. Last of England ; 8. Death in the Family ; Life After Death: A Bibliographical Essay ; Notes ; Index

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Book SynopsisWhat is The Tiger Who Came to Tea really about? How is Meg and Mog related to Polish embroidery? And why does death in picture books involve being eaten? Fierce Bad Rabbits explores the stories behind our favourite picture books, weaving in tales of Clare Pollard''s childhood reading and her re-discovery of the classic tales as a parent. Because the best picture books are far more complex than they seem - and darker too. Monsters can gobble up children and go unnoticed, power is not always used wisely, and the wild things are closer than you think.''A gem . . . hard to put down. Thoroughly enjoyable'' Spectator''Essential reading for every thinking parent'' Penelope Lively''An enlightening, perceptive analysis of the books that build us'' Sunday Telegraph, 5 star review''A happy way to reconnect with old friends'' TimesTrade ReviewWhen I read Fierce Bad Rabbits, I thought, why has no one written this book before? But Clare Pollard has done so superbly - it is perceptive, illuminating, scholarly but at the same time entertaining. It should be essential reading for every thinking parent * Penelope Lively *This book is a happy way to reconnect with old friends * Times *An enlightening, perceptive analysis of the books that build us * Sunday Telegraph, 5 star review *A gem . . . hard to put down. The combination of vast scholarly research and witty writing makes for a thoroughly enjoyable book. Pollard has managed to dissect all our favourite stories with her scalpel, while leaving their magic intact * Spectator *Pollard is a poet, and her prose is stunning . . . she writes with a joy that is luminous. Essential reading for anyone with a child, or who ever was a child * i *Most people's primal cultural memory is that of being read to by a parent. This is a phenomenon most sensitively and intelligently explored in Fierce Bad Rabbits * Daily Telegraph *Pollard so delicately enters into the world of [picture books] that the reader feels they are rediscovering once-loved landscapes * New Statesman *Delightful. As good a guide as you could hope for. It will make you think again about why you loved the children's stories that mean so much to you, and it will lead you to new discoveries too. . . A happy reconnection to the serious joys of childhood * Harper's Bazaar *Excellent * Daily Mail Book of the Week *A celebration of picture books and their artists to spark your own childhood memories * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisA Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller In this remarkable memoir of love, loss and literature, acclaimed biographer Claire Tomalin turns her eye to another fascinating literary life: her own. She tells of a wartime childhood, Cambridge friendships and an early marriage to a brilliant journalist. After his sudden death in a war zone, Claire is left to raise their four children alone - all while leading a trail-blazing career in literary London. A Life of My Own is the tale of a woman overcoming obstacles both rare and routine to live not only a good but also a meaningful life.''A dramatic and absorbing survivor''s tale'' Hilary Spurling, Spectator''Unexpectedly moving. Tomalin''s story filled me with a kind of awe. Every page is valiant, every paragraph full of pluck'' Rachel Cooke, New Statesman''She has been tested in ways few women are. This memoir is a triumph'' Valerie Grove, Literary ReviewTrade ReviewYou will find it hard not to be amazed and impossible not to be moved by the indomitable spirit which drives this memoir...She comes across like the heroine of a great novel...a hugely entertaining book -- Anthony Quinn * Guardian *Absorbing, moving and marvellously written -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *Her memoir is peppered with fascinating pen portraits and anecdotes... she has tried, as Pepys did in his life, to give the 'texture' of a life. This she has achieved quite brilliantly * Sunday Times *She should be a heroine to modern snowflakes who melt at the first hurdle. Tomalin is like a glacier: unstoppable, inexorable, gathering resolve as she goes... The book is poised and beautifully paced * Times *I loved Claire Tomalin's memoir and ate through it in a day when I was supposed to be doing other things. So interesting and delightful and charming. I loved how she weaves the big dramatic events with the everyday - which is so much of what life is. -- Cathy Rentzenbrink, bestselling author of The Last Act of LoveShe has been tested in ways few women are. Her ability to overcome adversity may seem discreetly, even austerely handled, but for Claire Tomalin this memoir is another triumph * Literary Review *It is not Tomalin's professional life that impresses most in this memoir but her survival through personal tragedy, or rather , her remarkable ability to articulate its bleakness... She speaks from the heart but retains a sort of privacy, and is all the more powerful for it * Evening Standard *As well as her adventures in literary London as a hack, we also see a private life of contentment and heartbreak -- Robbie Millen * The Times Books of the Year *Ambushingly poignant * Observer Books of the Year *There is a truth to every chapter of her recollection -- Tim Adams * Observer New Review, Books of the Year *As one of the best biographers of her generation, Claire Tomalin had written about great novelists and poets to huge success: now, she turns to look at her own life * Guardian Books of the Year *In this triumph of clear sightedness, Tomalin turns her biographers searchlight on herself * Sunday Times Culture Books of the Year *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Canavan is an excellent critic and formidable researcher, and this book, written in accessible, quick-moving prose, is rich with perspectives and ideas. The best sections detail the stories Butler didn’t publish or complete, using those fragments to dive deeper into the texts that she finished. Like all good criticism, the book is both authoritative and invitational. Read it and you’ll marvel at the arguments and feel invited to develop your own." --New York Times "For those of us who cannot make the journey to the archive, Octavia E. Butler serves as a more-than-adequate substitute and entry into this treasure trove of Butler's writings."--Los Angeles Review of Books "A must-read for scholars of [science fiction], Canavan's scholarship is both a work of sharply dedicated research and a loving tribute to one of [science fiction’s] most creative geniuses. Highly recommended."--Library JournalTable of ContentsTitle pageContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsChronologyIntroduction: Beginning at the EndChapter 1. Childfinder (1947–1970)Chapter 2. Psychogenesis (1970–1976)Chapter 3. To Keep Thee in All Thy Ways (1976–1980)Chapter 4. Blindsight (1980–1987)Chapter 5. The Training Floor (1987–1989)Chapter 6. God of Clay (1989–2006)Chapter 7. Paraclete (1999–2006)Conclusion: Unexpected StoriesAppendix: “Lost Races of Science Fiction” by Octavia E. Butler (1980)Octavia E. Butler BibliographyNotesBibliography of Secondary SourcesIndex

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Book SynopsisIn the fourth volume in the Why I Write series, the iconic Samuel Delany remembers fifty years of writing and shaping the world of speculative fictionTrade ReviewPraise for Samuel R. Delany: “Delany’s prismatic output is among the most significant, immense and innovative in American letters.”—Jordy Rosenberg, New York Times

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Book Synopsis''Enchanting. Reading Barreau is like having me-time with your best friend'' NINA GEORGE, author of The Little Paris Bookshop''Heart-breaking . . . touching and magical until the very last page'' ELLE ___________Julien Azoulay is famous around the world for his beautiful romance novels. But last year, he stopped believing in love. When his beloved wife Hélène died, leaving him alone to raise his young son, Julien lost his faith in the happier side of life - and with it his ability to write. But Hélène was clever. Before she died, she made Julien promise to write her one letter for each year of her life . . . and now, in this moment, in the most famous cemetery in Paris, Julien stands with his painful first letter in his hand. Here, even though Julien wouldn''t believe it, something wonderful is going to happen . . . Come with us down the narrow streets, past the cosy red bistro o

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Book SynopsisThis book focuses on W. G. Sebald''s life and works — as teacher, as scholar and critic, as colleague and as collaborator on translation. It contains a number of rediscovered short pieces by Sebald, hitherto unpublished interviews, a catalogue of his library, and selected poems and tributes.Table of Contents1. Introduction Part I: The Writer in Context 2. A Childhood in the Allgäu: Wertach, 1944–52 3. The Sternheim Years: W. G. Sebald’s Lehrjahre and Theatralische Sendung 1963–75 4. At the University: W. G. Sebald in the Classroom 5. A Watch on Each Wrist: Twelve Seminars with W. G. Sebald 6. The Crystal Mountain of Memory: W. G. Sebald as a University Teacher 7. Against Germanistik: W. G. Sebald’s Critical Essays 8. Englishing Max 9. Translating W. G. Sebald — With and Without the Author 10. Sebald's Photographic Annotations 11. The Disappearance of the Author in the Work: Some Reflections on W. G. Sebald's Nachlass in the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach 12. Bibliotheca abscondita: On W. G. Sebald's Library 13. Afterword: Max Sebald: A Reminiscence Lyrisches Intermezzo 14. For my Friend, Max Sebald 15. For Max 16. Redundant Epitaphs 17. Il ritorno in patria Part II: The Writer in Dialogue 18. Rediscovered' Pieces by W. G. Sebald 19. Three Conversations with W. G. Sebald 20. A Catalogue of W. G. Sebald's Library Part III: A Bibliographic Survey 21. Primary Bibliography 22. Secondary Bibliography 23. Reviews of Works by W. G. Sebald 24. Audio-Visual Bibliography 25. An Index to Interviews with W. G. Sebald 26. W. G. Sebald: A Chronology

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Book SynopsisThis authoritative text of Bleak House was the first to be established by a comparative study of all the surviving versions of Dickens’ novel, incorporating evidence from the original manuscript and corrected proofs.

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Book Synopsis"A highly readable, sensitive, and lively Werther. Corngold is both faithful to the German and true to the demands of a modern English text" —Jeremy Adler, Times Literary SupplementTrade Review"Corngold’s new translation is of the very highest quality, punctiliously faithful to Goethe’s German and sensitive to gradations of style in this extraordinary, trail-blazing first novel." -- J. M. Coetzee - New York Review of Books"Corngold’s translation is earthy and precise, with language belonging to a young man who is capable of both elation and despair. If the prose sometimes sounds hyperbolic, so does Werther, who is by turns silly, melancholy, and somber." -- Rachel Shteir - The New Republic"Stanley Corngold’s translation is a triumph. This is a glorious achievement, a Werther for the ages." -- Christopher Prendergast

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Book SynopsisIn its centennial year, Marcel Proust’s masterpiece of literary imagination is available in a Norton Critical Edition.

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Book SynopsisJane Austen’s beloved comedic novel is now available in a revised and updated Norton Critical Edition.

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Book SynopsisThis Norton Critical Edition, edited by the pioneer of Great Expectations scholarship, presents the most thorough textual edition of the novel (1861) available.

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Book SynopsisThe text of this Norton Critical Edition of Thackeray's acclaimed 1848 novel is based on the Garland edition, the text approved by the Modern Language Association. The text is fully annotated and is accompanied by all of the author's original illustrations as well as a textual appendix.

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Book SynopsisThe text of this revised edition of Tolstoy's novel is based upon the 1939 translation by Louise and Aylmer Maude. The editor has made several textual changes and has revised and added to the footnotes. New critical material has been added to this edition, reflecting current ideas.

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Book SynopsisThis "Critical Edition" is based on the Maude translation. The text includes three maps of Napoleon's campaigns and battles in Russia, the publication history of "War and Peace", selections from Tolstoy's letters and diaries, three drafts of his introduction to the novel, and 20 critical essays.

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Book SynopsisCollected in this volume are Bartleby the Scrivener, Benito Cereno, and Billy Budd—presented in the best texts available, those published during Melville's lifetime and corrected by the author.

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