Literary studies: fiction Books

Book SynopsisGeorge’s memory is inseparable from Orkney, where he was born the youngest child of a poor family and which he rarely left. His mother was a beautiful woman who spoke only Gaelic and his father was a wit, mimic and singer, who also doubled as postman and tailor. Tuberculosis framed George’s early life and kept him in a kind of limbo. He discovered alcohol which gave him insights into the workings of the mind. While attending the University of Edinburgh he came into contact with Goodsir Smith, MacDiarmid and Norman MacCaig – and Stella Cartwright with whom perhaps all of them were in love. By the time of his death in 1996 he was recognised as one of the great writers of his time and country.

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Book SynopsisOn the day that A. M. Homes was born in 1961, she was given up for adoption. Her birth parents were a twenty-two year old woman and an older married man with whom she was having an affair. Thirty years later, out of the blue, Homes was contacted by a lawyer on behalf of her birth mother, and they began to correspond; her biological father contacted her soon after. These two individuals and their effect on the adult Homes are strange and unexpected, and the story spirals into something utterly raw and hilarious, heartbreaking and absurd. Along the way, Homes describes the clash between her childhood fantasies of her birth parents and the disappointing reality. She writes about the experience of experiencing biological resemblance for the first time (in 'My Father's Ass') and the addictiveness of the genealogical research she embarks on. She reflects on the significance of DNA testing and having two mothers and two fathers and unearths profound truths about her family and herself. Finally, she writes movingly about her own baby daughter and the way she has recently helped to mend Homes' fractured life.Trade ReviewA compelling, devastating and furiously good book written with an honesty that few of us would risk -- Zadie SmithVeracious words on the complexity and ambiguity of the fractured life of an adopted child. Celebratory and shattering, it will leave you asking yourself, adopted or not, who am I? -- Jamie Lee Curtis

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Book SynopsisA few magical poems by Coleridge remain among the most celebrated works in the language: KUBLA KHAN, CHRISTABEL and - above all -THE ANCIENT MARINER. All are included in this volume, together with many other superb but lesser-known poems and a selected prose extracts from the BIOGRAPHIA LITERIA and the NOTEBOOKS which show that Coleridge was not only a major poet but also a great critic and prose writer.

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Book SynopsisWhen friends die, one's own credentials change: one becomes a survivor. Graham Greene has already had biographers, one of whom has served him mightily. Yet I hope that there is room for the remembrance of a friend who knew him - not wisely, perhaps, but fairly well - on an island that was "not his kind of place," but where he came season after season, year after year & where he, too, will be subsumed into the capacious story.' For millennia the cliffs of Capri have sheltered pleasure-seekers & refugees alike, among them the emperors Augustus & Tiberius, Henry James, Rilke & Lenin, plus hosts of artists, eccentrics & outcasts. Here in the 1960s Graham Greene became friends with Shirley Hazzard & her husband, the writer Francis Steegmuller; their friendship lasted until Greene's death in 1991. In GREENE ON CAPRI, Hazzard uses their ever volatile intimacy as a prism through which to illuminate Greene's mercurial character, his work & talk & the extraordinary literary culture that long thrived on this ravishing, enchanted island.Trade ReviewA little masterpiece of reminiscence... reading a personal sketch of this quality makes me think that perhaps the conventional biography is just a grandiose dump-bin for all those elements of life that do not matter MAIL ON SUNDAY Her observations are penetrating, her style is superb, and her range of literary reference is the equal of his. Marvellous TIME OUT Shirley Hazzard achieves an astonishing amount in less than 150 pages ... Her memoir, like the island it so fondly describes, is a real gem to which the reader will wish to return SUNDAY TELEGRAPH Shirley Hazzard is highly observant and alarmingly intelligent; she is also erudite, precise and morally scrupulous. Her short book is not only a joy to read for its lucid, thoughtful prose, but also a refreshing antidote to biographical overkill and presumption. As a picture of Graham Greene, it is like an Ingres portrait drawing: small, but miraculously clear Spectator An affectionate but not uncritical portrait of a companion who could be charming but also provocative... it is a convincing picture of a man who has been much and excellently written about but seldom with so astute and yet so warm an eye Times Literary Supplement Charming... succinct and satisfying... her memoir, like the island it so fondly describes, is a real gem to which the reader will wish to return Sunday Telegraph

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Book Synopsis'For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door And Leerie stops to light it, as he lights so many more...' The picture of a small boy peering from a window at dusk to watch the lamplighter in the street is one of the enduring images of 19th-century Edinburgh, and the child probably the most famous ever brought up there. Robert Louis Stevenson loved to conjure up a dashing, romantic lineage for himself, dreaming that he was descended from the colourful outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor. The reality was less flamboyant but no less remarkable and he would learn that the street lamps of Edinburgh owed their brilliance to the scientific work of his own great-grandfather. This welcome addition to the Robert Louis Stevenson canon gives a concise account of his life - his family background, childhood and adolescence in a Calvinist, hard-working household in Scotland, his travels in three continents and his final years in the South Seas.It examines his relationships with his parents and his nurse, with English and American friends, particularly the family into which he married, and with the Samoan islanders among whom he died at the age of 44. Stevenson's childhood experiences and Scottish identity fed his fertile imagination wherever he found himself. His legacy includes travel writing, essays and poetry, and novels such as "Treasure Island", "Kidnapped", "The Master of Ballantrae", "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", "St Ives" and "Weir of Hermiston", still read and enjoyed more than one hundred years after his death. "Robert Louis Stevenson: The Travelling Mind" is an insightful introduction to the life and work of one of the world's best-loved writers.Trade Review' ... it seems we still have to remind ourselves how wonderful a writer Stevenson was. Dunlop's new biography does the honours with appealing brevity and elegance.' The Scotsman A concise, well-written chronological narrative of Stevenson's life, which, though it makes no new contribution to our knowledge, tells the story well and offers convincing interpretations of key moments (quarrels with father and Henley, family relations on Samoa.' ... Professor Richard Drury, RLS website ' ... a stimulating text, particularly useful for young scholars and those interested in learning more about Stevenson. Dunlop's enthusiasm about her subject will certainly encourage readers to revisit Stevenson's writings and to investigate further into his life.' Journal of Stevenson StudiesTable of ContentsThe Engineer's ChildThe Cummy YearsThe Education of a WriterWork ExperienceIn Two WorldsNorth and SouthThe Pains of LoveR.L. Stevenson, AdvocateBeside the StoveThe Travelling MindFamiliesSkerryvoreBreaking CirclesIn the South SeasA Laird in SamoaThe Myth of Robert Louis StevensonPostscriptSelect BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisGreat Expectations is one of the best-selling Victorian novels of our time. No Dickens work, with the exception of A Christmas Carol, has been adapted more for both film and television. It has been as popular with critics as it has with the public. In 1937, George Bernard Shaw called the novel Dickens’s “most compactly perfect book”. John Lucas describes it as “the most perfect and the most beautiful of all Dickens’s novels”, Angus Wilson as “the most completely unified work of art that Dickens ever produced”.                                                                                   Great Expectations has been so successful partly because it’s an exciting story. Dickens always had a keen eye on the market and subscribed to Wilkie Collins’s advice: “make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry, above all make ‘em wait.” From the violent opening scene on the marshes to the climax of Magwitch’s attempted escape on the Thames, the story is full of suspense, mystery and drama. But while these elements of Great Expectations have ensured its popularity, it is also a novel which, as this guide will seek to show, raises profound questions not just about the nature of Victorian society but about the way human relationships work and the extent to which people are shaped by their childhoods and the circumstances in which they grow up.

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Book SynopsisConrad finished Heart of Darkness on 9th February, 1899 and on publication it had an impact as powerful as any long short story, or short novel ever written – it is only 38,000 words. It quickly became, and has remained, Conrad’s most famous work and has been regarded by many in America, if not elsewhere, as his greatest work. Exciting and profound, lucid and bewildering, and written with an exuberance which sometimes seems at odds with its subject matter, it has influenced writers as diverse as T.S.Eliot, Graham Greene, William Golding, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o. It has also inspired, among others, Orson Welles, who made two radio versions the second of which, in 1945, depicted Kurtz as a forerunner of Adolf Hitler, and Francis Ford Coppola who turned it into the film Apocalypse Now. More critical attention has probably been paid to it, per word, than to any other modern prose work. It has also become a text about which, as the late Frank Kermode once complained, interpreters feel licensed to say absolutely anything. Why? What is it about Heart of Darkness that has captivated critics and readers for so long and caused so many millions of words to be written about it? And why has its peculiarly dark and intense vision of life so frequently been misunderstood? Graham Bradshaw provides the answers in this illuminating guide.

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Book Synopsis“A heroine whom no-one but myself will much like,” the author famously proclaimed. In fact, in any league of likeability Miss Woodhouse is streets ahead of Miss Fanny – the ostentatiously “meek” heroine of Mansfield Park. Meek Emma is not. Indeed it is her sense of absolute sovereignty over her little world of Highbury – her right, as she presumes, to dispose of the marriage choices of those in her circle – which brings her to grief. And that grief, by the familiar course of the heroine’s moral education in Austen’s fiction, makes her, through remorse and repentance, a mature woman capable of forming correct judgements. Not least about whom Miss Woodhouse herself will marry.                                                                                Emma, of all the six great novels, is the one which conforms most closely to Austen’s famous formula that “three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on”.  Emma is, by general agreement, the “quietest” of the novels.  Some have complained that there is not enough of a story in it, but others, as this guide shows, have found the plot in Emma the most successful Austen achieved. It is, for example, unusual among the sextet in playing a cunning trick on the reader who – unless they are sharp (sharper certainly than Miss Woodhouse) – may well be deluded as to which eligible young (or less than young) man the heroine will end up spending the rest of her life with. Or whether, given her frequently uttered distaste for marriage, she will end up the only unwed of the six heroines at the end of it all. 

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Book SynopsisJane Eyre, published on 16th October 1847, was an instant popular success. More than 150 years later, it still powerfully affects its readers with all the charge of a new-minted work. It is easy to forget, now, how shocking it was to its mid-19th century readers. Virtually every early reviewer felt obliged either to condemn or defend its impropriety. As Josie Billington reminds us in this compelling guide, the most savage reviews denounced the “coarseness” of language, the “unfeminine” laxity of moral tone, and the “dereliction of decorum” which made its hero cruel, brutal, yet attractively interesting, while permitting its plain, poor, single heroine to live under same roof as the man she loved. What caused most outrage, perhaps, was the demonstrable rebellious anger in the heroine’s “unregenerate and undisciplined spirit”, her being a passionate law unto herself. “Never was there a better hater. Every page burns with moral Jacobinism,” wrote an early critic. As the poet Matthew Arnold was to say of Brontë’s “disagreeable” final novel, Villette, “the writer’s mind contains nothing but hunger, rebellion and rage”. In this book Josie Billington looks at the passion and indeed rage which filled Bronte, and shows us that, though sometimes criticised for melodrama, this is a novel of great intellectual seriousness, moral integrity and depth of feeling. She quotes George Henry Lewis: “It is soul speaking to soul; it is an utterance from the depths of a struggling, suffering, much-enduring spirit.

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Book SynopsisLewis Grassic Gibbon (James Leslie Mitchell), the author of the acclaimed trilogy A Scots Quair, is one of the most important Scottish writers of the early twentieth century. This volume in the International Companions to Scottish Literature series gives a comprehensive overview of Gibbon''s writing, placing him in the broader context of the social, political, and literary developments of his time. A range of expert contributors demonstrate his continuing relevance both in Scotland and internationally, and provide readers with a comprehensive general introduction to his life and work.

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Book SynopsisNearly 100 years after Franz Kafka's death, his works continue to intrigue and haunt us. Even for those who are only fleetingly acquainted with his unfinished novels, or his stories, diaries, and letters, `Kafkaesque' has become a byword for the menacing, unfathomable absurdity of modern existence and bureaucracy. Yet for all the universal significance of his fiction, Kafka's writing remains inextricably bound up with his life and work in Prague, where he spent every one of his 40 years. Klaus Wagenbach's account of Kafka's life in the city is a meticulously researched insight into the author's family background, his education and employment, his attitude toward the town of his birth, his literary influences, and his relationships with women. The result is a fascinating portrait of the 20th century's most enigmatic writer and the city that provided him with so much inspiration; W.G. Sebald recognised that `literary and life experience overlap' in Kafka's works, and the same is true of this book.Trade Review`A useful addition to any thinking person's library... Wagenbach's volume on Kafka includes reproductions of Kafka's letters, original book covers and a well-drawn map of Prague showing the places mentioned in the text'- New Statesman; `Wonderful... Wagenbach is the doyen of Kafka scholars, and this is easily the best guide to his life and work: succinct, handsomely produced, and endlessly informative' - New York Sun

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Book SynopsisWhat is consciousness? What is it like to feel pain, or to see the color red? Do robots and computers really think? For that matter, do plants and amoebas think? If we ever meet intelligent aliens, will we be able to understand what they say to us? Philosophers and scientists are still unable to answer questions like these. Perhaps science fiction can help. In Discognition, Steven Shaviro looks at science fiction novels and stories that explore the extreme possibilities of human and alien sentience.Trade ReviewWinner of the University of California (Riverside) 2017 Science Fiction and Technoculture Studies Program Book Award

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Book SynopsisEverybody knows Charlotte Brontë. World-famous for her novel Jane Eyre, she’s a giant of literature and has been written about in reverential tones in scores of textbooks over the years. But what do we really know about Charlotte? 
As the famous siblings celebrate their bicentenaries, Charlotte Brontë Revisited looks at Charlotte through 21st-century eyes. Discover the real Charlotte: her private world of convention, rebellion and imagination, and how they shaped her life and writing – including the paranormal, nature, feminism and politics. It’s an indispensable guide for students and literature lovers, and emphatically shows why Charlotte is as relevant today as she ever was.Trade Review`Interweaves biography and reference to scholarly material with [Franklin’s] own take on pertinent aspects of Charlotte’s oeuvre ... [Her] witty tone makes the calibration of these two things — the pleasure of the literary enthusiastic and the scholarly — both easy and enjoyable. Franklin deftly mixes contemporary humour with reflectivity ... superbly written, exuberant.’
 Brontë Studies Journal

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Book SynopsisA series of chronological entries documenting Lawrence Durrell's life (1912-1990) and writing career, preceded by "Antecedents" (1851-1910), and followed by "Aftermath" (1991-2019), listing the main events connected with his reputation since his death. There is a 16-page "Index of Persons".

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Book SynopsisBack in print after two decades, Junglist tells the compelling, comic, stream-of-consciousness story of four young Black men coming of age among the raves and Jungle music scene in London during the 1990s. Layered with poetic verse, prose and humour, this cult classic of underground British fiction documents the rollercoaster ride of a weekend spent raving during Jungle’s cultural takeover in the summer of 1994. Jungle, with its booming basslines and Jamaican patois, burst from the pirate radio stations and mixtapes into cavernous clubs, pulling a generation of Black British ravers with it. Originally written as a way to document street culture as it became a feature of London, charting a time when working-class kids, both Black and white, merged to dance as "one family", Junglist is both a testament to Black British sound system culture and a rawthentic account of inner-city life.Trade Review‘‘A brilliant, neglected text of London gnosis, backstreet Modernism.""The world's first "Jungle novel", and a real headtrip... here is a living language, taking on new and weird shapes from its concrete habitat.""An amazing document of what London and UK clubbing was like at this time... Like the best club nights, you just don't want it to end."“Junglist doesn’t just allow you to hear the sound of a subculture through its pages, it implores you to feel it.”“A text that speaks to the soul of what was nothing less than a revolutionary moment in the unfolding of British multiculturalism.”“A hypnotic, immersive novel.”“A hypnotic, immersive novel.”

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Book SynopsisBorn in London in 1890, Angela Thirkell was Sir Edward Burne-Jones’s granddaughter, J.M. Barrie’s goddaughter and a cousin of Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin. John Collier painted her portrait and she was drawn by John Singer Sargent and Thea Proctor. Between 1931 and her death in 1961, Angela published more than thirty books in a variety of genres. She began with the acclaimed family memoir Three Houses and later settled on her amusing Barsetshire series, inspired by Anthony Trollope but set in the present day. Angela Thirkell: A Writer’s Life tells the author’s story from her Kensington childhood to her two marriages and the birth of three sons, Graham McInnes, Colin MacInnes and Lance Thirkell, all of whom also entered the literary world. The book traces her decade in Australia where she wrote for magazines and newspapers and made radio broadcasts, followed by her return to London and her fortuitous meeting with a young publisher called Jamie Hamilton, which lead to her bestselling Barsetshire novels.Trade Review"[A] careful and sympathetic biography." * Times Literary Supplement *“[A] concise yet lavishly illustrated biography.” * New Criterion *"This is the book all Angela Thirkell enthusiasts have been wishing for. It illustrates so many instances of how she translated her own life into the fictional world of Barsetshire, and for those who haven't yet discovered her it will make them want to make that journey for themselves." -- Penny Alred, former chair of the Angela Thirkell Society"Hall's new biography of Angela Thirkell is detailed, highly readable, and revealing. Her wide-ranging research and a gallery of illustrations not seen before thoroughly revise our understanding of the formative influences on Thirkell's writing and life." -- Kate Macdonald, author of Novelists Against Social Change: Conservative Popular Fiction, 1920-1960

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Book SynopsisGwyn Thomas was born, the last of twelve children, into a Rhondda mining family in 1913. After a childhood marked by the strikes of the 1920s, he went off to study Spanish at Oxford University and in Madrid, where he met the poet Federico Garcia Lorca and witnessed the turmoil which would lead to the Spanish Civil War. On his return, amidst the economic mire of the 1930s and his own burgeoning teaching career in Barry in the 1940s, he picked up his pen and began to write. For more than forty years, until his death in 1981, as novelist, screenwriter, master of the short story, and prizewinning playwright, Gwyn Thomas delivered compelling and comedic portraits of his world of South Wales. His creative genius earned enduring fame on both sides of the Atlantic and on both sides of the European Cold War divide. As a provocative and insightful broadcaster, he embraced the possibilities of radio and television, whilst leaving his hosts and guests alike in fits of knowing laughter. This landmark biography, enriched with unrivalled access to private papers and international archives, tells the remarkable story of one of modern Wales's greatest literary voices.Trade Review'This punchy portrait of a real Welsh literary heavyweight hits home with the brutal realism of Thomas' jabbing prose and mordant wit.' - Jon Gower, Nation.Cymru; 'Leeworthy knows his subject intimately, sympathises with him entirely, and locates him globally in such a way as to leave the reader with no doubt as to his importance as a writer' - Bethan Jenkins, Wales Arts Review

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Book SynopsisDescribed by Virginia Woolf herself as 'easily the best of my books', and by her husband Leonard as a 'masterpiece', To the Lighthouse, first published in 1927, is one of the milestones of Modernism. Set on the Isle of Skye, over a decade spanning the First World War, the narrative centres on the Ramsay family, and is framed by Mrs Ramsay's promise to take a trip to the lighthouse the next day - a promise which isn't to be fulfilled for a decade. Flowing from character to character and from year to year, the novel paints a moving portrait of love, loss and perception. Bearing all the hallmarks of Woolf's prose, with her delicate handling of the complexities of human relationships, To the Lighthouse has earned its reputation - frequently appearing in lists of the best novels of the twentieth century, it has lost not an iota of brilliance.Trade Review'Easily the best of my books.' (Virginia Woolf) 'A book which transcends time.' (Margaret Drabble)Table of ContentsTo the Lighthouse, Note on the Text, Notes, Extra Material: A Brief Introduction to Virginia Woolf, More Information about Virginia Woolf

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Book Synopsis** This title will be released on Monday, October 30th but is available for pre-order now ** A superbly rich and engrossing exploration of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Paths in the Snow traces the literary allusions and echoes to be found in this beloved novel, drawing the reader deeper into the magic and meaning of Narnia. From Dante to The Wind in the Willows, and from medieval dream poetry to Dorothy L. Sayers, Paths in the Snow uncovers the literary connections which criss-cross Narnia. Stories, myth and literature played a central role in Lewis’ personal life and religious imagination: he was a professor of literature who came back to faith by seeing the Christian story as a “true myth” created by God. Untangling the fascinating network of literary allusions and sources in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe helps to bring Lewis’ vision into focus. This study also examines the time in which the first Narnia book was written, shedding light on its historical and cultural context, and how these shaped its meaning for its first readers. Paths in the Snow reveals why the Pevensie children are always shaking hands with each other and what a wartime recipe for whalemeat fritters can tell us about Narnian food. The book proceeds chapter by chapter through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, making it ideal for reading groups or study sessions. It also provides an opportunity for readers to branch off into their own journey through the literary and theological sources which stocked Lewis’ mind. The perfect gift for any Narnian, and a valuable resource for groups, Paths in the Snow will appeal to all fans of C.S. Lewis’ work, and enable anyone to stand at the wardrobe door, and go further in.Trade Review'This is a book that will delight all Narnians. Jem Bloomfield leads us on a charming yet erudite ramble through the land of Narnia, pointing out many of the literary and theological references Lewis wove consciously or unconsciously into his tale ... I read the book in one huge gulp and enjoyed every page of it.’ -- Katherine Langrish‘Jem Bloomfield provides an insightful and interesting exploration of scriptural and literary echoes in the first Chronicle of Narnia. Always intelligent, often intriguing, and at times an arresting read.’ -- Michael Ward‘This is a rich and rewarding book, an indispensable guide for anyone wanting to gain a deeper understanding of C. S. Lewis’ much-loved novel.' -- Eleanor Parker‘Diligently researched and passionately argued, this literary re-reading of one of the best-loved children’s stories of the twentieth century is crammed with beguiling, often surprising, insights into the creation of the Land of Narnia.’ -- Brian Sibley

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Book SynopsisWhy do Agatha Christie’s novels continue to inspire each generation? The answer is the quality and range of her puzzles: her rich and varied structures of deception. Christie broke the mould of detective fiction and rewrote the implicit rules of the whodunnit. Agatha Christie: Plots, Clues and Misdirections examines Christie’s skills as a whodunnit writer. It analyses her methods in setting her puzzles. It shows how she uses a combination of diverse plots, cunning clues and subtle misdirections. In the sheer variety and profusion of each of these elements Christie is without peer, and her combining genuine puzzles with entertaining narratives has never been surpassed. In this unique analysis of how Christie sets her puzzles, two medical professionals and enthusiastic Christie fans explore the greatest of Christie’s deceptions – the impression that her writing is simple.

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Book SynopsisAyn Rand, author of the best-selling novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, is beloved by millions of readers, and equally despised by a significant number of detractors. Her novels and her revolutionary philosophy of Objectivism have acquired a world-wide following. They have also created legions of readers who are hungry for a deeper understanding of her writings.Despite her undeniably significant contributions to the literary canon and the progression of philosophy, there has been no simple, comprehensive introduction to Rand''s books and ideas, until now. AYN RAND FOR BEGINNERS sheds new light on Rand''s monumental works and robust philosophy. In clear, down-to-earth language, it explains Rand to a new generation of readers in a manner that is entertaining, and easy to read and comprehend.

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Book SynopsisThis book analyses the successive appearances of Adolf Hitler in French fiction between 1945 and 2017. It discusses why, unlike what has been observed in the US and in the UK, it has proven problematic for French novelists to write about Hitler in their numerous fictional explorations of the Second World War. It examines the literary and ethical challenges of including historical characters such as Hitler in fiction, and demonstrates how these challenges evolved over time as memories of the Second World War also evolved in France. jhopokTrade Review Table of ContentsChapter 1: Hitler and the Second World War in French Historiography and Fiction.- Chapter 2: Hitler in the Margins. On Jean-Paul Sartre’s Le Sursis (1945) and Jean Genet’s Pompes funèbres (1947).- Chapter 3: What if Hitler had Survived? On Pierre Boulle’s ‘Son Dernier Combat’ (1965) and René Fallet’s Ersatz (1974).- Chapter 4: From Adolf to Hitler. On Frédéric Dard’s Le Dragon de Cracovie (1998) and Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s La Part de l’autre (2001).- Chapter 5 : Adolf before Hitler. On Christian Millau’s Le Passant de Vienne (2010) and Michel Folco’s La Jeunesse mélancolique et très désabusée d’Adolf Hitler (2010).- Chapter 6: Hitler from France to the Rest of the World (and Back): Concluding Remarks.

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Book SynopsisOne of the most published and translated books in the world, The Little Prince fascinates the reader with its story of a pilot marooned in the Sahara after something goes wrong with his plane, and a little man with golden hair who has ''fallen'' to earth by chance.

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Book SynopsisThe Place of Dragons is an interesting journey book written with the aid of the well-known British creator William Le Queux, who's recognised for his undercover agent and mystery books. It's an interesting blend of spying, mystery, and politics round the world. The tale is set the main individual, Richard Scarsmere, who gets stuck up in a complicated plan regarding espionage and political plots. In a time of political unrest and uncertainty in Europe, The Unusual takes readers on an interesting journey thru distinctive nations as Scarsmere uncovers a sinister plan concerning the enigmatic Place of Dragons. Le Queux really knows loads about writing secret agent testimonies because he crafts a story complete of mystery agencies, political video games, and unexpected turns. The book continues readers on the edge of their seats with its issues of strength, lies, and the shadowy global of international politics. The Place of Dragons is proof that Le Queux ought to write interesting undercover agent stories. The book remains a tremendous example of flip-of-the-century journey fiction because it has a complex plot, well-drawn characters, and a feel of looming danger. It takes readers on an interesting ride through the secret global of spies and conspiracies.

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Book SynopsisDovlatov and Surroundings is a literary ode by one of the most consequential late 20th-century Russian writers, Alexander Genis, to another: Sergei Dovlatov. Though the book’s focus is ostensibly the man himself, the text unfolds as a comprehensive look at the Soviet, post-Soviet, and American cultures that shaped him and which he shaped. Dovlatov and Surroundings constantly, but effortlessly shifts its focus from the intimate to the sweeping, as Genis’s reflections on his friendship with Dovlatov organically give way to recollections about diaspora life, which transition smoothly into analyses of language, culture, politics, and literature. Characterized by Genis as an obituary, this book makes plain the significance of Dovlatov to Russian literature and the nuances of the Soviet cultural heritage.Trade Review“Appearing almost a quarter of a century after the publication of the Russian original, Rojavin's translation into English of Aleksandr Genis’s Dovlatov i okrestnosti, an ambivalent tribute to Russian literary historian Sergei Dovlatov, is flawless. … Including (often-unattributed) witticisms… this book… provides a sociohistorical record of the Russian immigrant life and elements of the diaspora trying to maintain the identity of their native land. … Recommended.— D. Hutchins, CHOICE“Dovlatov and Surroundings in this new translation offers a cocktail of brilliant spirits: An informative introduction by accomplished scholar Mark Lipovetsky, then Alexander Genis’s striking and influential study of beloved (and tremendously funny) émigré author Sergei Dovlatov. Bilingual translator Alexander Rojavin has brought Genis’s work into precise and idiomatic English, hitting every note right.”— Sibelan Forrester, Susan W. Lippincott Professor of Modern and Classical Languages and Russian, Swarthmore College“A famous Russian émigré writer and a sharp Russian literary critic meet in this blend of a literary biography and a memoir. Sergei Dovlatov’s massive personality is portraited by Alexander Genis sympathetically and with keen observations. In this book, life and literature intertwine seamlessly, as was the case for both Dovlatov and Genis. Those interested in a detailed account of the aspirations and mind-set of the Soviet immigrants’ literary milieu in New York will find this narrative educational and fascinating. The book works as a perfect entrée to Dovlatov’s simple, but exquisite prose.”— Olga Bukhina, Translator, Author, Children’s Books Specialist“Genis achieves the same effect that Dovlatov did: he simultaneously makes the Third Wave of immigration more intimate and more mythological. On the one hand, Dovlatov and Surroundings is the best possible memorial to a generation of immigrants who left the Soviet Union on a Jewish visa and created a new Russian literature abroad. On the other hand, it is a house, filled with joyful and dramatic life, whose doors are open to all who wish to enter. The fact that Genis’s philological novel is coming out in English today is proof of this project’s success. When all is said and done, Genis’s book is an inexhaustible source of optimism…”— Mark Lipovetsky, from the prefaceTable of ContentsForeword: Genis and Surroundings, or Twenty Years Later by Mark Lipovetsky The Last Soviet Generation Laughter and Trepidation The Poetics of Prison Do You Like Fish? The Metaphysics of Error Cabbage Soup from Borjomi Tere-Tere Poetry and Truth None of Us Are Lookers An Empty Mirror A Dotted Novel All That Jazz Pushkin A Concert for an Accented Voice Halfway to the Homeland A Matryoshka with Genitals The Unwilling Son of the Ether Death and Other Concerns Without Dovlatov A Brief History of The New American Dovlatov as an Editor Dovlatov on the Screen Dovlatov and Death

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Book Synopsis''Both extremely funny and deeply sad, The Writing School examines how and why we tell our own stories. It''s beautifully written and structured, compelling, wise and fabulously readable'' Lissa Evans''The Writing School is an extraordinary book. It is funny, exhilarating, heart-breaking and passionate. Its delicate pulsing themes are held like a bird in the writer''s confident, gentle hand'' Katharine Norbury''Life, with its unexpected troughs and highs, the disciplines of teaching a creative writing course and the shadow of a family tragedy provide the focus for a memoir that brims with humour, honesty and intelligence. The Writing School taught me a lot'' Elizabeth BuchanA creative writing course is a chance for reinvention. When author Miranda France sets off to teach at a residential writing school in a remote valley, she expects to meet a group of aspiring writers with the usual mix of hope and unrealised ambitTrade ReviewFascinating, hugely entertaining, instructive in the best sense. I always thought that writing could not be taught, only reading, but this book made me reconsider. I read it in one sitting -- Alberto ManguelBoth extremely funny and deeply sad, The Writing School examines how and why we tell our own stories. It's beautifully written and structured, compelling, wise and fabulously readable -- Lissa Evans'Intellectually riveting but also slyly funny and, out-of-nowhere, heartbreaking. What an achievement. I loved every word of it' * Nathan Filer *The Writing School is an extraordinary book. It is funny, exhilarating, heart-breaking and passionate. Its delicate pulsing themes are held like a bird in the writer's confident, gentle hand. Miranda France has created a brilliant, ephemeral eulogy for her beloved brother and a luminous gift for her reader -- Katharine Norbury, author of The Fish Ladder

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Book SynopsisAurora Floyd is one of the leading novels in the genre known as ‘sensation fiction’—a tradition in which the key texts include Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, Ellen Wood’s East Lynne, and Dickens’s Great Expectations. When Aurora Floyd was first published in serial form in 1862-63, Fraser’s magazine asserted that “a book without a murder, a divorce, a seduction, or a bigamy, is not apparently considered either worth writing or reading; and a mystery and a secret are the chief qualifications of the modern novel.”The novel depicts a heroine trapped in an abusive and adulterous marriage, and effectively dramatizes the extra-legal pressures which kept many such unhappy marriages out of the courts: fear of personal scandal, and of betraying one’s family through the publicity and expense of the process. Aurora’s bigamous marriage dramatizes the need for expeditious divorce without the enormous social cost, but the overt sexuality of the heroine shocked contemporary critics. “What is held up to us as the story of the feminine soul as it really exists underneath its conventional coverings, is a very fleshy and unlovely record,” wrote Margaret Oliphant.Braddon’s text is studded with references to contemporary events (the Crimean War, the Divorce Act of 1857) and the text has been carefully annotated for modern readers in this edition, which also includes a range of documents designed to help set the text in context.Trade Review“This is the only modern edition to be based on the first three-volume version of Braddon’s much revised novel, and the editors make an excellent case for their choice. A substantial and lucidly written critical introduction situates the novel in its contemporary cultural contexts; in debates about realism and sensationalism, and anxieties about class, femininity, domesticity and marriage. The appendices, containing a selection of contemporary views of femininity and domesticity, and responses to Braddon and her novel, are an added bonus to this excellent volume.” — Lyn Pykett, University of Wales-Aberystwyth“Invaluable … provides copious explanatory notes, appendices containing contemporary reviews and writings on femininity, and a thorough, well-organized introduction.” — Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionA Note on the TextMary Elizabeth Braddon: A Brief ChronologyAurora FloydAppendix A: Victorian Femininity: The Stable, the Home, and the Fast Young Lady “Fast Young Ladies” (Punch) “Six Reasons Why Ladies Should Not Hunt” (The Field) “Muscular Education” (Temple Bar) John Ruskin, “Of Queens’ Gardens” (Sesame and Lilies) (1865) Appendix B: Reviews and Responses H.L. Mansel, “Sensation Novels” (Quarterly Review) “The Archbishop of York on Works of Fiction” (The Times) W. Fraser Rae, “Sensation Novelists: Miss Braddon” (North British Review) Henry James, “Miss Braddon” (The Nation) Margaret Oliphant, “Novels” (Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine) George Augustus Sala, “The Cant of Modern Criticism” (Belgravia) George Augustus Sala, “On the ‘Sensational’ in Literature and Art” (Belgravia) “Sensation Novels” (Punch) Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe Victorian Art of Fiction presents important Victorian statements on the form and function of fiction. The essays in this anthology address questions of genre, such as realism and sensationalism; questions of gender and authorship; questions of form, such as characterization, plot construction, and narration; and questions about the morality of fiction. The editor discusses where Victorian writing on the novel has been placed in accounts of the history of criticism and then suggests some reasons for reconsidering this conventional evaluation. Among the featured essayists and critics are John Ruskin, Walter Bagehot, George Henry Lewes, Leslie Stephen, Anthony Trollope, and Robert Louis Stevenson; the classic essays include George Eliot’s “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists” and Henry James’s “The Art of Fiction.”Trade Review“The aura of the magnificent novels of the Victorians sometimes obscures the analytic thinking about the genre that one knows had to accompany all the imaginative glory. Too often it is only the amusing obtuse contemporary review that gets remembered. From the year of Vanity Fair (1848) until Henry James’s proto-modern “Art of Fiction” of 1884, Rohan Maitzen’s important new anthology drawn from Victorian periodicals gives us the critical work that accompanied and shaped mid-Victorian fiction. A clear introduction and concise and accurate notes contextualize and enhance the criticism, and make this a book that should be useful for years to come.” — David Latané, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsA Note on the TextsIntroduction Anonymous, Review of Jane EyreChristian Remembrancer (1848) David Masson, Thackeray and DickensNorth British Review (1851) George Henry Lewes, The Lady NovelistsWestminster Review (1852) Anonymous, The Progress of Fiction as an ArtWestminster Review (1853) Theodore Martin, Thackeray’s WorksWestminster Review (1853) C.W. Russell, Novel-Morality: The Novels of 1853Dublin Review (1853) Margaret Oliphant, Modern Novelists—Great and SmallBlackwood’s Magazine (1855) Marian Evans [George Eliot], The Natural History of German LifeWestminster Review (1856) Marian Evans [George Eliot], Silly Novels by Lady NovelistsWestminster Review (1856) W.R. Greg, False Morality of Lady NovelistsNational Review (1859) David Masson, fromBritish Novelists and Their Styles (1859) Walter Bagehot, The Novels of George EliotNational Review (1860) Henry Mansel, Sensation NovelsQuarterly Review (1863) Justin McCarthy, Modern Novelists: Charles DickensWestminster Review (1864) George Henry Lewes, Criticism in Relation to NovelsFortnightly Review (1866) R.H. Hutton, The Empire of NovelsThe Spectator (1869) Edward Dowden, George EliotContemporary Review (1872) Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library: Charlotte BrontëCornhill Magazine (1877) Anthony Trollope, Novel-ReadingThe Nineteenth Century (1879) John Ruskin, Fiction—Fair and FoulThe Nineteenth Century (1880) Robert Louis Stevenson, A Humble RemonstranceLongman’s Magazine (1884) Henry James, The Art of FictionLongman’s Magazine (1884) Biographical NotesWorks Cited and Further ReadingSourcesAuthor Index

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Book SynopsisHonorable mention recipient for the 2012 Society for the Study of American Women Writers Award.A pioneering American novel of manners first published in 1830, Catharine Sedgwick’s Clarence follows heiress Gertrude Clarence as she negotiates the perils of the marriage market in New York City. Giving Gertrude’s family English and Caribbean histories, Sedgwick aligns the United States in the 1820s with a larger Atlantic world. This edition of Sedgwick’s cosmopolitan novel will contribute to a rethinking both of the history of the American novel of manners and to the shape of Sedgwick’s career as one of the most important novelists of the first half of the nineteenth century.This Broadview edition offers a rich selection of contextual materials, including selections from Sedgwick’s correspondence and journals reconstructing the origins of the novel, engravings and lithographs of key sites in the novel, American and British reviews of the novel, and documentation of the author’s revised edition of 1849.Trade Review“This new edition of Clarence continues the important resurrection of Sedgwick’s writing for the use of both scholarship and teaching. The editors and press have done an excellent job of constructing a user-friendly edition of this important novel, while also including appended materials that richly contextualize it in antebellum literary history and transatlantic literary and cultural relations. The edition will undoubtedly get a lot of good use in the future.” — Philip Gould, Brown University“Homestead and Foster prove that this intensely urban novel deserves a central place in the American literary canon. Both the novel itself and the scholarly apparatus they supply show that Americans were producing fine novels of manners as early as 1830. An excellent edition of a fascinating novel, richly contextualized and historicized.” — Susan K. Harris, University of KansasTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction, Melissa J. HomesteadCatharine Maria Sedgwick: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextClarence; or, A Tale of Our Own TimesAppendix A: The American Novel of Manners and Transatlantic Literary Culture From William Cullen Bryant’s Review of Redwood, The North American Review (April 1825) From the Correspondence of Rachel Mordecai Lazarus, Maria Edgeworth, and Catharine Sedgwick (1824-27) From Catharine Sedgwick’s Journal Describing Society at Saratoga Springs (1827) Correspondence between Captain Basil Hall and Catharine Sedgwick (1827) From Basil Hall, Travels in North America, In the Years 1827 and 1828 (1829) Appendix B: Images of Trenton Falls G.B. Ellis, Engraver, after Thomas Doughty, Trenton Falls (1826) Catherine Scollay, Lithograph, Fifth View of Trenton Falls (c. 1825-26) After George Innes, Engraved Title Page of Clarence, by C.M. Sedgwick (1849) Appendix C: Images of New York City, c. 1830 and c. 1849 After J.H. Dakin, Engraved by Barnard & Dick, “Bowling Green, Broadway” (1831) After J.H. Dakin, Engraved by Barnard & Dick, “Broadway from the Park” (1831) After August Köllner, Lithography by Deroy, “Broad-way” (1850) Advertisement for the Masquerade from the New-York Evening Post (29 February 1829) Appendix D: Selected American and British Reviews of the 1830 Edition of Clarence New-York Evening Post (14 June 1830) American Monthly Magazine (July 1830) Ladies’ Magazine and Literary Gazette (July 1830) George Stillman Hillard, The North American Review (January1831) The London Literary Gazette (7 August 1830) The Ladies Museum (1 September 1830) Colburn’s New Monthly Magazine (September 1830) Appendix E: The 1849 Author’s Revised Edition of Clarence Advertisements for “Miss Sedgwick’s Works” and Clarence(1849) George P. Putnam, Advertisement for “Miss Sedgwick’s Works,” The Literary World (22 September 1849) George P. Putnam, Advertisement for the Revised Clarence, The Literary World (13 October 1849) Sedgwick’s Preface to Clarence; or, A Tale of Our Own Times (1849) Review from The Christian Inquirer (6 October 1849) Review from The Literary World (6 October 1849) Bibliography

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Book SynopsisMary Wollstonecraft wrote these two novellas at the beginning and end of her years of writing and political activism. Though written at different times, they explore some of the same issues: ideals of femininity as celebrated by the cult of sensibility, the unequal education of women, and domestic subjugation. Mary counters the contemporary trend of weak, emotional heroines with the story of an intelligent and creative young woman who educates herself through her close friendships with men and women. Darker and more overtly feminist, The Wrongs of Woman is set in an insane asylum, where a young woman has been wrongly imprisoned by her husband.By presenting the novellas in light of such texts as Wollstonecraft’s letters, her polemical and educational prose, similar works by other feminists and political reformists, the literature of sentiment, and contemporary medical texts, this edition encourages an appreciation of the complexity and sophistication of Wollstonecraft’s writing goals as a radical feminist in the 1790s. Trade Review“Here, combined in one authoritative edition, are the fictional works of this founding ‘mother of feminism,’ novellas that grapple with the same societal challenges that Mary Wollstonecraft herself confronted in the age of sensibility. Michelle Faubert has chosen her contextual materials wisely from among the political writings of Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, and their circle in London, and from among the broader circle of European texts dealing with education. With a lively, informative introduction, the book provides an excellent compendium of the ideas that galvanized the imaginative literature of Romanticism.” — Denise Gigante, Stanford University“Mary Wollstonecraft’s early novella Mary and her late, unfinished Maria are often relegated to critical contexts for her more famous Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Michelle Faubert’s new edition makes abundantly clear that these novellas deserve sustained critical attention in their own right. Faubert offers a generously annotated text framed by a thorough, detailed, and clearly written introduction and a carefully chosen selection of supplementary materials. Readers are now well positioned to appreciate the literary features of these works alongside their contribution to feminist theories of education, 1790s radicalism, and eighteenth-century medical theories about mental development and gender difference. This is an outstanding critical edition—exactly what one has come to expect from Broadview Press.” — Jonathan Sachs, Concordia UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionWorks Cited and ConsultedMary Wollstonecraft: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextMary, A FictionThe Wrongs of Woman, or MariaAppendix A: Relevant Texts by and on Mary Wollstonecraft From Wollstonecraft, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) From Wollstonecraft, “Cave of Fancy” (composed 1787; published 1798) From Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) From Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) William Godwin, “Preface” to the Letters in Posthumous Works (1798) From William Godwin, Memoirs of Wollstonecraft (1798) Appendix B: The Political Context: Education, Human Rights, and the French Revolution From Catharine Macaulay, Letters on Education (1790) From Edmund Burke, Reflections on the French Revolution (1790) From Thomas Paine, Rights of Man (1791) From William Godwin, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) Appendix C: The Novel of Sentiment, the Woman of Sensibility, and the Gothic From Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile, ou, de l’Éducation (1762) From Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) From Anna Lætitia Barbauld, “To a Lady, With Some Painted Flowers” (1792) From William Godwin, Caleb Williams (1794) From William Beckford, Elegant Enthusiast (1796) Appendix D: Education versus Nature: Phrenology, Associationism, and Nerve Theory From William Perfect, Cases of Insanity (1785) From Johann Caspar Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy (1789) From Joseph Priestley on Hartley’s Associationism (1790) Select Bibliography

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