Literary studies: fiction Books
Faber & Faber Normal People
Book SynopsisSally Rooney set the books world buzzing in 2017 with her debut Conversations With Friends; Normal People is a girl-meets-boy story with a difference, interrogating the difficulties of sincere communication in a complicated, post-ironic world. 'THE LITERARY PHENOMENON OF THE DECADE' - Guardian NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES WHICH WILL PREMIERE IN AUSTRALIA ON STAN ON APRIL 27 Winner of the 2019 Novel of the Year and Book of the Year at the British Book Awards Winner of the 2018 Costa Novel Award Winner of Specsavers National Book Awards International Author of the Year Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018 Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019 'Effortlessly brilliant ... tender and devastating.' - Guardian Books of the Year Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in the west of Ireland, but the similarities end there. In school, Connell is popular and well-liked, while Marianne
£9.49
Can of Worms Press Pelham Grenville Wodehouse: Volume 2: Mid-Season
Book Synopsis
£18.70
HarperCollins Publishers Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Book Synopsis Joan Didion’s savage masterpiece, which, since first publication in 1968, has been acknowledged as an unparalleled report on the state of America during the upheaval of the Sixties Revolution. Trade Review"Didion's essays of a world featuring barricades and bombings, mass murders and kidnapped heiresses make recent history as filtered through her seem a savage and passionate drama, something you can put a hand on and feel it beating, something you can put your ear to and hear its story."VILLAGE VOICE "Brilliant, troubling, indelible tales and reflections."SAN DIEGO TRIBUNE "Reveals a wholly original analytic mind, a sensibility as expansive and idiosyncratic as a 19th-century novelist's."MONA SIMPSON "Our quintessential essayist."JERRY KOSINSKI, 'LA Times'
£8.54
Faber & Faber Never Let Me Go
Book SynopsisDesigned to meet the requirements for students at GCSE and A level, this accessible educational edition offers the complete text of Never Let Me Go with a comprehensive study guide. Intended for individual study as well as class use, Geoff Barton''s guide: clearly introduces the context of the novel and its author; examines in detail its themes, characters and structure; looks at the novel in the author's own words, and at different critical receptions; provides glossaries and test questions to prompt deeper thinking.In one of the most memorable novels of recent years, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewed version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now thirty-one, Never Let Me Go hauntingly dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at a seemingly idyllic school, Hailsham, and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world. A story of love, friendship and memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life.
£9.49
Spark A Midsummer Night's Dream (No Fear Shakespeare):
Book SynopsisRead Shakespeare’s plays in all their brilliance—and understand what every word means! Don’t be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bard’s plays accessible and enjoyable.Each No Fear guide contains: The complete text of the original play A line-by-line translation that puts the words into everyday language A complete list of characters, with descriptions Plenty of helpful commentary
£7.59
Faber & Faber In the Forest
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£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers The War of the Worlds Collins Classics
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.For a time I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence, and that I stood there alone, the last man left alive.When a strange, meteor-like object lands in the heart of England, the inhabitants of Earth find themselves victims of a terrible attack. A ruthless race of Martians, armed with heat rays and poisonous smoke, is intent on destroying everything that stands in its way. As the unnamed hero struggles to find his way across decimated wastelands, the fate of the planet hangs in the balance . . .H. G. Wells was a pioneer of modern science fiction. First serialised in the UK in 1897, The War of the Worlds is one of the earliest stories to depict conflict with an extraterrestrial race, and has influenced countless adaptations and sequels.Trade Review‘groundbreaking … a true classic that has pointed the way not just for science-fiction writers, but for how we as a civilisation might think of ourselves’ Guardian ‘[Wells’ work is] astonishingly rich in human and historical interest … he foresaw the invention of, among other things, television, tanks, aerial warfare and the atom bomb’ David Lodge ‘I personally consider the greatest of English living writers [to be] H. G. Wells’ Upton Sinclair
£5.62
Can of Worms Press Pelham Grenville Wodehouse: Volume 1: This is
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£18.70
Vintage Publishing Palestine
Book SynopsisJoe Sacco, one of the world's foremost cartoonists, is widely hailed as the creator of war-reportage comics. He is the author of Palestine, Safe Area Gorazde, The Fixer, Notes from a Defeatist and Footnotes in Gaza, all published by Jonathan Cape.Trade ReviewA political and aesthetic work of extraordinary originality, quite unlike any other in the long, often turgid and hopelessly twisted debates that have occupied Palestinians, Israelis, and their respective supporters... With the exception of one or two novelists and poets, no one has ever rendered this terrible state of affairs better than Joe Sacco -- Edward SaidThe bar is set extremely high when it comes to graphic books and the Middle East: one thinks of Joe Sacco's Palestine * Observer *Palestine is a unique take on the Isreali/Palestinian conflict… The illustrator/reporter provides a unique perspective: there is an intimacy to Sacco’s interviews that cannot be translated into photography and text. His drawings make his subjects relatable to in a way that I think is difficult to achieve with a photograph. * Bleeding Cool *Palestine is utterly compelling, and as affecting as the work of any war photographer or poet. -- Annie Forbes * Varsity *
£17.00
HarperCollins Publishers The Great Gatsby Collins Classics
Book SynopsisThe Great American Novel of love and betrayal in the Jazz Age.I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby's house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited they went there'.Considered one of the all-time great American works of fiction, Fitzgerald's glorious yet ultimately tragic social satire on the Jazz Age encapsulates the exuberance, energy and decadence of an era.After the war, the mysterious Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire pursues wealth, riches and the lady he lost to another man with stoic determination. He buys a mansion across from her house and throws lavish parties to try and entice her. When Gatsby finally does reunite with Daisy Buchanan, tragic events are set in motion.Told through the eyes of his detached and omnipresent neighbour and friend, Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald's succinct and powerful prose hints at the destruction and tragedy that awaits.
£5.62
Faber & Faber The Light of Evening
£9.49
Faber & Faber House of Splendid Isolation
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Love Letters: Vita and Virginia
Book SynopsisDelve into a legendary literary love affair'I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone. I just miss you...'At a dinner party in 1922, Virginia Woolf met the renowned author, aristocrat - and sapphist - Vita Sackville-West. Virginia wrote in her diary that she didn't think much of Vita's conversation, but she did think very highly of her legs. It was to be the start of almost twenty years of flirtation, friendship, and literary collaboration. Their correspondence ended only with Virginia's death in 1941.Intimate and playful, these selected letters and diary entries allow us to hear these women's constantly changing feelings for each other in their own words. Eavesdrop on the affair that inspired Virginia to write her most fantastical novel, Orlando, and discover a relationship that - even a hundred years later - feels radical and relatable.WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION FROM ALISON BECHDEL, AUTHOR OF FUN HOME AND CREATOR OF THE BECHDEL TEST.Trade Review"A deliciously tactile volume of love letters; I've been carrying them around the house, dipping in and out, and finding new things each time. As Vita said of Mrs Dalloway, they bewilder, illuminate and reveal" - Nino Strachey, author of Rooms of Their Own -- Nino Strachey, author of Rooms of Their Own
£11.69
Faber & Faber Maud Martha Faber Editions
Book SynopsisAS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4''S ''A GOOD READ''Such a wonderful book. Utterly unique, exquisitely crafted and quietly powerful. I loved it and want everyone to read this lost literary treasure.'' Bernardine Evaristo''Maud Martha finds beauty in the brutal formative moments that make us. It is one of my favorite depictions of how a woman comes to trust her eyes.'' Raven Leilani''The quotidian rises to an exquisite portraiture of black womanhood in the hands of one of America''s most foundational writers.'' Claudia Rankine''Maud Martha reveals the poetry, power and splendor of an ordinary life.'' Tayari Jones''Incredible ... She is a quietly radical seer, she is literature itself, a person in the world. It's a rare kind of perfect!'' Max PorterWhat, what, am I to do with all of this life? Maud Martha Brown is a little girl growing up on the South Side of 1940s Chicago. Amidst the crumblinTrade Review'Alive, reaching, and very much of today.'- Langston Hughes'One of the most spatially poetic novels ever ... Awesome.' - Eileen Myles
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Beowulf
Book SynopsisThe translation of Beowulf by J.R.R. Tolkien was an early work, very distinctive in its mode, completed in 1926: he returned to it later to make hasty corrections, but seems never to have considered its publication. This edition is twofold, for there exists an illuminating commentary on the text of the poem by the translator himself, in the written form of a series of lectures given at Oxford in the 1930s; and from these lectures a substantial selection has been made, to form also a commentary on the translation in this book. From his creative attention to detail in these lectures there arises a sense of the immediacy and clarity of his vision. It is as if he entered into the imagined past: standing beside Beowulf and his men shaking out their mail-shirts as they beached their ship on the coast of Denmark, listening to the rising anger of Beowulf at the taunting of Unferth, or looking up in amazement at Grendel's terrible hand set under the roof of Heorot.Trade Review“This is long-awaited, and hugely exciting for Tolkien readers” The Guardian “If he had never written The Lord of the Rings he would have been famous in academic circles for writing one published lecture on Beowulf called The Monsters and the Critics. It turned things upside down. Beowulf was probably the medieval text that influenced him the most and the commentary and lectures are ‘nuggets of gold’”The Independent “A tantalising prospect. Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain is a master class in linguistic chicanery – Middle English meets Middle Earth… it will be interesting to see if it gives Heaney's Beowulf a run for its money”Simon Armitage, The Guardian
£9.49
Oldcastle Books Ltd Into the Badlands
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£15.29
Hodder & Stoughton Agatha Christie: The Sunday Times Bestseller
Book Synopsis'A smart and highly entertaining portrait of a literary powerhouse'- THE TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR'A riveting portrait'- GUARDIAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR***'Worsley's sparkling biography brings a fresh eye to Christie's life and work, firmly busting the myth that she, or her novels, were cosy.' Daily Mail'Every Christie fan should read this' - The Times'Shows the Queen of Crime in a new light.' - Daily Telegraph'Worsley's book excels in bringing a broader historical perspective to Christie's life and work, and her enthusiasm is infectious.' - Observer'Nobody in the world was more inadequate to act the heroine than I was.'Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was 'just' an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn't? As Lucy Worsley says, 'She was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern'. She went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness. So why - despite all the evidence to the contrary - did Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure? She was born in 1890 into a world which had its own rules about what women could and couldn't do. Lucy Worsley's biography is not just of an internationally renowned bestselling writer. It's also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman. With access to personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen, Lucy Worsley's biography is both authoritative and entertaining and makes us realise what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christie was - truly a woman who wrote the twentieth century.Trade ReviewEvery Christie fan should read this. * The Times *Shows the Queen of Crime in a new light. * Daily Telegraph *Worsley's sparkling biography brings a fresh eye to Christie's life and work, firmly busting the myth that she, or her novels, were cosy. * Daily Mail *
£10.44
Oxford University Press Frankenstein
Book SynopsisThe most celebrated horror story ever written. The dreadful tale of Victor Frankenstein, a visionary young student of natural philosophy, who discovers the secret of life. In the grip of his obsession he constructs and animates a creature from dead body parts - with catastrophic results.Trade Reviewprobably the most brilliantly comprehensive introduction to Frankenstein that I have ever read. Even if you've read the book ... ou have to buy this finely produced OUP annotated edition to enjoy Nick Grooms distillation of Frankenstein's ideas and challenges: especially so as this is the first raw 1818 edition." * Magonia Review *wonderful * Oliver Tearle, Interesting Literature *a quality edition ... it uses the original 1818 text and ... it tells us so much about the author and her history; it is both a novel and a very useful reference book. And what is more, it both looks and feels good - well worthy of a place on your shelves. * Peter Tyers, Science Fact & Science Fiction Concatenation *Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Mary Shelley Frankenstein Appendix A. Author's Introduction to the Standard Novels Edition (1831) Appendix B. The Third Edition (1831): Substantive Changes Appendix C. On Frankenstein by Percy Bysshe Shelley Explanatory Notes
£7.06
Oxford University Press The Karamazov Brothers
Book SynopsisDostoevsky''s last and greatest novel, The Karamazov Brothers (1880) is both a brilliantly told crime story and a passionate philosophical debate. The dissolute landowner Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is murdered; his sons - the atheist intellectual Ivan, the hot-blooded Dmitry, and the saintly novice Alyosha - are all at some level involved.Bound up with this intense family drama is Dostoevsky''s exploration of many deeply felt ideas about the existence of God, the question of human freedom, the collective nature of guilt, the disatrous consequences of rationalism. The novel is also richly comic: the Russian Orthodox Church, the legal system, and even the authors most cherished causes and beliefs are presented with a note of irreverence, so that orthodoxy, and radicalism, sanity and madness, love and hatred, right and wrong are no longer mutually exclusive. Rebecca West considered it the allegory for the world''s maturity, but with children to the fore. This new translation does full justice to Doestoevsky''s genius, particularly in the use of the spoken word, which ranges over every mode of human expression. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
£8.99
Pan Macmillan The Worlds Wife
Book SynopsisCarol Ann Duffy lives in Manchester, where she is Professor and Creative Director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her poetry has received many awards, including the Signal Prize for Children's Verse, the Whitbread, Forward and T. S. Eliot Prizes, and the Lannan and E. M. Forster Prize in America. She was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 2009 to 2019. Her many collections include Mean Time, Love Poems and The Bees, which won the Costa Poetry Award. Her writing for children includes Queen Munch and Queen Nibble, The Skipping-Rope Snake and The Tear Thief. She was made a DBE in the 2015 New Year Honours list. In 2021, she was awarded the international lifetime achievement award the Golden Wreath for her achievements in poetry.Trade ReviewPoignant, thoughtful, funny, rich and accessible -- Ruth Padel, Books of the Year * Guardian *These thirty poems vibrate with intense colloquialisms, physicality, energy, freshness and cheek. Many of them are very funny... the best are inventive, subversive and written with great rhythmical and rhyming dash * Sunday Telegraph *Carol Ann Duffy is a poet of skill, talent and great heart -- Erica WagnerThe World's Wife is a joyous exuberant book of poems about women usually excluded from myth and history * Guardian *Duffy takes a cheeky, subversive, no-nonsense swipe with a dish clout at the famous men of history and myth. They don't have a chance in hell of dodging her quick-witted wallop as she relays their stories from their spouse's points of view * The Times *It sparkes with wit, intelligence and an impressive lightness of touch, while drawing on some weighty emotional experiences: loneliness, jealousy, self-loathing, desire, the fierceness of a mother's love -- Christina Patterson * Independent *She reveals the foibles of the great, the ghastly and the ordinary bloke and the sufferings of those closest to them. The result is a melange of history lesson, fairy-tale and modern-day domestic tragedy, with the occasional joke thrown in for good measure. . . Duffy's poetics are flawless - she never misses a beat, her pace is exhilarating, and her language is original and exciting * Scotsman *This book is going to be a hit, and can only consolidate Duffy's position as one of the most widely read British poets of her generation -- Robert Crawford * Herald *
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers Walking The Invisible
Book SynopsisSee through the eyes of the Brontës as you immerse yourself in their lives and landscapes, wandering the very same paths they each would have walked in search of the inspiration behind their novels and poetry.An imaginative and elegant trek through the landscape of the Brontës' GraziaIn his journey to get closer to the Brontës, award-winning author Michael Stewart began walking the historic paths they trod while writing their most famous works. From Liverpool to Scarborough, across wild, windy, and often unforgiving scenery, he discovered echoes of the siblings' novels. And with the help of an unlikely cast of Yorkshire's inhabitants, Michael found himself falling further into their lives and writings than he could ever have imagined.Vivid and evocative, and including a series of beautiful maps of walks Michael devised when creating the iconic Brontë Stones project, Walking the Invisible invites you to experience the lives and landscapes that inspired the Brontës as they've never been Trade ReviewAn ‘imaginative and elegant trek through the landscape of the Brontës’ Grazia ‘An essential companion’ Lancashire Post ‘Literary but unpretentious’ My Weekly ‘Stewart’s passion and enthusiasm for the Brontes’ lives and work and the landscape that shaped them is palpable and infectious. If you weren’t struck […] with “Bronte Fever” before, after reading this you may well be’ Yorkshire Post ‘A terrific tribute to the Brontës – and to the landscapes that shaped their literature’ Guardian ‘For those who wish to follow in the footsteps of the Brontës, however the surroundings might have shifted over 200 years, Michael Stewart is an engaging and knowledgeable guide to have leading the way.’Brontë Studies ‘An authoritative, inspirational and often humorous companion to a great Yorkshire family and the landscape that shaped them – and many others – throughout history’ Yorkshire Life
£9.49
Oxford University Press Pride and Prejudice
Book SynopsisWith the arrival of eligible young men in their neighbourhood, the lives of Mr and Mrs Bennet and their five daughters are turned inside out. Pride encounters prejudice, upward-mobility confronts social disdain, and quick-wittedness challenges sagacity, as misconceptions and hasty judgements lead to heartache and scandal.Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice Volume I Volume II Volume III Explanatory Notes
£5.99
HarperCollins Publishers The Bovadium Fragments
£17.00
HarperCollins Publishers The Sign of the Four Collins Classics
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world'In London, 1888, the razor-sharp detective skills of Sherlock Holmes are to be put to the test. Mary Morstan reports two seemingly unconnected and inexplicable events: the disappearance of her father, a British Indian Army Captain, and the arrival of pearls by post from an unknown sender. Driven on by its complexity, Holmes and Watson slowly begin to unravel an intricate web of exotic treasure, secret pacts and mysterious deaths.One of only four novels featuring Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Watson, The Sign of the Four' will delight those who have been captivated by Arthur Conan Doyle's short stories.Trade Review‘Of all the Holmes stories it is ‘The Sign of Four’ which remains persistently in my memory.’ Graham Greene
£5.62
Transworld Reacher The Stories Behind The Stories
Book SynopsisLee Child is one of the world's leading thriller writers. He was born in Coventry, raised in Birmingham, and now lives in New York. It is said one of his novels featuring his hero Jack Reacher is sold somewhere in the world every nine seconds. His books consistently achieve the number-one slot on bestseller lists around the world and have sold over one hundred million copies. Lee is the recipient of many awards including Author of the Year at the 2019 British Book Awards. He was appointed CBE in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours.
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd The Fire Next Time
Book Synopsis''Sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle ... all presented in searing, brilliant prose'' The New York Times Book Review We, the black and the white, deeply need each other here if we are really to become a nationJames Baldwin''s impassioned plea to ''end the racial nightmare'' in America was a bestseller when it appeared in 1963, galvanising a nation and giving voice to the emerging civil rights movement. Told in the form of two intensely personal ''letters'', The Fire Next Time is at once a powerful evocation of Baldwin''s early life in Harlem and an excoriating condemnation of the terrible legacy of racial injustice.''A seminal meditation on race by one of our greatest writers'' Barack Obama''Baldwin writes with great passion ... it reeks of truth, as the ghettoes of New York and London, Chicago and Manchester reek of our hypocrisy'' Sunday Times''The great poet-prophet of the civil rights movement ... his seminal work'' GuardianTrade ReviewRiveting . . . part of Baldwin's enduring power is that he was not a political thinker. He was interested in the soul's dark spaces much more than in the body politic. -- Colm Toibin * Telegraph *The great poet-prophet of the civil rights movement ... his seminal work * Guardian *Sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle . . . all presented in searing, brilliant prose * The New York Times Book Review *Baldwin writes with great passion ... it reeks of truth, as the ghettoes of New York and London, Chicago and Manchester reek of our hypocrisy * Sunday Times *A true prophet . . . his thought and its utterance are nothing less than majestical -- Mario Puzo * The New York Times *
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers Dubliners
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.One by one they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.'Revealing the truths and realities about Irish society in the early 20th century, Joyce's Dubliners challenged the prevailing image of Dublin at the time. A group portrait made up of 15 short stories about the inhabitants of Joyce's native city, he offers a subtle critique of his own town, imbuing the text with an underlying tone of tragedy. Through his various characters he displays the complicated relationships, hardships and mundane details of everyday life and the desire for escape a yearning that so closely mirrored his own experiences.
£5.62
HarperCollins Publishers The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
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£11.69
Oxford University Press Hunger
Book Synopsis''It was at the time when I was wandering around hungry in Kristiania, that strange city no one leaves before it has set its mark on them...'' Hunger is the first-person story of a young man desperately trying to establish himself in the city as a writer, living in shabby lodgings where he can seldom afford to pay the rent, eating almost nothing, and engaging spasmodically and manically with landladies, eccentric elderly men, policemen, shopkeepers, pawnbrokers, and others on the way. He wanders around the streets, sits on benches trying to write, spends a night locked in a pitch-dark police cell, thinks, slides into remarkably inventive reveries, speculates on his mental health, his ethical comportment, his relation to the divinity, the topics he might write about. The traces of a consistent narrative logic are uncertain and blurred; the voice of the narrator keeps shifting between pragmatic appraisal of his situation, wild fantasies, manic outbursts, anger, and despair. This is a stoTable of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Translation Select Bibliography A Chronology of Knut Hamsun Hunger Explanatory Notes
£6.64
Cassava Republic Press A Pair of Wings
Book SynopsisAn airline captain crafts a riveting, adventurous novel inspired by the remarkable true life of pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman, a Black woman who learned to fly at the dawn of aviation and found freedom in the air.The daughter of a woman born into slavery, Bessie answers the call of the Great Migration, moving to Chicago, where she wins the backing of two wealthy, powerful Black men--Robert Abbott, creator and publisher of the Chicago Defender, and Jesse Binga, the founder of Chicago's first Black bank.While she finds no prejudice in the air, Bessie wrestles with other challenges on the ground. A plane crash nearly kills her, her brothers seem to be crumbling under the weight of Jim Crow, and, while grappling with tough truths about Binga, Bessie begins to wonder if the freedom she finds in the sky means she must otherwise fly solo.
£13.49
Alma Books Ltd The Crack-up
Book SynopsisCompiled and published after Fitzgerald's death by his friend, the prominent critic and editor Edmund Wilson, The Crack-Up is a collection of writings that chronicle the author's state of mind and personal perspective on events, fellow writers and public figures of the 1920s and 1930s. In addition to articles and essays such as the celebrated title piece, this volume includes a selection of Fitzgerald's notebooks, which - as well as being a repository of anecdotes and witty lines - provide a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into the novelist's creative process, with passages that would be reworked into his fiction.Trade ReviewHe was better than he knew, for in fact and in the literary sense he invented a generation. * The New York Times *
£8.54
Oxford University Press The Kill
Book Synopsis''It was the time when the rush for spoils filled a corner of the forest with the yelping of hounds, the cracking of whips, the flaring of torches. The appetites let loose were satisfied at last, shamelessly, amid the sound of crumbling neighbourhoods and fortunes made in six months. The city had become an orgy of gold and women.''The Kill (La Curée) is the second volume in Zola''s great cycle of twenty novels, Les Rougon-Macquart, and the first to establish Paris - the capital of modernity - as the centre of Zola''s narrative world. Conceived as a representation of the uncontrollable ''appetites'' unleashed by the Second Empire (1852-70) and the transformation of the city by Baron Haussmann, the novel combines into a single, powerful vision the twin themes of lust for money and lust for pleasure. The all-pervading promiscuity of the new Paris is reflected in the dissolute and frenetic lives of an unscrupulous property speculator, Saccard, his neurotic wife Renée, and her dandified lover, Saccard''s son Maxime. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewNelson's translation is preceded by a highly useful and scrupulously researched introduction [with] a depth of analysis rarely found in introduction of this kind... The translation itself is sensitive and elegant...the text reads as an engaging and thoughtful close rereading of the original which is especially effective in bringing Zola's fascination with descriptive detail to the attention of the anglophone reader without syntactically overburdening the prose. * Hannah Thompson, Modern Languages Review vol 102, part1 *Émile Zola's The Kill, in Brian Nelsons thrillingly good Oxford World's Classics translation, is one of the most sensuous, sexy books that I think Ive ever read. * Illuminations *
£7.99
Faber & Faber A Lifes Work
Book Synopsis''I laughed out loud, often, in painful recognition.' Esther Freud''Cusk has created a work of beauty and wisdom.'' New Statesman''Cusk is not afraid to address frankly the grief for freedom lost, the despair, pain, boredom and guilt all in the context of the mother''s unspeakable love for the baby.'' Stephanie Merritt, ObserverA Life's Work is Rachel Cusk's funny, moving, brutally honest account of her early experiences of motherhood. An education in babies, books, breast-feeding, toddler groups, broken nights, bad advice and never being alone, it is a landmark work, which has provoked acclaim and outrage in equal measure.
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd The Life of Charlotte Bronte
Book SynopsisElizabeth Gaskell''s biography of her close friend Charlotte Brontë was published in 1857 to immediate popular acclaim, and remains the most significant study of the enigmatic author who gave Jane Eyre the subtitle An Autobiography. It recounts Charlotte Brontë''s life from her isolated childhood, through her years as a writer who had ''foreseen the single life'' for herself, to her marriage at thirty-eight and death less than a year later. The resulting work - the first full-length biography of a woman novelist by a woman novelist - explored the nature of Charlotte''s genius and almost single-handedly created the Brontë myth.
£11.69
Oxford University Press George Orwell
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£14.99
Prakash Books Around the World in Eighty Days Deluxe Hardbound Edition
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£9.90
Oxford University Press The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Book Synopsis''he looked up wistfully in my face, and gravely asked - Mamma, why are you so wicked?''The mysterious new tenant of Wildfell Hall has a dark secret. But as the captivated Gilbert Markham will discover, it is not the story circulating among local gossips. Living under an assumed name, ''Helen Graham'' is the estranged wife of a dissolute rake, desperate to protect her son from his destructive influence. Her diary entries reveal the shocking world of debauchery and cruelty from which she has fled. Combining a sensational story of a man''s physical and moral decline through alcohol, a study of marital breakdown, a disquisition on the care and upbringing of children, and a hard-hitting critique of the position of women in Victorian society, this passionate tale of betrayal is set within a stern moral framework tempered by Anne Brontë''s optimistic belief in universal redemption. Drawing on her first-hand experiences with her brother Branwell, Brontë''s novel scandalized contemporary reade
£8.54
Oxford University Press The Picture of Dorian Gray
Book SynopsisDorian Gray gives his soul for eternal youth. While his portrait changes hideously, reflecting his crimes and corruption, he remains outwardly flawless. This new edition uses the 1891 expanded text and shows how Wilde transformed his many sources.Trade ReviewIt seemed to be an impossible task to outdo the former edition of 'Dorian Gray' in the World's Classics series, but Bristow has achieved his goal. The quality of the explanatory notes is, simply, superb, and the introduction is succint but informative,
£7.06
Pan Macmillan The Odyssey
Book SynopsisHomer's great epic, The Odyssey, is perhaps Western literature's first adventure story, and certainly remains one of its finest. It describes King Odysseus of Ithaca's epic, ten-year quest to return home after the Trojan War. He encounters giants, sorceresses, sea-monsters and sirens, while his wife Penelope is forced to resist the suitors who besiege her on Ithaca. Both an enchanting fairy tale and a gripping drama, The Odyssey is immensely influential, not least for its rich complexity and the magnetism of its hero. This Macmillan Collector's Library edition uses a translation by T. E. Lawrence, now remembered as 'Lawrence of Arabia' and the author of Seven Pillars of Wisdom. First published in 1932, his translation took four years to complete and has been continuously in print ever since. It is recognized as the first translation to be both faithful to the original text and written in accessible language. This edition also features an afterword by Ben Shaw.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.
£9.89
Vintage Publishing A Moveable Feast
Book SynopsisPublished posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works. Since Hemingway's personal papers were released in 1979, scholars have examined and debated the changes made to the text before publication. Now this new special restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author prepared it to be published. Featuring a personal foreword by Patrick Hemingway, Ernest's sole surviving son, and an introduction by the editor and grandson of the author, SeÃn Hemingway, this new edition also includes a number of unfinished, never-before-published Paris sketches revealing experiences that Hemingway had with his son Jack and his first wife, Hadley. Also included are irreverent portraits of other luminaries, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ford Madox Ford, and insightful recollections of his own early experiments with his craft. Sure to excite critics and readers alike, the restored edition of A Moveable Feast brilliantly evokes the exuberant moodTrade ReviewReading A Moveable Feast is a little like sitting down to a banquet with a host of bohemian luminaries * Observer *Here is Hemingway at his best. No one has ever written about Paris in the nineteen twenties as well as Hemingway * New York Times *The first thing to say about the 'restored' edition so ably and attractively produced by Patrick and Sean Hemingway is that it does live up to its billing . . . well worth having * The Atlantic *
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers The Road to Middleearth
Book SynopsisA detailed and fascinating journey to the roots of The Lord of the Rings, by award-winning Tolkien expert Professor Tom Shippey.The Road to Middle-Earth is a fascinating and accessible exploration of J.R.R.Tolkien's creativity and the sources of his inspiration. Tom Shippey shows in detail how Tolkien's professional background led him to write The Hobbit and how he created a work of timeless charm for millions of readers. He discusses the contribution of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales to Tolkien's great myth-cycle, showing how Tolkien's more complex' works can be read enjoyably and seriously by readers of his earlier books, and goes on to examine the remarkable 12-volume History of Middle-earth by Tolkien's son and literary heir Christopher Tolkien, which traces the creative and technical processes through which Middle-earth evolved. The core of the book, however, concentrates on The Lord of the Rings as a linguistic and cultural map, as a twisted web of a story, and as a response to the inner meaning of myth and poetry.By following the routes of Tolkien's own obsessions the poetry of languages and myth The Road to Middle-earth shows how Beowulf, The Lord of the Rings, Grimm's Fairy Tales, the Elder Edda and many other works form part of a live and continuing tradition of literature. It takes issue with many basic premises of orthodox criticism and offers a new approach to Tolkien, to fantasy, and to the importance of language in literature.This new edition is revised and expanded, and includes a previously unpublished lengthy analysis of Peter Jackson's film adaptations and their effect on Tolkien's work.Trade Review“Shippey’s exploration of Tolkien’s themes, especially the nature of evil, is superb” Independent “Shippey’s research seems limitless. He writes with unusual clarity and presents his arguments well” Sunday Times “Shippey deepens your understanding of the work without making you forget your initial, purely instinctive response to Middle-earth and hobbits” Houston Chronicle
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Jane Austen
Book SynopsisA title that involves us so deeply that Austen's final illness and death come almost as a personal tragedy to the reader. It presents Austen as remarkably clever; sensitive, but sentimental; tough, yet observant; guarded; and a woman with the devil of a genius in her.Trade ReviewAs near perfect a Life of Austen as we are likely to get: intelligent, feeling, suggestive -- Carmen Callil * Daily Telegraph *A book that radiates intelligence, wit and insight -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *A perfect biography: detailed, witty, warm -- Dirk Bogarde * Sunday Telegraph *Claire Tomalin is the finest and most disinterested of biographers, because in her pages she has given Jane Austen her liberty -- Hilary Mantel * New York Review of Books *
£11.69
HarperCollins Publishers Zen in the Art of Writing
Book SynopsisIn this exuberant book, the incomparable Ray Bradbury shares the wisdom, experience, and excitement of a lifetime of writing.The first thing a writer should be is excitedAuthor of the iconic FAHRENHEIT 451, THE ILLUSTRATED MAN and THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, Ray Bradbury is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.Part memoir, part masterclass, ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING offers a vivid and exuberant insight into the craft of writing. Bradbury reveals how writers can each find their own unique path to developing their voice and style.ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING offers a celebration of the act of writing that will delight, impassion, and inspire.Trade Review‘No other writer uses language with greater originality and zest. he seems to be a American Dylan Thomas – with discipline’ Sunday Telegraph 'Let us now praise Ray Bradbury, the uncrowned poet laureate of science fiction.' The Times 'It is impossible not to admire the vigour of his prose, similes and metaphors constantly cascading from his imagination' Spectator ‘Bradbury is an authentic original’ Time Magazine
£10.44
Random House Loot
Book SynopsisTania James's debut novel Atlas of Unknowns was a New York Times Editor's Choice and was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian literature. She has also written the short story collection Aerogrammes, and her stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, Freeman's: The Future of New Writing, One Story and A Public Space. The Tusk That Did the Damage was shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize. From 2011 to 2012, Tania James was a Fulbright fellow to India living in New Delhi. She now lives in Washington DC.
£9.49
Manchester University Press This Man and Music: By Anthony Burgess
Book SynopsisThis man and music asks two central questions: what can literature contribute to the art of composition, and how can music influence the writer? Anthony Burgess, famed novelist, journalist, and composer, answers these questions and many more. As a person uniquely qualified to look at the interconnectivity of music and literature from both sides, Burgess provides fascinating insights, drawing on his deep knowledge of both disciplines. The book contains eleven interconnected essays that touch on philosophical conundrums of art and adaptation, questions of meaning, and the author’s own personal experience. It is a must-read for fans of Burgess who want to understand how music influenced the author’s craft of writing. Part autobiography and part literary and musical analysis, This man and music is a unique artefact in the stunning output of a prolific artist.Trade Review'There is a lot in this book to recommend it to Burgess readers. There is even more, I would say, to recommend it to scholars of music. For those interested in the meeting points of music and literature, it is essential reading. It is a deeply personal book, but one that any reader will come away from filled with interesting factoids, and a much better and braver sense of how the written and the heard can come together.'Manchester review of books -- .Table of ContentsIntroductionThis man and music1 Biographia musicalis2 A matter of time and space3 Let’s write a symphony4 Music and meaning5 Meaning means language6 Under the bam7 Nothing is so beautiful as sprung8 Re Joyce9 Contrary tugs10 Oedipus wrecks11 Bonaparte in E flatAppendices1 Comparison of ‘Blest Pair of Sirens’ and ‘Disharmonious Sisters’ to This man and music 2 Original Prefatory Note from ‘Blest Pair of Sirens’3 Reviews4 Excerpt from ‘The Novel as Music’5 Similar passages in This Man and Music [1982], The Pianoplayers [1986], and Little Wilson and Big God [1986]6 Correspondence between Hans Keller and Anthony BurgessNotes
£63.75
Oxford University Press The Idiot
Book Synopsis
£8.99
Oldcastle Books Ltd South
Book SynopsisMoving between geography and mythology, literature and history, South is the first book to look at all things Southern in one volume.Trade ReviewMoving between geography and mythology, literature and history, this is the first book to look at all things southern in one volume -- Nick RennisonSouth takes in an impressive array of artists, from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Jorge Luis Borges, while Coverley comes up with some astute readings of great literature, and has a perceptive eye for how tourism has shaped our understanding of place -- Nick Major * The Herald *
£7.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC V is for Venom
Book SynopsisFourteen novels. Fourteen more poisons. Just because it's fiction doesn't mean it's all made-up ... Agatha Christie revelled in the use of poison to kill off unfortunate victims in her books; indeed, she employed it more than any other murder method, with the poison itself often being a central part of the novel. Her choice of deadly substances was far from random the characteristics of each often provide vital clues to the discovery of the murderer. With gunshots or stabbings the cause of death is obvious, but this isn't the case with poisons. How is it that some compounds prove so deadly, and in such tiny amounts?This book, the follow-up to Kathryn Harkup's best-selling A is for Arsenic, features fourteen more poisons from the books of Agatha Christie. V is for Venom explores the scientific facts behind the chemicals Christie put to such deadly use in her fiction. How do these compounds affect the body? What is their history of use in real-life murder cases, some of which may have
£18.00
