{"title":"Literature: history and criticism Books","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"shakespeare-his-life-and-works-9780241446584","title":"Shakespeare His Life and Works","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eUnravel the history, themes, and language of Shakespeare''s plays, poems, and sonnets with this beautifully illustrated guide to his life and works.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eComedy and romance, history, and tragedy, Shakespeare''s canon has it all. Some 400 years after they were written and first performed, his works still remain fresh and relevant today. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDiscover the work of the world''s most celebrated playwright with:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- A clear and accessible format\u003cbr\u003e- Act-by-act plot summaries of all of his 39 plays with lists of characters\u003cbr\u003e- Guidance on how to read and interpret his great sonnets and narrative poems\u003cbr\u003e- Plays ordered by time and genre, helping readers to trace the development of Shakespeare''s topics, themes, and artistry\u003cbr\u003e- Sidebars that clarify the mythological, geographical, and historical context of each play and decode its language, dramatic action, and themes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShakespeare fans will revel in the marvellous depiction of the Stratford-upon-Avon-born Bard hi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Should one attempt a complete front-to-back reading, the result would be a thorough grounding in Shakespeare's work and an enlarged astonishment at the range of his imagination.\" (Previous Edition, 2004) * The New York Times *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dorling Kindersley Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47832760484183,"sku":"9780241446584","price":21.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780241446584.jpg?v=1710337829"},{"product_id":"mr-lear-a-life-of-art-and-nonsense-9780571269556","title":"Mr Lear A Life of Art and Nonsense","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTimes\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e Evening Standard\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTLS \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eSpectator\u003c\/i\u003e Book of the Year.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWinner of the Hawthornden Prize.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEdward Lear is well-loved for his nonsenses', from joyous limericks to great love songs, and for his wonderful natural history paintings, landscapes and travel writing. But although Lear belongs to the age of Darwin and Dickens, his genius for the absurd and his dazzling word-play make him a very modern spirit. He was also a man of great simplicity and charm  children loved him  yet his humour masked epilepsy, depression and loneliness. Jenny Uglow's beautifully illustrated\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e biography brings us his swooping moods, passionate friendships and restless travels. Above all it shows how this uniquely gifted man lived all his life on the boundaries of disciplines and desires  an exile of the heart.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Faber \u0026 Faber","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47833205375319,"sku":"9780571269556","price":11.69,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780571269556.jpg?v=1710343747"},{"product_id":"historical-noir-9780857301352","title":"Historical Noir","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt's one of the most successful - and surprising - of phenomena in the entire crime fiction genre: detectives (and protodetectives) solving crimes in earlier eras. There is now an army of historical sleuths operating from the mean streets of Ancient Rome to the Cold War era of the 1950s. 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They trace out the signs of her originality, her daring and her wicked wit, as well as her charm, to produce an indispensable companion to her texts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eContributors are: Guido Almansi, Isobel Armstrong, Margaret Atwood, Elaine Jordan, Ros Kaveney, Hermione Lee, Laura Mulvey, Marc O'Day, Sue Roe, Susan Rubin Suleiman, Nicole Ward Jouve, Marina Warner and Kate Webb.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Little, Brown Book Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47850762862935,"sku":"9781844084715","price":9.74,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781844084715.jpg?v=1710620614"},{"product_id":"the-daphne-du-maurier-companion-9781844082353","title":"The Daphne Du Maurier Companion","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A marvellous celebration of du Maurier's life, work and cultural legacy' SARAH WATERS \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'She wrote exciting plots, she was highly skilled at arousing suspense' \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'One of the last century's most original literary talents ' \u003ci\u003eDAILY TELEGRAPH \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDaphne du Maurier is one of Britain's best-loved bestselling authors. 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Featuring interviews with du Maurier's family and a long-lost short story by the author herself, this is the indispensable companion to her work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eContributors include Sarah Dunant, Sally Beauman, Margaret Forster, Antonia Fraser, Michael Holroyd, Lisa Jardine, Julie Myerson, Justine Picardie and Minette Walters.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe \u003cb\u003ewrote exciting plots\u003c\/b\u003e, she was highly skilled at arousing suspense, and she was, too, a \u003cb\u003ewriter of fearless originality \u003c\/b\u003e * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eOne of the last century's\u003cb\u003e most original literary talents \u003c\/b\u003e * Daily Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003emarvellous celebration of du Maurier's life\u003c\/b\u003e, work and cultural legacy; an indispensable guide to the writer and her art -- Sarah Waters\u003cbr\u003eA\u003cb\u003e storyteller of cunning\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003egenius \u003c\/b\u003e -- Sally Beauman\u003cbr\u003eNo other popular writer has so triumphantly defied classification . . . She satisfied all the questionable criteria of popular fiction, and yet satisfied the exacting requirements of \"real literature\", something very few novelists ever do -- Margaret Forster\u003cbr\u003eA marvellous celebration of du Maurier's life, work and cultural legacy; an indispensable guide to the writer and her art * Sarah Waters *","brand":"Little, Brown Book Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47850762961239,"sku":"9781844082353","price":12.34,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781844082353.jpg?v=1710620632"},{"product_id":"great-books-of-china-9781837930210","title":"Great Books of China","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDiscover – or rediscover – the major achievements of Chinese culture and civilization.\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003ci\u003eGreat Books of China\u003c\/i\u003e offers concise introductions – each of them accompanied by generous quotation (in English) from the book in question – to sixty-six works in the canon of Chinese literature.  The books chosen reflect the chronological and thematic breadth of Chinese literary tradition, ranging from such classics as \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Songs\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eConfucian Analects\u003c\/i\u003e, through popular dramas and novels (\u003ci\u003eThe Romance of the Western Chamber\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eThe Water Margin\u003c\/i\u003e), twentieth-century political and biographical works (\u003ci\u003eQuotations from Chairman Mao\u003c\/i\u003e, the autobiography of the last emperor) and modern novels that are little known in the West (\u003ci\u003eMemories of South Peking\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSix Chapters from a Cadre School Life\u003c\/i\u003e).  Frances Wood presents a comprehensive, accessible and richly informative primer for the uninitiated; a box of delights that opens up an entire literary culture to the inquisitive reader.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePRAISE FOR FRANCES WOOD'S \u003ci\u003eCHINA'S FIRST EMPEROR AND HIS TERRACOTTA WARRIORS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e:   'Fascinating book' \u003ci\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e.   'Wry, concise and authoritative' \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e.   '[Wood's] close reading of these sources offers fresh insight' \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e.   '[An] interesting and informative work' \u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e.   'Wonderfully descriptive' * Library Journal *","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47850911105367,"sku":"9781837930210","price":10.44,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781837930210.jpg?v=1710624145"},{"product_id":"a-swim-in-a-pond-in-the-rain-from-the-man-booker-prize-winning-new-york-times-bestselling-author-of-lincoln-in-the-bardo-9781526624246","title":"A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTHE \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e PICKED BY THE\u003ci\u003e SUNDAY TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eINDEPENDENT\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eIRISH TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSPECTATOR\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e TLS\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e NEW STATESMAN\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e MAIL ON SUNDAY\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e I PAPER\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePROSPECT\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e REVEW31 \u003c\/i\u003eAND \u003ci\u003eEVENING STANDARD\u003c\/i\u003e AS A BOOK OF 2021\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e 'A masterclass from a warm and engagingly enthusiastic companion' \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e Summer Reading Picks 2021  \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘This book is a delight, and it’s about delight too. How necessary, at our particular moment’ \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eTessa Hadley\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e________________\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e From the\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e New York Times-\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003ebestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e Lincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e and \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eTenth of December\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e comes a literary master class on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves - and our world today.\u003c\/b\u003e  For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In \u003ci\u003eA Swim in a Pond in the Rain\u003c\/i\u003e, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times.  In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We’re going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn’t fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?” He approaches the stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster. The process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is a technical craft, but also a way of training oneself to see the world with new openness and curiosity.  \u003ci\u003eA Swim in a Pond in the Rain\u003c\/i\u003e is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA wonderful book … This book is a delight … I love the warmth with which he writes about this teaching, and agree wholeheartedly … All this makes Saunders’s book very different from just another “how to” creative writing manual, or just another critical essay … One of the pleasures of this book is feeling his own thinking move backwards and forwards, between the writer dissecting practice and the reader entering in through the spell of the words, to dwell inside the story -- Tessa Hadley * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eSaunders is such a wise and amiable teacher ... A page-turner -- Robert Webb\u003cbr\u003eLuminously perceptive * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eA masterclass in how to be human ... unfailingly, often thrillingly illuminating … Published any time, \u003ci\u003eA Swim in a Pond in the Rain\u003c\/i\u003e would be a joyous reminder that fiction is “the most effective mode of mind-to-mind communication ever devised”. Published now, it feels like vital and civilising corrective to the pretend certainties of public life – and, increasingly, of our personal lives too * Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eIt will stay with you and transform how you read story by story, sentence by sentence * The Times, Best Paperbacks of 2022 *\u003cbr\u003eOne of the most accurate and beautiful depictions of what it is like to be inside the mind of a writer that I’ve ever read * New York Times *\u003cbr\u003eThe Russian greats truly shine in this account; but Saunders is the real star. His way of expressing himself is simultaneously supremely intellectual and jovially down-to-earth. It’s rare to read a book and love it so much that you think it’s simply perfect. \u003ci\u003eA Swim in a Pond in the Rain\u003c\/i\u003e is that book -- Viv Groskop * Spectator *\u003cbr\u003eJoins a long tradition of using Russian literature as a guide to life … Practical and playful … it also probes exactly how narrative techniques make us more alert, attentive and sympathetic in reading books and the world around us * i news *\u003cbr\u003eBy the end Saunders is wondering if there is indeed any point in writing at all. I won’t spoil his conclusion. Suffice to say, the hairs on the back of my neck were alert * The Times *\u003cbr\u003eSuffused with wry humour … Not an academic interpretation, but a reader’s companion. I was pleasurably absorbed from start to finish * Evening Standard *\u003cbr\u003eThe Booker-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo considers the art of fiction through seven classic Russian short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Gogol * Guardian, 2021 in Books *\u003cbr\u003eThe combination of Saunders’s piercing mind and the Russian subjects being Anton Chekhov, Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Gogol promises to be a highbrow treat for fans of literature, and a book offering deep insights into storytelling and how narrative functions * Independent, The books to look out for in 2021 *\u003cbr\u003eA literary masterclass * Evening Standard, A look ahead to the best new books in 2021 *\u003cbr\u003eBut the real star of \u003ci\u003eA Swim\u003c\/i\u003e isn't Chekhov or Turgenev or Tolstoy or Gogol - it's Saunders himself ... This book will quite simply make you a better, more observant and more understanding reader * Big Issue *\u003cbr\u003ePart intro to Russian literature, part musings on craft, \u003ci\u003eA Swim in a Pond in the Rain\u003c\/i\u003e is all pleasure * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003eA worship song to writers and readers * O, The Oprah Magazine *\u003cbr\u003eHis warmth, enthusiasm and homespun metaphors – all part of that “writerly charm” – banish any sense of the chilly, mechanistic Fiction Lab ... Gleefully overshoots its brief as a technical manual or how-to guide …\u003ci\u003e A Swim in a Pond in the Rain\u003c\/i\u003e generates more fun, more wit, more sympathetic sense, than we have any right to hope for from a 400-page critical study * Arts Desk *\u003cbr\u003eThere should be more books like this -- Sameer Rahim * Prospect Podcast *\u003cbr\u003eA masterclass from a warm and engagingly enthusiastic companion * Guardian, 50 hottest new books everyone should read *\u003cbr\u003eA masterclass in short fiction by one of the finest teachers alive… It is a joyously civilised primer on how to write – and live – better * Daily Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eWarm, playful and acutely perceptive -- Ian Leslie * New Statesman, Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eNot just astute, humane lit crit but an inspirational manifesto for the art of fiction -- Boyd Tonkin * Spectator, Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eA masterclass in writing … a real treat -- Naomi Alderman * Spectator, Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003e[I] loved George Saunders’s \u003ci\u003eA Swim in a Pond in the Rain\u003c\/i\u003e … Genial, generous and illuminating ... He is a great teacher as well as a great practitioner, and makes you see more * Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year 2021 *\u003cbr\u003eA tin of caviar sort of a book … Saunders guides, prods, nudges, urges you to disagree … It will stay with you and transform how you read story by story, sentence by sentence * Sunday Times, 24 best fiction books 2021 *\u003cbr\u003eDelightful as well as an engaging work-out for the brain. Just the thing for a New Year’s read * i paper *\u003cbr\u003eIn clear, fresh, often humorous language, Saunders reveals the various sleights of hand involved in their construction, while never trying to flatten their essential genius. A gem -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003eJoyful and playful, a book full of wisdom, one to drink in slowly * Independent (Online), The 20 Best Books of 2021 *\u003cbr\u003eAn eagle-eyed breakdown of short stories by four great Russian writers * Prospect, Best books of 2021 *\u003cbr\u003eSaunders is warm and vivacious company, funny and even-handed and increasingly wise … This book is an enthralling delve into life and its narration – for people interested in how fiction works, it’s like breathing oxygen\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e * Revew31, Books of the Year 2021 *","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47851935793495,"sku":"9781526624246","price":10.44,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781526624246.jpg?v=1710649413"},{"product_id":"the-catch-fishing-for-ted-hughes-9781526644213","title":"The Catch: Fishing for Ted Hughes","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘An absolute gem . . . I was delightfully lost by the river throughout’\u003c\/b\u003e Paul Whitehouse \u003cb\u003e‘Marvellous . . . \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Catch\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e leaves both its writer and its reader wonderfully \"lost in water\"’ \u003c\/b\u003eRobert Macfarlane \u003cb\u003e‘Penetrating and poetic, filled with honeyed prose and thoughtful criticism’ \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cb\u003eA brilliant blend of memoir and biography, \u003ci\u003eThe Catch \u003c\/i\u003eis a stunning meditation on poetry and nature, and a quiet reflection on what it means to be a father and a son.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e_______________\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003cb\u003eIt is in the midst of a swirling river, casting a line, that Mark Wormald meets Ted Hughes.\u003c\/b\u003e   He stands where the poet stood, forty years ago, because fishing was Ted Hughes’s way of breathing – and because the poet's writing has made Mark understand that it has always been his way of breathing, too.  Using Hughes’s poetry collection \u003ci\u003eRiver\u003c\/i\u003e and his fishing diaries as a guide, Mark returns again and again to the rivers and lakes in Britain and Ireland where the poet fished. At times, he uses Ted's fly patterns; at others his rods. It is an obsession; a fundamental connection to nature; a thrilling wildness; an elemental pursuit. But it is also a release and a consolation, as Mark fishes after the sudden death of his mother and during the slow fading of his father.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePenetrating and poetic, filled with honeyed prose and thoughtful criticism. -- Cal Flyn * The Times *\u003cbr\u003eAstute and fluent,\u003ci\u003e The Catch \u003c\/i\u003ewears its learning lightly… Compelling -- David Profumo * Country Life *\u003cbr\u003eWay above a mere fishing book, combining nature, personal recollections, biography, poetry, imagination and much more - BOOK OF THE YEAR * Classic Angling Magazine *\u003cbr\u003eWhilst Hughes’s love for angling is relatively well-known, Wormald makes a deep and sustained claim for the link between Hughes’s poetic thinking process and the act of fishing. … [But] The carrying streams of this book are not only those of Hughes’s life, and those of his family and friends, but of Wormald’s too. … Wormald’s own prose is sprung and striking [and] \u003ci\u003eThe Catch\u003c\/i\u003e becomes a subtle meditation on what it is to be a father, a son, a brother. -- Rob St. John * Caught by the River *\u003cbr\u003eWormald’s scene-setting and imaginative, close reading of the poems uncover new aspects of Hughes and his work, which is no easy task … Hughes thought the all-absorbing experience of fishing was much like writing poetry, and such descriptions will have the fishermen among this book’s readership nodding along. -- Richard Benson * The Mail on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003eElectrifyingly good -- John Clegg * London Review Bookshop *\u003cbr\u003eA beautiful book … Wormald is excellent at prising apart Hughes the myth from Hughes the man. -- Alex Diggins * The Critic *\u003cbr\u003eA profoundly reflective examination of Hughes’s fishing life, layered over with Wormald’s own … Wormald has an engaging, lyrical style, by which it’s easy to be beguiled into appreciative enjoyment and even wonder. -- Ettie Neil-Gallacher * The Field *\u003cbr\u003eAs a feat of scholarship, angling, and creative empathy, this book is an extraordinary achievement -- Seán Lysaght * Dublin Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003eBeyond biographical and instead a complete immersion into the mind and life of one of our greatest writers … A dip well worth taking -- Kevin Parr * Fallon's Angler *\u003cbr\u003eWhat a marvellous book \u003ci\u003eThe Catch\u003c\/i\u003e is: a time-slipping, genre-shifting exploration of lives and landscapes, in which poetry, memoir and biography swirl and braid most beautifully together. Obsessive, passionate and deep-pooled, Wormald's pursuit of Hughes becomes, over its course, unexpectedly and movingly personal: a journey inwards in spirit as well as backwards in time, moving against the flow. \u003ci\u003eThe Catch\u003c\/i\u003e leaves both its writer and its reader - to borrow a phrase from the book itself - wonderfully \"lost in water\". -- Robert Macfarlane\u003cbr\u003eHere is a book and a writer and a sense of the world and of language which are all as marvellous as the subject deserves. -- Adam Nicolson\u003cbr\u003eAn absolute gem ... Mark Wormald's love of angling and of Ted Hughes’s poetry come together beautifully. I was delightfully lost by the river throughout. -- Paul Whitehouse\u003cbr\u003eMark Wormald takes what is, on the face of it, a meaningless act – the pursuit of exact, often remote places where a famed poet and fisherman has stood, floated, angled – and makes of it a parable of what angling and poetry share. The act of stalking, the stalking of fish by man, but also the stalking by man of his true self in poetry, the moment of the catch, at the instant of self-forgetfulness. -- Harry Clifton\u003cbr\u003eI’m perhaps more fish than fisher, but like Ted Hughes’s \u003ci\u003eRiver\u003c\/i\u003e, this book tugs at an atavistic, aquatic consciousness at the base of my brain. Wormald’s quest has me swimming in the same brilliant flows, settled in the same rooty riverside nooks, vividly drowsy, deeply awake. I loved it. -- Amy-Jane Beer\u003cbr\u003eA torrent of a book, its swirling deeps and dark backwaters lit with hard-won insight. -- Luke Jennings\u003cbr\u003eEngaging and enlightening, a new and convincing key to Hughes’s extraordinary poetic gifts. -- Richard Beard\u003cbr\u003eA brilliant book. Complex, kaleidoscopic, brilliant in its originality,\u003ci\u003e The Catch\u003c\/i\u003e is a love song to a lifelong obsession. -- Katharine Norbury\u003cbr\u003eA rare piece of work - modest, brilliant, moving. Quietly profound -- Ian Sansom\u003cbr\u003eA wonderfully beguiling and enjoyable literary pilgrimage - full of surprises and insights, to delight anyone (fisherman or not) who loves reading poetry. Truly, a remarkable book -- David Profumo","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47851960697175,"sku":"9781526644213","price":10.44,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781526644213.jpg?v=1710649730"},{"product_id":"dickens-9780099437093","title":"Dickens","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePeter Ackroyd is an award-winning historian, biographer, novelist, poet and broadcaster. He is the author of the acclaimed non-fiction bestsellers \u003ci\u003eLondon: The Biography, Thames: Sacred River \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eLondon Under;  \u003c\/i\u003ebiographies of figures  including Charles Dickens, William Blake, Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock; and a multi-volume history of England\u003ci\u003e. \u003c\/i\u003eHe has won the Whitbread Biography Award, the Royal Society of Literature's William Heinemann Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award and the South Bank Prize for Literature. 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She was perhaps better able, then, to address a ''common reader'' in this wide-ranging collection of essays. With all the imagination and gaiety that are the stamp of her genius, she turns from medieval England to tsarist Russia, and subjects Elizabethan playwrights, Victorian novelists and modern essayists to her wise, acute and entertaining scrutiny.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEssays on Jane Austen, George Eliot, Nancy Mitford, Joseph Conrad, Michel de Montaigne, Daniel Defoe and many others.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer essays are delightful in the way that serious play is delightful. She is enjoying herself, and reading her gives me that leaping sense of being in excellent company -- Jeanette Winterson * The Times *\u003cbr\u003eMore like novels than ordinary criticism * New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003eWoolf was easily the greatest literary journalist of her age -- James Wood, * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eIt is all pure Woolf, so distinctive is her voice - ironic, cool, conversational and playful, shrewd and fantastical by turns -- Literary Review","brand":"Vintage Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732228387159,"sku":"9780099443667","price":10.44,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780099443667.jpg?v=1719996053"},{"product_id":"how-to-be-a-heroine-9780099575566","title":"How To Be A Heroine","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe daughter of Iraqi-Jewish refugees, Samantha Ellis is the author of the books \u003ci\u003eHow to be a Heroine \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eTake Courage\u003c\/i\u003e and her plays include \u003ci\u003eHow to Date a Feminist\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCling to me Like Ivy \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eOperation Magic Carpet\u003c\/i\u003e. 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From Lizzy Bennet to 'go-getting Judy Jordan' from \u003ci\u003eLace\u003c\/i\u003e, Samantha Ellis did what we all do, mostly without realising: tried other people's lives on for size in literature * Red *\u003cbr\u003eThe best kind of book: one that I gobbled up, wanting to go slow to savour it but unable to stop reading until it was all gone. One that made me want to run to the bookshop to buy copies of novels I’ve never got round to reading and devour those, too -- Rebecca Armstrong * Independent *\u003cbr\u003eDelightfully honest and warmly funny -- Eithne Farry * Daily Mail *","brand":"Vintage Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732307325271,"sku":"9780099575566","price":10.44,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"the-bughouse-9780099593355","title":"The Bughouse","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn extraordinary book of real passionate research' Edmund de Waal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1945, Ezra Pound was due to stand trial for treason for his broadcasts in Fascist Italy during the Second World War. But before the trial could take place Pound was pronounced insane. 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Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell and John Berryman all went to visit him at what was perhaps the world's most unorthodox literary salon: convened by a fascist and held in a lunatic asylum. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Told through the eyes of his illustrious visitors, \u003ci\u003eThe Bughouse\u003c\/i\u003e captures the essence of Pound  the artistic flai\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is Swift’s considerable achievement sympathetically to examine an extraordinary, often troubling, tale...an enthralling narrative -- Robert McCrum * Observer *\u003cbr\u003eAn extraordinary book of real passionate research which keeps surprising and illuminating by turns. -- Edmund de Waal\u003cbr\u003eLively and searching… He has an engaging authorial presence and his own hesitations and uncertainties about Ezra Pound, both as poet and personality, lend a certain tension and a pleasing piquancy to his narrative -- Eric Ormsby * Times Literary Supplement *\u003cbr\u003eSwift is a sensitive and thoughtful reader of both poetry and human psychology... \u003ci\u003eThe Bughouse \u003c\/i\u003eis also a kind of immersive adventure journalism, in which he retraces Pound's steps and tries to unearth new details about his life -- Adam Kirsch * New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003eTo understand an artist as compromised by circumstances – and by his own many contradictions – as Ezra Pound, we have to trace a complex path through a maze of half-truths, myth, and simplification. \u003ci\u003eThe Bughouse\u003c\/i\u003e does so with supreme care, critical acumen, and humanity, shedding a whole new light not only on Pound the man, but also on the shape and character of \u003ci\u003eThe Cantos\u003c\/i\u003e, one of the most seriously flawed and truly brilliant artworks of the twentieth century -- John Burnside\u003cbr\u003eA wonderful portrait of Ezra Pound in all his moods - mad, bad and blindingly sane. -- A. Alvarez\u003cbr\u003eSwift does a fine job of allowing Pound’s many contradictions to stay in place and reminds us, too, that 45 years after his death there are plenty of contradictions left in the people who admire him -- James Walton * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003eIt is a tribute to the brightness of \u003ci\u003eThe Bughouse\u003c\/i\u003e that Swift has revived my interest in the old monster -- Roger Lewis * The Times *\u003cbr\u003eSwift’s strength is his refusal to separate Pound’s writings from the issues of Fascism and insanity... Sharp-eyed and pacey...it highlights memorably the tangled relations between lunatic, lover and poet -- Robert Crawford * Literary Review *\u003cbr\u003e[A] remarkable study of [Ezra Pound’s] fertile afterlife -- Suzi Feay * Financial Times *\u003cbr\u003eAt the heart of this books lies a fascinating debate about poets and society -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *\u003cbr\u003eA powerful and very talented writer…dashing and arresting…the greatness in his subject shines through every dark corner -- Peter Craven * Sydney Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003eSwift admits that he cannot pin his elusive subject down, but there is no need. By following his instinct he has allowed the poet, with his ‘shifting self-narration’, to lead the way in this marvellous evocation. -- Philippa Williams * The Lady *\u003cbr\u003eAmerican poet Ezra Pound… proves an elusive but fascinating subject in this non-linear, impressionistic biography -- Juanita Coulson * Lady *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vintage Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732324135255,"sku":"9780099593355","price":10.44,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780099593355.jpg?v=1719996412"},{"product_id":"the-booksellers-tale-9780141991238","title":"The Booksellers Tale","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eSPECTATOR\u003c\/i\u003e AND \u003ci\u003eEVENING STANDARD\u003c\/i\u003e BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''A joy. Each chapter instantly became my favourite'' David Mitchell, author of \u003ci\u003eCloud Atlas\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Wonderful'' Lucy Mangan\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''The right book has a neverendingness, and so does the right bookshop.''\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is the story of our love affair with books, whether we arrange them on our shelves, inhale their smell, scrawl in their margins or just curl up with them in bed. 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This book explores his novels and short stories, and analyses the literary traditions and social factors influencing his distinctive complex style. Interweaving Joyce's life and history with his books, it also shows how Joyce celebrated his own experiences in Dublin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1: Story and sound 2: Dubliners 3: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 4: Ulysses 5: Finnegans Wake 6: Conclusion: Elite past or democratic future? Further Reading Index","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732612428119,"sku":"9780192894472","price":9.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"mirabai-9780195153903","title":"Mirabai","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMirabai, an iconic sixteenth-century Indian poet-saint, is renowned for her unwavering love of God, her disregard for social hierarchies and gendered notions of honor and shame, and her challenge to familial, feudal, and religious authorities. Defying attempts to constrain and even kill her, she could not be silenced. Though verifiable facts regarding her life are few, her fame spread across social, linguistic, and religious boundaries, and stories about her multiplied across the subcontinent and the centuries. In Mirabai, Nancy M. Martin traces the story of this immensely popular Indian saint from the earliest manuscript references to her through colonial and nationalist developments to scholarly and popular portrayals in the decades leading up to Indian independence. This book examines Mirabai''s place as both insider and outsider to the developing strands of devotional Hinduism and her role in contested terrain of debates around the education and independence of women and the crafti\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis book is valuable today for its knowledge and insights into the life of a Hindu woman poet as it demonstrates the power of devotion that transcends local contexts and inspires for diverse conversations. * Dr. Atola Longkumer, United Theological College *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList of Illustrations  Acknowledgements  Note on Transliteration and Dates    Introduction: In Search of Mirabai  Chapter 1: Embodying Devotion in a Woman's Body: Mirabai among the Saints  Chapter 2: Participation and Transformation: Mira as Rapjut Renouncer, Varkari Devotee, and Pativrata of God  Chapter 3: History, Heroism, and the Politics of Identity: Mirabai in Nineteenth-Century Colonial India  Chapter 4: Weaver Woman and Lover Extraordinaire: Romance and Resistance in Rural Rajasthan  Chapter 5: Mobilizing Mirabai, Mobilizing Women in the Struggle for Independence  Chapter 6: Cultural Icon for a Nation in the Making  Conclusion  Selected Bibliography  Index","brand":"Oxford University Press Inc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732637397335,"sku":"9780195153903","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780195153903.jpg?v=1719997749"},{"product_id":"the-misadventures-of-master-mugwort-9780197585603","title":"The Misadventures of Master Mugwort","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Hsu-Tang Library presents authoritative and eminently readable translations of classical Chinese literature, in bilingual editions, ranging across three millennia and the entire Sinitic world.The Misadventures of Master Mugwort: A Joke Book Trilogy from Imperial China is a translation of three collections of humorous episodes revolving around the beloved fictional character of Master Mugwort (Aizi). Set in the ancient Warring States period, Master Mugwort counsels kings in the art of statecraft, takes on other masters in mock philosophical debates, and wisecracks his way through this age of opportunity and intrigue, disciples in tow.The explosive popularity of the original collection from the late 1000s, attributed to literatus-extraordinaire Su Shi, inspired sequels centuries later: in 1516 by precocious teenager Lu Cai; and in 1608 by whimsical retiree Tu Benjun. Together, these three books represent a time-honored tradition of Chinese humor as well as a light-hearted interpretat\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDynastic Timeline for Pre-Modern China Names and Dates of the Warring States Introduction I. Miscellaneous Stories of Master Mugwort II. The Ming Sequels II.a. Further Sayings of Master Mugwort II.b. Outer Sayings of Master Mugwort Appendix 1: Preface to Jest Intrigues of the Five Masters. Appendix 2: Issues of Attribution: Miscellaneous Stories Appendix 3: Table of Pre-Modern Titles List of Abbreviations Bibliography Text-Critical Endnotes","brand":"Oxford University Press Inc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732654797143,"sku":"9780197585603","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780197585603.jpg?v=1719997817"},{"product_id":"an-anthology-of-poetry-by-buddhist-nuns-of-late-imperial-china-9780197586310","title":"An Anthology of Poetry by Buddhist Nuns of Late","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Hsu-Tang Library presents authoritative and eminently readable translations of classical Chinese literature, in bilingual editions, ranging across three millennia and the entire Sinitic world.This anthology opens up new religious and poetic worlds for readers. It consists of translations of poems written by Buddhist nuns from China''s late imperial period (1368-1911). Appreciation of these poems is enhanced by individual biographical accounts for each of the sixty-five nun-poets and an Introduction to the historical, religious, and literary context of these poems, including a concise discussion of Chinese Buddhism and Chinese Buddhist poetry.The nuns in this anthology come from a range of backgrounds: some were placed in convents when very young; others were former palace ladies or courtesans who found refuge in the religious life; others were women left widowed or destitute in the wake of the various political and social upheavals of the times, especially the violent transition be\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction  The Poems Wulian After the Rain  An Autumn Night: Written in the Moment   Jieshi Early Morning Qingming  Miaoni Spring Night  The Girl Nun from Yan Gatha  Xingkong  Reflecting on Myself  Mojing Going by Way of Tiger Hill   Jueqing  Poem Inscribed on a Convent Wall  Wuwei    Deathbed Gatha   Jiyin Dharma Hall Gatha  Deyin Early Autumn: A Distant Evening View  Song of Planting Bamboo   Lady Huang Jieling Came to Stay at My Mountain Boudoir, Written in the Moment  Derong  Pitying the Caged Bird Who is Just Like Me  Plum Blossom  Jingming Improvised Dharma Instructions to My Disciples   Jingyin Going to See Huang Yuanjie but Not Finding Her In  Dumu Jin'gang Gatha  Gatha  Deathbed Gatha  Xiang'an Yinhui    Gatha: Eating Bamboo Shoots Deshan Carries His Bowl   Miaohui  Passing By the Tomb of Tenth Daughter Ma Drinking on Flower-Raining Terrace, I Was Assigned \"Falling Leaves\" as the Topic for a Poem  Daoyuan Seated Meditation: Reflections  Sengjian Early Summer The Autumn Flowering Crabapple Tree  Shenyi   A Dream Journey to Mount Tiantai Crossing Again the Hengyun Mountain, Thinking of Jingwei  Zaisheng Composed in Early Spring Winter's Day  Narrating My Feelings on a Winter's Night  Jingwei The Emerald Sea Random Thoughts on Living in the Country Facing the Moon on an Autumn Night Sitting at Night   Shangjian Huizong Village Life Thoughts on Living in Seclusion A Friend from the Inner Chambers Comes to Visit: Remembering Old Times Heartfelt Recollections  Wugou Writing of My Feelings (Version 1) Writing of My Feelings (Version 2)  Climbing the Mountain after the Snow  Chaoyi  Deathbed Gatha  Mingxuan Wuzhen Autumn Night Falling Leaves   Inscribed on a Ying Stone  Weiji Xingzhi  Ode to the Honeybees Living in the Mountains Listening to the Geese  Jingnuo Chaoyue Song of the Ancient Plum Trees Passing by Yongqing Monastery, I Came Upon Its Peonies and Wrote These  For Lady Yang A Celebration in Verse of the Autumn Orchid   Chaoyan Miyin Self-Encomium  Yizhen Mid-Autumn Younger Sister Yuying and I Planned to Meet on the Ninth Day, But She Didn't Arrive  Living in the Mountains Among Falling Leaves  Matching the Rhymes of \"Cloud Hermitage\"  Shangxin Ice    Yuanduan Yufu My Study: An Impromptu Verse  Miaohui  Dawn Sitting at Bo're Convent  Shiyan Recalling a Dream Swallows Rising at Dawn: An Expression of Feelings  A Reply to Sixth Elder Sister Ruixian   Wanxian Inside the Convent: Reflections  Lianhua Kedu Gatha  Yinyue Xinglin In the MountainsThe Three Blows Gatha  When Sansheng Saw People He Came Out, When Xinghua Saw People He Did Not   Ansheng Ode to the Silkworm Mourning Zhanna  Zhuanzheng  Deathbed Gatha  Zhisheng Ode to the Snow The Chrysanthemum  Deri Early Autumn  Feelings by a Rainy Window  Deyue On an Autumn Night Listening to the Crickets  Zhiyuan A Lament for Peng E  Qiyuan Xinggang The First Month of Summer Retreat: A Song of Leisure Dharma Instructions for Mingyuan Dharma Instructions for Person of the Way Xu Chaogu Addressing the Congregation on My Birthday Matching Jiang Yundu's \"Autumn Pavilion Song\" Ode to the Plum Blossom  Yigong Chaoke Grieving for My Master Climbing up to a Thatched Hut on Lingyin and Gazing at Feilai Peak: An Impromptu Poem   Yikui Chaochen Five Gathas: Sitting in Meditation (To a Previous Tune)   To a Previous Tune Just Before Parting from My Elder Brothers Bidding Farewell to the Lay Dharma-Protectors of Meixi Of My Feelings after Visiting the Nun Weiji from Xiongsheng and Not Finding Her In Hymn: The Honeycomb In Praise of the Venerable Bamboo (To a Previous Tune)  On the Fifteenth of the Twelfth Lunar Month After the Snow, Returning Home by Boat I  Improvised This Poem Presented to Chan Master Zhuying Inside my Boat on My Return Home to Dongting: An Impromptu Poem Deathbed Gatha  Zukui Xuanfu An Ode to Honeybees An Ode to Fireworks Breaking off a Plum Branch to Offer to the Buddha To Myself  A Leisurely Visit to an Ancient Temple Returning to the Mountain, I Cross the Lake  Returning to the Mountains, I Laugh at Myself  A Leisurely Stroll on a Moonlit Night Traveling by Boat on a Winter Day In Search of Plum Blossoms Dharma Instructions for Practitioner Keren Taking up Residence in a Hermitage Living in the Mountains: An Impromptu Poem  Reading the Recorded Sayings of Layman Pang Leaving My Old Retreat on Dongting The Moon in the Water: A Gatha My Aspirations Dharma Instructions for Person of the Way Xunji To Layman Zhao Fengchu (second of two verses) The Road is Hard (To the Tune \"Immortals by the River\") Summer Rest on East Mountain Song of the Twelve Hours of the Day  Living in the Mountains: Miscellaneous Gathas Thoughts  Baochi Xuanzong Matching the Ten Verses of Chan Master Cishou Huaiyin's \"Cloud Dispelling Terrace\" Silk-embroidered Peonies Harmonizing with Temple Manager Teacher Shao's \"Mastering Yangqi's Primary Strategy\": Four Verses Watching the Snow from Nanzhou's Phoenix Rising Tower Dharma Instructions for Person of the Way Liyan   Jizong Xingche Living the Nanyue Mountains: Miscellaneous Verses Mist and Clouds Peak Gods and Immortals Grotto Heavenly Terrace Temple Mount Zhong's Great Illumination Temple The Great Yang Spring  The Second Month of Autumn: A Parting Poem Enjoying the Snow on New Year's Day My Aspirations Written to Rhymes by the Layman of Zhoukui Hermitage Visiting the Monk of Nanyue on His Sickbed: Two Poems To Chan Elder Dharma Brother Zaisheng on Her Fiftieth Birthday At the Zhixi Cloister on Hidden Lake, Presented to Chan Master Daoming Presented to Layman Xu Jingke Having Borrowed a Meditation Hut from Chan Practitioner Zhubing, I Wrote a Poem to Present to Her A Farewell Poem for Person of the Way Yan Duoli  New Year's Eve of the Year Wuxu (1658) Composed for Layman Gu Mengdiao on His Sixtieth Birthday On an Autumn Day, Thinking of My Mother Dharma Instructions to the Lay Assembly: Four Gathas  Ziyong Chengru A Bell Shattered After Being Struck and I Was Moved to Compose a Gatha Upon Hearing the Sound of Wood Being Chopped Ode to the Snow Two Verses: Living in the Mountains Thoughts in the Bingzi Year (1696)  An Excursion to the Western Hills Gatha: Boarding My Boat Early Autumn Sentiments To My Elder Dharma Brother Ruru Asking Questions of the Masters: Four Gathas A Miscellaneous Chant Walking Through the Rice Paddies, I Casually Composed This Gatha Eight Miscellaneous Gathas (selection of three)  Entrusting Head Student Zhi with Robes and Whisk, I Composed This Gatha  Mingxiu Seeing Off Relatives, Bowing to My Master, and Taking the Vows My Inscription for a Painting of West Lake Requested While Staying at My Convent in Jingzhou  Shuxia  In Deep Autumn, Returning to My Hometown; in Sixth Uncle's Garden Pavilion, Standing in Front of the Chrysanthemums To the Tune \"Immortal by the River\" Composed While on a Boat To the Tune \"Bodhisattva Barbarian\": A Parting Poem  Wuqing Feelings   Huiji  Reply to Lady Gioro Heseri   Lianghai Ru'de  Poems of the Pure Land Untitled Verses Written in Imitation of an Ancient Style: The Filial Girl Lu of Pinghu  Buddha-Recitation (Selections from a Series of Forty-Eight Poems)  Abbreviations  Bibliography  Index of Sources","brand":"Oxford University Press Inc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732654928215,"sku":"9780197586310","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780197586310.jpg?v=1719997819"},{"product_id":"jane-austen-9780198725954","title":"Jane Austen","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJane Austen is one of the most widely-read novelists in the English language, and one of very few pre-Victorian writers to have a large popular following. This book situates Austen in the literary and historical context of her time, and combines critical introductions to each of her six major novels with the exploration of key themes of her work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNotes on editions Introduction 1: Jane Austen practising 2: The terrors of Northanger Abbey 3: Sense, sensibility, society 4: The voices of Pride and Prejudice 5: The silence at Mansfield Park 6: Emma and Englishness 7: Passion and Persuasion Afterword Timeline References Further reading Index","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732771549527,"sku":"9780198725954","price":999.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"a-journey-to-the-western-islands-of-scotland-and-the-journal-of-a-tour-to-the-hebrides-oxford-worlds-classics-9780198798743","title":"A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohnson's Journey to the Western Islands and Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides form a natural pair for an OWC because both books, often read and taught alongside each other, focus on the Scottish highlands.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction Note on the Text A Note about Money Short Titles Chronology Select Bibliography Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands James Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides Explanatory Notes Monarchs of England, Scotland, and Great Britain Glossary Biographical Index","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732787540311,"sku":"9780198798743","price":11.39,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780198798743.jpg?v=1719998400"},{"product_id":"leo-tolstoy-9780198813934","title":"Leo Tolstoy","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWar and Peace and Anna Karenina are widely recognised as two of the greatest novels ever written. Their author, Leo Tolstoy, has been honoured as the father of the modern war story; as an innovator in psychological prose and forerunner of stream of consciousness; and as a genius at using fiction to reveal the mysteries of love and death. At the time of his death in 1910, Tolstoy was known the world over as both a great writer and as a merciless critic of institutions that perpetrated, bred, or tolerated injustice and violence in any form. Yet among literary critics and rival writers, it has become a commonplace to disparage Tolstoy''s thought while praising his art. In this Very Short Intorduction Liza Knapp explores the heart of Tolstoy''s work. Focussing on his masterpieces of fiction which have stood the test of time, she analyses his works of non-fiction alongside them, and sketches out the core themes in Tolstoy''s art and thought, and the interplay between them. Tracing the continuing influence of Tolstoy''s work on modern literature, Knapp highlights those aspects of his writings that remain relevant today.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e... excellent short biograph[y]. * Donna Tussing Orwin, Slavonic and East European Review *\u003cbr\u003eKnapp has succeeded in writing a worthwhile introduction to Tolstoy, perfectly suited to the classroom or, for that matter, anyone with some curiosity and two hours of quiet. Even Tolstoy scholars will appreciate her insights and, more importantly, her ability to connect seemingly divergent aspects of this notoriously unstable genius. * Martin Denver, Russian Review *\u003cbr\u003eA superb short work. * Paradigm Explorer *\u003cbr\u003eLiza Knapp has given us the ideal introduction to Tolstoy a marvellous synthesis and critique that takes his ideas and philosophy as seriously as his novels. Brilliantly written and useful. * Jay Parini, author of The Last Station *\u003cbr\u003eDazzling. Compelling. Moving! Knapp brilliantly illuminates the inseparability of Tolstoys art and thought and how a cherished childhood game inspired both. * Robin Feuer Miller, Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature, Brandeis University *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1: From \"Ant Brothers\" to loving all as brothers and sisters 2: Tolstoy on War and on Peace 3: Tolstoy on love 4: Tolstoy on death 5: What Tolstoy believed 6: What then must we do? 7: Tolstoy's art and Tolstoy's devices Further reading Index","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732793438551,"sku":"9780198813934","price":9.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"a-bite-of-the-apple-a-life-with-books-writers-and-virago-9780198828747","title":"A Bite of the Apple A Life with Books Writers and","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''The moment I got my job at Virago in 1978 I knew it would be a long time before I would leave. I certainly wouldn''t have had the brazen hope then-only twenty-five and very recently new to Britain-that I would ever become the Publisher, but I did know that I had found my home: where books, ideas, politics, imagination, feminism, and business was the air we breathed . . .''A Bite of the Apple is part-memoir, part history of Virago, and part thoughts on over forty years of feminist publishing. This is the story of how the authors and staff who, driven by passion, conviction and excitement, have made Virago Press one of the most important and influential English-language publishers in the world. Lennie Goodings has been with the iconic press founded by Carmen Callil almost since the start. First a publicist and then for over twenty years, publisher and editor, she has worked with extraordinary authors: Margaret Atwood, Marilynne Robinson, Sarah Waters, Linda Grant, Natasha Walter, Naomi Wolf and Maya Angelou among many others.Virago has been a life-changer for Lennie Goodings - but certainly not only for her. Following the chronology of the press and the enormous breadth of the Virago titles published over these years, she sets her story in the context of feminism, and segues into thoughts on editing, post-feminism, reading, breaking boundaries, and the Virago Modern Classics. Virago lives within the tension between idealism and pragmatism; between sisterhood and celebrity; between watching feminism wax and wane at the same time as knowing so many of the battles are still to be won. This book is about how it felt to be there.A Bite of the Apple is a celebration of writing, of publishing, and of reading.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn immersive, lovingly written memoir, whose story resonates beyond publishing. * Johanna Thomas-Corr, The Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eAn inspiring book. * Sarah Baxter, The Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003ePensive and surprisingly poignant...this book glows with the gratitude of doing [the work of an editor], and in doing so, finding oneself occupying a front seat to feminist history...It's a memoir that doesn't merely look backward, but in its form, in all its limitations, gestures at the work to be done. It's a memoir of a Virago reader. * Parul Sehgal, New York Times *\u003cbr\u003eMoving and hugely inspiring ... As a cultural history, A Bite of the Apple is clear. As a reminder of female artists' ongoing fight for space and respect, it's necessary. As a riff on writers and writing, it's essential. * Bidisha, The Observer *\u003cbr\u003eWhat Goodings is so good at drawing out are the interrelations between various social and political movements and their correlatives in publishing and literature. Not only does she recover Virago's story, but she loops in the narratives of various authors and movements, building up a rich and textured historical fabric ... An inspiring, entertaining and insightful read, full of the energy and fervour of hard-won wisdom. * Seán Hewitt, The Irish Times *\u003cbr\u003eThis history has it all: boardroom wrangles, bestsellers, legendary authors ... fascinating stuff on the complex alchemy of talent, political fashion and marketability that propels certain authors forward at certain times, and the loving effort and attention involved in editing a manuscript. * Melissa Benn, New Statesman *\u003cbr\u003eWhat runs through A Bite of the Apple, unifying it and contributing to its charm, is the passion for books you'd expect, but also an impressive idealism about the ways in which the published word can change society and help readers to become the people they want to be. * Mark Bostridge, The Spectator *\u003cbr\u003eThis little book is as candid and charming as its cover ... One of the most interesting chapters relates to the craft closest to editor Goodings' heart, the craft of editing and the complex relationship between editor and author. * Jane Hailé, New York Journal of Books *\u003cbr\u003e[Goodings'] thoughts on the great industry issues of the day are well worth reading. * DJ Taylor, Literary Review *\u003cbr\u003eA Bite of the Apple feels effortless, and so alive to the conversations about women's rights today ... [Goodings'] voice is engaging and full of warmth. * Julie Vuong, BookBrunch *\u003cbr\u003eGoodings' account of her life at the inkface vividly, and with immediacy, transports us from those poky London rooms where the mouse that roared was born, into the realpolitik of international publishing. * The Sydney Morning Herald *\u003cbr\u003eConsistently fascinating ... a book that shows how Virago transformed the world. * Colin Oehring, The Saturday Paper *\u003cbr\u003eFascinating and beautifully written. * Dan Carrier, Camden New Journal *\u003cbr\u003eInformative, lively, reflective, and somehow a poignant mix of honest, generous, and forgiving. * Simon, Shiny New Books *\u003cbr\u003eAll an apple should be: crisp, tart but sweet, steeped in mysterious history and tangled symbolism, and not a bad missile when it comes to alleyway combat. Oh, and delicious! * Margaret Atwood *\u003cbr\u003eThere is so very much to enjoy -and learn about- in this engaging book. We meet a young Lennie from Canada, in love with books, who lands a job at Virago and over the years survives and steers many of its changes to ensure its safety and vibrancy. Along the way, we track the changes in the publishing industry, feminist practice, and encounter the magnificence of Virago authors. A wonderful memoir and such a great read. * Susie Orbach *\u003cbr\u003eAn indispensable piece of feminist history; nothing less than the exciting story of how women found their voice and made society listen. I enjoyed it hugely. * Caroline Criado Perez *\u003cbr\u003eLively, frank, fascinating and above all, inspiring. A celebration of boldness: of wanting something better and making change happen. * Sarah Waters *\u003cbr\u003eBehind every great book there is a great editor. And behind every feminist press, a remarkable set of women. Lennie Goodings is one of both. * Sarah Dunant *\u003cbr\u003eA fascinating, charming and sometimes fierce, but always beguiling memoir... A celebration of the power of women supporting women. * Kate Mosse *\u003cbr\u003eEnthralling ...the best book I've read on publishing since Diana Athill's Stet. * Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface Part One:  A New Kind of Being 1: First Bites: The early years 2: Setting the world on fire 3: The acceptable face of feminism? Why not! Part Two: The Books 4: The Virago Modern Classics 5: Fuck the Patriarchy!: Nonfiction 6: What Stories Can Do: Fiction Part Three: The Politics: office and otherwise 7: The Dramas 8: Disrupting the old stories 9: Beyond Borders 10: Up, Down and Up Again Part Four: The Power to Publish is a Wonderful Thing 11: The Intimacy of Editing 12: Does any other successful publisher get asked constantly if they are still necessary? 13: Why can't a man read like a woman? 14: Giving and taking courage","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732800287063,"sku":"9780198828747","price":9.97,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780198828747.jpg?v=1719998453"},{"product_id":"the-digital-humanities-and-literary-studies-9780198850489","title":"The Digital Humanities and Literary Studies","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA comprehensive overview into digital literary studies that equips readers to navigate the difficult contentions in this space.The Literary Agenda is a series of short polemical monographs about the importance of literature and of reading in the wider world and about the state of literary education inside schools and universities. The category of ''the literary'' has always been contentious. What is clear, however, is how increasingly it is dismissed or is unrecognised as a way of thinking or an arena for thought. It is sceptically challenged from within, for example, by the sometimes rival claims of cultural history, contextualized explanation, or media studies. It is shaken from without by even greater pressures: by economic exigency and the severe social attitudes that can follow from it; by technological change that may leave the traditional forms of serious human communication looking merely antiquated. For just these reasons this is the right time for renewal, to start reinvigorated work into the meaning and value of literary reading.You may have heard of the digital humanities--and what you may have heard may not have been good. Yet like an oncoming storm, the relentless growth of the use of digital methods for the study of literature seems inevitable. This book gives an insight into the ways in which digital approaches can be used to study literature and the ways in which humanistic study can be used to explore digital literature. Examining its subject across the axes of authorship, space, and visualization, maps and place, distance and history, and ethical approaches to the digital humanities, this book introduces newcomers to the topic while also offering plenty for seasoned digital humanities pros. Combining original research with third-party case studies and examples, this book will appeal both to students and researchers across all levels who wish to learn about digital literary studies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction 1: Authors and Writing 2: Space and Visualization 3: Maps and Place 4: Distance and History 5: Conclusion: Ethical Digitalism Bibliography","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732812640599,"sku":"9780198850489","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780198850489.jpg?v=1719998505"},{"product_id":"italian-literature-9780199231799","title":"Italian Literature","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this Very Short Introduction, Peter Hainsworth and David Robey consider Italian literature from the Middle Ages to the present day, looking at themes and issues which have recurred throughout its history and continue to be of importance today. Examining themes such as regional identities, political disunity, and the role of the national language, they also cover a wide range of authors and works, including Dante, Petrarch, Manzoni, Montale, and Calvino. They explore some of the distinctive traditions of the literature, such as its liking for theorizing its own position, its concern with politics, and its secular orientation in spite of the Catholic beliefs and practices of the Italian people. Concluding by looking at the ways in which Italian literature has changed over the last thirty years, they examine the influence of women''s writing in Italian, and acknowledge the belated recognition of its importance. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface ; Introduction ; 1. History ; 2. Tradition ; 3. Theory ; 4. Politics ; 5. Secularism ; 6. Women","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732836725079,"sku":"9780199231799","price":9.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780199231799.jpg?v=1719998609"},{"product_id":"comedy-vsi-9780199601714","title":"COMEDY VSI","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo consider comedy in its many incarnations is to raise diverse but related questions: what, for instance, is humour, and how may it be used (or abused)? When do we laugh, and why? What is it that writers and speakers enjoy - and risk - when they tell a joke, indulge in bathos, talk nonsense, or encourage irony? This Very Short Introduction explores comedy both as a literary genre, and as a range of non-literary phenomena, experiences and events. Matthew Bevis studies the classics of comic drama, prose fiction and poetry, alongside forms of pantomime, comic opera, silent cinema, popular music, Broadway shows, music-hall, stand-up and circus acts, rom-coms, sketch shows, sit-coms, caricatures, and cartoons. Taking in scenes from Aristophanes to The Office, from the Roman Saturnalia to Groundhog Day, Bevis also considers comic theory from Aristotle to Freud and beyond, tracing how comic achievements have resisted as well as confirmed theory across the ages.This book takes comedy seriousl\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInsightful, witty and impressively wide-ranging throughout * Times Literary Supplement *\u003cbr\u003eBevis shows there's no iron rule that a book on comedy can't be entertaining * Independent i *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction ; 1. In the beginning... ; 2. In and out of character ; 3. Plotting mischief ; 4. Underdogs ; 5. Getting physical ; 6. Taking liberties ; 7. Beyond a joke ; 8. Endgames ; Conclusion","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732872540503,"sku":"9780199601714","price":9.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780199601714.jpg?v=1719998759"},{"product_id":"modern-latin-american-literature-9780199754915","title":"Modern Latin American Literature","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the 1960s, Latin American literature became known worldwide as never before. Writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, and Mario Vargas Llosa all became part of the general culture of educated readers of English, French, German, and Italian. But few know about the literary tradition from which these writers emerged. This Very Short Introduction remedies this situation, providing an overview of modern Latin American literature from the late eighteenth century to the present. Roberto González Echevarría covers a wide range of topics, discussing the birth of Modernismo, the first Latin American literary movement; how the end of World War I and the Mexican Revolution produced the avant-garde; and how the Cuban Revolution sparked a movement in the novel that came to be known as the Boom. Within this narrative, the author covers many of the major writers of Latin American literature, from Andrés Bello and José María de Heredia through Borges and García Márquez to Fernando Vallejo and Roberto Bolaño. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Insightful and often eloquent, this is a superb introduction to major figures and trends in modern Latin American literature by the leading authority in the field.\"--Gustavo Pérez Firmat, David Feinson Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction ; Chapter 1: Poetry from Romanticism to Modernismo: Bello to Dario ; Chapter 2: Nineteenth-Century Prose: the Revelation of Latin America ; Chapter 3: Poetry from Modernismo to Modernism ; Chapter 4: Latin American Fiction in the Twentieth Century: Regionalism to Modernism ; Chapter 5:  Latin American Literature Today ; References ; Further Reading ; Index","brand":"Oxford University Press Inc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732889448791,"sku":"9780199754915","price":999.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780199754915.jpg?v=1719998824"},{"product_id":"the-rhetoric-of-fiction-9780226065588","title":"The Rhetoric of Fiction","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe first edition of The Rhetoric of Fiction transformed the criticism of fiction and soon became a classic in the field. One of the most widely used texts in fiction courses, it is a standard reference point in advanced discussions of how fictional form works, how authors make novels accessible, and how readers recreate texts, and its concepts and termssuch as the implied author, the postulated reader, and the unreliable narratorhave become part of the standard critical lexicon. For this new edition, Wayne C. Booth has written an extensive Afterword in which he clarifies misunderstandings, corrects what he now views as errors, and sets forth his own recent thinking about the rhetoric of fiction. The other new feature is a Supplementary Bibliography, prepared by James Phelan in consultation with the author, which lists the important critical works of the past twenty yearstwo decades that Booth describes as the richest in the history of the subject.","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732900360535,"sku":"9780226065588","price":23.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226065588.jpg?v=1719998871"},{"product_id":"friending-the-past-the-sense-of-history-in-the-digital-age-9780226451817","title":"Friending the Past  The Sense of History in the","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLiu takes our concern with the fleeting and virtual nature of our relationships today and gives it a historical angle, drawing examples from past societies and their media forms and revealing new ways of seeing history in the continual overwriting and changing of our programming languages.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Friending the Past is argued with Alan Liu's characteristic power, and exhibits the high level of creative abstraction that I think of as the signature asset of Romanticists, including Liu. This book is thoughtfully engaged with a breadth of research and is a brilliant observation of our digital milieu, its overarching logics, and underlying conditions.\"--Lisa Gitelman, New York University","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732908224855,"sku":"9780226451817","price":90.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226451817.jpg?v=1719998906"},{"product_id":"french-lessons-a-memoir-9780226564555","title":"French Lessons  A Memoir","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBrilliantly uniting the personal and the critical, French Lessons is a powerful autobiographical experiment. It tells the story of an American woman escaping into the French language and of a scholar and teacher coming to grips with her history of learning.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Alice Kaplan beautifully describes the intricate mixture of lust and embarrassment and voyeurism and submission and pride involved in immersing oneself in another language. . . . This girl's own story---of a daughter, a spy in the house of French, a teacher and scholar-is imbued with a sense of the multiplicity of identity, and it gracefully tells us what Kaplan says French has taught her: 'There is more than one way to speak.' \"--Lisa Cohen \"Voice Literary Supplement \" \"An uncommonly forthright and concise piece of autobiography. Kaplan has shown that university professors, too, can have a past worth telling, that the subjects they teach may mean far more to them than any student could begin to guess.\"--John Sturrock \"London Review of Books \" \"This original, artful, engaging book belongs to an evolving genre of postmodern intellectual autobiography. Telling her story about a girl from the midwest who learned to speak perfect French, a student of deconstruction who became intrigued by fascism, Alice Kaplan writes insightfully also about language, memory, politics, and writing. Kaplan's father was a lawyer at the Nuremberg trials who died when she was only seven: she recalls the frightening photographs of concentration camp victims she found among his papers. The glamour of otherness and the allure of evil-as well as the characters of various mentors, meals, lovers, and students- are the subjects of this witty and insightful memoir.\"--Rachel M. Brownstein, author of Becoming a Heroine \"Born a Jewish daughter of the American Midwest, Alice Kaplan became a professor of French and an expert on the literature of French fascism. French Lessons is the story of her cultural odyssey, a brave attempt to articulate the compulsions that drove her to embrace foreignness in order to become truly herself. . . . Told in a 'staccato Midwestern style, ' her story of becoming French is arrestingly all-American.\"--Arthur Goldhammer \"Washington Post Book World \" \"Alice Kaplan has written a wonderful book, as accessible as light fiction and as polished and layered as poetry. . . . The precision and intensity of Kaplan's presentation of self in everyday life makes for an extraordinary literary achievement.\"--Graham Fraser \"Toronto Globe and Mail \" \"A lovely book. . . . From the childhood learning of words from her siblings, to her professorship at Duke, she has catalogued her desire to speak a foreign language and thereby to become something foreign and alluring herself.\"--Fred Turner \"Boston Phoenix \" \"French Lessons captures the excitement Kaplan experienced as she fell into the French language: mastering the difficulties of French pronunciation, the forms of the French verb, the forms of French politeness.\"--Thomas McGonigle \"Chicago Tribune \" \"This is the most engaging new bildungsroman I have read in years-and especially because the bildung in question, the learning of French by a young American woman, brings with it such an amazing range of personal drama of modern and contemporary political and cultural history.\"--R. W. B. Lewis","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732911731031,"sku":"9780226564555","price":17.24,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226564555.jpg?v=1719998920"},{"product_id":"image-science-9780226565842","title":"Image Science","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eImage Science gathers Mitchell's most recent essays on media aesthetics, visual culture, and artistic symbolism. The chapters delve into such topics as the physics and biology of images, digital photography and realism, architecture and new media, and the occupation of space in contemporary popular uprisings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ranging widely across the new visual realities of science, art, cinema, and digital media, these essays are conceptually precise, politically engaged, and deeply reflective. They demonstrate why Mitchell has become America's leading philosopher of the image.\"--Susan Buck-Morss, Graduate Center of the City University of New York \"Image Science is fascinating and a wonderful account of a leading scholar's rich research. As always, Mitchell's writing is erudite, engaging, and challenging; his thinking mindful and provocative in equal measure; his arguments dazzling; his insights startling.\"--Marquard Smith, Kingston University, London \"Image Science adds another chapter to Mitchell's long and illustrious intervention in the disciplines of art history and visual studies. Mitchell argues persuasively for a science of the visual that straddles the humanities and the social and natural sciences, one that addresses not only objects but also their perception and role in human experience. This is an exciting and theoretically challenging collection.\"--Keith Moxey, Barnard College, Columbia University","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732911862103,"sku":"9780226565842","price":22.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226565842.jpg?v=1719998921"},{"product_id":"old-thiess-a-livonian-werewolf-9780226674414","title":"Old Thiess a Livonian Werewolf","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1691, a Livonian peasant known as Old Thiess boldly announced before a district court that he was a werewolf. Yet far from being a diabolical monster, he insisted, he was one of the hounds of God, fierce guardians who battled sorcerers, witches, and even Satan to protect the fields, flocks, and humanitya baffling claim that attracted the notice of the judges then and still commands attention from historians today.    In this book, eminent scholars Carlo Ginzburg and Bruce Lincoln offer a uniquely comparative look at the trial and startling testimony of Old Thiess. They present the first English translation of the trial transcript, in which the man's own voice can be heard, before turning to subsequent analyses of the event, which range from efforts to connect Old Thiess to shamanistic practices to the argument that he was reacting against cruel stereotypes of the Livonian werewolf a Germanic elite used to justify their rule over the Baltic peasantry. As Ginzburg and Lincoln debate t","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732915532119,"sku":"9780226674414","price":22.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226674414.jpg?v=1719998933"},{"product_id":"cartesian-poetics-9780226723020","title":"Cartesian Poetics","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat is thinking? What does it feel like? What is it good for? Andrea Gadberry looks for answers to these questions in the philosophy of René Descartes and finds them in the philosopher's implicit poetics. Gadberry argues that Descartes's thought was crucially enabled by poetry and shows how markers of poetic genres from love lyric and elegy to the puzzling forms of the riddle and the anagram betray an impassioned negotiation with the difficulties of thought and its limits. Where others have seen Cartesian philosophy as a triumph of reason, Gadberry reveals that the philosopher accused of having slashed poetry's throat instead enlisted poetic form to contain thought's frustrations.    Gadberry's approach to seventeenth-century writings poses questions urgent for the twenty-first. Bringing literature and philosophy into rich dialogue, Gadberry centers close reading as a method uniquely equipped to manage skepticism, tolerate critical ambivalence, and detect feeling in philosophy. Helpin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An intricate, gripping new book. . . There is a strangeness—an uncanniness, even—to the Descartes emerging from Gadberry’s treatment. It is a reading that is at once convincing and utterly unexpected: Descartes as upside-down, inside-out love poet. . . \u003ci\u003eCartesian Poetics\u003c\/i\u003e is a \u003ci\u003ecoup \u003c\/i\u003eall its own. It ought to change the way we read Descartes.” -- Ross Wilson * Los Angeles Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003e\"Gadberry offers a dazzling reinterpretation of Descartes’s relation to poetry. Written in beautiful and witty prose, this book argues that Cartesian philosophy is underpinned, shaped, and, in important ways, determined by the pressures and forces of literary genre: poetry is a vital form of thinking that is in no way confined to literary texts.. . . . [An] excellent and evocative book.\"\u003cbr\u003e -- Timothy M. Harrison * Critical Inquiry *\u003cbr\u003e“Gadberry’s engaging book defends Descartes against the charge of being the evil genius of modernism. . . . What makes reading Gadberry’s book a rewarding experience is not, as one might expect, a literary deconstruction of Descartes’s text. . . It is rather the way in which, by bringing Descartes’s carefully coded feelings to light, it humanizes both the philosopher and the twists and turns of thinking as such.” -- Christopher Braider * French Studies *\u003cbr\u003e\"In this brilliant book, Gadberry thinks about the poetic forms that shape Descartes’s thinking. Her close attention to form has perhaps led her to give similar consideration to the forms of academic writing, and the result is exemplary within that genre: the book is a pleasure to read. Throughout, Gadberry conducts a conversation with many of the thinkers and scholars who have thought with and against Descartes. . . . \u003ci\u003eCartesian Poetics \u003c\/i\u003eoffers a compelling new way of understanding an author whose claims—and style—remain provocative today.\" -- Emma Claussen * H-France Review *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eCartesian Poetics\u003c\/i\u003e is an original, hard-nosed, gorgeously written, and compelling book. For a book on the aesthetics of thinking, it is suitably beautiful and intelligent. . . . Gadberry’s artful reconstruction and probing of Descartes’s sentences reveal the poetry flowing beneath and within his philosophy.” * Jonathan Kramnick, Yale University *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eCartesian Poetics\u003c\/i\u003e brilliantly integrates historical sensitivity and speculative boldness. Tracing a ‘literary life of concepts’ through the riddle, the love lyric, the elegy, and the anagram, Gadberry gives us a new history of Descartes’s philosophical coming of age. Her nuanced close readings, which make dazzling use of wit as an engine of literary-critical investigation, awaken us to a conception of poetic form that lives in and between thoughts—that makes ‘thinking,’ in the largest sense, possible.” * Gerard Passannante, University of Maryland, College Park *\u003cbr\u003e\"Gadberry joins the chorus of recent scholars whose work rehabilitates Descartes from the role of 'the archvillain responsible for all of modernity’s worst impulses.' \u003ci\u003eCartesian Poetics\u003c\/i\u003e sits neatly alongside other reevaluations of Cartesian philosophy that take seriously his work on the passions and virtue.\" * Cleveland Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: Resultless Enterprises\u003cbr\u003e Chapter One: Common-Sense Envy\u003cbr\u003e Chapter Two: Lyric Disposition\u003cbr\u003e Chapter Three: Bitter Satisfactions\u003cbr\u003e Chapter Four: After Thoughts\u003cbr\u003e Epilogue: “A Painful Feeling of Strangeness”\u003cbr\u003e   Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Index","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732917104983,"sku":"9780226723020","price":24.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226723020.jpg?v=1719998940"},{"product_id":"underdogs-9780226761107","title":"Underdogs","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA pathbreaking genealogy of queer theory that traces its roots to an unexpected source: sociological research on marginal communities in the era before Stonewall.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What might we learn about queer studies by exploring its intellectual debts to midcentury social scientists’ interest in underdogs, underworlds, and the dynamics of stigma? Heather Love’s provocative and defamiliarizing analysis asks us to see queer studies—its limitations and its transformational possibilities—anew. A critical intellectual history, teeming with ideas and unlikely engagements.” * Regina Kunzel, Yale University *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eUnderdogs \u003c\/i\u003eis a well-crafted, subtle, and beautifully written foray into the worlds of mid-twentieth century social science by a humanities scholar who uncovers, in the fine details of descriptive empirical research, the largely unrecognized precursors of today’s queer studies. With keen focus, Love reveals new possibilities for scholarly, ethical, and political commitments to the defense of outcasts and outsiders. Love makes an impassioned claim that humanists and social scientists need one another—and need to set aside the tenacious methodological dogmas that keep them apart.” * Steven Epstein, Northwestern University *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eUnderdogs \u003c\/i\u003eclarifies how the social science of deviance, like the queer theory that superseded it, depended on the figure of the outsider. Love asks queer theory to take social science \u003ci\u003emethodologies\u003c\/i\u003e, especially ‘underdog methods,’ seriously. At their best, these methods promise to keep queer theory open to surprise and alert to the potentialities of everyday life.” * Elizabeth Freeman, University of California, Davis *\u003cbr\u003e\"Heather Love’s \u003ci\u003eUnderdogs: Social Deviance and Queer Theory \u003c\/i\u003e(University of Chicago Press) is an intervention into the field of queer studies. But it is also an important work of intellectual history, tracing a surprising new genealogy that locates the origins of 1990s ‘queer theory’ not in literary studies, but in mid-20th-century empirical social research. It will appeal to readers invested in the nascent effort to historicise queer studies, but also to those interested in the history of the social sciences.\" * History Today *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eUnderdogs \u003c\/i\u003eseeks to rethink Queer Theory's ideological contributions through an excavation of the field's unacknowledged predecessors in the postwar social sciences. . . . [Love's] lucid prose and well-grounded interpretations make \u003ci\u003eUnderdogs \u003c\/i\u003ea book that should interest readers who are immersed in Queer Theory and those who are not at all.\" * Gay \u0026amp; Lesbian Review *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eUnderdogs \u003c\/i\u003epresents a thorough argument for queer theorists to understand the way their problematic forebearers have left indelible marks on the field. . . . \u003ci\u003eUnderdogs \u003c\/i\u003epresents a careful, close reading of deviance studies, and invites theorists and scholars to reconsider their intellectual heritage.\" * LSE Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003e\"This book concisely addresses the modern queer movement as Love challenges readers to critically consider that holding on to what is most valuable in queer critique may mean letting go of what is not... Highly recommended.\" * Choice *\u003cbr\u003e\"This book has important implications for social work and social work education.\" * Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eUnderdogs\u003c\/i\u003e is a meticulously researched study of postwar social scientific writing and its\u003cbr\u003e founding influence on queer studies. Its focus on method provides a potentially productive way to bring questions of politics and ethics back into a field that has lost\u003cbr\u003e much of its social and theoretical momentum since the late 1990s. Moreover, the\u003cbr\u003e sustained critique of the liberal humanist claim to integral subjectivity forms a timely\u003cbr\u003e intervention at the current moment, when younger generations increasingly appear\u003cbr\u003e invested in the type of sexual and gender identitarianism that both postwar social science\u003cbr\u003e and queer theory, in however diverging ways, have so persistently been trying to\u003cbr\u003e overhaul. For this reason alone,\u003ci\u003e Underdogs\u003c\/i\u003e is a powerful and important achievement.\" * American Literary History Online *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eUnderdogs\u003c\/i\u003e offers a thoughtful and clear analysis. . .  a first step in recognizing and untangling queer ideals for a more complete intellectual history on queer thought.\" * American Journal of Sociology *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface Introduction: Beginning with Stigma 1 The Stigma Archive 2 Just Watching 3 A Sociological Periplum 4 Doing Being Deviant Afterword: The Politics of Stigma Acknowledgments Notes Index","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732919824727,"sku":"9780226761107","price":21.85,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226761107.jpg?v=1719998951"},{"product_id":"madness-language-literature-9780226774831","title":"Madness Language Literature","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Lest these familiar Foucauldian themes leave readers feeling there is nothing new here, Judith Revel’s nuanced, judicious introduction highlights 'four differences' in apparent contrast to Foucault as he has been received.\" * Choice *\u003cbr\u003e“Reverberations from the forceful impact of Foucault’s thought were first felt by Anglophone readers in the mid-1960s almost entirely through his writings on madness and literature. This new volume gathers several previously unpublished or untranslated texts from this decade on these very themes. Readers will be delighted to revisit or perhaps even indulge for the very first time those ideas and analyses with which Foucault forever shook the future of philosophy.\" -- Colin Koopman, University of Oregon\u003cbr\u003e“The essays collected in this book are as urgent today as they were fifty years ago: provocative, generative, and timely. Each is a bridge connecting Foucault’s histories of the modern subject to different fields of inquiry, from literature to structuralism to the philosophy of J. L. Austin. Anyone interested in literary theory, early modern history, or continental philosophy and its relation to the analytic tradition will find these essays by turns revelatory and inspiring.” -- Richard Neer, University of Chicago\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Note on the Text\u003cbr\u003e Introduction by Judith Revel\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Lectures and Writings on Madness, Language, and Literature\u003cbr\u003e 1. Madness and Civilization\u003cbr\u003e 2. Madness and Civilization (Presentation Given at the Club Tahar Haddad, Tunis, April 1967)\u003cbr\u003e 3. Madness and Society\u003cbr\u003e 4. Literature and Madness (Madness in Baroque Theater and the Theater of Artaud)\u003cbr\u003e 5. Literature and Madness (Madness in the Work of Raymond Roussel)\u003cbr\u003e 6. Phenomenological Experience: Experience in Bataille\u003cbr\u003e 7. The New Methods of Literary Analysis\u003cbr\u003e 8. Literary Analysis\u003cbr\u003e 9. Structuralism and Literary Analysis (Presentation Given at the Club Tahar Haddad, Tunis, February 4, 1967)\u003cbr\u003e 10. [The Extralinguistic and Literature]\u003cbr\u003e 11. Literary Analysis and Structuralism\u003cbr\u003e 12. Bouvard and Pécuchet: The Two Temptations\u003cbr\u003e 13. The Search for the Absolute\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Index","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732920807767,"sku":"9780226774831","price":26.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226774831.jpg?v=1719998955"},{"product_id":"figuring-jerusalem-politics-and-poetics-in-the-sacred-center-9780226787466","title":"Figuring Jerusalem Politics and Poetics in the","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFiguring Jerusalem explores how Hebrew writers have imagined Jerusalem, both from the distance of exile and from within its sacred walls.     For two thousand years, Hebrew writers used their exile from the Holy Land as a license for invention. The question at the heart of Figuring Jerusalem is this: how did these writers bring their imagination home in the Zionist century? Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi finds that the same diasporic conventions that Hebrew writers practiced in exile were maintained throughout the first half of the twentieth century. And even after 1948, when the state of Israel was founded but East Jerusalem and its holy sites remained under Arab control, Jerusalem continued to figure in the Hebrew imagination as mediated space. It was only in the aftermath of the Six Day War that the temptations and dilemmas of proximity to the sacred would become acute in every area of Hebrew politics and culture.   Figuring Jerusalem ranges from classical texts, biblical and medieval, to the post-1967 writings of S. Y. Agnon and Yehuda Amichai. Ultimately, DeKoven Ezrahi shows that the wisdom Jews acquired through two thousand years of exile, as inscribed in their literary imagination, must be rediscovered if the diverse inhabitants of Jerusalem are to coexist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eFiguring Jerusalem\u003c\/i\u003e, Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi’s most far-ranging and ambitious book, is a morally bracing and politically urgent argument against spatially literalizing the sacred in Jerusalem. Instead, DeKoven Ezrahi offers a persuasive plea for the quotidian, in which the symbolism of the holy is not confused with the physical space of the holy. Her defense of ordinary existence's preciousness begins with Genesis, moves through Maimonides, and culminates in insightful readings of Agnon and Amichai.” * Robert Alter, author of 'The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary' *\u003cbr\u003e“This beautifully written, brilliantly argued study reveals the Jewish imagination to be predicated on distance from Jerusalem as the physical source of holiness. Return and redemption are endlessly deferred, as texts and their metaphors become surrogates for literal proximity to the sacred. DeKoven Ezrahi’s cautionary tale about the dangers of the contemporary cult of the land, and of Jerusalem in particular, is couched in breathtaking, indeed revolutionary readings of the Binding of Isaac, the Song of Songs, Maimonides, and especially Agnon and Amichai. A book of great cultural urgency for our times that makes an invaluable contribution to the field of Jewish studies and beyond.” * Chana Kronfeld, author of 'The Full Severity of Compassion: The Poetry of Yehuda Amichai' *\u003cbr\u003e“Written between the brackets of war and poetry, this stunning literary archeology aims an unflinching—but loving—gaze at the world’s most desired, and therefore contested, city. A modern guide for the perplexed, this book opens the gates of Jerusalem anew, revealing the literal and figurative touchstone of religious imagination, political longing, and artistic invention. A tour de force.” * James Carroll, author of 'The Truth at the Heart of the Lie' and 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient City Ignited our Modern World' *\u003cbr\u003e\"People have been waiting for this book because of how it situates the fraught issues of Jerusalem’s current politics within the city’s historical status as a poetic object. DeKoven Ezrahi’s lyrical, provocative account of Jerusalem as metaphor and allegory across a variety of sacred, literary, and philosophical texts will enrich scholarly discourse, illuminating for readers how a 'diaspora poetics' has infused the city and its memory with a unique sense of place.” * Barbara Mann, Jewish Theological Seminary *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList of Illustrations\u003cbr\u003e Prologue Why Jerusalem? The Politics of Poetry\u003cbr\u003e Introduction “This House, which is called by My Name”\u003cbr\u003e Part 1 Literary Archaeologies\u003cbr\u003e 1 “Yes, you did laugh!”: The Secret of the \u003ci\u003eAkeda\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 2 “You are as majestic as Jerusalem”: The Song and the City\u003cbr\u003e 3 “Apples of gold in ornaments of silver”: Maimonides’s Guide to the Poetic Imagination\u003cbr\u003e Part 2 Agnon’s Dilemma\u003cbr\u003e 4 “What may this be likened to?”: Agnon and the Poetics of Space\u003cbr\u003e 5 “Every day I have regretted not having stood in the breach”: Agnon in Jerusalem\u003cbr\u003e Part 3 Amichai in the Breach\u003cbr\u003e 6 “He comes out of a swimming pool or the sea . . . and he laughs and blesses”: Yehuda Amichai, Poet of the Sacred Quotidian\u003cbr\u003e 7 “Visit my tears and the east wind, which is the true Western Wall”: Amichai in Jerusalem\u003cbr\u003e Coda\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments: Ancient Debts and Ongoing Gratitude\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732921233751,"sku":"9780226787466","price":26.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226787466.jpg?v=1719998956"},{"product_id":"the-naked-truth-viennese-modernism-and-the-body-9780226819969","title":"The Naked Truth Viennese Modernism and the Body","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Historians of sexuality will be particularly impressed with George’s departure from historiography’s focus on high culture in modernism and her success at incorporating a rich array of sources into the intricate sexual matrix of the fin de siècle in order to illuminate the bodies of the Other, of the Self, of working-class women, and of war-torn men. This approach will make her study valuable to historians of sexuality who wish to explore the centrality of the body in fin-de-siècle modernisms of other regions of Europe, as well as North America. More generally, the sheer musicality of George’s voice in \u003ci\u003eThe Naked Truth \u003c\/i\u003ewill delight any artist of the written word.\" * Journal of the History of Sexuality *\u003cbr\u003e\"In her pioneering book, George paints a new picture - with the body at the center - of a much-studied and often misunderstood epoch without shrinking from the dark sides and the 'naked truth'. Therefore George presents the body - and thus Vienna - as a place of pain and oppression, but also as a place of pleasure and promise. To use a Musil term, she exposes the body's sense of possibility.\" * Austrian Broadcasting Corporation *\u003cbr\u003e\"Eloquent writing throughout. . . . [\u003ci\u003eThe Naked Truth\u003c\/i\u003e] not only expands our view of Vienna 1900, but speaks to the broader\u003cbr\u003e importance of body culture in Western modernity.\" * German History *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Naked Truth \u003c\/i\u003estands out for its pathbreaking interdisciplinarity unifying developments in the 'high' arts and culture (spanning literature and visual arts) with developments in popular culture, including film, photography, mass media, and exhibitions, reflecting a preoccupation with the physical body. The book tethers a reexamination of canonical figures in Viennese modernism—a familiar cast of characters, including Arthur Schnitzler, Egon Schiele, Peter Altenberg, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and others—to relative “unknowns,” including writer and physician Marie Pappenheim, painter Carry Hauser, and modern dancers like Grete Wiesenthal and Gertrud Bodenwieser, disparate figures bound together thematically through the tropes of medicine, the body, and postmortem examination. The book impresses due to its true interdisciplinary breadth and innovative chronology stressing cultural continuity between the fin-de-siècle and interwar periods.\" * H-Net *\u003cbr\u003e\"George musters an impressive array of written and visual sources in this endeavor, which will interest readers in literary studies, history of science, art history, dance studies, and beyond. She brings canonical figures such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Ödön von Horváth, and Vicki Baum into conversation with neglected but nonetheless fascinating writers who offer insights into matters such as autopsies (Marie Pappenheim) and childbirth (Ilka Maria Ungar). It is a pleasure to have the provocative voices of female modernists added to this conversation, and the grounds for their inclusion are completely convincing. . . . George deftly and authoritatively weaves together disparate facets of Viennese social life, and her lucid prose is a pleasure to read.\" * German Studies Review *\u003cbr\u003e\"This extraordinary volume is a long-over-due revision of Carl Schorske’s \u003ci\u003eFin-de-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture\u003c\/i\u003e (Knopf 1980). What a revision it is! George analyzes the centrality of the body for Vienna’s modernist artists and writers, while creatively expanding the chronology of the Viennese fin de siecle from the late nineteenth century through 1938. In so doing, her work also demonstrates interwar Austria’s cultural vitality, implicitly rejecting the notion that the republic was nonviable. . . . In this beautifully illustrated, multivalent monograph, George considers numerous forms of high- and low-cultural production, among them dance, exhibitions, film, literature, and various visual arts. . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Naked Truth\u003c\/i\u003e is an erudite and original contribution to the dis-course on Vienna circa 1900. . . . This book should interest anyone who cares about the fin de siecle; Habsburg Central Europe; or Vienna, in any shape or form. This delightful interdisciplinary volume will be the standard by which all subsequent analysis of Viennese modernism is measured.\" * History: Reviews of New Books *\u003cbr\u003e\"In drawing our attention so concertedly to the corporeal, at all stages of life and health, this book will undoubtedly prove generative not only for scholarship on Vienna and modernism, but as a model of body-centered scholarship that might help us reimagine the history of other times and places as well.\" * Central European History *\u003cbr\u003e\"Drawing on a rich variety of archival materials, literary and artistic works, and socio-historical examples, this transdisciplinary book demonstrates the relevance of rigorous humanistic inquiry that brings fields of medicine, art, literature, and dance into conversation. In short, the aptly titled book \u003ci\u003eThe Naked Truth \u003c\/i\u003econvincingly argues for the importance of the body, medicine, and movement as central to our understanding of Viennese Modernism and constitutes a significant contribution to the fields of Modernist, German, and Austrian Studies.\" * Monatshefte *\u003cbr\u003e“A sweeping survey of the primacy of the body in the Vienna modern, \u003ci\u003eThe Naked Truth\u003c\/i\u003e demands a reorientation of our assumptions. This book will make a difference.” * Scott Spector, University of Michigan *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Naked Truth\u003c\/i\u003e offers a brilliant challenge to popular myths about fin-de-siècle Vienna. In its cross-disciplinary focus on the dissected, gendered, classed, and moving body in Viennese culture, it reads Gustav Klimt’s famous icon \u003ci\u003eNuda Veritas \u003c\/i\u003eas a purloined image: always in plain sight but consistently overlooked. By including noncanonical women and expanding the frame beyond the political divide of 1918, George gives us a supplemental and alternative genealogy of Viennese modernism.” * Andreas Huyssen, Columbia University *\u003cbr\u003e“In this finely written and meticulously researched book, George expands our definition of Viennese modernism. Ranging across various art forms and media, she brings the high modernist narrative from earlier scholarship into dialogue with popular culture. We readers stand to profit from this enriched conversation, learning about an age no less biopolitical than our own.” * Fatima Naqvi, Yale University *\u003cbr\u003e\"A thoughtful and intelligent overview of the role of the body in Viennese science and culture of the fin-de-siècle and modern periods.\" * Alexanderadamsart blog *\u003cbr\u003e\"Alys George, a scholar of Austrian literature, art, film, and culture, has written a sweeping study of the body in Vienna in the era of 1890–1930 that saw an unusual collection of creative minds in arts, literature, and sciences. The book casts a wide net over several fields of cultural production and by doing so challenges the understanding of Vienna as the site of 'homo psychologicus [psychological man] as the emblematic manifestation of Viennese culture,' launched by Carl Schorske in his classic studies from the 1960s and 1970.\" * Austrian History Yearbook *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Naked Truth\u003c\/i\u003e presents an incisive study of the fascination with the body in Viennese modernism. Alys X. George has written a finely tuned investigation of an important chapter in the cultural history of the human body that rediscovers the complexities with which the body was viewed in this culture.\" * Journal of Modern History *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNote on Translations\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 1.         The Body on Display: Staging the Other, Shaping the Self\u003cbr\u003e Science and Spectacle: “Exotic” Bodies on Display\u003cbr\u003e Fictional Encounters? Peter Altenberg’s \u003ci\u003eAshantee \u003c\/i\u003e(1897)\u003cbr\u003e Somatic Utopias: Viennese Hygiene Exhibitions\u003cbr\u003e Literary Life Reform: Peter Altenberg’s \u003ci\u003ePròdrŏmŏs\u003c\/i\u003e (1906)\u003cbr\u003e Nature and Culture on Stage\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 2.         The Body in Pieces: Viennese Literature’s Anatomies\u003cbr\u003e Becoming the Blade: Vivisection as the Primal Scene\u003cbr\u003e In the Dissecting Room: Arthur Schnitzler and Marie Pappenheim\u003cbr\u003e Viennese Symptoms, Human Fragments: Joseph Roth’s Journalism\u003cbr\u003e The Politics and Poetics of Viennese Corpses: Carry Hauser and Joseph Roth\u003cbr\u003e Corpse as Capital: Ödön von Horváth’s \u003ci\u003eFaith, Hope, and Charity\u003c\/i\u003e (1932)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 3.         The Patient’s Body: Working-Class Women in the Clinic\u003cbr\u003e Finding a Voice: The Poetics of Pregnancy (Marie Pappenheim and Ilka Maria Ungar)\u003cbr\u003e Egon Schiele in the Clinic\u003cbr\u003e In the Women’s Clinic: Architecture, Gaze, Film\u003cbr\u003e Speaking for Suffering Mothers: Else Feldmann and Carry Hauser\u003cbr\u003e The Politics and Public Visibility of Proletarian Bodies\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 4.         The Body in Motion: Staging Silent Expression\u003cbr\u003e Body Language and Crisis of Language\u003cbr\u003e Hugo von Hofmannsthal and the Power of Pantomime\u003cbr\u003e Self and Other: Exploring Identity through Free Dance\u003cbr\u003e Making Modern Dance Viennese\u003cbr\u003e Celluloid Gestures and the Cinematic Body\u003cbr\u003e The Worker’s Body: Modern Dance, Machine Culture, and Social Democracy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Epilogue\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e  ","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732926673239,"sku":"9780226819969","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226819969.jpg?v=1719998979"},{"product_id":"the-indies-of-the-setting-sun-9780226820019","title":"The Indies of the Setting Sun","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePadrón reveals the evolution of Spain's imagining of the New World as a space in continuity with Asia.    Narratives of Europe's westward expansion often tell of how the Americas came to be known as a distinct landmass, separate from Asia and uniquely positioned as new ground ripe for transatlantic colonialism. But this geographic vision of the Americas was not shared by all Europeans. While some imperialists imagined North and Central America as undiscovered land, the Spanish pushed to define the New World as part of a larger and eminently flexible geography that they called las Indias, and that by right, belonged to the Crown of Castile and León. Las Indias included all of the New World as well as East and Southeast Asia, although Spain's understanding of the relationship between the two areas changed as the realities of the Pacific Rim came into sharper focus. At first, the Spanish insisted that North and Central America were an extension of the continent of Asia. Eventually, they c\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It should be essential reading for anyone seeking a fresh approach to understanding Spain’s imperial ambitions during the Age of Discovery.\" * The Portolan *\u003cbr\u003e\"Columbus thought that Cuba was an appendage of Asia, and, though it may surprise readers, it would be more than a century before more accurate accounts of the Pacific Ocean and the distinctions between the landforms of Asia and North America emerged. Padrón relays this story with comprehensive knowledge and a skillful interpretation of cartographic and narrative sources, which often rationalized Spanish imperial aims to show that the Spanish Empire had Asian components thanks to the world-encompassing meridian line that divided Spanish and Portuguese zones for exploitation. . . . This highly recommended book clarifies the history of seemingly naïve but at times politically useful sets of flawed assumptions.\" * CHOICE *\u003cbr\u003e\"This is a salutary book. . . . it is immensely valuable in making us see how sixteenth-century Spaniards conceptually framed the Americas, the Pacific and beyond; it literally takes us into another world.\" * The Globe: Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Map Society *\u003cbr\u003e\"Historian Ricardo Padrón’s \u003ci\u003eThe Indies of the Setting Sun: How Early Modern Spain Mapped the Far East as the Transpacific West \u003c\/i\u003eattempts to understand how, in discursive and visual terms, the Spanish crown sought to project its geopolitical and historical influence in the world from the sixteenth century forward. . . . The book is a valuable contribution not only because of its rigorous and intelligent interpretations, but also because it invites us to think about two major issues. First, it shows that territories such as the Americas were not 'invented' once and for all but were revised and reinvented over time and from different places and communities. Second, the book reminds us that we must decenter our gaze from the battles of conquest and pay attention instead to the voyages and ways of understanding vast spaces such as the oceans that were key in politically configuring our modern experience of the globe.\" * Terrae Incognitae *\u003cbr\u003e\"In The Indies of the Setting Sun, Ricardo Padrón explores the spatial imaginaries of elite Spaniards in the period bookended by Balboa’s “discovery” of the Pacific Ocean in 1513 in present- day Panama and the 1606 Spanish conquest of the Moluccas. \" * Early American Literature *\u003cbr\u003e\"With this work, Padrón demonstrates that the Pacific has been a fundamental issue in the invention of America, a process that, as he firmly asserts, 'has been repeatedly revised and reinvented over the course of the years, and has meant different things at different times in different discursive communities.' Padrón encourages readers to view the geopolitical imagination of Habsburg Spain in a different light and to rethink the possibilities offered by new approaches to consider the Pacific not as marginal, but as a central location of the Spanish empire.\" * Bulletin of the Comediantes *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Indies of the Setting Sun\u003c\/i\u003e is an original and thoughtful study of the ‘invention’ and subsequent reinventions of the Pacific Ocean as part of the Spanish empire. Padrón brings to this project the same lucid, elegant prose and methodology that characterized his earlier monograph, and again he provides an argument supported by a careful study of sources employing the best historical approaches, closely contextualized reading, and an expansive definition of cartography. This is a much needed intervention, highlighting the importance of Spanish Asia in the history of Spanish imperial expansion.\" -- María M. Portuondo, author of The Spanish Disquiet: The Biblical Natural Philosophy of Benito Arias Montano\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Indies of the Setting Sun\u003c\/i\u003e examines the way that Spanish knowledge about the South Sea—now known as the Pacific Ocean—was developed. Challenging the historical idea that Magellan's circumnavigation had established Europeans' understanding of the Americas as divided from Asia by the vast Pacific, Padrón reveals an 'alternative European cartography' that persisted across the sixteenth century. In this odd parallel universe, America was merely the forecourt to Asia, and the South Sea was a small basin within the larger Indies, then Spain's overseas empire. This is the first book I've ever read that colors the larger 'Indies' so vividly.\" -- Barbara Mundy, author of The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City\u003cbr\u003e\"The author’s aim. . . is ambitious but the reader will not be disappointed. Padrón, in fact, leads his audience on a real journey through time, dismantling many commonplaces and prejudices about the modern perception of the way the world has been thought of and represented on maps at the dawn of modernity. The author breaks the patterns in the way we think about historical cartography between rigid categories of ‘right and wrong’, ‘precise and approximate’. Instead, Padrón highlights a complex historical process in which different cultural and political theories competed with each other in a dialectic that shaped our way of understanding geography. . . . Ricardo Padrón’s book: \u003ci\u003eThe Indies of the Setting Sun\u003c\/i\u003e should be welcomed as a useful and much needed book. . . . I believe that today, in an era of redefinition of the balance between global powers with enormous interests in the Pacific area, this book is of great usefulness and relevance.\" * Rutter Project *\u003cbr\u003e\"A nuanced reading of Spanish cartographic literature about the Pacific region in the sixteenth century. . . . The book’s central strength is in its analytical acuity, which dredges up tensions, contradictions, ironies and ambivalence from multivalent cartographic and written texts.\" * Imago Mundi *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList of Figures\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 1          The Map behind the Curtain\u003cbr\u003e 2          South Sea Dreams\u003cbr\u003e 3          Pacific Nightmares\u003cbr\u003e 4          Shipwrecked Ambitions\u003cbr\u003e 5          Pacific Conquests\u003cbr\u003e 6          The Location of China\u003cbr\u003e 7          The Kingdom of the Setting Sun\u003cbr\u003e 8          The Anxieties of a Paper Empire\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Conclusion\u003cbr\u003e   Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Works Cited\u003cbr\u003e Index","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732926771543,"sku":"9780226820019","price":26.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226820019.jpg?v=1719998980"},{"product_id":"professing-criticism-9780226821306","title":"Professing Criticism","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e, [Guillory] takes on an even bigger question: What is literary criticism—specifically, the kind of highly specialized, theoretically sophisticated textual readings generated by academic critics—really \u003ci\u003efor\u003c\/i\u003e?\" -- Jennifer Schuessler * The New York Times *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e is a sociology of criticism, an argument about how, during the twentieth century, the practice evolved from a wide-ranging amateur pursuit, requiring no specialist training or qualifications, into a profession and a discipline housed within the academy. . . . The profession of literary study as it is currently institutionalized in the university may not be the place from which the journey toward a future criticism begins. To sit alongside Guillory on his high perch, or maybe a branch or two higher, is not to dream of the past or to mourn the present. It is to scan new horizons for the second coming of the critic.\" -- Merve Emre * The New Yorker *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The most penetrating, and in some ways most original, study we have of the forces that have shaped the history of literary study, especially in the US. . . . \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e does not fit any familiar category: it is the work of an original intelligence taking seriously the various responsibilities involved in trying to understand how the present state of literary study emerged out of its history.\"\u003c\/p\u003e -- Stefan Collini * London Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003e\"For those of us who value not only literature but the idiosyncratic legacy of academic literary studies, Guillory does not bring good or welcome news. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s wrong.\" -- Evan Kindley * New York Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003e\"[Guillory’s] goal is to understand how the practice of criticism, which flourished in the journalism of the 19th century, became a university discipline. . . . The questions Guillory poses have a long history but a new urgency before what seems like a precipice: Will literary studies continue as a professional activity, and if so, in what form? And might professionalism itself inhibit the changes that need to happen in the field?\" -- Nicholas Dames * The Nation *\u003cbr\u003e\"Three decades ago, Guillory’s influential \u003ci\u003eCultural Capital \u003c\/i\u003eattacked the whole premise of the canon wars. The combatants assumed that it mattered meaningfully for creation of an inclusive social world what people read in literature classrooms. They mistook or substituted the exclusionary classroom for a possibly inclusive social world. These arguments are revisited and deepened in \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e, which warns against examining 'the school' in isolation from the total world.\" -- Sarah Brouillette * Public Books *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Professing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e will set the terms of discussion about the English department for a long time. But it will resonate outwards, too — historians of the humanities writ large will find in this book enormous resources, though they will need to be translated carefully from one disciplinary setting to others.\" * The Chronicle of Higher Education *\u003cbr\u003e“If there is a more thoughtful, penetrating, insightful, trenchant, acerbic, scathing or original analysis of a scholarly discipline than John Guillory’s \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e, I have yet to see it. Partly a history and in part a sociology of English as a profession, \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e is an extraordinary book, truly a landmark work of scholarship and interpretation.”\u003cbr\u003e   * Inside Higher Ed *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e offers a brilliantly exacting, politically confronting analysis of why the study of literature is unlike other disciplines of the university and what its distinctive history means for its ability to serve a clear social purpose today. Fearless in his account of how and why we practitioners of criticism so often misplace and exaggerate our contributions to political life, Guillory defines the terms for the conversations we need to be having now: conversations about the scope and purposes of criticism in a public sphere where literature is no longer central; about the relation of print to unrestricted digital media platforms; about the diversity of the demand for writing today and our role in teaching it; and about the forms of knowledge we can offer a society in which interpretation of texts is a specialist way of making sense of the world.” * Helen Small, University of Oxford *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e is the distillation of a lifetime’s quest by one of our most deeply learned, searching, and principled literary scholars to understand literary studies in its long history of changing extrinsic relations with society, internal tectonic shifts as a discipline, and current structural diminishment. Guillory’s grand argument about literary studies as part of the sociology of knowledge is sweeping, and his analyses of the perennial confusions about the objects and modes of literary criticism are acute. ‘These conditions must be acknowledged if the professoriate is ever to overcome its tendency to construct literary study as something more than it can be and less than it should be,’ he writes—a sentence that captures the poised essence of his challenge to, yet affirmation of, literary study as a diminished, but not therefore to be relinquished, discipline.” * Alan Liu, University of California, Santa Barbara *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e is ambitious and impressively learned, an extraordinarily deep and illuminating immersion in the history and sociology of professionalism, European literature, and critical theory.\" -- Michael Stern * The American Prospect *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e offers a rigorous assessment of the major tendencies in contemporary literary studies and a strong argument for the continuing relevance of English in the 21st-century university.\" * Literary Review *\u003cbr\u003e\"John Guillory's \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e is in every way an admirable book. It is deeply learned, sharp in its observations, unquestionably sincere in its effort to rehabilitate and reorganize the study of literature, and above all correct: literary study has indeed lost sight of its original, underlying purpose, has become too dispersed in its curricular organization, and has become helplessly caught in the shifting winds of every new and passing critical trend that comes along.\" * The Reading Experience *\u003cbr\u003e\"John Guillory has written a thoughtful and wide-ranging book in which he refuses to let the aura of crisis prompt him to blame literary colleagues who abandoned some supposedly perfect approach to chase critical fashions, or on students allegedly concerned only to prepare for lucrative professions.\" * Critical Inquiry *\u003cbr\u003e\"An exhaustive and careful history of the institutional study of literature that contextualizes its roots from ancient Greece to the modern American multiversity.\" * Law \u0026amp; Liberty *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e is a thorough and complex work of scholarship. It’s also a bracing call for literary scholars to significantly reform how they think about their profession and its relationship to their students and the reading public in general. At its core is a challenge that is simultaneously reasonable and radical: professors of literary study must be more modest in their aims and promises to suit the realities of their field in the twenty-first century.\" * Public Discourse *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism \u003c\/i\u003eis so comprehensive an analysis of the field of criticism that it even contains an argument in defense of scholarly projects that are thirty years (or thereabouts) in the making. This is a book that aspires to see the profession of literary study steadily and see it whole: from the origins of academic literary study to the 'method wars' of the past two decades, from the difficulties besetting the evaluation of scholarship in the humanities to the collapse of the academic job market and the consequences of that collapse for graduate programs, from the place of composition in English departments to the rise of global English, \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e has an argument for you.\" -- Michael Bérubé * Cultural Critique *\u003cbr\u003e\"It deserves to be read and pondered by everyone teaching in departments of English and modern languages.\" -- Ritchie Robertson * Modern Language Review *\u003cbr\u003e\"A very knowledgeable and incisive analysis of the state of literary studies today.\" * Australian Book Review *\u003cbr\u003e\"One of the most brilliant recent accounts of our subject. . . Guillory’s reading of the reciprocity of document and monument is genuinely illuminating and important when it comes to literary research.\" * Modern Philology *\u003cbr\u003e\"John Guillory has produced a virtuoso display of what scholarship at its most honest, self-aware best can accomplish.\" * College Literature *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part One: The Formation and Deformation of Literary Study\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1 Institution of Professions\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2 Professing Criticism\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3 Critique of Critical Criticism\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Two: Organizing Literature: Foundations, Antecedents, Consequences\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4 Monuments and Documents: On the Object of Study in the Humanities\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5 The Postrhetorical Condition\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6 Two Failed Disciplines: Belles Lettres and Philology\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 7 The Location of Literature\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 8 The Contradictions of Global English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Three: Professionalization and Its Discontents\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 9 On the Permanent Crisis of Graduate Education\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 10 Evaluating Scholarship in the Humanities\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 11 Composition and the Demand for Writing\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 12 The Question of Lay Reading\u003cbr\u003e Conclusion: Ratio Studiorum\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Index","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732927787351,"sku":"9780226821306","price":22.8,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226821306.jpg?v=1719998985"},{"product_id":"professing-criticism-9780226821290","title":"Professing Criticism","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA sociological history of literary studyboth as a discipline and as a profession.     As the humanities in higher education struggle with a labor crisis and with declining enrollments, the travails of literary study are especially profound.No scholar has analyzed the discipline's contradictions as authoritatively as John Guillory. In this much-anticipated new book, Guillory shows how the study of literaturehas been organized, both historically and in the modern era, both before and after its professionalization. The traces of this volatile history, he reveals, have solidified into permanent features of the university. Literary study continues to be troubled by the relation between discipline and profession, both in its ambivalence about the literary object and in its anxious embrace of a professionalism that betrays the discipline's relation to its amateur precursor: criticism. In a series of timely essays, Professing Criticism offers an incisive explanation for the perennial churn in \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e, [Guillory] takes on an even bigger question: What is literary criticism—specifically, the kind of highly specialized, theoretically sophisticated textual readings generated by academic critics—really \u003ci\u003efor\u003c\/i\u003e?\" -- Jennifer Schuessler * The New York Times *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e is a sociology of criticism, an argument about how, during the twentieth century, the practice evolved from a wide-ranging amateur pursuit, requiring no specialist training or qualifications, into a profession and a discipline housed within the academy. . . . The profession of literary study as it is currently institutionalized in the university may not be the place from which the journey toward a future criticism begins. To sit alongside Guillory on his high perch, or maybe a branch or two higher, is not to dream of the past or to mourn the present. It is to scan new horizons for the second coming of the critic.\" -- Merve Emre * The New Yorker *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The most penetrating, and in some ways most original, study we have of the forces that have shaped the history of literary study, especially in the US. . . . \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e does not fit any familiar category: it is the work of an original intelligence taking seriously the various responsibilities involved in trying to understand how the present state of literary study emerged out of its history.\"\u003c\/p\u003e -- Stefan Collini * London Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003e\"For those of us who value not only literature but the idiosyncratic legacy of academic literary studies, Guillory does not bring good or welcome news. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s wrong.\" -- Evan Kindley * New York Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003e\"[Guillory’s] goal is to understand how the practice of criticism, which flourished in the journalism of the 19th century, became a university discipline. . . . The questions Guillory poses have a long history but a new urgency before what seems like a precipice: Will literary studies continue as a professional activity, and if so, in what form? And might professionalism itself inhibit the changes that need to happen in the field?\" -- Nicholas Dames * The Nation *\u003cbr\u003e\"Three decades ago, Guillory’s influential \u003ci\u003eCultural Capital \u003c\/i\u003eattacked the whole premise of the canon wars. The combatants assumed that it mattered meaningfully for creation of an inclusive social world what people read in literature classrooms. They mistook or substituted the exclusionary classroom for a possibly inclusive social world. These arguments are revisited and deepened in \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e, which warns against examining 'the school' in isolation from the total world.\" -- Sarah Brouillette * Public Books *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Professing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e will set the terms of discussion about the English department for a long time. But it will resonate outwards, too — historians of the humanities writ large will find in this book enormous resources, though they will need to be translated carefully from one disciplinary setting to others.\" * The Chronicle of Higher Education *\u003cbr\u003e“If there is a more thoughtful, penetrating, insightful, trenchant, acerbic, scathing or original analysis of a scholarly discipline than John Guillory’s \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e, I have yet to see it. Partly a history and in part a sociology of English as a profession, \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e is an extraordinary book, truly a landmark work of scholarship and interpretation.”\u003cbr\u003e   * Inside Higher Ed *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e offers a brilliantly exacting, politically confronting analysis of why the study of literature is unlike other disciplines of the university and what its distinctive history means for its ability to serve a clear social purpose today. Fearless in his account of how and why we practitioners of criticism so often misplace and exaggerate our contributions to political life, Guillory defines the terms for the conversations we need to be having now: conversations about the scope and purposes of criticism in a public sphere where literature is no longer central; about the relation of print to unrestricted digital media platforms; about the diversity of the demand for writing today and our role in teaching it; and about the forms of knowledge we can offer a society in which interpretation of texts is a specialist way of making sense of the world.” * Helen Small, University of Oxford *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e is the distillation of a lifetime’s quest by one of our most deeply learned, searching, and principled literary scholars to understand literary studies in its long history of changing extrinsic relations with society, internal tectonic shifts as a discipline, and current structural diminishment. Guillory’s grand argument about literary studies as part of the sociology of knowledge is sweeping, and his analyses of the perennial confusions about the objects and modes of literary criticism are acute. ‘These conditions must be acknowledged if the professoriate is ever to overcome its tendency to construct literary study as something more than it can be and less than it should be,’ he writes—a sentence that captures the poised essence of his challenge to, yet affirmation of, literary study as a diminished, but not therefore to be relinquished, discipline.” * Alan Liu, University of California, Santa Barbara *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e is ambitious and impressively learned, an extraordinarily deep and illuminating immersion in the history and sociology of professionalism, European literature, and critical theory.\" -- Michael Stern * The American Prospect *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e offers a rigorous assessment of the major tendencies in contemporary literary studies and a strong argument for the continuing relevance of English in the 21st-century university.\" * Literary Review *\u003cbr\u003e\"John Guillory's \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e is in every way an admirable book. It is deeply learned, sharp in its observations, unquestionably sincere in its effort to rehabilitate and reorganize the study of literature, and above all correct: literary study has indeed lost sight of its original, underlying purpose, has become too dispersed in its curricular organization, and has become helplessly caught in the shifting winds of every new and passing critical trend that comes along.\" * The Reading Experience *\u003cbr\u003e\"John Guillory has written a thoughtful and wide-ranging book in which he refuses to let the aura of crisis prompt him to blame literary colleagues who abandoned some supposedly perfect approach to chase critical fashions, or on students allegedly concerned only to prepare for lucrative professions.\" * Critical Inquiry *\u003cbr\u003e\"An exhaustive and careful history of the institutional study of literature that contextualizes its roots from ancient Greece to the modern American multiversity.\" * Law \u0026amp; Liberty *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e is a thorough and complex work of scholarship. It’s also a bracing call for literary scholars to significantly reform how they think about their profession and its relationship to their students and the reading public in general. At its core is a challenge that is simultaneously reasonable and radical: professors of literary study must be more modest in their aims and promises to suit the realities of their field in the twenty-first century.\" * Public Discourse *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism \u003c\/i\u003eis so comprehensive an analysis of the field of criticism that it even contains an argument in defense of scholarly projects that are thirty years (or thereabouts) in the making. This is a book that aspires to see the profession of literary study steadily and see it whole: from the origins of academic literary study to the 'method wars' of the past two decades, from the difficulties besetting the evaluation of scholarship in the humanities to the collapse of the academic job market and the consequences of that collapse for graduate programs, from the place of composition in English departments to the rise of global English, \u003ci\u003eProfessing Criticism\u003c\/i\u003e has an argument for you.\" -- Michael Bérubé * Cultural Critique *\u003cbr\u003e\"It deserves to be read and pondered by everyone teaching in departments of English and modern languages.\" -- Ritchie Robertson * Modern Language Review *\u003cbr\u003e\"A very knowledgeable and incisive analysis of the state of literary studies today.\" * Australian Book Review *\u003cbr\u003e\"One of the most brilliant recent accounts of our subject. . . Guillory’s reading of the reciprocity of document and monument is genuinely illuminating and important when it comes to literary research.\" * Modern Philology *\u003cbr\u003e\"John Guillory has produced a virtuoso display of what scholarship at its most honest, self-aware best can accomplish.\" * College Literature *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part One: The Formation and Deformation of Literary Study\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1 Institution of Professions\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2 Professing Criticism\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3 Critique of Critical Criticism\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Two: Organizing Literature: Foundations, Antecedents, Consequences\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4 Monuments and Documents: On the Object of Study in the Humanities\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5 The Postrhetorical Condition\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6 Two Failed Disciplines: Belles Lettres and Philology\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 7 The Location of Literature\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 8 The Contradictions of Global English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Three: Professionalization and Its Discontents\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 9 On the Permanent Crisis of Graduate Education\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 10 Evaluating Scholarship in the Humanities\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 11 Composition and the Demand for Writing\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 12 The Question of Lay Reading\u003cbr\u003e Conclusion: Ratio Studiorum\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Index","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732927852887,"sku":"9780226821290","price":76.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226821290.jpg?v=1719998984"},{"product_id":"criticism-and-truth-9780226830537","title":"Criticism and Truth","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Here is the study of literary critical method we needed—a slim volume capable of displacing shelves of manifestos on the future of the discipline. What do literary critics know, and how do they know it? \u003ci\u003eCriticism and Truth\u003c\/i\u003e grounds our distinctive epistemology in everyday practices—how we quote and paraphrase our objects of study, share the medium of language with them, and build plot summaries. It captures the brilliance of literary critics everywhere, yet only Jonathan Kramnick could have written this gemlike book.” * Rachel Sagner Buurma, coauthor of \"The Teaching Archive\" *\u003cbr\u003e“In a highly skilled performance of his own, Kramnick discloses the artistry and creativity embedded in routine acts of close reading. Such methodological reflection is long overdue and marks an important step toward making literary critics' tacit values and abilities intelligible to themselves.” * Elaine Auyoung, University of Minnesota *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eCriticism and Truth\u003c\/i\u003e doesn’t just declare a truce in the method wars: it shows that our squabbling has obscured the deeper truth of a shared disciplinary craft. Lavishing his own considerable analytic gifts on the unfairly unloved genre of contemporary criticism, Kramnick beautifully describes—for what feels like the first time—what literary scholars do, and why their everyday virtuosity matters.” * David Kurnick, Rutgers University *\u003cbr\u003e“Animated by ardency and urgency, written in pellucid prose, argued with finesse and flair, \u003ci\u003eCriticism and Truth\u003c\/i\u003e is both beautiful and true. It persuades even as it galvanizes. Kramnick’s taut, elegant book should be read widely, its moral passion a beacon for all of us who care about the fate of literature and the humanities.” * Priscilla Gilman, author of \"The Anti-Romantic Child\" and \"The Critic’s Daughter\" *\u003cbr\u003e\"The authorʼs meticulous analysis offers an eye-opening take on literary criticism as a creative process . . . English scholars will want to take a look.\" * Publishers Weekly *\u003cbr\u003e\"[Kramnick] expresses alarm at the prospects of academic literary criticism’s continued existence as a recognized field of study within the contemporary university. . . . Articulating the place of literature in 'collective human flourishing'—or specifying what distinguishes literature from other kinds of written language, for that matter— falls outside Kramnick’s project at hand. Bracketing such questions. . . gives the book its quality of extreme concentration and lucidity in the pursuit of the common element in thriving academic literary criticism: the element that must be preserved, lest the whole discipline disappear. . . . [\u003ci\u003eCriticism and Truth\u003c\/i\u003e] merits attention beyond its field.\"\u003cbr\u003e   -- Scott McLemee * Inside Higher Education *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e Preface \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Introduction: Craft Knowledge \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Chapter 1: Method Talk \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Chapter 2: Close Reading \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Chapter 3: Skilled Practice \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Chapter 4: Interpretation and Creativity \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Chapter 5: Verification \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Coda: Public Criticism for a Public Humanities \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Acknowledgments \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Notes \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Index \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732934144343,"sku":"9780226830537","price":16.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226830537.jpg?v=1719999011"},{"product_id":"cultural-capital-9780226830599","title":"Cultural Capital","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn enlarged edition to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of John Guillory's formative text on the literary canon.    Since its publication in 1993, John Guillory's Cultural Capital has been a signal text for understanding the codification and uses of the literary canon. Cultural Capital reconsiders the social basis for aesthetic judgment and exposes the unequal distribution of symbolic and linguistic knowledge on which culture has long been based. Drawing from Pierre Bourdieu's sociology, Guillory argues that canon formation must be understood less as a question of the representation of social groups and more as a question of the distribution of cultural capital in schools, which regulate access to literacy, to the practices of reading and writing.     Now, as the crisis of the canon has evolved into the so-called crisis of the humanities, Guillory's groundbreaking, incisive work has never been more urgent. As scholar and critic Merve Emre writes in her introduction to this enlarged edition: Exclusion, selection, reflection, representationthese are the terms on which the canon wars of the last century were fought, and the terms that continue to inform debates about, for instance, decolonizing the curriculum and the rhetoric of antiracist pedagogy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eCultural Capital\u003c\/i\u003e has become a stealth classic. . . . The canon, Guillory argued, wasn’t an impregnable monument, but an imaginary construct that had always been contested.” * New York Times *\u003cbr\u003e“Guillory is the profession’s great disenchanter. He came to prominence with his landmark study \u003ci\u003eCultural Capital\u003c\/i\u003e . . . a brilliant act of desublimation aimed at an earlier crisis of authority in the humanities, often referred to as the ‘canon wars.’” * The Nation *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eCultural Capital\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the most admired and influential studies in the humanities in recent decades. The hallmark of Guillory’s work has been to engage with, but stand back from, the issues roiling contemporary academic debates, setting them in a longer historical perspective and bringing a form of distanced, sociologically informed theory to their analysis.” * London Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003e“A brilliantly iconoclastic exploration of the current state of literary criticism.” * The Review of English Studies *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eCultural Capital\u003c\/i\u003e is a distinctive contribution to the ubiquitous discussion of the ‘crisis’ in the humanities. Neither jeremiad nor apology, Guillory’s book is a densely reasoned sociological analysis of literary canon formation.” * Modernism\/modernity *\u003cbr\u003e“The suppleness of the book's argument overall places Guillory just where it feels right to be. He does not argue for the demolition of the canon or for the abandonment of aesthetic judgment; he advocates, rather, a struggle to disjoin the study of literature from markers of class prestige and to open up universal access to it.” * Modern Fiction Studies *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eCultural Capital\u003c\/i\u003e is a rich book. It rewards the reader with original and often surprising interpretations of buried structural relations of exclusion that are objectified in the canon debate… Guillory is concerned about who reads and who writes; he is also concerned about for whom writers write and under what conditions.” * South Atlantic Review *\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eCultural Capital\u003c\/i\u003e takes possession of the whole familiar canon debate and transforms it into something rich and strange, new and exciting.” * English Literature in Transition *\u003cbr\u003e“Not merely an intelligent voice in the canon debate, Guillory is among a short list of authors… who have provided the signal service of helping us in the academy to understand in a profound way the function in society as a whole of the institution we serve. . . . Guillory places the canon wars in the context of the social changes that, he argues, have produced the current crisis of the humanities.” * College Literature *\u003cbr\u003e“The signature of \u003ci\u003eCultural Capital\u003c\/i\u003e… consists in the close attention Guillory pays to the institutional and pedagogic underpinnings of literary critical and theoretical programmes.” * Cultural Studies *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction to the New Edition by Merve Emre\u003cbr\u003e Preface\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part One: Critique\u003cbr\u003e 1 Canonical and Noncanonical: The Current Debate\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Two: Case Studies\u003cbr\u003e 2 Mute Inglorious Miltons: Gray, Wordsworth, and the Vernacular Canon\u003cbr\u003e 3 Ideology and Canonical Form: The New Critical Canon\u003cbr\u003e 4 Literature after Theory: The Lesson of Paul de Man\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Part Three: Aesthetics\u003cbr\u003e 5 The Discourse of Value: From Adam Smith to Barbara Herrnstein Smith\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Index","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732934373719,"sku":"9780226830599","price":999.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780226830599.jpg?v=1719999011"},{"product_id":"tolkien-race-and-cultural-history-from-fairies-to-hobbits-9780230272842","title":"Tolkien Race and Cultural History From Fairies to","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFimi explores the evolution of Tolkien's mythology throughout his lifetime by examining how it changed as a result of his life story and contemporary cultural and intellectual history. This new approach and scope brings to light neglected aspects of Tolkien's imaginative vision and contextualises his fiction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eWinner ofthe Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies 2010\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eShort listed for the Katharine Briggs Award 2009\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e'Dimitra Fimi's Tolkien, Race and Cultural History traces the evolution of the legendarium with admirable care...This scholarly yet approachable book is filled with...surprising fragments.' - Jon Barnes, Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e'Fimi's book reads so well that it's hard to believe that it's an academic tome' - Henry Gee, Mallorn\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e'constitutes an important contribution to Tolkien studies...the author brings together (often for the first time) relevant research from cultural history and lays out her arguments fair and square...Fimi's book has given us some answers but has also opened up some avenues for future research. What more can we ask for?' Thomas Honegger, Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat, Germany\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e'...a rich study into Tolkien's creative impulses and the influences that worked on those impulses in the course of a long creative life...any reader interested in the work of J. R. R. Tolkien...is in for a treat. The book is intelligently argued and full of interesting ideas and approaches, offering fresh insights into Tolkien's authorship...you will find plenty of stimulating and thought-provoking material to make the book well worth reading.'\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e- Nils-Lennart Johannesson, English Today\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e'Until now, Tolkien has generally been studied in isolation, or as the father of modern fantasy-writing, but this book shows how his work was rooted in the mental world of his contemporaries and the immediately preceding generation. As Tolkien scholarship becomes more analytical, Fimi's study provides essential new insights.' - Jacqueline Simpson, The Folklore Society\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList of Figures Conventions and Abbreviations Introduction PART I: HOW IT ALL BEGAN In the Beginning were the Fairies... 'Fluttering Sprites with Antennae': Victorian and Edwardian Fancies The Fairies, Faith and Folklore PART II: IDEAL BEINGS, IDEAL LANGUAGES The Cat and the Whiskers: Tolkien's Linguistic Creation 'Linguistic Aesthetic': Sounds, Meaning and the Pursuit of Beauty Ideal Languages and Phonetic Spelling PART III: FROM MYTH TO HISTORY The Claim to History A Hierarchical World Visualising Middle-earth: Real and Imagined Material Cultures Epilogue: From Fairies to Hobbits Appendix: 'And Wither Then?': Stepping into the Road Bibliography Index","brand":"Palgrave Macmillan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732949774679,"sku":"9780230272842","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780230272842.jpg?v=1719999051"},{"product_id":"a-history-of-english-literature-6-macmillan-foundations-series-9780230368316","title":"A History of English Literature 6 Macmillan","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMICHAEL ALEXANDER is Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University of St Andrews, UK. He is a poet and translator and has international experience of teaching English literature, both medieval and modern.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePraise for the third edition: 'Michael Alexander is a writer of rare skill: he is learned, as befits a former professor of English literature, and yet he is able to write about reading in a way that is accessible and pleasurable but never lightweight. Above all, he is an astute guide through the classical landscape of English writing...' - Alexander Lucie-Smith, The Tablet 'A reliable and readable guide for all students of literature. The new final chapter manoeuvres its way skilfully through the treacherous waters of contemporary writing, retaining that distinctive individual voice which makes the whole book so worthwhile.' - David Newell, Glasgow University, UK 'Lucid, learned, judicious and informative.' - Stephen Arata, University of Virginia, USA 'An intelligent and comprehensive guide. Michael Alexander has certainly accomplished a mammoth task in providing a summary of a vast literary landscape in the new final chapter.' - Sara Thorne, author of Mastering Poetry 'Alexander's book is still by far the best of its kind available on the market. The new final chapter is clear and superbly written.' - Jorge Luis Bueno Alonso, University of Vigo, Spain 'An excellent reference book on the history of English literature from the earliest times to the present.' - Jeo-Yong Noh, Yeungnam University, Korea 'Hugely enjoyable and stimulating, not least in its nicely modulated value judgments!' - Till Kinzel, Technische Universitat Berlin, Germany Praise for previous editions: 'If I had my way, every student of English would be supplied with a copy of this book.' - Gary Day, The Times Higher Education Supplement 'A text that will and should endure for many generations...an indispensable guide for any Literature student who wishes to have a complete and logical understanding of the traditional canon.' - WordPlay, Council for College and University English 'An ideal starting point for any English student who is serious about the subject. It manages to provide a comprehensive overview of English literary history in an accessible, practical format. Moreover it is genuinely entertaining - Alexander's style is pithy, pungent and personal...The reader is constantly reminded that this is a history, not the history, of English literature, and the writer's own strong opinions encourage the reader to discover his or her own views and preferences...I strongly recommend it to all students of English literature, and to their teachers.' - Sarah Annes Brown, Anglia Ruskin University, UK 'To write a linear history of a great literature is a difficult task, verging on the impossible these days. Professor Alexander has brought off a remarkable feat. His history is comprehensive, clear, judicious and sometimes punchy. This is an account of English writing which can be of great use to the student, the fact-hound, the teacher or the general reader. Above all, it is a triumph of reason and judgement, never cranky, nor exclusive. I shall recommend it widely.' - Chris Wallace-Crabbe, University of Melbourne, Australia 'The book is a miracle of compression...To maintain the same qualities of wit, crispness and sharp but essentially generous judgement...in a book which is something very much more than a 'survey' of the whole field of English Literature is an extraordinary achievement.' - John Rathmell, Cambridge University, UK '...eminently fit to excite the critical consciousness of the student.' - Philip Smallwood, Essays in Criticism '...a fantastic mine of information in which writers are seen within their chronological and literary context. Although, inevitably, there is no room for detailed analysis within such a wide-ranging book, the content provides an effective starting point for readers whatever their literary intentions.' - Sara Thorne, author of Mastering Poetry 'A succinct, comprehensive and readable chronological account...[Alexander] threads the history and literature together with authority and occasional wit.' - Jim Sweetman, The Professional Journal of the National Association for the Teaching of English 'I got a clear sense of the methodological overview, sensitively presented. It seems to be a book that could be both read as a whole and used selectively ... it will be useful for foundation course students, undergraduates, both majoring in English and otherwise, and also to A-level students.' - Ian McMechan, Hampton School, Middlesex, UK 'The book is a fine achievement, and sixth-formers and undergraduates should be encouraged to have their own copies.' - Martin Dodsworth, English Association Newsletter 'For students of A-level English literature, a wide contextualising book of this kind is not just a good read: it is essential reading.' - Bernard O'Donoghue, The English Review 'I would go so far as to say that every literature student should buy this book.' - David McLaurin, The New Tablet\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList of Illustrations  List of Timelines  Acknowledgements  Preface  Preface to Second Edition  Preface to Third Edition  Abbreviations  Introduction  PART I: MEDIEVAL  Old English Literature: to 1100  Middle English Literature 1066-1500  PART II: TUDOR AND STUART  Tudor Literature: 1500-1603  Shakespeare and the Drama  Stuart Literature: to 1700  PART III: AUGUSTAN AND ROMANTIC  Augustan Literature: to 1790  The Romantics: 1790-1837  PART IV: VICTORIAN LITERATURE TO 1880  The Age and its Sages  Poetry  Fiction  Late Victorian Literature: 1880-1900  PART V: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AND BEYOND  Ends and Beginnings: 1901-19  From Post-War to Post-War: 1920-55  New Beginnings: 1955-80  Contemporaries  Further Reading  Index.","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732951216471,"sku":"9780230368316","price":999.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"dark-ecology-9780231177528","title":"Dark Ecology","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTimothy Morton explores the foundations of the ecological crisis to reestablish our ties to nonhuman beings and rediscover playfulness and joy. Dark ecology puts us in an uncanny position of radical self-knowledge, illuminating our place in the biosphere and our belonging to a species in a sense that is far less obvious than we like to think.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn often witty and humorous language, Timothy Morton provides a kind of affective atlas for the human era. The book calls for scholars to recognize the structures of entwinement between (the human) species and ecological phenomena and to develop modes of thought for accommodating them. -- Kate Marshall, University of Notre Dame Dark Ecology is a brave, brilliant interrogation of the presumptions that have driven our approach to the ecological and environmental challenges of our era. Anyone who is willing to ride the rollercoaster of ideas on which Morton takes us will reach the end brimming with new conceptual and intellectual energies with which to face up to our present limits and failures and to shape an alive and joyful future. -- Imre Szeman, University of Alberta Morton is a master of philosophical enigma. In Dark Ecology he treats us to an obscure ecognosis, the essentially unsolvable riddle of ecological being. Prepare to be endarkened! -- Michael Marder, author of The Philosopher's Plant and Pyropolitics Morton commands readers' attention with his free-form style... [Dark Ecology] extends his previous work to offer a seismically different vision of the future of ecology and humankind. Publishers Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments Beginning After the End The First Thread The Second Thread The Third Thread Ending Before the Beginning Notes Index","brand":"Columbia University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48732953542999,"sku":"9780231177528","price":58.77,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780231177528.jpg?v=1719999061"},{"product_id":"great-novels-9780241515846","title":"Great Novels","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDiscover everything you ever wanted to know about the world''s greatest novels.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom medieval romances and tales of chivalry found in the realist novels of the 19th century, to experimental modernist works and today''s explorations of the self, Great Novels explores the finest novels from around the world and through time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTilt at windmills with Don Quixote, experience heartbreak with Tolstoy, discover the society in which Jane Austen lived, and delve into the complex rites of passage experienced by characters in modern novels. Find out what inspired writers to create their masterpieces, what their aims were, and how they set about writing them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDive deep into the pages of this inspiring book to discover:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- Paintings, photographs, and artefacts that tell  the story of each novel and what inspired their authors\u003cbr\u003e- Superb images of first editions and manuscripts\u003cbr\u003e- The flavour of each novel through quotations and extended extracts \u003cbr\u003e- Ch\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dorling Kindersley Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48733158572375,"sku":"9780241515846","price":21.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"the-poetry-book-9780241566237","title":"The Poetry Book","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Dorling Kindersley Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48733241377111,"sku":"9780241566237","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780241566237.jpg?v=1719999742"},{"product_id":"thomas-hardy-9780241963289","title":"Thomas Hardy","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe seminal biography of a great poet, novelist and sacred figure in English writing, Thomas Hardy, from bestselling author Clare Tomalin.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e''An extraordinary story, beautifully told. 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Wells","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA fascinating journey into the life of H.G. Wells, from one of Britain''s best biographers\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow did the first forty years of H. G. Wells'' life shape the father of science fiction?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom his impoverished childhood in a working-class English family, to his determination to educate himself at any cost, to the serious ill health that dominated his twenties and thirties, his complicated marriages, and love affair with socialism, the first forty years of H. G. Wells'' extraordinary life would set him on a path to become one of the world''s most influential writers. 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The same can be said of her book * Sunday Times *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48733416259927,"sku":"9780241974858","price":10.44,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780241974858.jpg?v=1720000018"},{"product_id":"azadi-9780241996782","title":"AZADI","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[A] startling collection of essays . . . The passion and beauty of her voice is unabated . . . 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