Search results for ""Author Charles Dickens"
Cranthorpe Millner Publishers A Thousand Years of a London Street: Cheapside
This book is the second of a series documenting a thousand years of selected London streets and their respective histories. Some of the streets have their roots and foundations in places of worship, locations for trading or because of their geographical location or particular topography. With St Paul's at its western end and St Mary-le-Bow as its centrepiece, Cheapside goes back further than a thousand years, all the way to the Romans and beyond. Its colourful history includes kings, queens, poets, playwrights, murderers, criminals, broadcasters, inventors, politicians, pioneers, philanthropists, religious fanatics, revolutionaries, diarists and architects who all played their part in making Cheapside what Charles Dickens Jnr called the greatest thoroughfare in the City of London. With London's streets harbouring a multitude of long lost stories ripe for the recounting, Mike Read's A Thousand Years of a London Street series is one with endless potential. The only question that remains is which street will pique the interest of this broadcaster turned historical supersleuth next?
£12.99
The Conrad Press From a bag of chips to cod confit: a tour of twenty English seaside resorts
From a bag of chips to cod confit: a tour of twenty English seaside resorts What is it about the English seaside that drives us in our millions to stroll the promenades of the plethora of resorts we have in this country? How can we understand the allure of the gaudy and raucous funfair, sand in our toes and fish and chips in our hands. Or is it, in the words of Charles Dickens, the ocean that draws us in ‘winking in the sunlight like a drowsy lion’. When the author discovered that his home town had come bottom in a ‘Which?’ review of the best to worst seaside resorts in the UK, not once, or twice, but for three years on the trot, it spurred him on to go on his own tour of these resorts. He finds a wealth of fascinating histories, eccentricities and English quirkiness, mixed up with deep-seated problems of poverty, poor health and uncertain futures. But he also discovers that our resorts are diverse places, reinvigorated by creative thinking, new entrepreneurship and fresh investment. Our English seaside resorts are alive and well, carefully curating their brands and images, seeking out new ideas and funding and using the skills and abilities of their residents to drive changes with local impact. This book will encourage you to make your own visits and learn a little about the seaside resort, a curiously English creation that we all inspired, abandoned and then re-discovered.
£12.02
Everyman The Mystery Of Edwin Drood
As in many of Dickens's greatest novels, the gulf between appearance and reality drives the action. Set in the seemingly innocuous cathedral town of Cloisterham, the story rapidly darkens with a sense of impending evil. Central to the plot is John Jasper: in public he is a man of integrity and benevolence, in private he is an opium addict. And while seeming to smile on the engagement of his nephew, Edwin Drood, he is, in fact, consumed by jealousy, driven to terrify the boy's fiancée and to plot the murder of Edwin himself. Though The Mystery of Edwin Drood is one of its author's darkest books, it also bustles with a vast roster of memorable-and delightfully named-minor characters: Mrs. Billikins, the landlady; the foolish Mr. Sapsea; the domineering philanthropist, Mr. Honeythunder; and the mysterious Datchery. Several attempts have been made over the years to complete the novel and solve the mystery, but even in its unfinished state it is a gripping and haunting masterpiece.
£12.82
Penguin Books Ltd The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce
This terrifying selection of ghost stories brings together the very best classic works from the masters of the supernaturalPhantom coaches, evil familiars, shadowy houses, spectral children and mysterious doppelgangers haunt these tales. They range from the famous, such as M. R. James's tale of an ancient curse, 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come To You, My Lad' and W. W. Jacobs's story of gruesome wish-fulfilment, 'The Monkey's Paw', to lesser-known masterpieces: Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Thrawn Janet', telling of a parish priest tormented for life by his encounter with the undead; Charles Dickens's unsettling account of a railway signal-man and an ominous portent; and Edward Bulwer Lytton's 'The Haunted and the Haunters', where a cursed house harbours a diabolical secret.Michael Newton's introduction discusses why ghost stories scare us and why they flourished from the mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth century, examining their changing conventions throughout history. This edition also includes further reading, notes, a glossary and a chronology.Edited with an introduction and notes by Michael Newton
£12.99
Skyhorse Publishing A Literary Tea Party
**Finalist in the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards**For fans of Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Agatha Christie, Robert Louis Stevenson, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and more, a literary-inspired cookbook for voracious readers and tea lovers everywhereTea and books: the perfect pairing. There's nothing quite like sitting down to a good book on a lovely afternoon with a steaming cup of tea beside you, as you fall down the rabbit hole into the imaginative worlds of Alice in Wonderland, The Hobbit, and The Chronicles of Narnia.Fire up your literary fancies and nibble your way through delicate sweets and savories with A Literary Tea Party, which brings food from classic books to life with a teatime twist. Featuring fifty-five perfectly portioned recipes for an afternoon getaway, including custom homemade tea blends and beverages, you will have everything you need to plan an elaborate tea party. Cook up and enjoy:
£13.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC One Thing and Another: Selected Writings 1954-2016
‘Do you sometimes think that you might wish that you were a national treasure, like Alan Bennett?’ ‘I’m rather glad I’m not. I’m quite pleased to be what I think I am, which is a sort of national liability.’ Over the course of seven decades, Jonathan Miller has been at the forefront of developments in theatre, opera, comedy, philosophy and scientific debate. This new collection brings together the very best of his acerbic writing. In keeping with Miller’s grasshopper mind, One Thing and Another leaps from discussions of human behaviour, atheism, satire, cinema and television, to analysis of the work of M. R. James, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens and Truman Capote, by way of reflections on directing Shakespeare, Chekhov, Olivier and opera. A celebrated conversationalist, the book also features a selection of key interviews focusing on his working method. Jonathan Miller is internationally celebrated as one of the last great public intellectuals. Read One Thing and Another to find out why.
£21.99
Little, Brown Book Group London: A Traveller's Reader
Loved and hated in equal measure, London was for centuries the world's greatest city. Its streets, teeming with history, have always worn a variety of influences, reflecting the diverse crowds who have walked them. Its citizens have witnessed everything from pilgrimages, celebrations, acts of heroism and moments of religious contemplation to riots, executions, grisly murders and disastrous plagues and fires. Drawing on letters, diaries and memoirs of London's most interesting inhabitants and visitors, this anthology compiled by acclaimed historian Thomas Wright and with an introduction by Peter Ackroyd tells the story of the city from its earliest years.Here you will find John Evelyn's famous account of the Great Fire in 1666, Dickens's brilliant evocation of the Gordon Riots of 1780, an eyewitness description of the execution of Charles I, and Churchill's recollections of the Blitz. There are also less familiar, though no less vivid, excerpts, which provide an entertaining, sometimes risqué glimpse into the life, customs and morals of this great city.
£11.99
Verso Books The Walker: On Finding and Losing Yourself in the Modern City
There is no such thing as the wrong step; every time we walk we are going somewhere. Moving around the modern city becomes more than from getting from A to B, but a way of understanding who and where you are. In a series of riveting intellectual rambles, Matthew Beaumont, retraces a history of the walker. From Charles Dicken's insomniac night rambles to wandering through the faceless, windswept monuments of the neoliberal city, the act of walking is one of escape, self-discovery, disappearances and potential revolution. Pacing stride for stride alongside such literary amblers and thinkers as Edgar Allen Poe, Andrew Breton, H G Wells, Virginia Woolf, Jean Rhys and Ray Bradbury, Matthew Beaumont explores the relationship between the metropolis and its pedestrian life. He asks can you get lost in a crowd? It is polite to stare at people walking past on the street? What differentiates the city of daylight and the nocturnal metropolis? What connects walking, philosophy and the big toe? Can we save the city - or ourselves - by taking the pavement?
£18.99
HarperCollins Publishers The Joy of Pubs: Everything you wanted to know about Britain's favourite drinking establishment
Following on in the same vain as The Joy of Sheds, The Joy of Pubs is an intoxicating publication detailing everything and anything you want to know about pubs. It celebrates the many facets of the traditional British pub over the years, with chapters on: Pub Characters, Pub Games, Pub Fiddles (how the licensee has shafted his customers over the years), Pub Teams and Pub History from Geoffrey Chaucer to Jeffrey Bernard. It features the great pubs of literature – Robert Louis Stevenson’s Admiral Benbow, Daphne du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn and Charles Dickens’ The Grapes; the great pubs of film – The Crown Inn at Amersham (Four Weddings and a Funeral), the Crown Inn at Wells (Hot Fuzz); the great pubs of TV – apart from the Rover's Return, Queen Vic and Woolpack. It features tales of barring, of dodgy deals of riotous lock-ins and of strange hauntings. The perfect present for anyone who loves their pub or just the idea that they have a pub. Word count: 30,000
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Eugenie Grandet
Depicting the fatal clash between material desires and the liberating power of human passions, Honoré de Balzac's Eugénie Grandet is translated with an introduction by M.A. Crawford in Penguin Classics.In a gloomy house in provincial Saumur, the miser Grandet lives with his wife and daughter, Eugénie, whose lives are stifled and overshadowed by his obsession with gold. Guarding his piles of glittering treasures and his only child equally closely, he will let no one near them. But when the arrival of her handsome cousin, Charles, awakens Eugénie's own desires, her passion brings her into a violent collision with her father that results in tragedy for all. Eugénie Grandet is one of the earliest and finest works in Balzac's Comédie humaine cycle, which portrays a society consumed by the struggle to amass wealth and achieve power. Here Grandet embodies both the passionate pursuit of money, and the human cost of avarice.M. A. Crawford's lucid translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing the irony and psychological insight of Balzac's characterization, the role of fate in the novel, its setting and historical background.Honoré De Balzac (1799-1850) failed at being a lawyer, publisher, printer, businessman, critic and politician before, at the age of thirty, turning his hand to writing. His life's work, La Comédie humaine, is a series of ninety novels and short stories which offer a magnificent panorama of nineteenth-century life after the French Revolution. Balzac was an influence on innumerable writers who followed him, including Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, and Edgar Allan Poe.If you enjoyed Eugenie Grandet you might like Molière's The Miser and Other Plays, also available in Penguin Classics.
£9.99
Flame Tree Publishing A Christmas Carol
Little treasures, the FLAME TREE COLLECTABLE CLASSICS are chosen to create a delightful and timeless home library. Each stunning, gift edition features deluxe cover treatments, ribbon markers, luxury endpapers and gilded edges. The unabridged text is accompanied by a Glossary of Victorian and Literary terms produced for the modern reader. Two other tales are included: The Chimes and The Haunted Man. Ebenezer Scrooge hates everyone and everything. Especially children. Especially Christmas. He’s greedy, wealthy and cold-hearted, which has harrowed his features, giving him a pointy nose and thin, blue lips. On Christmas Eve Scrooge is visited by the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come – but can they make him change his ways? A Christmas Carol is a novella by Charles Dickens. It was first published on 19 December 1843 and the first edition had sold out by Christmas Eve. The story of the redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge has only continued to grow in popularity since then and it is now one of the most widely known stories in the world. The FLAME TREE COLLECTABLE CLASSICS are chosen to create a delightful and timeless home library.
£9.99
Coordination Group Publications Ltd (CGP) New GCSE English Text Guide A Christmas Carol includes Online Edition Quizzes CGP GCSE English 91 Revision
Do you wish it could be Christmas every day? This smashing Text Guide is the next best thing - it contains everything students need to write brilliant essays about A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and it's suitable for all major GCSE English exam boards!Inside, you'll find clear, thorough notes on the novel's context, plot, characters, themes and the writer's techniques - plus quick warm-up activities, in-depth exercises and realistic exam-style questions at the end of sections, alongside challenging questions for students aiming for Grades 8-9. Not only is this book packed with essay advice and engaging activities, it'll also gives you access to our online Sudden Fail quizzes - ideal for putting your skills to the test! To round it all off, we've rustled up a classic CGP cartoon-strip summary of the text to help remind you of all the important plot points.What's more, there''s a free Online Edition with even more activities for specific exam boards - ideal if you're on the move!F
£8.89
Alma Books Ltd Hard Times: Annotated Edition (Alma Classics Evergreens)
In Hard Times, Dickens illustrates the condition of England through the fictional city of Coketown. Among its inhabitants are Thomas Gradgrind, the utilitarian headmaster who attempts to impose his rigid worldview on his family circle, and the uncaring businessman Mr Bounderby. Their materialist philosophies, as opposed to the world of fancy or imagination, are tested throughout the novel, which also explores workers’ conditions, trade unions and the spurious use of statistics. Perhaps the most polemical of his novels – in which hard-biting satire, moving drama and exuberant comedy find a very succinct and powerful expression – Hard Times is the ideal introduction to the world of Dickens.
£7.78
Alma Books Ltd The Mudfog Papers: Annotated Edition
The Mudfog Papers, a collection of sketches by Dickens published in Bentley’s Miscellany between 1837 and 1838, describes the local politics of the fictional town of Mudfog – such as the delusions of grandeur of its mayor Nicholas Tulrumble and his disastrous attempts at putting on a public show – and the meetings of its Society for the Advancement of Everything, during which the town is overrun by illustrious scientists and professors conducting ostensibly pointless research. Written at the same time as Oliver Twist – indeed the serialized version of the novel referred to Mudfog as the protagonist’s home town – The Mudfog Papers lampoons all manner of journalistic and scientific writing of the time and showcases the young Dickens at his satirical best.
£8.42
HarperCollins Publishers A Christmas Carol: Edexcel GCSE 9-1 English Literature Text Guide: Ideal for the 2024 and 2025 exams (Collins GCSE Grade 9-1 SNAP Revision)
Exam Board: Edexcel Level: GCSE Grade 9-1 Subject: English Literature Suitable for the 2024 exams Everything you need to revise for your GCSE 9-1 set text in a snap guide Everything you need to score top marks on your GCSE Grade 9-1 English Literature exam is right at your fingertips! Revise A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens in a snap with this new GCSE Grade 9-1 Snap Revision Text Guide from Collins. Refresh your knowledge of the plot, context, characters and themes and pick up top tips along the way to ace your Edexcel exam. Each topic is explained in an easy-to-read format so you can get straight to the point. Then, put your skills to the test with plenty of practice questions included in every section. The Snap Text Guides are packed with every quote and extract you need. We’ve even included examples of how to plan and write your essay responses! This Collins English Literature revision guide contains all the key information you need to practise and pass.
£6.66
Alma Books Ltd The Old Curiosity Shop
The beautiful Nell is a thirteen-year-old orphan who lives with her grandfather in a London bric-a-brac shop. Worried about his charge''s future, the old man secretly gambles at night in order to provide an inheritance for her, but finally loses the little he has and is evicted from the shop by the evil hunchback and loan shark Daniel Quilp, suffering a breakdown as a result. Forced to leave the city, the young girl is left to take care of her grandfather and protect herself from the scheming villains who are hot on their heels.Dickens''s fourth novel, initially serialized in his magazine Master Humphrey''s Clock between 1840 and 1841, The Old Curiosity Shop proved to be a huge hit on publication and is still regarded as one of its author''s major works, featuring one of his best-loved and most memorable heroines.
£9.04
Everyman Shaken and Stirred: Intoxicating Stories
In this lively collection, wine snobs receive their comeuppance at the hands of Roald Dahl and Edgar Allan Poe; innocents over-imbibe in tales by Jack London and Alice Munro; riotous partying exacts a comic price in stories by P. G. Wodehouse and Kingsley Amis; Charles Jackson and Jean Rhys chronicle liquor-soaked epiphanies; while John Cheever, Vladimir Nabokov and Robert Coover set their characters afloat on surreal, soul-revealing adventures. Here, too, are well-lubricated tales by Dickens, Twain, Beckett, Colette, Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Doris Lessing, Frank O'Connor, Penelope Lively, and many more.The settings include hotels and restaurants, a wine cellar in Italy, a café in Paris, a bar in Dublin, a New York nightclub, Jazz Age speakeasies, suburban lawn parties and the occasional gaol cell, and are peopled by lovers and loners, barmen and chorus girls, youths taking their first sips and experienced tipplers nursing hangovers.Whether living it up or drowning their sorrows, the vividly drawn characters in these sparkling pages will leave you shaken and stirred.
£10.99
Oxford University Press A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books
'What was merry Christmas to Scrooge? Out upon merry Christmas! What good had it ever done to him?' Ebenezer Scrooge is a bad-tempered skinflint who hates Christmas and all it stands for, but a ghostly visitor foretells three apparitions who will thaw Scrooge's frozen heart. A Christmas Carol has gripped the public imagination since it was first published in 1843, and it is now as much a part of Christmas as mistletoe or plum pudding. This edition reprints the story alongside Dickens's four other Christmas Books: The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and The Haunted Man. All five stories show Dickens at his unpredictable best, jumbling together comedy and melodrama, genial romance and urgent social satire, in pursuit of his aim 'to awaken some loving and forbearing thoughts, never out of season in a Christian land'. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
£8.42
Alma Books Ltd George Silverman's Explanation
After a traumatic early childhood spent living in poverty in a Preston cellar, the suddenly orphaned George Silverman grows up convinced that he is at fault for all the misfortunes in his life. Hoodwinked by hypocritical clergymen and exploited by his employer, he finds himself forsaking love and facing professional ruin. One of Dickens’s very last writings, ‘George Silverman’s Explanation’ is a dark and psychologically insightful investigation of failure and guilt. This volume also includes two other lesser-known pieces of fiction by Dickens: the novella for children ‘Holiday Romance’ and the detective story ‘Hunted Down’.
£8.42
Alma Books Ltd The Pickwick Papers: Annotated Edition (Alma Classics Evergreens)
A rich and varied array of stories and vignettes, The Pickwick Papers is based around the investigations of the Corresponding Society of the Pickwick Club, consisting of its founder Mr Samuel Pickwick and Messrs Tracy Tupman, Augustus Snodgrass and Nathaniel Winkle, who travel around the country and then report back to the club concerning their extraordinary adventures and experiences. Dickens’s first novel, The Pickwick Papers was an immediate success and caught the public imagination in a manner that few debuts have ever matched. Replete with colourful characters, fantastical anecdotes and a farcical plot, it catapulted its twenty-four-year-old author to literary stardom, and is widely considered to be one of the great comic masterpieces of nineteenth-century literature.
£8.42
HarperCollins Publishers Miss Marley: A Christmas ghost story - a prequel to A Christmas Carol
‘Exquisite’ Veronica Henry Before A Christmas Carol there was… Miss Marley A seasonal tale of kindness and goodwill Orphans Clara and Jacob Marley live by their wits, scavenging for scraps in the poorest alleyways of London, in the shadow of the workhouse. Every night, Jake promises his little sister ‘tomorrow will be better’ and when the chance to escape poverty comes their way, he seizes it despite the terrible price. And so Jacob Marley is set on a path that leads to his infamous partnership with Ebenezer Scrooge. As Jacob builds a fortress of wealth to keep the world out, only Clara can warn him of the hideous fate that awaits him if he refuses to let love and kindness into his heart… In Miss Marley, Vanessa Lafaye weaves a spellbinding Dickensian tale of ghosts, goodwill and hope – a perfect prequel to A Christmas Carol. Praise for Miss Marley: ‘A spellbinding Dickensian tale of ghosts, goodwill and hope’ Mail on Sunday ‘Redemptive… a fitting legacy for a writer who is so sadly missed’ Red ‘Evocative’ Heat ‘Delightful’ Sunday Mirror ‘A reminder of the power of kindness and love’ Stylist A ‘gem of a tale’ Sunday Express ‘A beautifully written Dickensian tale’ Candis ‘Captivating … A beautiful and tender fable’ Daily Express ‘Fantastic’ Good Housekeeping ‘Ghosts, goodwill and hope on every page’ My Weekly ‘Lafaye masterfully brings the setting of 19th-Century London to life’ Woman ‘Love, disappointment, kindness and greed all play their parts in this delightful companion piece to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol’ Woman & Home ‘A seasonal tale of kindness and goodwill that captures the atmosphere of Dickens’ Yours ‘Exquisite’ Veronica Henry ‘A beautiful, warm, rich hug of a story and bittersweet reminder to embrace life and enrich others as you go’ Liz Fenwick
£8.50
Workman Publishing Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York
"Enthralling; it is well worth the trip.” --New York Journal of Books Conceived as the most modern, humane incarceration facility the world had ever seen, New York’s Blackwell’s Island, site of a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse, and a number of hospitals, quickly became, in the words of a visiting Charles Dickens, "a lounging, listless madhouse." Digging through city records, newspaper articles, and archival reports, Stacy Horn tells a gripping narrative through the voices of the island’s inhabitants. We also hear from the era’s officials, reformers, and journalists, including the celebrated undercover reporter Nellie Bly. And we follow the extraordinary Reverend William Glenney French as he ministers to Blackwell’s residents, battles the bureaucratic mazes of the Department of Correction and a corrupt City Hall, testifies at salacious trials, and in his diary wonders about man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. Damnation Island shows how far we’ve come in caring for the least fortunate among us—and reminds us how much work still remains.
£11.69
Everyman Nicholas Nickleby
Dicken's third novel, published in 1839, is a brilliant and vivid melodrama of honest youth triumphing over vice and injustice. Bursting with energy and populated by a whole world of inimitable and memorable characters - including especially the theatrical troupe with whom Nicholas performs - the book is both a griping story and a series of magnificent scenes. It is also indignant protest against cruelty and oppression, most memorably encapsulated in Dickens's powerful portrayal of Mr Squeers and his wicked boarding school - a passage which was to be instrumental in helping to reform the Victorian education system. The novel has been adapted for television stage and screen.
£18.99
Penguin Books Ltd Great Expectations
'His novels will endure as long as the language itself' Peter AckroydDickens's haunting late novel depicts the education and development of a young man, Pip, as his life is changed by a series of events - a terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor - and he discovers the true nature of his 'great expectations'. This definitive edition includes appendices on Dickens's original ending, giving an illuminating glimpse into a great novelist at work.With an Introduction by DAVID TROTTER Edited and with notes by CHARLOTTE MITCHELL
£8.42
Everyman David Copperfield
In a book that is part fairy tale and part thinly veiled autobiography, Dickens transmutes his life experience into a brilliant series of comic and sentimental adventures in the spirit of the great eighteenth-century novelists he so much admired. Few readers can fail to be touched by David's fate, and fewer still to be delighted by his story. The cruel Murdstone, the feckless Micawber, the unctuous and sinister Uriah Heep, and David Copperfield himself, into whose portrait Dickens puts so much of his own early life, form a central part of our literary legacy.This edition reprints the original Everyman preface by G. K. Chesterton and includes thirty-nine illustrations by Phiz.
£18.99
Penguin Books Ltd David Copperfield
Now a major film directed by Armando Iannucci, starring Dev Patel, Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, Peter Capaldi and Ben WhishawDickens's epic, exuberant novel is one of the greatest coming-of-age stories in literature. It chronicles David Copperfield's extraordinary journey through life, as he encounters villains, saviours, eccentrics and grotesques, including the wicked Mr Murdstone, stout-hearted Peggotty, formidable Betsey Trotwood, impecunious Micawber and odious Uriah Heep.Dickens's great Bildungsroman (based, in part, on his own boyhood, and which he described as a 'favourite child') is a work filled with life, both comic and tragic.
£9.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Dawn of Aviation: The Pivotal Role of Sussex People and Places in the Development of Flight
Shoreham airport, founded in 1910, is the oldest airport in the UK and the oldest purpose-built commercial airport in the world. Yet aviation began in Sussex far earlier, with balloonists making landfall at Kingsfold near Horsham in 1785. These early activities attracted much attention, with some 30,000 people gathering at Black Rock in Brighton, as well as on the surrounding hills, to watch the first balloon ascent from the town in July 1821 - using coal gas from the recently opened gas works. That particular balloonist, Charles Green, later became immortalised by Charles Dickens in his _Sketches By Boz_. The military were quick to appreciate the potential benefits of aerial observation and in 1880 balloons were deployed for the first time at the annual Volunteer Review at Brighton. Often wind conditions were not favourable for balloons, which prompted the army to consider employing kites and in June 1903 an international competition was held on the South Downs near Findon to see if kites could lift a man into the air. While this was found to be possible, it proved a terrifying experience for the unfortunate pilots. Before powered flight became a reality, it was gliders which were the first heavier than air machines to take to the skies. In 1902 Mr Jose Weiss began launching unmanned gliders off a ramp at Houghton Hill near Amberley, which flew up to two miles. But soon the internal combustion engine made powered, controlled flight a reality and on 7 November 1908, Alec Ogilvie flew a Wright Brothers biplane along the coast at Camber. By the time war broke out in 1914, the people of Sussex had seen the Brooklands to Brighton air race and the establishment of flying schools at Shoreham and Eastbourne. After the Armistice, aviation started becoming increasingly expensive and increasingly regulated. The halcyon days of swashbuckling amateurs taking to the skies in untested contraptions was drawing to a close.
£22.50
Lawrence & Wishart Ltd Ireland Her Own: An Outline History of the Irish Struggle for National Freedom and Independence
This classic book tells the history of eight hundred years of the Irish people's struggles for freedom. It takes us from the arrival of English settlers in the Middle ages up to the present day -the struggle in the words of James Fintan Lalor, to make "Ireland her own, and all therein, from the sod to the sky". The author describes this book as 'An Outline History of the Irish struggle for National Freedom and Independence', but it is much more than that. As an 'Outline History' it has no equal, and for several reasons. In the first place this is the only book in which, right from the beginning and throughout it's pages, the economic factors are placed in a proper perspective alongside of and intermingled with the political. Many historians have written of this long struggle with pride and emotion, but none has produced anything so effective as this memorable account of every aspect of Irish social, economic and political history. The book describes the conquest and the first steps taken by England towards Empire in the 12th Century and brings the reader up to the partition of Ireland in the early 1920's. Added to this, C. Desmond Greaves has written a concluding chapter on the events from the then to the civil rights movement of the late 1960's and the start of the current round of troubles in Northern Ireland It is not only a clearly and vigorously written history, but also a guide to Imperialism in general and an invaluable handbook for all students of politics whatever their opinions may be T. A Jackson was born in London in 1879 and served an apprenticeship as a printer He was known as a radical socialist, a prolific, lively and witty writer for left wing press he wrote a number of books. His other books include Dialectics: The Logic of Marxism, Charles Dickens: The Progress of a Radical, Trials of British Freedom, Socialism: What? Why? How?, Solo Trumpet, Old Friends To Keep. Edited and with an Epilogue by C. Desmond Greaves.
£22.00
Headline Publishing Group The Little Book of Love: Words from the heart
The most inspiring, beautiful and though-provoking reflections and declarations of love, all in one place.From Shakespeare's sonnets to the rom coms of modern-day cinema, Enlightenment philosophy to the latest Nicholas Sparks novel, one could say that no other topic has inspired such beauty – in art, literature, poetry or music – than that of love.In The Little Book of Love the words of civil rights activists sit alongside those of movie stars, world leaders and the philosophers of Ancient Greece. In its pages you will find some hard-won lovers' wisdom, a whole host of poignant and inspiring reflections on love, as well as some of the most famous, endearing and enduring declarations of love ever spoken.'Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken...' William Shakespeare, 'Sonnet 116''I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.' Pip, Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (1860)'With the whole world crumbling, we pick this time to fall in love.' Ilsa Lund, Casablanca (1942)
£7.15
Oxford University Press Dombey and Son
"Dom-bey and Son"...Those three words conveyed the one idea of Mr. Dombey's life. The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in, and the sun and moon were made to give them light. The hopes of Mr Dombey for the future of his shipping firm are centred on his delicate son Paul, and Florence, his devoted daughter, is unloved and neglected. When the firm faces ruin, and Dombey's second marriage ends in disaster, only Florence has the strength and humanity to save her father from desolate solitude. This new edition contains Dickens's prefaces, his working plans, and all the original illustrations by 'Phiz'. The text is that of the definitive Clarendon edition. It has been supplemented by a wide-ranging Introduction, highlighting Dickens's engagement with his times, and the touching exploration of family relationships which give the novel added depth and relevance. The Notes and Bibliography have been substantially revised, extended, and updated. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
£9.99
Penguin Books Ltd Stuff I've Been Reading
Stuff I've Been Reading by Nick Hornby - the bestselling novelist's rich, witty and inspiring reading diary'Read what you enjoy, not what bores you,' Nick Hornby tells us. And in this new collection of his columns from the Believer magazine he shows us how it's done. From historical tomes to comic books, literary novels to children's stories, political thrillers to travel writing, Stuff I've Been Reading details Nick's thoughts and experiences on books by George Orwell, J.M. Barrie, Muriel Spark, Claire Tomalin, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Jennifer Egan, Ian McEwan, Cormac McCarthy and many, many more. This wonderfully entertaining journey in reading differs from all other reviews or critical appreciations - it takes into account the role that books actually play in our lives.This book, which is classic Hornby, confirms the novelist's status as one of the world's most exciting curators of culture. It will be loved by fans of About a Boy and High Fidelity, as well as readers of Will Self, Zadie Smith, Stewart Lee and Charlie Brooker.
£15.99
Penguin Books Ltd The Mystery of Edwin Drood
'Dickens's finest work in the genre of the detective story was his last' The TimesEdwin Drood is contracted to marry orphan Rosa when he comes of age, but when they find that duty has gradually replaced affection, they agree to break off the engagement. Shortly afterwards, in the middle of a storm on Christmas Eve, Edwin disappears. Beyond this there are further intrigues: the dark opium underworld of the sleepy cathedral town of Cloisterham, and the sinister double life of choir-master Jasper, whose drug-fuelled fantasy life belies his appearance. Dickens died before completing Edwin Drood, leaving generations of readers to try and solve its tantalizing mystery.Edited with an Introduction and Notes by David Paroissien
£9.04
Amberley Publishing Secret Shepperton: England's Hollywood
Secret Shepperton explores the history of the town from its early origins as an Iron Age settlement nestling on the banks of the River Thames. It’s the place where Caesar crossed the river in AD 54. Subsequent river finds reveal that this area regularly encountered invaders, such as the Saxons, who grazed sheep here and consequently called it Shepperton. It’s always been a place that attracts artists, such as Turner and Constable, and writers such as Charles Dickens and J. G. Ballard, who wrote the Unlimited Dream Factory in which his protagonist gains energy by phagocytizing the people of Shepperton. In H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, the Martians destroy Shepperton and turn the Thames into a boiling inferno with their heat rays. In the twentieth century Shepperton was dubbed the playground of London and Richard D’Oyly Carte bought an island here to build a mini version of his Savoy Hotel. In 1931, Sir Richard Burbridge, Chairman of Harrods, sold his Shepperton mansion to Norman Loudon at a time when ‘the pictures’ were in their infancy but a new fad was catching on – films with sound. This was the forerunner of Shepperton Studio, still operating today and known throughout the world as the ‘Hollywood of England’.
£15.99
Hot Key Books Filippo, Me and the Cherry Tree
A powerful, uplifting and moving story of a teenage girl's battle against losing her sight and keeping her friendships.Mafalda is thirteen and has been blind since she was ten. Her best friend is the cheerfully rule-breaking Filippo, and she is accompanied everywhere by Ottimo Turcaret, her devoted cat. Mafalda is always looking on the bright side, thinking of things she can do both now and in the future despite her loss of sight. But other things are worrying her too: her father who has lost his job and is now in the depths of depression, refusing to leave his bed; and the horrible girl in school, Debbie, who seems very interested in Filippo . . . So now Mafalda has to start thinking what Filippo really means to her . . .Then two new adults come into her life: Elsa, a homeless young woman, and Nino, the elderly upstairs neighbour with an awful temper and a great passion for Charles Dickens. Little by little, Mafalda learns their stories, and how their lives had also been shaped by brave and difficult choices. A moving sequel to THE DISTANCE BETWEEN ME AND THE CHERRY TREE
£7.99
Everyman Oliver Twist
Dickens' celebrated novel of innocence betrayed and then triumphant. It recreates the London underworld populated by such characters as Fagin, Bill Sikes, Nancy and the Artful Dodger, who are contrasted with the friends and family of the orphaned Oliver.
£14.99
Manchester University Press Victorians in Theory: From Derrida to Browning
"Each century," wrote Charles Dickens "[is] more amazed by the century following it than by all the centuries before." Victorians in theory explores the startling conceit that nineteenth-century poetry is amazed by twentieth-century literary theory. In a daring and exciting departure from critical convention, Schad re-reads postructuralist theory through Victorian poetry. Each chapter pairs a poet with a theorist: Robert Browning meets Jacques Derrida; Christina Rossetti encounters Luce Irigaray; Matthew Arnold is after Michel Foucault; Gerald Manley Hopkins dreams with Jacques Lacan; and Elizabeth Barrett Browning haunts Hélène Cixous. Reading both across and between these writers, Schad opens up a radically intertextual space; he wanders, in Matthew Arnold's words, "between two worlds." Across this no-man's land appear a host of unlikely specters, among them T. S. Eliot, Martin Luther, Friedrich Nietzsche, Lewis Carroll's Alice, Walter Benjamin's "angel of history," and the woman taken in adultery.This book will fascinate anyone interested in the Victorians or theory; at once rigorous and readable, it will appeal to both the scholar and the student.
£19.10
Penguin Books Ltd Cranford
From the author of North and South and Mary Barton, Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford is a standalone publication of Elizabeth Gaskell's best-known work, with a critical introduction by Patricia Ingham in Penguin Classics.Cranford depicts the lives and preoccupations of the inhabitants of a small village - their petty snobberies, appetite for gossip, and loyal support for each other in times of need This is a community that runs on cooperation and gossip, at the very heart of which are the daughters of the former rector: Miss Deborah Jenkyns and her sister Miss Matty, But domestic peace is constantly threatened in the form of financial disaster, imagined burglaries, tragic accidents, and the reapparance of long-lost relatives. to Lady Glenmire, who shocks everyone by marrying the doctor. When men do appear, such as 'modern' Captain Brown or Matty's suitor from the past, they bring disruption and excitement to the everyday life of Cranford.In her introduction, Patricia Ingham places the novel in its literary and historical context, and discusses the theme of female friendship and Gaskell's narrative technique. This edition also contains an account of Gaskell's childhood in Knutsford, on which Cranford is based, appendices on fashion and domestic duties supplemented by illustrations, a chronology of Gaskell's life and works, suggestions for further reading, and explanatory notes.Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65) was born in London, but grew up in the north of England in the village of Knutsford. In 1832 she married the Reverend William Gaskell and had four daughters, and one son who died in infancy. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848, winning the attention of Charles Dickens, and most of her later work was published in his journals. She was also a lifelong friend of Charlotte Brontë, whose biography she wrote.If you enjoyed Cranford, you may like Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, also available in Penguin Classics.
£8.42
Penguin Books Ltd Bleak House
'Perhaps his best novel ... when Dickens wrote Bleak House he had grown up' G. K. ChestertonAs the interminable case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce grinds its way through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada Clare and Richard Carstone, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a ward of court; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo, a destitute crossing-sweeper. A savage indictment of a society that is rotten to the core, Bleak House is one of Dickens's most ambitious novels, with a range that extends from the drawing-rooms of the aristocracy to the London slums.Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Nicola Bradbury with a Preface by Terry Eagleton
£9.99
HarperCollins Publishers Christmas Stories (Collins Classics)
HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. There is probably a smell of roasted chestnuts and other good comfortable things all the time, for we are telling Winter Stories… This heart-warming collection of festive short stories and novellas perfectly captures the spirit of Christmas. Focused on the journeys taken through life and the inherent goodness of mankind, these tales explore the true meaning of Christmas and revel in the joyful season of goodwill. Imbued with a moral message, Dickens’s writing gives a voice to the plight of working-class families during a period of social and political change in Victorian England. With such tales as ‘The Chimes’, ‘The Cricket on the Hearth’ and ‘What Christmas Is, As We Grow Older’, this is a beautiful collection for Dickens fans, and a wonderful companion for all those who cherish ‘A Christmas Carol’.
£5.03
Alma Books Ltd David Copperfield: Annotated Edition (Alma Classics Evergreens)
"One of the most famous and celebrated Victorian coming-of-age novels, David Copperfield charts the adventures and vicissitudes of its eponymous hero’s life, from the misery of his childhood after his mother’s marriage to the tyrannical Mr Murdstone, through to his first steps as a writer and his search for love and happiness. Along the way he encounters a vast array of gloriously vivid characters – many of whom number among the most memorable in literature – such as the eccentric aunt Betsey Trotwood, the eloquent debtor Wilkins Micawber and the obsequious villain Uriah Heep. Replete with comedy and tragedy in equal measure, and cited by Dickens as “his favourite child"", this partially autobiographical work provides tantalizing glimpses into Dickens’s own childhood and remains one of the most enduringly popular novels in the English language."
£8.42
WW Norton & Co Hard Times: A Norton Critical Edition
The 1854 text, edited by Sylvère Monod, is accompanied here by explanatory footnotes. Contextual pieces by critics and theorists of Dickens’ time bring readers examples of their views on industrialism, education and utilitarianism. Included are eight new critical essays.
£13.89
Little, Brown Book Group Twopence Coloured
'I recommend Hamilton at every opportunity, because he was such a wonderful writer and yet is rather under-read today. All his novels are terrific' Sarah Waters'If you were looking to fly from Dickens to Martin Amis with just one overnight stop, then Hamilton is your man' Nick HornbyPatrick Hamilton's novels were the inspiration for Matthew Bourne's new dance theatre production, The Midnight Bell.West Kensington - grey area of rot, and caretaking, and cat-slinking basements. West Kensington - drab asylum for the driven and cast-off genteel!' Patrick Hamilton was acutely conscious that his third novel (first published in 1928) was longer and 'much grimmer' than his previous and well-received productions. Twopence Coloured is the story of nineteen-year-old Jackie Mortimer, who leaves Hove in search of a life on the London stage, only to become entangled in 'provincial theatre' and complex affairs of the heart with two brothers, Richard and Charles Gissing. The novel, unavailable for many years, is a gimlet-eyed portrait of the theatrical vocation, and fully exhibits Hamilton's celebrated gift for conjuring London - the 'vast, thronged, unknown, hooting, electric-lit, dark-rumbling metropolis.
£12.99
Penguin Books Ltd Oliver Twist
Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. The story of the orphan Oliver, who runs away from the workhouse only to be taken in by a den of thieves, shocked readers when it was first published. Dickens's tale of childhood innocence beset by evil depicts the dark criminal underworld of a London peopled by vivid and memorable characters - the arch-villain Fagin, the artful Dodger, the menacing Bill Sikes and the prostitute Nancy. Combining elements of Gothic Romance, the Newgate Novel and popular melodrama, Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.
£16.99
Oxford University Press The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories
The Victorians excelled at telling ghost stories. In an age of rapid scientific progress the idea of a vindictive past able to reach out and violate the present held a special potential for terror. Throughout the nineteenth century fictional ghost stories developed in parallel with the more general Victorian fascination with death and what lay beyond it. Though they were as much a part of the cultural and literary fabric of the age as imperial confidence, the best of them still retain their original power to surprise and unsettle. The editors map out the development of the ghost story from 1850 to the early years of the twentieth century and demonstrate the importance of this form of short fiction in Victorian popular culture. As well as reprinting stories by supernatural specialists such as J. S. Le Fanu and M. R. James, this selection also emphasizes the key role played by women writers - Elizabeth Gaskell, Mrs Craik, Rhoda Broughton, and Charlotte Riddell, among many others - and offers one or two genuine rarities for the supernatural fiction enthusiast to savour. Other writers represented include Charles Dickens, Henry James, Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and R. L. Stevenson. The editors also provide a fascinating introduction, detailed source notes, and a chronological list of ghost stories collections from 1850 to 1910.
£13.99
Penguin Books Ltd Little Dorrit
'In Little Dorrit, Dickens attacked English institutions with a ferocity that has never since been approached' George OrwellA masterly evocation of the state and psychology of imprisonment, Little Dorrit is one of the supreme works of Dickens's maturity. It follows Arthur Clennam who, returning to England after many years abroad, takes a kindly interest in Amy Dorrit, his mother's seamstress, who was born and raised in the Marshalsea where her father has long been imprisoned for debt. As Arthur soon discovers, the dark shadow of the prison stretches far beyond its walls to affect the lives of many, from the kindly Mr Pancks, the reluctant rent-collector of Bleeding Heart Yard, to the bureaucratic Barnacles in the Circumlocution Office and Merdle, an unscrupulous financier. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Stephen Wall and Helen Small
£9.99
Tate Publishing The Ghost
"Five thousand years have now elapsed since the creation of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has even been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death. All argument is against it; but all belief is for it." --Samuel Johnson Ghosts are woven into the very fabric of life. In Britain, every town, village, and great house has a spectral resident, and their enduring popularity in literature, art, folklore, and film attests to their continuing power to fascinate, terrify, and inspire. Our conceptions of ghosts--the fears they provoke, the forms they take--are connected to the conventions and beliefs of each particular era, from the marauding undead of the Middle Ages to the psychologically charged presences of our own age. The ghost is no less than the mirror of the times. Organized chronologically, this new cultural history features a dazzling range of artists and writers, including William Hogarth, William Blake, Henry Fuseli, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, Susan Hiller and Jeremy Deller; John Donne, William Shakespeare, Samuel Pepys, Daniel Defoe, Percy and Mary Shelley, Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Muriel Spark, Hilary Mantel, and Sarah Waters.
£14.99
Vintage Publishing The Big Oyster: A Molluscular History of New York
When Peter Minuit bought Manhattan for $24 in 1626 he showed his shrewdness by also buying the oyster beds off tiny, nearby Oyster Island, renamed Ellis Island in 1770. From the Minuit purchase until pollution finally destroyed the beds in the 1920s, New York was a city known for its oysters, especially in the late 1800s, when Europe and America enjoyed a decades-long oyster craze. In a dubious endorsement, William Makepeace Thackeray said that eating a New York oyster was like eating a baby. Travellers to New York were also keen to experience the famous New York oyster houses. While some were known for their elegance, due to a longstanding belief in the aphrodisiac quality of oysters, they were often associated with prostitution. In 1842, when the novelist Charles Dickens arrived in New York, he could not conceal his eagerness to find and experience the fabled oyster cellars of New York City's slums. The Big Oyster is the story of a city and of an international trade.Filled with cultural, social and culinary insight - as well as recipes, maps, drawings and photographs - this is history at its most engrossing, entertaining and delicious.
£12.99
Little, Brown Book Group A Wild & True Relation: A gripping feminist historical fiction novel of pirates, smuggling and revenge
'Enlivens the standard tale of swashbuckling adventure, adding feminist spice ... Rich and immersive' SUNDAY TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH'Remarkable' HILARY MANTEL'A vivid, narrative-packed splice of historical fiction' DAILY MAILA Wild & True Relation opens during the Great Storm of 1703, as smuggler Tom West confronts his lover Grace for betraying him to the Revenue. Leaving Grace's cottage in flames, he takes her orphaned daughter Molly on board ship disguised as a boy to join his crew. But Molly, or Orlando as she must call herself, will grow up to outshine all the men of Tom's company and seek revenge - and a legacy - all of her own. Woven into Molly's story are the writers - from Celia Fiennes and George Eliot to Daniel Defoe and Charles Dickens - who are transfixed by her myth and who, over three centuries, come together to solve the mystery of her life. With extraordinary verve , Sherwood remakes the eighteenth-century novel and illuminates women's writing and women's roles throughout history.'Breathlessly swashbuckling' DAILY TELEGRAPH'Vividly imagined, relentlessly entertaining, rich and resonant in scope and context, it's both a thrilling adventure and a vital witness to women's voices' EMMA STONEX, author of The Lamplighters'A young writer of immense talent' ANDREW MILLER'A breathtaking feat of historical fiction and utterly astounding. It is wise, urgent and entirely compelling. I was bereft when it ended' WYL MENMUIR'This book is a rarity - a novel as remarkable for the vigour of the storytelling as for its literary ambition. Kim Sherwood is a writer of capacity, potency and sophistication' HILARY MANTEL'A thrilling adventure novel' FIONA MOZLEY
£18.99