Search results for ""author john mullan""

Never has contemporary fiction been more widely discussed and passionately analysed; recent years have seen a huge growth in the number of reading groups and in the interest of a non-academic readership in the discussion of how novels work. Drawing on his weekly Guardian column, 'Elements of Fiction', John Mullan examines novels mostly of the last ten years, many of which have become firm favourites with reading groups. He reveals the rich resources of novelistic technique, setting recent fiction alongside classics of the past. Nick Hornby's adoption of a female narrator is compared to Daniel Defoe's; Ian McEwan's use of weather is set against Austen's and Hardy's; Carole Shield's chapter divisions are likened to Fanny Burney's. Each section shows how some basic element of fiction is used. Some topics (like plot, dialogue, or location) will appear familiar to most novel readers; others (metanarrative, prolepsis, amplification) will open readers' eyes to new ways of understanding and appreciating the writer's craft. How Novels Work explains how the pleasures of novel reading often come from the formal ingenuity of the novelist. It is an entertaining and stimulating exploration of that ingenuity. Addressed to anyone who is interested in the close reading of fiction, it makes visible techniques and effects we are often only half-aware of as we read. It shows that literary criticism is something that all fiction enthusiasts can do. Contemporary novels discussed include: Monica Ali's Brick Lane; Martin Amis's Money; Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin; A.S. Byatt's Possession; Jonathan Coe's The Rotters' Club; J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace; Michael Cunningham's The Hours; Don DeLillo's Underworld; Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White; Ian Fleming's From Russia with Love; Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections; Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time; Patricia Highsmith's Ripley under Ground; Alan Hollinghurst's The Spell; Nick Hornby's How to Be Good; Ian McEwan's Atonement; John le Carré's The Constant Gardener; Andrea Levy's Small Island; David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas; Andrew O'Hagan's Personality; Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red; Ann Patchett's Bel Canto; Ruth Rendell's Adam and Eve and Pinch Me; Philip Roth's The Human Stain; Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated; Carol Shields's Unless; Zadie Smith's White Teeth; Muriel Spark's Aiding and Abetting; Graham Swift's Last Orders; Donna Tartt's The Secret History; William Trevor's The Hill Bachelors; and Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road .

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'This is a marvellous, endlessly illuminating book ... It doesn’t go on the shelf alongside other critics; it goes on the shelf alongside Dickens' Howard Jacobson ___________________ Discover the tricks of a literary master in this essential guide to the fictional world of Charles Dickens. From Pickwick to Scrooge, Copperfield to Twist, how did Dickens find the perfect names for his characters? What was Dickens's favourite way of killing his characters? When is a Dickens character most likely to see a ghost? Why is Dickens’s trickery only fully realised when his novels are read aloud? In thirteen entertaining and wonderfully insightful essays, John Mullan explores the literary machinations of Dickens’s eccentric genius, from his delight in clichés to his rendering of smells and his outrageous use of coincidences. A treat for all lovers of Dickens, this essential companion puts his audacity, originality and brilliance on full display. 'Brilliantly sharp ... Mullan makes us see that Charles Dickens was one of the most artful, which is to say skilled, writers the world has ever seen' Mail on Sunday 'Put it on your Christmas list and spend the post-goose collapse reading the good bits aloud' Laura Freeman 'Even if you know a lot about Dickens you will find revelations in this book, and if you know nothing about him it will be the perfect appetiser' The Times, The best paperbacks of 2021

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-1000 PIECE PUZZLE: This 1000-piece puzzle reimagines Austen's life and scenes from her six novels in glorious detail. -CAST OF CHARACTERS: Spot famous fictional characters, fellow writers and historical characters as you build the puzzle. -INCLUDES PULL-OUT POSTER: Includes educational poster with fun facts about Austen’s life and work.  Piece together the world of Jane Austen in this exciting jigsaw inspired by the life and works of the prolific author. The perfect challenge for fans of Austen — or anyone who loves a good jigsaw. Featuring a wide cast of Austen’s contemporaries and characters, take a tour of Austen’s world from the rolling hills of Derbyshire, via Hampshire and Lyme Regis, to the golden stone of the Bath skyline as your build this puzzle. Laurence King Publishing's ‘The World Of…’ jigsaws are a fun way of celebrating the lives and works of creative greats.

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What are the right and wrong ways to propose marriage? What do the characters call each other, and why? And which important Austen characters never speak? In twenty short chapters, each of which answers a question prompted by Jane Austen's novels, John Mullan illuminates the themes that matter most to the workings of Austen's fiction. Inspired by an enthusiastic reader's curiosity, based on a lifetime's study and written with flair and insight, What Matters in Jane Austen? uncovers the hidden truth about an extraordinary fictional world.

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Roxana (1724), Defoe's last and darkest novel, is the autobiography of a woman who has traded her virtue, at first for survival, and then for fame and fortune. Its narrator tells the story of her own `wicked' life as the mistress of rich and powerful men. A resourceful adventuress, she is also an unforgiving analyst of her own susceptibilities, who tells us of the price she pays for her successes. Endowed with many seductive skills, she is herself seduced: by money, by dreams of rank, and by the illusion that she can escape her own past. Unlike Defoe's other penitent anti-heroes, however, she fails to triumph over these weaknesses. The novel's drama lies not only in the heroine's `vast variety of fortunes', but in her attempts to understand the sometimes bitter lessons of her life as a `Fortunate Mistress'. Defoe's achievement was to invent, in `Roxana', a gripping story-teller as well as a gripping story. This edition uses the rare first edition text, with a new introduction, detailed notes, textual history, and a map. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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"Pray, pray be composed," cried Elinor, "and do not betray what you feel to every body present. Perhaps he has not observed you yet." For Elinor Dashwood, sensible and sensitive, and her romantic, impetuous younger sister Marianne, the prospect of marrying the men they love appears remote. In a world ruled by money and self-interest, the Dashwood sisters have neither fortune nor connections. Concerned for others and for social proprieties, Elinor is ill-equipped to compete with self-centred fortune-hunters like Lucy Steele, whilst Marianne's unswerving belief in the truth of her own feelings makes her more dangerously susceptible to the designs of unscrupulous men. Through her heroines' parallel experiences of love, loss, and hope, Jane Austen offers a powerful analysis of the ways in which women's lives were shaped by the claustrophobic society in which they had to survive.

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'Pray, pray be composed,' cried Elinor, 'and do not betray what you feel to every body present. Perhaps he has not observed you yet.' For Elinor Dashwood, sensible and sensitive, and her romantic, impetuous younger sister Marianne, the prospect of marrying the men they love appears remote. In a world ruled by money and self-interest, the Dashwood sisters have neither fortune nor connections. Concerned for others and for social proprieties, Elinor is ill-equipped to compete with self-centred fortune-hunters like Lucy Steele, whilst Marianne's unswerving belief in the truth of her own feelings makes her more dangerously susceptible to the designs of unscrupulous men. Through her heroines' parallel experiences of love, loss, and hope, Jane Austen offers a powerful analysis of the ways in which women's lives were shaped by the claustrophobic society in which they had to survive.

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54 CARD DECK - A set of playing cards featuring illustrations of Austen's most famous characters. Features standard playing card suits, numbers and court cards: can be used in exactly the same way as normal playing cards FUN, COLOURFUL ILLUSTRATIONS: Illustrator Barry Falls perfectly captures some of Austen's most loved characters. Suits are themed on character traits, with hearts for the Heroines and Heroes and spades for the Fools and Bores BOOKLET INCLUDED: The accompanying booklet includes the rules to Regency card games and their mentions in Austen's novels EASY HANDLING: The cards will not crack or bend when shuffled or flexed due to their weight. Held within a box these cards are perfect for taking anywhere on the go GIFTS: The playing cards make the perfect gift for any bookworm, or fan of Jane AustenPlay cards with Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet as King and Queen of Hearts, Henry Crawford as Ace Rogue, and many more of Jane Austen's most memorable characters. Add some 19th-century drama to your favourite card games or learn to play the ones featured in Austen's stories with the help of the accompanying booklet.

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With a special emphasis on the exchange of land between medieval servile tenants—especially from the 13th century onward—this scholarly examination of the peasant land market of the Middle Ages explores the identification of peasant families with particular lands to which they had a hereditary right. Using this theme to explore village life and showing how peasants were affected by the changes over time and place, this study employs primary source material from the Winchester estates. Analyzing thousands of land exchanges and interactions from more than 50 different manors on Winchester, this volume reveals unparalleled opportunities for comparing regional and local differences of experience.

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'I wonder what will become of her!' So speculate the friends and neighbours of Emma Woodhouse, the lovely, lively, wilful,and fallible heroine of Jane Austen's fourth published novel. Confident that she knows best, Emma schemes to find a suitable husband for her pliant friend Harriet, only to discover that she understands the feelings of others as little as she does her own heart. As Emma puzzles and blunders her way through the mysteries of her social world, Austen evokes for her readers a cast of unforgettable characters and a detailed portrait of a small town undergoing historical transition. Written with matchless wit and irony, judged by many to be her finest novel, Emma has been adapted many times for film and television. This new edition emphasises the novel's extraordinary technical audacity. While apparently conservative in its choice of setting and range of characters, it was - and is - a formally revolutionary work.

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54-CARD DECK: A set of playing cards featuring illustrations of Dickens' most famous characters. Features standard playing card suits, numbers and court cardsFUN, COLOURFUL ILLUSTRATIONS: Illustrator Barry Falls perfectly captures Dickens' most memorable characters. Suits are themed on character traits, with hearts for the Heroines and Heroes and spades for the Villains and RevengersBOOKLET INCLUDED: The accompanying booklet includes information about each character and an introduction to contemporary card games and their mentions in Dickens' novelsEASY HANDLING: The cards will not crack or bend when shuffled or flexed. Neatly boxed, these cards are perfect for taking anywhere on the goPERFECT GIFT FOR BOOK LOVERS: Charles Dickens Playing Cards make the perfect gift for any bookwormLAURENCE KING PUBLISHING has been capturing imaginations and inspiring creativity in new and unexpected ways for over 30 years, with playful and eye-catching games, gifts and booksPlay cards with Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger, keep your eye on Scrooge and Uriah Heep as 'Ace' Villains, and have a game of 'Beggar My Neighbour' with Pip and Estella. This playing card deck features 54 of Dickens' most memorable characters and includes an introduction to Victorian card games in the accompanying booklet.

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PUT YOUR MEMORY SKILLS TO THE TEST as you pair up Austen's most famous couplesSIMPLE GAME PLAY for two or more playersTHE PERFECT GIFT for fans of Jane AustenLEARN MORE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS and their relationships in the accompanying booklet'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife'! Help Jane Austen's most eligible characters find their perfect partners in this matchmaking memory game. With all the cards face down, you must turn over two at a time in hopes of pairing up Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, Emma Woodhouse and Mr Knightley, and many more couples besides. Put your literary knowledge and memory skills to the test as you piece together romantic courtships, rash, ill-advised matches, long, comfortable marriages and everything in between.

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