Creators of horror (Stephen King, Clive Barker and Peter Straub etc) write about their favourite works.

    Harry Blamires helps readers to negotiate their way through this formidable, remarkable novel and gain an understanding of it which, without help, it might have take several readings to achieve. The New Bloomsday Book is a crystal clear, page-by-page, line-by-line running commentary on the plot of Ulysses which illuminates symbolic themes and structures along the way. It is a highly accessible, indispensible guide for anyone reading Joyce's masterpiece for the first time.

    "This anthology of essays on writing and illustrating for children reveals a formidable intelligence and a remarkable degree of empathy with fellow toilers in the field."--Publisher's Weekly

    Only two rules applied in selecting the books covered: “No book less than about fifteen years old was eligible;” and “no book that more than two or three of my colleagues had read got considered.”

    His life, it seems in retrospect, can be seen in three phases: his early life in his native state of California; the war years of the 1940s, and the years thereafter.In the earliest interviews in this collection, his is seen actually hiding from publicity, living in and near Monterey Bay, California, as he struggled to become established as a writer.Later, the publication of The Grapes of' Wrath, in 1939, became extremely controversial; he left the country for a time to escape the unceasing demands of' the press and the public. The Grapes of Wrath is now generally considered the definitive novel of Depression-era America and is still widely read. Interviews in this collection show him dealing with two failed marriages before a successful third marriage; moving from one writing project to another, dealing with fame and controversy and traveling. These collected interviews offer a unique portrait of a major twentieth-century novelist at work and throughout his life. John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

    Following the format of his earlier collection, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels (LJ 7/86), Pringle presents his selections in chronological order and includes a synopsis of the story, a discussion of the author's overall contribution to fantasy literature, critical commentary on the title's significance, and a brief publishing history. An introductory essay tackles the difficulty of defining fantasy, while a "Brief Bibliography" directs readers to other discussions of the genre. By no means a definitive subject guide, this entertaining volume should serve as a solid introduction to the elusive field of imaginative literature. Recommended for most libraries.

    

    Mr. Middleton, a celebrated bookbinder and teacher, has updated and considerably expanded this new edition and has added many illustrations. A revised Supplement traces the evolution of English craft bookbinding since 1945, and for the first time the index, amended for this edition by Dr. Marianne Tidcombe, is comprehensive. This is a definitive study that belongs on the reference shelf of every bibliophile, librarian, book conservator, collector and binder interested in the book arts.

    Critics and cultural historians have usually regarded the Empire as being of marginal importance to early and mid-Victorian writers. Patrick Brantlinger asserts that the Empire was central to British culture as a source of ideological and artistic energy, both supported by and lending support to widespread belief in racial superiority, the need to transform "savagery" into "civilization," and the urgency of promoting emigration.Rule of Darkness brings together material from public records, memoirs, popular culture, and canonical literature. Brantlinger explores the influence of the novels of Captain Frederick Marryat, pioneer of British adolescent adventure fiction, and shows the importance of William Makepeace Thackeray's experience of India to his novels. He treats a number of Victorian best sellers previously ignored by literary historians, including the Anglo-Indian writer Philip Meadows Taylor's Confessions of a Thug and Seeta. Brantlinger situates explorers' narratives and travelogues by such famous author-adventurers as David Livingstone and Sir Richard Burton in relation to other forms of Victorian and Edwardian prose. Through readings of works by Arthur Conan Doyle, Joseph Conrad, H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, John Hobson, and many others, he considers representations of Africa, India, and other non-British parts of the world in both fiction and nonfiction.The most comprehensive study yet of literature and imperialism in the early and mid-Victorian years, Rule of Darkness offers, in addition, a revisionary interpretation of imperialism as a significant factor in later British cultural history, from the 1880s to World War I. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with Victorian culture and society and, more generally, with the relationship between Victorian writers and imperialism, 'and between racist ideology and patterns of domination in modern history.

    Drawing on legends worldwide from prehistory to the modern age, the text explores the origin, development and various incarnations of different characters and places.

    This is a book with a difference which will be enjoyed by anyone who loves old books and old bookshops.In a series of lively, witty and sometimes provocative chapters, Melbourne bookseller Anthony Marshall explores the little-known world of secondhand bookselling and the fascinating books and creatures which inhabit it."In this delightful book, he presents us with an anatomy of his great love affair with pre-owned print." Janet McCalman, University of Melbourne This is an exciting debut for a writer who communicates his passion for books and book people and for his job of bringing the two together "in a small bookshop of modest aspirations".

    An influential journalist and literary critic, a theoretician of the aesthetic relations of art to reality, and a prominent political activist, Chernyshevsky is the author of What Is to Be Done? (1863), the novel that has had the greatest impact on human lives in the history of Russian literature. This book approaches culture from a semiotic perspective, seeing it as a language that organizes human behaviour. But the author takes a direction quite different from that of semiotic work: rather than solely emphasize how the code shapes individuals, she also explores how individuals can influence the cultural code. Through an examination of Chernyshevsky's life and works, the author traces the transformation of personal experience into literary structure, then, in reverse, the work's ensuing influence in structuring the experience and behaviour of others. Exploring Chernyshevsky's role in the crucial cultural developments of the 1860s, the author discusses such issues as the disintegration of the Romantic tradition and the rise of realism, the emergence of the non-noble intelligentsia, the rise of positivism and atheism, and the women's liberation movement. She shows how Chernyshevsky achieved a unique integration of diverse traditions that stood as a compelling model for others in this time.<

    Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Treasure Island, and Kidnapped, but his essays comprise an oft-overlooked trove of gems, intriguing in their content and generous in their scope. This collection of nearly three dozen of Stevenson's best essays - the only anthology of its kind - spans his brief life and includes many of his most celebrated pieces and some others previously unpublished.

    This book examines literary authorship in the twentieth century and covers such topics as publishing, book distribution, the trade editor, the literary agent, the magazine market, subsidiary rights, and the blockbuster mentality.