Helen Vendler, widely regarded as an accomplished interpreter of poetry, here serves as a guide to some of the best-known poems in the English language.In detailed commentaries on Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, Vendler interprets imaginative and stylistic features of the poems, pointing out new levels of import in particular lines, and the ways in which the four parts of each sonnet work together to enact emotion and create dynamic effect.

    

    In this selection of letters and autobiographical fragments we hear the authentic voices of the three novelist sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, their brother, Branwell, and their father, the Reverend Patrick Brontë. We share in their progress over the years: the exuberant childhood, absorbed in wild, imaginative games; the years of struggling to earn a living in uncongenial occupations before Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall took the literary world by storm; the terrible marring of that success as, one by one, Branwell, Emily and Anne died tragically young; the final years as Charlotte, battling against grief, loneliness and ill health, emerged from anonymity to take her place in London literary society and, finally, found an all too brief happiness in marriage to her father's curate.Juliet Barker, author of the highly acclaimed biography The Brontës has used her unrivalled knowledge of the family to select extracts from letters and manuscripts, many of which are appearing here in print for the first time. Charlotte was a letter-writer of supreme ability, ranging from facetious notes and homely gossip to carefully composed pages of literary criticism and, most movingly of all, elegiac tributes to her beloved brother and sisters. Emily and Anne remain tantalizingly evasive. Very few of their letters are extant. Emily's are mere businesslike notes, though these have been supplemented by her more revealing diary papers; Anne's letters are equally frustrating, but only because their quality makes us regret their paucity.Branwell emerges as distinctly as Charlotte from his letters. Whether trying to impress William Wordsworth with his literary abilities, showing off to his artistic friends or finally coming to terms with a life of failed ambition, his character is laid bare on every page. The Reverend Patrick Brontë's devotion to his children and passionate advocacy of liberal causes are equally well illustrated in what can only be a small selection from his voluminous correspondence.The Brontë letters are supplemented by extracts from other contemporary sources, which allow us to see the family as their friends and acquaintances saw them. A brief narrative text guides the reader through the letters and sets them in context. By allowing the Brontës to tell their own story, Juliet Barker has not only produced an innovative form of biography but also given us the unique privilege of participating intimately in the lives of one of the most famous and best-loved families of English literature.

    E. Housman is being ferried across the river Styx, glad to be dead at last. The river that flows through Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love connects Hades with the Oxford of Housman's youth: High Victorian morality is under siege from the Aesthetic movement, and an Irish student named Wilde is preparing to burst onto the London scene. On his journey the elder Housman confronts the younger version of himself and his memories of the man he loved his entire life, Moses Jackson -- the handsome athlete who could not return his feelings.

    There is Alice, the romantic but also an outcast; Lewis the priest, an irascible traditionalist; Francie, who has a desire to be loved; and Stacy, a young trainee looking for faith and direction.

    Sarah is a narcoleptic who has dreams so vivid she mistakes them for real events. Robert has his life changed forever by the misunderstandings that arise from her condition. Terry spends his wakeful nights fueling his obsession with movies. And an increasingly unstable doctor, Gregory, sees sleep as a life-shortening disease which he must eradicate.But after ten years of fretful slumber and dreams gone bad, the four reunite in their college town to confront their disorders. In a Gothic cliffside manor being used as a clinic for sleep disorders, they discover that neither love, nor lunacy, nor obsession ever rests.

    Besides discussions of Austen's novels and letters, there are essays on religion, politics, class consciousness, publishing practices, domestic economy, style in the novels and the significance of her juvenile works. A chronology provides biographical information, and assessments of the history of Austen criticism highlight the most interesting recent studies in a vast field of critical diversity.

    John Brewster's landmark book shows us how English artists, amateurs, entrepeneurs, and audiences created a culture that is still celebrated for its wit and brilliance.

    When Nicky subsequently hangs himself, Chris sets out on a journey into his own and others' memories of the tragic events of 34 years before. Driven on by Nicky's firm belief in his father's innocence, he begins to doubt the offical version of those events and to question the conduct of several members of his own family.Then other present-day mysteries begin to dog his footsteps into the past and soon his search for the truth becomes a desperate struggle for his own survival.

    There she meets the mysterious Mr. Rochester and sees a ghostly woman who roams the halls at night. What is the sinister secret that threatens Jane and her new found happiness? Step into Classics(TM) adaptations feature easy-to-read texts, big type, and short chapters that are ideal for reluctant readers and kids not yet ready to tackle original classics.

    A personal appreciation, fuelled by five decades of journeying, this is Jan Morris at her best - at once magisterial and particular, whimsical and profound. It is a matchless portrait of a continent.

    First published in 1997 and illustrated throughout by John Nash, this is a personal, autobiographical view of the changing year, in the hedgerows and fields and in the life of the parish.

    This handbook supplies a wealth of insights into all major aspects of this wondrous poem and its scholarly tradition. Each chapter provides a history of the scholarly interest in a particular topic, a synthesis of present knowledge and opinion, and an analysis of scholarly work that remains to be done. Written to accommodate the needs of a broad audience, A Beowulf Handbook will be of value to nonspecialists who wish simply to read and enjoy Beowulf and to scholars at work on their own research. In its clear and comprehensive treatment of the poem and its scholarship, this book will prove an indispensable guide to readers and specialists for many years to come.

    Two riotous novels by the Polish-born British writer Stefan Themerson (1910-1988), who with his wife Franciszka ran the Gaberbocchus Press in London. Gaberbocchus published both Kurt Schwitters and Bertrand Russsell—and these extremes unite in Themerson's highly individual brand of philosophical Dadaism. BAYAMUS recounts the adventures of a self-proclaimed mutant with three legs (one is attached to a roller skate) and his efforts to propagate a new species; it includes an instructive visit to the "Theatre of Semantic Poetry," where old rhymes mutate into new truths. CARDINAL POLATUO is the biography of Guillaume Apollinaire's anonymous father, who turns out to be an ecclesiastic with a murderous interest in modernist poetry, a faith based on science, and a dreamlife so frankly obscene that only a dictionary of Freudian symbols can explain its innocence.

    When she did, she was witty and illuminating about their earlt lives. The eldest of the Stephen family, she grew up with Virginia in Victorian gloom at Hyde Park Gate an later blossomed in bohemian style in Bloomsbury. From the twenties to the forties she lived and painted at Charleston Farmhouse like a heroine of the sixties and seventies, at the centre of a colourful world of family, friends, artists and intellectuals. SKETCHES IN PEN AND INK is a unique collection of largely unpublished memoirs - most of them written to be read at meetings of the Memoir club - in which Vanessa writes with wit and charm about herself, her childhood, her remarkable family and friends, her moving relationship with Roger Fry, and her art. Her daughter, Angelica garnett, has written a vivid and personal introduction which adds considerably to our understanding of this extraordinary woman and artist. Edited by LIA GIACHERO, a young art historian who has worked with Angelica Garnett on this collection, and contributes a fascinating

    The fifth child of a Hampshire clergyman of modest means, Austen was more highly regarded among her family for her skill with the embroidery needle than for the sharpness of her wit. Yet, nearly two hundred years after she first put pen to paper, Austen's insights into human nature are as apt and accurate as when she originally wrote them. A witty and elegant collection of truths, ageless in their relevance. Michael Kerrigan is the author of Who Lies Where: A Guide to Famous Graves.

    This biography uses recently-discovered documents in England and the Netherlands to unmask this elusive author whose works include The Rover, The Fair Jilt, Love Letters Between a Nobleman and his Sister, and The Forc'd Marriage.

    "Matthews...offers a very attractively presented collection...wonderfully illustrated...Not since the offerings of Jeremiah Curtin, W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, and others at the turn of the century has such a collection been assembled....most were culled from various books and obscure journals that have long been out of print....Each story is followed by a short yet informative note on the tale and its sources, and there is a good bibliography and index. This book would be attractive to younger readers as well as adults interested in Celtic traditions and is recommended for most public and academic libraries."--Library Journal. "...collection is varied and brilliant...beautiful illustrations are bold and colorful."--KLIATT.

    You'll require a formal invitation, of course, as well as a bracelet made of daisies, a dazzling raindrop necklace, and a pair of sparkly earrings. Luckily, these are all provided (in irresistible little envelopes and lift-the-flap pockets), along with a secret recipe for Fantastic Fairy Fizz. And last, but certainly not least, proudly don your silver fairy wings and shining tiara--now you're ready for the ball! Little fingers will spend hours with this sweet handbook, popping up fairy scenes, discovering tiny hidden treasures, decoding the secret perfume formula, and dressing a paper doll in gowns made of petals. The illustrations are so delightful and the secret fairy surprises so delectable, even those "too old" for fairies may find themselves squeezing into a pair of glittering wings. (Ages 4 to 10)

    We have no captive audience. We do not teach. We write to be readable and to engage the interest of what Virginia Woolf called 'the common reader.'"    In a life that spanned almost the entire course of the twentieth century--he was born in 1900 and died in 1997--Sir Victor Pritchett mastered nearly every form of literature: the novel, short fiction, travel writing, biography, criticism, and memoir. Now, Sir Victor's son Oliver has selected representative samples to illustrate the tremendous scope of his father's brilliance. Included in this volume are sections of Pritchett's memoirs, A Cab at the Door and Midnight Oil; his reflections on turning eighty; and an account of a visit to the Appalachians written in 1925. There are also portraits of Dublin, New York, the Amazon, and Spain; selections from the novels Dead Man Leading and Mr. Beluncle; thirteen complete short stories; excerpts from biographies of Turgenev and Chekhov; and critical pieces on Twain, Scott, Dickens, Eliot, Henry James, Tolstoy, Saul Bellow, Salman Rushdie, and others.    "Pritchett has lived as a man of letters must, by his pen, and he has done it with a freshness of interest and an infectious curiosity that have never waned," observed novelist Mar- garet Drabble. Taken together with Oliver Pritchett's appreciation of his father, and John Bayley's "In Memoriam," The Pritchett Century stands as the most comprehensive collection of Sir Victor's work available in one volume.The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foun-dation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hard-bound editions of important works of liter-ature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inau-gurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.From the Hardcover edition.

    As the sky turns fiery, figures appear in the landscape: a boy, limping, accompanied by an old woman. Cast out from their tribe they make the Journey alone, away from the sun' rage, away from the deserts of the north, toward the southern lands. This is Ishs tale, a tale of rejection, of survival against the odds, of growing up in an age when much is feared, and few can be trusted.

    Containing a selection of the best of Charlotte Bronte's early creative writing transcribed directly from her manuscripts, here is an enlightening look at what Bronte called her "long apprenticeship in writing." In the Introduction, Juliet Barker illuminates Bronte's childhood, bringing to life the imaginary worlds and delightful characters Charlotte and her siblings created.

    In this analysis of Barnes's distinctive qualities and of his place in the British literary establishment, Merritt Moseley suggests that Barnes's greatest achievement is his ability to resist summary and categorization by imagining each book in a dramatically original way.In evaluating Barnes's fiction, Moseley discusses the novelist's admiration for Gustave Flaubert, identifies his technical and thematic concerns, and explores the intrigue surrounding his divided career as a writer of serious novels, published under his own name, and of detective thrillers, published under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh. Moseley provides close readings of Barnes's book-length works, defending the writer against the charge that some of these volumes should not be considered novels at all and examining his commitment to writing books rich in the exploration of serious ideas.

    

    Two years before he had published a book with twelve stories and four essays called Tales of St Austin's, and no doubt meant to produce an equivalent Wrykyn book. Here it is at last.It contains 25 new Wodehouse short stories: the six basic Tales of Wrykyn with their original illustrations; six more Wrykyn stories; and thirteen stories set in other schools.Among the "Elsewhere" stories is Stone and the Weed, where a newfangled motor car gets a Sedleigh boy away so fast from the scene of his crime that he almost establishes an alibi; Personally Conducted, in which a teenage girl creditably maroons a Beckford housemaster at the top of a church tower; and The Adventure of Split Infinitive, at the farcically named St Astrisk's, a bitter mockery of the Sherlock Holmes stories.We despise ruthless Reginald even while we cannot help admiring his elegant revenges. However wrong the characters seem by any adult standards, even those of their own time, we are drawn into their world of warped values. They are unusual, even bizarre; certainly wry, they are in many ways also our kin.

    A master chronicler of the foibles of English life, Wilson emerges as an artist of enormous courage, one of the very few who, even in the 1940s, lived as an open homosexual.