Best of
British-Literature

1998

A Rage to Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton


Mary S. Lovell - 1998
    Isabel Arundell was a schoolgirl, the scion of England's most distinguished Catholic family. When she first saw him while walking at a seaside resort, Richard Burton had already made his mark as a linguist (he was fluent in twenty-nine languages), scholar, soldier, and explorer--at once a symbol of Victorian England's vision of empire and an avowed rebel against its mores. When she turned and saw him staring after her, she decided that she would marry him. By their next meeting, Burton had become the first infidel to infiltrate Mecca as one of the faithful, and, in an expedition to discover the source of the Nile, would soon be the first white man to see Lake Tanganyika. After being married, the Burtons traveled and experienced the world, from diplomatic postings in Brazil and Africa to hair-raising adventures in the Syrian desert. In later life Richard courted further controversy as a self-proclaimed erotologist and the translator of The Kama Sutra. Based on previously unavailable archives, Mary Lovell has written a compelling joint biography that sets Isabel in her proper place as Burton's equal in daring and endurance, a fascinating figure in her own right.

Winnie the Pooh Collection


A.A. Milne - 1998
    Milne's first stories about Winnie-the-Pooh were published. The book was an instant success, and since then the Bear of Little Brain has become the most famous bear in the world. A.A. Milne's stories about Pooh and his friends have been translated into no less than thirty-one different languages, and he has an enormous following of fans, young and old, across the world.This handsome book contains the complete stories from Winnie-the-Pooh 1926, and The House at Pooh Corner 1928, including memorable tales such as Pooh getting stuck in Rabbit's front door for a week, Piglet's meeting with a fierce Heffalump, Tigger's arrival in the Forest and the invention of the game of Poohsticks. The characters of Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger,Kanga and Roo were based upon the real nursery toys belonging to A.A. Milne's son, Christopher Robin, and their adventures are set in the Ashdown Forest where Milne and his family lived. The artist, E.H. Shepard lovingly recreated the Forest and the toys in his drawings, and the places he drew can still be seen today.

Annabel Karmel's New Complete Baby Toddler Meal Planner


Annabel Karmel - 1998
    You will find everything you need to give your baby the best start in life, here, in this book.A must-have for all new parents - let Annabel guide you through baby's early years with her food wisdom.'Her recipes prove that babies and toddlers will eat their greens - and much more - if served up in imaginative ways"Daily Telegraph'A parent who does not have at least one of her books in her kitchen should waste no time putting that right' The Sunday Times

Palace of Tears


Anna King - 1998
    If finding her mother Nellie in hospital after a savage beating from her husband wasn’t enough, Emily’s plight deepens when she yields to the advances of Tommy, a young soldier, and becomes pregnant with his child.Not for nothing is Victoria station nicknamed the ‘palace of tears’. As trainloads of men leave for the Western Front, and Emily says goodbye to Tommy, she is left contemplating the life of a single mother. Yet amidst the devastation, happiness still lies within her grasp… A classic saga of World War One, Palace of Tears is a perfect read for fans of Carol Rivers, Sally Warboyes, and Annie Murray.

Love Thine Enemy


Nora Fountain - 1998
     Paris has always been one of her favourite places, but as she walks down the street on her first day and sees a tall stranger with cornflower blue eyes and hair the colour of wheat, she is hit by what the French call un coup de foudre, and her life is changed forever. Maximilian von Engelberg is a German, but despite being proud of Germany, he is against the Nazis, unlike his brother Herman, who is with the SS. He, too, hopes war can be averted, but knows it is a matter of time. He also knows he should stay away from Helen Latimer, but he can’t help himself. Christian Meursault is the Count of Clemenceau, and owns a chateau in Normandy. He has his friends for a weekend, including Helen and Max, and as they play in the pool and eat fabulous food, no one can imagine war. But soon, Hitler invades Poland, and war is inevitable. As Helen’s brother Charles calls her home, Max’s brother Herman insists he return to the Fatherland as well. But when Helen discovers she is pregnant, Max decides they will marry, and escape to Portugal, a country that is neutral. But fate has other plans for them, and Max ends up in Germany. Soon they are both married to other people, as war rages around them. But despite impossible odds, this is not the end of the story for Max, who ends up based in Normandy, and Helen, who starts to work for the French Resistance when her beloved brother Charles is shot down over the English Channel. With so much death, who knows who will survive, and at what cost? Rich in history and filled with the joy of life, Love Thine Enemy is a satisfying read brimming with romance and love during a very dark time. Praise for Nora Fountain ‘Love conquers all in this moving historical romance’ – Holly Kinsella Nora Fountain is a professional novelist and translator. Her short stories have been published in many magazines in the UK and abroad. She writes both contemporary and historical romance, and loves to paint. Nora has served on the committee of the Romantic Novelists Association and is a member of the Society of Authors and the Chartered Institute of Linguists. She lives in Dorset, where she finds Thomas Hardy country and the people who live there, an inspiration.

A Sense of Belonging


Erica James - 1998
    In their different ways, all the newcomers to Cholmford are searching for something—love, peace, a sense of belonging. But will they find more than they bargained for?

Praying To The Aliens


Gary Numan - 1998
    This is a story of excess, speed and the music media.

The Restraint of Beasts


Magnus Mills - 1998
    Magnus Mills gives us a wiry novel of tensile strength that proves him a writer of ferocious talent. Eerie, resonant, spare yet rich in tones both hilarious and ominous—as if a work by Irvine Welsh, or perhaps Macbeth, had been adapted by the Coen brothers—his story has a finale so ingenious, insidious, and satisfying, it remains locked in the mind long after the last wire has been strung into place.

Reading the Pre-Raphaelites


Tim Barringer - 1998
    In Reading the Pre-Raphaelites, author Tim Barringer draws on an imaginative selection of paintings, drawings, and photographs to suggest that the dynamic energy of Pre-Raphaelitism arose out of the paradoxes at its heart. Past and present, historicism and modernity, symbolism and realism, as well as the tensions between city and country, men and women, worker and capitalist, colonizer and colonized all make appearances within Pre-Raphaelite art. By focusing on these issues, Barringer draws together the strands of revisionist thought on the Pre-Raphaelites and provides a range of stimulating new interpretations of their work.Beautifully illustrated, the revised edition of this authoritative survey traces the history of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and includes new sections on photography as well as a revised introduction and bibliography.

The Muslim Marriage Guide


Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood - 1998
    Drawing on Islamic sources of the Qur'an and Sunnah the author discusses the main emotional, social and sexual problems that can afflict relationships, suggesting many practical ways in which they can be resolved.

The Triumph of Love


Geoffrey Hill - 1998
    If the poet doesn't make certain horrors appear horrible, who will?" This astonishing book is a protest against evil and a tribute to those who have had the courage to resist it.

The Selected Works of G.K. Chesterton


G.K. Chesterton - 1998
    K. Chesterton was born in London in 1874. He went to St Paul's School and then on to the Slade School of Art. In 1900, he was asked to write a few magazine articles on art criticism, and from that beginning went on to become not only one of the most prolific writers of all time but, in the opinion of some, the best writer of the twentieth century. Chesterton, an absent-minded, overgrown elf of a man, standing 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighing around 21 stone, was a well-known figure invariably to be seen in voluminous cape and crumpled hat, with tiny glasses pinched to the end of his nose and swordstick in hand. Despite a chaotic life-style this was the genius who wrote The Everlasting Man, a book which led a young atheist named C. S. Lewis to become a Christian; The Napoleon of Notting Hill, a novel which inspired Michael Collins to lead a movement for Irish Independence; an essay in the Illustrated London News that inspired Mahatma Gandhi to lead a movement to end British colonial rule in India. He wrote countless books, poems, plays, novels and short stories - most famously those about his creation, the priest-detective Father Brown. In 1909 Chesterton moved with his wife to Beaconsfield, at that time a village near to London, and in 1922 he converted to Catholicism. He died on 14 June 1936, at his home and is buried in the Beaconsfield Catholic Cemetery.

Fear of Mirrors


Tariq Ali - 1998
    Set in Berlin and Moscow and spanning eight decades, Fear of Mirrors is the story of betrayed illusions and destroyed hopes. It is also the story of people who believed they were fighting for certain ideals, only to be crushed by their own people.Lovers want to know the truth, but they do not always want to tell it. For some East Germans, the fall of Communism was like the end of a long and painful love affair: free to tell the truth at last, they found they no longer wanted to hear it. Vlady, a former dissident who loses his job when he refuses to renounce his socialist beliefs in the new, unified Germany, wants to tell his alienated son, Karl, what his family's long and passionate involvement with Communism really meant. It is the story of Ludwik, the Polish secret agent who recruited Philby, and of Gertrude, Vlady's mother, whose desire for Ludwik is matched only by her devotion to the Communist ideal.Ali carries us along as the political upheavals of the twentieth century unfold, as Vlady describes the hopes aroused by the Bolshevik revolution and discovers the almost unbearable truth about their betrayal. Written with deep political insight and sensitivity, Fear of Mirrors tells one of the great stories of the twentieth century -- the extraordinary history of Central Europe and the fall of Communism.

The Sweeper of Dreams


Neil Gaiman - 1998
    From Neil Gaiman's short story and poem collection, "Smoke and Mirrors."After all the dreaming is over, after you wake, and leave the world of madness and glory for the mundane day-lit daily grind, through the wreckage of your abandoned fancies walks the sweeper of dreams."

A Painted Field


Robin Robertson - 1998
    S. Merwin), Robin Robertson gives us forty-two poems that “are deep, dark journeys into the soul and psyche of human experience” (NPR’s Weekend Edition). “The reader is almost blinded by the incandescent authority of these poems” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

The New Oxford Book of English Prose


John Gross - 1998
    Beginning with Sir Thomas Malory and ending with Kazuo Ishiguro, this anthology chronologically traces the evolution of prose. It shows how it gained confidence and extended its range in the late seventeenth century, and then how, in the eighteenth century, it dispensed with the ornate style of literary giants like Milton and Donne in favor of more concise and compact modern style. The material included in this anthology is literary, but literary, as the editor states in the introduction, is not the narrow term that it is often made to beit embraces an enormous range of experience and response. The New Oxford Book of English Prose pays tribute to literature's vibrant diversity by offering glimpses of master craftsmanship from around the globe. Included here are excerpts from writers of such varied backgrounds as Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Vladimir Nabokov, and Mulk Raj Anand. From the eloquent political treatises of Burke to the bold narrative strokes of Herman Melville, readers will find that the selections contained within this volume superbly illustrate the expressive powers of prose

PLAYS VOL.2 (Wordsworth Collection , Vol 2)


Oscar Wilde - 1998
    In his best work, the subversive insights embedded in his wit continue to challenge our common assumptions. Wilde's ability to unsettle and startle us anew with his radical vision of the artifice inherent in the self's construction makes him our contemporary.This edition is introduced by John Lahr, author of Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton. The plays included are Lady Windermere's Fan, Salome, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest.

Charles Dickens A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work


Paul B. Davis - 1998
    All these details are drawn from a vast array of primary sources. '

Thomas Hardy: Everyman Poetry


Thomas Hardy - 1998
    Part one focuses on major themes and key passages, while part two includes background information on Hardy's life and career, a guide to leading critics, and to further reading.

Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose


Peter Lovesey - 1998
    "Passion Killers" will make your toes curl for the hapless Mrs Palmer, and "The Odstock Curse" may well induce goosebumps as a Gypsy curse is repeated in the present. Among the fifteen tales are two featuring Peter Lovesey's forthright police detective, Peter Diamond, and two with the amateur sleuth, Bertie, Prince of Wales, in rumbustious form. The collection also include "The Pushover," winner of the Mystery Writers of America's Golden Mysteries short story prize, and "Quiet Please—We're Rolling," both nominated for Britain's Crime Writer's Association Short Story Dagger. **

One Man's Chorus: The Uncollected Writings


Anthony Burgess - 1998
    His highlights include reflections upon literature and litterateurs, from such twentieth-century literary giants as James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, and Virginia Woolf to the eccentric Sitwells to fellow novelists Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. Whether the subject is Charlie Chaplin or Margaret Thatcher, or Prince Hamlet, Burgess's one-man chorus is guaranteed to win your enthusiastic applause.

The Corn is Green


Emlyn Williams - 1998
    This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Emma Dent


Emma Dent - 1998
    Emma DentEmma Dent was a matriarch in the Victorian period. In the introduction to the book, Lady Ashcombe writes: "Here was a woman with a wry sense of humour, a deep enduring love for her husband and a fiercely unconventional streak."

The First Women in Love


D.H. Lawrence - 1998
    Lawrence wrote it in 1916 and did his best to have it published then; but his previous novel had been banned and The First Women in Love was rejected. It shares much of its material with the final version of the novel but its central relationships are dissimilar and the ending radically different. Arguably one of Lawrence's greatest works in its own right, it is a novel searingly addressed to the world of the First World War.

Greyfriars Bobby: The Real Story at Last


Forbes MacGregor - 1998
    New authentic information about the famous Skye terrier and his master John Gray, with real photographs of Bobby and eye-witness accounts.

How to Have a Lifestyle


Quentin Crisp - 1998
    In this funny, wise, self-mocking, and acutely perceptive book, Crisp reveals what style isn't and what style is, who has it, and who doesn't.

Mother of All Myths


Aminatta Forna - 1998
    In this provocative analysis, Forna explores the pressure, politics, philosophy and culture of motherhood in today's society and argues that the mother's needs should be more evenly balanced against those of the child.

Aubrey Beardsley: A Biography


Matthew Sturgis - 1998
    Together they shocked the press and the establishment by cultivating the pose of dandies, coolly removed from prevailing social mores, and took aim at the dominant figures of the late 19th-century art world: moralizing critic John Ruskin and the sentimental pre-Raphaelite painters. That Beardsley met an early death at the age of 25 after a lifelong battle with tuberculosis was especially ironic, as the cult of the doomed youth was central to the Decadent movement. Throughout, Sturgis is in full command of the cultural conditions that led to Beardsley's emergence as an enfant terrible, such as the newly available illustrated picture press that made the artist's deliberately shocking drawings easily available to the masses and turned him into a media-art star avant la lettre. Sturgis never resorts to flimsy psychological conjecture (although his circumspection may in part be due to Beardsley's own efforts to fashion an elaborate mask for public consumption), and the biographer's prose is unexpectedly affecting when the end comes for his subject, as Beardsley rushes from spa to sanitarium, searching for a cure, frantically taking up and abandoning projects all the while. Arriving as it does in the midst of our own surface-obsessed fin de siecle, Sturgis's biography is not only a faithful record of Beardsley and of his world but also a useful study of the birth pangs of modernity. 26 b photographs and Beardsley's line drawings throughout.

Collected Poems


C.H. Sisson - 1998
    Sisson. This text shows how the author grounds his work in English landscapes, especially those of Somerset, and recalls the work of Eliot and Pound, and Hardy and Edward Thomas.