Best of
British-Literature

2000

The Plays of Oscar Wilde


Oscar Wilde - 2000
    The combination of dazzling wit, subtle social criticism, sumptuous settings and the theme of a guilty secret proved a winner, both here and in his next three plays, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and his undisputed masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest. This volume includes all Wilde's plays from his early tragedy Vera to the controversial Salome and the little known fragments, La Sainte Courtisane and A Florentine Tragedy. The edition affords a rare chance to see Wilde's best known work in the context of his entire dramatic output, and to appreciate plays which have hitherto received scant critical attention.

Lord Byron: The Major Works


Lord Byron - 2000
    Although his private life shocked his contemporaries his poetry was immensely popular and influential, especially in Europe. This comprehensive edition includes the complete texts of his two poetic masterpieces Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan, as well as the dramatic poems Manfred and Cain. There are many other shorter poems and part of the satire English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. In addition there is a selection from Byron's inimitable letters, extracts from his journals and conversations, as well as more formal writings.

Fur Coat, No Knickers


Anna King - 2000
    A family torn apart by tragedy At the top of Lester Road in London’s East End stands ‘Paddy’s Castle’, the three-storey, red-bricked Georgian house that is home to Grace Donnelly and her family.Life may be hard in the late 1930s, but it is nothing compared with what is about to follow. Grace’s beloved fiancé Stanley decides to enlist in the fight against Nazi Germany. And as the sirens signal blitz after blitz of bombers, the family can only hide in the cellar and hope they will survive.But Grace has more than just the Germans to worry about. The good-looking Nobby Clark is keen to do more than just look out for his best friend’s fiancée. And scheming barmaid Beryl Lovesett is determined to worm her way into the family home, seducing Grace’s uncle with her fur coat, no knickers… A classic World War Two saga, Fur Coat, No Knickers is a perfect read for fans of Carol Rivers, Sally Warboyes, and Annie Murray. Praise for Fur Coat, No Knickers 'A gripping wartime novel, with strong female characters... full of courage, hope, and heartbreak.' Alina's Reading Corner'Any book written by Anna King is always a great read!' Reader review'I couldn't put it down... a must read.' Reader review'The late Anna King can hold a candle to [Catherine] Cookson. Her characters are flawlessly portrayed.' Reader review

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Patience; Pearl


Unknown - 2000
    Hilles Professor of English and Chairman of Medieval Studies, Yale University.

I Send You This Cadmium Red


John Berger - 2000
    The accompanying book reveals, in the form of letters, notes, small books, and drawings, their subsequent exchange of ideas on color*an visual odyssey that ranges from Matisse's blue to the blue of Yves Klein; from industrial brown anti-rust paint to Joseph Beuys' Braunkreuz, from mysterious cave paintings to Byzantine gold leaf. Unprecedented and engaging, aesthetically stunning and intellectually enlightening, I Send You This Cadmium Red both explores new OEays of seeing' and provides a key to understanding the work of these two artists.

To Hear a Nightingale


Charlotte Bingham - 2000
    Fleeing to New York, she falls in love with handsome Irish racehorse trainer Tyrone Rosse, and when he marries her and takes her back to Claremore, his tumbledown mansion in Ireland, she is happy at last.Passionately in love as she is, Cassie can’t help but find the all-male world of Horseracing rather lonely. Yet there is much for her to learn, not least about the man she has married. Tyrone’s success depends heavily on the whims of wealthy horse owners, men — and women — whose demands are high. And Cassie must learn to endure the enmity of one in particular, who comes out of her buried past determined to destroy her.When tragedy strikes, it seems that Cassie must once again face rejection and lose her hard-won security. But although the chances of success are slim and the cost in personal happiness considerable, she fights against all odds to survive in a world closed against her.

Telling Tales


Alan Bennett - 2000
    When war breaks out in 1939, the Bennett family is on a tram heading down Tong Road as Neville Chamberlain addresses the nation. 'So, not quite partaking in the national mood and, as ever, unbrushed by the wings of history.'The precocious Alan yearns to see the places and lead the life he reads about in books, but not even the war provides the excitement he longs for. This is an ordinary childhood - hiking in the Dales on Sundays, trips into town with Mam - recalled with wry observation and ironic understatement, which is by turns moving and hilarious.These beautifully rendered snapshots, which include poignant portraits of his parents, confirm Bennett at the forefront of contemporary writing. Presented here as a new edition, Telling Tales will delight Bennett fans and enchant a new generation of readers.

The Past is Myself & The Road Ahead Omnibus: When I Was a German, 1934-1945


Christabel Bielenberg - 2000
    She lived through the war in Germany, as a German citizen under the horrors of Nazi rule and Allied bombings. The Past is Myself is her story of that experience - and an unforgettable portrait of an evil time.The Road AheadFollowing the extraordinary success of her wartime memoir, The Past is Myself, Christabel Bielenberg received thousands of letters from readers begging her to describe what happened next. In The Road Ahead she continues her story with the outbreak of peace - a time of struggle for reconciliation with, and the rebuilding of, a defeated nation. She also tells of life in her newly adopted country, Ireland, her involvement with the Peace Women of Northern Ireland, and with characteristic modesty and gratitude, looks back on a rich, full life.

Hawk Queen: The Omnibus Edition


David Gemmell - 2000
    They lived in surly subservience to the Outlanders, and only a teenage girl survived to represent the line of kings: Sigarni.Sigarni the silver-haired. Huntress. Princess. All of these she was called. But those who pierce the veil of the future knew that a leader was coming to the North - a leader descended from Ironhand, mightiest of the highland kings.

Proud and Savage Land


Alexander Cordell - 2000
    

Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales


Stephen Knight - 2000
    In this text the figure of Robin Hood can be viewed in historical perspective, from the early accounts in the chronicles through the ballads, plays and romances that grew around his fame and impressed him on our fictional and historical imaginations.

Wordsworth: A Life


Juliet Barker - 2000
    Orphaned at a young age and dependent on the charity of unsympathetic relatives, he became the archetypal teenage rebel. Refusing to enter the Church, he went instead to Revolutionary France, where he fathered an illegitimate daughter and became a committed Republican. His poetry was as revolutionary as his politics, challenging convention in form, style, and subject, and earning him the universal derision and contempt of critics. Only the unfailing encouragement of a tightly knit group of supporters, his family, and, above all, Coleridge kept him true to his poetic vocation. In the half-century that followed his reputation was transformed. His advocacy of the importance of imagination and feeling touched a chord in an increasingly industrial, mechanistic age, and his influence was profoundly and widely felt in every sphere of life. In the last decade of his life, Rydal Mount, his home for thirty-seven years, became a place of pilgrimage, not just for the great and powerful in Church and state, but also, more touchingly, for the hundreds of ordinary people who came to pay their respects to his genius. In what is, astonishingly, the first biography of Wordsworth to treat the latter part of his life as fully as the first, Juliet Barker balances meticulous research with a readable style, and scrupulous objectivity with an understanding of her subject. She reveals not only the public figure who was courted and reviled in equal measure but also the complex, elusive, private man behind that image. Drawing on unpublished sources, she vividly re-creates the intimacy of Wordsworth's domestic circle, showing the love, laughter, loyalty, and tragedies that bound them together. Far from being the remote, cold, solitary figure of legend, Wordsworth emerges from his biography as a passionate, vibrant man who lived for his family, his poetry, and his beloved Lakeland. His legacy, as a poet and as the spiritual founder of the conservation movement, remains with us today.

The Leithen Stories


John Buchan - 2000
    He seeks adventure to relieve the tedium of respectability. These stories present him: making his own adventure by playing the poacher, and seeking a lost friend in the wastes of Canada.

Conversations with Salman Rushdie


Salman Rushdie - 2000
    If somebody is trying to stifle your voice, you should try and make sure it speaks louder than before.- Acclaim, success, and controversy follow every one of Salman Rushdie's writings. His novels and stories have won him awards and made him both famous in the literary world and a catalyst for protests worldwide. For nearly a decade after publication of The Satanic Verses, he faced a bounty on his life.Although Rushdie has participated in a great number of interviews, many of his most revealing conversations were published in journals and newspapers throughout the globe -- not only in England and the United States, but also in India, Canada, and across Europe. Conversations with Salman Rushdie, the first collection of interviews with Rushdie, brings together the best and some of the rarest of the interviews the author has granted.Though many know Rushdie for his novels, what most do not realize is the breadth of Rushdie's writing and thinking. There are many other Salman Rushdies -- the travel writer, the crafter of short stories, the filmmaker, the -children's- story writer, the essayist and critic, and the unflinching commentator on contemporary culture, particularly on race and inequality.-The speaking of suppressed truths is one of the great possibilities of the novel, - he tells the Third World Book Review, -and it is perhaps the main reason why the novel becomes the most dangerous of art forms in all countries where people, governments, are trying to distort the truth.-Rushdie talks extensively about the creative process, about his views on art and politics, and about his life before and after the fatwa. Articulate, witty, and learned, he shows the side of himself that sparks such controversy. While not necessarily seeking to provoke, Rushdie shows how controversy is often inseparable from the politically charged situations and issues that compel him to write.Rushdie takes risks in his writing, pushing both the novelistic form and language to its limits. -Dispense with safety nets, - he says in Imaginary Homelands. These interviews reveal a man with a powerful mind, a wry sense of humor, and an unshakable commitment to justice.Michael R. Reder is director of the Roth Writing Center and an instructor in the department of English at Connecticut College.

The Book of Amuwapi


Christopher Lord - 2000
    Amuwapi is the name of a prehistoric god who lives alone in the Palace of the Moon and weeps ceaselessly. He is associated with tears, with writing, with the sundial, with menstruation, and with a human sacrifice cult which has left traces in the civilizations of the dawn of history. THE BOOK OF AMUWAPI is a collection of documents from various civilizations and periods associated in some way with the cult of Amuwapi, varying from ancient legal documents to Javanese folk tales. Intertwined with this reconstruction of the Amuwapi cult is the story of the catfish, who meets Amuwapi at the beginning of the book and is advised to carry out a search for love. Handsomely illustrated by Petr Nikl.

London Interiors: From the Archives of Country Life


John Cornforth - 2000
    The photographic archive accumulated over the past century by the magazine Country Life forms a remarkable and evocative record of houses as they were. In this latest collection, the vanished magnificence of the great 18th-century houses of the aristocracy, from the glamorous Rococo interiors of Norfolk House to the Gothic Pomfret Castle. Other houses are seen at key moments in their history: Robert Adam's Home House occupied by Samuel Courtauld and his celebrated collection of Impressionist masterpieces; the monumental Classical interiors of Dorchester House, photographed shortly before they were swept away. In addition to many images of spectacular turn-of-the-century opulence, the book also reflects fashionable taste between the wars: Lady Diana Cooper's bathroom, Chips Channon's staggering dining room, and Lord and Lady Louis Mountbatten's elegant apartment.

Mrs. Dot; A Farce in Three Acts


W. Somerset Maugham - 2000
    Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

Complete Works of Laurence Sterne (Illustrated)


Laurence Sterne - 2000
    (Version 1)* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Sterne's life and works* Concise introductions to the novels and other texts* ALL the novels sermons and letters, with individual contents tables* Images of how the books were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts* Excellent formatting of the texts* Includes Sterne's JOURNAL TO ELIZA, discovered many years after his death – appearing here for the first time in digital print* Rare non-fiction texts often missed out of collections* Features two biographies - discover Sterne's literary life* Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genresPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titlesCONTENTS:The Satires and NovelsA POLITICAL ROMANCETHE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TRISTRAM SHANDYA SENTIMENTAL JOURNEYThe SermonsTHE SERMONS OF LAURENCE STERNEThe LettersLETTERS FROM YORICK TO ELIZAORIGINAL LETTERS OF THE LATE REVEREND MR. LAURENCE STERNELETTERS OF THE LATE REV. MR. LAURENCE STERNE TO HIS MOST INTIMATE FRIENDSThe Non-FictionJOURNAL TO ELIZAYORICK’S MEDITATIONS UPON VARIOUS INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT SUBJECTSEXPLANATORY REMARKS UPON THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TRISTRAM SHANDY: WHEREIN, THE MORALS AND POLITICS OF THIS PIECE ARE CLEARLY LAID OPEN, BY JEREMIAH KUNASTROKIUS, M.D.THE BEAUTIES OF STERNEThe BiographiesMEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF THE LATE REVEREND MR. LAURENCE STERNE, WRITTEN BY HIMSELFSTERNE by H.D. TraillPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles

Lady Frederick: A Comedy in Three Acts (Collected Works of W. Somerset Maugham)


W. Somerset Maugham - 2000
    An aging society dame suffers the attentions of a much younger man and finally, for his sake, lets him see her without makeup and hair.Publisher: William Heinemann Publication date: 1912. This is an OCR reprint. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.

Oxford Reader's Companion to Conrad


Owen Knowles - 2000
    His own life was as astonishing as any of his novels: born in the Ukraine of Polish parents, after a childhood in exile and a 20-year career as a merchant seaman, he began in middle age to write in English, the language of his newly adopted country. The Oxford Reader's Companion to Conrad represents a unique and long-overdue achievement in Conrad scholarship: the first comprehensive and authoritative reference to distil in a lively, readable way a vast range of information on Joseph Conrad's life, works, reputation, and the historical and cultural contexts in which he lived. Much of the material in the Companion is entirely new, compiled from scattered Conrad resources, many of which have never been published before. Produced by two of the world's leading Conradians, with the help of specialist contributors, here are the latest findings of modern scholarship captured in an unparalleled resource for all Conrad enthusiasts.

Love Letters from the Front


Jean L. Kelly - 2000
    Eric Appleby was from Liverpool. An engineering student at the start of the War, he had been in his school Officer Training Corps, and in the Royal Engineers Territorials. He enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery in 1914 and was sent to Athlone for training. At a dance there he met Phyllis Kelly, who was brought up in Athlone, where her father was a solicitor. The collections consist of some 200 letters, field service postcards and telegrams. Eric's 1916 diary has been used to verify locations and events. The letters cover Eric's experiences from the time he left Athlone in March 1915 until he was killed in October 1916 at the tail-end of the Somme offensive. They show how much he depends on Phyllis's love and her letters to him to help him deal with the horrors of war. descriptions of his four leaves home, to Liverpool, Dublin and Athlone, because Phyllis asked him to write about their love days together. Although there is only one, unposted letter from Phyllis, the story that develops testifies to their mutual regard and throws light also on Phyllis's personality, because Eric comments at length on her views and news and, as requested, writes about their time together.

The German War (Collected Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)


Arthur Conan Doyle - 2000
    A collection of essays first published before the outbreak of WWI which appeared together in book form at the end of 1914.

Ae Fond Kiss: The Love Letters of Robert Burns and Clarinda


Robert Burns - 2000