K. Rowling's first novel - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - no series of children's books has been more incredibly popular or widely influential. How do we explain the enormous appeal of these stories to children? Should parents welcome this new interest in reading among their kids or worry, along with the critics, that the books encourage either moral complacency or a perverse interest in witchcraft and the occult?In this original interpretation of the Harry Potter sensation, Edmund M. Kern argues that the attraction of these stories to children comes not only from the fantastical elements embedded in the plots, but also from their underlying moral messages. Children genuinely desire to follow Harry, as he confronts a host of challenges in an uncertain world, because of his desire to do the right thing. Harry's coherent yet flexible approach to dealing with evil reflects an updated form of Stoicism, says Kern. He argues that Rowling's great accomplishment in these books is to have combined imaginative fun and moral seriousness.Kern's comprehensive evaluation of the Harry Potter stories in terms of ethical questions reveals the importance of uncertainty and ambiguity in Rowling's imaginative world and highlights her call to meet them with typically Stoic virtues: constancy, endurance, perseverance, self-discipline, reason, solidarity, empathy, and sacrifice. Children comprehend that growing up entails some perplexity and pain, that they cannot entirely avoid problems, and that they can remain constant in circumstances beyond their control. In essence, Harry shows them how to work through their problems, rather than seek ways around them. Despite the fantastical settings and events of Harry's adventures, children are quick to realize that they are just a weird reflection of the confusing and disturbing circumstances found in the real world.Kern also shows adults how much they can gain by discussing with children the moral conundrums faced by Harry and other characters. The author outlines the central morals of each book, explains the Stoic principles found in the stories, considers the common critiques of the books, discusses Rowling's skillful blend of history, legend, and myth, and provides important questions for guiding children through Harry's adventures.This fresh, instructive, and upbeat guide to Harry Potter will give parents many useful and educational suggestions for discussing the moral implications of this continuously popular series of books with their children. Note: This book is not authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by J. K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any other individual or entity associated with the Harry Potter books or movies. Harry Potter is a registered trademark of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

    On the eve of the Great War, Millicent King begins to keep her journal and vividly records the dramas of everyday life in a family touched by war, tragedy, and money troubles. From bohemian London to Rome in the 1920s her story moves on to social work and the build-up to another war, in which she drives ambulances through the bombed streets of London.Here is twentieth-century woman in close-up coping with the tragedies and upheavals of women's lives from WWI to Greenham Common and beyond. A triumph of resolution and evocation, this is a beautifully observed story of an ordinary woman's life - a narrative where every word rings true.

    This remarkable volume gathers all of his work, from his earliest poems (published only in journals) through the ground-breaking volumes Crow (1970), Gaudete(1977), and Tales from Ovid (1997). It includes poems Hughes composed for fine-press printers, poems he wrote as England's Poet Laureate, and the children's poems that he meant for adults as well. This omnium-gatherum of Hughes's poetry is animated throughout by a voice that, as Seamus Heaney remarked, was simply "longer and deeper and rougher" than those of his contemporaries.

    From the bizarre job posting in 'The Red-Headed League' to the chilling words uttered by a dying woman in 'The Adventures of the Speckled Band', Sherlock Holmes encounters some of the most twisted cases of his career in this collection of 12 stories.

    Here in All Day Permanent Red is doomed Hector, the lion, "slam-scattering the herd" at the height of his powers. Here is the Greek army rising with a sound like a "sky-wide Venetian blind." Here is an arrow's tunnel, "the width of a lipstick," through a neck. Like Homer himself, Logue is quick to mix the ancient and the new, because his Troy exists outside time, and no translator has a more Homeric interest in the truth of battle, or in the absurdity and sublimity of war.

    Modernized spelling, extensive notes, and a helpful introduction make the text immediately accessible to the modern reader.

    My Uncle Oswald is a hilarious novel that follows the erotic exploits of the "the greatest fornicator of all time," Oasald Hendryks Cornelius, first introduced in Switch Bitch. Lust, triumph, the galling deflation of defeat: Dahl captures them all in these superbly taut black comedies of human weakness and unexpected reversal.

    They have grown up together and become top climbers, but have since become estranged. Rob is nevertheless grief-stricken when he hears of Jamie's death after a fall on a relatively easy Welsh rockface. The past, though, hides the secret clues behind the tragedy.

    Where dawning genius never met the day, Where useless ignorance slumbers life awayUnknown nor heeded, where low genius triesAbove the vulgar and the vain to rise.--from "Helpstone""I Am": The Selected Poetry of John Clare is the first anthology of the great "peasant poet"'s remarkable verse that makes available the full range of his accomplishments. Here are the different Clares that have beguiled readers for two centuries: the tender chronicler of nature and childhood; the champion of folkways in the face of oppression; the passionate, sweet-tongued love-poet; and the lonely visionary confined, in old age and senility, to asylums.

    Contains exclusive interviews with founder member Vince Clark and producer Gareth Jones. Also includes previously unpublished interview material with the band members themselves.

    Neither is quite what they seem to be. In the audio edition, the actors are Alan Bennett and Judi Dench.

    Foreword: Reggie OliverIntroduction: Christopher Barker**'Beside The Shrill Sea''Feng Shui''In Arcadia''The Evil Eye''Miss Marchant’s Cause''Tiger In The Snow''Gardens Gods''The Black Cathedral''The Boy in Green Velvet''The Golden Basilica''Death Mask''A Warning To The Antiquary''The Seventeenth Sister''The Copper Wig''The Dreams Of Cardinal Vittorini'

    Meredith is a new girl at school. An orphan, living with her elderly granny. She must be lonely—or so Carly thinks, trying to be nice. But sometimes nice doesn't work. Sometimes people are worse than you could ever imagine. And Meredith has a secret—a story Carly can hardly begin to believe, about a girl with no future and someone else's past, a vicious old lady who refuses to die, and a young life stolen. For Meredith is not Meredith at all.

    Once married, however, she acquired a persistent pain that led to destructive drugs and patronizing psychiatry, ending in an ineffective but irrevocable surgery. There would be no children; in herself she found instead one novel, and then another.

    The action-packed story of heroism and sacrifice follows Squadron 633 on a crucial mission--a mission crucial to the success of D-Day. Their target is a Norwegian fjord, where the Germans are developing a top-secret weapon. The pilots know they'll be flying in low, between the steep mountain walls, without fighter support. For many, the trip will be one-way only...

    It also brought Charlotte Brontë the notoriety that was to remain with her for the rest of her short and tragic life.Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte's first biographer, attempted to clear Charlotte of the charges of passionate immorality that were levelled at a woman author - and an unmarried one at that. Rebecca Fraser, 130 years later, placed Charlotte's life within the perceptual framework of contemporary attitudes to women. Her biography is an invaluable contribution to Brontë scholarship, which shares her admiration for a woman prepared to stand out against some of the cruellest Victorian ideas about her sex.

    With a generous selection of our best-loved war poets, First World War Poems also returns lesser known pieces to the light, and extends the selection right through to the present day - so that poems produced by the war give way historically to poems about the war. This mesmerizing book reminds us how the poetry of that time has, more than any art form, come to stand testament to the grief and outrage occasioned by World War I.

    An adventuress both in her private and public life, Amy Johnson has iconic status as an outstanding female adventurer whose death remains a mystery to this day.

    It includes over forty specially commissioned essays by an outstanding team of scholars. Each essay is written in an accessible and engaging styleand is followed by annotated suggestions for further reading. Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide is divided into four key parts. Part One offers concise introductions to the literary and historical contexts in which Shakespeare lived and worked. It covers the society, culture, language, theatre, and playwriting conventions of Shakespeare's time and alsodiscusses his contemporary impact. Part Two offers critical overviews of Shakespeare's achievements in the major genres. Each overview is followed by a reading that explores Shakespeare's use of the traditions, scope, and boundaries of that genre in one of his key works. Part Three discusses currentcritical approaches to the study of Shakespeare. Each chapter outlines a specific approach and is followed by a reading applying that approach to one of Shakespeare's works. Part Four offers chapters on Shakespeare's intellectual and cultural impact over the ages.

    Illustrations.

    But that final struggle, which ended in his execution for treason, was only the crowning act in a life that he had devoted to God long before. In the first selection in decades made for the general reader from his collected works, this volume traces More’s journey of moral conviction in his own words and writings. Drawing on a variety of More’s late writings–the extraordinary “Tower Works,” written in prison, his poignant last letters to his daughter Margaret, and his poems, private prayers and devotional works–this collection will provide even readers lacking a background in Renaissance humanism or history with a rich introduction to a startlingly modern man of spiritual principle. Also included is the famous “Life of Sir Thomas More,” written by his son-in-law, William Roper.In the annals of spirituality certain books stand out both for their historical importance and for their continued relevance. The Vintage Spiritual Classics series offers the greatest of these works in authoritative new editions, with specially commissioned essays by noted contemporary commentators. Filled with eloquence and fresh insight, encouragement and solace, Vintage Spiritual Classics are incomparable resources for all readers who seek a more substantive understanding of mankind's relation to the divine.

    

    Dalloway's Party and numerous journal entries and letters by Virginia Woolf relating to the book's genesis and writing. The distinguished novelist Francine Prose has selected these pieces as well as essays and appreciations, critical views, and commentary by writers famous and unknown. Now with additional scholarly commentary by Mark Hussey, professor of English at Pace University, this complete volume illuminates the creation of a celebrated story and the genius of its author. Includes essays and commentary from: Michael CunninghamE. M. ForsterMargo JeffersonJames WoodMary GordonElaine ShowalterDaniel MendelsohnSigrid NunezDeborah EisenbergElissa Schappell

    350 copies. Contents: -An Introduction by Glen Cavaliero-Three Miles Up/ Perfect Love/ Left Luggage/ Mr Wrong.

    But they were also siblings tied together by a horrific event. In September 1796, Mary murdered her mother with a carving knife during a fit of insanity as the family prepared for dinner. Charles, who was only 21 at the time, took it upon himself to care for his sister throughout her life as she swung between sanity and madness. Meanwhile, Charles also suffered from severe depressions and alcoholism and at one point had to admit himself to the Hoxton madhouse. This account of Charles and Mary Lamb reaches to the heart of early 19th-century London, meeting its eccentrics and its literary giants. It also visits the city's darker corners, where poverty stalked rented rooms and madhouses concealed terrible abuse.

    Now, at the age of eighty-one, he wonders what he should pass on to the next generation. In Where There’s a Will, Mortimer ponders this question and writes about the (nonmaterial) things he believes enrich our experience of life. From the pleasures of drink and outdoor sex (though not necessarily together) to the justification of the odd lie and a vision of God as the Grand Perhaps, Where There’s a Will is Mortimer’s witty and wise, occasionally outrageous, and always thought-provoking examination of what it means to truly live and live well.

    The eagerly awaited volume II of Jean Moorcroft Wilson's masterful biography of Siegfried Sassoon now launched in paperback; Where most veterans of the Great War returned home traumatised by the carnage in the trenches, Siegfried Sassoon had received recognition for his superbly vivid poetry and the bravery both on the battlefield and.

    Waugh’s accounts of his travels–spanning the years from 1929 to 1958–describe journeys through the West Indies, Mexico, South America, the Holy Land, and Africa. And just as his travels informed his fiction, his novelist’s sensibility is apparent in each of these pieces. Waugh pioneered the genre of modern travel writing in which the comic predicament of the traveler is as central as the world he encounters. He wrote with as sharp an eye for folly as for foliage, and a delight in the absurd, not least where his own comfort and dignity are concerned. From his fresh take on the well-traveled and hence already “fully labeled” Mediterranean region in Labels, to a close-up view of Haile Selassie’s coronation in Remote People, from a comically miserable stint in British Guiana.

    Sisters Julia and Margaret Wood are struggling to rise above devastating poverty, while the threat of war looms large over their community. Angry feelings about foreigners have reached boiling point; their German-Jewish father's search for work proves hopeless, leaving entrepreneurial Julia to keep the family afloat by hawking homemade pies on the streets of Leeds.Her beautiful elder sister Margaret, an apprentice milliner and new member of the suffragette set, seeks a faster way out of the daily grind, pinning her hopes on a rich suffragette's journalist son, Thomas. But as the war rages on, it is left to Julia to discover the true meaning of courage and family, as she learns to look forward to the start of the new day - and the promise of a better life ahead.Additional Info: Sisters on Bread Street originally published as by Frances McNeil. It is based on stories told to Frances by her mother, Julia. The first, limited, edition came out shortly after Julia's hundredth birthday. The revised and expanded version was published as Somewhere Behind the Morning, which won the HarperCollins Elizabeth Elgin Award.

    CD1 Death by Drowning (read by Joan Hickson) - an architect stands accused of murdering an unmarried mother-to-be.The Plymouth Express (read by David Suchet) - the body of a millionaire's daughter is found under a train seat.CD2 The Lamp (read by Christopher Lee) - in a haunted house, a young boy discovers an invisible playmate.The Case of the Missing Lady (read by James Warwick) - an arctic explorer asks Tommy and Tuppence Beresford to find his missing fiancee.

    This is a dramatized version of the Charles Dickens classic, the story of a badly treated workhouse boy who runs away and falls in with a gang of thieves.