Best of
British-Literature

2004

Passage


Andy Goldsworthy - 2004
    A cairn made by the renowned sculptor in the Scottish village where he lives reveals the influence that his work close to home has on projects he creates elsewhere. A series involving elm trees, from glowing yellow leaves to dead branches, exemplifies his work's vigorous beauty as well as its association with death and decay. Creations on the beach and in rivers explore the passage of time, while a white chalk path investigates the passing from day into night. "Passage also includes the Garden of Stones, a Holocaust memorial at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, where the artist planted 18 oak trees through holes in hollowed-out, earth-filled boulders. Documenting these and other recent works, this beautiful book is an eloquent testament to Goldsworthy's determination to deepen his understanding of the world around him, and his relationship with it, through his art.

The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 1: Family Letters, 1905-1931


C.S. Lewis - 2004
    S. Lewis have fascinated those who have read his works. This collection of his personal letters reveals a unique intellectual journey. The first of a three-volume collection, this volume contains letters from Lewis's boyhood, his army days in World War I, and his early academic life at Oxford. Here we encounter the creative, imaginative seeds that gave birth to some of his most famous works.At age sixteen, Lewis begins writing to Arthur Greeves, a boy his age in Belfast who later becomes one of his most treasured friends. Their correspondence would continue over the next fifty years. In his letters to Arthur, Lewis admits that he has abandoned the Christian faith. "I believe in no religion," he says. "There is absolutely no proof for any of them."Shortly after arriving at Oxford, Lewis is called away to war. Quickly wounded, he returns to Oxford, writing home to describe his thoughts and feelings about the horrors of war as well as the early joys of publication and academic success.In 1929 Lewis writes to Arthur of a friend ship that was to greatly influence his life and writing. "I was up till 2:30 on Monday talking to the Anglo-Saxon professor Tolkien who came back with me to College ... and sat discoursing of the gods and giants & Asgard for three hours ..." Gradually, as Lewis spends time with Tolkien and other friends, he admits in his letters to a change of view on religion. In 1930 he writes, "Whereas once I would have said, 'Shall I adopt Christianity', I now wait to see whether it will adopt me ..."The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume I offers an inside perspective to Lewis's thinking during his formative years. Walter Hooper's insightful notes and biographical appendix of all the correspondents make this an irreplaceable reference for those curious about the life and work of one of the most creative minds of the modern era.

Old Filth


Jane Gardam - 2004
    Yet through it all he has carried with him the wounds of a difficult and emotionally hollow childhood. Now an eighty-year-old widower living in comfortable seclusion in Dorset, Feathers is finally free from the regimen of work and the sentimental scaffolding that has sustained him throughout his life. He slips back into the past with ever mounting frequency and intensity, and on the tide of these vivid, lyrical musings, Feathers approaches a reckoning with his own history. Not all the old filth, it seems, can be cleaned away.Borrowing from biography and history, Jane Gardam has written a literary masterpiece reminiscent of Rudyard Kipling's Baa Baa, Black Sheep that retraces much of the twentieth century's torrid and momentous history. Feathers' childhood in Malaya during the British Empire's heyday, his schooling in pre-war England, his professional success in Southeast Asia and his return to England toward the end of the millennium, are vantage points from which the reader can observe the march forward of an eventful era and the steady progress of that man, Sir Edward Feathers, Old Filth himself, who embodies the century's fate. Old Filth was nominated for the 2005 Orange Prize.

The Birdcage


Marcia Willett - 2004
    Written with shining honesty and compassion, The Birdcage has every bit of the wonder that Marcia Willett's fans have come to expect…THE BIRDCAGENo one can foresee when life is about to change. For Felix Hamilton, it started with an evening at the theater. There, he first set eyes on the captivating actress Angel Blake, and knew he'd never be the same--an intense, forbidden love was about to turn his world upside down... The Birdcage, Felix called it. For Angel and her daughter Lizzie, it was home. The funny old house played host to cozy nights and stolen, joy-filled days. Felix and Angel knew those days couldn't last. And little Lizzie couldn't understand how these times would shape her life. Until, years later, a holiday by the sea and a chance encounter reopen the doors to the Birdcage, secrets, and second chances...

Poirot: The Complete Battles of Hastings, Vol. 1 (Hercule Poirot & Arthur Hastings Omnibus, #1)


Agatha Christie - 2004
    A brand new Agatha Christie omnibus, featuring four of the eight novels in which Captain Arthur Hastings appears alongside the world-renowned detective, Hercule Poirot: The Mysterious Affair at Styles, The Murder on the Links, The Big Four and Peril at End House.

The Beatles: Ten Years That Shook The World


Paul Trynka - 2004
    From their iconic domination of the music industry to the dramatic split, rare and unseen photographs reveal the band as never before. Published in association with Mojo magazine.

Wilfred Owen


Wilfred Owen - 2004
    Published to commemorate the centenary of 1914, this stunning set of books, with specially commissioned covers by leading print makers, is an essential gathering of our most beloved war poets introduced by leading poets and biographers of our present day.Dying at twenty-five, a week before the end of the First World War, Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) has come to represent a generation of young men sacrificed - as it seems to the next generation, one in unprecedented rebellion against its fathers - by guilty old men: generals, politicians, profiteers. Owen has now taken his place in literary history as perhaps the first, certainly the quintessential, war poet.

William Shakespeare and His Dramatic Acts


Andrew Donkin - 2004
    You can get the inside story with his secret diary - find out the news of the day in the Shakespearean Sun and prepare to be amazed as the curtain is raised on Shakespeare's most dramatic acts.

A Fine Brush on Ivory: An Appreciation of Jane Austen


Richard Jenkyns - 2004
    In A Fine Brush on Ivory, Richard Jenkyns takes us on an amiable tour of Austen's fictional world, opening a window on some of the great works of world literature. Focusing largely on Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma, but with many diverting side trips to Austen's other novels, Jenkyns shines a loving light on the exquisite craftsmanship and profound moral imagination that informs her writing. Readers will find, for instance, a wonderful discussion of characterization in Austen. Jenkyns's insight into figures such as Mr. Bennett or Mrs. Norris is brilliant--particularly his portrait of the amusing, clever, always ironic Mr. Bennett, whose humor (Jenkyns shows) arises out of a deeply unhappy and disappointing marriage. The author pays due homage to Austen's unmatched skill with complex plotting--the beauty with which the primary plot and the various subplots are woven together--highlighting the infinite care she took to make each plot detail as natural and as plausible as possible. Perhaps most important, Jenkyns illuminates the heart of Austen's moral imagination: she is constantly aware, throughout her works, of the nearness of evil to the comfortable social surface. She knows that the socially acceptable sins may be truly cruel and vicious, knows that society can be red in tooth and claw, and yet she allows the pleasures of comedy and celebration to subordinate them. Insightful and highly entertaining, A Fine Brush on Ivory captures the spirit and originality of Jane Austen's work. It will be a cherished keepsake or gift for her many fans.

Margot Fonteyn


Meredith Daneman - 2004
    Carried to fame on a wave of wartime patriotism, Margot's sense of duty rather than ambition propelled her forward. Yet her gifts were such that her pre-eminence would come to eclipse the careers of subsequent generations.Ballet is a fairytale world; if Margot, like the pure and poetic heroine of Swan Lake, was a natural Odette, she would also have to contend with virtue's raw shadow-side in the guise of Constant Lambert, Roberto Arias and Rudolph Nureyev - the men who, like Von Rothbart, were to take possession of her heart.

The Prisoner of Chillon


Lord Byron - 2004
    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Northern Soul


Jimmy Nail - 2004
    Jimmy Nail has been a household name since Auf Wiedersehen, Pet hit our screens in the 1980s. since then, his career as an actor and a musician has put on him on the silver screen alongside Madonna and given him a No. 1 hit single. Success on this astonishing scale was beyond the wildest dreams of the working class lad whose harsh childhood and brutal schooling put him on a collision course with Strangeways. But a short spell in prison helped propel Nail onwards and upwards. With the support of his friends and family, it wasn't long before Jimmy's unique talents and single-minded determination brought him attention of a different kind - and changed his life for ever. In A Northern Soul, Jimmy Nail tells his own vivid story in this intriguing, inspiring and sometimes confounding account of how one man rose to fame and fortune by refusing to be anything but himself.

Major Works


John Clare - 2004
    Clare was an impoverished agricultural laborer, whose genius was generally not appreciated by his contemporaries, and his later mental instability further contributed to his loss of critical esteem. But the extraordinary range of his poetical gifts has restored him to the company of contemporaries like Lord Byron, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.This authoritative edition brings together a generous selection of Clare's poetry and prose, including autobiographical writings and letters and illustrates all aspects of his talent. It contains poems from all stages of his career, including love poetry and bird and nature poems. Written in his native Northamptonshire, Clare's work provides a fascinating reflection of rural society, often underscored by his own sense of isolation and despair. Clare's writings are presented with the minimum of editorial interference, and with a new introduction by the poet and scholar Tom Paulin.

Wodehouse: A Life


Robert McCrum - 2004
    An affectionate portrait of the prolific twentieth-century comic writer (1881-1975) discusses his creation of such characters as Jeeves, Psmith, and the Empress of Blandings; describes his contributions to Broadway and the London stage; details his internment in Germany during WW II; and moves on to his life in Southampton, NY.

New Collected Poems


W.S. Graham - 2004
    S. Graham poem in 1949. It sent a shiver down my spine. Forty-five years later nothing has changed. His song is unique and his work an inspiration.' Harold Pinter. From his first publications in the early 1940s, to his final works of the late 1970s, W. S. Graham has given us a poetry of intense power and inquisitive vision - a body of work regarded by many as among the best Romantic poetry of the twentieth century. This New Collected Poems, edited by poet and Graham-scholar Matthew Francis and with a foreword by Douglas Dunn, offers the broadest picture yet of Graham's work.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary


Jack Lynch - 2004
    No English dictionary before it had devoted so much space to everyday words, been so thorough in its definitions, or illustrated usage by quoting from Shakespeare and other great writers. Johnson’s Dictionary would define the language for the next 150 years, until the arrival of the Oxford English Dictionary. Johnson’s was the dictionary used by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, Wordsworth and Coleridge, the Brontës and the Brownings, Thomas Hardy and Oscar Wilde. Modern dictionaries owe much to Johnson’s work. This new edition, created by Levenger Press, contains more than 3,100 selections from the original, including etymology, definitions, and illustrative passages in their original spelling. Bristling with quotations, the Dictionary offers memorable passages on subjects ranging from books and critics to dreams and ethics. It also features three new indexes created out of entries in this edition: words found in Shakespeare’s works, words from other great literary works, and piquant terms used in eighteenth-century discussions of such topics as law, medicine, and the sexes. Finally, Johnson’s “Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language,” seldom seen in print, which he wrote eight years before the Dictionary, is reproduced in its entirety. For those who appreciate literature, interpret the law, and love language, this a browser’s delight—an encyclopedia of the age and a dictionary for the ages.

Collected Later Poems


R.S. Thomas - 2004
    Thomas (1913-2000) is one of the major poets of our time, as well as one of the finest religious poets in the English language and possibly Wales's greatest poet. This gathering of his late poems shows us the final flowering of a truly great poet still writing at the height of his powers in his 70s and 80s.

Harold Nicolson Diaries and Letters: 1907-1963


Harold Nicolson - 2004
    Nicolson was an MP who attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. He never achieved high office, but rarely a day went by when he didn't record what was going on at Westminster. He socialized widely, was married to the poet and author Vita Sackville-West, and together they created the famous garden at Sissinghurst. The diversity of Harold Nicolson's interests and the irony in his writing make his diary a highly entertaining record of his life and times, as well as a document of great historical value.

Midge Ure: If I Was...: The Autobiography


Midge Ure - 2004
    Few musicians have had a career of such variety: in the past quarter century he has sold more than 20 million albums and been on a veritable rollercoaster ride through the rock'n'roll business. From No. 1 hits with the pop band Slik, via one of the most influential bands to come out of the age of electronica, Ultravox - leaders of the New Romantic movement - to solo success touring the world and selling out leading venues, Midge has a unique perspective on the world of pop music. Among many great stories is his part in the phenomenon that was Live Aid and in particular the making of the classic charity record Do They Know It's Christmas which sold twelve million copies.

After Dunkirk: Churchill's Sacrifice of the Highland Division


Saul David - 2004
    More than 10,000 members of the Division were then taken into five years of captivity.Leading military historian, Saul David, draws upon over 100 interviews with survivors, unit war diaries, personal letters and journals, as well as official documents and reports, tracing the dramatic story of the Highland Division. He charts the Highland Division’s journey from their arrival in France, through the excitement of patrol operations and its magnificent defensive battles on the Somme and the Bresle, to their final, desperate stand.'After Dunkirk' is a stunning piece of work that will fascinate anyone interested in the Second World War.

Spartacus And His Glorious Gladiators


Toby Brown - 2004
    He is dead famous for: being quite a good gladiator; giving the Romans the run-around; and, looking an awful lot like Kirk Douglas. But have you heard that Spartacus: fought for the Romans as well as against them. This title presents the inside story in Spartacus' secret diary.

Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family


Alexander Waugh - 2004
    The first of the literary Waughs was Arthur, who, when he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry at Oxford in 1888, broke with the family tradition of medicine. He went on to become a distinguished publisher and an immensely influential book columnist. He fathered two sons, Alec and Evelyn, both of whom were to become novelists of note (and whom Arthur, somewhat uneasily, would himself publish); both of whom were to rebel in their own ways against his bedrock Victorianism; and one of whom, Evelyn, was to write a series of immortal novels that will be prized as long as elegance and lethal wit are admired. Evelyn begat, among seven others, Auberon Waugh, who would carry on in the family tradition of literary skill and eccentricity, becoming one of England’s most incorrigibly cantankerous and provocative newspaper columnists, loved and loathed in equal measure. And Auberon begat Alexander, yet another writer in the family, to whom it has fallen to tell this extraordinary tale of four generations of scribbling male Waughs.The result of his labors is Fathers and Sons, one of the most unusual works of biographical memoir ever written. In this remarkable history of father-son relationships in his family, Alexander Waugh exposes the fraught dynamics of love and strife that has produced a succession of successful authors. Based on the recollections of his father and on a mine of hitherto unseen documents relating to his grandfather, Evelyn, the book skillfully traces the threads that have linked father to son across a century of war, conflict, turmoil and change. It is at once very, very funny, fearlessly candid and exceptionally moving—a supremely entertaining book that will speak to all fathers and sons, as well as the women who love them.

A New Universal History of Infamy


Rhys Hughes - 2004
    These "falsifications" used as their starting point the lives of real villains and desperados. Borges then elaborated using all of the anecdotes and myths about these historical characters, creating what amounted to "nonfictional fictions." The entire series was then published in book form as A Universal History of Infamy. Now Rhys Hughes, a Welshman of some infamy himself, has summoned his vast storytelling powers to create A New Universal History of Infamy, with all-new historical characters as the focus of his nonfiction fictions. Come along on a wild ride with unsavory types of every description. Entertaining and erudite at the same time, Hughes' book also includes some of the literary parodies Borges himself delighted in creating. With an introduction by noted critic John Clute and an afterword by Michael Simanoff.Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

Seven Deadly Sins


Agatha Christie - 2004
    An attractive hardback of seven of the best Agatha Christie crime thrillers, themed around the timeless motives of Sin! Murder and murderers abound in this seasonal edition, filled with some of the very best murder mysteries ever written. With flawless plotting, masterful characterisation and enough twists and turns to keep even the most talented armchair detective puzzled, these stories will enthral and entertain as the reader can only sit back and marvel as avarice, sloth, gluttony, lust, pride, envy and wrath devour their victims, and their victims, one by one! THE ABC MURDERS Pride is the excessive belief in one's own abilities. A murderer has the arrogance to challenge Hercule Poirot's detective prowess! A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED Envy is the desire for another's status and abilities. A mysterious joker is eager for Miss Blacklock's money -- and her death! EVIL UNDER THE SUN Lust is the craving for the pleasures of the body. Actress Arlena Stuart has the reputation of a 'man-eater' -- until her murder! SPARKLING CYANIDE Sloth is the idle avoidance of work. Money doesn't need to be earned: it can be married, won or inherited -- so long as someone dies! ENDLESS NIGHT Avarice is the greed for material gain. Buy the perfect piece of land for your dream house -- but be wary of curses and psychopaths! AT BERTRAM'S HOTEL Gluttony is the appetite to consume more than you need. Miss Marple wonders if a series of robberies are for money -- or just the thrill! FIVE LITTLE PIGS Wrath is the fury when love is spurned. A woman is convicted of poisoning her adulterous husband -- but there are five other suspects!

Classical Mythology: The Greeks


Peter Meineck - 2004
    The nature of myth and its importance to ancient Greece in terms of storytelling, music, poetry, religion, cults, rituals, theatre, and literature are viewed through works ranging from Homer's Illiad and Odyssey to the writings of Sophocles and Aeschylus. These lectures are an entertaining guide to Greek mythology and a fascinating look into the culture and time that produced these eternal tales.

Lie in the Dark and Listen: The Remarkable Exploits of a WWII Bomber Pilot and Great Escaper


Ken Rees - 2004
    By age 21 Ken had already trained to be a pilot officer; flown 56 hair-raising bomber missions by night over Germany; taken part in the siege of Malta; got married; been shot down into a remote Norwegian lake; been captured and interrogated; sent to Stalag Luft III, survived the Great Escape and the forced March to Bremen. Truly a real-life adventure story, written with accuracy, pace and drama. In an age obsessed with C-list television celebrities battling it out on phoney reality survival shows, Rees and his dwindling band of Great Escapers stand out as the real thing. The Daily Telegraph Written in frank, warm and readable style, this is a very engaging account of a remarkable life. - New History A brave man s memory. Hear the fear yet take succour from the courage. North Wales Chronicle"

The Cuckoos of Batch Magna


Peter Maughan - 2004
    And often does... When Sir Humphrey Strange, 8th Baronet and squire of Batch Magna, departs this world for the Upper House, what’s left of his estate passes, through the ancient law of entailment, to distant relative Humph, an amiable, overweight short-order cook from the Bronx.Sir Humphrey Franklin T. Strange, 9th Baronet and squire of Batch Magna, as Humph now most remarkably finds himself to be, is persuaded by his Uncle Frank, a small-time Wall Street broker, to make a killing by turning the sleepy backwater into a theme-park image of rural England, a playground for the world's rich.But while the village pub and shop put out the Stars and Stripes in welcome, the tenants of the estate’s dilapidated houseboats tear up their notices to quit, and led by pulp-crime writer Phineas Cook and the one-eyed Lt-Commander James Cunningham, they run up the Union Jack and prepare to engage. What readers are saying about The Batch Magna Chronicles series: “An enchanting mixture of The Wind in The Willows and The Darling Buds of May. An England that doesn’t exist but surely should.”“Reading this book was like sitting down for a nice long chat with an old friend. I loved reading the Welsh village descriptions; it felt like coming home. … I eagerly await the next instalment of the Batch Magna crew!”“I first got this book out of the local library, and then brought a copy – I wanted to read it again and again. It’s a treasure, a smashing read, funny and beautifully written.”“These books are such fun, darkly comic and full of great characters. … Batch Magna is a place I would love to find, and the river sounds idyllic.”“Hurrah for Batch Magna, Humphrey and friends.” “I loved this book. It’s lyrical and very amusing, with all the charm of an old Ealing comedy. … More please Mr Maughan!”“What an amazing writer! I have never found any descriptive writing that has gripped me so much before.”“A thoroughly enjoyable read. … Is there another Batch Magna book on the way, please? Such a wonderfully descriptive bucolic and warmly ‘human’ story with echoes of the Darling Buds of May.”“A wonderful, funny, well-crafted escape from everyday life. If you love writing that absorbs you into the landscape you will love this book. Every sense was satisfied with the author’s beautiful descriptions of the Marches. Escape from the tarmac, concrete and relentlessness of life with this stunning book. Thank you Mr Maughan.”“I absolutely loved this book and all the characters became so real to me, I just couldn’t put it down.”

A Critical Companion to Beowulf


Andy Orchard - 2004
    A Critical Companion to Beowulf addresses these and other issues, reviewing and synthesising previous scholarship, as well as offering fresh perspectives. After an initial introduction to the poem, attention is focused on such matters as the manuscript context and approaches to dating the poem; the particular style, diction, and structure of this most idiosyncratic of Old English texts; the background to the poem (considered not simply with respect to historical and legendary material, but also in the context of myth and fable); the specific roles of selected individual characters, both major and minor; and the original intended audience and perceived purpose of the poem. A final chapter describes the range of critical approaches which have been applied to the poem in the past, and points towards directions for future study. ANDY ORCHARD is Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, University of Oxford

Love Finds the Way


Barbara Cartland - 2004
    But he didn't know just how much. Gina Wilton was like a breath of fresh air. But she was also everything John disapproved of in a young women, independent, assertive, always ready to contradict him. Yet she had ideas about restoring his dilapidated castle, and he found he needed her help. The more they were together, the more he noticed how pretty she was, how witty and sparkling. But how could he believe that Gina was attracted to him, when it was she who produced an heiress and advised him to marry her? And when she was so clearly in love with another man. But there were more surprises in store for him. How they sorted out the love triangle in a way that nobody could have anticipated, is all told in this romantic novel, the 665th by BARBARA CARTLAND. If you enjoy Downton Abbey you will love Barbara Cartland.

Slightly Foxed 1: Kindred Spirits


Gail Pirkis - 2004
    

Prisoner for Blasphemy


George William Foote - 2004
    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.

Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman, 1748


Philip Dormer Stanhope - 2004
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Letters of David Ricardo to Thomas Robert Malthus, 1810-1823


David Ricardo - 2004
    Hardbound. Octavo. xxiv, 251. Oxford, Clarendon Press: 1887. The letters in this collection were written between 1810 and 1823, the last ones dating only a few days before Ricardo's death. The letters are mostly devoted to discussing the many questions in political economy on which the two authors disagreed. Malthus' letters to Ricardo are lost, so we have only Ricardo's response to Malthus. The two men were personal friends, and were often in each other's company, but on economic themes they differed widely. The book is well edited and it contains much information, both in the text and in the notes, about Ricardo and Malthus themselves, and also about other political economists of the period.

The Rambler, Volume II (Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 03)


Samuel Johnson - 2004
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Educating the Proper Woman Reader: Victorian Family Literary Magazines & Cultural Health of the Nation


Jennifer Phegley - 2004
    Educating the Proper Woman Reader reevaluates prevailing assumptions about the vexed relationship between nineteenth-century women readers and literary critics. While many scholars have explored the ways nineteenth-century critics expressed their anxiety about the dangers of women's unregulated and implicitly uncritical reading practices, which were believed to threaten the sanctity of the home and the cultural status of the nation, Phegley argues that family literary magazines revolutionized the position of women as consumers of print by characterizing them as educated readers and able critics. Her analysis of images of influential women readers (in Harper's), intellectual women readers (in The Cornhill), independent women readers (in Belgravia), and proto-feminist women readers/critics (in Victoria) indicates that women played a significant role in determining the boundaries of literary culture within these magazines. She argues that these publications supported women's reading choices, inviting them to define literary culture rather than to consume it passively. Not only does this book revise our understanding of nineteenth-century attitudes toward women readers but it also takes a fresh look at the transatlantic context of literary production. Further, Phegley demonstrates the role these publications played in improving cultural literacy among women of the middle classes as well as the interplay between fiction and essays of the time by writers such as Mary Braddon, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, G. H. Lewes, Harriet Martineau, Margaret Oliphant, GeorgeSala, William Thackeray, and Anthony Trollope.

Henry and Mary Ponsonby: Life at the Court of Queen Victoria


William Kuhn - 2004
    But when Henry Ponsonby became Queen Victoria's private secretary, the monarchy was in such hopeless disarray that even Victoria herself came under attack. Ponsonby as her private secretary and protector at large realized that the court had failed to adjust to the shift in the media and political sentiment. He dramatically re-wrote the royal 'message' as her most intimate adviser. Despite Ponsonby's ironic view of the monarchy, it was at its strongest ever when he died fifteen years later. This entertaining biography paints a seldom seen intimate picture of the inner workings of the monarchy. William Kuhn has received unparalleled assistance from the Royal Archives and the Ponsonby family. While recent historical material on the monarchy is unavailable, Henry and Mary Ponsonby wrote to each other regularly and wittily about the day-to-day events at the court and its strategy for survival. Their vivid, unpublished letters deal with such timeless issues that their modern counterparts could have written them.

The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson


Alfred Tennyson - 2004
    Tennyson, a poet of the Victorian age who succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate. Contents: To the Queen; Juvenilia; The Lady of Shalott and Other Poems; English Idyls and Other Poems; The Princess; A Medley; In Memoriam A.H.H.; Maud: A Monodrama; Enoch Arden and Other Poems; The Window or, The Song of the Wrens; The Lover's Tale; Idylls of the King; Ballads and Other Poems; Tiresias and Other Poems; Locksley Hall Sixty Years After, etc.; Demeter, and Other Poems; Queen Mary: A Drama; Harold: A Drama; Becket; The Falcon; The Cup; The Promise of May; and Crossing the Bar. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

Speeches: Literary and Social


Charles Dickens - 2004
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays


Augustine Birrell - 2004
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Lives of the English Poets : Prior, Congreve, Blackmore, Pope


Samuel Johnson - 2004
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Slightly Foxed: No. 4: Now We're Shut in for the Night


Gail Pirkis - 2004