Best known in this country for her theological writing, Weil wrote on a great variety of subjects ranging from classical philosophy and poetry, to modern labor, to the language of political discourse. The present anthology offers a generous collection of her work, including essays never before translated into English and many that have long been out of print. It amply confirms Elizabeth Hardwick's words that Simone Weil was "one of the most brilliant and original minds of twentieth-century France" and "a woman of transcendent intellectual gifts and the widest learning." A longtime Weil scholar, Sian Miles has selected essays representative of the wide sweep of Weil's work and provides a superb introduction that places Weil's work in context of her life and times.

    Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants’ hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended. Jo Baker dares to take us beyond the drawing rooms of Jane Austen’s classic—into the often overlooked domain of the stern housekeeper and the starry-eyed kitchen maid, into the gritty daily particulars faced by the lower classes in Regency England during the Napoleonic Wars—and, in doing so, creates a vivid, fascinating, fully realized world that is wholly her own.

    Whether it’s the decline and fall of Mike Tyson, Al Gore’s struggle to move forward after his loss in the 2000 election, or Vladimir Putin dealing with Gorbachev’s legacy, Remnick brings his subjects to life with extraordinary clarity and depth. In Reporting, he gives us his best writing from the past fifteen years, ranging from American politics and culture to post-Soviet Russia to the Middle East conflict; from Tony Blair grappling with Iraq, to Philip Roth making sense of America’s past, to the rise of Hamas in Palestine. Both intimate and deeply informed by history, Reporting is an exciting and panoramic portrait of our times.

    She has been back to London countless times since, through the pages of books and in person, and now, in Imagined London, she takes her own readers on a tour of this greatest of literary cities. While New York, Paris, and Dublin are also vividly portrayed in fiction, it is London, Quindlen argues, that has always been the star, both because of the primacy of English literature and the specificity of city descriptions. She bases her view of the city on her own detailed literary map, tracking the footsteps of her favorite characters: the places where Evelyn Waugh's bright young things danced until dawn, or where Lydia Bennett eloped with the dastardly Wickham. In Imagined London, Quindlen walks through the city, moving within blocks from the great books of the 19th century to the detective novels of the 20th to the new modernist tradition of the 21st. With wit and charm, Imagined London gives this splendid city its full due in the landscape of the literary imagination. Praise for Imagined London: Shows just how much a reading experience can enrich a physical journey." -New York Times Book Review

    There can be so much good, so much power, so much love in female friendships. But there is also a dark side of pain and loss. And surrounding that dark side there is often silence. There is shame, the haunting feeling that the loss of a friendship is a reflection of our own worth and capacity to be loved. My Other Ex: Women's True Stories of Losing and Leaving Friends is a step toward breaking that silence. The brave writers in this engrossing, diverse collection of 35 essays tell their own unique stories of failed friendships and remind us of the universality of loss.

    Her novels changed the landscape of fiction forever, and her writing remains as fresh, entertaining and witty as the day her books were first published. Now, with this illuminating and entertaining new book, you can learn Jane Austen's methods, tips and tricks - and how to live well as a writer. Filled with useful exercises, beautiful illustrations and illuminating quotations from the great author's novels and letters, The Jane Austen Writers' Club explores the techniques of plotting and characterisation, through to dialogue and suspense. Whether you're a creative writing enthusiast looking to publish your first novel, a teacher searching for further inspiration for students, or an Austen fan looking for insight into her daily rituals, this is an essential companion, guaranteed to satisfy, inform and delight all. 'Winning and beguiling ...Smith shares Jane Austen's clarity and gentle irony' Independent

    For, in this stylish, erudite and frequently hilarious book, de Botton dips deeply into Proust’s life and work—his fiction, letter, and conversations—and distills from them that rare self-help manual: one that is actually helpful.Here, tendered in prose almost as luminous as it’s subject’s, is advice on cultivating friendships, suffering successfully, recognizing love and understanding why you should never sleep with someone on the first date. And here, too, is a generously perceptive literary biography that suggests that the master is as relevant today as he was in fin de siècle Paris. At once slyly ironic and genuinely wise, How Proust Can Change Your Life is an unqualified delight.

    Captivating audiences for 200 years, the works of Jane Austen continue to capture today’s readers in droves.This daily devotional includes short excerpts from the Austen classics, and a devotional thought and Scripture that meaningfully translates to women’s daily lives. Offering temporary transport to a simple and peaceful place, women will love taking a moment to revel in the beauty and truth of a Scripture paired with excerpts from Northanger Abbey, Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and Emma.

    The girls are forced to leave their family home to live in Lambton with an aunt and uncle, and they meet the Darcy family. What means will Fanny enact to revenge herself for all the wrongs she feels Elizabeth has done her?

    Seventeen years old, beautiful, popular, and well-connected, she is viewed by all as a paragon of youth, freedom, and fashion. No one suspects the lonesomeness and uncertainty of her life--emotions she has slowly learned to bury. When her step-mother banishes her and her elder sister, Jane, to London for the summer holidays, Elizabeth meets a man who seems her total opposite. He is serious while she laughs, structured while she is spontaneous, and independent while she has almost nothing. Yet the unlikely pair find an unexpected kinship amid their mutual sorrows, and before long, Elizabeth realizes she is falling in love with Mr. Darcy. But he is not the only man who has noticed Elizabeth this summer, nor the most eligible. When Elizabeth's noble step-cousin develops designs for her, she finds herself tangled in the unfair expectations of her family, misunderstandings among her friends, and an ultimate decision that may purchase her true freedom. But will it cost her her heart?

    In memoirs, essays and stories that are funny, moving, visionary or insightful, twenty-three famous writers celebrate these places where minds open and the world expands.Public libraries are lifelines, to practical information as well as to the imagination, but funding is under threat all over the country. This book is published in support of libraries, with all royalties going to The Reading Agency's library programmes.

    Emily Auerbach presents a different Jane Austen—a brilliant writer who, despite the obstacles facing women of her time, worked seriously on improving her craft and became one of the world’s greatest novelists, a master of wit, irony, and character development.    In this beautifully illustrated and lively work, Auerbach surveys two centuries of editing, censoring, and distorting Austen’s life and writings. Auerbach samples Austen’s flamboyant, risqué adolescent works featuring heroines who get drunk, lie, steal, raise armies, and throw rivals out of windows. She demonstrates that Austen constantly tested and improved her skills by setting herself a new challenge in each of her six novels.    In addition, Auerbach considers Austen’s final irreverent writings, discusses her tragic death at the age of forty-one, and ferrets out ridiculous modern adaptations and illustrations, including ads, cartoons, book jackets, newspaper articles, plays, and films from our own time. An appendix reprints a ground-breaking article that introduced Mark Twain’s "Jane Austen," an unfinished and unforgettable essay in which Twain and Austen enter into mortal combat.

    For Cohen, simultaneously grief-stricken and buoyed by the birth of her daughter, reading Austen became her refuge and her ballast. She was able to reckon with difficult questions about mourning, memorializing, living in a household, paying attention to the world, reading, writing, and imagining through Austen's novels.Austen Years is a deeply felt and sensitive examination of a writer's relationship to reading, and to her own family, winding together memoir, criticism, and biographical and historical material about Austen herself. And like the sequence of Austen's novels, the scope of Austen Years widens successively, with each chapter following one of Austen's novels. We begin with Cohen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she raises her small children and contemplates her father's last letter, a moment paired with the grief of Sense and Sensibility and the social bonds of Pride and Prejudice. Later, moving with her family to Chicago, Cohen grapples with her growing children, teaching, and her father's legacy, all refracted through the denser, more complex Mansfield Park and Emma.With unusual depth and fresh insight into Austen's life and literature, and guided by Austen's mournful and hopeful final novel, Persuasion, Rachel Cohen's Austen Years is a rare memoir of mourning and transcendence, a love letter to a literary master, and a powerful consideration of the odd process that merges our interior experiences with the world at large.

     Jilted for years, Elizabeth Bennet has vowed to never allow Will Darcy back into her life when he arrives in Meryton five years too late. However, her defenses begin to crumble with his sweet words of regret and persuasive kisses. When he proclaims they will wed, Elizabeth’s friends and family reinforce what she already knows: she should never trust Will with her heart. Facing his demons, Will finally journeys to Meryton determined to make Elizabeth truly love him this time. Soon, he learns he had misjudged her—she was never unfaithful. Someone plotted to tear them apart, preying on their insecurities. With many suspects and few clues, Will must discover who sabotaged their relationship while endeavoring to earn Elizabeth’s trust. Her respect is the one thing he cannot buy and may never attain. The second volume in the Loving Elizabeth series, Reunited tantalizes readers with a swoon-worthy hero, passionate encounters, and a love that transcends all obstacles. Perfect for a fast-paced summer read, buy today!

    She delves into the always uneasy, sometimes tragic relationship that exists between journalist and subject.