H.G. Wells's science fiction classic, the first novel to explore the possibilities of intelligent life from other planets, it still startling and vivid nearly after a century after its appearance, and a half-century after Orson Wells's infamous 1938 radio adaptation.  The daring portrayal of aliens landing on English soil, with its themes of interplanetary imperialism, technological holocaust and chaos, is central to the career of H.G. Wells, who died at the dawn of the atomic age.  The survival of mankind in the face of "vast and cool and unsympathetic" scientific powers spinning out of control was a crucial theme throughout his work.  Visionary, shocking and chilling, The War Of The Worlds has lost none of its impact since its first publication in 1898.

Explores the tension between the abstract intellect and material bodies in May Sinclair's writing May Sinclair was a bestselling author of her day whose versatile literary output, including criticism, philosophy, poetry, psychoanalysis and experimental fiction, now frequently falls between the established categories of literary modernism. In terms of her contribution to dominant modernist paradigms she was, until recently, best remembered for recasting the psychological novel as 'stream of consciousness' narrative in a 1918 review of Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage. This book brings together the most recent research on Sinclair and re-contextualises her work both within and against dominant Modernist narratives. It explores Sinclair's negotiations between the public and private, the cerebral and the corporeal and the spiritual and the profane in both her fiction and non-fiction. Key Features Brings together the most recent research undertaken by foremost Sinclair scholars and early-career researchers Considers Sinclair's contribution to contemporary aesthetic and philosophical debates about the nature and representation of human identity Explores a wide range of Sinclair's work, including fiction, psychology, philosophy and short stories

Thomas Hardy and Animals examines the human and nonhuman animals who walk and crawl and fly across and around the pages of Hardy's novels. Animals abound in his writings, yet little scholarly attention has been paid to them so far. This book fills this gap in Hardy studies, bringing an important author within range of a new and developing area of critical inquiry. It considers the way Hardy's representations of animals challenged ideas of human-animal boundaries debated by the Victorian scientific and philosophical communities. In moments of encounter between humans and animals, Hardy questions boundaries based on ideas of moral sense or moral agency, language and reason, the possession of a face, and the capacity to suffer and perceive pain. Through an emphasis on embodied encounters, his writings call for an extension of empathy to others, human or nonhuman. In this accessible book Anna West offers a new approach to Hardy criticism.

For all readers of literature, a fascinating reference book on how writing from all over the world, and from the earliest times to the present, has crossed into the English language, to enrich and influence English-speaking cultures. The opening section gives an overview of the history of translation into English and looks at theoretical issues, followed by a language-by-language history, including critical discussion and bibliographies, of what authors and literary works were translated when, by whom, and with what success.

An early gem from the creator of the Kurt Wallander series, charting the life of a principled man through tragedy, heartbreak, true love and the battle for a nation's soul. "A very engaging portrait . . . There is a powerful lack of sentimentality to the telling of the story [and] a lovely and genuinely moving love story at the heart of the book." Liam Heylin, Irish Examiner At 3 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon in 1911, Oskar Johansson is caught in a blast in an industrial accident. The local newspaper reports him dead, but they are mistaken. Because Oskar Johansson is a born survivor. Though crippled, Oskar finds the strength to go on living and working. The Rock Blaster charts his long professional life - his hopes and dreams, sorrows and joys. His relationship with the woman whose love saved him, with the labour movement that gave him a cause to believe in, and with his children, who do not share his ideals. Henning Mankell's first published novel is steeped in the burning desire for social justice that informed his bestselling crime novels. Remarkably assured for a debut, it is written with scalpel-like precision, at once poetic and insightful in its depiction of a true working-class hero. Translated from the Swedish by George Goulding

Reading lists, course syllabi, and prizes include the phrase '21st-century American literature,' but no critical consensus exists regarding when the period began, which works typify it, how to conceptualize its aesthetic priorities, and where its geographical boundaries lie. Considerable criticism has been published on this extraordinary era, but little programmatic analysis has assessed comprehensively the literary and critical/theoretical output to help readers navigate the labyrinth of critical pathways. In addition to ensuring broad coverage of many essential texts, The Cambridge Companion to 21st Century American Fiction offers state-of-the field analyses of contemporary narrative studies that set the terms of current and future research and teaching. Individual chapters illuminate critical engagements with emergent genres and concepts, including flash fiction, speculative fiction, digital fiction, alternative temporalities, Afro-futurism, ecocriticism, transgender/queer studies, anti-carceral fiction, precarity, and post-9/11 fiction.