First Published in 1949, The Sacred River attempts to present a survey of James Joyce's work. In 1932 Mr Strong published an essay in the course of which he suggested that Work in Progress was the first full scale application to the novel of twentieth century ideas on space and time, demanding from the reader a radical change in practice. The essay was read by Joyce, and the theory subsequently confirmed. From that point Mr Strong has continued his study of Joyce. This work is limited to four main lines of approach: interest in singing and singers, a passion with Joyce; literature, in particular Shakespeare, Swift, Blake, and the Romantic Movement, of which the author believes Finnegans Wake to be the logical fulfilment; contemporary theories of psychology; and Christian metaphysics. Mr Strong's first-hand acquaintance with Dublin in the early nineteen-hundreds has been a further help, as was his friendship with Yeats, A.E., and other Irish writers who knew Joyce personally. The result is a stimulating and provocative piece of criticism, of which we may safely say that it outruns its modest programme. This book is a must read for scholars and researchers of English literature.

'My New Year's Eve Toast: to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle - may they never give me peace' - Patricia Highsmith (New Year's Eve, 1947). Made famous by the great success of her psychological thrillers, The Talented Mr Ripley and Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith is renowned as one of the most influential and celebrated modern writers. However, there has never been a clear picture of the woman behind the books. The relationship between Highsmith's lesbianism, her fraught personality - by parts self-destructive and malicious - and her fiction, has been largely ignored by biographers in the past. As an openly homosexual writer, she wrote the seminal lesbian love story Carol for which she would be venerated, in modern times, as a radical exponent of the LGBTQ+ community. Alas, her status as an LGBTQ+ icon is undermined by her excessive cruelty towards and exploitation of her friends and many lovers. In this biography, Richard Bradford brings his sharp and incisive style to one of the greatest and most controversial writers of the twentieth century. He considers Highsmith's bestsellers in the context of her troubled personal life; her alcoholism, licentious sex life, racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and abundant self-loathing.

THE ENDURING MYTH THAT MAKES US HUMAN What makes a hero? Who better to answer that question than Lee Child... 'It's Lee Child. Why would you not read it?' Karin Slaughter 'I don't know another author so skilled at making me turn the page' The Times In his first work of nonfiction, the creator of the multimillion-selling Jack Reacher series explores the endurance of heroes from Achilles to Bond, showing us how this age-old myth is a fundamental part of what makes us human. He demonstrates how hero stories continue to shape our world - arguing that we need them now more than ever. From the Stone Age to the Greek Tragedies, from Shakespeare to Robin Hood, we have always had our heroes. The hero is at the centre of formative myths in every culture and persists to this day in world-conquering books, films and TV shows. But why do these characters continue to inspire us, and why are they so central to storytelling? Scalpel-sharp on the roots of storytelling and enlightening on the history and science of myth, The Hero is essential reading for anyone trying to write or understand fiction. Child teaches us how these stories still shape our minds and behaviour in an increasingly confusing modern world, and with his trademark concision and wit, demonstrates that however civilised we get, we'll always need heroes.

"[A] book that mankind has been hungering for, a book that is-now and forever-a shining beacon of wonder, a titanic tribute to talent unleashed" - Stan Lee. Explore comic book history with the most comprehensive encyclopedia of Marvel Comics ever published. This lavish DK book charts Marvel's fascinating story, decade by decade, year by year, month by month. Chronologically documenting everything from the company's beginnings as Timely Comics in the late 1930s to the present day, Marvel Year by Year: A Visual History is the definitive account of Marvel Super Heroes and the company that created them. This incredible Marvel book includes up-to-date coverage of Thor, Captain America, and the hugely important Secret Wars. Learn all about the emergence of key Marvel Super Heroes from Wolverine and the X-Men, to Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and the rest of the Avengers, plus popular Marvel characters Spider-Man, Daredevil and Black Panther. Read all about their extraordinary comic book debuts, the geniuses that invented them, including Stan Lee, the crucial events behind their creation and their continuing influence on the world today via comic books, TV series and blockbuster movies. Packed with stunning original comic book art and covers, Marvel Year by Year: A Visual History is the ultimate Marvel collector's piece. Including a foreword from Marvel legend Stan Lee, this comprehensive companion to the history of Marvel Comics is presented in a fantastic slipcase. (c) 2017 MARVEL

The position of spy fiction is largely synonymous in popular culture with ideas of patriotism and national security, with the spy himself indicative of the defence of British interests and the preservation of British power around the globe. This book reveals a more complicated side to these assumptions than typically perceived, arguing that the representation of space and power within spy fiction is more complex than commonly assumed. Instead of the British spy tirelessly maintaining the integrity of Empire, this volume illustrates how spy fiction contains disunities and disjunctions in its representation of space, and the relationship between the individual and the state in an era of declining British power. Focusing primarily on the work of Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, Len Deighton, and John le Carre, the volume brings a fresh methodological approach to the study of spy fiction and Cold War culture. It presents close textual analysis within a framework of spatial and sovereign theory as a means of examining the cultural impact of decolonization and the shifting geopolitics of the Cold War. Adopting a thematic approach to the analysis of space in spy fiction, the text explores the reciprocal process by which contextual history intersects with literature throughout the period in question, arguing that spy fiction is responsible for reflecting, strengthening and, in some cases, precipitating cultural anxieties over decolonization and the end of Empire. This study promises to be a welcome addition to the developing field of spy fiction criticism and popular culture studies. Both engaging and original in its approach, it will be important reading for students and academics engaged in the study of Cold War culture, popular literature, and the changing state of British identity over the course of the latter twentieth century.

This book, first published in 1988, is the most comprehensive annotation of Bleak House ever undertaken. It provides authoritative background information about the topical issues of the novel that interested Dickens as a social critic and activist. It also describes the novel's literary antecedents and identifies the sources of its hundreds of literary and historical allusions. The annotation is based on a wide range of nineteenth-century sources - from newspapers, periodicals and parliamentary papers to travel guides and cookery books - and gives the modern reader unprecedented access to both Bleak House - Dickens's tract for the times - and the period when it was written.

Jane Eyre ranks as one of the greatest and most perennially popular works of English fiction. Although the poor but plucky heroine is outwardly of plain appearance, she possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage. She is forced to battle against the exigencies of a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. All of which circumscribe her life and position when she becomes governess to the daughter of the mysterious, sardonic and attractive Mr Rochester. However, there is great kindness and warmth in this epic love story, which is set against the magnificent backdrop of the Yorkshire moors. Ultimately the grand passion of Jane and Rochester is called upon to survive cruel revelation, loss and reunion, only to be confronted with tragedy.

By the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window-shutters, I beheld the wretch-the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened... Frankenstein is the most celebrated horror story ever written. It tells the dreadful tale of Victor Frankenstein, a visionary young student of natural philosophy, who discovers the secret of life. In the grip of his obsession he constructs a being from dead body parts, and animates this creature. The results, for Victor and for his family, are catastrophic. Written when Mary Shelley was just eighteen, Frankenstein was inspired by the ghost stories and vogue for Gothic literature that fascinated the Romantic writers of her time. She transformed these supernatural elements an epic parable that warned against the threats to humanity posed by accelerating technological progress. Published for the 200th anniversary, this edition, based on the original 1818 text, explains in detail the turbulent intellectual context in which Shelley was writing, and also investigates how her novel has since become a byword for controversial practices in science and medicine, from manipulating ecosystems to vivisection and genetic modification. As an iconic study of power, creativity, and, ultimately, what it is to be human, Frankenstein continues to shape our thinking in profound ways to this day.

Analyzing four best-selling novels - by both women and men - written in the feminine voice, this book traces how the creation of women-centered salons and the emergence of a feminine poetic style engendered a new type of literature in eighteenth-century France. The author argues that writing in a female voice allowed writers of both sexes to break with classical notions of literature and style, so that they could create a modern sensibility that appealed to a larger reading public, and gave them scope to innovate with style and form. Wolfgang brings to light how the 'female voice' in literature came to embody the language of sociability, but also allowed writers to explore the domain of inter-subjectivity, while creating new bonds between writers and the reading public. Through examination of Marivaux's La Vie de Marianne, Graffigny's Lettres d'une Peruvienne, Riccoboni's Lettres de Mistriss Fanni Butlerd, and Laclos's Les Liaisons dangereuses, she shows that in France, this modern 'feminine' sensibility turned the least prestigious of literary genres - the novel - into the most compelling and innovative literary form of the eighteenth century. Emphasizing how the narratives analyzed here refashioned the French literary world through their linguistic innovation and expression of new forms of subjectivity, this study claims an important role for feminine-voice narratives in shaping the field of eighteenth-century literature.

In her persuasively argued study, Patricia Pulham astutely combines psychoanalytic theory with socio-historical criticism to examine a selection of fantastic tales by the female aesthete and intellectual Vernon Lee (Violet Paget, 1856-1935). Lee's own definition of the supernatural in the preface to Hauntings questions the nature of the 'genuine ghost', and argues that this figure is not found in the Society of Psychical Research but in our own psyches, where it functions as a mediator between past and present. Using D.W. Winnicott's 'transitional object' theory, which maintains that adults transfer their childhood engagement with toys to art and cultural artifacts, Pulham argues that the prevalence of the past in Lee's tales signifies not only an historical but a psychic past. Thus the 'ghosts' that haunt Lee's supernatural fiction, as well as her aesthetic, psychological, and historical writings, held complex meanings for her that were fundamental to her intellectual development and allowed her to explore alternative identities that permit the expression of transgressive sexualities.

Marcel Proust's novel Remembrance of Things Past has been compared with the plays of Shakespeare in its wonderful range of characters, its penetrating insights into human nature, and its brilliant comedy. It is one of the most memorable books ever written. But it is long and richly structured, and a guide to its themes can be helpful. This is what Derwent May has provided in this book. He writes lucidly and entertainingly, both bringing out Proust's important ideas about art, and showing how they are embedded in a story based on seven large, glamorous and comic parties. This is a slightly revised edition of the book which was first published in the Oxford Past Masters series, and which was hailed at once as a valuable introduction to Proust.

This book investigates how French Romanticism was shaped by and contributed to colonial discourses of race. It studies the ways in which metropolitan Romantic novels that is, novels by French authors such as Victor Hugo, George Sand, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Fran ois Ren de Chateaubriand, Claire de Duras, and Prosper M rim e comprehend and construct colonized peoples, fashion French identity in the context of colonialism, and record the encounter between Europeans and non-Europeans. While the primary texts that come under investigation in the book are novels, close attention is paid to Romantic fiction 's interdependence with naturalist treatises, travel writing, abolitionist texts, and ethnographies.

Colonialism, Race, and the French Romantic Imagination is one of the first books to carry out a sustained and comprehensive analysis of the French Romantic novel 's racial imagination that encompasses several sites of colonial contact: the Indian Ocean, North America, the Caribbean, West Africa, and France. Its archival research and interdisciplinary approach shed new light on canonical texts and expose the reader to non-canonical ones. The book will be useful to students and academics involved with Romanticism, colonial historians, students and scholars of transatlantic studies and postcolonial studies, as well as those interested in questions of race and colonialism.

This book, first published in 1986, explores the allusions in Dickens's work, such as current events and religious and intellectual issues, social customs, topography, costume, furniture and transportation. Together with an analysis of Dickens's imaginative responses to his culture, and their place in the genesis and composition of the text, this book is a full-scale, thoroughgoing annotation that The Mystery of Edwin Drood requires.

Deep dive into the full story of Marvel Comics in a single, beautifully illustrated volume. Created in full collaboration with Marvel, this fan-favourite title, last published in 2017, now covers more than 80 years of Marvel history, from the company's first incarnation as Timely Comics to the multimedia giant it is today. Packed with artwork from the original comics, this chronological account traces the careers of Marvel Super Heroes such as The Avengers, Spider-Man, Black Panther, Iron Man, Black Widow, and Guardians of the Galaxy, and the writers and artists who developed them. It also charts the real-life events that shaped the times and details Marvel landmarks in publishing, movies, and TV. Explore the pages of this magnificent Marvel book to discover: - Timeless art from the original comic books on every page that brings the text vividly to life. - Easy to navigate, chronological presentation of key events, plus an extensive index. - Written by leading Marvel historians: Tom DeFalco, Peter Sanderson, Tom Brevoort, Matthew K. Manning, and Stephen (Win) Wiacek. This latest edition to DK's best-selling encyclopedic Marvel publications offers an unparalleled breadth and depth of information about the company and its vast creations, bringing the Marvel story fully up-to-date with information on all the company's achievements. The format is accessible and easy-to-navigate, showcasing chronological presentations of Marvel milestones alongside real-life events, as well as an extensive index. A must-have volume for all Marvel fans from age 12 to adult, whether for readers interested in popular culture and comic books, or fans of Marvel comics and movies seeking to broaden their knowledge and deepen their understanding of the company's history, impact, trends, and huge output.

Exam Board: AQA & Edexcel Level: AS/A-level Subject: Modern Languages First Teaching: September 2016 First Exam: June 2017 Literature analysis made easy. Build your students' confidence in their language abilities and help them develop the skills needed to critique their chosen work: putting it into context, understanding the themes and narrative technique, as well as specialist terminology. Breaking down each scene, character and theme in Un Sac de Billes (A Bag of Marbles), this accessible guide will enable your students to understand the historical and social context of the novel and give them the critical and language skills needed to write a successful essay. - Strengthen language skills with relevant grammar, vocab and writing exercises throughout - Aim for top marks by building a bank of textual examples and quotes to enhance exam response - Build confidence with knowledge-check questions at the end of every chapter - Revise effectively with pages of essential vocabulary and key mind maps throughout - Feel prepared for exams with advice on how to write an essay, plus sample essay questions, two levels of model answers and examiner commentary

WHY PUBLISH: - It develops, in "beginning-orientation", a wholly original approach to analysing and understanding detective fiction. - Due to the popularity of Agatha Christie's fiction, this book would have a broad appeal, particularly in the UK, Europe, US and Australasia. There might be scope for a French translation, given the author's focus on Pierre Bayard's scholarship. - Not only does this book challenge Agatha Christie's plots, but also dissects previous re-readings of them (Banyard's) to formulate new interpretations.

This book offers to delineate a key phenomenon in contemporary Anglophone fiction: novel expansion, when the plot and characters from a finished novel are retrieved to be developed in new adventures set before, after or during the narrative time of the source-text. If autographic and allographic sequels are almost as old as literature, prequels - that imagine the anteriority of a narrative - and coquels - that develop secondary characters in the same story time as the source-text - are more recent. The overall trend for novel expansion spread in the mid-1980s and 1990s and has since shown no sign of abating. This volume is organised following three types of relationships to the source-texts even if these occasionally combine to produce a more complex structure. This book comprises 11 essays, preceded by an introduction, that examine narrative strategies, aesthetic, ethical and political tendencies underlying these novel expansions. Following the overview provided in the introduction, the reader will find case studies of prequels, coquels and sequels before a final chapter that encompasses them all and more.

In their new monograph, Gender and Short Fiction: Women's Tales in Contemporary Britain, Jorge Sacido-Romero and Laura M Lojo-Rodriguez explain why artistically ambitious women writers continue turning to the short story, a genre that has not yet attained the degree of literary prestige and social recognition the novel has had in the modern period. In this timely volume, the editors endorse the view that the genre still retains its potential as a vehicle for the expression of female experience alternative to and/or critical with dominant patriarchal ideology present at the very onset of the development of the modern British short story at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Since the mid-1950s, when the works of Samuel Beckett began to attract sustained critical attention, commentators have tended either to dismiss his oeuvre as nihilist or defend it as anti-nihilist. On the one side are figures such as Georg Lukacs; on the other, some of the most influential philosophers and literary theorists of the post-war era, from Theodor Adorno to Alain Badiou. Taking as his point of departure Nietzsche's description of nihilism as the 'uncanniest of all guests', Weller calls this critical tradition into question, arguing that the relationship between Beckett's texts and nihilism is one that will always be missed by those who are simply for or against Beckett. (Legenda 2005)

Sensational Deviance: Disability in Nineteenth-Century Sensation Fiction investigates the representation of disability in fictional works by the leading Victorian sensation novelists Wilkie Collins and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, exploring how disability acts as a major element in the shaping of the sensation novel genre and how various sensation novels respond to traditional viewpoints of disability and to new developments in physiological and psychiatric knowledge. The depictions of disabled characters in sensation fiction frequently deviate strongly from typical depictions of disability in mainstream Victorian literature, undermining its stigmatized positioning as tragic deficit, severe limitation, or pathology. Close readings of nine individual novels situate their investigations of physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities against the period's disability discourses and interest in senses, perception, stimuli, the nervous system, and the hereditability of impairments. The importance of moral insanity and degeneration theory within sensation fiction connect the genre with criminal anthropology, suggesting the genre's further significance in the light of the later emergence of eugenics, psychoanalysis, and genetics.

From 1809 until just before her death, Jane Austen lived in a small, all-female household at Chawton, where reading aloud was the evening's entertainment and a crucial factor in the way Austen formed and modified her writing. This book looks in detail at Jane Austen's style. It discusses her characteristic abstract vocabulary, her adaptations of Johnsonian syntax and how she came to make her most important contribution to the technique of fiction, free indirect discourse. The book draws extensively on historical sources, especially the work of writers like Johnson, Hugh Blair and Thomas Sheridan, and analyses how Austen negotiated her path between the fundamentally masculine concerns of eighteenth-century prescriptivists and her own situation of a female writer reading her work aloud to a female audience.