'The word "mesmerising" is frequently applied to memoirs, but seldom as deservedly as in the case of Girl With Dove' Financial Times 'Reading is a form of escape and an avid reader is an escape artist...' Brilliantly original, funny and clever Honor Clark, Spectator, Book of the Year Growing up in a dilapidated house by the sea where men were forbidden, Sally's childhood world was filled with mystery and intrigue. Hippies trailed through the kitchen looking for God - their leader was Aunt Di, who ruled the house with charismatic force. When Sally's baby brother vanishes from his pram, she becomes suspicious of the activities going on around her. What happened to Baby David and the woman called Poor Sue? And where did all the people singing and wailing prayers in the front room suddenly go? Disappearing into a world of books and reading, Sally adopts the tried and tested methods of Miss Marple. Taking books for hints and clues, she turns herself into a reading detective. Her discovery of Jane Eyre marks the beginning of a vivid journey through Victorian literature where she also finds the kind, eccentric figure of Charles Dickens' Betsey Trotwood. These characters soon become her heroines, acting as a part of an alternative family, offering humour and guidance during many difficult moments in Sally's life. Combining the voices of literary characters with those of her real-life counterparts, Girl With Dove reads as a magical series of strange encounters, climaxing with a comic performance of Shakespeare in the children's home where Sally is eventually sent. Weaving literary classics with a young girl's coming of age story, this is a book that testifies to the transformative power of reading and the literary imagination. Mixing fairy tale, literary classics, nursery rhymes and folklore, it is the story of a child's adventure in wonderland and search for truth in an adult world often cast in deep shadow.

Twentieth Anniversary Edition with Contributions from Joe Hill and Owen King Part memoir, part masterclass by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999 - and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, this special edition of Stephen King's critically lauded, million-copy bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him and his work. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it - fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.

A revised and expanded reissue containing over 1,200 brain-teasing questions on the legendary works of J.R.R. Tolkien, published to coincide with the release of the third and final The Lord of The Rings movie. How many Hobbits joined the Fellowship of the Ring? What colour is the Orcs' skin? Why did Gandalf have difficulty in opening the West-door of Khazad-dum? Who betrayed Berien and Luthien to Thingol? What was Farmer Giles' full name? The worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, from the saga of Middle-earth to a brief visit to Wootton Major, are so rich and varied that they inspire legions of followers of different ages. This peerless revised and expanded quiz book offers over 1,200 questions and answers, including easy starter questions and more difficult tie-breakers, to test the range and depth of your knowledge. And whereas every right answer will confirm your mastery over your subject, every wrong answer will be a learning experience all of its own!

Reading James Joyce is a ready-at-hand compendium and all-encompassing interpretive guide designed for teachers and students approaching Joyce's writings for the first time, guiding readers to better understand Joyce's works and the background from which they emerged. Meticulously organized, this text situates readers within the world of Joyce including biographical exploration, discussion of Joyce's innovations and prominent works such as Dubliners, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake, surveys of significant critical approaches to Joyce's writings, and examples of alternative readings and contemporary responses. Each chapter will provide interpretive approaches to contemporary literary theories and key issues, including end-of-chapter strategies and extended readings for further engagement. This book also includes shorter assessments of Joyce's lesser-known works-critical writings, drama, poetry, letters, epiphanies, and personal recollections-to contextualize the creative and social environments from which his most notable publications arose. This uniquely comprehensive guide to Joyce will be an invaluable and comprehensive resource for readers exploring the influential world of Joyce studies.

This practical guide provides step-by-step instruction for conducting a mixed methods research synthesis (MMRS) that integrates both qualitative and quantitative evidence. The book progresses through a systematic, comprehensive approach to conducting an MMRS literature review to analyze and summarize the empirical evidence regarding a particular review question. Readers will benefit from discussion of the potential advantages of MMRS and guidance on how to avoid its potential pitfalls. Using Mixed Methods Research Synthesis for Literature Reviews is Volume 4 in the SAGE Mixed Methods Research Series.

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.

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.

This book, first published in 1988, reveals the great care Dickens took with the planning and preparation of A Tale of Two Cities and its roots. It also explores the aspects of Dickens's life, especially his interest in private theatricals, which contributed to the genesis of the novel. For the first time the historical sources for the very individual account of the French Revolution presented in A Tale of Two Cities are examined, and the book investigates the novelist's debt to French and English eye-witnesses. This Companion identifies the multitude of allusions to what Dickens often regarded as the whims of eighteenth-century justice, religion, philosophy, fashion and society. It provides the modern reader with both fundamental sources of information and a fascinating account of the creation of a complex historical novel.

Would it surprise you to learn that there was a contemporary of Ernest Hemingway's who, in his romantic questing and hell-or-high-water pursuit of life and his art, was closer to the Hemingwayesque ideal than Hemingway himself? Almost Hemingway relates the life of Negley Farson, adventurer, iconoclast, best-selling writer, foreign correspondent, and raging alcoholic who died in oblivion. Born only a few years before Hemingway, Farson had a life trajectory that paralleled and intersected Hemingway's in ways that compelled writers for publications as divergent as the Guardian and Field & Stream to compare them. Unlike Hemingway, however, Farson has been forgotten. This high-flying and literate biography recovers Farson's life in its multifaceted details, from his time as an arms dealer to Czarist Russia during World War I, to his firsthand reporting on Hitler and Mussolini, to his assignment in India, where he broke the news of Gandhi's arrest by the British, to his excursion to Kenya a few years before the Mau Mau Uprising. Farson also found the time to publish an autobiography, The Way of a Transgressor, which made him an international publishing sensation in 1936, as well as Going Fishing, one of the most enduring of all outdoors books. F. Scott Fitzgerald, a fellow member of the Lost Generation whose art competed with a public image grander than reality, once confessed that while he had to rely on his imagination, Farson could simply draw from his own event-filled life. Almost Hemingway is the definitive window on that remarkable story.

This is a book of book lists. Not of the '1,001 Books You MUST Read Before You Die' variety but lists that tell stories. Lists that make you smile, make you wonder, and see titles together in entirely new ways. From Bin Laden's bookshelf to the books most frequently left in hotels, from prisoners' favourite books to MPs' most borrowed books, these lists are proof that a person's bookcase tells you everything you need to know about them, and sometimes more besides.

This book tells the story of crime fiction published during the first half of the twentieth century. The diversity of this much-loved genre is breathtaking, and so much greater than many critics have suggested. To illustrate this, the leading expert on classic crime discusses one hundred books ranging from The Hound of the Baskervilles to Strangers on a Train which highlight the entertaining plots, the literary achievements, and the social significance of vintage crime fiction. This book serves as a companion to the acclaimed British Library Crime Classics series but it tells a very diverse story. It presents the development of crime fiction - from Sherlock Holmes to the end of the golden age - in an accessible, informative and engaging style.

For all those who journey to Middle Earth, here is the definitive guide to its lands, legends, histories, languages and people. The Complete Tolkien Companion explains, translates, and links every single reference - names, dates, places, facts, famous weapons, even food and drink - to be found in J. R. R. Tolkien's world, which includes not only The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings but also The Simarillion and many other posthumously published works. A detailed explanation of the various Elvish writing systems, together with maps, charts, and genealogical tables, bring the remarkable genius of Toilkien and the unforgettable world and wonder of Middle Earth to life with focus and accuracy. First published in 1976, this is an indispensable accompaniment for anyone who embarks on the reading journey of a lifetime.

Through her selection of fourteen essays, Tess Cosslett charts the rediscovery by feminist critics of the Victorian Women Poets such as Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Christina Rossetti, and the subsequent developments as critics use a range of modern theoretical approaches to understand and promote the work of these non-canonical and marginalised poets. While the essays chosen for this volume focus on these three major figures, work is also included on less well-known poets who have only recently been brought into critical prominence. The introduction clarifies for the reader the themes, problems and preoccupations that inform the criticism and provides a useful guide to the debates surrounding poetry and feminism, investigating such questions as, how feminist are these poems, and does a women s tradition really exist? The advantages and disadvantages of applying different critical approaches, such as psychoanalytic and historicist, to the understanding of this period and genre are also fully explored.

This set reissues 10 books on T. S. Eliot originally published between 1952 and 1991. The volumes examine many of Eliot's most respected works, including his Four Quartets and The Waste Land. As well as exploring Eliot's work, this collection also provides a comprehensive analysis of the man behind the poetry, particularly in Frederick Tomlin's T. S. Eliot: A Friendship. This set will be of particular interest to students of literature.

That the works of the ancient tragedians still have an immediate and profound appeal surely needs no demonstration, yet the modern reader continually stumbles across concepts which are difficult to interpret or relate to - moral pollution, the authority of oracles, classical ideas of geography - as well as the names of unfamiliar legendary and mythological figures. A New Companion to Greek Tragedy provides a useful reference tool for the 'Greekless' reader: arranged on a strictly encyclopaedic pattern, with headings for all proper names occurring in the twelve most frequently read tragedies, it contains brief but adequately detailed essays on moral, religious and philosophical terms, as well as mythical genealogies where important. There are in addition entries on Greek theatre, technical terms and on other writers from Aristotle to Freud, whilst the essay by P. E. Easterling traces some connections between the ideas found in the tragedians and earlier Greek thought.

Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, with marginal notes and explanations and full descriptions of each character.

A. S. Neill, founder of Summerhill, the most admired and most feared of all progressive schools, was famous as a schoolteacher, educational reformer, and author of illuminating and stylish books about education and the mind of the child. But few people know he was also a dedicated, prolific, uninhibited, witty and often mischievous letter writer. This selection of gems, first published in 1983, has been chosen from hundreds of his letters by his biographer. It includes letters about education, children, politics, writing, fatherhood, the Bomb, old age and death. All the best, Neill was the familiar ending of his letters to the famous H. G. Wells, Bertrand Russell, Henry Miller, Paul Goodman, Wilhelm Reich, Homer Lane; to important educators W. B. Curry of Dartington, John Aitkenhead of Kilquhanity, Bob Mackenzie of Braehead, Dora Russell of Beacon Hill; to unknown friends, parents, and even casual correspondents. To read these letters is to share the company of a great and always delightful man, who wrote each one with the same commitment and gaiety."

First published in 1980, The Anatomy of Literary Studies provides students of English Literature with a clearer understanding of the significance and scope of the subject and a comprehensive background to its study. It gives pointers towards intellectual integrity and advice on independent study, libraries, essay writing and examinations. This reissue of Marjorie Boulton's classic work will be of particular value to students studying English at university or those applying to a course who would like a fuller understanding of what it might entail.

At the heart of this book is a belief that poetry matters, and that it enables us to enjoy and understand life. In this accessible guide, Andrew Hodgson equips the reader for the challenging and rewarding experience of unlocking poetry, considering the key questions about language, technique, feeling and subject matter which illuminate what a poem has to say. In a lucid and sympathetic manner, he considers a diverse range of poets writing in English to demonstrate how their work enlarges our perception of ourselves and our world. The process of independent research is modeled step-by-step, as the guide shows where to start, how to develop ideas, and how to draw conclusions. Providing guidance on how to plan, organise and write essays, close readings and commentaries, from initial annotation to final editing, this book will provide you with the confidence to discover and express your own personal response to poetry.

"A blessed companion is a book--a book that, fitly chosen, is a lifelong friend."--Douglas William Jerrold
"Much reading is like much eating, wholly useless without digestion."--Robert South
"If I had read as much as other men, I should have been as ignorant as they."--Thomas Hobbes"
Can books corrupt? Do badly written books sharpen or dull the minds of their readers? Ought we to take seriously the old saw that excessive reading can damage one's sight?
"The Book Lovers' Anthology" offers answers to these questions and many more with a remarkable collection of reflections on the book--by the writers whose books are among the world's best known and best loved.
Throughout the centuries, books have been a source of fascination--and sometimes frustration--for writers. Between the covers of the "Anthology" are excerpts from the novels of Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Jonathan Swift, among many others, all of whom paused in their fiction to extol the virtues of the written page. Those who are taken with the smell of books will find a like mind in Charles Dickens, who waxed poetic about the "pleasant smell of paper freshly pressed." Very avid readers might even nod in knowing agreement with John Donne, who declared, "I shall die reading." Other poets whose musings on libraries or books are excerpted for the "Anthology "include Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Milton, and Chaucer. These writings are interspersed by the meditations of essayists and diarists--among them, Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, John Ruskin, and Michel de Montaigne--of centuries past.
With contributions from major writers across ages and genres, this is an essential anthology for which any bibliophile will want to find space on the shelf.

First published in 1968, A Handbook to Sixteenth-Century Rhetoric is designed primarily to assist the student of renaissance literature in the science of rhetoric. It gathers together the information provided by the various different authorities who contributed to the education of the renaissance author, particularly the writer in English. These authorities include key classical rhetoricians he would probably have read, well-known and important renaissance rhetoricians, and the writers of vernacular treatises and of major school textbooks. The information is arranged in a schematic and tabular form, so that enquiry can start from the object, the particular rhetorical form as it appears in a given literary text. The core of the book is the central section on elocutio, the art of using the devices of rhetorical ornament.

Join Mike Ashley on a characterful tour of the most ingenious and often forgotten books from the rich history of classic British science fiction. From the enrapturing tales of H. G. Wells to the punishing dystopian visions of 1984 and beyond, the evolution of science fiction from the 1890s to the 1960s is a fascinating journey into the hopes and fears of those years. Establishing this period as what we can now appreciate as the 'classic' age of the genre, which for most of this time had no name, Mike Ashley takes us on a tour of the stars, utopian and post-apocalyptic futures, worlds of AI and techno-thriller masterpieces asking piercing questions of the present. Though not seeking to be exhaustive, this book offers an accessible view of the impressive spectrum of imaginative writing which the genre's classic period has to offer. Towering science fiction greats such as Ballard and Aldiss run alongside the, perhaps unexpected, likes of G. K. Chesterton and J. B. Priestley and celebrate a side of science fiction beyond the stereotypes of space opera and bug-eyed monsters; the side of science fiction which proves why it must continue to be written and read, so long as any of us remain in uncertain times.

Devils, witches and evil - the insubstantial but terrifying world of the supernatural as it was seen by Robert Burns and his contemporaries is examined in this new book, brought out for the 250th anniversary of the poet's birth. Several of Burns' poems dealt with the supernatural, the most famous of which, "Tam o Shanter", is examined in detail. It is from this poem that the book's title comes: 'And roars out, "Weel done, Cutty-sark!" And in an instant all was dark And scarcely had he Maggie rallied When out the hellish legion sallied.' In contrast with the 'other world' was the everyday lives of the country people and the nature of the material world in which they lived; the book also examines this and the changes that were taking place in Burns' time.