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Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography > Literary

Franketienne and Rewriting - A Work in Progress (Hardcover, New): Rachel Douglas Franketienne and Rewriting - A Work in Progress (Hardcover, New)
Rachel Douglas
R2,397 Discovery Miles 23 970 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

"Rewriting" in the context of critical work on Caribbean literature has tended to be used to discuss revisionism from a variety of postcolonial perspectives, such as "rewriting history" or "rewriting canonical texts." By shifting the focus to how Caribbean writers return to their own works in order to rework them, this book offers theoretical considerations to postcolonial studies on "literariness" in relation to the near-obsessive degree of rewriting to which Caribbean writers have subjected their own literary texts. Focusing specifically on Franketienne, this book offers an overview of how the defining aesthetic and thematic components of Franketienne's major works have emerged over the course of his forty-year writing career. It reveals the marked development of key notions guiding his literary creation since the 1960s, and demonstrates that rewriting illustrates the central aesthetic of the Spiral which has always shaped his oeuvre. It is, the book argues, the constantly moving form of the Spiral which Franketienne explores through his constant reworking of his previously written texts. Franketienne and Rewriting negotiates between the literary and material ends of the burgeoning field of postcolonial studies, arguing that literary characteristics in Franketienne connect with changing political, social, economic, and cultural circumstances in the Haiti he rewrites.

A House in St John's Wood - In Search of My Parents (Paperback): Matthew Spender A House in St John's Wood - In Search of My Parents (Paperback)
Matthew Spender 1
R313 Discovery Miles 3 130 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

An intimate portrait of Stephen Spender's extraordinary life written by Matthew Spender, shifting between memoir and biography, with new insights drawn from personal recollections and his father's copious unpublished archives. Stephen Spender's life is a vivid snapshot of the twentieth century. Making friends with Auden and Isherwood while at Oxford, together they enjoyed adventures in Europe, becoming early opponents of the rise of fascism. Whilst pioneering modern poetry, Stephen later produced propaganda for the war effort - establishing an enduring reputation for mysterious activity. Despite marrying Natasha Litvin, an ambitious young concert pianist, Stephen was often entangled with young men and never able to reveal his secrets, leaving her to introspective questions, as the artistic world of London circled them. In this elegant memoir, his son Matthew offers an intimate portrait of a father, a marriage and an extraordinary life.

Beyond the Secret Garden - The Life of Frances Hodgson Burnett (with a Foreword by Jacqueline Wilson) (Paperback): Ann Thwaite Beyond the Secret Garden - The Life of Frances Hodgson Burnett (with a Foreword by Jacqueline Wilson) (Paperback)
Ann Thwaite
R243 Discovery Miles 2 430 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The definitive and revealing biography of the author of The Secret Garden. Frances Hodgson Burnett's favourite theme in her fiction was the reversal of fortune, and she herself knew extremes of poverty and wealth. Born in Manchester in 1849, she emigrated with her family to Tennessee because of the financial problems caused by the cotton famine. From a young age she published her stories to help the family make ends meet. Only after she married did she publish Little Lord Fauntleroy that shot her into literary stardom. On the surface, Frances' life was extremely successful: hosting regular literary salons in her home and travelling frequently between properties in the UK and America. But behind the colourful personal and social life, she was a complex and contradictory character. She lost both parents by her twenty-first birthday, Henry James called her "the most heavenly of women" although avoided her; prominent people admired her and there were many friendships as well as an ill-advised marriage to a much younger man that ended in heartache. Her success was punctuated by periods of depression, in one instance brought on by the tragic loss of her eldest son to consumption. Ann Thwaite creates a sympathetic but balanced and eye-opening biography of the woman who has enchanted numerous generations of children.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - An American Slave (Hardcover): Frederick Douglass Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - An American Slave (Hardcover)
Frederick Douglass
R299 R234 Discovery Miles 2 340 Save R65 (22%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The most famous memoir of its kind and a key text in the anti-slavery movement, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass tells the striking and emotionally charged story of one man's journey from slavery to freedom. Complete & Unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by Dr Lydia Plath. Born into a life of slavery in Maryland in 1818, Frederick Douglass spent his youth passed from master to master, from city to field, and subjected to unimaginable cruelty. Along this journey he sought knowledge, he learned to read and write, and he discovered that education was his key to salvation. Using everything he learned and fuelled by all he was forced to endure, Douglass managed to escape and then, eventually, to free himself from slavery. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a startlingly honest account of his struggle, played a fundamental role in the abolition of slavery, a movement that Douglass dedicated his life to.

Christianity, Patriotism, and Nationhood - The England of G.K. Chesterton (Hardcover, New): Julia Stapleton Christianity, Patriotism, and Nationhood - The England of G.K. Chesterton (Hardcover, New)
Julia Stapleton
R2,654 Discovery Miles 26 540 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This book links the concepts of patriotism, Christianity, and nationhood in the journalistic writings of G.K. Chesterton and emphasizes their roots within the English attachments that were central to his political and spiritual persona. It further connects Chesterton to the vibrant debate about English national identity in the early years of the twentieth century, which was instrumental in shaping not only his political convictions, but also his religious convictions. Christianity, Patriotism and Nationhood explores his changing conception of the English people from an early, menacing account of their revolutionary potential in the face of plutocracy to the more complex portraits he drew of their character on recognizing their political passivity after the First World War. As Chesterton was above all a journalist, the study considers some of the varied outlets in which he expressed his ideas as a distinctly Edwardian man of letters of a strongly patriotic persuasion. His connection with The Illustrated London News over more than three decades proved pivotal in strengthening his patriotism and discourse of nationhood vilified elsewhere, not least in advanced Liberal organs such asThe Nation. Julia Stapleton shows that he was increasingly distanced by fellow Liberals before 1918, on account of the priority he gave nationhood over the state, and patriotism over citizenship. But she argues that his English loyalties were the last echo of an aspect of Victorian Liberalism that had been progressively eroded by loss of confidence among elites in the democratic aptitude of the English people. Christianity, Patriotism and Nationhood emphasizes that Chesterton upheld a cultural rather than racial conception of national homogeneity, in keeping with the Victorian sources of his thought and the popular patriotism of Edwardian England. It argues that his anti-semitism was ancillary, rather than integral to his understanding of England, and that it was matched by a similar conception of the ant

Christianity, Patriotism, and Nationhood - The England of G.K. Chesterton (Paperback): Julia Stapleton Christianity, Patriotism, and Nationhood - The England of G.K. Chesterton (Paperback)
Julia Stapleton
R1,215 Discovery Miles 12 150 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This book links the concepts of patriotism, Christianity, and nationhood in the journalistic writings of G.K. Chesterton and emphasizes their roots within the English attachments that were central to his political and spiritual persona. It further connects Chesterton to the vibrant debate about English national identity in the early years of the twentieth century, which was instrumental in shaping not only his political convictions, but also his religious convictions. Christianity, Patriotism and Nationhood explores his changing conception of the English people from an early, menacing account of their revolutionary potential in the face of plutocracy to the more complex portraits he drew of their character on recognizing their political passivity after the First World War. As Chesterton was above all a journalist, the study considers some of the varied outlets in which he expressed his ideas as a distinctly Edwardian man of letters of a strongly patriotic persuasion. His connection with The Illustrated London News over more than three decades proved pivotal in strengthening his patriotism and discourse of nationhood vilified elsewhere, not least in advanced Liberal organs such asThe Nation. Julia Stapleton shows that he was increasingly distanced by fellow Liberals before 1918, on account of the priority he gave nationhood over the state, and patriotism over citizenship. But she argues that his English loyalties were the last echo of an aspect of Victorian Liberalism that had been progressively eroded by loss of confidence among elites in the democratic aptitude of the English people. Christianity, Patriotism and Nationhood emphasizes that Chesterton upheld a cultural rather than racial conception of national homogeneity, in keeping with the Victorian sources of his thought and the popular patriotism of Edwardian England. It argues that his anti-semitism was ancillary, rather than integral to his understanding of England, and that it was matched by a similar conception of the antithesis between Islam and the patriotic ideal. Stapleton relates his abiding concern for national 'authenticity' to global imperialism, enhanced international co-ordination of states and civil society after 1918, and the increasing role of the British state in defining the nation. This book will be valuable to intellectual and political historians of early-twentieth-century England, as well as to scholars and students of English national identity in the twenty-first century. The author gratefully acknowledges the permission of A.P. Watt Ltd on behalf of the Royal Literary Fund to quote unpublished material in the Chesterton Papers, British Library.

Objectively Speaking - Ayn Rand Interviewed (Paperback, New): Marlene Podritske, Peter Schwartz Objectively Speaking - Ayn Rand Interviewed (Paperback, New)
Marlene Podritske, Peter Schwartz
R1,221 Discovery Miles 12 210 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Readers and students of Ayn Rand will value seeing in this collection of interviews how Ayn Rand applied her philosophy and moral principles to the issues of the day. Objectively Speaking includes half a century of print and broadcast interviews drawn from the Ayn Rand Archives. The thirty-two interviews in this collection, edited by Marlene Podritske and Peter Schwartz, include print interviews from the 1930s and edited transcripts of radio and television interviews from the 1940s through 1981. Selections are included from a remarkable series of radio broadcasts over a four-year period (1962-1966) on Columbia University's station WKCR in New York City and syndicated throughout the United States and Canada. Ayn Rand's unusual and strikingly original insights on a vast range of topics are captured by prominent interviewers in the history of American television broadcasting, such as Johnny Carson, Edwin Newman, Mike Wallace, and Louis Rukeyser. The collection concludes with an interview of Dr. Leonard Peikoff on his radio program in 1999, recalling his 30-year personal and professional association with Ayn Rand and discussing her unique intellectual and literary achievements. Ayn Rand is the best-selling author of Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Anthem, and We the Living. Fifty years or more after publication, sales of these novels continue to increase.

Lord Byron and Madame de Stael - Born for Opposition (Paperback): Joanne Wilkes Lord Byron and Madame de Stael - Born for Opposition (Paperback)
Joanne Wilkes
R1,015 Discovery Miles 10 150 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Published in 1999. Lord Byron and Madam de Stael made a great impression on Europe in the throes of the Napoleonic Wars, through their personalities, the versions of themselves which they projected through their works, and their literary engagement with contemporary life. However, the strong links between them have never before been explored in detail. This pioneering study looks at their personal relations, from their verbal sparring in Regency society, through the friendship which developed in Switzerland after Byron left England in 1816, to Byron's tributes to Mme de Stael after her death. It concentrates on their literary links, both direct responses to each other's works, and the copious evidence of shared concerns. The study deals with their treatment of gender, their grappling with the possibilities for heroic endeavour, their engagement with the social and political situations of Britain, France and Italy, and their conceptions of the role of the writer. Although Byron will need no introduction, Mme de Stael's standing as a French romantic writer of the first rank is made plain by the strong impact of her writings on the English Poet.

From Corsets to Communism - The Life and Times of Zofia Nalkowska (Paperback): Jenny Robertson From Corsets to Communism - The Life and Times of Zofia Nalkowska (Paperback)
Jenny Robertson
R402 R326 Discovery Miles 3 260 Save R76 (19%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

'I had only one eye, I was hungry and cold, yet I wanted to live... so that I could tell it all just as I've told you.' - From Zofia Nalkowska's Medallions (1947). Witness to two world wars and Poland's struggle for independence, Zofia Nalkowska's commitment to recording all is her gift to European literature. Her own story of love affairs, family loyalty and survival is remarkable in itself. Yet, her determination to record others' truth, however painful, ties her fate to a nation whose battle for identity is both brutal and romantic. Her most renowned work, Medallions, a collection of short stories, exposes and restores dignity to people reduced, through Nazi occupation, to burnt out ghettos and guillotined heads heaped 'like potatoes'. In contrast, as a keen and visionary observer of beauty, Nalkowska is innovative in exploring motherhood's psychological imprint and the blurred boundaries of male and female relationships. Drawing on her own background as a poet and Polish Studies graduate, Jenny's Robertson's literary biography celebrates the achievements of a pioneering writer whose love of life not only propelled her to fame, but gave her the courage to witness atrocity. In doing so, Nalkowska's life and writing reflect and inform Europe's cultural heritage.

Intelligence for Dummies - Essays and Other Collected Writings (Hardcover): Glenn O'Brien Intelligence for Dummies - Essays and Other Collected Writings (Hardcover)
Glenn O'Brien; Foreword by Jonathan Lethem
R603 Discovery Miles 6 030 Ships in 12 - 17 working days
A. A. Milne - His Life (Hardcover): Ann Thwaite A. A. Milne - His Life (Hardcover)
Ann Thwaite
R1,277 Discovery Miles 12 770 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

A.A. Milne is one of the most successful English writers ever. His heart-warming creations-Winnie-the-Pooh, Christopher Robin, Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet-have become some of the best-loved children's characters of all time, and readers the world over are familiar with the stories from the Hundred Acre Wood. Yet the man himself has remained an enigma. Although in many ways his behaviour was that of a typical golf-playing, pipe-smoking Englishman, Milne refused to be typecast, and his publishers despaired when he turned from writing popular columns for Punch to writing detective stories. They complained again when the detective writer presented them with a set of children's verse, but when When We Were Very Young became one of the best-selling books of all time, Milne's credibility as one of the world's favorite authors was sealed. In this biography of Milne, Ann Thwaite reveals the man himself, in all his complexity. As W. A. Darlington put it in 1921, commenting on Milne's highly popular plays, 'Mr Milne is obviously at heart (like all humorists) a serious person, with things to say.' He had strong political feelings, and was a pacifist even before his experiences on the Somme in 1916. There was always something darker and more tangled under 'the bright glitter of surfaces'. At his father's school, Milne was taught by the young H. G. Wells, who remained a lifelong friend; later, J. M. Barrie called him 'my Mr Milne' and was 'uncommon proud of him'; later still, P. G. Wodehouse became one of his greatest admirers, and a friend - but was then deeply hurt by Milne's strong reaction to the notorious wartime broadcasts. Milne's personal relationships, including those with his wife and son, were not always easy. In A. A. Milne: His Life, Ann Thwaite has produced a vivid, sympathetic and entertaining portrait of both the man and his work, set in the context of his time, which stands as the definitive life of a writer whose work has earned some loathing (for its supposed 'whimsy') but much more devotion among readers of all ages, not only in English-speaking countries but all over the world.

The Years of Anger - The Life of Randall Swingler (Hardcover): Andy Croft The Years of Anger - The Life of Randall Swingler (Hardcover)
Andy Croft
R3,889 Discovery Miles 38 890 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Randall Swingler (1909-67) was arguably the most significant and the best-known radical English poet of his generation. A widely published poet, playwright, novelist, editor and critic, his work was set to music by almost all the major British composers of his time. This new biography draws on extensive sources, including the security services files, to present the most detailed account yet of this influential poet, lyricist and activist. A literary entrepreneur, Swingler was founder of radical paperback publishing company Fore Publications, editor of Left Review and Our Time and literary editor of the Daily Worker; later becoming a staff reporter, until the paper was banned in 1941. In the 1930s, he contributed several plays for Unity Theatre, including the Mass Declamation Spain, the Munich play Crisis and the revues Sandbag Follies and Get Cracking. In 1936, MI5 opened a 20-year-long file on him prompted by a song he co-wrote with Alan Bush for a concert organised to mark the arrival of the 1934 Hunger March into London. During the Second World War, Swingler served in North Africa and Italy and was awarded the Military Medal for his part in the battle of Lake Comacchio. His collections The Years of Anger (1946) and The God in the Cave (1950) contain arguably some of the greatest poems of the Italian campaign. After the war, Swingler was blacklisted by the BBC. Orwell attacked him in Polemic and included him in the list of names he offered the security services in 1949. Stephen Spender vilified him in The God That Failed. The book will challenge the Cold War assumptions that have excluded Swingler's life and work from standard histories of the period and should be of great interest to activists, scholars and those with an interest in the history of the literary and radical left.

Shakespeare - A Life in Art (Paperback): Russell Fraser Shakespeare - A Life in Art (Paperback)
Russell Fraser
R1,373 Discovery Miles 13 730 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

"Shakespeare: A Life in Art" brings together in a single volume Fraser's previously published two-volume biography ("Young Shakespeare," 1988, and" Shakespeare: The Later Years," 1992). This volume includes a new introduction, which looks back on the author's lifelong commitment to Shakespeare's work and seeks to find the pattern in his carpet.

Fraser's approach places Shakespeare's work first but shows how the life and art interpenetrate, like "the yolk and white of one shell." What Shakespeare was doing in Stratford and London underlies what he was writing, or more exactly, the two flow together. Most of the book is devoted to Shakespeare the man and artist, but it simultaneously throws light on his literary and personal relations with contemporaries such as Jonson, Marlowe, and others known as the University Wits. His experience as an actor and man of theater is absorbingly recounted here, as well as his relations to well-born patrons like the Earl of Southampton and Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon (England's Lord Chamberlain). In 1603 when James I ascended the throne, the Chamberlain's Men became the King's Men, passing under the sovereign's protection. How Shakespeare responded to his ambiguous role--he was both servant to the great and their remorseless critic--is another of Fraser's subjects. In short, Fraser's principal purpose is to advance our understanding of Shakespeare, at the same time throwing light on the work of the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets had the "largest and most comprehensive soul." John Dryden, Shakespeare's first great critic, said that, and Fraser tries to estimate what he meant.

A Political Biography of Jonathan Swift (Hardcover): David Oakleaf A Political Biography of Jonathan Swift (Hardcover)
David Oakleaf
R4,173 Discovery Miles 41 730 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Most famous as the author of "Gulliver's Travels", Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was one of the most important propagandists and satirists of his day. This study seeks to contextualize Swift within the political arena of his day.

Young Bloomsbury - the generation that reimagined love, freedom and self-expression (Paperback): Nino Strachey Young Bloomsbury - the generation that reimagined love, freedom and self-expression (Paperback)
Nino Strachey
R330 R269 Discovery Miles 2 690 Save R61 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

'Entirely original and thrilling . . . this is Gatsby made real' JULIET NICOLSON 'This witty, fascinating book is a delight. Read it.' MIRIAM MARGOLYES In the 1920s a new generation stepped forward to invigorate the Bloomsbury Group - creative young people who tantalised the original 'Bloomsberries' with their captivating looks and provocative ideas. Young Bloomsbury introduces us to an extraordinarily colourful cast of characters, including novelist and music critic Eddy Sackville-West, 'who wore elaborate make-up and dressed in satin and black velvet'; sculptor Stephen Tomlin; and writer Julia Strachey. Talented and productive, these larger-than-life figures had high-achieving professional lives and extremely complicated emotional lives. Bloomsbury had always celebrated sexual equality and freedom in private, feeling that every person had the right to live and love in the way they chose. But as transgressive self-expression became more public, this younger generation gave Old Bloomsbury a new voice. Revealing an aspect of Bloomsbury history not yet explored, Young Bloomsbury celebrates an open way of living that would not be embraced for another hundred years.

Wilkie Collins's American Tour, 1873-4 (Hardcover): Susan R Hanes Wilkie Collins's American Tour, 1873-4 (Hardcover)
Susan R Hanes
R4,152 Discovery Miles 41 520 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In the autumn of 1873, Wilkie Collins followed the example of fellow literary celebrities Dickens and Thackeray, and began a six-month reading tour of America. Hanes places this tour within the American lyceum movement of the later nineteenth century. Through close examination of personal letters, news accounts and newspaper reviews, she builds a picture of the relationship between Collins and the American reading public.

Journey to the Middle of the Forest - A Maryland Half-Life (Paperback): Bruce Fleming Journey to the Middle of the Forest - A Maryland Half-Life (Paperback)
Bruce Fleming
R1,004 Discovery Miles 10 040 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

What is the taste of life as we really live it, rather than the way we imagine it in others? What does it feel like to become aware of the hand of cards we've been dealt, to play them as well as we can, to understand what has happened to us, and to try to control the future? Journey to the Middle of the Forest answers these questions in a way that celebrity memoirs, where events seem so much more intense than happenings in our own lives because of our perspective and the writer's fame, cannot. In Journey to the Middle of the Forest, Bruce Fleming considers the slippages between presupposition and reality in a life begun and continued in Maryland, with intervals in pre-civil war Rwanda, the walled-in city of West Berlin, and the central European Freiburg im Breisgau, once Austrian, then part of the Duchy of Baden, now part of Germany. Like all lives, it has its crises-more, it may be, than an average life: a childhood marked by an alcoholic and abusive father, a marriage gone horribly awry, an autistic child and a bipolar stepchild, a dragged-out divorce, the death of a brother to AIDS, and the re-tooling of hopes to meet the new givens of the world. And, then re-marriage, two little boys, and the threat of childhood leukemia. Fleming's intense and vivid memoir asks us to consider this fundamental question: Do we gain wisdom as we age? We may tell ourselves we do, as a way of summarizing what's happened to us: we figure everything we've been through has to be good for something. But if we do become wiser, it's not with a wisdom that can help us with any subsequent challenge-and the challenges never cease. Life gets no easier as we age, we just get deeper into the forest.

The Life and Times of Chinua Achebe (Paperback): Kalu Ogbaa The Life and Times of Chinua Achebe (Paperback)
Kalu Ogbaa
R786 Discovery Miles 7 860 Ships in 9 - 15 working days

-The only biography of Achebe, author of the most widely read book in African literature, which covers his full life up to his death in 2013 -Contains a treasure trove of interviews with Achebe, and his family, colleagues and friends -Commissioned directly by Achebe's son, in recognition of the author's considerable expertise and familiarity with Achebe and his family

Mayakovsky - A Biography (Hardcover): Bengt Jangfeldt Mayakovsky - A Biography (Hardcover)
Bengt Jangfeldt; Translated by Harry D. Watson
R855 R658 Discovery Miles 6 580 Save R197 (23%) Out of stock

Few poets have led lives as tempestuous as that of Vladimir Mayakovsky. Born in 1893 and dead by his own hand in 1930, Mayakovsky packed his thirty-six years with drama, politics, passion, and--most important--poetry. An enthusiastic supporter of the Russian Revolution and the emerging Soviet State, Mayakovsky was championed by Stalin after his death and enshrined as a quasi-official Soviet poet, a position that led to undeserved neglect among Western literary scholars even as his influence on other poets has remained powerful.
With "Mayakovsky," Bengt Jangfeldt offers the first comprehensive biography of Mayakovsky, revealing a troubled man who was more dreamer than revolutionary, more political romantic than hardened Communist. Jangfeldt sets Mayakovsky's life and works against the dramatic turbulence of his times, from the aesthetic innovations of the pre-revolutionary avant-garde to the rigidity of Socialist Realism and the destruction of World War I to the violence--and hope--of the Russian Revolution, through the tightening grip of Stalinist terror and the growing disillusion with Russian communism that eventually led the poet to take his life.
Through it all is threaded Mayakovsky's celebrated love affair with Lili Brik and the moving relationship with Lili's husband, Osip, along with a brilliant depiction of the larger circle of writers and artists around Mayakovsky, including Maxim Gorky, Viktor Shklovsky, Alexander Rodchenko, and Roman Jakobson. The result is a literary life viewed in the round, enabling us to understand the personal and historical furies that drove Mayakovsky and generated his still-startling poetry.
Illustrated throughout with rare images of key characters and locations, "Mayakovsky" is a major step in the revitalization of a crucial figure of the twentieth-century avant-garde.

Novel Houses - Twenty Famous Fictional Dwellings (Hardcover): Christina Hardyment Novel Houses - Twenty Famous Fictional Dwellings (Hardcover)
Christina Hardyment
R860 R630 Discovery Miles 6 300 Save R230 (27%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

'Novel Houses' visits unforgettable dwellings in twenty legendary works of English and American fiction. Each chapter stars a famous novel in which a dwelling is pivotal to the plot, and reveals how personally significant that place was to the writer who created it. We discover Uncle Tom's Cabin's powerful influence on the American Civil War, how essential 221B Baker Street was to Sherlock Holmes and the importance of Bag End to the adventuring hobbits who called it home. It looks at why Bleak House is used as the name of a happy home and what was on Jane Austen's mind when she worked out the plot of Mansfield Park. Little-known background on the dwellings at the heart of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast and Stella Gibbon's Cold Comfort Farm emerges, and the real life settings of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and E.M. Forster's Howards End, so fundamental to their stories, are shown to relate closely to their authors' passions and preoccupations. A winning combination of literary criticism, geography and biography, this is an entertaining and insightful celebration of beloved novels and the extraordinary role that houses grand and small, imagined and real, or unique and ordinary, play in their continuing popularity.

Rainer Maria Rilke - His Life and Work (Hardcover): F. W. Van Heerikhuizen Rainer Maria Rilke - His Life and Work (Hardcover)
F. W. Van Heerikhuizen; Translated by Fernand Renier, Anne Cliff
R3,491 Discovery Miles 34 910 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Originally published in English in 1951, this biography of one of Germany's foremost mystical poets dis-proves many of the myths surrounding Rainer Maria Rilke and examines his life and work from social, historical and psychological perspectives, while all the time referencing Rilke's works to his complex personality. The legacy of his work on younger generations is also examined. All German prose quotations have been translated into English for this edition, existing translations used for the German poetry.

Enid Blyton: The Biography (Paperback): Barbara Stoney Enid Blyton: The Biography (Paperback)
Barbara Stoney
R388 R311 Discovery Miles 3 110 Save R77 (20%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Enid Blyton is known throughout the world for her imaginative
children's books and her enduring characters such as Noddy and
the Famous Five. She is one of the most borrowed authors from
British libraries and still holds a fascination for readers old and
young alike.
Yet until 1974, when Barbara Stoney first published her official
biography, little was known about this most private author,
even by members of her own family. The woman who emerged
from Barbara Stoney's remarkable research was hardworking,
complex, often difficult and, in many ways, childlike.
Now this widely praised classic biography has been fully
updated for the twenty-first century and, with the addition of
new color illustrations and a comprehensive list of Enid Blyton's
writings, documents the growing appeal of this extraordinary
woman throughout the world. The fascinating story of one of
the world's most famous authors will intrigue and delight all
those with an interest in her timeless books.

Evelyn Waugh's Oxford (Hardcover): Barbara Cooke Evelyn Waugh's Oxford (Hardcover)
Barbara Cooke; Illustrated by Dodd
R690 R621 Discovery Miles 6 210 Save R69 (10%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Oxford held a special place in Evelyn Waugh's imagination. So formative were his Oxford years that the city never left him, appearing again and again in his novels in various forms. This book explores in rich visual detail the abiding importance of Oxford as both location and experience in his literary and visual works. Drawing on specially commissioned illustrations and previously unpublished photographic material, it provides a critically robust assessment of Waugh's engagement with Oxford over the course of his literary career. Following a brief overview of Waugh's life and work, subsequent chapters look at the prose and graphic art Waugh produced as an undergraduate together with Oxford's portrayal in Brideshead Revisited and A Little Learning as well as broader conceptual concerns of religion, sexuality and idealised time. A specially commissioned, hand-drawn trail around Evelyn Waugh's Oxford guides the reader around the city Waugh knew and loved through locations such as the Botanic Garden, the Oxford Union and The Chequers. A unique literary biography, this book brings to life Waugh's Oxford, exploring the lasting impression it made on one of the most accomplished literary craftsmen of the twentieth century.

Broken Hallelujah - Nikos Kazantzakis and Christian Theology (Hardcover): Darren J. N Middleton Broken Hallelujah - Nikos Kazantzakis and Christian Theology (Hardcover)
Darren J. N Middleton
R2,391 Discovery Miles 23 910 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Broken Hallelujah offers a unique perspective on one of the most prolific and celebrated twentieth-century European writers, Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957). Marking the fiftieth anniversary of Kazantzakis's death, author Darren J. N. Middleton looks back on Kazantzakis's life and literary art to suggest that, contrary to popular belief, Kazantzakis and his views actually comport with the ideals of Christianity. As a theologian and ordained Baptist minister, Middleton approaches Kazantzakisas as a broadly sympathetic spiritual seeker rather than the traditional religious villain as he is routinely portrayed. Based on archival work conducted at the Kazantzakis library in Iraklion and at various monasteries on Athos, Middleton finds important connections between Kazantzakis's work and key themes in Eastern Orthodox theology, especially the "hesychastic" and "apophatic" traditions. This book advances modern Greek studies as well as general theological studies by acknowledging and celebrating Kazantzakis's clear if admittedly uneasy alliance with Christianity. Broken Hallelujah is a fascinating text that will interest scholars in Christianity and Literature studies, as well as those thinking through the faith in this era.

Inventory of a Life Mislaid - An Unreliable Memoir (Paperback): Marina Warner Inventory of a Life Mislaid - An Unreliable Memoir (Paperback)
Marina Warner
R250 Discovery Miles 2 500 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

A luminous memoir of post-war childhood, adventure and loss on the banks of the Nile. 'Wonderful - a brave, inventive, touching distillation of memory and imagination' JENNY UGLOW Inventory of a Life Mislaid follows Marina Warner's beautiful, penniless young mother Ilia as she leaves southern Italy in 1945 to travel alone to London. Her husband, an English colonel, is still away in the war in the East as she begins to learn how to be Mrs Esmond Warner, an Englishwoman. With diamond rings on her fingers and brogues on her feet, Ilia steps fearlessly into the world of cricket and riding. But, without prospect of work in a bleak, war-ravaged England, Esmond remembers the glorious ease of Cairo during his periods of leave from the desert campaign. There, they start a bookshop, a branch of W. H. Smith's. But growing resistance to foreign interests, especially British, erupts in the 1952 uprising, and the Cairo Fire burns the city clean. Evocative and imaginative, at once historical and speculative, this memoir powerfully resurrects the fraught union and unrequited hopes of Warner's parents. Memory intertwines richly with myth, the river Lethe feeling as real as the Nile. Vivid recollections of Cairo swirl with ever-present dreams of a city where Warner's parents, friends and associates are still restlessly wandering.

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