This book represents "snapshots" of Shanghai with speculations on their meaning as China opens to the West and undergoes yet another shift towards modernity.

Peter Brigg examines the life and work of British author J.G. Ballard, from his science fiction to his mainstream fiction. Starmont Reader's Guide 26.

This book represents "snapshots" of Shanghai with speculations on their meaning as China opens to the West and undergoes yet another shift towards modernity.

From the 1960s (when the advent of what many call the postmodern style made establishing genres more difficult) to the present day, writers have been incorporating science--not only the commonly thought of science and technology but also the "soft" sciences such as psychology and sociology--into what was previously considered mainstream fiction. This book examines works by Thomas Pynchon, Doris Lessing, and others who incorporate science in fiction and exemplify the movement of mainstream fiction writers toward a new genre termed "span." It also examines works by some science fiction writers who are edging closer to the border of science fiction and slowly over into span. This book maps the boundaries of the new span genre of fiction and thus helps define texts that fall outside the realms of mainstream and science fiction. Diagrams are included and a bibliography and index.

Peter Brigg examines the life and work of British author J.G. Ballard, from his science fiction to his mainstream fiction. Starmont Reader's Guide 26.

The move to a new publisher has given The Age of Johnson: A Scholarly Annual the opportunity to recommit to what it does best: present to a wide readership cant-free scholarly articles and essays and searching book reviews, all featuring a wide variety of approaches, written by both seasoned scholars and relative newcomers. Volume 24 features commentary on a range of Johnsonian topics: his reaction to Milton, his relation to the Allen family, his notes in his edition of Shakespeare, his use of Oliver Goldsmith in his Dictionary, and his always fascinating Nachleben. The volume also includes articles on topics of strong interest to Johnson: penal reform, Charlotte Lennox's professional literary career, and the "conjectural history" of Homer in the eighteenth century. For more than two decades, The Age of Johnson has presented a vast corpus of Johnsonian studies "in the broadest sense," as founding editor Paul J. Korshin put it in the preface to Volume 1, and it has retained the interest of a wide readership. In thousands of pages of articles, review essays, and reviews, The Age of Johnson has made a permanent contribution to our understanding of the eighteenth century, and particularly of Samuel Johnson, his circle, and his interests, and has also served as an outlet for writers who are not academics but have something important to say about the eighteenth century.   ISSN 0884-5816.