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Showing 1 - 5 of 5 matches in All Departments
A major biography of one of literature's most romantic and enigmatic figures, published in hardback to great acclaim: 'one of the great biographies of recent times' (Sunday Telegraph). Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is indisputably Russia's greatest poet - the nearest Russian equivalent to Shakespeare - and his brief life was as turbulent and dramatic as anything in his work. T.J Binyon's biography of this brilliant and rebellious figure is 'a remarkable achievement' and its publication 'a real event' (Catriona Kelly, Guardian). 'No other work on Pushkin on the same scale, and with the same grasp of atmosphere and detail, exists in English... And Pushkin is well worth writing about... he was a remarkable man, a man of action as well as a poet, and he lived a remarkable life, dying in a duel at the age of thirty-seven.' (John Bayley, Literary Review) Among the delights of this beautifully illustrated and lavishly produced book are the 'caricatures of venal old men with popping eyes and side-whiskers, society beauties with long necks and empire curls and, most touchingly, images of his "cross-eyed madonna" Natalya' (Rachel Polonsky, Evening Standard). Binyon 'knows almost everything there is to know about Pushkin. He scrupulously chronicles his life in all its disorder, from his years at the Lycee through exile in the Crimea, Bessarabia and Odessa, for writing liberal verses, and on to the publication of Eugene Onegin and, eventually, after much wrangling with the censor, Boris Godunov' (Julian Evans, New Statesman) and in this, 'Binyon is unbeatable'(Clive James, TLS).
'No-one has approached the vast, continuing corpus of detective fiction in quite this way before.' "Financial Times" What is it that has always made the detective such a popular figure in fiction? Why are we always so seduced by the search to discover 'whodunit'? And how far back does this fascination go? Following the trail of the detective - from Poe's Chevalier Dupin to the time of this book's first publication in 1989 - T J Binyon's brilliant history explores one of fiction's most enduring characters, in all its many guises. "Murder Will Out" is an essential guide for anyone who has ever been gripped by a good crime novel and wants to investigate further.
David Burnsall, a small-time military publisher, is on holiday in Greece with his wife Sue when he learns that his father in law has killed himself. As the head of an Oxford College, Sir Henry Pewsey's death sparks off unpleasant rumours about a hidden scandal from his past. When Sue leaves him for a good-looking historian with a prurient interest in Pewsey's papers, it's left to David to try and save his father-in-law's reputation. In investigating his life though - in particular his war-time collaboration with the Greek resistance, he is caught up in a violent race which ends, dramatically and unexpectedly, on an island in the Ionian Sea.
1970s Moscow. Vanya Morozov is a teacher of English Literature. Not a party member, he views life and politics with a detached irony, and his main aim is to lead a quiet life. That is until his past starts to catch up with him. Twelve years earlier he and three other students spent an intense summer in the country. Since then their paths diverged - Tanya became a passionate film director; Alik an ambitious careerist and rising star in the KGB; and Lyuba, dreamy and idealistic, caught up in a strange underground movement. As a bureaucratic power struggle turns into something darker, the four are drawn together once again, as the Western Intelligence Agencies are alerted. As the action shifts from Moscow to Leningrad and finally to the snow-covered forests of the Volgoda regions, Vanya is forced to abandon his detachment and fight for his survival, and that of the girl he loves.
Set in the Caucasus, the scene of Russia's military campaigns in the 19th century, this is both an adventure story and a sardonic look at the heroic ideals of the author's contemporaries - which makes it all the more ironic that the main character, Pushkin, (like the author) was killed in a duel.
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