Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) is a major British Victorian novelist, dramatist, short story writer, and journalist. He is best known today as the author of DEGREESIThe Moonstone, DEGREESR which T.S. Eliot called the first and greatest English detective novel. He has been the subject of two recent biographies, and a revival of interest in his works is now under way. In particular, there is growing concern with his intellectual development, as witnessed by the 1999 publication of his collected letters. This reconstruction of his library offers a thorough analysis of the books he owned and his response to them and thus illuminates Collins as a reader and writer.

The book begins with a narrative discussion of the contents of Collins's library and its auction. This introductory essay sheds light on the types of books he owned, his use of those texts in his writings, and the dispersion of his collection in 1890. The bulk of the volume provides annotated entries for each item from his library. Entries include publication and bibliographic information, descriptions from sale catalogs, information about the author of the item, citations of the book or author from Collins's letters, and information on the present location or subsequent history of the item. An appendix catalogs paintings and artwork in Collins's possession at the time of his death.

Harold Pinter is one of the most important writers in English of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. This brief biography offers fresh insights into his life and work, concentrating on the themes, patterns, relationships, ideas and language common to his life and creative output. Placing Pinters life and work alongside each other, the study illuminates Pinters vision of society, politics, gender, sex, violence and human relationships. Drawing upon the full-range of his output, his letters, journalism, writings about him, Baker combines a biographical approach with close (re)readings of his work to create a fresh perspective on his life and art. The book offers students, academics and readers a rich depiction of Harold Pinter, the man and the writer.

Every student of literature needs to understand how to use literary theory to analyze and interpret the text. In Literary Theories William Baker and Julian Wolfreys challenge the outdated notion that theory is something separable from the act of reading itself. Maintaining that the best way to learn is through practical application, the editors have assembled a volume of essays that plunges the student into the midst of a range of critical readings.

Each essay in the book explores a previously unpublished short story by Richard Jeffries, also included in the volume, from a different theoretical perspective, thereby presenting students with New Historicist, Marxist, feminist, structuralist, post- structuralist, psychoanalytic, and Derridean methods of analysis and interpretation.

Cogently argued and lucidly written, these essays offer the student reader an interactive introduction to the ways in which contemporary literary theories challenge us to rethink the acts of reading, writing, and interpretation.

Wilkie Collins is the only leading Victorian novelist whose letters have not been published. This two-volume edition, edited by William Baker and William Clarke, fills a gaping hole in any assessment of one of the nineteenth century's most loved novelists. It is also extremely timely. Two recent biographies have re-assessed his private life and his literary achievements. His best-known novels, The Women in White and The Moonstone , continue to feature on television, and most of his thirty-odd novels are still in print. This authorised edition reproduces his selection of around 700 key letters of the 2,000 known to be in existence, some recently discovered. Summaries and sources of the remaining letters are provided in an appendix.

A wide-ranging survey of critical responses to Shakespeare's masterpiece. The Merchant of Venice has always been one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. However, the critical tradition reveals sharply divided opinions, reflecting the tremendous capacity of the play to provoke discussion among its readers and audiences. This volume collects the work of over seventy commentators writing between 1775 and 1939 (when the first signs of Nazi anti-Semitism are noted). They include well-known critics and scholars, such as Hazlitt, Ruskin, Furnivall, Brandes, Moulton, Stoll, Spurgeon, Wilson Knight and Middleton Murry, but also little-known writers who addressed the Jewish issues in the play with some authority: George Farren, Israel Davis, Sidney Lee, Charles Salaman, 'El Seyonpi', F. S. Boas, Israel Gollancz, Gerald Friedlander, and Cecil Roth. In addition, reflecting the play's great popularity in the theatre, this collection documents four celebrated interpretations of Shylock (Macklin, Kean, Edwin Booth, and Henry Irving), and two of Portia (Helen Faucit, Ellen Terry).

Supplemented with useful and wide-ranging author and subject indexes, this bibliography surveys the enormous quantity of books published on language and literature between 1989 and 1995. In addition to its emphasis upon the multiculturalism and interdisciplinarity that mark contemporary literature study, this volume assembles a host of scholarly works from a broad range of discourses and genres, including cultural studies, philosophy, anthropology, women's studies, theology, linguistics, popular culture, political science, psychology, sociology, biology, and other fields. Entries are grouped in topical chapters for ease of use, and each entry includes a descriptive annotation.

The remarkable range of books assembled in this bibliography demonstrates the ways in which literary theory and criticism make and remake themselves in an enduring effort both to challenge and understand the boundaries and interconnections that simultaneously exist between language and literary study. In addition to its emphasis upon the multiculturalism and interdisciplinarity that mark contemporary literary study, this volume surveys nearly 2000 works from a broad range of discourses and genres, including cultural studies, philosophy, anthropology, women's studies, theology, linguistics, popular culture, political science, psychology, sociology, biology, and other fields.

Entries are included for scholarly books that employ varied critical methods, and the volume as a whole shows the many applications of critical theory to language and literary study. The work is divided into seven broad topical chapters, with each entry in a chapter providing a summary of the book's content. Fully indexed, the work serves the research needs of students and advanced scholars alike. A valuable research tool, the volume allows users to access a broad range of applications of critical theory to literary study, from a diversity of national literatures and genres to autobiography, biography, gender studies, and cultural investigations.

Wilkie Collins is the only leading Victorian novelist whose letters have not been published. This two-volume edition will thus fill a gaping hole in any assessment of one of the nineteenth century's most loved novelists. It is also extremely timely. Two recent biographies have re-assessed his private life and his literary achievements. His best known novels, The Woman in White and The Moonstone, continue to feature on television, and most of his thirty-odd novels are in print. This authorized edition covers more than 2,000 of Collins' letters.

Most analyses of Egyptian politics present the limitations and failures of official political life as the complete story of politics in Egypt. Raymond Baker's direct observation of Egyptian politics has convinced him that alternative political groups have sustained themselves and carved out spaces for promising political action despite official efforts at containment.

In this compelling study, Baker recreates the public worlds of eight groups on the periphery of Egyptian politics. They range in their political stances from Communists to the Muslim Brothers and include shifting clusters of critical intellectuals who gather around influential journals or in research centers, as well as the quiescent aestheticists of the Wissa Wassef community. Taken together, the experiences of Egyptians in alternative groups reveal that Egyptians are more than the objects of diverse external pressures and more than the sufferers from multiple internal problems. They are also creative political actors who have stories to tell about the human potential to struggle for humane values and goals in the modern world.

In examining Egypt from the margins rather than from the center, Baker proposes a new direction for Third World political studies. He suggests a way out of the impasse in the current development literature, which is fixed on a scientific study of causes and determinants, by focusing on actual political struggles and alternative political visions.

This is a concise, accessible introduction to Shakespeare's life and work which focuses on what we know, assessing the differing theories and avoiding speculation. William Shakespeare's work and life have proved endlessly fascinating to generations of readers. However, it can be difficult to find a way through the mass of differing interpretations of his work and speculation about his life. This book offers a reassessment of Shakespeare and his creative output from his earliest work through his 'mature' drama and the late plays, taking into account our current knowledge of Shakespeare's biography and consensus on key textual, critical and theatrical issues. William Baker offers a comprehensive but accessible introduction to Shakespeare's work and places it in the contexts of what is known of his life and activities. Avoiding speculation of a biographical, critical or textual nature, he focuses instead on an account of what is known of Shakespeare and his achievement at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. This is a concise, accessible introductions to major writers focusing equally on their life and works. Written in a lively style to appeal to both students and readers, books in the series are ideal guides to authors and their writing.

First published in 1973 Critics on George Eliot brings together a selection of the best critical essays and discussions on the novels of George Eliot, including many that are not easily available outside well established and comprehensive libraries. The selection covers the whole range of George Eliot's work, and by setting different critical points of view side by side helps the student to find a position of her own. The intention is not to limit the student's critical reading to one small volume, but to stimulate to explore the critics more widely for herself and to read the novels again with greater understanding, and pleasure. This is a must read for students of English literature.

Victorian novels remain enormously popular today: some continue to be made into films, while authors such as Charles Dickens and George Eliot are firmly established in the canon and taught at all levels. These works have also attracted a great deal of critical attention, with much current scholarship examining the novel in relation to its historical, political, and cultural contexts. This reference book is an introductory guide to the Victorian novel, its background, and its legacy. Each chapter is written by an expert contributor and offers a fresh account of past, current, and new directions in scholarship.

The volume is divided into several broad sections, with chapters in each section treating more specialized topics. The first section looks at the emergence of the Victorian novel and its literary precursors, with particular emphasis on the growth of serialization and the development of the novel of syndication. The second explores significant social and cultural facets of nineteenth-century British literature, while the third discusses the principal features of different genres, such as ghost stories, the Gothic, detective fiction, the social problem novel, and contemporary film adaptations. Individual authors are examined in the fourth section, while the fifth overviews various critical approaches and their application to nineteenth-century fiction.

Pinter's World: Pinter and Company is not a full-scale biography but a series of illuminating chapters about Pinter's life, character, and thought, employing new information found in his "Appointment Diaries," recent biographical sources such as Simon Gray's memoirs, and Henry Woolf's reminiscences in addition to personal discussions with several in Pinter's world. This book provides a fresh illumination of Pinter's life and art, his friendships, obsessions, and concerns.Material is arranged around themes, key concerns, Pinter's activities. Pinter's meetings and endeavors, for instance, with whom he met and when, when he wrote what and when, and his perspective at the time are documented. This work explores Pinter's writing: drama, poetry, prose, journalism, and letters, which are here regarded as part of his aesthetic achievement. Pinter's World: Pinter and Company presents a pointillist portrait of him through examining central concerns in his life. These encompass an obsession with the theater and games; delight in restaurants, demonstrating that Pinter is far removed from the socially awkward isolated figures populating his early work; and the women in Pinter's world. Other areas examined include Pinter's political engagement, from his adolescence to his last years, and the literary and other creative influences upon him. This work draws upon consultation of his papers at the British Library, including letters to others, especially close friends with whom he kept close contact for over half a century. These letters should be regarded on par with his other creative accomplishments. Pinter was a fascinating letter writer, whose letters reveal thoughts at the time of writing often in abrupt most colorful idiomatic language. His "Appointment Diaries" cannot reveal what actually occurred during his meetings, but they do provide a guide to what he did on a daily basis and whom he met. Memories from his friends, his professional colleagues, cricket players, and his second wife, Antonia Fraser, illuminate Pinter's personality and actions. Pinter's first literary love was poetry and, unlike most other Pinter studies, this one gives attention to his neglected poetic output that often reveals the real Pinter and the enigma that is at the heart of every great artist.

Authors William Baker and Michael O'Malley teach readers that--far from popular media portrayals of corporate callousness--kindness has a very distinct and essential place in the office. Without presenting a naive idea of kindness, this eye-opening book identifies the surprising attributes successful and resoundingly kind leaders share--revealing how traits like sincerity, honesty, and respect can benefit organizations and help them to thrive. In Leading With Kindness, readers will learn how to apply these lessons in their own workplace, gaining tips for how to: motivate employees, committee members, and others; recognize unique talents while nurturing all employees; establish a supportive environment; spur continuous organizational growth; adapt to change; and prepare the next generation of leaders. Subtly and very effectively, a gentler, more human conception of leadership has become the gold standard for excellence. This insightful and refreshing book shows leaders how they can leverage the deceptively complex notion of kindness as guiding principle to lead more effectively.

This is the first book-length study of the work of contemporary writer Bernard Kops. Born on November 28, 1926 to Dutch-Jewish immigrants, Bernard Kops became famous after the production of his play The Hamlet of Stepney Green: A Sad Comedy with Some Songs in 1958. This play, like much of his work, focuses on the conflicts between young and old. Identified as an "angry young man," Kops, like his contemporaries John Osborne, Shelagh Delaney, and Harold Pinter, belonged to the so-called new wave of British drama that emerged in the mid-1950s. Kops went on to create important documentaries about the Blitz and living in London during the early 1940s. He has written two autobiographies, over ten novels, many journalistic pieces, and more than forty plays for TV, stage, and radio. A prolific poet, Kops has authored a long pamphlet poem and eight poetry collections. Now in his mid-80s, the prolific and versatile Kops still produces, his creativity undimmed by age.

This collection of essays by international scholars celebrates the 200th anniversary of Wilkie Collins's birth by exploring his unconventional life alongside his works, critical responses to his writings and their afterlife, and the literary and cultural contexts which shaped his fiction. Topics discussed include gender, science and medicine, music, law, race and empire, media adaptations, neo-Victorianism, disability, and ethics. Along with an analysis of his novels, the essays included also recognize the importance of his short stories, journalism, and contributions to Victorian theatre, most notably illuminating the strong connections between sensation fiction and melodrama, as well as exploring his influence on film and TV. Engaging with yet also delving far beyond the famous novels, this volume promotes awareness of Collins' remarkable and diverse writerly achievements and paints a vivid portrait of an author whose fluctuating reputation among contemporary critics stands in stark contrast to his immense and still-enduring popularity.

Considers the reputations and biographical portrayal of three innovative and controversial writers: Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Wilkie Collins and William Thackeray. These anthologies of contemporary biographical material shed light on the processes at work in the establishment of a public image and a critical reputation.

Considers the reputations and biographical portrayal of three innovative and controversial writers: Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Wilkie Collins and William Thackeray. These anthologies of contemporary biographical material shed light on the processes at work in the establishment of a public image and a critical reputation.