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Ireland played the central role in maintaining European culture when the dark ages settled on Europe in the fifth century: as Rome was sacked by Visigoths and its empire collapsed,...

Britain's greatest Shakespearean actor reveals her secrets in a series of intimate conversations Taking a curtain call with a live snake in her wig; cavorting naked through the countryside painted...

From a renowned scholar and translator, the definitive translation of Aesop's Fables Aesop's fables are among the most familiar and best-loved stories in the world. Tales like "The Tortoise and...

English has borrowed more words from French than from any other modern foreign language. French words and phrases-such as a la mode, ennui, naivete and caprice-lend English a certain je-ne-sais-quoi...

In this biography of W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) the author shows him through a life of tumultuous creativity through which he strove to bring new meaning to poetry, vision and politics....

The letters of a great English writer 'Of all the novelists in English of the last quarter-century, Penelope Fitzgerald has the most unarguable claim on greatness.' Philip Hensher * Penelope...

Keeping track of contemporary writing can be difficult. What are the recent developments in Chinese or Israeli fiction? What has happened to poetry in Russia since the fall of Communism?...

This is a new edition of the first volume of the biography of the poet Robert Graves, giving an account of his early development. The author - the poet's nephew,...

This definitive handbook, written by one of the world's leading authorities on C.S. Lewis, is a meticulous, informative and enjoyable resource for study and general reference. It includes: A chronology...

Winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Best Biographical Work, this is "an excellent biography of the man who created Sherlock Holmes" (David Walton, The New York Times Book Review)...

Rosamund Bartlett is steeped in Chekhov's writings, having worked as a translator and lecturer on the culture and history of nineteenth-century Russia. She has written not simply another biography of...

Michael Holroyd opens this volume with a startling attack on biography, which is answered by two essays on the ethics and values of non-fiction writing. The book then goes on...

Now revised and expanded for its first paperback publication, The Life of Crime was the winner of four major prizes for the best critical/biographical book related to crime fiction: the...

Roy Fuller combines three volumes of his memoirs - "Souvenirs", "Vamp Till Ready" and "Home and Dry" - which together span three decades of his life. They cover his childhood,...

John Bunyan was a major figure in seventeenth-century Puritan literature, and one deeply embroiled in the religious upheavals of his times. This Companion considers all his major texts, including The...

This book, first full-length study of this often undervalued play, argues for a new appreciation of the power of its rhetoric, the subtlety of its characterization, and the beauty of...

A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the best loved of Shakepeare's plays. It brings together aristocrats, workers, and fairies in a wood outside Athens, and from there the enchantment begins....

A beautiful, thoughtful guide to finding your perfect next read, no matter what life's throwing at you, from the founder of Aphra a.k.a. 'your inclusive AF feminist book club' Through...

Includes poetry from twelve countries where English is spoken: Ireland, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Nigeria, India, Uganda, Barbados, Trinidad and South Africa. Published:...

This second entry offers the same beautiful and daring mix of forbidden art (paintings, lithographs, drawings, watercolors, and photographs--many by masters of the form) with excerpts from banned books (the...

Organized as a field guide, a literary anthology filled with classic and contemporary poems and essays inspired by wildflowers-perfect for writers, artists, and botanists alikeAmerican Wildflowers: A Literary Field Guide...

I've been writing novels for over fifty years. I was lucky enough to miss the big wars and not get shot, but lucky enough to grow up among the heroes...

'Truly marvellous. I cannot think of a better life of Jane Austen than Claire Tomalin's' Philip Hensher Claire Tomalin brings her extraordinary gifts of scholarship, fluent writing and empathy for...

A witty introduction to the mind of Goethe, a classic in a new translation for the first time in 150 years Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was the world's most celebrated...

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Storyland and Wild , comes a sweeping new legendary of miracles, magic, human frailty and heroic strength. I llustrated with over thirty original...

'A lively picture of multiple operators scrambling to steal a march on the competition . . . Lavishly detailed' FINANCIAL TIMES 'This is Shakespearean scholarship at its best, brilliantly researched...

A bold and expansive history that traces the changing and contested project of Australia's national story. You will think about this country differently after reading this book. 'Clark brings a...

Thoughts and advice on the creative writing process from an international master of literature. Words have power. Yet that power must be rooted in truth and justice. Words must never...

A thrilling study of the greatest of all epic poems, by one of the world's leading classicists Homer's Iliad is the famous epic poem set among the tales of Troy....

From the acclaimed author of The Most Dangerous Book, the true story behind the creation of another masterpiece of world literature, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment In the summer of...

'Somebody must have laid false information against Josef K., for he was arrested one morning without having done anything wrong.' From this first sentence onwards, Josef K. is on trial...

A View from the Bridge is a tragic masterpiece of the inexorable unravelling of a man Eddie Carbone is a longshoreman and a straightforward man, with a strong sense of...

For Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas, life in Paris was based upon the rue de Fleurus and the Saturday evenings and 'it was like a kaleidoscope slowly...

A major new translation by award-winning poet and translator David Constantine that captures the lyrical liveliness of Goethe's original. Goethe's Faust reworks the late-medieval myth of Dr Faust, a brilliant...

Penguin Classics relaunch The work of a young novelist at the height of his powers, NICHOLAS NICKLEBY is one of the touchstones of the English comic novel. Around the central...

Clarissa is one of the grand masterpieces of European literature Pressured by her unscrupulous family to marry a wealthy man she detests, the young Clarissa Harlowe is tricked into fleeing...

A landmark in Boswell and Johnson studies In Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, one of the towering figures of English literature is revealed with unparalleled immediacy and originality, in a...

An essential new translation of the author's complete, uncensored diaries - revealing the idiosyncrasies and rough edges of one of the twentieth century's most influential writers Dating from 1909 to...

Part of a series of new editions of DH Lawrence's most famous novels, stories and poems In these impressions of the Italian countryside, Lawrence transforms ordinary incidents into passages of...

Beautifully designed, clothbound edition Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth...

In these groundbreaking studies, Sontag strips away the myths that surround the two most stigmatized diseases of our time Sontag wrote Illness as Metaphor in 1978, while suffering from breast...

Brings together the major writings of the great Italian philosopher. In his reflections on Christianity, Saint Thomas Aquinas forged a unique synthesis of ancient philosophy and medieval theology. Preoccupied with...

A unique behind-the-scenes story of love, sisterhood and the trail-blazing Australian poet Dorothy Porter Dorothy Porter was one of Australia's most charismatic and courageous literary figures. Achieving broader fame through...