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The POWER OF IDEAS shows
Isaiah Berlin at his most
lucide and accessible. He
was constitutionally
incapable of writing with
the opacity of the
specialist, but these
shorter, more
introductory pieces
provide the perfect
starting-point for the
reader new to his work.
Those who are aleady
familiar with his writing
will also be grateful for
this further addition to
his collected essays. The
linking theme, as in the
case of earlier volumes,
is the crucial social and
political role - past
present and future - of
ideas, and of their
progenitors. Among the
contents are 'MY
INTELLECTUAL PATH'
Berlin's last essay, a
retrospective
authobiographical survey
of his main
preoccupations' and
Jewish Slavery and
Emancipation', the
classic statement of his
Zionist views, which his
readers have long wanted
to see reprinted. The
book exhibits the full
range of his enormously
wide expertise, and
demonstrates the striking
and enormously engaging
individuality, as well
as the power, of his own
ideas.
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Fiction and the Reading
Public provoked fierce
controvers when first
published in 1932, and
it has since come to be
recognised as a classic
in its field. In her
fascinating study, Q D
Leavis investigates what
has happened to the
public taste in the last
three centuries and what
effect this has had on
both the life of the
nation and the equality
of living for the
individual. A brilliant
piece of literary
exegesis and an
illuminating
anthropological
commentary - DAILY MAIL
An illuminating study...
it offers a rich store of
interest, not only in
its vigorous scrutiny of
the novel and the
influences which have
shaped it, but also in
its study of changing
attitudes and tempos of
life amont the general
public who read novels...
An achievement of
distinguished quality and
high value. New Republic.
She has performed a noble
office by inquiring into
the case of the
bestseller. The result is
no less entertaining than
instructive -SATURDAY
REVIEW.
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Anne Enright, one of
Ireland's most remarkable
writers, has just had
two babies: a girl and a
boy. Her new book,
Making Babies, is
the intimate, engaging,
and very funny record of
the journey from early
pregnancy to age two.
Written in dispatches,
typed with a sleeping
baby in the room, it has
the rush of good news -
full of the mess, the
glory, and the raw shock
of it all. An antidote to
the high-minded,
polemical 'How-to' baby
manuals, Making
Babies also bears a
visceral and dreamlike
witness to the first
years of parenthood. Anne
Enright wrote the truth
of it as it happened,
because, for these
months and years, it is
impossible for a woman to
lie.
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In this series of moving
recollections involving
both his childhood and
his work as a mature
artist, John Fowles
explains the impact of
nature on his life and
the dangers inherent in
our traditional urge to
categorise, to tame and
ultimately to possess the
landscape. This
acquisitive drive leads
to alienation and an
antagonism to the
apparent disorder and
randomness of the natural
world. For John Fowles
the tree is the best
analogue of prose
fiction, symbolising the
wild side of our psyche,
and he stresses the
importance in art of the
unpredictable, the
unaccountable and the
intuitive. This
fascinating text gives a
unique insight into the
author and offers the key
to a true understanding
of the inspiration for
his work.
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Selected Writings
includes the bext of
Richard Mabey's important
and wide-ranging
journalism, from nature
diaries to writings on
travel and environmental
art, to full-blown
investigations of
forestry, farmi ng and
developmental scandals.
We meet flamingos in the
Camargue flamenco singers
in Extremaduran cork-oak
forest; the sculptor
David Nash's 'Wooden
Boulder' and the
biologist James
Lovelock's theory of
Gaia; the grim
environmental imagery of
the Gulf War and the
inspiration of the
recovery of our woodland
from the devastation of
the great storms of 1987
and 1990: an archetypal
village in Middle
England, and the teeming
cosmopolitan wildlife of
London's East End.
Through the many
disparate pieces run the
common threads of
creativity and autonomy
of nature, the
importance of the sense
of locality, and our
thraldom to the seasons.
And as the national
debate about the future
of the coutnryside moves
ever more centre stage,
so the themes which have
been explored in Mabey's
writings take on a new
relevance.
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Anne Enright, one of
Ireland's most remarkable
writers, has just had
two babies: a girl and a
boy. Her new book,
Making Babies, is
the intimate, engaging,
and very funny record of
the journey from early
pregnancy to age two.
Written in dispatches,
typed with a sleeping
baby in the room, it has
the rush of good news -
full of the mess, the
glory, and the raw shock
of it all. An antidote to
the high-minded,
polemical 'How-to' baby
manuals, Making
Babies also bears a
visceral and dreamlike
witness to the first
years of parenthood. Anne
Enright wrote the truth
of it as it happened,
because, for these
months and years, it is
impossible for a woman to
lie.
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In these brilliant and
illuminating essays,
Amos Oz brings his
experience as a novelist,
teacher and critic to
bear on the different
ways in which writers
enter into this strange
and seductive contract
with readers.Analysing in
detail the opening
sections of novels and
stories by such writers
as Chekhov, Kafka,
Gogol, Garcia Márquez
and Raymond Carver, and
with reference to a range
of classics of world
literature, Oz explores
how writers reel the
reader in. THE STORY
BEGINS is an accessible,
valuable and entertaining
companion for students
and lovers of literature
which takes us into the
head of the writer, to
relish the creative
process and, above all,
to reclaim the pure
pleasure of reading.
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From 1892, when he was
eighteen, until 1949,
when this book was first
published, Somerset
Maugham kept a notebook.
It is without doubt one
of his most important
works. Part
autobiographical, part
confessional, packed
with observations,
confidences, experiments
and jottings it is a rich
and exhilarating
admission into this great
writer's workshop
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Published for the first
time, UP IN THE AIR is a
collection of film
scripts by one of
Britain's most original
and innovative
film-makers. It includes
AKENATEN (1976), JUBILEE
(1977), BOP UP A DOWN
(1981), B-MOVIE: LITTLE
ENGLAND/A TIME FOR HOPE
(1981), NEUTRON (1983),
and SOD'EM (1986). With
an introduction by
Michael O'Prey.
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Kafka was an obsessive
writer who produced a
huge volume of stories,
novels, diaries and
letters in his brief
lifetime. The present
volume includes all his
available shorter fiction
in a new collection
edited and introduced by
Gabriel Josipovici. The
stories, which range
from tiny fragments to
substantial narratives,
have been arranged both
to illuminate one another
and to illustrate Kafka's
evolution as a writer -
which, as Professor
Josipovici shows, is
more complex and radical
than often thought. The
extensive prefatory essay
is an introduction not
only to the stories but
also to Kafka's work as a
whole.
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From 1892, when he was
eighteen, until 1949,
when this book was first
published, Somerset
Maugham kept a notebook.
It is without doubt one
of his most important
works. Part
autobiographical, part
confessional, packed
with observations,
confidences, experiments
and jottings it is a rich
and exhilarating
admission into this great
writer's workshop
Availability: In Stock
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Available
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Ogres and giants,
bogeymen and bugaboos
embody some of our
deepest fears,
dominating popular
fiction, from tales such
as 'Jack the Giant
Killer' to the cannibal
monster Hannibal Lecter,
from the Titans of Greek
mythology to the
dinosaurs of JURASSIC
PARK, from Frankenstein
TO MEN IN BLACK.
Following her brilliant
study of fairy tales,
FROM THE BEAST TO THE
BLONDE, Marina Warner's
rich, enthralling new
book explores the ever
increasing presence of
such figures of male
terror, and the
strategems we invent to
allay the monsters we
conjure up -from horror
stories to lullabies and
jokes. Travelling from
ogres to cradle songs,
from bananas to
cannibals, Warner traces
the roots of our
commonest anxieties,
unravelling with vigorous
intelligence, creative
originality and relish,
the myths and fears which
define our sensibilites.
Illustrated with a wealth
of images - from the
beautiful and the bizarre
to the downright scary
-this is a tour de force
of scholarship and
imagination.
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George Canning describes
his maiden speech in
1974, Benjamin Disraeli
the vote that brought
down Sir Robert Peel's
administration in 1845.
William Jerdan witnesses
the assassination of a
prime minister, Spencer
Percival, in 1812,
whilst diaries such as
Charles Greville, Harold
Nicolson and 'Chips'
Channon record their time
as MPs. The old
refreshment parlour,
Bellamy's Kitchen, is
described by Charles
Dickens, and other
visitors include Thomas
Carlyle, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Virginia
Woolf and George Orwell.
Here also, are writings
by leser-known
individuals, containing
witty, dramatic or
moving reflections on an
institution whose wealth
of history and tradition
ia as absorbing as it is
unique.
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This selection of Bowen's
non-fictional writings
includes her wonderfully
funny, precise
recollections of
schooldays and childhood
experiences, her
brilliant evocations of
London in wartime and of
the Irish 'big house',
and penetrating accounts
of some of her most
famous contemporaries. It
also contains her
autobiography,
posthumously published
and left tantalising
unfinished, a little
known portrait of a
beloved family servant,
and unpublished letters
to close friends as
Virginia Woolf and
William Plomer, written
with as much elegance and
energy as her 'public'
writing. In her
introduction, Hermoine
Lee shows how these
writings display the same
interests as Elizabeth
Bowen's fiction - in
Anglo-Irish dispossession
and ambivalence, in the
persistence of chilhood
feelings, in treachery,
ghosts, and the
mysterious power of
place, the lure of
nostalgia, and the clash
between individual and
society.
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Ancient Athens produced
three great tragic
writers - Aeschylus,
Sophocles and Euripides.
Of the three Sophocles
has in many ways remained
the most accessible and
may have had the most
extensive influence on
Western Culture, not
least because Freud took
from the Theban Plays the
name and the idea of the
Oedipus complex. Of
Sophocles' hundred odd
plays only seven have
survived, of which three
are printed here. The
Theban Plays make up a
trilogy as was common at
the time, in which the
story of Oedipus'
downfall and its
aftermath is explored in
three stages.
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Byron's poetry took
Europe by storm in the
early nineteenth century
and the poems which made
him a star are here
represented by a
selection of the early
lyrics, including still
popular pieces such as
'She walks in beauty' and
'We'll go a no more
a-roving'. But Byron's
real talent was for
comedy. He is the
greatest comic poet of
the Romantic movement and
his comic verse is here
represented by BEPPO, A
VISION OF JUDGEMENT and
selections from his
greatest masterpiece,
DON JUAN, which
satirizes the very
reputation for amourous
adventures which helped
to make Byron himself
famous.
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In this absorbing series
of essays Michael Wood
probes and plays with the
dilemmas of twentieth
century fiction - the
myth of lost paradise,
lost certainties, the
suspension between
contrary ideals, the
lure of fantasy, the
quest for the silence
beneath speech. Wood's
net is cast wide, from
fables to novels, and he
takes due account of
personal and political
context and of wider
cultural and critical
currents, noting
fiction's swerving
resistance to `history'.
A superb essay on Roland
Barthes is juxtaposed
with a dissection of
Beckett's prose comedy;
an investigation of three
Cuban writers -Cortazar,
Cabrera Infante and
Arenas - is followed by
illuminating essays on
Milan Kundera and Italo
Calvino. In the second
half of the book, the
exploration of time,
form and fantasy, and of
the break with modernism,
continues in studies of
Garcia Marquez, Toni
Morrison, Angela Carter,
Kazuo Ishiguro, Salman
Rushdie, Paul Auster and
Jeanette Winterson. Rich
with pleasures, spiked
with insights,
provocative and
satisfying, this is one
of the most exciting
explorations of
contemporary literature
in recent years.
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This edition prints all
three parts of Dante's
great poem about the
journey of the soul -
INFERNO, PURGATORIO and
PARADISO - in the recent
English translation by
Allen Mandelbaum, with
an introduction and
explanatory notes on each
canto by the noted Dante
scholar, Peter Armour.
This is the only
reasonably priced
hardback edition of one
of the world's greatest
masterworks and should
prove to be the most
accessible for students
and general readers
alike. It includes
Botticelli's glorious and
relatively unknown
illustrations of THE
DIVINE COMEDY, drawn in
the 1480s.
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Franz Kafka spent eight
months at his sister's
house in Zürau between
September 1917 and April
1918, enduring the onset
of tuberculosis. Illness
paradoxically set him
free to write, in a
series of philosophical
fragments, his settling
of accounts with life,
marriage, his family,
guilt and man
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Franz Kafka spent eight
months at his sister's
house in Zürau between
September 1917 and April
1918, enduring the onset
of tuberculosis. Illness
paradoxically set him
free to write, in a
series of philosophical
fragments, his settling
of accounts with life,
marriage, his family,
guilt and man
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'This brilliant
collection of essays
should be a feast for his
admirers, as well as for
those who approach his
dazzling oeuvre for the
first time-Calvino is not
only constantly and
supremely intelligent; he
is constantly and
supremely faithful to his
narrative imagination'
Guardian
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The setting is the
seashore and as the
author picks up shells
she reflects how each
symbolizes a facet of her
development as a woman
from young love to middle
age and studies the ebb
and flow of human
relationships and upholds
the importance of the
free and individual
spirit of woman and man.
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From his birth in 1923 to
his belated paternity and
public apotheosis as a
spry septuagenarian in
1999, Bech plugs away,
globetrotting in the
company of foreign
dignitaries one day and
schlepping in tattered
tweeds on the college
lecture circuit the next.
By turns cynical and naÃ
ve, wry and avuncular,
and always amorous, he
is Updike
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Wild Mind is for
everyone who writes or
wants to write. Natalie
Goldberg teaches a
Zen-like
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'By the year 2000 the
term 'working class' had
fallen into disuse in the
United States, and
'proletariat' was so
obsolete it was known
only to a few bitter
Marxist academics with
wire hair sprouting out
of their ears. The
average electrician,
air-conditioning mechanic
or burglar-alarm
repairman lived a life
that would have made the
Sun King blink...''So
begins 'Hooking Up', the
first of the brilliant
pieces in Tom Wolfe's new
collection. Wolfe ranges
from coast to coast
chronicling everything
from the sexual mores of
teenagers to fundamental
changes in the way human
beings now regard
themselves, thanks to
the hot new fields of
genetics and
neuroscience.Hooking Up
also includes Ambush at
Fort Bragg, Wolfe's
novella about 'sting TV',
and 'U.R. Here', a
story about a New York
artist who triumphs
precisely because of his
total lack of
talent.Funny, often
savagely so,
hard-hitting, wise,
Wolfe remains a unique
chronicler of America,
and its future in a new
age.
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The setting is the
seashore and as the
author picks up shells
she reflects how each
symbolizes a facet of her
development as a woman
from young love to middle
age and studies the ebb
and flow of human
relationships and upholds
the importance of the
free and individual
spirit of woman and man.
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Among Shakespear's many
biographers none brings
to his subject more
passion and feeling for
the creative act than
Anthony Burgess. He
breathes life into
Shakespear the man and
invigorates his times.
His portrait of the age
builds upon an almost
personal tenderness for
Shakespear and his
contemporaries
(especially Ben Jonson),
and on a profound sense
of literary and
theatrical history.
Anthony Burgess's
well-known delight in
language infuses his own
writing about
Shakespear's works. And
in the verve of his
biography he conveys the
energy of the Elizabethan
age.
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These interlocking essays
uncover art as an active
force in the world -
neither elitist or
remote, present to those
who want it, affecting
even those who don't.
Winterson's own
passionate vision of art
is presented here -
provocatively and
personally in pieces on
Modernism,
autobiography, style,
painting, the future of
fiction, in two essays
on Virginia Woolf, and
more intimately in pieces
where she describes her
relationship to her work
and the books that she
loves.
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