MR James is probably the finest ghost-story writer England has ever produced These tales are not only classics of their genre but are also superb examples of beautifully-paced understatement convincing background & chilling terror As well as the preface there is a fascinating tail-piece by MR James Stories I Have Tried To Write' which accompanies these thirty tales Among them are Casting the Runes' Oh Whistle & I'll come to you My Lad' The Tractate
- h' The Ash Tree' & Canon Alberic's Scrapbook' There are some authors one wishes one had never read in order to have the joy of reading them for the first time For me MR James is one of these' Ruth Rendell
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'I was conscious of a most horrible smell of mould & of a cold kind of face pressed against my own' Considered by many to be the most terrifying writer in English M R James was an eminent scholar who spent his entire adult life in the academic surroundings of Eton & Cambridge His classic supernatural tales draw on the terrors of the everyday in which documents & objects unleash terrible forces often in closed rooms & night-time settings where imagination runs riot Lonely country houses remote inns ancient churches or the manuscript collections of great libraries provide settings for unbearable menace from creatures seeking retribution & harm These stories have lost none of their power to unsettle & disturb This edition presents all of James's published ghost stories including the unforgettable ' Oh Whistle & I'll Come to You My Lad' & ' Casting the Runes' & an appendix of James's writings on the ghost story Darryl Jones's introduction & notes provide a fascinating insight into James's background & his mastery of the genre he made his own ABOUT THE SERIES For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more ...

This trade paperback reprints issues 13-15 of the magazine for Kirby fans &

Includes:: a new special section

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This seventh trade paperback completes the compilations of the first thirty regular-size issues of The Jack Kirby Collector the critically acclaimed magazine about Kirby's life & career This volume reprints Jack Kirby Collector 27-30 with in-depth looks at Jack's 1970s Marvel Comics work & his '80s work in comics & animation plus a special two-part focus on how widespread Kirby's influence is! It features rare interviews with Kirby himself plus new interviews with Watchmen's Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons Neil Gaiman Bone's Jeff Smith Mark Luke Skywalker Hamill & others! See page-after-page of rare Kirby art including a new special section with over 30 pieces of Kirby art never before published & more! ...

' Each year Eliot's presence reasserts itself at a deeper level to an audience that is surprised to find itself more chastened more astonished more humble' Ted Hughes Poet dramatist critic & editor T S Eliot was one of the defining figures of twentieth-century poetry This edition of Collected Poems 1909-1962

Includes:: his verse from Prufrock & Other Observations (1917) to Four Quartets (1943) &

Includes:: such literary landmarks as The Waste Land & Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats



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This comprehensive volume contains all Sylvia Plath&s mature poetry written from 1956 up to her death in 1963 The poems are drawn from the only collection Plath published while alive The Colossus as well as from posthumous collections Ariel Crossing the Water & Winter Trees The text is preceded by an introduction by Ted Hughes & followed by notes & comments on individual poems There is also an appendix containing fifty poems from Sylvia Plath&s juvenilia This collection was awarded the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for poetry& For me the most important literary event of 1981 has been the publication eighteen years after her death of Sylvia Plath&s Collected Poems confirming her as one of the most powerful & lavishly gifted poets of our time& A Alvarez in the Observer ...

With an Introduction Notes & Bibliography by Anne Varty Royal Holloway University of London WILDE GLAMOROUS & NOTORIUS more famous as a playwright or prisoner than as a poet invites readers of his verse to meet an unknown & intimate figure The poetry of his formative years

Includes:: the haunting elegy to his young sister & the grieving lyric at the death of his father The religious drama of his romance with Rome is captured here as well as its resolution in his renewed love of ancient Greece He explores forbidden sexual desires pays homage to the great theatre stars & poets of his day observes cityscapes with impressionist intensity His final masterpiece The Ballad of Reading Gaol tells the painful story of his own prison experience & calls for universal compassion This edition of Wilde's verse presents the full range of his achievement as a poet

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With an Introduction by Donald Mc Farlan Robert Burns the most celebrated of all Scottish poets is remembered with great devotion
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Introduction & Notes by RT Jones Honorary Fellow of the University of York This edition of the poetry of Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

Includes:: all the poems contained in the Definitive Edition of 1940 In his lifetime Kipling was widely regarded as the unofficial Poet Laureate & he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907 His poetry is striking for its many rhythms & popular forms of speech & Kipling was equally at home with dramatic monologues & extended ballads He is often thought of as glorifying war militarism & the British Empire but an attentive reading of the poems does not confirm that view This edition reprints George Orwell's hard-hitting account of Kipling's poems first published in 1942 & generally regarded as one of the most important contributions to critical discussion of Kipling

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It was as a poet that Samuel Beckett launched himself in the little reviews of 1930s Paris & as a poet that he ended his career The Collected Poems is the most complete edition of Beckett's poetry & verse translations ever to be published as well as the first critical edition It establishes a significant new canon & the commentary draws on a wide range of published sources manuscripts & Beckett's extensive correspondence The notes place each poem in context detailing the history & circumstances of its composition; they indicate significant variants & help explain obscure turns of phrase & allusions (frequently sourced to Beckett's notebooks); they also identify resonances between poems & across Beckett's work as a whole The commentary is written in a lively & engaging style & is intended equally for the general reader the student of modernism & the Beckett specialist ...