Wilde was both a glittering wordsmith & a social outsider. His drama emerges out of these two perhaps contradictory identities combining epigrammatic brilliance & shrewd social observation.

Includes:: Lady Windermeres Fan" " Salome" "A Woman of No Importance" " An Ideal Husband" "A Florentine Tragedy" & " The Importance of Being Earnest" which appears in full with the " Grigsby" scene which originally made up the fourth act."

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Oscar Wilde was already one of the best known literary figures in Britain when he was persuaded to turn his extraordinary talents to the theatre. Between 1891 & 1895 he produced a sequence of distinctive plays which spearheaded the dramatic renaissance of the 1890s & retain their power today. The social comedies Lady Windermere's Fan A Woman of No Importance & An Ideal Husband offer a moving as well as witty dissection of society & its morals with a sharp focus on sexual politics. By contrast the experimental symbolist Salome written originally in French was banned for public performance by the English censor. His final dramatic triumph was his 'trivial' comedy for serious people The Importance of Being Earnest' arguably the greatest farcical comedy in English. Under the General Editorship of Dr Michael Cordner of the University of York the texts of the plays have been newly edited & are presented with modernized spelling & punctuation. In addition there is a scholarly introduction & detailed annotation. 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. ...

A brilliant novel by Laurie Graham set in wartime London which follows Kick Kennedy sister of future US President JFK as she takes London society by storm. Nora Brennan is a country girl from Westmeath. When she lands herself a position as nursery maid to a family in Brookline Massachusetts she little thinks it will place her at the heart of American history. But its the Kennedy family. In 1917 Joseph Kennedy is on his way to his first million & he has plans to found a dynasty & ensure that his baby son Joe Junior will be the first Catholic President of the United States. As nursemaid to all nine Kennedy children Nora witnesses every moment public & private. She sees the boys coached at their fathers knee to believe everything theyll ever want in life can be bought. She sees the girls trained by their mother to be good Catholic wives. World War II changes everything. At the outbreak of war the Kennedys are living the high life in London where Joseph Kennedy is the American ambassador. His reaction is to send the entire household back across the Atlantic to safety but Nora surprised by midlife love chooses to stay in England & do her bit. Separated from her Kennedys by an ocean she nevertheless remains the warm approachable sun around which the older children orbit: Joe Jack Rosemary & in particular Kick who throws the first spanner in the Kennedy works by marrying an English Protestant. Laurie Grahams poignant new novel views the Kennedys from below stairs with the humour & candour that only an ex-nursemaid dare employ. ...

Despite inhabiting a great city renowned for its impeccable restraint the extended family of 44 Scotland Street is trembling on the brink of reckless self-indulgence. Matthew & Elspeth receive startling
- & expensive
- news on a visit to the Infirmary Angus & Domenica are contemplating an Italian menage a trois & even Big Lou is overheard discussing cosmetic surgery. But when Bertie Pollock
- six years old & impatient to be seven
- mislays his meddling mother Irene one afternoon a valuable lesson is learned: that wish-fulfilment is a dangerous business. Warm-hearted wise & very funny The Importance of Being Seven brings us a fresh & delightful set of insights into philosophy & fraternity among Edinburghs most loveable residents.



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Despite inhabiting a great city renowned for its impeccable restraint the extended family of 44 Scotland Street is trembling on the brink of reckless self-indulgence. Matthew & Elspeth receive startling
- & expensive
- news on a visit to the Infirmary Angus & Domenica are contemplating an Italian menage a trois & even Big Lou is overheard discussing cosmetic surgery. But when Bertie Pollock
- six years old & impatient to be seven
- mislays his meddling mother Irene one afternoon a valuable lesson is learned: that wish-fulfilment is a dangerous business. Warm-hearted wise & very funny The Importance of Being Seven brings us a fresh & delightful set of insights into philosophy & fraternity among Edinburgh's most loveable residents.



...

Malcolm Fox is back... Fox & his team are investigating whether fellow cops covered up for Detective Paul Carter. Carter has been found guilty of misconduct with his own uncle
- also in the force
- proving to be his nemesis. But what should be a simple job is soon complicated by a brutal murder & a weapon that should not even exist. A trail of revelations leads Fox back to 1985 a year of desperate unrest when letter-bombs & poisonous spores were sent to government offices & kidnappings & murders were plotted. But while the body count rises the clock starts ticking & a dramatic turn of events sees Fox in mortal danger.

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Young Minnie Sidgwick was just twelve years old when her cousin twenty-three-year old Edward Benson proposed to her in 1853. Edward went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury & little Minnie
- as Mary Benson
- to preside a social world that ranged from Tennyson Henry James & Oscar Wilde to foreign royalty & Queen Victoria herself. Yet Mrs Bensons most intense relationships were not with her husband & his associates but with other women. When the Archbishop died Mary
- Ben to her intimates
- turned down an offer from the Queen to live at Windsor & set up home in a Jacobean manor house with her friend Lucy Tait. As Good as God as Clever as the Devil is the sometimes touching sometimes hilarious story of one lovable brilliant woman & her trajectory through the often surprising opportunities & the remarkable limitations of a Victorian womans life.""



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Much discussed & often maligned precious little is known or understood about North Korea the world's most controversial & isolated country. In The Impossible State" Victor Cha pulls back the curtain providing an unprecedented insight into North Korea's history the rise of the Kim family dynasty & the obsessive personality cult that surrounds them. He illuminates the repressive regime's complex economy & culture its appalling record of human-rights abuses its belligerent relationship with its neighbours & the United States & analyzes the regime's major security issues
- from the seemingly endless war with its southern counterpart to its terrifying nuclear ambitions
- all in the light of the destabilizing effects of Kim Jong-il's recent death. How has this enigmatic nation-state continued to survive when it regularly violates its own citizens' inalienable rights & has suffered severe famine global economic sanctions a collapsed economy & near-total isolation from the rest of the world? Cha reveals a land facing a pivotal & disquieting transition of power from tyrannical father to inexperienced son & delves into the ideology that leads an oppressed starving populace to cling so fiercely to its failed leadership. With rare personal anecdotes from the author's time in Pyongyang & his tenure as a White House adviser this engagingly written authoritative & highly accessible account offers much-needed answers to the most pressing questions about North Korea & ultimately warns of a regime that might be closer to its end than many might think
- a political collapse for which the Western world may be woefully unprepared."


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We killed Americans. We are killing Americans. We will kill Americans". (North Korean schoolchildren conjugating verbs). In North Korea citizens found humming South Korean pop songs risk being sent to a gulag for six months of hard labour. Jail sentences are handed out if portraits of the late Kim Jong-il are not properly dusted. Shoot-to-kill orders are in effect for anyone caught trying to cross the Yalu or Tumen Rivers into China. Yet despite this an oppressed starving populace clings fiercely to its new Dear Leader Kim Jong-un & signs with the revolutionary slogan We Have Nothing To Envy line the streets of Pyongyang. So how did North Korea become this Impossible State? What does the future hold for a regime with terrifying nuclear ambitions & a seemingly endless war with its southern counterpart? Former White House adviser Victor Cha pulls back the curtain on the world's most isolated country to provide an unprecedented & timely insight into North Korea's history present & future." ...

Impossible to Resist Imposing & brooding Dr Jacob Wolff has built a wall around his heart as impregnable as the mountain on which he lives. Until with one simple request Hollywood beauty Ariel knocks it down... But Ariel hired him to protect her not bed her. Now Jacob finds himself lusting for the one woman he can never have. The Maids Daughter He thought he was done rescuing women in need. After all playing hero got millionaire Devlyn Wolff into enough trouble already! Still when a car accident lands Gillian at his feet he cant walk away...not even when he learns her connection to his past. Now seducing the maids daughter will lead him where he never meant to go... ...