It is said that Charles Dickens invented Christmas & within these pages youll certainly find all the elements of a quintessential traditional Christmas brought to vivid life: snowy rooftops gleaming shop windows steaming bowls of punch plum puddings like speckled cannon balls sage & onion stuffing miracles magic charity & goodwill. This beautifully produced Vintage Classics" edition gathers together not only Dickens Christmas Books ("A Christmas Carol" " The Chimes" " The Battle of Life" " The Cricket on the Hearth" & " The Haunted Man") but also stories that Dickens wrote for the special seasonal editions of his periodicals " All the Year Round" & " Household Words" & a festive tale from " The Pickwick Papers". A must-have for Christmas this edition should be as necessary to your festivities as holly mistletoe & silver bells." ...

For fans new & old an enjoyable tour through the world of Dickens in the hands of a master critic. Charles Dickens the Great Inimitable created a riotous fictional world that still lives & breathes for thousands of readers today. But how much do we really know about the dazzling imagination that brought all this into being? For the bicentenary of Dickens birth Victorian literature expert John Sutherland has created a gloriously wide-ranging alphabetical companion to Dickens work excavating the hidden links between his characters themes & preoccupations & the minutiae of his endlessly inventive wordplay. Covering America Bastards Childhood Christmas Empire Fog Larks London Madness Murder Orphans Pubs Punishment Smells Spontaneous Combustion & Zoo to name but a few
- John Sutherland gives us a uniquely personal guide to the great mans work. Excerpt: HANDS; Every Dickens novel has a master image. In Our Mutual Friend it is the river. In Bleak House it is the fog. In Little Dorrit it is the prison. In Great Expectations it is the h&. We often know much more about the principals hands in that novel than their faces. Who when the name Magwitch is mentioned does not think of those murderous large brown veinous hands? Jaggers? Ones nose twitches---scented soap (the lawyer like Pontius Pilate is forever washing his hands). Miss Havisham? Withered claws. So it goes on...
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Multi-talented Simon Callow who has triumphantly brought Charles Dickens to audiences worldwide in his award-winning show The Mystery of Charles Dickens now brings him to life on the page lovingly re-creating the phenomenon of Christmas that fascinated the great novelist. From the ancient world of Christmas Past Callow works his pleasurable way through a Victorian riot of wassail plum pudding & mistletoe
- not forgetting Christmas as a time to remember those less fortunate. Packed with evocative illustrations this literary Christmas cracker has as its novelty filling the complete text of A Christmas Carol with a memorable cast including Ebeneezer Scrooge Bob Cratchit & Tiny Tim whose toast God bless us every one! will for ever sum up the spirit of Christmas.
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Over 200 stunning archive photographs most of which have never been published before illustrate this mesmerising guide to Victorian ...

In his novels Dickens presents a series of unrivalled portraits of women young & old. From Little Nell to Miss Havisham these girls & women speak to us today making us laugh & sometimes cry. The popular British actress Miriam Margolyes will be touring the world in 2012 the bicentenary of Dickens birth with a one-woman show about Dickens' women & this book accompanies the show by building on the script & expanding to include many more of the female characters Dickens described & analysed so astutely in his novels. The countries to be visited are Australia New Zealand the USA & India. ' Mrs Pipchin was a marvellous ill-favoured ill-conditioned old lady of a stooping figure with a mottled face like bad marble a hook nose & a hard grey eye that looked as if it might have been hammered at on an anvil without sustaining any injury.' ...

Half a century after their deaths the dictatorships of Stalin & Hitler still cast a long & terrible shadow over the modern world. They were the most destructive & lethal regimes in history murdering millions. They fought the largest & costliest war in all history. Yet millions of Germans & Russians enthusiastically supported them & the values they stood for. In this first major study of the two dictatorships side-by-side Richard Overy sets out to answer the question: How was dictatorship possible? How did they function? What was the bond that tied dictator & people so powerfully together? He paints a remarkable & vivid account of the different ways in which Stalin & Hitler rose to power & abused & dominated their people. It is a chilling analysis of powerful ideals corrupted by the vanity of ambitious & unscrupulous men. ...

This best-selling dictionary

Includes:: more than 3 700 entries covering all aspects of accounting including

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Containing over 7 000 entries this fully revised edition provides clear up-to-date & comprehensive coverage of agricultural terms. Subjects covered include cultivation machinery livestock crops pesticides & herbicides fertilizers organic farming & veterinary science as well as sales & commodities markets. Jargon-free definitions make this dictionary particularly suitable for students new industry recruits & non-native English speakers. ...

In the midst of the remarkable revival of interest & belief in angels comes this handsomely illustrated reference work--the fruit of 16 years of research in Talmudic gnostic cabalistic apocalyptic patristic & legendary texts. A wacky & wonderful compendium of angelic lore".--Time. Illustrations." ...

Did you know that chickens have different alarm calls for different predators? This fascinating dictionary covers every aspect of animal behaviour &

Includes:: terms from the related fields of ecology physiology & psychology. Clear concise entries are backed up by specific examples where appropriate covering all aspects of behaviour from aggression to courtship & fully cross-referenced. The author David Mc Farland was formerly head of the Animal Behaviour Research Group at Oxford University & the editor of the Oxford Companion to Animal Behaviour (1981). Jargon free & informative this dictionary is an excellent source of reference for students of biology & psychology & essential reading for naturalists bird-watchers & the general reader with an interest in animal behaviour.

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