Literature & Poetry

It follows the exploits of a group of hapless bards, more intimately connected than they themselves can possibly know, in their attempts to navigate the hazards of London literary society.

William Clark Russell wrote more than forty nautical novels. Immensely popular in their time, his works were admired by contemporary writers, such as Conan Doyle, Stevenson and Meredith, while Swinburne, considered him 'the greatest master of the sea, living or dead'. Based on extensive archival research, Nash explores this remarkable career.

Poet, philosopher, and critic, Samuel Taylor Coleridge is now best remembered for the extraordinary "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan." With his friend William Wordsworth he founded the Romantic movement—theirs was one of the most productive and creative partnerships in the history ...

The Second World War (1939-45) was not greeted with the same lavish outpouring of patriotic fervour that had attended August 1914. The Great War had been heralded as `the war to end all wars';One significant difference between the two conflicts is that, whilst both were industrial wars, the Second World War was far nearerthe concept of total war.

Louis A. Markos places the poetry of Tennyson in the context of the crisis of faith that marked the Victorian Age, whose notable figures included Thomas Carlyle, Charles Darwin, John Ruskin, John Henry Newman and Stuart Mill.

In Vintage Living Texts, teachers, students and any lover of literature will find the essential guide to the major works of Roddy Doyle. Featuring the texts: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, The Van and A Star Called Henry.

"Uncovers a new chapter in the story of American modernist poetry"--Provided by publisher.

"One of the strongest literary renditions of the Shoah I know."-Saul Friedlander, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Years of Extermination

Jones explores encounters with failure by nineteenth-century American writers - including Poe, Melville and Twain - whose celebrated works more often struck readers as profoundly messy, flawed and even perverse. Here, they emerge as theorists of failure who discovered ways to translate their own social insecurities into complex portrayals of a modern self.

The correspondence between the English poet Ted Hughes and the literary critic Keith Sagar began in 1969 and lasted until Hughes's death in 1998. During that time Hughes wrote 146 letters to Sagar, which show a unique dialogue between a writer and a critic.

The poems in this collection are presented as translations from the work of the eponymous Katerina Brac, who lives in a country, and writes in a language, that are never identified.

'Reid's achievement in this book is to conjure up in very few words a life-system capable of supporting real poetry.

This series contains what no other study guides can offer - extensive first-hand interviews with the playwrights and their closest collaborators on all of their major work, put together by top academics especially for the modern student market.

From an abandoned rowing boat in Estonia full of wild flowers to a swimming pool in the Congo full of drowned insects, Adam Thorpe's new collection takes us on a wide-ranging journey through states of gain and loss, alienation and belonging.

Paul Sills, the master of improvisation and found of The Second City and creator of Story Theatre - and who has influenced some of theatre's most important directors, writers and actors - adapts for stage one of the classic works of literature, Charles Dickens' masterpiece, A Christmas Carol. Included ...

Arthur Miller's life spans more than four decades and includes marriage to Marilyn Monroe, numerous plays, novels and an autobiography. Martin Gottfried utilizes private letters from and to Arthur Miller, to craft a biography of this playwright, cultural commentator and conscience of a nation.

"Babbitt's writings were uncompromising and controversial. His ideas revolved around the ultimate problems of life, literature, and thought and were rooted in and impelled by mural concerns and imperatives.

Jo Shapcott's award-winning first three collections, gathered in Her Book: Poems 1988-1998, revealed her to be a writer of ingenuous, politically acute and provocative poetry, and rightly earned her a reputation as one of the most original and daring voices of her generation.

Provides an introduction to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of the most important poets in our literature.

A poetic meditation on travel, and mystery, and loss.

One of Britain's outstanding novelists, Tim Parks is also a provocative, entertaining and accomplished essayist.