Product Description: For the past four decades Frank Kermode, critic and writer, has steadily established himself as one of the most brilliant minds of his generation. Questioning the public's harsh perception of 'the artist', Kermode at the same time gently pokes fun at artists' own, often inflated, self-image...read more

Product Description: This book, first published in 1962, is a collection of twenty-four essays written by Frank Kermode between 1958 and early 1961, and are all concerned with criticism and fiction. Puzzles and Epiphanies: Essays and Reviews 1958-1961 includes essays on the works of James Joyce, William Golding, E...read more

Rumor and jealousy cause Louis Trevelyan to mistakenly question his wife's loyalty, ultimately ruining his life and marriage.

Product Description: (Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)Soon to be a major motion picture from Miramax Films, starring Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Ben Whishaw, and Matthew Good, and directed by Julian Jarrold. Opens July 2008.Evelyn Waugh’s most celebrated novel is a memory drama of extraordinary richness and depth...read more

Product Description: 'The greatest literary scholar of his generation' (Independent) explains how the history of the Elizabethan era is the backdrop to William Shakespeare and his plays. Shakespeare made his unique contribution to British and world culture in the midst of Elizabeth's great reign...read more

An intriguing anthology of eight great dramatic works--including six lyrical tragedies and two urban comedies--performed during the early seventeenth-century reign of King James includes Thomas Heywood's A Woman Killed with Kindness, Ben Jonson's Volpone, The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, and others. Original. 20,000 first printing.

Product Description: Erudite, witty, and provocative, the London Review of Books offers a fortnightly dose of the best and the liveliest in all things cultural. In this anniversary anthology the most memorable pieces from the past 25 years are brought together in one volume...read more

A collection of essays by one of the greatest American literary critics of the twentieth century includes his writings on Don Delillo, Raymond Carver, Tom Paulin, Shakespeare, Hawthorne, and Wallace Stevens.

In four short works of contemporary fiction that probe metaphysical truths, a charismatic teacher has a devastating impact on her students, young women struggle for survival in a post-war London hostel, a woman searches for her own death, and a man is implicated in his wife's terrorist activities. 17,500 first printing. (view table of contents)

Reading other people's letters, like reading private diaries, offers thrilling and unexpected glimpses into the lives of others--their pledges of love and their sharp remonstrances, their thoughts on war and peace and the gossip of the day, their intellectual travels and idle chatter. It is partly this guilty pleasure we take in such literary eavesdropping that makes The Oxford Book of Letters so compelling. More than 300 letters spanning five centuries chronicle the affairs of correspondents from Elizabeth I to Groucho Marx, from politicans to poets, from the famous to the unknown. Editors Frank Kermode and Anita Kermode have chosen a remarkable selection of correspondents both educated and barely literate, with styles that range from polished and witty to stumbling and artless, but who all share a gift for letters that display an immediacy and intimacy not shared by any other form of writing. Here is John Adams to his wife, Abigail, in what we know to be a harried April of 1776 ("You justly complain of my short Letters, but the critical State of Things and the Multiplicity of Avocations must plead my Excuse--"); Benjamin Disraeli, confiding to Lady Bradford the secret of his purchase of the Suez Canal for England ("not one of the least events of our generation"); Charles Dickens to his son, Henry, regarding finances ("You know how hard I work for what I get, and I think you know that I never had money help from any human creature after I was a child"); Flannery O'Connor to Cecil Dawkins, a young college instructor, with writing advice ("You can't be creative in all directions at once. Freshman English would suit me fine. I'd make them diagram sentences"); and an indignant A.T. Harris to the head of the Atlantic City Railroad in 1896 ("On the 15th yore trane that was going to Atlanta ran over mi bull...yore ruddy trane took a peece of hyde outer his belly between his nable and his poker at least fute square"). Among the most moving letters are those from emigrants to America, Australia, and South Africa, describing the hardships they endured and the resolution with which they faced their new worlds--we read Anna Francis's letter to her sister, detailing her dashed hopes for happiness as an emigre in South Africa ("And is this the place in which I am to live out the remainder of my wretched existence! Forbid it heaven!"); and Rebecca Butterworth's forlorn letter to England from Arkansas, outlining a litany of disaster: stillborn children, poor crops, dire illness ("If we sell soon and the Lord spares us, we will be out in fall"). With subjects ranging from the mundane to the extraordinary, from the tragic to the hilarious, the Kermodes have included both isolated missives as well as exchanges of letters between regular correspondents, where familiarity and an ongoing saga add to the fascination. The editors provide a context for the letters, and unobtrusive notes. In an age where communication is instant and ephemeral, this volume celebrates the glory of the written word, and what may well be a dying art form.

Plumbing the sweet mysteries of Shakespeare's 'language,' the author argues that the Bard's tragedies were probably difficult even for his contemporaries to understand and identifies a shift in Shakespeare's use of language around 1600. Reprint. 15,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

(view table of contents)

Product Description: This comprehensive bibliography lists Edward Upward's publications over an eighty year period. In his preface, Professor Sir Frank Kermode refers to Upward's longevity and distinction as a novelist and short story writer, and describes the bibliography as 'an account of a virtually unique achievement … Upward has been for so long a major, though neglected, figure in English literature, it is appropriate that he should now be made the subject of a bibliography of the kind normally provided for writers of exceptional importance...read more

Traces the literary critic's childhood on the Isle of Man, his work on ferryboats around Liverpool, his editorship of 'Encounter,' and his embattled years at Cambridge University