At sunrise on a first of April, there appeared, suddenly as Manco Capac at the lake Titicaca, a man in cream-colors, at the water-side in the city of St. Louis. His cheek was fair, his chin downy, his hair flaxen, his hat a white fur one, with a long fleecy nap. He had neither trunk, valise, carpet-bag, nor parcel. No porter followed him. He was unaccompanied by friends. From the shrugged shoulders, titters, whispers, wonderings of the crowd, it was plain that he was, in the extremest sense of the word, a stranger. In the same moment with his advent, he stepped aboard the favorite steamer Fidèle, on the point of starting for New Orleans. Stared at, but unsaluted, with the air of one neither courting nor shunning regard, but evenly pursuing the path of duty, lead it through solitudes or cities, he held on his way along [2] the lower deck until he chanced to come to a placard nigh the captain's office, offering a reward for the capture of a mysterious impostor, supposed to have recently arrived from the East; quite an original genius in his vocation, as would appear, though wherein his originality consisted was not clearly given; but what purported to be a careful description of his person followed.

Product Description: Book by Tanner, Tony

In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the suit of a snobbish gentleman, as well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters.

In nineteenth-century England, two sisters are drawn into unhappy romances despite the cool judgement of one and the emotional intensity of the other.

Product Description: When Ishmael sets sail on the whaling ship Pequod one cold Christmas Day, he is clueless to the horrors that await him on the vast and merciless ocean. The ship's strange captain, Ahab, is in the grip of an obsession to hunt down the famous white whale, Moby Dick, and will stop at nothing on his quest to annihilate his nemesis...read more

Analyzes each of Austen's novels, from Northanger Abbey to Sandition, describes her portrayal of society and education, and discusses her use of language

"Already I looked with other eyes upon the sea. I knew it capable of betraying the generous ardor of youth as implacably as, indifferent to good and evil, it would have betrayed the basest greed and the noblest heroism. And I looked upon the true sea--the sea that plays with men till their hearts are broken, and wears stout ships to death." With this moment of realization, Joseph Conrad closes the story "Initiation"--and initiates us into the "true sea" at the heart of the twenty-seven tales in The Oxford Book of the Sea. Malevolent, mysterious, vast, the ocean waters have always sparked our fascination and sense of adventure, giving rise to a remarkable vein of narrative deftly mined here by editor Tony Tanner. In story after story, masters of the art tell of men on ship, grappling with themselves, their fellow sailors, and the trials of the sea: from hurricane winds to the frustrating calm, from swirling currents to rampaging whales. Here is the work of Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, Stephen Crane, C.S. Forester, Ernest Hemingway, and of course Conrad (whose classic The Secret Sharer appears as well). Along with the essential stories come unexpected gems by writers not known for their seafaring bent: William Faulkner ("Turnabout"), F. Scott Fitzgerald ("The Rough Crossing"), E.M. Forster ("The Story of the Siren"), and Edgar Allan Poe ("A Descent into the Maelström"). As with any fine Oxford anthology, The Oxford Book of Sea Stories includes a few surprises as well. In "Mocha Dick," J.N. Reynolds tells of an exciting hunt for a dangerous white whale--a story that predates Moby-Dick by twelve years (Tanner also includes the conclusion of the chase from Melville's classic). And "The Frontiers of the Sea," by actor Peter Ustinov, provides a fitting conclusion to the collection. Some of the finest writers in the English language have been drawn to the subject of life at sea, with its dangers, loneliness, and triumphs. The Oxford Book of the Sea gathers together some of the best examples of the form, offering moving prose, fascinating insight into the human condition, and the simple pleasure of tales of high adventure.

Product Description: The late Tony Tanner was one of the most distinctive and distinguished critical voices on American literature. With a foreword by Edward Said and an introduction by Ian Bell, which place Tanner's work in the larger context of critical approaches to American literature and culture, this book brings together Tanner's essays on a wide range of key American authors...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This study examines how Henry James transformed the non-fiction genres of travel writing, literary criticism and autobiography.

The first volume of Shakespeare's comedies contains: 'The Comedy of Errors', 'The Taming of the Shrew', 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona', 'Love's Labour Lost', 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

The Everyman Signet Shakespeare series continues with the second volume of Histories, containing 'Henry IV' parts I and II, 'Henry V' and 'Henry VIII'. The plays are lightly annotated, and the text is therefore suitable for both students and general readers.

Product Description: If there is one city that might be said to embody both reason and desire, it would surely be Venice: a thousand-year triumph of rational legislation, aesthetic and sensual self-expression, and self-creation―powerful, lovely, serene...read more

Product Description: This book is about the relationship of the American writer to his land and language - to the 'scene' and the 'sign', to the natural landscape and the inscriptions imposed upon it by men. Among the questions considered in the first section of the book are how does American Romantic writing differ from European; what are the peculiar problems faced by the American artist, and what roles does he adopt to tackle them; what kind of writing results when authors as different as Henry Adams and Mark Twain lament the vanishing of an earlier America, or when Adams and Henry James review their complex relationship to their homeland, or when W...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: The writer and his work.

Product Description: This book is about the relationship of the American writer to his land and language - to the 'scene' and the 'sign', to the natural landscape and the inscriptions imposed upon it by men. Among the questions considered in the first section of the book are how does American Romantic writing differ from European; what are the peculiar problems faced by the American artist, and what roles does he adopt to tackle them; what kind of writing results when authors as different as Henry Adams and Mark Twain lament the vanishing of an earlier America, or when Adams and Henry James review their complex relationship to their homeland, or when W...read more

Examines the American authors short stories and novels and discusses his place in modern literature

Provides an overview of the theme of adultry in literature and looks closely at three works by Rousseau, Goethe, and Flaubert

Offers a penetrating critical commentary on the works of twenty-five contemporary novelists including Barth, Mailer, Bellow, Heller, Updike and Malamud