Showing titles in Literary History & Criticism

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Exploits of Moominpappa by Tove Jansson, read by Hugh Dennis. If you haven't met a Moomin yet, you're in for the most magical fun! 'I decided to run away. There simply wasn't anything else to do.' Here at last is Moominpappa's promised life story -...

Bloomsbury presents the 250TH BIRTHDAY EDITION of What Matters in Jane Austen? by John Mullan, read by Charles Armstrong ‘Almost as good as finding an unpublished novel’ The Lady 'Any new book on Austen raises the urgent question, Would I get more pleasure from reading this than from...

Join Dame Julie Andrews as she reads Jane Austen's original, unabridged classics, brought to life with original music and immersive sound design.Season One begins with Julie's narration of the timeless Pride and Prejudice. Season Two sees her bring Austen's beloved Emma to life.Once a week, step into Austen's world: stroll through grand estates, take tea with well dressed gentlewomen, and enter ballrooms to dance with the great and good of the county. Along the way you'll meet some of literature's most unforgettable characters, brought vividly to life through Dame Julie Andrews' iconic ...

'I loved Goddess with a Thousand Faces. Fascinating, fun and thoughtful and enlightening' JENNIFER SAINT 'A beautiful weave of history, myth and storytelling by one of our most exciting new classicists' DAN SNOW Steeped in ancient magic, dark divinity and wild ways, Goddess with a Thousand Faces...

Through these 10 lectures, you will delve into the darkness of Poe’s most nightmarish stories, including “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. You’ll also learn how he invented the detective story and explored themes of love and loss in such poems as “Ulalume” and “Annabel Lee”. And you’ll discover how Poe employed symbolism, imagery, rhythm and rhyme, irony and paradox, repetition, simile, and foreshadowing to create a unique body of work.

All six Bastable children—Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noel and Horace Octavius—are ambitious adventurers, digging detectives and intrepid treasure seekers by nature. Unfortunately, the Bastable family is currently facing an uncertain financial future. When father takes ill, and his business...

I am an anxious doctor. Or at least I WAS an anxious doctor. After literally decades of suffering from intractable anxiety, and seeing over 50 different types of healers I found my way to heal my anxiety through very unconventional (for a medical doctor at least) means. In 2013 I was so anxious I considered suicide and a friend suggested I try LSD, and although that scared the crap out of me it showed me the path to healing. You don't have to do LSD to heal, I took it for you! I'm a medical doctor, neuroscientist and intuitive. (I know, common combination!) I found my way out and it is ...

Brought to you by Penguin. A portrait of a radical age via the writers who gather around a publisher's dining table - from William Wordsworth to Mary Wollstonecraft Once a week, in late eighteenth-century London, writers of contrasting politics and personalities gathered around a dining table...

Piers Plowman, William Langland's visionary medieval work about one man's quest for the true Christian life, is an allegorical journey through dream visions and visions within dreams. During the course of his journey, the narrator (William Langland) meets Piers Plowman, who gradually reveals himself to be the son of God. Through Piers, William learns of the virtues in poverty, the temptations of wealth, and of the perfect society that is to come under the rule of Piers Plowman.

THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER A FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST AND MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR An enthralling 6,000-year journey through the history of books and reading Long before books were mass-produced, scrolls hand copied on reeds pulled from the Nile were the treasures of the ancient world...

A glorious celebration of reading deeply and seeing the world and ourselves reflected back to us in art In this rich and engaging collection of essays, Tessa Hadley reflects on a lifetime of reading with the clarity and perceptiveness that have made her one of our most widely loved contemporary...

Female led relationship podcast by International Bestselling Female Led Relationship Author of 16 books, Marisa Rudder. Founder of the Love and Obey movement and social media influencer. A female led relationship means the Queen is in charge. She makes the decisions while her man is the supportive gentleman. More couples are enjoying female led relationships, transforming their lives and creating a fulfilling and loving partnership. Learn everything there is to know about a female led relationships, femdom, chastity, dominance and submission, power dynamics, ethical non monogamy, cuckolding, ...

This is perhaps one of the best-loved of all journals. William Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy, began it in May 1800 and resolved to keep it for a short time. She continued it for nearly three years. In it, she brought the Dove Cottage years to vivid and intimate life. She noted the walks and weather, the friends, country neighbours, and travellers on the roads. She set down accounts of the garden, of Wordsworth's marriage, their concern for Coleridge, and the composition of Wordsworth's poetry.

Anne Carson's remarkable first book about the paradoxical nature of romantic love Since it was first published, Eros the Bittersweet, Anne Carson's lyrical meditation on love in ancient Greek literature and philosophy, has established itself as a favorite among an unusually broad audience...

From one of the most important chroniclers of our time, come two extended excerpts from her never-before-seen notebooks–writings that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer. Joan Didion has always kept notebooks: of overheard dialogue, observations...

Innumerable stories, from the Homeric epics to the New Testament, and from Oedipus Rex to Hamlet, explore the realization or failure of second chances—outcomes that depend on accident, acts of will, or fate. Such stories let us repeatedly rehearse the experience of loss and recovery: to know the joy that comes with a renewal of love and pleasure and to face the pain that comes with realizing that some damage can never be undone. Through a series of illuminating readings, the authors show how Shakespeare was the supreme virtuoso of the second chance and Freud was its supreme interpreter.

Brought to you by Penguin. A far-ranging, invigorating and irrepressible collection of essays on literature, cinema, art - and everything in between - from the MAN BOOKER PRIZE- and WOMEN'S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED author of Feel Free and Swing Time How did George Eliot's love life affect her prose?...

It is strange to consider that, although The Hound Of The Baskervilles is Conan Doyle’s most popular novel, his hero is absent for much of the time. Notice how he sets up an atmosphere of supernatural horror right from the start through Dr Mortimer’s reading of the ancient curse, and how he then presents as assortment of bizarre clues – in particular, the riddle of the missing boots – which Holmes will have to unravel.

Man seduces another's wife then kidnaps her. The husband and his brother get a gang together to steal her back and take revenge. The woman regrets being seduced and wants to escape, whilst the man's entourage resent the position they have been placed in. Yet the battle lines have been drawn and...

'I relished every page … This is the best book on Jane Austen I have ever read’ Spectator 'Compelling … a delightful and engrossing book … Byrne’s passion is nothing if not persuasive’ Sunday Times Was Jane Austen a woman of prim manners and genteel calm? Or someone who behaved...