Showing titles in Literary History & Criticism

In a book distinguished by clarity and passion, Robert Zaretsky considers why Albert Camus mattered in his own lifetime and continues to matter today, focusing on key moments that shaped Camus' development as a writer, a public intellectual, and a man.

Born in Edinburgh in June 1815, John Westgarth was the son of the surveyor-general of customs for Scotland. He received his education at the high schools of Leith and Edinburgh, followed by Dr. Bruce’s school in Newcastle-on-Tyne. After entering the office of G. Young and Company, which was engaged in the Australian trade, Westgarth recognized the immense potential of the new land and decided to emigrate. He arrived in Melbourne in December 1840, a burgeoning town of just a few thousand residents. When the new colony established its legislative council, Westgarth topped the poll for ...

Sir Ian McKellen, fresh from his performance as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, is Prospero, and heads a strong cast in Shakespeare’s last great play. The wronged duke raises a tempest to shipwreck his old opponents on his island so that he can ensure justice is done. With Emilia Fox as Miranda, Scott Handy in the pivotal role of the sprite Ariel, and Ben Owukwe as Caliban.

Anna Estcourt, twenty-five and beautiful, is the penniless ward of her distant brother and his exasperating wife. Turning down all offers of marriage, scornful at the thought of leaning on a man for help and comfort, she thinks only of the independence which seems an impossible dream. But out of the blue Uncle Joachim, her mother's brother, leaves her a handsome property in Germany. Her longed for independence is within her grasp, and though it's a rocky beginning with the locals, she loves her new home. Keen to use her new-found wealth for the benefit of others, she embarks on a plan to throw...

The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your LifeLegendary leadership and elite performance expert Robin Sharma introduced The 5am Club concept over twenty years ago, based on a revolutionary morning routine that has helped his clients maximize their productivity, activate their best health and bulletproof their serenity in this age of overwhelming complexity.Now, in this life-changing book, handcrafted by the author over a rigorous four-year period, you will discover the early-rising habit that has helped so many accomplish epic results while upgrading their happiness, helpfulness and ...

Meet the Law family - eccentric, endearing and hard to resist. Your guide: Benjamin, the third of five children and a born humorist. Join him as he tries to answer some puzzling questions: Why won't his Chinese dad wear made-in-China underpants? Why was most of his extended family deported in the 1980s? Will his childhood dreams of Home and Away stardom come to nothing? What are his chances of finding love? Hilarious and moving, The Family Law is a linked series of tales from a wonderful Australian talent.

Weaving together fragments of artists’ stories across time and place, Philip Hoare embarks on a Sebaldian exploration of the enduring legacy of William Blake. A poet, painter and printmaker who was unappreciated and considered mad in his own time, Blake was eventually lauded as a key pillar of the Romantic movement. His posthumous influence reverberates endlessly, from the films of Derek Jarman to our ongoing fear of technological advancement.

Just William by Richmal Crompton is a classic children’s book introducing William Brown, a mischievous, clever, and often exasperating eleven-year-old boy. Always untidy, with his scruffy cap and unruly hair, William leads a gang called “The Outlaws” who frequently find themselves in comic predicaments. Determined to outwit adults and avoid boring responsibilities, William constantly dreams up wild schemes that rarely go as planned. His stubbornness, imagination, and disregard for authority often create chaos, yet his honesty and charm make him lovable. First published in 1922, the ...

James Krasner, an expert in Victorian literature, takes you on a fascinating journey into the enduring power of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. You’ll learn how these three literary masters structured their novels to offer not only scares but also complex insights into cultural debates that still matter to us today.

In an innovative and engaging narrative of everyday life in Shakespeare's England, Ramie Targoff carries us from the sumptuous coronation of Queen Elizabeth in the mid-16th century into the private lives of four women writers working at a time when women were legally the property of men: Mary Sidney, accomplished poet and sister of the famous Sir Philip Sidney; Aemilia Lanyer, the first woman in the 17th century to publish a book of original poetry; Elizabeth Cary, who published the first original play by a woman and Anne Clifford, a lifelong diarist.

Agatha Christie revelled in the use of poison to kill off unfortunate victims in her books; indeed, she employed it more than any other murder method, with the poison itself often being a central part of the novel. Her choice of deadly substances was far from random—the characteristics of each often provide vital clues to the discovery of the murderer. Christie's extensive chemical knowledge provides the backdrop for A Is for Arsenic, in which Kathryn Harkup investigates the poisons used by the murderer in fourteen classic Agatha Christie mysteries.

Sometime religious outsider and social disaster, sometime celebrity preacher and establishment darling, John Donne was incapable of being just one thing. He was a scholar of law, a sea adventurer, an MP, a priest, the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral—and perhaps the greatest love poet in the history of the English language. He converted from Catholicism to Protestantism, was imprisoned for marrying a high-born girl without her father's consent, struggled to feed a family of 10 children and was often ill and in pain.

India, Josh, Peter, and AJ are reading The Malazan Book of the Fallen. A bad idea? Maybe, but we'll at least have fun along the way. Peter has read the series before, but it's Josh, India, and AJ's first time. Join us, as we talk through each book and enjoy the works of Steven Erikson.

BSA Speaks - Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan by Prof Sahib Singh

Ellen and Harriet are a mother and daughter who have been talking about Jane Austen together since Harriet was first old enough to read her. In this podcast, we will be doing a close reading of the books.In each episode, we will look at a few chapters. As well as talking about anything that strikes us in the chapters, we will also pick a favourite sentence, have a discussion about one of the characters, and then Ellen will give a social historian perspective about some element of the nineteenth century that seems pertinent, and Harriet will talk about the chapters in pop culture adaptations of...

Buy the book on Amazon : https://amzn.to/4pbhFEOA New York Times bestseller | Soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment"Witty, endearing and greatly entertaining." —Wall Street Journal"Don't trust anyone, including the four septuagenarian sleuths in Osman's own laugh-out-loud whodunit." —ParadeIn a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club.

Rajiv Surendra was filming Mean Girls, playing the beloved rapping mathlete Kevin Gnapoor, when a cameraman insisted he read Yann Martel's Life of Pi. So begins his "lovely and human" (Jenny Lawson, author of Furiously Happy) tale of obsessively pursuing a dream, overcoming failure, and finding meaning in life.

Originally written in 1940 and first published by Simon & Schuster in 1972, How to Read a Book introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them in order to gain the most understanding and insight from any book. From elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading and beyond, readers will learn when and how to ‘judge a book by its cover,’ perceive structure no matter the prose, read critically, and extract an author’s message from any text.

Join Morgan & Stevie at the Unhinged Smut Book Club Podcast and read along as we discuss the most seriously silly, smutty books from all corners of BookTok. Laugh with us as we breakdown each book, share what we loved, and rate them on a scale of tame to totally unhinged. We will dive into themes spanning from reverse harem and paranormal romance, all the way to sentient objects! Virtually nothing is off the table in this unhinged exploration of the diverse romance stories the publishing world has to offer.

Why does the Twilight saga continue to inspire both passionate fandom and heated critique? In Why We Love (and Hate) Twilight, Sarah Elizabeth Gallagher unpacks the cultural obsession with Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and the supernatural love story that redefined YA literature and pop culture forever.