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A beautifully illustrated account of the letters and correspondence of Jane Austen. It has been said that Jane Austen the woman and Jane Austen the author are all of a piece, and nowhere is this more evident to the lovers of her novels than in the pages of her letters. This handsome celebration of Austen's letters is illustrated with portraits, facsimile letters, topographical engravings and fashion plates, all helping to bring to life the world Jane Austen inhabited. The letters, with an accompanying commentary by Penelope Hughes-Hallett, are separated into six periods of Jane Austen's life, between the years 1796, when she was twenty, and 1817, the year of her death. They celebrate Jane Au...
In 1817 the eccentric history painter B.R. Haydon gave a famous dinner party. The occasion was significant as an encounter between the first and second generations of the Romantic poets, and it provides a vivid and fascinating glimpse into the lives and thoughts of this particular group at a crucial turning point in English society.
Jane Austen's stories of clever women, elusive love, and social mores have struck a chord with millions of fans who consider her work compelling, heartwarming, and essential. Adapted time and time again for screen and stage, these enduring classics remain as enjoyable as ever, the perfect addition to every home library. This revised, elegant edition collects Austen's acclaimed novels "Sense and Sensibility," "Pride and Prejudice," "Emma," and "Northanger Abbey." New readers will be enchanted once they open the genuine leather cover, see the specially designed end papers, and read these brilliant stories, while readers familiar with Austen's genius will enjoy the introduction from an acclaimed Austen scholar that provides background and context for the works they've always loved. Just like Jane Austen's memorable characters, readers will fall in love--with this remarkable keepsake!
The fourth edition of Jane Austen's Letters incorporates the findings of new scholarship to enrich our understanding of Austen and give us the fullest view yet of her life and family. The biographical and topographical indexes have been updated, a new subject index has been created, and the contents of the notes added to the general index.
Godfather to Mussolini, national hero of Italy and the WWI irredentist movement, literary icon of Joyce and Pound, lover of actress Eleonora Duse: here is Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s extraordinary biography of Gabriele d’Annunzio, poet, bon vivant, harbinger of Italian fascism. Gabriele d’Annunzio was Italy’s premier poet at a time when poetry mattered enough to trigger riots. A brilliant self-publicist in the first age of mass media, he used his fame to sell his work, seduce women, and promote his extreme nationalism. In 1915 d’Annunzio’s incendiary oratory helped drive Italy to enter the First World War, in which he achieved heroic status as an aviator. In 1919 he led a troop of muti...
Jane Was Here is a whimsical, illustrated guide to Jane Austen's England - from the settings in her novels and the scenes in the wildly popular television and film adaptations, to her homes and other important locations throughout her own life. Discover the stately homes of Basildon Park and Ham House and the lush landscapes of Stourhead and Stanage Edge. Tread in Jane's footsteps as you explore her school in the old gatehouse of the ruined Reading Abbey; her perfectly-preserved home in her Chawton cottage, where she spent the last eight years of her life; or her final resting place in Winchester Cathedral. Whether you want to take this book as your well-thumbed guide on a real Austenian pilgrimage of your own, or experience the journey from the comfort of your own living room, Jane Was Here will take you - with a tone as wry as Jane's itself - on an enchanting adventure through the ups and downs of the world of Jane Austen.
Adam is a writer, struggling to come to terms with the death of his painter father, Robert, and his difficult marriage to Catherine. Before he married Catherine, he had been the lover of her sister, Vinny. The classic menage à trois seems about to repeat itself, when Adam discovers his wife's father was less innocent than he had thought. Set mainly in contemporary London, partly in France, the action also harks back to the 1970's. The narrative evokes the style of the nineteenth century novelists and their themes: desire, guilt, pleasure. Pastoral landscapes alternate with those of the inner city and the past's interaction with the present is acted out by ghosts. The dead father haunts his son; in real life Vinny haunts her sister; and the whole novel is haunted by one of its great earliest exponents, Charlotte Bronte, and her passionate search for creative fulfilment.
Biographies are one of the most popular and best-selling of the literary genres. Why do people like them? What does a biography do and how does it work? This Very Short Introduction examines different types of biographies, why certain people and historical events arouse so much interest, and how they are compared with history and fiction.
Wine and dine with Victorian London's literati in a heatwave in one of the first ever group biographies, introduced by Francesca Wade (author of Square Haunting). Though she loved the heat she could do nothing but lie on the sofa and drink lemonade and read Monte Cristo . 'One of the most illuminating and insufficiently praised books of the last 60 years.' Observer 'Never bettered.' Guardian 'W holly original.' Craig Brown 'A pathfinder.' Richard Holmes 'Brilliant.' Julian Barnes 'Extraordinary.' Penelope Lively June 1846. As London swelters in a heatwave - sunstroke strikes, meat rots, ice is coveted - a glamorous coterie of writers and artists spend their summer wining, dining and opining....
Tells the story of Oscar Wilde's life through selected letters, lectures, journalism, poetry, plays and novels