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This study explores different kinds of animal fiction written in English literature. Taking Darwin's "The Origin of Species" as a significant point of departure, it discusses such key authors as Hardy, Lawrence, Kipling, Wells, Orwell, and others, arguing that the variety and richness of this literature represents a revival in the fortunes of bestiary literature. In the Middle Ages, much animal literature was written and its burden was instruction of a moral kind. This study shows that modern British writers have turned to the world of animal nature, realistically, figuratively or fantastically, to find an alternative orientation to the world - a more satisfactory view of man's place in nature. The modern bestiarists represent a wide variety of fictional technique and an equally extensive range of thematic interest. Nonetheless, there is a consistency in the common idea that animals may effectively represent an objectified version of human life and so serve an educational function. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Victorian
I personally like the Norton's anthologyThe Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume E: The Victorian Age for my personal studies of Victorian Literature, but my PhD professor of Victorian studies uses this anthology, so it must be good.

I do really like the pictures included in this anthology because art plays such a vital role in any society. If you want a good introduction to Victorian era/lit. this or the Norton anthology are good places to start. ... Read more

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Nick Bentley provides an introduction to the major novelists and the main themes in narrative fiction over the last 35 years. He offers a critical discussion of important debates in contemporary fiction engaging with concepts such as postmodernism; the impact of feminism and gender in literary studies; the rise of postcolonial literary theory; and the place of fiction within broader debates in contemporary culture. Bentley offers thought-provoking analysis of a range of British writers including Martin Amis, A.S. Byatt, Angela Carter, Ian McEwan, Hanif Kureishi, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith and Jeanette Winterson.

The book grounds the discussion of selected novels in the historical and theoretical contexts of the period. It opens with a chronology followed by a comprehensive Introduction that provides a historical context to the study of contemporary British fiction by detailing significant social, political and cultural events of the period 1975-2005. This is followed by five chapters organized around the core themes: (1) Narrative Forms, (2) Contemporary Ethnicities, (3) Gender and Sexuality, (4) History, Memory and Writing, and (5) Narratives of Cultural Space. A Conclusion, Student Resources and Glossary close the book.

Key Features

*Introduces the major themes and trends in British fiction over the last 35 years
*Analyses a range of writers and texts includingBrick Lane by Monica Ali,London Fields by Martin Amis;The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter;Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby;Atonement by Ian McEwan, Shame by Salman Rushdie,Downriver by Iain Sinclair, andWhite Teeth by Zadie Smith
*Presents a variety of critical perspectives essential for studying contemporary British fiction
*Provides essential resources for further reading and research

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Peter Wolfe’s study of Penelope Fitzgerald’s canon illuminates writings he characterizes as possessing unerring dramatic judgment, a friendly and fluid style, and lyrical and precise descriptive passages. In this survey of Fitzgerald’s life and career, Wolfe explains how the British novelist brings resources of talent and craft, thought and feeling, courage and vulnerability, to the biographies and novels that have earned her renown.

With readings of a broad range of her published works, including her final novel, The Blue Flower, Wolfe describes the unfolding of Fitzgerald’s writing as a subtle, ongoing process. He maintains that the novels, though plain and rambling at first glance, grow fuller, stranger, and more stirring the more we invest in them. He details Fitzgerald’s skill at sequencing events so as to unsettle readers and her ability to enhance motifs by not leaning too hard on them. Wolfe suggests that Fitzgerald’s refusal to overplay effects and emotions, while at first puzzling in its disdain for drama, turns out to be one of her chief virtues, for she enables larger associations to emerge as she keeps big dramatic scenes from interfering with wider patterns.

While enumerating Fitzgerald’s many talents, Wolfe ultimately attributes much of her success to her style. He concludes that her exceptionally disciplined prose, which gives voice to her candor and compassion, imbues her work with a sense of mood, place, and character. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Insightful reading of Fitzgerald's oeuvre
As an editor and writer by profession and ardent fan of P. Fitzgerald who has read every work, including the letters, short stories and criticism, I thought I had as appreciative an understanding of her work as anyone. What a wonderful surprise, then, to come across this incisive study. Wolfe does an especially wonderful job elucidating Fitzgerald's deftness with metaphor and language, the subtle, nearly off-hand references and details that belie the incredible depth of her personal knowledge and frame of reference as well as the prodigious amounts of research that form the unseen foundations of the historical works especially, as well as her Victorian influences. Sensitive use of biographical information illuminates Fitzgerald's themes and her profound sympathy for the lost and losers in life. That she was able to sustain her seemingly effortless brilliance of study, thought and creativity in the circumstances in which she lived and worked--especially poignant in the everyday details revealed in her letters--strikes one more than ever as epically heroic.

Fittingly, however, in the end, it is the work that shines most in this book. With insight and delicacy, Wolfe traces the development of her inimitable style, the incredible concision and compression, the elegance of her thought and characterizations, and her concern with fate, randomness and anarchy, across her body of work. And unusually for a piece of academic criticism (and surely as Fitzgerald deserves), the book is a pleasure to read--not at all turgid, and with no axe to grind (well, except for a mercifully brief rundown of so-deemed "wordiness" in her writing style, with which I totally disagreed). That very minor quibble aside, as the only full-length analysis of Fitzgerald (at least to my knowledge), Wolfe's book begins to redress quite effectively the continued inadequate critical appreciation of her work.

p.s. Regarding the earlier, negative review: it's true that this book is probably unhelpful to a very casual reader of Fitzgerald's most celebrated work, although there are numerous more references throughout to The Blue Flower, Sophie, The Bernhard, Novalis and Heine than are found in the Blue Flower chapter alone. However, for anyone with deeper interest in and familiarity with Fitzgerald's oeuvre as a whole, this study is invaluable and very welcome.

The Title is Inaccurate
I turned to this book while preparing to lead a reading group on Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower--thus I've read only Wolfe's chapter on that book.I was not impressed!Wolfe does a decent job of flagging significant passages in the novel itself, but doesn't exert himself much beyond that--which is a shame, because to really understand The Blue Flower, it helps to know more about its subject, the poet Novalis, than Fitzgerald gives away.Wolfe's method seems to have been to read the novel and write down his first impressions, including any associations with other works that floated to the top of his mind.I'm very glad I read this book in a library; if I'd bought it, I would feel very cheated. ... Read more

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This guide to eighteenth-century literature and culture provides students with the ideal introduction to literature and its context from 1688-1789, including: the historical, cultural and intellectual background including the expansion of cultural production and the growth of 'print culture'; major writers, genres and groups; concise explanations of key terms needed to understand the literature and criticism; an overview of key critical approaches; and a chronology mapping historical events and literary works and further reading including websites and electronic resources."Introductions to British Literature and Culture" provide practical guides to key literary periods. Guides in the series help to orientate students as they begin a new module or area of study, providing concise information on the historical, cultural, literary and critical context and acting as an initial map of the knowledge needed to study the literature and culture of a specific period.Each guide includes an overview of the historical period, intellectual contexts, major genres, critical approaches and a guide to original research and resource materials in the area, enabling students to progress confidently to further study. ... Read more

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Enhanced with a chronology of world history's major writings
The Eighteenth Century was the start of the Enlightenment in Europe. "Eighteenth Century Literature and Culture" is a look at this exciting time in the world and its literature, which leads its readers to learn much about the people and society of the day. With focuses on the many writers of the era and their common techniques, enhanced with a chronology of world history's major writings, "Eighteenth Century Literature and Culture" is a top pick for anyone who wants to educate themselves on the era and for community library literary studies collections. ... Read more

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Understanding Will Self introduces readers to the satire and expressive ingenuity of a British writer who has garnered an array of awards since the 1991 publication of his first short story collection, The Quantity Theory of Insanity. In this guide to the well-received but largely unstudied writer, M. Hunter Hayes examines the key themes, narrative strategies, and cultural commentaries that characterize Self's work. Through close textual analyses, Hayes guides readers through the alternative universe of Self's writing and maps the interplay between his forays into journalism and fiction.

Marked by their combination of seemingly improbable events and quotidian details, Self's novels, novellas, and short stories examine contemporary English life through a mode of writing that he has aptly termed "dirty magical realism." Hayes shows how recurring characters have evolved through successive works and in relation to their environments. He places Self's writing within its historical and critical contexts and uses each chapter to address either a single work or a group of closely connected works. Hayes's analyses range from well-regarded novels to notable yet uncollected short stories and draw upon secondary critical texts to reassess Self's critical standing.

Customer Reviews (1)

Brave attempt to dissect Will Self's fictional world
Writing prolifically over the last 20 or so years, Will Self has assembled a large corpus of strange and surreal fictions, 'dirty magic realism' as he describes it, that emerge as conceits and ideas of modern life that emerge form states of mind and locations we are familiar with, yet do not know at all.

Also, a borderline schizophrenic (or at least, he was when he was on drugs, he is now clean, and has been for the last 8 years), Self's brain is a difficult territory to explore. You can deduce as much by watching his public performances - he beguiles his audiences with wit, waspish humour and all the protean resources of the English language, of which he is a modern master.

How to make sense of his fictions? M. Hunter Hayes (an American, nonetheless) takes Self's books in turn, beginning with A Quantity Theory of Insanity, and takes us up to the 2006 release The Book of Dave. He explores the themes, cultural and psychological backgrounds to each work, referencing from the plethora of interviews Self has given on his work. Hayes proves to be an indomitable detective of the myriad cultural references that Self slathers on his fictional bread, and I was impressed with the scope of this. He also tracks the labyrinth of intertextual references that Self's work makes, the striations of glue that bind it together into a complete fictional territory of Selfland.

There is a brief biography of Self's life sketched out at the beginning, which includes a criticism of Self by John Walsh who says Self 'would rather use the word terpsichorean than the word dancing. His problem is that he went to Martin Amis's - and also my - college in Oxford: Exeter. But he studied PPE by mistake. Now he's trying to write a series of Eng Lt essays, 'Is this good enough? Damn it, I should have done English.'

This is a prime example of criticism Self has received from what he terms 'that laughable community of English literary critics'. People like John Walsh are laughable, because while Self has produced a remarkable range of fictions to rival those of modern British writers such as J.G. Ballard and Alasdair Gray, John Walsh has done - er, well what has John Walsh done exactly?

M. Hunter Hayes is not one of this laughable community. He is an intelligent and committed scholar of Self's work, and does well to wrestle with a strange and dangerous subject (even Self does not delve too deeply in the psychological substrata of his works, for fear of what he might discover). ... Read more

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The blokes were writers who revitalized British drama, fiction, poetry, and criticism. When Britain was in the economic doldrums, when its supply of great authors was dwindling after World War II, they rebuilt a world-class reputation. Between the early 1950s and the early 1970s, Britain had a great transformation. The blokes were writers who revitalized British drama, fiction, poetry, and criticism. When Britain was in the economic doldrums, when its supply of great authors was dwindling after World War II, they rebuilt a world-class reputation. Between the early 1950s and the early 1970s, Britain had a great transformation. This book is the story, told in a series of profiles (made out of facts, creative scenes, opinion), of New Britannia. The cast of characters includes playwrights John Osborne and Arnold Wesker, novelist Kingsley Amis, critic Kenneth Tynan, poet Philip Larkin, fiction writer Alan Sillitoe, plus lesser-known figures such as John Braine, David Storey, Stan Barstow, Keith Waterhouse, and Shelagh Delaney.The central idea of this book is how these writers, and others, transformed British heritage - how they worked with the materials of their own backgrounds, the class system, tradition, and artistic convention to make new art. They took their place in a long line of writers who thrived in grit: Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, Bernard Shaw, and D. H. Lawrence. ... Read more

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literary maps,guide to active reading strategies.from from the anglo-saxon period to the twentieth century,this book covers all of british literature.excellent for students or teachers.six units for each period covered,reference section,maps,index.reviewed by teachers,this is an excellent book on the british literature. ... Read more

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Understanding Anita Brookner examines the undeniably bleak view of the world in Brookner's fiction and the solitary protagonists whose "faith in a better world" is both their tragedy and their beauty. Cheryl Alexander Malcolm acquaints the reader with Brookner's distinguished career (first as an eminent art critic and historian, then as a writer), critical acclaim and awards, London birth and lifelong residence, and Polish Jewish family background. She examines the limited range of literary forms with which Brookner, abjuring the postmodern devices of jumbled chronologies and multiple narrators, contents herself. She illustrates Brookner's recurrent point of view, characterized by traditional British cultural values—understatement, deference to authority, and acceptance of a class system.

Despite her aloofness from literary fashion, Brookner has from the first commanded critical respect. In her nineteen short novels to date, she develops themes that recall Henry James and an earlier time—the elusiveness of human contentment, the natural disposition of some to renunciation, the inescapability of feelings of loneliness and displacement. Analyzing these themes, Malcolm shows that the beauty of Brookner's novels is not in the message of isolation but in the telling of the story. ... Read more

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Jason is a scriptwriter working on a film aboutMasada--the fortress where a thousand Jews killed themselves ratherthan be taken prisoner by the Romans in A. D. 73. He doubts that afilm both honest and popular on such a subject can be made, and, whileen route to the production site (Jason, producers and stars in firstclass--his wife and child in tourist), a dispute about the film and acrisis aboard the plane forces Jason to look at his life, his art, andthe world around him in several different ways at once. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Surviving Masada
A screenwriter (Jason) boards a plane bound for Tel Aviv to convince a Hollywood producer (Epstien) that his new screenplay on Masada can never be made into a film. In the back of the plane, the screenwriter's wife (Lilia)and child meet up with a very unpredictable man. On the ground, apsychology major turned Masada security guard, and his wife, a physicsstudent turned airport security official, do battle with strange interlopers known only as "protesters."

This book is a goodexample of experimental fiction. Mosley creates multiple layers of spokendialog and he successfully incorporates archetypes and the unconscious intoarticulated thoughts and events. What I liked best about it was theunexpectedness of the writing combined with a truly thrilling storyline.

The chapters where we must plow through existential conversation betweencharacters from Jason's screenplay are somewhat tedious compared to thepresent-day action on the plane. They remind us too heavily of the pedanticgoals of the book: a discussion of whether it is better to sacrificeoneself for society or to survive; whether life is a "goingconcern" or a "calamity," and whether we are all reallyactors who can't tell anymore when we're acting.

Readers who arenewcomers to Western philosophy will want to follow up with readings onPlato, Josephus, and Masada. Those more experienced with the historicalcontexts for the book will no doubt question, argue, and go read the otherfour books in the Catastrophe Practice series. ... Read more

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The Great War in British Literature is a new title in the Cambridge Contexts in Literature series. It is designed to support the needs of advanced level students of English literature.Each title in the series has the quality, content and level endorsed by the OCR examination board.However, the texts provide the background and focus suitable for any examination board at advanced level. The series explores the contextual study of texts by concentrating on key periods, topics and comparisons in literature.Each book adopts an interactive approach and provides the background for understanding the significance of literary, historical and social contexts.Students are encouraged to investigate different interpretations that may be applied to literary texts by different readers, through a variety of activities and questions, the use of study aids, such as chronologies and glossaries, and the inclusion of anthology sections to exemplify issues. ... Read more

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The Interactive Reading Workbook provides two guided learning opportunities per selection for students to practice word study, vocabulary, spelling, comprehension, and critical thinking skills as they read.

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American independence was inevitable by 1780, but British writers spent the several decades following the American Revolution transforming their former colonists into something other than estranged British subjects. Christopher Flynn's engaging and timely book systematically examines for the first time the ways in which British writers depicted America and Americans in the decades immediately following the revolutionary war. Flynn documents the evolution of what he regards as an essentially anthropological, if also in some ways familial, interest in the former colonies and their citizens on the part of British writers.Whether Americans are idealized as the embodiments of sincerity and virtue or anathematized as intolerable and ungrateful louts, Flynn argues that the intervals between the acts of observing and writing, and between writing and reading, have the effect of distancing Britain and America temporally as well as geographically.Flynn examines a range of canonical and noncanonical works-sentimental novels of the 1780s and 1790s, prose and poetry by Wollstonecraft, Blake, Coleridge, and Wordsworth; and novels and travel accounts by Smollett, Lennox, Frances Trollope, and Basil Hall. Together, they offer a complex and revealing portrait of Americans as a breed apart, which still resonates today. ... Read more

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Written by an editorial team whose members are all actively engaged in teaching and in current scholarship, Masters of British Literature is a concise, but comprehensive survey of the key writers whose classic works have shaped British literature.  Featuring major works by the most influential authors in the British literary tradition–from Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, and Swift to Wollstonecraft, Keats, Joyce, and Rushdie–the two compact anthologies in this package offer comprehensive coverage of the enduring works of the British literary tradition from the Middle Ages through the Restoration and the Eighteenth Century, then from the Romantics through the twentieth century. Core texts are complemented by contextual materials that help students understand the literary, historical, and cultural environments out which these texts arose, and within which they find their richest meaning.

Customer Reviews (1)

Good condition
I received the books on time, and thanks for saving my money. I love Amazon. I am a Chinese student in U.S. If the delivery time can be shorten even if I choose standard, it would be perfect. ... Read more

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This 900-page survey of world literature, "From Confucius' Day to Our Own," was the last book written by Ford Madox Ford, one of the seminal figures of the modernist period. Written for general readers rather than scholars and first published in 1938, The March of Literature is a working novelist's view of what is valuable in literature, and why. Convinced that scholars and teachers give a false sense of literature, Ford brings alive the pleasures of reading by writing about books he is passionate about.

Beginning at the beginningwith ancient Egyptian and Chinese literature and the BibleFord works his way through classical literature, the writings of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, continuing up to the major writers of his own day like Ezra Pound, Henry James, and Joseph Conrad.

With his encyclopedic reading and expertise in the techniques of writing, Ford is a reliable and entertaining guide. Ford also includes a chapter on publishers and booksellers, noting the key roles they play in literature's existence.

Novelist Alexander Theroux has written an insightful introduction for this reissue, the first time this monumental book has been made available in paperback. ... Read more

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Fordie Rambles On...
A bit of a charlatan and a bit of a blowhard, Ford is nonethess one of the more attractive figures of 20th Century literature.He's fun to read, almost in spite of his rambling style and at times almost incoherent attempts at analysis.There's something lovable about him that surfaces in the conversational tone of this book, an obvious attempt to make money during his low-income twilight years. His wanderings thru ancient Chinese and Hebrew writings don't follow any recognizable thread and support no clear thesis... but what the heck?
Nevertheless, he's quite strong on later written prose (after all, he wrote a terrific novel in The Good Soldier). .This is a book to be sampled in small bites, not one to be read cover to cover. It's loaded with semi-precious gems and I'm happy to have it in my library.

Nearly forgotten work of art
This was Ford Madox Ford's attempt to lay out the panorama of literature from ancient to modern times for the general readership. It's largely forgotten today, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it's still in print.

Ford was a champion of new, experimental work in his time. That would be the poets and novelists of Modernity as we see them now. Beyond the writers of his day, he also felt that there was importance in both the popular and obscure works of earlier generations. This book lays out his opinions and insights on many centuries of (despite the subtitle) mostly western literature.

This is probably not the preferred "general survey of world literature" today, but for literature folks this is a wonderful glimpse of our culture's, and Ford's personal, take on literature before the second world war. You'll certainly disagree at times, and some of his stances have not aged well, but what is here is well reasoned and interesting. ... Read more

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Part political thriller and part love story, this work explores the "small things" that give shape and meaning to the big events". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Satirical review mainly touching on the style of Assassins.
"Peter Salmon said" By: Peter Salmon

Peter Salmon said, "In Edward Hower's article 'Reviewing books', he explains how he doesn't trash books in his reviews, saying 'Not I.If I can't find atleast something to like in a book's first twenty or thirty pages, I send itright back, so another reviewer can try it' (p.26).Unfortunately for me,and any other poor sap who bought Nicholas Mosley's Assassins, we can'tjust send the book back to the publisher.We bought it for the cover priceof $12.95, and say to ourselves, 'Hey...they should've given me $12.95 justfor reading the first chapter.' "

Peter Salmon said, "On thebook's very first page, a title is given for all the comments from big-timebooks reviewers, 'Praise for Assassins'.Here they describe this book,'thoroughly imagined', 'an adroitly organized political thriller', and 'acocoon of dismay and terror'.It is not these descriptions that I disagreewith.In fact the thrilling plot is what counteracts Mosley's childishstyle.Set in England during the mid-sixties, the daughter of Sir SimonMann, England's Foreign Secretary, stumbles upon a young assassin.Theassassin takes Mann's daughter, who interrupts his deadly plans, and locksher in an abandoned cottage away from her home.When let loose to be partof a grander plot, she hides her fateful knowledge, unaware of everyone'soutcome."

Peter Salmon said, "Maybe you are wondering why eachparagraph begins with 'Peter Salmon said'.It is my way of satirizingMosley's monotonous and childlike style.What makes me want to pull myhair out is the fact that every quotation is begun with the word 'said'.Ifound three instances (and yes I did count) when he did not use 'said'. Along with this, for many characters, he did not give names.He simplyregarded them as 'the man with...'. When these two styles are put togetheron the same page, it is twice as annoying than having justone."

Peter Salmon said, "If you think you may be interested inthis book, I beg you to go to a bookstore and read page 52.If you cantolerate Mosley's style for that one page, then you are certainly one of akind." ... Read more

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This is a comprehensive, accessible and lucid coverage of major issues and key figures in modern and contemporary British literature.The "Post-War British Literature Handbook" is an accessible and comprehensive introduction to literature and culture in post-war Britain. It provides a one-stop resource for students with the essential information and guidance needed from the beginning of a course through to developing more advanced knowledge and skills.It includes: introductions to authors, texts and contexts; guides to key critics, concepts and topics; an overview of major critical approaches, changes in the canon and directions of current and future research; case studies in reading primary and secondary texts; and annotated further reading (including websites), timeline and a glossary of critical terms.Written in clear language by leading academics, it is an indispensable starting point for anyone beginning their study of modern and contemporary British literature."Literature and Culture Handbooks" are an innovative series of guides to major periods, topics and authors in British and American literature and culture.Designed to provide a comprehensive, one-stop resource for literature students, each handbook provides the essential information and guidance needed from the beginning of a course through to developing more advanced knowledge and skills. ... Read more