Enjoy daily distraction with this engaging Almanac.

A fascinating introduction to the art and techniques of the illustrator who, in Miffy, 'created one of the most recognizable characters in the world' (The New York Times).

A carefully chosen selection from the correspondence of Hugh Trevor-Roper, one of the most gifted and famous historians of his generation and one of the finest letter-writers of the twentieth century

Tapping into the resurgence of interest in mythology and illustrated with 75 linocut-style artworks, this contemporary, cool and highly desirable collection of North American folktales has standout visual appeal.

Radical universalism vs postcolonial theory

A fresh linguistic, critical and anthropological perspective on Tolkien's life and works.

This is the first major study of Mark Z. Danielewski, an emerging, innovative American novelist and a key figure in contemporary literature. It situates his three novels to date in their literary and cultural context, in the process demonstrating why he is such an important and ground-breaking writer. -- .

Vampirology charts the murky waters of the vampire myth - from stories found in many cultures across the globe to our sympathetic pop-culture renditions today - to investigate how a scientific interpretation may shed light on the fears and phenomena of the vampire myth.

A fascinating, richly illustrated exploration of the poignant origins of Rudyard Kipling's world-famous children's classic

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to Booker Prize-winning novelist Graham Swift. Detailed analysis of his work provides an informative, lucid and accessible insight into the writing of one of Britain's most significant contemporary authors. -- .

During Shakespeare's lifetime, John Lyly was repeatedly described as the central figure in contemporary English literature. This book takes that claim seriously, asking how and why Lyly was considered the most important writer of his time.

"What is this thing called literature? What is the point of studying literature? How do I study literature? Relating literature to timeless topics such as dreams, politics, life, death, the ordinary and the crazy, this beautifully written book establishes a sense of why and how literature is an exciting and rewarding subject to study. Bennett and Royle delicately weave an essential love of literature into an account of what literary texts do, how they work and what sort of questions and ideas they provoke.The book's three parts reflect the key components of studying literature: reading, thinking and writing. Part One comprises short chapters on reading a poem, reading a novel, reading a story, and reading a play. Part Two considers what thinking is, especially in relation to critical thinking and thinking about literature. Part three includes practical chapters on writing an essay, creative writing, and writing fiction. The authors use helpful, familiar examples throughout and offer brief reflections on questions such as 'What is literature?', on 'English' as a war zone, on crisis management and literary criticism, on dictionaries and on what the authors call creative reading. Bennett and Royle's lucid and friendly style engages and encourages personal experience of this thing called literature"--

Arthur F. Marotti analyzes some of the means by which the Catholic minority and the Protestant majority defined themselves and their religious and political antagonists in early modern England. In the period between the arrival of the first Jesuit missionaries in England in 1580 and the climax of ongoing religious conflict in the Restoration-era.

The Ghost Story 1840-1920: A Cultural History is the first book length analysis of the British ghost story in over thirty years. It includes readings of the economic, national, colonial, and gender contexts of the ghost story and provides a new and important critical re-evaluation of writers including Dickens, Collins, Henry James, and M.R. James. -- .

Greenery blends current ecological concerns with informed analysis of medieval literature to arrive at new readings of late medieval English texts, some canonical (eg Malory's Morte D'Arthur, Piers Plowman, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Chaucer's Knight's and Franklin's Tales) some less frequently studied (lyrics, Patience, Sir Orfeo).

Kennedy sought to understand the social, economic, and military forces that shape great powers. While earlier scholars of international history had written about `great men' and their achievements, Kennedy focused on the interdependence of military might and economic growth.

This book elaborates the social-psychological concept of schema while championing the literary critical practice of close reading to show how literature reflects, promotes, and contests pervasive sociocultural ideas like race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.

Featuring plays and poetry from all over the world, including Latin American and African fiction, this book offers a deeper look into the famed fiction of Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and more, as in-depth literary criticism and interesting authorial biographies give each work of literature a new meaning.

Reassesses women's relationship to performance in early modern England.

This book is a collection of essays on the most important figures associated with the Bakhtin Circle. It offers new biographical material, valuable translations of important Russian texts, a timeline and extensive bibliographical references.

Contributors with a wide range of interests assess Mikhail Bakhtin's contribution to issues of colonialism, feminism, reception theory and theories of the body. This second edition takes advatage of new material on Bakhtin available after perestroika.

Describing his childhood, Anglo-Catholic education and painful apprenticeship to the trade of dramatist, the author sets the progress of his own life against the history of a time in which faith in hierarchy, deference, religion, the empire and finally politics all withered away.