| Search | About | Preferences | Interact | Help | |
| 150 million books. 1 search engine. | ||
books tagged “british”
books tagged “british”
›› Find signed collectible books by ''
English
-
The Anodyne Necklaceby Martha GrimesISBN 0316328820 (0-316-32882-0)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Anodyne Necklace'Book summary:Utilizing the proven Pimsleur Language Method, a beginner's guide to the Spanish language furnishes eight daily audio lessons designed to help listeners learn how to communicate in Spanish. [via]
More editions of The Anodyne Necklace:
Another Worldby Pat BarkerISBN 0312203977 (0-312-20397-7)
Softcover, Picador
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Another World: A Novel'
Arabellaby Georgette HeyerISBN 0373835558 (0-373-83555-8)
Softcover, Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Arabella'More editions of Arabella:
-
The Best of James Herriotby James HerriotISBN 0312192363 (0-312-19236-3)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Best of James Herriot'Book summary:The Best of James Herriot is one of the most extraordinary volumes ever devoted to the work and world of a contemporary writer. Within its covers are unforgettable episodes from the remarkable series of memoirs that began with All Creatures Great and Small-"the ones my family and I have laughed at over the years and the ones my readers have said they most enjoyed," as Herriot, himself, put it. Yet the book is far more than a simple anthology: Its gorgeous pages also include hundreds of line drawings and color photographs, capturing Herriot's Yorkshire in a worthy complement to the writer's words.[via]
The 1991 publication of Every Living Thing, rendered the original edition of this book incomplete. This fall will mark the publication of the complete, definitive edition with the addition of five of his best, more recent stories, as well as new art. Once again The Best of James Herriot becomes the quintessential Herriot volume-one of those invaluable books that will be loved as much in decades to come as it is today.More editions of The Best of James Herriot:
-
Birds Without Wingsby Louis de BernieresISBN 0375434348 (0-375-43434-8)
Hardcover, Ballantine Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Birds Without Wings'Book summary:Birds Without Wings traces the fortunes of one small community in southwest Turkey (Anatolia) in the early part of the last century a quirky community in which Christian and Muslim lives and traditions have co-existed peacefully over the centuries and where friendship, even love, has transcended religious differences.
But with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the onset of the Great War, the sweep of history has a cataclysmic effect on this peaceful place: The great love of Philothei, a Christian girl of legendary beauty, and Ibrahim, a Muslim shepherd who courts her from near infancy, culminates in tragedy and madness; Two inseparable childhood friends who grow up playing in the hills above the town suddenly find themselves on opposite sides of the bloody struggle; and Rustem Bey, a wealthy landlord, who has an enchanting mistress who is not what she seems.
Far away from these small lives, a man of destiny who will come to be known as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is emerging to create a country from the ruins of an empire. Victory at Gallipoli fails to save the Ottomans from ultimate defeat and, as a new conflict arises, Muslims and Christians struggle to survive, let alone understand, their part in the great tragedy that will reshape the whole region forever. [via]More editions of Birds Without Wings:
-
The Birth of Venusby Sarah DunantISBN 0316725498 (0-316-72549-8)
Hardcover, Little, Brown
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Birth of Venus'Book summary:The Birth of Venus is all the more fascinating a historical novel for the author's inability to make up her mind what it is about. Is it a novel about the limited choices available to a woman with talent in Renaissance Florence--marriage or the convent? Or is it a novel about the choices you make to survive in a totalitarian society? As Savonarola takes Florence closer and closer to being an ascetic theocracy, Alessandra, her gay brother and his lover whom she has married for mutual protection find themselves in more and more peril. It could also be a detective story--Allesandra is in love with a painter whose religious mania and fascination with the body makes him a plausible suspect for a series of killings and dismemberments. Some historical novels wear their research too heavily--Dunant's is light, fluent and pacy, but her fascination with the possibilities revealed by research leaves her failing to make choices.
The Birth of Venus is a highly intelligent novel kept from incoherence mostly by the intensely imagined Alessandra, through whose eyes we see the tragic end of a key moment in human culture and whose lively sensibility constantly sparks ideas about art and her time. --Roz Kaveney [via]
More editions of The Birth of Venus:
-
The Boy I Loved Beforeby Jenny ColganISBN 0312331983 (0-312-33198-3)
Softcover, Griffin
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Boy I Loved Before'Book summary:While attending her best friend Sashy's wedding, Flora Scurrison realizes that this monotonous, nine-to-five, cookie-cutter life is exactly what's in store for her. While it might be okay for Sashy, it's certainly not what she envisioned for herself when she was sixteen. So when her boyfriend proposes to her during the reception, Flora makes a wish to go back and do it all over again. The next morning she wakes up to find that she has been given the ultimate second chance--she's sixteen again. As Flora navigates school, first loves--new and old--and discovers what it really means to make adult choices, will she stay in her new body or try and find her way home?[via]More editions of The Boy I Loved Before:
-
Callander Squareby Anne PerryISBN 0312114303 (0-312-11430-3)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Callander Square'Book summary:"Murder fans who prefer their crimes with a touch of class should heat some scones and nestle back for the afternoon."
ATLANTA JOURNAL & CONSTITUTION
Murders just didn't take place in fashionable Callander Square, so Inspector Pitt's well-bred wife Charlotte couldn't resist finding out why one had. Suddenly there she was, rattling the closets of the very rich, listening to backstair gossip, and unearthing truths that could push even the most proper aristocrat to murder.... [via]More editions of Callander Square:
Captain Horatio Hornblowerby Cecil Scott ForesterISBN 0316288934 (0-316-28893-4)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Captain Horatio Hornblower'More editions of Captain Horatio Hornblower:
The Cater Street Hangmanby Anne PerryISBN 031212385X (0-312-12385-X)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Cater Street Hangman'More editions of The Cater Street Hangman:
Coffin Undergroundby Gwendoline ButlerISBN 0312310714 (0-312-31071-4)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Coffin Underground'
Colour Schemeby Ngaio MarshISBN 0312966032 (0-312-96603-2)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Colour Scheme'More editions of Colour Scheme:
-
Coming Homeby Rosamunde PilcherISBN 0312958129 (0-312-95812-9)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Coming Home'Book summary:Fictioanl Novel, Literary Fiction [via]
-
Complete Poems of Thomas Hardyby Thomas Hardy, James GibsonISBN 0333177754 (0-333-17775-4)
Hardcover, Macmillan
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy'More editions of Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy:
Complete Steelby Catherine AirdISBN 0356028089 (0-356-02808-9)
Hardcover, Macdonald & Co
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Complete Steel'More editions of Complete Steel:
The Convenient Marriageby Georgette HeyerISBN 0373834454 (0-373-83445-4)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Convenient Marriage'More editions of The Convenient Marriage:
The Country Lifeby Rachel CuskISBN 0312252803 (0-312-25280-3)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Country Life'Book summary:In Rachel Cusk's The Country Life, city mouse Stella abruptly abandons her London career and man for a job in Sussex. Her mission: to care for and transport young Martin, the disabled son of country mice Piers and Pamela Madden, owners of Franchise Farm. Alas, all is not ambrosia in Arcadia. For a start, the Maddens are, well, maddening. The paterfamilias sports "an expression of bright vacancy on his rosy face" whereas his wife evinces a more dramatic sort of derangement: "Pamela, I realized, spoke a language of energetic emergency, in which problems were approached as violently as they were escaped from." To make matters worse, not only does our heroine lack any background in her new field--she doesn't even know how to drive. Long before she's forced behind the wheel, however, Stella is out of her element. Nature, even the very air, seems against her. In one devastating tour de force, she falls asleep in the sun and is hideously burnt (but only on one side of her body!) and then suffers an indoor avian attack.
Fans of Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm will recognize more than a few nods to her classic in Rachel Cusk's hilarious and caustic third novel. For a start, the locals are unfailingly lugubrious, and every dog seems to have it in for our girl from the city. As for her young charge, Martin is either an emotional monster or a savior--though we readers might well opt for the former. The Country Life again and again displays Cusk's eye and ear for surreal comedy and social unpleasantry. Suffice it to say that your idea of a pleasant sojourn--or even a brief walk--in the country will never be the same. --Kerry Fried [via]
Dance to the Music of Timeby Anthony PowellISBN 0316715360 (0-316-71536-0)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Dance to the Music of Time'More editions of Dance to the Music of Time:
Dead Waterby Ngaio MarshISBN 0312969902 (0-312-96990-2)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Dead Water'More editions of Dead Water:
Deep Secretby Diana Wynne JonesISBN 0312868596 (0-312-86859-6)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Deep Secret'More editions of Deep Secret:
Desperate Remediesby Thomas HardyISBN 0312194943 (0-312-19494-3)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Desperate Remedies'More editions of Desperate Remedies:
The Devil's Larderby Jim CraceISBN 0312420897 (0-312-42089-7)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Devil's Larder'Book summary:In The Devil's Larder, Jim Crace has put together an odd and artful little volume that encompasses more of the human experience than it really ought to, given its size and scope. Crace presents us with 64 short fictions about food, which add up to a picture of life that is at once diabolical and innocent, creepily sexualized and free of judgment. In one fable, a mother and her small daughter twist their tongues together, ferreting out the food in each other's mouths: they want to know if food tastes the same from another person's tongue. A game of strip fondue ends with guests covered in burns where the molten cheese has fallen onto their naked flesh. "A gasp of pain. The whiff of sizzling flesh and hair and cheese." Flesh and cheese, that's the stuff. Crace shows us the odd outer limits of desire, and revels in the sheer weirdness of the daily act of eating. --Claire Dederer [via]
-
Doctor Fischer of Geneva, or The Bomb Partyby Graham GreeneISBN 0370303164 (0-370-30316-4)
Hardcover, Bodley Head
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Doctor Fischer of Geneva, or The Bomb Party'Book summary:A darkly comic novel about a misanthropic millionaire who decides to hold the last of his famous parties, but this time it is to be his own deadly version of the Book of Revelation. Reissued as part of the VINTAGE CLASSICS series, from the author of THE COMEDIANS and THE HUMAN FACTOR. [via]
More editions of Doctor Fischer of Geneva, or The Bomb Party:
-
Dogsbodyby Diana Wynne JonesISBN 0333187911 (0-333-18791-1)
Hardcover, Macmillan
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Dogsbody'Book summary:Sirius, immortal Lord of the Dog Star and infamous for his quick temper, cannot believe it when he is falsely accused of murder and banished to Earth. [via]
More editions of Dogsbody:
Double Sin and Other Storiesby Agatha ChristieISBN 0312981678 (0-312-98167-8)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Double Sin and Other Stories'More editions of Double Sin and Other Stories:
-
Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great Warby Robert K. MassieISBN 0345375564 (0-345-37556-4)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War'Book summary:"A classic [that] covers superbly a whole era...Engrossing in its glittering gallery of characters."
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Robert K. Massie has written a richly textured and gripping chronicle of the personal and national rivalries that led to the twentieth century's first great arms race. Massie brings to vivid life, such historical figures as the single-minded Admiral von Tirpitz, the young, ambitious, Winston Churchill, the ruthless, sycophantic Chancellor Bernhard von Bulow, and many others. Their story, and the story of the era, filled with misunderstandings, missed opportunities, and events leading to unintended conclusions, unfolds like a Greek tratedy in his powerful narrative. Intimately human and dramatic, DREADNOUGHT is history at its most riveting. [via]More editions of Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War:
-
The Ebony Towerby John FowlesISBN 0316287458 (0-316-28745-8)
Softcover, Time Warner on Demand
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Ebony Tower'Book summary:The Ebony Tower, a work every bit as intrigbuing aand dazzling as Fowles has written. It echoes themes from his earlier works. a Tour de Force as yet unrecognized. [via]
-
The Five Bells and Bladeboneby Martha GrimesISBN 0316328898 (0-316-32889-8)
Hardcover, Smithmark Pub
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Five Bells and Bladebone'Book summary:First Edition stated. LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY, BOSTON 1987. Good+/Good+ dust jacket condition. COMPETITIVE PRICING! Once paid, books will ship immediately without email notification to customer (it's on the way), you are welcomed to email about shipment date! REFUNDS: All ViewFair books, prints, and manuscript items are 100% refundable up to 14 business days after item is received. InvCodePrc 38 E H V VIEWFAIR BOOKS: 005532 [via]
More editions of The Five Bells and Bladebone:
The Foundlingby Georgette HeyerISBN 0373835493 (0-373-83549-3)
Softcover, Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Foundling'More editions of The Foundling:
Goodbye Mr Chipsby Hilton, H. M. Brock, Edward WeeksISBN 0316010138 (0-316-01013-8)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Goodbye Mr Chips'Book summary:Mr. Hilton's classic story of an English schoolmaster. [via]
-
The Grand Sophyby Georgette Heyer, Catherine CoulterISBN 0373835485 (0-373-83548-5)
Softcover, Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Grand Sophy'Book summary:Foreward by New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter!
A Most Shocking Lady, Indeed!
Vibrant, irrepressible Sophy Stanton-Lacy was no stranger to managing delicate situations. After all, she'd been keeping opportunistic females away from her widowed father for years. But staying with her relatives could be her biggest challenge yet.
Lovely cousin Cecelia was smitten with an utterly unsuitable suitor; cousin Herbert was in dire financial straits; and the ruthlessly handsome Charles Rivenhall was bent on marrying a horribly prosy bluestocking. Using her signature unorthodox methods, Sophy set out to solve all of their problems -- never anticipating romantic entanglements of her own!
Could it be that the Grand Sophy had finally met her match . . .? [via]
More editions of The Grand Sophy:
The Grotesqueby Patrick McGrathISBN 0345364074 (0-345-36407-4)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Grotesque'More editions of The Grotesque:
Hand in Gloveby Ngaio MarshISBN 0312969082 (0-312-96908-2)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hand in Glove'More editions of Hand in Glove:
The Happy Prince and Other Talesby Oscar Wilde, Charles RobinsonISBN 033024857X (0-330-24857-X)
Hardcover, Pan Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Happy Prince and Other Tales'More editions of The Happy Prince and Other Tales:
Hemlock and Afterby Angus WilsonISBN 0312155441 (0-312-15544-1)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hemlock and After'More editions of Hemlock and After:
-
Hornblower During the Crisis and Two Storiesby Cecil Scott ForesterISBN 0316289159 (0-316-28915-9)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hornblower During the Crisis and Two Stories'Book summary:This last-written adventure of Horatio Hornblower finds him still a captain; the Napoleonic Wars rage on. Though the tale was incomplete at Forester's death, it offers a full measure of action at sea. [via]
More editions of Hornblower During the Crisis and Two Stories:
Hornblower During the Crisis and Two Stories Hornblowers Temptation and the Last Encounterby C. S. ForesterISBN 0316289442 (0-316-28944-2)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hornblower During the Crisis and Two Stories Hornblowers Temptation and the Last Encounter'More editions of Hornblower During the Crisis and Two Stories Hornblowers Temptation and the Last Encounter:
-
I Don't Know How She Does It : The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Motherby Allison PearsonISBN 0375414053 (0-375-41405-3)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'I Don't Know How She Does It : The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother'Book summary:Allison Pearson's debut novel, I Don't Know How She Does It, is a rare and beautiful hybrid: a devastatingly funny novel that's also a compelling fictional world. You want to climb inside this book and inhabit it. However, you might find it pretty messy once you're in there. Narrator Kate Reddy is the manager of a hedge fund and mother of two small children. The book opens with an emblematic scene as Kate "distresses" a store-bought mince pie to make it appear homemade. Her days are measured in increments of minutes and even seconds; her fund stays organized but her house and family are falling apart. The book is a pearly string of great lines. Here's Kate on lack of sleep: "They're right to call it a broken night.... You crawl back to bed and you lie there trying to do the jigsaw of sleep with half the pieces missing." On baby boys: "A mother of a one-year-old son is a movie star in a world without critics." On subtle office dynamics:
The women in the offices of EMF [Kate's firm] don't tend to display pictures of their kids. The higher they go up the ladder, the fewer the photographs. If a man has pictures of kids on his desk, it enhances his humanity; if a woman has them it decreases hers. Why? Because he's not supposed to be home with the children; she is.
There's inherent drama here: Kate is wildly appealing, and we want things to work out for her. In the end, the book isn't a just collection of clever lines on the theme of working motherhood; it's a real, rich novel about a character we come to cherish. --Claire Dederer [via]More editions of I Don't Know How She Does It : The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother:
In Between the Sheetsby Ian McEwanISBN 0330256653 (0-330-25665-3)
Softcover, Pan Macmillan
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'In Between the Sheets'More editions of In Between the Sheets:
-
John Donne: Selected Poemsby John DonneISBN 0312114680 (0-312-11468-0)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'John Donne: Selected Poems'Book summary:And now good morrow to our waking soules,[via]
Which watch not one another our of feare;
For love, all love of other sights controules,
And makes one little room, an everywhere.
Bloomsbury Poetry Classics are selections from the work of some of our greatest poets. The series is aimed at the general reader rather than the specialist and carries no critical or explanatory apparatus. This can be found elsewhere. In the series the poems introduce themselves, on an uncluttered page and in a format that is both attractive and convenient. The selections have been made by the distinguished poet, critic, and biographer Ian Hamilton.More editions of John Donne: Selected Poems:
A Judgement in Stoneby Ruth RendellISBN 0375704965 (0-375-70496-5)
Softcover, Black Lizard Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Judgement in Stone'More editions of A Judgement in Stone:
Killing the Shadowsby Val McDermidISBN 0312983387 (0-312-98338-7)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Killing the Shadows'More editions of Killing the Shadows:
-
Knots and Crossesby Ian RankinISBN 0312956738 (0-312-95673-8)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Knots and Crosses'Book summary:Detective John Rebus: His city is being terrorized by a baffling series of murders...and he's tied to a maniac by an invisible knot of blood. Once John Rebus served in Britain's elite SAS. Now he's an Edinburgh cop who hides from his memories, misses promotions and ignores a series of crank letters. But as the ghoulish killings mount and the tabloid headlines scream, Rebus cannot stop the feverish shrieks from within his own mind. Because he isn't just one cop trying to catch a killer, he's the man who's got all the pieces to the puzzle...[via]
Knots and Crosses introduces a gifted mystery novelist, a fascinating locale and the most compellingly complex detective hero at work today.More editions of Knots and Crosses:
The Last Temptationby Val McDermidISBN 0312986319 (0-312-98631-9)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Last Temptation'
Lays of Beleriandby J. R. R. TolkienISBN 0345388186 (0-345-38818-6)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Lays of Beleriand'More editions of Lays of Beleriand:
The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblowerby Cyril Northcote ParkinsonISBN 0316692476 (0-316-69247-6)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower'More editions of The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower:
-
Lord Hornblowerby Cecil Scott ForesterISBN 0316289434 (0-316-28943-4)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Lord Hornblower'Book summary:The Hornblower Novels of C. S. Forester Mr. Midshipman Hornblower Lieutenant Hornblower Hornblower and the Hotspur Hornblower During the Crisis Hornblower and the Atropos Beat to Quarters Ship of the Line Flying Colours Commodore Hornblower Lord Hornblower Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies Weary of the war that he has waged nearly his entire life, Hornblower finds himself assigned an especially dangerous and dubious new task: to rescue a man he knows to be a tyrant from the mutiny of his crew in the Bay of the Seine. This risky adventure, coinciding with reports that the tide of war may be turning-as Wellington has swept over the Pyrenees and the Russians have reached the Rhine-propels Hornblower toward the heart of the French Empire, toward a fateful reunion with old friends, and toward the harrowing but glorious conclusion of his own battle with Napoleon. [via]
More editions of Lord Hornblower:
Love, Etcby Julian BarnesISBN 0375411615 (0-375-41161-5)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Love, Etc'More editions of Love, Etc:
The Mermaids Singingby Val McDermidISBN 0312983603 (0-312-98360-3)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Mermaids Singing'More editions of The Mermaids Singing:
Moab Is My Washpot: An Autobiographyby Stephen FryISBN 0375502645 (0-375-50264-5)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Moab Is My Washpot: An Autobiography'More editions of Moab Is My Washpot: An Autobiography:
-
Molloy, Malone Dies, the Unnamableby Samuel Beckett, Gabriel JosipoviciISBN 0375400702 (0-375-40070-2)
Hardcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Molloy, Malone Dies, the Unnamable'Book summary:Samuel Beckett's brilliance as a dramatist--as the creator of Waiting for Godot, Krapp's Last Tape, and that despairing pas de deux Endgame--has tended to overshadow his gifts as a novelist. Yet he's unmistakably one of the great fiction writers of our century. As a young man he took dictation (literally) from James Joyce, and absorbed everything that myopic maestro had to offer when it came to Anglo-Irish prosody. Still, Beckett's instincts would ultimately steer him away from Joyce's delirious play with high and low diction, toward a more concentrated, even compulsive style. His earlier novels, like Murphy or Watt, give us a taste of what was to come. But Beckett truly hit his stride with a trilogy of early-1950s masterpieces: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable. Here he dispenses with all the customary props of contemporary fiction--including exposition, plot, and increasingly, paragraphs--and turns his attention to consciousness itself. Nobody has ever evoked the pain of existence, or the steady slide toward nonexistence, with such poetic, garrulous accuracy. And once you've attuned yourself to the epistemological vaudeville of Beckett's prose, he turns out to be the funniest writer on the planet--ever.
None of the three entries in the trilogy is exactly amenable to summary. It's fair to say, though, that Molloy is the easiest to read, with at least a bare-bones narrative and an abundance of comical set pieces. In one famous episode, the narrator spends page after page figuring out how to vary the sucking stones he carries in his pockets:
And while I gazed thus at my stones, revolving interminable martingales all equally defective, and crushing handfuls of sand, so that the sand ran through my fingers and fell back on the strand, yes, while thus I lulled my mind and part of my body, one day suddenly it dawned on the former, dimly, that I might perhaps achieve my purpose without increasing the number of my pockets, or reducing the number of my stones, but simply by sacrificing the principle of trim. The meaning of this illumination, which suddenly began to sing within me, like a verse of Isaiah, or of Jeremiah, I did not penetrate at once, and notably the word trim, which I had never met with, in this sense, long remained obscure.
This nutty ratiocination goes on for much, much longer, until the narrator loses patience and throws the stones away. And that's a fair encapsulation of Beckett's philosophy: he argues for the essential pointlessness of life--the solitary, wretched splendor of human existence--but does so in a comic rather than a tragic register, which ends up softening or even overpowering the bleakness of his initial premise. So Malone Dies opens with a typically morbid mood-lifter ("I shall soon be quite dead at last in spite of it all") and then makes endless comedic hay out of Malone's failure to keel over. And by the time we hit The Unnamable, we're forced to wonder whether the narrator actually exists: "I, say I. Unbelieving. Questions, hypotheses, call them that. Keep going, going on, call that going, call that on." Happily, Beckett worried these same questions and hypotheses to the end of his career, with increasingly minimalistic gusto. But he never topped the intensity or linguistic brilliance of this mind-bending three-part invention. --James Marcus [via]More editions of Molloy, Malone Dies, the Unnamable:
The New Confessionsby William BoydISBN 0375705031 (0-375-70503-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The New Confessions'More editions of The New Confessions:
The Night Managerby John Le CarreISBN 0345385764 (0-345-38576-4)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Night Manager'-
The Nonesuchby Georgette HeyerISBN 0373834446 (0-373-83444-6)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Nonesuch'Book summary:Sir Waldo Hawkridge, wealthy, handsome, eligible, and known as The Nonesuch for his athletic prowess, believes he is past the age of falling in love.
From the Trade Paperback edition. [via]More editions of The Nonesuch:
-
On the Beachby Nevil ShuteISBN 0345311485 (0-345-31148-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'On the Beach'Book summary:"The most shocking fiction I have read in years. What is shocking about it is both the idea and the sheer imaginative brilliance with which Mr. Shute brings it off."
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
They are the last generation, the innocent victims of an accidental war, living out their last days, making do with what they have, hoping for a miracle. As the deadly rain moves ever closer, the world as we know it winds toward an inevitable end.... [via] 
The Pale Horseby Agatha ChristieISBN 0312981716 (0-312-98171-6)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Pale Horse'More editions of The Pale Horse:
The Plague Dogsby Richard AdamsISBN 0345494024 (0-345-49402-4)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Plague Dogs'More editions of The Plague Dogs:
Power of Threeby Diana Wynne JonesISBN 0333186435 (0-333-18643-5)
Hardcover, Macmillan
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Power of Three'More editions of Power of Three:
The Prestigeby Christopher PriestISBN 0312858868 (0-312-85886-8)
Softcover, Tor Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Prestige'Book summary:The Washington Post called this "a dizzying magic show of a novel, chock-a-block with all the props of Victorian sensation fiction: seances, multiple narrators, a family curse, doubles, a lost notebook, wraiths, and disembodied spirits; a haunted house, awesome mad-doctor machinery, a mausoleum, and ghoulish horrors; a misunderstood scientist, impossible disappearances; the sins of the fathers visited upon their descendants." Winner of the 1996 World Fantasy Award, The Prestige is even better than that, because unlike many Victorians, Priest writes crisp, unencumbered prose. And anyone who's ever thrilled to the arcing electricity in the "It's alive!" scene in Frankenstein will relish the "special effects" by none other than Nikola Tesla. [via]
Quartet in Autumnby Barbara PymISBN 0333227786 (0-333-22778-6)
Hardcover, Macmillan
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Quartet in Autumn'More editions of Quartet in Autumn:
The Return of Sherlock Holmesby Arthur Conan Doyle, Nicholas MeyerISBN 0345327136 (0-345-32713-6)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Return of Sherlock Holmes'More editions of The Return of Sherlock Holmes:
The Rime of the Ancient Marinerby Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Paul H. FryISBN 0312219172 (0-312-21917-2)
Hardcover, Palgrave Macmillan
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'More editions of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
Samuel Taylor Coleridgeby Samuel Taylor ColeridgeISBN 0312112505 (0-312-11250-5)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Samuel Taylor Coleridge'More editions of Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
-
Sonnets from the Portugueseby Elizabeth B. BrowningISBN 031274501X (0-312-74501-X)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Sonnets from the Portuguese'Book summary:Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a prolific writer and reviewer in the Victorian period, and in her lifetime, her reputation as a poet was at least as great as that of her husband, poet Robert Browning. Some of her poetry has been noted in recent years for strong feminist themes, but the poems for which Elizabeth Barrett Browning is undoubtedly best know are Sonnets from the Portuguese.[via]
Written for Robert Browning, who had affectionately nicknamed her his "little Portuguese," the sequence is a celebration of marriage, and of one of the most famous romances of the nineteenth century. Recognized for their Victorian tradition and discipline, these are some of the most passionate and memorable love poems in the English language. There are forty-four poems in the collection, including the very beautiful sonnet, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."More editions of Sonnets from the Portuguese:
State of the Art: Short Stories by the New Irish Writersby David MarcusISBN 0340574003 (0-340-57400-3)
Hardcover, Sceptre
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'State of the Art: Short Stories by the New Irish Writers'More editions of State of the Art: Short Stories by the New Irish Writers:
-
Thomas Hardyby Thomas Hardy, James GibsonISBN 0333949293 (0-333-94929-3)
Softcover, Palgrave Macmillan
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Thomas Hardy'Book summary:Thomas Hardy's first love was poetry. It was not until 1898, when he was 58, that his first book of poetry, Wessex Poems was published. For the final years of his life he abandoned fiction and devoted himself entirely to poetry; he is now not only regarded as one of the most important English novelists but is also a poet of major stature and increasing popularity. The Complete Poems includes Hardy's more than 900 poems, complemented by detailed notes. Collected here are his eight books of verse, all the uncollected poems, Domicilium, and the songs from The Dynasts. This edition contains an additional poem, The Sound of Her.[via]More editions of Thomas Hardy:
To the Hiltby Dick FrancisISBN 0330352253 (0-330-35225-3)
Softcover, Macmillan Pub Ltd
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'To the Hilt'More editions of To the Hilt:
Trouble with Lichenby John WyndhamISBN 0345302893 (0-345-30289-3)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Trouble with Lichen'More editions of Trouble with Lichen:
Turn of the Screwby Henry JamesISBN 0312138334 (0-312-13833-4)
Softcover, Palgrave Macmillan
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Turn of the Screw'-
The Turn of the Screw: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticismby Peter G. Beidler, Henry JamesISBN 0312406916 (0-312-40691-6)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Turn of the Screw: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism'Book summary:This volume presents the text of the New York Edition of Jamess classic 1898 short novel along with critical essays that read The Turn of the Screw from contemporary reader-response, psychoanalytic, gender, and Marxist perspectives. An additional essay demonstrates how several critical perspectives can be combined. As in the first edition, the text and essays are complemented by biographical and critical introductions, bibliographies, and a glossary of critical and theoretical terms. Two of the six essays are new to the second edition, as is a selection of cultural documents and illustrations.[via]More editions of The Turn of the Screw: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism:
Two on a Towerby Thomas HardyISBN 0312827423 (0-312-82742-3)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Two on a Tower'-
The Unburiedby Charles PalliserISBN 0374280355 (0-374-28035-5)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Unburied'Book summary:Though putatively a mystery set (mostly) in the Victorian age, Charles Palliser's The Unburied has more in common with Umberto Eco than Arthur Conan Doyle. Like The Name of the Rose, this novel is set in a scholarly community and features a lost manuscript as the McGuffin of choice. And here, too, the mystery is not really what the book is about at all. Palliser's tale centers on Edward Courtine, a Cambridge don with a bee in his bonnet about Alfred the Great. It doesn't take a great medievalist to figure out that Courtine has allowed emotion to cloud his reason concerning the Saxon monarch: his version of Alfred's life and character is so forgiving as to be downright suspicious.
When it is suggested that a source dear to his heart may in fact be fraudulent, he accuses his critics of cowardice. According to Courtine, those revisionist scoundrels doubt the veracity of his beloved source "because their own self-serving cynicism is reproached by the portrait of the king that Grimbald offers. You see, his account confirms how extraordinarily brave and resourceful and learned Alfred was, and what a generous and much-loved man." Now Courtine has come to the cathedral town of Thurcester because he believes Grimbald's original manuscript may be in the cathedral library--a manuscript that he hopes will validate his own version of the great king's reign.
Palliser takes his time setting up his story, seeding it with clues that more often than not lead to dead ends. We learn, for example, that Courtine was once married, that his wife ran off with another man, and that he blames his school pal Austin Fickling for the rupture in his marital bliss. Dark doings at the cathedral are also hinted at, with quite a lot of space devoted to a murder that occurred centuries earlier. Meanwhile, ecclesiastical renovations turn up some unpleasant surprises--and as yet another murder ensues, Courtine is swept up in less scholarly pursuits. As the hapless academic (a Watson without a Holmes) pursues one red herring after another, it becomes apparent that Courtine's psyche is the real mystery on hand. History, he discovers, can obscure as much as it elucidates. All these years, his obsession with an idealized past has provided an excellent refuge from the realities of his present. In the end, what he uncovers is the secret of himself--and the reader of The Unburied is treated to a fine ghost story, in which the ghosts are quite literally all in the mind. --Alix Wilber [via]
More editions of The Unburied:
-
Venetiaby Georgette Heyer, Nancy WarrenISBN 0373771665 (0-373-77166-5)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Venetia'Book summary:She wasn't looking for love . . .
Her beauty rivaled only by her sensibility, Ventia Lanyon is nearly resigned to spinsterhood, thanks to the enormous amount of responsibility she inherited with a Yorkshire estate, an invalid brother and the lackluster efforts of two wearisomely persistent suitors. Then she meets her neighbor, the infamous Lord Dameral, a charming rake shunned by polite society -- exactly the type of man that a woman of quality should stay away from . . .He wasn't looking for redemption . . .
Though his scandalous past and deepest secerts give Ventia every reason to mistrust him, a rogue always gets what he wants. Without warning, his demanding kiss threatens to become a bachelor's undoing . . . and a spinster's most passionate awakening. [via]More editions of Venetia:
-
Virginia Woolfby Hermione LeeISBN 0375701362 (0-375-70136-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Virginia Woolf'Book summary:"A majestic literary biography, a truly new, surprisingly fresh portrait. --
Newsday
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
National Book Critics Circle Award finalist
"A biography wholly worthy of the brilliant woman it chronicles. . . . It rediscovers Virginia Woolf afresh."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer
While Virginia Woolf--one of our century's most brilliant and mercurial writers--has had no shortage of biographers, none has seemed as naturally suited to the task as Hermione Lee. Subscribing to Virginia Woolf's own belief in the fluidity and elusiveness of identity, Lee comes at her subject from a multitude of perspectives, producing a richly layered portrait of the writer and the woman that leaves all of her complexities and contradictions intact. Such issues as sexual abuse, mental illness, and suicide are brought into balance with the immensity of her literary achievement, her heroic commitment to her work, her generosity and wit, and her sanity and strength.
It is not often that biography offers the satisfactions of great fiction--but this is clearly what Hermione Lee has achieved. Accessible, intelligent, and deeply pleasurable to read, her Virginia Woolf will undoubtedly take its place as the standard biography for years to come.
"One of the most impressive biographies of the decade: moving, eloquent, powerful as both literary and social history."
--Financial Times
"The most distinguished study of Woolf yet." --The New Republic [via]More editions of Virginia Woolf:
-
The Wars of the Rosesby Alison Weir, Phebe KirkhamISBN 0345404335 (0-345-40433-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wars of the Roses'Book summary:Lancaster and York. For much of the fifteenth century, these two families were locked in battle for control of the British monarchy. Kings were murdered and deposed. Armies marched on London. Old noble names were ruined while rising dynasties seized power and lands. The war between the royal House of Lancaster and York, the longest and most complex in British history, profoundly altered the course of the monarchy. In The Wars of the Roses, Alison Weir reconstructs this conflict with the same dramatic flair and impeccable research that she brought to her highly praised The Princes in the Tower.
The first battle erupted in 1455, but the roots of the conflict reached back to the dawn of the fifteenth century, when the corrupt, hedonistic Richard II was sadistically murdered, and Henry IV, the first Lancastrian king, seized England's throne. Both Henry IV and his son, the cold warrior Henry V, ruled England ably, if not always wisely--but Henry VI proved a disaster, both for his dynasty and his kingdom. Only nine months old when his father's sudden death made him king, Henry VI became a tormented and pathetic figure, weak, sexually inept, and prey to fits of insanity. The factional fighting that plagued his reign escalated into bloody war when Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, laid claim to the throne that was rightfully his--and backed up his claim with armed might.
Alison Weir brings brilliantly to life both the war itself and the historic figures who fought it on the great stage of England. Here are the queens who changed history through their actions--the chic, unconventional Katherine of Valois, Henry V's queen; the ruthless, social-climbing Elizabeth Wydville; and, most crucially, Margaret of Anjou, a far tougher and more powerful character than her husband,, Henry VI, and a central figure in the Wars of the Roses.
Here, too, are the nobles who carried the conflict down through the generations--the Beauforts, the bastard descendants of John of Gaunt, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known to his contemporaries as "the Kingmaker"; and the Yorkist King, Edward IV, a ruthless charmer who pledged his life to cause the downfall of the House of Lancaster.
The Wars of the Roses is history at its very best--swift and compelling, rich in character, pageantry, and drama, and vivid in its re-creation of an astonishing, dangerous, and often grim period of history. Alison Weir, one of the foremost authorities on the British royal family, demonstrates here that she is also one of the most dazzling stylists writing history today. [via]More editions of The Wars of the Roses:
When in Romeby Ngaio MarshISBN 0312970978 (0-312-97097-8)
Softcover, Minotaur Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'When in Rome'More editions of When in Rome:
The Whitechapel Conspiracyby Anne PerryISBN 0345433289 (0-345-43328-9)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Whitechapel Conspiracy'More editions of The Whitechapel Conspiracy:
-
The Wicked Dayby Mary StewartISBN 0340322373 (0-340-32237-3)
Hardcover, Hodder and Stoughton
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wicked Day'Book summary:Far from being the scourge of Arthur, his bastard son Mordred actually strives to resist Merlin's prophecy of doom. But he is thwarted by the schemes of his sorceress mother, Queen Morgause, who has brought him up to be her revenge incarnate, and by misunderstandings beyond his control. Prophecy triumphs, and the confrontation that is as fatal as it is inevitable is played out against the darkened walls of the city of Camelot. [via]
More editions of The Wicked Day:
-
The World's Wifeby Carol Ann DuffyISBN 0330372211 (0-330-37221-1)
Hardcover, Trafalgar Square
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The World's Wife'Book summary:A collection of poems, each of which takes a famous male person or character - Midas, Darwin, Quasimodo, Pontious Pilate, King Kong - and presents their story from the perspective of the lesser-known wife. [via]
More editions of The World's Wife:
-
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight : A New Verse Translationby W. S. MerwinISBN 0375414762 (0-375-41476-2)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight : A New Verse Translation'Book summary:A splendid new translation of the classic Arthurian tale of enchantment, adventure, and romance, presented alongside the original Middle English text.
It is the height of Christmas and New Years revelry when an enormous knight with brilliant green clothes and skin descends upon King Arthurs court. He presents a sinister challenge: he will endure a blow of the axe to his neck without offering any resistance, but whoever gives the blow must promise to take the same in exactly a year and a days time. The young Sir Gawain quickly rises to the challenge, and the poem tells of the adventures he findsan almost irresistible seduction, shockingly brutal hunts, and terrifyingly powerful villainsas he endeavors to fulfill his promise.
Capturing the pace, impact, and richly alliterative language of the original text, W. S. Merwin has imparted a new immediacy to a spellbinding narrative, written centuries ago by a poet whose name is now unknown, lost to time. Of the Green Knight, Merwin notes in his foreword: We seem to recognize himhis splendor, the awe that surrounds him, his menace and his gracewithout being able to place him . . . We will never know who the Green Knight is except in our own response to him. [via]More editions of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight : A New Verse Translation:
Results page: PREV 1-100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201-300 301-328 NEXT
![[powered by Muze Inc.]](http://i.bookfinder.com/images/site/muze/powered_by_muze.gif){kind=small}