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books tagged “great britain”
books tagged “great britain”
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The Age of Capitalby E. J. HobsbawmISBN 0679772545 (0-679-77254-5)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Age of Capital'Book summary:In this book, Eric Hobsbawm chronicles the events and trends that led to the triumph of private enterprise and its exponents in the years between 1848 and 1875. Along with Hobsbawm's other volumes, this book constitutes and intellectual key to the origins of the world in which we now live. [via]
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The Age of Capital, 1848-1875by Eric J. HobsbawmISBN 0684144506 (0-684-14450-6)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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All Quiet on the Orient Express: A Novelby Magnus MillsISBN 0684871688 (0-684-87168-8)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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All Shall Be Wellby Deborah CrombieISBN 0684196549 (0-684-19654-9)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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The Amber Spyglassby Philip PullmanISBN 0679879269 (0-679-87926-9)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Amber Spyglass'Book summary:From the very start of its very first scene, The Amber Spyglass will set hearts fluttering and minds racing. All we'll say here is that we immediately discover who captured Lyra at the end of The Subtle Knife, though we've yet to discern whether this individual's intent is good, evil, or somewhere in between. We also learn that Will still possesses the blade that allows him to cut between worlds, and has been joined by two winged companions who are determined to escort him to Lord Asriel's mountain redoubt. The boy, however, has only one goal in mind--to rescue his friend and return to her the alethiometer, an instrument that has revealed so much to her and to readers of The Golden Compass and its follow-up. Within a short time, too, we get to experience the "tingle of the starlight" on Serafina Pekkala's skin as she seeks out a famished Iorek Byrnison and enlists him in Lord Asriel's crusade:
A complex web of thoughts was weaving itself in the bear king's mind, with more strands in it than hunger and satisfaction. There was the memory of the little girl Lyra, whom he had named Silvertongue, and whom he had last seen crossing the fragile snow bridge across a crevasse in his own island of Svalbard. Then there was the agitation among the witches, the rumors of pacts and alliances and war; and then there was the surpassingly strange fact of this new world itself, and the witch's insistence that there were many more such worlds, and that the fate of them all hung somehow on the fate of the child.
Meanwhile, two factions of the Church are vying to reach Lyra first. One is even prepared to give a priest "preemptive absolution" should he succeed in committing mortal sin. For these tyrants, killing this girl is no less than "a sacred task."In the final installment of his trilogy, Philip Pullman has set himself the highest hurdles. He must match its predecessors in terms of sheer action and originality and resolve the enigmas he already created. The good news is that there is no critical bad news--not that The Amber Spyglass doesn't contain standoffs and close calls galore. (Who would have it otherwise?) But Pullman brings his audacious revision of Paradise Lost to a conclusion that is both serene and devastating. In prose that is transparent yet lyrical and 3-D, the author weaves in and out of his principals' thoughts. He also offers up several additional worlds. In one, Dr. Mary Malone is welcomed into an apparently simple society. The environment of the mulefa (again, we'll reveal nothing more) makes them rich in consciousness while their lives possess a slow and stately rhythm. These strange creatures can, however, be very fast on their feet (or on other things entirely) when necessary. Alas, they are on the verge of dying as Dust streams out of their idyllic landscape. Will the Oxford dark-matter researcher see her way to saving them, or does this require our young heroes? And while Mary is puzzling out a cure, Will and Lyra undertake a pilgrimage to a realm devoid of all light and hope, after having been forced into the cruelest of sacrifices--or betrayals.
Throughout his galvanizing epic, Pullman sustains scenes of fierce beauty and tenderness. He also allows us a moment or two of comic respite. At one point, for instance, Lyra's mother bullies a series of ecclesiastical underlings: "The man bowed helplessly and led her away. The guard behind her blew out his cheeks with relief." Needless to say, Mrs. Coulter is as intoxicating and fluid as ever. And can it be that we will come to admire her as she plays out her desperate endgame? In this respect, as in many others, The Amber Spyglass is truly a book of revelations, moving from darkness visible to radiant truth. --Kerry Fried [via]
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Angels & Insectsby A. S. ByattISBN 0679751343 (0-679-75134-3)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Angels & Insects'Book summary:In these breathtaking novellas, A.S. Byatt returns to the territory she explored in Possession: the landscape of Victorian England, where science and spiritualism are both popular manias, and domestic decorum coexists with brutality and perversion. Angels and Insects is "delicate and confidently ironic.... Byatt perfectly blends laughter and sympathy [with] extraordinary sensuality" (San Francisco Examiner). [via]
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Anglo-Saxon Englandby Jennifer Laing, Lloyd and Jennifer LaingISBN 0684161729 (0-684-16172-9)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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Battle of Cowpensby Kenneth RobertsISBN 0686676475 (0-686-67647-5)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Black Dogby Stephen BoothISBN 068487301X (0-684-87301-X)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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Canterbury Talesby Geoffrey Chaucer, Barbara CohenISBN 0688062016 (0-688-06201-6)
Hardcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Canterbury Tales'Book summary:On a spring day in April--sometime in the waning years of the 14th century--29 travelers set out for Canterbury on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas Beckett. Among them is a knight, a monk, a prioress, a plowman, a miller, a merchant, a clerk, and an oft-widowed wife from Bath. Travel is arduous and wearing; to maintain their spirits, this band of pilgrims entertains each other with a series of tall tales that span the spectrum of literary genres. Five hundred years later, people are still reading Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. If you haven't yet made the acquaintance of the Franklin, the Pardoner, or the Squire because you never learned Middle English, take heart: this edition of the Tales has been translated into modern idiom.
From the heroic romance of "The Knight's Tale" to the low farce embodied in the stories of the Miller, the Reeve, and the Merchant, Chaucer treated such universal subjects as love, sex, and death in poetry that is simultaneously witty, insightful, and poignant. The Canterbury Tales is a grand tour of 14th-century English mores and morals--one that modern-day readers will enjoy. [via]
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Churchill And The Admiralsby Stephen Wentworth RoskillISBN 0688033644 (0-688-03364-4)
Hardcover, Morrow
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Classics of Horror: Dracula/Frankenstein/2 Books in 1by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Bram StokerISBN 0681411635 (0-681-41163-5)
Hardcover, Longmeadow Pr
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The Coming of Romeby John WacherISBN 0684164205 (0-684-16420-5)
Hardcover, Scribner's
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Crystal Caveby Mary StewartISBN 0688013988 (0-688-01398-8)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Crystal Cave'Book summary:Initially published nearly thirty years ago, Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave has been spellbinding readers and converting them into serious Arthurian buffs ever since. The first in a series of four books, this novel focuses on the early life of Merlin the magician, and the political developments of fifth-century Britain. Not for the fainthearted, this verbose text pays careful attention to historical details and methodical plot development.
Merlin's childhood is formed by the absence of his reticent, convent-bound mother and his unnamed and unknown father. As the bastard grandson of a local king, Merlin is the object of both envy and ridicule. His strange powers and predictions earn him greater status as a pariah, and he leaves home as a preadolescent. Returning years later as a young man--empowered by self-knowledge and magic--Merlin finds himself caught in the currents of the shifting kingdoms.
As an established classic in this genre, and the first in a popular series, The Crystal Cave introduces this familiar character with fresh sensitivity. While readers looking for the romance of First Knight will be disappointed, those happy with tight writing and a complex story line will be satisfied. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien [via]
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David Copperfieldby Charles DickensISBN 0679783415 (0-679-78341-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'David Copperfield'Book summary:
" Like so many fond parents I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child," wrote Charles Dickens. "And his name is David Copperfield."
Of all of Dickens's novels, David Copperfield most closely reflects the events of his own life. The story of an abandoned waif who discovers life and love in an indifferent world, this classic tale of childhood is populated with a cast of eccentrics, innocents, and villains who number among the author's greatest creations.
"David Copperfield is filled with characters of the most astonishing variety, vividness, and originality," noted Somerset Maugham. "They are not realistic and yet they abound with life. There never were such people as the Micawbers, Pegotty and Barkis, Traddles, Betsey Trotwood and Mr. Dick, Uriah Heep and his mother. They are fantastic inventions of Dickens's exultant imagination, but they have so much vigor, they are so consistent, they are presented with so much conviction, that you believe in them. They are extravagant, but not unreal, and when you have once to know them you can never quite forget them." T. S. Eliot agreed: "Dickens excelled in character; in the creation of characters of greater intensity than human beings." And Virginia Woolf concluded: "In David Copperfield, though char-
acters swarm and life flows into every creek and cranny, some common feelings--youth, gaiety, hope--envelops the tumult, brings the scattered parts together, and invests the most perfect of all the Dickens novels with an atmosphere of beauty."
The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foun-
dation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editions of important works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices. [via] -
Death and Restorationby Iain PearsISBN 0684814617 (0-684-81461-7)
Hardcover, Scribner
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Death and Restoration'Book summary:Like An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears's Death and Restoration is grounded in a richly cultured vision rife with references to European history, art, and cuisine. And, though it represents the sixth novel in Pears's Jonathan Argyll series, the author subtly informs new readers of the key relationships and the past histories of his characters within the first three chapters. Once again, Argyll and his soon-to-be wife, Flavia di Stefano, are enmeshed in the Italian art world: Flavia, as a member of the Rome police's art squad and Argyll as a professor of art history.
The suspense of the novel is sustained by the careful revelation of the central art-theft plot; in turn, each major character becomes the narrative center and offers an expanded understanding of the events at San Giovanni. While Argyll is troubled over his fiancée's frequent absences just prior to their wedding, Flavia feels compelled to keep odd hours. She's certain that her old nemesis, Mary Verney, has returned to Rome with the intention of committing a major new theft. And Verney, readers soon learn, is herself in jeopardy. She must steal a Madonna icon from the monastery--despite the close scrutiny she faces from the Rome police force--because the sadistic Mikis Charanis has kidnapped Verney's granddaughter, 8-year-old Louise, and he will only release the child when Verney has acquired the artifact from San Giovanni. Underlying each character's concerns is the mystery of the Madonna itself. Why does Charanis covet this piece over the more valuable, though still dubious, Caravaggio that is also in the monastery? In the end, the novel is a perfect melding of a tightly composed mystery plot, witty dialogue, and a realistic sense of character, all flowing from an intellectual's appreciation for the finer things in life. For readers who discovered Pears's fiction through An Instance of the Fingerpost, the Argyll series--particularly Death and Restoration--offers much to satiate the need for his pleasantly baroque sensibilities. Other works in the Argyll series include The Raphael Affair, The Titian Committee, The Bernini Bust, The Last Judgement, and Giotto's Hand. --Patrick O'Kelley [via]
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Death Is Now My Neighbor : An Inspector Morse Novelby Colin DexterISBN 0679774173 (0-679-77417-3)
Softcover, Random House Large Print
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Death of a Salespersonby Robert BarnardISBN 0684190885 (0-684-19088-5)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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A Dedicated Manby Peter RobinsonISBN 0684192659 (0-684-19265-9)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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The Devil's Noviceby Ellis PetersISBN 0688032478 (0-688-03247-8)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye: Five Fairy Storiesby A. S. ByattISBN 0679762221 (0-679-76222-1)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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Draculaby Bram StokerISBN 0679602291 (0-679-60229-1)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dracula'Book summary:Of the many admiring reviews Bram Stoker's Dracula received when it first appeared in 1897, the most astute praise came from the author's mother, who wrote her son: "It is splendid. No book since Mrs. Shelley's Frankenstein or indeed any other at all has come near yours in originality, or terror."
A popular bestseller in Victorian England, Stoker's hypnotic tale of the bloodthirsty Count Dracula, whose nocturnal atrocities are symbolic of an evil ages old yet forever new, endures as the quintessential story of suspense and horror. The unbridled lusts and desires, the diabolical cravings that Stoker dramatized with such mythical force, render Dracula resonant and unsettling a century later. [via]More editions of Dracula:
Fall from Graceby Mozelle RichardsonISBN 0688001955 (0-688-00195-5)
Hardcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books
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The Forsyte Sagaby John GalsworthyISBN 068417653X (0-684-17653-X)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Forsyte Saga'Book summary:The three novels which make up The Forsyte Saga chronicle the ebbing social power of the commercial upper-middle class Forsyte family between 1886 and 1920. Galsworthy's masterly narrative examines not only their fortunes but also the wider developments within society, particularly the changing position of women. This is the only critical edition of the work available, with Notes that explain contemporary artistic and literary allusions and define the slang of the time. [via]
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Gallows Viewby Peter RobinsonISBN 0684192667 (0-684-19266-7)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gallows View'Book summary:After moving his family from London, Chief Inspector Alan Banks is feeling all too at home in the picturesque market town of Eastvale. A crime wave seems to have followed him north. Teenage thugs are burglarizing the homes of elderly women, culminating in murder. And a Peeping Tom is on the loose, menacing the women of Eastvale. [via]
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Giotto's Handby Iain PearsISBN 0684814609 (0-684-81460-9)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Giotto's Hand'Book summary:Following a clue provided by a dying woman's confession, General Bottando of Rome's Art Theft Squad sets off on a world-wide search for the man he calls Giotto, whom he believes is responsible for a series of major heists." [via]
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Golden Compassby Philip PullmanISBN 0679879242 (0-679-87924-2)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Golden Compass'Book summary:Some books improve with age--the age of the reader, that is. Such is certainly the case with Philip Pullman's heroic, at times heart-wrenching novel, The Golden Compass, a story ostensibly for children but one perhaps even better appreciated by adults. The protagonist of this complex fantasy is young Lyra Belacqua, a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Oxford University. But it quickly becomes clear that Lyra's Oxford is not precisely like our own--nor is her world. For one thing, people there each have a personal dæmon, the manifestation of their soul in animal form. For another, hers is a universe in which science, theology, and magic are closely allied:
As for what experimental theology was, Lyra had no more idea than the urchins. She had formed the notion that it was concerned with magic, with the movements of the stars and planets, with tiny particles of matter, but that was guesswork, really. Probably the stars had dæmons just as humans did, and experimental theology involved talking to them.
Not that Lyra spends much time worrying about it; what she likes best is "clambering over the College roofs with Roger the kitchen boy who was her particular friend, to spit plum stones on the heads of passing Scholars or to hoot like owls outside a window where a tutorial was going on, or racing through the narrow streets, or stealing apples from the market, or waging war." But Lyra's carefree existence changes forever when she and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, first prevent an assassination attempt against her uncle, the powerful Lord Asriel, and then overhear a secret discussion about a mysterious entity known as Dust. Soon she and Pan are swept up in a dangerous game involving disappearing children, a beautiful woman with a golden monkey dæmon, a trip to the far north, and a set of allies ranging from "gyptians" to witches to an armor-clad polar bear.In The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman has written a masterpiece that transcends genre. It is a children's book that will appeal to adults, a fantasy novel that will charm even the most hardened realist. Best of all, the author doesn't speak down to his audience, nor does he pull his punches; there is genuine terror in this book, and heartbreak, betrayal, and loss. There is also love, loyalty, and an abiding morality that infuses the story but never overwhelms it. This is one of those rare novels that one wishes would never end. Fortunately, its sequel, The Subtle Knife, will help put off that inevitability for a while longer. --Alix Wilber [via]
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Gulliver's Travelsby Jonathan SwiftISBN 0679601880 (0-679-60188-0)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gulliver's Travels'Book summary:"It is universally read, from the
cabinet council to the nursery," remarked Alexander Pope when Gulliver's Travels was published in 1726. One of the unique books of world literature, Swift's masterful satire describes the astonishing voyages of one Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, to surreal kingdoms inhabited by miniature people and giants, quack philosophers and scientists, horses endowed with reason and men who behave like beasts. Written with great wit and invention, Gulliver's Travels is a savage parody on man and his institutions that has captivated readers for nearly three centuries.
The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with afford-
able hardbound editions of impor-
tant works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-
fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring
as its emblem the running torch-
bearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inau-
gurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices. As bestselling author and critic Allan Bloom observed: "Gulliver's Travels is an amazing rhetorical achievement. Swift had not only the judgment with which to arrive at a reasoned view of the world but the fancy by means of which he could re-create that world in a form which teaches where argument fails and which satisfies all while misleading none." [via]More editions of Gulliver's Travels:
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Hard Timesby Charles DickensISBN 067964217X (0-679-64217-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hard Times'Book summary:Dickens's widely read satirical account of the Industrial Revolution.
Dickens creates the Victorian industrial city of Coketown, in northern England, and its unforgettable citizens, such as the unwavering utilitarian Thomas Gradgrind and the factory owner Josiah Bounderby, and the result is his famous critique of capitalist philosophy, the exploitative force he believed was destroying human creativity and joy. This edition includes new notes to the text. [via]More editions of Hard Times:
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The Hollow Hillsby Mary StewartISBN 0688001793 (0-688-00179-3)
Hardcover, Bookthrift Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Hollow Hills'Book summary:FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. First book in the Merlin series. The spellbinding, suspenseful story of how Merlin helped Arthur become King of all Britain. [via]
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Hong Kongby Jan MorrisISBN 0679724869 (0-679-72486-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Hong Kong: Epilogue to an Empireby Jan MorrisISBN 0679776486 (0-679-77648-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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The Horse You Came in Onby Martha GrimesISBN 0679747702 (0-679-74770-2)
Hardcover, Random House Large Print
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Illustrated Tales from Shakespeareby Charles LambISBN 0681453338 (0-681-45333-8)
Hardcover, Longmeadow Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Illustrated Tales from Shakespeare'Book summary:An adaptation of Shakespeare's classic plays based on the original stories of Charles and Mary Lamb offers prose editions of the Bard's great comedies, tragedies, and history plays, all lavishly illustrated in full color. [via]
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![[???]: Images of Britain: A Pictorial Journey Through History](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/0681410132.01._SL160_SCLZZZZZZZ__.jpg "[???]: Images of Britain: A Pictorial Journey Through History")
Images of Britain: A Pictorial Journey Through HistoryISBN 0681410132 (0-681-41013-2)
Hardcover, Longmeadow Pr
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In Search of Your British and Irish Rootsby Angus BaxterISBN 0688013503 (0-688-01350-3)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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The Intelligent Traveller's Guide to Historic Britainby Phillip A. CrowlISBN 0685577821 (0-685-57782-1)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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The Kings and Queens of England: A Tourist Guideby Jane MurrayISBN 0684138891 (0-684-13889-1)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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![[???]: Knopf Guide London](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/0679749179.01._SL160_SCLZZZZZZZ__.jpg "[???]: Knopf Guide London")
Knopf Guide LondonISBN 0679749179 (0-679-74917-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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The Last Enchantmentby Mary StewartISBN 0688034810 (0-688-03481-0)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Last Enchantment'Book summary:Arthur Pendragon is King! Unchallenged on the battlefield, he melds the country together in a time of promise. But sinister powers plot to destroy Camelot, and when the witch-queen Morgause -- Arthur's own half sister -- ensnares him in an incestuous liaison, a fatal web of love, betrayal, and bloody vengeance is woven.
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The Last Judgementby Iain PearsISBN 0684814595 (0-684-81459-5)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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Later Roman Britainby Stephen JohnsonISBN 0684165295 (0-684-16529-5)
Hardcover, Scribner
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Le Morte D'Arthurby Thomas MaloryISBN 067974956X (0-679-74956-X)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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The Little Countryby Charles De LintISBN 0688103669 (0-688-10366-9)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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The Living Isles: A Natural History of Britian and Irelandby Peter CrawfordISBN 0684188015 (0-684-18801-5)
Hardcover, Smithmark Pub
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London : A Historyby A. N. WilsonISBN 0679642668 (0-679-64266-8)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Mansfield Parkby Jane AustenISBN 0679601945 (0-679-60194-5)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mansfield Park'Book summary:Though Jane Austen was writing at a time when Gothic potboilers such as Ann Ward Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho and Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto were all the rage, she never got carried away by romance in her own novels. In Austen's ordered world, the passions that ruled Gothic fiction would be horridly out of place; marriage was, first and foremost, a contract, the bedrock of polite society. Certain rules applied to who was eligible and who was not, how one courted and married and what one expected afterwards. To flout these rules was to tear at the basic fabric of society, and the consequences could be terrible. Each of the six novels she completed in her lifetime are, in effect, comic cautionary tales that end happily for those characters who play by the rules and badly for those who don't. In Mansfield Park, for example, Austen gives us Fanny Price, a poor young woman who has grown up in her wealthy relatives' household without ever being accepted as an equal. The only one who has truly been kind to Fanny is Edmund Bertram, the younger of the family's two sons.
Into this Cinderella existence comes Henry Crawford and his sister, Mary, who are visiting relatives in the neighborhood. Soon Mansfield Park is given over to all kinds of gaiety, including a daring interlude spent dabbling in theatricals. Young Edmund is smitten with Mary, and Henry Crawford woos Fanny. Yet these two charming, gifted, and attractive siblings gradually reveal themselves to be lacking in one essential Austenian quality: principle. Without good principles to temper passion, the results can be disastrous, and indeed, Mansfield Park is rife with adultery, betrayal, social ruin, and ruptured friendships. But this is a comedy, after all, so there is also a requisite happy ending and plenty of Austen's patented gentle satire along the way. Describing the switch in Edmund's affections from Mary to Fanny, she writes: "I purposely abstain from dates on this occasion, that everyone may be at liberty to fix their own, aware that the cure of unconquerable passions, and the transfer of unchanging attachments, must vary much as to time in different people." What does not vary is the pleasure with which new generations come to Jane Austen. --Alix Wilber [via]
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Medieval England: A Social History and Archaeology from the Conquest to 1600 A.D.by Colin PlattISBN 0684158809 (0-684-15880-9)
Hardcover, Scribner
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A Midsummer Night's Dreamby Leon Garfield, Elena Prorokova, William ShakespeareISBN 0679838708 (0-679-83870-8)
Hardcover, Random House Children's Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'Book summary:An illustrated, abridged verison of the Shakespeare comedy with background information and explanatory stage directions. [via]
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Monk's Hoodby Ellis PetersISBN 0688004520 (0-688-00452-0)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Monk's Hood'Book summary:When a visitor to the abbey dies, Brother Cadfael faces a personal drama. For not only was the man poisoned by monk's hood oil, made in Cadfael's own laboratory, the dead man's widow is also the woman to whom Cadfael was betrothed before he took his vows. [via]
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Morbid Taste for Bonesby Ellis PetersISBN 0688033741 (0-688-03374-1)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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Namedropperby Emma ForrestISBN 0684865386 (0-684-86538-6)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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The National Velvetby Enid Bagnold, Ted LewinISBN 0688057888 (0-688-05788-8)
Hardcover, William Morrow & Co
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Nelson the Commanderby Geoffrey BennettISBN 0684128861 (0-684-12886-1)
Hardcover, Scribner
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Northanger Abbeyby Jane AustenISBN 0679601929 (0-679-60192-9)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Northanger Abbey'Book summary:Though Northanger Abbey is one of Jane Austen's earliest novels, it was not published until after her death--well after she'd established her reputation with works such as Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility. Of all her novels, this one is the most explicitly literary in that it is primarily concerned with books and with readers. In it, Austen skewers the novelistic excesses of her day made popular in such 18th-century Gothic potboilers as Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho. Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers all figure into Northanger Abbey, but with a decidedly satirical twist. Consider Austen's introduction of her heroine: we are told on the very first page that "no one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine." The author goes on to explain that Miss Morland's father is a clergyman with "a considerable independence, besides two good livings--and he was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters." Furthermore, her mother does not die giving birth to her, and Catherine herself, far from engaging in "the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, nursing a dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush" vastly prefers playing cricket with her brothers to any girlish pastimes.
Catherine grows up to be a passably pretty girl and is invited to spend a few weeks in Bath with a family friend. While there she meets Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor, who invite her to visit their family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Austen amuses herself and us as Catherine, a great reader of Gothic romances, allows her imagination to run wild, finding dreadful portents in the most wonderfully prosaic events. But Austen is after something more than mere parody; she uses her rapier wit to mock not only the essential silliness of "horrid" novels, but to expose the even more horrid workings of polite society, for nothing Catherine imagines could possibly rival the hypocrisy she experiences at the hands of her supposed friends. In many respects Northanger Abbey is the most lighthearted of Jane Austen's novels, yet at its core is a serious, unsentimental commentary on love and marriage, 19th-century British style. --Alix Wilber [via]
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One Corpse Too Manyby Ellis Peters, Edith Mary PargeterISBN 0688036309 (0-688-03630-9)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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The Origin of Species: Library Editionby Charles Robert DarwinISBN 0679749551 (0-679-74955-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Origin of Species: Library Edition'Book summary:Voyage with Darwin as he gathers the raw material that ushered in the greatest intellectual revolution in 2,000 years upon the publication of this very book! [via]
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Original Sinby P. D. JamesISBN 0679760334 (0-679-76033-4)
Hardcover, Random House Large Print
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The Origins of Britainby Jennifer Laing, Lloyd Robert LaingISBN 0684166585 (0-684-16658-5)
Hardcover, Scribner
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Oxford Exitby Veronica StallwoodISBN 0684197294 (0-684-19729-4)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Oxford Exit'Book summary:Novelist-sleuth Kate Ivory returns in the sequel to Death and the Oxford Box to track a thief in the Oxford Library system and soon uncovers murder and a novice crime writer who may not be writing fiction. [via]
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Past Reason Hatedby Peter RobinsonISBN 0684195291 (0-684-19529-1)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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Pendragonby Stephen R. LawheadISBN 0688137148 (0-688-13714-8)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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Poverty and Compassion: The Moral Imagination of the Late Victoriansby Gertrude HimmelfarbISBN 0679741739 (0-679-74173-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Poverty and Compassion: The Moral Imagination of the Late Victorians'Book summary:In a provocative study that bristles with contemporary relevance, Himmelfarb demonstrates that the material and moral dimensions of poverty were inseparable in the minds of late Victorians, be they radical or conservative. [via]
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The Queen and Her Court: A Guide to the British Monarchy Todayby Jerrold M. PackardISBN 0684167964 (0-684-16796-4)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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The Raven in the Foregateby Ellis PetersISBN 0688065589 (0-688-06558-9)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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Religion and the Decline of Magicby Keith ThomasISBN 0684145421 (0-684-14542-1)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Religion and the Decline of Magic'Book summary:Astrology, witchcraft, magical healing, divination, ancient prophecies, ghosts, and fairies were taken very seriously by people at all social and economic levels in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Helplessness in the face of disease and human disaster helped to perpetuate this belief in magic and the supernatural. As Keith Thomas shows, England during these years resembled in many ways today's "underdeveloped areas." The English population was exceedingly liable to pain, sickness, and premature death; many were illiterate; epidemics such as the bubonic plague plowed through English towns, at times cutting the number of London's inhabitants by a sixth; fire was a constant threat; the food supply was precarious; and for most diseases there was no effective medical remedy.
In this fascinating and detailed book, Keith Thomas shows how magic, like the medieval Church, offered an explanation for misfortune and a means of redress in times of adversity. The supernatural thus had its own practical utility in daily life. Some forms of magic were challenged by the Protestant Reformation, but only with the increased search for scientific explanation of the universe did the English people begin to abandon their recourse to the supernatural.
Science and technology have made us less vulnerable to some of the hazards which confronted the people of the past. Yet Religion and the Decline of Magic concludes that "if magic is defined as the employment of ineffective techniques to allay anxiety when effective ones are not available, then we must recognize that no society will ever be free from it." [via]More editions of Religion and the Decline of Magic:
Robin and the Kingby Parke GodwinISBN 0688052746 (0-688-05274-6)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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Royal Sisters: Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaretby Anne EdwardsISBN 0688076629 (0-688-07662-9)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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Saint Peter's Fairby Ellis PetersISBN 0688006671 (0-688-00667-1)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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The Screwtape Lettersby C. S. LewisISBN 0684831171 (0-684-83117-1)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Screwtape Letters'Book summary:This adaptation of C.S. Lewis's biting satire received a 1999 Grammy nomination for best spoken-word performance, and it's easy to see why--the story fits the format perfectly. It's relatively brief (the unabridged reading takes a mere four hours), and contains only one character--the demon Screwtape, who writes letters to his novice nephew Wormwood, instructing him on how to best tempt his "patient" (a wayward soul on earth) into the bosom of "our Lord below."
Obviously, the book wasn't written with former Monty Python John Cleese in mind, but it's hard to imagine a better Screwtape. Cleese's voice provides the perfect vehicle for Lewis's dry, razor-edged wit. His uncanny comic timing and ability to milk each phrase for maximum effect betray an infectious enthusiasm for the story. It's clear that he's having a great time reading, and it's impossible not to laugh along with him. This inspired pairing of two of the 20th century's greatest wits makes for a meditation on the dark side of spiritual guidance that's as relevant and funny today as it was in Lewis's war-torn England. (Running time: 4 hours, 3 cassettes) --Andrew Neiland [via]
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The Secret Diary of Anne Boleynby Robin MaxwellISBN 0684849690 (0-684-84969-0)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn'Book summary:In this "energetic" (Kirkus Reviews) re-creation of Anne Boleyn's tragic life -- and death -- Robin Maxwell offers a pitch-perfect version of a bawdy and exuberant time filled with lust, betrayal, love, and murder.
When the young Queen Elizabeth I is entrusted with Anne Boleyn's secret diary, she discovers a great deal about the much-maligned mother she never knew. And on learning the truth about her lascivious and despotic father, Henry VIII, she vows never to relinquish control to any man. But this avowal doesn't prevent Elizabeth from pursuing a torrid love affair with her horsemaster, Robin Dudley -- described with near-shocking candor -- as too are Anne's graphic trysts with a very persistent and lustful Henry. Blending a historian's attention to accuracy with a novelist's artful rendering, Maxwell weaves compelling descriptions of court life and devastating portraits of actual people into her naughty, page-turning tale. The result is a masterpiece of historical fiction -- so prophetic of our time that one would think it were ripped from today's headlines. [via]
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Sense And Sensibilityby Jane AustenISBN 0679601953 (0-679-60195-3)
Hardcover, Modern Library
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sense And Sensibility'Book summary:Though not the first novel she wrote, Sense and Sensibility was the first Jane Austen published. Though she initially called it Elinor and Marianne, Austen jettisoned both the title and the epistolary mode in which it was originally written, but kept the essential theme: the necessity of finding a workable middle ground between passion and reason. The story revolves around the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Whereas the former is a sensible, rational creature, her younger sister is wildly romantic--a characteristic that offers Austen plenty of scope for both satire and compassion. Commenting on Edward Ferrars, a potential suitor for Elinor's hand, Marianne admits that while she "loves him tenderly," she finds him disappointing as a possible lover for her sister:
Oh! Mama, how spiritless, how tame was Edward's manner in reading to us last night! I felt for my sister most severely. Yet she bore it with so much composure, she seemed scarcely to notice it. I could hardly keep my seat. To hear those beautiful lines which have frequently almost driven me wild, pronounced with such impenetrable calmness, such dreadful indifference!
Soon however, Marianne meets a man who measures up to her ideal: Mr. Willoughby, a new neighbor. So swept away by passion is Marianne that her behavior begins to border on the scandalous. Then Willoughby abandons her; meanwhile, Elinor's growing affection for Edward suffers a check when he admits he is secretly engaged to a childhood sweetheart. How each of the sisters reacts to their romantic misfortunes, and the lessons they draw before coming finally to the requisite happy ending forms the heart of the novel. Though Marianne's disregard for social conventions and willingness to consider the world well-lost for love may appeal to modern readers, it is Elinor whom Austen herself most evidently admired; a truly happy marriage, she shows us, exists only where sense and sensibility meet and mix in proper measure. --Alix Wilber [via]More editions of Sense And Sensibility:
The Sigint Secrets: The Signals Intelligence War, 1900 to Today--Including the Persecution of Gordon Welchmanby Nigel WestISBN 0688076521 (0-688-07652-1)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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The Sigint Secrets: The Signals Intelligence War, 1990 to Today-Including the Persecution of Gordon Welchmanby Nigel WestISBN 0688095151 (0-688-09515-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Single and Singleby John Le CarréISBN 0684859262 (0-684-85926-2)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Single and Single'Book summary:On a Turkish hillside, ex-Communist mobsters shatter the skull of a corrupt English lawyer. In a sleepy English village, the authorities ask a lonely children's magician how come £5,000,030 sterling just got anonymously deposited in his baby daughter's bank account. With machine-like logic and soulful literary magic, John le Carré links these two events in Single & Single, a stay-up-all-night thriller.
The magician is Oliver Single, the tormented son of Tiger Single, a rogue banker the Financial Times calls "the knight errant of Gorbachev's New East." In fact, Tiger is sinking his fangs into that crucial one-tenth of world trade free of pesky regulations--illegal drugs--and secretly selling donated disaster-relief blood. Mum's the word in Tiger's mob: as the lawyer's executioner notes, "Is not convenient to hear that American capitalists are bleeding poor nations literally."
Oliver comes in from the cold to help spymaster Brock track Tiger down. That £30 sterling signified Judas's silver, but Oliver yearns to save Tiger's life, too. Le Carré wizardly juggles dozens of characters in a zigzag, globetrotting plot. You-are-there realism, narrative drive, pitch-perfect dialog--why can't movies be this good? Like lightning, le Carré's metaphors both dazzle and blazingly illuminate the world.
Ex-spy le Carré was there when the Berlin Wall went up, and his spy craft is legendarily realistic. His female spy/love interest is less so--the opposite of a femme fatale, she might be termed a "deus sex machina." But the book's crucial father-son relationship is quite real, because, like the irresistible villain of A Perfect Spy, Tiger is based on le Carré's own con-man dad. The cold war is over, but le Carré is hot. And he will endure. --Tim Appelo [via]
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Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthurby Robert LumianskyISBN 0684176734 (0-684-17673-4)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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The Skull Beneath the Skinby P. D. JamesISBN 0684177730 (0-684-17773-0)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Skull Beneath the Skin'Book summary:Hired as a bodyguard to faded actress Clarissa Lisle, the recent recipient of numerous death threats, Cordelia Gray accompanies the actress to an island castle, whose owner collects funeral paraphernalia, in a full-cast dramatization of the classic mystery. Book available. [via]
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Stonehengeby Harry Harrison, Leon E. StoverISBN 0684128314 (0-684-12831-4)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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The Story of King Arthur and His Knightsby Howard PyleISBN 0684148145 (0-684-14814-5)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydeby Robert Louis StevensonISBN 0679734767 (0-679-73476-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'Book summary:The young Robert Louis Stevenson suffered from repeated nightmares of living a double life, in which by day he worked as a respectable doctor and by night he roamed the back alleys of old-town Edinburgh. In three days of furious writing, he produced a story about his dream existence. His wife found it too gruesome, so he promptly burned the manuscript. In another three days, he wrote it again. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published as a "shilling shocker" in 1886, and became an instant classic. In the first six months, 40,000 copies were sold. Queen Victoria read it. Sermons and editorials were written about it. When Stevenson and his family visited America a year later, they were mobbed by reporters at the dock in New York City. Compulsively readable from its opening pages, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is still one of the best tales ever written about the divided self.
This University of Nebraska Press edition is a small, exquisitely produced paperback. The book design, based on the original first edition of 1886, includes wide margins, decorative capitals on the title page and first page of each chapter, and a clean, readable font that is 19th-century in style. Joyce Carol Oates contributes a foreword in which she calls Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a "mythopoetic figure" like Frankenstein, Dracula, and Alice in Wonderland, and compares Stevenson's creation to doubled selves in the works of Plato, Poe, Wilde, and Dickens.
This edition also features 12 full-page wood engravings by renowned illustrator Barry Moser. Moser is a skillful reader and interpreter as well as artist, and his afterword to the book, in which he explains the process by which he chose a self-portrait motif for the suite of engravings, is fascinating. For the image of Edward Hyde, he writes, "I went so far as to have my dentist fit me out with a carefully sculpted prosthetic of evil-looking teeth. But in the final moments I had to abandon the idea as being inappropriate. It was more important to stay in keeping with the text and, like Stevenson, not show Hyde's face." (Also recommended: the edition of Frankenstein illustrated by Barry Moser) --Fiona Webster [via]
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Subtle Knifeby Philip PullmanISBN 0679879250 (0-679-87925-0)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Subtle Knife'Book summary:With The Golden Compass Philip Pullman garnered every accolade under the sun. Critics lobbed around such superlatives as "elegant," "awe-inspiring," "grand," and "glittering," and used "magnificent" with gay abandon. Each reader had a favorite chapter--or, more likely, several--from the opening tour de force to Lyra's close call at Bolvangar to the great armored-bear battle. And Pullman was no less profligate when it came to intellectual firepower or singular characters. The dæmons alone grant him a place in world literature. Could the second installment of his trilogy keep up this pitch, or had his heroine and her too, too sullied parents consumed him? And what of the belief system that pervaded his alternate universe, not to mention the mystery of Dust? More revelations and an equal number of wonders and new players were definitely in order.
The Subtle Knife offers everything we could have wished for, and more. For a start, there's a young hero--from our world--who is a match for Lyra Silvertongue and whose destiny is every bit as shattering. Like Lyra, Will Parry has spent his childhood playing games. Unlike hers, though, his have been deadly serious. This 12-year-old long ago learned the art of invisibility: if he could erase himself, no one would discover his mother's increasing instability and separate them.
As the novel opens, Will's enemies will do anything for information about his missing father, a soldier and Arctic explorer who has been very much airbrushed from the official picture. Now Will must get his mother into safe seclusion and make his way toward Oxford, which may hold the key to John Parry's disappearance. But en route and on the lam from both the police and his family's tormentors, he comes upon a cat with more than a mouse on her mind: "She reached out a paw to pat something in the air in front of her, something quite invisible to Will." What seems to him a patch of everyday Oxford conceals far more: "The cat stepped forward and vanished." Will, too, scrambles through and into another oddly deserted landscape--one in which children rule and adults (and felines) are very much at risk. Here in this deathly silent city by the sea, he will soon have a dustup with a fierce, flinty little girl: "Her expression was a mixture of the very young--when she first tasted the cola--and a kind of deep, sad wariness." Soon Will and Lyra (and, of course, her dæmon, Pantalaimon) uneasily embark on a great adventure and head into greater tragedy.
As Pullman moves between his young warriors and the witch Serafina Pekkala, the magnetic, ever-manipulative Mrs. Coulter, and Lee Scoresby and his hare dæmon, Hester, there are clear signs of approaching war and earthly chaos. There are new faces as well. The author introduces Oxford dark-matter researcher Mary Malone; the Latvian witch queen Ruta Skadi, who "had trafficked with spirits, and it showed"; Stanislaus Grumman, a shaman in search of a weapon crucial to the cause of Lord Asriel, Lyra's father; and a serpentine old man whom Lyra and Pan can't quite place. Also on hand are the Specters, beings that make cliff-ghasts look like rank amateurs.
Throughout, Pullman is in absolute control of his several worlds, his plot and pace equal to his inspiration. Any number of astonishing scenes--small- and large-scale--will have readers on edge, and many are cause for tears. "You think things have to be possible," Will demands. "Things have to be true!" It is Philip Pullman's gift to turn what quotidian minds would term the impossible into a reality that is both heartbreaking and beautiful. --Kerry Fried [via]
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The Tailor of Panamaby John Le CarreISBN 0679774130 (0-679-77413-0)
Softcover, Random House Large Print
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Tailor of Panama'Book summary:John le Carré, the greatest spy novelist of the Cold War era, continues his post-Cold War quest to define the genre he helped perfect. The classic spy novel was essentially a story of good (England, the United States) vs. evil (Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union), in which good more or less prevailed. The Tailor of Panama is something else entirely: a spy novel with no spies in which the bad guys reap most of the rewards. It is also a viciously funny satire. The novel is set in Panama, where a plot is in place to make void the Panama Treaty, which would return control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians in 1999. At the center of events is Harry Pendel, the tailor of the title. Coerced into working for British Intelligence, he concocts out of whole cloth a left-wing movement with the goal of luring the American military to do the dirty work--invade Panama à la 1989 and nullify the treaty. From the characters to the setting, le Carré has succeeded in setting new parameters for an old genre. [via]
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Vanishing Pointby Victor CanningISBN 0688011071 (0-688-01107-1)
Hardcover, Bookthrift Co
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The Voyage Outby Virginia Woolf, Michael CunninghamISBN 0679640282 (0-679-64028-2)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Voyage Out'Book summary:The Modern Library is proud to include Virginia Woolf's first novel, The Voyage Out--together with a new Introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham. Published to acclaim in England in 1915 and in America five years later, The Voyage Out marks Woolf's beginning as one of the twentieth century's most brilliant and prolific writers.
Less formally experimental than her later novels, The Voyage Out none-theless clearly lays bare the poetic style and innovative technique--with its multiple figures of consciousness, its detailed portraits of characters' inner lives, and its constant shifting between the quotidian and the profound--that are the signature of Woolf's fiction.
Rachel Vinrace, Woolf's first heroine, is a motherless young woman who, at twenty-four, embarks on a sea voyage with a party of other English folk to South America. Guileless, and with only a smattering of education, Rachel is taken under the wing of her aunt Helen, who desires to teach Rachel "how to live."Arriving in Santa Marina, a village on the South American coast, Rachel and Helen are introduced to a group of English expatriates. Among them is the young, sensitive Terence Hewet, an aspiring writer, with whom Rachel falls in love. But theirs is ultimately a tale of doomed love, set against a chorus of other stories and other points of view, as the narrative shifts focus between its central and peripheral characters. E. M. Forster praised The Voyage Out as "a book which attains unity as surely as Wuthering Heights, though by a different path."
This edition includes a new Introduction by Michael Cunningham, bestselling author of The Hours. Cunningham at once unfolds an engaging short essay of Woolf's early life and career, an insightful exploration of the themes to which Woolf returns again and again in her fiction, and a spirited defense of the relevance and lasting importance of her art. Katherine Anne Porter wrote of Woolf: "The world of arts was her native territory; she ranged freely under her own sky, speaking her mother tongue fearlessly." [via]More editions of The Voyage Out:
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The Wasp Factoryby Iain BanksISBN 0684853159 (0-684-85315-9)
Softcover, Scribner
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wasp Factory'Book summary:"I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped. I already knew something was going to happen; the Factory told me."
Those lines begin one of the most infamous of contemporary Scottish novels. The narrator, Frank Cauldhame, is a weird teenager who lives on a tiny island connected to mainland Scotland by a bridge. He maintains grisly Sacrifice Poles to serve as his early warning system and deterrent against anyone who might invade his territory.
Few novelists have ever burst onto the literary scene with as much controversy as Iain Banks in 1984. The Wasp Factory was reviled by many reviewers on account of its violence and sadism, but applauded by others as a new and Scottish voice--that is, a departure from the English literary tradition. The controversy is a bit puzzling in retrospect, because there is little to object to in this novel, if you're familiar with genre horror.
The Wasp Factory is distinguished by an authentically felt and deftly written first-person style, delicious dark humor, a sense of the surreal, and a serious examination of the psyche of a childhood psychopath. Most readers will find that they sympathize with and even like Frank, despite his three murders (each of which is hilarious in an Edward Gorey fashion). It's a classic of contemporary horror. --Fiona Webster [via]
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The Water Babiesby Charles Kingsley, Jessie Willcox SmithISBN 0681006471 (0-681-00647-1)
Hardcover, Longmeadow Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Water Babies'Book summary:The adventures of Tom, a sooty little chimney sweep with a great longing to be clean, who is stolen by fairies and turned into a water baby. [via]
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Watership Downby Richard George AdamsISBN 068483605X (0-684-83605-X)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Watership Down'Book summary:Watership Down has been a staple of high-school English classes for years. Despite the fact that it's often a hard sell at first (what teenager wouldn't cringe at the thought of 400-plus pages of talking rabbits?), Richard Adams's bunny-centric epic rarely fails to win the love and respect of anyone who reads it, regardless of age. Like most great novels, Watership Down is a rich story that can be read (and reread) on many different levels. The book is often praised as an allegory, with its analogs between human and rabbit culture (a fact sometimes used to goad skeptical teens, who resent the challenge that they won't "get" it, into reading it), but it's equally praiseworthy as just a corking good adventure.
The story follows a warren of Berkshire rabbits fleeing the destruction of their home by a land developer. As they search for a safe haven, skirting danger at every turn, we become acquainted with the band and its compelling culture and mythos. Adams has crafted a touching, involving world in the dirt and scrub of the English countryside, complete with its own folk history and language (the book comes with a "lapine" glossary, a guide to rabbitese). As much about freedom, ethics, and human nature as it is about a bunch of bunnies looking for a warm hidey-hole and some mates, Watership Down will continue to make the transition from classroom desk to bedside table for many generations to come. --Paul Hughes [via]
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Whirlwindby James ClavellISBN 0688066631 (0-688-06663-1)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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The Wicked Dayby Mary StewartISBN 0688025072 (0-688-02507-2)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wicked Day'Book summary:Born of an incestuous relationship between King Arthur and his half sister, the evil sorceress Morgause, the bastard Mordred is reared in secrecy. Called to Camelot by events he cannot deny, Mordred becomes Arthurs most trusted counselor -- a fateful act that leads to the "wicked day of destiny" when father and son must face each other in battle.
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Wide As the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspiredby Benson BobrickISBN 0684847477 (0-684-84747-7)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wide As the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired'Book summary:Benson Bobrick's Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution It Inspired is a brisk and gripping work of history, religion, and literary criticism. Translation of the King James Bible took centuries to complete, and Bobrick provides colorful descriptions of the distinctive contributions of various translators who took part in the project, particularly John Wyclif in the 15th century and William Tyndale in the 16th century. (Tyndale, he points out, is the second most widely quoted writer, after Shakespeare, in the English language ["eat, drink, and be merry," is Tyndale's phrase; so is "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak"].) Wide as the Waters interprets each translator's work according to its contemporary political context in England. The book's most dramatic passages are found in its account of Henry VIII's showdown with Rome, which resulted in (among other things) Tyndale's execution. Although Bobrick may overstate the singularity of the Bible's influence on the English Revolution (he asserts that the concepts of liberty and free will that guided revolutionaries who overthrew Charles I were primarily derived from the King James Bible), his argument is, at the very least, an effective and engaging reminder of Scripture's liberating power. --Michael Joseph Gross [via]
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The Windsor Storyby J. Bryan, Charles John Vincent MurphyISBN 0688035531 (0-688-03553-1)
Hardcover, Morrow
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Windsor Story'Book summary:The Windsor Story [via]
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The Wives of Henry VIIIby Antonia FraserISBN 067973001X (0-679-73001-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wives of Henry VIII'Book summary:When we think of the wives of Henry VIII, we tend to think of women who literally lost their heads. But Antonia Fraser opens the door to the political and cultural demands that shaped the destinies of the king and his royal wives. Romance, unfortunately, rarely had anything to do with it. And if you think the modern American media is too tough on political leadership, you oughta READ about the royal court in King Henry's day! That's one family you'd never want to marry into. [via]
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The Works of Jane Austenby Jane AustinISBN 0681103752 (0-681-10375-2)
Hardcover, Longmeadow Pr
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Written on the Bodyby Jeanette WintersonISBN 0679744479 (0-679-74447-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Written on the Body'Book summary:The most beguilingly seductive novel to date from the author of The Passion and Sexing the Cherry. Winterson chronicles the consuming affair between the narrator, who is given neither name nor gender, and the beloved, a complex and confused married woman. "At once a love story and a philosophical meditation."--New York Times Book Review. [via]
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