One of Jane Austen's most charming youthful 'novels' in miniature, presented in a deluxe illustrated edition with Leon Steinmetz's gorgeous black and dark red illustrations. Most people think Jane Austen wrote only six novels, though very short ones, while still a young girl. She was only 12 or 13 when she wrote The Beautifull Cassandra, an irreverent and humorous little masterpiece. Weighing in at 465 occasionally misspelled words, it is a complete and perfect novel-in-miniature, made up of a dedication to her older sister Cassandra and 12 chapters, each consisting of a sentence or two. Narrating the slightly criminal adventures of the 16 year old title character, the novel gives us Austen's most irrepressible heroine, who, after stealing a hat, leaves her mother's shop to flounce around London, eating ice cream (without paying), taking coach rides (without paying), and encountering handsome young ladies and gentlemen (without speaking) - all to return home hours later with whispered joy: 'This is a day well spent.' Austen fans will love the strong-willed Cassandra who can eat six ice creams and then refuse to pay for them! Special import from Princeton University Press, 72 page landscape softback, illus.
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George and Cassandra Austen came from markedly different backgrounds so social class and the tensions it can cause played a part in Jane Austen's life even before her birth in 1775. George possessed 'a most exquisite taste in every species of literature'. Here are extraordinary aspects of Austen's life, work and legacy in this collection of stories and trivia from her unassuming family origins, secret life and loves, and intriguing tales behind the literary and screen adaptations of her works. Covers the Austen family's long tenure at Steventon until the Rectory was finally destroyed by floods, Jane's juvenile parody History of England, the lifelong attachment between sisters Jane and Cassandra, notorious cousin Eliza, the Tom Lefroy affair and a foretaste of Pride and Prejudice, problems with publishers, Jane's 'marriage', gold chains and topaz crosses as gifts from a little brother, Jane's aunt put in prison for theft and shocking news of the move to Bath. A close confidante falls from her horse and suddenly dies, the Austen brothers avert a financial crisis, the final move to Chawton, Mansfield Park pioneers the theme of meritocracy, John Murray publishes Emma which has considerable impact with Scott's adulatory review, here are insights into her remarkable novels and their characters, the changing reception to the novels over the years and her sweeping legacy today. A fascinating collection, 144pp, well illustrated with photos and line art.

The Upstart Crow, Shakespeare's heyday in theatreland, final stage performance, retirement speech, Philip Henslowe the Elizabethan impresario, Ben Jonson, the birth of London's Globe Theatre and its rebuilding, stage costumes in Elizabethan England, make-up concoctions some harmless others not, memorials to Shakespeare, his characters, mysteries of his portrait, priceless First Folio, and his stellar legacy, here is a chronology of Shakespeare's plays, possible models for the comic character, the 'lost' plays, hellraisers. Also public scandals, toe-curling homage and Star Trek littered with Shakespeare references, and in popular songs and novels, plus the historical settings for Shakespeare's plays, insights into his most famous characters, tales from the theatres around the globe in a rich concoction of stories and trivia. 144pp, woodcut illus.

From his literary beginnings and the background of the Doyle family, his mentor and model for Holmes Dr Joseph Bell, the doctor who sets up practice that wants to write, here are the literary detectives that came before him. Read about A Study in Scarlet and how Sherlock Holmes was born in Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887, appearance, character and background, numbers and complications, the search for 221b, the follow up novels, the Strand Magazine, the first great illustrator Sidney Paget, big brother Mycroft, the long-suffering landlady Mrs Hudson, Scotland Yard, great quotations, plots, parodies, stage productions, scholarships, spiritualism, mystery stories and the enduring appeal - the life and work of Sherlock Holmes is celebrated in this collection of stories and trivia. With stories of John Watson to James Moriarty, bad habits, baffling powers of deduction, here is everything about the timeless detective celebrated in 144 very well illustrated pages.

A literary quiz book with a difference. Rather than basic sets of questions, the book mirrors the format of Wigglesworth's live quizzes, so there are lots of multiple-choice questions, some amusing answers, clever red herrings, little-known facts about authors, and some of the much-loved Say What You See picture rounds. There are fixed and variable rounds including Blankety Books with one word missing from the title, always with a theme, Literary Links and lists connecting, 2 of a Kind where the name of the character and the author share the same initials. Plus real or made-up Dickens names, Shakespearian insults and a Book Bingo where you identify the correct number. There are also more standard rounds such as First Lines, Working Titles and Banned Books. Which of these was published first: A) Born to Run by Michael Morpurgo, B) What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami or C) The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe? This anagram is an author's name: I am a full wrinkle. 278pp with answers and many line illus.

Contains all 13 books published in 1894. The Jungle Book has become Kipling's most famous work; it was followed by The Second Jungle Book in 1895. The two works contain short stories and poems about the animal world and include Mowgli's Brothers, Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack, Kaa's Hunting, Tiger! Tiger!, Mowgli's Song, Rikki-tikki-tavi, Toomai of the Elephants and Shiv and the Grasshopper among them. We recall fondly the unforgettable tale of Mowgli the man-cub abandoned in the Indian jungle and his animal friends and foes including Bagheera the black panther, Baloo the sleepy brown bear, and murderous tiger Shere Khan, which are some of the most famous and iconic in all of children's literature. Kipling was born in Bombay in 1865 and spent his first six years of life in India, hence the rich affinity with the country reflected in his words. 327pp.

Posthumously discovered in Highsmith's linen cupboard and edited down from 56 thick spiral notebooks by her devoted editor, this one-volume over 1,000 page assemblage of her diaries and notebooks traces the mesmerising double life of one of the 20th century's most conflicted and fascinating novelists. The famously secretive Highsmith refused to authorise a biography during her lifetime but left behind these 8,000 pages of diaries which reveal at last the inscrutable figure behind the pen. They show her unwavering literary ambitions, coming often at huge personal sacrifice, as she reflects on good and evil, loneliness and intimacy, sexuality and sacrifice, love and murder. We feel her euphoria writing 'The Price of Salt' (later adapted into the film Carol) one of the first mainstream novels to depict two women in love, and we watch her in Positano, gleefully conjuring Mr Ripley, the psychopathic and anti-hero that would cement her reputation. She describes her tumultuous romantic relationships alongside her sometimes dizzying social life involving Jane Bowles, Peggy Guggenheim, Carson McCullers, Arthur Koestler and W. H. Auden. In her skewering of McCarthy-era America, her prickly disparagement of contemporary art, and ever-percolating prejudices, we see Highsmith revealing the roots of her psychological angst and acuity. Written in her inimitable and dazzling prose and offering all the pleasure of her novels, these are one of the most compulsively readable literary diaries to be published in generations - unfiltered and an unforgettable picture of this enigmatic trailblazing author. They comprise one of the most observant and ecstatic accounts by one of the finest writers in the English language who died in 1995. 1000 page paperback, 15 x 23cm.

Presented alongside the original text, and overseen by renowned medievalist James Simpson, Pearl is a spellbinding new translation of a classic medieval work. Remaining faithful to the intricate structure of the original, one of our most ingenious interpreters of Middle English Simon Armitage transforms this allegory of grief and consolation into a story that feels hauntingly immediate. Armitage, the acclaimed poet who brought Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to vivid life in "an energetic, free-flowing, high-spirited version" (New York Times Book Review), turns his attention to another beloved medieval English masterpiece believed to have been penned by the same author who wrote Sir Gawain and housed in the same original fourteenth-century manuscript. Pearl describes a heartbroken father mourning the loss of his beautiful and precious daughter "Perle." Returning to the garden where she first disappeared, he observes the verdant shades of late summer, a cruel reminder of the grief that shadows his every waking thought. Succumbing to the afternoon heat, and tormented by images of death and decay, he falls into a trancelike sleep and dreams of a radiant apparition that closely resembles his Pearl. Standing before him across an unfordable stretch of water, the maiden reassures her father that she has been granted a home in heaven alongside Christ. At first overjoyed, then incredulous at the maiden's exalted stature, the dreamer is ultimately convinced of her providence by a series of tense, sorrowful arguments as she, much like Dante's Beatrice, leads him through the throes of grief toward a vision of paradise and divine redemption. At the brief, teasing glimpse of the kingdom of heaven, the dreamer rushes forward to join the maiden, only to be struck awake, his dream shattered and his irreplaceable Pearl lost once more. A beautifully written story with an amazing ending. 153 pages.