Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers

In addition to being one of the best-loved books of all time, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is sure to set box-office records when it releases in theatres Christmas 2005.

The nineties was the decade when British culture reclaimed its position at the artistic centre of the world.

Nevil Shute was a power and a pioneer in the world of flying long before he began to write the stories that made him a bestselling novelist.

Considered by Graham Greene to be Maugham's best work, Don Fernando is a paean to a golden age of enormous creative energy.

Henry Green wrote his autobiography in 1940, aged only thirty-five, because he was convinced he wouldn't survive the war.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JAY MCINERNEYJohn Cheever's letters offer a tantalising glimpse into the life of a writer.

A sociologist and former fashion model takes readers inside the elite global party circuit of "e;models and bottles"e; to reveal how beautiful young women are used to boost the status of menMillion-dollar birthday parties, megayachts on the French Riviera, and $40,000 bottles of champagne.

An in-depth look at how democratic values have widened the American arts scene, even as it remains elite and cosmopolitanTwo centuries ago, wealthy entrepreneurs founded the American cathedrals of culture-museums, theater companies, and symphony orchestras-to mirror European art.

How creative freedom, race, class, and gender shaped the rebellion of two visionary artistsPostwar America experienced an unprecedented flourishing of avant-garde and independent art.

A bold new account of how celebrity worksWhy do so many people care so much about celebrities?

Peeling the Onion is a searingly honest account of Grass' modest upbringing in Danzig, his time as a boy soldier fighting the Russians, and the writing of his masterpiece, The Tin Drum, in Paris.

When James Matthew Barrie died, in 1937, his funeral was an occasion for national mourning.

Maugham's studies of the lives and masterpieces of ten great novelists are outstanding examples of literary criticism at its finest.

Collected Essays contains nearly eighty essays, reviews and occasional pieces composed between novels, plays and travel books over four prolific decades.

Literature Book of the Year, Sunday Times'Terrific' Guardian'Enthralling' Spectator'Magisterial' Daily Telegraph'Unsurpassable' New York Review of BooksBy the time Herzog was published in 1964, Saul Bellow was probably the most acclaimed novelist in America, described in later years by the critic James Wood as the greatest writer of American prose in the twentieth century.

Winner of the James Tait Black Prize for Biography 2014Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best BiographyNew York Times Book Review s 10 Best Books of the YearPenelope Fitzgerald (1916 2000) was a great English writer, who would never have described herself in such grand terms.

Orwell has become one of the most potent and symbolic figures in western political thought.

With superb skill and feeling, Graham Greene retraces the experiences and encounters of his extraordinary life.

Graham Greene's 'long journey through time' began in 1904, when he was born into a tribe of Greenes based in Berkhamstead at the public school where his father was headmaster.

"e;It's hard to see how anyone is ever going to better this User's Manual to the life of Georges Perec"e; - Gilbert Adair, Sunday TimesWinner of the Prix Goncourt for Biography, 1994George Perec (1936-82) was one of the most significant European writers of the twentieth century and undoubtedly the most versatile and innovative writer of his generation.

The second volume of the remarkable autobiography of Arthur Koestler, author of Darkness at Noon.

Joseph Conrad's impact has been so profound and far-reaching that, eighty years after his death, he remains an essential cultural reference point.

As the creator of Sherlock Holmes, 'the world's most famous man who never was', Arthur Conan Doyle remains one of our favourite writers; his work is read with affection - and sometimes obsession - the world over.

Franz Kafka spent eight months at his sister's house in Z rau between September 1917 and April 1918, enduring the onset of tuberculosis.

Bruce Chatwin's death in 1989 brought a meteoric career to an abrupt end, since he burst onto the literary scene in 1977 with his first book, In Patagonia.

Yet Being Someone Other is the most revealing book that Laurens van der Post wrote about his extraordinary and eventful life, and the most far-reaching; it is a distillation of the experiences that have moved him at the deepest level of the imagination and made him the exceptional person and writer he was.

In this delightful sequel to Peeling the Onion, G nter Grass writes in the voices of his eight children as they record memories of their childhoods, of growing up, of their father, who was always at work on a new book, always at the margins of their lives.

From 1892, when he was eighteen, until 1949, when this book was first published, Somerset Maugham kept a notebook.

Hermione Lee sees Virginia Woolf afresh, in her historical setting and as a vital figure for our times.

Martin Amis was one of the pre-eminent novelist-critics of his generation.

Sartre's powerful political passions were united with a memorable literary gift, placing him foremost among the novelists, as well as the philosophers, of our time.

Katie Price has led a rollercoaster life and the excitement, glamour and emotional twists and turns show no signs of slowing down.

If you love Georgette Heyer, 'the queen of Regency romance', this is a must-read: the definitive guide to the sparkling world of Georgette Heyer's celebrated novels, which are currently being reissued.

PERFECT for fans of Roald Dahl.

INTRODUCED BY LISSA EVANS'I envy anyone yet to discover the joy of Monica Dickens.

The emphasis on practical experience over ideology is viewed by many historians as a profoundly American characteristic, one that provides a model for exploring the colonial challenge to European belief systems and the creation of a unique culture.

A Companion to American Fiction, 1865-1914 is a groundbreaking collection of essays written by leading critics for a wide audience of scholars, students, and interested general readers.

A History of Seventeenth-Century Literature outlines significant developments in the English literary tradition between the years 1603 and 1690.

This comprehensive Companion to William Faulkner reflects the current dynamic state of Faulkner studies.

A Companion to Roman Rhetoric introduces the reader to the wide-ranging importance of rhetoric in Roman culture.

In a series of 35 original essays, this companion demonstrates the relevance of Melville s works in the twenty-first century.

A Companion to the Eighteenth-century Novel furnishes readers with a sophisticated vision of the eighteenth-century novel in its political, aesthetic, and moral contexts.

This inspiring survey challenges conventional ways of viewing the Victorian novel.

This broad-ranging companion brings together respected American and European critics and a number of up-and-coming scholars to provide an overview of Twain, his background, his writings, and his place in American literary history.

A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction offers an authoritative overview of contemporary British fiction in its social, political, and economic contexts.

The Novel: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory 1900 2000 is a collection of the most influential writings on the theory of the novel from the twentieth century.

Reading the Novel in English 1950 2000; This is an excellent introductory study.

This concise Companion offers an innovative approach to understanding the Modernist literary mind in Britain, focusing on the intellectual and cultural contexts, which shaped it.

A Companion to the British and Irish Novel 1945-2000 serves as an extended introduction and reference guide to the British and Irish novel between the close of World War II and the turn of the millennium.