Literary Studies

Samuel Hynes

“From renowned figures of literature to the less celebrated, the author offers powerful perspectives on the drama of destruction, exploring the character of wars ‘good’ and ‘bad.’ But the analysis is his own. He acknowledges, gloomily, that even the greatest art bears little power as a preventative instrument.”—Kirkus

“Every year, Memorial Day tempts us into believing that the best way to honor the fallen is to exalt their triumphs while whitewashing everything that led to their sacrifice. A superb writer and thinker like Mr. Hynes reminds us why we must resist that hollow pursuit, now more than ever.”—Wall Street Journal

2018 224 p. 51/2 x 81/2 4 halftones 492 Cloth ISBN: 978-0-226-46878-5 $22.50

Your Price: $9.00

Musings on Mortality

From Tolstoy to Primo Levi

Victor Brombert

“This handsome, compact book is, in fact, a work of elegant, beautifully written literary criticism, examining how eight major writers—‘From Tolstoy to Primo Levi’—dealt with death in their fiction. It offers the highly distilled insights of a master teacher.”—Wall Street Journal

2013 200 p. 51/2 x 81/2 493 Cloth ISBN: 978-0-226-06235-8 $28.00

Your Price: $9.00

Echoes of Valhalla

The Afterlife of the Eddas and Sagas

Jón Karl Helgason

“Takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the myriad forms that hark back to the literature of medieval Iceland, with discoveries at every turn. . . . Weaving in the less familiar with the well-known— Wagner, Tolkien, and Thor movies —Jón Karl’s learned and witty commentary will engage readers as he explores the remarkable influence of medieval Icelandic mythology and sagas.”—Judy Quinn, Cambridge University

Distributed for Reaktion Books

2017 256 p. 51/2 x 81/2 50 halftones 494 Cloth ISBN: 978-1-78023-715-2 $30.00

Your Price: $9.00

Pitch of Poetry

Charles Bernstein

“Often elliptical, argumentative, and personal, this is a radical work about the nature of poetry and of language itself.”—Publishers Weekly

“[Bernstein’s] pitches for the importance of otherwise marginal experimentalist poets are luminously intelligent. . . . The ‘official verse culture’ has a formidable antagonist.”—Times Literary Supplement

Edited by the Bodleian Library

Much loved for the romantic plot lines and wryly amusing social commentary that spring from the pages of her novels, Jane Austen was also a prolific letter writer and penned missives on many subjects. Drawing together 50 quotations from Jane Austen’s letters and novels with illustrations that illuminate everyday aspects of life in the Georgian era, this beautifully produced volume will make the perfect gift for Janeites.

Distributed for the Bodleian Library

2017 112 p. 61/2x 71/2 50 color plates 496 Paper ISBN: 978-1-85124-464-5 $16.00

Your Price: $7.00

Jane Austen: Writer in the World

Edited by Kathryn Sutherland

This lavishly illustrated collection presents an intimate portrait of Austen through her personal possessions, showing the many details of her life that found echoes in her fiction, especially her keen observations of the “little matters”—the routines of reading, dining and taking tea, paying visits to family and friends, and walking to the shops or to send the post.

Distributed for the Bodleian Library

2017 224 p. 91/2 x 101/2 90 color plates 497 Cloth ISBN: 978-1-85124-463-8 $50.00

Your Price: $15.00

Jane Austen’s Names

Riddles, Persons, Places

Margaret Doody

“Doody makes a convincing argument that Jane Austen imbued most, if not all, of her character and place names with historical, geographical, or social significance, and provides the historical and cultural context necessary to understand the import of each of these careful naming choices. . . . A delightful, edifying read for both scholars and lay Austen fans.” —Library Journal

2015 440 p. 6 x 9 25 halftones 498 Cloth ISBN: 978-0-226-15783-2 $35.00

Your Price: $10.00

Jane Austen’s Cults and Cultures

Claudia L. Johnson

“At the heart of Claudia Johnson’s warmly appreciative study is the sole authenticated image of the novelist: a portrait, by her sister, of Jane Austen with her back to the viewer. . . . [Johnson] traces out the silences and losses surrounding Austen. Her aim is not so much to shine a light on the fiction as on its admirers.” —Literary Review

Alice in Space

The Sideways Victorian World of Lewis Carroll

Gillian Beer

“An erudite, witty and intimate journey through Wonderland. . . . Reading Alice in Space is like participating in a marvelous dinner party conversation as the author moves freely and easily among the intricate interrelationships of Victorian culture.”—Times Higher Education

“Alice in Space arouses our curiosity and there is plenty for the general reader who likes the Alice books to enjoy. After reading Alice in Space one can return to the texts with an enhanced understanding, appreciating both author and his books to a greater extent.”—Children’s Books History Society

2016 240 p. 6 x 9 21 halftones 500 Cloth ISBN: 978-0-226-04150-6 $35.00

Your Price: $9.00

Shakespeare’s Freedom

Stephen Greenblatt

“[Greenblatt] argues that Shakespeare’s genius lay in embracing and subverting the norms of his age. . . . Yet, the book’s real lesson is Shakespeare’s awareness of the human condition in all its complexity.”—Financial Times

“It is good, at a time when there is danger of seeing Shakespeare too exclusively as an entertainer, to find an acknowledgement of the intellectual powers that pervade his work.”—Times Literary Supplement

2010 160 p. 51/2 x 81/2 4 color plates, 10 halftones 501 Cloth ISBN: 978-0-226-30666-7 $26.00

Your Price: $8.00

Music at Midnight

The Life and Poetry of George Herbert

John Drury

“Being an English country minister has inspired many writers, none of them more lapidary, precise, witty and surprising than George Herbert, the frail intellectual who preached to the parish of Bemerton from 1630 to 1633. An account of an Anglican priest and his poetry that will probably never be bettered.”—Economist