Literature

With a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. A Pair of Blue Eyes, though early in the sequence of Hardy's novels, is lively and gripping. Its dramatic cliff-hanging episode, for example, is at once tense, ironic, feministic and erotic. With settings in Wessex and London, the novel also has some strongly autobiographical features, as the blue-eyed heroine, Elfride Swancourt, is based largely on Emma Gifford, who became Thomas Hardy's first wife. Elfride's vivacious nature attracts several lovers, but she is beset by sexual prejudice, and the ensuing ironies reveal the constraints of her times. A Pair of Blue Eyes provides an engaging and moving experience for today's readers.

'His great book ... masterly in its prescience and its lucidity' ANITA DESAI A compelling portrait of a society in the grip of imperialism, A Passage to India depicts the fate of individuals caught in the great political and cultural conflicts of their age. It begins when Adela and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, and feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced British community. Determined to explore the 'real India', they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr Aziz. But a mysterious incident occurs while they are exploring the Marabar caves, and the well-respected doctor soon finds himself at the centre of a scandal. Edited by OLIVER STALLYBRASS with an Introduction by PANKAJ MISHRA

In The Holiday, a wife surprises her husband of twenty-five years with a trip full of Mediterranean sunshine, red rocks and blue seas in an effort to rekindle the romance they had before children.

Skelmerton takes the reader to the bright spring sunshine and sparkling waves of a Northumbrian village where old flames meet again.

In A Place Like Home, a lonely young woman goes to recuperate in the Scottish countryside after a brief illness. The fruit orchards and fresh sea air offer much needed respite - but not as much as the handsome, mysterious farmer . . .

A handful of grain is found in the pocket of a murdered businessman... Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his 'counting house' when he suffered an agonising and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals. Yet, it was the incident in the parlour which confirmed Jane Marple's suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme...

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man represents the transitional stage between the realism of Joyce's Dubliners and the symbolism of Ulysses, and is essential to the understanding of the later work. This novel is a highly autobiographical account of the adolescence of Stephen Dedalus, who reappears in Ulysses, and who comes to realize that before he can become a true artist, he must rid himself of the stultifying effects of the religion, politics and essential bigotry of his background in late 19th century Ireland.

A Room of One's Own (1929) has become a classic feminist essay and perhaps Virginia Woolf's best known work; The Voyage Out (1915) is highly significant as her first novel. Both focus on the place of women within the power structures of modern society. The essay lays bare the woman artist's struggle for a voice, since throughout history she has been denied the social and economic independence assumed by men. Woolf's prescription is clear: if a woman is to find creative expression equal to a man's, she must have an independent income, and a room of her own. This is both an acute analysis and a spirited rallying cry; it remains surprisingly resonant and relevant in the 21st century. The novel explores these issues more personally, through the character of Rachel Vinrace, a young woman whose 'voyage out' to South America opens up powerful encounters with her fellow-travellers, men and women. As she begins to understand her place in the world, she finds the happiness of love, but also sees its brute power. Woolf has a sharp eye for the comedy of English manners in a foreign milieu; but the final undertow of the novel is tragic as, in some of her finest writing, she calls up the essential isolation of the human spirit.

When Miss Milner announces her passion for her guardian, a Catholic priest, she breaks through the double barrier of religious vocation and society's standards of `proper' womanly behaviour. Her love is legitimized when Dorriforth is released from his vows, but she finds her own unorthodox nature cannot conform to a marriage where her husband continues to be a stern moral guide. With a surenees of touch that prefigures Jane Austen, Elizabeth Inchbald shows that thereis no simple answer to their predicament, and that their conflict can only be resolved in the next generation. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Beautiful, bored and bourgeoise, Sabina leads a double life inspired by her relentless desire for brief encounters with near-strangers. Fired into faithlessness by a desperate longing for sexual fulfilment, she weaves a sensual web of deceit across New York. But when the secrecy of her affairs becomes too much to bear, Sabina makes a late night phone-call to a stranger from a bar, and begins a confession that captivates the unknown man and soon inspires him to seek her out...

200 χρόνια και πλέον μετά τον θάνατό του, η ποίηση του Τζων Κητς έχει τη δύναμη να γοητεύει και να συγκινεί, αφήνοντας τον αναγνώστη με την αίσθηση μιας ασυνήθιστης, πολύ δυνατής συνάντησης. Η παρούσα μετάφραση μερικών από τα πιο αντιπροσωπευτικά ποιήματά του, από τα πρώτα σονέτα ώς τα έργα της ωριμότητάς του, τις μεγάλες ωδές, επιχειρεί να μας συστήσει εκ νέου τον μεγάλο δημιουργό, να μεταφέρει στη γλώσσα μας το άρωμα της ποίησής του – μιας ποίησης γήινης αλλά και αιθέριας, μιας ποίησης των αισθήσεων και των αντιθέσεων. Δοκιμάζοντας τις δυνάμεις του στα πιο διαφορετικά ποιητικά είδη, ο Κητς αποδεικνύεται ένας ευφυής πειραματιστής και ένας μοναδικός τεχνίτης του λόγου. Σε πορεία παράλληλη με την ποίησή του, οι επιστολές του (γράμματα σε φίλους, στα αδέρφια του, στους εκδότες του, στην αγαπημένη του Φάννυ) ανοίγουν ένα παράθυρο στην καθημερινή ζωή και σκέψη του ποιητή. Φωτίζουν τις αγωνίες μιας ψυχής που βάδιζε μέσα σε «αβεβαιότητες και μυστήρια» αναζητώντας την ομορφιά σε κάθε της έκφανση. Τα γράμματα του Κητς (κατά τον Έλιοτ, «τα σημαντικότερα που γράφτηκαν ποτέ από Άγγλο ποιητή») οδηγούν κατευθείαν στον πυρήνα της δημιουργικής διαδικασίας και τη φωτίζουν με τον πιο ουσιαστικό τρόπο.

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020One of the Guardian's and TLS's 'Best Books of 2019'In A Thousand Ships, broadcaster and classicist Natalie Haynes retells the story of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective, for fans of Madeline Miller and Pat Barker. This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of them all . . . In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen. From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women embroiled in the legendary war. Powerfully told from an all-female perspective, in A Thousand Ships Natalie Haynes puts the women, girls and goddesses at the centre of the story. 'With her trademark passion, wit, and fierce feminism, Natalie Haynes gives much-needed voice to the silenced women of the Trojan War' - Madeline Miller, author of Circe'A gripping feminist masterpiece' - Deborah Frances-White, The Guilty Feminist