Have industrial-age technologies and visual discourses transformed us into spectators of the real, and can realist fiction make that transformation visible to us? This book brings Situationist Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle and an array of cultural criticism into dialogue with novels by Hardy, Forster, Woolf, Rushdie, Carey and Barnes to foreground literary realism’s critique of visual culture, including Gothic architectural revival, neoclassicism, tourism, historical pagea...

"One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel"-Jean-Antoninette ("Reinette") Poisson, aka Madame de Pompadour, "The Girl in the Fireplace"What a world of demons Doctor Who has presented us with over the past seven decades: from Daleks and Cybermen to Weeping Angels and the Silence, the greatest villains of the Who-niverse have achieved an iconic status all their own, cementing themselves in the minds of millions of viewers (why else would Parker Brothers h...

A VIVID, SWEEPING SAGA OF QUEER LOVE AND POLITICS IN ANCIENT GREECE, FROM THE QUEEN OF HISTORICAL FICTION, FOR FANS OF SONG OF ACHILLES AND THE ODYSSEY'Renault's eye for intimacy is amazing' DOUGLAS STUART'Arresting and beautiful and moving . . . decades ahead of its time' LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKSYour love made me. Do not take it away; for without love I am a temple forsaken by i...

AD 838. Deep in the forests of Wessex, Dunston's solitary existence is shattered when he stumbles on a mutilated corpse.Accused of the murder, Dunston must clear his name and keep the dead man's daughter alive in the face of savage pursuers desperate to prevent a terrible secret from being revealed. Rushing through Wessex, Dunston will need to use all the skills of survival garnered from a lifetime in the wilderness. And if he has any hope of victory against the implacable enemies ...

When the Vikings attack, a novice monk's life is changed forever in Matthew Harffy's new historical adventure.Lindisfarne, AD793. There had been portents – famine, whirlwinds, lightning from clear skies, serpents seen flying through the air. But when the raiders came, no one was prepared. They came from the North, their dragon-prowed longships gliding out of the dawn mist as they descended on the kingdom's most sacred site. It is 8th June AD 793, and with the pillage of the monaste...

First published in 1939, a few years before his most influential works in theatre and philosophy, The Wall was Sartres first and only collection of short fiction. The title piece tells the story of a prisoner during the Spanish Civil War, on the eve of his execution by a firing squad, who is told he will be spared if he can betray the whereabouts of a fellow Republican. This leads him to question his cause and his loyalty, as the mental torment that he and two other inmates endure unfolds ...

Before the Malazan Empire, there was a time that set the stage for all those tales yet to be told . . .The winter is bitter. Civil war threatens Kurald Galain for the warrior Urusander’s army has begun its march on the city of Kharkanas. Led by the ruthless Hunn Raal, it intends to cast aside Mother Dark’s consort, Draconus, and set Urusander himself on the throne beside the Living Goddess. Those who would stand in the way of the rebels lie scattered and w...

Hunlaf battles peril and intrigue on a dangerous voyage to Muslim Spain.AD 796. Sailing in search of an object of great power, Hunlaf and his comrades are far from home when they are caught up in a violent skirmish against pirates.After the bloody onslaught, an encounter with ships from Islamic Spain soon sees them escorted under guard to the city of Qadis, one of the jewels of the Emirate of Al-Andalus and the true destination of their voyage.Hunlaf believes the Em...

THE ANCIENT GREEK STAGE BROUGHT THRILLINGLY TO LIFE BY THE QUEEN OF HISTORICAL FICTION, PERFECT FOR FANS OF THE WOMEN OF TROY AND THE ODYSSEY'Mary Renault has made the classical era alive' GORE VIDAL'Her books have stood the test of time' INDEPENDENTThe artist flows into the mask the poet offers him; only so will the god possess him.Greece, fourth century ...

In the wild lands of Norway, Hunlaf must quell a vicious slave uprising in Matthew Harffy's latest historical adventure.A wild land. A lethal fanatic. A violent revolt.Northumbria, AD 794.Those who rule the seas, rule the land. None know the truth of this more than the Vikings. To compete with the sea-faring, violent raiders, the king of Northumbria orders the construction of his own longships under the command of oath-sworn Norseman, Runolf.When the Northern ...

In the final months of World War II, a clandestine group known as The Choir smuggles thousands of escapees out of Nazi-occupied Rome via a secret route known as the Rome Escape Line. When an unidentified airman falls from the sky, The Choir is plunged into lethal danger, and the survival of the Escape Line itself is threatened.The Choir is riven with internal tensions and infighting. The organization is in danger of falling apart, which would leave thousands of esc...

Beautifully curated, The Poetry of World War One is a stunning collection of verse from some of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Whether fighting on the frontline themselves or observing the destruction of the Great War from home, these poets capture the horrors of the trenches, the fragility of life itself and the resilience of the human spirit in haunting detail.As devastating as it is hopeful, this collection provides a poignant and evocat...