This book is designed to serve as a practical guide for students and others wishing to improve their skills in the detailed analysis and discussion of Hardy's prose texts. Its aim is to sharpen readers' awareness of the complexity and subtlety of Hardy's art by encouraging responsiveness to such aspects as language and style, imagery and symbol, descriptive and dramatic method and narrative technique. At the same time extracts are considered not in isolation but in relation to the overall ...

First published in 1977, this concise and insightful study of the life and works of Thomas Hardy provides a thorough examination of Hardy's literary output. Alongside a brief biography of Hardy's life, Professor Page's study also spotlights his major and minor novels, his short stories, his non-fiction prose and his verse.

First published in 1972, Norman Page’s seminal study of The Language of Jane Austen seeks to demonstrate both the exceptional nature and the degree of subtlety of Jane Austen’s use of language.As well as examining the staple items of her vocabulary and some of the characteristic patterns of her syntax, attention is paid to her use of dialogue and of the letter form. The aim of the study is not simply to analyse linguistic qualities for their own sake but to employ close ve...

Fifty-Two illustrated memoirs and spiritual insights,from a veterinary surgeon who came to see thatChrist was ultimately ‘in all and through all’.This is a book to inspire a living faithin children and adults alike.

The Critical Heritage gathers together a large body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work, enabling students and researchers to read for themselves, for example, comments on early performances of Shakespeare's plays, or reactions to the first publication of Jane Austen's novels. The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to journalism and contemporary opinion, and little ...

Both major novelist and major poet, with a distinctive off-beat and intensely personal style, Hardy is a modern writer born out of his time.

'His characters are marvellous, his insights wonderful ... You don't expect reality but you get something bigger and better' Ruth RendellThe Old Curiosity Shop was an instant bestseller that, even while it was criticized for its sentimentality, captured the hearts of the nation with its portrayal of little Nell Trent, who is thrown into a terrifying world when her beloved grandfather is unable to pay his debts to the loathsome Quilp. Alongside the pathos of the innocent, t...

Following the end of the First World War, Poland was wedged uncomfortably between the two dominant nations of Germany and the Soviet Union. Poland was obliged to plot and negotiate to try and prevent them from realizing their ambitions to eviscerate the country.As well as bitter ethnic battles between Germany and Poland for the political control of Upper Silesia, there were also the burning ambitions of Weimar Germany, and later Nazi Germany, to reclaim lands incorporated into the ...

"There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast." Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers—originally titled The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club—is a masterpiece of humor, warmth, and humanity. This debut novel launched Dickens to literary fame and remains one of his most joyful and entertaining works. The story follows the kind-hearted and eccentric Mr. Samuel Pickwick and his loyal companions—Mr. Tupman, Mr. Snodgrass, and Mr. Winkle—as they jo...

"Hard Times" is the 1854 novel by Charles Dickens that sought to highlight the social and economic divide that was growing between capitalistic mill owners and workers during the Victorian era of Great Britain. Originally published in serial form in Dickens's own periodical journal "Household Words", "Hard Times" is unique in that it is not set in London, like many of his works, but in the fictitious Victorian town of Coketown. A critical examination of the poor working conditions in many ...

This annotated edition includes:Author Biography and Images.Little Dorrit is a novel by Charles Dickens, originally published in serial form between 1855 and 1857. The story features Amy Dorrit, youngest child of her family, born and raised in the Marshalsea prison for debtors in London. Arthur Clennam encounters her after returning home from a 20-year absence, ready to begin his life anew.THIS BOOK IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN OF AFFECTIONMany moons ago, an auth...