English Classics Books

Townsend Warner started this novel with the intention of producing a Marxist-Leninist account of how a community of women made their living in the medieval period. That probably sounds deadly dull, but the book itself is anything but: indeed, it remains one of the most page-turning novels I've read in years. Detailing the lives of a convent through eighty years in the Middle Ages, THE CORNER THAT HELD THEM defies any simple explanation of its plot: nuns come and they leave; mothers superior replace their predecessors and then make new plans for the community (which often come to fruition and often don't); people affiliated with the community are born and then later die. Yet despite its apparent random nature, this remains one of the most engrossing books I can imagine: from its beginnings in disastrous marital infidelity to its unforgettable conclusion of desperate betrayal, it has all the fascination of real lived experience.

There is everything to love about this novel, and nothing to dislike: hilarity, tenderness, complexity of characterization, shocks, unexpected twists, occasional heartbreak, and the inexhaustible panoply of human kind. The core "message"-although this is much more than a message novel-is impermanence. By looking at one convent over several generations, we are reminded of the certainty that we will all die and eventually be forgotten, which is why the author exhorts us to love as much as we can, before it's over. "Here I am, she thought, fixed in the religious life like a candle on a spike." Aren't we all, religious or not! "I consume, I burn away, always lighting the same corner, always beleaguered by the same shadows; and in the end I shall burn out and another candle will be fixed in my stead." So what to do? Laugh! Eat! Flirt with the priest (who, by the way, is an impostor). This is not just a chick-novel. Its pages are full of men who drift in and out of the convent and its surrounds and are as fascinating--and as unpredictable--as the women. What do to? Fall into the stream on a summer day and float. Or scheme and connive. Note the expressive, always surprising language. "Though in the main she was zealously self-deceiving, she had filaments of shrewdness floating from her, and it was with one of these that she sensed that other people were willing enough to be scandalized, and that there was plenty to scandalize them." Like another splendid novel, SHIP OF FOOLS, this one takes the full range of human possibility, compresses it in time and space, and holds it up for our delight. Coincidentally, it restores a sense of perspective to those of us who, fixed in our careers like candles on a spike, imagine the world will not turn without our effort. Very humbling, and sparkling with humor.

"Otogizoshi," a nihilistic anthology based on some Japanese famous folklore by famous novelist, Osamu Dazai. Crackling Mountain, Kachi-Kachi yama in Japanese is originally rather cruel and abuserd falklore, in which a naughty badger kills an old lady and a rabbit revenges for her in cruel way. Here a rabbit is described as a young and capricious woman and gives new lights to this rather absurd and cruel Kachi-Kachi Yama stories.

If you've read "Setting Sun" or "No Longer Human" by Dazai and think you've got him pigeon-holed, read this fine collection of his short stories and think again. This is Dazai in a very different key. While the darkness and nihilism characterizing his better known novels still hovers around in the background in these tales, overall they sparkle with a sharp and sprightly sense of irony, satire, and humor that is appealing--this light also gives the shadow contrast and depth, making it less overbearing but more disturbing in a way.

There is a good variety among the stories themselves, too. Some are semi-autobiographical pieces somewhat in the vein of the good old "I-novel", some are funny stories with a bite, one story more typical of Dazai deals with postwar Japan's sense of meaninglessness and loss, but most are retellings of classical or premodern tales East and West but with a twist--including reworkings of vignettes by Ihara Saikaku and Ueda Akinari as well as a take on the Gospel story through the distorted psychology of Judas. All of the stories are intriguing, and O'Brien's translation brings them to life, capturing Dazai's nonchalant and talkative tone in these stories rather well. And they are important too in giving the non-Japanese reader a much fuller sense of the range and artistry of one of twentieth-century Japan's best writers.

The stories included are: "Memories", "Undine", "Monkey Island", "Heed My Plea", "Melos, Run!" "On the Question of Apparel", "A Poor Man's Got His Pride", "The Monkey's Mound", "The Sound of Hammering", "Taking the Wen Away", and (of course) "Crackling Mountain".

This a fundamental book for all those who are interested either academically of personally in the history of the Reformation, specially in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries. Prof. Dr. Trevor-Hoper analyses deeply several aspects of the cultural, religious, economical and social history of that time of history. It is a key book for students, social scientists, historians and scientists of religion.

Fascinating history of the witch trials from their beginning in the hands of two monks trying to 'civilize' relatively pagan regions like the Alps and Pyrenees until their peak at the time of the deaths of Galileo, Descartes, and Kepler, and the birth of Newton. One learns that the Swedish Cristina, who attracted Descartes to Stockholm as her philosophy teacher, put the end to the witch trials there, after her father had contributed to the world the Thirty Years War. A good starter for anyone interested in the intermittent decline of the influence of religion in the west as the enlightenment caught steam.

I have a wide collection of Austen sources, but this is the one which I use most often. It serves needs as quick reference for checking placement of events in the novels, but provides extensive information in deeper capacities of criticism, as well as a wide scope on such topics as film adaptation. The novels are well covered, including an alphbetized listing of each character, containing description as well as the chapters in which each character is featured. The useful biographical information helps one cut through the mist of recent film bios. Synopses and critical commentaries on the letters and juvenilia are especially helpful as these sources are becoming more widely studied and available. As a teacher, graduate student, and student of Austen, I am most impressed!

As a JA fan this is the clearest exposition and most informative
> account of her life and works that I have come across. Clearly
> written, delightfully produced and illustrated, there are very
> helpful plot summaries, interpretations from early 19th century to
> the present, internet resources, accounts of films and videos,and a
> host of other wonderful material. This is the most helpful
> guide to all the works of the great writer told in succinct clear
> unpretentious language
> There is an extensive index!

Como estas. Me llamo Brett

Como estas. Me llamo Brett

The critical texts of James Joyce - many of them unreleased and others scarecly spread, written through a period of almost forty years , express in normal language the estetical convictions of the author who in his work , could manifest them in indirect form .
In them we can realize the evolution of the criterion of Joyce since the fourteen years old till past fifties .
This is a fundamental compilation for those who love the literature of James Joyce .

Old but still worthy of respect, this is a collection of most of the works by James Joyce that could reasonably be described as Critical. Here we see Joyce in many guises - youthful literary hack, angry old man protesting against breach of copyright, and above all explainer of Irish and English culture to the Italians. The most fascinating pieces in the book are a series of lectures Joyce gave in Italian on the subjects of Irish history, James Clarence Mangan, William Blake and diverse other topics. Those who've attempted to claim Joyce as an apolitical webmaster or conservative elitist (I'm talking to you, Roger Scruton) are in for a shock. His socialism and proto-post-colonialist sense of historical injustice are in full display.

These are, to be sure, the kind of thing you read not because you're interested in the subjects under discussion (who, apart from elderly Irish poets, cares about James Clarence Mangan?) but because you're interested in what Joyce has to say about them. All his criticism is of the strategic rather than tactical kind, the kind of criticism certain writers engage in so as to clear the ground for their own efforts. He's no John Updike, prepared to write 2000 words about anybody he happens to find interesting.

Apart from a vacuous introduction by Guy Davenport, this is a fascinating book. I'm sure it's far from complete, seeing as nobody can even agree about where Joyce's books stop and his drafts begin, but it'll do until time and decay simplify the picture. Joyce is the great pathfinder of modern Irish writing. Hail to the Chief.

Crossing the Color Line is a superbly presented collection of stories by Alice Adams, Toni Bambara, and others examine the truth about the color line between blacks and whites, using contemporary stories by novelists to explore the issues and problems. The stories which comprise Crossing The Color Line provide insights more charged than debates and probe issues of politics, class, gender and religion alike.

Stories by Alice Adams, Toni Bambara, and others examine the truth about the color line between blacks and whites, using contemporary stories by novelists to explore the issues and problems. The stories which comprise Crossing the Color Line provide insights more charged than debates and probe issues of politics, class, gender and religion alike.

What makes this book so good is that it is equal parts intellectual history and literary criticism. Elliott has a provocative way of thinking about "culture," and he shows how foundational the culture concept has been to American literature. He also has a lot to say about the history of African American and Native American writing, and it is much more interesting than talking about those works as being completely separate form each other.

This is a great book about the history of the culture concept -- and especially about all the different kinds of literature related to it.

This is an excellent selection of Ozick's work . It includes what in my judgment is the finest piece of fiction that she has written the novella ,'Envy'. It also a number of her outstanding literary and historical reflections including some which touch upon her wise and insightful understanding of Jewish history.

Of course everyone will commend you to Puttermesser and Xanthippe-a novella of almost operatic drama and sadness. A Mercenary has charms because it so evokes the news in 2008 and Envy is a wicked little piece likely to have lasting appeal.
But I am urging you to buy this book for the sake of one story. It's called Virility. In it, Ozick puts aside her Judeopean, world-weary voice for the clean credulity and wholesome cynicism of a male waspy New Yorker who tells the secret story of one of America's most famous poets and some of the real truths behind the New York literary scene.
I read this back in the 70's and its sour little truth changed the way I thought about men and women in the way that no argument could have.

The other pieces are good too, but get yourself to Virility as soon as you can.

D. H. Lawrence: Self And Sexuality by James C. Cowan (Founder and Editor of "The D. H. Lawrence Review" and recipient of The D. H. Lawrence Society of North America Award for Distinguished Scholarship) is a thoughtful and thought-provoking psychologically oriented examination of assorted issues arising from the sexual topics found throughout the writings of D. H. Lawrence. Professor Cowan ranges from employing object relation theories of D. W. Winnicott, to traditional Freudian interpretations, to self-psycho-logical terms, and much, much more. An erudite and meticulously reasoned account, D. H. Lawrence: Self And Sexuality is an original and seminal contribution which is especially commended to students of the life and work of D. H. Lawrence.

This short book explains D. H. Lawrence's sexuality in concise, illuminating terms. The author spent many years studying Lawrence and psychoanalysis; now he uses the insights of therapists such as Heinz Kohut to penetrate the creative work of a gifted novelist. The book's ten chapters, all impressively organized, reflect Cowan's wisdom and humanity; in the chapter on Lawrence's search for masculine identity, for instance, he shows how vigorously Lawrence searched, consciously and unconsciously, for a way to unify his divided male consciousness. Highly recommended for readers curious about the way sex - in all its forms - permeates the affective life of a genius.