Literary Theory & Movements
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Alchemy: The latest new gripping historical crime thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author: Book 7 (Giordano Bruno)
The new historical crime thriller in the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling series, perfect for fans of C. J. Sansom and Hilary Mantel
Prague, 1588.
A COURT IN TURMOIL
The Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, wants to expand the boundaries of human knowledge, and his court is a haven for scientists, astrologers and alchemists. His abiding passion is the feverish search for the philosopher’s stone and thus immortality. The Catholic Church fears he has pushed too far, into the forbidden realm of heresy – and the greatest powers in Christendom are concerned about the imperial line of succession.A MURDERED ALCHEMIST
Giordano Bruno is sent to his court by Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I’s spymaster. His task: to contact the famous English alchemist and mystic John Dee, another of Walsingham’s spies. But Bruno’s arrival in Prague coincides with the brutal murder of a rival alchemist – and John Dee himself has disappeared.AN UNFORGIVING ENEMY
Ordered by the emperor to find the killer, Bruno’s investigations bring him face to face with an old enemy from the Inquisition. But could the real danger lie elsewhere? Amidst the jostling factions at court and the religious tensions brewing in the city, Bruno has to track down a murderer as elusive as the elixir of life itself.‘The clever twists and turns of Alchemy are assuredly plotted and Prague, a city in religious and political turmoil, makes for a powerful setting’ The Times
‘Over the past dozen years, S. J. Parris’s novels… have been among the most enjoyable of all historical thrillers’ Sunday Times
‘Breathless pace and acutely observed detail make for a story that confounds and surprises’ Observer
S. J. Parris’s book Alchemy was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 03-07-2023
S. J. Parris’ book ‘Alchemy’ was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 24-07-2023.
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All the Sonnets of Shakespeare
How can we look afresh at Shakespeare as a writer of sonnets? What new light might they shed on his career, personality, and sexuality? Shakespeare wrote sonnets for at least thirty years, not only for himself, for professional reasons, and for those he loved, but also in his plays, as prologues, as epilogues, and as part of their poetic texture. This ground-breaking book assembles all of Shakespeare’s sonnets in their probable order of composition. An inspiring introduction debunks long-established biographical myths about Shakespeare’s sonnets and proposes new insights about how and why he wrote them. Explanatory notes and modern English paraphrases of every poem and dramatic extract illuminate the meaning of these sometimes challenging but always deeply rewarding witnesses to Shakespeare’s inner life and professional expertise. Beautifully printed and elegantly presented, this volume will be treasured by students, scholars, and every Shakespeare enthusiast.Read more
£10.60£12.30All the Sonnets of Shakespeare
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Before Borders: A Legal and Literary History of Naturalization
An ambitious revisionist history of naturalization as a creative mechanism for national expansion.
Before borders determined who belonged in a country and who did not, lawyers and judges devised a legal fiction called naturalization to bypass the idea of feudal allegiance and integrate new subjects into their nations. At the same time, writers of prose fiction were attempting to undo centuries of rules about who could—and who could not—be a subject of literature. In Before Borders, Stephanie DeGooyer reconstructs how prose and legal fictions came together in the eighteenth century to dramatically reimagine national belonging through naturalization. The bureaucratic procedure of naturalization today was once a radically fictional way to create new citizens and literary subjects.
Through early modern court proceedings, the philosophy of John Locke, and the novels of Daniel Defoe, Laurence Sterne, Maria Edgeworth, and Mary Shelley, DeGooyer follows how naturalization evolved in England against the backdrop of imperial expansion. Political and philosophical proponents of naturalization argued that granting foreigners full political and civil rights would not only attract newcomers but also better attach them to English soil. However, it would take a new literary form—the novel—to fully realize this liberal vision of immigration. Together, these experiments in law and literature laid the groundwork for an alternative vision of subjecthood in England and its territories.
Reading eighteenth-century legal and prose fiction, DeGooyer draws attention to an overlooked period of immigration history and compels readers to reconsider the creative potential of naturalization.
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Dickensland: The Curious History of Dickens’s London
The intriguing history of Dickens’s London, showing how tourists have reimagined and reinvented the Dickensian metropolis for more than 150 years
Tourists have sought out the landmarks, streets, and alleys of Charles Dickens’s London ever since the death of the world-renowned author. Late Victorians and Edwardians were obsessed with tracking down the locations―dubbed “Dickensland”―that famously featured in his novels. But his fans were faced with a city that was undergoing rapid redevelopment, where literary shrines were far from sacred. Over the following century, sites connected with Dickens were demolished, relocated, and reimagined.
Lee Jackson traces the fascinating history of Dickensian tourism, exploring both real Victorian London and a fictional city shaped by fandom, tourism, and heritage entrepreneurs. Beginning with the late nineteenth century, Jackson investigates key sites of literary pilgrimage and their relationship with Dickens and his work, revealing hidden, reinvented, and even faked locations. From vanishing coaching inns to submerged riverside stairs, hidden burial grounds to apocryphal shops, Dickensland charts the curious history of an imaginary world.Read more
£15.60£19.00Dickensland: The Curious History of Dickens’s London
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Henry VIII: The Heart and the Crown: ‘this novel makes Henry VIII’s story feel like it has never been told before’ (Tracy Borman)
The Sunday Times top 10 bestseller
‘Alison Weir makes Henry VIII’s story feel like it has never been told before… This novel will open your eyes and, at times, break your heart. By the end of it, I felt like I had met Henry for the first time’ Tracy Borman
Six wives. One King. You know their stories. Now it’s time to hear his.
Prince Harry is born the second son, his brother destined to rule. But Arthur’s untimely death sees Harry crowned King Henry of England.
As Henry’s power and influence extends, so commences a lifelong battle between head and heart, love and duty. The fate of the Tudor dynasty depends on an heir, but his prayers for a son go unanswered.
And the crown weighs heavy on a king with all but his one true desire…
HENRY VIII. HIS STORY.
Alison Weir’s most ambitious Tudor novel yet reveals the captivating story of a man who was by turns brilliant, romantic, and ruthless: the king who changed England forever.
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PRAISE FOR ALISON WEIR’S TUDOR FICTION
‘This is where the story of the Tudors begins and is historical fiction at its absolute best’ Tracy Borman
‘History has the best stories and they should all be told like this’ Conn Iggulden
‘A serious achievement’ The Times
‘Weir is excellent on the little details that bring a world to life’ Guardian
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Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei: (With More Ways)
The difficulty (and necessity) of translation is concisely described in Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, a close reading of different translations of a single poem from the Tang Dynasty―from a transliteration to Kenneth Rexroth’s loose interpretation. As Octavio Paz writes in the afterword, “Eliot Weinberger’s commentary on the successive translations of Wang Wei’s little poem illustrates, with succinct clarity, not only the evolution of the art of translation in the modern period but at the same time the changes in poetic sensibility.”Read more
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Said and Done
Roger McGough is one of Britain’s best-loved poets, and something of a national institution. His name is ubiquitous with matter-of-fact Scouse humor, easy-going charm, and perfect observations of the idiosyncrasies of everyday life, whether you know him from his poetry, or from his regular broadcasts on television or radio. Roger first rose to prominence in the 1960s as a member of the pop group The Scaffold, who had two number one hits – “Thank U Very Much” and “Lily The Pink”. He began his poetry career performing with The Grimms, alongside fellow Liverpool poets Adrian Henri and Brian Patten, with whom he went on to publish “The Mersey Sound”, which remains the biggest-selling British poetry book ever. This is his autobiography – and like the best of his poetry it is packed full of hilarious observations, unbelievable stories, nostalgic reminiscences and bittersweet tales of love, life and loss. This work features his memories of growing up in Liverpool, playing in bombed out houses as a young boy, the skiffle-crazed days of his adolescence, through to his time at university – and his meetings there with Larkin. He explores his sudden, almost overnight fame and success with Mike McCartney et all in “The Scaffold”, as well as his time working with George Martin, and co-writing the “Yellow Submarine” film script for the Beatles, through his international touring days, to the present. He certainly has many a story to tell about meeting some fascinating characters; Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Marlon Brando, Alan Ginsberg, Pete McCarthy and Salman Rushdie all appear amongst others, but it’s his sheer story-telling nous, and his gift for observing the minutia of everyday life, and to completely capture a moment in time which sets this apart from other books. His life story is one that will be universally identifiable to those who grew up with him – who embraced the verve and irreverence of the sixties, only to end up as slightly embittered romantic cynics. This is has done here in the most funny, poignant, bittersweet, and melancholic autobiography you will read this year – a man whose hugely popular take on it all resonates with honesty and humour.Read more
£0.62Said and Done
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The Architect’s Apprentice: Elif Shafak
A dazzling and intricate tale from Elif Shafak, Booker-shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World – chosen for the Duchess of Cornwall’s online book club The Reading Room
‘There were six of us: the master, the apprentices and the white elephant. We built everything together…’
Sixteenth century Istanbul: a stowaway arrives in the city bearing an extraordinary gift for the Sultan. The boy is utterly alone in a foreign land, with no worldly possessions to his name except Chota, a rare white elephant destined for the palace menagerie.
So begins an epic adventure that will see young Jahan rise from lowly origins to the highest ranks of the Sultan’s court. Along the way he will meet deceitful courtiers and false friends, gypsies, animal tamers, and the beautiful, mischievous Princess Mihrimah. He will journey on Chota’s back to the furthest corners of the Sultan’s kingdom and back again. And one day he will catch the eye of the royal architect, Sinan, a chance encounter destined to change Jahan’s fortunes forever.
Filled with all the colour of the Ottoman Empire, when Istanbul was the teeming centre of civilisation, The Architect’s Apprentice is a magical, sweeping tale of one boy and his elephant caught up in a world of wonder and danger.
‘A gorgeous picture of a city teeming with secrets, intrigue and romance’ The Times
‘Exuberant, epic and comic, fantastical and realistic . . . like all good stories it conveys deeper meanings about human experience’ Financial Times
‘Fascinating. A vigorous evocation of the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power’ Sunday Times
‘Intricate, multi-layered, resplendent, vividly evoked, beautifully written’ Observer
*** ELIF SHAFAK’S NEW NOVEL, THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY, IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW ***
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£8.70£9.50The Architect’s Apprentice: Elif Shafak
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The Conjuror’s Apprentice: (The Tudor Rose Murders Book 1)
‘Right up there with C J Sansom… A brilliant historical thriller’ Philip Gwynne Jones
‘Thoroughly engaging… beautifully written’ Zoe Sharp
‘Engaging and compelling’ Mark Ellis
‘A rollicking tale with just the right pinches of sex and humour’ Shots MagazineFinding the battered body of a young boy was not unusual in Bloody Mary’s cruel England. However, the stabbed tongue, a false seal and strange letter implicate Princess Elizabeth, threatening to bring down the Tudor Dynasty.
Doctor John Dee and his secret apprentice, Margaretta, using his brilliant mind and her strange abilities, embark on a perilous journey to solve this brutal murder. Before their work can really begin, another body is found.
As Dee and Margaretta delve deeper into their investigation, they uncover a web of deceit, political intrigue and treachery that threatens to engulf them both. When more bodies are discovered and arrests are made, time is running out. With rumours of witchcraft and treason swirling around them, can they untangle the mystery before it’s too late?
‘The beginning of a wonderfully different Tudor crime fiction series’ Alis Hawkins
‘A wonderful debut’ Jules Swain
‘Absolutely spellbinding… alive with atmosphere and realism’ Chris LloydRead more
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The Histories (Penguin Classics)
‘The first example of non-fiction, the text that underlies the entire discipline of history … it is above all a treasure trove’ Tom Holland
One of the masterpieces of classical literature, The Histories describes how a small and quarrelsome band of Greek city states united to repel the might of the Persian empire. But while this epic struggle forms the core of his work, Herodotus’ natural curiosity frequently gives rise to colourful digressions – a description of the natural wonders of Egypt; tales of lake-dwellers, dog-headed men and gold-digging ants. With its kaleidoscopic blend of fact and legend, The Histories offers a compelling Greek view of the world in the fifth century BC, in Aubrey de Sélincourt’s elegant and celebrated translation.
Translated by AUBREY DE SÉLINCOURT
Revised with an Introduction and notes by JOHN MARINCOLARead more
£10.40£12.30The Histories (Penguin Classics)
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The House of Doors: Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023
A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERIt is 1921 and at Cassowary House in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Robert Hamlyn is a well-to-do lawyer and his steely wife Lesley a society hostess. Their lives are invigorated when Willie, an old friend of Robert’s, comes to stay.
Willie Somerset Maugham is one of the greatest writers of his day. But he is beleaguered by an unhappy marriage, ill-health and business interests that have gone badly awry. He is also struggling to write. The more Lesley’s friendship with Willie grows, the more clearly she see him as he is – a man who has no choice but to mask his true self.
As Willie prepares to leave and face his demons, Lesley confides secrets of her own, revealing her connection to the case of an Englishwoman charged with murder in the Kuala Lumpur courts – a tragedy drawn from fact, and worthy of fiction.
From Man Booker Prize-shortlisted Tan Twan Eng, The House of Doors is a masterful novel of public morality and private truth a century ago. Based on real events it is a drama of love and betrayal under the shadow of Empire.
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The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea: Yukio Mishima
A band of savage thirteen-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call ‘objectivity’. When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship’s officer, he and his friends idealise the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic. They regard this disallusionment as an act of betrayal on his part – and the retribution is deliberate and horrifying.Read more
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The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem
** Chosen as a New Statesman, Financial Times, Observer and Sunday Times Book of the Year **
A riveting account of the making of T. S. Eliot’s celebrated poem The Waste Land on its centenary.
‘A rattling good story’ Sunday Telegraph
‘A work of art’ Times Literary SupplementThe Waste Land has been called the ‘World’s Greatest Poem’. It has been labelled the most truthful poem of its time; it has been branded a masterful fake. More than a century after its publication in 1922, T. S. Eliot’s enigmatic masterpiece remains one of the most influential works ever written.
In a remarkable feat of biography, Matthew Hollis reconstructs the creation of the poem and brings the material reality of its charged times vividly to life. He reveals the cultural and personal trauma that forged The Waste Land through the lives of its protagonists – Ezra Pound, who edited it; Vivien Eliot, who sustained it; and T. S. Eliot himself, whose private torment is woven into the seams of the work. The result is an unforgettable story of lives passing in opposing directions and the astounding literary legacy they would leave behind.
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£10.70£12.30The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem
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Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Modern Classics)
Her grand attempt to tell what she felt was the story of Jane Eyre’s ‘madwoman in the attic’, Bertha Rochester, Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea is edited with an introduction and notes by Angela Smith in Penguin Classics.
Born into the oppressive, colonialist society of 1930s Jamaica, white Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent beauty and sensuality. After their marriage, however, disturbing rumours begin to circulate which poison her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is inexorably driven towards madness, and her husband into the arms of another novel’s heroine. This classic study of betrayal, a seminal work of postcolonial literature, is Jean Rhys’s brief, beautiful masterpiece.
Jean Rhys (1894-1979) was born in Dominica. Coming to England aged 16, she drifted into various jobs before moving to Paris, where she began writing and was ‘discovered’ by Ford Madox Ford. Her novels, often portraying women as underdogs out to exploit their sexualities, were ahead of their time and only modestly successful. From 1939 (when Good Morning, Midnight was written) onwards she lived reclusively, and was largely forgotten when she made a sensational comeback with her account of Jane Eyre’s Bertha Rochester, Wide Sargasso Sea, in 1966.
If you enjoyed Wide Sargasso Sea, you might like Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, also available in Penguin Classics.
‘She took one of the works of genius of the nineteenth century and turned it inside-out to create one of the works of genius of the twentieth century’
Michele Roberts, The Times
NOTE: The book is a 2000 reissue of a 1997 edition.
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£6.70£7.60Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Modern Classics)
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