Academic : Literature : English literature : Poetry : By period

Like The Big Over Easy (2005), Fforde's first Nursery Crime novel, this sequel offers literary allusions, confusions and gentle satire, though, again like its predecessor, it lacks the snap of the author's Thursday Next series (The Eyre Affair, etc.). Jack Spratt, DCI of the Nursery Crime Division of the Reading Police Department, is also a PDR (Person of Dubious Reality), as are most of the characters Jack deals with, including the Gingerbreadman, a notorious killer, and Punch and Judy, a violence prone couple who are also marriage counselors. An alien policeman named Ashley, talking bears, a devoted group of cucumber-growing enthusiasts and an immensely powerful company, Quang Tech, add spice. more...

Price: $14.00

The story of the legendary friendship between Wordsworth and Coleridge. The friendship between William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge produced dazzling results. From it came Lyrical Ballads, the volume that kick-started the Romantic Movement in England. Rarely have two such gifted writers cooperated so closely. They met in 1795 when both were in their early twenties, and in the euphoria of mutual discovery these brilliant and idealistic young men planned a poem that would succeed where the French Revolution failed—a poem that would, quite literally, change the world. In this wonderfully lively and readable account, acclaimed author Adam Sisman explores their passionate and tempestuous bond and the way in which rivalry bred tension between them. Though much has been written about this extraordinary duo, no previous biographer has considered them together. The result offers insights into the rich yet neglected topic of friendship and tantalizing glimpses of the creative process itself. more...

Price: $17.00

Matt Simpson’s poetry has among its principal themes one of coming to terms with the past as a way of understanding the present. In the present collection Simpson continues his journey into his family history. He has also been on other travels: there are poems about Japan, Tasmania, Ireland and the Greek islands of Aegina and Leros. Simpson is not shy of big themes. Here are poems about identity, love, death, illness, friendship. Simpson can be tenderly elegiac as well as celebratory, meditative and also humorous. more...

Price: $15.00

Gone Is Gone addresses an age-old question between couples—who works harder? This long-out-of-print children’s book is based on a charming Bohemian tale recited to Wanda Gág when she was a child, and is now available to enchant audiences of all ages. The tale’s sly peasant humor and conversational style combined with Gág’s expressive black-and-white illustrations made the book an instant classic. more...

Price: $15.00

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Price: $9.99