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www.bibliophilebooks.com 74354 BRIDESHEAD LITERATURE


I know everything. One has to, to write decently.


- Henry James


74641 TRAVELLER’S DAYBOOK: A Tour of the


World in 366 Quotations by Fergus Fleming


Covering the whole calendar, these 366 journeys are by turn lyrical, witty, tragic and bizarre - but always entertaining. The book invites readers to cross ocean, desert, mountain and ice-cap in the company of the world’s greatest


explorers, wanderers and writers from Christopher Columbus’ apparent discovery of the West Indies in 1492 to Anton Chekhov’s journey through Siberia in the 19th century and on to Wilfred Thesiger’s wanderings in Arabia’s empty quarter in the 1940s. Each quoted extract is accompanied by a brief commentary that introduces the writer and establishes the context of the excerpt. There are both a wealth of exotic destinations and a many-hued patchwork of moods - ranging from the astonishment of the 17th century diarist John Evelyn on beholding the size of women’s shoes in Venice to the stoic courage of Captain Scott facing death at 40 degrees below, the exasperation of Dylan Thomas at finding himself in a ‘stiff- lipped, liverish, British Guest House in puking Abadan’ and the philosophical introspection of Fridtjof Nansen as he drifts in an interminable and rigid world of Arctic ice. Here you will also find such varied experiences as Napoleon’s travel tips to his niece, a flight over Germany with Hitler, and an ex-pat dinner in Morocco where human blood is served from the fridge by the pint. Maybe you should skip that last one. 478 pages illustrated in b/w. £25 NOW £8


74675 SIR NIGEL: A Novel of


the Hundred Years’ War by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also wrote works of history and science fiction, plays and poetry. Set against the 14th century war between England and France, ‘Sir Nigel’ is an adventure classic filled with history, conflict, chivalry and a dash of romance. This illustrated epic introduces young squire Nigel Loring


as he leaves home to serve King Edward at the start of the Hundred Years’ War. He possesses a ‘lion heart and the blood of a hundred soldiers thrilling in his veins’ that propel him to accomplish heroic acts in his quest for knighthood. The star upon his path is his beloved Lady Mary who waits for him to complete three courageous acts so he can win her hand in marriage. Facsimile reprint of the 1906 original here in 344 page illustrated paperback.


$12.95 NOW £5


75022 TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD


edited by John Baldock ‘O ye Knowledge-Holding Deities, pray harken unto me; Lead me on the Path, out of your great love.’ The Tibetan Book of the Dead has its origins in the ‘treasure texts’ said to have been hidden away by Padmasambhava, the Lotus Guru, in


Tibet in the 8th century AD so that they could be revealed at an appropriate later time. As a funerary text and guide to the afterlife, it was read aloud to the dying or recently deceased so that they could recognise the true nature of the mind and thus attain enlightenment and liberation from the associated sufferings with the endless cycle of death and rebirth. If we too can recognise the true nature of the mind, each one of us can become enlightened. It is one of the greatest literary works of the afterlife and this is a beautifully illustrated collector’s edition. Colour. 128pp, softback. £9.99 NOW £8


74816 SONGS OF INNOCENCE by William Blake


Illustrated by Charles and Mary H. Robinson, William Blake’s 1789 classic evokes an idyllic world populated by pipers, shepherds, angels and joyful children. Graced by the Robinsons’ ethereal Art Nouveau illustrations in full page colour, here are Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright, The Laughing Song, Holy Thursday, The Little Boy Lost, The


Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?, The Little Black Boy, The Chimney Sweeper and A Cradle Song in a special edition comprising the complete Songs of Innocence in addition to nine poems from the Songs of Experience. A volume to treasure, 66pp. $15 NOW £4


72331 ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH


by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn


The ‘Gulag archipelago’ of Russian labour camps, established by Stalin as the lifelong prisons of political dissidents, is well established as a horrific symbol of totalitarian repression. This is the book that in 1962 brought life in the prison camps to the world’s attention and made an overnight hero of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. In one prisoner, Ivan Denisovich Shukhob, and one single day of his long sentence, we find a universal Everyman, struggling to make sense of the hand that Fate has dealt him, and determined to survive. Low jacket price. 136pp. ONLY £2.50


ABBREVIATED by John Crace


John Crace’s ‘Digested Read’ column in the Guardian has rightly acquired a cult following. Each week fans avidly devour his latest razor-sharp literary assassination, while authors turn tremblingly to the appropriate page of the review section in fear. Now he turns his critical eye on 100 classics offering bite-sized pastiches


of everything from Mrs Dalloway to Trainspotting, Le Grand Meaulnes, More Pricks than Kicks, The Bell Jar, American Psycho to the Highway Code. Witty and sharp. 353pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £3.50


74384 ISLAND: Vintage Classic by Aldous Huxley


In 1937 at the height of his fame, Huxley left Europe to live in California, working for a time as a screenwriter in Hollywood. Here is one of his truly great philosophical novels. For over 100 years in the Pacific island of Pala has been the scene of a unique experiment in civilisation. Its inhabitants live in a society where Western science has been brought together with Eastern philosophy to create a paradise on earth. When cynical journalist Will Farnaby arrives to research potential oil reserves on Pala, he quickly falls in love with the way of life on the island. Soon he must make a difficult choice. 286pp, paperback.


£8.99 NOW £3.50


74383 DOORS OF PERCEPTION by Aldous Huxley


One spring morning in 1953, Aldous Huxley took four tenths of a gramme of mescalin, sat down and waited to see what would happen, and when he opened his eyes he found everything, from flowers in a vase to the creases in his trousers were completely transformed. He describes his experience with breathtaking immediacy in this book, and its sequel ‘Heaven and Hell’ in which he goes on to explore the history and nature of mysticism. These illuminating and influential writings remain the most fascinating accounts of the visionary, drug-induced experience ever written. Paperback, 123pp. £7.99 NOW £3.50


74418 THREE MUSKETEERS by Alexandre Dumas


Country boy d’Artagnan is desperate to join the King’s élite band of bodyguards, the Musketeers. When his fiery loyalties (which often get him into trouble) and incredible sword skills (which get him out again) manage to impress brash Porthos, foppish Aramis and melancholy Athos, the three Musketeers and d’Artagnan become friends for life. But when the four discover that the King is under threat from Cardinal Richelieu and beautiful spy Milady, can they save France from certain destruction? Penguin paperback, 673pp. £8.99 NOW £4


71177 DESCENT OF MAN: And Selection in


Relation to Sex by Charles Darwin Darwin addresses many of the issues raised by his notorious On the Origin of Species: finding in the traits and instincts of animals the origins of the mental abilities of humans, of language, of our social structures and our moral capacities. He attempts to show that there is no clear dividing line between animals and humans. This book presents a full explanation of Darwin’s ideas about sexual selection. This complete version of the first edition gives the modern reader an unparalleled opportunity to engage directly with Darwin’s proposals, launched in the midst of continuing controversy over On the Origin of Species. Paperback, 674pp, illus. ONLY £3.50


72517 LOST JOURNAL OF BRAM STOKER edited by Elizabeth Miller and Dacre Stoker Discovered in the attic of one of Stoker’s descendants, the notebook kept by the author of Dracula consists of 310 entries during the period between 1871 and 1882. Stoker left Dublin for London in 1878, becoming the actor Henry Irving’s manager, but most of these journals are from his formative years observing life in Dublin’s pubs and streets, his civil service colleagues in Dublin Castle and days as a student at Trinity College. Several poems and numerous anecdotes are about “fallen women”. Many of his short story synopses are in Gothic vein. 337pp, photos. £18.99 NOW £2.50


73037 UNDER THE SUN: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin edited by Elizabeth Chatwin and Nicholas Shakespeare


Bruce Chatwin was a cult writer of beautiful prose with an encyclopedic experience of people and places. In 1965 the bisexual Chatwin married Elizabeth Chanler who herself embarked on some adventurous journeys, travelling in a van to the Himalayas with Penelope Betjeman in 1971. Chatwin’s letters to his wife are among the most revealing, often expressing forthright opinions of his friends and incorporating wonderful descriptions of his surroundings. Abruptly terminating his employment with The Sunday Times (“Gone to Patagonia”) Chatwin started to move towards a novelistic career. In Patagonia was followed by The Viceroy of Ouidah, On the Black Hill and The Songlines and other literary figures who appear in this correspondence are James Lees-Milne, Gerald Brenan, Susan Sontag and many others. Paperback, 554pp. Photos.


£9.99 NOW £3


73491 DARWIN: A Life in Poems by Ruth Padel


Using multiple viewpoints from Darwin himself to his beloved wife Emma, and even at one point the orang- utan at London Zoo, Ruth Padel illuminates the development of Darwin’s thought, the drama of the discovery of evolution, and the fluctuating emotions of Darwin the husband, the naturalist and the tender father. She superbly creates poetry giving a voice to her famous ancestor and in the margins explains a period of his life described. A clever marrying of the thoughts and words of a great giant of a man. 141pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £1.50


23101 FIRST WORLD WAR


POETRY edited


by Marcus Clapham The First World War was one of seemingly endless and unremitting waste and sacrifice. ‘Who will remember passing through this Gate, The unheroic Dead who fed the guns?’ was Siegfreid Sassoon’s anguished cry for those whose sacrifice seemed futile. Yet 80 years later it is because of Sassoon and


his fellow poets - Owen, Rosenberg, Sorley and many others - that we do remember. This anthology will serve as an introduction to the poetry of that great conflict, and the inclusion of a number of rarely anthologised poets, many from the ranks, as well as anonymous poems and songs. Paperback, 140pp. ONLY £4


100415 MOONSTONE by Wilkie Collins The Moonstone, a priceless Indian diamond which had been broguht to England as spoils of war, is given to Rachel Verrinder on her 18th birthday. That very night, the stone is stolen. Suspicion then falls on a hunchbacked housemaid, an Rachel’s cousin Franklin Blake, on a troupe of mysterious Indian jugglers, and on Rachel herself. The phlegmatic Sergeant Cuff is called in, and with the help of Betteredge, the Robinson Crusoe-reading loquacious steward, the mystery of the missing stone is ingeniously solved. 448pp. ONLY £2


23783 COMPLETE FATHER BROWN


by G.K. Chesterton Father Brown, one of the most quirkily genial and lovable characters to emerge from English detective fiction, first made his appearance in The Innocence of Father Brown in 1911. That first collection of stories established G.K. Chesterton’s kindly cleric in the front rank of eccentric sleuths. This complete collection contains all the


favourite Father Brown stories, showing a quiet wit and compassion that has endeared him to many, whilst solving his mysteries by a mixture of imagination and a sympathetic worldliness in a totally believable manner. The Complete compenduim is 800pp. Paperback. ONLY £2


73064 ARGUABLY by Christopher Hitchens Christopher Hitchens died aged 62 on 15 December 2011. He railed against the left as much as the right, and he was consistent in his rejection of organised religion, his book God is Not Great selling 500,000 copies. This monster 788pp volume is a collection of his best articles written between 2000 and 2011 for publications such as the New Statesman, Vanity Fair, the TLS, the New York Times, The Atlantic and many others. In it he explores literary figures such as Dickens, Orwell, Larkin and Rebecca West. Politically his viewpoint is sharpened by a lifetime of travelling and reporting from places such as China, Iran and Pakistan and a deep immersion in the very midst of US politics. Defiant, witty, courageous and humble. £30 NOW £7


73330 A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SMILING WOMAN


by Margaret Drabble A beautifully turned collection of Margaret Drabble’s complete short stories, never before collected and have their own unique brilliance. They are perceptive, sharp and funny, exploring marriage, female friendships, the tourist abroad, love affairs with houses, peace demonstrations, gin and tonics.


Glimmering with lyricism and moral vision, this complements her many novels which have entertained us over the last 50 years. 227pp in paperback. $13.95 NOW £5


73221 DICKENS’S ENGLAND: An A-Z of the


Real and Imagined Locations by Tony Lynch This handsome, yellow, linen-bound volume is a fascinating A-Z tour that brings to life all those places which are associated with the life of Charles Dickens, over 200 entries in all. Here is Mr Pickwick’s Bath and London, Covent Garden where the young Dickens worked at Warrens blacking warehouse, watching the street children that provided inspiration for Oliver Twist and the boys of Fagin’s pickpocket gang, Marshalsea where his father John was imprisoned in the Debtors’ Prison, Nicholas Nickleby’s Yorkshire, the Kent of Great Expectations, the Monument, which appears in no fewer than three of his novels and the many places where Dickens lived and worked. Colour and b/w photos. Relevant quotes. 208pp. £14.99 NOW £5


74196 NEW WAYS TO KILL YOUR MOTHER by Colm Toibin


Subtitled ‘Writers and Their Families’ here is a book not just confined to the sibling artists of Heinrich (Thomas) Mann, Henry and William James, Virginia Woolfe and Vanessa Bell, W. B. Yeats and Jack Yeats, but also the importance of aunts and the death of parents in the English 19th century novel. Here is the relationship between fathers and sons and the connections between writers and their families all related with a rare tenderness and wit and with great joy of reading and rereading great works of literature. In his essay on ‘The Notebooks of Tennessee Williams’ Toibin reveals an artist ‘alone and deeply fearful and unusually selfish’ and one profoundly tormented by his sister’s mental illness. In Roddy Doyle’s writing on his parents we see an Ireland reinvented and John Cheever remarked ‘Educating an intellectual woman is like letting a rattlesnake into the house.’ Hugely insightful and enjoyable, 346pp in glamorous Penguin hardback. £20 NOW £5


Literature 25


74164 THE HOBBIT by J. R. R. Tolkien “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” The famous opening words of this children’s classic were idly scribbled in a moment of boredom as the author was marking exam papers. The tale begins when Bilbo is visited by the wizard Gandalf, who has summoned 13 dwarves to invade Bilbo’s house and invite him on their adventure. They are looking


for a Burglar to make the 14th member of the party, and as Gandalf says, if Bilbo is not yet a Burglar, he soon will be. The quest is to retrieve their rightful treasure from the lair of Smaug, the terrifying dragon, and after an attack by trolls they head deep into the valley of Rivendell, where Elrond chief of the Elves reads the runes for them. Tolkien’s own wonderful line drawings, 300pp.


£14.99 NOW £7


73302 THE BLANKET OF THE DARK by John Buchan


Paperback.


An anonymous young man’s life is about to be changed as could the course of history. It is 1536 and powerful men reveal to Peter Pentecost that it is he, and not the tyrannical Henry VIII, who should be on the throne of England. Can they persuade him to risk everything in a treasonable rebellion against the throne? In the hands of the master thriller writer John Buchan, the dark dangerous days of Tudor England come alive as never before. 268pp in paperback with an introduction by Robert Hutchinson. £7.99 NOW £3.50


73281 GREAT AGE OF THE ENGLISH ESSAY:


An Anthology edited by Denise Gigante By the mid-18th century, the essay had emerged as a premier literary form. Richard Steele’s Tatler gossips about current events and scandal, Joseph Addison’s Spectator observes real-life rogues and politicians, Samuel Johnson’s Rambler perambulates London, storing up thought for mental meanderings, and the romantic recluse Thomas de Quincey’s Opium Eater haunts the dark underworld of psychological obsession and physical addiction. From the oddities of virtuosos to the private lives of parrots and the fantastic horrors of opium dreams. 427 paperback pages with map of 18th century London, chronology. £18 NOW £4


73295 THE LINEUP


edited by Otto Penzler Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Colin Dexter, Anne Perry, Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith and some of today’s top mystery writers reveal the genesis of their unforgettable characters like Inspector Morse, Precious Ramotswe, John Rebus, Charlie Parker, Rambo et al. These are short stories tucked into the


biographies, interviews of the characters, revealing looks into the author’s lives and creative processes. 501pp in paperback.


£7.99 NOW £2.50 73282 GULLIVER’S TRAVELS: And Alexander


Pope’s Verses on Gulliver by Jonathan Swift


!


The entire unabridged text of Gulliver’s Travels, but also verses on Gulliver’s Travels by Alexander Pope. In the course of his extraordinary travels, Gulliver is captured by miniature people who wage war on each other because of a religious disagreement over how to crack eggs, is sexually assaulted by giants, visits a floating island, and decides that the society of horses is better than that of his fellow men. The author’s tough, filthy and incisive satire has much to say about the state of the world today. Voyage back to Lilliput and Brobdingnag again. 334 page paperback. £5.99 NOW £2.50


73288 NAÏVE AND THE SENTIMENTAL NOVELIST by Orhan Pamuk


The Nobel Prize winning novelist subtitled his study ‘Understanding What Happens When We Write and Read Novels’. Pamuk takes us into the worlds of the writer and the reader, revealing their intimate connections. Harking back to the novels of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Stendhal, Flaubert and Proust, he explores the oscillation between the naïve and the reflective and the search for equilibrium that lie at the centre of the novelist’s craft. Here he ponders the novel’s visual and sensual power, its ability to conjure landscapes, and considers the elements of character, plot, time and setting. 200pp in paperback.


£12.99 NOW £3


73310 JOHN BURNET OF BARNES by John Buchan


The turbulent ‘Killing Times’ of the Covenanters is the backdrop to a desperate struggle between lifelong rivals. John Burnet of Barns, the last of an ancient line of Border Reivers, returns home from abroad to find himself denounced as an agent of the Covenanters. Outlawed and deprived of his inheritance by his ruthless cousin, Captain Gilbert Burnet, John must now fight to survive. Buchan’s first full-length work of fiction is a tale of adventure in the tradition of R. L. Stevenson. With an introduction by Sir Tam Dalyell, 322pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £3


74280 THE ALTERATION by Kingsley Amis Hubert Anvil is a 10 year old boy blessed with the voice of an angel. The Church hierarchy decrees that Hubert should be turned into a castrato, an alteration that could bring Hubert fame and fortune, but would also cut him off from an adult world he is curious to discover. In a dystopian world where Martin Luther never reformed and where the Holy Office’s power is absolute, where will Hubert turn if he decides to defy their wishes? A coruscating tour de force first published in 1976 and here in Vintage Classics 2004 paperback reprint. 231pp. £8.99 NOW £2.75


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