24 Literature 74973 MARK TWAIN’S


MEDIEVAL ROMANCE edited by Otto Penzler Another fabulous collection of stories selected by the proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop, New York, this premier anthology includes tales from Ray Bradbury, Roald Dahl, Aldous Huxley, Frank Stockton, O. Henry and more. Here is Frank Stockton’s famous and unforgettable ‘The Lady, or the


Tiger?’ and which of the two brothers in Stanley Ellin’s ‘Unreasonable Doubt’ shoots a bullet square in the middle of their rich uncle’s forehead? Read the chilling tale that seals an escape artist inside an airless stone cell with a heavy wooden door. These devious, classic stories leave you, the reader, to determine how they each end. 301pp. £18.99 NOW £5


74756 TRAVEL & ADVENTURE: Short Stories by Great Writers


selected by Rosemary Gray


A Prodigal in Tahiti by Charles Warren Stoddard, Three Hours Between Planes by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Home Sickness by George Moore, A Journey to Panama by Anthony Trollope, The Adventure of Black Peter by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Beach at Falesa by R. L. Stevenson, (the longest story running to 75 small pages), The Journey to Bruges by Katherine Mansfield and The Belated Russian Passport by Mark Twain are among the great literary giants chosen. 320 pages. £6.99 NOW £3.50


74986 RICHARD LEDERER’S CLASSIC


LITERARY TRIVIA by Richard Lederer Grouped into three: The Bible, Mythology and Shakespeare. Good words from the good book, holy Moses, test your mythology IQ, mythic headlines, and the world of Shakespeare, living Will, bomb-Bard-ment, a man of many titles and not a passing phrase. All for one, one for all, to the manor born, more in sorrow than in anger, cudgel thy brains to complete the expressions that first saw the light in the other plays of William Shakespeare. Full of games, facts, riddles and jokes. 112pp in paperback, illus. £4.99 NOW £2.50


75055 THE HUNDRED DAYS by Joseph Roth


By the author of ‘The Antichrist’ and ‘The Radetzky March’ this is Roth’s story of Bonaparte’s last snatch at glory. It is framed both through the eyes of Bonaparte himself and those of his long- infatuated Corsican laundress, Angelina, with rather more said by her about the Emperor’s dirty handkerchiefs than the Duke of


Wellington. The novel provides an arch and moving look at Napoleon’s seemingly triumphant return to Paris from exile in March 1815. Before one hundred days have elapsed however, fate and war have squashed his ambitions and shattered the life of his laundress. 219pp, paperback.


£9.99 NOW £5


74933 AS I WALKED OUT ONE MIDSUMMER MORNING by Laurie Lee


Laurie Lee’s sequel to Cider with Rosie is written with the excitement and wonder of a 20 year old, but infused with the wisdom of a young adult evoking the ambiance and tension of Europe on the eve of the Second World War. 1936 was the end of innocence and Lee innocently but inexorably becomes entangled in the passionate, violent and bloody struggle that was the Spanish Civil War. We travel with him from London into Spain, to Valladolid, Segovia, Madrid, Toledo, east to Málaga and to Almuñécar and on into war. 200 page paperback reprint of the 1969 original text. Map. $15.95 NOW £6


75001 DALKEY ARCHIVE by Flann O’Brien


James Joyce turns up alive and well, serving drinks in an Irish pub and claiming that Ulysses was only a practical joke. St. Augustine is interrogated in an underwater cave where he announces: ‘I was a man that was very easily sunburnt.’ Though a mad scientist named De Selby is bent on destroying the human race, Mick and Hackett, the only men who can save us, are too


preoccupied with the lovely Mary to concentrate on foiling him. Deriding and skewering everyone - scientists, philosophers, writers, drunkards, and priests to name only a few. Flann O’Brien’s last novel is both sublime and ridiculous. A story of metaphysical chaos. 204pp in facsimile reprinted paperback of the 1964 original.


$12.95 NOW £3.50


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


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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


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


74506 NO WAY BACK by Theodor Fontane


Set in Copenhagen and Schleswig- Holstein on the eve of the Prussian takeover of the territory in 1864, affable but unsophisticated Count Holk of an ancient family is inspired by a romantic ballad to leave the modest but comfortable ancestral Schloss where he and his wife Christine have spent an idyllic early married life. He plans to build a


new, architecturally ambitious castle by the sea, yet is unaware how the ballad ends. As a gentleman-in- waiting to a Danish royal princess, he is summoned to a six month spell of duty in Copenhagen where the rural Count falls into beguiling company, and his life begins to spiral out of control. 256pp. Paperback. £11.95 NOW £2


23980 TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE by Charles and Mary Lamb


All of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays, comic and tragic, are retold in a clear and robust style, and their literary quality has made them popular and sought-after ever since their first publication in 1807. With delightful pen- and-ink drawings of Arthur Rackham. 320pp. Paperback. ONLY £2


27116 THREE SEA STORIES by Joseph Conrad As these three specially commissioned stories amply demonstrate, Conrad is our greatest maritime writer. In Typhoon, Conrad’s funniest story, Captain MacWhirr blunders into a hurricane that reveals the sea’s treachery, violence and terror. Falk is desperate to get married, but first he must tell of his terrible experiences as sole survivor of a stricken ship that once drifted into the ice-caps of Antarctica. The Shadow-Line is based on Conrad’s fond evocation of his own first-command, and expresses his solidarity with all who were obliged to cross in early youth the shadow-line of their war-torn generation. Paperback. ONLY £2


33870 MARLOWE: The Plays by Christopher Marlowe


If Shakespeare had died at the age Marlowe died, there would have been no question that Marlowe would have been the leading figure in English Renaissance drama. This edition of all his plays shows why. The plays give us a clear picture of Marlowe as a radical theatrical poet of great linguistic and dramatic daring, whose characters constantly strive to break out of the social, religious, and rhetorical bonds within which they are confined. Accused during his lifetime of blasphemy and homosexuality, Marlowe still has the power to challenge our assumptions about conventional morality through his innovative theatricality. By placing less known plays such as The Massacre at Paris and Dido Queen of Carthage alongside the acknowledged masterpieces Edward II and Dr Faustus, this edition gives a full picture of Marlowe’s distinctive and provocative talent. 546pp. Paperback. ONLY £4


73884 PRINTING PLACES: Locations of Book Production and Distribution Since 1500


Paperback.


23800 DIARY OF A NOBODY by George and Weedon Grossmith The diary is that of a man who acknowledges that he is not a “Somebody” - Charles Pooter of ‘The Laurels’, Brickfield Terrace, Holloway, a clerk in the city of London - and it chronicles in hilarious detail the everyday life of the lower middle class during the Great Victorian age. 224pp. Paperback. ONLY £2


edited by John Hinks and Catherine Armstrong In addition to its broad scope, this unexpectedly absorbing book also benefits from contributions which range widely over the centuries. Its medieval interest is supplied by Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, printed shortly before the Reformation. Then there is a chapter on the production and distribution of literature designed to enlighten readers in early modern England about the ‘New World’ for, as research has time and time again revealed, the book trade has played a leading role in the spread of new ideas, particularly to America. Norwich is highlighted in an article on publishing in the turbulent 17th century, when new religious and political thought was rapidly spreading. In an entertaining paper, the late 18th century periodical press of Edinburgh is discussed, and readers will be amused by an essay on medical advertising - with its often exaggerated claims - which was rife between 1855 and 1906. These are but a few examples of the 15 articles which, together, throw light on a fascinating and vital trade through the ages. 208 pages illustrated in b/w with chapter notes. $45 NOW £6.50


73939 CHARLES DICKENS by Michael Slater


We celebrated the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’s birth in 2012. The main focus of this magisterial biography is on Dickens’s career as writer and editor, involving not only the novels but his enormous output of other writings - letters, journalism, shorter fiction, essays, satirical verses, writings for children, travel books and so on, as well as


the celebrated after-dinner speeches and a script prepared for his readings. The book illuminates the context of each of the great novels while locating the life of the author within the imagination and the concerns that created them. It highlights his boundless energy, fascination with disorder, organisational genius, the ruling classes’ indifference towards the plight of the poor, his love of fairy tales and of the theatre as great nourishers of the human imagination, and his hatred of tyranny. Many unfamiliar images and 32 pages of plates. 696pp. £28 NOW £9


53185 CASEBOOK OF CARNACKI - GHOST FINDER by W. H. Hodgson


Thomas Carnacki is a ghost finder, an Edwardian psychic detective, investigating a wide range of terrifying hauntings presented in the nine stories in this complete collection of his adventures. Encountering such spine-chilling phenomena as ‘The Whistling Room’, the life-threatening dangers of the phantom steed in ‘The Horse of the Invisible’ and the demons from the outside world in ‘The Hog’, Carnacki is constantly challenged by spiritual forces beyond our knowledge. Armed with a camera, his Electric Pentacle and various ancient tomes on magic, Carnacki faces the various dangers his supernatural investigations present with great courage. 192 page paperback. ONLY £3


68844 RAGGED TROUSERED PHILANTHROPISTS


by Robert Tressell A classic representation of the impoverished and politically powerless underclass of British society in Edwardian England, ruthlessly exploited by the institutionalized corruption of their employers and the civic and religious authorities. Epic in scale, the novel charts the ruinous effects


of the laissez-faire mercantilist ethics on the men, women, and children of the working classes, and through its emblematic characters, argues for a socialist politics as the only hope for a civilized and humane life for all. Foreword by Tony Benn. Paperback, 619pp. ONLY £2


59995 TOM SAWYER ABROAD AND TOM SAWYER DETECTIVE by Mark Twain


With a new introduction and notes by Stuart Hutchinson, those clever chaps at Wordsworth have thought of putting the two classic books together in one 188 page paperback with all original delicate woodcuts. Following on from ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ (1876) and ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ (1884-5), ‘Tom Sawyer Abroad’ (1894) became one of Mark Twain’s most popular books. Again we meet his world famous characters, Tom Sawyer, ‘Nigger Jim’, and Huck Finn, together now on a fantastical balloon journey across the Atlantic to meet lions and Bedouins in the Sahara and retrace something of Twain’s own expedition to the Holy Land in his bestselling ‘The Innocents Abroad’ (1869). In ‘Tom Sawyer Detective’ (1896), Twain returns us the banks of the Mississippi and a murder mystery involving identical twins and stolen diamonds. ONLY £2


73874 LEIGH HUNT’S LONDON JOURNAL by Leigh Hunt


Published by Henry Hooper of Pall Mall in 1838, we have a USA first edition facsimile reprint 1967 by AMS Press of New York. James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784- 1859) was a critic, essayist, poet and writer and both Keats and Shelley belonged to the circle gathered around him at Hampstead. One of Hunt’s most popular poems is ‘Jenny Kissed Me’. After leaving the War Office in 1808 he became editor of the Examiner, a newspaper founded by his brother John. In 1810-1811 he edited a quarterly magazine the Reflector. In 1816 he made a mark in English literature with the publication of Story of Rimini but his flippancy and familiarity subsequently made him a target for ridicule and parody. The poet Shelley generously saved him from ruin but ill health obliged him to discontinue the Indicator. Shelley suggested that Hunt go to Italy with him and Byron to establish a quarterly magazine. He left for Italy in November 1821 but storm, sickness and misadventure retarded his arrival until 1822. The death of Shelley a few weeks later destroyed every prospect for success of the Liberal. For many years afterwards the history of Hunt’s life is a painful struggle with poverty and sickness. Two journalistic ventures, the Tatler (1830- 1832), a daily devoted to literary and dramatic criticism, and Leigh Hunt’s London Journal (1834-35) were discontinued for want of discerning high-brow subscribers, although the latter contained some of his best writing. It is this very journal that we have in its entirety beginning with Volume One from Wednesday April 2nd to Tuesday December 30th, 1934. The masses of fantastic articles have such titles as A Masonic Extortion, Female Convicts, A Haunted House, Personal Anecdotes of Burns, Memoir of Goethe, Anecdote of a Highwayman, Anthony’s Speech Over Caesar, A Good Hint for Dancers, The Village Ale House, Castle- Building, Hints for Table Talk, The Song of the Cat, Lancashire Witches and more. The strap line of the London Journal was ‘To assist the enquiring, animate the struggling, and sympathise with all.’ Reproduced here in facsimile over three columns in fairly small print with all original headlines and advertising. 460pp, 9" x 13", no dust jacket.


$95 NOW £8.50 72384 LADY SUSAN AND


OTHER WORKS by Jane Austen


This collection brings together Jane Austen’s earliest experiments in the art of fiction and novels that she left incomplete at the time of her premature death in 1817. Lady Susan is a wickedly funny epistolary novel about a captivating but unscrupulous widow seeking to snare husbands for her daughter and herself. The Watsons explores


themes of family relationships, the marriage market, and attitudes to rank, which became the hallmarks of her major novels. In Sanditon, Austen exercises her acute powers of social observation in the setting of a newly fashionable seaside resort. Plus works like Catharine, Love and Freindship [sic], and The History of England. Paperback, 359pp. ONLY £1.50


62725 A TO Z OF ENGLISH LITERATURE by David Rothwell


David Rothwell’s book is an idiosyncratic and light- hearted review of all that is great (and not so great) about the major figures of English Literature, and provides lucid and entertaining explanations of every literary form and technique. Free of pointless biographical detail, it concentrates on providing examples of prose and poetry that help to understand the essence of the work. With their total lack of any pretence of neutrality, you may not always agree but you can hardly fail to be informed and entertained by his views. 384pp, paperback. ONLY £4


73885 THE PYRAMID


by William Golding Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, this is Golding’s funniest and most light-hearted novel. It probes the painful awkwardness of the late teens, the tragedy and farce of life in a small community and the consoling power of music. Oliver is eighteen and wants to enjoy himself before going to university. But this is the 1920s, and he lives in Stilbourne, a


small English country town, where everyone knows what everyone else is getting up to and where love, lust and rebellion are closely followed by revenge and embarrassment. 217pp, paperback reprint of the 1967 original.


£7.99 NOW £5


65528 COMPLETE MAPP & LUCIA: Volume One by E. F. Benson


In Lucia in London, the prudish, manically ambitious Lucia launches herself into the louche world of London society. A perfect comic vehicle for Benson’s free-wheeling satire of salon societ, and of the dominant fads and movements of the 1920s, including vegetarianism, yoga, palmistry, Freudianism, séances, Post-Impressionist art and Christian Science. Includes Queen Lucia, Miss Mapp and Lucia in London. 632 page paperback. ONLY £2


65529 COMPLETE MAPP & LUCIA: Volume Two by E. F. Benson


These three wonderful comic novels, Mapp and Lucia, Lucia’s Progress and Trouble for Lucia, drolly record the battle between Lucia and Elisabeth Mapp for social and cultural supremacy in the village of Tilling (based on Rye). Their constant skirmishes ensure that every game of bridge, tea or dinner-party, church service, council meeting or art-exhibition are thrilling encounters that ensure Tilling is always on ‘a very agreeable rack of suspense’. Concentrates on the novels’ disturbing, bitchy, ‘camp’ humour whenever ‘that horrid thing which Freud calls sex is raised’. 665 page paperback. ONLY £2


68846 THE COMPLETE FOUR JUST MEN by Edgar Wallace


The complete adventures of Edgar Wallace’s daring and ingenious vigilantes. This fascinating bumper collection contains all six volumes of the Just Men saga: The Four Just Men, The Council of Justice, The Just Men of Cordova, The Law of The Four Just Men, The Three Just Men and Again the Three. In these thrilling yarns of daring do, mystery and international intrigue, the Just Men tackle wrongdoers of all kinds from criminal masterminds and desperate anarchists to cunning murderers and obsessive madmen. Where Scotland Yard fails - they succeed. Blends suspense, humour and action. 936 page paperback. ONLY £3


71178 MATHILDA AND OTHER STORIES by Mary Shelley


Mathilda is Mary Shelley’s haunting story of an incestuous and fatal love. The narrative traces the teenaged Mathilda’s reunion with her unnamed father, and the development of their obsessive bond that culminates in suicide. Shelley’s own father, William Godwin, was so disturbed after reading the manuscript that he refused to return it to her and it remained unpublished for over one hundred years. Shelley’s violent and terrifying short stories share Mathilda’s fixation with feminist concerns and Gothic conventions. The murderous plots and sinister settings of these later stories reveal Shelley’s ongoing preoccupation with the supernatural, transformation, and untamed nature. Paperback, 422 pages. ONLY £2


73727 THE WELL OF LONELINESS by Radclyffe Hall


Stephen is an ideal child of aristocratic parents - a fencer, a horse rider and a keen scholar. Stephen grows to be a war hero, a bestselling writer and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. As her ambitions drive her, and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions. The Well of Loneliness was banned for obscenity when published in 1928. It became an international bestseller, and for


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