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- Presents the most important 20th-century criticism on major works from "The Odyssey through modern literature- The critical essays reflect a variety of schools of criticism- Contains critical biographies, notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index- Introductory essay by Harold Bloom

The definitive biography of George VI, the hero of The King's Speech George VI reigned through taxing times. Acceding to the throne upon his brother's abdication, he was immediately confronted with the turmoil in European politics leading up to the Second World War, then the War itself, followed by a period of austerity, social transformation and loss of Empire. George was unprepared for kingship, suffering from a stammer which could make public occasions very painful for him. Moreover he had grown up in the shadow of his brother, a man who had been idolized as no royal prince has been, before or since. However, as Sarah Bradford shows in this sympathetic biography, although George was not born to be king, he died a great one. 'A triumph ... Sarah Bradford looks set to inherit Lady Longford's mantle as royal biographer supreme' Mail on Sunday 'Lucid, convincing and admirably fair ... George VI has been fortunate in his biographer' Philip Ziegler 'Vivid, thorough and enjoyable' Independent Sarah Bradford is a historian and biographer. Her books include Cesare Borgia (1976), Disraeli (1982), winner of the New York Times Book of the Year, Princess Grace (1984), Sacherevell Sitwell (1993), Elizabeth: A Biography of Her Majesty the Queen (1996), America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (2000), Lucrezia Borgia (2005) and Diana (2007).She lives in London and is married to the 8th Viscount Bangor. She is currently working on a full scale biography of Queen Victoria.

With a preface written by the author especially for this edition, this is the complete collection of stories by Eudora Welty.Including the earlier collections A Curtain of Green, The Wide Net, The Golden Apples, and The Bride of the Innisfallen, as well as previously uncollected ones, these forty-one stories demonstrate Eudora Welty's talent for writing from diverse points-of-view with “vision that is sweet by nature, always humanizing, uncannily objective, but never angry” (Washington Post).

An abused child, yet confident of her destiny to reign, a woman in a man's world, passionately sexual—though, as she maintained, a virgin—Elizabeth I is famed as England's most successful ruler. David Starkey's brilliant new biography concentrates on Elizabeth's formative years—from her birth in 1533 to her accession in 1558—and shows how the experiences of danger and adventure formed her remarkable character and shaped her opinions and beliefs.From princess and heir-apparent to bastardized and disinherited royal, accused traitor to head of the princely household, Elizabeth experienced every vicissitude of fortune and extreme of condition—and rose above it all to reign during a watershed moment in history. A uniquely absorbing tale of one young woman's turbulent, courageous, and seemingly impossible journey toward the throne, Elizabeth is the exhilarating story of the making of a queen.

The three novels which make up The Forsyte Saga chronicle the ebbing social power of the commercial upper-middle class Forsyte family between 1886 and 1920. Galsworthy's masterly narrative examines not only their fortunes but also the wider developments within society, particularly the changing position of women. This is the only critical edition of the work available, with Notes that explain contemporary artistic and literary allusions and define the slang of the time.

The Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde is the only truly complete and authoritative single-volume edition of Oscar Wilde’s works, and is available in both paperback and this hardback edition.Continuously in print since 1948, the Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde has long been recognised as the most comprehensive and authoritative single-volume collection of Wilde’s texts available, containing his only novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, as well as his plays, stories, poems, essays and letters, all in their most authoritative texts.Illustrated with many fascinating photographs, the book includes introductions to each section by Merlin Holland (Oscar’s grandson), Owen Dudley Edwards, Declan Kiberd and Terence Brown.Also included is a comprehensive bibliography of works by and about Oscar Wilde, and a chronological table of his life and work.

For the first time in decades, here, in a single volume, is a fresh look at the fabled Tudor dynasty, comprising some of the most enigmatic figures ever to rule a country. Acclaimed historian G. J. Meyer reveals the flesh-and-bone reality in all its wild excess. In 1485, young Henry Tudor, whose claim to the throne was so weak as to be almost laughable, crossed the English Channel from France at the head of a ragtag little army and took the crown from the family that had ruled England for almost four hundred years. Half a century later his son, Henry VIII, desperate to rid himself of his first wife in order to marry a second, launched a reign of terror aimed at taking powers no previous monarch had even dreamed of possessing. In the process he plunged his kingdom into generations of division and disorder, creating a legacy of blood and betrayal that would blight the lives of his children and the destiny of his country. The boy king Edward VI, a fervent believer in reforming the English church, died before bringing to fruition his dream of a second English Reformation. Mary I, the disgraced daughter of Catherine of Aragon, tried and failed to reestablish the Catholic Church and produce an heir. And finally came Elizabeth I, who devoted her life to creating an image of herself as Gloriana the Virgin Queen but, behind that mask, sacrificed all chance of personal happiness in order to survive.    The Tudorsweaves together all the sinners and saints, the tragedies and triumphs, the high dreams and dark crimes, that reveal the Tudor era to be, in its enthralling, notorious truth, as momentous and as fascinating as the fictions audiences have come to love.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER THE TIMES and SUNDAY TIMES BEST MEMOIR OF 2024 ... 'GENIUS' A BOOK OF THE YEAR for the SPECTATOR, MAIL ON SUNDAY, NEW STATESMAN, FINANCIAL TIMES, INDEPENDENT, TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY EXPRESS and THE TABLET. From one of the funniest writers of our time, the award-winning author of One Two Three Four and Ma'am Darling turns his attention to Queen Elizabeth II in an unforgettable and fascinating biography. 'A crown jewel among royal biographies' OBSERVER 'Extraordinarily original, enlightening and fresh' SPECTATOR 'Absolutely fascinating' Ruth Langsford, LOOSE WOMEN 'A very unusual masterpiece' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Brilliantly funny and well-researched' FINANCIAL TIMES Virginia Woolf compared her to a caterpillar; Anne Frank kept pictures of her on the wall of her annex; Jimi Hendrix played her tune; Haile Selassie gave her a gold tiara; Dirk Bogarde watched Death in Venice with her; Andy Warhol envied her fame; Donald Trump offended her; E.M. Forster confessed he would have married her, if only she had been a boy. Queen Elizabeth II was famous for longer than anyone who has ever lived. When people spoke of her, they spoke of themselves; when they dreamed of her, they dreamed of themselves. She mirrored their hopes and anxieties. To the optimist, she seemed an optimist; to the pessimist, a pessimist; to the awestruck, charismatic; and to the cynical, humdrum. Though by nature reserved and unassuming, her presence could fill presidents and rock gods with terror. For close to a century, she inhabited the psyche of a nation. Combining biography, essays, cultural history, dream diaries, travelogue and satire, the bestselling and award-winning author of Ma'am Darling and One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of this most public yet private of sovereigns. - 'An unconventional tribute that offers a snapshot of almost a century of social history with a mix of royal insanity, and superior anecdotes, from farts and corgis to Paul McCartney and poets laureate' THE TIMES and SUNDAY TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2024 'An enthralling reverie on memory, identity, coincidence and meaning - testing, teasing, charming, moving and deceptively wise' RORY STEWART 'An entertaining and revealing digest ... fascinating ... Craig Brown has captured something essential about Britain's curious relationship with royalty' TLS 'Completely and utterly brilliant and exquisitely funny and fascinating. This book is, dare I say, majestic. Craig Brown has no peers - I would curtsey to him if I met him' MARINA HYDE 'Wonderfully readable ... At once sympathetic but clear-eyed, kind but sharp' NEW STATESMAN 'Brown is as sharp and dryly funny as his subject' EVENING STANDARD 'You wouldn't think the world needed another book about Queen Elizabeth - but how wrong you'd be. Craig Brown's wholly original and enthralling biography is absolute heaven from start to finish' INDIA KNIGHT 'Craig Brown continues to reinvent the art of biography... utterly fascinating' JASON COWLEY Craig Brown's book One Two Three Four won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction in 2020.

The most successful British television drama of our time, the multi-award-winning Downton Abbey has become a national phenomenon in the U.S. as well. Created by Julian Fellowes—who received an Academy Award for his screenplay for the acclaimed Robert Altman motion picture, Gosford Park—Downton Abbey features stellar performances, ravishing sets and costumes, and, most importantly, absolutely riveting plots. Now the scripts for the entire first season have been collected in one volume, along with never before seen material, incisive commentary, and color photos that will completely immerse fans in the world of Downton Abbey.

"When King Charles came home from Scotland in the autumn of 1641, London was bright with hangings and the fountains ran wine..."With these words C V Wedgwood begins the second volume of her history of the Great Rebellion which carries the story from 1641 to 1647, from the Parliamentary passage of the Grand Remonstrance to the dramatic moment when the Scots surrendered the captive King Charles to the English.These were the years when the great battles of Marston Moor and Naseby were fought; when Prince Rupert emerged as the King's chief general; and Montrose conducted his brilliant but forlorn Scottish campaign. On the Parliamentary side the death of Pym was followed by the rise of Cromwell, both in Parliament and in the field. The New Model Army, which won the war for Parliament, was largely his creation. It was not merely an army but a new social force in English life.By the end of this volume, the Royalist cause had suffered a political and military defeat from which it could not recover. As the centre of power moved from King to Parliament; so it moved within Parliament itself to groups led by Cromwell, and at all times, the course of the struggle was profoundly influenced by events in Scotland and Ireland.Miss Wedgwood depicts this violent welter of military, political and religous developments with clarity, humour and sympathy; at the same time she communicates the tension and uncertainty, the texture of day-to-day life in a country at war with vivid and unforgettable immediacy.