Essays

An epistemological diptych.Plato, the great philosopher of Athens, was born in 427 BC. In early manhood an admirer of Socrates, he later founded the famous school of philosophy in the grove Academus. Much else recorded of his life is uncertain; that...

This authoritative edition was formerly published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Wilde's poetry and prose short stories, plays, critical dialogues and his...

__________________THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERStop searching for the answers - and start delighting in the questions with Pandora Sykes, co-host of The High Low podcast.'Deliciously fascinating' MARIAN KEYES'Refreshing ... thoughtful, considered'...

*Shortlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay*Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 by the Financial Times, Guardian, New Statesman, Observer, The Millions and Emerald Street'Flaneuse [flanne-euhze], noun, from the French...

These lectures were delivered by Seamus Heaney while he was Professor of Poetry at Oxford University. In the first of them, Heaney discusses and celebrates poetry's special ability to redress spiritual balance and to function as a counterweight to...

Thought-provoking and lyrical, The Notebook records the last year in the life of Jose Saramago. In these pages, beginning on the eve of the 2008 US presidential election, he evokes life in his beloved city of Lisbon, revisits conversations with friends,...

This selection brings together the best prose writings of the great early nineteenth-century essayist Charles Lamb, whose shrewd wit and convivial style have endeared him to generations of readers. These pieces include early discussions of Hogarth and...

A WATERSTONES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH In this love letter to reading, curated by Pandora Sykes in aid of the National Literacy Trust, bestselling and beloved writers share their favourite books: the ones they hold most dearly, that they return...

In her latest work, Annie Ernaux recounts a relationship with a student thirty years her junior - an experience that transforms her, briefly, back into the 'scandalous girl' of her youth. When she is with him, she replays scenes she has already lived...

'Gaiman is god in the universe of story' Stephen Fry 'A perfect antidote to cynicism and a paean to the power of reading' Observer--- 'Literature does not occur in a vacuum. It cannot be a monologue. It has to be a conversation' This collection will draw...

Imagine a type of writing so hard to define its very name means a trial, effort or attempt. An ancient form with an eye on the future, a genre poised between tradition and experiment. The essay wants above all to wander, but also to arrive at symmetry...

_______________ 'A passionate love letter to language and to Italy ... a bold and quirkily engaging self-portrait' - Lee Langley, Spectator 'A writer of uncommon elegance and poise' - New York Times 'A fascinating account of her linguistic...

'Better mad with the crowd than sane all alone'In these witty, Machiavellian aphorisms, unlikely Spanish priest Baltasar Gracian shows us how to exploit friends and enemies alike to thrive in a world of deception and illusion.Introducing Little Black...

Maurice O'Sullivan was born on the Great Blasket in 1904, and 'Twenty Years A-Growing' tells the story of his youth and of a way of life which belonged to the Middle Ages. He wrote for his own pleasure and for the entertainment of his friends, without...

**SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020** From renowned, Pulitzer Prize-winning literary critic, Michiko Kakutani, comes an inspiring and gorgeously illustrated selection of the life-changing...

This comprehensive guide to writing creative fiction collects the lectures of the Pulitzer Prize winning author, Robert Olen Butler, transcribed and edited by Janet Burroway, the author of the classic text on creative writing, "Writing Fiction". "From...

'Evocative . . . poignant . . . acute and funny' Observer'The Revival of the Great Lucia Berlin Continues Apace' New York TimesBest known for her short fiction, it was upon publication of A Manual for Cleaning Women in 2015 that Lucia Berlin's status as...

'A good essay must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in, not out.' According to Virginia Woolf, the goal of the essay 'is simply that it should give pleasure...It should lay us under a spell with its first word, and we...

Written in the third century BC in Alexandria, this is the only full surviving account of Jason's legendary quest for the Golden Fleece. It describes the thrilling adventures of the Argonauts on their voyage to Colchis to plead with king Aeetes for the...

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR CRITICISM 2019From the MAN BOOKER PRIZE- and WOMEN'S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED author of Changing My Mind and Swing Time - discover a second unmissable collection of essays from Zadie Smith'Generous,...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781635572520Author Melissa FebosFormat HardbackPage Count 336Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing USAPublisher Bloomsbury Publishing USAWeight(grams) 488g

What does it mean to imagine Wales and 'The Welsh' as something both distinct and inclusive? In Welsh (Plural), some of the foremost Welsh writers consider the future of Wales and their place in it. For many people, Wales brings to mind the same old...

'Sacks is rightly renowned for his empathy . . . anyone with a taste for the exotic will find this beautifully written book highly engaging' - Sunday Times Always fascinated by islands, Oliver Sacks is drawn to the Pacific by reports of the tiny atoll of...

This ground-breaking anthology features the compelling and courageous memoirs of eighteen queer Arab writers - some internationally bestselling, others using pseudonyms. heart-warming connections and moments of celebration sit alongside essays exploring...

Then they took the flowers of the oak, and the flowers of the broom, and the flowers of the meadowsweet, and from those they conjured up the fairest and most beautiful maiden that anyone had ever seen. Celtic mythology, Arthurian romance, and an...

For the great Roman orator and statesman Cicero, 'the good life' was at once a life of contentment and one of moral virtue - and the two were inescapably intertwined. This volume brings together a wide range of his reflections upon the importance of...

A memoir of land, family and perseverance from one of the most influential writers in America. In this moving and surprising book, Joan Didion reassesses parts of her life, her work, her history - and America's. Where I Was From, in Didion's...

Britain in the early eighteenth century: an introduction that is both informative and imaginative, reliable and entertaining. To the tradition of travel writing Daniel Defoe brings a lifetime's experience as a businessman, soldier, economic journalist...

Following on from the success of Men Explain Things to Me comes a new collection of essays in which Rebecca Solnit opens up a feminism for all of us: one that doesn't stigmatize women's lives, whether they include spouses and children or not; that brings...

This volume in the 21st-Century Oxford Authors series offers students an authoritative, comprehensive selection of the work of Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859). The edition presents De Quincey's work in all of its rich variety, and offers the most thorough...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780451531865Author Ralph Waldo EmersonFormat PaperbackPage Count 576Imprint Signet ClassicsPublisher Penguin Putnam IncWeight(grams) 267g

From the author of THE COLOR PURPLE, a unique collection of essays about her life and her activism'The passion of lyricism that Alice Walker put to such good use in her novel The Color Purple is here in this collection of essays' Fay Weldon, Mail on...

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER - A SUNDAY TIMES FILM & TV BOOK OF THE YEAR'Razor-sharp and as funny as I May Destroy You ... A gifted writer' Sunday Times | 'A remarkable talent' Guardian | 'A perfect truth-teller of our time' ELLE | 'Leaps off the...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781250121028Author Scaachi KoulFormat PaperbackPage Count 256Imprint Picador USAPublisher Picador USAWeight(grams) 204gDimensions(mm) 208mm * 137mm * 20mm

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781911547273Author M. F. K. FisherFormat PaperbackPage Count 112Imprint Daunt BooksPublisher Daunt Books

One of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, Schopenhauer (1788-1860) believed that human action is determined not by reason but by 'will' - the blind and irrational desire for physical existence. This selection of his writings on...

A timeless treatise on the unique power of human emotion, Stendhal's Love is translated by Gilbert and Suzanne Sale with an introduction by Jean Stewart and B.C.J.G. Knight in Penguin Classics.In 1818, when he was in his mid-thirties, Stendhal met and...

'Mary Gaitskill is willing to think about the problematic with complexity and humanity, and without taking sides or engaging in all the fashionable moral hectoring that passes for serious thought these days.' Eimear McBride Nuanced, daring and tender,...

'Do you know it, do you remember it, the drives, the attitudes, the terrors and, yes, the joys?' Thus Steinbeck introduces his collection of poignant and hard-hitting dispatches for the New York Herald Tribune when the Second World War was at its height...

This collection of Vonnegut's letters is the autobiography he never wrote - from the letter he posted home upon being freed from a German POW camp, to notes of advice to his children: 'Don't let anybody tell you that smoking and boozing are bad for you...