Literary Figures

A dazzling biography of two interwoven, tragic lives: John Keats and F. Scott Fitzgerald. 'Highly engaging ... Go now, read this book' THE TIMES 'For awhile after you quit Keats,' Fitzgerald once wrote,...

From the author of the definitive biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky, never-before-published lectures that provide an accessible introduction to the Russian writer's major worksJoseph Frank (1918-2013) was perhaps the most important Dostoevsky biographer,...

Hunter Davies is one of the most respected writers in the country. THE GLORY GAME is a footballing classic still in print some 30 years since its original publication but Hunter is also a successful novelist and distinguished biographer, whose subjects...

This book is an intimate, fond and funny memoir of one of the greatest novelists of the last century. This colourful, personal, anecdotal, indiscreet and admiring memoir charts the course of Muriel Spark's life revealing her as she really was. Once, she...

In Reading Chekhov Janet Malcolm takes on three roles: literary critic, biographer and journalist. Her close readings of Chekhov's stories and plays are interwoven with episodes from his life and framed by an account of a recent journey she made to St...

** WINNER OF THE L.A. TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY **'Exhilarating.' Joyce Carol Oates, Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year'Sharp-eyed and revealing.' The New Yorker'Brilliant . . . Remarkable.' New York Journal of BooksStephen Crane produced...

James Joyce is one of the greatest writers in English. His first book, A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man laid down the template for the Coming of Age novel, while his collection of short stories, Dubliners, is of perennial interest. His great...

* * 'Very funny and astute . . . a loathly feast for royal-watchers' Hilary Mantel, New Statesman Books of the Year 2018'Almost every page is a gem'A. N. Wilson, Spectator Christmas Books'A complete delight, conjuring up, with a few sharp strokes of the...

Numerous books have attempted to chronicle the life of Dante Alighieri, yet essential questions remain unanswered. How did this self-taught Florentine become the celebrated author of the Divine Comedy? Was his exile from Florence so extraordinary? How...

WINNER OF THE SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD NBCC AWARD FINALIST WINNER OF THE 2017 SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in The Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Financial Times, Spectator and ObserverAngela...

'I have put my genius into my life but only my talent into my work'. So said Oscar Wilde of his remarkable life - a life more complex, more erotic, more troubled and more triumphant than any of his contemporaries ever knew or suspected. Neil McKenna's...

'I have put my genius into my life but only my talent into my work'. So said Oscar Wilde of his remarkable life - a life more complex, more erotic, more troubled and more triumphant than any of his contemporaries ever knew or suspected. Neil McKenna's...

The long awaited sequel to the beloved and bestselling 'The Liars' Club' and 'Cherry' - a memoir about a self-professed 'blackbelt sinner's' descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness, and her astonishing resurrection. 'If you'd told...

The fascinating and quirky biography of a disheveled poet, skillfully interwoven with his original works.Zen monk Santoka Taneda (1882-1940) is one of Japan's most beloved modern poets, famous for his "free-verse" haiku, the dominant style today. This...

Cynthia Griffin Wolff's brilliant literary biography of Emily Dickinson is the first to unravel the intricate relationship between her life and her poetry. It is a vivid portrait of the poet and her times as well as a fascinating interpretive study of...

As the nephew of Virginia Woolf, Quentin Bell enjoyed an initimacy with his subject granted to few biographers. Originally published in two volumes in 1972, his acclaimed biography describes Virginia Woolf's family and childhood; her earliest writings;...

'A huge, fizzing omnium-gatherum of a book . . . marvellous' Daily Telegraph'Witty, wise and elegant . . . a classic of history itself' The Spectator'Grave and witty, suave yet pointed . . . full of energy' Hilary Mantel'An enthralling investigation . . ...

'I wish you a Merry Xmas but no compliments of the season' - Jane AustenChristmas comes up time and time again in Jane Austen's books, from childish chaos in Persuasion to fraught festivities in Northanger Abbey. Join Christmas historian Maria Hubert on...

Winner of the 1989 Whitbread Prize for Book of the Year, this is the first volume of Holmes's seminal two-part examination of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of Britain's greatest poets. 'Coleridge: Early Visions' is the first part of Holmes's...

An essay with the reach and momentum of a novel, Kate Briggs's This Little Art is a genre-bending song for the practice of literary translation, offering fresh, fierce and timely thinking on reading, writing and living with the works of others. Taking...

A unique, colorful view of Victorian London when residents both famous and now-forgotten endured "the Great Stink" across one hot summer While 1858 in London may have been noteworthy for its broiling summer months and the related stench of the...

George Orwell left post-war London for Barnhill, a remote farmhouse on the Isle of Jura, to write what became Nineteen Eighty-Four. He was driven by a passionate desire to undermine the enemies of democracy and make plain the dangers of dictatorship,...

Winner of the James Tait Black Prize for Biography 2014Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best BiographyNew York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the YearPenelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000) was a great English writer, who would never have described herself...

'Little Matters they are to be sure, but highly important.' Letter-writing was something of an addiction for young women of Jane Austen's time and social position, and Austen's letters have a freedom and familiarity that only intimate writing can...

Catherine Cookson is known and loved for her vibrant and earthy novels set in and around the North-East of England, past and present. Her autobiography makes plain how it is she knows her background and her characters so well.The Our Kate of the title is...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780802877703Author Catharine RandallFormat PaperbackPage Count 192Imprint William B Eerdmans Publishing CoPublisher William B Eerdmans Publishing Co

Charlotte Lennox (c.1729-1804) was an eighteenth-century London author whose most celebrated novel, The Female Quixote (1752), is just one of eighteen works published over forty-three years. Her stories of independent women influenced Jane Austen,...

‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure’ - Jilly Cooper‘I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym’ - Richard Osman‘Could one write a book based on one’s diaries over thirty years? I...

THE TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Completely fascinating, authoritative and intriguing' William Boyd'The big bang of Bond books... Beautiful, brilliant' Tony Parsons_______________________________________________________________________Goldeneye: the...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780957452213Author John CalderFormat PaperbackPage Count 360Imprint John Calder Publishers ScotlandPublisher John Calder Publishers ScotlandWeight(grams)...

Wine and dine with Victorian London's literati in a heatwave in one of the first ever group biographies, introduced by Francesca Wade (author of Square Haunting).Though she loved the heat she could do nothing but lie on the sofa and drink lemonade and...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780143128465Author Kim AddonizioFormat PaperbackPage Count 224Imprint Penguin USAPublisher Penguin Putnam IncWeight(grams) 198g

"If you loved Wilder's books, or if you garden with a child who loves her books, you will enjoy the read." -San Francisco Chronicle In this revealing exploration of Laura Ingalls Wilder's deep connection with the natural world, Marta McDowell follows the...

'A beautifully structured narrative: tough, very moving, a political testimony of considerable force' - Harold Pinter 'As wise and witty and funny and brave as any of his plays' - Louis Auchincloss 'Wholly admirable' - Anthony Burgess ...

'A beautifully structured narrative: tough, very moving, a political testimony of considerable force' - Harold Pinter 'As wise and witty and funny and brave as any of his plays' - Louis Auchincloss 'Wholly admirable' - Anthony Burgess ...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781400078936Author Anne Conover HellerFormat PaperbackPage Count 608Imprint Fodor's Travel Publications Inc.,U.S.Publisher Random House USA IncWeight(grams)...

Original, bold and always funny, Hanif Kureishi is one of Britain's most popular, provocative and versatile writers.Born in Bromley in 1954 to an Indian father and white British mother, Kureishi's life is intimately bound up with the history of...

From the author of The World and All That It Holds, Aleksandar Hemon's The Book of My Lives is an unforgettable memoir of a life forever marked by international conflict.Aleksandar Hemon grew up in a blissful Sarajevo, where his childhood was consumed by...

'I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections, and the truth of imagination' - Keats, in a letter to his friend Benjamin Bailey in November 1817.In a period of great letter-writing, Keats's letters are outstanding. They begin in...

In his heyday, during the 1960s and early 1970s, B. S. Johnson was one of the best-known young novelists in Britain. A passionate advocate for the avant-garde in both literature and film, he became famous -- not to say notorious -- both for his...