Literary Figures

This first English language biography of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) in two decades paints a strikingly new picture of one of the twentieth century's most controversial cultural icons. First published in 2014 and now available in paperback, it was...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780143120100Author Leslie Marmon SilkoFormat PaperbackPage Count 336Imprint Penguin USAPublisher Penguin Putnam IncWeight(grams) 299gDimensions(mm) 213mm *...

Noel Riley Fitch has written a perfect book, full to the brim with literary history, correct and whole-hearted both in statement and in implication. She makes me feel and remember a good many things that happened before and after my time. I'm glad to...

Philip Roth is the voice of our times.In a sequence of intimate conversations with some of the most influential and insightful writers of the twentieth century, Roth explores the importance of region, politics and history in their work and that of their...

A mesmerizing account of the chaotic life and brilliant work of a playwright whose influence is undiminished 100 years after his death Novelist, satirist, poet, photographer, painter, alchemist, and hellraiser-August Strindberg was all these, and yet...

'An intimate portrait ... Critical, generous and heartfelt' Ahdaf Soueif, Guardian 'An intriguing account of an alluring but evasive character' Daily Telegraph Drawing on extensive archival sources and hundreds of interviews, Timothy Brennan's Places...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781903155882Author Virginia WoolfFormat PaperbackPage Count 392Imprint Persephone Books LtdPublisher Persephone Books Ltd

Victor Hugo was the most important writer of the nineteenth century in France: leader of the Romantic movement, Revolutionary playwright, poet, epic novelist, author of the last universally accessible masterpieces in the European tradition, among them...

Victor Hugo was the most important writer of the nineteenth century in France: leader of the Romantic movement, Revolutionary playwright, poet, epic novelist, author of the last universally accessible masterpieces in the European tradition, among them...

VERY few authors can ever dream of coming close to the legacy left by AA Milne. He remains a household name in almost every corner of the globe thanks to a phenomenally popular collection of whimsical children s stories about a boy named Christopher...

'An unknown place.' This was what Michael Frayn's children called the shadowy landscape of the past from which their family had emerged. Shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards, My Father's Fortune sets out to rediscover that lost land before all trace of...

Drawing on the memoirs, letters and diaries of a group of British intellectuals writing between 1910 and the Second World War, UNCOMMON ARRANGEMENTS paints a witty and insightful portrait of seven 'marriages a la mode', each triumphantly casting off...

Drawing on the memoirs, letters and diaries of a group of British intellectuals writing between 1910 and the Second World War, UNCOMMON ARRANGEMENTS paints a witty and insightful portrait of seven 'marriages a la mode', each triumphantly casting off...

'In the beginning, everything was alive. The smallest objects were endowed with beating hearts . . .' Having recalled his life through the story of his physical self in Winter Journal, internationally best-selling novelist Paul Auster now remembers the...

The authorised biography of Shirley Hazzard, one of the greatest writers in the English language, author of The Transit of Venus and winner of the National Book Award'Lambent, discerning, deeply intelligent and empathetic' Lucy Scholes, Financial...

'The charm of certain vacant grassy spaces, in Italy, overfrowned by masses of brickwork that are honeycombed by the suns of centuries, is something that I hereby renounce once for all the attempt to express; but you may be sure that whenever I mention...

In this series of letters to William Townend, a fellow-writer and friend since their schooldays at Dulwich College, Wodehouse discusses in some detail his literary outlook, writing methods and constant hunt for new plots. Characteristically modest and...

No writer is more charismatic than Robert Burns and no biographer has captured his energy, brilliance and radicalism as well as Robert Crawford does in The Bard. To his international admirers Burns was a genius, a hero, a warm-hearted friend; yet to the...

As read on BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week'Moving, intellectual and unsentimental. I think it will become a classic' Melvyn Bragg'Thoughtful, subtle, elegantly clever and oddly joyous, Every Third Thought is beautiful' Kate Mosse In 1995, at the age of...

Mark Doty has always felt haunted by Walt Whitman's bold, new American voice, and by his equally radical claims about body and soul and what it means to be a self. In What Is the Grass, Doty - a poet, a lover of men, a New Yorker, and an American - keeps...

Like all poets, inspired by death, Lynch is, unlike others, also hired to bury the dead or cremate them and to tend to their families in a small Michigan town where he serves as the funeral director. In the conduct of these duties he has kept his eyes...

Nancy Mitford was witty, intelligent, often acerbic, a great tease and an acute observer of upper-class English idiosyncrasies. With the publication of her novels, above all The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate and The Blessing, she became a huge...

Nancy Mitford was witty, intelligent, often acerbic, a great tease and an acute observer of upper-class English idiosyncrasies. With the publication of her novels, above all The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate and The Blessing, she became a huge...

'I was wowed and moved' Tracy Chevalier Anne Bronte is the forgotten Bronte sister, overshadowed by her older siblings - virtuous, successful Charlotte, free-spirited Emily and dissolute Branwell. Tragic, virginal, sweet, stoic, selfless, Anne. The less...

The brief life and meteoric career of Sylvia Plath have been the subject of fascination since her suicide in 1963 at age thirty. This concise, well-researched biography recounts the facts of her troubled life based on the latest updated research...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781618909626Author Joseph PearceFormat PaperbackPage Count 264Imprint Saint Benedict PressPublisher Saint Benedict PressWeight(grams) 340gDimensions(mm)...

Robert Tressell described his famous book The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists as 'the story of twelve months in Hell, told by one of the damned'. This biography of Tressell, first published in 1973, tells the story of a man about whom virtually nothing...

The life, work and history of Aphra Behn: seventeenth century dramatist, poet, novelist, political propagandist, bisexual writer, and spy. Praise for the first hardback edition: Fascinating scholarship. Todd conveys Behn's vivacious character and the...

Life of the Russian poet who withstood Stalinism and became an inspiration to millionsAnna Akhmatova is recognised as one of the greatest poets of Russian literature, an iconic figure who gave voice to the suffering of the Russian people during the...

Life of the Russian poet who withstood Stalinism and became an inspiration to millionsAnna Akhmatova is recognised as one of the greatest poets of Russian literature, an iconic figure who gave voice to the suffering of the Russian people during the...

'An extraordinary book of real passionate research' Edmund de WaalIn 1945, Ezra Pound was due to stand trial for treason for his broadcasts in Fascist Italy during the Second World War. But before the trial could take place Pound was pronounced insane...

Born in Tuscany in 1304, Italian poet Francesco Petrarca is widely considered one of the fathers of the modern Italian language. His writings inspired the Humanist movement and, subsequently, the Renaissance, but few figures are as complex or as...

Shakespeare's Gardens is a highly illustrated, informative book about the gardens that William Shakespeare knew as a boy and tended as a man, published to coincide with the 400th anniversary of his death in April 2016. This anniversary will be the focus...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.AwardsCommended for Hugo Award (Related Book) 2022.Book InformationISBN 9780593135730Author Abraham RiesmanFormat PaperbackPage Count 416Imprint Random House IncPublisher Random...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781499741315Author Richard JefferiesFormat PaperbackPage Count 36Imprint Createspace Independent Publishing PlatformPublisher Createspace Independent...

From childhood, Charles Dickens was fascinated by tales from other countries and other cultures, and he longed to see the world. In Dickens and Travel, Lucinda Hawksley looks at the journeys made by the author - who is also her great great great...

'You will find all of life in this' Deborah Levy After the death of her partner of thirty-two years, Lisa Appignanesi was thrust into a state striated by rage and superstition in which sanity felt elusive. Then, too,...

The definitive biography of author Ian FlemingIan Fleming's life was just as dramatic as that of his fictional creation, James Bond 007. Andrew Lycett's direct access to Fleming's family, friends and contemporaries has enabled him to reveal the truth...

Includes a new introduction from Sophie Hannah, bestselling author of THE MONOGRAM MURDERS and HAVEN'T THEY GROWNAgatha Christie was not only the biggest selling writer of detective stories the world has ever known, she was also a mystery in herself,...

Ground-breaking biography of the creator of fiction's best loved detectiveThough Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's name is recognised the world over, for decades he was overshadowed by his creation, Sherlock Holmes - one of literature's most enduring characters...