Paradise Lost

I have read "Paradise Lost" four times, and took no less than three semesters on it at university. This was the edition we used to work. Modernised spelling, coherent punctuation (plus variations of it in the notes), good introduction, and enormous work in the notes; this edition has all you need for a good reading of the epic poem.

The Complete Novels of Jane Austen

Description
Jane Austen wrote in the eighteenth century, but her novels are timeless. This complete anthology is unique among single-volume editions of her work because it includes the obscure but delightful Lady Susan, along with the six better-known novels and thirty of Hugh Thomson's irresistible drawings.
All of Jane Austen's novels are love stories, all are stories of country gentry, and all end happily, one way or another. Her plots have the complexity of life and her characters are described with inimitable style and wit—whether caustic or warmly affectionate.
The novels contained in this anthology are Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Lady Susan. The nineteenth-century illustrations of Hugh Thomson capture the flavor of Jane Austen's characters and enhance this extraordinary collection of the complete works of one of the greatest novelists of all time

Review; By Amanda H. Duffy

Why do people still go on reading, quoting and making films about the novels of Jane Austen, a stay at home maiden lady who wrote her books almost two hundred years ago? An easy answer might be the romance and simplicity of the Austen age, where the most important news of the day was the arrival next door of a young, eligible bachelor. It was a world in which overheard conversations at a country dance, the imprudent behavior of a girl at a picnic, or a public snub in the village square would utterly change the course of your life. But this easy answer doesn't really explain the broad appeal of Jane Austen's novels. Her world is so unlike our own, that there simply must be more to it than romance. The fact is, that in spite of her limited experience, Jane Austen writes with tremendous wit, charm and perception. She appeals to the modern reader because she never minces words. She gets right into the heart of her characters, strips away the veneer of social grace, and makes shrewd observations about love, marriage, pride, snobbery, money and manners. Her opening sentences are a key to the clean, crisp writing you can expect from Austen. Take, for example, the character description that begins EMMA: "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence, and had lived nearly twenty one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." It is the brilliant use of the word 'seemed' that tips us off for the events that follow. In one sentence, Austen has given us a character who is spoiled, self assured and intelligent, and we can hardly wait to find out what is going to 'distress or vex her' in the following pages! Or what about the opening sentence of her most famous novel PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." What a marvelous assumption, and what delightful matchmaking schemes and foibles are about to unfold! Just picking one of Austen's novels at random gives you a wealth of charming observation. Take these thoughts on conversation, from NORTHANGER ABBEY: "He shortly found himself arrived at politics, and from politics, it was an easy step to silence." ...and from "SENSE AND SENSIBILITY "Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition." Or how about this wistful observation from PERSUASION: "One does not love a place the less because one has suffered in it." You don't have to be a scholar to understand and appreciate Austen. Her novels will surprise and win over any first time reader, and they have an amazingly good shelf life - they can be read and reread. Here, in one volume you have a portrait of missed opportunity in the provocative novel PERSUASION; matchmaking gone awry in EMMA; masterful observations of two sisters and their different approaches to love in SENSE AND SENSIBILITY; snobbery and manners in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, and more. In short, Austen is a writer you never tire of. This is a must have in any collection, small or large!

Aspects of the Novel

Reviews
Amazon.com
There are all kinds of books out there purporting to explain that odd phenomenon the novel. Sometimes it's hard to know whom they're are for, exactly. Enthusiastic readers? Fellow academics? Would-be writers? Aspects of the Novel, E.M. Forster's 1927 treatise on the "fictitious prose work over 50,000 words" is, it turns out, for anyone with the faintest interest in how fiction is made. Open at random, and find your attention utterly sandbagged.

Forster's book is not really a book at all; rather, it's a collection of lectures delivered at Cambridge University on subjects as parboiled as "People," "The Plot," and "The Story." It has an unpretentious verbal immediacy thanks to its spoken origin and is written in the key of Aplogetic Mumble: "Those who dislike Dickens have an excellent case. He ought to be bad." Such gentle provocations litter these pages. How can you not read on? Forster's critical writing is so ridiculously plainspoken, so happily commonsensical, that we often forget to be intimidated by the rhetorical landscapes he so ably leads us through. As he himself points out in the introductory note, "Since the novel is itself often colloquial it may possibly withhold some of its secrets from the graver and grander streams of criticism, and may reveal them to backwaters and shallows."

And Forster does paddle into some unlikely eddies here. For instance, he seems none too gung ho about love in the novel: "And lastly, love. I am using this celebrated word in its widest and dullest sense. Let me be very dry and brief about sex in the first place." He really means in the first place. Like the narrator of a '50s hygiene film, Forster continues, dry and brief as anything, "Some years after a human being is born, certain changes occur in it..." One feels here the same-sexer having the last laugh, heartily.

Forster's brand of humanism has fallen from fashion in literary studies, yet it endures in fiction itself. Readers still love this author, even if they come to him by way of the multiplex. The durability of his work is, of course, the greatest raison d'être this book could have. It should have been titled How to Write Novels People Will Still Read in a Hundred Years. --Claire Dederer --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Book Description
Forester's wit and lively, informed originality have made this study of the novel a classic. Avoiding the chronological approach of what he calls "pseudoscholarship," Forster freely examines elements that all English-language novels have in common: story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern and rhythm. The reader comes away with a deeper appreciation for the novel in general, also for Forster, himself a distinguished author (HOWARDS END and A PASSAGE TO INDIA).

"We discover, under [Forster's] casual but acute guidance, many things about the literary magic which transmute the dull stuff of He-said and She-said into characters, stories, and intimations of truth." (Harper's Magazine) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Plot & Structure: (Techniques And Exercises For Crafting A Plot That Grips Readers From Start To Finish) (Write Great Fiction)

escription
The second book in the Write Great Fiction series, Plot & Structure offers clear and concise information on creating a believable and engaging plot that readers can't resist. Written by award-winning thriller and suspense author James Scott Bell, this handy instruction guide provides:

* Easy-to-understand techniques on every aspect of plotting and structure, from brainstorming story ideas to building scenes, and from using subplots to crafting knock-out endings

* Engaging exercises, perfect for writers at any level and at any stage in their novel

* Practical and encouraging guidance from one of the most respected writers publishing today

Full of diagrams, plot brainstormers, and examples from popular novels, mastering plot and structure has never been so simple.

About the Author
A former trial lawyer, James Scott Bell is the award-winning author of The Darwin Conspiracy, Deadlock, Final Witness, and the Shannon Saga series. A frequent speaker at writing conferences, he resides in Woodland Hills, California.

Four Classic American Novels: The Scarlet Letter, Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThe Red Badge Of Courage, Billy Budd

Description
An adulteress, a runaway boy, a terrified soldier, and a maltreated sailor-all the heroes of these must-read novels have become part of our American literary heritage.

Novel

Hornby,AS in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English (1987:575)defines novel as story inprose, long enough to fill one or more volumes, about either imaginery or historical people. As one of literary work forms, anovel can serve the description of the life which contains various problems, or the experience of the writers. This makes novel interesting to read because it can portrait the writer's life or experience.