British Literature

Tightrope

From the author of the best-selling and Booker Prize–shortlisted The Glass Room and TrapezeAn historical thriller that brings back Marian Sutro, ex-Special Operations agent, and traces her romantic and political exploits in post-World War II London, where the Cold War is about to reshape old loyalties As Allied forces close in on Berlin in spring 1945, a solitary figure emerges from the …

Learn more

The Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland

Following his acclaimed life of Dickens, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst illuminates the tangled history of two lives and two books. Drawing on numerous unpublished sources, he examines in detail the peculiar friendship between the Oxford mathematician Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and Alice Liddell, the child for whom he invented the Alice stories, and analyzes how this relationship stirred Carroll’s imagination …

Learn more

F for Effort: More of the Very Best Totally Wrong Test Answers

From the author of the national bestseller F in Exams comes a brand new compendium of hilarious and inventive wrong test answers and homework hiccups. Featuring gems from elementary school (“two halves make a whale”), middle grades (Q: What does “germinate” mean? A: To become a German citizen), and high school (Q: Fossil fuels are usually associated with …

Learn more

Romeo and Juliet (Folger Shakespeare Library)

Each edition includes: Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play Scene-by-scene plot summaries A key to famous lines and phrases An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on …

Learn more

Lords of the North (Warrior Chronicles)

The year is 878. Uhtred, the dispossessed son of a Northumbrian lord, has helped the Saxons of Wessex defeat the invading Danes. Now, finally free of his allegiance to the victorious, ungrateful King Alfred, he is heading home to rescue his stepsister, a prisoner of Kjartan the Cruel in the formidable Danish stronghold of Dunholm. Uhtred’s best hope …

Learn more

Eternity’s Sunrise: The Imaginative World of William Blake

William Blake, overlooked in his time, remains an enigmatic figure to contemporary readers despite his near canonical status. Out of a wounding sense of alienation and dividedness he created a profoundly original symbolic language, in which words and images unite in a unique interpretation of self and society. He was a counterculture prophet whose art still challenges us …

Learn more

Hamlet (No Fear Shakespeare)

No Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of Hamlet on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right. Each No Fear Shakespeare containsThe complete text of the original playA line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday languageA complete list of characters with descriptionsPlenty of helpful …

Learn more

The Blue Touch Paper: A Memoir

“Frank, moving, and beguiling, The Blue Touch Paper is the fascinating story of becoming a writer in the 1960s and 70s when Britain was changing even faster than the author.”―Joan DidionDavid Hare has long been one of Britain’s best-known screenwriters and dramatists. He’s the author of more than thirty acclaimed plays that have appeared on Broadway, in the …

Learn more

The Empty Throne: A Novel (Saxon Tales)

This eighth entry in New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell’s epic Saxon Tales series brings to life the harrowing and turbulent tale of a nation torn apart by sectarian and religious strife, a political struggle dominated by dynastic rivalries, and the remarkable strength that elevates some characters above their time. “My name is Uhtred. I am the son …

Learn more