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Country: UK
Wonderful Wizard of Oz & Glinda of Oz
In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a huge cyclone transports the orphan Dorothy and her little dog Toto from Kansas to the Land of Oz, and she fears that she will never see Aunt Em and Uncle Henry ever again. But she meets the Munchkins, and they tell her to follow the Yellow Brick Road to… Read More
Down and Out in Paris and London & The Road to Wigan Pier
With an Introduction by Dr Sally Minogue and Notes by David Rampton, Department of English, University of Ottowa George Orwell is a difficult author to summarize. He was a would-be revolutionary who went to Eton, a political writer who abhorred dogma, a socialist who thrived on his image as a loner, and a member of… Read More
Nineteen Eighty-Four
With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Sally Minogue. The Thought Police, Doublethink, Newspeak, Big Brother – 1984 itself: these terms and concepts have moved from the world of fiction into our everyday lives. They are central to our thinking about freedom and its suppression; yet they were newly created by George Orwell in 1949… Read More
Descent of Man
With an Introduction by Janet Browne, Aramont Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University. In The Descent of Man Darwin addresses many of the issues raised by his notorious Origin of Species: finding in the traits and instincts of animals the origins of the mental abilities of humans, of language, of our social structures… Read More
Finnegans Wake
With an Introduction and Notes by Professor Len Platt, Professor of Modern Literatures and Head of Goldsmiths Learning Enhancement Unit, Goldsmiths, University of London. Finnegans Wake is the book of Here Comes Everybody and Anna Livia Plurabelle and their family – their book, but in a curious way the book of us all as well… Read More
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Tim Middleton, Head of English Studies, University of Ripon and York. ‘…man is not truly one, but truly two.’ In this powerful deconstruction of Calvinist belief and the hypocrisy at the heart of Victorian society, Stevenson creates a gothic icon in the divided self that is Dr Jekyll… Read More
Robinson Crusoe
With an Introduction and Notes by Doreen Roberts, Rutherford College, University of Kent at Canterbury. From its first publication in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has been printed in over 700 editions. It has inspired almost every conceivable kind of imitation and variation, and been the subject of plays, opera, cartoons, and computer games. The character of… Read More
Plays of Oscar Wilde
With an Introduction and Notes by Anne Varty, Royal Holloway, University of London. Oscar Wilde took London by storm with his first comedy, Lady Windermere’s Fan. The combination of dazzling wit, subtle social criticism, sumptuous settings and the theme of a guilty secret proved a winner, both here and in his next three plays, A… Read More
Collected Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Sally Minogue, Canterbury Christ Church University College. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was such an acclaimed poet in her own lifetime that she was suggested as a candidate for the Poet Laureateship when Wordsworth died in 1850. Yet today we have only a limited knowledge of her considerable life’s work… Read More