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Read more Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics)]]> http://thaitextbook.com/reviews-Great_Expectations_Penguin_Classics-014104036X.html Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:39:46 -0500

Perhaps Dickens's best-loved work, Great Expectations tells the story of Pip, a young man with few prospects for advancement until a mysterious benefactor allows him to escape the Kent marshes for a more promising life in London. Despite his good fortune, Pip is haunted by figures from his past--the escaped convict Magwitch, the time-withered Miss Havisham, and her proud and beautiful ward, Estella--and in time uncovers not just the origins of his great expectations but the mystery of his own heart. A powerful and moving novel, Great Expectations is suffused with Dickens's memories of the past and its grip on the present, and it raises disturbing questions about the extent to which individuals affect each other's lives. This edition reprints the definitive Clarendon text. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst's new introduction ranges widely across critical issues raised by the novel: its biographical genesis, ideas of origin and progress and what makes a "gentleman," memory, melodrama, and the book's critical reception. The book includes four appendices and the fullest set of critical notes in any mass-market edition.

Read more Great Expectations (Penguin Classics)]]> http://thaitextbook.com/reviews-The_Sonnets_and_A_Lover_s_Complaint_Penguin_Classics-0141192577.html Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:39:46 -0500

An elaborately annotated edition of Shakespeare's masterpieces of wit and erotic word-play.

When a volume of poetry entitled Shakespeares Sonnets. Never before Imprinted appeared in 1609, Shakespeare was forty-five and most of his greatest plays had seen several performances. Some of the sonnets, speaking of the begetting of children, mortality and memory, art, desire and jealousy, are addressed to a beloved youth; others are addressed to a treacherous mistress, a "dark lady." Appended to the sonnets is "A Lover's Complaint," a beautiful poem in rhyme-royal in which a young woman is overheard lamenting her betrayal by a heartless seducer.

While Shakespeare's biographers continue their investigations, readers may find the "secret" of the sonnets in the poetry itself. In this spirit John Kerrigan provides an illuminating Introduction to the volume as a whole, together with 258 pages of commentaries on the poems, a textual history, and suggestions for further reading.

Edited with an Introduction by John Kerrigan.

Read more The Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint (Penguin Classics)]]> http://thaitextbook.com/reviews-Pride_and_Prejudice_Penguin_Classics_Deluxe_Edition-0143105426.html Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:39:46 -0500

An iconic novel dressed in a fierce design by acclaimed fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo

Ruben Toledo's breathtaking drawings have appeared in such high-fashion magazines as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Visionaire. Now he's turning his talented hand to illustrating the gorgeous deluxe editions of three of the most beloved novels in literature. Here Elizabeth Bennet's rejection of Mr. Darcy, Hester Prynne's fateful letter "A", and Catherine Earnshaw's wanderings on the Yorkshire moors are transformed into witty and surreal landscapes to appeal to the novels' aficionados and the most discerning designer's eyes.

Read more Pride and Prejudice: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)]]> http://thaitextbook.com/reviews-Jane_Eyre_Penguin_Classics-0141040386.html Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:39:46 -0500

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.' Bronte's infamous Gothic novel tells the story of orphan Jane, a child of unfortunate circumstances. Raised and treated badly by her aunt and cousins and eventually sent away to a cruel boarding school, it is not until Jane becomes a governess at Thornfield that she finds happiness. Meek, measured, but determined, Jane soon falls in love with her brooding and stormy master, Mr Rochester, but it is not long before strange and unnerving events occur in the house and Jane is forced to leave Thornfield to pursue her future.

Read more Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics)]]> http://thaitextbook.com/reviews-Emma_Penguin_Classics-014119247X.html Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:39:46 -0500

Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, "Emma" is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work.

Read more Emma (Penguin Classics)]]> http://thaitextbook.com/reviews-Gothic_Tales_Penguin_Classics-014043741X.html Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:39:46 -0500

A portrait inexplicably turned to the wall ... a mysterious child who lives on the freezing moors ... a doppelganger brought to life by a woman's bitter curse. These are some of the eerie elements Elizabeth Gaskell uses to masterful effect in Gothic Tales.

A writer best known for books about middle-class life in country villages and the urban social problems of Victorian England, Gaskell was fascinated by the dualities in women's lives, by the tyranny men wield and the revenge women exact, and by the merging of fact and fiction, not only in literature but in everyday lives. In these nine spine-tingling tales, she adds another layer of intrigue: the abrupt appearance of the supernatural in the most ordinary of settings and the havoc it plays on human frailties.

Read more Gothic Tales (Penguin Classics)]]> http://thaitextbook.com/reviews-The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray_Penguin_Classics-0141442468.html Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:39:46 -0500

The wish spoken by Dorian Gray as he looks at his portrait forms the basis of the plot of this story of a gilded and spoilt hedonist who is willing to sell his soul for his beauty.

Read more The Picture of Dorian Gray (Penguin Classics)]]> http://thaitextbook.com/reviews-The_Book_of_Contemplation_Islam_and_the_Crusades_Penguin_Classics-0140455132.html Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:39:46 -0500

The Crusades as seen through the eyes of Muslims

A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION to the understanding of the medieval holy wars between Christians and Muslims, this volume brings together the best and most complete eyewitness account of the Crusades from the perspective of a medieval Muslim writer. Focusing on twelfth-century Arab aristocrat Usama ibn Munqidh?s Book of Contemplation but also including extracts from The Book of the Staff and Kernels of Refinement, this volume offers a strikingly human portrayal of I slamic perspectives on day-to-day existence, warfare, and the curious European invaders.

Read more The Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades (Penguin Classics)]]> http://thaitextbook.com/reviews-The_Republic_Penguin_Classics-0140455116.html Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:39:46 -0500

Plato's "Republic" is widely acknowledged as the cornerstone of Western philosophy. Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, it is an enquiry into the notion of a perfect community and the ideal individual within it. During the conversation other questions are raised: what is goodness; what is reality; what is knowledge? "The Republic" also addresses the purpose of education and the role of both women and men as 'guardians' of the people. With remarkable lucidity and deft use of allegory, Plato arrives at a depiction of a state bound by harmony and ruled by 'philosopher kings'.

Read more The Republic (Penguin Classics)]]>