oxford university press 1995 paperback (4 results)

Condition: Fair. This edition brings together Jonson's four great comedies Volpone, Epicene, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair. The texts of these plays have all been newly edited for this volume, and are presented with modernized spelling. Stage directions have been added to help actors and directors reconstruct the play the way it would have been performed in the seventeenth century, and the introduction, notes, and glossary further bring to life these timeless comedies for the modern reader. 572 pages.

Condition: Good. The Water-Babies (1863) has claim to being the most peculiar book ever to achieve the status of a children's classic. The story follows Tom in his land-life as a climbing boy for a chimney sweep and in his after-life as a water-baby, where he gains redemption from selfishness as well as from drudgery. On top of this fantasy Kingsley grafts a series of digressions and comic asides, through which he comments on a range of contemporary issues. This is the first edition to explore fully Kingsley's text, its variants, and its iconography, and to annotate the many references which enrich the story. 230 pages.

Condition: Good. The last two centuries have witnessed a radical transformation of Jewish life. Marked by such profound events as the Holocaust and the establishment of the state of Israel, Judaism's long journey through the modern age has been a complex and tumultuous one, leading many Jews to ask themselves not only where they have been and where they are going, but what it means to be a Jew in today's world. Tracing the Jewish experience in the modern period and illustrating the transformation of Jewish religion, culture, and identity from the 17th century to 1948, the updated edition of this critically acclaimed volume of primary materials remains the most complete sourcebook on modern Jewish history. Now expanded to supplement the most vital documents of the first edition, The Jew in the Modern World features hitherto unpublished and inaccessible sources concerning the Jewish experience in Eastern Europe, women in Jewish history, American Jewish life, the Holocaust, and Zionism and the nascent Jewish community in Palestine on the eve of the establishment of the State of Israel. The documents are arranged chronologically in each of eleven chapters and are meticulously and extensively annotated and cross-referenced in order to provide the student with ready access to a wide variety of issues, key historical figures, and events. Complete with some twenty useful tables detailing Jewish demographic trends, this is a unique resource for any course in Jewish history, Zionism and Israel, the Holocaust, or European and American history. This is heavy, so extra postage will apply 766 pages.

Condition: Near Mint. Reading other people's letters, like reading private diaries, offers thrilling and unexpected glimpses into the lives of others--their pledges of love and their sharp remonstrances, their thoughts on war and peace and the gossip of the day, their intellectual travels and idle chatter. It is partly this guilty pleasure we take in such literary eavesdropping that makes The Oxford Book of Letters so compelling. More than 300 letters spanning five centuries chronicle the affairs of correspondents from Elizabeth I to Groucho Marx, from politicans to poets, from the famous to the unknown. Editors Frank Kermode and Anita Kermode have chosen a remarkable selection of correspondents both educated and barely literate, with styles that range from polished and witty to stumbling and artless, but who all share a gift for letters that display an immediacy and intimacy not shared by any other form of writing. Here is John Adams to his wife, Abigail, in what we know to be a harried April of 1776 ('You justly complain of my short Letters, but the critical State of Things and the Multiplicity of Avocations must plead my Excuse--'); Benjamin Disraeli, confiding to Lady Bradford the secret of his purchase of the Suez Canal for England ('not one of the least events of our generation'); Charles Dickens to his son, Henry, regarding finances ('You know how hard I work for what I get, and I think you know that I never had money help from any human creature after I was a child'); Flannery O'Connor to Cecil Dawkins, a young college instructor, with writing advice ('You can't be creative in all directions at once. Freshman English would suit me fine. I'd make them diagram sentences'); and an indignant A.T. Harris to the head of the Atlantic City Railroad in 1896 ('On the 15th yore trane that was going to Atlanta ran over mi bull.yore ruddy trane took a peece of hyde outer his belly between his nable and his poker at least fute square'). Among the most moving letters are those from emigrants to America, Australia, and South Africa, describing the hardships they endured and the resolution with which they faced their new worlds--we read Anna Francis's letter to her sister, detailing her dashed hopes for happiness as an emigre in South Africa ('And is this the place in which I am to live out the remainder of my wretched existence! Forbid it heaven!'); and Rebecca Butterworth's forlorn letter to England from Arkansas, outlining a litany of disaster: stillborn children, poor crops, dire illness ('If we sell soon and the Lord spares us, we will be out in fall'). With subjects ranging from the mundane to the extraordinary, from the tragic to the hilarious, the Kermodes have included both isolated missives as well as exchanges of letters between regular correspondents, where familiarity and an ongoing saga add to the fascination. The editors provide a context for the letters, and unobtrusive notes. In an age where communication is instant and ephemeral, this volume celebrates the glory of the written word, and what may well be a dying art form. 583 pages.