Literature from Swainby Books

Paperback copy in very good condition. The story of the tragic Bronte family is familiar to everyone: we all know about the half-mad, repressive father, the drunken, drug-addicted wastrel of a brother, wild romantic Emily, unrequited Anne and 'poor Charlotte'. Or do we? These stereotypes of the popular imagination are precisely that - imaginary - created by amateur biographers from… Read more about this item

This is a collection of portraits of twelve outstanding women who lived and worked in Cambridge during the century before women were admitted fully to membership of the University. The subjects include Jane Harrison, distinguished scholar of Greek religion, Mrs Sidgwick, founder of Newnham College, Eileen Power, medieval historian, Nora Chadwick, scholar of Norse and Celtic, Honor Fell, cell biologist… Read more about this item

Box set of Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge that is in very good and unmarked condition, apart from fading on spine of one book (see photo). The books have never been read.

This anthology by celebrated interviewer Naim Attallah takes in some of his most spectacular encounters with the leading lights of the past. Naim Attallah spent a large part of the 1990s conducting in-depth interviews with a wide range of distinguished people from the arts, politics, business, academe and the media, some of which were first published in the Oldie and… Read more about this item

Since 1857, hardly a year has gone by without some sort of Bronte 'biography' appearing. These range from pious accounts in Victorian conduct books to Freudian pyschobiographies, from plays, films and ballets to tourist brochures and images on tea-towels, from sensation-seeking penny-a-liners to meticulous works of sober scholarship. Each generation has rewritten the Brontes to reflect changing attitudes - towards… Read more about this item

The Forsyte Chronicles includes 9 novels and several interludes. It is divided into three trilogies: 1. The Forsyte Saga (The Man of Property, In Chancery and To Let) 2. A Modern Comedy (The White Monkey, The Silver Spoon and Swan Song) 3. End of the Chapter (Maid in Waiting, Flowering Wilderness and One More River). This is a box set of… Read more about this item

Originally published as Poor Monkey, Peter Coveney's study of the theme of childhood in literature is an entirely unique work. Taking as its poles the revolutionary theories of Rousseau and our own post-Freudian era, The Image of Childhood surveys the ways in which the child has been portrayed, or frankly exploited, through a wide range of authors, from Blake and… Read more about this item

This classic of Shakespeare scholarship begins with a masterly introductory essay analysing and exemplifying the various categories of sexual and non-sexual bawdy expressions and allusions in Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. The main body of the work consists of an alphabetical glossary of all words and phrases used in a sexual or scatological sense, with full explanations and cross-references. Copy in good… Read more about this item

Stefan Zweig gained early fame as a poet, translator, and biographer. When he added fiction to his repertoire, his work was critically acclaimed. However, Zweig has fallen into an undeserved obscurity, and unlike the works of his contemporaries and admirers--fellow Austrian and German writers such as Thomas Mann, Herman Hesse, and Sigmund Freud--Zweig's writings have become almost completely unavailable to… Read more about this item

The true story behind the legend of Dracula - a biography of Prince Vlad of Transylvania, better known as Vlad the Impaler. This revised edition now includes entries from Bram Stoker's recently discovered diaries, the amazing tale of Nicolae Ceausescu's attempt to make Vlad a national hero, and an examination of recent adaptations in fiction, stage and screen.

The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely ( JR Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people like the oleaginous prime minister… Read more about this item

In a nationwide poll to discover Britain's favourite poem, Rudyard Kipling's 'If...' was voted number one. This unique anthology brings together the results of the poll in a collection of the nation's 100 best loved poems. Among the selection are popular classics such as Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shallott' and Wordsworth's 'The Daffodils' alongside contemporary poetry such as Allan Ahlberg's… Read more about this item