Oliver twist illustrated5/30/2023 ![]() It is likely that Dickens's own experiences as a youth contributed as well, considering he spent two years of his life in the workhouse at the age of 12 and subsequently, missed out on some of his education. The novel may have been inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe, an orphan whose account of working as a child labourer in a cotton mill was widely read in the 1830s. In an early example of the social novel, Dickens satirises child labour, domestic violence, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of street children. The alternative title, The Parish Boy's Progress, alludes to Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, as well as the 18th-century caricature series by painter William Hogarth, A Rake's Progress and A Harlot's Progress. ![]() ![]() Oliver Twist unromantically portrays the sordid lives of criminals, and exposes the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid-19th century. The story follows the titular orphan, who, after being raised in a workhouse, escapes to London, where he meets a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin, discovers the secrets of his parentage, and reconnects with his remaining family. It was originally published as a serial from 1837 to 1839, and as a three-volume book in 1838. Oliver Twist or, The Parish Boy's Progress, is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist or, The Parish Boy's Progress Illustration and design by George Cruikshank ![]() Frontispiece and title-page, first edition 1838 ![]()
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Twice tempted by jeaniene frost5/30/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Okay so the book picks up right where the last one left off. Wow lets just see if I can remember to name it all. And that is saying a lot because the first one was awesome! So much happens in this book. Twice Tempted, the 2nd book in the Night Prince Series, was better then the first. "It hurts too much to be close to you, but continually pushed away." His expression changed to disbelief. "Yes, you're almost six hundred years old, but in today's world, when you say things like 'eternal bond' before giving your girlfriend a ring-sized box, there's usually only one kind of ring in it!"-Leila and Vlad Do you know how insignificant that is to someone my age?" A fresh wave of hurt made my tone scalding. You and I have been together mere months. "Really, what was I supposed to think?" His snort cut me to the bone. "The dress, the fancy dinner, all your flattering words, then the jewelry box." I ticked the items off on my fingers. ![]() Yeh shen by ai ling louie5/30/2023 ![]() ![]() With the slipper lost the bones are no longer magical. While fleeing the festival for fear she’s been recognized, Yeh-Shen loses one of the slippers. ![]() ![]() Instead, she talks to the fish bones and finds herself in a beautiful dress with a beautiful pair of magic slippers. When stepmother and stepsister go off to the holiday festival to find a husband, Yeh-Shen is told to stay home and watch the fruit trees. She talks to them and they provide her the things she needs to survive in the home of her awful family. Distraught, Yeh-Shen meets an old sage who tells her there’s magic in the fish’s bones. One day stepmother deceives the fish and cooks him for dinner. Yeh-Shen’s only solace is her friend, the fish. She is responsible for all the difficult chores. Yeh-Shen is a beautiful girl forced to live with her wicked stepmother and ugly stepsister. The Yeh-Shen telling predates that version. The oldest European Cinderella story is an Italian tale from 1634. The modern reissue of this story is retold in the original block printed page format. Title: Yeh-Shen A Cinderella Story from China ![]() Visiak medusa5/30/2023 ![]() ![]() Subtitled 'being sundry records from the proceedings of the Society for the Investigation of Faery Fact & Fallacy' - the society beign a framing narrative for the stories. No copies located in the jacket in commerce (asigned, vellum-bound copy with a pasted sketch, but without the jacket, sold last year for ?2000). Collector's plate to the front pastedown and a slight lean. The jacket and block edges are a little foxed. Visiak's short stories, collected here for the first time, as a bonus. ![]() This ultimate edition ofMedusa is everything you've been dreaming about: the complete novel, a new introduction from Colin Wilson, and thirteen of E. Editions of the novel sell for hundreds of dollars on the collector's market. The condition is very good, with a couple of long tears to the folds (longest around 40mm), some tearing to the lower spine has been reinforced to the interior. Medusa is a classic novel of cosmic horror originally published in the late 1920s. Apparently, Bleiler took the book as a sleight on Conan Doyle and his belief in fairies, though it seems Doyle and Sleigh were on the same page. Contains 10 short pieces examining encounters with fairies, dryads and water nymphs. The book is published with a woodcut by Sleigh to the verso of a prelim between the half title and title leaves. ![]() I think this is his first and only book of prose (preceded by poetry). ![]() Bernard Sleigh is perhaps best now remembered for his maps of Fairyland (primarily Ancient Mappe of Fairyland - though at least one earlier map exists), with his fiction becoming a little sidelined. ![]() Mark twain mississippi5/30/2023 ![]() The Introduction to my Folio edition doesn’t fill the reader with optimism. I grabbed it earlier this month, figuring that I could fulfil my yen for non-fiction and mark off a classic author at the same time. ![]() This it is why Life on the Mississippi has been sitting on my TBR shelf that, and the fact that I found a Folio Society copy for a bargain. Occasionally, the grown-up in me will rear her annoying head and insist that I at least try a classic or two – who knows? I might like it, and I don’t have to finish it if I don’t. I know it’s contrary and based on no rational I just don’t like being told what to do and what to like. The bias is this: It is my perverse nature to avoid books and authors considered to be classics. It’s a bias that I have fought against a spare few times in my life, but by and large, it has ruled my reading life. ![]() I have to admit, here, to a bias a prejudice. ![]() We hunt the flame 25/30/2023 ![]() But they are low on resources and allies alike, and the kingdom teems with fear of the Lion of the Night’s return.Īs the zumra plots to overthrow the kingdom’s darkest threat, Nasir fights to command the magic in his blood. Altair may be captive, but Zafira, Nasir, and Kifah are bound for Sultan’s Keep, determined to finish the plan he set in motion: restoring the hearts of the Sisters of Old to the minarets of each caliphate, and finally returning magic to all of Arawiya. The sequel to the New York Times–bestselling We Hunt the Flame, Zafira and Nasir must conquer the darkness around-and inside of-them. ![]() ![]() It follows Zafira Bint Iskander also known as the Hunter and Nasir Ghameq the crown prince of Arawiya, a fictional, Arab and Muslim inspired fantasy world. We Free The Stars is the second and last book in the "We Hunt The Flame" duology by American Muslim author, Hafsah Faizal. ![]() Horror by Stephen Jones5/30/2023 ![]() ![]() What if you could bring someone back from the dead? And what if it cost their soul – or yours? For the 40th anniversary of a horror masterpiece, artist Edward Kinsella has provided 11 illustrations filled with dread and an eerie endpaper design featuring a spiral of epitaphs taken from the Pet Sematary itself. Uniquely terrifying and terrifically entertaining, Pet Sematary disinters the darkest of taboos. ![]() ![]() Like Churchill the cat however, Pet Sematary was to get a second chance at life when King’s wife Tabitha convinced him it was too good not to find its way into the hands of readers. King himself hid the book away when it was finished, finding it ‘so startling, and so gruesome’ that he was half afraid of it himself. Which of Stephen King’s books is the scariest? It is a question that has been fiercely debated for years, but few could disagree that Pet Sematary is one of the strongest contenders. ![]() ![]() ![]() Saunders gives the Psammead a convoluted back story and sins to atone for, which mysteriously trigger spectral visits to the front. He stays with the family throughout the war, as Cyril and Robert go off to fight, Anthea becomes a nurse and falls in love, Jane struggles against convention to become a doctor, and Edie and the Lamb grow into adolescence. Nesbit’s titular Five Children and It, “It” being the irascible, wish-granting Psammead, discovered in 1903 by Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and baby “the Lamb.” After an ominous prologue, the story begins in 1914 as a sixth child, 9-year-old Edie, and the Lamb, now 11, dig the Psammead up again. If that doesn’t sound like a surefire recipe for success, that’s because it isn’t. ![]() Six characters from a classic work of light British fantasy are resurrected, then two of them are sent to the trenches of World War I. ![]() The tiffany aching series5/30/2023 ![]() ![]() ‘But my elbows are generally very reliable.’* You need good hard rock to grow a witch, believe me.’ Miss Tick shook her head, sending raindrops flying. That’s chalk country over that way,’ said Miss Tick. ‘She’ll sort it out, then,’ said a small and, for now, mysterious voice from somewhere near her feet. according to my left elbow, there’s a witch there already.’ There’s probably another world making contact. A definite ripple in the walls of the world. ‘Yes,’ she said quietly, as rain poured off the rim of her hat. One of the sticks seemed to pass right through the egg, for example, and came out the other side without leaving a mark. The items had been tied and twisted together to make a. Unlike wizards, witches learn to make do with a little. ![]() The exploring of the universe was being done with a couple of twigs tied together with string, a stone with a hole in it, an egg, one of Miss Tick’s stockings which also had a hole in it, a pin, a piece of paper and a tiny stub of pencil. Miss Perspicacia Tick sat in what little shelter a raggedy hedge could give her and explored the universe. ![]() ![]() It was a summer shower but didn’t appear to know it, and it was pouring rain as fast as a winter storm. ![]() Past caring robert goddard reviews5/29/2023 ![]() ![]() Goddards first book, Past Caring, was published in 1986. ![]() She has written eleven novels, one of which won the Betty Trask award, and two short story collections. It is a genuine pleasure to celebrate his illustrious career with the award of the Diamond Dagger. Suzannah Dunn (born 1963) was a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. Angus Wilson and Malcolm Bradbury co-founded the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia in 1970. Sir Malcolm Bradbury (1932-2000) was a British novelist ('The History Man'), academic and writer on English and American literature. The title does seem to be asking for trouble here and in what is quite some intense plotting there were times when I felt I myself was approaching the past caring stage but there was always just a little twist to get my interest back when I could feel it fading. ISBN 0006548105 Presentation copy: 'To Malcolm, I've never signed my proofs before! With love from Suzannah.' Christmas card with lengthy handwritten message (about 130 words) inside from Dunn to Malcolm & Elizabeth in which she tells them she is teaching for Arvon and having 'a protracted battle with some of my publishers over the next proposed 2-book deal.' she hopes Malcolm is enjoying his retirement but bets he is as busy as ever. ![]() |