Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Anthony Trollope is among the best-loved novelists in the English ......more

’Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet the angel must hang!’ Outwardly a compelling narrative of events aboard a British m......more

’If our love is a sin, then heaven must be full of such tender and selfless sinning as ours.’ The Well of Loneliness is ......more

Art for art’s sake is a vile catchword, but I confess it appeals to me’ Gentleman by day and thief by night, A. J. Raffl......more

’I spring from the pages into your arms’ Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass stands as one of the most influential and innova......more

’No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.’ Northanger A......more

’The wind is rising!... Let us try to live!’ One of the preeminent intellectuals of modern French culture, Valéry is wid......more

A warrior leader and builder of many temples, the Pharaoh Ramses II was the greatest ruler of his Age. Regarded as the g......more

Cleopatra was more than just the famous lover in a Shakespeare play, she was a powerful leader, protecting the heritage ......more

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Fyodor Dostoevsky became the writer best known for his treatment o......more

b’It was raining as it only rains in Normandy, as though great gouts of water were being sprayed by some angry, giant ha......more