Category Archives: Travel Guides
The Dharma Bums
`The Dharma Bums` appeared just one year after the author`s explosive `On The Road` had put the Beat Generation on the literary map and Kerouac on the best-seller list. The same expansiveness, humour and contagious zest for life that sparked the earlier novels sparks this one too, but through a more cohesive story. The books
Subterraneans
Subterraneans is another frenetically typed (in three days) ride into the world of Jack Kerouac, for although classed as fiction The Subterraneans is, like all of his work, closely related to his own life while encapsulating his great vision of America.Leo Percepied, aspiring writer and self-styled free-wheeling bum, gravitates to the subterraneans, impoverished intellectuals who
Lonesome Traveller
In `Lonesome Traveller` we join Jack Kerouac the enfant terrible of the Beat poets, as he roams the US, Mexico, Morocco, Paris and London, breathlessly recording the life of the road. Standing on the engine of a train as it rushes past fields of prickly cactus; witnessing his first bullfight in Mexico while high on
A Kestrel for a Knave
With prose that is every bit as raw, intense and bitingly honest as the world it depicts.Life is tough and cheerless for Billy Casper, a troubled teenager growing up in the small Yorkshire mining town of Barnsley. Treated as a failure at school, and unhappy at home, Billy discovers a new passion in life when
Waugh in Abyssinia
In 1935 Italy declared war on Abyssinia and Evelyn Waugh was sent to Addis Ababa to cover the conflict. His acerbic account of the intrigue and political machinations leading up to the crisis is coupled with amusing descriptions of the often bizarre and seldom straightforward life of a war correspondent rubbing shoulders with less-than-honest officials,
Black Mischief
We are Progress and the New Age. Nothing can stand in our way. When Oxford-educated Emperor Seth succeeds to the throne of the African state of Azania, he has a tough job on his hands. His subjects are ill-informed and unruly, and corruption, double-dealing and bloodshed are rife. However, with the aid of Minister of
Delta of Venus
In “Delta of Venus”, Anais Nin conjures up a glittering cascade of sexual encounters. Creating her own `language of the senses`, she explores an area that was previously the domain of male writers and brings to it her own unique perceptions. Her vibrant and impassioned prose evokes the essence of female sexuality in a world
Scoop – A Novel about Journalists
Lord Copper, newspaper magnate and proprietor of `The Daily Beast`, has always prided himself on his intuitive flair for spotting ace reporters. That is not to say he has not made the odd blunder, however, and may in a moment of weakness make another. Acting on a dinner party tip from Mrs. Algernon Stitch, he
Wide Sargasso Sea: Student Edition
Her grand attempt to tell what she felt was the story of “Jane Eyre`s” `madwoman in the attic`, Bertha Rochester, Jean Rhys` “Wide Sargasso Sea” is edited with an introduction and notes by Angela Smith in “Penguin Classics”. Born into the oppressive, colonialist society of 1930s Jamaica, white Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young
Vile Bodies
Evelyn Waugh`s acidly funny and formally daring satire, `Vile Bodies` reveals the darkness and vulnerability that lurks beneath the glittering surface of the high life. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is edited with an introduction and notes by Richard Jacobs. In the years following the First World War a new generation emerges, wistful and vulnerable
Wind Sand and Stars
In 1926, de Saint-Exupery began flying for the pioneering airline Latecoere – later known as Aeropostale – opening up the first mail routes across the Sahara and the Andes. “Wind, Sand and Stars” is drawn from this experience. Interweaving encounters with nomadic Arabs and other adventures into a richly textured autobiographical narrative which includes the
Christ Stopped at Eboli
Exiled to a remote and barren corner of Italy for his opposition to Mussolini, in Christ Stopped at Eboli, Carlo Levi entered a world cut off from history and the state, hedged in by custom and sorrow, without comfort or solace, where, eternally patient, the peasants lived in an age-old stillness and in the presence
Ulysses
“Everybody knows now that `Ulysses` is the greatest novel of the century” Anthony Burgess, ObserverFollowing the events of one single day in Dublin, the 16th June 1904, and what happens to the characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly, `Ulysses` is a monument to the human condition. It has survived censorship, controversy and
Lark Rise to Candleford
Flora Thompson`s immortal trilogy, containing “Lark Rise”, “Over To Candleford” and “Candleford Green”, is a heartwarming portrayal of country life at the close of the 19th century. This story of three closely related Oxfordshire communities – a hamlet, the nearby village and a small market town – is based on the author`s experiences during childhood
Little Birds
Anais Nin`s second volume of erotic short stories is broader in scope, encompassing the entire breadth of human sensuality. Each of the 13 stories captures a moment of pure desire, in all its complexity and paradoxical simplicity.
Tender is the Night: A Romance
F. Scott Fitzgerald`s last completed novel, “Tender is the Night” is edited by Arnold Goldman with an introduction and notes by Richard Godden in “Penguin Modern Classics”. Between the First World War and the Wall Street Crash the French Riviera was the stylish place for wealthy Americans to visit. Among the most fashionable are psychoanalyst
Tarry Flynn
A man`s mother can be a terrible burden sometimes. For Tarry Flynn – poet, farmer and lover-from-afar of beautiful young virgins – the responsibility of family, farm, poetic inspiration and his own unyielding lust is a heavy one. The only solution is to rise above all – or escape over the nearest horizon. Like `The
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers` best stories, including her beloved novella `The Ballad of the Sad Cafe`. A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose cafe serves as the
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
Enlivened with vivid autobiographical detail, George Orwell`s `Keep the Aspidistra Flying` is a tragically witty account of the struggle to escape from a materialistic existence.Gordon Comstock loathes dull, middle-class respectability and worship of money. He gives up a `good job` in advertising to work part-time in a bookshop, giving him more time to write. But
Quartet
Set in a superficially romantic, between-wars Paris, `Quartet` is a poignant tale of a lonely woman. Set against a background of winter-wet streets, Pernod in smoky cafes and cheap hotel rooms with mauve- flowered wallpaper, Marya tries to make something substantial of her life in order to withstand the unreality of her surroundings. Alone, her
