Author:John Milton
The poems of John Milton (1608-74) have inspired readers for generations and the selection in this new edition spans his entire career, from his earliest works to the magnificent epics of his later life. The devotional ‘On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity’, his first great poem, anticipates the probing religious questions of Paradise Lost. Works such as ‘L’Allegro’ and ‘Il Penseroso’ consider divisions of loyalties, while ‘A Masque’ (‘Comus’) explores Milton’s great theme of temptation, and the pastoral elegy ‘Lycidas’ contemplates mortality and the meaning of human life. This volume includes considerable selections from Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained - Milton’s late epics on the Fall of Man and Christ’s temptation in the wilderness - and the complete Samson Agonistes, in which the great hero undergoes a profound crisis of faith in his final hours.
Praise for The Night Watch:
This modern day mythical fantasy is Anne Rice on an epic scale, a hugely imagined world. A chiller thriller from cold of Russia, this one's been selling like hot cakes around the world.
So good that the film feels like a trailer for it
—— Time OutJK Rowling, Russian style... Arguably Russia's richest and most famous literary talent of the moment. [a] cracking read, owing more to Rowling or Philip Pullman than it does to the horror genre... Surprisingly readable and addictive... It relies on suspense and psychological drama and a good dose of humour - rather than blood and guts.
—— Daily TelegraphWhen a particular kind of story, heavily based in one culture, gets transferred into a culture distinctly different, something magical happens. Something modern, new and distinctly creepy... The magic is rooted in the realities of modern Russia. Inventive, sardonic, and imbued with a surprising the sense that, for this author and his audience, much of this stuff is new-minted.
—— IndependentJekyll and Hyde, in particular, is such an important novel in terms of suspense and setting a perfect scene for crime
—— Alanna KnightWriters I love: Ellroy, Larry Block, Robert Louis Stevenson, Muriel Spark, Anthony Burgess, Chandler... '[Edinburgh] was the city of Jekyll & Hyde, where the template for that story was a real-life Edinburgh character named Deacon William Brodie, who was a gentleman by day and a burglar and murderer by night. He gave Stevenson his story
—— Ian RankinAnother genius Scottish take on the theme of split personalities. Needs no further introduction
—— Maggie O’FarrellFirst-rate! What an artist and what a psychologist
—— Gustave FlaubertReaders who wonder why... Martin Amis and... Kiran Desai seem to flinch from writing about their own times should study Ms Seiffert
—— EconomistRachel Seiffert is the poet and spokeswoman of those who find themselves on the wrong side of history...powerful, almost unbearably intense and wonderfully written
—— The TimesA quietly ambitious book
—— GuardianDespite the halting, low-key narration as Joe and Alice attempt to piece together the terms of their engagement, a simmering tension builds, though Seiffert is admirably less concerned with the revelation of atrocities than in how the soldier, having breached the first commandment, negotiates a return to ordinary life
—— ObserverA beautiful book and it's beautifully written
—— Kit de Waal , Good Housekeeping UKMy favourite book of all time
—— Sareeta Domingo , Good HousekeepingMorrison's stunning trilogy is an evocation of black life over the past four centuries. It defies summary. Completed almost 25 years ago, these novels top anything produced by any American writer including Hemingway, Updike and DeLillo
—— Trevor Phillips , Sunday Times[A] beautiful, haunting novel
—— Stig Abell , Sunday TimesMore than one of Morrison's books could be classed as masterpieces, but this one is famous for a reason: everyone should read it
—— Bernice McFadden, author of SUGAR , GuardianA magnificent achievement...an American masterpiece
—— A.S. Byatt , GuardianA triumph
—— Margaret Atwood , New York Times Book ReviewShe melds horror and beauty in a story that will disturb the mind forever
—— Sunday TimesToni Morrison is not just an important contemporary novelist but a major figure in our national literature
—— New York Review of BooksA work of genuine force. . .Beautifully written
—— Washington PostThere is something great in Beloved: a play of human voices, consciously exalted, perversely stressed, yet holding true. It gets you
—— The New YorkerSuperb. . .A profound and shattering story that carries the weight of history. . .Exquisitely told
This is a wonderful novel about slavery, freedom, parental loss and revenants
—— The Week, Thomas Keneally