British Gunmakers: Historical Data on the Birmingham, Scottish and Regional Gun Trade in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Book Description

Welcome to Wonderland and the topsy-turvy world of Lewis Carroll, where nothing means quite what it seems and nobody might pass you on the street! Journey down the rabbit hole and through the looking-glass and enter into the mythical, magical imagination of Lewis Carroll and his beloved heroine, Alice.

Editor Linda Sunshine, in her follow-up to the bestselling All Things Oz, has gathered together an incredible collection of artwork, quotations, letters, recipes, puzzles and games inspired by the works of Lewis Carroll. She has traveled the world for the most extraordinary examples of art from hundreds of editions of Carroll’s works, including versions from the United States, England, Italy, France, Japan and Russia. Complementing Sir John Tenniel’s classic drawings are works by such renowned illustrators as Arthur Rackham, Gwynedd Hudson, Charles Folkard, Blanche McManus, Gertrude Kay, Mabel Lucie Attwell and Milo Winter.

Also among the treasures in this collection is a short story Carroll penned for a young friend, “Isa’s Adventures in Oxford,” which has gone unpublished since 1900. Excerpts from Carroll’s letters, most of which have been seen only in scholarly texts, reveal his passion for wordplay and his unique wit. Even rare excerpts from the magazines Carroll created as a child for members of his family are featured here, alongside images of his most famous characters.

Open this book and begin a curiouser and curiouser journey with Alice and her friends: the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, Humpty Dumpty, and, of course, the White Rabbit.

Customer Reviews:

Not nearly all things, but still a lovely book.......2005-10-21

I have been collecting Alice in Wonderland items for nearly 30 years and I am happy to add this book to my collection. The information is presented in a format that is accessible to the general public and not just the Alice afficianado. The book production is also wery pleasing. The wonder of Alice is how she shows up all over the globe in so many ways 140 years after her conception. I think the title of the book understates to what extent Alice lives in our modern popular culture.

ALL THINGS ALICE - SHEER DELIGHT.......2005-01-08

I love this book. I received it yesterday at my office and read what I could on my lunch hour. I couldn't wait to get home. I bought this because I wanted to eventually introduce my 1 year old granddaughter to "Alice In Wonderland." Imagine my surprise to find that I can start reading to her now. There are extended nursery rhymes, funny sayings and a fascinating dialogue through the whole book. The illustrations are superb! I can start my granddaughter on the "white rabbit, calico cat, the queen" as well as "Alice" just from these wonderful illustrations. I can highly recommend this book for children and also adults who enjoy Lewis Carroll's wit. I cannot write enough good things about it.

The Old Curiosity Shop (Oxford World's Classics)

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Little Nell was an Idea That Dickens Had to Revive Sales, but it Does Not Quite Work
Little Nell dies but this great novel is vibrant with life, laughter and pathos
The Old Curiosity shop
A strange brew
I love the characters in this book!

The Old Curiosity Shop (Oxford World's Classics)
Charles Dickens
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192829246

Amazon.com Audiobook Review

The sound of Little Nell clattering hurriedly over cobblestones immediately sets the stage by bringing to mind the narrow and dangerous streets of Victorian London. No fewer than 20 performers are called upon to conjure up the Dickensian world of wanderers, ne'er-do-wells, con artists, and kind Samaritans--and each performance is excellent. Tom Courtenay plays the sadistic Quilp, "the ugliest dwarf that could be seen anywhere for a penny" with magnificent sarcastic glee, and Teresa Gallagher's silvery, childlike voice is ideally suited for the role of the angelic Little Nell.

Nell is on her way home to the dusty shop where she and her grandfather live a rather mysterious life. The old man disappears every night--visiting gambling dens with the naive hope of winning a fortune. Instead he sinks deeper and deeper into debt. Enter Daniel Quilp, moneylender, who becomes furious upon learning that the grandfather is a pauper and will never be able to repay his tremendous debt. Quilp seizes the curiosity shop and begins making lecherous overtures to Nell, so she and her grandfather steal away one morning to seek their fortunes elsewhere. But the demonic dwarf is never far behind.

Sound effects are employed judiciously and serve mainly as a springboard for the listener's imagination. The sound of a crying baby is enough to convey the image of crowded lodgings and genteel Victorian poverty, while raucous laughter and high-pitched squawks evoke the barely controlled chaos of an outdoor Punch and Judy show. The dramatization pares Dickens's weighty novel down to two and one-half hours, but does so skillfully, retaining Dickens's wit, marvelous dialogue, and delightful characterizations. (Running time: 155 minutes, 2 cassettes) --Elizabeth Laskey

Book Description

`... holding her solitary way among a crowd of wild, grotesque companions; the only pure, fresh, youthful object in the throng.' `Little Nell' cares for her grandfather in the gloomy surroundings of his curiosity shop. Reduced to poverty the pair flee London, pursued by the grotesque and vindictive Quilp. In a bizarre and shifting kaleidoscope of events and characters the story reaches its tragic climax, an ending that famously devastated the novel's earliest readers. Dickens blends naturalistic and allegorical styles to encompass both the actual blight of Victorian industrialization and textual echoes of Bunyan, the Romantic poets, Shakespeare, pantomine and Jacobean tragedy. Contrasting youth and old age, beauty and deformity, innocence and cynicism, The Old Curiosity Shop is a compelling mixture of humour and brooding meance. This edition uses the Clarendon text, the definitive edition of the novels of Charles Dickens, and includes the original illustrations.

Download Description

The story of 'Little Nell' gripped the nation when it first appeared. Described as a 'tragedy of sorrows', it tells of Nell uprooted from a secure and innocent childhood and cast into a world where evil takes many shapes, the most fascinating of which is the stunted, lecherous Quilp. He is Nell's tormenter and destroyer, and it is his demonic energy that dominates the book.

Customer Reviews:

Little Nell was an Idea That Dickens Had to Revive Sales, but it Does Not Quite Work.......2007-08-07

This is among the bottom four novels by Dickens and it ranks a mediocre #25 in sales among the Dickens novels and short story collections. There is a reason. Unfortunately, this is a poorly planned and executed novel, partially saved by a few interesting characters including little Nell and Kit. It is not one of his great ones; and, if you are new to Dickens be encouraged because the others are mostly better.

After reading many of Dickens's novels and short stories in the last year or two, my pick for the best is the 750 page David Copperfield. It is both entertaining and it is a literary masterpiece, or close to it. There is a degree of charm and enthusiasm that is better the other novels. Oliver Twist is a close second, and I like the sleeper that is less well known: Nicholas Nickleby. Great Expectations is one of the lighter and fast moving novels, and it is very popular with many readers. It is a shorter work, about 400 pages. The novel does have a few interesting and famous Dickens characters such as the protagonist, Pip, Miss Havisham, and Abel Magwitch. Tale of Two Cities is a good read as well, and Edwin Drood is the worst book. Skip that one.

Now, back to the present book. Dickens only real writing failure was the Master Humphrey's Clock series which was stopped due to readership rejection after approximately six serial publications, and the readers had mostly gone after the first story. It followed his third and wildly popular novel, Nicholas Nickleby. In short, he departed from his popular themes and got ahead of the readers. As a result, he found himself with no audience. In his next novel, "The Old Curiosity Shop," he refers in the forward to the Humphrey series as "desultory" and was obviously not content with his own efforts there. But he carries some of the problems of that failed series into the present novel. He searched for a literary mechanism to get the readers back for his fourth novel, the present novel, and he decided that a small vulnerable girl surrounded by grotesque characters would make a good theme, hence we have the present novel.

The first few chapters of The Old Curiosity Shop follow the narrative style of Humphrey's Clock. But then after three chapters he switches gears. There is a feeling of darkness or foreboding in the novel that is not offset with positive characters, and instead it is dominated by the negative the character named Quilp, who is a wife beater and nasty character. His impact on the story is very negative. There are few sympathetic characters here, unlike say Oliver Twist where we have an array of nasty people offset by good characters. Also, the novel contains two parallel plots which leaves the reader somewhat scratching their head and wondering why?

Overall, I thought the read was just average or worse. It is not a difficult read. The reading experience is smooth and sometimes interesting. I read the book then read the analysis and found that I agreed almost completely with the critical analysis: it is was a problem novel. It contains many signature elements of a Dickens novel, but also includes many problems and poor planning for the story. Dickens tried to save it using a highly dramatic ending in the last few chapters. But is it enough? I think not: too little too late.

As background information, I am in the process of reading most of Dickens's 22 novels and longer short stories, and set up a Listmania list. As a suggestion, avoid the Penguin Popular Classics with the plain green covers (I bought two). They fall apart and do not stand up to a read, especially books over 500 pages in length. The Regular Penguin Classics with the photo or painting on the front are excellent and some have maps and illustrations (drawings). The Wordsworth Classics are not as good, and some are illustrated.

Little Nell dies but this great novel is vibrant with life, laughter and pathos.......2007-01-11

The Old Curiosity Shop appeared in 1840-1841 in monthly installments in
a magazine edited by the young Charles Dickens (1812-1870). The novel was an instant success winning the author of "The Pickwick Papers" and "Oliver Twist" great fame and riches.
The long novel deals with Little Nell Trent. She lives in the Old Curiostiy Shop with her granfather. He is an alcoholic old man who is weak and has a dangerous gambling addiction. Due to this vice he loses his shop which is taken over by the evil dwarf Quilp. Quilp delights in evil and is one of Dickens most malevolently grotesque creations.
Nell and her granfather flee London encountering many adventures and meet many characters on their peregrinations throughout England. Among the most interesting characters are the kindly schoolmaster who befriends the hapless pair; Mrs. Jarley who owns a waxworks employing in a time of dire need and the old church sexton who shares advice on eternity with Nell.
Back in London we meet the man about town Dick Swiveller and Nell's wild brother Fred Trent. Swiveller becomes a clerk at the notorious lawfirm of Sampson Brass and his mannish sister Sally Brass who is also an attorney.
Here in this law office we meet the little servant the Marchioness who falls in love with Swiveller.
Kit Nubbles works for Quilp and is accused of theft by Brass. He is an endearing simpleminded young man who cares for Nell. He and his mother and family are delightful.
Nell dies as the novel concludes. She is modelled on Dickens' 17 year old sister-in-law Mary Hogarth who died in that year of her short life.
Dickens mourned for her all of his days. Nell is an etheral angelic girl who lacks realism but does make one love her. A New York mob awaited the arrival of the installment dealing with her demise by crying out "Does Little Nell live?" Alas, the answer is no regarding the charcter but yes in literary annals. She will always live as long as Dickensians savor this fine novel.
"The Old Curiosity Shop" is episodic but does contain scense of great comicality and wit. Dickens also writes a good mystery story and this novel is no exception as we learn who the solitary gentleman is! This is a good novel to begin your reading of the immense corpus of works left by
Dickens. I enjoyed it very much. The period illustrations in the Penguin edition are also an enhanced pleasure to the total experience of this
journey back to the days when Victoria ruled the British Empire.
Excellent!

The Old Curiosity shop.......2005-07-20

i have never read Dickens before, and I found this book intriging. I love his characters, and the way he intertwined all of them, and brought them all together in the end.

A strange brew.......2005-05-19

A Curiosity, indeed, that Dickens should still be read today when most of his then-popular contemporaries are long forgotten. His stories are rambling, with little action, and sometimes don't even make sense. They take place in a mystical early Victorian age that exists only in Dickens's imagination, and the characters are placed like chess pieces in their places to be manipulated.

But what characters! Little Nell, Daniel Quilp, Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness, Sally Brass - just the names bring a fully detailed picture to life with all their delicious idiosyncrasies.
It's in them that Dickens's appeal lives on.

This book was written in installments for a magazine, and the chapters don't always follow one another logically, so that's the way I read it, a chapter or two at a time, without worrying too much about continuity. It's a strange mix of sentimentality and sexual perversity, innocence and evil sometimes repelling one another and sometimes attracting one another.

It's not a good introduction to Dickens, but a definite recommendation for the Dickens veteran.

I love the characters in this book!.......2005-02-05

I loved this book for its characters, especially Little Nell. In fact, when I think of Dickens and his work, Little Nell is the character that comes to mind. She so embodies everything that he wrote about in all his wonderful books. The plot in this book is a little simpler than some of his plots. It centres around Little Nell and her grandfather's search throughout the roads and fields of England for a home where they can live happily and comfortably. The book has been accused of being "schmaltzy" and perhaps it is, but the ending is actually quite sad. It's a heartwarming book, and I think a good introductory book to Dickens and his works. Read this one, and then try tackling some of the other, more complex ones. That's my advice.

Simplicity and Complexity: Pondering Literature, Science, and Painting (Studies in Literature and Science)

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Simplicity and Complexity: Pondering Literature, Science, and Painting (Studies in Literature and Science)
Floyd Fenly Merrell
Manufacturer: University of Michigan Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0472108603

Book Description

Behind every apparently placid surface there lies an unruly ocean of complexity. Fractals, chaos theory, and dissipative structures bear witness to these hidden complexities of the universe. Complementing these ideas in the sciences, fiction from the likes of Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Thomas Pynchon, and Samuel Beckett reveals our deep-seated desire for simplicity while we are obliged to learn to cope with complexity. And painting, especially since Paul Cézanne, evinces the complexity pervading what we often wish to take simply as what there is.

Simplicity and Complexity is about simplicity and complexity, order and disorder, as seen through the lenses of fiction, the sciences, and works of art. Floyd Merrell offers a nonmathematical account of chaos theory, fractal geometry, and the physics of complexity insofar as they are relevant to crucial facets of literature and painting created over the past century. Though his account is informal, he addresses technical concepts and philosophical questions, and sheds new light on the authors and painters he discusses. His radically interdisciplinary approach is within the mainstream of postmodern practices, yet it criticizes the tendency toward facile conclusions and sweeping generalizations regarding relations between the arts, the humanities, and the sciences. It brings a collection of disciplines under an umbrella that is protective of particular theories, concepts, methods, and practices, while revealing connecting threads in the tenuously linked web of all human endeavors to know the product of the mind and of the world.

"Merrell gives inter-disciplinarity a new horizon and continues the dialogue between the sciences and literature in a way I have not seen since Hegel tried to pull it all together in his Encyclopedia." --Eugen Baer, Professor of Philosophy, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Floyd Merrell is Professor of Theory, Semiotics, and Spanish-American Literature, Purdue University. He is the author of a number of books, including Peirce's Semiotics Now: A Primer; Semiosis in the Postmodern Age; and Sign, Textuality, World.

Curiosity and the Aesthetics of Travel Writing, 1770-1840: `From an Antique Land'

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Curiosity and the Aesthetics of Travel Writing, 1770-1840: `From an Antique Land'
Nigel Leask
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Luxury and Pleasure in Eighteenth-Century Britain

ASIN: 0199269300

Book Description

The decades between 1770 and 1840 are rich in exotic accounts of the ruin-strewn landscapes of Ethiopia, Egypt, India, and Mexico. Yet it is a field which has been neglected by scholars and which - unjustifiably - remains outside the literary canon. In this pioneering book, Nigel Leask studies the Romantic obsession with these 'antique lands', drawing generously on a wide range of eighteenth and nineteenth-century travel books, as well as on recent scholarship in literature, history, geography, and anthropology. Viewing the texts primarily as literary works rather than 'transparent' adventure stories or documentary sources, he sets out to challenge the tendency in modern academic work to overemphasize the authoritative character of colonial discourse. Instead, he addresses the relationship between narrative, aesthetics, and colonialism through the unstable discourse of antiquarianism, exploring the effects of problems of credit worthiness, and the nebulous epistemological claims of 'curiosity' (a leitmotif of the accounts studied here), on the contemporary status of travel writing. Attentive to the often divergent idioms of elite and popular exoticism, Curiosity and the Aesthetics of Travel Writing plots the transformation of the travelogue through the period, as the baroque particularism of curiosity was challenged by picturesque aesthetics, systematic 'geographical narrative', and the emergence of a 'transcendental self' axiomatic to Romantic culture. In so doing it offers an important reformulation of the relations between literature, aesthetics, and empire in the late Enlightenment and Romantic periods.

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The Canterbury Tales: Illustrated Prologue

Canterbury Tales: Illustrated Prologue
Scala Publishers
Manufacturer: Scala Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Canterbury Tales (Puffin Classics)

ASIN: 1857591135

Customer Reviews:

The Canterbury Tales: Illustrated Prologue.......2000-06-21

This is a great edition of the prologue, the illustrations really accent the story very well.

The Hummingbird Cabinet: A Rare and Curious History of Romantic Collectors

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Scholarship that Sings

The Hummingbird Cabinet: A Rare and Curious History of Romantic Collectors
Judith Pascoe
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0801443628

Book Description

"This book is . . . a romantic history of romantic collecting. It takes seriously, and by necessity shares, the tendency of romantic histories to dwell upon their own fragmentariness, on the impossibility of capturing an intact history. . . . It traces the particular ways in which objects stepped into the lives of romantic collectors, and also the ways in which the objects moved on."—from the Introduction

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the activity of collecting became democratized and popularized, allowing all kinds of people to become caught up in the collecting obsessions of the period: birds, books, Napoleonic relics, botanical specimens, Egyptiana, and fossils. Judith Pascoe invites readers to contemplate the ongoing allure of romantic collections.

Pascoe maintains that romanticism as a literary movement played a crucial supporting role in varied attempts by collectors of this era to fashion identities for themselves through collecting. She links the collecting craze during the romantic era with the subsequent fetishization of romantic poets and their possessions, revealing the extent to which an ongoing fascination with material objects—with Keats's hair and Shelley's guitar, for example—helped to produce an enduring image of these poets as spiritual emissaries of a less materialistic age. In language both witty and idiosyncratic, Pascoe makes the case that the romantic period stands out as a distinct moment in collecting history, a transition between the flourishing of the Renaissance wonder cabinet and the rise of the Victorian museum.

Customer Reviews:

Scholarship that Sings.......2006-11-04

This book on collecting is itself a rare bird--a scholarly book so beautifully written one begins to think about the sentence itself as a material object. Provocative and artful, the book uses mosaic form to build its arguments. Of interest to general readers but also to scholars who wish to depart from the tired old forms.

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Scottish Antiques
Alasdair T. Munro
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0764319167

My Heart in Company: The Work of J.M. Barrie and the Birth of Peter Pan

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My Heart in Company: The Work of J.M. Barrie and the Birth of Peter Pan
Timothy G. Young
Manufacturer: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0845731599

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