Barnes Noble: 2826 books

A firsthand account of one of the final years of Whitman’s life, With Walt Whitman in Camden is a near transcript of daily conversations between Whitman and Traubel. Traubel took copious notes of their conversations, and recorded hundreds of other details of the poet’s life, making this volume indispensable...

The second and final volume in John Forster’s biography of Charles Dickens, the famed writer and author of many memorable classics, examines Dickens’s career, marriage, inspirations for his novels, the birth of his children, travels, and his continued success.

William Dean Howells spent scarcely a year in the classroom, but his father’s newspaper offices afforded an invaluable education. In this charming memoir, Howells recalls, “I could set type very well, and at ten years and onward till journalism became my university, the printing office was mainly my school.”

In this travel memoir, Stevenson recounts his trip from Scotland to California. He travels by ship to America in order to see his ill ex-wife. His vivid descriptions of life aboard ship during a time when many were immigrating to America, as well as his view of Americans themselves, make for an exciting work.

Eight stories recount the adventures of Horne Fisher, a socialite who uses his powerful deductive gifts to investigate crimes committed on the sprawling country estates of the aristocracy. Called “dazzlingly executed and richly atmospheric” by The Armchair Detective, this collection is filled with evocative portraits of pre-World War I society.

Upon publication, George E. Woodberry’s Edgar Allan Poe became recognized as the standard study of Poe. Both a biography and a work of criticism, Woodberry did not refrain from discussing Poe’s faults as well as his triumphs. Engaging and authoritative, the book presents the life and work of the...

Exeter, Plymouth, Oxford, Southampton, London . . . readers will feel the pleasure of being in England upon reading William Dean Howells’s engaging travelogue of his visit there in the early 1900s. Originally published as individual essays in Harper’s Magazine, these charming travel vignettes are the perfect read for travelers and armchairs dreamers alike.

From its roots in medieval romance and Elizabethan theater, through the pioneering works of Defoe and Fielding, this comprehensive 1899 study traces the origins and growth of the English novel in all its variety: the Gothic novel, the novel of manners, the historical novel, the realistic reaction, and the psychological novel, including works by his contemporaries such as James and Kipling.

Intended as a working handbook, this 1907 text for students and teachers—which the author calls “a long journey from Beowulf to Kipling”—has been praised for its taste and balance, as well as its goal of bringing literature to younger readers. Each chapter includes study lists, as well as tables of literary periods.

This volume published in 1913 is a delightful foray into the city of London from the times of Chaucer through the modern era. Geared toward students and readers interested in the settings of their favorite pieces of English literature, this informative book was the first of its kind to link the actual...

The prolific biographer, first editor of the 26 volumes of the Dictionary of National Biography, and father of Virginia Woolf, shares secrets of the trade in this wide-ranging collection of essays. This first of four volumes published from 1898-1902 includes “National Biography,” “The Evolution...

Part of the Handbooks of English Literature series, this comprehensive overview, first published in 1899, provides stimulating discussions of essayists and critics (Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith), authors of memoirs and letters (Lord Chesterfield, Horace Walpole), political writers (Edmund Burke,...

This 1919 study considers the English village as an object of nostalgia and escape, but also as a place which has a history compelling the people of villages to become very much involved in the Great War and other world events in the years preceding the book’s publication. The author considers the rich history of the village, in medieval to modern history, and its place in poetry and prose.

This 1898 survey evaluates English literature on its own merits, including the earliest Anglo-Saxon poems such as Beowulf, the early and late romances, the innovations of Chaucer and the Scottish poets, the genius of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, Milton, Dryden, Pope, as well as the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—with a section on Victorian literature.