Barnes Noble: 2826 books

A sort of sampler of English literature, this 1914 volume is intended to present guidance to readers—to help them decide for themselves what type of literature they like. The book is divided into six parts:  “Old English Literature to the Norman Conquest,” “The Middle Ages,” “The Renascence,”...

This 1874 collection, published posthumously, contains such lectures as "On Words," "On Books," "On the Use and Abuse of Newspapers," "English History," and "Spenser's 'Faery Queene.'" Of the volume, The Daily News said, "The high, pure, sympathetic, and truly charitable nature of Mr. Maurice is delightfully...

John Churton Collins was described by the New York Times as a “man of great knowledge and of strong convictions” and “a brilliant writer.” Collected here are thirteen of his essays, most originally delivered as lectures on Shakespeare, Burke, Arnold, Johnson, Tennyson, and Browning, among others.

An excellent introduction to the history of English literature, this volume is organized by century—beginning with the Anglo-Saxon period and ending with the Victorian poets Tennyson and Browning—examining the important literary movements of each period. Simonds also gives a comprehensive survey of the forces and influences which initiated and modified literary movements.

An eminent literary critic argues for the restoration of poetry to the place of honor it once held in ancient times in this 1905 collection on the Greek poets, Milton, Byron, William Watson, Gerald Massey, the poetry of America, and “The True Functions of Poetry.”

This volume, published in the year of the author’s death, collects some of Lowell’s most intellectually stimulating pieces. Included are studies of Walter Savage Landor, Milton’s “Areopagitica,” Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” modern languages, and the world’s progress, among others. The...

Entertaining and insightful, this four-volume history will delight history buffs. Queen Anne died without an heir, bringing to the throne George I, of the German House of Hanover. Author Justin McCarthy examines the lives and reigns of the four Georges and William IV, whose death ended the personal union...

This 1872 collection contains the essays "Calvinism," "England and her Colonies," "England's War," "The Eastern Question," and many more—all previously published in periodicals. The essays were said to be “marked by that great originality and independence of thought, joined with stirring eloquence of expression which have secured [Froude] such wide and enduring reputation as an historian.”

In a contemporary review of McCarthy's two-volume history of Queen Anne, The New York Times praises the "marked ability" with which the historian acquits himself of the "difficult task" of tracing one of the most notable reigns in English history (1702-1714)—a period that saw the rise of the modern Parliamentary system.

This biography of Sir John Eliot, the English statesman whose struggles with Charles I over the rights and privileges of Parliament resulted in his imprisonment and eventual death, was published in two volumes—in 1864 and 1872, respectively. 

Anthony Ashley Cooper, the First Earl of Shaftesbury (1621-1683) was a prominent politician during the reign of Charles II. He was a founder of the Whig Party, champion of the philosophical works of John Locke, and reprieved prisoner in the Tower of London. In 1886 the popular British biographer H. D. Traill brought balance to a controversial life.

Through this elegant, acerbic trio of essays—on seventeenth-century parliamentarian John Pym, Oliver Cromwell, and William Pitt the Elder—the influential historian Goldwin Smith takes digs at the politicians and parties of the 1860s. Issues include Ireland, martial law, imperialism, Anglo-American relations, suffrage, the Anglican Church, aristocracy, revolution, and reaction.

This biography of Sir John Eliot, the English statesman whose struggles with Charles I over the rights and privileges of Parliament resulted in his imprisonment and eventual death, was published in two volumes—in 1864 and 1872, respectively. 

Britain’s Reform Bill of 1832 expanded voting and workers’ rights, corrected electoral abuses, and abolished slavery in the colonies. In this first of a two-volume 1898 social history, the author paints a picture of the country before reform. As Napoleon falls, the democratic stirrings are on the rise in a world inhabited by Whigs and Tories, royalists and conspirators, orators and poets.