A biography of Jane Austen for students that provides an overview of her personal life, writings, and influence on world literature.

This fourth edition incorporates the findings of new scholarship to enrich our understanding of Austen and give us the fullest and most revealing view yet of her life and family. There is a new preface, the biographical and topographical indexes have been amended and updated, a new subject index has been created, and the contents of the notes added to the general index.

"December 1926: England unleashes the largest manhunt in its history. The object of the search is not an escaped convict or a war criminal, but the missing wife of a WWI hero, up-and-coming mystery author Agatha Christie. When her car is found wrecked, empty, and abandoned near a natural spring, the country is in a frenzy. Eleven days later, Agatha reappears, claiming amnesia. She provides no answers for her disappearance. That is...until she writes...

Presents a short biography of the author of "The Moonstone" and "The Woman in White," two early masterpieces of mystery and detection. Short and oddly built, with a head too big for his body, extremely nearsighted, unable to stay still, dressed in colorful clothes, Wilkie Collins looked distinctly strange. But he was nonetheless a charmer, befriended by the great, loved by children, irresistibly attractive to women--and avidly read by generations...

A revealing collection of personal letters written by the iconic author to his mother details his early childhood milestones, travels to Africa, Royal Air Force service, work in Washington D.C., literary achievements, and rise in Hollywood. Roald Dahl penned his first letter to his mother, Sofie Magdalene, when he was just nine years old. The origins of a brilliantly funny, subversive, creative mind were evident in boarding school, and as he entered...

Adapted from the memoirs of literary critic John Bayley, the film recounts his courtship of and long marriage to British novelist Iris Murdoch. The scenario tacks back and forth from the young Iris--ready to seduce one and all with her coy command of words and sex appeal--to the elder Iris--slowly giving way to the cruel erasure of Alzheimer's.

Presents the life of the beloved nineteenth century British author, discussing the poverty of his childhood, his work as a reporter, early successes as a novelist, marriage, and popular reading tours, along with summaries of some of his novels.