Серия книг «Virago Modern Classics» — 53 книги — стр. 3

"The Under People. They live in a huge Cave. They are thought to be boring upwards. Giant worms and flying ants. Underground magic".

In her first novel, written when she was only a teenager, Joan Aiken showcases the imagination, wit and storytelling zest that would lead to classics like Arabel's Raven and The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

"The Under People. They live in a huge Cave. They are thought to be boring upwards. Giant worms and flying ants. Underground magic".

In her first novel, written when she was…

As Astrid bumps from trailer park to tract house to Hollywood bungalow, White Oleander uncoils her existential anxieties. "Who was I, really?" she asks. "I was the sole occupant of my mother's totalitarian state, my own personal history rewritten to fit the story she was telling that day. There were so many missing pieces." Fitch adroitly leads Astrid down a path of sorting out her past and identity. In the process, this girl develops a wire-tight inner strength, gains her mother's white-blonde beauty, and achieves some measure of control over their relationship. Even from prison, Ingrid tries to mold her daughter. Foiling her, Astrid learns about tenderness from one foster mother and how to stand up for herself from another. Like the weather in Los Angeles - the winds of the Santa Anas, the scorching heat - Astrid's teenage life is intense. Fitch's novel deftly displays that, and also makes Astrid's life meaningful.

As Astrid bumps from trailer park to tract house to Hollywood bungalow, White Oleander uncoils her existential anxieties. "Who was I, really?" she asks. "I was the sole occupant…

Hundreds of thousands of readers were enthralled and delighted by the luminous, tender voice of John Ames in Gilead, Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Now comes HOME, a deeply affecting novel that takes place in the same period and same Iowa town of Gilead. This is Jack's story. Jack - prodigal son of the Boughton family, godson and namesake of John Ames, gone twenty years - has come home looking for refuge and to try to make peace with a past littered with trouble and pain. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold down a job, Jack is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Boughton's most beloved child. His sister Glory has also returned to Gilead, fleeing her own mistakes, to care for their dying father. Brilliant, loveable, wayward, Jack forges an intense new bond with Glory and engages painfully with his father and his father's old friend John Ames.

Hundreds of thousands of readers were enthralled and delighted by the luminous, tender voice of John Ames in Gilead, Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Now…

In affairs of the heart the race is not necessarily won by the swift or the fair.

Imogen, the beautiful and much younger wife of distinguished barrister Evelyn Gresham, is facing the greatest challenge of her married life. Their neighbour Blanche Silcox, competent, middle-aged and ungainly - the very opposite of Imogen - seems to be vying for Evelyn's attention. And to Imogen's increasing disbelief, she may be succeeding.

'A subtle and beautiful book ... Very few authors combine her acute psychological insight with her grace and style. There is plenty of life in the modern novel, plenty of authors who will shock and amaze you - but who will put on the page a beautiful sentence, a sentence you will want to read twice?' Hilary Mantel, Sunday Times

In affairs of the heart the race is not necessarily won by the swift or the fair.

Imogen, the beautiful and much younger wife of distinguished barrister Evelyn Gresham, is…

First published in 1937, ORCHIDS ON YOUR BUDGET gives advice on all manner of subjects, from entertaining and creating the perfect capsule wardrobe to relinquishing the family estate. Lest you worry about how to put the advice into practice, each chapter concludes with a case study providing examples of women who heeded - and those lamentable souls who ignored - Marjorie's wise words. 'It's not difficult to have fun out of economising (up to a point), both because of the sense of achievement it gives you and because everyone else is doing it, too ...A slight financial pressure sharpens the wits, though it needn't sharpen the disposition. But it takes an interesting person to have an attractive menage on a shoe-string and to run it with gaiety and charm ...Maybe you would rather play polo than pingpong, but if you've got an old pingpong set and no ponies, you'll get a lot more fun out of life from being a pingpong champion than from taking a dispirited whack with a polo mallet every now and then.'

First published in 1937, ORCHIDS ON YOUR BUDGET gives advice on all manner of subjects, from entertaining and creating the perfect capsule wardrobe to relinquishing the family…

Twenty-four years after her first novel, Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returns with an intimate tale of three generations from the Civil War to the twentieth century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart. Writing in the tradition of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, Marilynne Robinson's beautiful, spare, and spiritual prose allows "even the faithless reader to feel the possibility of transcendent order" (Slate). In the luminous and unforgettable voice of Congregationalist minister John Ames, Gilead reveals the human condition and the often unbearable beauty of an ordinary life.

Twenty-four years after her first novel, Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returns with an intimate tale of three generations from the Civil War to the twentieth century: a story…

"Sometimes I whisper it over to myself: Murderess. Murderess. It rustles, like a taffeta skirt along the floor". Around the true story of one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of the 1840s, Margaret Atwood has created an extraordinarily potent tale of sexuality, cruelty and mystery.

Man Booker Prize Nominee (1996)

"Sometimes I whisper it over to myself: Murderess. Murderess. It rustles, like a taffeta skirt along the floor". Around the true story of one of the most enigmatic and notorious…

A poignant portrait of the unknown Bronte. As a bold and gifted child, Branwell Bronte’s promise seemed boundless to the three adoring sisters over whom his rule was complete. But as an adult, the precocious flame of genius flickered and burned low. With neither the strength nor the resources to counter rejection, unable to sell his paintings or publish his books, Branwell became a specter in the Bronte story, in pathetic contrast with the remarkable achievements of Charlotte, Anne, and Emily. Daphne du Maurier concentrates all her biographer’s skill on the shadowy figure of Branwell Bronte, and no reader could fail to be intensely moved by Branwell’s final retreat into laudanum, alcohol—and death. Dame Daphne du Maurier (1907–1989) wrote more than 25 acclaimed novels, short stories, and plays, including Rebecca and The House on the Strand. She was also a passionate and skillful biographer. Now, her finest biographical works are being reissued in the distinguished Virago Modern Classics series.

A poignant portrait of the unknown Bronte. As a bold and gifted child, Branwell Bronte’s promise seemed boundless to the three adoring sisters over whom his rule was complete. But…

Queen Victoria is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad wicked folly of women's rights, with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor sex is bent' - 1870 It was a bloody and dangerous war lasting several decades, won finally by sheer will and determination in 1928. Drawing on extracts from diaries, newspapers, letters, journals and books, Joyce Marlow has pieced together this inspiring, poignant and exciting history using the voices of the women themselves. Some of the people and events are well-known, but Marlow has gone beyond the obvious, particularly beyond London, to show us the ordinary women - middle and working-class, who had the breathtaking courage to stand up and be counted - or just as likely hectored, or pelted with eggs. These women were clever and determined, knew the power of humour and surprise and exhibited 'unladylike' passion and bravery. Joyce Marlow's anthology is lively, comprehensive, surprising and triumphant.

Queen Victoria is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad wicked folly of women's rights, with all its attendant horrors, on which her…

In 1914 Vera Brittain was twenty and, as war was declared, she was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later her life - and the life of her whole generation - had changed in a way that was unimaginable in the tranquil pre-war era.

'Testament of Youth', one of the most famous autobiographies of the First World War, is Brittain's account of how she survived the period; how she lost the man she loved; how she nursed the wounded and how she emerged into an altered world. A passionate record of a lost generation, it made Vera Brittain one of the best-loved writers of her time.

In 1914 Vera Brittain was twenty and, as war was declared, she was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later her life - and the life of her whole generation - had changed in…

One of the most beloved novels of all time, THE THORN BIRDS, Colleen McCullough's sweeping family saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback, returns to enthrall a new generation.

"Beautiful….Compelling entertainment." New York Times
"A heart-rending epic…truly marvelous." Chicago Tribune

One of the most beloved novels of all time, THE THORN BIRDS, Colleen McCullough's sweeping family saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the…

Fellow historical fiction fiends: you will be painfully aware that there's some shocking stuff out there. Bad writing that screws with the facts and gives readers some very worrying ideas about historical figures. So thank goodness for Sarah Dunant.
Blood and Beauty is Dunant's tenth novel, and her fourth to be set in Renaissance Italy. In her first three she steered clear of 'famous' figures and gave us stories of strong, ordinary women, so an epic novel about the notorious Borgia family is something of a departure. Given her exhaustive research for her other novels, though (she spends a year in the British Library researching each book; for her third she lived in a Milanese convent for a week), she is pretty well-qualified for the undertaking.
Blood and Beauty spans the period from 1492 to 1502, focusing on Rodrigo Borgia, who is elected as Pope Alexander VI as the novel opens, and his children Cesare and Lucrezia.
The plot follows the facts: over the next decade four of the Pope's children get married, most of them have children of their own, Cesare (who during the 1490s became the only man to become a Cardinal and then become a civilian again) leads an army of Frenchmen to attack Naples, and there's a good sprinkling of constant power-play, a few massacres, syphilis and some casual sex (His Holiness was very fond of women). Reading that, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is a high-octane thriller, and in some chapters it almost is, but it's also a masterly ensemble piece.

Fellow historical fiction fiends: you will be painfully aware that there's some shocking stuff out there. Bad writing that screws with the facts and gives readers some very…

Jingqiu, an innocent young woman from a poor and politically questionable family in the city, is selected as one of a small group of students to be sent to the countryside to work on a glorious new education project that will further the Cultural Revolution. Clever, curious and eager, she wants to fit in with her hosts and the rural way of life, and it isn't appropriate for her to fall in love. But she does, with the son of a mighty army general.

Jingqiu, an innocent young woman from a poor and politically questionable family in the city, is selected as one of a small group of students to be sent to the countryside to work…