Серия книг «Virago Modern Classics» — 53 книги

The third novel by the author of "South Riding".

One afternoon, in an early summer of this century, eighteen-year-old Laura Rowan sits on the garden steps of her house embroidering a handkerchief. She overhears a conversation between her father, an English Member of Parliament, and her mother, Tania, the daughter of an exiled Russian royalist. Tania's decision to take Laura to Paris to visit her grandfather, Count Nikilai Diakonov, means that Laura will unwittingly become a witness to the momentous events leading up to the Russian Revolution...Through a vivid canvas layered with intrigue, conspiracy and murder, Rebecca West has created a story that is at once a family saga, a political thriller, a philosophical drama and an historical novel.

One afternoon, in an early summer of this century, eighteen-year-old Laura Rowan sits on the garden steps of her house embroidering a handkerchief. She overhears a conversation…

Winifred Holtby affectionately observes the foibles of human nature in this sparkling satire, first published in 1931

On the eve of his move to a new, more desirable residence, Professor Godfrey St Peter finds himself in the shabby study of his former home. Surrounded by the comforting, familiar sights of his past, he surveys his life and the people he has loved: his wife Lillian, his daughters and, above all, Tom Outland, his most outstanding student and once, his son-in-law to be. Enigmatic and courageous - and a tragic victim of the Great War - Tom has remained a source of inspiration to the professor. But he has also left behind him a troubling legacy which has brought betrayal and fracture to the women he loves most . . .

On the eve of his move to a new, more desirable residence, Professor Godfrey St Peter finds himself in the shabby study of his former home. Surrounded by the comforting, familiar…

The first novel by the author of "South Riding".

Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize

‘A very fine first novel. Dawson writes very well, with a tender awareness of the ironies of her theme and a poetic perception of how tremulous is the distinction between the mad world and the sane.’ - Glasgow Herald

‘A remarkably talented first novel ... Miss Dawson is neither sentimental nor sensational ... Her heroine is a convincing and sympathetic character, and when her mind begins to shift into the nightmare perspective of schizophrenia the writing creates an atmosphere of quiet terror.’ - Observer


‘Cool, short, tender and occasionally as prettily ruthless as the impact of a stiletto heel . . . twice as alarming because everything is implied rather than explicit.’ - Tatler

‘A cool, clever, well-constructed novel about – smoothly speaking – the nature of reality. . . . Miss Dawson writes very well indeed, with remarkable calmness and detachment . . . [B]rilliant.’ - Penelope Mortimer, Sunday Times

‘A little masterpiece.’ - Bookman

‘A novel about madness which succeeds completely.’ - Daily Telegraph

‘I wanted the knack of existing. I did not know the rules.’ So says Josephine, the heroine of Jennifer Dawson’s remarkable novel, an exploration of a young woman’s mental illness that met with universal critical acclaim and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize as the best novel of the year. After suffering a breakdown following the death of her mother, Josephine finds herself confined to an institution where patients are ‘treated’ by such means as electroshock therapy and lobotomies. But when she falls in love with Alasdair, a fellow patient she meets on the grassy bank of the ha-ha, she decides that her recovery will be on her own defiant terms. Inspired by the author’s personal experiences, The Ha-Ha (1961) remains a moving and powerful examination of mental illness and the treatment of those who suffer from it. This new edition includes an afterword by the author and an introduction by John Sutherland.

Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize

‘A very fine first novel. Dawson writes very well, with a tender awareness of the ironies of her theme and a poetic perception of…

Charming, very funny indeed. Angela Thirkell is perhaps the most Pym-like of any twentieth-century author, after Pym herself -- Alexander McCall Smith Appealing Glasgow Sunday Herald A smart new edition ... A terrific holiday story The Lady A delightfully entertaining comedy of manners. Full of period charm and witty authorial comment Good Book Guide To be so witty and charming yet also so brilliantly brusque and practical as Laura Morland is my new year's resolution --
The first of Angela Thirkell's strikingly satirical English comedies set in the fictional county of Barsetshire

Pippa Wright, author of The Foster Husband Charming, very funny indeed. Angela Thirkell is perhaps the most Pym-like of any twentieth-century author, after Pym herself. -- Alexander McCall Smith Appealing. Glasgow Sunday Herald A smart new edition ... A terrific holiday story. The Lady A delightfully entertaining comedy of manners. Full of period charm and witty authorial comment. Good Book Guide To be so witty and charming yet also so brilliantly brusque and practical as Laura Morland is my new year's resolution -- Pippa Wright, author of The Foster Husband

Charming, very funny indeed. Angela Thirkell is perhaps the most Pym-like of any twentieth-century author, after Pym herself -- Alexander McCall Smith Appealing Glasgow Sunday…

Wilmet Forsyth is well dressed, well looked after, suitably husbanded, good looking and fairly young - but very bored. Her husband Rodney, a handsome army major, is slightly balder and fatter than he once was. Wilmet would like to think she has changed rather less. Her interest wanders to the nearby Anglo-catholic church, where at last she can neglect her comfortable household in the more serious-minded company of three unmarried priests, and, of course, Piers Longridge, a man of an unfathomably different character altogether.

Wilmet Forsyth is well dressed, well looked after, suitably husbanded, good looking and fairly young - but very bored. Her husband Rodney, a handsome army major, is slightly…

Emily Starr has never known what it is to be unloved. But when her father dies, she is left in the care of her mother's family. Emily is a stranger to the proud Murrays, none of whom think they can cope with such a heartbroken, headstrong girl. They decide to draw lots for her, and Emily is sent to live at New Moon with stern Aunt Elizabeth, the head of the clan. Kind Aunt Laura and friendly, eccentric Cousin Jimmy also live at New Moon, though, so she is not without hope. Emily is enchanted by New Moon, but cannot believe she will ever belong there. With her lively imagination and dreams of being a famous writer, she seems to have a talent for scandalizing her family. Before long, though, she has made firm friends: Ilse, a tomboy with a blazing temper, Teddy, an aspiring artist, and Perry, the ambitious houseboy. She brings so much life to New Moon, perhaps one day even Aunt Elizabeth will consider herself lucky to have "won" Emily.

Emily Starr has never known what it is to be unloved. But when her father dies, she is left in the care of her mother's family. Emily is a stranger to the proud Murrays, none of…

Emily never imagined Aunt Elizabeth would allow her to go to high school in Shrewsbury, and she's thrilled, especially as her close friends Ilse, Teddy and Perry will be there. But there are certain conditions: for the whole three years Emily must board with hateful Aunt Ruth, and she must promise to stop writing stories. To Emily, this is unthinkable, but she wants an education, and reluctantly agrees. With the move from her beloved home at New Moon to Aunt Ruth's house, Emily's world is turned upside down. Not only must she prove herself at school, despite rejection and jealousy, but she can no longer count on her friends. Her happy childhood friendships - especially with Teddy and Perry - start to turn into something more complicated and in a small-town, the merest hint of gossip can cause scandal.

Emily never imagined Aunt Elizabeth would allow her to go to high school in Shrewsbury, and she's thrilled, especially as her close friends Ilse, Teddy and Perry will be there.…

In memory of the wife who had once dishonored and always despised him, Brian de Retteville founded a 12th-century convent in Norfolk. Two centuries later, the Benedictine community is well established there and, as befits a convent whose origin had such ironic beginnings, the inhabitants are prey to the ambitions, squabbles, jealousies, and pleasures of less spiritual environments. An outbreak of the Black Death, the collapse of the convent spire, the Bishop's visitation, and a nun's disappearance are interwoven with the everyday life of the nuns, novices, and prioresses in this marvelous imagined history of a 14th-century nunnery.

In memory of the wife who had once dishonored and always despised him, Brian de Retteville founded a 12th-century convent in Norfolk. Two centuries later, the Benedictine…

The scene of most of this novel is France, and the milieu is aristocratic, yet the chief characters are Scottish or American. Lady Maclean, wife of Sir Gynt, is the heroine. She had been -- and still is -- a great beauty. A the Chateau of Little Pouilly she holds her court. The courtiers are mostly ageing members of the French nobility. Some are in love with her, all are her admirers. Women admire her, too. She has wit and charm as well as beauty. The secret of her spell is not divulged to the reader. Indeed, the spell itself has to be taken on trust, though its potency, its effect, can be observed.

But 'beauty vanishes, youth passes, however rare, rare it be.' This is a story of the evanescence of youth and beauty, a story of growing old, gracefully and contentedly if possible, seeing love survive or wither away. It is a story especially of a mother and daughter, each wanting to be loved by the other, each aware that their relationship lacked the one thing to make it perfect.

No novel of recent years has penetrated so deeply into the mysteries of human love in all its manifestations or dwelt so wisely and beautifully on the theme of encroaching age.

The scene of most of this novel is France, and the milieu is aristocratic, yet the chief characters are Scottish or American. Lady Maclean, wife of Sir Gynt, is the heroine. She…

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Her future looks bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Max de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding housekeeper, Mrs Danvers...

Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the Other Woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Her future looks bleak until, on a trip to the South of…

As powerful today as it was upon publication in 1892, The Yellow Wallpaper is an important, widely anthologized story of a descent into psychosis from America’s leading early 20th-century feminist intellectual.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrenched this small literary masterpiece from her own experience. Narrated with superb psychological skill and dramatic precision, it tells the story of a nameless woman driven mad by enforced confinement after the birth of her child. Isolated in a colonial mansion in the middle of nowhere, forced to sleep in an attic nursery with barred windows and sickly yellow wallpaper, secretly she does what she has to do—she writes. She craves intellectual stimulation, activity, and loving understanding, but instead she is ordered to her bedroom to rest and "pull herself together." Here, slowly but surely, the tortuous pattern of the wallpaper winds its way into the recesses of her mind.

The Yellow Wallpaper is a feminist text, telling a story about a woman’s struggles against male-centric thinking and societal ‘norms’. The text may be ambiguous to the reader who is unfamiliar with Gilman’s politics and personal biography, yet, it impresses any reader with the puerile treatment of the main character, who remains nameless in the text.

After learning of Gilman’s life, and by reading her commentary and other works, one can readily see that The Yellow Wallpaper has a definite agenda in its quasi-autobiographical style. As revealed in Elaine Hedges’ forward from the Heath Anthology of American Literature, Gilman had a distressed life, because of the choices she had made which disrupted common conventions—from her ‘abandonment’ of her child to her amicable divorce.
Soon after her marriage to Charles Stetson and the birth of her daughter, Charlotte fell into a deeply depressed condition and consulted Dr. S. Weir Mitchell who prescribed his famous rest cure. It is her experience with Mitchell’s treatment that inspired her to write The Yellow Wallpaper.

As powerful today as it was upon publication in 1892, The Yellow Wallpaper is an important, widely anthologized story of a descent into psychosis from America’s leading early…

Art, reality and the strange ways the two imitate one another are at the core of Muriel Spark's delightful Loitering with Intent, first published in 1981.
Would-be novelist Fleur Talbot works for the snooty, irascible Sir Quentin Oliver at the Autobiographical Association, whose members are all at work on their memoirs. When her employer gets his hands on Fleur's novel-in-progress, mayhem ensues when its scenes begin coming true.
Generating hilarious turns of phrase and larger-than-life characters (especially Sir Quentin's batty mother), Spark's inimitable style make this literary joyride thoroughly appealing.

Art, reality and the strange ways the two imitate one another are at the core of Muriel Spark's delightful Loitering with Intent, first published in 1981.
Would-be novelist…

Dick Young is lent a house in Cornwall by his friend Professor Magnus Lane. During his stay he agrees to serve as guinea pig for a new drug Magnus has discovered in his biochemical research; the effect of which is to transport Dick from the house at Kilmarth to the Cornwall of the 14th century.

Dick Young is lent a house in Cornwall by his friend Professor Magnus Lane. During his stay he agrees to serve as guinea pig for a new drug Magnus has discovered in his…

The Restoration Court knows Lady Dona St Columb to be ripe for any folly, any outrage that will alter the tedium of her days. But there is another, secret Dona who longs for a life of honest love - and sweetness, even if it is spiced with danger. It is this Dona who flees the stews of London for remote Navron, looking for peace of mind in its solitary woods and hidden creeks. She finds there the passion her spirit craves - in the love of a daring pirate hunted by all Cornwall, a Frenchman who, like Dona, would gamble his life for a moment's joy.

The Restoration Court knows Lady Dona St Columb to be ripe for any folly, any outrage that will alter the tedium of her days. But there is another, secret Dona who longs for a…

The Brodricks of Clonmere gain great wealth by harnessing the power of Hungry Hill and extracting the treasure it holds. The Donovans, the original owners of Clonmere Castle, resent the Brodricks' success, and consider the great house and its surrounding land theirs by right. For generations the feud between the families has simmered, always threatening to break into violence…

The Brodricks of Clonmere gain great wealth by harnessing the power of Hungry Hill and extracting the treasure it holds. The Donovans, the original owners of Clonmere Castle,…

By chance, two men - one English, the other French - meet in a provincial railway station. Their physical resemblance is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking - until at last John, the Englishman, falls into a drunken stupour. It's to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, his French companion has stolen his identity and disappeared. So John steps into the Frenchman's shoes, and faces a variety of perplexing roles - as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing.
Gripping and complex, The Scapegoat is a masterful exploration of doubling and identity, and of the dark side of the self.

By chance, two men - one English, the other French - meet in a provincial railway station. Their physical resemblance is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and…

Cornwall, 1900s. Plyn Boat Yard is a hive of activity, and Janet Coombe longs to share in the excitement of seafaring: to travel, to have adventures, to know freedom. But constrained by the times, instead she marries her cousin Thomas, a boat builder, and settles down to raise a family. Janet's loving spirit - the passionate yearning for adventure and for love - is passed down to her son, and through him to his children's children. As generations of the family struggle against hardship and loss, their intricately plotted history is set against the greater backdrop of war and social change in Britain. Her debut novel, The Loving Spirit established du Maurier's reputation and style with an inimitable blend of romance, history and adventure.

Cornwall, 1900s. Plyn Boat Yard is a hive of activity, and Janet Coombe longs to share in the excitement of seafaring: to travel, to have adventures, to know freedom. But…