Description

When The Oxford Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland first appeared, it was hailed by The Times of London as "the finest reference work of its kind." Now in a new edition, with over 150 more authors and new feature entries by high-profile authors such as Margaret Drabble and John Sutherland, this beautifully illustrated, over-sized volume lists hundreds of places in Britain and Ireland and details their connections with the lives of famous writers.
This popular guide provides more than 200 illustrations of writers, their houses, and the landscapes that inspired them, as well as a wealth of curious information and entertaining anecdotes. Take a tour of Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey, where you can find Chaucer's canopied tomb, a monument to Shakespeare with lines from The Tempest, the grave of Dickens, and tablets to Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, and W.H. Auden, among many others. Read how the Cumbrian Lake District's breathtaking scenery inspired the "Lake Poets" Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey, and how Keats' "Ode to a Grecian Urn" was written after he saw the Athenian sculptures at the British Museum. Walk through Chelsea to see where of A.A. Milne, Mark Twain, and Bram Stoker lived. Or travel off the beaten path, to Liverpool, for instance, where bankruptcy led Washington Irving to write the great American classic Rip Van Winkle, or to Muckross, where the author of Baron Munchausen, himself a spinner of tall tales, conned a landowner into buying property planted with samples of rich ore, or to Near Sawrey, where Beatrix Potter owned a seventeenth-century farmhouse.
Arranged for easy reference, with maps and an index of writers, The Oxford Guide to Literary Great Britain and Ireland captures the richness of this great literary heritage.

Features

• Fully revised edition of this classic guide to literary Britain and Ireland
• Explore the homes, haunts, and inspirations of your favorite writers--from Jane Austen to Philip Pullman
• A brilliant and meticulous interweaving of information, anecdote, and quotation
• An ideal way to plan any kind of literary pilgrimage in Britain or Ireland
• Stunningly illustrated throughout with color and black-and-white photographs and beautifully illustrated maps of major literary centers
• New feature entries on authors particularly associated with places--including the Brontes, Walter Scott, and James Joyce--written by high-profile authors including Margaret Drabble, John Sutherland, and Jenny Uglow
• Index of authors includes mini biographies
• A fresh and open new design

Reviews

"A vast encyclopedic referenceThe most delightful feature, however, remains the tidbits of information, often humorous, about the writers and their worksThis book will guide the traveler, whether mental or physical, to new enjoyment of British literature. Strongly recommended for all libraries."--Library Journal (praise for previous edition)

Product Details

384 pages; Highly illustrated with color plates, integrated b+w half tones, & illustrated maps; 8 12 x 11; ISBN13: 978-0-19-861460-9ISBN10: 0-19-861460-8

About the Author(s)