Originally published in 1913, Sons and Lovers represents an exploration of Nottinghamshire's mining community, and was D. H. Lawrence's first major novel.
The work of the poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) frequently reflected his interest in Scottish history, and he is regarded as having written some of the most influential historical fiction of the nineteenth century. His literary works include the poem The Lady of the Lake and the novels Waverley and Ivanhoe. Originally published in two volumes in 1814–17, this one-volume reissue is a work of non-fiction that illuminates Border history as revealed through architecture and artefacts. Scott was not the sole author, but his substantial introduction sets the historical scene for the entries on various castles, churches and other historic structures on both sides of the border. Illustrative extracts of his poetry are also included, along with many detailed engravings of the evocative scenes and buildings described.
This short novel, published in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94), may well be more familiar in its many stage, film and television adaptations than in its original form, while 'Jekyll and Hyde' has become the shorthand for a character who seems to have a 'split personality'. Stevenson claimed that the main features of the story came to him in a dream, and he wrote it very rapidly, though ill and bedridden at the time. Priced at one shilling (the genre of macabre and horror stories was known as the 'shilling shocker'), it was an immediate success. Though not the first of Stevenson's works to explore the notion of the divided self, in a period where increasing concern was felt about the possible negative sides of discoveries in both the physical and biological sciences, the story clearly struck a chord, and it has remained popular ever since.
This Italian work, published in Naples in 1897, provides a comprehensive bibliography of works, published in Europe and the United States prior to the twentieth century, on the subject of Mount Vesuvius. Federigo Furchheim (b. 1844) begins with the famous eruption of 1631, on the ground that ancient accounts are sufficiently well known, and that reports and descriptions before the seventeenth century are not reliable. The bibliography is wide-ranging and includes works on other volcanos (such as Santorini), earthquakes and mineralogy. Nor is it confined to factual observations: travel writing, poetry, and even fiction, including Bulwer Lytton's The Last Days of Pompeii, appear alongside scientists such as Sir Humphry Davy and enthusiastic amateurs such as Sir William Hamilton. The book includes a chronological listing of published maps and illustrations, and an appendix, arranged chronologically and by topic, that briefly lists ancient and medieval accounts as well as more modern publi
