Charles Dickens (‘Hard Times’ and ‘Great Expectations’
A damning indictment of Utilitarianism and the
dehumanising influence of the Industrial Revolution. In
Hard Times, the Northern mill-town of Coketown is
dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, school
headmaster and model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both
his pupils and family with facts, he bans fancy and wonder
from any young minds. As a consequence his obedient
daughter Louisa marries the loveless businessman and
'bully of humanity' Mr Bounderby, and his son Tom rebels
to become embroiled in gambling and robbery. And, as
their fortunes cross with those of free-spirited circus girl Sissy Jupe
and victimized weaver Stephen Blackpool, Gradgrind is eventually
forced to recognize the value of the human heart in an age of
materialism and machinery.
As always, Dickens creates a fabulous array of characters: the
nouveau riche Veneerings, the dwarf who makes doll clothes, the
bizarre schoolmaster, and the abysmally poor who trawl the Thames
for bodies or daily sift the dust and dirt of Victorian England for a
skimpy living. Dickens's great satiric and social themes come
through clearly: the plight and misery of the poor and the greed
and heartless stupidity of the rich.
'A masterpiece ... a completely serious work of art' F.R.Leavis
***
'Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence.
There's no better rule.'
Great Expectations, Dickens's funny, frightening and
tender portrayal of the orphan Pip's journey of selfdiscovery, is one of his best-loved works. Showing how
a young man's life is transformed by a mysterious
series of events - an encounter with an escaped
prisoner; a visit to a black-hearted old woman and a
beautiful girl; a fortune from a secret donor - Dickens's
late novel is a masterpiece of psychological and moral
truth, and Pip among his greatest creations.
Janice Galloway (‘The Trick is to keep Breathing’ and ‘Foreign Parts’
Janice Galloway's The Trick Is to Keep Breathing opens
with a woman watching herself from the corner of a
darkened room. Immediately, Janice Galloway sweeps
us inside her heroine's confused psychology. Alone in
her flat, the woman (ironically named "Joy") sits quietly
in the dark, nervously checking the clock, jumping at
the shrill ring of the telephone. Fragmented sentences
and an irregular typography help to capture her
deepening sense of dislocation and bewilderment.
With such a depressing subject matter at hand, it would be easy for
Galloway's prose to become irritatingly introverted. With her sharp
wit, however, Galloway skilfully prevents her narrative from sliding
into egotism and self-pity. There is a host of minor characters to
provide comic relief--the overweight, awkward health visitor; the
pompous, irascible doctor; the man from the bookies who is
desperate to seduce her; and the ever-mad Ros, another patient on
the psychiatric ward where Joy inevitably ends up.
'An account from the inside of a mind cracking up. . . its writing is
as taut as a bowstring. From brilliant title to closing injunction, it
hums with intelligence, clarity, wit; and, its heroine's struggle for
order and meaning seduces our minds, exposes how close we all of
us are to insanity. Joy, as Galloway's heroine reluctantly lets us
know that she's called, is simply that dangerous step or two nearer
the edge' LISTENER.
‘A real achievement; its dialogue sparks and its voice is true. For
Janice Galloway the trick is simply to keep writing.’ (Scotsman)
‘This remarkably original work has gained Janice Galloway an
almost immediate reputation as one of Scotland's most interesting
serious
prose
writers.’
(Glasgow
Herald)
‘Poignant and original...a wonderfully sensitive portrait of a woman
who doesn't give up trying to find the "trick" to making life go on.’
(Ms )
Cassie and Rona. Rona and Cassie.
Two women on a driving holiday in Northern France.
A caustic, coruscating and deeply funny account of
morality, dysfunctional relationships and women abroad,
Foreign Parts is that rare hybrid: a strikingly original novel
about real life, told with accuracy, compassion and a truly
saturnine delight.
‘The book reassures that no matter how many times you've done
something or been somewhere, the humiliations remain as burning,
the pleasure as sharp as ever.’ (Independent)
‘A funny, original, stinging-as-a-nettle, soothing-as-a-dockleaf
read.’ (Observer)
‘A carefully observed, caustic portrait of two opposites - one prickly,
one plodding - and their troublesome but enduring friendship.’ (New
York Times )
‘Every detail...is described with the accuracy of an X-ray and the
urgency of poetry.’ (Penelope Mortimer Daily Telegraph )
Margaret Atwood (‘Cat’s Eye and ‘Alias Grace’)
Margaret Atwood charts the psychological process of
memory as compulsion and memory as a healing act
through the character of Elaine Risley, an artist who
returns to her home town of Toronto for a retrospective
of her work. Elaine's visit triggers thoughts of her
childhood with all the urgency of a bad rash. Dominating
her reflections are her childhood "friends", three girls
who wreak havoc on Elaine's self-esteem. Having spent
her early childhood on the road with an entomologist
father, a less than traditional mother and a brother more
concerned with snot and snakes than the intricate
behaviour codes of girls, the young Elaine is vulnerable
to the indirect aggression of Cordelia, the ringleader of the group
who seeks to improve her. Through Elaine's experiences, Margaret
Atwood turns a keen and ironic eye on the training of females in
North American culture: "All I have to do is sit on the floor and cut
frying pans out of the Eaton's Catalogue with embroidery scissors,
and say I've done it badly." The self-effacement of these girlchildren barely masks a need for power that erupts all too often in
cruel forms of play. This is a story in which the lines between
victims and oppressors blur, in which forgiveness becomes an act of
gaining power. Through humour, pain and insight, she makes us
see, with surprise and recognition, details from childhood we may
well have forgotten. --Chris Kellett, From 500 Great Books by
Women
‘Not since Graham Greene or William Golding has a novelist
captured so forcefully the relationship between school bully and
victim...Atwood's power games are played, exquisitely, by little
girls.’ (LISTENER)
‘Irrestistible...This book is about life for all of us. She is one of our
finest novelists. Read it.’ (THE TIMES)
In 1843, a 16-year-old Canadian housemaid named Grace
Marks was tried for the murder of her employer and his
mistress. The sensationalistic trial made headlines
throughout the world, and the jury delivered a guilty
verdict. Yet opinion remained fiercely divided about Marks-was she a spurned woman who had taken out her rage on
two innocent victims, or was she an unwilling victim
herself, caught up in a crime she was too young to
understand? Such doubts persuaded the judges to
commute her sentence to life imprisonment, and Marks
spent the next 30 years in an assortment of jails and
asylums, where she was often exhibited as a star attraction. In Alias
Grace, Margaret Atwood reconstructs Marks's story in fictional form.
Her portraits of 19th-century prison and asylum life are chilling in
their detail. The author also introduces Dr Simon Jordan, who
listens to the prisoner's tale with a mixture of sympathy and
disbelief. In his effort to uncover the truth, Jordan uses the tools of
the then rudimentary science of psychology. But the last word
belongs to the book's narrator--Grace herself.
Extract:
Sometimes I whisper it over to myself: Murderess. Murderess. It
rustles, like a taffeta skirt along the floor.' Grace Marks. Female
fiend? Femme fatale? Or weak and unwilling victim? 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.
‘A sensuous, perplexing book, at once sinister and dignified, grubby
and gorgeous, panoramic yet specific...I don't think I have ever
been so thrilled...This, surely is as far as a novel can go.’ (Julie
Myerson, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )
‘Brilliant...Atwood's prose is searching. So intimate it seems to be
written on the skin.’ (Hilary Mantel )