Charles Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy's Progress is Charles Dickens's second novel, an... Read More
Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 in Portsea Island, the second of eight children of Elizabeth Dickens and John Dickens. His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office and was temporarily stationed in the district. Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Little Dorrit is a novel of serendipity, of fortunes won and lost... Read More
Sir Walter Scott was a Scottish historical novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. He was extremely popular and widely read, both at home and abroad. Ivanhoe was the first of Scott's novels to adopt a purely English subject and was also his first attempt to combine history and romance, which late... Read More
Sir Walter Scott was born in 1771 in Edinburgh. His love of traditional Scottish oral storytelling led him to gather ballads and stories, leading to the development of a body of literature which gave previously disregarded traditional stories a platform, and Scottish culture an international stage. Although primarily remembered for his extensive literary works and his political engagement, Scot... Read More
Quentin Durward, the novel of adventure and romance by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1823. The novel was a popular success and solidified Scott’s reputation as a stirring writer. The novel is set in 15th-century France, where the title character saves the life of Louis XI. Quentin Durward was composed in a remarkably short space of time. After carrying out some preparatory research towards the... Read More
Sir Walter Scott was born on 15 August 1771. He was the ninth child of Walter Scott, a Writer to the Signet, and Anne Rutherford. His father was a member of a cadet branch of the Scotts Clan, and his mother descended from the Haliburton family, the descent from whom granted Walter's family the hereditary right of burial in Dryburgh Abbey. As a boy, youth, and young man, Scott was fascinated by... Read More
Jane Austen, for some, is simply the supreme English novelist, on any list. Some will say: she is the greatest. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Of... Read More
Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Persuasion was the last novel Jane Austen completed, and it didn’t appear in print until 1818 after she had passed away. It’s also shorter than most of her other novels, and some critics think that, because she wrote t... Read More
The reception history of Jane Austen follows a path from modest fame to wild popularity. During her lifetime, Austen's novels brought her little personal fame. Like many women writers, she chose to publish anonymously, but her authorship was an open secret. Jane Austen’s Love and Freindship is part of the second volume of Austen’s Juvenilia, short works she wrote from 1787 to 1793 mostly to ent... Read More
Novel-writing was a suspect occupation for women in the early 19th century because it imperilled their social reputation by bringing them publicity, viewed as unfeminine. Therefore, like many other female writers, Austen published anonymously. Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen that was published anonymously in three volumes in 1811 and that became a classic. The satirical, comic w... Read More
Walter Scott noted Austen's "resistance to the trashy sensationalism of much of modern fiction - 'the ephemeral productions which supply the regular demand of watering places and circulating libraries'". Yet her rejection of these genres is complex, as evidenced by Northanger Abbey and Emma. Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, in 1803. However... Read More
Herbert George Wells was an English writer, born at Atlas House, 162 High Street in Bromley, Kent, on 21 September 1866. He was prolific in many genres, writing dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, satire, biography, and autobiography, and even including two books on recreational war games. Nowadays H.G. Wells is mostly remembered for his innovative science fiction n... Read More
Herbert George Wells was an English writer. He is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often called a "father of science fiction", along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. Wells's earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context. The World Set Free is a remarkable example of... Read More
H. G. Wells' influence on the emerging field of science fiction is almost impossible to overstate. Wells's earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context. In October 1879, Wells's mother arranged through a distant relative, Arthur Williams, for him to join the National School at Wookey in Somerse... Read More
H.G. Wells was a famous science fiction writer. The science fiction historian John Clute describes Wells as "the most important writer the genre has yet seen", and notes his work has been central to both British and American science fiction. Science fiction author and critic Algis Budrys said Wells "remains the outstanding expositor of both the hope, and the despair, which are embodied in the t... Read More
Herbert George Wells was an English writer, who is now best remembered for his science fiction novels. In Britain, Wells's work was a key model for the British "Scientific Romance", and other writers in that mode, such as Olaf Stapledon, J. D. Beresford, S. Fowler Wright, and Naomi Mitchison, all drew on Wells's example. The Flowering of the Strange Orchid is a cautionary tale, the moral of whi... Read More
H. G. Wells was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction. His writing career spanned more than sixty years, and his early science fiction novels earned him the title of "The Father of Science Fiction". Wells’ first, The Time Machine, is a critique of utopian ideas, set in the year 802701. The story reflects Wells's own socialist political views, his view on life and abundance, and the... Read More
Henry Patterson, known by his pen name Jack Higgins, is a British writer, born on 27 July 1929 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. In 1959, Higgins began writing novels. One of his aliases was James Graham. The growing success of his early work allowed him to take time off from his teaching, and he eventually left the classroom to become a full-time novelist. The Eagle Has Landed is a classic of t... Read More
Jack Higgins is a British writer and one of the best-selling authors of popular thrillers and espionage novels. His breakthrough novel The Eagle Has Landed sold over 50 million copies. Some of his other notable books are A Prayer for the Dying, The Eagle Has Flown, Thunder Point, Angel of Death, Flight of Eagles, and Day of Reckoning. His 85 novels in total have sold over 150 million copies and... Read More
Jack Higgins, real name Henry Patterson, is a British writer and one of the best-selling authors of popular thrillers and espionage novels. His 85 novels in total have sold over 150 million copies and have been translated into 55 languages. Patterson began using the pseudonym Jack Higgins in the late 1960s; his first minor bestsellers appeared in the early 1970s, two contemporary thrillers The... Read More