A Dream of Wessex (Valancourt 20th Century Classics)
A Dream of Wessex (Valancourt 20th Century Classics)

Author: Christopher Priest

Publisher:

Published: 2016-02-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781943910236

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The western democracies are disintegrating, scarred by violence and gripped with fear of terrorist attacks. Trying to find solutions to today's problems, Julia Stretton and other specialists at the Wessex Project have created a virtual reality projection of a utopian future where all current issues have been resolved - how did they achieve it? But on entering Wessex, they lose all memory of their 'real' lives outside, and as they move back and forth the lines between dream and reality become obscured. When Julia's ex-lover, the sadistic Paul Mason, joins the project, he has a sinister plan to take the Wessex projection to a new and terrifying level . . . Christopher Priest's fifth novel, A Dream of Wessex (1977), is a classic of science fiction that will keep readers guessing until the startling, mind-bending conclusion. Priest's novels The Space Machine, The Affirmation, and The Separation are also available from Valancourt. '[An] excellent and intriguing novel ... the characters and their emotions are real, the concepts fascinating, and the sense of foreboding almost unbearable.' - Library Journal 'This fine novel about time-unravellers has hallucinatory powers ... Priest is a novelist of real distinction.' - The Times (London) 'Christopher Priest is one of our most gifted young writers of science fiction. I recommend A Dream of Wessex. I can best convey its quality by saying that I think not only H.G. Wells but Thomas Hardy himself would have enjoyed and approved of it.' - John Fowles, author of The Magus 'It is a strange novel, technically very assured in its shifts of time and handling of place-in-time, sketching in the edges of the dream with considerable vividness. A fine, exciting novel - SF if you want a label, but an enrichment not only of the sub-genre, but the whole genre too.' - The Guardian

The Separation
The Separation

Author: Christopher Priest

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2011-09-08

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0575114959

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THE SEPARATION is the story of twin brothers, rowers in the 1936 Olympics (where they met Hess, Hitler's deputy); one joins the RAF, and captains a Wellington; he is shot down after a bombing raid on Hamburg and becomes Churchill's aide-de-camp; his twin brother, a pacifist, works with the Red Cross, rescuing bombing victims in London. But this is not a straightforward story of the Second World War: this is an alternate history: the two brothers - both called J.L. Sawyer - live their lives in alternate versions of reality. In one, the Second World War ends as we imagine it did; in the other, thanks to efforts of an eminent team of negotiators headed by Hess, the war ends in 1941. THE SEPARATION is an emotionally riveting story of how the small man can make a difference; it's a savage critique of Winston Churchill, the man credited as the saviour of Britain and the Western World, and it's a story of how one perceives and shapes the past. Christopher Priest is a genre-leading author of SFF fiction. His novel, THE PRESTIGE, won a number of awards and was adapted into a critically acclaimed, Oscar-nominated film directed by Christopher Nolan (TENET, INCEPTION) starring Hugh Jackman (THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, X-MEN), Christian Bale (THE BIG SHORT, BATMAN BEGINS), Michael Caine (THE ITALIAN JOB) and Scarlett Johansson (MARRIAGE STORY, THE AVENGERS).

The Witches
The Witches

Author: Peter Curtis

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0099553848

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Walwyk seemed a dream village to the new schoolteacher, Miss Mayfield. But dreams can change into nightmares... When one of her students accuses his friend Ethel's grandmother of abusing her, Miss Mayfield cannot let it go. But Ethel won't say anything, despite the evidence of Miss Mayfield's own eyes. But as she attempts to get to the truth of the matter, she stumbles on something far more sinister. Walwyk seems to be in the grip of a centuries-old evil, and anybody who questions events in the village does not last long. Death stalks more than one victim, and Miss Mayfield begins to realise that if she's not careful, she will be the next to die...

The Little Wax Doll
The Little Wax Doll

Author: Norah Lofts

Publisher:

Published: 1960

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13:

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When Deborah Mayfield accepted a position as head mistress at a private school near London, she thought it was too good to be true. However,the serene school masked a monstrous secret, and as Deborah uncovered it bit by bit, she realized it had to do with black demon worship.

A Short History of English Literature
A Short History of English Literature

Author: Harry Blamires

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-02-28

Total Pages: 493

ISBN-13: 1134942109

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First published in 2012. This work of introduction is designed to escort the reader through some six centuries of English literature. It begins in the fourteenth century at the point at which the language written in our country is recognizably our own, and ends in the 1950s. It is a compact survey, summing up the substance and quality of the individual achievements that make up our literature. The aim is to leave the reader informed about each writer’s main output, sensitive to the special character of his gifts, and aware of his place in the story of our literature as a whole.

The Adjacent
The Adjacent

Author: Christopher Priest

Publisher: Titan Books (US, CA)

Published: 2014-04-08

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1781169446

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“One of the master illusionists of our time.” —Wired “A head-spinning blast of blurred reality . . . jaw-dropping.” —NPR “Completely fascinating.” —San Francisco Book Review Set against “a kaleidoscopic backdrop of Earth’s past, present, and future”, this time-hopping science fiction novel is a moving meditation on “the resonance of history, memory, and love” (AV Club) In the near future, Tibor Tarent, a freelance photographer, is recalled from Anatolia to Britain when his wife, an aid worker, is killed—annihilated by a terrifying weapon that reduces its target to a triangular patch of scorched earth. A century earlier, Tommy Trent, a stage magician, is sent to the Western Front on a secret mission to render British reconnaissance aircraft invisible to the enemy. Present day. A theoretical physicist develops a new method of diverting matter, a discovery with devastating consequences that will resonate through time.

The Affirmation
The Affirmation

Author: Christopher Priest

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2011-10-13

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0575114991

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Peter Sinclair is tormented by bereavement and failure. In an attempt to conjure some meaning from his life, he embarks on an autobiography, but he finds himself writing the story of another man in another, imagined, world, whose insidious attraction draws him even further in ... THE AFFIRMATION is at once an original thriller and a haunting study of schizophrenia; it has a compulsive, dream-like quality.

Emma and Pride and Prejudice
Emma and Pride and Prejudice

Author: Jane Austen

Publisher: Collector's Library

Published: 2009-09

Total Pages: 1080

ISBN-13: 9781905716753

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Published to coincide with the BBC TV four-part serialisation of EMMA in autumn 2009.

Teaching Nineteenth-Century Fiction
Teaching Nineteenth-Century Fiction

Author: A. Maunder

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-12-04

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 0230281265

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This book brings together the experiences of Anglo-American teachers and discusses some of the challenges which face teachers of nineteenth-century fiction, suggesting practical ways in which these might start to be overcome by considering the constantly changing canon, issues related to course design and the possibilities offered by film and ICT.