Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

The Dictionary of Imaginary Places: The Newly Updated and Expanded Classic

The Dictionary of Imaginary Places: The Newly Updated and Expanded Classic

by Alberto Manguel

From Atlantis to Xanadu and beyond, this Baedeker of make-believe takes readers on a tour of more than 1,200 realms invented by storytellers from Homer's day to our own. Here you will find Shangri-La and El Dorado; Utopia and Middle Earth; Wonderland and Freedonia. Here too are Jurassic Park, Salman Rushdie's Sea of Stories, and the fabulous world of Harry Potter. The history and behavior of the inhabitants of... (more)

The Arabian Nights: A Companion

by Robert Irwin

The Arabian Nights: A Companion guides the reader into this celebrated labyrinth of storytelling. It traces the development of the stories from prehistoric India and Pharaonic Egypt to modern times. It also explores the history of the translation, and explains the ways its contents have been added to, plagiarized and imitated. Above all, the book uses the stories as a guide to the social history and the... (more)

The Tough Guide to Fantasyland

by Diana Wynne Jones

Both a hilarious send-up of the clich s of the genre and an indispensable guide for writers, The Tough Guide to Fantasyland has been impossible to find for years. This is Diana Wynne Jones at her very best: incisive, funny, and wildly imaginative. This is the definitive edition of The Tough Guide, featuring a new map, an entirely new design, and additional material written for it by Diana Wynne Jones.

A Dictionary of Literary Symbols

by Michael Ferber

This is the first dictionary of symbols to be based on literature, rather than "universal" pyschological archetypes, myths or esoterica. Michael Ferber has assembled nearly two hundred main entries clearly explaining and illustrating the literary symbols that we all encounter (such as swan, rose, moon, gold), along with hundreds of cross-references and quotations. The dictionary concentrates on English literature,... (more)

The Complete Guide to Sherlock HolmesMichael Hardwick

The Complete Guide to Sherlock Holmes

by Michael Hardwick

Few authors have been so widely read and re-read as Arthur Conan Doyle--but then, few fictional characters have been so irresistible as Sherlock Holmes. Hardwick's companion to the stories, now available for the first time in paperback, offers entertaining digests of each tale and includes lists of characters, quotations, and unchronicled cases. Illustrated.

The Devil's Details: A History of Footnotes

The Devil's Details: A History of Footnotes

by Chuck Zerby

Footnotes have not had it easy. Their dominance of eighteenth- and nineteenth- century literature and scholarship was both hard-won -- following many years of struggle -- and doomed, as it led to belittlement in the twentieth century. In The Devil's Details, Chuck Zerby playfully explores footnotes' long and illustrious history and makes a clarion call to save them from the new world of the Internet and... (more)

Literature Lover's Book of Lists: Serious Trivia for the Bibliophile

Literature Lover's Book of Lists: Serious Trivia for the Bibliophile

by Judie L. H. Strouf

Wonderful for browsing, and invaluable for finding specific information, Literature Lovers Book of Lists is a compendium of useful and sometimes whimsical information for anyone who loves books and loves to read, at any age or reading level. It is organized into nine sections and provides nearly 200 lists relating to genres, authors, characters and settings, awards, literary terms with their definitions and much... (more)

Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia: Fourth Edition (Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia)

Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia: Fourth Edition (Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia)

by William Rose Benet

Long recognized as the outstanding reference on world literature, Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia is the one against which all others are measured, and is the single-most complete one-volume encyclopedia available for those with a serious interest in the subject. The entries explore all aspects of literature from around the world: biographies of poets and playwrights, novelists and belle trists; plot synopses... (more)

Literary Terms: A Dictionary: Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged

Literary Terms: A Dictionary: Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged

by Arthur F. Ganz, Karl E. Beckson

For all those who have become entangled in the ever-burgeoning sphere of confusing literary terminology, Professors Karl Beckson and Arthur Ganz provide clear and entertaining explanations, in this, their now-classic reference work. From abecedarius to zeugma , they gracefully guide the reader through the intricacies of literary forms and ideas. Over the years, Literary Terms has been revised and enlarged as... (more)

A reader's guide to literary terms,: A dictionaryKarl E Beckson

A reader's guide to literary terms,: A dictionary

by Karl E Beckson

The novel now: A student's guide to contemporary fictionAnthony Burgess

The novel now: A student's guide to contemporary fiction

by Anthony Burgess

Good Old Index: The Sherlock Holmes Handbook : A Guide to the Sherlock Holmes Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : Persons, Places, Themes, Summaries of All the Tales

Good Old Index: The Sherlock Holmes Handbook : A Guide to the Sherlock Holmes Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : Persons, Places, Themes, Summaries of All the Tales

by Thomas Wynne Ross

This book makes easily available a fascinating collection of information about the Great Detective and his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Through its entries, readers can study Holmes's garb; evaluate the character of Dr Watson;assess Doyle's writing habits; or discover the astonishing variety of weapons employed in the stories, from life-preservers through chairs and poison gas to an arsenal of knives and... (more)

Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels : An English-Language Selection, 1949-1984

Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels : An English-Language Selection, 1949-1984

by David Pringle

This lively and authoritative guide will app eal to both newcomers and connoisseurs of the genre. Informa tive and readable, Pringle''s choices focus on landmarks by k nown artists and also unearth the talents of those that are lesser known. '

The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature

The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature

The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature was first published in 1983 to great acclaim. In the fourteen years since its publication Canadian literature has enjoyed an explosion of creative talent. This exciting new edition reflects this vivid flowering, adding more than 360 new entries as well as updating material from the original to reflect recent publications and changes in the biographies of writers... (more)

The Anatomy of Bibliomania

by Holbrook Jackson

An unmitigated delight for any bibliophile, Holbrook Jackson's musings on the joys of reading combine his irrepressible wit with the wisdom of famous readers from all corners of the world. These three volumes, now back in print, are a leisurely, luxuriant confabulation on "the usefulness, purpose, and pleasures that proceed from books." In The Anatomy of Bibliomania, Jackson inspects the allure of books, their... (more)

The Mystery Lovers' Book of Quotations

by Jane E. Horning

The Illustrated Book of Science Fiction ListsMike Ashley

The Illustrated Book of Science Fiction Lists

by Michael Ashley

Dictionary of BorgesEvelyn Fishburn, Psiche Hughes

Dictionary of Borges

by Evelyn Fishburn

The Mystery Lover's Companion

by Art Bourgeau

Guilty Parties: A Mystery Lover's Companion

Guilty Parties: A Mystery Lover's Companion

by Ian Ousby

detective C. Auguste Dupin to the world, novels of crime and mystery have enthralled readers everywhere. Ian Ousby's highly entertaining text tells the whole story of detective fiction, accompanied by 175 illustrations--25 in full color--of favorite scenes and characters.

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