Sandra Kemp – författare

The Moonstone is one of the first true works of detective fiction, in which Wilkie Collins established the groundwork for the genre itself. This Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction by Sandra Kemp.The Moonstone, a priceless yellow diamond, is looted from an Indian temple and maliciously bequeathed to Rachel Verinder. On her eighteenth birthday, her friend and suitor Franklin Blake brings the gift to her. That very night, it is stolen again. No one is above suspicion, as the idiosyncratic Sergeant Cuff and the Franklin piece together a puzzling series of events as mystifying as an opium dream and as deceptive as the nearby Shivering Sand. The intricate plot and modern technique of multiple narrators made Wilkie Collins's 1868 work a huge success in the Victorian sensation genre. With a reconstruction of the crime, red herrings and a 'locked-room' puzzle, The Moonstone was also a major precursor of the modern mystery novel.In her introduction Sandra Kemp explores The Moonstone's the detective elements of Collins's writing, and reveals how Collins's sensibilities were untypical of his era.Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was born in London in 1824, the eldest son of the landscape painter William Collins. In 1846 he was entered to read for the bar at Lincoln's Inn, where he gained the knowledge that was to give him much of the material for his writing. From the early 1850s he was a friend of Charles Dickens, who produced and acted in two melodramas written by Collins, The Lighthouse and The Frozen Deep. Of his novels, Collins is best remembered for The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868).If you enjoyed The Moonstone you might like Collins's The Woman in White, also available in Penguin Classics.'Probably the very finest detective story ever written'Dorothy L. Sayers'The first, the longest and the best of modern modern English detective novels'T.S. Eliot

`A feminist is a woman who does not allow anyone to think in her place.' Michele Le DoeuffSpanning nearly two decades (1980-1996), the six sections of this reader investigate the debates which have most characterized feminist theory to date.Including articles such as `Pornography and Fantasy', `The Body and Cinema', `Nature as Female', and `A Manifesto for Cyborgs', the extracts in Feminisms explore thoughts on sexuality as a domain of exploration, the visual representation of women, what being a feminist means, and why feminists are increasingly involved in political struggles to negotiate the context and meaning of technological development. With writing by bell hooks, Alice Jardine, and Andrea Dworkin, this multi-cultural Oxford Reader reflects the dynamic nature of feminist debates and the genuine diversity within current feminist theory.

'This oozing, bulging wealth of the English upper and upper-middle classes.' This was how George Orwell saw the Edwardian period. What images do we see when we think of that era? Ladies munching delicately on cucumber sandwiches? Gentlemen in straw boaters punting gently down rivers? Looking at the authors and authoresses of this time and the things that they wrote about, it seems that there is more to that era than this chocolate-box image of long, lazy summer afternoons would imply. In fact the Edwardian period was a time of much anxiety and insecurity about the changes that were taking place and the ideas that were emerging, and the fiction which arose from them serves as evidence for this.In this unique guide, described as 'a tremendous achievement' by the TLS, literature scholars Sandra Kemp, Charlotte Mitchell, and David Trotter explore the broad sweep of writing that emerged from the early 20th century. Now available in paperback, the Companion offers a wealth of information on the writers, the works, the themes, and the ideas of this fascinating literary era.From Walter Besant's The Fourth Generation, to James Joyce's Dubliners, the Companion doesn't merely centre on works from the Edwardian period but also explores those whose fiction influenced writers at the start of the period and those who took those writers' themes and ideas up to the next level. It also provides details on some of the now neglected and forgotten gems that came from that era.Around 800 authors are covered and there are also entries on some of the most significant novels of the period. An unprecedented number of women began to publish at this time and they represent nearly half of the author-entries in the Companion. There are also entries on the themes and genres that emerged. This was a period when the urban middle and lower classes became not only the subject of fiction but also a substantial part of its readership. Never before had novels been so cheap to buy (and produce). Entries include:Writers: Alice and Claude Askew, J. M. Barrie, Max Beerbohm, M. McDonnell Bodkin, G. K. Chesterton, Walter de la Mare, Ethel M. Dell, A. Conan Doyle, John Galsworthy, Jerome K Jerome, Rudyard Kipling, Oliver Onions, Baroness Orczy, H. G. WellsPublications: The Albany Review, The Athenaeum, Contemporary Review, The Cornhill Magazine, The English Review, The New Age, Pall Mall MagazineWorks: Anna of the Five Towns, The Country House, The Dark Flower, The Golden Bowl, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Lord Jim, The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, The Railway Children, The Secret Garden, The White PeacockThemes: Boer War, crime fiction, exoticism, family sagas, fantasy, feminist fiction, historical romance, invasion scare stories, marriage problem novels, regional fiction, suburban lifeOther: literary agents, publishersIn addition to the A-Z entries, there is a chronology charting major historical and cultural events, a list of books frequently consulted, and a very useful index of pseudonyms and changes of name.

Futures examines the relevance of futures studies to literary studies. It demonstrates how the growing interest in futures thinking is opening up multidisciplinary conversations and initiatives, examining historical and contemporary forms of futures knowledge, the methodologies and technologies of futures expertise, and the role played by different institutions on legitimising, deploying, and controlling anticipatory practices.Bringing together emerging perspectives on the future from diverse disciplinary perspectives including critical theory, design, anthropology, sociology, politics, and history, this book places the provocation of power at the heart of the book through an investigation of futures as both objects of science and objects of the human imagination, creativity, and will. A multidisciplinary team of contributors challenge and debate the varied ways in which futures are conjured and constructed, exploring issues as diverse as the utopian imagination, history and philosophy, literary and political manifestos, artefacts and design fictions, and forms of technological and financial forecasting, big data, climate modelling, and scenarios. The book positions the future as a question of power, of representations and counter-representations, and forms of struggle over future imaginaries. Forms of futures-making depend on complex processes of envisioning and embodiment. Each chapter investigates the critical vocabularies, genres, and representational methods - narrative, quantitative, visual, and material - of futures-making as deeply contested fields in cultural and social life.

Unlike his contemporaries Virginia Woolf and Henry James, Kipling always denied he was a critic. But his letters, speeches, and stories are full of comments on writing and writers. This collection, including many formerly unpublished private letters and papers, details Kipling's response to the commercialisation of literature and the emerging role of the writer as celebrity in the turbulent literary world of the 1890s and beyond. They reveal a mind intensely concerned with questions of literary value, with language and imagination, with truth, realism, and romanticism. Kipling's fame made him a significant spokesperson for important segments of the reading public - the soldiers, engineers, and functionaries central to Britain's imperial expansion. He profoundly influenced English literary language and our perception of English national character. This book offers access to the private and public history of a writer whose continuing influence is still a matter of fierce controversy.

Unlike his contemporaries Virginia Woolf and Henry James, Kipling always denied he was a critic. But his letters, speeches, and stories are full of comments on writing and writers. This collection, including many formerly unpublished private letters and papers, details Kipling's response to the commercialisation of literature and the emerging role of the writer as celebrity in the turbulent literary world of the 1890s and beyond. They reveal a mind intensely concerned with questions of literary value, with language and imagination, with truth, realism, and romanticism. Kipling's fame made him a significant spokesperson for important segments of the reading public - the soldiers, engineers, and functionaries central to Britain's imperial expansion. He profoundly influenced English literary language and our perception of English national character. This book offers access to the private and public history of a writer whose continuing influence is still a matter of fierce controversy.