Illustrated Letters – serie

"I don't regret for a single moment having lived for pleasure. I did it to the full, as one should do anything one does. I lived on honeycomb." Oscar WildeAlthough it is over 120 years since his infamous trial for indecency, Oscar Wilde has never held greater fascination for us. This packed illustrated biography tells the life of Oscar Wilde through his own words – private letters, poems, plays, stories and legendary witticisms. It includes his relationships with key artists and writers of the time, including John Ruskin, Charles Ricketts, and Lillie Langtry.It is illustrated throughout with paintings, engravings, contemporary photographs, cartoons and caricatures of Wilde and his social circle. With illustrations and paintings by Aubrey Beardsley, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, James Whistler and Max Beerbohm, it is a beautiful evocation of the glittering fin de siecle word by its most fascinating wordsmith and aesthete.The book details Wilde's ruin after the trial and its outcome. The profundity of his writing from prison and exile form an epitaph, not only to his own life, but also for the era that carelessly delighted in it.

The story both of the real world of the Brontës at Haworth Parsonage, their home on the edge of the lonely Yorkshire moors, and of the imaginary worlds they spun for themselves in their novels and poetry.Wherever possible, their story is told using their own words – the letters they wrote to each other, Emily and Anne's secret diaries, and Charlotte's exchanges with luminaries of literary England – or those closest to them, such as their brother Branwell, their father Patrick Brontë, and their novelist friend Mrs Gaskell. The Brontës sketched and painted their worlds too, in delicate ink washes and watercolours of family and friends, animals and the English moors. These pictures illuminate the text as do the tiny drawings the Brontë children made to illustrate their imaginary worlds. In addition, there are facsimiles of their letters and diaries, paintings by artists of the day, and pictures of household life. This beautifully illustrated book offers a unique and privileged view of the real lives of three women, writers and sisters.

The story of how a group of precocious young artists shook up the British art establishment, told through their works, letters and diaries. An illustrated history of the linked lives and loves of a group of supremely talented artists of late Victorian Britain through their passionate writings. It features the painters, poets, critics and designers: Ford Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones, Fanny Cornforth, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, William and Janey Morris, Christina, Dante Gabriel, and William Rossetti, John Ruskin, William Bell Scott and Lizzie Siddal.The artistic aspirations and achievements of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood are revealed alongside the interwoven dramas of their personal lives, in letters, diaries and reminiscences, while their genius is displayed in vivid paintings, drawings, designs and poems. The Pre-Raphaelites was a charmed circles of love, friendship and art. Within an ever-changing flow of affections, and intimacies as richly patterned as a tapestry, they worked together as companions, lovers and partners. They shared tragedy as well as happiness, critical hostility as well as success, even the griefs of infidelity and discord. These creative partnerships, which also created the firm William Morris and Co, revitalised Victorian art and design. The new edition publishes in time for the start of the Burne Jones Exhibition at Tate Britain, starting in October 18. It is a vital book in understanding the Pre-Raphaelite art, which remains as popular and moving as ever.

A beautifully illustrated account of the letters and correspondence of Jane Austen.It has been said that Jane Austen the woman and Jane Austen the author are all of a piece, and nowhere is this more evident to the lovers of her novels than in the pages of her letters. This handsome celebration of Austen's letters is illustrated with portraits, facsimile letters, topographical engravings and fashion plates, all helping to bring to life the world Jane Austen inhabited.The letters, with an accompanying commentary by Penelope Hughes-Hallett, are separated into six periods of Jane Austen's life, between the years 1796, when she was twenty, and 1817, the year of her death. They celebrate Jane Austen's talent for expressing exactly what she perceived, making this an illuminating companion to her novels. Although the book follows a broadly chronological scheme, the letters are arranged round visual themes, including the Hampshire countryside, social life in Bath and London, domestic pursuits, paying visits and travelling by carriage.The author, who was born in Jane Austen's Hampshire village of Steventon, lectured on English Literature for the Open University and the Oxford University Department of External Studies.

‘I cannot help that my pictures do not sell. Nevertheless, the time will come when people will see that they are worth more than the price of the paint …’ Vincent van GoghDiscover the moving story of Vincent van Gogh, with his artistic genius and emotional torment told through personal letters, sketches and paintings in this beautiful reissue of a previous bestseller.Vincent van Gogh’s letters are a written testimony to the artist’s struggle to survive and work. This fascinating book’s combination of deeply personal letters alongside rough sketches and finished paintings gives an intimate insight into the painter’s domestic life in Arles and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, his spiritual torment and the creative process.The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh engages with the mind of the artist, reflecting his close bond with his brother and closest companion Theo, his relationship with fellow artists and friends, his ongoing struggle with mental illness, and his passion for art.Martin Bailey's introduction provides essential background information about Vincent's early life, setting the period in Provence in perspective. Biographical notes about the recipients of Vincent's letters are provided as well as a guide for visitors to those places painted by Van Gogh.

The moving story of the life and work of novelist Virginia Woolf, revealed through her own letters to those closest to her.Virginia Woolf is considered by many to be one of the greatest British writers and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century. As well as writing her novels, Woolf was a tireless correspondent, penning as many as six letters a day.This collection of Virginia Woolf's letters offers a fascinating insight into her life, illuminating the complex personality of the novelist herself. The letters range from witty and irreverent to melancholy and introspective, with intimations of the bouts of mental illness that were to lead her to take her own life. She was a writer of genius; and through her correspondence we come close to one of the most brilliant and high-spirited minds of the twentieth century. ‘A true letter’, she insisted, ‘should be like a film of wax pressed close to the graving of the mind’.The book contains background information on Virginia Woolf’s life along with real samples of her handwriting. There are also biographical notes on the main recipients of the letters, together with a family tree for keeping track of names.The letters are beautifully illustrated throughout with photographs, paintings and sketches of the people and places with which Virginia Woolf was most closely connected – many by members of the Bloomsbury Group, such as Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry and Duncan Grant.