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Many of Jane Austen's letters were published for the first time in this collection by her great-nephew Lord Brabourne. The letters are set within a context that explains their significance. This second volume includes letters written between 1808 and Jane Austen's death in 1817, together with other family documents.

De Nugis Curialium ('Courtiers' Trifles') is the only surviving work by the twelfth-century courtier, Walter Map. Written to entertain, the book is a collection of short stories and anecdotes about court life and contemporary society. This edition (1914) is based on the only surviving manuscript from the fourteenth century.

John Dover Wilson's New Shakespeare, published between 1921 and 1966, became the classic Cambridge edition of Shakespeare's plays and poems until the 1980s. The series, long since out-of-print, is now reissued. Each work contains a lengthy and lively introduction, main text, and substantial notes and glossary.

Published in 1889, Gosse's study of English literature from 1660 to 1780 was commissioned by Macmillan as the third volume in a series of literary histories. It was a landmark in a relatively new field of academic study, popular and accessible, providing an enthusiastic and wide-ranging introduction to the period.

Originally published in 1899, and reissued here in the 1928 edition, this two-volume collection contains letters and travel reports written by Kipling (1865-1936) on his journeys around India, East Asia and the USA in 1887-9. Kipling's characteristically vivid prose describes experiences including a fascinating encounter with Mark Twain.

In this two-volume work of 1869, Teresa Guiccioli (1800-73), who was nineteen when she first met Byron in Venice and became his mistress, attempts to restore the poet's reputation, which she believed to be tainted by a conflation in the public mind between Byron and his more notorious characters.

Samuel Johnson (1709-84), one of the most celebrated individuals of English literature, and Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741-1821), an unconventional woman of great intellectual vivacity, were close friends. First published in two volumes in 1788, these letters offer an illuminating and intimate glimpse into their daily lives and concerns.

First published between 1853 and 1856, this eight-volume collection of memoirs, diaries and letters provides rare insights into the Irish poet and patriot Thomas Moore (1779-1852). Volume 1 contains Moore's own memoir and correspondence from 1793 to 1813.

Designed 'to present the sort of insight into his history and pursuits which one wants, if one desires to make a companion of a man', this invaluable 1897 memoir of Tennyson by his son Hallam is self-confessedly uncritical, concerned with respectful and guarded biography through a wealth of documentary evidence.

George Gordon Noel Byron (1788-1824), a central figure of British Romanticism, was famous for his unconventional character and lifestyle as well as for his poetry. This two-volume work, compiled by his friend Thomas Moore, was published in 1830. Volume 1 gives an account of Byron's life until 1816.

John O'Keeffe (1747-1833), the Irish playwright who wrote a string of successful comic operas and farces including Wild Oats (1791), for the London stage, published this two-volume memoir in 1826. In Volume 1, O'Keeffe focuses on his childhood, the influence of London theatre and his early career in Ireland.

John Cam Hobhouse, Baron Broughton (1786-1869), politician and memoirist, is today best remembered for his close friendship with Byron. This six-volume memoir, edited by his daughter from his own writings and diaries, was published in 1909-11, and sheds light on social and political events of his time.

Henry Crabb Robinson (1775-1867) was a lawyer and journalist who was acquainted with all the significant literary and cultural figures of his day. His lifelong habit of keeping diaries, letters and memoirs, from which this 1869 compilation derives, provides a major source of biographical information about his friends.

Part autobiography, part critical analysis, this 1852 collection of essays was penned by one of the most prolific female writers of the nineteenth century. This first volume contains essays on Beaumont and Fletcher, Sidney, Herrick, Samuel Johnson, and Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and several others.

The first book edition of Great Expectations was published in three volumes in 1861. It is now reissued simultaneously with the serialised version of 1860-1 and a newly photographed colour reproduction of the original manuscript, enabling scholars and enthusiasts to study the book version alongside the work-in-progress.

First published in 1885, this three-part 'autobiography' was assembled by John Cross from the letters and journals of his late wife, George Eliot. Though suppressing much in the desire to render an unconventional life 'respectable', the work remains an important initial insight into Eliot's personal and private life.

In this nine-volume work, published between 1812 and 1815, the author and publisher John Nichols (1745-1826) provides biographical notes on publishers, writers and artists of the eighteenth century, and also gives 'an incidental view of the progress and advancement of literature in this kingdom during the last century'.

On the death of Edward Gibbon (1737-94), his unpublished papers were left to his friend John Baker Holroyd, first earl of Sheffield, who published them in two volumes in 1796. Volume 1 contains a biography, compiled by Sheffield from Gibbon's six autobiographical manuscripts and some of his letters.

Published in 1855 and reissued here in the second edition of that year, this two-volume work celebrates the life of the author and wit Sydney Smith (1771-1845). His daughter Saba Holland (1802-66) offers private insights into a man who lived much of his life in the public eye.

Inspired by 'gratitude to the actor and duty to the public, to perpetuate the character of excellence, and afford models for imitation to future artists', this two-volume 1827 biography of acclaimed tragedian Sarah Siddons (1755-1831) fed popular obsession with theatrical anecdote and criticism in an age of transformation for the English stage.

According to poet and critic Anna Seward (1742-1809), a letter unanswered resembled an 'unexpiated sin'. Her correspondence was vast: she wrote to James Boswell, Walter Scott and George Washington, among many others. This six-volume selection, first published in 1811, offers readers and researchers a wealth of Romantic literary criticism.

This two-volume collection of reminiscences by historian and social critic Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was edited by his friend, the historian J. A. Froude (1818-94) and published in March 1881, a month after Carlyle's death. Volume 1 contains sketches about Carlyle's father, James, and Edward Irving, a close friend.

This eight-volume set, published 1817-58 by the Nichols family, is a sequel to John Nichols' Literary Anecdotes (1812-15), and provides a useful source of biographical material on authors and publishers at a time when many of the literary genres we now take for granted were first being developed.

Mary Delany (nee Granville, 1700-88) was famed for her paper-cut botanical illustrations, but she was also a prolific correspondent and knew many of the leading cultural figures of the eighteenth century. This six-volume work, edited by her great-great-niece, Lady Llanover (1802-96), was published in 1861-2.

Best remembered for his children's tale The Water Babies, Charles Kingsley (1819-75) was an Anglican priest, historian, novelist and supporter of social reform. Written by his wife and drawing on his letters, this account of a varied life gives insights into the concerns and preoccupations of the mid-Victorian period.

First published in 1922, this two-volume book brings together letters written by Byron (1788-1824) from 1808 up to his death. It contains an introduction and biographical notes by John Murray IV. Volume 1 covers the period up to Byron's marriage in 1815, including his travels as a young man.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was one of the most influential authors of the nineteenth century. These volumes, first published in 1882, form the first part of James Anthony Froude's classic biography of Carlyle, describing his early life and literary work. Volume 1 covers the years 1795-1827.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was one of the most influential authors of the nineteenth century. These volumes, first published in 1884, form the second part of James Anthony Froude's classic biography of Carlyle, describing his life and literary work after 1834. Volume 1 covers the years 1834-1849.

Jane Welsh Carlyle (1801-1866) was a prolific letter writer, and her marriage to Thomas was one of the most famous of literary unions. Readers of this 1883 collection of her letters will be entertained by Jane's famous wit, and will sympathise with the frequent tensions in her marriage.