A Literary Christmas: An Anthology
by British Library (Editor), Arnold Bennett (Contributor)
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Description
"For as long as Christmas has been celebrated, poets and writers have sought to explore every aspect of it, whether the story of the Nativity, gatherings with family and friends, or the festive traditions that have grown up over the centuries. A Literary Christmas is a seasonal anthology collecting poems, short stories and prose extracts by some of the greatest poets and writers in the English language"--Jacket.Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
A beautiful collection in both presentation and compilation. I'll admit that some of the selections had me scratching my head a bit, wondering why they were there, but others were absolutely spot on. I was introduced to a wide variety of authors and books I might not know about otherwise.
A nice little anthology (there is an audiobook available read by Juliet Stevenson and Simon Callow). Most authors are British with the exception of "the usual suspects" -- Moore, Alcott, Longfellow, Irving -- and Henry James, who probably counts as British anyway. Much of the book consists of excerpts from longer works. Still, I would have given this book five stars but for the fact that the many lovely illustrations are completely uncredited, being in the public domain, except for the illustration from E. H. Shepard's drawing from The Wind in the Willows. I recognized Arthur Rackham and John Leech but it would have been nice to know the sources of the other illustrations; and a bit of information on the less well-known contributors show more would have been a good thing too. show less
Spring 2018:
Where do I even start? How do I even quantify how beautiful this was, and how touching it was to listen to forty different pieces of preeminent poetry and prose from the literary canon. I can see myself putting this on, and letting it sing and read throughout my whole house, as I'm putting up the tree and all the decorations this coming after-Thanksgiving weekend.
Where do I even start? How do I even quantify how beautiful this was, and how touching it was to listen to forty different pieces of preeminent poetry and prose from the literary canon. I can see myself putting this on, and letting it sing and read throughout my whole house, as I'm putting up the tree and all the decorations this coming after-Thanksgiving weekend.
Reason read: its the season
I picked this up from Audible on sale. It is an anthology of Christmas tidbits from various British literary works such as;
Moore's A Visit from St Nicholas or The Night Before Christmas
A Christmas memory from Cider with Rosie (Laurie Lee)
Poetry; Wordsworth, Wadsworth, Shelley, Thomas Hood, Tennyson
Christmas Carol and other Dickens
Wuthering Heights
Thomas Hardy, The Oxen
A work of horror; The Mistletoe Bough
and others such as Dylan Thomas, Kenneth Grahame, Nancy Mitford, Louisa May Alcott, Thackeray. and so much more.
I picked this up from Audible on sale. It is an anthology of Christmas tidbits from various British literary works such as;
Moore's A Visit from St Nicholas or The Night Before Christmas
A Christmas memory from Cider with Rosie (Laurie Lee)
Poetry; Wordsworth, Wadsworth, Shelley, Thomas Hood, Tennyson
Christmas Carol and other Dickens
Wuthering Heights
Thomas Hardy, The Oxen
A work of horror; The Mistletoe Bough
and others such as Dylan Thomas, Kenneth Grahame, Nancy Mitford, Louisa May Alcott, Thackeray. and so much more.
Gift from Audrey Walstrom Gabbard
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Christmas Reading
142 works; 5 members
Author Information
Arnold Bennett was born on May 27, 1867 in Hanley, Staffordshire, England. He began his working career as a law clerk and later he left the legal field and became an editor for the magazine Woman. His first novel was "A Man from the North." He wrote several novels set in Hanley, the town where he was born. These are known as the Five Town novels. show more Other titles include "The Babylon Hotel," "The Truth about an Author," and "How to Live on 24 Hours a Day." Bennett won the 1923 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel "Riceyman Steps." "The Journal of Arnold Bennett" was published posthumously in three volumes. Bennett was also the author of "Hugo" which was made into a major motion picture in 2011 starring Jude law and Ben Kingsley, directed by Martin Scorsese. During WWI, Bennett was Director of Propaganda for France at the Ministry of Information. (At that time "propaganda" did not have the negative connotations it would have later in the twentieth century.) This appointment was based on the recommendation of Lord Beaverbrook, who also recommended him as Deputy Minister of that department at the end of the war. Bennett refused a knighthood in 1918. He died in London of typhoid fever on March 27, 1931. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- A Literary Christmas: An Anthology
- Original title
- A Literary Christmas: An Anthology
- Original publication date
- 2013
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genre
- Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 820.80334 — Literature & rhetoric English & Old English literatures English and Old English (Anglo-Saxon) literatures Collections of literary texts in more than one form Dealing with specific themes and subjects Times Holidays
- LCC
- PR1111 .C53 .L57 — Language and Literature English English Literature Collections of English literature
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 160
- Popularity
- 204,555
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (4.07)
- Languages
- English, Italian
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 1
