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.A Room with a View (Penguin Classics)

by: E.M. Forster, Malcolm Bradbury

August 31, 2006
It's very simple really. I work all day in an office as part of a modern globalised monoculture.

And then on the way home I read A Room with a View and reacquaint myself with everything that's true.

Books like this are treasured friends.
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.The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories

by: Malcolm Bradbury

February 25, 1988
In the introduction, the editor, Malcom Bradbury, sets out his intention in producing this collection: one was to 'display...the achievement of some the best work produced by the strongest of...recent Britsh authors'; and the other, what Bradbury claims to be a more difficult task, to be 'broadly representative, so that the book might give not only a reasonable idea of the variety, but also the general trends and directions that have been taken by British fiction in the years since 1945'.

Bradbury succeeds in both attempts. This is not paritcularly surprising since this is Bradbury's territory. The collection contains works by some of the biggest names in British Literature: William Golding, Samuel Beckett, Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis, ... Read More:
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.Herzog (Penguin Modern Classics)

by: Saul Bellow

April 26, 2001
This novel starts with a ferociously strong image, then moves us into the mind of Moses Herzog. Herzog is a failing professor with an unfaithful second wife, a treacherous best friend, unwritten books and theses which remind him of his failings. Also, in a bizarrely wonderful twist, we find that Herzog writes letters avidly, even compulsively. These are largely to dead people, either relatives or historical figures he has never met. Also mathematicians - he writes to Euclid and points out why his theories don't add up.

The novel also contains a profound and bitter sense of betrayal, Herzog's as his marriage fails and his child whisked from him, Bellow's as similar events in his life mirrored the plot.

This is Bellow's most autobiographical ... Read More:
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.Becoming a Writer

by: Dorothea Brande

March 08, 1996
Books that teach you how to write fiction are almost a genre unto themselves. Some are literary (A Passion for Narrative) and some are trash (How to Write a Blockbuster), but most usually recommend the same things: create a daily writing routine, study other authors, persist, etc. This slim book is a classic in the genre, published before World War II. The language is very formal, the recommended reading is of authors no longer popular, and the reader is given plenty of suggestions of what to do with a typewriter.

What I found interesting: creative writing classes existed even back then, and they were for both men and women; the duality between consciousness and unconsciousness was already of interest for those studying creative writing; and the main belief ... Read More:
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.The History Man

by: Malcolm Bradbury

April 27, 2000
I have seldom read as unsympathetic, unloving, and unenjoyable novel as Bradbury's 'The History Man'. The author, with his unrelenting pushing of irony and pages-long tracts of dialogue, has created a narrative voice which makes you feel neither empathy nor hatred towards a single character.
As other reviewers have hinted at, but not said explicitly, the book is hideously of its time, and totally irrelevant to the modern reader. All great art speaks towards a timeless quality within ourselves; all 'The History Man' speaks towards is a general dislike for 70's marxists and hippies.
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.Modernism: A Guide to European Literature 1890-1930 (Penguin Literary Criticism)

from: Penguin Books Ltd

May 30, 1991
I have seldom read as unsympathetic, unloving, and unenjoyable novel as Bradbury's 'The History Man'. The author, with his unrelenting pushing of irony and pages-long tracts of dialogue, has created a narrative voice which makes you feel neither empathy nor hatred towards a single character.
As other reviewers have hinted at, but not said explicitly, the book is hideously of its time, and totally irrelevant to the modern reader. All great art speaks towards a timeless quality within ourselves; all 'The History Man' speaks towards is a general dislike for 70's marxists and hippies.
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.The Great Gatsby (Everyman's Library Classics)

by: F.Scott Fitzgerald

September 26, 1991
I wouldn't have chosen a book such as this normally - it took a good few people telling me to read it before I finally did. But it was an amazing surprise.
It presents a wonderful picture of 1920's America - sparkling with colour and glitter and wit and alcohol, but scratch just a little below the surface and there are always the darker undertones of corruption and deceit, the tensions, the constant hint of aggression - this is a book to tantalize the senses and confuse the mind.
It's one of those books where there is no real solution - you decide who you believe or trust, and who you don't - and take it from there.
A definate recommendation - everyone should read it!
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.From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature

by: Malcolm Bradbury, Richard Ruland

March 25, 1993
As a first year American Literature student I found this book very helpful. Having only studed English Literature in the past, reading this book before embarking on my course enabled me to grasp a few of the concepts of American Literature and contribute to my seminars in a way that would have been impossible without this lifesaver!! A must for any American Literature student and anybody who holds an interest in the subject!
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.The Routledge History of Literature in English

by: Ronald Carter, John McRae

June 26, 2001
As a first year American Literature student I found this book very helpful. Having only studed English Literature in the past, reading this book before embarking on my course enabled me to grasp a few of the concepts of American Literature and contribute to my seminars in a way that would have been impossible without this lifesaver!! A must for any American Literature student and anybody who holds an interest in the subject!
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.Rates of Exchange: AND Why Come to Slaka?

by: Malcolm Bradbury

May 16, 2003
It's a wonderful book. It reminds me of my country - Bulgaria which unfortunately has changed very little since the book has been first published in 1982. Today party aparatchiks are again ruling Bulgaria this time as businessmen and their sons and daughters are again in the government and in the Parliament. It is sad and at the same time very funny story. Sad, because I have seen all this and funny because everything that's far away looks somehow funny especially when it's written in such wonderful way. It is even sadder that in Slaka (Bulgaria) history is repeating itself.
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