"An extremely interesting novelist, and a genuinely original one." - J. B. Priestley "One of the most interesting and one of the most important novelists now writing in England." - Hugh Walpole "At his best, he writes as well as any living man." - L.A.G. Strong One dark, foggy night, the eminent novelist Ivor Trent is on his way to a flat in a sordid London lodging house where he plans to begin work on his newest book, undisturbed by his friends, who all believe him to have gone abroad. On his way there, he glimpses a figure in the fog and is struck with terror when he realizes it is a man from the future. He collapses on the front step of the house, where the proprietor finds him, raving and delirious. Meanwhile, Arthur Rendell, a lonely widower who found solace in one of Trent's novels, determines to find out more about the writer and takes a room in the same house, where he meets Trent's friends, associates, and lovers. To Rosalie Vivian, Trent is a god; to Vera Thornton, he is a devil; to Denis Wrayburn, he heralds a new race of supermen. But who is Ivor Trent, really? And what is the explanation of the terrible vision he experienced in the fog? Rendell intends to find out, but he is unprepared for the devastating truth. Expanding on the themes first explored in his masterpiece "I Am Jonathan Scrivener" (1930) (also available from Valancourt Books), "This Was Ivor Trent" (1935) was a success in both England and America and was one of the best-known novels of Claude Houghton (1889-1961). Though admired by writers as diverse as P. G. Wodehouse, Henry Miller, J. B. Priestley, and Graham Greene, Houghton has fallen into neglect in the past half-century and awaits rediscovery by a new generation of readers. This edition is newly typeset from the first London edition and includes a new introduction by Mark Valentine.

Shows the influence of a man of remarkable and dominating personality on the lives of people who know him, and on some people who have never met him.

England, 1932. The nation had just begun to recover from the wounds of the First World War when economic catastrophe struck with the Great Depression. It is against this background that Vernon Dexter arrives at the old manor house at Greystones, home of the notorious philanderer Sir Keith Petersley and his eccentric wife Lady Isabelle, to tutor their disabled son Eric. As he meets each of the strange members of the Petersley clan and gets caught up in the exciting dramas that unfold at Greystones, we see that the Petersleys are more than just a family: they are representative of an entire way of English life that is on the verge of extinction, to be replaced by a new age of chaos and greed. Inexplicably neglected today, Claude Houghton (1889-1961) was one of the finest English novelists of the interwar period. Though he is best known for novels like "I Am Jonathan Scrivener" (1930), psychological thrillers infused with philosophy and mysticism, in "Chaos Is Come Again" (1932), his theme is more overtly political. In light of the economic crises of recent years, today's readers will find Houghton's novel eerily prescient and his predictions about a society dominated by capitalistic greed remarkably accurate. "A criticism of life today, full of ideas and dramatic moments; it is genuine in its psychology and thrilling in its action." - "The Times" "I read "Chaos Is Come Again" with intense interest. It has not a dull page in it." - Compton Mackenzie "Had Emily Bronte written "Heartbreak House" the result might have been rather like Mr. Claude Houghton's richly inventive "Chaos Is Come Again."" - Norman Collins"

In the last years of the Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman marched 60,000 Union troops through Georgia and the Carolinas, cutting a 60-mile wide swath of pillage and destruction. That event comes back in this magisterial novel. High school & older.

Julian the Apostate was the nephew of Emperor Constantine the Great. Julian ascended to the throne in A.D. 361, at the age of twenty-nine, and was murdered four years later after an unsuccessful attempt to rebuke Christianity and restore the worship of the old gods. Now this historical tapestry is brought to vibrant life by the dazzling talent of Gore Vidal.

An item-by-item discussion of the innumerable, often obscure details of Malcolm Lowry's novel, this book comprises 1,600 notes covering some 7,000 specific points. The notes are keyed to page numbers in the Penguin paperback and the two standard hardback editions. The appendices include a glossary, bibliography, maps of the region, and an index of motifs. In their comprehensive but unpedantic commentary on the novel's complexities, the authors' emphasis is on the narrative level. All points of obscurity are followed by an interpretation of fact. Thus references are noted to films, books, places, foreign languages, and national and tribal histories. Special attention is given to the literary, mystical, and Mexican background.

A comprehensive reference guide to the published writings of Graham Greene, this book surveys not only Greene's literary work - including his fiction, poetry and drama - but also his other published writings. Accessibly organised over five central sections, the book provides the most up-to-date listing available of Greene's journalism, his published letters and major interviews. The Writings of Graham Greene also includes a bibliography of major secondary writings on Greene and a substantial and fully cross-referenced index to aid scholars and researchers working in the field of 20th Century literature.

From the acclaimed author of Dispatches From Pluto and Deepest South of All comes a rollicking travelogue from East Africa. NO ONE TRAVELS QUITE LIKE RICHARD GRANT and, really, no one should. In his last book, the adventure classic God’s Middle Finger, he narrowly escaped death in Mexico’s lawless Sierra Madre. Now, Grant has plunged with his trademark recklessness, wit, and curiosity into East Africa. Setting out to make the first descent of an unexplored river in Tanzania, he gets waylaid in Zanzibar by thieves, whores, and a charismatic former golf pro before crossing the Indian Ocean in a rickety cargo boat. And then the real adventure begins. Known to local tribes as “the river of bad spirits,” the Malagarasi River is a daunting adversary even with a heavily armed Tanzanian crew as travel companions. Dodging bullets, hippos, and crocodiles, Grant finally emerges in war-torn Burundi, where he befriends some ethnic street gangsters and trails a notorious man-eating crocodile known as Gustave. He concludes his journey by interviewing the dictatorial president of Rwanda and visiting the true source of the Nile. Gripping, illuminating, sometimes harrowing, often hilarious, Crazy River is a brilliantly rendered account of a modern-day exploration of Africa, and the unraveling of Grant’s peeled, battered mind as he tries to take it all in.