New Releases by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst

''The best book about reading I have read for a very long time'' STEPHEN FRY ''A glittering gem of a book'' NATALIE HAYNES A joyful and enlightening masterclass in how reading attentively can change our lives As an English literature professor, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst has delighted in sharing his love of reading with his students. Bringing together more than twenty years of teaching, Look Closer explores the iconic works of literature that have formed, sustained and entertained him, from timeless classics like Wuthering Heights and Dracula to modern masterpieces such as Normal People and The Handmaid’s Tale, as well as children’s books, poetry, plays, short stories and comics. It is a masterclass in how to be human. By revealing the simple techniques to slow down, take note and bring a text to life, Look Closer is the culmination of a life spent reading. This book is for anyone interested in how literature works and makes clear why reading is more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. Funny, illuminating and personal, Look Closer ultimately shows us how great writing can change a person’s life. It is a celebration of the simple joy of reading, and how becoming more attentive readers can open up worlds and bring us closer to ourselves in delightful and unexpected ways.

A darkly comic and moving memoir on what it means to be human in a world where nothing is certain, from the award-winning Oxford professor. ‘A book that will stay with you for life’ NATALIE HAYNES ‘The best book about multiple sclerosis’ THE TIMES We all have trapdoors in our lives. Sometimes we jump off just in time... But sometimes we are unlucky. My own trapdoor was hidden in the consulting room of an Oxford neurologist. When the trapdoor opened for Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, he plummeted into a world of MRI scans, a disobedient body and the crushing unpredictability of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. But, as he explores in Metamorphosis, his fall also did something else. It took him deep into his own mind: his hopes, his fears, his loves and losses, and the books that would sustain, inform and nourish him as his life began to transform in ways he could never have imagined. ‘A pitch-perfect memoir... touchingly honest and darkly funny’ JACQUELINE WILSON ‘An outstanding feat... Riveting’ SUNDAY TIMES

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR The year is 1851. It''s a time of radical change in Britain, when industrial miracles and artistic innovations rub shoulders with political unrest, poverty and disease. It''s also a turbulent time in the life of Charles Dickens, as he copes with a double bereavement and early signs that his marriage is falling apart. But this year will become the turning point in Dickens''s career, as he embraces his calling as a chronicler of ordinary people''s lives. The Turning Point transports us into the foggy streets of Dickens''s London, closely following the twists and turns of a year that would come to define him, and forever alter Britain''s relationship with the world. ''Sparklingly informative'' Guardian ''Wonderfully entertaining'' Observer ''It is hard to imagine a better book on Dickens'' New Statesman

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst illuminates two entangled lives: the Oxford mathematician Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and Alice Liddell, the child for whom he invented the Alice stories. This relationship influenced Carroll’s imaginative creation of Wonderland—a sheltered world apart during the stormy transition from the Victorian to the modern era

This provocative biography tells the story of how an ambitious young Londoner became England’s greatest novelist. Focused on the 1830s, it portrays a restless, uncertain Dickens who could not decide on a career path. Through twists and turns, the author traces a double transformation: in reinventing himself Dickens reinvented the form of the novel.

"This major study examines a Victorian obsession with ''influence'', the often unpredictable after-effects of words and actions, in fields as diverse as mesmerism and theology, literary theory, and sanitation reform. For writers such as Tennyson, FitzGerald, and Dickens, the idea is both a theoretical and a practical problem. Survival is not only what their writing critically examines, but also what it sets out to achieve." - BOOK JACKET.