The world of paperback - recent releases

Contemporary Review, Feb, 2003

New releases from SUTTON PUBLISHING lead this month's list with Margaret Crosland's Madame de Pompadour: Sex, Culture and Power ([pounds sterling]7.99), first published in 2000 and praised in this magazine as a 'well written biography' which brings Madame de Pompadour 'and her exotic hothouse world to live in a thoroughly enjoyable manner'. The second new title, also a biography, is of a rather different Frenchwoman: it is Alison Plowden's Henrietta Maria: Charles I's Indomitable Queen ([pounds sterling]7.99), a sympathetic account of one of England's great royal romances set in the tragic reign of the martyred King.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM PRESS, whose titles are new to this column, have recently released in paperback two books previously published in hardback. The first is Ian Jenkins' The Parthenon Frieze ([pounds sterling]14.99), first published in hardback in 1994. This lavishly illustrated book is the first visual reconstruction of the Museum's most famous holding since 1910. The author makes use of previous scholarship to give those interested in the marble frieze a clear and understandable study that must become essential reading for anyone seeking to unravel the carved figures. The second new title is Clive Cheesman and Jonathan Williams' Rebels Pretenders and Imposters ([pounds sterling]14.99), a learned survey of a topic that has fascinated people for centuries.

PIMLICO has brought out Sir Winston Churchill's two books on his adventures during the South African War under the title, The Boer War: London to Ladysmith via Pretoria and Ian Hamilton's March ([pounds sterling]12.50). These two books, both published in 1900. are among the first books Churchill wrote and reflect the derring-do attitude of the young man anxious to make his mark. Pimlico has also published a new edition of Virginia Woolf's Moments of Being ([pounds sterling]12.50). These autobiographical essays were first collected and published in 1976 and this edition, by Jeanne Schulkind, has a new introduction by Prof. Hermione Lee. It remains an indispensable source for all students of Virginia Woolf's writings.

GRANTA BOOKS have recently released a number of paperback editions including Ved Mehta's autobiographical story, Continents of Exile: All for Love ([pounds sterling]7.99), first published in 2001, in which the Indian writer recounts his love for four different women and Fintan O'Toole's stimulating collection of essays, Shakespeare is Hard, But so is Life: A Radical Guide to Shakespearian Tragedy ([pounds sterling]6.99). Granta has also published No Saints or Angels ([pounds sterling]6.99), an English translation (by Gerald Turner) of the 1999 novel by the Czech novelist, Ivan Klima. Finally, Granta continues its publication of Michael Hoffman's translation of the works of the Austro-Hungarian writer, Joseph Roth, with The Collected Shorter Fiction of Joseph Roth ([pounds sterling]6.99). This paperback edition can only help to increase Roth's growing fame.

From FABER & FABER we have a new edition of Jan Morris's Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere ([pounds sterling]7.99), devoted to the city and port of Trieste which the author first visited as a soldier after the Second World War. The book describes in affectionate terms the attraction of a city that is in part Austrian, Slovene and Italian.

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS has published a revised edition of Sir Thomas More's Utopia ([pounds sterling]7.95) as part of its Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. This new edition, prepared by George M. Logan and Robert M. Adams, has revised the 1989 edition to incorporate changes to the translation made by the two editors in 1995.

For those for whom this is important, this translation from the Latin is guaranteed to be politically correct as regards 'gender' usage.

SIMON AND SCHUSTER have brought out in their Pocket Book series a new edition of Stephen E. Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers: The US Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Surrender of Germany ([pounds sterling]7.99). First published in 1997, it tells the story of the American army's role in the final stages of the Second World War and focuses on the men in the ranks.

From J. M. DENT we have a revised edition of Gerald Manley Hopkins' Poetry and Prose edited by Walford Davies ([pounds sterling]5.99) as part of their Everyman series. When first published in 1998 this was the most comprehensive one-volume edition of Hopkins' prose and poetry and its introduction, notes, chronology and selections of criticism ensure that it retains this distinction. Dent has also released the fourth and final volume in its impressive Dent Uniform Edition of Dickens' Journalism. This last volume, dedicated to 'The Uncommercial Traveller' and Other Papers 1859-70 ([pounds sterling]16.99) is, like the preceding three, edited by Michael Slater and John Drew. It was first published in the United States in 2000 by Ohio State University Press. As with the earlier volumes the editorial notes are extremely helpful and they, along with the clear text and the period illustrations, make this a set worth having.