Books by Fiona Stafford
The Long, Long Life of Trees
A lyrical tribute to the diversity of trees, their physical beauty, their special characteristics and uses, and their ever-evolving meanings
Since the beginnings of history trees have served humankind in countless useful ways, but our relationship with trees has many dimensions beyond mere practicality. Trees are so entwined with human experience that diverse species have inspired their own stories, myths, songs, poems, paintings, and spiritual meanings. Some have achieved status as religious, cultural, or national symbols.
In this beautifully illustrated volume Fiona Stafford offers intimate, detailed explorations of seventeen common trees, from ash and apple to pine, oak, cypress, and willow. The author also pays homage to particular trees, such as the fabled Ankerwyke Yew, under which Henry VIII courted Anne Boleyn, and the spectacular cherry trees of Washington, D.C. Stafford discusses practical uses of wood past and present, tree diseases and environmental threats, and trees’ potential contributions toward slowing global climate change. Brimming with unusual topics and intriguing facts, this book celebrates trees and their long, long lives as our inspiring and beloved natural companions.
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Lyrical Ballads: 1798 and 1802 (Oxford World's Classics)
by William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Fiona Stafford
'Listen, Stranger!'
Wordsworth and Coleridge's joint collection of poems has often been singled out as the founding text of English Romanticism. Within this initially unassuming, anonymous volume were many of the poems that came to define their age and which have continued to delight readers ever since, including 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', the 'Lucy' poems, 'Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey', 'A Slumber did my Spirit seal' and many more. Wordsworth's famous Preface is a manifesto not just for Romanticism but for poetry in general.
This is the only edition to print both the original 1798 collection and the expanded 1802 edition, with the fullest version of the Preface and Wordsworth's important Appendix on Poetic Diction. It offers modern readers a sense of what it was like to encounter Lyrical Ballads for the first time, and to see how it developed. Important letters are included, as well as a wide-ranging introduction and generous notes.
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Brief Lives: Jane Austen
Born in Hampshire in 1775, Jane Austen was one of seven children and began writing at an early age. In this new biography, leading Austen scholar Fiona Stafford offers a fresh perspective on the life and times of one of England’s most beloved authors. Such classics as Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility are also analyzed and discussed in the context of the world in which they were published. Providing an informative and enjoyable insight into the life of Austen both as a woman and a writer, this book will appeal to literature students and general readers alike.
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Stories of Trees, Woods, and the Forest (Everyman's Library Pocket Classics Series)
A beautiful hardcover anthology of stories by a brilliant and surprising mix of classic and contemporary writers who have been inspired by trees and forests.
Trees have starred in stories ever since Ovid described the nymph Daphne’s metamorphosis into a laurel, and the landscape of literature has long been enlivened by wild woodlands, sacred groves, and fertile orchards. This delightful collection ranges from Ovid to Austen and from Robin Hood’s Sherwood Forest (via Thomas Love Peacock’s Maid Marian) to Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and more stories from Eudora Welty, Tove Jansson, and D.H. Lawrence.
Here are forest-haunted fairy tales both classic (the Brothers Grimm) and inventively retold (Angela Carter). There is room in these woods for comedy as well as terror, in Stella Gibbons’s Cold Comfort Farm, and Alexander McCall Smith’s “Head Tree.” Notable writers from around the world contribute arboreal fiction—from South Africa, Finland, France, Zimbabwe, Russia, Martinique, and India, as well as Britain, Ireland, Canada, and America. From Daphne du Maurier’s “The Apple Tree” to R. K. Narayan’s “Under the Banyan Tree.” The sheer range of stories in these pages will leave readers refreshed and dazzled.
Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.
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$24.00