Books published by publisher Carcanet Press Ltd.

Initially conceived as a satirical tragedy unmasking the terror of death, this book was the counterpart of Beddoe's anatomical research. This edition presents the jest book in its early form, as Beddoes intended to publish it in 1829. The center of Beddoe's achievement, this pastiche of Renaissance tragedy is replete with treachery, murder, sorcery, and haunting and is the extravagant expression of the poet's lifelong obsession with mortality and immortality.

Tales of tall ships in exotic seas and of Arthurian England compete for attention with rural English ballads and mythological narratives in this collection of poetry from one of England's great storytellers. Some of John Masefield’s best known poems are included, such as "Sea-Fever," and "Cargoes," along with previously uncollected rarities. Many of the poems reveal Masefield's fascination with the lives of seafarers and lowly farm workers and contribute to a charming and quixotic image of English history.

Christopher Tietjens, a brilliant, unconventional mathematician, is married to the dazzling yet unfaithful Sylvia when, during a turbulent weekend, he meets a young Suffragette by the name of Valentine Wannop. Christopher and Valentine are on the verge of becoming lovers until he must return to his World War I regiment. Ultimately, Christopher, shell-shocked and suffering from amnesia, is sent back to London. An unforgettable exploration of the tensions of a society confronting catastrophe, sexuality, power, madness, and violence, this narrative examines time and a critical moment in history.

The third volume of Parade’s End—one of the outstanding works about World War I and British society before, during, and after that cataclysm—this novel focuses on Valentine Wannop in London and Christopher Tietjens away at war, with the narrative concluding on Armistice Day. Making a dramatic comment on prewar life and morality, this is a perceptive exploration of time, history, and sexuality. This first-ever critical edition is fully annotated and includes a new introduction by a leading expert on Ford Madox Ford.

Walt Whitman (1819-92) is the authentic voice of democratic America. After a childhood in Brooklyn, he spent many years in and around Manhattan and Washington, where he witnessed troops returning from the Civil War and tended wounded soldiers in the camp hospitals. Whitman's broad humanity, his love of cities (especially Manhattan), his sympathy with all conditions of people, and his visionary - even prophetic - sense of the reality of the American dream make him as much a poet for our time as he was for the time of the American Civil War and its aftermath. This selection of courageous and consoling poems focuses on Whitman's vision of democracy, his love of Manhattan, his sense of the future - and of the community of peoples of this earth.

Virgil was the Greatest of Roman Poets. From Spenser and Shakespeare through to Tennyson and William Morris, his poetry has influenced the works of major writers throughout the ages. Dante chose Virgil as a guide through the hell and purgatory of his inferno; in the middle ages the Roman poet was regarded as a seer and a magician. His Aeneid served as the model for all the Latinepics of the medieval period and then for the new classical epic of the renaissance.It follows the mythical exploits of the hero Aeneas, who escapes from the burning rubble of Troy to become the founder of the Roman Empire. In this Patriotic masterpiece, the adventures of Aeneas take him across oceans, to mysterious lands and through the darkness of the underworld before the Gods eventually allow him peace.

A phenomenal bestseller after its publication in 1919, this work was widely seen as a masterful poetic response to the horrors of World War I. A long narrative poem about a foxhunt, the work also evokes the beauty of English countryside and considers the meaning of courage. The poem was recorded by the author and adapted as a radio play much-beloved by the British public, and although the poem does not overtly criticize foxhunting, it prompted national debate on the subject. Out of print for years, the poem is now newly corrected from the original manuscript and presented alongside other pastoral writing by Masefield, including the essay "Fox-Hunting."

Edgar Allan Poe composed his famous lines about "the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome" at the age of fifteen. Yet not only Poe demonstrated early signs of lyrical talent: Christopher Smart began writing verse when he was only five; Dylan Thomas produced creditable verse at the age of eleven; Alexander Pope wrote what many regard as his prettiest poem at the age of twelve. The list goes on to include the likes of Thomas Chatterton, John Milton, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, Sylvia Plath, and many more. In First Lines, Jon Stallworthy, a distinguished poet, anthologist, and critic, has collected verses written in youth--often the very first preserved poems--from George Herbert to Seamus Heaney. Responding to the questions of when, why, and how does a poet begin to write poems, Stallworthy reveals many interesting common characteristics among these poems of childhood and adolescence. Chosen for their notable imagery, form or wit, this collection of poems--written by 58 poets who later wrote many of the finest poems in the English language--proves the truth of Auden's statement that if an immature poet has any real talent he or she will display a distinctive style quite early. This anthology reveals the durability and excellence of what young writers have produced, and calls attention to the future delights these early poems would yield.