In tumultuous seventeenth-century Britain, ambition, family, and love collide I was beginning to realize that there was something unusual about our marriage . . .   When fifteen-year-old Sarah Standish runs off to London to be an actress, she discovers a city beyond her wildest dreams. But the most exciting fantasy of all is the real-life stranger who sweeps her off her feet. Sarah marries Jack Adair, the thrillingly handsome Lord Rosslyn. She's...

"I was living in a fairy story--the kind with sinister overtones and not always a happy ending--in which a young man loves a beautiful maiden who returns his love but is always disappearing into some unknown and mysterious world, about which she will reveal nothing." So John Bayley describes his life with his wife, Iris Murdoch, one of the greatest contemporary writers in the English-speaking world, revered for her works of philosophy and beloved...

A New York Times Notable Book • Now a Major Motion Picture The Professor and the Madman is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary-and literary history. The making of the OED was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, was stunned to discover...

One of England's most fascinating monarchs is brought to life in this hands-on study for young minds. Combining projects, pictures, and sidebars with an authoritative biography, children will develop an understanding of the Reformation, Shakespearean England, and how Elizabeth's 45-year reign set the stage for the English Renaissance and marshaled her country into a chief military power. Providing 21 activities, from singing a madrigal and growing...