Monday, August 29, 2011

Viewforth Press: Tell England: A Study in a Generation / Ernest Raymond / Craig Paterson ed.


Tell England: A Study in a Generation
Ernest Raymond (Author)
British novelist, Ernest Raymond (1888-1974), was born in France and was educated at St Paul's School, London, Chichester Theological College and Duram University. Raymond was ordained into the Anglican Church in 1914 and resigned in 1923. His first and most popular novel, Tell England (1922), was based upon his experiences in the First World War, when he served as a clergyman.

The story begins with the public school lives of Rupert Ray and his school friends. Pranks played on the teachers are told from Rupert's perspective. Their school lives teach them honesty, courage and sportsmanship. When war comes the boys eagerly leave to join the army as officers. The boys begin to feel the tragedy and heroism of war when their school comrades begin to die. When Ray returns to England he is compelled to write and tell England what they have experienced.

The imagery of the First World War-the trenches, no-man's-land, barbed wire, gas, slaughter-captured in newsreels, photographs, memoirs, and poems, tells of the war as a living nighmare. There is, however, another side to this war of mass slaughter, mutilation and despair. There was innocence, patriotism, enthusiasm, gallantry, and sportsmanship-the war of schoolboys and subalterns. This is a side of the war that is feelingly and movingly evoked in Raymond's Tell England: "Tell England, ye who pass this monument, We died for her, and here we rest content."

Dr Craig Paterson, General Editor, Viewforth Classics.
LCCN: 2011933409 -- ISBN/EAN13: 1463677456 / 9781463677459 -- Publ. Date: Aug 22 2011 -- Page Count: 318 -- Binding Type: US Trade Paper -- Trim Size: 6" x 9" -- Language: English -- Color: Black and White -- Related Categories: England--Public Schools; War Fiction; First World War Fiction.tegories: Fiction / War -- Fiction / English Public Schools
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Sunday, June 12, 2011

John Verney: The Honourable Gentleman - Viewforth Press - H. A. Vachell, Author; Craig Paterson, Ed.

John Verney: The Honourable Gentleman
H. A. Vachell (Author)
Dr. Craig Paterson (General Series Editor)

H. A. Vachell’s ‘John Verney’ was first published in 1911. It is a sequel to his very popular  ‘The Hill,’ (1905) an enjoyable and well written schoolboy novel set at Harrow. The story develops John Verney’s life beyond the confines of Harrow into the world of Edwardian politics. His earlier schoolboy rivalry with Reginald Scaife (The Demon) is the main focus of the book, as honour and truth battle with deceit and underhandedness. Verney and Scaife face political battles in electioneering for Parliament and intense rivalry for the hand of the fair Sheila Desmond, the sister of Verney’s and Scaife’s dear school friend Caesar (Henry Desmond), who was killed in action during the Anglo-Boer War. The sequel is a very worthy addition to ‘The Hill’ and should not be missed!

Horace Annesley Vachell (1861-1955) was a prolific English writer of novels, plays, short stories, essays, and autobiographical works. 

This 1st Viewforth Classics edition is a revised edition of the 1911 text with new typesetting, notes, page layout, and corrections. Craig Paterson, General Editor, Viewforth Classics.

LCCN:  2011931745 -- ISBN/EAN13: 1463535163 9781463535162 -- Page Count: 246 -- Binding Type: US Trade Paper -- Trim Size: 6" x 9" -- Language: English -- Color: Black and White -- Related Categories: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Schools.


Thursday, June 9, 2011

The Hill: An English Public School Story / H. A. Vachell; Craig Paterson, ed.

The Hill: An English Public School Story
H. A. Vachell (Author)
Dr. Craig Paterson (General Series Editor)
H.A. Vachell's, The Hill, first published in 1905, charts the course of John Verney's career at Harrow, from his arrival to the introduction of the new boy to its customs, traditions, slang, and rituals. The heart of the story, however, focuses on the friendships and rivalries that develop between John Verney (Jonathan), Harry Desmond (Caesar) and Scaife (Demon). Verney is the son of a parson and nephew of an explorer; Desmond is the son of an aristocratic cabinet minister; and Scaife is the son of a social climbing self made Liverpool merchant. Verney and Scaife compete throughout the story for the attentions of the handsome and noble Desmond, with Scaife embodying adventure and danger and Verney embodying loyalty and uprightness. It is clearly Desmond who represents the essence of public school life for Vachell and is thus "the light" to which the other lesser mortals of the story are inevitably drawn.
 
While Vachell's novel does not quite rival the very best of the genre, especially E.F. Benson's superb David Blaize, it is nevertheless a fascinating, humorous and enjoyable read. The Hill is highly recommended for all lovers of "boys own" school stories as well as for those who wish to explore the social values and customs of upper class English education during the late Victorian era.

Horace Annesley Vachell (1861-1955) was a prolific English writer of novels, plays, short stories, essays, and autobiographical works.

This 1st Viewforth Classics edition is a revised edition of the 1905 text with new typesetting, page layout and corrections. Craig Paterson, General Editor, Viewforth Classics.

LCCN: 2011931031 -- ISBN/EAN13: 1463535163 / 9781463535162 -- Page Count: 246 -- Binding Type: US Trade Paper -- Trim Size: 6" x 9" -- Language: English -- Color: Black and White -- Related Categories: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Schools.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Viewforth Press - New Title - The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray
 
Oscar Wilde (Author) 
Dr. Craig Paterson (General Series Editor)
 
Moral fantasy novel by Oscar Wilde, published in an early form in Lippincott's Magazine in 1890. The novel had six additional chapters when it appeared in book form in 1891. An archetypal tale of a young man who purchases eternal youth at the expense of his soul, the novel was a romantic exposition of Wilde's Aestheticism. Dorian Gray is a wealthy Englishman who gradually sinks into a life of dissipation and crime. Despite his unhealthy behavior, his physical appearance remains youthful and unmarked by dissolution. Instead, a portrait of himself catalogues every evil deed by turning his once handsome features into a hideous mask. When Gray destroys the painting, his face turns into a human replica of the portrait, and he dies.


Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish writer, poet, and playwright. His novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, brought him lasting recognition, and he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era with a series of witty social satires, including his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest

1st Viewforth Classics edition. General Editor, Dr. Craig Paterson.

LCCN: 2011927073 -- ISBN/EAN13: 1461077176 / 9781461077176 -- Page Count: 222 -- Binding Type: US Trade Paper -- Trim Size: 6" x 9" -- Language: English -- Color: Black and White -- Related Categories: Fiction / Classics.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Life of Alcibiades: The Idol of Athens: By E.F. Benson; C. Paterson (ed.)

The Life of Alcibiades: The Idol of Athens


Author:E. F. Benson, Craig Paterson (Editor, Introduction) 
Binding:Paperback
Pages:310
Publisher:CreateSpace
Date of Publication:17 November 2010
ISBN1456303333
Dewey Decimal:938
Availability:Ready for order
Price:$17.99
  • Product Description

    Alcibiades (ca. 450 BC-ca. 404 BC), was the charismatic and controversial bisexual Athenian general and politician who promoted the Peloponnesian war against rival Sparta, who subsequently inspired Athens's failed Sicilian Expedition, and who later allied himself with two of Athens's biggest enemies: Sparta and Persia. His actions gravely affected the future of Athens and his motives and reasons for acting as he did are indeed the stuff of fascinating biography. Alcibiades's extraordinary beauty, great wealth, ostentatious vanity, male and female amours, debaucheries, and impious revels earned him notoriety not only in Athens but throughout the Hellenic world. In subsequent ages his name was used as a near by-word for all kinds of excess. But, as Benson argues, reappraising Alcibiades's reputation, great as were his vices, his virtues were even greater ... Although The Life of Alcibiades was originally published in 1928, and there have been other newer detailed works published on Alcibiades since then, no other work captures the passion and the excitement of the brilliant but erratic career of Alcibiades as Benson's biography does. As the reader will discover, Benson evidently has much sympathy for his subject and this brings the entire biography to life. He combines detailed research, especially his use of primary materials from Thucydides and Plutarch, with writing flare, not an easy accomplishment. Front cover photograph: "Alcibiades", Ideal Male Portrait. Marble. Roman copy after a Greek original of the 4th century BC. Palazzo dei Conservatori, Hall of the Triumphs. Back cover photograph: E. F. Benson, aged 26.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Viewforth Press - New Title - Life of Alcibiades - E.F. Benson - Craig Paterson, Introduction

The Life of Alcibiades: The Idol of Athens 
E. F. Benson (Author)
Dr. Craig Paterson (Editor, Introduction)

Alcibiades (ca. 450 BC-ca. 404 BC), was the charismatic and controversial bisexual Athenian general and politician who promoted the Peloponnesian war against rival Sparta, who subsequently inspired Athens's failed Sicilian Expedition, and who later allied himself with two of Athens's biggest enemies: Sparta and Persia. His actions gravely affected the future of Athens and his motives and reasons for acting as he did are indeed the stuff of fascinating biography.

Alcibiades's extraordinary beauty, great wealth, ostentatious vanity, male and female amours, debaucheries, and impious revels earned him notoriety not only in Athens but throughout the Hellenic world. In subsequent ages his name was used as a near 
byword for all kinds of excess. But, as Benson argues, reappraising Alcibiades's reputation, great as were his vices, his virtues were even greater ...

Although The Life of Alcibiades was originally published in 1928, and there have been other newer detailed works published on Alcibiades since then, no other work captures the passion and the excitement of the brilliant but erratic career of Alcibiades as Benson's biography does. As the reader will discover, Benson evidently has much sympathy for his subject and this brings the entire biography to life. He combines detailed research, especially his use of primary materials from Thucydides and Plutarch, with writing flare, not an easy accomplishment.

Front cover photograph: "Alcibiades", Ideal Male Portrait. Marble. Roman copy after a Greek original of the 4th century BC. Palazzo dei Conservatori, Hall of the Triumphs. Back cover photograph: E. F. Benson, aged 26.

Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was a prolific and much loved English novelist, biographer and short story writer. He was educated at Marlborough College, King's College, Cambridge (where he obtained a first in classics) and the British School of Archaeology in Athens. Benson is most famous for a series of comic novels he published during the 1920's and 1930's--"Mapp and Lucia". Benson was awarded an MBE and was made an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.

Dr. Craig Paterson is a philosopher and author. He now lives in Los Angeles, California.
 

LCCN: 2010939675 - ISBN/EAN13: 1456303333 / 9781456303334 - Page Count: 310 - Binding Type: US Trade Paper - Trim Size: 6" x 9" - Language: English Related Categories: History / Ancient / Greece.





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