The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit PDF Download

Author: Eleanor Fitzsimons
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 168335687X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
A Sunday Times Best Book of the Year: The “informative and entertaining” first major biography of the trailblazing, controversial children’s author (The Washington Post). Born in 1858, Edith Nesbit is today considered the first modern writer for children and the inventor of the children’s adventure story. In The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit, award-winning biographer Eleanor Fitzsimons uncovers the little-known details of her life, introducing readers to the Fabian Society cofounder and fabulous socialite who hosted legendary parties and had admirers by the dozen, including George Bernard Shaw. Through Nesbit’s letters and archival research, Fitzsimons reveals “E.” to have been a prolific lecturer and writer on socialism and shows how Nesbit incorporated these ideas into her writing, thereby influencing a generation of children—an aspect of her literary legacy never before examined. Fitzsimons’s riveting biography brings new light to the life and works of this remarkable writer and woman. “Meticulous and invaluable...exceptionally illuminating and detailed.” —The Wall Street Journal “Fitzsimons handily reassembles the hundreds of intricate, idiosyncratic parts of the miraculous E. Nesbit machine.” —The New York Times Book Review “I’ve always loved the work of E. Nesbit—The Railway Children and Five Children and It are my favorites—but I knew nothing about the extraordinary, surprising life of this great figure in children’s literature . . . so gripping that I read [it] in two days.” —Gretchen Rubin, #1 New York Times-bestsellingauthor of The Happiness Project “A charming, lively, and old-fashioned biography . . . highly readable.” —Publishers Weekly “A terrific book.” —Neil Gaiman

Author: Elisabeth Galvin
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 1526714795
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
Imagine being one of the most well-loved children’s authors of all time, yet your readers don’t know if you’re a man or a woman. Or even your real name. E. Nesbit is really Edith Nesbit, who wrote an extraordinary 98 novels, plays and poetry collections for children and adults between 1885 and 1923. She is credited as the first modern writer for children whose work has influenced authors from Oscar Wilde to C.S. Lewis, Noël Coward to J.K. Rowling. Even though it was published more than 100 years ago, The Railway Children remains one of the most popular children’s books ever written and it has never been out of print. But for Edith, the truth of her life is stranger than her fiction – and it’s a truth she was keen to hide from the public. Edith’s father died when she was four, resulting in a peripatetic childhood across Europe. At 21 years old she was seven months’ pregnant when she married a penniless libertine who became a famous journalist, Hubert Bland. Together as early socialists they were founding members of the Fabian Society, from which the Labour Party has its foundations. A Bohemian and an eccentric, Edith became a mother of five children – two of whom she adopted in secret after her husband had an affair with a close friend (who subsequently lived with them as their housekeeper). It was shortly after the sudden death of her beloved son that Edith wrote her first bestseller in 1899, a groundbreaker that dramatically changed the course of children’s literature. On the eve of World War I, Edith’s husband died and she married a captain of the Woolwich Ferry. A cheerful cockney sparrow, Tommy Tucker proved to be Edith’s unwitting romantic hero who loved and cherished her until she died in near-poverty on the Romney Marshes of Kent.

Author: Edith Nesbit
Publisher: IndyPublish.com
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
CHAPTER I.The Inevitable"No. The chemises aren't cut out. I haven't had time. There are enough shirts to go on with, aren't there, Mrs. James?" said Betty."We can make do for this afternoon, Miss, but the men they're getting blowed out with shirts. It's the children's shifts as we can't make shift without much longer." Mrs. James, habitually doleful, punctuated her speech with sniffs."That's a joke, Mrs. James," said Betty. "How clever you are!""I try to be what's fitting," said Mrs. James, complacently."Talk of fitting," said Betty, "If you like I'll fit on that black bodice for you, Mrs. Symes. If the other ladies don't mind waiting for the reading a little bit.""I'd as lief talk as read, myself," said a red-faced sandy-haired woman "books ain't what they was in my young days.""If it's the same to you, Miss," said Mrs. Symes in a thick rich voice, "I'll not be tried on afore a room full. If we are poor we can all be clean's what I say, and I keeps my unders as I keeps my outside. But not before persons as has real imitation lace on their petticoat bodies. I see them when I was a-nursing her with her fourth. No, Miss, and thanking you kindly, but begging your pardon all the same.""Don't mention it," said Betty absently. "Oh, Mrs. Smith, you can't have lost your thimble already. Why what's that you've got in your mouth?""So it is!" Mrs. Smith's face beamed at the gratifying coincidence. "It always was my habit, from a child, to put things there for safety.""These cheap thimbles ain't fit to put in your mouth, no more than coppers," said Mrs. James, her mouth full of pins."Oh, nothing hurts you if you like it," said Betty recklessly. She had been reading the works of Mr. G. K. Chesterton.A shocked murmur arose."Oh, Miss, what about the publy kows?" said Mrs. Symes heavily. The others nodded acquiescence."Don't you think we might have a window open?" said Betty. The May sunshine beat on the schoolroom windows. The room, crowded with the stout members of the "Mother's Meeting and Mutual Clothing Club," was stuffy, unbearable.A murmur arose far more shocked than the first."I was just a-goin' to say why not close the door, that being what doors is made for, after all," said Mrs. Symes. "I feel a sort of draught a-creeping up my legs as it is."The door was shut."You can't be too careful," said the red-faced woman "we never know what a chill mayn't bring forth. My cousin's sister-in-law, she had twins, and her aunt come in and says she,

Author: Julia Briggs
Publisher: New Amsterdam Books
ISBN: 1461636221
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
In A Woman of Passion, Julia Briggs chronicles the life of author Edith Nesbit who is credited with being the first modern writer for children and the creator of the children's adventure story. Nesbit recorded her life with varying degrees of honesty in verse and prose, and while she seldom wrote entirely openly of her own experiences, she seldom wrote convincingly of anything else. In this fascinating read, Julia Briggs attempts to fill in the gaps of Nesbit's autobiographical material, painting an intriguing portrait of the famous author.

Author: E. Nesbit
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Edith Nesbit was a popular children’s author of the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras in Britain. Though she was writing more than a century ago, her books nevertheless remain popular and are generally still in print. The House of Arden was published in 1908. Like her other, perhaps better known tales, such as Five Children and It, the story takes quite ordinary children of the time and plunges them into fantastical adventures. In this book, two children, with the interesting Saxon names of Edred and Elfrida, aged 10 and 12 respectively, discover that due to the death of a distant relative, young Edred is now Lord of Arden. The estate consists of not much more than a little money, a crumbling castle, and an attached house. An old retainer tells them of a legend regarding the Lord of Arden and a buried treasure. Naturally they are eager to locate the treasure, which may help them restore the castle. They discover a way to summon up the mascot of the House, a white mole or “mouldiwarp,” who enables them to travel back through time in search of the treasure. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Author: Edith Nesbit
Publisher: e-artnow
ISBN: 8026872452
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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This carefully crafted ebook: "The Magic City (Illustrated)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. After Philip's older sister and sole family member Helen marries, he goes off to live with his new step sister Lucy. He has trouble adjusting at first, thrown into a world different from his previous life and abandoned by his sister while she is on her honeymoon. To entertain himself he builds a giant model city from things around the house: game pieces, books, blocks, bowls, etc. Then through some magic he finds himself inside the city, and it is alive with the people he has populated it with. Edith Nesbit (1858-1924) was the author of world famous books for children - the tales of fantastical adventures, journeys back in time and travel to magical worlds.

Author: Eleanor Fitzsimons
Publisher: ABRAMS
ISBN: 1468313266
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
“A lively debut biography of the flamboyant Irish writer . . . focusing on the women who loved and supported him” (Kirkus Reviews). In this essential work, Eleanor Fitzsimons reframes Oscar Wilde’s story and his legacy through the women in his life, including such scintillating figures as Florence Balcombe; actress Lillie Langtry; and his tragic and witty niece, Dolly, who, like Wilde, loved fast cars, cocaine, and foreign women. Fresh, revealing, and entertaining, full of fascinating detail and anecdotes, Wilde’s Women relates the untold story of how a beloved writer and libertine played a vitally sympathetic role on behalf of many women, and how they supported him in the midst of a Victorian society in the process of changing forever. “Fitzsimons reminds us of the many writers, actresses, political activists, professional beauties and aristocratic ladies who helped shape the life and legend of the era’s greatest wit, esthete and sexual martyr . . . provide[s] a potted biography of the multitalented writer and gay icon . . . highly enjoyable.” —The Washington Post “Fitzsimons brilliantly calls attention to the progressive ideas and beliefs which drew the most daring and interesting women of the time to his side. The depth and painstaking care of Fitzsimons’ research is a fitting tribute to Wilde’s fascinating life and exquisite writing—and really, what better compliment is there than that?” —High Voltage

Author: Edith Nesbit
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 9780763621247
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description
First published in 1908, this unabridged text features the dynamic artwork and dramatic perspectives of Matt Tavares in full-color for the first time.

Author: E. NESBIT
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0359561950
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
At the end of Five Children and It Robert, Anthea, Cyril, and Jane promised not to ask the Psammead for another wish as long as they lived, but expressed a half wish to see it again some time. The children are reunited with the Psammead in a London pet store; the Psammead can't grant their wishes anymore - not after the last adventure - but he does tell them where to find half of an amulet of great power. The ancient Amulet can grant them their heart's desire and journey through time. The children desire the return of their parents, and their magic adventures start over again with a journey through time to ancient Babylon, Egypt, and Atlantis. The trilogy of Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Story of the Amulet.

Author: Edith Nesbit
Publisher: Phoemixx Classics Ebooks
ISBN: 3985517991
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
The Phoenix and the Carpet - Edith Nesbit - The Phoenix and the Carpet is a fantasy novel for children, written in 1904 by E. Nesbit. It is the second in a trilogy of novels that began with Five Children and It (1902), and follows the adventures of the same five protagonists – Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and the Lamb. Their mother buys the children a new carpet to replace the one from the nursery that was destroyed in an accidental fire. The children find an egg in the carpet which hatches into a talking Phoenix. The Phoenix explains that the carpet is a magical one that will grant them three wishes per day. The five children go on many adventures which eventually wears out their magical carpet. The adventures of the children are continued and conclude in the third book of the trilogy, The Story of the Amulet (1906). This middle volume of the trilogy that began with Five Children and It and concludes with The Story of the Amulet deviates somewhat from the other two because the Psammead gets only a brief mention, and because in this volume the children live with both of their parents and their younger brother—the Lamb—in their home in London. Consequently, there is less loneliness and sense of loss in this volume than in the other two. In both of the other volumes, circumstances have forced the children to spend a protracted period away from their familiar London home and their father; in Amulet, their mother and the Lamb are absent as well. A continuing theme throughout The Phoenix and the Carpet is, appropriately enough, the ancient element of fire. The story begins shortly before November 5, celebrated in England as Guy Fawkes Night. Traditionally, children light bonfires and set off fireworks on this night. The four children have accumulated a small hoard of fireworks but are too impatient to wait until November 5 to light them, so they set off a few samples in the nursery. This results in a fire that destroys the carpet. Their parents purchase a second-hand carpet which, upon arrival, is found to contain an egg that emits a weird phosphorescent glow. The children accidentally knock this egg into the fire: it hatches, revealing a golden Phoenix who speaks perfect English. It develops that this is a magical carpet, which can transport the children to anywhere they wish in the present time, although it is only capable of three wishes per day. Accompanied by the Phoenix, the children have exotic adventures in various climes. There is one moment of terror for the children when their youngest brother, the Lamb, crawls onto the carpet, babbles some incoherent baby talk, and vanishes. Fortunately, the Lamb only desired to be with his mother. At a few points in the novel, the children find themselves in predicaments from which the Phoenix is unable to rescue them by himself; he goes to find the Psammead and has a wish granted for the children's sake. In addition, in the end, the carpet is sent to ask the Psammead to grant the Phoenix's wish. These offstage incidents are the only contribution made by the Psammead to this story.