'The moment I first met you, I noticed your pride, your sense of superiority, and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others. You are the last man in the world whom I could ever be persuaded to marry,' said Elizabeth Bennet. And so Elizabeth rejects the proud Mr Darcy. Can nothing overcome her prejudice against him? And what of the other Bennet girls - their fortunes, and misfortunes, in the business of getting husbands? This famous novel by Jane Austen is full of wise and humorous observation of the people and manners of her times.
Tony Tanner Books






Thomas Pynchon
- 98 pages
- 4 hours of reading
Focusing on the work of Thomas Pynchon, this introduction delves into his early short stories and provides insights into his novels. Set against the backdrop of Pynchon's life, it offers a detailed examination of his literary contributions, including lesser-known stories. Originally published in 1982, the book serves as a valuable guide for readers looking to navigate Pynchon's complex narratives and themes.
City of Words: American Fiction 1950-1970
- 464 pages
- 17 hours of reading
Nabokov - Borges - Ellison - Bellow - Heller - Purdy - Hawkes - Barth - Plath - Updike - Roth - Mailer - Kesey.
Nietzsche said that he never travelled anywhere without a volume of Emerson's essays in his pocket, while Mathew Arnold described Emerson as 'the greatest prose writer of the century'. It is a remarkable writer who could at once appeal to a man considered a pillar of Victorian society, and to a man dedicated to bringing down such pillars. In his own time Emerson was considered a profoundly radical thinker, but after his death he was increasingly seen as a bland Boston Brahmin, contentedly ripening with the new England melons, benignly meditating on such viperous notions as the Over–soul.He is now appreciated as one of the truly seminal American writers, refusing all orthodoxies, complacencies and fixities—both a truly celebratory and deeply adversarial thinker. A unique paperback edition, with introduction and chronology of Emerson's life and times.
Sense and Sensibility
- 135 pages
- 5 hours of reading
Macmillan Readers v úrovni Intermediate můžete číst asi po třech až čtyřech letech studia angličtiny. K porozumění vám postačí slovní zásoba 1600 slov. Knihy mají až 128 stran. Kniha je balena s audio CD a obsahuje 8 stran cvičení.
Tanner guides us through Austen's novels from optimistic early works to the darker Persuasion and fragmentary Sanditon--a journey that takes her from acceptance of a society maintained by landed property, family, money, and strict propriety through an insistence on the need for authentication of these values to a final skepticism and even rejection.
The great Gatsby
- 96 pages
- 4 hours of reading
Every weekend during on long, hot summer Jay Gatsby has a party in his huge house on Long Island. He is a man without a past, and has a lot of money that seems to have come from nowhere. But Gatsby is on Long Island for a reason. He is following a dream of love. Will his dream come true?
The Europeans
- 192 pages
- 7 hours of reading
In the hope of making a wealthy marriage, Eugenia, the Baroness M©ơnster, and her younger brother, the artist Felix, descend on the Wentworths, in Boston. Installed in a nearby house, they become close friends with the younger Wentworths, Gertrude, Charlotte and Clifford. Eugenia's wit, guile and sophistication, and Felix's debonair vivacity form an uneasy alliance with the Puritan morality and the frugal, domestic virtues of the Americans. A rich and delicately balanced commedy of manners, The Europeans weighs the values of the established order against thos of New England society, but makes no simple judgements, only subtle contrasts and beautifully observed comparisons.
Dr Tanner investigates American literature with regards to wonder and cultivated naivety.


