In 1943, The United Kingdom is alive with men and women making ready for the greatest invasion in history: preparing to assault Hitler's Fortress Europe. The skies are full of training aircraft, their engines merging with the throb of the RAF and USAAF bombers heading on round-the-clock missions against Germany. With fresh bloodshed on the horizon, the coming Christmas preparations seem even more poignant. But with just ten days to go, the seasonal...

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John Gardner's essential collection encompassing the fundamentals of fiction writing. In this posthumously published collection of his essays and reviews, acclaimed novelist John Gardner discusses the craft of fiction writing, taking to task some of his best-known contemporaries in the process. Gardner criticizes some for writing disingenuous fiction, and commends others who produce literature that acts as a life-affirming force. He offers insights...

A mythological masterpiece about dedication and the disintegration of romantic affection. In this magnificent epic poem, John Gardner renders his interpretation of the ancient story of Jason and Medeia. Confined in the palace of King Creon, and longing to return to his rightful kingdom Iolcus, Jason asks his wife, the sorceress Medeia, to use her powers of enchantment to destroy the tyrant King Pelias. Out of love she acquiesces, only to find that...

A passionate portrait of a family's attempts to understand the meaning behind personal tragedy. When Professor James Chandler learns he is dying from leukemia, he moves his family to his childhood home in Batavia, New York. There, surrounded by loved ones - both new and old - the immediacy of Chandler's illness strikes them with new force, and the limitations of his mortality become painfully clear. Rich and moving, and imbued with insight, The Resurrection...

Now back in print after forty years: The first novel in John Gardner's bestselling series of Victorian crime thrillers pitting Sherlock Holmes against the Napoleon of crime, Professor James Moriarty. Once again, the game is afoot... What really happened in Switzerland between Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes in 1891? And, why is Holmes, now in London at 221B Baker Street, curiously uncooperative with Scotland Yard's inquiries? Furthermore, why has Moriarty...

Gardner's final novel: a delicate tapestry of literary genres that create a wonderfully mysterious and ambitious narrative. As Peter Mickelsson's brilliant career as a professor at Brown University winds down, he suffers from alcoholism and is on the brink of divorce. Seeking a new start, Mickelsson moves to an old farmhouse in the Pennsylvania countryside to take a position at Bingham University. But when mysterious supernatural events begin to occur,...

Now back in print after forty years: The second novel in John Gardner's bestselling series of Victorian crime thrillers pitting Sherlock Holmes against the Napoleon of crime, Professor James Moriarty. With riches accumulated from an American crime spree, Professor Moriarty proceeds to annihilate his enemies. He murders the leaders of Europe's underworld one by one, then prepares his most hideous revenge for his arch-enemy, Sherlock Holmes. Will he...

John Gardner's fairy-tale collection depicts a world where anything can happen - and often does. A humble thistle girl, a wise old philosopher, a hapless woodchopper, and an unscrupulous king - these are the vivid protagonists of Gardner's masterful book for children. Richly and humorously drawn, they face challenges at every turn. And in a realm where any one of these unconventional heroes might triumph, the reader will delight in expecting the unexpected!...

Novelist John Gardner's thesis in On Moral Fiction is simple: "True art is by its nature moral." It is also an audacious statement, as Gardner asserts an inherent value in life and in art. Since the book's first publication, the passion behind Gardner's assertion has both provoked and inspired readers. In examining the work of his peers, Gardner analyzes what has gone wrong, in his view, in modern art and literature, and how shortcomings in artistic...