Andrew Sanders

First published in serial form as The Luck of Barry Lyndon in 1844 and later reissued under the title The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq., Thackeray's picaresque novel abounds with the exploits and intrigues of Redmond Barry, a ruined member of the Irish gentry, who uses every means at his disposal to become a member of the English aristocracy.

The Short Oxford History of English Literature provides in a single volume a comprehensive introductory guide to the literature of the British Isles from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day. Separate chapters trace the development of English literature from Beowulf to the 'post-modernism' of Seamus Heaney and Angela Carter. The History provides detailed discussion of Old and Middle English literature, the Renaissance, Shakespeare, the seventeenth...

The Times has recorded notable deaths from its beginnings (as The Daily Universal Register) in 1785, and by the middle of the 19th century obituaries were established as one of the glories of the paper. There was no attempt at comprehensive coverage, and nothing like the daily obituary page of modern times, but under the 36-year editorship of John Thadeus Delane (1841-77) the paper began to respond to the deaths of significant national and international...