Biography, Literature and Literary studies Books

Book SynopsisThe Call Of The Wild is the  story of Buck, a dog stolen from his home and thrust  into the merciless life of the Arctic north to  endure hardship, bitter cold, and the savage  lawlessness of man and beast. White Fang  is the adventure of an animal -- part dog, part  wolf --turned vicious by cruel abuse, then  transformed by the patience and affection of one man.  Jack London's superb ability as a storyteller and  his uncanny understanding of animal and human  natures give these tales a striking vitality and  power, and have earned him a reputation as a  distinguished American writer.

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Book Synopsis'A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of Communism.' So begins one of history's most important documents, a work of such magnitude that it has forever changed not only the scope of world politics, but indeed the course of human civilization. The Communist Manifesto was written in Friedrich Engels's clear, striking prose and declared the earth-shaking ideas of Karl Marx. Upon publication in 1848, it quickly became the credo of the poor and oppressed who longed for a society 'in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.'The Communist Manifesto contains the seeds of Marx's more comprehensive philosophy, which continues to inspire influential economic, political, social, and literary theories. But the Manifesto is most valuable as an historical document, one that led to the greatest political upheaveals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and to the establishment of the Communist governments that until recently ruled half the g

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Book SynopsisRanked among the classic novels of the English language and the inspiration for several unforgettable movies, this early work of H. G. Wells was greeted in 1896 by howls of protest from reviewers, who found it horrifying and blasphemous. They wanted to know more about the wondrous possibilities of science shown in his first book, The Time Machine, not its potential for misuse and terror. In The Island of Dr. Moreau a shipwrecked gentleman named Edward Prendick, stranded on a Pacific island lorded over by the notorious Dr. Moreau, confronts dark secrets, strange creatures, and a reason to run for his life. While this riveting tale was intended to be a commentary on evolution, divine creation, and the tension between human nature and culture, modern readers familiar with genetic engineering will marvel at Wells’s prediction of the ethical issues raised by producing “smarter” human beings or bringing back extinct species. These levels of interpretat

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Book SynopsisInspired by the true story of a political murder that horried Russians in 1869, Fyodor Dostoevsky conceived of Demons as a 'novel-pamphlet' in which he would say everything about the plague of materialist ideology that he saw infecting his native land. What emerged was a prophetic and ferociously funny masterpiece of ideology and murder in pre-revolutionary Russia.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisTranslates an important example of late seventeenth-century French hybrid experimental fiction that shows the beginnings of the literary fairy tale.

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Book SynopsisNothing superfluous, nothing lacking. William Hazlitt’s highest praise for good prose can justly be applied to the poetry of Robert Hayden.

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Book SynopsisThe internationally renowned Soviet psychologist presents here the results of his research into the disorganization and control of human behavior.

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Book SynopsisIf letter writing is a lost art, Staying on Alone is a measure of what has been lost.

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Book SynopsisA consummate farce in which a middle-aged man arranges a rendezvous in a seedy little hotel with the beautiful young wife of his best friend. Plays for Performance Series.

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Book SynopsisEstablished accounts of the child in nineteenth century literature tend to focus on those who occupy a central position within narratives. This book is concerned with children who are not so easily recognized or remembered, the peripheral or overlooked children to be read in works by Dickens, Brontë, Austen and Rossetti.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction PART I: THE RETURN OF THE CHILD 1. The Child and the Return: Persuasion 2. The Child and the Letter: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 3. The Child and Transmission: 'Goblin Market' 4. The Child and the Thing: The Mystery of Edwin Drood PART II: HISTORY, ETHICS, AND ANALYSIS 5. The Queer Child: No Future and 'Dickens and the Construction of the Child 6. The Child and History: Strange Dislocations and The Mind of the Child Conclusion: Why Analysis? Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisMick Mannock, Fighter Pilot is the authoritative life story of Britain and Ireland's most successful fighter pilot of the First World War; a working class hero and staunch socialist who in the skies above the Western Front combined engineering prowess, tactical initiative, and grim determination to become an inspirational squadron commander.Trade Review"Adrian Smith has written an excellent book on one of the Great War's most successful fighter pilots." - The Journal of Military HistoryTable of ContentsMap: Mick Mannock's Western FrontIntroduction to the Second Edition 1. Introduction 2. A Pre-war Education, 1888-1914 3. Preparing for War, 1914-1917 4. 40 Squadron, 1917-1918 5. 74 and 85 Squadrons, 1918 6. Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThrough original interviews and research, Llewellyn uses spirituality to uncover new commonalities between the second and third feminist waves, and sacred and secular experiences. Her lively approach highlights the importance of reading cultures in feminist studies, connecting women's voices across generations, literary practices, and religions.Trade Review"Through an engaging approach that moves beyond imagined readers and assumptions about Christian and post-Christian feminism, Reading, Spirituality, and Feminism: Troubling the Waves demonstrates how women are actively constructing feminist spirituality through their diverse reading practices. By focusing on women's reading strategies, Llewellyn challenges typical conceptions of feminism, exposes the limits of feminist theologians' work, and highlights the possibilities for connection across generational, disciplinary, and religious divides." - Lynn S. Neal, Associate Professor of Religion, Wake Forest University, USA and author of Romancing God: Evangelical Women and Inspirational Fiction "Reading is vital to the spiritual lives of many women. Llewellyn's absorbing book shows how Christian and post-Christian women 'filter' their sacred texts, mining them for meanings that affirm their identities and relationships. Not just a fascinating study of women's spiritual reading, the book also calls for a conversation across the feminist waves and between secular gender studies and feminist theology." - Kristin Aune, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Trust, Peace & Social Relations, Coventry University, UK and co-author of Reclaiming the F Word: The New Feminist Movement "Llewellyn's creative and inspiring work breaks new ground by focusing upon the everyday reading practices of women and provides unique insights into the processes of personal transformation that have been engendered by literary texts. This book is theoretically astute and offers a sophisticated analysis of the role of literature within changing feminist cultures. It is also engaging, perceptive, insightful, and full of memorable narratives and the kind of attention to contextual detail that brings research to life." - Heather Walton, Senior Lecturer of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Glasgow, UKTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Reading, Feminism, and Spirituality 2. Talking in Waves: A Generational and Secular Metaphor 3. Filtering the Canon 4. Reading for Difference 5. Reading for Community Conclusion: Keep On Troubling the Waves Appendix A: Methodology and Method: Reader-Centered Feminist Research Appendix B: Readers Profiles Appendix C: Groups, Networks, and Organizations

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Book SynopsisA focus on personal agency and dealing with the complexity inherent in education settings highlights the macro and micro negotiations new education professionals are required to undertake between the margins of the personal and professional to provide a more nuanced model for early professional development.Table of Contents1. Developing an Education Professional Practice: Four Common Experiences 2. When the Personal Encounters the Professional: A Psychoanalytic Perspective 3. Collecting Narratives of Early Education Professional Practice 4. Stories of Resistance and Challenge: Developing Education Biographies 5. Being Agents in Education: Case Studies 6. Bringing the Past into the Present: Formative Interviews 7. Stories of Hope and Holding 8. Encountering Education at Three Levels: Social, Individual and Unconscious 9. Developing a Professional Identity: Negotiating the Borders of Professional Practice 10. Reasons to be Cheerful: Embracing Anxiety in Education

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Book SynopsisThe book is the first study of the 10th century Iraqi poet Ibn al-Hajjaj who popularized a new genre of obscene and scatological parody (sukhf) and is considered the most obscene poet in Arabic literature. Antoon traces the genealogy of this fascinating genre in and examines its rise by placing it in its sociopolitical context.Trade Review"Exciting and vital to the unearthing of new trajectories for the Arabic literary tradition . . . [Antoon's book] is a timely and uplifting work, which must be taken seriously and built upon." - Journal of the Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamicate World 'Sinan Antoon is among the few scholars who in recent years have embarked on the unprejudiced study of what in Arabic is called muj?n or sukhf. It is not surprising that until recently in the West, and still in most Islamic countries, the study of obscenity and scatology was hampered by moral and religious scruples, aided by aesthetic prejudice. This makes the present study all the more welcome and important. Scholarly and thorough, it is also readable (if one can stomach the poems with their unstoppable outpouring of filth), written in an accessible style, neither marred by the excessive use of jargon nor suffering from being clothed in a straightjacket of Theory. The numerous translations of poems are reliable and accompanied by the Arabic text in transliteration.' - Geert Jan van Gelder, Laudian Professor of Arabic, University of Oxford, UK "This groundbreaking study opens up for the first time an important and fascinating, but heretofore studiously avoided, aspect of classical Arabic literature." - Everett K. Rowson, Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University, USATable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Ibn al-?ajj?j and Sukhf: Genealogies 2. Parodying the Tradition 3. Sukhf in Mad?? 4. Sukhf as sukhf : Abü Nuw?s, Mujün and Ibn al-?ajj?j 5. Sukhf , Scatology and Society Conclusion

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Book SynopsisTheatre has a funny way of getting to the heart of who we are now and particularly in the case of Connections who we are going to be.Drawing together the work of nine leading playwrights, National Theatre Connections 2018 features work by some of the most exciting contemporary playwrights. Gathered together in one volume, the plays offer young performers an engaging selection of material to perform, read or study.From friends building bridges and siblings breaking down walls; girls making their voice heard and boys searching for home; and not forgetting a band of unlikely action heroes taking control of the weather.The anthology contains nine play scripts along with imaginative production notes and exercises, as well as a short introduction to the writing process for the tenth Connections play [ BLANK ] by Alice Birch.National Theatre Connections is an annual festival which brings new plays for young people to schools and youth theatres across the UK and Ireland. CommisTable of ContentsThe Blue Electric Wind by Brad Birch The Changing Room by Chris Bush The Free9 by In-Sook Chappell Ceasefire Babies by Fiona Doyle These Bridges by Phoebe Eclair Powell When They Go Low by Natalie Mitchell Want by Barney Norris The Sweetness of a Sting by Chinonyerem Odimba Dungeness by Chris Thompson

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Book SynopsisClaire O'Callaghan is Associate Lecturer in English at Brunel University London, UK.Trade ReviewO'Callaghan's analysis of both [feminism and queer theory] in Sarah Waters: Gender and Sexual Politics shows that a great deal of careful negotiation is, in fact, required to navigate their often contradictory perspectives ... She unpicks the nuances of each novel with sensitive political and literary insight. * Times Literary Supplement *O’Callaghan successfully maps out manifold feminist and queer theories at play in Waters’s works, and this book’s approach to Waters’s gender and sexual politics from both feminist and queer perspectives will be useful for further research on how lesbianism is expressed in contemporary society. * Contemporary Women’s Writing *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Queer and Feminist Contexts of Sarah Water's Gender and Sexual Politics 1. Female Subjects: Feminists, Queer Theories and the Contemporary 'Woman' Question in Tipping the Velvet 2. A Journal of Two Hearts? Lesbian Identities and Politics in Affinity 3. Beyond the 'Sex Wars': Sex, Pleasure and Pornography in Fingersmith 4. 'Back to Normal': Lost Histories/ Affective Archives - The Night Watch 5. The Little Stranger–A Study of the Heteropatriachal Male and the Dynamics of Masculine Domination 6. 'I'd Had Terrific Plans': The Return of the Gendered and Sexual Oppression in The Paying Guests Afterword: Telling it Straight? Water's Afterlives on Stage and Screen Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSimon Stephens began his theatrical career in the literary department of the Royal Court Theatre, where he ran its Young Writers' Programme. His plays for theatre include Bluebird (Royal Court Theatre, London, 1998, directed by Gordon Anderson); Herons (Royal Court Theatre, 2001); Port(Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, 2002); One Minute (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 2003 and Bush Theatre, London, 2004); Christmas (Bush Theatre, 2004); Country Music (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 2004); On the Shore of the Wide World (Royal Exchange Theatre and National Theatre, London, 2005); Motortown (Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, 2006); Pornography (Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hanover, 2007; Edinburgh Festival/Birmingham Rep, 2008 and Tricycle Theatre, London, 2009); Harper Regan (National Theatre, 2008); Sea Wall (Bush Theatre, 2008/Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 2009); Heaven (Traverse Theatre, 2009); Punk Rock (Lyric Hammersmith, London, and Royal Exchange Theatre, 2009); The Trial of Ubu (Essen Schauspielhaus/Toneelgroep Amsterdam, 2010); A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky (co-written with David Eldridge and Robert Holman; Lyric Hammersmith, London, 2010); Marine Parade (co-written with Mark Eitzel; Brighton International Festival, 2010); T5 (Traverse Theatre, 2010); Wastwater (Royal Court Theatre Downstairs, 2011); Morning (Lyric Hammersmith, 2012); an adaptation of A Doll's House (Young Vic, 2012); an adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (National Theatre, 2012); Blindsided (Royal Exchange, 2014); and Birdland (Royal Court, 2014). His radio plays include Five Letters Home to Elizabeth (BBC Radio 4, 2001) and Digging (BBC Radio 4, 2003). His screenwriting includes an adaptation of Motortown for Film4 (2009); the two-part serial Dive (with Dominic Savage) for Granada/BBC (2009); and a short film adaptation of Pornography for Channel 4's 'Coming Up' series (2009). Awards include the Pearson Award for Best New Play, 2001, for Port; Olivier Award for Best New Play for On the Shore of the Wide World, 2005; and for Motortown German critics in Theater Heute's annual poll voted him Best Foreign Playwright, 2007. His adaptation of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play.Trade ReviewOne of the most devastating 30 minutes you are ever likely to experience in the theatre * Lyn Garnder, Guardian *As engaging and devastating a piece of theatre as you're likely to find... packs an enormous emotional punch... A spellbinding reminder of the power of story-telling in all its glorious simplicity. * Independent *It's a delicate wisp of a thing, like a curl of cigarette-smoke exhaled in a moment of mournful reverie. After contact with it, sure enough, your eyes are welling up, and you're starting to choke. * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisRICHARD GILL teaches English at Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College, Leicester, UK, and teaches adults at the University of Leicester. He is the author of Mastering Shakespeare and Mastering the Novels of Jane Austen (with Susan Gregory).

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Book SynopsisA Sketch of the Sikhs Missionaries Nabobs News Military Men Great Gamers Academics AppendixTrade Review"A fascinating account of the Sikhs as seen by foreign travellers in the land which was to become their kingdom. They give us an insight into the macho self-image that Sikhs have to this day - anything you can do I can do better. This spirit of upmanship has sustained the community miniscule in numbers but grand in achievements." - Khushwant Singh, author, A History of the Sikhs "Better than time travel... a richly-peopled, intimate journey through the dawn of Sikh history." - Christy Campbell, author of The Maharajah's and Fenian Fire: The British Government Plot to Assassinate Queen Victoria "This is a splendid compilation of documents which should have an appeal beyond the narrowly academic to a range of readers, including many with general interests in the expansion of British rule in northern India as well as those particularly interested in early Sikh history at whom the book is most directly targeted." - Journal of the Royal Asiatic SocietyTable of ContentsA Sketch of the Sikhs Missionaries Nabobs News Military Men Great Gamers Academics Appendix

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Book SynopsisSamuel Crowl is Trustee Professor of English at Ohio University, USA. He is the author of several books on Shakespeare in performance including Shakespeare Observed, Shakespeare at the Cineplex, The Films of Kenneth Branagh and Shakespeare and Film. He has lectured at colleges and universities in the United States, England, Europe, and Africa and has been five times honored for distinguished teaching.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface 1 Literary contexts 2 Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet: from text to screen 3 Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet: from text to screen 4 Critical response and the afterlife of text and film Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe story of Umm Salama, her otherworldly encounters and visions.

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Book SynopsisViktor Shklovsky (1893-1984) was one of the foremost literary critics and theorists of the 20th century. One of the founders of the Formalist movement in literary criticism, his seminal works include Art as Method (1917), Theory of Prose (1925), Third Factory (1926), classic studies of Tolstoy and Mayakovsky, and a memoir of the Russian civil-war era, A Sentimental Journey: Memoirs, 19171922 (1923).Alexandra Berlina is Postdoctoral Researcher in Literary Studies at the University of Erfurt, Germany. Her translations of Brodsky's poems Dido and Aeneas and You can't tell a gnat... have won awards from the 'Willis Barnstone Translation Prize' and the 'The Joseph Brodsky/Stephen Spender Prize'. She is the author of Brodsky Translating Brodsky (Bloomsbury, 2014).Trade ReviewAn extraordinary revelation of the unbelievable life and work of the man who invented formalism. Alexandra Berlina has done a great service to literature by rescuing these fragments of one of the most lively and irreverent minds of the last century. A book to return to, again and again. * David Bellos, Meredith Howland Pyne Professor of French Literature, Princeton University, USA, and author of Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything *This collection allows all readers to approach the life and opinions of Viktor Shklovsky, one of the most fascinating figures of Russian cultural life in the twentieth century. * Tzvetan Todorov, historian, essayist, and author of The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre *Viktor Shklovsky: A Reader, thoughtfully translated and edited by Alexandra Berlina, is a valiant reminder of the extraordinary versatility, humor, brilliance, and sensitivity the Formalist label has come to conceal. … With this exemplary new anthology, Alexandra Berlina has helped free Shklovsky from the clanging of -isms, allowing new readers to appreciate his thought in the fullness of its diversity and beauty. * The Los Angeles Review of Books *The reviewed omnibus, it must be added, challenges yet another well entrenched doxa concerning Shklovsky’s work. Traditionally, it was regarded as consisting of two unequal parts: the impishly appealing pre-1929 formalist output followed by the appalling potboilers written after the author reluctantly renounced his formalist stance … Berlina, though, managed to erase the perceived caesura between the early and late Shklovsky’s writings not just by telling but by showing. Her Reader, assembling texts from all periods of his long writerly career, clearly highlighted the motivic iterations binding them together as well as their overall thematic unity. * The Russian Review *Table of ContentsTranslator’s Introduction Viktor Shklovsky: Life and Work Ostranenie and Other Key Concepts Shklovsky in the West: Reception and Heritage The Poker of Russian Formalism: Shklovsky as Protagonist In Fiction In Diaries and Memoirs Shklovsky’s Shorts Shklovsky’s Style Selection, Translation and Formal Remarks Section I: OPOYAZ Publications Translator’s Introduction Resurrection of the Word (1914) Art as Device (1917/1919) Literature beyond “Plot” (1921/1925) Literature beyond Theme; Non-Linear Inheritance Literature beyond Genre; Digressions Literature beyond Categories; Seeing like a Child Section II: Autobiographic Hybrids Translator’s Introduction A Letter to Roman Jakobson (1922/1990) Zoo, or Letters Not About Love (1923/1965) Author’s Preface to the First Edition A Second Preface for an Old Book A Third Preface Letter Four Letter Six Letter Eight Letter Eleven Letter Seventeen Letter Twenty Two Letter Twenty Eight Letter Thirty A Sentimental Journey (1923) Revolution and the Front The Writing Desk Knight’s Move (1923) Preface One Driving Nails with a Samovar On “The Great Metalworker” A Thousand Herrings The Tsar’s Kitchen Teaser Stallions (1924/1990) The Third Factory (1926) The First Factory The Second Factory The Third Factory Section III: Early Soviet Criticism and Advice to Young Writers Translator’s Introduction The Technique of Writing Craft (1927) Introduction: Don’t Hurry to Become a Professional Writer Newspaper Work Narrative Prose Unfolding a Text A Few Words on Poetry Conclusion Hamburg Score (1928) Babel: A Critical Romance (1924) In Defense of the Sociological Method (1927) Ten Years (1927) Hamburg Score (1928) The Way I Write (1930/1990) Section IV: After the Freeze Translator’s Introduction Once Upon A Time (1964) Childhood Youth The Ending of Youth Tales about Prose (1966/1983) A Note From the Author On the Novella Some Empirical Remarks on the Methods of Connecting Novellas On the Different Meanings of “Character” when Applied to Literary Works of Different Epochs On the True Unity of Works of Art What Happened after the Plague of 1348? On the Sense of Wonder Scenes of Recognition in Dickens Concept Renewal Letters to Nikita Shklovsky (1965-1969/2002) 05.10.1965 05.10.1966 19.04.1968 02.04.1969 20.07.1969 Bowstring. On the Dissimilarity of the Similar. (1970) Energy of Delusion. A Book on Plot. (1981) Section V: On the Theory of Prose (1983) Translator’s Introduction Preface Words Free the Soul from Narrowness: About the OPOYAZ The Rhyme of Poetry. The Rhyme of Prose. Structuralism through the Looking Glass: A Farewell The First Unsuccessful Blueprint of a Whale: Chekhov’s “Darling” The Links of Art Do Not Repeat Each Other. Once Again, on the Dissimilarity of the Similar. Sterne In the Footsteps of Old Discoveries and Inventions The Problem of Time in Art The Lungs Are for Breathing. Thoughts Out Loud. Yet Another Foreword Ostranenie In Reply to a Questionnaire [More Thoughts Out Loud] Section VI: In 60 Years: Works on Cinema. (1985) Translator’s Introduction Introduction (1985) On Cinema (1919) The Plot in Cinema (1923) Chaplin as Policeman (1923) The Semantics of Cinema (1925) Poetry and Prose in Cinema (1927) On Re-Editing Films (1927) Five Feuilletons on Eisenstein (1926) Talking to Friends (1939) Happy Fable-land (1948) What the Character Knows and What the Audience Knows (1959) The Emergence of the Word (1963) Return the Ball into the Game (1970) Unread Dream (1984) Instead of an Afterword: A Letter to Evgeny Gabrilovich (1984)

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Book SynopsisA uniquely-crafted memoir of the author's early childhood (1967–1972), the third oldest in a working-class Catholic family from the Brandywell in Derry. Written with the authentic voice of a child, this snapshot of his young life unfolds in a series of stories evoking the innocence of childhood, family dynamics and tensions, street friendships and characters, the onset of civil strife, and a family protecting itself from conflict, with CS gas coming in through the door and tracer bullets flying past the windows. The book centres on Tony’s father, Patrick – a legend in his son's eyes and a man who struggles to raise a family through bitter years of economic inactivity. It beautifully and movingly portrays the relationship between Tony and the father he adores, yet slightly fears, as events, both within the family and on the streets, unfold and fuse together. The burgeoning chaos of conflict finds its way into his life through the death of a friend under an army truck and more horrifically, directly into the Doherty household. Described as 'a treasure', it draws the reader into a child's world, his innocent view of the harsh reality of life and the horrifying events unfolding around him. It has bags of humour and paints a picture of a lost world of children running wild in play, unsupervised by or worried over by adults. The book is also very moving, to the point of provoking tears at the end.

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Book SynopsisAlthough Gaelic no longer resounds through the Lennox and Mentieth as it once did, this volume demonstrates that its rich heritage of literature and folklore deserves to be rediscovered and reclaimed by new generations. Gaelic was once spoken by its earls and chieftains, farmers and fishermen, into the twentieth century. This book presents some of the songs, stories and traditions which recapture the timeless brilliance of the Gaelic heroic age in the area. Dr Michael Newton has brought together the legends of the early Christian saints, tales of the supernatural, panegyric verse of professional poets, clans sagas of the Colquhouns, MacGregors, and MacFarlanes, Jacobite songs, elegies, local calendar customs, and other remnants of folklore and folklife. Patient and dedicated research has enabled this wealth of material to be accessible for the first time to students, scholars, and all enthusiasts of the history and culture of the Lennox and Menteith, bringing back to life an ancient inheritance worth celebrating.Trade Review'... an excellent (bilingual) publication [which] provides material not readily available anywhere else [and] supports a better understanding of a local Gaelic identity.' Ruairidh Maclean

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Book SynopsisThough it is more than seventy years since it was first written, Caisleáin Óir, Séamus Ó Grianna's best-known novel, still has the power both to touch the heart with its story of the blighting of young love and to delight the ear with the excellence of its idiomatic Irish. The story of Séimí Phádraig Dubh and his sweetheart Babaí Mháirtín growing up at the turn of the century in the rocky peninsula of Rannafast in the Rosses of Donegal is one of bitter sadness, as they are deprived by fate and economic necessity of the magic glimpsed as children:'A Shéimí, goidé an cineál tithe iad sin,' arsa sise, ag amharc ar na néalta, 'atá os cionn luí na gréine?''Tá,' arsa Séimí, 'sin caisleáin óir a bhfuil na daoine beaga ina gcónaí iontu . . . '

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Book SynopsisLittle St. John's Day. Fair Day in Thomastown. Feast Day of St. Peter and St. Paul, apostles … Cherries and red and black currants for sale at Crois. A sultry day. Hurling on Fair Green. I was knocked down by a young brat, but it was nothing to be ashamed of, as I brought him down as well. Cow-dung oft knocked a good man. Everything is growing now as fast as ferns.' ⪦p>Keeping a personal diary was not a practise among writers of Irish before O'Sullivan's time and contemporary Irish scholars saw no future for the language and consequently wrote in English. Hence Humphrey O'Sullivan (Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin) showed remarkable originality and courage in undertaking a diary in the Irish language.He lived a full life as a successful businessman, a fearless worker in the cause of freedom and social justice, a lover of nature, an antiquarian, collector of manuscripts and enjoyer of good food and drink. By jotting down notes on daily activities he has left us a lively and frank account of life in a small town during a particularly turbulent and important period in Irish history, which included the struggle for Catholic Emancipation, the Tithe War, the foundation of the National Schools, the secret societies, famine, plague, evictions and faction fighting.O'Sullivan has left us with a remarkable contribution to the social history of Ireland as seen from the inside by a man of wide interests and deep understanding.

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Book SynopsisCatafalque offers a revolutionary new reading of the great psychologist Carl Jung as mystic, gnostic and prophet for our time. This book is the first major re-imagining of both Jung and his work since the publication of the Red Book in 2009 -- and is the only serious assessment of them written by a classical scholar who understands the ancient Gnostic, Hermetic and alchemical foundations of his thought as well as Jung himself did. At the same time it skillfully tells the forgotten story of Jung''s relationship with the great Sufi scholar, Henry Corbin, and with Persian Sufi tradition. The strange reality of the Red Book, or New Book as Carl Jung called it, lies close to the heart of Catafalque. In meticulous detail Peter Kingsley uncovers its great secret, hidden in plain sight and still -- as if by magic -- unrecognized by all those who have been unable to understand this mysterious, incantatory text. But the hard truth of who Jung was and what he did is only a small part of what this book uncovers. It also exposes the full extent of that great river of esoteric tradition that stretches all the way back to the beginnings of our civilization. It unveils the surprising realities behind western philosophy, literature, poetry, prophecy -- both ancient and modern. In short, Peter Kingsley shows us not only who Carl Jung was but who we in the West are as well. Much more than a brilliant spiritual biography, Catafalque holds the key to understanding why our western culture is dying. And, an incantatory text in its own right, it shows the way to discovering what we in these times of great crisis must do. Book details 844-page paperback.

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