Biography: writers Books
University of Illinois Press Brian W. Aldiss
Book SynopsisBrian W. Aldiss wrote classic science fiction novels like Report on Probability A and Hothouse. Billion Year Spree, his groundbreaking study of the field, defined the very meaning of SF and delineated its history. Yet Aldiss's discomfort with being a guiding spirit of the British New Wave and his pursuit of mainstream success characterized a lifelong ambivalence toward the genre. Paul Kincaid explores the many contradictions that underlay the distinctive qualities of Aldiss's writing. Wartime experiences in Asia and the alienation that arose upon his return to the cold austerity of postwar Britain inspired themes and imagery that Aldiss drew upon throughout his career. He wrote of prolific nature overwhelming humanity, believed war was madness even though it provided him with the happiest period of his life, and found parallels in the static lives of Indian peasants and hidebound English society. As Kincaid shows, contradictions created tensions that fueled the Trade Review"As Kincaid’s elegant overview makes clear, Aldiss’s work is not only a paean to ceaseless creativity, but a testament to an almost compulsive preoccupation with generating new problems towards whose solution that same sparkling creativity may be directed." --Locus"A level-headed assessment. " --Times Literary Supplement "Brian Aldiss was science fiction’s most gifted stylist: innovative, elegant, mercurial and always highly readable. He was tirelessly prolific, producing not only stories of adventure in space, travelers through time and several noxious alien beings, but also experimental literary fiction and thoughtful memoir. Paul Kincaid’s superb and closely attentive account of his life and work covers the full Aldiss range, responding sympathetically not only to the extraordinary variety but also the level of ambition." --Christopher Priest, four-time winner of the BSFA Award"Paul Kincaid's cogent, career-spanning study of Brian Aldiss's life and work is a valuable contribution to SF studies. He expertly covers the many books in Aldiss's canon, shedding new light on areas that have received little scholarly attention while enumerating the author’s importance to the SF megatext. Accessible and illuminating, Brian W. Aldiss should be read by anybody writing about Aldiss, but it's also an enjoyable biography."--D. Harlan Wilson, author of J. G. Ballard"Kincaid affirms Aldiss as a crucial figure in postwar British sf, author of a handful of indisputable classics, and deeply involved in the aesthetic and critical evolution of the field." --Science Fiction Studies
£17.99
Indiana University Press Saul Bellow
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£70.55
Indiana University Press Saul Bellow
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£34.20
University of Notre Dame Press Walls
Book SynopsisWalls: Essays, 1985-1990, Kenneth McClane''s first book of autobiographical essays (originally published in 1991), is closely related to his second collection, Color, published by the University of Notre Dame Press in 2009. Walls is a powerful and deeply moving meditation on relationships. It begins with an essay on the death of McClane''s brother, Paul, which changed everything. Time, my work, everything found a new calculus. His brother''s life and death are present in some way in all the essays that follow A Death in the Family, as McClane tells us about giving a poetry reading in a maximum-security prison; his experience of being one of the first two African American students to attend America''s oldest private school; teaching creative writing; his sister, Adrienne; a divestment protest at Cornell; and his encounters with James Baldwin. McClane has written a new preface to this paperback edition of Walls, in which he reminds us that we are inevitablyTrade Review“The author of six collections of poems, McClane (Cornell) ventures into new literary territory with his first collection of essays, Walls. Although McClane’s introduction confesses to considerable trepidation about writing in this genre, readers will be richly rewarded by the quality of his prose. The cornerstone of this collection is McClane’s first essay, a poignant and powerful meditation on the death of his alcoholic brother. The elegiac tone he establishes here shapes the mood of the entire collection. From this vantage point, McClane writes eloquently about the experience of being both African American and middle-class in contemporary America. Whether he is exploring the sensations of giving a poetry reading to inmates at Auburn, or describing a Unity Day fiasco in Connecticut, or recounting the terrible condition of his brain-damaged sister, McClane writes with elegance, insight, and passion. In his explorations of the dilemmas of race and class against the backdrop of the American academy, McClane’s essays break new ground in the tradition of African American personal narratives. Highly recommended for all collections.” —Choice"In this absorbing collection of essays originally published in 1991, Cornell literature professor McClane muses deeply on issues of identity, race, family, and academia. . . . Walls is a heady volume; McClane is foremost a poet, and his essays carry the reverberant weight of poetry, demanding a careful read. Moreover, he peppers his prose with esoteric references to James Baldwin, Chekhov, Kafka, and others, lending these essays an academic air. He claims that the loss of his brother to alcoholism pervades each tale, yet the pieces on his mentally-disabled sister or his difficult time at Collegiate carry equal emotional weight." —PW Annex Reviews“Kenneth McClane’s Walls is a collection of exquisitely crafted autobiographical essays that rivals the most profound nonfictional writings of James Baldwin in its skillful investigation of the hidden recesses of the always-throbbing black American soul. Indeed, Walls is a beautifully calibrated exploration of the challenges faced by a courageously self-aware—and refreshingly self-revealing—black intellectual whose journey to and in the American mainstream is both menacing and exhilarating.” —Michael Awkward, University of Michigan“Walls reminds us of the differences that set us apart, dividing our world into good kids and troublemakers, winners and losers, the beautiful and the damned. The anodyne for exile in these essays is McClane’s common but by no means commonplace lexicon, at once evocative and spare, that leads us to painful but honest connection and the luminous possibility of empathy.” —William L. Andrews, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
£52.70
Pennsylvania State University Press Georg Forster
Book SynopsisExamines the life and work of writer and political activist Georg Forster (1754-1794), a participant in Captain Cook’s second voyage and one of the leading figures in the Mainz Republic.Trade Review“Todd Kontje’s book is both an excellent starting point and a significant addition to existing scholarship. The image of Forster that emerges is further removed from modern progressive values, but no less fascinating and important.”—Morgan Golf-French History of European Ideas“A worthy contribution to the scholarship on Forster.”—R. Bledsoe Choice“This book is daring, somewhat provocative yet brilliant. It is an elegant volume, well done and with a helpful index. Above all, this is a major contribution to current scholarly debates on race, travel literature, science, and political and philosophical discourses surrounding the French Revolution and the Mainz Republic.”—Beate Allert German Quarterly“Georg Forster is a well-conceived and important book that comes at a moment of unresolved tension around questions of nationalism and cosmopolitanism, globalization and imperialism, individual identity and group identity, and populism and democracy—questions that were central to Forster’s life and his writings. Written by one of the foremost scholars in German literary approaches to other cultures, it will make an important contribution to the scholarship on Enlightenment travel, thought, and writing.”—John Noyes,author of Herder: Aesthetics Against Imperialism
£75.56
Pennsylvania State University Press Fitzgerald and the War Between the Sexes
Book SynopsisA collection of five essays on F. Scott Fitzgerald by the biographer and critic Scott Donaldson (1928–2020).Trade Review“Animated by both scholarship and passion, these essays are well worth a look for Fitzgerald fans and literature students more generally.”—Publishers Weekly“This highly accessible book will appeal immediately to Fitzgerald scholars and other readers interested in Fitzgerald’s association with the core themes of 1920s and 1930s literature—expatriation, psychoanalysis, and even technology. It is also a great guide for students, both undergraduates and graduates, who will find it a useful resource for explaining Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night and its central scenes.”—Kirk Curnutt,author of Reading Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not”: Glossary and Commentary
£75.56
Pennsylvania State University Press Resurrecting Jane de La Vaudère
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£25.16
University of Texas Press Pillar of Salt
Book SynopsisWritten with exquisite sensitivity and wit, this memoir by one of Mexico’s foremost men of letters describes coming of age during the violence of the Mexican Revolution and “living dangerously” as an openly homosexual man in a brutally machista society.Trade Review"And if 'translators translate context,' as Edith Grossman asserts, then what we encounter when we read Pillar of Salt is a supreme translation not only of language but also of culture, politics, sexuality, and boyhood." * Bookslut *"Reading [Pillar of Salt] was like shining a black light into a motel room, laying bare the secret traces of every lurid, defiant act that had preceded me there." * The Believer *Table of Contents Introduction The Sidelong World: Where Confession and Proclamation Are Compounded, by Carlos Monsiváis Pillar of Salt by Salvador Novo “This flower of fourteen petals”: Salvador Novo and the Sonnet, by Marguerite Feitlowitz Sonnets Notes Index of Names
£25.19
University of Washington Press John Okada
Book SynopsisTrade Review"This is a strong compilation, mixing Okada’s writing with copious analysis of it, and telling a story of his life that both echoes and informs his best-known work." -- Jeff Fleischer * Foreword Reviews *"Combining an extensive biographical treatment of Okada (1923–71), recovered works by Okada, and critical essays, John Okada offers an innovative introduction to the Japanese American author. . . . Recommended." * Choice *"Thanks to the recent publication of a collection of previously unknown writings by Okada (John Okada: The Life & Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy), readers are in a better position to understand how these themes were embedded in the author’s life. Revisiting No-No Boy alongside the recent collection offers a valuable opportunity to connect the legacies of wartime incarceration with current struggles against a state that seems intent on repeating the injustices of the past." * Los Angeles Review of Books *
£29.66
University of Washington Press John Okada
Book SynopsisNo-No Boy, John Okada's only published novel, centers on a Japanese American who refuses to fight for the country that incarcerated him and his people in World War II and, upon release from federal prison after the war, is cast out by his divided community. In 1957, the novel faced a similar rejection until it was rediscovered and reissued in 1976 to become a celebrated classic of American literature. As a result of Okada's untimely death at age forty-seven, the author's life and other works have remained obscure.This compelling collection offers the first full-length examination of Okada's development as an artist, placing recently discovered writing by Okada alongside essays that reassess his lasting legacy. Meticulously researched biographical details, insight from friends and relatives, and a trove of intimate photographs illuminate Okada's early life in Seattle, military service, and careers as a public librarian and a technical writer in the aerospace industryTrade Review"This is a strong compilation, mixing Okada’s writing with copious analysis of it, and telling a story of his life that both echoes and informs his best-known work." -- Jeff Fleischer * Foreword Reviews *"Combining an extensive biographical treatment of Okada (1923–71), recovered works by Okada, and critical essays, John Okada offers an innovative introduction to the Japanese American author. . . . Recommended." * Choice *"Thanks to the recent publication of a collection of previously unknown writings by Okada (John Okada: The Life & Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy), readers are in a better position to understand how these themes were embedded in the author’s life. Revisiting No-No Boy alongside the recent collection offers a valuable opportunity to connect the legacies of wartime incarceration with current struggles against a state that seems intent on repeating the injustices of the past." * Los Angeles Review of Books *
£110.48
MP-WIS Uni of Wisconsin How Joyce Wrote Finnegans Wake A
Book SynopsisExplores the genesis of James Joyce's ""Finnegans Wake"". This book offers an archival survey of the manuscripts, and an introduction to genetic criticism.Trade ReviewAn important contribution to genetic textual scholarship, the study of the process of a writer's production.... To enable us to grasp [Joyce's] process in its very becoming, as this book does, is a huge achievement. - Terence Killeen, The Irish Times ""Insightful and relevant.... It is the first comprehensive genetic discussion of Finnegans Wake chapter by chapter, and anyone seriously interested in Joyce and the Wake will benefit from reading it."" - A. Nicholas Fargnoli, Molloy College ""A major step forward in the critical history of the book that is Joyce's most challenging work and one of the twentieth century's most significant artistic productions."" - Derek Attridge, University of York
£31.46
Yale University Press Knut Hamsun
Book SynopsisNorwegian writer Knut Hamsun (1859-1952), winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920, was both a brilliant and controversial man. This biography offers a nuanced account of this morally ambiguous man. Drawing on Hamsun's extraordinary private archives and on his psychoanalyst's notes, it delves into Hamsun's personal life and character.Trade Review“ [a] daring, frightening book.”—Los Angeles Times * Los Angeles Times *
£30.88
Yale University Press Machado de Assis
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£46.55
Yale University Press Andrew Marvell
Book SynopsisThe seventeenth-century poet Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) is one of the most intriguing figures in English literature. This title offers a look into Marvell's life, from his early employment as a tutor and gentleman's companion to his suspicious death, reputedly a politically fueled poisoning.Trade Review"Superlative. . . . The fullest portrait we have to date."—David Yezzi, The Wall Street Journal -- David Yezzi * The Wall Street Journal *"Nigel Smith. . . has certainly mastered everything that can be learned about this elusive, shadowy and very private man."—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post -- Michael Dirda * The Washington Post *"Smith asks the right questions about Marvell's life and time, and he works assiduously in helping to lay 'a new foundation of the documentary knowledge.' . . . [A] worthy biography."—Megan Buskey, The New York Times Book Review -- Megan Buskey * The New York Times Book Review *"He offers the fullest available account of Marvell's political activities, fully contextualized. . . . [An] indispensible guide."—Paul Dean, The New Criterion -- Paul Dean * The New Criterion *"Nigel Smith attends skillfully to the poetry, but he also provides extensive information about the period as well as the complicated development of Marvell's political and religious views. . . . [Smith's] is probably the most complete biography of Marvell we are likely to see."—Jerome Donnelly, America -- Jerome Donnelly * America *"Smith delivers fresh insights into Marvell’s experiences and character…. a fascinating psychological portrait of Marvell."—Helen Hackett, Times Literary Supplement -- Helen Hackett * Times Literary Supplement *"From reclusive poet to undercover pamphleteer, Andrew Marvell has always been a mystery man. But nobody knows him better than Nigel Smith, who now follows his definitive edition of the poetry with an up-to-date and state-of-the-art biography."—Annabel Patterson, Yale University -- Annabel Patterson"The remarkable depth of Nigel Smith's research makes new sense of a celebratedly elusive writer."—David Norbrook, author of Poetry and Politics in the English Renaissance -- David Norbrook‘Nigel Smith's definitive biography of Marvell is a gripping read, opening up a world of surprisingly intense interactions between poetry and politics in England's most turbulent modern century. Smith brilliantly illuminates the two sides of Marvell's poetical character--the engaged, parliamentary brawler and controversialist, and the weirdly detached observer of the world--but he also shows how the mysteriousness of Marvell's character resides at last in the very independence and privacy for which Marvell so publicly fought."—Gordon Teskey, Harvard University -- Gordon Teskey"Rich in detail and impeccably lucid, this remarkable study allows us to understand the subtle poet and elusive politician as we never have before. If Marvell was a mirror to the world, as one of the book's sources says, Nigel Smith is the perfect guide to the mirror and its world, master of the difficult art of looking-glass history."—Michael Wood, Princeton University -- Michael Wood'The chameleon that emerges from this badly needed, deeply researched study is not just the subtle lyricist familiar from the anthologies but a vigorous verse satirist and an ambitious prose controversialist, whose views still resonate today. Historical sleuthing and literary analysis combine brilliantly in this landmark account - the fullest, most wide-angle picture of Marvell ever produced." —John Kerrigan, Professor of English 2000, University of Cambridge -- John Kerrigan"Meticulously researched. . . this noteworthy study provides a suitable balance of historical context and literary criticism."—Library Journal * Library Journal *"Smith makes an excellent case for the enduring power of Marvell's occasional poems and satires."—Adam Kirsch, Barnes and Noble Review -- Adam Kirsch * Barnes and Noble Review *"[A] worthy biography."—Megan Buskey, The New York Times Book Review -- Megan Buskey * The New York Times Book Review *"[An] exhaustive, shrewd, wary new biography...Thepoet as craft chameleon in Smith's smart and resonant readings is also the poet as skulking, threatened double agent."—Robert Polito, Bookforum -- Robert Polito * Bookforum *"[An] exhaustive, shrewd, wary new biography."—Robert Polito, Bookforum -- Robert Polito * Bookforum *"Engaging, intensely researched…. Smith is very good on the historical and political contexts surrounding Marvell…. Smith’s book is a welcome contribution to Marvell studies."—Nick Laird, Daily Telegraph -- Nick Laird * Daily Telegraph *"[An] illuminating study."—Michael Kerrigan, The Scotsman -- Michael Kerrigan * The Scotsman *"The result of Smith’s scholarly close readings is a refreshed and refined sense of Marvell’s poetry, and his biography should be a standard point of reference for future Marvellians."—John Stubbs, Literary Review -- John Stubbs * Literary Review *“Nigel Smith…has now filled [a] void with this authoritative Life.”—Barton Swaim, The Weekly Standard -- Barton Swaim * The Weekly Standard *"It is an achievment of astonishing depth and equally impressive scope, covering a fascinating, complex period of English history. The book is must reading for early modern scholars."—M. Cole, CHOICE -- M. Cole * CHOICE *"Meticulously researched and scholarly in tone, this noteworthy study provides a suitable balance of historical context and literary criticism. Strongly recommended for students and general readers of 17th-century English literature and history."—Brian Odom, Library Journal -- Brian Odom * Library Journal *“Insightful, provocative.”—Books and Culture * Books and Culture *“Smith’s comprehensive study of Marvell’s many guises will influence critical thinking for years to come.”—A.D Cousins, Review of English Studies Vol.62 No.256 -- A.D Cousins * Review of English Studies Vol.62 No.256 *"Nigel Smith's massive effort . . . obviates the need for any further such survey of Marvell's life and art . . . [Smith's] grasp of seventeenth-century English history, politics, religion, society, is beyond impressive, and he is also a sensitive reader of poetry."—William H. Pritchard, The Hudson Review -- William H. Pritchard * The Hudson Review *“Nigel Smith… has now filled [a] void with this authoritative Life.”—Barton Swaim, The Weekly Standard -- Barton Swaim * The Weekly Standard *"Smith's meticulous archival research . . . allows a portrait of the young Marvell to form from relatively few life records. . . . Smith is able to identify relationships between [the political ideas of the prose and the depictions of love and sexuality in the lyric poems] in provocative ways."—Curtis Whitaker, Huntington Library Quarterly -- Curtis Whitaker * Huntington Library Quarterly *Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2011 in the English and American category. -- Choice Outstanding Academic Title * Choice *“This context of danger, where revelations of identity can mean a beheading, permeates the poet’s literary as well as his political work, as this scholarly biography shows.”—Sunday Herald (Glasgow) * Sunday Herald (Glasgow) *Shortlisted for the 2011 HW Fisher Best First Biography Prize -- HW Fisher Best First Biography Prize Shortlist * Biographers' Club *"A highly laudatory biography of the republican poet who praised regicides, hated Catholics and exposed in memorable verse corruption in those places he chose to investigate."—Contemporary Review * Contemporary Review *
£18.04
Yale University Press Wilfred Owen
Book SynopsisTrade Review“In this compassionate and moving biography, Cuthbertson lifts the lid on Owen’s early years and their impact on his work… While his boyishness nurtured his verse, his writing was mature and sophisticated, and Cuthbertson scrutinises this relationship wonderfully.—Julia Richardson, Daily Mail -- Julia Richardson * Daily Mail *
£19.99
Yale University Press Cursed Legacy
Book SynopsisSon of the famous Thomas Mann, homosexual, drug-addicted, and forced to flee from his fatherland, the gifted writer Klaus Mann's comparatively short life was as artistically productive as it was devastatingly dislocated. Best-known today as the author of Mephisto, the literary enfant terrible of the Weimar era produced seven novels, a dozen plays, four biographies, and three autobiographiesamong them the first works in Germany to tackle gay issuesamidst a prodigious artistic output. He was among the first to take up his pen against the Nazis, as a reward for which he was blacklisted and denounced as a dangerous half-Jew, his books burnt in public squares around Germany, and his citizenship revoked. Having served with the U.S. military in Italy, he was nevertheless undone by anti-Communist fanatics in Cold War-era America and Germany, dying in France (though not, as all other books contend, by his own hand) at age forty-two. Powerful, revealing, and compulsively readable, this first Trade Review“This absorbing biography draws a three-dimensional picture of the life of Klaus Mann, novelist, playwright, essayist, gay rights advocate, and seemingly the unluckiest man of letters in the years around WWII.”—Publishers Weekly * Publishers Weekly *“Spotts writes with humor and style, and a great admiration for his subject, which makes this biography valuable for literary historians but also quite accessible to the general reader.”—Jewish Book Council * Jewish Book Council *“Like all the finest biographers, Spotts brings history to life. He enables the reader to grasp the deep anxieties experienced by someone whose political convictions threatened his professional livelihood. . . . Above all he tells the heart-breaking story of an intellectual who stood up for his beliefs in dark times and paid a highly personal price for his politics.”—Anna Katharina Schaffner, TLS -- Anna Katherina Schaffner * TLS *Finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards in the Gay Memoir/Biography category. -- Lambda Literary Awards * Lambda Literary Foundation *
£33.25
Yale University Press Eternitys Sunrise
Book SynopsisIn this richly illustrated portrait, a prize-winning biographer surveys the entire sweep of William Blake's creative work while telling the story of his life William Blake, overlooked in his time, remains an enigmatic figure to contemporary readers despite his near canonical status. Out of a wounding sense of alienation and dividedness he created a profoundly original symbolic language, in which words and images unite in a unique interpretation of self and society. He was a counterculture prophet whose art still challenges us to think afresh about almost every aspect of experiencesocial, political, philosophical, religious, erotic, and aesthetic. He believed that we live in the midst of Eternity here and now, and that if we could open our consciousness to the fullness of being, it would be like experiencing a sunrise that never ends. Following Blake's life from beginning to end, acclaimed biographer Leo Damrosch draws extensively on Blake's poems, his paintings, and his etchings and engravings to offer this generously illustrated account of Blake the man and his vision of our world. The author's goal is to inspire the reader with the passion he has for his subject, achieving the imaginative response that Blake himself sought to excite. The book is an invitation to understanding and enjoyment, an invitation to appreciate Blake's imaginative world and, in so doing, to open the doors of our perception.Trade Review"Lucid and absorbing . . . [with] an attractive hint of a secret passion [and] an unusual sense of ease and intimacy with Blake’s work."—Michael Wood, New York Times Book Review"[An] excellent book, . . . [aiming] to be introductory in the best sense: 'to help nonspecialists appreciate Blake’s profoundly original vision and . . . the symbols in which he conveyed it.' . . . Scores of illustrations and color plates give us a small portion of Blake’s countless prints, engravings and watercolor designs, and his career is treated with admirable fullness."—William Pritchard, Wall Street Journal"Wise and original."—Rosie Schaap, New York Times Magazine"An outstanding book . . . [combining] learned analysis with a warm and conversational style. . . . [Its] primary distinction . . . is its intricate analysis of the relation between Blake’s verse and his vivid paintings and etchings — beautifully reproduced here in abundant color plates and illustrations."—Michael Lindgren, Washington Post"Damrosch’s readings are nuanced, sensitive, and deeply perceptive, touched with wonder at the poet’s originality and alive to the ways that Blake’s beliefs presented 'a wide-ranging challenge to orthodox morality.' With generous illustrations, including a gallery of breathtaking full-color plates, Damrosch’s study will build an appreciation among scholars and general readers alike for Blake’s 'vast, complicated myth' and reinforce his place in the Western canon as a 'profound thinker' and creative genius 'not in a single art but in two.'"—Publishers Weekly, starred review"Damrosch captures Blake’s creativity in all its complexity, bringing to life his work as a poet, engraver and painter in a revolutionary age."—Nicholas Roe, Literary Review"Leans heavily on the poetry, etchings and engravings, the works illustrating the man . . . this attractive volume would make a delightful present."—Robert Carver, The Tablet"This book is written in a very accessible style, is peppered with analogies and punctuated with dry wit . . . a very good read and a healthy addition to the subject."—St John Simpson, British Museum Magazine"The book’s strength in its sumptuous colour reproductions of Blake’s artwork and in Damrosch’s attentive reading of them."—Hilary Davies, The TabletNew York Times Book Review, Editors’ ChoiceA Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2015Finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle award in the criticism categoryShortlisted for the 2016 Christian Gauss Award given by the Phi Beta Kappa Society"This astute, generously illustrated study is an excellent introduction to William Blake. It will help both new and experienced readers to understand Blake as poet, painter, engraver, printer—and as a person."—Andrew Lincoln, Queen Mary University of London"Leo Damrosch’s luminous new book on William Blake forsakes esoteric scholarship and addresses itself to the common reader who is invited to a festive celebration of the great English poet who was also an extraordinary visual artist and a profound and original thinker."—Harold Bloom
£15.19
Yale University Press Stan Lee A Life in Comics Jewish Lives
Book SynopsisFrom the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a meditation on the deeply Jewish and surprisingly spiritual roots of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics Few artists have had as much of an impact on American popular culture as Stan Lee. The characters he createdSpider-Man and Iron Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Fouroccupy Hollywood's imagination and production schedules, generate billions at the box office, and come as close as anything we have to a shared American mythology. This illuminating biography focuses as much on Lee's ideas as it does on his unlikely rise to stardom. It surveys his cultural and religious upbringing and draws surprising connections between celebrated comic book heroes and the ancient tales of the Bible, the Talmud, and Jewish mysticism. Was Spider-Man just a reincarnation of Cain? Is the Incredible Hulk simply Adam by another name? From close readings of Lee's work to little-known anecdotes from Marvel's history, the book paints a portrait of Lee that goes much deeper Trade Review"Mr. Leibovitz provides fresh interpretations of the Marvel universe, itself a super-heroic feat. Lee’s contentious heroes, he finds, take their cue from the Talmud, which unveiled spiritual truths through the clash of opposing interpretations."—Michael Saler, Wall Street Journal“The Marvel and DC universes are almost certainly the most extensive pieces of continuous narrative in human history—which should commend them to the attention of anybody interested in culture…The Jewishness of the early comics industry…is ever present in the story…[and] Leibovitz drills deeply into this.”—Sam Leith, ProspectCHOICE 2021 Outstanding Academic Title“Liel Leibovitz’s Stan Lee: A Life in Comics interprets Lee’s and his collaborators’ Marvel co-creations—such as the X-Men and Spider-Man—in a uniquely Jewish context, bringing fresh insights and added dimension to characters whose genius lies, in part, in their ability to credibly sustain such interpretations.”—Danny Fingeroth, author of A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story of Stan Lee“From one of our most incisive Jewish cultural critics—someone who is equally at home in the history of Jewish thought and text and the pop culture world of the postwar period—this is a thoroughly entertaining, deeply intelligent, and highly thoughtful work.”—Jeremy Dauber, author of Jewish Comedy: A Serious History
£18.04
Yale University Press The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn
Book SynopsisAn intimate portrait of two pivotal Restoration figures during one of the most dramatic periods of English history Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn are two of the most celebrated English diarists. They were also extraordinary men and close friends. This first full portrait of that friendship transforms our understanding of their times. Pepys was earthy and shrewd, while Evelyn was a genteel aesthete, but both were drawn to intellectual pursuits. Brought together by their work to alleviate the plight of sailors caught up in the Dutch wars, they shared an inexhaustible curiosity for life and for the exotic. Willes explores their mutual interestsdiary-keeping, science, travel, and a love of booksand their divergent enthusiasms, Pepys for theater and music, Evelyn for horticulture and garden design. Through the richly documented lives of two remarkable men, Willes revisits the history of London and of England in an age of regicide, revolution, fire, and plague to reveal it also as a time of enthralling possibility.Trade Review“Two centuries on, this scholarly and readable book brings the two men together again. The result, the biographical equivalent of a buddy film, is both entertaining and unexpectedly revealing about the extraordinary times they lived in.”—Andrew Taylor, Times (London)"Ms. Willes brings Evelyn and Pepys fully and vibrantly to life. She makes the reader feel their foibles, their virtues, their pleasure and their pain; and on almost every page there is a detail to be thought about, recorded, relayed. It is a fitting tribute to two figures who so cherished curiosity—and who did so much to contribute to the curiosity of their age."—Economist“Willes’s book is produced by Yale to its usual high standard, sumptuously illustrated and beautifully printed. Those connoisseurs of book production Pepys and Evelyn would have handled and read it with pleasure and added it to their own collections.”—Richard Chartres, Church Times“Willes’s engaging, lavishly illustrated book. . . works well, replacing chronology with a close-up history of the dynamic, turbulent world of Restoration England.”—Barbara Taylor, Guardian“Our two most famous chroniclers, the prematurely curmudgeonly John Evelyn and debauched, upwardly mobile Samuel Pepys . . . This is an excellent book to give wider context on the lives and times of Pepys and Evelyn, and as a starting point to explore London life during this period."—Stephen Coulson, The Lady “Excellent and erudite.”—Gerald Isaaman, Camden New Journal“Margaret Willes is an elegant and perceptive writer . . .This exercise in contrast and compare illuminates both.”—Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Country Life“Excellent”—William Baker, The Year’s Work in English Studies"Margaret Willes paints an increasingly detailed - and always fascinating - picture of seventeenth-century London. Both Samuel Pepys's frank Diary and John Evelyn's anxiously tidied account of the first years of the Restoration remain vivid today. Willes's book is a 'must' for anyone interested in people, or London, or the growth of society after the King returned."—Liza Picard, author of Restoration London. "Glorious! Not only does Margaret Willes shed bright new light on two of the 17th century's most endearing characters, she recreates the worlds they inhabited with remarkable elegance and clarity."—Adrian Tinniswood, author of His Invention So Fertile: A Life of Christopher Wren."This is a well-researched, illuminating and enjoyable book. Evelyn and Pepys lived through some of the most dramatic events in English history: regicide, plague, the Great Fire and revolution. These great diarists have left us unique and valuable insights into their world, when advances were being made in scientific thought, gardening, medicine, and international trade, despite the perils of the times. This book captures that energy and weaves details drawn from the writings of both men into a colourful and convincing panorama of seventeenth-century London."—Dr. Margarette Lincoln, Visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London and Curator Emeritus at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
£11.99
Yale University Press Borges and the Literary Marketplace How Editorial
Book SynopsisA fascinating history of Jorge Luis Borges's efforts to revolutionize and revitalize literature in Latin AmericaTrade Review“Nora C. Benedict’s book is a masterclass in meticulous archival research and its rigorous application in literary studies.”—Ian Ellison, Modern Language Review“Nora Benedict’s illuminating book is an essential contribution to the understanding of Borges’ relationship to the written word. The portrait of Borges as writer and reader is now made complete with Benedict’s exploration of Borges as editor.”—Alberto Manguel, director, Center for Research into the History of Reading“Offering us a complex view of Borges’s creative process and drawing on extensive archival work, Benedict demonstrates how his fictions and ideas are interconnected with the materiality of the book and the networks of cultural institutions. This is an essential book for specialists in Borges as well as in modern literature.”—Graciela Montaldo, Columbia University“Using a bibliographical lens, Benedict brings into sharp focus an innovative view of Borges and his work, as not only one of the world’s great twentieth-century authors, but also as contributor, reviewer, anthologist, editor, and publisher. The result is a fresh and richer understanding of Borges and his accomplishments.”—Michael Winship, University of Texas at Austin“Benedict’s impressive archival, print media, and network analyses demonstrate how Borges’s multiple roles as writer, editor, translator, anthologizer, and publisher charted new ways of publishing and reading, from the Argentine book world to the global world of books.”—Marcy Schwartz, author of Public Pages: Reading along the Latin American Streetscape“In this important book, based on painstaking research, Nora Benedict sheds important new light on Borges’ activities in the Argentine publishing industry in the middle decades of the twentieth century, when that country was dominant in the world of Spanish language publishing. Highly recommended.”—Daniel Balderston, director, Borges Center at the University of Pittsburgh
£26.12
WW Norton & Co Constance Fenimore Woolson
Book SynopsisThis first full length biography of Constance Fenimore Woolson reaffirms her literary stature and evokes her dramatic life.Trade Review"Rioux vividly evokes Woolson’s struggles to choose independence and a writer’s life over domesticity, and gives a convincing reappraisal of her work." -- Ten books to read in February - BBC Culture"... Rioux’s book makes a strong case for reassessing this contemporary and close friend of Henry James (and “contributor to his conception” of his heroine Isabel Archer) whose work presages Edith Wharton..." -- Times Higher Education"Rioux is strong on the context of Woolson’s writing and this book is an excellent guide to her work." -- The Daily Telegraph
£24.69
WW Norton & Co The Luck of Friendship The Letters of Tennessee
Book SynopsisFour decades of correspondence of Tennessee Williams's and James Laughlin's unlikely yet enduring literary and personal relationship.Trade Review"Ultimately these letters show us that while Tennessee Williams’s own tragic ending left theatre the poorer for it, their unique insight in to one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century leaves us all the richer." -- The Irish Times
£28.79
WW Norton & Co A Worse Place Than Hell
Book SynopsisPulitzer Prize–winning author John Matteson illuminates three harrowing months of the American Civil War and their enduring legacy.
£25.19
WW Norton & Co What Blest Genius
Book SynopsisThe remarkable, ridiculous, rain-soaked story of Shakespeare's Jubilee: the event that established William Shakespeare as the greatest writer of all time.Trade Review"McConnell Stott’s wildly exuberant new book... has brought this odd and oddly resonant event to enchanting and illuminating life." -- Simon Callow - The Sunday Times"McConnell Stott writes with a clear brisk style and also an evident enjoyment of language..." -- Times Literary Supplement"... highly entertaining book... sharp-eyed and funny account... Stott’s book is a glorious study of the mother of all heritage events, and it’s an excellent reminder of why they should be avoided like the plague." -- Emma Smith, Book of the Week - The Guardian"... curious, passionate revisions of the Shakespearean myth... remind me why I came to enjoy Shakespeare so much in the first place." -- Emma Smith - Literary Review"This is the hilarious tale of a poorly organised three-day festival in Stratford-Upon-Avon in 1769 that launched the bard into the mega-celeb he is today... A comedy of errors as funny as Twenty Twelve." -- Literature Books of the Year 2019 - The Sunday Times"... lively account..." -- 100 sizzling summer books - Mail Online"On the non-fiction side I enjoyed What Blest Genius? by Andrew McConnell Stott, a diverting account of the Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769 in Stratford-upon-Avon..." -- Nick Curtis, The Best Books of 2019 - Evening Standard
£19.94
WW Norton & Co Meg Jo Beth Amy The Story of Little Women and Why
Book SynopsisRediscover the beloved classic Little Women and its lasting power as it celebrates its 150th anniversary.Trade Review"Highly entertaining and eminently sane…[Rioux] paints a compelling portrait of Alcott, giving us fascinating insights into the creation of Little Women." -- Charlotte Gordon - The Washington Post"Thoughtful… An adroit consideration of Alcott and her milieu." -- Meghan Cox Gurdon - The Wall Street Journal"Anne Boyd Rioux's book, published to coincide with Little Women's 150th anniversary, is a compact but rich account of Alcott's life, how she came to write her most famous and enduring work, and its effect on her and American literature... [a] satisfying, balanced but punchy tribute to Alcott's great work..." -- Lucy Mangan - The Spectator"Rioux gives an enthralling account of how Little Women broke new ground – with realistic girls who spoke in ‘vulgar’ slang, lost their tempers, had career plans and, if they did get married, found it pretty hard work... This delightful read had me leaping to grab Little Women and its two sequels off the bookshelf immediately." -- The Mail on Sunday"...highly companionable and illuminating..." -- Vanity Fair"Lively and informative…Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy does what—ideally—books about books can do: I’ve taken Little Women down from my shelf and put it on top of the books I plan to read." -- Francine Prose - The New York Times Book Review"Rioux considers the cultural impact and enduring popularity of Louisa May Alcott’s American Civil War-set novel Little Women, a runaway success since it was first published 150 years ago." -- The top page-turners of 2018: History - Mail on Sunday
£20.89
WW Norton & Co After Emily
Book SynopsisThe untold story of the mother and daughter who opened the door to Emily Dickinson's poetry.Trade Review"... angering but finally inspiring After Emily…" -- New Statesman
£14.24
The University of Michigan Press The Tender Friendship and the Charm of Perfect
Book Synopsis
£52.95
University of California Press Dear Mark Twain
Book SynopsisA voracious pack-rat, Mark Twain hoarded his readers' letters as did few of his contemporaries. This title collects 200 of these letters written by a diverse cross-section of correspondents from around the world - children, farmers, schoolteachers, businessmen, preachers, con artists, and even a former president.Trade Review"Well-selected, thoroughly researched and thoughtfully annotated-a surprising, welcome addition to the apparently endless Twain shelf." Kirkus Reviews "It is a special delight to read Twain's interactions with the readers who made him 19th-century America's most popular writer." -- Alexander Nazaryan New York Daily News "Kent Rasmussen has done it again: he has come up with a book that will give every Twainiac and lots of others with only a casual interest in Mark Twain much enjoyment and a non-trivial amount of insight into one of the most remarkable writers the world has ever known." -- Shelley Fisher Fishkin Mark Twain Forum "A magnificent, remarkably researched book." -- Maria Popova Maria Popova, Brain Pickings "The content is diverse and intriguing... Verdict: Rasmussen is clearly an expert curator and researcher. Fans of Twain and most libraries will want to secure a copy." -- Stacy Russo Library Journal "A devoted Samuel Clemons/Mark Twain fan will want to pick up this book and will appreciate Rasmussen's research." -- Chris Stuckenschneider Missourian "This series of letters makes delightful reading." -- Aron Row San Francisco Book Review and Sacramento Book Review "Over the past two decades Kent Rasmussen has consistently produced some of the most useful, practically minded, and accessible scholarship in Mark Twain studies. With Dear Mark Twain: Letters from His Readers, Rasmussen comes through again... Rasmussen enlarges what we know of Mark Twain from his correspondence as it provides the most substantive understanding yet of who were buying his books and reading him in newspapers and magazines at the turn of the century. As such, this collection will be of interest to Mark twain specialists, students of American literary and cultural studies, and general readers alike." -- Joseph Csicsila Mark Twain AnnualTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Foreword by Ron Powers Introduction Note on Texts Letters 1861--1870 1871--1880 1881--1890 1891--1900 1901--1910 Note on Sources Acknowledgments Index
£22.50
University of California Press Herman Melville
£63.90
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Life of William Shakespeare
Book SynopsisThe Life of William Shakespeare is a fascinating and wide-ranging exploration of Shakespeare''s life and works focusing on oftern neglected literary and historical contexts: what Shakespeare read, who he worked with as an author and an actor, and how these various collaborations may have affected his writing. Written by an eminent Shakespearean scholar and experienced theatre reviewer Pays particular attention to Shakespeare''s theatrical contemporaries and the ways in which they influenced his writing Offers an intriguing account of the life and work of the great poet-dramatist structured around the idea of memory Explores often neglected literary and historical contexts that illuminate Shakespeare''s life and works Trade Review“Two of the Mighty dead have been brought back to life in exemplary fashion: Shakespeare in Lois Potter’s The Life of William Shakespeare: A Critical Biography, which very cleverly uses expert theatre-knowledge as a way of making her enigmatic subject seem plausibly substantial; and Keats in Nicholas Roe’s John Keats: A New Life, which puts the poet properly in his place.” (The Guardian, 24 November 2012) “This study will have wide appeal to readers who wish to expand their appreciation of the works of William Shakespeare. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.” (Choice, 1 November 2012) “These form the narrative spine of this richly suggestive, undogmatic book in which Lois Potter ranges across the entire canon and the period that helped produce it.” (Around the Globe, 1 October 2012) “Lois Potter’s Life of William Shakespeare, ranks with the most distinguished examples of its kind … Her achievement lies in her catholicity, her simultaneous commitment to matters personal, historical, theatrical, literary, cultural. She exhibits an absolute command of the available facts, a lifetime’s acquaintance with the works gained in teaching and playgoing, an unparalleled familiarity with theatrical history from 1567 to the present, and a talent for connecting the fictional and the actual.” (Times Literary Supplement, 10 August 2012)Table of ContentsList of Illustrations vi Preface and Acknowledgments vii List of Abbreviations x The Shakespeare Family Tree xii 1 “Born into the World”: 1564–1571 1 2 “Nemo SibiNascitur”: 1571–1578 21 3 “Hic et Ubique”: 1578–1588 40 4 “This Man’s Art and That Man’s Scope”: 1588–1592 64 5 “Tigers’ Hearts”: 1592–1593 86 6 “The Dangerous Year”: 1593–1594 106 7 “Our Usual Manager of Mirth”: 1594–1595 134 8 “The Strong’st and Surest Way to Get”: Histories, 1595–1596 162 9 “When Love Speaks”: Tragedy and Comedy, 1595–1596 181 10 “You Had a Father; Let Your Son Say So”: 1596–1598 201 11 “Unworthy Scaffold”: 1598–1599 231 12 “These Words Are Not Mine”: 1599–1601 258 13 “Looking Before and After”: 1600–1603 277 14 “This Most Balmy Time”: 1603–1605 300 15 “Past the Size of Dreaming”: 1606–1609 330 16 “Like an Old Tale”: 1609–1611 360 17 “The Second Burden”: 1612–1616 384 18 “In the Mouths of Men”: 1616 and After 414 Bibliography 443 Index 475
£72.86
Harvard University Press Gandhis Printing Press
Book SynopsisWhen Gandhi as a young lawyer in South Africa began fashioning the tenets of his political philosophy, he was absorbed by a seemingly unrelated enterprise: creating a newspaper, Indian Opinion. In Gandhi’s Printing Press Isabel Hofmeyr provides an account of how this footnote to a career shaped the man who would become the world-changing Mahatma.Trade ReviewReconstructing a little-known episode in Gandhi's life, Hofmeyr places surprising new findings about a particular historical figure in the service of a radically new theory of reading. This ambitious and deeply researched book holds lessons for historians, literary theorists, and anyone interested in reading practices. -- Leah Price, Harvard UniversityThe connection between Gandhi and the lively Indian Ocean world of small printing presses is something that has almost entirely escaped the attention of historians of South Asia and scholars of print culture so far. Hofmeyr explores this crucial space with rare vigor and sophistication. -- Ajay Skaria, University of MinnesotaGandhi was one of history's most avid experimenters. His most audacious forms of utopianism were often nothing more than simple and ingenious experiments. Hofmeyr tells the remarkable story, with elegance and great learning, of how Gandhi imagined a radically different world simply by attending to the potentialities of the printing press. Very few books on Gandhi capture the minutiae and horizons of his world with such riveting intelligence. -- Uday Mehta, City University of New YorkThis slim volume sparks more ideas than are typically generated by a book three times its size. -- John Wilson * Books & Culture *While he was a young attorney in South Africa at the outset of the 20th century, Gandhi was also 'a sometime proprietor' of the press that printed the influential Indian Opinion newspaper, whose production formed, for the burgeoning activist, a crash course in the synthesizing of public opinion, news, and progressive thought. Located on an ashram outside the port city of Durban, the press allowed Gandhi and his cohorts to explore 'new kinds of ethical selves,' bringing together as it did 'different castes, religions, languages, races, and genders.' In Hofmeyr's portrait, Gandhi emerges as a surprisingly keen publicist and media strategist, willing to buck the system (e.g., copyright laws) in the service of social change. She also offers a fascinating take on Gandhi's mode of 'contemplative reading,' one characterized by the merging of the text with a receptive mind via 'pausing and perseverance,' all with an aim of cumulative progress. Indeed, Gandhi read as he led. This thoughtful account is a compelling preview of the colonial subcontinent's development, as well as Gandhi's eventual role as peaceful emancipator of his own country. * Publishers Weekly *Gandhi's espousal of free reproduction of material and repudiation of copyright--consider this throwaway line: 'Gandhi would have been a Wikipedian'--and his theories of slow reading, in which readers ponder and memorize the text and 'labor' for the paper, will provide food for thought in an age of Internet reading. -- Ravi Shenoy * Library Journal *Deepens our understanding of Gandhi in South Africa by giving us a history of his International Printing Press...His sparse, unadorned, direct prose had much to do with his early training in writing for Indian Opinion...The book also reflects on various printed forms--the newspaper, the periodical, the pamphlet--and their significance in not just creating a print culture but also in forging a people and sustaining a movement. The most significant part of the work is a theory of reading that Hofmeyr discerns through her examination of Indian Opinion and the Hind Swaraj (1909). Can one actually create modes of writing (and printing) that, while located within the modern realm, can militate against modernity? She shows that Gandhi consciously tried to cultivate a style of writing that required slow, meditative reading; his purpose was to adjust the act of reading to unhurried bodily rhythms not subject to the fast pace that he considered the chief signifier of the industrial age. He even tried to slow down the process of printing by dispensing with the oil machine that ran the press and instead employed manual labour to run it. In this way, Hofmeyr's elucidation of the manner in which a satyagrahi reads illuminates our understanding of Gandhi's modes of writing and discoursing. -- Tridip Suhrud * The Caravan *Fascinating...Isabel Hofmeyr discusses and analyses the origin and nature of [periodicals published by Gandhi], focusing on Indian Opinion and Hind Swaraj, and shows how their specific nature reflected Gandhian thought. Of particular interest is Hofmeyr's slant towards Gandhi's views on reading, which resonates with our fragmented, frantic age. -- Sanjay Sipahimalani * Sunday Guardian *The author draws us easily into a history that is varied, interesting and little understood. And in understanding philosophers like Thoreau through Gandhiji, one revisits and is astounded by them once more. The book is a welcome addition to readings on the Mahatma. -- Mallika Sarabhai * Indian Express *Beginning in Durban, South Africa, in 1898, Mohandas Gandhi became the guiding hand of a printing press and the multilingual newspaper it produced, Indian Opinion. Hofmeyr provides an account at once charming and erudite of Gandhi's vision of printing and the press in relation to Phoenix, the ashram from which the press largely was operated. She also examines the press in relation to the wider satyagraha movement, Gandhi's unique understanding of the quest for truth, and to Gandhi's thinking about empire, nationalism, race, sovereignty, and self-rule. Gandhi first developed his ideas of satyagraha while working with and for the Indian community in South Africa, and much of his thinking was first communicated in the pages of Indian Opinion. Hofmeyr’s careful study of the literary character of the newspaper dispels the idea that the journalistic format was hurried and thus lacking in care. She provides ample evidence that Gandhi saw the paper as comprised of clippings and articles that needed to be read and reread, slowly and thoughtfully. This attempt to integrate many levels of Gandhi's activity will surprise and reward all readers. -- C. A. Colmo * Choice *Hofmeyr has produced a work so exquisitely engaging and so vitally relevant to our age that anyone who reads enough to be concerned about the future of reading should take up this riveting little book. -- Kapil Komireddi * Daily Beast *
£32.36
Harvard University Press The Boatman
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe Boatman offers the first sustained account of what Henry Thoreau was doing on the local rivers before and after he sojourned at Walden Pond. Thoreau’s water world engaged his mind and eye, involved him in a major political dispute, and led him to far-reaching scientific insights. Paddling and sailing on the nearby waterways, Thoreau discerned a natural world transformed by human action, to the loss of the communities of all the living creatures who depended on it for survival. Explicating these insights into the ecology of rivers and into the power of ‘the wild,’ Robert Thorson reminds us why Thoreau is so essential to our environmentally imperiled times. -- Robert A. Gross, author of The Minutemen and Their WorldThe Boatman presents a whole new Thoreau—the river rat. This is not just groundbreaking, but fun. Thorson pursues not footsteps of the solitary woodsman but the wake left by Thoreau’s skiff. As always with Thoreau, one of the deepest pleasures comes from the idea that we can rediscover and resettle our home places, and what better and more exciting way to do this than on the water? If Thorson had just done this, the book would have been valuable enough, but his story of Thoreau’s self-education in hydrology, of his turning himself into a scientific expert on the local rivers and in rivers in general, and of his involvement in a class-action suit to tear down the Billerica dam, make this an important book. -- David Gessner, author of All the Wild That RemainsA scrupulous account of the environment Thoreau loved most and, important for our day, the ways in which he expressed this passion in the face of ecological degradation…Thorson argues convincingly—sometimes beautifully—that Thoreau’s thinking and writing were integrally connected to paddling and sailing…With the meticulous care of a modern geologist, he excavates Thoreau’s journals, notebooks and correspondence, concentrating on the last years of the naturalist’s life and exposing the way he became what today we would call a fluvial geomorphologist, an environmental scientist devoted to understanding the form and function of rivers. -- John Kaag * Wall Street Journal *Thorson argues that Thoreau ‘properly interpreted most of the key ideas of fluvial geomorphology a half century before the subject was invented.’ He was, in Thorson’s words, ‘a lone genius’ whose contributions to science we’ve too long ignored…Part of what makes Thorson’s work on Thoreau so unusual is that he hardly bothers with literary, political, or intellectual approaches to his subject at all—he’s after data, and when he finds it, he checks it, weighing it against today’s best practices. (Thorson has generously posted all of this research online.) He comes away from his historical data-crunching deeply impressed with Thoreau’s skill…The Boatman is an impressive feat of empirical research, and Thorson’s conclusions are an important contribution to the scholarship on Thoreau as natural scientist. -- Daegan Miller * Los Angeles Review of Books *The Boatman presents the ‘wetter side’ of Thoreau as he surveyed and boated on the ‘three blue highways of navigable water flanked by open bays, lush meadows, and rocky cliffs’ that were part of his native habitat. -- Jay Parini * Times Literary Supplement *Years of meticulous research by geologist Thorson went into the making of this penetrating, revelatory book that delves into Thoreau’s pioneering work in river science. -- Dianne Timblin * American Scientist *Thorson’s book offers the reader an in-depth account of Thoreau’s lifelong love of boats, his skill as a navigator, his intimate knowledge of the waterways around Concord, and his extensive survey of the Concord River. -- Robert Pogue Harrison * New York Review of Books *
£23.36
Harvard University Press Boswells Enlightenment
Book SynopsisThroughout his life James Boswell struggled to fashion a clear account of himself, but try as he might he could not reconcile the truths of his era with those of his religious upbringing. Few periods better crystallize this turmoil than 1763–1765, the years of his Grand Tour and the focus of Robert Zaretsky’s thrilling intellectual adventure.Trade ReviewThe key theme of Robert Zaretsky’s splendid new book on James Boswell is that his life was a roaming drama of self-discovery…Boswell’s Enlightenment is thus about the art of living. Boswell’s interest for the historian lies not with the originality of his thought—there was none—but as an example of someone who struggled, Zaretsky shows, ‘to bend his person to certain philosophical ends.’ Hume, Johnson, Rousseau and Voltaire were asked to help him divine what those ends might be. Zaretsky’s elegantly written book, then, stands alongside a growing literature—including the works of Pierre Hadot (Philosophy as a Way of Life) and Alexander Nehemas (The Art of Living)—that renders the history of philosophy not as an academic pursuit, but as something wrought in pursuit of the common good. -- Gavin Jacobson * Times Literary Supplement *Zaretsky’s buoyant and rigorous ‘intellectual adventure’ is a successful attempt to place the writer within the broad tapestry of the European Enlightenment…In Zaretsky’s book, we see the effect of one great mind upon another, again and again, and thus we see the evolution of Boswell’s dazzling prose style. -- Andrew O’Hagan * New York Review of Books *Enthralling…Boswell’s Enlightenment proves that the world’s greatest biographer makes a fascinating subject in his own right. -- Josh Emmons * Los Angeles Review of Books *During his life, Boswell was known more for his associations than for his accomplishments, but it’s time, historian Robert Zaretsky thinks, to give him his moment in the spotlight…Zaretsky’s telling is as much an intellectual history as it is a coming-of-age tale, though one gets the sense that Boswell never quite came of age…Zaretsky’s account of this conflicted man is a sympathetic, fluid, and very enjoyable read. We see a man in search not so much of wisdom as of seekers of wisdom. As much as he tried, Boswell never became an intellectual equal with the great thinkers of his day, but as an observer of them (and of himself) he had no peer. -- David Nolan * First Things *Entertaining…[Zaretsky] put[s] Boswell forward as, among other things, a harbinger of our own day, a living symbol of a transition from the high-minded ideals of a more pure intellectual world to the self-centered obsessions of day-to-day reality. -- Steven Donoghue * Christian Science Monitor *Engaging…Boswell’s Enlightenment is a readable, smart, accessible introduction to a self-absorbed but likable young man who reminds us the Age of Enlightenment was also the Age of Exuberance. -- Fritz Lanham * Houston Chronicle *James Boswell, best known as Samuel Johnson’s biographer, was a lifelong seeker of truth. He struggled to put together his Calvinist religious heritage with the insights and perspectives of the Enlightenment. From 1763 to 1765 he toured Europe not just to see the historic sites but to encounter some of its greatest living thinkers, among them Rousseau and Voltaire. Zaretsky adroitly chronicles Boswell’s intellectual journey and introduces the reader to the varieties of 18th-century Enlightenment. Boswell’s struggles remain with us—over the relationship between faith and reason, the nature of human liberty and equality, the duties of citizenship, the role and limits of the state, and what constitutes the good life. * Christian Century *Zaretsky believes Boswell was an exceptional talent, notwithstanding his weaknesses, and certainly worthy of our attention. Glossing several periods of Boswell’s life but closely examining his grand tour of the Continent (1763–1765), Zaretsky elevates Boswell’s station, repairs Boswell’s literary reputation, and corrects a longstanding underestimation, calling attention to his complicated and curious relationship to the Enlightenment, a movement or milieu that engulfed him without necessarily defining him…Bristling with the animated, ambulatory prose of the old style of literary and historical criticism, the kind that English professors disdain but educated readers enjoy and appreciate. -- Allen Mendenhall * Liberty Unbound *With the flair of an accomplished novelist, Zaretsky creates a vivid portrait…Drawing on an impressive array of firsthand sources and writing with a keen eye for the dramatic, Zaretsky has done students and scholars alike a timely favor. -- Paul J. deGategno * 1650–1850 *Robert Zaretsky’s excellent book provides a wealth of information about Enlightenment thought, all of it brought to life in the mind and imagination of that irrepressible Scot, James Boswell…Boswell’s Enlightenment is also the reader’s enlightenment. The book surveys the major ideas of this period’s thinkers, from luminaries like Johnson and Hume, Voltaire and Rousseau, to somewhat lesser lights like Adam Smith and Hugh Blair, Montesquieu and Diderot…The book deserves the highest praise. -- D. T. Siebert * The Key Reporter *Zaretsky has written an engrossing study of James Boswell, the renowned biographer of Samuel Johnson and the equally famous diarist…There must have been something irresistible about Boswell’s personality for such a young man to have been able to secure the attentions of these men, not to mention the close friendship of literary titan Samuel Johnson. A fascinating character study, Boswell’s Enlightenment helps readers understand what that something was. It is also the story of Boswell’s struggle to reconcile his strict Calvinist upbringing with the ideas of the Enlightenment and with his tempestuous impulses and literary ambition. -- J. Hoffman * Choice *James Boswell (1740–1795) comes to life in Zaretsky’s recounting of his European grand tour in the mid‐18th‐century…Zaretsky introduces the Enlightenment greats who taught and molded Boswell. The vast store of knowledge our traveler absorbed in so few years makes for truly enlightening reading…This wonderful rendering of Boswell digs deep into his probing, enquiring life and the fast friends he made at every turn. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *This sparkling work is a partial biography of one of the 18th century’s most arresting figures—someone often taken to be emblematic of that intellectually critical era. Zaretsky sees James Boswell—known for ‘his oddness, his youth, and his melancholy’—as embodying the Enlightenment’s many conflicting currents and torn by them all. Seeking to escape from conflicts between the flesh and Protestant religiosity, and between the ancient and modern, the young Scot sought and gained the acquaintance and counsel, much of it unsettling to him, of some of the age’s great figures—Samuel Johnson, Voltaire, Rousseau, David Hume, John Wilkes, and Pascal Paoli—in a famous two-year tour of the Continent. Boswell’s earnest search for answers to life’s bewildering puzzles continues to fascinate. Zaretsky brilliantly, sometimes movingly, adds to that fascination…So convincing are Zaretsky’s observations, so sure his touch. * Publishers Weekly *In this beautifully written account, Robert Zaretsky plays Boswell to Boswell, as the young Scot goes in search of Europe’s great thinkers—and in the process discovers his own calling. Part biography, part history of ideas, it makes for a thrilling intellectual journey. -- James Shapiro, Columbia University
£32.36
Harvard University Press The Poet Edgar Allan Poe Alien Angel
Book SynopsisJerome McGann takes his readers on a spirited tour through a wide range of Poe's verse as well as the critical and theoretical writings in which he laid out his arresting ideas about poetry and poetics. In a bold reassessment, McGann argues that Poe belongs alongside Whitman and Dickinson as a foundational American poet and cultural presence.Trade ReviewMcGann succeeds in forcing us to rethink Poe’s poetry… Poe’s sound experiments, especially his strange variations on meter, deserve, as McGann shows by citing numerous rhythmic anomalies, to be taken seriously… In an age of predominantly, and purposely, flat and prosaic ‘free verse,’ mnemonic patterning is perhaps re-emerging as the emblem of poetic power. In this sense, Poe is once again Our Contemporary… In making the case for the close link between the poetry and the aesthetic theory, [McGann] succeeds admirably: Poe’s reputation as poète maudit belies the fact that here was a poet who knew exactly what he was doing. -- Marjorie Perloff * Times Literary Supplement *McGann [wants] to set the record straight, right an imbalance and show why Poe deserves a place beside Whitman and Emily Dickinson, the venerated father and mother of American poetry. His marvelous short book combines old-fashioned ‘close reading’ with a capacious historical and theoretical sense of Poe’s place in American literature and mid-19th-century American culture… McGann’s basic thesis about Poe’s poems (he calls them ‘Poe-try’) and his remarks about individual gestures, lines, sounds and rhythms are constantly engaging. Readers who believe that God is in the details will find plenty to astonish them… By moving away from poetry’s expository and thematic features to its aesthetic and rhetorical ones, McGann has performed an important cultural and intellectual service. -- Willard Spiegelman * Wall Street Journal *The Poet Edgar Allan Poe: Alien Angel promises to save Poe’s poetry from [a] dire critical fate… [McGann’s] aim is ambitious: to give Poe’s poetry academic significance, to establish both its aesthetic appeal and its political relevance. As Edmund Wilson does in his appreciative essay ‘Poe at Home and Abroad,’ McGann figures Poe’s work as the suspension bridge across the chasm separating romanticism and modernism. He situates Poe’s work alongside and against the romantic poetry of Keats, Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth; evaluates Poe’s sonic influence on the writing of Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Baudelaire; and, expands upon Eliot’s essay ‘From Poe to Valéry’ to trace the influence of Poe’s critique of the romantic ‘I’ through symbolism into high modern elasticism, and then, into language poetry and the latest work of Charles Bernstein. He demonstrates Poe’s unquestionable impact on the way Americans thought about poetry and the way poetry thought about itself. -- Ava Kofman * Los Angeles Review of Books *Elegant… One of McGann’s greatest services is to introduce lay readers to Poe’s critical writings. He excerpts several longish selections from Poe’s correspondence and reviews as well as the Marginalia, sundry magazine pieces he authored between 1845 and 1849. What emerges is an Edgar Allan Poe who thought profoundly about poetry and literature and who was able, mostly, to express his ideas and theories in clear prose. -- John S. Sledge * Virginia Quarterly Review *McGann has set out to address and correct the problem of Poe’s poetry, and the result is a necessary volume not only for those compelled and beguiled by Poe but for anyone who understands the importance of poetic tradition and its umbilical to American imagination. This book is McGann’s deep-seeing riposte to those critics—Emerson, Yvor Winters, D. H. Lawrence, Harold Bloom, et al.—who have dismissed Poe’s aesthetics as by turns decadent and preposterous… Part of the large pleasure of McGann’s book is his contra-academic gift of phrase, his parsed insights into Poe’s ‘legend-laden life’ and the ‘angel of the odd’ suspended over his writing desk. -- William Giraldi * New Republic *In the process of clearing up so much of the critical fog that has enshrouded the poetry of Poe, McGann helps his readers understand how to read poetry more generally… McGann has demonstrated that Poe’s significance as a poet in his own time and as a major influence on the development of poetry for 150 years since makes him one of the two or three greatest American poets. -- Harry Lee Poe * Books & Culture *From a close reading of Poe’s rhetorical tropes and careful reconstructions of context, McGann draws out a much richer understanding of Poe’s perspective on art and life. -- Scott McLemee * Inside Higher Ed *[Shows] Poe as a consummate craftsman who daringly reimagined how poems invent meaning. * Kirkus Reviews *McGann persuasively defends Poe’s poetry against its many detractors, who have criticized the work as all ‘jingle’ (Ralph Waldo Emerson) and lacking in ‘intellectual content’ (Yvor Winters). Through close readings of Poe’s marginalia, reviews, and letters, as well as his essays on poetic composition, notably ‘The Poetic Principle,’ McGann shows how Poe worked out a sophisticated theory of poetics… It will certainly provide readers with a deeper appreciation of the writer’s achievements as a poet. * Publishers Weekly *McGann restores Poe to his foundational role for American, and 19th century, poetics. McGann’s breathtaking scholarship makes Poe’s work thrillingly present and hauntingly prescient. Only this and nothing more. -- Charles Bernstein, University of PennsylvaniaThe Poet Edgar Allan Poe is a landmark intervention that helps to explain why, among his antebellum contemporaries, Poe alone has remained a fixture of popular culture as well as a globally familiar icon of literary art. -- J. Gerald Kennedy, editor of The Portable Edgar Allan Poe
£32.36
Harvard University Press American Vandal
Book SynopsisUnintimidated by Old World sophistication or travel to undeveloped parts of the globe, Mark Twain spent a surprising amount of time outside the continental United States. Morris focuses on the dozen years he lived overseas and the books he wrote encouraging middle-class Americans to follow him around the world, at the dawn of mass tourism.Trade ReviewMorris is a first-rate tour guide. He knows his subject, cites other authorities with respect and presents a good deal of information with easygoing, professional smoothness. [An] entertaining and—despite its title—eminently civilized book. -- Michael Dirda * Washington Post *American Vandal provides a fresh account of the great satirist’s life and work by arguing that his world view was the product of experience that was unusual for a popular American writer in this period. It offers us an account of the dozen years in total which Twain spent overseas, part of a life of travel that included twenty-nine transatlantic crossings, excursions across India, New Zealand, the Mediterranean and Caribbean… One strength of American Vandal is that Morris places Twain’s travel writings at the heart of his achievement. -- Tom F. Wright * Times Literary Supplement *If you want a guide through [Twain’s] travelogues or through the experiences that produced them, then you could not find a better one than Twain biographer Roy Morris Jr. He is not merely well-informed about his subject, he is truly attuned to the mind and sensibility of the man… American Vandal shows a consistently sure and wise touch. -- Martin Rubin * Washington Times *Morris writes smoothly and engagingly about Mark Twain’s travels, through life as much as through foreign scenes. -- D. E. Sloane * Choice *In this vibrant, fresh look at the venerable writer, historian Morris traces Twain’s journeys and his evolving perspective on world politics and peoples… A brisk narrative and sensitive insights make this book a delight. * Kirkus Reviews *For readers not familiar with Mark Twain’s travel literature, Morris will open up a new facet of his extensive writing career… This lively overview provides an accessible entry point to the lesser‐known works of a great American writer. * Publishers Weekly *Only an accomplished storyteller should dare to take up the life of our most revered raconteur, and Morris measures up. There is no shortage of Twain biographies; one as well researched and as well told as this one deserves to be among them. -- Lawrence Howe, author of Mark Twain and the Novel: The Double Cross of AuthorityMorris effectively evokes both the personal and political realities behind Twain’s fictions and semi-fictions to demonstrate how Twain himself debunked then-prevalent myths of travel and of national character. American Vandal gives readers a fresh view of Mark Twain while casting a revealing light on American identity. -- James Leonard, editor of The Mark Twain Journal
£32.36
Harvard University Press Invisible Friends
Book SynopsisBrowning and Haydon never met, but their lively conversation, initiated in 1842, continued unabated until 1845, about a year before the painter's suicide. It was a lopsided correspondence in which 94 letters written by Haydon, most of which have not been published before, received fewer replies from Barrett, 28 of which are included here.
£33.11
Harvard University, Asia Center The Undiscovered Country
Book SynopsisMelek Ortabasi reassesses the influence of Yanagita Kunio (18751962), a folk scholar and elite bureaucrat, in shaping modern Japan's cultural identity. Only the second book-length English-language study of Yanagita, this book moves beyond his pioneering work in folk studies to reveal the full range of his contributions as a public intellectual.
£35.66
Harvard University Press Thomas Hardy Half a Londoner
Book SynopsisBecause Thomas Hardy's poetry and fiction are so closely associated with Wessex, it is easy to forget that he was, in his own words, half a Londoner, moving between country and capital throughout his life. This self-division, Mark Ford says, can be traced not only in works explicitly set in London but in his most regionally circumscribed novels.Trade ReviewThomas Hardy: Half a Londoner offers fresh and exciting analysis of Hardy’s novels and poems, when they are viewed from the perspective of Hardy’s London experiences. -- Simon Gatrell, University of GeorgiaMark Ford discusses Hardy with great urbanity and tact, and demonstrates throughout the literary insight of someone who is himself a distinguished poet. Hardy’s many admirers will find a great deal to relish in this astute, original, and highly enjoyable book. -- Seamus Perry, University of Oxford‘Wanted: Good Hardy Critic,’ jested Philip Larkin. Mark Ford fits the bill. Like his subject Thomas Hardy, Ford is an eminent poet and a knowledgeable Londoner. There is much for the lover and student of Hardy to learn, about an area of his life which has not, until now, received the attention it deserves. -- John Sutherland, University College LondonExcellent…Ford is a sensitive biographer who recognizes Hardy’s repression and his fervor—his embrace of London’s feverish energy alongside his horror of it. More than anything, though, Ford reveals the quality of Hardy’s London writing: the 1860s poetry (published years later) and the early novels. -- Ralph Pite * Evening Standard *A well-written account of Hardy’s London experiences and insightful consideration of their transformation into art. * Library Journal *[A] fascinating and strangely poignant book. -- Nicholas Roe * Literary Review *Urbane and absorbing…Necessary and valuable. -- Andrew Motion * Times Literary Supplement *As both a poet and novelist, Hardy is always associated not only with English gloom but also with the English countryside in which he was born. It was in London, however, that he became a writer, and Ford shows just how significant a role the capital played in both Hardy’s life and imagination…Ford’s discussion of [his] urban verses, particularly in a chapter on ‘London's Streets and Interiors,’ is both engrossing and illuminating…Ford provides equally valuable insights into the London of Hardy's fiction…Ford has the true measure of his subject, and his admiration for Hardy does not blind him to occasional dud moments and absurdities, which he treats with a light and witty touch. His discussion of less well-known novels and poems is particularly welcome, and this fine book will encourage readers to return to the work they know with a quickened perception and explore further what is new to them. -- Peter Parker * The Spectator *As Thomas Hardy: Half a Londoner shows in penetrating detail, there was another side to Hardy that grew out of his time in London, far away from the fields of Higher Bockhampton or the rows of his ancestors in Stinsford’s village churchyard, colored his mental landscape and had a profound effect on his work. -- D. J. Taylor * Wall Street Journal *[A] remarkable book. -- Michael Wood * New York Review of Books *Ford argues convincingly here that the Hardy industry in Dorset has obscured the importance of London to both his work and his life. Ford mingles literary criticism, biography and psychogeography to give a portrait both of Hardy’s London and of London’s Hardy. His passages on the novels and poems are dazzling and insightful. -- Lara Feigel * Daily Telegraph *Mark Ford’s absorbing new [book] argues that our wish to see Hardy as a man of Dorset has distracted us from his formative life as a Londoner…Ford, who is both an academic and a distinguished poet, gives full weight to the innovative qualities of thought and language that connect Hardy’s poetry and fiction. What makes his book remarkable is its compelling analysis of Hardy’s sustained difficulty in selling images of the pastoral to urban readers who were wistfully eager for its deep continuities, while reflecting the far-reaching transformations he had experienced in his years as a 'literary man about town.' It was a tension he was never able to resolve, but it was what gave his writing its enduringly uneasy substance. -- Dinah Birch * The Guardian *In this excellent study Ford provides a valuable perspective on the allure of London for Thomas Hardy…Ford’s superb study renders a fresh view of Hardy's ‘divided loyalties’ and complex character. -- S. A. Parker * Choice *I find Hardy’s character and sensibility very appealing, and this book was full of subtle insights into both. -- Gwendoline Riley * The Observer *Illuminating…Ford’s style is at once academic and accessible, erudite and elegant, and he constructs a compelling narrative that traces Hardy from his first sojourn in London as a young man (where he had gone to pursue his architecture ambitions but where he effectively ‘became a writer’) through the extended periods that he spent in the capital in later life. -- Alex Ramon * PopMatters *[A] notable book…Ford justly terms his book ‘the first comprehensive account of Hardy as a “London man,”’ and his claim is richly documented by the variety of ways, in life and letters, where the great city matched the country in enabling the writer’s astonishing career…What is most valuable about Ford's study is the number of poems he selects to illustrate the London narrative. -- William H. Pritchard * Weekly Standard *Probing and original…Ford has an intuitive feel for how best to use his knowledge of the life to shape his insights about the works. -- Keith Wilson * Hardy Review *Ford realigns our sense of Hardy, moving him from Wessex fields to London streets, and offering a transformed writer: less the time-torn pastoral tragedian than a painter of modern life…The biographical contours are familiar, but Ford makes them vibrate in interesting ways…One of the many virtues of Ford’s account is that it slows down the tempo of [the] early, difficult years, and draws our attention to uncanonical or even disdained writings that most criticism, in pursuit of Wessex and success, skips over. Ford provides sparkling readings of dour early poems, and calm analyses of fantastical potboilers…Ford brings out a modern impressionist, who brilliantly sketched urban interiors and exteriors; this writer is more concise, more direct, more imagistic than the writer we know from the Wessex fiction. -- James Wood * London Review of Books *It is rare that a book of literary biography and criticism opens so many divergent paths for new readings, but this is one of those books. What Mark Ford has taught me to look for is how both the idea of London and the actual London whose streets Hardy walked accentuated and solidified his thoughts on work, vocation, love, fame, and the fatefulness of temperament. To my enormous pleasure, Ford spends as much time reading Hardy’s works as he does tracing his steps and cast of mind…Ford’s learning and insight unfold in prose that is expressive as well as analytic. -- Alexandra Mullen * Hudson Review *
£32.36
Harvard University Press Oscar Wilde
Book SynopsisNicholas Frankel presents a revisionary account of Oscar Wilde’s final years, spent in poverty and exile in Europe following his release from an English prison for the crime of gross indecency between men. Despite repeated setbacks and open hostility, Wilde—unapologetic and even defiant—attempted to rebuild himself as a man, and a man of letters.Trade Review[A] detailed and finely judged account of Wilde’s life after prison. -- Colm Tóibín * The Guardian *[A] fascinating study of the hitherto largely neglected last phase of Wilde’s life…[A] quiet but persuasively revisionist account. -- John Banville * New York Review of Books *[Frankel’s] purpose is to refute the traditional view of Wilde ending as a broken martyr, a victim of hypocritical Victorian morality…While the pages in which Wilde tries to touch for a handout anyone he knew make for painful reading, the rest of Frankel’s history is scintillating enough. The quotes from Wilde’s sayings and writings sparkle, defiantly undimmed. -- John Simon * Weekly Standard *[A] fair, elegant and informed book. -- Douglas Murray * The Times *Dazzling…Presents a Wilde quite different from the despondent has-been, ruined by Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas. -- Kate Hext * Times Literary Supplement *Examines in fascinating detail Wilde’s prison years and the short time that remained to him after he completed his sentence…The clarity of [Frankel’s] prose, his sympathetic approach, and his talent for building tension ensures that his book will appeal to anyone with even a passing knowledge of Wilde’s life. -- Eleanor Fitzsimons * Irish Times *Frankel’s Wilde is resilient and defiant—and also wily… Frankel takes issue with Richard Ellmann and other Wilde biographers who suggest prison ended Wilde’s literary career… Wilde did not emerge from his cell a dull man. He spoke as brilliantly as ever, Frankel reports… Taken together, [this book and Laura Lee’s Oscar’s Ghost] are complementary, enriching not only an understanding of Wilde’s life and work, but of how biographies get made and unmade as new evidence comes to light, and different forms of interpretation are brought to bear on contested stories. -- Carl Rollyson * New Criterion *Frankel’s Wilde is human, real, and didactic. The focus on Wilde the prisoner and lover humanizes him… Frankel is an extraordinary textual scholar who gave us the best recent edition of Dorian Gray… Throughout The Unrepentant Years, he cites Wilde’s published letters, draws from global archives, and invokes intertextual references across a matrix of virtually everyone in his post-prison life. Yet this is no dry academic exercise. Frankel weaves the information into a story about a man who remains a hero. Copious notes are useful for readers who want more, but the text is thoroughly accessible… In reclaiming the final years, Frankel has recovered the man and redefined his legacy. -- Frederick S. Roden * Gay and Lesbian Review *Takes the story of Wilde’s demise and turns it on its head…[An] excellent book…If Frankel is right [Wilde] was even more extraordinary than we previously imagined…Frankel’s achievement is in challenging us to rethink a legend we thought we knew so well. -- Alex Dean * Prospect *Frankel offers a scholarly and generally level-headed account of Wilde's civil and criminal trials, his imprisonment, his exile in northern France and Italy, and his final squalid end in Paris…The period Frankel particularly wants to unpack is Wilde's final three years of life following his release. In Richard Ellmann's acclaimed biography of Wilde this period is given rather short shrift, so Frankel’s book will remain the definitive reference on this era for a long time, particularly on where, when and with whom Wilde spent his final 36 months…[A] compelling book. -- Adrian McKinty * The Australian *Frankel has written of Wilde’s last years with an illuminating eye, exploring how his release from prison in 1897 and death in Paris in 1900 was the final act in a startling drama: this is the portrait of a man who, through hardship, finally became himself…Frankel is a gifted writer who has taken the facts of Wilde’s final years and transformed them into a compelling exploration of the figure’s heroism. -- Thomas Filbin * Arts Fuse *[Frankel] faithfully documents the mercurial nature of Wilde’s post-release emotions, from his conflicting attitude toward Constance; to his unconcerned and inevitable decision to reunite with Douglas. What comes through clearly is Wilde's unceasing determination to reach for the world he lost…even if much of it remains always only out of reach. If Frankel sought to demonstrate that the post-prison Wilde was not some sorely broken man, forever debilitated, and slouching toward a premature and lonely death, he has succeeded masterfully. -- Matthew Snider * PopMatters *This biography from Frankel reminds readers that Oscar Wilde was a serious man of ideas, as well as the witty author of The Importance of Being Earnest…Meticulously documented and consistently illuminating, Frankel’s book is also uncommonly accessible. * Publishers Weekly *This is the work of a profoundly knowledgeable scholar who has mined his sources carefully and sensitively in order to provide the most detailed insights yet into Wilde’s experiences in prison, the period he spent at Berneval-sur-Mer, when it seemed that he might revive his literary career, and the subsequent months that involved his reunion with Alfred Douglas, their eventual separation, and Wilde’s slow but sure decline. -- Joseph Bristow, University of California, Los AngelesFew people are as conversant as Nicholas Frankel with the archival and documentary records pertaining to Wilde’s life and career. A graceful writer with a fine eye for the telling detail, Frankel shows that in the final years of his life Wilde was neither the martyr nor the innocent victim he is usually portrayed as being. Instead, after his release from prison Wilde consciously shaped his life and work—just as he had always done—as a provocation and a rebuke to Victorian pieties and cruelties and hypocrisies. -- Stephen Arata, University of VirginiaA welcome reassessment of Wilde’s later years. Oscar Wilde is a major critical biography, standing impressively at the intersection of social and intellectual history, publishing history, and literary studies. -- Xavier Giudicelli, Université de Reims Champagne ArdenneAn excellent examination of the last five years of the author’s life. -- David Weir * Athenaeum Review *A finely crafted and riveting study of Wilde. -- Rory Brennan * Books Ireland *Frankel has produced one of the most nuanced, well-balanced biographical studies of Wilde since the ground-breaking but frustratingly imperfect biography by Ellmann. The Unrepentant Years should be required reading for everyone who wants to gain a fuller understanding of Wilde’s complex and fascinating life. -- Stefano Evangelista * English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 *
£32.36
Harvard University Press Flaubert
Book SynopsisMichel Winock situates Flaubert in France’s century of great democratic transition. Wary of the masses, Flaubert rejected universal male suffrage, but above all he hated the vulgar, ignorant bourgeoisie, a class that embodied every vice of the democratic age. His loathing became a fixation—and a source of literary inspiration.Trade ReviewMichel Winock has written a great biography, bringing Flaubert down from his stylistic Olympus, to paint a portrait of a character grounded in history, pulsating with blood and life. -- Grégoire Kauffmann * L’Express *Winock is a first rate historian, with a fine literary sensibility. This is an intelligent book, rich in references to contemporary opinions, containing lively evocations of literary figures, friends, and political events. -- Victor Brombert, Princeton UniversityWell-researched, elegantly written, and particularly good in discussing Flaubert's work as well as his life. -- Roger Pearson, University of OxfordNoted French historian Winock’s biography succeeds in presenting a fresh portrait of a man plagued by paradoxes…Winock provides absorbing background related to the country’s social and political scenes that occurred during his subject’s lifetime. -- Erica Swenson Danowitz * Library Journal *It is stately and plump, like its subject, as well as thought-provoking. To be sure, [others] have in recent decades produced English-language biographies of Flaubert, but Winock has the depth of knowledge and familiarity with Flaubert’s times to add something new. -- Benjamin Ivry * Literary Review *This generous study ingeniously builds a narrative around Flaubert’s own words—from not only the novels but also voluminous correspondence and unpublished work. Adding light background and analysis, Winock allows the mind of the Master to shine. * New Yorker *Winock’s many quotations from Flaubert’s early writings—his Memoirs of a Madman, written at school, his letters, Intimate Notebook, and [November]—will be a revelation to those, like me, who knew only the masterpieces…Winock, a historian by profession, is excellent at building up the political context of Flaubert’s life, particularly the back and forth between liberal revolution and reactionary repression. -- Tim Parks * London Review of Books *The present volume offers a remarkable portrait of ‘the life of a man in his century.’ …[Winock] provide[s] a brilliant, sweeping view of the 19th century that allows for a far better understanding of both the major developments of the period (triumph of the bourgeoisie, industrialization, shift from constitutional monarchy to democratic republic) and the tangled life of the ‘Janus-faced,’ ‘conservative anarchist’ who was Flaubert. -- C. B. Kerr * Choice *Winock’s achievement is to treat [Flaubert’s] works themselves with clarity and insight…This is a compelling account of a writer who, Winock reminds us, has become ‘an unavoidable reference’ in literary history. -- Kate Rees * Times Literary Supplement *What [Winock’s] biography really affirms is that practically all of the life in Flaubert is to be found in his work. This he documents with care, industry and insight. His discussions of the novels and letters are especially valuable and informative, and offer a suggestive sense of the ways in which his subject’s character relates to and informs his work. Flaubert would often ask himself why man’s heart felt so big when life felt so small. This book comes close to supplying an answer. -- Matthew Adams * Irish Times *Others, like myself, will be grateful that it places Flaubert within the fevered history of his time. -- Peter Brooks * New York Review of Books *It is precisely the historical background of Flaubert’s times, both its conscious and its invisible impingements on the writer’s sensibility, on which Winock is especially revelatory…Michel Winock has written a compelling and stylish biography, and Nicholas Elliott has brought it into English with flair and skill. -- Bruce Whiteman * Hudson Review *Winock distinguishes himself as a biographer in his clear-eyed analysis of the fiction within its politically convulsive historical context…Winock [has a] readable style and talent for the great historical overview. In this way his biography can be welcomed by dedicated Flaubertians and twittering dilettantes alike. -- Gregory Day * The Australian *[An] excellent new biography. -- Leo Robson * New Statesman *
£26.96
Harvard University Press The Nonconformists
Book SynopsisThe Cold War was an era of surprising connections between American and Czech literary cultures. Major writers met behind the Iron Curtain, while others smuggled, translated, and adapted works from the other side. Brian K. Goodman explores the artistic and political consequences, arguing that the movement of literature inspired new forms of dissent.Trade ReviewA stimulating book…brilliantly shows that while American literature and music offered Czechs a dream of improvisatory freedom, Czech literature offered Americans an example of what, variously, they might do with it as if it mattered. -- Kathryn Murphy * Times Literary Supplement *Goodman brilliantly reveals how US–Czech literary encounters produced, largely unintentionally, the figure of the ‘dissident writer,’ which eventually became the symbol of the human rights movement that brought down the Iron Curtain. He reminds us that the Cold War was a period of lively, if often tortured, cultural exchange that cannot be reduced to the terms of a Cold War binary. -- Louis Menand, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Free WorldEye-opening and unforgettable. Goodman is a wonderful storyteller, and this is a story never told before. Featuring a vibrant continuum of literature, music, and theater linking Czechoslovakia and the United States, this East-West fusion sheds light on Franz Kafka, Václav Havel, and Josef Škvorecký no less than Allen Ginsberg, Philip Roth, and Arthur Miller. -- Wai Chee Dimock, author of Weak PlanetIlluminating and full of insights. With lucid and often elegant prose, Goodman masterfully tackles the continuities between American and Czech literary cultures during the Cold War era. Among its many virtues, The Nonconformists moves us away from a US-centric literary history and toward one that attends carefully to the cross-cultural networks that extended across the Iron Curtain. -- James Dawes, author of The Novel of Human RightsBeautifully written and imaginatively conceived, The Nonconformists brilliantly captures the ambiguities of moral witness in the era of Cold War literary dissent. Goodman takes us on a grand literary tour showing how the transnational encounters between such towering figures as Allen Ginsberg, Philip Roth, Václav Havel, and Milan Kundera were foundational for the emergence of a new global human rights order in the late twentieth century. -- Mark Bradley, author of The World ReimaginedGroundbreaking and highly original. Goodman’s meticulous archival research and his capacious familiarity with the latest research in Czech and American studies is impressive. Even more so is his ability to stitch together what might initially seem to be adjacent case studies into a deep fabric of transnational intellectual history. -- Michelle Woods, author of Kafka Translated
£32.26
Harvard University, Asia Center The Translatability of Revolution
Book SynopsisIn the first comprehensive study of Guo Moruo in English, Pu Wang explores the dynamics of translation, revolution, and historical imagination in twentieth-century Chinese culture. Guo was a romantic writer, Mao Zedong’s last poetic interlocutor, a Marxist historian, president of China’s Academy of Sciences, and translator of Goethe’s Faust.Trade ReviewThe Translatability of Revolution brings together Guo Moruo’s poetry, dramas, personal essays, and theoretical and polemical writings to present the most sophisticated and far-ranging study in English of this author and his works. Scholars and students of Chinese literature and history, Japanese studies, comparative literature, and translation will all benefit from Pu Wang’s discussion of Guo’s translingual creation of a new poetic subject and from many other insights found in this study. -- Michael Gibbs Hill, College of William & MaryGuo Moruo is arguably one of the most controversial figures in modern Chinese literary history. Because of his highly contested image, Guo has never been a popular scholarly subject. In this groundbreaking book, Pu Wang seeks to assess Guo’s literary and political career in terms of his engagement as a ‘translator.’ He defines translation as a transcultural practice that involves not only linguistic rendition but also ideological brokering as well as psychological invocation. Above all, he finds in Guo’s case a compelling testimony to the relationships between language and revolution, historical fabulation and political engagement. Wang’s book is a most important source for anyone interested in translation studies, Chinese and comparative literature, and cultural politics. -- David Der-wei Wang, Harvard UniversityA towering figure and the Renaissance Man of Chinese New Culture, Guo Moruo holds the key to a critical and historical decoding of its Zeitgeist and its DNA strains—from lyrical poetry to autobiography, from the modern spoken drama to translation, from literary criticism to archeological philology and Marxist historiography. Pu Wang’s work is an inspiring contribution to the untimely, even heroic, effort at addressing this glaring absence in contemporary scholarship and intellectual discussion. -- Xudong Zhang, New York UniversityAn inspiring book that offers new ideas for readers to chew and digest. -- Q. Edward Wang * Chinese Historical Studies *
£32.26
Princeton University Press The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Volume 29 1 March
Book SynopsisCovers a period of twenty-two months during which Thomas Jefferson spent most of his time at Monticello, where in his short-lived retirement from office he turned in earnest to the renovation of his residence and described himself as a 'monstrous farmer'.Table of ContentsFOREWORD vii GUIDE TO EDITORIAL APPARATUS xi ILLUSTRATIONS xxxvii JEFFERSON CHRONOLOGY 2 [1796] From Benjamin Rush, 1 March 3 To James Monroe, 2 March 4 From Robert Pollard, 3 March 6 To James Madison, 6 March 6 From James Madison, 6 March 9 To Martha Jefferson Randolph, 6 March 11 To Richard Harrison, 8 March 11 Statement on Accounts as Minister Plenipotentiary in France, 8 March 13 To Richard Harrison, 9 March 24 From James Madison, 13 March 25 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 13 March 26 From Thomas Pinckney, 16 March 27 From William Cabell, 17 March 30 To Jean Antoine Gautier, 17 March 30 To Richard Harrison, 17 March 33 To William Blount, 19 March 34 To William Branch Giles, 19 March 35 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 19 March 36 To Robert Brooke, [20 March] 37 From William Branch Giles, 20 March 38 Memorandum to Richard Harrison, [ca. 20 March] 38 To John Pendleton, 20 March 39 To James Madison, 21 March 41 From James Madison, 21 March 41 To James Monroe, 21 March 41 To Benjamin Hawkins, 22 March 42 To John Bowyer, 25 March 44 From Patrick White, 25 March 45 From William Branch Giles, 26 March 45 To John Barnes, 27 March 50 To James Brown, 27 March 50 To James Madison, 27 March 51 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 27 March 52 From Volney, 28 March 53 From William Branch Giles, 31 March 54 From James Madison, 4 April 55 To Archibald Stuart, 5 April 57 From John Adams, 6 April 58 From William Branch Giles, 6 April 60 To Volney, 10 April 61 From James Madison, 11 April 62 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 11 April 63 From John Stuart, 11 April 64 From Van Staphorst & Hubbard, 11 April 65 Agreement with Randolph Jefferson, 17 April 66 To James Madison, enclosing Extract of Madison's Notes on Debates in the Federal Convention and Extracts from Jefferson's Papers, with Comments, 17 April 67 From Thomas Pinckney, 17 April 69 From James Madison, 18 April 70 From Tench Coxe, 22 April 71 From Aaron Burr, 23 April 72 From James Madison, 23 April 72 Jefferson's Letter to Philip Mazzei 73 I. Thomas Jefferson to Philip Mazzei, 24 April 81 II. Extract and Commentary Printed in the Paris Moniteur, [25 January 1797] 84 III. Extract and Commentary Printed in the New York Minerva, [2 May 17971 86 IV Italian Translation of Extract, n.d. 88 To James Madison, 24 April 88 To Van Staphorst & Hubbard, 24 April 90 To Thomas Mann Randolph, [25 April] 90 From Bushrod Washington, 26 April 91 From Edward Rutledge, 30 April 92 To James Lyle, 1 May 93 From James Madison, 1 May 93 From James Madison, 9 May 95 To James Lyle, enclosing Deed of Mortgage of Slaves to Henderson, McCaul & Company, 12 May 96 Deed of Mortgage of Slaves to Van Staphorst & Hubbard, 12 May 98 To Francis Walker, 14 May 99 From Archibald Stuart, 15 May 99 To Mann Page, [16 May] 100 From Alexandre Lerebours, 17 May 101 From Patrick White, 19 May 102 From William Strickland, 20 May 102 From Van Staphorst & Hubbard, 21 May 106 To John Barnes, 2[2] May 107 From James Madison, 22 May 108 From William Thornton, 22 May 110 From Volney, 22 May 111 To James Brown, 23 May 112 To Archibald Stuart, 26 May 113 To John Stuart, 26 May 113 From Sir John Sinclair, 28 May 114 From William Strickland, 28 May 115 From Joseph Marx, 29 May 119 From James Madison, 30 May 119 From Robert Pleasants, 1 June 120 To Joseph Marx, 4 June 121 To Charles Willson Peale, 5 June 121 From Jean Antoine Gautier, 7 June 122 To James Monroe, 12 June 123 To John Barnes, 19 June 125 To George Washington du Motier de Lafayette, [19 June] 126 To George Washington, 19 June 127 From Richard Stith, 20 June 130 From Jonathan Williams, 20 June 130 To John Breckinridge, 21 June 131 To Jean Baptiste Ducoigne, [21 June] 131 To Harry Innes, 21 June 132 To Henri Peyroux de la Coudreniere, 21 June 132 To Isaac Shelby, 21 June 134 To Archibald Stuart, 21 June 134 From Tench Coxe, 22 June 134 From Charles Willson Peale, 22 June 136 To -------- Hite, 29 June 137 To Archibald Stuart, 29 June 138 To David Rittenhouse, 3 July 138 To Jonathan Williams, 3 July 139 To J.P.E. Derieux, [4 July] 141 From George Washington, 6 July 141 To Madame de Chastellux, 10 July 144 To Tench Coxe, 10 July 146 To James Monroe, 10 July 147 From LaRochefoucauld-Liancourt, 11 July 148 From Volney, 12 July 150 From John Stuart, 13 July 152 To Francis Willis, 15 July 153 From John Guillemard, 18 July 154 From Philip Turpin, 18 July 155 From James Martin, [20 July] 156 To William Alexander, 26 July 158 From George Wythe, 27 July 158 From George Washington du Motier de Lafayette, 29 July 159 From James Monroe, 30 July 160 From Benjamin Smith Barton, 1 August 165 To Francis Eppes, 4 August 166 To John Barnes, 7 August 167 To George Wythe, 8 August 168 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 12 August 168 From William Cocke, 17 August 169 To Wilson Cary Nicholas, 19 August 170 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 19 August 170 From Archibald Stuart, 1,9 August 171 From Wakelin Welch, enclosing Account with Robert Cary & Company, 22 August 173 From Volney, 24 August 174 From John Stuart, 25 August 177 To Robert Pleasants, [27 August] 177 From George Washington, 28 August 178 Questions on the Cow Pea, with Answers of Philip Tabb, [after 30 August] 179 From John Carey, 1 September 180 From Benjamin Smith Barton, 5 September 182 From Sir John Sinclair, 10 September 183 To John Barnes, 11 September 183 To Joseph Donath, 11 September 184 From -------- Galvan, 21 September 184 From John Garland Jefferson, 21 September 185 From John Wayles Eppes, 25 September 186 To John Barnes, 2 October 186 To Joseph Donath, 2 October, 187 To William Booker, 4 October 187 From William Booker, 7 October 188 To Bushrod Washington, 9 October 189 From William Frederick Ast, 10 October 190 To Benjamin Smith Barton, 10 October 192 Documents Relating to the 1796 Campaign for Electors in Virginia 193 I. Certificate of William Marshall, 10 October 196 II. Certificate of Joseph Jones Monroe and Thomas Bell, 17 October 198 To William Cocke, 21 October 199 From Van Staphorst & Hubbard, 21 October 199 To James Currie, 22 October 200 From Benjamin Smith Barton, 25 October 200 From James Lyle, enclosing Statement of Interest and Payments on Bonds to Henderson, McCaul & Company, 25 October 202 From William Fleming, 30 October 204 To John Carey, 10 November 205 To John Stuart, 10 November 205 To John Barnes, 13 November 206 From William Booker, 17 November 207 From Jean Armand Tronchin, enclosing Tronchin's Memorandum on Recovering Foreign Debts in America, 17 November 207 Deed of Mortgage of Slaves to Van Staphorst & Hubbard, 21 November 209 To Peter Carr, 28 November 210 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 28 November 211 To John Barnes, 4 December 212 To Joseph Donath, 4 December 212 To Henry Banks, 5 December 213 From James Madison, 5 December 214 To Wilson Cary Nicholas, 5 December 215 From John Wickham, 8 December 217 From James Madison, 10 December 218 To John Barnes, enclosing Power of Attorney to John Barnes for William Short, 11 December 219 To Thomas A. Taylor, 11 December 219 From Volney, 12 December 220 To John Garland Jefferson, 17 December 222 To James Madison, 17 December 223 To Volney, [17 December] 224 From John Wayles Eppes, 19 December 226 From James Madison, 19 December 226 From James Madison, 25 December 227 From Volney, 26 December 229 From Enoch Edwards, 27 December 230 To Edward Rutledge, 27 December 231 Jefferson's Letter to John Adams 234 I. To John Adams, 28 December 235 II. Copy from Memory, 28 December 236 From Volney, 29 December 237 From Archibald Stuart, 31 December 239 Declaration for the Mutual Assurance Society, [1796 or later] 239 Memorandum on Farming Operations, [1796 or later] 244 Notes on a Copying Process, 246 [1796] Jefferson's Letter to James Madison 247 I. To James Madison, 1 January 247 II. Copy from Memory, 1 January 249 From Benjamin Rush, 4 January 251 To Archibald Stuart, 4 January 252 From the American Philosophical Society, 7 January 254 To James Madison, 8 January 255 From James Madison, 8 January 255 To Volney, 8 January 257 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 9 January 260 From James Sullivan, 12 January 262 From James Wood, 14 January 262 From James Madison, 15 January 263 To James Madison, 16 January 266 From John Stuart, 16 January 266 To Henry Tazewell, 16 January 267 To John Wickham, 20 January 268 To Enoch Edwards, 22 January 269 To John Langdon, 22 January 269 To James Madison, 22 January 270 From James Madison, 22 January 272 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 22 January 273 To Benjamin Rush, 22 January 275 To George Wythe, 22 January 275 To the American Philosophical Society, 28 January 276 To John Barnes, 28 January 277 To John Marshall, 28 January 278 To James Wood, 28 January 279 From James Madison, 29 January 280 To James Madison, 30 January 280 From Henry Tazewell, 1 February 281 From George Wythe, 1 February 283 From Benjamin Rush, 4 February 284 From James Madison, 5 February 285 From Charles Willson Peale, 6 February 286 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 6 February 287 From Robert Pleasants, 8 February 287 To James Sullivan, 9 February 289 Memoir on the Megalonyx, [10 February] 291 From James Madison, 11 February 304 From Timothy Pickering, 11 February 305 From Timothy Pickering, 11 February 306 To James Lyle, 12 February 306 From Timothy Pickering, 16 February 307 From Mary Jefferson, 27 February 308 To Martha Jefferson Randolph, 28 February 308 Notes on a Paragraph by John Henry, [after 1 March] 309 From James Wood, 3 March 309 Address to the Senate, [4 March] 310 From Madame de Chastellux, 5 March 312 From Enoch Edwards, [6 March] 313 From Enoch Edwards, 9 March 313 To Mary Jefferson, 11 March 314 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 11 March 315 To William Short, 12 March 316 To Sir John Sinclair, 12 March 318 To William Strickland, 12 March 319 From Volney, 15 March 320 From Samuel Brown, 17 March 321 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 23 March 322 From Peregrine Fitzhugh, 25 March 323 To John Barnes, 26 March 324 From Timothy Pickering, 26 March 325 From John Trumbull, 26 March 325 From Elbridge Gerry, 27 March 326 To William Vans Murray, 27 March 327 To Martha Jefferson Randolph, 27 March 327 To Van Staphorst & Hubbard, enclosing Bond to Van Staphorst & Hubbard, 27 March 329 To Van Staphorst & Hubbard, 28 March 331 From William Short, 30 March 332 From Martha Jefferson Randolph, 31 March 334 From Willink, Van Staphorst & Hubbard, 31 March 334 To James Wood, enclosing Notes on Plan of a Prison, and Table of Estimates, 31 March 335 From Thomas Paine, 1 April 340 To John Brown, 5 April 345 To Peregrine Fitzhugh, 9 April 346 From Alexandre Giroud, 9 April 347 To Martha Jefferson Randolph, 9 April 349 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 9 April 349 To Elizabeth House Trist, 9 April 350 To Volney, 9 April 352 From Mann Page, 19 April 353 From Jean Franocois Paul Grand, 1 May 354 From Pierre Auguste Adet, 4 May 355 From Elbridge Gerry, 4 May 355 From Edward Rutledge, 4 May 356 From William Wirt, with Jefferson's Notes, 4 May 358 From "Monitor," 7 May 359 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 7 May 360 From Antonia Reynon Carmichael, 8 May 360 From Horatio Gates, 9 May 361 To Elbridge Gerry, 13 May 361 From Thomas Paine, 14 May 366 From Thomas Bee, 16 May 367 To Benjamin Smith Barton, 17 May 367 From Stephen Cathalan, Jr., 17 May 368 From Dugnani, 17 May 370 To Thomas Bell, 18 May 370 To James Madison, 18 May 371 Richard O'Brien's Memorandum on Naval Protection, 18 May 375 From John Oliver, 18 May 377 To Martha Jefferson Randolph, 18 May 379 From Peregrine Fitzhugh, 19 May 380 From "A Native American," [19 May] 382 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 19 May 385 From Edward Rutledge,19 May 386 From Ethridge Gerry, 22 May 387 To Alexandre Giroud, 22 May 387 To Allen Jones, 22 May 388 From Charles Louis Clerisseau, 23 May 389 To Louis of Parma, 23 May 389 The Senate to John Adams, [23 May] 392 John Adams to the Senate, [24 May] 396 To Angelica Schuyler Church, 24 May 396 From Hugh Williamson, 24 May 398 To Elbridge Gerry, 25 May 398 To Mary Jefferson, 25 May 399 From William Linn, 25 May 400 To William Wardlaw, 25 May 401 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 26 May 402 From Elbridge Gerry, 28 May 402 From Hugh Williamson, 28 May 403 From Sebastian Bauman, 29 May 403 To Thomas Pinckney, 29 May 404 To Antonia Reynon Carmichael, 30 May 406 To Horatio Gates, 30 May 407 To John Oliver, 30 May 408 To John Gibson, 31 May 408 To James Madison, 1 June 411 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 1 June 413 To Dugald Stewart, [2 June] 415 To Peregrine Fitzhugh, 4 June 415 To Wakelin Welch, 4 June 419 Senate Resolution on Appointment of Charles C. Pinckney, [5 June] 420 From Tench Coxe, 7 June 420 To James Madison, 8 June 421 To Martha Jefferson Randolph, 8 June 424 To French Strother, 8 June 425 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 9 June 426 From Thomas Bell, 12 June 427 From Mary Jefferson, 12 June 428 To John Moody, 13 June 428 To Mary Jefferson, [14 June] 429 To Edward Stevens, 14 June 431 To John Strode, 14 June 432 To James Madison, 15 June 433 From Pierre Malon, 15 June 435 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 15 June 436 To Aaron Burr, 17 June 437 From John Gibson, 17 June 440 To Henry Remson, 17 June 441 From Peregrine Fitzhugh, 20 June 442 Book Dedication from Benjamin Smith Barton, 21 June 445 From Aaron Burr, 21 June 447 To Elbridge Gerry, 21 June 448 From Sir John Sinclair, 21 June 449 To James Madison, 22 June 450 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 22 June 451 To John Gibson, 24 June 451 From Luther Martin, 24 June 452 To Edward Rutledge, 24 June 455 From Van Staphorst & Hubbard, 26 June 457 To Andrew G. Fraunces, 27 June 459 To Edmund Randolph, 27 June 459 To Andrew G. Fraunces, 28 June 460 To James Madison, 29 June 461 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 29 June 462 From La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, 30 June 462 To William Short, 30 June 463 From Willem H. van Hasselt, 30 June 465 To Thomas Mifflin, 1 July 468 Account with John Francis, 3 July 469 From Arthur Campbell, 4 July 469 From Edmond Charles Genet, 4 July 470 Senate Resolution on William Blount, [4 July] 472 To Volney, 5 July 474 From Volney, 5 July 474 From Elbridge Gerry, 6 July 475 Suit against the Estate of William Ronald: Order and Report, 10 July 476 From James Monroe, 12 July 478 From Sir John Sinclair, 15 July 480 From William Wirt, with Jefferson's Notes, 15 July 481 To John Barnes, [18] July 481 From Volney, 19 July 482 To James Madison, 24 July 483 From John Barnes, 26 July 484 To John Barnes, 31 July 484 From Delamotte, 31 July 485 Note on Diplomatic Appointments, [July] 486 From Thomas Bee, 1 August 487 From James Madison, 2 August 488 From St. George Tucker, 2 August 488 To James Madison, 3 August 489 Petition to Virginia House of Delegates 491 I. Petition to the Virginia House of Delegates, [on or before 3 August] 493 II. Revised Petition to the Virginia House of Delegates, [7 August-7 September] 499 From James Madison, 5 August 505 To Volney, 5 August 507 From Citizens of Vincennes, 7 August 507 From John F. Mercer, 9 August 508 From John Barnes, 10 August 509 To John Stuart, 15 August 509 From William Strickland, 16 August 510 From William Strickland, 18 August 511 From Allen Jones, 20 August 513 From Rufus King, 22 August 514 From St. George Tucker, 22 August 515 From James Madison, 24 August 516 Notes on Alexander Hamilton, 24 August 517 To Willem H. van Hasselt, 27 August 518 To St. George Tucker, 28 August 519 To Robert Lawson, 31 August 520 To Benjamin Vaughan, 31 August 521 To John Vaughan, 31 August 521 To Arthur Campbell, 1 September 522 To John Barnes, 2 September 523 From Volney, 2 September 523 To John E Mercer, 5 September 524 From James Monroe, 5 September 524 To Archibald Stuart, 5 September 525 From John Stuart, 6 September 525 To James Monroe, 7 September 526 To Alexander White, 10 September 527 To John Vaughan, 11 September 529 To Alexander White, 12 September 530 From John Barnes, 14 September 530 To John Barnes, 17 September 531 To Francis Eppes, 24 September 531 To John Barnes, [25] September 534 From Andrew Ellicott, 28 September 534 From James Thomson Callender, 28 September 536 From Arthur Campbell, 30 September 538 From Dugnani, 30 September 538 Statement of Nailery Profits, 30 September 540 From John Barnes, 3 October 542 From John McQueen, 6 October 543 To John Barnes, 8 October 544 To John Barnes, enclosing Power of Attorney, 8 October 544 To John Taylor, 8 October 545 From Elizabeth Wayles Eppes, 10 October 546 Marriage Settlement for John Wayles Eppes, 12 October 547 Marriage Settlement for Mary Jefferson, 12 October 549 Note on Spanish Expenditures, 13 October 551 Notes on Conversations with John Adams and George Washington, [after 13 October] 551 From John Taylor, 14 October 553 From Peregrine Fitzhugh, enclosing a Citizen to the Rights of Man and Peregrine Fitzhugh to the Rights of Man, 15 October 555 From John Barnes, 19 October 561 From James Madison, 20 October 562 From James Monroe, [22] October 562 From James Madison, 25 October 564 To James Monroe, 25 October 564 From James Monroe, [27 October] 565 From Benjamin Galloway, [October] 566 Memorial of Charleston Merchants to the Senate, 2 November 567 To William Bradford, 6 November 568 From Thomas Mann Randolph, 6 November 568 Memorial of Charleston Wharfholders to the Senate, 10 November 570 From Paroy, [before 10 November] 570 From Edmund Randolph, 15 November 572 From John Wayles Eppes, [17 November] 572 From John Taylor, 19 November 573 From Edmund Randolph, 21 November 574 Bond to Van Staphorst & Hubbard, 25 November 574 To Henry Tazewell, 28 November 575 From James Monroe, [November] 576 To Mary Jefferson Eppes, 2 December 576 To George Jefferson, 2 December 577 From James Monroe, 2 December 578 From Mary Jefferson Eppes, 8 December 579 From Arthur Campbell, 10 December 580 From Luther Martin, 11 December 581 To Thomas Mann Randolph, 14 December 583 From Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 15 December 584 To Richard Richardson, 16 December 585 To John Wayles Eppes, 21 December 585 To Francis Walker, 21 December 587 To John Taylor, 23 December 588 John Henry to Henry Tazewell, 24 December 590 From James Madison, 25 December 591 Notes on Comments by John Adams and Robert Goodloe Harper, 26 December 592 To James Monroe, 27 December 593 Notes on a Conversation with Tench Coxe, [27 December] 596 To Martha Jefferson Randolph, 27 December 596 From William Short, 27 December 597 From George Jefferson, 30 December 598 To John Gibson, 31 December 599 To John Henry, 31 December 600 To Henry Tazewell, 31 December 604 Design for Chimney and Flues, [1797] 605 Notes on John Jay's Mission to Great Britain, [1797 or after] 605 APPENDIX: Notations by Jefferson on Senate Documents 633 INDEX 635
£113.60
Princeton University Press Imagining Virginia Woolf
Book SynopsisAnswers the question, 'how does one read an author', by undertaking an experiment in critical biography. This book provides an original way of reading, one that captures with variety and subtlety the personality that exists only in Woolf's works and in the minds of her readers.Trade Review"DiBatistta (Fast-Talking Dames) pieces together a portrait of Virginia Woolf as experienced by readers... For general fans of literary criticism or of Woolf's writing in particular, DiBattista's experiment will offer an intriguing perspective on Woolf's relationship to her art and her audience."--Publishers Weekly "Like Anne Fernald's Virginia Woolf: Feminism and the Reader, DiBattista's study extends understanding not only of Woolf's craft and intellectual life but also of reading practices in general."--Choice "What interests Maria DiBattista is not who Woolf actually was--the flesh and blood woman--but the multiple personalities that emanate from her books. Reading a writer familiar to us is, in many ways, no different from seeing people we know, she says. In both cases, the person we think we know is a composite of the various facets of them we have glimpsed."--Fiona Capp, The Age "[W]hen people ask me about biographies about Woolf, I will recommend this one. Certainly, it cannot replace the more traditional biographies DiBattista acknowledges in her introduction, but it is an important supplement to them. My own understanding of the traditional biographies is more nuanced, a result of reading DiBattista's book."--Molly Youngkin, English Literature in Transition "[T]his short book is full of insights... I recommend it to you; it is a pleasure to read."--Stuart N. Clarke, Virginia Woolf Bulletin "[T]he more vivid impressions generated by DiBattista's study: namely, the reader's sensation of having been shown 'Virginia's Room' in a new light, as well as the realization that Woolf's 'room of one's own' is now a multitude of rooms, imaginative spaces where her readers have the freedom to hang looking-glasses in whatever odd corners they may choose."--Rosemary Joyce, Tulsa Studies in Women's LiteratureTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix THE DEMON OF READING Chapter 1. The Figment of the Author 3 Chapter 2. Personalities 14 WOOLF'S PERSONALITIES Chapter 3. The Sibyl of the Drawing Room 41 Chapter 4. The Author 64 Chapter 5. The Critic 92 Chapter 6. The World Writer 119 Chapter 7. The Adventurer 140 EPILOGUE Chapter 8. Anon Once More 169 Notes 173 Index 191
£25.20
Princeton University Press The Quotable Thoreau
Book SynopsisIncludes a collection of Thoreau quotations ever assembled. This title gathers more than 2,000 memorable passages from this iconoclastic American author, social reformer, environmentalist, and self-reliant thinker.Trade ReviewRecipient of an Umhoefer Prize for Achievement in Humanities, Arts and Humanities Foundation in 2011 Selected for "The Best of the Best" Program at the 2012 ALA Annual Conference "Henry David Thoreau is one of the most oft-quoted essayists in the American literary canon, and now his sage aphorisms are gathered together in a beautifully compiled and impressively comprehensive volume. Edited by Cramer, curator of collections at the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods, this volume draws from well-known works such as Walden and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers as well as Thoreau's journals, letters, and other papers... This volume will appear to both casual, browsing readers and to researchers needing an authoritative source on the words of Thoreau."--Choice "This quotable book is a handy guide and should find its way onto the shelves of any library, public or academic, school or special. But given its price at under $20, it should fall on the shelves of every American. While Thoreau will always smell something of the pine woods to some of us, those woods are our very own."--Mark Y. Herring, American Reference Books Annual "The Quotable Thoreau is not meant to be read all at once. It should, rather, be savored bit by bit for maximum engagement, preferably in outdoor settings at various times of the year. Readers would be well advised to digest a page or two each day, consider the passages, and accept or reject them according to preference."--Jeffrey Mifflin, Historical Journal of Massachusetts "The Quotable Thoreau is thematically arranged, fully indexed, richly illustrated, and thoroughly documented. For the student of Thoreau, it will be invaluable. For those who think they know Thoreau, it will be a revelation. And for the reader seeking sheer pleasure, it will be a joy."--World Book IndustryTable of ContentsPreface xiii A Note on the Texts xix Introduction: Thoreau's Garment of Art xxi On Pronouncing the Name Thoreau xxxvii A Thoreau Chronology xliii Thoreau Describes Himself 3 Questions 15 The Thoughts and Words of Henry D. Thoreau 19 Beauty 19 Brute Neighbors: Animals, Birds, Fish, and Insects 22 Change 31 Character 34 Charity and Philanthropy 38 Children 43 Cities 46 Conservation 49 Conversation and Talk 58 Day and Night 60 Dress and Fashion 65 Education and Learning 70 Expectation 77 Experience 80 Farmers and Farming 83 Food and Diet 87 Freedom and Slavery 92 Friendship 107 Genius 116 Good and Evil 119 Government and Politics 121 Health and Illness 127 The Heard and the Unheard 131 Sound 131 Silence 135 Music 137 The Heavens: Sun, Moon, and Stars 141 Heroes and the Heroic: Courage and Fear, Right and Wrong 143 Higher Law 146 Human Nature 148 The Mass of Men 148 Individuality 156 Hunting and Fishing 158 Imagination 163 Indians 166 Institutions 173 Land: Mountains, Bogs, and Meadows 177 Life and Death 180 From His Death-Bed 192 Literary Matters 193 Writing and Writers 193 Poets and Poetry 206 Books 210 Love 218 Manners 220 Nature 223 News, Newspapers, and the Press 236 Observation 241 Opinion and Advice 246 Past, Present, and Future 254 Possessions 256 Poverty and Wealth 259 Religious Concerns 265 Religion and Religions 265 Faith and Spirit 268 God 271 Science 275 The Seasons 278 Simplicity 288 Society 293 Solitude 298 Success 303 Temperament and Attitude 307 Thoughts and Thinking 316 Time 324 Travel and Home 327 Trees and Woods 335 Truth and Sincerity 342 Walking 349 Water: Rivers, Ponds, and Oceans 353 Weather: Rain, Snow, and Wind 358 Wildness 364 Wisdom and Ignorance 369 Women 372 Work and Business 376 Thoreau Describes His Contemporaries 430 Thoreau Described by His Contemporaries: 439 Appendix: Misquotations and Misattributions 465 Bibliography 471 Index 477
£15.29
Princeton University Press Dostoevskys Democracy
Book SynopsisSentenced to death in 1849 for utopian socialist political activity, Dostoevsky, a Russian writer, was subjected to a mock execution and then exiled to Siberia for a decade, including four years in a forced labor camp, where he experienced a crisis of belief. This title offers a reinterpretation of the life and work of Dostoevsky.Trade Review"Dostoevsky's Democracy will be read both by literary scholars, and those interested in the history of ideas."--Lesley Chamberlain, Times Literary Supplement "Nancy Ruttenburg offers a major reinterpretation of Dostoevsky's life and work by re-examining the crucial transitional period between the early works of the 1840s and the important novels of the 1860s."--Times Higher Education "Dostoevsky's Democracy brims with surprising insights."--Robin Feuer Miller, Slavic Review "Dostoevsky's Democracy provides a plausible and open reading that challenges us to re-experience familiar texts."--Lawrence Mansozo, Slavic and East European Journal "[A] scholarly and well-written work... Its strengths are its erudition, sophisticated exploration of narrative technique and application of a range of conceptual models to literary contexts... [A]n excellent and original study of Notes from the House of the Dead which makes a real contribution to our understanding of this unique work."--Robert Reid, European LegacyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 The Image of the Beast 1 The Ne To and the "Democrat" 6 The Ne To, the Writer, and the People 21 PART I: Building Out the House of the Dead 29 1. "Why Is This Man Alive?": The Unconsummated Conversion 31 2. The Disarticulation of the Autobiographical Self 41 3. Opposites That Do Not Attract (The Bezdna and Poetic Truth) and Opposites That Do (Estrangement and Conversion) 50 4. The Dostoevskian "As If": Self-Deception in Autobiography 61 5. The Narrator's Eclipse 72 6. Dostoevsky's Poetics of Conviction 82 PART II: Building Out the House of the Dead 91 1. The Chronotope of Katorga 93 2. Exception, Equality, Emancipation 96 3. Ontological Ambiguity in the Space of Exception: Katorga as Medium 105 4. The Ontology of Crime: Testimony/Confession 115 5. The Flesh of the Political 140 * The Grammar of Katorga 141 * Corporeality and Intercorporeality in Katorga 153 * Dostoevsky's Democratic Aesthetic 160 Conclusion 170 The Russian People, This Unriddled Sphinx 170 Carmen Horrendum 170 Bookishness, Literacy, and Becoming Democratic 176 Where Have All the Peasants Gone? 183 Notes 197 Bibliography 251 Index 263
£28.50
Princeton University Press Kafka
Book SynopsisHow did Kafka become Kafka? This eagerly anticipated third and final volume of Reiner Stach's definitive biography of the writer answers that question with more facts and insight than ever before, describing the complex personal, political, and cultural circumstances that shaped the young Franz Kafka (1883-1924). It tells the story of the years froTrade Review"Stach often does quietly brilliant work connecting known details of Kafka's youth to the older Kafka, so the reader can see how events appear (or don't) in the specific subjectivity of Kafka's recollection."--Rivka Galchen, London Review of Books "Stach's book crowns a definitive biographical trilogy 18 years in the making... Kafka: The Early Years, along with its two siblings--all three volumes impeccably translated from the German by Shelley Frisch--often feels like biography plotted as a novel. Stach's relish for detail is marshaled to the sensibility--if not the omniscience or imaginative license--of the novelist... [T]he heft of Stach's research is balanced by interpretive tact and a discerning eye."--Benjamin Balint, Wall Street Journal Praise for the previous volumes: "This is one of the great literary biographies, to be set up there with, or perhaps placed on an even higher shelf than, Richard Ellmann's James Joyce, George Painter's Marcel Proust, and Leon Edel's Henry James... [A]n eerily immediate portrait of one of literature's most enduring and enigmatic masters."--John Banville, New York Review of Books Praise for the previous volumes: "Resplendent."--Gary Giddins, Wall Street Journal Praise for Reiner Stach's biography of Kafka, winner of the 2015 Bavarian Book Prize: "One discovers a new, a different Dr. Franz Kafka of Prague in Reiner Stach's monumental, three-volume biography, which concludes triumphantly with Kafka: The Early Years: Kafka--a techie, a lady-killer, friend, the inventor of 3-D movies, and the prospective author of a series of low-priced travel guides for Europe. Reiner Stach proves that biography can be a literary art form and gives definitive shape to our contemporary image of Kafka."--Bavarian Book Prize jury statement Praise for the previous volumes: "[This] will surely be the definitive biography of one of the 20th century's most mysterious artists. Stach's declared aim is to find out what it felt like to be Kafka, and he succeeds."--John Banville, Irish Times Praise for the previous volumes: "The very best of which the genre is capable. This book is itself a novel."--Imre Kertesz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Praise for the previous volumes: "Superbly tempered... Shelley Frisch, Stach's heroic American translator, movingly reproduces his intended breadth and pace and tone."--Cynthia Ozick, New Republic Praise for the previous volumes: "A definitive biography of a rare writer... [M]asterful."--The Economist Praise for the previous volumes: "Stach aims to tell us all that can be known about [Kafka], avoiding the fancies and extrapolations of earlier biographers. The result is an enthralling synthesis, one that reads beautifully... I can't say enough about the liveliness and richness of Stach's book... Every page of this book feels excited, dynamic, utterly alive."--Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World Praise for the previous volumes: "Stach's is a splendid effort and will be hard to surpass."--William H. Gass, Harper's Magazine Praise for the previous volumes: "[Stach] has a deep understanding of the world that Kafka came from and this is matched by an intelligence and tact about the impulse behind the work itself."--Colm Toibin, Irish Independent Praise for the previous volumes: "Stach's book succeeds brilliantly at clearing a path through the thick metaphysical fog that has hung about Kafka's work almost since his death... [I]lluminating... Between them, [Frisch] and Stach have produced a superbly fresh imaginative guide to the strange, clear, metaphor-free world of Kafka's prose."--Tim Martin, Telegraph Praise for the previous volumes: "Magnificent."--John Carey, Sunday Times Praise for the previous volumes: "Flawlessly translated... [A] wonderfully intelligent and perceptive portrait of a uniquely powerful writer."--P. D. Smith, Guardian "Magisterial... [Reiner Stach's] portrait of the artist is intimately knowing... [Kafka: The Early Years] completes an indispensable work about a key figure in 20th-century modernism."--Kirkus Reviews "Kafka's eerie short stories and novels have electrified readers for generations, but Stach's portrait of the young Kafka contradicts the legend of their source in an alienated, detached enigma. Readers meet instead a likable, brilliant young insurance lawyer with, as Stach puts it, abundant perfectionism and self-doubt... [A]ll Kafka devotees will find this biography's insights deeply fulfilling."--Publishers Weekly "What Mr. Stach uncovers in this volume--written last because of a long struggle over access to documents--are the formative experiences of a Kafka who becomes new and surprisingly relevant... Even those immersed in the specialist work benefit from the illumination that Mr. Stach's detailed digging brings... In today's age of backlash against globalisation, the arc that Mr. Stach draws between 'The Early Years' and Kafka's later life takes on a new significance."--The Economist "Reiner Stach presents exhaustive details about the young author's life, which, rather than demystifying Kafka, actually have the effect of augmenting his complexity."--Mene Ukueberuwa, New Criterion "Reiner Stach's monumental three-volume Kafka ... looks set to be the definitive biography for the foreseeable future. Here we have something new: a credible and sympathetic human Kafka... The narrative sections of the book are masterly: Stach has a novelist's feel for atmosphere and psychology. He fixes important characters (not just Kafka, but his parents and his teachers, Brod, and several others) to the page in a few deft strokes. And he is truly excellent on Kafka's work, which is the most important thing of all. The central question of any serious literary biography should be: how did this person come to write these books? Stach answers it more fully and persuasively than any previous biographer of Kafka, by revealing in meticulous detail his feelings of personal insignificance and his dread of authority."--Edmund Gordon, Sunday Times "The best thing a biographer of Franz Kafka can do is bring the famed author back to earth. Not as regards his reputation, which is justifiably lofty. But to humanize Kafka and save him from our collective idea of him as some otherworldly creature who spent a mere 40 years on this earth, suffering much and publishing little. Reiner Stach accomplishes just this with the third and final volume of his magnificent biography... [He] strips away the myths and tells the story of how Kafka helped drag literature into the modern era."--John Winters, WBUR's ARTery blog "Stach's account of Kafka becoming Kafka is dotted with unlikely epigraphs (Laurie Anderson, Devo, the Human League) and written with pace and dry wit... Stach is an alert reader of the work, continuously on the prowl for aspects of Kafka's life that may shed light on his preoccupations... Stach's book succeeds because it concentrates less on reducing Kafka to psycho-biographical truisms than on ushering us into his company."--Tim Martin, Prospect "Belongs in the company of the masterpieces of literary biography... [C]omprehensive but raised above mere competency through astonishing architectural beauty. Thanks to the superb work of Stach's translator, Shelley Frisch, the trilogy also stands out in English at the sentence level, for the unbroken clarity, verbal ingenuity, and unflagging momentum of its prose."--Open Letters Monthly "One of the most engaging and persuasive features of [Kafka: The Early Years] ... is the way in which Stach goes far beyond the all-too-familiar neurotic, angst-ridden [Kafka] by presenting us with a variety of lesser-known 'Kafkas.'"--Mark Harman, Los Angeles Review of Books "Superbly translated from German by Shelley Frisch... Illuminating facts and intelligent commentary... The three volumes are so carefully composed and densely woven--blending history, literary analysis, psychological insights, quotes and commentary from others--that it would be practically impossible to produce an abridged version in a single volume."--Alexander Adams, Spiked Review "Stach's whole project is a wonder to behold."--Gregory Day, Sydney Morning Herald "If you are a Kafka fan (or just a fan of great literary biographies), the translation of Reiner Stach's enormous, three-part biography is something not to miss. Now that it has been translated into English by Shelley Frisch, the book offered English-language readers unparalleled insight into Kafka's life, his world, his colleagues, his lovers, his family, and of course his writing. As a longtime Kafka devotee, I found this biography exceptional, not just a great book about Kafka but simply a great book to read."--Scott Esposito, Conversational Reading "[Stach's] mastery of complex material, scrupulous examination of evidence, illuminating portrayal of the historical and intellectual background ranks with Joseph Frank's superb five-volume life of Dostoyevsky."--Jeffrey Meyers, Commonweal "We can trace, through Stach's measured narrative, the full course of Kafka's brief life... The result is not merely a biography of painstaking thoroughness but a piece of psychological investigation and literary detective work without clear parallel. It gives its readers a new Kafka. It explains much that has long seemed obscure; yet, by paradox, the more its author-hero is grounded in his context, and the more we grasp of the initial sources of his imagination, the more unfathomable his gifts become. The haze clears; he stands alone."--Nicolas Rothwell, AustralianTable of ContentsTranslator's Preface ix 1 Nothing Happening in Prague 1 2 The Curtain Rises 7 3 Giants: The Kafkas from Wosek 26 4 Julie Lowy 38 5 Losing Propositions 46 6 Thoughts about Freud 58 7 Kafka, Franz: Model Student 77 8 A City Energized 90 9 Elli, Valli, Ottla 113 10 Latin, Bohemian, Mathematics, and Other Matters of the Heart 122 11 Jewish Lessons 150 12 Innocence and Impudence 171 13 The Path to Freedom 184 14 To Hell with German Studies 204 15 Friend Max 222 16 Enticements 236 17 Informed Circles: Utitz, Weltsch, Fanta, Bergmann 248 18 Autonomy and Recovery 268 19 The Interior Landscape: "Description of a Struggle" 284 2 Doctor of Law Seeking Employment 302 21 Off to the Prostitutes 325 22 Cafes, Geishas, Art, and Cinema 335 23 The Formidable Assistant Offi ial 350 24 The Secret Writing School 370 25 Landing in Brescia 391 26 In the Heart of the West 407 27 Ideas and Spirits: Buber, Steiner, Einstein 420 28 Literature and Tourism 437 Acknowledgments 463 Key to Abbreviations 465 Notes 467 Bibliography 531 Photo Credits 549 Index 551
£27.00
Princeton University Press Dante
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Took captures passionately and in meticulous detail the intellectual journeying Dante took in becoming one of the great portrait artists of the human condition. . . . This is a love letter magisterially crafted, eloquently rendered."---Rachel Moss, Times Higher Education"Powerful new readings."---Peter Hainsworth, Times Literary Supplement"Dante is an altogether authoritative and mighty intellectual biography – superlative in its writing and more than comprehensive in breadth of scope."---David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews
£37.80
