Essays Books

Book SynopsisAt a time when opinion trumps facts and truth is treated as nothing more than another perspective, free speech has become a battleground. While authoritarians and algorithms threaten democracy, we argue over who has the right to speak.To protect ourselves from encroaching tyranny, we must look beyond this one-dimensional notion of what it means to be free and, by reconnecting liberty to equality and accountability, restore the individual agency engendered by the three dimensions of freedom.

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Book SynopsisA Sunday Times bestsellerChristopher Hitchens was an unparalleled, prolific writer, who raised the polemical essay to a new art form, over a lifetime of thinking and debating the defining issues of our times. As an essayist he contributed to the New Statesman, Atlantic Monthly, London Review of Books, TLS and Vanity Fair. Any publication of a volume of Hitchens' essays was a major event on both sides of the Atlantic. Now comes a volume of Hitchens' previously uncollected essays, covering the themes that define Hitchens the thinker: literature, religion and politics. These essays remind us, once more, of the fierce, brilliant and trenchant voice of Christopher Hitchens.Trade ReviewThe range is remarkable... Literary criticism is often where he shines - the pieces on Orwell and Chesterton, in particular, are alert, nuanced and witty. * Financial Times *And yet... there are few journalists who can match the verve and panache of Hitchens's prose. He mixes the loquaciousness of the barfly with the fluency of the literary artist, and could not pen a dull sentence if he tried. * Guardian *What you will find in And Yet..., is a body of work that offers some of the most various, nutritious and amusing prose you are likely to encounter, and that stands as a testament to the consolations of a phrase he cherished: litera scripta manet - the written word remains. * Daily Telegraph *This final collection displays his startling ability to write so well about so much... The sense of loss at the subjects he will not write about is more than outweighed by the pleasure at those that he did. * New Statesman *Table of Contents1: Che Guevara: Goodbye to All That 2: Orwell's List 3: Orhan Pamuk: Mind the Gap 4: Bring on the Mud 5: Ohio's Odd Numbers 6: On Becoming American 7: Mikhail Lermontov: A Doomed Young Man 8: Salman Rushdie: Hobbes in the Himalayas 9: My Red-State Odyssey 10: The Turkey Has Landed 11: Bah, Humbug 12: A. N. Wilson: Downhill All the Way 13: Ian Fleming: Bottoms Up 14: Power Suits 15: Blood for No Oil! 16: How Uninviting 17: Look Who's Cutting and Running Now 18: Oriana Fallaci and the Art of the Interview 19: Imperial Follies 20: Clive James: The Omnivore 21: Gertrude Bell: The Woman Who Made Iraq 22: Physician, Heal Thyself 23: Edmund Wilson: Literary Companion On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part I: Of Vice and Men 24: On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part II: Vice and Versa 25: On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part III: Mission Accomplished 26: Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Price of Freedom 27: Arthur Schlesinger: The Courtier 28: Paul Scott: Victoria's Secret 29: The Case against Hillary Clinton 30: The Tall Tale of Tuzla 31: V. S. Naipaul: Cruel and Unusual 32: No Regrets 33: Barack Obama: Cool Cat 34: The Lovely Stones 35: Edward M. Kennedy: Redemption Song 36: Engaging with Iran Is Like Having Sex with Someone Who Hates You 37: Colin Powell: Powell Valediction 38: Shut Up about Armenians or We'll Hurt Them Again 39: Hezbollah's Progress 40: The Politicians We Deserve 41: Rosa Luxemburg: Red Rosa 42: Joan Didion: Blue Nights 43: The True Spirit of Christmas 44: Charles Dickens's Inner Child 45: G. K. Chesterton: The Reactionary 46: The Importance of Being Orwell 47: What Is Patriotism?

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Book SynopsisThe struggle which Plato has Socrates recommend to his interlocutors in Gorgias - and to his readers - is the struggle to overcome the temptations of worldly success and to concentrate on genuine morality. Ostensibly an enquiry into the value of rhetoric, the dialogue soon becomes an investigation into the value of these two contrasting ways of life. In a series of dazzling and bold arguments, Plato attempts to establish that only morality can bring a person true happiness, and to demolish alternative viewpoints. It is not suprising that Gorgias is one of Plato''s most widely read dialogues. Philosophers read it for its coverage of central moral issues; others enjoy its vividness, clarity and occasional bitter humour. This new translation is accompanied by explanatory notes and an informative introduction. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s comm

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Book SynopsisIn this first English-language translation of Poetic Intention, Glissant argues for the importance of the global position of art. He states that a poem, in its intention, must never deny the way of the world. Poetic Intention creates a new landscape for understanding the relationship between aesthetics and politics.

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Book SynopsisIn the first days of spring in his eighty-second year, Gerald Murnane – perhaps the greatest living writer of English prose – began a project that would round off his strange career as a novelist. He would read all of his books in turn and prepare a report on each. His original intention was to lodge the reports in two of his legendary filing cabinets: in the Chronological Archive, which documents his life as a whole, and the Literary Archive, which is devoted to everything he has written. As the reports grew, however, they themselves took on the form of a book, a book as beguiling and hallucinatory, in its way, as the works on which they were meant to report. These miniature memoirs or stories lead the reader through the capacious territory Murnane refers to as his mind: they dwell on the circumstances that gave rise to his writing, on images and associations, on Murnane’s own theories of fiction, and then memories of a deeply personal kind. The final essay is, of course, on Last Letter to a Reader itself: it considers the elation and exhilaration that accompany the act of writing, and offers a moving finale to what must surely be Murnane’s last work, as death approaches. Trade Review‘Has any writer ever paraded his aesthetic privacies so shamelessly? It doesn’t matter. These are the ravings of a genius. Ignore them if you dare, literature-besotted unraveller.’ Peter Craven, Australian Book Review ---- ‘The best book about Murnane’s books that anyone is ever likely to write.’ Shannon Burns, The Monthly ---- ‘When looking over the endless paddocks of his fictions, one is also looking out at the mysterious landscape of the soul.’ Dustin Illingworth, New York Times Book Review ---- ‘Murnane, a genius, is a worthy heir to Beckett.’ Teju Cole ---- ‘The emotional conviction…is so intense, the sombre lyricism so moving, the intelligence behind the chiselled sentences so undeniable, that we suspend all disbelief.’ J. M. Coetzee ---- ‘An enigmatic author, possibly the best you’ve never heard of . . . His work insists on the reality of the inner world – perhaps even its primacy.’ Melissa Harrison, Financial Times ---- ‘Immediately arresting . . . Murnane’s writing exhibits what literature should: an insight into a way of seeing that is quite unlike our own.’ John Self, Irish Times ---- ‘As with Proust, the specificities of the images he pursues and catalogues provide their own pleasure [but] the effect of his writing is less about the images themselves, and more about the way thought works in the human mind.’ Chris Power, The Guardian ---- ‘Murnane’s fantasies are many-layered, and the narration weaves between these and his mundane life in thrillingly long, lyrical sentences.” Christian Lorentzen, London Review of Books

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Book SynopsisPliny's letters provide a fascinating insight into Roman life in the period 97 to 112 AD. They document politics, social life, religion, the educational system, the treatment of slaves and include a vivid description of the eruption of Vesuvius. This is a lively and sympathetic new translation.

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Book SynopsisThe complete collection of 'the Tony Hancock of journalism' Jeffrey Bernard's first Low Life Spectator series, with all the original illustrations.

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Book SynopsisLove, Poverty and War: Journeys and Essays showcases the Hitchens' rejection of consensus and cliché, whether he's reporting from abroad in Indonesia, Kurdistan, Iraq, North Korea, or Cuba, or when his pen is targeted mercilessly at the likes of William Clinton, Mother Theresa ("a fanatic, a fundamentalist and a fraud"), the Dalai Lama, Noam Chomsky, Mel Gibson and Michael Bloomberg. Hitchens began the nineties as a "darling of the left" but has become more of an "unaffiliated radical" whose targets include those on the "left," who he accuses of "fudging" the issue of military intervention in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet, as Hitchens shows in his reportage, cultural and literary criticism, and opinion essays from the last decade, he has not jumped ship and joined the right but is faithful to the internationalist, contrarian and democratic ideals that have always informed his work.Trade ReviewDazzling, and often very moving, writing from the 1990s by one of the most prolific, as well as brilliant, journalists of our time * Observer *An exceptional political polemicist * Prospect *Hitchens is just too damn good. * New Statesman *Table of Contents1: The Medals Of His Defeats 2: A Man Of Permanent Contradictions 3: The Old Man 4: Huxley And Brave New World 5: Greeneland 6: Scoop 7: The Man Of Feeling 8: The Misfortune Of Poetry 9: The Acutest Ear In Paris 10: Joyce In Bloom 11: The Immortal 12: It Happened On Sunset 13: The Ballad Of Route 66 14: The Adventures Of Augie March 15: Rebel Ghosts 16: America's Poet? Bob Dylan's Achievement 17: I Fought The Law In Bloomberg's New York 18: For Patriot Dreams 19: Martha Inc. 20: Scenes From An Execution 21: In Sickness And By Stealth 22: The Strange Case Of David Irving 23: Why Americans Are Not Taught History 24: A Hundred Years Of Muggery 25: Unfairenheit 9/11: The Lies Of Michael Moore 26: Virginity Regained 27: The Divine One 28: The Devil And Mother Teresa 29: Blessed Are The Phrasemakers 30: Jewish Power, Jewish Peril 31: The Future Of An Illusion 32: The Gospel According To Mel 33: The Struggle Of The Kurds 34: Thunder In The Black Mountains 35: Visit To A Small Planet 36: Havana Canwait 37: The Clinton-Douglas Debates 38: We're Still Standing 39: The Morning After 40: Against Rationalization 41: Of Sin, The Left, & Islamic Fascism 42: A Rejoinder To Noam Chomsky 43: Blaming Bin Laden First 44: The Ends Ofwar 45: Pakistan: On The Frontier Of Apocalypse 46: Saddam's Long Good-Bye 47: A Liberating Experience

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of the magnificent, award-winning novels GILEAD, HOME and LILA comes this wonderful, heart-warming collection of essays about reading.'Grace and intelligence ...[her work] defines universal truths about what it means to be human' Barack ObamaMarilynne Robinson is not only a writer of sharp, subtly moving fiction, but also a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. In this luminous collection she returns to the themes which have preoccupied her bestselling novels: the place literature has in life, the role of faith in modern living, the contradictions inherent in human nature. Clear-eyed and forceful as ever, Robinson demonstrates once again why she is regarded as one of our best-loved writers.

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Book SynopsisOver more than four decades J.R.R. Tolkien’s son and literary executor, Christopher Tolkien, published some twenty-four volumes of his father’s work, much more than his father had succeeded in publishing during his own lifetime. Standing on the mountain of his son’s colossal publishing effort and extraordinary scholarship, readers today are therefore able to survey and understand the vastness of the landscape of Tolkien’s legendarium. This collection of essays by world-renowned scholars, together with family reminiscences, sheds new light on J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, his son Christopher’s unique gifts in communicating and interpreting that work and the debt owed to Christopher by the many Tolkien scholars who were privileged to work with him. What was Tolkien’s intended ending for 'The Lord of the Rings'? Did it leave echoes in the stripped-down version that was actually published? What was the audience’s response to the first ever adaptation of 'The Lord of the Rings' – a radio dramatization that has now been deleted forever from the BBC’s archives? What was the significance of the extraordinary array of doorways which confronted the hobbits as they journeyed through Middle-earth? The book is illustrated with colour reproductions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s manuscripts, maps, drawings and letters and, with the kind permission of his estate, photographs of Christopher Tolkien and extracts from his works, some of which have never been seen before, making this volume essential reading for Tolkien scholars, readers and fans.Table of ContentsCONTENTS 1 Catherine McIlwaine Introduction Timeline 2 Maxime H. Pascal Eulogy delivered at Christopher Tolkien’s funeral 3 Priscilla Tolkien A Personal Memory 4 Vincent Ferré The Son Behind the Father: Christopher Tolkien as a Writer 5 Verlyn Flieger Listening to the Music 6 John Garth The Chronology of Creation: How J.R.R. Tolkien Misremembered the Beginnings of his Mythology 7 Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull ‘I Wisely Started with a Map’: J.R.R. Tolkien as Cartographer 8 Carl F. Hostetter Editing the Tolkienian Manuscript 9 Stuart D. Lee A Milestone in BBC History? The 1955-56 Radio Dramatization of The Lord of the Rings 10 Tom Shippey King Sheave and The Lost Road 11 Brian Sibley Down from the door where it began… Portal images in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Bibliography for Christopher Tolkien Notes About the Contributors Further Reading Picture Credits Index

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Book SynopsisThe Metamorphoses (Golden Ass) of Apuleius is a romance combining realism and magic. Lucius wants the sensations of a bird, but by pharmaceutical accident becomes an ass. The bulk of the novel recounts his adventures as an animal, but Lucius also recounts many stories he overhears, including that of Cupid and Psyche.

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Book SynopsisAfter personal inquiry and study of hearsay and other evidence, Herodotus (born ca. 484 BC) gives us in his famous history of warfare between the Greeks and the Persians a not uncritical estimate of the best that he could find.

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Book SynopsisAelian's Historical Miscellany (Varia Historia) is a pleasurable example of light reading for Romans of the early third century. Offering engaging anecdotes about historical figures, retellings of legendary events, and enjoyable descriptive pieces, Aelian's collection of nuggets and narratives appealed to a wide reading public.Trade ReviewAelian’s Historical Miscellany (Varia Historia) is mainly a potpourri of historical, literary, and other information concerning the Greek past…which apparently entertained educated readers [of the 3rd century] as well as provided them with exempla. Wilson gives us a smooth and very readable translation, syntactically reflecting Aelian’s ‘studied simplicity.’ -- Robert J. Penella * Religious Studies Review *Classicists no longer have an excuse not to check a citation in Aelian, and a general reader who wants to find out what a bedside book from antiquity might have looked like has the means ready to hand… Aelian’s Greek can be quite tricky and with his translation Wilson puts us further in his debt: besides being clear and accurate it is often sprightly and even eloquent. -- A. J. Podlecki * Scholia *

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Book SynopsisEgil's Saga tells the story of the long and brutal life of tenth-century warrior-poet and farmer Egil Skallagrimsson: a morally ambiguous character who was at once the composer of intricately beautiful poetry, and a physical grotesque capable of staggering brutality. The saga recounts Egil's progression from youthful savagery to mature wisdom as he struggles to avenge his father's exile from Norway, defend his honour against the Norwegian King Erik Bloodaxe, and fight for the English King Athelstan in his battles against Scotland. Exploring issues as diverse as the question of loyalty, the power of poetry, and the relationship between two brothers who love the same woman, Egil's Saga is a fascinating depiction of a deeply human character.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout

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Book SynopsisThe text is unabridged, with original spelling and extensive, easy-to-use marginal glosses and footnotes.

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Book SynopsisThis is one of the few records published by Gurdjieff in which he offers guidance to his ''community of seekers'', the pupils from many countries who joined him in Paris and New York.The first section is mainly autobiographical, relating material crucial to an understanding of the nature and intensity of personal effort required for an all-inclusive work on oneself. This is followed by a series of talks which Gurdjieff gave to his pupils in New York in 1930, and then by a long, but incomplete, essay on ''The Outer and Inner World of Man''.

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Book SynopsisMarshall McLuhan was a Canadian educator, philosopher and scholar - a professor of English Literature, a literary critic and a communications theorist. McLuhan's work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory. McLuhan is known for coining the expressions 'the medium is the message' and the 'global village'.

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Book SynopsisDuring his decades of world fame as a novelist, Tolstoy also wrote prolifically in a series of essays and polemics on issues of morality, social justice and religion. These works culminated in What is Art?, published in 1898. Impassioned and iconoclastic, this powerfully influential work both criticizes the elitist nature of art in nineteenth-century Western society, and rejects the idea that its sole purpose should be the creation of beauty. The works of Dante, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Baudelaire and Wagner are all vigorously condemned, as Tolstoy explores what he believes to be the spiritual role of the artist - arguing that true art must work with religion and science as a force for the advancement of mankind.Table of ContentsWhat Is Art? - Leo Tolstoy Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky with a Preface by Richard PevearPrefaceBibliographical NoteA Note on the TextWHAT IS ART?Appendix IAppendix IINotes

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Book SynopsisWritten following the collapse of Rome''s secular control over western Europe, the History of Gregory (c. AD 539-594) is a fascinating exploration of the events that shaped sixth-century France. This volume contains all ten books from the work, the last seven of which provide an in-depth description of Gregory''s own era, in which he played an important role as Bishop of Tours. With skill and eloquence, Gregory brings the age vividly to life, as he relates the exploits of missionaries, martyrs, kings and queens - including the quarrelling sons of Lothar I, and the ruthless Queen Fredegund, third wife of Chilperic. Portraying an age of staggering cruelty and rapid change, this is a powerful depiction of the turbulent progression of faith at a time of political and social chaos.

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Book SynopsisRenowned scholar Burton Watson's translation exactingly depicts the life and teachings of the great ninth-century Chinese Zen master Lin-chi, one of the most highly regarded of the T'ang period masters.

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Book SynopsisIn this acrobatic and virtuosic collection, Paul Auster traces the compulsion to make literature. In a selection of interviews, as well as in the essay ''The Red Notebook'' itself, Auster reflects upon his own work, on the need to break down the boundary between living and writing, and on the use of certain genre conventions to penetrate matters of memory and identity. The Red Notebook both illuminates and undermines our accepted notions about literature, and guides us towards a finer understanding of the dangerously high stakes involved in writing. It also includes Paul Auster''s impassioned essay ''A Prayer for Salman Rushdie'', as well as a set of striking and bittersweet reminiscences collected under the apposite title, ''Why Write?''Trade Review'Bears testimony to Auster's sense of the metaphysical elegance of life and art.' Literary Review

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Book SynopsisSince The Paris Review was founded in 1953, it has given us invaluable conversations with the greatest writers of our age. Here is the fourth collection of brilliant interviews to be gathered together, 'a bible both for readers and writers, the insider gossip for those who are truly passionate about their prose.' (Observer)This new edition is introduced by Salman Rushdie and includes interviews with:William StyronMarianne MooreEzra PoundE.B. WhiteP.G. WodehouseJohn AshberyPhilip RothMaya AngelouOrhan PamukV.S. NaipaulStephen SondheimHaruki MurakamiDavid GrossmanMarilynne RobinsonTrade ReviewIndispensable reading for anybody interested in how writers work and why writing continues to work. * * Daily Telegraph * *If you want to get acquainted with your favourite writer, you could go to a reading or a book-signing. But to really know them, you should read a Paris Review interview. * * The Times * *I have been fascinated by the Paris Review interviews for as long as I can remember. Taken together they form perhaps the finest available inquiry into the 'how' of literature, in many ways a more interesting question than 'why'. -- Salman RushdieAn embarrassment of big names...As an insight into what the most famous writers of the last 50 years would like you to think of them, the Paris Review Interviews have many charms beside their illustrious roll-call. * * Prospect * *The greatest hits of the earlier series, as well as providing a more durable and accessible home for recent interviews....the interviewees are engaging anecdotalists and autobiographers. * * Observer * *A kind of a masterclass for aspiring writers. * * London Review of Books * *The Paris Review interviews have always provided the best look into the minds and work ethics of great writers and when read together constitute the closest thing to an MFA that you can get while sitting alone on your couch. -- Dave EggersThis is a delight. * * GQ * *The final volume of The Paris Review Interviews has just been published and writers can once again be reminded that we are not the first to have ridiculous ambitions, doubts and difficulties. The four volumes together will make a generous gift for anyone who writes or reads. One volume would be not too shabby either. -- Peter Carey * * Guardian * *

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Book SynopsisPlato's "Symposium" - translated here, and with a commentary - is arguably one of the greatest works on the nature of love ever written. It recounts a drinking party following an evening meal, where the guests include Aristophanes, Alcibiades and Socrates. The revellers discuss a variety of topics.

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Book SynopsisLucian (ca. AD 120–190), apprentice sculptor then traveling rhetorician, settled in Athens and developed an original brand of satire. Notable for the Attic purity and elegance of his Greek and for literary versatility, he is famous chiefly for the lively, cynical wit of the dialogues in which he satirizes human folly, superstition, and hypocrisy.

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Book SynopsisLetters are important for the study of ecclesiastical history and Augustine’s relations with other theologians.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of the Year""Winner of the Heartland Booksellers Award in Nonfiction, Midwest Independent Booksellers Association""Longlisted for the Non-Obvious Book Awards""A Scholarly Kitchen Best Books Read and Favorite Cultural Creations of the Year""I guarantee there is someone in your life who will love Jeff Deutsch’s In Praise of Good Bookstores. (That person may very well be you.) This elegant little book offers the most moving and erudite justification for the survival of bookstores I have ever read."---Ron Charles, Washington Post"Deutsch’s paean is charmingly erudite."---Mia Levitin, Financial Times"An eloquent and inspiring paean to the community bookstore. . . . A deeply read and engaging guide. . . . Give this a prime spot on that Front Table." * Booklist, starred review *"What function do modern bookshops serve? And how might they go about delivering it? In Praise of Good Bookstores dives into these questions with brio and scholarship."---Oliver Balch, Times Literary Supplement"In this unabashed celebration of good bookstores, Deutsch poses the question: What exactly, in this day and age, makes a good one? He offers many ideas and includes thoughtful reflections. . . . What bibliophile could get made a cheerleader this passionate about something as inclusive and inspiring as a good bookstore."---Michael Magras, Shelf Awareness, starred review"An eloquent argument for making the experience of buying a book more meaningful than acquiring a toaster. . . . In a culture that fosters rampant aliteracy and homes devoid of any books, Deutsch is extolling not just good bookstores but also the vanishing world of thoughtful lives. His effort deserves praise."---Steven G. Kellman, Forward"With In Praise of Good Bookstores, Jeff Deutsch offers a manifesto for their survival. He argues that physical bookstores give readers what online merchants cannot, a special kind of reflection nurtured by wandering among the aisles."---Danny Heitman, Wall Street Journal"Deutsch writes passionately and eruditely about the value of literature, the community it can engender, and the patience required to sell books with integrity but In Praise of Good Bookstores is more than a mere paean to independent brick-and-mortar shops. Deutsch also presents models for their continued survival."---Jonathan Russell Clark, Minneapolis Star Tribune"Deutsch, director of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores in Chicago, reflects on the importance of bookselling in his moving debut. . . . A resonant elegy to a changing business, this will hit the spot for literature lovers." * Publishers Weekly *"Admirable reflections on a bookshop’s value to a community."---Michael Dirda, Washington Post"Deutsch’s book is an earnest, even idealistic consideration of what we gain from a good bookstore, and what we risk losing if we don’t overcome the failure of imagination—and of economics—that has allowed so many bookstores to close."---Max Norman, New Yorker"In Praise of Good Bookstores. . . is not just for me, but for anyone who thinks of bookstores not as retail businesses but as sacred spaces that bring out essential aspects of our individual and collective humanity."---John Warner, Chicago Tribune"A glorious, philosophical treatise on the values, structure, and importance of bookstores as cultural institutions."---Todd Carpenter, The Scholarly Kitchen"[Deutsch] ponders the ingredients that make a bookstore worth visiting….a pleasant bibliophilic excursion." * Kirkus Reviews *"It is hard to improve upon Jeff Deutsch’s definition of the bricks-and-mortar bookstore as “a necessary part of the habitat of a lively intelligence in touch with the world""---Matthew d’Ancona, Tortoise Media"A heavily and colorfully aphoristic book. . . . The next time you see an Amazon delivery truck blocking traffic on your street or read about another suit brought by an Amazon warehouse worker against a com­pany obsessed with speeding up everything, think about Jeff Deutsch's book. He has something valuable to tell you."---David Emblidge, Publishing Review Quarterly"[Deutsch’s] manifesto celebrates browsing as essential to the thinking life. . . . In Praise of Good Bookstores clearly articulates the positive contribution good bookstores can make. . . . Good bookstores don’t bring redemption; they help us live together without it. By keeping the Seminary Co-op’s doors open and its shelves well stocked, Deutsch contributes daily to this essential work."---Aaron Tugendhaft, Jewish Review of Books

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Book Synopsis''Marvellously unpredictable . . . by the end of the book you wish it was twice as long'' (Daily Telegraph)How does the legacy of a family past shape who we are?Ferdinand von Schirach is one of Germany''s most eminent criminal defence lawyers and an internationally bestselling writer. He is also the grandson of Baldur von Schirach, leader of the Hitler Youth movement.In Coffee and Cigarettes, his most personal book, von Schirach confronts his family history, through autobiographical vignettes and short stories drawn from his life and career. From conversations with imprisoned clients, great writers and supreme court judges; meditations on art, film, writing and smoking; to reflections on Germany''s heavy history, Coffee and Cigarettes is a portrait of the author, and our modern world. Revealing, revelatory and thought-provoking, these essays confirm von Schirach as one of the most inimitable writers in Europe today.

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Book SynopsisKate Humble has a knack for sharing her own journey towards a more pleasing and purposeful life in a way that inspires readers, enables them to reassess their own lives and helps them achieve their personal goals. Having encouraged readers to reconnect with nature in Thinking on My Feet and simplify their lifestyles in A Year of Living Simply, she turns now to reimagining whatever we consider 'home' - examining her own experiences and expectations, ideals and memories, and considering the views of others living uniquely, extraordinarily, happily. She's gaining insights from some unexpected quarters - including the animal kingdom.As our time spent in office buildings and other traditional workplaces shrinks forevermore, feeling happy, healthy, productive and content in our homes (be they castles or caravans, flat-shares or farms, fixed or temporary, inner city/out of town/beyond) is more important to get right than ever before. Where the Hearth Is will resonate with all those seeking to make the most of their lives during the many hours we all spend at home - whether it's a case of tiny adjustments while staying put, moving out, living differently or dreaming of building something new.

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Book SynopsisA richly illustrated book in which leading cultural critics, authors, and academics reflect on the radical achievement and innovation of Art Spiegelman''s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece Maus''The most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust'' Wall Street Journal___________________________________________________________________________It is hard to overstate Art Spiegelman''s effect on postwar American culture. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author is one of our most influential contemporary artists, and his masterpiece Maus has shaped the fields of literature, history, and art. Collecting responses to the work that confirm its unique and terrain-shifting status, Maus Now is a new collection of essays that sees writers such as Philip Pullman, Robert Storr, Ruth Franklin, and others approaching the complexity of Maus from a wide range of viewpoints and traditions.Offering translations of important French, Hebrew, and German essays on Maus for the first time, this collection edited by American literary scholar Hillary Chute - an expert on comics and graphic narratives - assembles the world''s best writing on this classic work of graphic testimony.___________________________________________________________________________''The first masterpiece in comic book history'' The New Yorker on Maus''No summary can do justice to Spiegelman''s narrative skill'' Adam Gopnik on Maus''Like all great stories, it tells us more about ourselves than we could ever suspect'' Philip Pullman on MausTrade ReviewChute has been leading the charge with some of the most sophisticated comics criticism to date * TLS *The most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust * Wall Street Journal on MAUS *The first masterpiece in comic book history * New Yorker on MAUS *Wonderful . . . Chute's often lovely, sensitive discussions of individual expression in independent comics seem so right and true * New York Times Book Review on Why Comics? *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Ben and Rebecca’s collection of shorts is incredibly original, bizarre, and funny. Each one is distinct and yet reflects their collective genius as writers who are daring and ahead of the curve.” — Will Ferrell “Voices of their generation. Except for Greta Thunberg. And Malala. Amanda Gorman . . . you know what, I take it back.” — Jimmy Fallon

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Book SynopsisThis new collection brings together four of Orwell's short sketches of English life with his masterful analysis of a crumbling English society. They range from an expedition down a coal mine to a chastening experience of colonial rule in Burma, and from a witty study of murder reportage in the British tabloids to a grim account of life inside a workhouse. Culminating with Orwell's masterpiece on English socialism, 'The Lion and the Unicorn', the essays in this collection are a testament to the fascinating peculiarities of English culture. Together, they say as much about what England could aspire to be as the state that it has found itself in.

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Book SynopsisFOREWORD BY ALI SMITHWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY FRANCESCA WADEWho better to serve as a guide to great books and their authors than Virginia Woolf?In the early years of its existence, the Times Literary Supplement published some of the finest writers in English: T. S. Eliot, Henry James and E. M. Forster among them. But one of the paper's defining voices was Virginia Woolf, who produced a string of superb essays between the two World Wars.The weirdness of Elizabethan plays, the pleasure of revisiting favourite novels, the supreme examples of Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot and Henry James, Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad: all are here, in anonymously published pieces, in which may be glimpsed the thinking behind Woolf's works of fiction and the enquiring, feminist spirit of A Room of One's Own.Here is Woolf the critical essayist, offering, at one moment, a playful hypothesis and, at another, a judgement laid down with the authority of a twentieth-century Dr Johnson. Here is Woolf working out precisely what's great about Hardy, and how Elizabeth Barrett Browning made books a substitute for living because she was forbidden to scamper on the grass. Above all, here is Virginia Woolf the reader, whose enthusiasm for great literature remains palpable and inspirational today.

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Book SynopsisFamed for his autobiographical Confessions of an English Opium Eater, De Quincey extended his sensational accounts of drug addiction with the brief essays of Suspiria de Profundis (Sighs from the Depths).

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Book SynopsisHow to speak of the searing, unpindownable power that the past – ours, our family’s, our culture’s – wields in the present? In five long sections, Maria Tumarkin’s Axiomatic tells true and intimate stories of a community dealing with the extended aftermath of a suicide, a grandmother’s quest to kidnap her grandson to keep him safe, one community lawyer’s battle inside and against the justice system, the effects of multigenerational trauma, and the history of the author’s longest friendship. In writing that is inventive, bold, and generous, Axiomatic is a brilliantly inventive exploration of how the past shapes our culture.Trade ReviewNew Yorker Best Books of 2019 | New Statesman Books of the Year 2020‘Maria Tumarkin’s shape-shifting Axiomatic deploys all the resources of narrative, reportage and essay. It is a work of great power and beauty.’ — Pankaj Mishra, author of The Age of Anger‘[Axiomatic] is comprised of restless, gorgeous essays, each of which uses an aphorism – “time heals all wounds,” “you can’t enter the same river twice” – to reflect on Tumarkin’s preoccupations: trauma, the ongoingness of the past, and the unworkability of language. Tumarkin takes up subjects like youth suicide and the plight of homeless people in North Melbourne, but her approach is never maudlin.’ — Katy Waldman, New Yorker ‘The work of a virtuoso ... Like Maggie Nelson’s, Tumarkin’s is the kind of writing that makes much creative nonfiction seem clumsy and rudimentary, as if everyone else is writing way too many words about smaller, pettier ideas.’ — The Believer‘Tumarkin presents a remarkable tour de force ... These essays will linger in readers’ minds for years after.’ — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

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Book Synopsis'Freud the writer is what Joan Riviere so elegantly presents to the English-Language reader'Lisa Appignanesi from her preface to Sigmund Freud: Essays and PapersThis collection focuses in on the set of Riviere's translations that made up the first library of Freud in English. Including his papers on metapsychology, applied psychoanalysis and technique, and within those broader categories are subjects as diverse as narcissism, love, paranoia and homosexuality. Riviere's great understanding of Freud's work is evident as we see his engrossingly direct arguments - the style that distinguished him from academics of his day - take shape in her talented translations. We are presented with Freud's various guises, both an essayist and master storyteller he brings to life the vagaries of his patients. Riviere was a major player in disseminating psychoanalysis into English, 'no less than the man she translated is she a figure to be hidden from history', in this collection the translator and the scientist come together in a rich, engrossing brew.

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Book SynopsisAn important and timely anthology of black British writing, edited and curated by the authors of the highly acclaimed, ground-breaking Slay In Your Lane. Slay in Your Lane Presents:Loud Black Girlsfeatures essays from the diverse voicesof twenty established and emerging black Britishwriters.I so enjoyed stepping inside the minds of these younger women who have so much to say, so much to express, so much to challenge' Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize winning author of Girl, Woman, OtherBeing a loud black girl isn''t about the volume of your voice; and using your voice doesn''t always mean speaking the loudest or dominating the room. Most of the time it's simply existing as your authentic self in a world that is constantly trying to tell you to minimise who you are.Now that we've learnt how to Slay in our Lanes, what's next?Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené, authors ofthe acclaimed Slay in Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible, invite the next generation of black women in Britain authorsTrade Review Praise for Loud Black Girls: ‘Full of gems … Read it to understand the fears, obsessions and cherished beliefs of a generation of writers who are determined to be heard’ Observer ‘A refreshingly honest, thought-provoking, and galvanising set of ideas from some of the smartest cultural thinkers of our generation – I only wish this book had been around a decade ago’ Otegha Uwagba, author of Little Black Book 'Bursting with creative energy, intellectual firepower, cultural awareness, pride and joy. These Loud Black Girls voices are music to my ears' Rachel Edwards, author of Darling ‘It's a fantastic collection of essays by emerging and established Black female writers who put forth insights, with wit and erudition, about a wide range of topics that affect their lives. Like all the best yuletide gifts, it's original, it's thoughtful and it positively sparkles’ Good Housekeeping ‘20 incisive, timely essays by noteworthy Black British women’ Stylist ‘A dynamic anthology of writing on the modern Black female experience’ Refinery 29 ‘Absolutely incredible’ Tinea Taylor ‘Insightful, funny, heart warming and a must for your library’ Evening Standard ‘Offering an important perspective on today’s world’ Cosmopolitan ‘Moving and insightful’ Grazia

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Book SynopsisA BBC Radio 4 Book of the WeekA subject that could not be more important. A compact classic!' Bill McKibbenI learned something new and found something amazing on every page' Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot SeeFrom Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx whose novels are infused with her knowledge and deep concern for the earth comes an urgent and riveting history of wetlands, their ecological role and how the loss of them threatens the planet.Fens, bogs, swamps and marine estuaries are the earth's most desirable and dependable resources, and in four illuminating parts Proulx documents the emergence of their systemic destruction in the pursuit of profit and the consequent release of their stored carbon. Wide-ranging and idiosyncratic, Proulx's explanation of wetlands takes readers to the fens of sixteenth-century England, Canada's Hudson Bay Lowlands, Russia's Great Vasyugan Mire and America's Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and introduces the nineteenth-century explTrade Review‘So often feared, dredged and drained, swamps, bogs and fens (it turns out) are just as vital to our species’ survival on this planet as healthy forests and oceans – perhaps more so. Proulx has written a moving elegy and cri de coeur for our world’s wetlands. I learned something new – and found something amazing – on every page’ Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See ‘Talk about seeing the whole world through a single well-chosen window! Annie Proulx is, as ever, remarkable – her mind, her heart and her learning take us on an unforgettable and unflinching tour of past and present, fixed on a subject that could not be more important. A compact classic!’ Bill McKibben ‘Annie Proulx has brought nature full circle in her short history, Fen, Bog, and Swamp … We must understand and restore these vital ecosystems to protect our future’ Diana Beresford-Kroeger, author of To Speak for the Trees ‘Proulx wants us to see the loss of wetlands – and to appreciate the beauty in these swampy and often stinking places. Boy, does she succeed. The prose is just magnificent, bringing to life hitherto overlooked habitats’ Guardian ‘Annie Proulx's sparkling book Fen, Bog & Swamp will open your eyes to humanity's reckless trashing of wetlands in the name of 'improvement'’ Telegraph ‘A haunting tribute to the world’s peatlands … Proulx’s poetic description of these places, and peat itself, is a pleasure to read’ Financial Times ‘Proulx’s astute and impassioned examinations of all kinds of wetlands … show a new side of the novelist we thought we knew’ Los Angeles Times ‘An enchanting work of nature writing and a rousing call to action’ Esquire ‘Writing with her signature vitality, precision, and creativity, she crafts a galvanizing narrative … Proulx’s concern for the future of life on earth as the planet warms is acute’ Booklist

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Book Synopsis‘Our greatest living satirist’ Sunday Times ‘The most screamingly funny living writer’ Mail on Sunday From the bestselling and award-winning author of Ma'am Darling and One Two Three Four, a selection of Craig Brown's finest writing collected together for the first time. Trade Review‘The most screamingly funny living writer’ Barry Humphries, Mail on Sunday ‘The greatest satirist since Max Beerbohm’ Elaine Showalter Guardian ‘Craig Brown's humour will outlive his victims. His journalism is one of the few compensations for being British now’ David Sexton, Sunday Telegraph ‘A genius … in every instance, the skill of the parodist dwarfs any achievement attributable to his subject’ Auberon Waugh, Daily Telegraph ‘He is the comic writer the rest of us admire from afar, and envy beyond the bounds of reason. How does he do it?’ Markus Berkmann, Spectator ‘Britain’s wittiest satirist’ The Times ‘[Craig Brown] has an acutely attuned comic ear, an unmatched eye for spotting the absurdities of human behaviour and a bloodhound-grade nose for sniffing out phoniness and pretension’ Mail On Sunday

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Book SynopsisTen essays on how reading and meaningfully engaging with literature can help us live better, more purposeful lives.How do we live fully?How do we live successfully?Adrift in an anchorless world, we often worry about where we are heading. What meaning can we hope to find in our modern, secular life? The answer, Ben Hutchinson explains, can be found by looking to writers and thinkers to help us live more purposefully, more mindfully more fully.Interweaving his own (mis-)adventures with those of authors such as T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust and Joan Didion, On Purpose proposes ten ways in which reading and writing encourage us to ask difficult questions, project our minds into the past and future, and see ourselves and others differently.Engaging, uplifting and aphoristic, this book is for anyone who has lost their sense of direction or wishes to radically transform the way they live.

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Book SynopsisPerfect for fans of Jia Tolentino and Chuck Klosterman,Y2Kis a delightfully nostalgic and bitingly told exploration about how the early 2000s forever changed us and the world we live in.THE EARLY 2000sconjures images of inflatable furniture, flip phones, and low-rise jeans. It was a new millennium and the future looked bright, promising prosperity for all.The internet had arrived, and technology was shiny and fun.For many, it felt like the end of history: no more wars, racism, or sexism. But then history kept happening. Twenty-five years after the ball dropped on December 31st, 1999,we are still living in the shadows of the Y2K Era.InY2K, one of our most brilliant young critics Colette Shade offers a darkly funny meditation on everything from the pop culture to the political economy of the period. By close reading Y2K artifacts like the Hummer H2, Smash Mouth?s ?All Star,? body glitter, AOL chatrooms, Total Request Live,and early internet porn, Shade produces an affectionate yet searing critique of a decade that started with a boom and ended with a crash.In one essay Colette unpacks how hearing Ludacris?s hit song ?What?s Your Fantasy? shaped a generation?s sexual awakening; in another she interrogates how her eating disorder developed as rail-thin models from the collapsed USSR flooded the pages ofVogue; in anothershereveals how the McMansion became an ominous symbol of the housing collapse.Perfect for fans of Jia Tolentino and Chuck Klosterman,Y2Kis the first book to fully reckon with the mixed legacy of the Y2K Era?a perfectly timed collection that holds a startling mirror to our past, present, and future.

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Book SynopsisJ. M. Coetzee is, without question, one of the world''s greatest novelists. This volume gathers together for the first time in book form twenty-nine pieces on books, writing, photography and the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa. Stranger Shores opens with ''What is a Classic?'' in which Coetzee explores the answer to his own question - ''What does it mean in living terms to say that the classic is what survives?'' - by way of TS Eliot, JS Bach and Zbigniew Herbert. His subjects range from eighteenth and nineteenth century writers Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson and Ivan Turgenev, to the great German modernists Rilke, Kafka, and Musil, to the giants of late twentieth century literature, among them Harry Mulisch, Joseph Brodsky, Jorge Luis Borges, Salman Rushdie, Amos Oz, Naguib Mahfouz, Nadine Gordimer and Doris Lessing.Trade ReviewThe scale of Coetzee's reading makes most British criticism seem dully provincial -- Andrew Marr * Daily Telegraph *To read him on Kafka and on the deficiencies of the English translation of the work is to be put in touch with criticism at its most attentive and creative * Irish Indepedent *This is exemplary writing - balanced, clear, direct and profound * Literary Review *'What is a Classic?'...is a marvellous essay, and the book is worth buying for it alone. Coetzee the critic is every bit as good as Coetzee the novelist * Irish Times *

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Book SynopsisA hero of mine, a moral as well as literary giant' Simon SchamaAmos Oz, the internationally acclaimed author of A Tale of Love and Darkness and Judas, grew up in war-torn Jerusalem, where as a boy he witnessed first-hand the poisonous consequences of fanaticism. In How To Cure a Fanatic Amos Oz analyses the historical roots of violence and confronts truths about the extremism nurtured throughout society. By bringing us face to face with fanaticism he suggests ways in which we can all respond. From the author of A Tale of Love and Darkness and Man Booker International Prize shortlisted Judas.He was the conscience of Israel' Roger Cohen, New York TimesTrade ReviewA short, clear-sighted and unsentimental masterpiece about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- Mark Damazer * New Statesman *This is a book designed to be taken out into the world... Patient, cogent and an exquisite thinker, Oz is a rare blast of sanity and intelligence. Read, learn and take heart * Guardian *A bloodless victory over fanaticism * The Times *Nobody has chronicled modern Israel more faithfully than Amos Oz, and these bleak vignettes of village life in a country riddled with anxiety find him at his unsparing best -- Sally Cousins * Sunday Telegraph *Amos Oz is the voice of sanity coming out of confusion -- Nadine Gordimer

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Book SynopsisErnest Hemingway's literary apprenticeship was served in journalism, a career that he pursued for over four decades. From his early work as a correspondent for the Toronto Star in Europe during the 1920s, through his inimitable articles for Esquire and his first-hand reports of the Spanish Civil War, to the mellow, ironic chronicle of his last African adventures, few correspondents have produced a more impressive body of work.By-Line presents a fascinating and revealing selection of Hemingway's journalism, and charts the development of one of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century.Trade ReviewReconciling literature and action, he fulfilled for all writers, the sickroom dream of leaving the desk for the arena, and then returning to the desk. He wrote good and lived good, and both activities were the same. -- Anthony Burgess

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